Devil's Nest | Thursday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was feeling a little draggy as she opened up the bar today, and it took all the way up until she was writing her specials (after double-checking that she wasn't short the supplies she'd need to make them) that she realized why: promise or not, ranged attack or not...excuses, or not, she kind of wished there was a werewarthog in here to fight again.

Which, she reflected, just meant she needed to start another countdown on her phone: one for her due date, and one for a far-off time months after that when she could potentially run around Baltimore kicking the asses of random criminals.

Though, really, maybe she wouldn't even want to do that anymore, once the kids were here. Who knew?

~*Specials*~
Chocolate Gin & Tonic
White Chocolate Martini
Bourbon, Vanilla and Chocolate Shake

[open and flying OCD-free with a touch of slowness today!]

Comments

[pocketpretzels]

“Good evening, Annie,” Watts said as he sat down at the bar. “How are you tonight?”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm all right, Llewellyn," Annie told him with a smile. "It's much quieter in here than it was last week. How're you?"

Or, at least, compared to how it had been at the beginning of her shift last week.

[pocketpretzels]

“No complaints,” Watts said. “I was out of town last week, so I missed out on that particular- excitement. You seem to have fared all right, however?” She’d even just said she was all right. Still, he made it a question just in case.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I had to blast a giant warthog that was in here when I came in," Annie shared, sooooo casually. "Tiny did a great job, too. Great teamwork, Tiny!"

Tiny was in the back, ignoring Annie and her teamwork.

"But yeah," she continued. "I stayed out of it, otherwise." Which was only a little bit of a bummer.

[pocketpretzels]

“That would have been interesting to see,” Watts admitted. “More the use of your abilities than the, ah, giant warthog.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Maybe one of these days I'll get you a set of welding goggles and I can do a demonstration," Annie offered with a small smile. "I'm not really supposed to be doing a lot of fighting, but I also don't want to just, like, sit on my hands and forget how this works until the kids can walk, you know?"

Like that was in danger of happening.

[pocketpretzels]

Watts nodded. “I do not do well with sitting idle myself,” he admitted. “Not,” he amended, “that you’ll have much time to be idle once the children are born.”

[sword_chocobro]

And there was Gladio, slipping into his spot (it was definitely a spot now) at the bar, with a nod toward his favorite bartender (not you, Tiny, sorry, buddy) and toward her specials board.

"Annie," he said. "I think I'm sensing kind of a theme."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm a woman of simple wants these days," Annie told him, shrugging. "You guys are all just lucky that the werethings took out the pumpkin spice syrup supply in the back, because that's really kind of my jam at the moment."

Alas.

[sword_chocobro]

"Isn't it a bit early, for that one?" Gladio asked, feeling...weirdly proud for having remembered. But, really, pumpkin season had been about the time he'd come back, and now he realized it wasn't pride for remembering so much as it was probably some sort of hopefulness, to be assured that it really hadn't been that long that he'd been stuck here.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"My cravings don't know what time of year it is," Annie told him with a shake of her head. "Though I wish they did because goddamn --- chocolate by itself is super easy to get year-round, but now I'm like, waiting for my body to absolutely require marshmallow Peeps or something else seasonal."

.....ooh, actually, though.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio tried to remember what those even were, came up empty, and just shook his head a little and decided to be amused all the same.

"Well," he offered, "not really seasonal, but if you ever find yourself craving delicious, high quality instant noodles made with only the finest ingredients....I might know a guy."

He could only have the utmost support for babies grown on the awesomeness of Cup Noddle^TM.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Might, huh?" Annie asked, lifting a brow and tilting her head to one side. "You know you're now asking for, like, a three AM 'Gladio, I need Cup Noodle ASAP' text, right? Like, are you really willing to open yourself up to this?"

[sword_chocobro]

"For Cup Noodle^TM?" Gladio asked, lifting a brow right back, as well as a corner of his mouth. "I'd do anything. Besides, that's already the time I get up to start my morning jog."

