AU OOM :Test drive 18 year old Annabelle.

[aeons_crackshot]

The Annabelle Newfield that stumbles into Milliways is not the Annabelle the patrons are used to. This Annabelle is 18 years old and has just, barely, survived having her brain highjacked by a no good bastard of a psychic in Cuba.

Calling her psyche a mess at this point is an understatement. Metaphysically speaking, she's crisscrossed with open, bleeding wounds. (That tends to happen when you battle mind to mind with a psychic employing brute force to puppeteer your body that doesn't particularly care if you're even alive after they're finished with you.)

But this is not the main problem. The REAL problem is that Milliways does not allow two versions of the same person to exist in the Bar at the same time. Reality shuffles itself like a deck of cards and the 'new' Annabelle gets slammed with a whole different set of 28 years worth of memories as the 'old' Annabelle ceases to exist.

Memories that don't settle properly thanks to the mess her psyche is at the moment. Oh, they're probably in there to be found.....somewhere, eventually.......maybe. Damn it.

Annabelle looks around the Bar, too shocked and disoriented to even swear for the moment.

Comments

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle is too familiar with that kind of 'I'm fine' to believe it, mostly from using it herself.

Still, it's not like she can MAKE him rest. "Good idea," Annabelle agrees, getting to her feet. She resolutely ignores a twinge of pain that may or may not be a herald of worse to come.

Damn Siberia and the Rational Experimentation Group to the deepest level of hell.

She moves, slowly, down the left hand side of the room.

[leadinghome]

Connor follows, noticing the way she moves, clearly in pain, with concern.

"That looks like a door... huh, an exit door." The outside might be uncanny, but will be a much better shock, than the observation window.

[aeons_crackshot]

With the pain, Annabelle is employing the ancient human defense mechanism of 'maybe if I ignore it, it will go away'. Possibly because there's little else that she CAN do about it.

"Let's see what's on the other side," Annabelle says with a grin. The door is eased open to reveal a night time scene. There's a forest, a lake, the usual out back Milliways scene.

Annabelle blinks at the sight. "Not what I was expecting, but I'll take it."

[leadinghome]

Maybe she has an easier time ignoring it then him; the pain flares in his enhanced perceptions, eluding his mental barriers some.

He very much would like to help, but Miki is the one with the medical mojo.

Suffice to say, the outdoor area is a very welcome distraction. "...shit. Right, I hit my head somewhere, am hallucinating this..." He looks around. "Luke, don't even think of putting your ballsack on my face, you wanker. I am ripping it off if you do."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle is more accustomed to being in pain than most people. When you lack super strength, super speed or super toughness and you're fighting people who have it...you tend to get injured.

"You can't be hallucinating this," Annabelle says with a reassuring grin. "Because I know I'm not a figment of your imagination."

Pause.

"You might be a figment of my imagination, but I don't think I'm that creative."

[leadinghome]

"...that sounds like something Caz would say just to fuck with my head." Connor eyes Annabelle some. "Now, I'm picturing myself knocked out in a basement while the others take turns whispering crap in my ear."

[aeons_crackshot]

"That's not very nice," Annabelle says with frown.

"Touch is harder to fake than other sensations." She carefully puts one hand on his shoulder. "You feel normal to me."

[leadinghome]

Touch is harder to fake, indeed.

Chalk it up to how tired he is; judgment impaired, even.

...at least, he does not squeeze her breast hard?

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle makes a noise that's mostly startled, partly indignant.

She has nice boobs. She's not busty, but she's nicely shaped. Which means he possibly just groped someone he just met. Who's armed. Ooops.

Annabelle blushes furiously. "That's....not the method I would have picked, but I suppose it would be hard to fake."

[leadinghome]

"...shit." Connor pulls his hand away like it was burned; just his luck. "Guess now comes the hurting?"

Yeah, he fully expects Annabelle to hit him for that.

Hopefully, not shoot him.

[aeons_crackshot]

"No," Annabelle says with a reassuring expression. "If I went around hurting people for making mistakes, I'd never get a chance to sleep."

"It's not like you were, ah, groping with malice. You thought I was a hallucination."

[leadinghome]

"Huh, thanks." And he almost adds it was a very nice touch, but instead, just blushes very much red.

[aeons_crackshot]

"You're welcome."

She grins at his very red blush. Annabelle eyes the woods. "Not going in there, not when anything in it can almost certainly see better than I can."

She glances over at the lake. "That lake might be worth checking out."

[leadinghome]

"As long as it's not Loch Fucking Ness..." But hey, maybe their luck changed...

[aeons_crackshot]

"I'm not too worried about Nessie," Annabelle replies with a grin.

Once they reach the lake shore, Annabelle idly sticks one finger in the water and tastes. Her expression turns puzzled. "What the hell, this is saltwater!"

[leadinghome]

And that action puzzles the urban boy a lot. "You always taste-test lakewater?"

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle chuckles at that. "Not at all. Just seeing if it was safe to drink, since we don't know how long we're going to be stuck here."

Just because the "pub" is deserted now doesn't always mean they'll have access to it.

[leadinghome]

"Right... I hope I don't get stuck anywhere; the others would worry." Yeah, as much as they pick on him... KK, Caz, Kady, Miki, would definitely worry, Karl too...

[aeons_crackshot]

"If the readings are correct, there won't be any time for them to worry in," Annabelle reassures him.

"We're outside of..." Her breath hitches as the pain spikes sharply for a moment. Connor can probably feel a spike in her emotions too: worry and shame.

[leadinghome]

He was about to ask what she meant, but the flare-out of pain makes things change priorities. "You're hurt." You can't fake or hide pain around him.

[aeons_crackshot]

"You have a knack for reading people," she says with a wry grin.

"I'm not hurt. Not injured," she clarifies at the look on his face. "This is, hell I don't remember what the medical folks at home called it."

She swallows. "I was...injured about 4 months ago." No, she's not keen on trying to explain spending a month as a human lab rat right now. "If I was anything but what I am I would have died of it like the other poor bastards, but I didn't."

"These pain spells are the legacy of that. God damn it, I hadn't had one in more than a month, thought I might be done with them at last."

[leadinghome]

His purple eyes catch the dim light in a way that makes them almost seem to glow; Connor was very tempted to probe, but as an empath, he is extra sensitive about privacy.

You have to be, when even inside your own head you can never be alone. "Ah..." He does not understand, but will not push.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle would appreciate that, if she was aware of it.

She smiles. "I'll explain in a bit. It might be a good idea for us to head back inside, before this gets worse."

And it will get worse, she knows that.

[leadinghome]

He... actually takes her hand. "You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to." Specially to a stranger.

[aeons_crackshot]

It feels nice, him holding her hand.

"Talking will be something of a distraction," from the pain, that is. "But you probably don't want to hear about that any more than I'm eager to discuss it," she adds with a wry smile. Who needs more nightmare fuel?

"But there are other things I can tell you."