Streets of Fandom [Wednesday evening into night]

[defenderofdesmoines]

Had Annie been told - repeatedly and explicitly - that Fandom didn't really need any kind of patrolling? Yep.

Had she gotten in touch with literally anyone at Vought? No.

So, in the absence of a clear answer, she hadn't done anything yet. She'd let Monday and Tuesday evenings pass uneventfully (though now she had an empty box of wine to recycle, so there was at least evidence she'd been here.) But by Wednesday, she'd had enough. She had to at least give it a shot here before just giving up. (And besides, she didn't know which Supes were supposed to be in charge of Baltimore these days, and it wouldn't do to step on toes. Even if she was increasingly doubtful that she was in her own universe so what did it matter?)

So, once the sun had started to set, Annie threw on her costume in irritation and made her way down to the streets. She stuck to the shadows, keeping an eye out for anything strange. She wound through the side streets and alleys she'd memorized during the day, occasionally shimmying her way up a drainpipe to get a better view from a rooftop.

(By the way, you know what was bullshit? Stairs. The stairs were absolutely bullshit. Like, Starlight's boots weren't super-impractical like some female Supes' she'd seen, but - damn it, that was a lot of stairs. Made it tricky to hide, too.)

The highlight of the evening, thus far, had been scaring the living hell out of a rickshaw driver (and then apologizing over and over again.) Now, Starlight was leaning against a wall and trying not to feel defeated, her arms crossed over her chest as she fought the urge to pull her phone out and check it. She was sure that if she let herself become distracted, that would be when something would turn up.

[open! feel free to catch her anywhere - Starlight is on a good old-fashioned patrol.]

Comments

[firstofitskind]

Okay, so Liam hadn't known for a fact, that their new arrival was a superhero-type complete with secret identity. But let's face it, she'd done a pretty poor job concealing her disappointment about the lack of crime.

So he'd more or less been waiting for something like this to happen. Fandom had its share of people who liked to keep up regular patrols (himself included, if he were being entirely honest) and he would've been very surprised if the newcomer hadn't decided to join their ranks.

She was also very obviously dressed in a costume, which Liam wasn't sure had something to do with whatever powers she had or just an attempt (key word being attempt, since the costume didn't hide her face at all) to keep her identity secret.

"Anything of note?" he asked, wandering up beside her.

(For the record, it was a lot easier to keep hidden in the shadows when you wore all black instead of mostly-white. Just saying.)

[defenderofdesmoines]

Excuse you, Liam, she had eyeshadow and her hair was down. She obviously looked totally different.

Starlight cut her eyes over to Liam, sighing as she did so though she did respectfully straighten up. "There's a lot of stairs," she said dryly. "That's my biggest note for the night."

An 'I told you so' would be totally fair, and she was willing to accept it. Because, you know, he had.

[firstofitskind]

Super different.

“You’re not wrong,” he had to acknowledge. “Maybe that’s why we don’t get a lot of criminal activity. They’re not into cardio.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

"That's gotta be it," Starlight agreed, nodding. "I bet tons of petty criminals have shown up, done like half the stairs, and gone home winded and empty-handed."

[firstofitskind]

“I wasn’t kidding about Baltimore probably being the better bet for that sort of thing,” Liam said, likely destroying any last vestiges of hope she might have had that he hadn’t figured out her very secret identity.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I thought about that," Starlight replied, lightly cocking a finger at him. "But I also talked to a guy who said I might freak people out, over in Baltimore. Figured I'd give this a whirl first."

She wasn't especially surprised at being recognized - it had happened a few times before. Usually Supes were encouraged to simply keep their civilian life completely separate from their Supe identity to prevent being recognized...but Starlight and Annie were going to have to coexist in this very, very small town, so. She was probably going to either have to figure something out, or stop caring about policy so much. (Which seemed easy, since said policy-makers were ignoring her calls and emails.)

[firstofitskind]

“I think that depends on which version of Baltimore you end up in,” Liam said. “Have you been given the low down on alternate realities yet?”

[defenderofdesmoines]

Starlight waggled one hand back and forth. "Kinda. But if I understand it right, if I go back to my version of Baltimore, I'll run into the team working there. Bad superhero etiquette."

She had not yet considered that there were other versions of Baltimore beyond those two.

[firstofitskind]

"There is that," Liam acknowledged. Verity tended to get a little territorial about Baltimore, so he got that. Though aside from her uncle coming to help them with their little purge-related problem last year, there hadn't actually been anyone else showing up and trying to make a name for themselves in the cryptozoology world.

