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[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

Harry, it seems, has gone off to deal with horrible space monkeys.

Annie had to reread that note from the Bar several times; it was one of those incidents where no matter what rearrangement of things she tried, she couldn't get the words to make any more sense than on the first go. Harry, Cooper, and Spoon are off dealing with horrible terrifying space monkeys- and in Shetland, of all places.

Monkeys. With fear pheromones, and gigantic visible head implements, and-

Monkeys.

Sod it, she's not even bothering to claim it's a test recipe today. She's just made up an extra-large batch of triple-chocolate-chip cookies with sourdough starter (keeps 'em nice and chewy) and she's eating the damned things at a table in the Bar herself, but she might share if asked. Just be prepared for indignant Englishwoman fuming.

Comments

[mnt_mike]

A small trunk begins to snuffle in the general direction of Annie's ankles. Someone smells cookies. That same someone smells chocolate. Only on the best of all possible worlds would the two be combined!

Stampy's an optimist.

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

Annie lives in a house with puppies, and so is used to looking down when something nudges her ankles. "Oh," she says, "hallo there- can you talk?"

[mnt_mike]

Ooh! Someone's talking to her! Someone that smells of chocolate!
Her little brush tail begins wagging until full-on blur occurs. Stampy rears up on her hind legs, and begins to snuffle at a higher elevation.

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

"I'm guessing not." Annie smiles. "Hallo there, er... whatever your name is. What is it you're looking for today, hmm?"

[mnt_mike]

Trunk snuffles hands and then arms and then...well there have to be cookies around here somewhere!

Meanwhile, over by the Lake Door, a barman slowly loses his patience.

"Stampy!"

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

Annie's head jerks up at the yell, which is probably the point at which the miniphant locates the nearest available cookie, since Annie's conveniently distracted and all. "Er?" she calls out. "Hello?"

[mnt_mike]

"HEY! You put that back!"

He points in Annie's general direction. Stampy, like all pets caught doing something they shouldn't be doing, freezes momentarily...and then attempts to look as if she was doing anything other than what she was originally doing. Innocence comes at the cost of the cookie, which then drops to the floor.

Mike walks over, path as straight as the tables and chairs will allow.

"You'd think she'd never been fed, the way she begs for treats."

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

"Oh, is that what she was after?" says Annie, looking down. "I'd have moved the plate if I'd realised. I'm not- I don't believe I've ever encountered an elephant that small, so I didn't realise what she was doing. I suppose I should've done."

[mnt_mike]

Mike waves away her concern.

"Nahh, that's how she plays the game. She's banking on the fact that you've never seen a mini-phant, and will either give her free snacks, or will be so distracted that she'll just steal them.

It's my fault, really. I should never have trained her in ninjitsu."

Stampy, for her part, is still seated on the floor as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Ace claims a nearby chair, the dogs (all three of them) in tow. She's not quite in a state of fuming, but that's only because she's fairly sure some of the things she deals with on a regular basis rank higher on the totem pole of weird than monkey.

Not many things.

But some.

Maybe.

Enough that she doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to being annoyed.

"'Lo, Annie."

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

"Hallo, Ace," says Annie, and pushes the cookies in Ace's direction. "You got the note, I take it?"

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"By puppy-mail, yeah. I'm just wonderin' how many heads he plans t'bring back." Ace snickers, taking one of the loverly cookies.

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Annie says gloomily, "but I should make ready for a rather heavy new belt if I were you, if I know these two at all."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Ace makes a face and takes another cookie.
"Wells is a'right with avoidin' bringin' home trophies - he didn't manage t'bring back any plastic from that Auton mess."

At least, Ace didn't catch him at it.

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

"That's true," Annie concedes. "He tends more towards associating the memories with the weaponry, really. Spoon's got to have his trophies, but Harry's got a whole armoury in the cellar. His old service weapon, his black guns, his heat gun, that longbow he got from somewhere, that sword he got for the Auton thing, his armour, several kit-bashed water guns... At least he keeps it decently locked up, except for the water guns. There's a few of those scattered around the house."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"For theoretical Cybermen, yes?" Ace approves of preemptive measures. With Cybermen, preemptive is good. It is excellent.

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

"That and vampires," Annie agrees. "Holy water in the other guns. He painted the anti-cyberman ones yellow, so you know."

[ltmuldoon.livejournal.com]

There's a door. See? See how open it is?

There's also Sand. Oh so much sand. And with the advent of sand there's a werewolf holding a newspaper and trying to make sense of what it says.

He is in fact not paying attention to the sights, sounds, and smells of the new location. S'far as he's concerned, he's still in the sand box.

Even with that cookie-type smell.

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

The door, and the sun, and the heat all tip Annie off; she looks up. "Lieutenant," she calls out. "You're in Milliways again."

[ltmuldoon.livejournal.com]

The man's only response is an ineffectual grunt and then-

Oh well Shit.

"...Fuckin'-"

His eyes go wide, "....First time 'bar's fuckin' appeared when I'm tryin' to go to the fuckin' can."

There's a pause as he wonders if he should tone down the language, and then he remembers-this woman's married to Wells and his language's probably tame compared to that guy.

"...Give me a moment."

And it's a few moments before the lieutenant appears looking disgruntled and annoyed, "....'those cookies I smell?"

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

Annie doesn't even notice any more, truth be told. Her daughter does, more than she.

"They are indeed," Annie says, "and you're welcome to some of them. Harry's off hunting experimental terror monkeys or something like that and didn't say when he and Spoon and Cooper would be back."

[ltmuldoon.livejournal.com]

Cookies.

The look of longing that Muldoon fixes on them is painful.

Taking a seat he grabs for one and sets the paper down. It's arabic, (can't help that) but there's an image of a Bridge (http://www.eg.bucknell.edu/~hyde/England/PicsJan2/11TowerBridgeThames.JPG) that she might recognize.

"....Space monkeys."

This is one hand on the table and the other hand grabbing a couple of cookies for later. Stop him now, or he might eat them all.

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

Annie heaves a sigh. "Well, something like that. Apparently they've got computer implants in their heads, and they put out fear pheromones, enough to make a man who's faced down werewolves and a town's worth of zombies run screaming like a girl. So Harry and Spoon've both suited up and put on their breathing masks to go help him work out why there are terrifying cyborg space monkeys running around loose in the bloody Shetland Islands."

She eyes the paper.

"Oh, lord, what's al-Hayat claiming about us now?"

[ltmuldoon.livejournal.com]

"....I'm strugglin' to find somethin' that doesn't sound fuckin' condescending or "Your husband's a fuckin' nutbar."

Muldoon frowns, "...They need an extra-"

Her comment makes him think, "...S'not claiming. This could just be-"

He frowns, "....There was an outbreak of a "biological agent" in a hospital. The area-" He grabs for the paper and straightens it, "...St. James hospital in Surrey England was blockaded today by a combined force of English and American Soldiers after reports that a "Zombie Plague" had infected most of the staff. The area is under quarantine, and officals are investigating the possibility of-"

He frowns again, "....'the idea bein' that there's somethin' fuckin' up in the state of England so to speak and we're picking up alot of military chatter that's..."

Pain? You don't know pain. Pain is the expression on this man's face, "....S'only one thing I can think of in my world that'd cause shit like this."

[stubborn-annie.livejournal.com]

"You haven't seen how Harry's dressed for this," Annie mutters darkly. "Or Spoon."

Then she stares at the paper. "Solanum. Please not Solanum."