Written for Porn Battle XIV (Abed/Annie, 'dreamatorium, movies, real, disguise, simulation, play, pretend', with a hint of 'trust'). There's also a bit of background Troy / Britta and a hint of Annie / Britta. Having seen the movie Basic Instinct will probably help understand this fic a bit better. In particular, a certain scene.

(Look, don't look at me like that, people who grew up in and lived through the 1990s. I don't need to tell you which scene. You know which scene. Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.)

No graphic sexual content, but there is a moment that is suggestive of female nudity. You may wish to keep this in mind if you want to read further.

Feedback and kudos welcome and gratefully received. Enjoy!

"What are you going to do," Annie Edison smirks, her voice deep and husky, the cigarette dangling casually from her hands, "arrest me for smoking?"

It's only a candy cigarette, to be fair - Abed suggested a real one for authenticity, but Annie put her foot down on that point - but other than a few relatively minor reservations over costuming and set decoration Abed has to admit; so far, she's more or less nailed it. Granted, she wouldn't dye her hair either, so the homage isn't quite perfect, but the bun she's tied it into is exact to what appeared on screen, and the costume ...

As she 'inhales' on the cigarette, he can't help but flick his eyes down to her legs, crossed in front of her. Abed tells himself that it's just because he's in character. The whole purpose of this scene, after all, is to demonstrate the power of femme fatale sexuality over men. He just hopes Annie's up for it, because she's usually a bit uncomfortable with this sort of thing and it can get sort of intense. He could tell this movie wasn't her favourite, and he's trying to exercise his empathy powers to make her feel more comfortable with Dreamatorium scenarios.

"Would you tell us the nature of your relationship with Mr. Boz?" Abed asks authoritatively. Technically he has the slightly harder role here, having essentially had to compress five characters parts into one role, but then, Annie really put her foot down when it came to doing this scene in front of other people, and in any case within the context of the scene those parts are more or less identical in terms of character role, development and response. Really, if he's honest, it's Annie who has the bigger job in terms of reaching into the character, transforming herself into a different role, one quite distinct in nature from her usual personality.

"I had sex with him for a year and a half," Annie Edison declares confidently, as if it was actually true. "I liked having sex with him. He wasn't afraid of experimenting."

Although if how she's doing so far is anything to go by, she's apparently not having that much trouble. Surprisingly, given how much she still struggles with her Constable Geneva, Annie is apparently much better at getting into character than he'd previously given her credit for. He's actually quite impressed; she's obviously prepared more than she usually does when they go in the Dreamatorium.

She inhales on the cigarette as if it's a real one, exhales as if there's real smoke, and looks up again. Right into Abed's eyes.

"I like men like that," she purrs. Men who give me pleasure. He gave me a lot of pleasure."

It suddenly feels really hot in here. Which is weird, because the AC's on full, better to aid the Dreamatorium's engines in creating the atmosphere of a cold, formal police interrogation room. He might ask Troy to have a look at it when he gets home, maybe it's going weird or something.

"Did you ever engage in any ... sado-masochistic activity?" Abed presses. There's a wobble in his voice, but that's cool. There was a wobble in the character's voice in the movie too, he tells himself.

Annie smirks. "Exactly what did you have in mind?"

Abed tells himself that the only reason he's thrown slightly because she got the line slightly wrong. It isn't really her fault, since the line technically calls for her to call the character by name, and the character in question is a one-off single scene character who isn't really that important so it's not surprising that she can't remember it, except that now he thinks he can't really remember it either, which is very weird for him.

"You ever tie him up?" he asks, taking a sip of water. He's really hot for some reason. Definitely get Troy to look at the AC when he gets home.

"No."

"You never tied him up."

"No!" Annie smirks again. "Johnny liked to use his hands too much. I like hands and fingers."

Abed takes another sip of water. It really is very hot in here.

"You describe a white silk scarf in your book." he says.

Annie takes off her white coat. The white dress she's wearing isn't an exact match for the movie, but it sufficiently calls to mind Sharon Stone, which in turn sufficiently calls to mind Kim Novak in Vertigo (Paul Verhoeven liked his Hitchcock shout-outs) for Abed to allow it. Also, it clings to her figure, slim and curvaceous.

Another sip of water. He feels like he's losing his edge a bit, isn't fully able to commit to the character(s). Must be the AC.

"I've always had a fondness for white silk scarves," Annie purrs. "They're good for all occasions."

Okay, maybe it's not the AC after all.

"But you said you liked men to use their hands."

Annie smirks again. "I don't make any rules, Nick. I go with the flow."

She's forgotten some dialogue again, but Abed now has to admit that that's not exactly what's throwing him. Abed leans forward intensely, which, he has to admit, is not incredibly comfortable. His suit is really starting to feel clammy and tight in places.

"Did you kill Mr. Boz, Miss Trammell?" he asks intently.

Annie leans forward as well. "I'd have to be pretty stupid to write about killing and then kill someone in the way I described it in my book. I'd be announcing myself as the killer. I'm not stupid."

"Maybe that's what you're counting on to get you off the hook. Writing the book gives you an alibi."

Annie grins. "Yes, it does, doesn't it? The answer's no."

"Do you use drugs, Miss Trammell?"

"Yes."

"With Mr. Boz?"

"Sure."

He's skipping lines and rushing through the scene; that's not normal for him. Abed thinks his voice might be a bit higher than usual as well. He seems to be talking quickly as well. He's not normally this on edge when he does a homage.

