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Annies Odd Encounter Sr Carmine

Annie, enduring the discomfort of a chilly morning in her apartment, decides to snack on a stale, cold fry from the previous night's remnants without noticing a large German cockroach lurking among the food. Her disgust is palpable as she spits out the fry upon seeing the pest, and in a mix of revulsion and determination, she arms herself with a shoe to exact vengeance on the unwelcome critter. However, her attempted extermination is shockingly interrupted when the basket explodes in a chaotic burst, not from the force of her blow, but from an unexpected transformation. In place of the cockroach and basket, a panting coyote stands before her, looking pained and frightened, which soon morphs into a desperate young man named Jonathan, pleading for her help to remove a damaged neutralization collar he claims he shouldn't be wearing.

Convinced by his plea, Annie cautiously engages with Jonathan while simultaneously searching for information about him on her phone. Even as he insists on his innocence, Annie's Templar instincts trigger caution, but her naiveté leads her to release him from the collar. Freed, the man's demeanor shifts dramatically to that of confidence and predation, revealing a sinister intent to exact revenge on the Templars. Recognizing she has been deceived, a regretful Annie watches helplessly as Jonathan transforms into a moth and flutters away, leaving her to contemplate the consequences of her actions and the potentially grave mistake she's made, summed up succinctly in her one-word expression of frustration.
(Annie's odd encounter(SRCarmine):SRCarmine)

[Wed Nov 29 2023]

In a contemporary, spacious living room
Connected to the adjacent entrance foyer by a wide archway, the spacious living room opens up with an air of contemporary elegance, blending seamlessly with the character of the older, brick-walled apartment. Its open design features clean lines and a fresh, uncluttered ambiance. A large, inviting sectional sofa, adorned with plush cushions and soft throws, takes center stage, offering a comfortable gathering spot for any. Complementing the sectional are several well-placed chairs, each with its own distinctive style, inviting relaxation and other pleasantries. The focal point of the room is a charming brick fireplace, framed by rustic accents and set against a backdrop of exposed brick walls. When stoked, it is capable of emanating a cozy warmth, providing a comforting atmosphere during colder evenings. Overhead, recessed lighting casts a soft glow, enhancing the overall sense of spaciousness in the room. Contrasting this older living space, modern piping and discreet ductwork have been thoughtfully installed for efficient air conditioning, ensuring that comfort harmoniously complements the room's rustic charm. This contemporary living room seamlessly blends modern style with the timeless character of the brick-walled apartment, creating an ideal setting for relaxation and gatherings.

It is morning, about 48F(8C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds.

Some clothing draped over a forearm, Annie makes the lazy trudge over to the bathroom, but gives pause as she looks over the coffee table riddled with some leftover food and wrappings from the previous night. A hunger pang compels her to meander over and snatch a very stale, cold fry from the abandoned basket and munch on it.

(Your target has a mysterious figure stalking them. This figure is a shapeshifter who has lost control of its abilities due to a curse and needs the target's help to break it. The shapeshifter can't communicate easily in its current state and its erratic transformations are causing panic in Haven. It's up to the target and their allies to solve the mystery and help the shapeshifter regain control.)
It's a fairly chilly morning, but warmer inside where Annie is. The contemporary living room is well lit and likely quite familiar to Annie, nothing is out of place at the moment. Comms are quiet, most of Haven isn't even awake yet.

However when Annie goes to grab a cold fry from the abandoned basket her hand nearly meets, or would meet if she's not paying attention a large german cockroach sitting in the fries, having its way. When Annie almost touches it the thing scurries deeper into the basket to hide.

Even if she's internally rating the stale fry a one out of five in her head, Annie's still methodically chewing on it, doubling down on the effort. Which comes to a stop when she spots that cockroach. Paling, she hurries over to a bin and spits into it with a disgruntled, 'Blegh!'. She's acting like she just realized she was poisoned, but it must be some natural response to seeing such a pest in the apartment.

Seeking vengeance, she stoops to grab a shoe by a doorway, turning about to carefully creep with her anti-cockroach measure. "What the hell," she gripes.

As Annie arms herself with a shoe of doom, the basket of fries gives a little shake which may be odd for one cockroach to manage. It's buried somewhere in that basket. Silent as bugs often are. But there is no doubt that creepy little thing is in there enjoying the buffet or laying in wait for something.

"Sorry Luna. This is an emergency," Annie says aloud to appease an absent angel and also excuse herself for using an expensive shoe to try and splatter a cockroach. Her bare feet afford her quiet footfalls, making certain of her target. Once she's looming over the coffee table, she hesitates at that odd shaking, but in the end she decides to take no chances. Practicing the tried and true method of overwhelming firepower, she slams the appropriated shoe right over the basket where she estimates the uninvited guest is, probably sending some food flying in every which way with the force she exercises.

There is an EXPLOSION of fries and pieces of the basket, far more than any impact of a shoe would give, in fact the basket should probably just crumple under the hit but instead it blast outwards. Showering Annie with fries.

There is a conflagration of confusion and a force of chaotic magic even shoves Annie back, when the metaphorical dust settles a lanky, emaciated coyote stands there, panting heavily as if in pain, or sick. It stares at Annie as if more afraid of her than she might be of it.

