Trooper Station | Saturday

[knife_bender]

There really wasn't much to do at the station today, and it had been long enough since the last crisis where Diego was now annoyed by it. So he was just going to sit here in a piss poor mood and look for excuses to give Ralph and Calvin shit. That was a little entertaining, at least.

[Open]

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[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie, who was enjoying a rare weekend home instead of in New York, swung by after her workout with a pair of iced coffees. "You look grumpy."

There was totally a difference between resting bitch face and an actual bad mood. She could tell.

[knife_bender]

"There's nothing to do." So much like a toddler, this made him grumpy.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Kind of a good problem to have as a cop, right?" Annie offered with a shrug. "I can probably find you a raccoon to rough up for information, if you want."

[knife_bender]

"I don't like being bored," he said. "But the free coffee makes it a little better."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I know you don't," Annie replied with a touch more sympathy. "Want to go to Baltimore tonight? We haven't done that in awhile."

They'd been busy with important things, like being tranquilized by siblings and shooting tacky-ass music videos.

[knife_bender]

"That could be fun," he said. "The real question is--which Baltimore do we go to?"

Because she was too famous to be walking around in hers, and he kept getting attacked by weird gangs in the other one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Well, weird gangs wouldn't be boring at least?

"Maybe a new one," Annie suggested with a playful lift of her brows. "Based on what Summer's told me, we could probably find a Baltimore that's really similar to the ones we know but like...it's in a universe where no one ever invented noodles or something. Different in a way that won't affect us."

[knife_bender]

"Unless one of us really wanted spaghetti," he joked. "Good idea, totally random Baltimore. And if we really do damage there it'll be hard to track us down."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"We'll be, like, legends," Annie said, giving her voice an air of mystery. "'This sexy masked guy and some woman with a cape showed up to save me, officer!' and we're nowhere to be found, off to save the next person."

Unless they ended up fucking this up and ended up in a weird universe where people were noodles, or something.

[knife_bender]

"That sounds about what would happen," he said. "Except it'd be masked guy and some sexy woman in a cape."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"'Officer, this devastatingly attractive couple showed up and saved me,'" Annie amended, holding up her hands in a placating, questioning gesture. "I mean, this is also how you start a religion in a Galaxy Quest episode, so maybe we should try to dial back our respective hotness so they're not too impressed."

[knife_bender]

"I'm not sure if that's even possible," he teased. "But I guess I can try."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"The mask helps a little." Unless you were Annie, 'cause sometimes the mask kind of worked for her, actually. "And I bet the people we stop usually don't think we're too cute, so there's that."

At least, in Annie's experience, they tended to default more to namecalling than admiration.

[knife_bender]

"To be fair to them, by the time they get a good look at us they're usually in pain." Wonder why.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Which means it'll be hard to describe us after we leave 'em tied to a fire hydrant and call the cops, so I can deal with that," Annie said, really taking to this idea. "The idea of doing this anonymously again sounds...appealing."

She was really kind of coming into her own, Seven-wise, so she wasn't looking to give that all up or anything -- but superheroing had always been kind of a calling for her, and the fame tended to make things a little murkier than she'd like.

[knife_bender]

Diego gave her a small smile. Because if anyone got the appeal of being an anonymous hero, it was him. "No interviews after, no autographs..."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yeah -- while Annie had always appreciated the whole, like, mysterious thankless vigilante thing Diego did, she actually got it now, in a way she hadn't when they'd first started going out together to do this kind of stuff.

"You'll probably let me throw a punch without wanting to check my nails or hear a catchphrase," Annie agreed, teasing. "I would think."

The bigger concern would be fleeing the scene without getting distracted by the punching, let's be real.

[knife_bender]

"Oh god, no catchphrases," he said. "I can't take catchphrases."

Mostly because he had one as a child and was still embarrassed by it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No catchphrases," Annie agreed, with the full knowledge of that childhood catchphrase (and a lot of private fondness for it -- or, at least, for tiny Diego and his tiny knives.) "Besides, that kind of ruins the, like, mysteriousness if we give them some kind of 'This is lit' bullshit to repeat after."

Her catchphrase was worse, anyway.

[knife_bender]

Diego laughed. "It really does. But it would throw them off at first because they totally would not take us seriously until they were blinded then stabbed."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean, story of my life," Annie snorted. "At least you look intimidating from the jump."

Another reason they made a great team, since Annie...did not. Especially not as Starlight, honestly, though that whole get-up did tend to signal 'superhero' pretty well. (Or 'unhinged individual,' depending.)

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, but then you've always got people thinking you're ready for a fight." Which he was, but still.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You know what might help with that, if you're worried," Annie offered innocently, pouncing upon this opening without hesitation. "Wearing something less intimidating than all-black tactical gear."

A pause.

"Maybe something in, I don't know, a nice light blue. Or orange."

She was just spitballing, here.

[knife_bender]

Diego smiled and took a sip of his coffee. "Nice try."