Dated Friday, June 28th

[a_capella_boy]

Given the late notice he had about Kate's birthday Jesse was a little hard pressed to come up with something to do for her. Given how low key she seemed to want to keep it today though, it wasn't entirely possible. Jesse figured maybe it had something to do with her family not here or something like that, which he could understand. Everyone should have something fun to do on their birthday though.

At work that day, he'd started off by leaving an 'anonymous' note for her. It directed her to the break room where a bouquet of mostly dead flowers he'd found out behind a florist shop were waiting. The next note had a pretty easy to solve riddle that directed her someplace new. That one had a crudely drawn pink flamingo at the bottom, which he hoped would help her realize it wasn't some crazy stalker leaving her the stuff.

There were several more locations, most of them out of the way places only the grunt help like he and Kate knew about or visited, each one with a new treasure hunt note and some little gift. Mostly it was candy or random items he picked up for cheap at the thrift shop like an ornament or a new bathmat.

The last one brought her to the crappy little room they often had to go to if they needed to file something or retrieve a file. It was set up with a completely awesome table he was surprised no one had snatched up from the thrift store after the Furby attack, along with the crappy hot dogs from the cafeteria and two cupcakes he'd bought and decorated to look like eyeballs, one with a candle jammed in it.

Fun, but hopefully nothing too big that made her uncomfortable.

Comments

[everyonetakes]

She's supposed to be working. She knows that, but her job is kind of ridiculous most of the time -- fill my coffee or get this file or shred this, will you? -- and she doesn't think they'll miss her much if she spends all afternoon following these clues around the place. She'd figured out pretty early on that it was Jesse, although the flamingo had definitely helped and when she finally reaches their little file room, she's grinning, amused by the whole thing.

It's not a party, which is fine by her, but it's also sort of nice that not everyone forgot about her birthday.

"Holy shit, dude," she exclaims when she finally reaches the room.

[a_capella_boy]

"Happy birthday, Kate," he said, grinning at her. Seemed like she thought the presents and scavenger hunt were pretty cool, so he was pleased. Would not have been a good thing if she thought she was being stalked on her birthday or something. Fortunately, she seems pleased.

"I had the cafe serve us up two of it's finest hot dogs in honor of the occasion."

[everyonetakes]

"My favourite," she says with a grin, although she's not at all joking. The hot dogs from the cafeteria aren't the best thing she's ever had, but they're actually pretty damn good and compared to the rest of the stuff on their menu, they're practically gourmet.

"This is super cool," she says. "I especially like the table."

[a_capella_boy]

"It's, you know, just another table," he said, echoing her words from the party last night. It was totally not just another table though because it was a completely epic table. Much like birthdays were epic.

"But I figured what better gift for the girl that has a giant, metal flamingo than a table that doubles as a club and shield. It was practically one of those Amazon 'people who bought giant, metal flamingos also got this' things."

[everyonetakes]

"Yeah, I can totally see that," she agrees, nodding along, still grinning. She'd always had this idea that any apartment she lived in would be decorated with a cool sort of elegance, but now that she's here and living on her own, it isn't turning out that way at all. "And I'll be set if toys ever decide to attack us again, right?"

[a_capella_boy]

"Exactly. What sort of guy would leave his friend defenseless in the face of an onslaught of Teddy Ruxpins?" he asked. "Unless we're going forward in time with the toys, in which case I think it's Tickle Me Elmo? Or was that still before Furbies?"

Jesse wasn't sure, but he hoped that it was just toys again. Sure they were creepy, but not really all that dangerous, even in large numbers. Kate could definitely handle her own against Teddy or Elmo.

[everyonetakes]

"You know what'd be really funny?" she asks. "If those tamagotchi things ever got it into their electronic heads to try and attack us." She was a little too young for them at the time, but she remembers Charmaine, of all people, having one and cooing over it and treating the little plastic keychain toy like it was an actual baby.

"Just these little plastic egg-shaped things throwing themselves at us and like, crying to be fed."

[a_capella_boy]

"Holy crap, what if in some universe, those things are real?" Jesse said, eyes going wide. He remembered how terribly he had taken care of some of his and that was just... a super sad idea.

