Fic: Birthday Malaise
Title: Birthday Malaise
Author: kaitou-lili
Words: 982
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Codex has gotten to the point where birthdays are just sort of meh, luckily Fawkes is there to help her get in the birthday spirit. Established relationship (slight AU-since I think it was implied that Fawkes got together with that furry at the end of the last season.)
Author’s Note: Happy (belated) birthday funkyinfishnet! Sorry for the lack of sexytimes...I really did try. The slightly melancholic start is because I was listening to Bon Iver’s Beach Baby on repeat as I worked on this (and because I’ve been writing/hanging out in the angst filled Hunger Games and Grimm worlds where nothing is happy. ever.)
The balloon idea was inspired by youtuber JamieVsTheUniverse’s balloon video (yes, I have vanished into the black hole of British youtubers. Please don’t judge me too much. :-D )
Also, if anyone knows where the title comes from you have virtual pie (or cake if that is your preference) from me.
It was Saturday morning and her birthday again.
When Cyd was little birthday parties were fun extravaganzas with ponies and cakes and balloons. She especially had loved the balloons. To her six-year-old-self balloons were the epitome of birthday spirit. To her eight-year-old-self pony rides were the best way to make her feel like a queen. To her twelve-year-old-self ice cream cake meant that it was a good birthday.
But somewhere along the way birthdays stopped being so easily fun and stopped really being counted. Once twenty-five past and you could rent a car at reduced rates what really was the point?
But she knew that she was being a bit overdramatic at this point. She didn’t need a fun party, she had a job doing something she loved, the Knights of Good were great; she had Fawkes and she had soft naturally wavy hair.
As if to reassure herself of that she smoothed her hair under her palm and told herself it didn’t matter if nothing special happened for her birthday she was pretty happy with the rest of her life at the moment.
(and if she kept telling herself that, then she wouldn’t be disappointed at all.)
As Codex logged onto the Game she was surprised to notice that not a single one of the Knights of Good or the Axis of Anarchy was online.
This was decidedly odd.
Vork could be counted on taking advantage of the empty early morning hours to mine the rare minerals and gather the rare herbs that were quickly snapped up when the server was a bit more crowded. And if Vork was up then Zaboo was normally up.
In fact as Codex walked around the virtual landscape the whole server seemed like a virtual wasteland. No Tink, no Clara, no Riley, or Bruiser or anyone. Even Fawkes wasn’t online.
She tabbed over to twitter and saw no new tweets.
She tabbed over to facebook and saw no new feed messages.
She tabbed over to tumblr and didn’t even see any new ridiculous fandom memes, cat pictures, or food porn.
Codex wondered if, perhaps, she had missed the start of the zombie apocalypse. But a quick peek out her window reassured that unless zombies had suddenly stopped lusting after brains and started lusting after gardening then the end was not nigh.
Eventually her rumbling stomach got her out of her bedroom and into the kitchen where a surprise greeted her in refrigerator.
When she went to pull out the milk for her cereal (old lady grapenuts) she saw an old fashioned card with a wax seal and her name in thick calligraphy on it.
Intrigued Codex opens the card and sees a map and a simple Follow Me.
Still a bit bewildered by the card she gets dressed and is on the road following her old map. The old map takes her to the burnt out husk of Cheesybeards where she finds Ollie.
“Argg! If ye want to get the buried treasure answer my questions three. One, what is a pirate’s favorite pattern.”
“Argg-yle?”
“Correct, ye bonnie lass! Second, what is a pirate’s favorite color?”
“Arrg-nge?”
“Excellent. And finally, what is the square root of 62.”
“What! That’s not even a whole number.”
“Arrgg! You’re lucky it’s your birthday wench! Here’s the next clue.”
Codex took mini-treasure chest from Ollie that had another piece of a map in it along with some (sadly) fake doubloons.
As she walked away from the restaurant a familiar van pulled up and she saw Vork and Zaboo-in costume?
“We are here to help you on your birthday quest best friendie! Hop in!”
If she would have bet she definitely would have put her money on Zaboo for organizing what appeared was going to be a birthday extravaganza. But since he had shown up so soon as a quest assistor she now wasn’t sure who it was.
The rest of the morning passed in an almost surreal haze.
There was a paintball obstacle course where she, Vork, and Zaboo had to rescue Bladezz and Tink from real live Axis of Anarchy orcs Bruiser and Riley.
There was a hide-and-go-seek to find Clara, her new baby, and the next clue that was kicked off by Venom and Valkyrie.
And there was an epic real life Legend of Zelda style puzzle that Kwan kicked off where the entire group of the Knights of Good had to work together to get the final clue.
By this point everyone was there-except Fawkes.
It warmed Codex’s heart to see the two guilds getting along, joking, and laughing and just having a Saturday adventure. It wasn’t better than gaming but it was pretty close. The last clue had her blindfolded and led into a room. When the blindfold was pulled off she couldn’t believe her eyes.
She was in a room filled with balloons.
There were big balloons and little balloons and it was like being in a ball pit filled with balloons.
The six-year-old inside her screamed with delight.
Then she looked up and out the window was a white horse with a dyed pink mane.
The eight-year-old inside felt her heart soar.
And then Fawkes came in singing happy birthday with the biggest ice cream cake she had ever seen.
Ultimate Birthday Achievement Unlocked
Later that night as the party was wrapping up and the people and ponies had gone home she found Fawkes.
He pulled her close and it felt like her entire body sighed in satisfaction as he held her close.
“Did you like your birthday muffin?”
“How did you know?”
“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. Archimedes. Also, I found your old diary.”
“Fawkes!”
But it was with half-hearted effort that she protested and let him pull her in for a very special birthday kiss.
