IC CONTACT

[allgotrabies]

Hey, it's Annie, you know what to do.

Comments

[perdix]

((Picking up from here!))

Annie isn't wrong: Jesse is different tonight. Something about what Harry had said to him after they were paired -- maybe he's waiting for you to feel qualified to help -- has been lingering like a cold. He doubts he can actually help Harry, but he knows there are a few inmates on board that he can, and suddenly he feels like an asshole not doing what he can for them.

It gets complicated with Annie, but... what he knows is that hurting her isn't helping her the way he'd thought it would. Trying to make her let him go had been about safety, but now he knows she needs more than a buffer between herself and his baggage, and he can't give her anything more if he keeps pushing her away again and again. He doesn't want to anymore. He's done.

And if he recognizes the room, the bed -- if he thinks back to that night -- he doesn't let it scare him. On the other hand, not knowing exactly what she asked him here for means not knowing exactly what to do, so he hovers near the doorway and watches her for a cue. "Why are you staying at Elizabeth's place?" he asks.

[allgotrabies]

"She's my roommate," Annie says with the easy cheer she usually gives. It's Jesse, though, and she's her to fix her mascara-run cheeks, so she sits down at the little vanity corner she set up for herself on the floor and pats the bed to invite him to sit somewhere more comfortable.

"I don't do so great when I'm alone. I'm used to having nine or ten guys around, making noise, whatever. If it's too quiet, my head just makes monsters out of like, tree shadows, you know? I was sleeping out on one of the couches in the TV room one time and Elizabeth caught me. I was gonna lie to her but- have you met her? She's hard to lie to." She glances away at a mirror, starts cleaning up. "She said I could come live with her as long as I wanted. She's a lot of fun to live with, so I decided to stay."

She holds up two lipsticks, one berry red and one soft pink. "Which one?"

[garbagepilot]

All things considered, the fact that it's not until the afternoon after she gets out of zero that Rey goes to see Annie is probably terribly inappropriate and more than a little cruel. After everything she'd done, after Annie had found her, Rey knows she should have done more.

But she did what her soul had needed her to instead. She went after Kylo Ren and she got her item back herself, fought him to a standstill even when he was as powerful as he was and taken back at least a part of her pride, her freedom, by taking back what was hers in the first place.

And then she had gone to Tommy, but now she's back in her own room, safe on the Falcon, and she reaches out over her comm because trying Annie's room hadn't gotten her far.

I got out last night and I'd like to see you now. I have lunch made if you'll come to my cabin. According to Tommy, you know the code now. Just come in when you have time.

[allgotrabies]

Annie lives with Elizabeth but spends a good chunk of her time at Jesse's now, which makes her hard to find. It's not an intentional thing on her part, but she certainly wouldn't change it if she knew. Besides, she's used to being the one to chase people down; most of her friends are highly reserved, leaving Annie as the sole extrovert to get them to do things with her.

She turns up a little more than half an hour later, freshly showered and smelling faintly of tobacco smoke.

Private

[callmefives]

The Admiral has paired us for this month, could we get together to talk about it? [Asking doesn't come natural when he's technically in a position of authority, but he's trying to remember Pietro's advice. Also... he's met Annie. He'd liked Annie. So a request it is. And an open mind, as far as he can manage.]

Private

[allgotrabies]

[Pietro is right, but not because Annie resents authority. If he had ordered her she would have obeyed, but it would have made her quiet and subdued and reproachful. A kicked dog, to be blunt.

Instead he gets the Annie who is excited to be on the barge, the one who's eager to work, the one who likes him, too.]

Heck yeah we can! Meet at the enclosure? We can talk and walk on the beach.

[guiltocent]

[Stan is starting to feel like he's getting the hang of this whole weird system. Sort of. Or, at least, he figures that if he doesn't have the hang of it it, someone will probably notice eventually so might as well act like he does to put that off as long as possible. No reason to start changing habits at his time of life.]

Hey, this is Annie, right? The name's Stan.

How'd ya feel about poker?

[allgotrabies]

I feel like you oughta bring it on, Stan! The pub or somewhere else?

major league backdated to post-VIP flood

[perdix]

Jesse has long since learned that after two years of slowly turning into pure fucking evil, Walter White has become very, very careful; but having been right by his side for most of that time, he knows him now better than almost anyone. It doesn't matter that Walt doesn't use the network, doesn't leave a note or any other purposeful indicators behind. He leaves just enough incidental little signs here and there that when Jesse wakes up and has to figure out who was here in his stead, it doesn't take long at all.

The only thing that keeps him from turning up at Elizabeth's cabin immediately is that he has to fight off the urge to be sick, first.

But once that's done, Annie's is his next stop, and he's already running over all of the nightmare scenarios in his head; most of them involve her corpse. He pounds furiously at Elizabeth's door. "Annie!" he shouts. "Annie!"

[allgotrabies]

In the end, Annie did her very best to see Walter is family, albeit family-in-law. But she's had her own history with drug dealers, with men whose smiles are chilly even when they're real. Even though she wanted to be there whenever Walter went home and Jesse came back, she couldn't do it.

