The Perk | Sunday Morning

[defenderofdesmoines]

Given that Annie was giving all things Hargreeves a fairly wide berth at the moment for the sake of, you know, their patriarch staying unsinged/her own person staying un-teleported, she figured she could throw her efforts into entertaining Ms. Stillwell for the remainder of her visit.

Which, again, was so weird, because they'd only ever had a handful of half-hour meetings when Madelyn had been alive, but whatever. Annie actually kind of liked her this way. It seemed like since she'd died, she found she had nothing to really lose, and it gave her a frankness that was kind of refreshing.

And that was why Annie had had the brilliant idea to pull out her copy of her new contract from its drawer in her filing cabinet, and brought it out for Madelyn to read over coffee at the Perk this morning.

(Was this maybe to just afford Annie some peace and quiet with her own coffee and her phone while Madelyn read through a fifty-odd-page document and offered the occasional comment about how good a lawyer she'd hired? Yes. Yes, it absolutely was.)

[open!]

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[flora_evolved]

They could have stayed in Stark's apartment all day but Zhaan had meant it when she said she wanted to see the more of this island and perhaps meet more of his friends. Beverages seemed a reasonable first stop. Yes, they'd stopped in here yesterday but she'd only been able to try their two drinks and it seemed a shame to leave everything else untasted.

"Would you like to sit," she asked him as they walked in, hand in hand. "Or continue walking?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Well, that got Annie's attention. For one thing, Zhaan herself was just rather eye-catching, if nothing else.

She glanced over at where Ms. Stillwell was still peering through her glasses at the fine print and tracing lines with a pen before waving over at Stark and Zhaan. "Morning!"

She kind of had an idea of who this eye-catching lady might be. At least, in the abstract.

[stykera]

Zhaan was quite striking. Stark would definitely agree, though he was perhaps a bit biased when it came to her.

The greeting got a smile in response from Stark, who honestly hadn't looked around enough to recognize anyone before she spoke. "Hello, Annie."

To Zhaan he added a quiet "we could stay here, for a bit." Because there was a friend here. And one who knew a little about her.

[iwrotethemyth]

"Holy shit, she's blue," Madelyn noted in mild surprise as she looked up from Starlight's (remarkably airtight, good job) contract.

"Yeah," Annie agreed, reaching over and patting the table reassuringly. "And they aren't Supes. Don't even ask."

"Mmm," Madelyn contributed noncommittally, still staring in obvious fascination at the pair.

"Ms. Stillwell, don't be rude," Annie added, slipping a little lower in her chair with a sigh. "Stark, this is my...late boss, Madelyn Stillwell. She's -- visiting for the weekend."

The way that pretty, fascinating blue lady was, probably.

[flora_evolved]

"I am blue," Zhaan said, more amused by the reaction than anything else. It was hardly the first time someone had been startled by her coloring. It wasn't even the first time a human had been.

Stark was eyeing Madelyn a little warily. "Not Supes," he confirmed. What he knew about Annie's job was enough to to make him hesitate even without the staring.

"Zhaan is...visiting as well."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm glad to meet you, Zhaan," Annie told her sincerely, smiling and shifting so she could offer out her hand to shake. (Old, polite habits died hard, even when she knew perfectly well that there was a good chance that aliens did not shake hands.) "Stark's told me a lot about you."

She darted a glance over at Stark, adding, "Right?"

Because come on. This had to be the person he'd talked about on the day with the luggage.

[flora_evolved]

"I did," Stark confirmed. "I have. I...didn't think you'd be able to meet."

Zhaan reached out and clasped Annie's hand in both of her own. Handshakes were familiar enough, after all that time with Crichton.

"I am always pleased to meet a friend of Stark's." And always a little relieved that he had them. She worried for him but he did seem much better this visit than the first one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's a special circumstance," Annie told Zhaan warmly, smiling up at her. "Nice of the island to let us meet."

"So what do you two do?" Madelyn asked, leaning her chin in her hand in obvious, unchanged interest.

Clearly they weren't the local superheroes of Pittsburgh or anything -- if nothing else, Tall Drink of Blue Kool-Aid here was egregiously wasting all kinds of opportunities by not dressing in skin-tight spandex -- but they were still very interesting.

[stykera]

"Zhaan is. Was? Zhaan...is a priest," Stark said warily. That look was too reminiscent of ones right before someone called him valuable. "I live here. I work at the school, sometimes. Or the clinic. Sometimes."

Zhaan was unconcerned and beamed at Annie. "We were given a gift of a little time."

[hatesparadise]

Did Danny need to swing by the Perk? No. But he was pretending to get supplies for pancakes and using that time to avoid yelling at Steve's dad. "Annie," he said, frowning in confusion at Annie's guest for a moment.

[iwrotethemyth]

And before Annie could even answer in greeting, Madelyn had looked up from the contract, pen poised over the paper, and was eyeing this newcomer with near-predatory interest.

