Open

[notsolomon]

Who: William Twining/notsolomon & you
When: OOC 3/13, IC: 6/6
Where: His and Kevin's apartment/the shopping district
What: For people who either want to celebrate his birthday or touch base with him after the last event. Or whatever your heart desires.
Rating/Warning: None



I: Apartment

[So today was his birthday. William had been so preoccupied that he had forgotten about the date until Kevin had reminded him. When he woke up that morning, William found that his feelings about the day were rather complicated. Especially since his last birthday had seen a complete upheaval in one of the very foundation stones of his life.

That had been when he'd learned that Kevin wasn't who he had appeared to be. That Kevin wasn't the Kevin he'd known since childhood, but someone who had taken the original's place, like a cuckoo bird invading a nest. And there had been countless other deceptions tied into that, Kevin's being an Angel among them.

It had all worked out in the end and for the better, as their relationship was now much stronger. But the date was firmly etched into his mind, more bittersweet than something to celebrate.

Of course, William wasn't one to let himself dwell on such things and he quickly gained his bearings and decided to get prepared for the day. He couldn't go to London this year, but William was going to enjoy the day and all it brought with it, regardless of any negative associations.

Throughout the day he texts different friends, inviting them over for cake and snacks, because there's only so much he can eat on his own.]

II. Shopping District

[He's saved enough money that he can treat himself, so William's been hitting different stores all day. He's mainly thinking of buying some books and a few video games, though mostly he's been window shopping here and there.

Despite having been in the city for a while, William still finds a bit of modern technology or some alien merchandise that surprises him. And he's staring at one particular thing now, whatever it is, one eyebrow raised.]

Whatever it is, they shouldn't advertise it with such an absurd slogan.

III Wildcard

[If you have your own idea for a prompt, type it up by all means!]

Comments

[notsolomon]

[He let's himself be hugged for a moment, because yeah, his birthday, sure.

He does detach after a little bit though and rolls his eyes.]

I am afraid of what your +18 idea would even be. But candy, cakes and the like are always fine. I always find a way to finish it all off.

[babermetrics]

You can probably guess what it's gonna be like, buuut maybe you'll find out later anyway. I've gotta balance out all those sweets with some spice!

[IF YOU KNOW WHAT HE MEANS.

He pulls away to head inside, looking around. William's place! He loves seeing people's places; it's like seeing a little piece of themselves that they can't carry around with them. And he's especially curious about a fancy history dude's place.]

Heh . . . you're younger than me. Kinda weird to think about . . .

[notsolomon]

[He's a bit worried about what Leon would surprise him with, but despite his objections, William's not entirely... opposed. He just has to pretend he is. For appearance's sake.

But his place is nice. The art style is mostly similar to what one would find at home, with modern touches here and there, like a tv and their very, very modern kitchen.]

...how old are you? I didn't think you were that much older than me.

[babermetrics]

[Oh, just wait.

But wow, this place is interesting. Leon wanders around to check it out; he's not too nosy, no poking into any drawers, but he's curious, and William probably doesn't mind, right? Well, he can warn him away from anything he really doesn't want him to see.]

19 . . . so not that much older. We're pretty close! I just missed my birthday when I showed up here, but I dunno if it counts when it probably hasn't been a whole year since my last one, y'know?

[Probably.

He's not sure. It still messes him up. Should he say something? It's William . . . maybe he's ready . . .

But it's his birthday. Way to bring down a party, talking about your own age issues. It can wait.]

[notsolomon]

Oh just nineteen. For a moment there, you had me thinking it was more than that. Which would be a scary thought.

[Leon didn't really act that mature anyways, so it would have been a bit worrisome if he was older. Then again, some of the demons around him didn't act their ages either.]

But that means time to find you something nice when your birthday does roll around.

[babermetrics]

What, from you? Really? I thought you were totally stingy!