The fact Jesse comes looking for her at Elizabeth's is a bigger relief to her than he could know. She pulls the door open so fast it bounces off the wall, though, because the note of panic she hears the second time he calls her is not something she thought to hear.

"I'm here, Jesse, what is it?" She doesn't throw herself against him the way the more canid part of her brain wants to (how to comfort someone? with sheer warm weight), but she does fist a hand in his shirt and pull him inside. "What's wrong?"

For Danny

[allgotrabies]

Annie finds him, and she probably looks ridiculous with headphones on and little else besides a bikini top and surfer shorts. But her days are spent between the peace of the infirmary and the freedom of the Enclosure, so it doesn't make sense to wear normal clothes.

"Hey!" Her voice is a little too loud, to compensate for the thrum of noise in her ears even through the protection, but she greets him like they're old friends and not new acquaintances.

[dann_0]

Well. That is one of the good things about having lived in Hawaii for the last five years, the outfit doesn't seem that out of place if you ask him. He's sitting in one of the common rooms that for right now is empty except for him. He got a coffee and a book that he's been reading while also glancing at his phone.

"Annie, right?" He gets up and offers her his hand. "Danny."

Backdated to the 1st (ish)

[athingwithfeathers]

Do you want to go surfing?

['Are you okay' has always struck Hope as a stupid question and this seems like the easiest way to ask if Annie wants to talk about Jesse's disappearance without having to...use words.]

[allgotrabies]

[If Annie ever says 'no' to surfing, she's probably comatose. And even then she'd probably still enjoy, deep deep down, being strapped to a board with someone.

But Hope asking gets more enthusiasm than she'd have for almost anyone else.]
Hell yeah

now?

text

[hollow_king]

Come to my room.

[He still wouldn't admit to most that he knows how the texting function works, let alone that he occasionally thinks of all the ways it would've been useful in his life. It's also useful that a large percentage of the barge appear to be able to read.]

Re: text

[allgotrabies]

[Annie never owned a cell phone at home, so texting is a very slow process when she does it and it tends to lack her usual chatter]

ok :)

[She turns up at his door just a few minutes later, curious but also a little worried. Horseriver is intense and she has no idea what might make him ask her to visit.]

[credere]

[Following two varyingly traumatic conversations with Alec and Quentin:]

Can we just...forget the thing we talked about?

Please.

I'm sorry, it was a stupid idea.

[allgotrabies]

Hey, hey. You aren't stupid. And neither is being a wolf. Okay? Talk to me.

[She won't try to talk him into or out of it--she is adamant that it be his choice--but she will be ferociously protective of him if someone has given him misinformation to scare him out of it.]

[athingwithfeathers]

Hi Annie. [Hope is bright and cheerful, not always her mood after a breach but this one hadn't been bad. In some ways, she's glad of the break of it. But she is calling for business, of a sort.]

Let's have a birthday party now. [A few days later than last year but parties don't have to come on birthdays and they're both here and alive and that would be enough to celebrate all on its own.]

[allgotrabies]

Oh shit I totally forgot about our day! Yeah we better plan a weekend bender for this, girl. What kind of party are you feeling?

[magician_king]

Fuck, I'm such an asshole.

I'm really sorry. I was worried, and I freaked out in the worst possible, loudest way.

[allgotrabies]

[It takes her a while to answer, and when she does it's from a very dark room, lit only when she takes a drag on her cigarette.]

He said 'no'. He changed his mind.

[credere]

Hello.

...I need some help.

Please.

It's not like - the other thing.

[allgotrabies]

What's wrong? Where are you? Are you hurt?

[hollow_king]

Horseriver has an uncanny, to use the technical term, awareness of Annie's location, whenever she's out of a shielded cabin. He'd never use the word, but it's comforting, in a way, to always be able to check on her, pulling the unconscious awareness to the front of his mind. The connection stretches both ways, of course, though since he spends much of his time sitting in the garden, in a common room or sometimes picking up food, it's not exactly hard to know where he'll be, with or without magic.

The emotions he shares are also generally predictable, though that's due to care on his part. He generally keeps the darkness of his despair from leaking out and, when she's not with him, mostly keeps the rest muted too. A conscious look might show a drifting sadness or a specific focus or low level annoyance or, rarely, a flash of amusement, but he politely avoids too much feedback unless she's there, when he'll share feelings as well as company and conversation.

For all he's aware of her location, he usually doesn't do anything with the information. He's not the sort of man who goes looking for someone else, they come to him. Occasionally because of a summons, but that doesn't count. So it's mildly odd that he wonders her way, when he feels her, for all that it's not out of his path.

"Lady Wolf," he gives her a courteous nod and a smile that isn't free from edged irony or bitterness, but those emotions aren't aimed at her. It's the sort of greeting reserved for a very short list of people.

[allgotrabies]

She loves being awash in his feelings, having them alongside her own. She can always smell his emotions, the chemical markers, and she knows that so much of what is in him is pain. So she also knows he's protecting her from it.

