15981/A very GIRL Birthday.

A very GIRL Birthday.
Date of Scene:	29 September 2023
Location:	Vivian's office/lab at GIRL.
Synopsis:	A backdated scene on Emily's birthday in which the birthday girl misses her own party. Viv recommends an expert. And they have a little chat about how safe and responsible everyone at GIRL is. Which is very.
Cast of Characters:	Vivian Vision, Emily Roberts

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Vivian Vision has posed:
It's pretty tough dealing with the super genius members of GIRL. They're constantly distracted by whatever pet projects they're working on or whatever wild scheme Vivian's Great Aunt Nadia has got herself tangled up in. Sometimes people even forget to turn up to their own surprise parties! It's a tough life being the responsible synthezoid.

Earlier in the day Viv had sent a message to Emily asking her to stop by to her office/lab space. With the intent of a surprise cupcake party! But with the birthday GIRL getting... Well pretty much what you'd expect. Very distracted by science in the traditional GIRL way. Long story short all the attendees eventually have to return to their own work. Except Viv. It's her office after all.

There's a selection of cupcakes which spell out Happy Birthday. Or they did anyway. After everyone had to return to work a selection of cupcakes with them. Thankfully there are still enough left to, with a little re-arrangement, spell out HPY BDY.

Viv herself has returned to work. Which mostly just means she's sitting very still on the couch while her mind splits into subdivisions to monitor everything she's working on.

Emily Roberts has posed:
    It's long past sunset when Emily finally gets around to pulling herself away from her latest failed experiment, and going to see what on earth Vivian wanted. Despite a day of failures that show in her slightly furrowed brow she wears an easy smile. The day wasn't a total loss, and she has a few ideas to follow up on tomorrow.

    She's absolutely clueless about the significance of the day when she arrives at Vivian's office; knocking on the door and poking her head through. "Hey, uhh, Vivs? You wanted to see me? Is now a good time?"

    If the labcoat she wears didn't answer the question of where she's been all day, then the slight smudge of grease on her cheek probably does.

Vivian Vision has posed:
This particular outcome... Well it's something Viv couldn't help but account for. Her culinary creations made specially to last for longer than usual without going bad. And when the guest of honour arrives so late in the day that most people have gone home.... (Aside from those who are likewise lost to their work)

Viv raises an eyebrow and glances down at the tray of cakes. "Well, technically the message is still accurate? So it's not /too/ late. Although you have cut things a little fine!"

She makes a 'help yourself' gesture towards the cupcakes.

"I take it your work has been keeping you busy? Anything I can help you with? Do not hesitate to let me know if you need any figures calculating."

Emily Roberts has posed:
    Emily looks a little confused, her gaze following the gesture to the cupcakes. It takes her a few seconds of staring before the message clicks and she winces. "Ah, shit. Whose birthday did I forget? Crap, really not making a good impression am I?"

    Heaving a sigh and reaching down to grab a cupcake (from one of the branches of the second Y) she ponders Vivian's offer. "No complex calculations or anything yet, since I don't know what I'm actually trying to do, let alone figuring out *how* to do it. It was an accidental mistake that gave me my powers, so trying to replicate a mistake I didn't know I'd made is... well, it's somethin.

    Carefully peeling off the paper cup, she takes a large bite of the cupcake, immediately moaning a soft 'mmmff' as she chews; nodding her head in Viv's direction in appreciation.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"I made a mix of lemon curd frosting ones and red velvet cupcakes," Vivian points out. Hinting at their prior conversation when Emily mentioned those were the types of cake she liked. "For the birthday girl." Another pause. Letting the hints sink in slowly. "Remember how I was asking specifically about what you'd like?"

Another pause. Longer this time. Eyebrow raised. How many hints does she need to make?

"But don't worry the impression you made is uh... entirely what everyone expects here. It's probably the /traditional/ response to someone throwing an office party at GIRL." A beats pause. "Unless the party is being held in space. Or somewhere data can be gathered for new experiments."

