Hotel Obsidian | Late Morning

[knife_bender]

Annie was pretty glad for the opportunity to talk to Diego privately after that little show in the meeting, yes. Privately being the operative word, and Annie was none too shy about making it known that she needed to talk to him now. Like, right now. Like maybe she was considering dragging him off by an arm, but she'd do him the courtesy of allowing him to walk under his own momentum now.

"What the hell was that?" Annie asked in a hiss, as soon as they were behind a door. Again: privately. The last fucking thing she needed was the rest of them finding out their news and deciding she had to sit out, too.

Diego	"What was what?" Diego asked, knowing damn well what she was talking about.
Annie	"How you just, like, randomly think I should stay back," Annie supplied, widening her eyes helpfully. "Diego. Come on." Both on playing dumb here and also on the whole wife-under-the-bus maneuver itself.
Diego	"Oh, it wasn't random," Diego assured her. "I don't want you to go, and I don't care if they all know why."
Annie	"And what about what I want?" Annie replied, still keeping her voice down. "I didn't become helpless just because there's a baby in me, Diego." Maybe two of them. Hadn't stopped her from putting up as decent a show as any of them against the Sparrows, had it?
Diego	"I don't think you're helpless," Diego said. "But I also don't think you should be putting the baby in danger when there's nine other people that can go first."
Annie	"And the way I see it, the only shot we have of meeting that baby is if we throw everything we've got at this, me included," Annie pointed out, shaking her head. "And like -- you can't go without me. We're a team, Diego." That was a little less heated, and a little more soft.
Diego	"I know we are," he said, running a hand through his hair before flopping down on a nearby couch. "But everything's changed now, right?" It felt like this was what he was supposed to be doing, to protect his family.
Annie	And that was exactly why Annie wasn't really mad at him. Momentarily irritated, sure, and you could blame a lifetime of having other people make decisions for her for at least a little of it, but -- she got it. She completely got it. It was just an impossible situation all the way around. "Everything's changed like three times in the last day, babe," she pointed out, going to tuck herself against him with a soft sigh. "Maybe it'll change again. But right now, this sounds like our only shot." She couldn't sit out their only shot to save all of their lives, including their child's.
Diego	"Yeah," he said with a sigh of his own. "Could you at least, I don't know, not go first when we enter the tunnel of death?" That would at least placate his new weird paternal urges.
Annie	Annie let out a soft laugh, mostly just a little exhale. "I'll stay in the back," she promised, shifting so she could gently run her fingers through his hair. "No unnecessary risks. I promise." And no, like, being cute about what unnecessary meant, either. "And when this is through, I'm going to be the most cautious pregnant lady ever," she added, maybe getting a little ahead of herself, but there was hope now and she'd latch right onto it and start talking about potentially getting to live their lives. "This is just -- an exception."
Diego	"It's a pretty big goddamn exception," Diego said, though he wasn't about to argue about it again. "So, guess we're voting with Dad." Which just felt so, so wrong.
Annie	"I just don't see another way," Annie told him quietly, shaking her head. "It's the only chance we have." She also did not feel great about aligning themselves with his father, even if he'd been vaguely pleasant to her recently.
Diego	"Dad does love being right." And he was right a lot which was super annoying. "So that works in our favor." Diego just hoped it didn't end in one of their deaths in order to ensure he was right.