The sudden, wild joy she feels when she hears his voice is probably like a splash of neon in his mind. "Lord Horseriver," she grins and hugs him fiercely.

audio;

[revpirenewlin]

(soon after this this nonsense).

Hi, I don't believe we've met before. Steve Newlin, a friend of Godric's. So! Tie-dye. What's your plan? Whatever it is, I am 100% down.

Re: audio;

[allgotrabies]

[She can't help but giggle] Now I know we never met, because no one's ever looked at me and said 'that's a girl with a plan'.

But fuck 'em because I do so have a plan, and it's really simple: I've already made a shirt for him, and I don't think he'd just throw it away, so Godric gets to look chill but also weirdly nice.

He'd probably go along with it if you wore one, too, Steve.

text

[negative_man]

🆘

🌊🐂💩

Re: text

[allgotrabies]

Now for you, I think I can come and dull give PS

[Dammit]

⛑️
👌??

[smashandgrab]

I hear you like manicures. Come over tonight for the hot tub and then we can do each other's nails?

[allgotrabies]

Oh heck yes, just what I needs. Do you have colors or should I bring some?

text; a few days after the murder

[tucky]

if you still want infirmary lessons, i still want to teach you

Re: text; a few days after the murder

[allgotrabies]

i killed an inmate

after rags breaks in

[dog_eat_dog]

So what was your plan if I put a bullet in that kid's head, you fucking moron?

Re: after rags breaks in

[allgotrabies]

You didn't.

[If she did, there are a lot of complicated emotions on Annie's end, culminating in 'I have no reason not to kill Tess too'. Which is problematic.]

[spam]

[loveisall]

Some time after his conversation with Sweeney, Godric wakes early and takes his shower before calling out for Annie, hearing her moving around the cabin.

"Don't go out," he calls to her as he dries off her hair. "Stay in with me tonight?"

Re: [spam]

[allgotrabies]

Her smile is so warm it lifts her voice. She finishes changing into pajamas. "Sure, buddy. What do you have in mind?"

[brutallyefficient]

[ From this thread!]
The difference may be that androids don't have a choice whether they do what they designed to do. They either do it or they're destroyed and replaced.

If it was discovered that I refused to do the job I was designed to do, I would be destroyed, disassembled, and each biocomponent of mine would be examined to look for errors to explain why I failed.

[allgotrabies]

That's horrible. [She immediately hates the people who would create someone like Connor, someone with opinions and compassion, and then dismantle him like he was nothing if he used his mind to think of anything they didn't like.]

You're safe here, though. You don't have to do any job. You just get to be yourself, and explore beaches and hang out and make friends.

[hauntedcalamari]

[His heart's not quite in it, but that's not his temp's fault. And while Ben is really bad at following dramas as they unfold on the network, he has a vague sense she might benefit from some cheerful normalcy. That's what he's gonna do.]

Hey, you get me this month, apparently. Thoughts, objections, thrown objects?

[allgotrabies]

[She's normally full of jokes and teasing. But she's not normally a demoted warden and murderer.]

Hi. Yes. I mean, no, no thoughts or anything. Have- have you done this before?

~ probably would have been earlier but seizing energy

[cultural_pressures]

[Quill could find Annie in person, but for this, she choses to leave a message.] Have you thought of your answer, yet?

[allgotrabies]

[A small, audible breath when he calls Quill back and is answered. But at the last moment she has to duck behind the last thing that will let her stall.

Or maybe she just needs a jumping off point.] Say the question again.

[loveisall]

Once Godric feels like he can actually sit up on his own, he pulls himself off of the couch and into Annie's room. Her pile of blankets.

Without saying a word, he crawls inside of them, snuggling up against her.

"I have changed my mind. I would never like to be human," he says softly against her shoulder.

[allgotrabies]

She wraps her arms around him and then her legs. It's equal parts wanting comfort and offering it as a human shield.

"Me either. I could make you a wolf? All the sunshine. All the food."

[goingtobeunwell]

[Crozier doesn't know how to leave messages over the network, but once he gets wind that Annie didn't survive he goes to Godric's cabin and slips a note under the door.]

Annie,

I've been led to believe you're in this cabin, and my apologies to Godric if not.

I wish I'd been able to help you. I'm so sorry you're suffering now.

As soon as you're feeling better I'll take you back out to sea.

Crozier

[And at the bottom of the letter he's drawn a girl on a surfboard. It is not that good.]

[allgotrabies]

[ Having met him, she likes him enough she won't subject him to learning to text. Instead, when she's on her feet again, she goes to find him. ]

Hi. I, uhm, I got your note. [A small, barely perceptible crack in her voice] I'm really glad you sent it.

Audio; the evening after Connor's rampage

[goingtobeunwell]

Annie.

[allgotrabies]

[ She's been crying after making sure Godric was safely asleep, and after seeing how many people were in the infirmary.

She doesn't want to answer while her voice is still raspy but it's Crozier, so she does. ]

Hey.