Annie cries out in astonishment, the shoe flying out of her hand as she makes a hasty retreat from the onslaught of fries, only to be helped along by that unexpected blast that sends her hurtling backwards. "Oof," she grunts on landing, sitting upright in a sprawl of legs. Tossing a fry away from her person, it takes her a moment to register the animal before her. Blinking in confusion, she squints at it. "Uh," she states eloquently, turning her head to look for any other beings around her. Or at least make sure no cockroaches are about. "Hey..." she offers, her movements slow so as not to prompt the coyote into any sudden action.

The coyote snarls, then whimpers then shake's it's head violent and stumbles to the side. It could be rabid with the way it seems to be out of it's mind. It plants it's feet as if it's going to lunge, all fours squared up. But then there is another chaotic flash and instead of a Coyote, a young, desperate looking man is there on all floors, his clothing is a simple set of jeans and a t-shirt that has been torn.

"Help me..get this..off." he says, gasping then he lifts his chin to show her the silver collar there that Annie as a Templar would likely know is a neutralization collar. Except this collar is very clearly damaged beyond all repair. "I can't control it.." the man gasp.

"Shit," Annie balks at the animal as it looks ready to attack. While it's not the first time she's seen one of these collars, she's woefully inexperienced with how they function. Bringing her phone around, she taps at it a few times during her careful approach to the man she's suspecting is a werewolf. Though more likely a shifter of some sort. "Uh, hey guys. Watkins here. Anyone read me?" she poses to her phone, its screen displaying the stylized sun of the Temple itself.

Lifting a hand the man desperately tries to still Annie with a gesture, "Please don't call for help. I mean you no harm." There is obvious fear in his eyes and voice. There is a blur and a crackling of chaotic magic as the man blurs, begins to shift into something beastily but then suddenly he pulls it back and stays a man after a some mental effort is expended in doing so.

"Quickly take it off, I don't want to turn into a bear and kill you by accident." the man reasons. It is reasonable. Though a calm, cool and collected thinker may wonder why he has the collar in the first place.

That's exactly what Annie is trying to figure out. Keeping a moderate distance from him, she squats down, looking him and more keenly the malfunctioning collar around his neck with apt interest. "I won't," she assures him just to placate him some, lowering her phone down upon the top of her thigh. "Why do you have that collar on?" she asks, nodding towards the device wrapped around his throat. "Stop trying to turn into uh. Your forms and I'll see what I can do," she negotiates, trying to put on an air that she knows how to handle this.

And for that matter, Annie tacks on, "Name?"

"Jonathan." The man says with a gasp. There is a hum that emits from the collar as it momentarily engages to prevent another turn. The man seems pained by it, or pained by resisting the uncontrollable turn. He sits back on his calves and turns his head to the side, hoping that making it easy for Annie would encourage her to take it off quickly,

"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and some Templars thought I hurt someone I didn't. I don't deserve the collar." The man says, claiming innocence.

Giving her phone a look, Annie buys herself some time by pushing herself up to her feet and approaching, stepping past to look down at the near incapacitated shifter from behind. While she peruses her phone trying to pull up any records she can from the access granted by her, she carefully reaches out with her other hand to tap at the collar from its side. "Lemme see here," she makes to pretend like she's fiddling with the collar to try and take it off.

A calm settles on the man as he thinks that Annie might free him from the dastardly control device. He even says, "Thank you..thank you..I couldn't stop shifting, I was afraid I would hurt someone." his words seem earnest enough though the fact he feels the need to keep convincing Annie shows some distrust.

Against her better judgment, Annie decides to slide a single finger around to the nape of Jonathan's neck, naive enough to think the best out of the worst. He seems convincing enough to her. She hesitates though, finger hovering over what she surmises is the collar's release mechanism. "Fine," she says, pressing at that release and taking a step back as if it could explode with her meddling.

On these silver collars the release is quite simple to operate, but it refuses to open to the biometrics of the person collared. So for Annie it easily clicks and falls away. The man lets out a soft breath when he's finally freed as though he may have been victim to the device for quite a long time.

The fear, the shyness, its all gone as the man pushes to his feet, he doesn't look all that young. He looks confident, even cocky as he turns and eyes Annie like food, "Mhm what a good little templar girl." the man says with a silky smooth, meancing voice. Completely unlike the desperate tone he was using before. The man looks to his hands and flexes his fingers into fist as if he may just use them as weapons but then he relaxes them, "I wont punish a good deed, as much as you look delicious. I have a score to settle now with a certain Lieutenant in the Boston Templar branch, that should be filling enough."

Taking a few further steps away from the man who called himself Joanathan, Annie has that expression of instant regret, seasoned with being bamboozled. Completely out of her element without any of her gear, Annie decides that she might have to let this slide for now and frantically report this to her superiors with a very good excuse how the guy got loosed. "Maybe you uh, should try to turn a new leaf?" she states, unaware she probably sounds more like an Orderite than a Templar.

The man laughs at Annie's naive statement. He gives her a wink and tells her, "I hope this doesn't get you in too much trouble with your superiors." Its then the man, now free of the collar and in complete control of his abilities seems to evaporate, but not actually, where there was once a man, flies a moth, and that moth flutters around a bit to get it's bearings before it looks for an exit to leave Annie to mull over her mistakes.

Annie can only watch as the man shrinks into another annoying bug, though maybe she can count her lucky stars that it does not have a mind to eat at her clothing. Appearing like she's been scolded, she stares at her phone and looks like she's about to make a call, but decides not to for the time being. Instead, she just issues out an exasperated, "Fuck."