Vought Tower | Saturday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

Between reshoots, a new set of station bumpers that didn't feature any sort of messaging about taking America by storm, and -- this, Starlight had spent the better part of her week in front of a camera. Not to mention that there was now a crew following her around the tower, trying to get shots for Citizen Starlight. (Coming to Vought+ this fall!)

And while she'd ducked in and out to make a couple of appearances in Fandom, she'd been kept pretty hard at work with the press after disappearing without any contact for a full week -- and honestly, she almost didn't mind. The questions she and Maeve had been getting in interviews since June were more thoughtful, less...vapid than what had been expected of her in the girls get it done frenzy. Homelander was, like, superhuman non grata, as far as everyone seemed to be concerned, and with Noir still in a coma, Deep still exiled (thank fuck), and Stormfront...maybe dead (?), it was a pretty good time to be Starlight.

At least, most days. Not today, when they'd had her on this soundstage for several hours, strapped and padded and taped into her bodysuit (which was now only for special occasions but apparently this stupid video was a special occasion), and with her wig and makeup bigger than it had ever been before. Not when the lyrics were this stupid, and they'd told her what they were going to CGI into all of these shots of her singing alone.

She was at least glad she had Diego's visit this evening to look forward to. That much might get her through these last few minutes of filming. (Apparently they needed a couple more takes of her mournfully touching that empty casket. Okay.)

[for Diego but maybe someone else will show up, too, who can say. ETA: also it got NWS omg]

Comments

[knife_bender]

Diego had never been comfortable with going inside Vought Tower, but now he was even more uncomfortable after essentially breaking in here in June. He was surprised every time he made it past security.

Maybe things had actually changed for the better. He couldn't help but notice the elevator was still slow as hell as he got on and hit the button for Annie's floor.

[dowhatiwant]

The elevator was slow as hell, but at least part of that was that it had an early stop to make.

When the the bell dinged at the second floor -- someone here had had a meeting with Risk Management -- the doors opened to reveal Homelander, standing there with his hands behind his back.

And while he probably wouldn't look all that different to someone who didn't spend a lot of time with him, there was totally something kind of...different about Homelander. A certain chastened quality, a loss of swagger.

Apparently a few things might have changed for the better.

In any case, he gave Diego a little nod of recognition as he stepped into the elevator, not bothering to hide the fact that he was obviously curious about the other man's presence.

"Going up to 99?" he confirmed, glancing at the panel of buttons.

[knife_bender]

Oh jeez, next time he was taking the stairs, he didn't care if he had a heart attack halfway up.

"Yep," Diego said, keeping his eyes straight ahead. Maybe they could get through this with just a few minutes of awkward silence.

[dowhatiwant]

"Visiting Starlight?" Homelander prompted as the doors closed, enunciating every syllable carefully. And you know, there might have been a little note of bitterness on her name, there.

He'd done plenty of homework on Diego earlier in the year, so he knew perfectly well that that would be the only reason for this guy to be here, sure. But he also had been smacked on the nose a few times since June, so Homelander was at least attempting not to seem outright threatening.

Even if, you know, Starlight was currently enjoying the public's attention in a way that he literally craved. It was fine, okay. Homelander wasn't resentful at all.

[knife_bender]

"You know that I am." What with all the stalking and creepy photography and everything.

[dowhatiwant]

"They've been keeping her busy," Homelander commented blandly, like he hadn't totally stalked Diego (and Annie) for literal months. "It's a lot of pressure. Good of you to be supportive."

Did he actually mean that? Maybe. Probably not. Maybe this was just what it looked like when a guy who was used to regular people outright worshipping him made an attempt at small talk.

[knife_bender]

"Well someone had to step in when it became obvious support wasn't something she'd be getting from you guys." Diego? Show caution in the face of someone who could break his neck in a second? Absolutely not.

It had helped that he knew Homelander wasn't in good standing at the moment.

[dowhatiwant]

There was a soft creak of leather as Homelander quietly balled one of his gloved hands into a fist, then blew out a resigned little breath.

The absolute last thing he needed right now was to get in trouble for murdering another civilian. And this one would probably get a lot of attention, all things considered.

So, fine. He'd just let that go. He could do that.

"So what do you do, anyway?" he asked, making a real effort to sound vaguely bored as he looked up to see how many floors they still had to go.

[knife_bender]

"I'm a cop." Vaguely. Don't look too hard into what counted as policework at his office.

[dowhatiwant]

"Well, you guys are the real heroes," Homelander assured him.

Look how comfortable he was all of a sudden. It was almost like he'd said that exact phrase to hundreds and hundreds of police officers, and firefighters, and paramedics, and teachers, and doctors, and nurses....

