Trooper Station | Saturday

[knife_bender]

The troopers were all huddled around a laptop when Diego came in today. Naturally, Diego pushed his way through to see what they were snickering at.

Ah, of course. They managed to find pictures of him looking like a suited up dumbass at the movie premiere last night. He would have done the same thing in their shoes (boots), but that still didn't stop him from slamming the laptop shut and throwing it in a trashcan.

"Any of you try to get that while I'm on shift I'm gonna throw it out the window next."

[Open]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

You know what would help with this? Diego's mildly anxious fiancée who'd been on his arm in those pictures, fresh from a run that didn't help clear her mind at all and still faintly glittery around the eyes despite her efforts both last night and this morning.

"What's that about?" she wondered, catching the tail end of this laptop disposal action.

[knife_bender]

"They're snickering at the photos of me from last night," Diego said, sitting down at his desk. "They wish they looked that good."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I mean." Annie glanced over at the troopers as she crossed over to join Diego at his desk. "Are you really gonna take fashion advice from a bunch of dudes in white plastic?"

Because yeah, they sure did wish they looked as good as Diego had. She had all kinds of cute Buzzfeed photo captions about the pair of them to prove it.

[knife_bender]

"Well, no," Diego said. "But it's sort of a guy thing to rag on each other when we're wearing anything remotely fancy."

Hence all the knee sock jokes with Five.

"I'm gonna get shit from my brothers at the wedding too."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"See, this is new to me," Annie noted, having not caught A-Train also being a dick on this exact point last night. "It's like, directly the opposite with girls." In case he hadn't noticed the way she and Summer occasionally just shrieked in joy at each others' outfits at events. "Does that mean you're not getting all your brothers together to go shopping for your wedding outfit like I did?"

[knife_bender]

"Uh, no, absolutely not," Diego said. "We're gonna be lucky if we can get them all in the same room for the wedding."

It was actually pretty hard to get all of those Hargreeves together in one room at the same time outside of season finales.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Yeah, someone was always wandering off on a side quest. Maybe they needed to designate a Hargreeves handler for the wedding. (Not, of course, The Handler, as she was tragically dead and would have upstaged the bride anyway.)

"Well, I thought you looked very handsome last night," Annie assured him, which was probably going to help with the troopers just as much as if his mom had made the comment, honestly. "No matter what your coworkers or brothers say. I mean, at least you actually got to show some personality."

Annie had looked exactly the same as she always did, save for a slight splash of color on her mouth.

[knife_bender]

"Thanks," he said with a slight smile. "I don't get why they didn't let you guys wear fancy stuff. Everybody knows who you are even outside of uniform."

Hence Annie have to leave the tower looking like the Unabomber if she wanted privacy.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yeah, but it's about representing the brand," Annie replied, kind of rolling her eyes a little as she settled into a chair. "Even if they let me wear a gown or something, it'd probably still probably have little gold stars all over it."

Though Annie was the only person in that movie who'd worn something different on the red carpet than she had in the film, so there was that. (Though thinking about that just made her cringe about how there was, like, two and a half hours of Starlight 2.0 showing every half hour in every theater across the country, now. Two steps forward, three steps back.)

[knife_bender]

Let's be real, Diego just wanted to see Noir in a suit with the mask.

"How are you feeling after last night?" Diego asked. "Still a yes on the co-captain offer?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's a yes with conditions," Annie said, biting her lower lip. "I don't know if I'm in much of a position to negotiate, but if what Mr. Edgar promised is true, I want to ask for some stuff and clarify a few things before I officially sign on."

Annie had gotten much smarter about this kind of thing after her initial contract with Madelyn Stillwell. She'd had to learn the hard way, sure, but she had learned not to outright trust Vought executives to keep their promises and have her interests at heart.

[knife_bender]

"That's smart," he said with a nod. "Get all of your bases covered so they don't screw you over."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Exactly," Annie said, cocking a finger at him. "Because, you know. It's Vought."

They would. And had. Repeatedly. It was like dealing with a genie or something, where you had to make sure you worded your wish just right or you'd get fucked by a technicality.

"So like, he says I can choose what causes we support," she said. "I'm gonna see if they can get a nonprofit up and running under my brand by Homelander's birthday on Thursday. That seems like a good start?"

And if they couldn't -- well, then. No Starlight co-captain.

[grenadesandohana]

"Do I wanna know?" Steve asked, coming in and settling down at his desk.

[knife_bender]

"Troopers are jealous of me," Diego said. "Because I went to a movie premiere and they had to stay home jerking off, like always."

[grenadesandohana]

"Mental image I didn't need, brah," Steve said, making a little face. "How was the movie?"

[knife_bender]

"Sucked ass," Diego replied. "Charlize did a decent job playing Stormfront, though."

[grenadesandohana]

"Well, it's Charlize," Steve said with a grin. "She's always good. Did they ignore the, you know--"

Creepy Nazi-ism?

[knife_bender]

"Her being a racist, crazy, Nazi?" Diego supplied. "No, they covered that. Disregarded the part where Homelander was all about it, though."

Diego opened up his phone and went to the article he was reading this morning, flipping it to show Steve a photo of him and Annie from last night. "Starlight and Starlight's fiancé."

It was okay if Steve laughed at him, but he would not tolerate it from the likes of Ralph and Calvin. They weren't even going to be invited to the bachelor party.

[grenadesandohana]

"Aww, you don't even have a name," Steve teased, snickering. "That is a look, man."

Both the outfit and the one aimed at the camera.

[knife_bender]

"God, all of the shouting and the lights," Diego said, shaking his head. "I had a little bit of fame as a kid, but that was way more intense than I remember it. Luckily I made a quick escape, and I don't think I have to be in front of a camera again any time soon."

Jinxed it. That's what you just did, Hargreeves.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve wasn't going to point it out but yep, you were super doomed now.

"Well, that's good," Steve said with a grin. "Was there an after party with free booze and stupidly small food to make up for the pain at the beginning?"

[knife_bender]

"If there was, we left before it happened," Diego said. "Annie's teammates are not big fans of us. Well, except Maeve, but even she told me she could split me like dry firewood once."

That was an insult, right? It had seemed like an insult at the time.

[grenadesandohana]

Steve winced. "That seems harsh."

Potentially accurate, but still. Harsh.

"If they don't like you, they're the ones missing out," Steve said. "You guys are awesome and Homelander's terrifying."

[knife_bender]

"Thanks, that's sweet," Diego said with a laugh. "We still have to play nice with him, unfortunately. Well, Annie does. Usually if I see him coming I go the other way."

No shame in that.