"Okay, that can't be true. Nope, nope, nope, too sad. Little egg things launching themselves at us though? That's pretty hilarious."

[everyonetakes]

"Way easier to fight off, too," she says, considering it. "You could just step on them and then they'd be useless. Of course, I did that with my Furby and all it did was incite the wrath of all the others, so maybe that'd be a bad idea." She has perfectly clear memories of trying to get home safely with Harley that evening, the stupid little toys trying to bite them both as they entered the apartment.

[a_capella_boy]

"Yeah, I kind of thought I should go out just to kind of... experience that whole apocalyptic feel of things? I mean, safest giant attack we'll ever experience, right? So not like I thought it would be."

Jesse thought it was going to be a lot more like a movie and less like a riot on the news. He knew real life wasn't like the movies but he had still kind of been hoping.

[everyonetakes]

"Yeah, they were evil little fuckers," Kate agrees, glad that shit is over, at least for the time being. In a city like this, she's pretty sure it's only a matter of time before something else terrible happens, but she's not about to spend all her time dwelling on that and waiting for it. That seems kind of boring and pretty useless.

"So are we gonna eat these awesome hot dogs or what?" she asks, grinning.

[a_capella_boy]

"Yes, and don't forget your birthday cupcake," Jesse said, pushing it closer to her. "You're what, 28 today?"

Okay, so he knew that wasn't true but he was pretty sure she wouldn't mind him messing with her. Grinning, he took a giant bite of his hot dog and his eyes rolled back in bliss at the taste of it.

Shitty food was so, so good sometimes.

[everyonetakes]

"That's a pretty badass cupcake," she says, taking a bite of her hot dog as well. She loves these hot dogs and has no idea why. They're just better than any of the ones she can get from hot dog stands and maybe it's because she's always starving by lunch and it's the cheapest thing on the menu. "Especially the one with the candle stabbed into the eyeball. Appeals to my totally morbid side."

[a_capella_boy]

"I thought you might like that," he said around the hot dog. Eyeball cupcakes were weird, but the candle in the eye seemed like the right kind of Kate-flair to add to it. Plus, who wouldn't put the candle in the eyeball if you had a chance?

"So is your birthday everything you hoped it would be, what with the pretty much not celebrating it?"

[everyonetakes]

Kate considers it for a moment, then nods thoughtfully. "It's definitely everything I hoped it would be," she says, although because she hadn't been expecting anything at all. It's kind of nice to have someone remember, but she's not looking forward to heading home and thinking about all the people who aren't around and should be.

[a_capella_boy]

"You have very strange hopes, Kate Gregson, but I'm glad I could fulfill them," he said, giving her a wink before he took another few bites of his hotdog. Maybe there was something in the water they cooked the dogs in? That was kind of a disturbing thought.

"Come on, eat your eye-candle cupcake. Don't make it stare at you the entire time."

[everyonetakes]

"But it's so awesome, if I eat it, it'll just be gone," she points out, grinning. "I want to take it back to the hole in that back room that they pretend is my desk and whenever someone comes to get me so I can file their crap, they'll see it. And I'll just be all, 'Yeah, it's my birthday and Jesse's the only one who remembered' and then they'll feel guilty." She pauses, then says, "Or they won't care."

[a_capella_boy]

"Okay, that would be kind of awesome," Jesse admitted. Having that at her desk would get a lot of odd looks, which he imagined Kate would enjoy. Maybe he needed to do more gruesome body part desserts for the people at work. Or just Kate.

"Although to be fair, how many people did you tell? It's kind of hard to forget if you never knew in the first place."

[everyonetakes]

"No one. I definitely didn't tell anyone, but people will still feel guilty about it," she says. "It's like this weird birthday rule. People totally feel guilty when they miss wishing someone a happy birthday whether they knew about it or not."

She finishes her hot dog and says, "That's the only thing Facebook was really good for."

[a_capella_boy]

"Then you should milk it for all the guilt it's worth," Jesse said with a laugh. She was right though, that was absolutely a birthday rule. Every time he found out it was someone's birthday on their birthday he felt a little bad for not knowing for some reason. Damn that was tricky.

[everyonetakes]

"Maybe I'll get a bunch more hot dogs bought for me," she says. "Like an apology or something. But probably not, given the people we work with. Have you noticed like, seventy percent of them are total dicks?"

