maskormenace | 003 - [Video] Happy Birthday, Chloe Price.

[It's a little after noon when Chloe turns her communicator on. She's sitting on an old white plastic deck chair, and from the look of the buildings behind her, probably on a roof somewhere in Nonah. She's in a worn old white tanktop with a skull on the front, her jeans-covered legs propped up on something, her coat hanging off the back of her chair. She's spent the morning avoiding people, not answering her texts, just...brooding. There's a cigarette between her lips, and she takes a drag off it before she catches it with her other hand, her attention mostly on the phone.]

You ever think about time 'n shit? Like, how it hella doesn't make any sense here? Like, okay, back home, before I wound up here, it was 2013 right? In October.

[She leans back in her chair, resting the phone on her leg, tilted up so all the screen really catches is her face and neck and the clouds.]

Suddenly I'm here, it's three years and a couple months later. Just, wham, welcome to the future except it's a weird fucked up cold war version of the future. And I get like, it's way worse for other people, right? Pulled from other centuries or other fuckin' planets with their own weird-ass calendars but.

Three years.

[She's not even really sure what she's going on about, honestly. She'd been puzzling this over in her head all morning and hadn't gotten anywhere, so maybe she thought rambling out loud would help. It wasn't really working.]

So here we are, right? March 11th, 2016. Shit had gone different, I'd be twenty-two today.

[She hesitates, her gaze distant, up on the clouds as she took another puff off her cigarette.]

Instead, I guess I'm twenty. Sort of. Minus a couple months. Still my birthday though. [And then she smirks, pointing the two fingers holding her cigarette at the sky.] Fuck you, universe. Chloe Price made it to twenty after all.

[She scooped up the phone again, and for a second is framed in the picture again, the camera half-covered by her thumb as she reaches for the disconnect. Her voice is quieter again.]

Didn't see that comin'.

[Click.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Yeah, you know, speaking of people from other centuries. ]

1631. That's what year it was, when I was last at home. I don't like to think about what it means for my age, but at least I've kept all my hair.

[ He gets what she's saying, though. If she were at home, she wouldn't even be alive. That's what she means. So he smiles. ]

Happy birthday, Mademoiselle Price. You ought to celebrate.

[She studies him for a minute, then does some mental math.]

You are at least 400.

[Chloe Price: Queen of Not helping.]

Thanks. Probably will. No idea what though, gotta talk to Sarah and my girlfriend first, see if they're plannin' anything.

[If not, she'd probably just get drunk. Woo?]

[ There's a moment where his eyebrow lifts at 'girlfriend', because that's definitely a thing that no one would have talked about 400 years ago. Things like this are a more significant change for him than the technology. People have so much more freedom now. ]

Well, you should do something. Time may move strangely here, but it's still worth marking.

Is this world very different from yours? No one I've ever talked to has found it the same.

[She just shrugs. She'll do something.]

Nah, not that different. I mean, it's different, cold war shit and flying cars and super powers.

But like, it's still basically the same boring old US of A.

[ Well, there's the whole war that was just declared, but he will manage not to mention that. ]

You see, you mention flying cars and then you call it boring. I think we define that world differently.

Eh. They're cool.

But it's still mostly all the same bullshit as it was.

Is it? That gives me minimal hope for the future.

[ This is not the place he wants to see his world become. ]

You seem roundly bored by it.

Mm...

[She isn't sure bored is the right word.]

I already saw some shit before I got here, man. I guess I'm more...resigned to it than anything else.

Of the kind that makes flying cars seem mundane?

This world is not all bad, Mademoiselle. I don't like being here, and it's not the future I want, but there's more to it than darkness. Even I can see that.

[ There's enough to be worth defending, at any rate. ]

Yup.

But yeah, there are worse places to be. Lots of 'em. One I know for sure.

Meaning your homeworld, presumably?

Preeeeetty much, yeah.

Well, I'm sorry. I'd like to think your birthday would be a happier time than that.

[ He eyes her carefully, mouth curving towards a smile. ]

You're too young to let it get you down.

Eh. It'll get better.

[She shrugs.]

Pretty sure age doesn't have anything to do with getting you down.

I suppose it depends what you're down about.

[ Leaning forward. ]

Listen. Whatever happened to you before, it doesn't have to happen here. This world is full of second chances. You only need to look around to see that.

Hey, believe me man, I know. This place gave me a chance to be with Max.

It's got more upsides than downs.

Max. [ A little pause. She said girlfriend… ]

Max Caulfield? Are you from the same world?

Yup.

[She shrugs.]

I'm glad you have each other. I've always thought that makes it easier to be here.

Yeah.

Being here on my own would be pretty shitty.

003 - [Video] Happy Birthday, Chloe Price.

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video