[He's much closer to his usual exuberant self in person. One of the blessings of an easily distracted brain: it's really easy to allow the person in front of him to take all of his attention, leaving little to no spare energy for being sad.
He's got the Zen Doll tucked into the crook of one elbow, as always, and has a new (?), feline-looking addition draped around his neck - one very despondent pink Sylveon. Adorababy is never far from Krieg's side these days, when he's out of his ball, and Krieg's neck and shoulders is a prime moping place.]
[ She doesn't get why, but she has no objections. Krieg has linked her to decent contacts in the past. She's got enough trust he'll do the same again. ]
Sounds like an interesting person. Plus, Fe Fe's a decent Pokemon to talk with.
[ two loud people can entertain each other, she thinks. it should allow her to remain more quiet.
she hands over the ferry tickets she already got one the smaller boat pulls up to the dock, and with a smile and wave of the hand, they're invited on. unless this already happened, then Annie just decided to change where they're standing. ]
Has she been building anything since she came back?
[ without clarifying what she's incredulous over, it may well be both parts. (it's the monument. invading ruins with ghost scientists here is actually very logical.) ]
[There's a 50/50 chance to guess the correct cause of her confusion, but he goes with his V-Day gift because after two years, he's managed to build a decent grasp of what a person who is not him might find puzzling about his various statements.
Also because of the two things, he personally finds his V-Day gift to be 100x more interesting.]
It's a metal clockwork that sits in my hand! When you wind the key the arms flex and the nipples shoot fire!
[Perfectly normal and perfectly awesome.]
It's back at Sugar's house with my stuff! I'll show you after we eat!
[ of nipples shooting fire. look, those are meant for nursing, and possibly bedroom activities, neither which involve incineration.
though she does find it amusing that Shiro of all people gets to have that in his house. she doesn't know right now what he's been up to, but he's also a well muscled non-native, so there's a certain symmetry, she supposes. ]
[But Krieg is not interested in bedroom activities so what else is there??? Flamethrowing is clearly the only use for useless secondary sex characteristics.]
Why? It's just a smaller version of this!
[He flexes to demonstrate.
Such muscles. Very bulge. Wow.
Thankfully, there is no flame expelled from any point on his body when he does this, from his nipples or from elsewhere.]
[Grumbling and petulant, he drops his arms and ceases to flex as he relays this information to her. Along with his axe, the one other thing he misses about Pandora is his fire breath.
BUT, he's not grumpy for long, because Annie is keeping the topic pretty squarely on one of his favorite people, and it's impossible to be annoyed when talking about Gaige.]
Nope! She can build anything! She's the greatest engineer alive!
[Words from Gaige's own mouth, but he has absolutely no reason not to believe them. He's seen her badass robot arm....that she built herself, one-handed, after self-amputating her meat arm in a frenzy of creative (?) genius (?) Gaige sweetie it would have been so much easier to build the prosthetic THEN amputate and replace. Not to mention her killer robot, Deathtrap. Who is, sadly, not here, because. Murderbot.]
... Still wasn't through your non-existent milk glands. Breathing fire would have been something to see.
[ she says, fully aware that with her powers, fire is just one more hazard to heal from. unpleasant, but not scary. her nightmares are of other things. ]
Seems like she'll have more than enough to get up to while she's here, to keep her entertained. Maybe she can come up with a way to, I don't know. Develop faster transport between New Bark and Cherrygrove, or Pallet Town and Veridian... or between Violet City and Ecruteak. Talk about a wasteful loop to run through otherwise.
[ Halloween's events come to mind, for all that it's been months. Also yes, amputate after designing??? The prosthetic arm you always wanted??? ]
I can still do it sometimes? Twice a year. I'll show you if it happens again.
[And sometimes he just incidentally self-immolates right in the middle of flamethrower contests with MC and TD. The fire hurts like hell the whole time he's burning and it's great! It feels just like home!]
...I bet she could! You should ask her when you meet her because I'll probably forget to!
Are you going to remember to show me your fire breathing in that case?
[ She makes a mental note to perhaps mention this to his friend should they ever get talking, raising an eyebrow at his straightforward acknowledgement of his memory challenges. ]
[He's not typically the bragging type, and he's not really bragging here, either. He's good at what he's good at and he sucks at what he sucks at, and that's just how it is, but his fire breath is So. Awesome. He just wants to share that awesome with his friends.
He just hasn't really ever had an opportunity because making sure Angel was okay during Those Weekends always took precedence but we're not going to think about that
Also yes hi hello, Annie, this is Krieg, possibly the most straightforward man in existence. He may not always be easy to understand (though since he's been stuck here he's gotten a lot better!) but he's not shy about voicing his feelings! Or anything else, really.]
[His attitude shifts for a moment, dropping abruptly from his standard good cheer to something more serious, and he says a word, sincerely, that he almost never says:]
Sorry.
[A beat as his gaze drops to the deck of the ferry, and then away from her, out over the water.]
I don't forget stuff on purpose.
[Not any of the stuff that happens here, in any case. It's not something he's ever spoken aloud to anyone before. Angel just knew. And so do Maya and Gaige, for that matter. He doesn't have anything to explain to them. But Annie...she's a little strange, which he respects, and he likes her a lot. So he wants her to know.]
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