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Who: Annabel and anyone who wants to come say hi
Where: Wandering around the city
When: March 21st
What: Annabel has arrived in LA with her little robotic cat and mad scientist ways. She has no plans, no idea what she's doing and nowhere to stay, so she is just trying to wander around and learn anything she can about where she's living.
Warnings: None at the moment.

She has no plans, no real idea of what to do and no one to contact in this city. Sure, she had money but that was the only thing she had going for her at this point.

And her cat, she had her cat and for that she was grateful. The creature twined around her legs, a little awkward in it's mechanical body but still affectionate all the same.

She's just wandering, trying to figure out what to do, where to go and how to start living her life. She has no lab here, nowhere to hide and the anxiety of being out is starting to rise up within her but she's trying to push it back down for now. If she can learn a little more about LA, break it down and figure out how it works, she can create a plan.

Maybe.

At least she has her cat, her cat will make it better. SOmehow.

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Jess was just going out for breakfast. (The exact time does not matter so much to Jess, as long as she can find a place to serve her breakfast.) But after the whole Dynamo thing, she's understandably uneasy about robots, especially animal robots - though at least this one isn't a sad parody of humanity. It's just a weird robot cat. Still, she has to stop, and ask.

"Uh... is that thing yours?"

"Mine? Oh uh...Yes? Yes! Yes he is!" She slides proudly as the cat twines around her. "He's a lovely boy, not as soft as he once was but that's all right! I still love him quite a lot and he's much more durable now."

She's fiddling with her sleeves a little, not sure what to do now. "Would you like to meet him? He's called Bartholomew and he likes people quite a lot."

"Not as... soft...?" she asks slowly, tilting her head at it. Does that mean it used to be... Does she even want to ask that question? The answer is probably no.

"I don't know. Most animals don't really... like me..."

Maybe that doesn't apply to robot animals, but she doesn't know that.

"Oh yes," she smiles. "He was very soft cuddly. I'm still trying to replicate his old body but for now I've got this! He's never going to leave now, he's going to be my friend forever!"

Bartholomew pads up to Jess, sniffing at her and batting at her shoe with one paw. He meows and it sounds somewhat distorted before retreating to Annabel again.

Jess stares at it, stiff and awkward like she's waiting for it to attack her. That smack at her shoe probably didn't count as an attack, did it? She manages to relax a little as it returns to Annabel, and her eyes flick from the cat to its owner.

"So you... made it?"

'OH well...I guess you could say that?' She bends down, scooping up the little creature. "He was my cat from when I was young. I made him better. Or well, I had to. He died."

Right. ...this is freaking Jess out a little. Her eyes flick from the cat to Annabel again, and she quirks an eyebrow.

"So you... built a robot... to put your cat in? How do you know it's the same cat?"

"I can talk to him, of course! He followed me around for years before I made him a nice new home. Now he's got somewhere to live and isn't just drifting anymore."

Annabel fails to see what's creepy about this. She was..very sheltered. Very sheltered and lacked much social interaction.

Jess kind of wonders if she's crazy. She might be crazy. It's not exactly uncommon in LA, but still...

"How do you hear him... talk to you...?" she asks slowly, uncertain. She probably shouldn't ask, but she kind of has to.

Crazy is a strong word, . Socially inept might be better.

"Oh, that's easy" She bounces on the balls of her feet, jarring the cat a little who looks peeved for a moment then settles in her arms again. "They whisper to you. The dead can talk through dreams and other means if they're clever. My cat was very clever. He wanted to stay and I knew that. So I was able to find him and keep him again."

Okay. She's definitely crazy. Jess needs an adult.

"Uh-huh. Well... congratulations... on that..." She shifts her weight awkwardly, still staring at the robot maybe-undead cat. "You hear... all dead things? People too?"

She nods again. "Yes indeed! I can listen to anything that's died at this point. it gets very loud sometimes but you learn how to tune it out. It's very easy when you've had practice."

Bartholomew makes a small noise, nuzzling her hand and watching Jess with unblinking eyes. It's almost like he can sense her discomfort where Annabel is failing to.

"I guess it would..." she says, still distracted by the freaking cat. She's bad enough at holding normal conversations to start with, much less when she's being stared at by a weird Frankenstein's monster of an animal. "Can it tell you why it's staring at me like that?"

