Post-Cubefall OOM

[aeons_crackshot]

The results of a drinking contest between someone with a super-human metabolism and someone without are sadly predictable.

It's a nice suite, and the view from the couch includes Annabelle's wall of weapons, which may help Tanya figure out where she is. The arsenal includes the rifles Tanya gifted her with, a sawed-off shotgun, a small pile of grenades, the armored vest, and the re-painted Combine body armor.

The rest of the room doesn't provide much in the way of help, although Annabelle's pistols are slung, holstered, over one of the bedposts.

Someone appears to be in the bathroom, if the light under the closed door is any indication.

Comments

[aeons_crackshot]

"A lot of interesting places to visit," Annabelle says with a smile, "I'm afraid my command of the languages mostly involves the profane bits, but I can at least tell you the places where you'll want to bring mosquito netting."

Annabelle blinks at Tanya's thanks, "You're welcome?" Annabelle isn't entirely sure what she's being thanked for.

[alertcommando]

"For putting up with my weirdness." She winks and grins. "For not slapping or frying me when I kissed you..."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle snorts, "You're not weird." Not that Annabelle is the best judge of weirdness in the multiverse. The kissing comment gets a laugh, "You don't treat friends like that. I'm just glad I didn't zap you on accident, frankly."

[alertcommando]

"Well..." Tanya grins and winks to her friend, all teasing. "Only think better than kissing a beautiful woman, is kissing a beautiful woman you like very much."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle grins and replies, "I'll have to take your word on that, considering..." Tanya's not the only one who's teasing.

[alertcommando]

"Considering what? That I find you attractive or that you are my friend and I like you very much?" Tanya winks, grins and moves over. "I was hoping I had made my opinions very clear, Annabelle..."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Considering that I'm not attracted to girls," Annabelle says with a laugh.

"No, you've been very clear on both points," she replies, grinning.

[alertcommando]

"Well, then I will have to find some way to turn into a guy in a more regular basis?" And Annabelle is hugged.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle returns the hug, "I don't know that it would suit you," she says with a small smile.

[alertcommando]

"Suit, schmsuit, whatever." Tanya grins widely, winking. "Who cares, if it would mean getting more smooches from you? Hm?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"I'd say you'd be getting the short end of the stick. Nobody is worth compromising your self for, not even me." Annabelle is teasing, but there's a hint of sadness there too. Tanya surely knows some of the reasons for that sadness by now.

[alertcommando]

Tanya scoots closer to hug her friend. "Short end of the stick, how? Turning into a guy once in a while to get wonderful smooches from you? No short ends there, hon."

Yes, she knows, but she also will not let her friend go bitter.

[aeons_crackshot]

"You're incorrigible, aren't you?" Annabelle says, teasing. She leans into the hug and takes a breath, "I don't think that I could give you that you know, even if you were temporarily male. Heaven knows I was tempted, but...." Annabelle wishes she could borrow better skill with words.

"There've been too many people who didn't really want me in my life for me to take someone up on that kind of offer. I know you don't think that I could hurt you, but I'm quite capable of hurting myself..." Annabelle adds in a bit of dark humor.

[alertcommando]

She listens, nodding, then looks into the other woman's eyes. "Well, I will do my best to help you not hurt yourself, Annabelle. You are my friend, you are important to me."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle smiles, "You are important to me too."

She grins, "If the Hindus are right about reincarnation, it might just be a matter of waiting. They believe that people who were close in one life may meet again in the next..."

"Of course, I'm going to be very cross with the Universe if you don't find someone who suits you as well as you suit them this turn of the wheel."

[alertcommando]

"Then I guess you will be cross, Annabelle. I don't think there is someone for me anywhere." Even at the end of the universe, she was not able to find someone.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle raises an eyebrow, "Anywhere covers a lot of ground. This place doesn't have very many people to choose from..."

Annabelle's lips quirk, "Not that I'm qualified to be offering any kind of advice on the subject of romance..."

[alertcommando]

"Well, nobody to date here, nobody to date back home... if my home world does not have romance for me, and the multiverse does not either, well..." Tanya shrugs, not going to lament too much.

It is just how things are.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle shrugs as well, "This place gets new people all the time, and your world has a lot of places you haven't seen yet..." That sparks a recollection, "I was going to tell you about my trip to Singapore, wasn't I?"

[alertcommando]

Change of subject is welcome. "Yes, you were going to, indeed." Tanya flashes a grin, cuddling close to listen.

[aeons_crackshot]

"It's an interesting city," Annabelle says with a grin. "Stunning wealth laid over abject poverty like gilt over pot metal."

Annabelle smirks, "Worse than Chicago as far as corruption and vice go, too."

[alertcommando]

"Well, I have never been to Chicago... or the United States, yet, but it sounds like a place ready to explode in violence, just needing a spark."

[aeons_crackshot]

"It might, one day," Annabelle agrees. "When I knew the city, the wealthy and powerful had an iron grip on the city. Drugs, slavery, and other horrors ignored or exploited by the powerful..." Annabelle shakes her head.

"That was why we were there, as a matter of fact. An old acquaintance had asked for assistance in dealing with one of the figures in Singapore's criminal underworld. The technology he was using to protect himself was like nothing known to modern science, which meant that folks with abilities like ours had been involved in it's creation."

[alertcommando]

"And when a bunch of people with special skills gather together to do something bad..." She nods, shaking head. "How bad it was?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"It wasn't as bad as it could have been," Annabelle admits. "He didn't have anything...unusual available other than the device around the compound that kept anything ferrous from entering it."

Annabelle's expression turns rather grim, "If you don't have people like us available to lend the necessary energy for that kind of device, human life energy will suffice."

"It feels like you've been on the losing end of a fight at first, but if they keep draining you it feels like every nerve in your body is on fire..." If Annabelle sounds like she knows this from personal experience, it's because she does. "If you're careful, you can even keep draining them over and over again, but nobody important cares when the poor and indigent go missing," Annabelle adds, her voice bitter.