Trooper Station | Saturday

[knife_bender]

Diego was slowly healing from his injuries and determined that if he could win paintball yesterday, he could go to work today. He could handle a few phone calls from Bee Lady, even if it gave him a headache for a whole different reason.

[Open, expect some SP in the afternoon]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

When Annie made her way in to the trooper station today, she was bearing the usual coffee -- from the Perk and everything, and Annie was pretty happy to see a return to form there -- but also balancing a box of donuts.

"Do you know," she said seriously, setting the little drinks holder thing on Diego's desk, "that while you and I were running around getting imprisoned and cutting off hands, it was National Donut Day last Friday?"

Way to add insult to injury, Black Noir.

[knife_bender]

"Isn't it always National Donut Day for you?" he teased.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Fair, but it's not usually sanctioned," Annie sighed. "Like, usually it's Annie's Donut Day, not The Entire Country's Donut Day."

Also she had deliberately brought them here so she could leave them with the troopers and (a) get those donuts out of her sight before she just went ahead and ate them all, and (b) maybe curry a little favor with them. Didn't seem like a bad idea, considering.

[knife_bender]

"True," he allowed with a nod. "How are you feeling today?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Achey, but better. I was kind of thinking of going for a run later?"

Because she was going to eat at least two donuts and she'd feel like it was necessary.

Also he'd gotten to go to paintball yesterday, sooooooooo. At least she wasn't trying to get back into the weightroom right away?

"You?" she asked, shooting a little worried look at his head like just being here might be aggravating it.

[knife_bender]

Yeah he had no leg to stand on there after going to paintball.

"Better," he said, reaching for a coffee. "Less like I got hit by lightning."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Hey, at least he'd won. If he'd snuck off and lost, then he really would have heard about it. This way it had at least been worth it.

"Yeah, I like, super never need to get hit by lightning again," Annie decided lightly, selecting a donut. "Though at least we screwed her up pretty bad in return. But, like, I'm going to be extra cautious about naturally-occurring electrical shock going forward, even. Staying inside for all future thunderstorms, being mindful of how I plug stuff in, really picking up my feet on carpet, et cetera."

[knife_bender]

He laughed. "You don't think that's overkill?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You think there's overkill when it comes to avoiding repeating that experience?" Annie asked, taking an appreciative little bite of her donut.

[knife_bender]

"I don't think static cling is quite the same thing," he said.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I don't know, sometimes static shock has a little sting," Annie replied. "And it can start fires."

Or so she had read on the internet, the most reliable of sources.

"I don't know of any other Supes with lightning powers, at least," she added, since that was a more real danger.

[knife_bender]

"That's a relief," he said. "I'm glad none of my siblings ended up with that either."

Bringing lightning to a friendly sibling fight seemed unfair.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Honestly, aside from Luther being strong, I don't think we have a lot of overlap on powers between my world and yours, now that we've taken a little...tour through some other Supes," Annie said thoughtfully, shaking her head. "The closest is that A-Train can be almost as surprising as Five, but super-speed isn't nearly as impressive as teleportation, I feel like."

And also A-Train had debilitating health problems that limited him, anyway. Plus he couldn't time-travel.

[knife_bender]

"It's not," he said. "But my dad would love if his kids at the powers that some people have in your universe."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh my God, if one of you was like Homelander," Annie said in wide-eyed agreement. "Or even just, like, imagine the invulnerability plus...say, Allison's powers."

Seriously, if the ranking system really was about who was most useful or deadly or whatever, how the hell had Allison ended up all the way down at three? Annie kind of would rather have to tussle with any of the other six. Well, five, since Vanya would just stand there or whatever.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, it'd be devastating on a person who felt like using them." Allison just never used her powers for anything useful, which irritated both Diego and his father. Not that he'd admit the similarity.

[defenderofdesmoines]

'Useful' was a relative concept! Getting your child to go to sleep or making one's brother punch himself in the face was super-useful.

"I mean, we've got like, Countess. Or Mesmer -- he can read minds." Annie caught herself and added, "Could. He passed away kind of recently."

Because Billy Butcher had beaten his head into a bathroom sink, but you know, Annie maybe didn't need to know how very small her world actually was.

[knife_bender]

"Dad always thought Allison was capable of more," he said. "But he said that about all of us except Luther."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, Luther did what he said to and got sent to the moon for it," Annie pointed out with a little roll of her eyes. "And meanwhile, look at you. You helped take down an actual Nazi last week. Which Luther is not doing unless that movie about the Nazi base on the dark side of moon is a documentary."

...maybe it was?

[knife_bender]

"You know, I actually have no idea what he's doing up there." He had no plans of asking anybody, but he did wonder sometimes.

"If my dad did hear about what I did he'd just have a list of things I could have done better ready to go."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, I think going for her eye was like, really resourceful. I wouldn't have thought of that. Wouldn't thought to take Lamplighter's hand, either," Annie noted. "But this is why I should never meet your dad, because like, you saved two hostages from most secure building this side of the Pentagon, and you should be super proud of that."