"He likes the way you move," she says. "It amuses him."

Because he is a cat and your discomfort is terribly funny to him.

"Oh. Right." She stares right back into the cat's eyes, glaring slightly. "And here I was hoping it would get less creepy... He didn't happen to make any friends during that weird robot uprising last week, did he?"

"Oh no," she assures with a smile and a small laugh. "We've only been hearing about it, we weren't actually involved, so he didn't get a chance to make friends."

"So he didn't catch the 'kill all nonhumans' virus, probably. Good to know."

She pauses, and then reaches out a hand carefully for it to... sniff? If it can smell anymore. It seemed to be sniffing her earlier, so maybe...

Bartholomew blinks, sniffing at Jess for a moment, then bats at her hand lightly. It's playful though and he's butting his head against her a moment later.

Annabel looks quite pleased. "Oh, he seems quite fond of you! Good boy, Bartholomew, she's quite a nice lady, isn't she?" .

"I've never really been around cats before," she confesses, smiling a little before she pulls her hand back.

"Umm... I'm sorry, I forgot to ask your name. The whole robot cat thing distracted me." And maybe getting the possible mad scientist's name might be a good thing...

"Oh, I see." Laughing a little, she nods. "I didn't realize. I thought everyone had cats."

"Right, yes!" She bounces a little. "I'm Annabel! It's very nice to meet you...Uhm...Oh, names. Names "are....useful.

"...Jess. I'm Jess." She manages a smile, only slightly awkward. "Thanks for letting me... pet your cat."

"Oh, hello!" She's practically beaming. "It's very nice to meet you, Jess! I've only arrived here a few days ago, so it's quite nice to see there are nice people about and around."

Jess laughs, running a hand through her hair to push it out of her face. "Yeah, I'm not really the best welcoming party, but... good luck here, I guess."

She smiles wide. "Oh, thank you! I'm sure we'll get on just fine. After all, I've had pretty good luck so far." Yes, Jess, despite the awkward, Annabel considers his a good social interaction.

Though, to be honest, unless you actually yell at her, most things are good social interactions.

Raiden's on a Quest. It's a very important quest. The goal is to make his apartment look somewhat like a home and less like a soldier's barracks out of some attempt to feel like a person again.

The problem, of course, is he has even less interest in personal effects than he used to, but he's settled on a fancy blu-ray player that he's carrying when he spots Annabel. Well, more accurately he spots the mechanical cat moving around her legs. He watches curiously for a little bit before it strikes him that it's probably a bit weird to just be standing there, staring at a stranger and their cat, so he moves over a bit closer to ask about it. (Not too close, some people might be startled by being suddenly approached by a cyborg something over six feet tall with a metal mouth.)

"Did you... Did you make it yourself?" He's gesturing at the cat, somewhat awkwardly. Social interaction is difficult.

Annabel is caught off guard, blinking and tilting her head at him for a moment. "Oh, yes! He was one of my first projects but I think he's still quite good."

She should probably be a bit more intimidated but she's really not. She's a bit awkward but that has nothing to do with him and a lot more to do with her and her serious lack of social skills.

"I've gotten much better since he came about. I don't have most of it though."

Honestly it's a relief. Raiden's relatively used to people freaking out when they see him, especially given recent events, so Anabel's social awkwardness is a breeze of fresh air.

"Most of what?"

"Oh, sorry!" She laughs, shaking her head a little. "I do that sometimes, don't elaborate when I should. I meant the things. The--The things I've made? Yes, that. I've made lots of things, friends and useful tools and all sort sof things! But I coudln't bring a lot of it with me."

She looks down to her cat for a moment. "I couldn't leave Bartholomew though, he's my best friend."

'Friends' does catch his interest, but he elects to gloss over it. She probably just means like robots and stuff. Most of his experience with robotics experts leads him to believe they're either super into cutting people up or treating robots like people. Sometimes both. He'll just assume she really likes her robot friends and move on.

"He acts just like a real cat," he says it with a subdued tone of astonishment as he watches it move around, "that's amazing."

"Well," she says, moving to touch Bartholomew for a moment. "That....I did did that." She bites her lip for a moment before talking again. "He...Was. He was real and then he rather uh....Died. He died and I couldn't let him just rot, I brought him back and gave him a nice place to call home."

She looks uncertain, as if she's waiting for a reprimand.

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