He was, of course, joking.

He got up at four.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Now I'm gonna have to hit you up," Annie decided, shrugging like this was entirely out of her hands. "Cup Noodle isn't, like, impossible to ignore yet, but give it time. I think we've got a proto-craving on our hands."

She did, after all, have a whole summer and some change to get through, still. Maybe they'd get to a point where pumpkin-chocolate-Cup Noodle was the answer.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto had really been feeling like he needed to get out more often for something that wasn't one of his fifty jobs, and, well, as it just so happened, someone already had a regular bar night that he could just sort of glomp himself onto as an easy excuse for a guys night out, or something. Plus, he'd actually managed to snag a nap that afternoon, so he was feeling probably better rested than he had all week.

Or maybe it was just sort of the excitement of getting out and doing something, even as something as mundane as grabbing a drink with your friends. And, besides...

"Hey, Annie; I hear I'm wayyyyy late on offering some congratulations."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think," Annie told Prompto with a grin, pretending to actually consider it as she also put an obvious hand on her bump, "that you might have been kind of busy lately, so it can be forgiven." Legit -- based on the things she had heard (and been warned about), she was surprised Prompto wasn't, like, asleep at her bar here. (Honestly, that kind of gave her hope, in light of the horror stories she'd been told recently? Maybe babies weren't the end of life and sanity and sleep as she knew it?) "But thank you, Prompto! We're pretty thrilled."

[hashtag_chocobro]

Would Annie feel better or worse to hear that his issues with insomnia lately had less to do with the erratic nature of sleeping babies and more to do with the erratic nature of trauma and nightmares?

Well, it was a pretty mixed bag, anyway.

But there was no sign of either of those now (all hail the mighty late afternoon nap!), as Prompto was all grins at Annie as he shook his head. Held up his fingers a little in the approximation of an inch.

"Maybe a little," he admitted. "But, gods, that's great! I'm so happy for you guys!"

And maybe just a touch envious, since his journey through this sort of thing had been a little...fraught, but it was good to see her and Diego having a much more normal time of it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Oh, good, that was the kind of insomnia Annie herself had only recently banished herself! Fun!!!

"We're pretty pumped," Annie agreed with a grin. "And it's twins, so -- pumped and, like, battening down the hatches."

She made a beckoning gesture, shaking her head. "First drink is on me, though, for the price of getting to see a picture or two of your little girl. How's Liz doing?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Oh, yeah, it was super awesome! Maybe they could start a club!

"Twins, huh?" Well, color Prompto impressed. "You know, Noctra had a twin once, during one of those kid weekends? But I guess she decided to fly solo when she finally did come around. Can't say I blame her."

There was a strangeness to the smile he gave there. You know. #CloneProblems

But thankfully, pulling out his phone was going to chase all that away pretty quickly. "And I can do you even better," he said, "how about a whole album?"

He pulled up one of several, and turned the phone toward her and slid it across the bar, figuring it would be so much easier to just let Annie scroll through them, he wouldn't even know where to start if he had to pick just a few.

"And she's good! Tired, of course, but that's just the territory."

In fact, nap be damned, as he mentioned it, he did have to stifle a small nod.

"She's a good kid, though, I think we've mostly been getting off pretty easy so far."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Pick your poison," Annie invited, gesturing to the specials and the various rows of bottles behind the bar as she eagerly took Prompto's phone to scroll through, already adopting a soft expression as she paged through photos carefully. "Oh my goodness, Prompto, look at her."

He had probably looked at her a few times, but still. Annie had always liked babies and young children -- came with the territory of being the sort of beloved famous person who inspired dolls and costumes -- but ever since she'd found out she was pregnant, it was like that fondness was amplified.

"She's so cute. But like -- sleeping okay? Not running you guys too ragged?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto's attention diverted to the specials board for a moment, giving his chin a particularly thoughtful rub, although it was hard to really pay too much attention to it when he was far more interested in just being a proud papa as Annie scrolled through the pictures.