[a_capella_boy]

Jesse would have probably said that only 40% were dicks, but the missing 70% could have been misogynist assholes or something and he just hadn't noticed yet. They pretty much did get treated like scum that could be useful for menial tasks. Still, it was a job.

"Yeah, I have noticed that we're sort of considered sub human. I like to pretend I'm Orgoth of the Cave People."

[everyonetakes]

"Nice," Kate says with a nod. "I just mostly pretend that one day I'll manage to work my way up high enough that I'll be their boss and then they'll have to grovel at my feet all the time, because I would be a total hard ass boss."

[a_capella_boy]

"You will become that which you hate," Jesse said, giving an exaggerated sigh and a 'tsk tsk'. He was pretty sure Kate would be a cool boss but he had no doubt that she could play a total hard ass boss if she needed to.

"Personally, I'm going to find Eduardo Saverin and beg him for a job at the record store he's going to open."

[everyonetakes]

"What? Olive's boyfriend's opening a record shop?" she asks, suddenly interested. It's not like she has some kind of invested interest in music like she knows Jesse does, but she likes it well enough and maybe it would pay better than this place. Plus, she's pretty sure she'd rather work for Eduardo than the douches at this place. She doesn't know him, but he's Olive's boyfriend, so he has to be pretty cool.

[a_capella_boy]

"Apparently so," Jesse said with a nod. He didn't mind the TV studio job all that much but he'd definitely enjoy working at a record store a lot more. Maybe not the best thing in terms of career development, but he didn't care about that all that much right now.

"Do you think we can put Olive down as a character reference?"

[everyonetakes]

"Totally. Or you can anyway, I'm not sure I'd do so well in a record store." She likes music, but she's not really an expert and there's nothing that stands out about her that would make Eduardo want to hire her. She doesn't have any interest in being a musician or producing or being involved in the music industry in any way, so she figures she'd probably be better off at the TV station for awhile anyway.

[a_capella_boy]

"If I get a job there I'll think fondly of you and bring you cupcakes when I can."

It would be kind of sad not to work at the same place as Kate but a record store would be sweet. Plus he'd probably be a lot happier which would make it more likely he'd want to bring people cupcakes.

[everyonetakes]

"You know, it's totally not a very good birthday present to be telling me that my only work friend might be ditching me for a new job," she says, but she's grinning, clearly just fucking with him. "I could like, throw a tantrum and I think it would be totally justified."

[a_capella_boy]

"It would be completely justified," Jesse said with a nod. It was a little cruel, but he figured she could handle it. It's not like they hung out all the time at work. It was nice to see her now and again though.

"But if you did I'd probably distract you somehow and just leave."

[everyonetakes]

"I'm pretty sure you'd have to stay and deal with it," she says, laughing. "Birthday rules say that I get anything I want. At least my birthday rules say that. I should write them all down, then people would be more inclined to remember them."

[a_capella_boy]

"Do you have any other rules for today that I should know about?" Jesse asked. He would actually be okay with doing whatever it is she wanted, especially since her it didn't seem like she had told many other people about her birthday. If he could make it even better for her like that, he would.

[everyonetakes]

"Oh, dude, I don't know," she says, laughing harder now. "I tend to just make them up on a spot as I go along. Like, hey, it's Friday and it's my birthday, so unless you already have other plans, we have to have a birthday night of awesomeness and I don't know how we'd accomplish that, but I'm pretty sure we could do it."

[a_capella_boy]

"Birthday awesomeness for tonight is a go," Jesse said with a nod. He didn't have any other plans, at least not anything he couldn't cancel (because he could always watch movies another night) and hanging out with Kate was a blast.

"And I think we'd have trouble not being awesome."

[everyonetakes]

"Good point. We're pretty much awesome all the time without even trying," she agrees. "Seriously, though, this was really cool of you. Thanks." Kate's not usually very good at saying thank you to anyone, but Jesse seriously deserves it after all this.

[a_capella_boy]

"Hey, any time you have a birthday I'm more than happy to make it awesome," he said, shrugging his shoulders. If she did want to go out and do something though, he could absolutely come through on that.