Cherubplay

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Zane gave her a worried glance. "....are you okay? Please say something..."

Ren leaned over and pulled her hair away with one finger. "IIIIIvory?"

2015-08-01 08:13:05

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She backed up a little bit when Ren moved her hair away. If she was human, she'd be bright red right now. "Ahhh, I'm fine, r-really." She gave a nervous chuckle. God, Lance was such a /little shit/ sometimes.

2015-08-01 08:15:17

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"That was probably not an okay thing for him to do, but if you are sure there is nothing you want, um..." Zane said quietly as Ren sat back and made a face at her. No, she didn't seem fine. "...hmmm. Come on, let's get back to this then." They tapped on the laptop's touch pad to get rid of the falling snow screensaver, the gears already turning in their head on what they could do with this information.

2015-08-01 08:22:00

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Slowly, she moved the hair out of her face. "I...lets just get back to the story, okay?" Pleas drop it. Please leave it. Don't talk about it again, /ever/.

2015-08-01 08:25:46

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He went silent. He'd screwed up again, hadn't he. ...nn..... But /why/ did she hate her birthday so much? Wasn't it supposed to be happy...? What should he do.........? He wanted her to be happy, but, if just mentioning what was meant to be the happiest day of the year for someone made her sad......

Ren glanced over through their bangs at his conflicted expression and patted him on the arm. "Anyways, wearing any kind of gas mask would be suspicious, much less ones with creepy mascot faces."

2015-08-01 08:31:02

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"No, Mommy! I don't /WANT/ to wear a dress!" A small child cried as a brown haired woman slipped the pink costume over the small girl's body. She had to have been no more than four years old.

"Ivory. This is a costume party. You are a /girl/. You are a /princess./ We've been over this a million times! I'm not telling you again!"

Ivory sniffled as her mother put the dress on, who stared back at her once she finished. "Do /not/ cry! Don't you dare, cry! Nobody wants to see you cry."

"Y-yes, mommy." She answered. She wanted to cry...but angering her mother even more would make it worse on her end.

At the party, she was guided into the basement by one of the adults. She looked around the large playroom, and the girls one side, and boys on the other. The girls were playing with barbies of all sorts, with various brightly colored shoes and clothes, while the boys were playing...pretend? It seemed like it.

Of course, the curious little Ivory walked over to the boys.

"Whatcha doin?" She asked, her eyes filled with wonder and excitement with what they could be doing.

"Playing Princes." One of the boys stated.

To Ivory, that sounded completely fun. "Can I join?!" She asked, her face as bright as her eyes were.

He made a face. "/Girls don't play Princes./ Princes can't wear dresses!"

"Says who?" Ivory folded her arms. "What if a prince look better in a dress."

He paused for a moment, considering her logic. "Well then you'll have to year a prince outfit."

It wasn't even a half hour later when the boy's came running outside As guessed, Ivory had swapped outfits with the boy, and they both were the first to run outside, holding hands.

Then they stopped.

In front of them were their parents, obviously angered what Ivory had just done.

The memory changed to two weeks later. "Come on, Ivory. Get up. I have to go to work."

Ivory slowly got out of bed, her once excited expression now turned to confusion. "But...you said you didn't have work today. It's my birthday, member?"

"Yes, I do remember, but girls who think they are boys don't have their birthday celebrated. I'm busy anyway, I'll buy you presents some other time."

"...So you've never had a birthday celebrated?" A unfamiliar male voice to Zane asked Ivory, his icon being outlined in blue as he spoke.

"Not sense I was 4." Ivory answered. She was 15 now, leaning back in her chair. She glanced at the calendar. Her birthday was...eight days away."Got used to it really, what's the point of my birthday, anyway. Presents? Cake? I can buy myself all that stuff with my mom's credit card."

"But what if someone bought that for you?"

"I...never really liked people buying things for me...because of that."

"...Yeah that's actually...kind of fucked up of her to do." Another unfamiliar voice spoke up.

"Your mother is a whore and I hope she fucking chokes on her wine glass." Ah, Lance. How he finally spoke.

"/Lance./ She is my /mother./"

"And she is a horrible mother, I can say whatever I want."

"Hey, it could work." Ivory pointed out. "They don't check bags. You could sneak it in then."

2015-08-01 09:04:17

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"Whaaat? I thought you said they had great security. It doesn't take a druggy to slip a gun into their backpack. Regular people can be just -- .....hey?" They noticed Zane trembling slightly before he moved his hand from Ivory's back to grab and hug her. Oh. Well then.

That was /terrible/, what kind of mother /was/ she?! As much as he hated to admit it, Zane agreed with Lance wholeheartedly on this matter. Even he and Bird had been given birthday celebrations to some extent, even if it was mostly just their mom sending them a homemade cake and a present from wherever she happened to be at the time, but to disregard it entirely just because her daughter didn't want to wear a dress? That was....he wanted to break something else, but he was holding her right now, so he couldn't do that. Later, he'd throw a childish fit. Not right now.