"Pretty adorable, right?" he agreed, unable to keep his grin down. "Obviously, she takes after her mother. And it's....touch and go, really. I think she might be trolling us. She'll have a few days when she seems to finally find a rhythm, and then then...nope. False alarm, someone's up a two am again and it resets as something completely different.

"She also seems to only like to sleep when I'm at work, and then as soon as I get home..."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Daddy's girl," Annie observed with a smile and a glance up from the photos. "I would say you should start just taking her with you, once she's big enough for adventures and all, but that also doesn't seem like it'd like, gel with the idea of her finding a rhythm and routine, either."

But also, like, how cute?

[hasaknightjob]

Marc swung by after Steven was done with his museum shift. It was possible he gave a thoughtful look at the axe range before taking a seat at the bar.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Hey Marc," Annie greeted him, already throwing a cocktail napkin down and grabbing a glass for whiskey as she headed over. "How's it going?"

[hasaknightjob]

"All right," Marc said. He gave a wry smile. "Far as I know. You?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Also fine, as far as I know," Annie replied, raising her brows at the ominousness of that statement. "You guys missed some fireworks last week."

Kind of literal ones, given the Starlight of it all.

[hasaknightjob]

"There werecreatures gave off fireworks?" Marc asked. Because you couldn't rule that out around here.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, but I did," Annie said with a roll of her eyes, pouring out a whiskey and setting it before him. "There was a werewarthog in here when I got in for my shift last week."

[hasaknightjob]

Marc took a sip of his drink before replying, "Doesn't sound kosher."

[chef_chocobro]

Well, where there were two chocobros, a third was sure to spam i am so sorry appear, although Ignis had considered making the case for passing on this apparent Boys Night Out. But he knew he had been keeping himself fairly scarce lately, and he didn't even have the excuse of a child to keep him so reclusive.

Granted, Gladio sometimes could act like a child, but that was beside the point. That point being, of course, that he was doing his diligent chocobro duty to complete the trifecta.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Hey Ignis," Annie greeted him, totally unsurprised -- honestly, with just Prompto and Gladio there, she would have probably been worried he was sick or something had he not made an appearance. "How're you? I heard you did some fighting last week."

Maybe a little jealous, don't mind her.

[chef_chocobro]

Yes, well, they were already missing one piece, best not make another feel obvious if they could help it.

"Annie." He greeted her with a nod in her direction, a soft smile. "You heard correctly. It seems keeping up on our training has been a wise practice after all. A fact I'm sure Gladio intends to parade around ad infinitum.

"And I hear you did a fine job of holding down the fort here, as it were, as well."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Me and Tiny," Annie told him with a nod, wanting to give credit where it was due. (Tiny, of course, was still in the back, and didn't care about receiving credit.) "And, I mean, I'm a big proponent of keeping up on your training as much as you can anyway. Around here, who knows what kind of dumbness is gonna start falling out of the sky -- but I also just get...I dunno, restless if I don't keep up with my stuff, even if I'm out of active duty these days."

The fall and winter months were going to be a trying time in Annie's life this year for many reasons.

[chef_chocobro]

"I certainly know the feeling," Ignis said, with a empathetic nod, and a consideration for his own restlessness lately....the one so briefly assuaged with his new job that was so rudely interrupted as of late. "And as unfortunate as it can be to have to deal with an invasion such as the one last week, it is rather nice to have some concrete purpose to all those skills. A bit more gratifying, hitting something a bit more substantial than air on occasion."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, and I don't know if this is ignorant or shitty of me or whatever," Annie noted, "but -- when it's animals and stuff? Or like, objects attacking, or inflatable snowmen, or something other than people, I find it a lot easier to cut loose, too."

Annie was honestly kind of due for, like, a trip to some planet where a non-humanoid alien she assumed was just some critter called out for a dying comrade's wife and children, with that kind of attitude.