blindingtrust | It's your birthday today (bladeinthecrowd)

Ivy dreaded this day every year ever since she moved out. Without fail every year her dear sweet ever loving mother did something to make Ivy blush. The woman was convinced that no matter how independent Ivy was that her daughter obviously needed a man and saw it as her duty to help Ivy. This had of course ended badly for Ivy every single time and she was almost always mortified by her mother.

Her father made up for that he would send something else to make up for Ivy's embarrassment. This year Ivy was just a little afraid to open the package from her parents. It felt a little heavier than normal and Ivy was just afraid of what would be in that box. She worried that her father had to go all out this time to make up for whatever her Mother did now just because the box felt so heavy to her.

At least she had cake! Someone had been nice and sent her one. That didn't exactly help. For some reason it felt weird to realize she was twenty five years old today. She wasn't a very vain person when it came to such things but it was something to think about. She was still young and would be entering the court room come January as a young Assistant District Attorney. It made her a little nervous so she forgot about the cake and and the box and started to ace back and fourth.

She would fret over what mother did this time after she calmed down.

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Altaïr had no clue what significance this day held to Ivy when he showed up. He simply snuck in through one of the upper windows (he tended to show up on the rooftop when entering the dimension) and headed towards the stairs.

He probably should have called out, but the concept seemed never to have donned on him that it was polite to announce your own entrance.

She honestly didn't expect him to. As far as she knew people back in his time period didn't celebrate birthdays. She wasn't going to get upset for him just not knowing things that he had no reason know to nor had he been exposed to before.

She was still pacing in a tense manner when she turned quickly. She thought she heard something and had to catch herself. Her feet were currently bare and the floor was on occasion slippery.

"Well that was brilliant," Ivy bites out sarcastically. She smooths out her pants even though right now she is in jeans and they never wrinkle badly then plops right back down at the table and drums her fingers along the table top.

He enters the room slowly, mostly just barely peeking around the corner to spot her before hesitating and standing in the entranceway leaned against the threshold, his arms crossed over his chest. He was not being shy, but rather just curious about her current demeanor. He could hear and read it from the air fairly well. He tilted his head to the side.

"Something going on?"

"Oh," Ivy stirs a little feeling pretty frazzled and not at her best. She tries to smile but it fails. "I didn't hear you."

She thinks she didn't anyways. She drags a hand through her hair. "Not exactly. I'm just... worried I suppose. My parents sent me a package for my birthday."

She lets that sink in before realizing more fully he would have no idea what that meant. So now she launches into a full blown explanation. Her hands wave in front of her as she talks about what this all means. "In this time period people often receive gifts and well wishes on the day they were born. When a person is a child they often get toys or other thinks to help them learn and grow. When a person is an adult they get things they might need or wouldn't think to get themselves. My Mother...often sends me embarrassing gifts because she thinks I need to get married or at least be in a romantic relationship. My Father often sends something to make up for any embarrassment I might feel since he is aware I do not care for my Mother's meddling. They always make sure the package they send gets here and this year I don't know what they could have sent this year. I'm twenty-five now and I'm not sure how my Mother would react to that."

Altaïr digested all of this for a minute before attempting any sort of reply. He avoided certain issues completely and went straight for the big picture. All he asked, finally, after his long stretch of silence was, "...Why?"

After that big long winded explanation he just says that? Is he trying to make her face plant? No he probably isn't. She knows just as well as he does that they're going to dance around some thing for a long time.

"Because people think that the fact someone is alive is important. They also use the day a person was born as a reason to wish them well since people used to be lucky if they reached adulthood. Now it's just a part of main stream society to celebrate a person's birthday. My parents can't make it out here so they send me things."

"...It is pointless," he concluded and turned his face away. But his mind was still dwelling on the new fact. It seemed pointless.

It also sounded nice. People just didn't do things like that. Or perhaps family did and he just didn't know about it. It wasn't an impossibility. It was extremely likely.

But he hadn't heard anything about it really. He dismissed it.

"...Like what?"

"It isn't to us. It's about affection." Ivy flushed a little. "If I knew when you were born I probably would have gotten you something interesting." It wouldn't be a repeat of the cat, honest.

"Last year my father sent me a cane I can use for the more... social functions I go to. It's a well made cane that I... use when I have to go out to different functions," she says while tucking some hair back. She looked calmer.

"You don't want to know what my Mother gives me. It's really embarrassing," Ivy says while turning rather red in the face. "When I got Cedric he sent me a harness people use for dogs who are trained to act as guides for the blind. He hadn't known Cedric was a pet but... he was trying to show his support for my being independent. He also gave me that knife I keep in my overcoat for my own protection that was before I got myself Cedric."

Speaking of that dog he has heard them and has put himself at Ivy's hip resting his head there. Ivy pets him absently while she talks.

He shook his head in reply to the first part she mentioned. Neither would he reveal his birthday to her, nor would he want a present on the day when it came. It would be more of an annoyance to him than anything else. Especially if anybody back home got ahold of the tradition. Oh, Allah forbid that.

"...dogs can be taught many things. But--what do you mean by that?" He...would ignore the comment about the knife for now. He couldn't imagine her actually trying to use it. She had problems enough just trying to move without hurting herself on the best of days. And his training hadn't helped much with that so far.

Ivy doesn't quite frown. But it's clear she would like to be able to do something for him. She might just wait a month and then give him something. That just seems like a good idea all of the sudden. Of course she has another thought occurred to Ivy, perhaps he would make better use of that knife? She dismissed the thought since it had been a gift she can just pass it on.

"There's a special kind of harness that is made so a blind person can hold onto a sort of handle and the dog can lead them around safely," Ivy explains. "I had almost gotten one except for the fact I don't want to always be... noticeably blind. My cane gives me more freedom."

Edited 2009-11-25 23:22 (UTC)

It's your birthday today (bladeinthecrowd)

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