It took two people to write "Happy Birthday"?

[archangelet]

Today is a momentous occasion in Chicago - a day for celebration and festivities and exchanging of gifts. And we're not just talking about Mother's Day. (Though if we're talking Mother's Day, there's a woman in a psychiatric hospital outside Cincinnati who will a bouquet of roses with a Mother's Day card and no name. She will be confused but

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[elashte]

Elashte has been trying to work out exactly what stance he should or can take on this whole Barnam dilemma. It hasn't gone well. Aside from abandoning Chicago - and letting the next demon with a big idea come in and make a wreck of the treaty he's rather proud of having signed - or bringing in an army from Vegas, he's not sure there are a lot of options.

But that can be put aside for a day. He hopes.

He walks out into the courtyard to find Tay, pausing for a moment to look over the guns she's maintaining. It till fascinates him, how precisely mismatched they are. The new guardian angel, trained for war; the new Neqa'el, who only survived by avoiding it at every opportunity. But they've made it a year, at least.

He steps up, smiling, and holds out a white envelope. "Van harte gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag," he says in Dutch, then, "Happy birthday, Tay

[archangelet]

Tay glances up at him, a tiny bit startled. She knows it's her birthday and all, and Buffy and Aaron seem to be determined to make it special (what with the carnival and the threatened Barbie Dreamhouse), but... that's Buffy and Aaron. They're both sorta insane.

"Oh, uh... Thanks, I guess." Tay takes the envelope and peeks in curiously. She doesn't really know what the other things are for, but the cash is impressive enough. "Oh, wow, thanks!" She grins up at him happily, gunshot and impending family and trauma denial be damned, she's got cash. To spend however she wants.

This is clearly a rare treat.

[elashte]

Possibly when one's good cheer is as rare as Taylor Barnam's, when it does exist, it's impossible not to answer. Possibly Elashte is far more fond of this young angel than he'd like to admit. He smiles back, takes a note of that reaction, and...

Well. Perhaps he ought to set up a bank account for her, with automatic deposits of some sort. He's not used to thinking of what needs a teenager might have in the world.

"You're very welcome," he says, and gestures to the key. "Now. That room, you might want to open with a few of your friends..."

A few of her friends who would love to shoot the crap out of each other nonlethally. He's sure she has them.

[archangelet]

"Cool. We'll go check it out later."

Tay looks down at the envelope and the key, holding on to them. Sure, she's gotten nice presents before, and presents that she's loved, but they've always been... useful. More an excuse to give her better quality weapons and equipment than anything else.

This is just a present.

It's kind of weird how this demon she's known for a year is more thoughtful than her family.

"Hey, when's your birthday, anyway?" she asks, looking up and totally not feeling more than a little grateful for her new life.

[nogettingback]

Aaron has a box. Specifically, he has a box balanced under one arm (rather awkwardly, as it's a pretty big box with shiny wrapping paper). The reason he's not carrying it properly is because he's got a phone to his ear.

He wanders up to Tay, drops the box at her feet, and hands her the phone. "Helen wants to wish you a happy birthday. Give me a second while I get the rest of your present. Don't touch the box."

He's a bit harried today, what with the fact that he had to rush out and find the goods... And call his mom, hence the phone.

[archangelet]

Ah, a phone call from Boston. Except that it's actually Aaron calling his mom, and Aunt Helen isn't really a proper Barnam and Tay really doesn't have a problem with her. Tay rolls her eyes, grabs the phone, and makes a big show of touching the box.

"Hi, Aunt Helen," she says, swinging her uninjured leg a bit. "Nah, I don't hate you. You're not Barnam-y enough." She laughs a little. "Yeah, he's behaving himself."

[nogettingback]

Aaron rolls his eyes and leaves Tay to the conversate with his mother and grope the box to her heart's content if she must be ridiculous about it.

He's gone for about ten minutes, plenty of time for a decent conversation, but that wasn't really the point- the point was that somehow he misplaced the other gift and, really, when you misplace a battle axe, you've got issues. He shot a man recently. He's all frazzled. Or something.

However, he does return with a very pretty battle-axe with a black ribbon tied to it. "Okay, now tell Helen you have to go, because your favorite cousin just brought you a sharp pointy object to play with."

[archangelet]

Tay looks up and lights up, because that is a fucking awesome weapon. Sure, she won't be able to use it for a while, but once her leg's healed...

"Aunt Helen? I gotta go, Aaron got me a battle axe." She doesn't bother waiting for Helen to say goodbye, which is okay, 'cause that's how the family does things. Helen won't be insulted.

"Oh. My. God."

[crimeatthetime]

Adrian checks first at the sight of the guns, then at the crutches. He looks the worse for wear himself. At least if you know him. To a stranger, he probably looks perfectly well put together, albeit a little tired.

"Ah. And you must be the infamous Taylor Barnam." A pause. "I think I'm supposed to say happy birthday now?"

[archangelet]

Tay raises an eyebrow. "Don't bother if you don't want to. I don't really give a fuck either way."

... Yes, she is the best conversationalist.

[deadgirlsliekme]

Victor's on one of his walks around the Gauche, and he might have passed right by Tay if he hadn't happened to see the guns. And that is a lot of guns. He stops and stares for a moment, both stunned by the mini-armory and the fact it's a woman who owns it. Where he came from, women were certainly not encouraged to own guns. Men, on the other hand. . . . "Lord Everglot might have liked you," he comments, half to himself. He didn't spend a lot of time with the man, but he heard the Lord talking about his collection right before that disastrous rehearsal.