[He's half kidding, and nudges William with his elbow, laughing. Half kidding. It's not like he doesn't know about William being kind of tight with his money. A present from him, though . . . the thought surprises him with how happy it makes him.]

Well it's January 3rd, so you've got forever to think about it!

[Speaking of birthdays, it's time to find some cake; he meanders over to that area, curious about what kind William likes. Something old-timey? What kind of cake did they have back then?]

And trust me, no one wants me to get old less than I do.

[notsolomon]

Oh, I am not adverse to treating my friends once in a while. Too much results in spoiling though.

[Honestly, William just has a few bad habits he picked up in the last year back home when it comes to stinginess. That's beginning to fade away now that he has money though.]

Are you really worried about becoming old? You of all people?

[Fortunately, when it comes to cake, Kevin is always prepared to make something amazing, In fact, there are several "amazing somethings."]

[babermetrics]

What d'you mean, me of all people?

[He has a moment where he thinks, he means because I'm dead, of course I don't have to worry about it, fuckin' stupid, but then he remembers that isn't a thing William knows. He hadn't been around for Leon's own mirror-room incident. It's a strange feeling; now there are people in the colony he's spoken to like once who know that about him, and here William doesn't. It doesn't sit right. But . . . on his birthday? No way!

He's just coming up with a long list of things to maybe consider talking about at non-birthday times.

This is a birthday time, and holy shit that cake looks good and dammit he's going to talk about that instead. He's still recovering from bristling over the innocent comment, but he distracts himself with a low whistle at all that chocolate.]

Damn, did you special order these?!

[notsolomon]

[It's fortunate that William doesn't notice the pause, otherwise he would have been concerned. But he's in a good mood today, so he's not overly observant.]

Not quite. Kevin, he is... enthusiastic. And probably wants to make up for the fact that we cannot do our usual birthday trip this year. Impossible to get to London from here.

[But this was nice too. Quite and peaceful, for a value for peaceful. But he's going to cut a slice.]

But have some. It's here to share.

[babermetrics]

Don't mind if I do! Thanks, man! Are all butlers like this? You're soooo lucky . . .

[Talk about luxurious! It'd be awesome to have a guy around who was this dedicated to his birthday, Leon thinks. Or to serving him in general. That's the life of luxury . . .

He takes a sizable piece of a very chocolatey one and goes to take a seat and eat.]

I thought you were already from London, though!

[notsolomon]

No, they're not. Kevin is superior.

[Except when it came to gambling. And being a sadist.

He cuts himself a slice, a smaller one, because he's getting more sugar today than is good for him anyways.]

Not quite. I go to school in Stratford. But my family home is much farther out in the country. Middle of nowhere really.

[babermetrics]

. . . So that's in the same country as London, right?

[Damn, I kinda thought London was the name of the country . . . ]

Whatever, I don't even know if it's the same in my time anyway! I never paid attention to that stuff in school! I always imagined you living in a city, but I guess back then it's not like cities were as big anyway. You just don't come off as a country boy! I bet Tokyo would blow your mind, man.

[Not that he lives in Tokyo, either. And the colony's huge enough to give it a run for its money, though it's not nearly as crowded.]

[notsolomon]

England. It's in England. That's the country. London is the capital. And where all the good shopping is.

[He does wish he lived in London though.]

I kind of hate living in the country really. Not much to do. Takes forever to go anywhere more interesting and you cannot have as many guests, so there are not many people to talk to.

[He blinked a little.]

Tokyo? Oh that's right, it only just stopped being called Edo back home.

[babermetrics]

Whoa, yeah, that was forever ago! That was . . .

[Oh god, he should know this. For once it's history about his own fucking country. But history! He hates history! He's never in his life kept awake through an entire history class! Maybe that's an exaggeration, but . . . not by much. He stumbles:]

Uh, 18 . . . 18 . . . 88, right? —Whatever! Who cares about that part, right? What's important is you live in the city now! Yeah it's a crappy, screwed up alien city, but it's still got city benefits!

