video | i got a pair of wings for my birthday

[lyingheart]

[ Annie has damp hair she's wearing in a braid draped over her shoulder, sitting next to Krieg at a wood table, water glasses and what might be alcohol in frosted glasses before them. They're both facing the camera. Annie isn't smiling, but she's holding her one hand up making a victory sign in the least enthused manner ever. ]

Puck, just take the photograph already.

[ Krieg, bemasked as always although presumably?? Also drinking?? Is a little more into this whole photo session than Annie - he leans in next to his buddy and also flashes a victory sign...behind her head. Classic. ]

You gotta say "CHEESE", Honeyshine!

[ She starts frowning, eyes slanting to look askance up at him. ]

Why the hell would I shout cheese—

[ She's cut off as the sound of singing begins, a cupcake with a candle burning brightly in the middle being placed down in front of her. Puck shifts the camera to show the serving staff gathered behind the two diners, everyone smiling as brightly as the candle burns. Happy Birthday to you~ Annie is almost cut out of the frame, but what can still be seen of her face has her eyes going from blinking down at the cupcake, to wide open with the whites showing. What the legitimate fuck?! ]

Because when you say it you smile! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!!

[ The servers finish the song with a loud, “Happy 18th Birthday, Annie!” which anyone who knows she just turned 17, actually, might tip off about why she has a beer. Annie has hunched her shoulders, and the camera's starting to shake as Puck laughs silently. Annie gives Krieg a flat look, plucks the still burning candle out of the cupcake, and without a hitch in her movements, shoves the pretty, frosted cupcake into his masked face.

And blows out her candle. ]

Happy birthday yourself.

[ Krieg, his mask now caked in confectionery, just laughs. ]

PffffmnahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[ The video ends as a small, barely there smile curls her lips up at the corners while he laughs and the servers look on in slightly distressed confusion. ]

Comments

[fuelthefire]

[Yeah, that makes literally zero sense. What is context? Not something Annie cares about, apparently!

Good thing she offered a distracting little nugget for him to dig into.]

Yeah! Winter sucks huge skag sacks!

I liked the snow better on Pandora.

[Because he didn't get cold as easily on Pandora. But the force that strips people of any unique abilities didn't skip him, so now he has to wear sweaters when it's cold.]

But Spring is better here.

[lyingheart]

[ the dreaded sweater weather strikes! Annie makes a small noise of agreement, tipping her head forward. ]

Spring does seem to be nice. Not that I'm sure these islands have much of a temperature change over the year.

[ the server returns with another cupcake, no candle. Annie nods to them, saying thank you because she's not actually an ingrate, even if this whole miniature cake thing seems not necessary... and yet delicious. ]

Split it with me?

[fuelthefire]

Yeah, it's always pretty warm here.

[Which is why he prefers to winter here.]

Spring explodes more across the water.

[Which is where he'll be heading back to, eventually, probably mid-April. Depending on what Maya wants to do.

He eyes the cupcake when she offers to split it with him. It's a cupcake, and by definition, one complete mouthful for him. A half a cupcake would be half a mouthful, but he also knows birthday cakes are meant to be shared, so he'll accept her offer.]

Okay sure.

[lyingheart]

[ Annie divides the cupcake into damn near exact halves, this time handing him half but not attempting to smash it into his now revealed face.

because she's nice.

for certain understandings of nice that include dropping people to their backs for educational purposes. ]

Here. Spring officially arrived a few days ago, didn't it? I wonder if there's more Pokemon to be found a little later in the season...

[ though Pokemon make eggs, and... must hatch then on their own in the wild, so do they all make like birds back home and roost? ]

[fuelthefire]

[What a sweetheart.]

Thanks!

[He takes his half, and pops it in his mouth. Just as expected, it's exactly one-half of a mouthful, so it's chewed up for merely a moment before it's gone forever.

Delicious!]

Mnn. Maybe more plant and bug ones?

[This thought brought to you by a combination of his shaky understanding of how non-fire types work, and also just based on his observations of how nature reacts when there's twenty thousand feet of snow on the ground.]

I saw there's some new ones no one's ever seen before showing up now.

[But that might have to do more with the plane crash than the encroaching better weather.]

[lyingheart]

There are?

[ since she hasn't talked to Bert, she's managed to somehow only catch snippets of gossip and no real news. Lute pokes his head out from under the table to look up at the both, curious. ]

What kind of new ones?

[fuelthefire]

[He shrugs.]

Nobody knows. Just that there's three different kinds and they're all really scared.

[He shifts where he's sitting so that he can reach around and grab his 'Gear from his back pocket. After a few taps and swipes on the screen, he sets the device down in front of her so she can have a look at the latest news article about the Mystery 'Mons for herself.]

[lyingheart]

Hm...

[ with a quick thanks, she starts reading the article on his gear, scanning over the words quickly. she'll need to read the other articles on her own time, but it does let her know something about the events going on over the last few weeks. including how the aether organisation has stepped up and stepped in.

finishing the article, she purses her lips and holds silent for five beats of her heart. ]

Well. That's interesting.

[ the appearance of unidentified Pokemon from a crash which is, in essence, the even bigger mystery. ]

Whole populations of these Pokemon cropping up... they're refugees in a foreign nation, aren't they.

[fuelthefire]

Pfff! Kinda like us, huh?

[That might explain why so many of his friends are befriending the little guys...they're all kindred refugee spirits. But he's already got his hands full with one Trauma Baby, as well as a recently-expanded team (...so actually it's more like he's got his hands full with five trauma babies...One of his and four of Angel's), so he's not going to be going out of his way to befriend any of the refugees.]

Lots've people're trying to help, though. The little guys'll be okay.