Emily Roberts has posed:
    Emily's first thought is that she needs to find and befriend this other girl with the same taste in cake as her. It fortunately doesn't take *too* much longer for her to put two and two together, at which point her face slowly starts to turn red.

    "Oh. Well... shit. Umm... shit. You went to the trouble of... and then I just... fuck. I am so sorry. You shoulda said it was something urgent like a biohazard containment breach that meant I needed to get tested immediately, or... or something." Despite her words, she's mentally forced to concede that she might've been just as absent even had that been the case.

    "They really are amazing cupcakes though!" As if to punctuate her point she reaches down to grab another. "I'm really sorry, Vivs. I do appreciate the thought and the effort, I do. It was super sweet of you."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"I have tried the biohazard breach before," Vivian says solemnly. "And it meant when we had the next unscheduled drill to test the system half the people turned up in party hats and the other half kept working." It's hard to tell if she's joking or if that really happened....

"Besides if we pull that trick we have to set up the party in the decontamination showers."

She grins.

"So long as you enjoyed your day there is no harm done. You did say you're not fond of large social gatherings. So perhaps it works out for the best this way?" There's a little chuckle. "If you don't mind hanging out with just me that is?" For all Viv knows Emily has experiments she has to get back to!

Emily Roberts has posed:
    Whether or not Vivian was joking, Emily nods with the utmost seriousness. "Fair point, I guess you wouldn't want people ignoring it when you accidentally release SuperEbola into the building at large." She pauses, then quickly clarifies "Not you specifically, just, y'know, someone somewhere accidentally releasing SuperEbola."

    She takes another bite of cupcake. And then another, the damn things are so moreish and she can't help but making little pleased noises as she eats. Finally, with an empty mouth and free hands, she gives Vivs a thumbs up.

    "It was a good day. Engineering isn't really my forte, but it's always fun to try put your theoretical knowledge into practice. Just kinda a shame that I can't really get anyone who *does* know engineering to help. I'm trying to *unsuccessfully* build a thing in such a way that it unintentionally does something else entirely. And I'm not sure someone good at *successfully* building things would be particularly helpful with that. Know what I mean?"

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Weirdly I think that might be one of the less dangerous biohazard leaks we could have," Viv muses. "We've dealt with all sorts of alien environments. An alien super-virus would be so unique that anything a hospital could try would be functionally useless. And as ground zero GIRL being out of action means one less certified super lab to combat it. Not to mention if it was highly contagious it'd spread across the Pym campus." She frowns for a moment. "It's absurdly unlikely our safety systems would fail though. Especially as I make sure I monitor them personally."

"If you need an engineer you should check with Harper," she suggests. "She's not just good at making a machine that does what she wants. She's also an expert at cobbling things together that do one thing but making them do something different instead. Turning some old microwaves into a ray gun. Making commercial drones that outperform the military models. That sort of thing."

One of Vivs many cupcake secrets is all the extra vitamins and minerals she sneaks in. So they're not just tasty they're also about as healthy as it's possible to make a cake. Ideal for getting researchers to avoid lab induced cases of scurvy or other nutritional problems.

Emily Roberts has posed:
    Emily considers the suggestion to ask Harper, biting her lip and frowning in thought. "I suppose I could, but see, the problem is... How do I say 'Oh you just need to make a particle accelerator out of publically accessible materials except instead of doing what it's meant to it needs to instead give people super powers.' If I, or she, or anyone here at GIRL knew the method by which my original attempt did that to me, then I wouldn't be needing to try and recreate my failure. Well, recreate with hopefully less of an explosion at the end."

    Shrugging, and grabbing another cupcake because they're there and also really good and she *is* the Birthday girl damn it, she concedes "I suppose I could at least have a chat with her about it at some point. But that can wait for some other time. After twelve straight hours I think I've earned a break. Plus, y'know, there's cupcakes!"