victormakesart | (no subject)

(no subject)

If you find yourself in a secluded corner of the Nexus, past the rhinestone statue of a... no one quite knows what that is, but it's blobby in shape. And perhaps not a statue at all. If you find yourself there, you might stumble upon a child's birthday party.

The birthday cake is pretty standard. It says: Happy 2nd Birthday Anya and Athena!

That's where the standardness ceases. Little Anya is dressed as Amelia Earhart, but she keeps taking off her hat, messy blonde hair static clinging up. Athena is dressed up as a toaster, keeping with the history theme, because that's in the history of mechanical doodads and Athena is a robot. It made sense to her papas.

Victor, for her part, is dressed up as Abe Lincoln, complete with a fake beard and a stovepipe hat. That is to say: she's being ridiculous, like usual. Anya is trying to tear the beard off, and Victor is leaning back out of reach of her tiny hands, laughing.

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Clark's gone the much cheaper route of getting away with his work clothes as a costume, and ditching his glasses for the day. "Hey there, you," he says to the kids with a smile, then cocks an eyebrow at Victor. "A toaster, huh?"

"Yep! A toaster. It's in her history. I wanted to go for a lightbulb, but... what the lady wants, the lady gets." She rests a fond hand on Athena's head. "Who're you today, my good man."

Clark sits down next to them, to do his part in distracting the munchkins from demolishing Abe's beard. "Alan Turing. Does that count as cheating?"

"Not at all," she says, tipping her hat back so she can look up at him a little better. "I can see the resemblance."

"Plus he was pretty much the father of artificial intelligence, and my father is an AI," he adds, quirking an eyebrow.

"Perfect choice for you." She leans down to give Athena a little kiss on the top of her head. Athena spontaneously starts reciting her ABC's. Anya tries to join in, but she stumbles more than Athena does, and ends up babbling through most of it.

"Note to self: Recite ABCs button is on top of her head." He looks very seriously at Anya, though. "And you did fantastically too."

"Totally! I'm so proud of you, Anya-baby." Anya smiles a proud smile, and then waits until Vic's looking to Athena and then tries to grab the fake beard again. It's weird and she wants it. "Showin' off for Uncle Clark, yeah? Yeah. I knew it. You did a great job, honey."

"She did better than I did when I was their age." He very gently boops Athena on the nose with one fingertip. "How are you with numbers, sweetheart?" He automatically uses his mom's endearment for him, having associated it with small children for his whole life now.

"Three point one four one five nine two--"

Victor suppresses a chuckle and slips off her fake beard.

"Good job, honey! That's pi!"

"Not for eating," Anya intones, solemnly, clearly something she's heard many times before.

Clark chuckles a little at that. "It'd be pretty hard to eat that kind of pi."

"It wouldn't taste very good at all," Victor says, giving each girl a kiss on the tops of their heads in turn. "How old are you now? Fifteen? A million?"

"Two!"

((♥?))

Gosh, they're adorable. "That's right. And what does having a birthday get you?"

"Older!" Athena says.

"Presents!" Anya says.

"And older," Athena says.

"And older," Anya parrots.

Yes, they are the very picture of adorable. Today. You should see them when they get sleepy and/or cranky and/or sick and/or it is a Tuesday.

"It does get you older," he agrees with a chuckle. "But I was thinking about the presents thing." He PINpoints in a pair of small gifts, each containing a set of plastic animals (and a human or two), specifically chosen so they'd be easily washable.

If there's one thing these girls can do with some amount of success, it's open boxes!

"What do you say?" Victor says.

"Thanks!" Athena says.

Anya stays silent.

"Anya?"

"'Thena said it." Anya's still struggling with separating what she does and what her sister does. She thinks it counts if just one of them says polite things. She also thinks it counts if just one of them naps, or takes a bath.

"But you say it too," Victor informs her.

"Thank you," she says, digging through the animals to find the biggest one.

((AIM?))

"You're welcome," Clark says, resisting the urge to shake his head at Anya's perception of being melded to her sister. "And happy birthday."

((Gonna go Christmas tree shopping shortly, so maybe after I get back?))

"Thank you!"

"Anya?"

"What?"

"What do we say?"

"'Thena said it."

"You say it, too."

"Thank you!"

Victor mouths 'thank you,' too, grinning in pride and amusement. Those are her girls. Check them out.

((Okay! I'm just wondering about starting our other thread... kinda a little concerned about it! It's been a while.))

"Did they already get their other presents, or did I accidentally get to be the first?" he asks Victor, knowing the kids will be distracted by toys for at least a short while.

((RL keeps getting in the way it seems))

"They got a few at home before the party," she says. "They have so many aunts and uncles that it's gonna be impossible not to spoil them rotten." She doesn't sound too upset about that fact.

((That it does. Do you still want to do it? There's def no time-pressure, but I'm kind of in a weird situation, you know?))

"So long as you have enough room for them all, it's not a problem, right?"

((Yeah, I do.))

"That's how I see it. As long as I can organize it and clean it, we're good as gold."

Adia was not expecting to walk past a children's birthday party today, and probably would not have noticed but for the sound of familiar laughter. Rather than interrupt whatever sort of celebration is happening (she sees cake, but Victor is in costume and so are the two small, adorable children).

So rather than approach like a socially confident person, Adia just hangs back a ways and looks confused.

((Too late to tag? I didn't see this until recently. <3))

"That's why I chose plastic," he says with a nod. "I thought stuffed animals might be better for the kids, but they're harder to clean if someone gets sick, or if they get dropped in the dirt."

((Sorry for yesterday, ended up being a Do Things With Dad day where I was sneaking tags during the movie so I couldn't get on AIM, will be on later today))

"Oh, gosh, come on in, come on in," Victor insists, trooping up in her little fake beard, feeling ridiculous and very proud of being ridiculous. "Have cake and stuff! The kids turned two today, right on Thanksgiving!"

((Never too late! ♥ Glad to see you!))

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