2015-08-01 09:15:29

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..Hmm? He was...holding her suddenly. She turned to look at him silently. Well...he honestly looked like he was about to break someone's neck. Sigh. He probably saw something, and here she thought she could have /some/ time with him without them. That was....that was okay. Look, forget the memories for a moment. She was enjoying herself. He...he just had to realize that. They could talk about it later for sure. Slowly, she returned the hug, as if it was going to be some reassurance for it being okay.

2015-08-01 09:24:46

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When she hugged him back, it was only half comforting. Because he knew that she was still convinced what had happened was perfectly acceptable. Maybe, if he could give her a great birthday, she'd have something to look forward to again...?

Ren looked on in surprise for a second before smiling and resting their cheek on their hand. Cute. One of those flashback things, right? Their voices had been going off about them before. It was the only thing to explain the sudden change in atmosphere. Of course, he looked pissed as a wet cougar, but hey, they were hugging.

2015-08-01 09:32:31

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She remained there for a moment before letting go and looked back to Ren. Wow. This was embarrassing. Man, she felt like shit for excluding them. "Sorry about that..." She spoke up.

2015-08-01 09:38:52

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"Ahaha, sillyyy, it's fine." They waved it off with their other hand as if fanning away a fly. "You two go ahead."

He gave them a slightly confused look. "....go ahead and what...?" Then he turned back to Ivory. "No, wait, do not apologize, I was the one who..." Maaaan, even I'm starting to get tired of this.

2015-08-01 09:42:56

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She gave Ren a confused look before looking back to Zane. "No,no. It's okay. You don't have to apologize. Really."

2015-08-01 09:44:56

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".......you can't....you are going to have a great birthday this year. I promise."

2015-08-01 09:47:23

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"..." So that was what it was about. Well...something about that. Again, she would ask about it later. She remained quiet.

2015-08-01 09:48:56

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He went silent as well. For a few more seconds, no one said anything, until Ren clapped their hands together and sat up. "Okay, who wants to look up pictures of dead fabric rodents?"

2015-08-01 09:52:10

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Tassek had decided to check on Terezi. Mostly because he was now wondering whether she was feeding enough, and also, slightly, whether they had /actually/ made it to her apartment or if Ren had murdered them in the hall and hid the bodies with Seculus's help. Though that wasn't quite as likely. ...probably. Along with that, Terezi's mother would've gone to see her at some point too, maybe? He hadn't exactly made the best first impression last time, so he hoped to try again if he could get the address of where she was staying. Naturally, he left Seculus behind. Well, technically, he didn't tell him where he was going at all. Just said he was going 'out'. And since the guy assumed he was heading to an early shift of work, no questions were raised. He arrived and knocked on her door.

2015-08-02 07:58:08

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The house smelled of cocoa powder and sweets. Anndrea was currently in the kitchen, whisking a few ingredients in a bowl. Wow, this was the most the kitchen was used the entire time she lived in this apartment. Once Anndrea found her 'talent' for cooking via bake off at a bakery, she hasn't been away from the stove since.

There was a knock at the door. "I got it." Terezi called as she set down some eggs, rushing to the door. Using a towel to turn the door knob, she opened it. Clearly, she had been helping Anndrea, hence her hands were a mess. "Oh, hey!" She greeted once her gaze caught Tassek's. The aroma of rich chocolate exited the apartment.

2015-08-02 08:13:05

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His eyebrows shot up. "Hi. Candy? Why?" His monosyllabic responses were mostly due to the distracting aroma. Wow, were they making that themselves?

2015-08-02 08:25:31

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"Yeah, Anndrea is making it." She moved to the side to let him come in. "Actually, you came just in time. She was making some just for you and Seculus."

2015-08-02 08:26:53

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Hot damn, free candy, /yes/. "Oh, cool! I didn't know she could bake." He moved inside and looked at her hands. "You're helping?"

2015-08-02 08:29:38

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She looked down at her hands. "Attempting to." She wiped the mess on the towel. "She didn't either until we were at a bakery a few days ago and I thought she was going to kill the owner for 'making it wrong' or something."

2015-08-02 08:31:15

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"Was it free food? Because I don't think you can criticize someone's baking skills if they're giving away the result."

2015-08-02 08:34:25

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"It was a sample. The owner was entirely pissed off about it and threatened to kick us out or make a better version of it....which somehow she did without my help."

2015-08-02 08:37:42

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"So they asked her to outdo them. That's...one way of resolving a conflict. Huh, I didn't know it was possible to instinctively make chocolate."

2015-08-02 08:41:39

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She shrugged. "I guess you learn something new everyday. I know I am." Like the fact Ren has spending more time with people other than Dameien, and is /actually/ leaving the house.

2015-08-02 08:43:14