Author: kaitou-lili
Words: 982
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Codex has gotten to the point where birthdays are just sort of meh, luckily Fawkes is there to help her get in the birthday spirit. Established relationship (slight AU-since I think it was implied that Fawkes got together with that furry at the end of the last season.)
Author’s Note: Happy (belated) birthday funkyinfishnet! Sorry for the lack of sexytimes...I really did try. The slightly melancholic start is because I was listening to Bon Iver’s Beach Baby on repeat as I worked on this (and because I’ve been writing/hanging out in the angst filled Hunger Games and Grimm worlds where nothing is happy. ever.)
The balloon idea was inspired by youtuber JamieVsTheUniverse’s balloon video (yes, I have vanished into the black hole of British youtubers. Please don’t judge me too much. :-D )
Also, if anyone knows where the title comes from you have virtual pie (or cake if that is your preference) from me.
It was Saturday morning and her birthday again.
When Cyd was little birthday parties were fun extravaganzas with ponies and cakes and balloons. She especially had loved the balloons. To her six-year-old-self balloons were the epitome of birthday spirit. To her eight-year-old-self pony rides were the best way to make her feel like a queen. To her twelve-year-old-self ice cream cake meant that it was a good birthday.
But somewhere along the way birthdays stopped being so easily fun and stopped really being counted. Once twenty-five past and you could rent a car at reduced rates what really was the point?
But she knew that she was being a bit overdramatic at this point. She didn’t need a fun party, she had a job doing something she loved, the Knights of Good were great; she had Fawkes and she had soft naturally wavy hair.
As if to reassure herself of that she smoothed her hair under her palm and told herself it didn’t matter if nothing special happened for her birthday she was pretty happy with the rest of her life at the moment.
(and if she kept telling herself that, then she wouldn’t be disappointed at all.)
As Codex logged onto the Game she was surprised to notice that not a single one of the Knights of Good or the Axis of Anarchy was online.
This was decidedly odd.
Vork could be counted on taking advantage of the empty early morning hours to mine the rare minerals and gather the rare herbs that were quickly snapped up when the server was a bit more crowded. And if Vork was up then Zaboo was normally up.
In fact as Codex walked around the virtual landscape the whole server seemed like a virtual wasteland. No Tink, no Clara, no Riley, or Bruiser or anyone. Even Fawkes wasn’t online.
She tabbed over to twitter and saw no new tweets.
She tabbed over to facebook and saw no new feed messages.
She tabbed over to tumblr and didn’t even see any new ridiculous fandom memes, cat pictures, or food porn.
Codex wondered if, perhaps, she had missed the start of the zombie apocalypse. But a quick peek out her window reassured that unless zombies had suddenly stopped lusting after brains and started lusting after gardening then the end was not nigh.
Eventually her rumbling stomach got her out of her bedroom and into the kitchen where a surprise greeted her in refrigerator.
When she went to pull out the milk for her cereal (old lady grapenuts) she saw an old fashioned card with a wax seal and her name in thick calligraphy on it.
Intrigued Codex opens the card and sees a map and a simple Follow Me.
Still a bit bewildered by the card she gets dressed and is on the road following her old map. The old map takes her to the burnt out husk of Cheesybeards where she finds Ollie.
“Argg! If ye want to get the buried treasure answer my questions three. One, what is a pirate’s favorite pattern.”
“Argg-yle?”
“Correct, ye bonnie lass! Second, what is a pirate’s favorite color?”
“Arrg-nge?”
“Excellent. And finally, what is the square root of 62.”
“What! That’s not even a whole number.”
“Arrgg! You’re lucky it’s your birthday wench! Here’s the next clue.”
Codex took mini-treasure chest from Ollie that had another piece of a map in it along with some (sadly) fake doubloons.
As she walked away from the restaurant a familiar van pulled up and she saw Vork and Zaboo-in costume?
“We are here to help you on your birthday quest best friendie! Hop in!”
If she would have bet she definitely would have put her money on Zaboo for organizing what appeared was going to be a birthday extravaganza. But since he had shown up so soon as a quest assistor she now wasn’t sure who it was.
The rest of the morning passed in an almost surreal haze.
There was a paintball obstacle course where she, Vork, and Zaboo had to rescue Bladezz and Tink from real live Axis of Anarchy orcs Bruiser and Riley.
There was a hide-and-go-seek to find Clara, her new baby, and the next clue that was kicked off by Venom and Valkyrie.
And there was an epic real life Legend of Zelda style puzzle that Kwan kicked off where the entire group of the Knights of Good had to work together to get the final clue.
By this point everyone was there-except Fawkes.
It warmed Codex’s heart to see the two guilds getting along, joking, and laughing and just having a Saturday adventure. It wasn’t better than gaming but it was pretty close. The last clue had her blindfolded and led into a room. When the blindfold was pulled off she couldn’t believe her eyes.
She was in a room filled with balloons.
There were big balloons and little balloons and it was like being in a ball pit filled with balloons.
The six-year-old inside her screamed with delight.
Then she looked up and out the window was a white horse with a dyed pink mane.
The eight-year-old inside felt her heart soar.
And then Fawkes came in singing happy birthday with the biggest ice cream cake she had ever seen.
Ultimate Birthday Achievement Unlocked
Later that night as the party was wrapping up and the people and ponies had gone home she found Fawkes.
He pulled her close and it felt like her entire body sighed in satisfaction as he held her close.
“Did you like your birthday muffin?”
“How did you know?”
“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. Archimedes. Also, I found your old diary.”
“Fawkes!”
But it was with half-hearted effort that she protested and let him pull her in for a very special birthday kiss.