"Part of me is glad there's somebody else." Annie admitted. "Part of me is angry, because this has been my thing. Ridiculously, part of me also feels sad because I'm not special anymore."
Maybe more than just Tony's ego had rubbed off on her. She was saying things more straight forwardly than she had before she'd met him. Dating the man had done horrible things to her quiet way of life. Not that she would have given any of it up for anything.
"They'll still respond." Annie told Peter. "You can make them do anything you want them to. If you want to continue on the way you have lived, you can do that. Just don't engage them in conversation. That's not how I work, though. I feel a connection to them. Like I'm one of them. So I tend to explain what I'm going to do before I do it."
She'd learned not to ask permission, though. That just opened up doorways that were hard to close. Nothing ever got done. It was like speaking with children. You told them they had to eat their vegetables, not ask them if they wanted vegetables with dinner.
"It is tricky. I'm not going to lie. Once things know you can understand them, everything will talk to you. So it's best to keep that quiet if you can." She hated saying it, and only said it because she knew that the machines around them didn't really listen to normal human languages. They tuned it out much like humans tuned out the hum of electronics. "Just treat them as you have up until now. It'll be easier for you."
Annie remembered the first things that she spoke to, and how at first they wouldn't shut up. Now she could make them be quiet when she needed them to be. Peter might have a long way to go before he could do that. Unless he had other powers to help. Which he probably did.