"So, middle ground- find a Baltimore that's cool with superheroes but doesn't have a resident team or solo act yet? Or... continue to patrol here, and hope that you manage to catch one of the raccoons mid-mugging."

[badassprodigy]

Barry had just gotten back from another dimension and was making his way over to Caritas when he spotted Starlight.

He eyed her up and down warily.

"Did Halloween come early or are you from another planet?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Neither," Starlight replied, snorting. "Good guesses all around, though."

Someday she'd have her own Halloween costume! She could picture it: thousands of little girls dressed up as Starlight, going door-to-door. A Supe could dream.

"I'm Starlight. Having a good night?"

[badassprodigy]

"Uh. Sure," Barry said not about to get into his entire backstory with a complete stranger in a costume.

"Seriously? Starlight is your name? I mean, I've heard crazier but that's a new one."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's my Supe name," Starlight sighed, shaking her head. "So, yeah, I have a normal name, too."

Except that where she was from it was normal, and she wouldn't have to explain this to anyone - they'd just be like, 'Oh, thank you Starlight, can we get a picture?' and she'd be on her way.

[badassprodigy]

Supes = Superhero. Right.

"Yeeeeeeah. Okay," Barry said having been through this before once with Kathy a long time ago. "Clearly you're new to the island then. I'll just get this out of the way because I tick off a bunch of meta Bond villain tropes. I'm Barry and I hang out over in the warehouse district doing a bunch of science experiments. I'm not a psycho bent on world domination, I just do a bunch of research and inventions. You're welcome to drop by any time and make sure I'm not doing anything-"

And yes there were finger quotes.

'evil.'"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Starlight couldn't help it - she laughed, though not unkindly. "Okay, I'm sorry - are you saying you're, like, a self-aware mad scientist? Like, you know it looks evil, but you're not doing anything bad, promise?"

She didn't disbelieve him, was the thing. It was just so honest.

[badassprodigy]

"I'm more angry and bitter than actually mad," Barry joked. "But that's pretty on the spot. And yeah, I prefer to build shit that helps people than fuck things up."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"What kind of helpful shit do you typically build?" Starlight wondered. "Just like, an example."

[weirderthanthou]

"How's the view up there?"

Jesse had her hands shoved in the pockets of her bomber jacket. She'd been on a walk to clear her mind, and, well. It was hard to miss a girl in a uniform standing on a rooftop, wasn't it?

Well, if you were as paranoid as Jesse was, and as prone to looking up, just to be sure, no matter how many times you'd walked through a street.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Starlight, who had at this point gone quite awhile without seeing anything interesting, looked down for the source of the voice.

"It's pretty," she called back, honestly. "Really pretty." And really safe. Damn it.

[weirderthanthou]

"Is there any particular reason you're climbing on people's homes tonight," Jesse added, mouth curving slightly, "Or am I going to have to see about getting us a real lookout tower so you can enjoy that view without risking breaking anything."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I...didn't realize these were people's homes. Let me come down there."

Starlight quickly climbed back down the way she came, dropping neatly to her feet near Jesse. "You said that with the authority of someone who could actually get a lookout tower," she added, smiling. "Sorry if I was out of line, being up there."

[weirderthanthou]

Jesse made an amused noise. "No, it's fine. I just try to check in when I see someone doing something I don't usually see people do here," she said. "But yeah. Most of these stores have apartments upstairs."

Also the uniform was a bit much.

She held out a hand. "I'm Jesse Faden," she said. "The mayor."

Huh. I actually sound like I'm solid about that now.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, wow." For a half-second, Starlight considered saluting - but that was dumb. She'd never saluted the mayor of Des Moines, so why would she start now?

Because she was nervous. Because nothing was making sense and it was throwing her off, big time.

Starlight took the offered hand, instead, giving it a firm shake. "I'm Starlight. It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

[weirderthanthou]

"Please just call me Jesse," Jesse said, shaking it back. "'Ma'am' gives me hives. I take it you're a new resident, and not a guest who forgot to leave over the weekend, Starlight?"

Sorry, Annie. Jesse just had resting Director of a Federal Agency Voice.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Jesse. Sorry. And yes, new resident as of Monday," Starlight confirmed with a nod. "And I'm going to just go out on a limb and assume you haven't heard anything from an agency called Vought, have you?" She had learned to stop assuming that everyone knew about Vought, finally! "Because they would normally be in touch with the local government before sending a Supe, but frankly nothing about my transfer here has been normal, so far."