Being insincerely earnest came pretty naturally to Homelander.

[knife_bender]

Diego looked over at Homelander, because he was fairly sure that was the biggest amount of bullshit he had ever heard. "Do you get paid to say that?"

[dowhatiwant]

"That doesn't make it untrue," he drawled, shaking his head at Diego like he should just believe in himself more.

Homelander was also used to skeptics! And honestly he was just sort of starved for any kind of attention right now. Condescendingly praising a cop with platitudes felt welcome and familiar.

[knife_bender]

"Uh huh." This time Diego was the one looking up to see what floor they were on. "This is the slowest elevator in the entire world."

[dowhatiwant]

"I usually go in through the roof," Homelander shared, glancing up as they approached the 99th floor. Because he could fly. Did everyone know he could fly? Because he could. People used to think that was really cool. "But the ride gives you time to think. And get to know people better."

He reached over to clap Diego on the shoulder amiably. "Now that you mention it, I remember Starlight saying you were a cop, Diego."

When she had been trying to, you know, get Homelander to stop choking her and threatening her cop boyfriend, but details.

"Once she stopped being so shy about you."

[knife_bender]

Diego grunted, trying to shrug Homelander's hand off his shoulder. "You know, I don't think it was so much shy as much as it was protective, because I heard rumors about someone on the team being a possessive asshole when it comes to that sort of thing."

Not naming names.

[dowhatiwant]

"You've been talking to Maeve," Homelander guessed, letting his hand be shrugged away and making a big show of not taking offense, there. "How many drinks had she had when she shared that rumor?"

Undermining Maeve's authority was also comfortingly familiar.

(And that guy had deserved to die, and Maeve deserved whatever she felt about it. All he asked of his teammates was honesty.)

[knife_bender]

Diego shrugged because, yeah, she definitely hadn't been sober when they had that conversation. "Does it make it any less true?"

[dowhatiwant]

"You have to be able to trust your teammates, Diego," Homelander replied, side-stepping the question but making a point to use his name again as a reminder that he knew it. "It's the most important thing in this business. And I don't appreciate things being hidden."

Diego and Elena should count themselves lucky, honestly.

But at least that was when there was a soft dinging to indicate they were about to reach their floor, so Homelander's weird attempt at maintaining creepy, unblinking eye contact with Diego didn't have to last too long.

[knife_bender]

This time it was Diego clenching his fist to keep from losing his temper. He could hold the creepy gaze for as long as he needed to.

So long as he didn't remember that the creepy gaze could turn into creepy laser eyes.

[defenderofdesmoines]

So this reassuring tableau was what Annie got to see when the doors opened on the 99th floor, finally.

"No, he should have checked in with you already," she was saying into her phone as the doors opened. Her posture would have communicated her irritation (worry), even if her voice hadn't, though that irritated authority was perhaps a little undercut by the bodysuit. And the very, very tall hair. "Check the log again. Like, not do be all 'do you know who I am,' but seriously, do you know -- oh, never mind. We're good. Thank you."

She stopped chewing security out as soon as she saw who was in the elevator, instead hanging up abruptly and looking from Homelander to Diego and back again. "Hey."

This was...not great. But she was at least well past the point of looking openly scared when dealing with Homelander. At this point, she knew perfectly well who had the power here, and it wasn't him, anymore. (Laser eyes excepted, anyway.)

[dowhatiwant]

"Diego and I were just catching up," Homelander told her sunnily, breaking that creepy eye contact and casually heading for the corridor that led to his own private staircase. (As though he lived on this floor, with the others.) "I'll leave you kids to it. Enjoy your night."

Little, weird threats were all he had left these days. He'd take what he could get. Maybe they'd spend the rest of the night worried he was going to show up and kill them both! That was fun to think about.

[knife_bender]

Diego rolled his eyes as he stepped out of the elevator. He waited until Homelander was out of sight before giving Annie a once over. "Why are you wearing Dolly Parton's wig?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Apparently part of honoring Translucent is having the tallest hair known to man," Annie replied dryly, crossing over to give him a kiss hello. At least with the whole Homelander thing sort of out there, now, they could be a little less secretive. "Are you okay? I should've just met you in the lobby, I'm sorry. They kept me on set forever."

Obviously. Though she was clearly a lot more comfortable in the bodysuit and heels than she had been when he'd last seen them.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, I'm good," he assured her. "I have the worst luck with that elevator."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"It's so weird, usually I'm just in there with, like, Bob from Marketing," Annie noted with a little frown, reaching for one of Diego's hands. "I think I'm wrapped on the Translucent video, but we should probably get you behind a closed door before my reality crew realizes you're here."

Honestly, kind of a scarier threat than Homelander.