Devil's Nest | Thursday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

Was it out of season? Yes, but greenhouses existed, and that didn't matter.

Was it...a little strange for a mid-winter special? Sure, but this was a strange town.

Moreover -- was Annie kind of already sick of watermelon, by the time she'd finished writing out the board? Yes. And this wouldn't continue beyond this one week, but -- you get a weird message about watermelon from one of your bar regulars, you take inspiration where you can.

~*Specials*~
Watermelon Martini
Watermelon Daiquiri
Watermelon Limeade

[the OCD heard about my week and decided to stay away. open!]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You can report back that I'm doing just fine," Annie promised him, both a little touched and also a little worried that she was somehow still projecting not fine nearly two months after everything had happened. "Aside from phone bullshit, anyway, but that's all of us."

[hasaknightjob]

Annie, it was Steven. He was going to worry way past the point that he needed to. Especially when it came to other people's well-being.

Marc, on the other hand, had no problem with a subject change. "Phones were a mistake."

He meant as a concept, not just yesterday.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm usually very pro-phone," Annie argued lightly. "I'm iffier on this island. And convinced the thing has a sense of humor."

Otherwise, yeah, why didn't it ever forward the boring, how is your day going? this meeting is taking forever-style texts, instead of the ones about watermelons and boats and sexy feet?

[hasaknightjob]

"Phones mean people can contact you," Marc pointed out. "I prefer they don't."

There were some exceptions but thus far said exceptions could be counted on one hand.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"But it also means you can contact other people," Annie pointed out. Though that did not seem like a perk Marc was likely to take a lot of advantage of. "Also, there's the internet, though that's also kind of a two-edged sword, too."

[hasaknightjob]

"Getting information isn't the same thing as contacting people," Marc pointed out. He gave her a wry look. "I'm not exactly the kind of guy with social media accounts."

Try to contain your shock, Annie.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it," Annie teased, shaking her head. "Take it from someone who started a war with a megacorporation via Instagram Live. Though, yeah, I will hear you on the actually using it as intended."

Though she did like TikTok, as evidenced by the rager punch.

[hasaknightjob]

"I try not to start fights with anything I can't hit," Marc said. Which left the CEO of said megacorporation as an option, and Marc was comfortable with that. "I leave business and politics to other people."

[defenderofdesmoines]

The CEO of said megacorporation was basically a hostage of her own making, but she was extremely punchable!

"What about things you can hit, but it would be a bad idea to?" Annie wondered, having some tendencies in that direction herself.

[hasaknightjob]

"Why's it a bad idea?" Marc asked, so he could give her question a proper answer. Which was a sign of how Annie got a bit more respect out of Marc than the average person.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Because the retaliation will be either lethal or otherwise something you don't want to risk," Annie decided on, choosing her words carefully.

She didn't want to suggest an enemy where Marc might be outclassed, having never seen him fight. But she'd stood down plenty of times when, say, Diego was threatened.

[hasaknightjob]

"Lethal's not really a problem," Marc said. It wasn't a brag, just him answering her question. "Risk - depends on the risk. If it's other people getting hurt I might try to draw the fight somewhere they're not. If it's too big - well, I'm not the guy to call for alien invasions or Thanos."

Of course people could but not if they expected significant results from his involvement.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie gave that an appreciative little nod, since at least some of that lined up with her own feelings. (See also: evacuating Herogasm.)

"There's a guy back home who's both incredibly powerful and, like, majorly mentally unstable," she offered, clearly choosing her words carefully. "Lots of mind games, so I have to think about whether it's worth it every time he tries to goad me into a fight."

Though it had been a minute. Annie wasn't so dumb as to think he was going to leave her be, but she also hadn't been making a lot of appearances where Homelander could be reminded of her, either.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc gave Annie a little bemused smirk there since hey: who was he to judge anybody on being mentally unstable?

"If it's a person it depends," Marc said. "But normally I don't get sent on anything I can't handle. Only time it got too big Khonshu stepped in. He fought Ammit, I fought her avatar. There's folks with god like powers where I'm from but I've never had to tangle with them."

And luckily he'd yet to be on any version of Wanda's bad side.