Five	Since Luther had grown a nice spine around their dad more recently than the others, Five found his way to the room he'd been using for the whole... end of the world thing. "Hey," he said to wake Luther from the weird sitting and staring at the window thing.
Luther	"Hey," he replied, unusually quiet for him. "How long do we have?"
Five	Ugh, don't make Five feel emotions here. He was busy with solving something. "A couple of hours," he replied, eyeing Luther for a moment longer. "Could be more, could be less. Where's Sloane?"
Luther	"Raiding the wine cellar for our end of the world party." Why not, right?
Five	You know what? Valid. "So I guess you guys know which way you're voting."
Luther	"You're more than welcome to join us." Though Luther would be amazed if Five could top last night in terms of drinking.
Five	His iron liver was possibly part of his super powers. "I'm still on the fence on that one," Five admitted, pacing the room as he spoke. "I saw something last night that I was not supposed to see."
Luther	"Diego and Annie," Luther said with a knowing nod. "Yeah. They do it on the stairs sometimes." His poor eyes and ears.
Five	Five paused to look horrified for a moment before he could power onto the important part of this chat. "No, I saw Dad." Oh god, the context. "He was in his room with someone. He was making some kind of deal. Before you ask, I don't know what the deal was or who it was with. Everything is a blur." And thankfully he either didn't see or remember seeing anyone banging on the stairs like in a song from Shaggy.
Luther	"Wasn't me or Sloane," Luther said, like that even needed to be explained. "We were busy, uh, doing other things."
Five	"I get it, Luther, thank you. Everyone was boning everyone last night." Which was so concerning considering most of them were related. What did they think this was? HotD?
Luther	Only kind of related! "Wait, Ben hooked up with someone?" Now he was trying to do the math of who was left. Chet?
Five	"Focus, please," Five snapped. "That story about the bells? There's something Dad's not telling us." If you didn't believe that, you were blind. And possibly dumber than usual. "Think about it, when has the old man ever been straight with us?"
Luther	"I don't know," Luther said with a shrug. "He was always ruthless in our performance reviews." And, yes, Luther had cried over them a couple of times.
Five	"He always gave me five stars." Maybe you were just bad, Luther.
Luther	"Really?" Thank god the world was ending, otherwise Luther would be having a crisis over this.
Five	"Look," Five said, not having time for the kicked puppy face. "I'm old enough to trust my instinct, and it's telling me this is a trap. Food for thought." So, you know. Don't trust him if he offers a hug or something.

Allison	By the time the family had gathered around for the vote, Allison had decided it was up to her to convince the family to do the correct thing. Even if that meant siding with their father. " I think you all can guess which way I'll be voting. We've all been through a lot. We've all lost people...mannequins." Shout out to Dolores, you were a real one. "But their deaths have to mean something. Which is why I'll be voting to go with Dad."
Lila	"What she said," Lila said, almost cheerfully. "Let's go save the bloody universe!" Or die trying! You all thought that was the only option until real recently, it's not like you had other plans, come on.
Diego	"Annie and I are with Dad." And, god, it killed Diego to say that.
Allison	"Klaus?" Allison asked.
Klaus	"I am going with Father." And as if to double-down on that, he stood next to Reginald who looked...just so thrilled about it.
Allison	"Okay," Allison said. "Viktor?"
Viktor	"Look, I want to believe, okay? I really do," he said. "I just can't shake the feeling we don't know what we're getting ourselves into."
Allison	"No, but we know what we've got if we don't." Certain death versus probable death, Allison didn't know how this was even a choice. "We have to go into this together. Viktor. A family."
Viktor	Viktor had about enough of that. "You can't just keep throwing the word "family" around. It isn't enough. I vote stay."
Allison	You know, Viktor, you used to be Allison's favorite. Moving on -- "Luther?"
Luther	"Sloane and I talked, and, well, we're out," he said with an apologetic shrug. "Look, we want to spend whatever time we have left together, and not fighting some guy with a sword and ringing bells and stuff."
Viktor	"That's six yes's and three no's," Viktor said. Ben didn't even need to be counted, the kiss-ass. "You need seven."
Reginald	Reginald did not like these odds. "That leaves you, Number Five."
Five	Five looked from Reginald to each of the people who had said yes to this 'plan' of his before answering. "I saw the future, and it told me to sit this one out," he said. "I vote stay. It's time we accept our fate."
Allison	You were now on Allison's shitlist with Viktor, Five! "You're all pathetic."
Ben	"Why can't we just go with the six of us?" Ben asked.
Reginald	"That would mean certain failure. There must be seven. Children, I can't say I'm happy with this. But I see now the blame falls on me." Reginald had studied the handbook on abusive parenting well. "I failed you when you were young, and I have failed you now. And in doing so, I have doomed the entire universe. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the courtyard, awaiting the end." And with that dramatic monologue, Reginald was off, with Ben following after with a mumbled "Idiots".
Viktor	"Was that an apology?" Viktor asked.
Luther	"The man's never apologized for a thing in his life," Luther said.
Diego	"I actually feel bad for him," Diego said, looking absolutely disgusted with himself for admitting that.
Annie	"Me too," Annie said softly, actually -- for maybe the first time, this whole time -- allowing herself to feel the full weight of their failure. Having a chance for a second and then losing it just made it all worse, it turned out. "It'll probably pass." Or they'd die first! What fun!
Sloane	"So now what do we do?" Sloane asked.
Five	"Now we wait for the end," Five said, looking away from where the others had stormed of to glance at Sloane. "See you around. It's been interesting." It'd been something alright.

[NFI, NFB but OOC is great. Taken from TUA 3x09 Seven Bells and preplayed with apocalypsehow and defenderofdesmoines]