She actually raised a finger as she took a sip of her coffee, and added, "And in fact, speaking of that -- my mom says hi and that she hopes you're doing well."

Annie looked a little weirded out to be relaying this information. Seriously, the fact that Donna liked Diego as much as she did was unprecedented.

[knife_bender]

"Really?" He looked pretty weirded out by that as well. No parents liked Diego, unless you included his mom, and technically she was programmed to.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think you made a pretty good impression," Annie said with a little shrug. "She has, like, questions, but I weirdly think that introducing you two that way was maybe the ideal way to do it."

Rather than, you know, bringing Diego home to Des Moines for an awkward dinner where no one's life was saved in the process.

[knife_bender]

"You're right," he said. "I think any other way would be a disaster. At least this way I got to show off the better side of me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No such thing. All sides of you are the best," Annie assured him with a smile.

Though, yes, Donna was probably responding to the life-saving superpowers and competence that had been demonstrated. Not a lot of room to be a judgey asshole about your daughter's boyfriend when he was all that stood between you and imprisonment and/or death.

[knife_bender]

"I think you might be a little biased." Just a small amount. "Or you don't want to ruin your chances to decorate our apartment."

[defenderofdesmoines]

The grin that spread across Annie's face at our apartment was reflexive and just incredibly doofy.

Maybe she was a little biased.

"Okay, so, speaking of that, like, I'm kind of thinking we need a statement chair," Annie shared, trying to seem persuasive. "Like a cute wingback or something, or -- check this out -- what if we got a chair that's a swing?"

She spread her hands out before her, raising her eyebrows like this was an inarguably great idea.

[knife_bender]

“Is a statement chair different from a regular chair?” he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, you can still sit in it," Annie explained. "It's just, like, a cute individual chair that doesn't necessarily match your couch or whatever."

She pulled out her phone, because of course she had an example ready to go. "See?" she said, holding her phone out. "Or, again, we could get something awesome that hangs from the ceiling, like so."

The swing chair was probably a terrible idea.

[knife_bender]

"I mean, clearly we should go with the awesome one." Oh yeah that was going to end in an accident for sure.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Why, because they would both try to sit in it at the same time, probably in an attempt to do dirty things in a swinging chair meant for probably, like, two hundred pounds maximum?

Almost definitely, yes.

"This picture is actually for, like, a guest room suggestion," Annie noted, using her fingertip and thumb to zoom in on that sweet swinging chair, "but please, like Five or whoever would appreciate it. That thing's going out in the living room where I can sit in it all the time."

Until they inevitably broke it, yes.

[knife_bender]

Yep, that would be exactly what would happen once they got a swinging chair.

"I can't even picture Five on a swing." Or a slide. Or anything fun.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No, exactly, he wouldn't appreciate it," Annie agreed. Nor would he appreciate the little sign she was already planning on making with the wifi password, or the many throw pillows that would be adorning this guest room bed, but whatever. "Not a lot of playground visits growing up?"

Playgrounds were how normal kids learned to run around and maneuver, but she was not exactly optimistic that they'd even been allowed near a swing as kids.

[knife_bender]

"Is that a serious question?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It was an optimistic one," Annie sighed. "You realize that I have to get you on a slide at some point, now."

She could take a cute picture of it! Like Santa's lap all over again.

[knife_bender]

"They can't possibly be that fun," he said, reaching for a doughnut.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"They're really fun!" Annie insisted. "Especially a really long, swervy slide. As long as it's plastic, anyway."

Metal slides led to shrieking about your burned legs the whole way down, or so Annie remembered.

"Swings are also pretty great," she added. "Like, real swings, not chair swings." Though the chair swing was also excellent, of course, just in a different way.

[knife_bender]

"Well we do have to go to an amusement park at some point." Didn't they have those giant swing thingys?

[defenderofdesmoines]

"True. Maybe like, not one of the Vought ones," Annie suggested thoughtfully. Even if she got free tickets. "We can do Disneyland or something."

Which, honestly, was kind of a hilarious image, so that might be for the best anyway.

"Though man, if you get to rollercoasters before slides, slides really are going to seem lame in comparison."

[knife_bender]

"No kidding," he said, laughing. "So we start at the park in town and then move on to Disneyland?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"And then from there to a park with real coasters," Annie agreed. Because Space Mountain was great but it didn't even go upside-down, okay? "We'll work our way up to, like, the crazy ones."

[knife_bender]

"I don't have to talk to those people in the costumes, do I?" he asked.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Only if you want to," Annie said generously, even if that would be amazing. Because vacations were meant to be fun for everyone, not just hilarious for her. "But, like, it's part of the immersion."

Which meant that Annie would talk to the people in costumes.

[knife_bender]

"Fine. For the immersion," he said. "But I'm not wearing those ears."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"We can negotiate as far as headgear," Annie said, and that was probably alarmingly vague, right? Because the ears weren't the only thing in play, here. Disney had a lot of really dumb hats she could try to put on him.