(But then, what he's trying not to think about is that there's a pretty big bit coming up. A really famous bit. A 'blink-and-you'll-miss it' bit. Abed tells himself that it's not really that a big deal, that he didn't secretly rent this movie out from under his dad's nose when he was a kid just to see what the big deal was only to be secretly a little bit disappointed when he got to this scene because it was always VHS and the tape at that point was all warped and distorted from being rewound too much. It's not that big a deal. It's not. And besides, it's Annie. Annie doesn't do that sort of thing.

(Abed tries not to get his hopes up.)

"What kind of drugs?"

"Cocaine." Annie grins, showing lots of teeth. "You ever fucked on cocaine, Nick? It's nice," she purrs, as if she'd know.

And then she uncrosses her legs.

And because he insisted on arranging the tables and the chairs at a distance Abed's in the exact position where he can see right up her dress, and ... and ...

Um. Okay. Wow. Was not expecting that. She's ... really committed to the character. Abed is half-tempted to stop the simulation there, shut down the Dreamatorium right now and do an immediate scan on the person who's claiming to be Annie right this second and find out who she really is, because he's pretty sure she's been somehow replaced by someone who ... isn't Annie, like, from an evil version from another dimension or something, because he's pretty sure the Annie he knows makes it a point of order to always wear underwear. And this Annie ... apparently doesn't. Always wear underwear, that is. Because she's not wearing any underwear.

It seems like an eternity before she crosses her legs again. His mouth feels really dry. His clothes seem really itchy and tight.

"You like playing games, don't you," Abed says. His voice seems croaky and high-pitched at the same time.

Annie smirks again. There might be a hint of relief in her eyes.

"Games are fun," she replies.

Okay, he had no idea that Annie would take so well to Basic Instinct when he suggested playing it to her.

Technically, there are lots of other scenes between that scene and the later scene they very vigorously re-enact in Annie's bed minutes later, but after Annie's performance in the Dreamatorium, Abed is quite happy to press the fast-forward button on all of them to get to that point.

(After her performance, however, he can't help but do a quick check of her bed for an ice-pick before he joins her in it. And halfway through, his heart almost stops beating when she straddles him and, smirking dangerously, pulls a long white silk scarf out from under her pillow.)

The rest of the night isn't quite like the movie, nor does Abed really expect it to be. For one thing, Catherine Tramell's apartment in the movie is a lot more lavish and erotic, with more mirrored ceilings and less flowery quilts and shelves with stuffed animals on them (he did suggest they maybe try taping a mirror over her bed or something, but she cited OH&S concerns - her specific words being "Abed, I don't want to get crushed by a mirror while I'm having sex with you."), but in this case neither the Dreamatorium nor the blanket fort were sufficient and it was the closest - and most comfortable - alternative space available.

Secondly, he's also pretty sure that Annie doesn't have a lesbian lover who'll confront him later when he's showered or will try and murder him - although Britta has been staying over with Troy a lot more recently, he's pretty sure that Annie has some kind of bi-curious interest in her, and she did once nearly drop a toaster on his foot when it had caught fire, so there's still the potential for a reenactment of that angle. It would be skewed and wrong, of course, but then, Britta.

And thirdly, Annie is a lot more snuggly after sex than the femme fatales tend to be in most of the noir movies he's seen.

"Awesome," he finally manages to say.

"Did you like what I did with the silk scarf?" Annie asks eagerly.

"Very awesome," he replies. She giggles proudly and wriggles beside him. "Annie, I have to say; I'm incredibly impressed with how your simulation skills are developing. You've come a long way since Constable Geneva."

She shrugs false-modestly. "I guess I just need the right role."

"You were really good at recall as well. Particularly since we only watched the movie that one time."

"Yeah, well," she hedges, "maybe I prepared a little."

He looks at her. Of course, this is Annie Edison, when she commits to something she commits, but she's never committed to simulations in the Dreamatorium like this one; particularly not for a movie she doesn't even like that much. "Prepared?"

"Fine," she admits, "You got me. I watched it a bunch of other times too. By myself."

He looks at her, his curiosity tweaked. "I didn't think you liked it that much."

"I don't, really ..." Annie is squirming beside him, and she's blushing in the way she does when she gets shy and embarrassed about something - which, given how notable her lack of embarrassment about the events of the evening has been, is a little weird. Maybe she's catching up. "But ... you know ..."

"Not really."

She rolls her eyes and huffs. "Maybe I really wanted to get it right for you. It's your sexual fantasy, Abed. I wanted to do it well for you. It's what ... you know ... girlfriends do."

Girlfriend. Huh. It's the first time she's described herself like that to him. They'd been doing this for a while now, and he has detected a certain amount of increased closeness and intimacy between them since they began sleeping together, he hadn't quite anticipated that the character development and script would have reached this stage yet.

Cool. Coolcoolcool.

She's looking at him like she expects a response. Oh, right. Yeah. That's what boyfriends do, don't they? They have to respond to these things.

It's not quite fitting the theme of the evening, but Annie always responds well to a bit of Don Draper. "Guess I'd better return the favour then, then," he purrs, reaching out and stroking her cheek. "Seeing as you're my girlfriend and all."

Annie giggles and squirms with glee, and leans down to whisper some of her ideas into his ear. She's a lot less Sharon Stone now, and a lot more normal Annie Edison, but given how kickass normal Annie Edison is and given how lame the majority of Sharon Stone's career after Basic Instinct was Abed's pretty sure that's a good thing.