Reality Crisis

Annie was excited to get to work today. Not for any real reason other than she loved what she did and she was happy that they had business. She was glad for Megan and all the people that she had met in the City. She liked her life now, instead of it being a trudging terror day in and day out. Worrying, wondering, uncertainty. Things now were happy and fun and okay a little terrifying, still, but not all the time.

She bounced down the stairs that led from her apartment above the shop, down into the store itself, ready for the day. She unlocked the door (so much safer for both the shop and her, she thought, to keep that door locked always) and pushed through with a smile on her face. But when she saw that instead of the shop she was greeted by the harsh light of the sun, Annie stopped. Smile dropping.

There were a few blinks, so her eyes could adjust, she just hadn't been ready for that at all. The shop was different places some days, but never, ever, had this door gone anywhere but into the space that held her gadgets and cash register. There wasn't even another door in the short hallway that did go outside.

What became clear to her eyes as they made themselves take in the light, was that she wasn't anywhere she'd been before. Was this a really bad part of the City? Why were all these buildings run down? Where was everyone? This didn't look like anything she'd seen before. Any of it. Annie really didn't think that the City would let things get this bad anywhere, it hadn't even when it'd been forced into that body.

She turned in her spot to see if she could go back through the door, but it wasn't her door behind her. It was the door to some diner, some really not-tasty-looking diner and the smells coming from it were gross.

To make things worse, Annie was realizing that the world around her was mostly quiet. The sounds of machines were absent. The small chatterings that she was used to. Both in the City and in her own world, they were all gone. She gripped her stomach, both from the nauseating smells of whatever they dubbed food within that place, and the great loss that churned through her. She'd only been without the machines once in her whole life, and that's when the inhibitor spike had been in her back.

Waking up was pleasant. She was warm and sated, with two forms curled up beside her. There was no reason to wake the kine just yet - Lara normally woke early to start her day, and the poor dears had just had such an exhilarating night. She caressed the cheek of one with her fingertips, drawing lightly. A deep moan of pleasure escaped the buck, and he relaxed even in sleep, leaning into the touch. She turned, rolling over the woman, kissing the doe's forehead as she did. The doe responded similarly, then raised her chin. Lara obliged, giving her a deep, throat-swabbing kiss, running a hand down the woman's side. The doe writhed in passion under her hand, and Lara exerted her will, pushing her back to sleep. The doe subsided, then curled up in the bed and drifted off.

Last night's feast had satisfied her well. This taste was enough of a breakfast for the moment. Lara left the bed and pulled on a silk robe, knowing that the kine would be snuggled up together in a few moments. She departed the room and went to her parlor. Now that one hunger was contented, ( she could appease another. )