"Danny," Annie returned, half-sighing. "This is my, um, late boss. Madelyn Stillwell, Danny Williams."

"Pleasure," Madelyn replied, her smile widening a fraction.

[hatesparadise]

"Ah," Danny said, expression turning more wry than polite as he offered a hand to shake. "Nice to meet you?"

He side eyed Annie for confirmation on that one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Eh," Annie replied, totally honestly.

"Thanks," Madelyn said, rolling her eyes at Annie as she shook Danny's offered hand. "I mean, she's not wrong, I wasn't especially nice to her."

"But things are a little better now," Annie added, graciously.

"You know, it's a lot less stressful being dead," Madelyn noted with a nod. That was probably why she was a little less...intense than she had been in life.

[hatesparadise]

"You haven't tried or threatened to kill me, so it's a step up from other coworkers of hers," Danny had to admit dryly.

[iwrotethemyth]

"Danny knows Homelander," Annie told Madelyn with a little lift of her eyebrows. "And he met the Nazi." And Maeve, but that was not who he was talking about, Annie presumed.

"Yeesh." Madelyn's brows lifted in a genuine, sympathetic wince. "He must've liked you if he stopped at threats."

[hatesparadise]

"Well, the only decent coworker of hers showed up before that could happen." And he held no illusion that his life hadn't very nearly been over if not for Maeve there.

[iwrotethemyth]

"Maeve? A-Train?" Madelyn asked, looking to Annie. "Noir? Who's the decent one?"

She didn't really think that, like, Anika from Crime Analytics or whatever had shown up to save the day, here.

"Maeve," Annie said in clear exasperation. "Holy shit, both the others attacked me."

"Oh. Well, Homelander killed me, so it's good to see you still walking around," Madelyn said cheerily to Danny. "He's a wild card, that one."

Said in the boys will be boys-iest tone there ever fucking was.

[firstofitskind]

They'd passed by the coffee place yesterday during the tour, but today, Amanda was all but dragging Liam inside.

"You're buying me a coffee," she declared firmly, getting in line.

Spotting Annie, Liam gave her a little wave as he rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie waved over as well, as Madelyn glanced up from the contract to peer over as well.

"Friends of yours?"

"The tall one is," Annie replied easily. To Liam -- and louder -- she called, "Morning!"

[firstofitskind]

The line moved fairly quickly, and once Amanda had her coffee-and-chocolate-and-whipped-cream nonsense (and Liam had a chai), he steered them over to Annie and Madelyn's table.

"Amanda," he told the tiny blonde with him. "This is Annie, she's an honest-to-god superhero."

He didn't know the other woman sitting there with Annie, but he was going to assume if she was close enough to come back from the dead to visit Annie, she probably already knew that part.

"Annie, this is Amanda, she's-"

"Liam had me kidnapped one time."

"-Really fond of trying to shock people," he finished with a sigh. Also, that wasn't actually technically true. But Amanda didn't actually know that detail.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I'm sure he had his reasons?" Annie tried, making a valiant attempt at not looking deeply amused by this, and failing in that effort. "But it's very nice to meet you, Amanda."

She gestured to the woman seated across from her, who had pulled off her reading glasses and looked up with interest, by now. "Liam, Amanda, this is Madelyn Stillwell -- "

"I made Starlight everything she is today, hi," Madelyn interrupted, offering out a hand and a broad smile.

"My former boss," Annie amended, sighing. "And no, you didn't. You so did not."

"Tell yourself what you need to."

[firstofitskind]

Liam hesitated for just the barest fraction of a second before taking Madelyn’s hand.

Nothing personal, he just didn’t like touching other people’s hands in particular.

“It wasn’t actually my decision,” Liam told Annie. “She was actually-“ he paused for a moment, because this wasn’t the sort of thing he usually discussed openly in front of strangers, but Madelyn was not only from a different reality, but dead as well. Who was she going to tell?

“One of my Resistance contacts got into, uh, an altercation with her,” Liam said, giving Amanda a slightly sheepish apologetic look. “And thought bringing an unconscious enemy combatant to our base without letting anyone know ahead of time was a great idea.” He rolled his eyes.

It had worked out in the end, but absolutely nobody had been pleased to deal with the massive security risk caused by Amanda’s presence.

[didntvolunteer]

"I didn't know that, that she wasn't acting on your orders," Amanda said, brow furrowing a little. "Huh."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Combatant?" Annie asked with mild interest, while Madelyn was now looking at Liam with nothing short of rapt interest.

He was clearly either crazy or paramilitary or something. Very possibly her kind of guy, in any case.

[firstofitskind]

Definitely something.

Amanda nodded sharply before dropping her gaze to the floor, embarrassment causing her cheeks to flood with color.

"How much do you know about alternate realities?" Liam asked Madelyn.