Vought Studios | Thursday Afternoon

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Who's revving up the girl power in The Seven? Keep watching, WDCS -- Cleveland's best source for local news."

Starlight's smile was bright and clear, even though she'd been doing this for an hour at this point.

"She's the newest member of The Seven, and she's taking America by storm. From Portland to Seattle, watch what comes next, KMFT."

"Amazing," Ashley -- who had been promoted in the days since Ms. Stillwell's pretty horrifying murder -- called from by a camera man. "Do you need a break, or can we power through the rest?"

"Let's just power through," Starlight told her, suppressing a sigh.

Ashley	And as soon as Starlight finished rattling off station bumpers, Ashley was sweeping in and talking to a production assistant. "Can we get this middle chair out? Yeah, we lost one of them." She glanced at Starlight, rolling her eyes. "Maeve had a fucking family emergency." Sounded like bullshit to her.
Stormfront	"I have a family emergency, too," said a petite, dark-haired woman in a sweeping cape as she followed Ashley and dropped her backpack at the floor of the remaining chair with a smirk. "Hey, I'm -- "
Starlight	"Stormfront," Starlight supplied with a little smile, offering her gloved hand to shake. "I know, I've been promoting you all day." Plus Starlight was up enough on the various Vought heroes scattered across the US that she also just knew who Stormfront was, anyway. She'd been kind of worried about being beaten out for the spot on The Seven by her, after all. "Um, welcome," she started to say, but was quickly hushed with a command from Ashley and the director both to be quiet on the set, as a reporter took his seat to interview both of the women.
Stormfront	"Well, hey, Stormfront, congrats on The Seven," the reporter opened, smiling at her. "Are you as excited to be here as I am?" "I don't know," Stormfront replied with a high, unrealistic giggle. "I don't think so!" "Can you tell us a little about how girls get it done?" the reporter asked, raising his brows.
Starlight	The next reporter focused on Starlight, first. "All right," she said, giving Starlight what she probably thought was a playful look, "let's dish boys. Starlight -- single, or spoken for?" "Uh --" Goddamn it, she really needed a good answer. Stupid in love with my boyfriend, who is a secret, because you are all vultures and I'm afraid of Homelander was, of course, not an acceptable answer, despite being the truth. "I'm just taking some time to focus on my career right now," she replied carefully, smiling brightly. "Is strong the new pretty?" the reporter continued, apparently finding no irony in how she was asking a woman in a wig and thigh-high stilettos this question.
Stormfront	And after a few more rounds of, "Tell us how fun it is to have all this girl power!" and "How do girls get it done?" it was obvious that Stormfront had had enough. The last question this particular reporter asked was, "Do girls make better heroes than boys?" and he was answered by Stormfront holding up one hand. "Look. I get you have your talking points," Stormfront said, "but why does it matter whether heroes have a dick or a vag? I mean, shouldn't we all just, you know, be competent at our jobs?" She held her hands out to her sides, shrugging. "I don't think girls do anything better. I think chicks and dicks are in it together." She smiled winningly at the reporter for a moment, until the sound of buzzing phone made an unmistakable interruption. "Oop, that's me!" Stormfront admitted, reaching down into her backpack. "Sorry, Ashy -- Vought won't let me have pockets in this thing. And God, you can see every crease in my ass. You can practically see Starlight's uterus. You wanna talk about girl power? Let's talk about getting some pockets."
Starlight	Starlight might be in love. Like, Diego, nothing to worry about, dude, but there was definitely an element of heart-eyes in the way Starlight -- who could not maintain a straight face through all of that and was hopelessly laughing into her knuckles -- was looking over at Stormfront. They didn't get a break for awhile, but when they did, Starlight wandered over to find Stormfront sitting alone and recording a video on her phone. "Hey," she said, waiting until the other woman was done, "I just got to say -- I really like everything you're saying about Vought."
Stormfront	"Yeah, okay," Stormfront said with a little laugh, barely looking up at her.
Starlight	"No, I mean, I agree with you," Starlight said quietly, taking another step closer hesitantly.
Stormfront	"You wearing a wire or something?" Stormfront asked suspiciously, eyeing her. "Look. I mean this in the nicest possible way, but I don't need some fucking Vought Spy Barbie sniffing around to see whether I'm a team player."
Starlight	"What?" Starlight stared at her, shaking her head. "That is -- that is not at all what I am." Like, Stormfront, you had no idea.
Stormfront	"I used to be a fan," Stormfront admitted, hopping up out of her seat to go stand in front of Starlight. (She came up to this chicks boobs, like, really.) "But look at you. You're like the Voughtiest Vought in all Vought." She paused, looking over Starlight's shoulder, and made a face. "I think, uh, cyclops dude's trying to get your attention." Because yes, there was Matthew, lingering at the edges with an eyepatch.
Starlight	"...fuck." Starlight walked away from Stormfront, hurriedly getting Matthew into a corner. "What happened to your eye?" "Oh, Vought's testing a new volumizing dry shampoo for eye irritation. As if you give a fuck," Matthew replied, rolling his one eye. He pulled a discreet little pink case out of his pocket and handed it over. "Here. Got you a sample." Starlight unzipped the case, and there, nestled amongst several tampons, was a little vial of blue liquid. "Are you kidding me? I can't take this right now. I can't get away from this press junket and I literally have no pockets!" "You wanted the V, here you go," Matthew said flatly. "If you threaten me again, I'm gonna make sure that everyone knows you're the one who took it." He turned to go, clearly not caring if she was on board with any of that or not. Starlight stood there in panic for a long moment before leaning down and shoving the little bundle into her boot. That would have to do for now, at least.
Stormfront	"Come on," Stormfront said from across the room, mouth full of chips. "Let's go finish dick-tickling these idiots and then we can do our real jobs." When Starlight was close enough that Stormfront didn't have to yell, she added, "By the way, that whole Deep thing? The next time someone puts their dick in your face? Bite. It. Off." Simple solutions to simple problems.

[taken and chopped up a bit from The Boys 2.02, 'Proper Preparation and Planning.' NFB/NFI/OOC welcome!]