[notsolomon]

[That's really close. He's actually pretty impressed right now, Leon. But it might come off wrong to make too much of that.]

Hah, that it is. More benefits than back home actually. You can move through it a lot faster after all!

Though some of it is pretty strange...

[Aliens everywhere. A rogue pleasure district that Kevin somehow keeps getting lost in. It's madness.]

[babermetrics]

Dude, no kidding. I don't even know which parts you mean, 'cuz like, you're all from the past and stuff, so you could mean "the part where there's electric lights" or "the part where there's literal aliens just walking around downtown"! The second one ain't normal to me either!

[William, your butler may have some problems.]

[notsolomon]

...the aliens are not so bad honestly. Then again I am used to demons by now and they are kind of like aliens in the same sense. So you see, not so strange.

And besides, they probably think we're the aliens!

[If he thought about it that way, it helped. A lot.

And Kevin's problems are many, not included repressed perversion.]

[babermetrics]

[That does sound like a problem. Who represses their perversion? Someone needs to embrace that shit!]

So then what's the weirdest part to a guy like you?

[He pops another big bite of cake in his mouth. Other people's birthdays, man. This is the life. He's going to have to bring William something special, or especially embarrassing, or both.]

[notsolomon]

The weird part is that I still don't know what we are technically. they rebuilt us from data, right? But I don't think that is what we are. But things can go wrong with us that shouldn't?

...it's almost like we transcended our humanity, but with none of the benefits.

[He has a few bits of cake, thinking on it.]

Though I might be over thinking it.

[babermetrics]

Dude, on your birthday . . . yeah, maybe just a little.

[Talk about a downer. Too much thinking in this place will really get to you.

But it's not like Leon hasn't done the same thinking, along the same lines. He finishes a bite of cake himself (it's so good, he needs to get in good with this Kevin guy before his own birthday in January, seriously) and then sighs, and despite his insistence that this is no topic for a birthday boy, he knows he's not quite ready to let it drop yet, either. He shrugs:]

I dunno, I used to think that code stuff was just part of the lie, but it's like they can get into any part of us they want and mess with it. So what else can it be? It's like they can hack our bodies! They couldn't do that if we were just normal people like we were before. They can bring people back from the dead and everything . . .

[notsolomon]

[Well it was a heavy topic for his birthday admittedly, but then again, it wasn't like these sorts of special occasions ever went normally for William. At least not back home. This was actually a light topic for him anyways.]

Hack our bodies huh? I wonder if we could find a way to do the same thing, if that was true? Though I suppose that would a dangerous route to go. There would be some bad side effect or something.

[He knows because he's totally read all the novels and watched all the movies where that shit happens.]

[babermetrics]

. . . You mean like we hack our own bodies?

[Okay, so William has a definite point about the bad side effects, which Leon can only guess would be swift and many. Sure, that's how CERES operates. But setting that aside for a moment, that still sounds friggin' cool.

And what if there weren't? Couldn't that potentially be a useful strategy, to beat CERES at their own game?]

[notsolomon]

If we are data, it wouldn't be impossible. I mean, we could assume that when things go wrong with us here, it is just a problem with the coding. Like things became updated and now there are a bunch of bugs.

But if a person knew how to do it, imagine what they could do.

[It was a bit staggering to think about.]

Not that I am inclined to actually do such a thing though. I am already fairly perfect as is.

[Except for athletic ability.]

[babermetrics]

[Way to change the mood of the conversation there. The last part makes Leon snort.]

What, you don't wanna be taller? More built? Never think about that stuff?

[He's still got the more important stuff in the back of his mind, but now he's kinda curious about this.]

[notsolomon]

Why would I want that when I am mostly perfect as is.

[That is a lie. Mostly.]

Besides, I think I have one more growth spurt in me. I suspect this place has just delayed it.

[Watch out, he gonna be taller than you one day Leon. Real tall, not shoe tall.]