[lyingheart]

[ she snorts, but tips her head his way. ]

Like us, with fewer dimensions crossed. At least there's no worries about food shortages around here. Even if none of us know where the meat's from.

[fuelthefire]

Pfff! The meat is monsters. Dunno why that's a mystery.

[Or why it bothers some people. He and the other Vault Hunters had a pet Skag on Pandora. Dukino was a very good boy and they all liked him a lot, but like hell cultivating a friendship with him was going to stop them killing (and occasionally cooking) any other skag they encountered. It just wasn't practical.]

[lyingheart]

I figure it's that no one can point us toward where they harvest the monsters that bothers people. The whole knowing where your food's coming from, literally.

[ she shrugs, since... she's not so torn up about it, really. there's also a sliding scale of intelligence.......................

.................... and that's true of animals back home, too. ]

[fuelthefire]

[Krieg just shrugs. He knows it bugs some people, but it's never bothered him.]

Sometimes it's better not to know.

[And that's not just true for this world's mystery meat!]

[lyingheart]

[ wordlessly, she flags the server for another round of whatever they're drinking. ]

What you don't know, you don't have to struggle with never forgetting.

[ she agrees. the alcohol comes along not too long after, and she picks hers up, taking a good long drink out of it for everything she wishes she didn't know. ]

[fuelthefire]

Or you've already forgotten it!

[Cheers? Cheers! He'll join her and finish off his drink in a solidarity toast. Or. Whatever this has become.

This is nice - he's really happy Annie asked him to join her, even though it also does kind of strike him as a little weird that she'd ask him - surely the friends she has from her world would suit better? Maybe not Armin, he knows there's some tension there, but she seems to get along pretty well with Bert, and especially Marco...

Not that he's going to think about it much. Or at all, beyond just the passing thought, which is already gone.]

What're you gonna do after today? Back to the deep woods camp?

[lyingheart]

[ Her guilt complex with Marco is Magnificent, but it is indeed telling that she asked to spend time with someone not from her world over anyone from there. It's remarkably easier to be around people she has no history with. She'll never have to kill Krieg, has no politics against him or for him, and can take him as whatever he is, in any given moment. ]

Mm... hadn't decided. I should finish up with some of the gym fights in the regions, since I've been training everyone up for the last month.

[ It's kept her and her pokemon busy, rather than being training for something. She glances toward the ceiling. ]

Hadn't spent much time on these islands, so it may be worth looking around while I'm out here. I heard something about Rockruffs that sounded interesting...

[ She takes another drink of alcohol, grimaces a little, and lifts her shoulders in an approximation of a shrug. ]

[fuelthefire]

[Oh yeah, Gyms...those are a thing. He should ask Maya if she wants to try the gym challenge. It might not be as exciting as the Slaughter Dome, but some of the monster battles can be truly epic and are pretty exciting to watch, anyway.]

...That's the scruffy dog, right? What did you hear?

[He has ten more Pokemon in his care than he had planned on acquiring, plus the Zen Doll (though Dolly doesn't have a pokeball and is technically still "wild", meaning he can keep six of his others with him plus Dolly), so he has zero interest in catching any more. But, he's always down for some good monster trivia, because Pokemon are interesting as heck.]

[lyingheart]

Ah... one of them? Either way, it seems like they might use one of the islands to have Pokemon fighting nights.

[ She tips her hand back and forth, not entirely sure if that's the case or the truth. Definitely is a rumour she's heard, however. ]

Seemed interesting to try and watch from a distance.

[fuelthefire]

[What? What!? Krieg's never before heard such nonsense!!!]

It'd be even better close up!!

[Interest: piqued.

...At least until Adorababy, speaking up for the first time after helping Dolly finish the mask cupcake, trills disapprovingly.]

...But far is probably better.

[Enthusiasm: Cooling.

Status of Psycho: disappointed :c]

[lyingheart]

[ she watches this whole byplay with quiet interest; it's telling how people are handled by those closest to them, and with how they respond to those actions.

Krieg, crazy as he is, is also one of the better people she's known. ]

Considering we aren't invited, seems like it's the respectful thing to do. Want to give a go to seeing if it even exists?

[fuelthefire]

[It does speak to the character of the man he used to be, that as much as he enjoys mindless slaughter now, he still knows there's a time and place for it and that the comfort of the innocents around him is far more important than his lust for violence.

....Also, that lust for violence has diminished dramatically since he's been here. There are other, better ways to spend his time.

Adorababy, meanwhile, noting that his protest has been taken into consideration and found valid, gives Dolly a small, affectionate headbutt before leaping up onto Krieg's shoulder and returning to his pre-snack drape, front paws dangling down one side of Krieg's thick neck, back paws and tail down the other.

And Dolly takes this opportunity to return to his place of honor in Krieg's lap.]

Yeah, it still sounds fun! Let's go.

[lyingheart]

Tomorrow?

[ Lute has his head resting on her lap now, and she's scratching into his fur ruff without thinking about it. His eyes have closed into pleased crescents as she continues her ministrations. ]

[fuelthefire]

Yes!

[What a cozy scene, this big, meaty, delinquent-looking man with his soft pink Sylveon and his soft round Darumaka, seated next to the slender young woman and her big cuddly Absol.]

Are you gonna stay the night?

[lyingheart]

[ Talk about extraordinary contrasts. Annie glances up, tucking hair behind her ear. ]

I'm used to camping. Though if I could use the shower, that'd be great.

[fuelthefire]

Yeah, you can shower. The Mustache Squid won't bother you.

[Krieg. What. What does that mean.]

You can use a bed if you want it! Or my hammock if you want to sleep outside.