I'm a fighter

Once the Uber had dropped them off -- and not without Annie wordlessly cracking that screen as it invited her to download 'Never Truly Vanish' from Voughtify, though she was sure she'd be hearing something about that move and the song -- Annie turned to Jessica expectantly.

"All right, show me the ropes. Should I like, put my sunglasses on?" she asked, wanting to get this whole blackmail photo thing right. She was getting good at running around incognito -- it only took a couple of times getting mobbed for autographs and selfies before she'd figured that one out -- but Annie still wasn't exactly naturally sneaky.

( but what about your singing career, Annie? )

[preplayed with the amazing superjoanjett, and warning for gore! NFB, NFI, OOC welcome as always, and this is adapted from The Boys 2.01, 'The Big Ride.']

The sun was shining, it was a balmy eighty or so degrees, and the massive open-air concert-slash-carnival-slash-mass-conversion-event that was Believe Expo was under way!

There were multiple stages set up, featuring worship singers (with actual, wide-spanning angel wings), motivational speakers (whose motivational speeches all had a real specific, Christ-is-the-answer sort of tone), and tents with different panels and roundtables taking place in each.

There was also totally a carnival, with rides and everything, as well as concessions featuring typical carnival fare. There was also totally an abundance of merchandise booths, featuring charming items like T-shirts featuring generic figures and reading "MARRIAGE = ONE WOMAN + ONE MAN," or posters with Homelander saying FLY STRAIGHT, and pretty much anything you could want with a crucifix or the phrase #Believe on it!

Welcome to Believe Expo!

( Arrival )

( Starlight's Roundtable for Teens )

( Homelander's Speech )

( And more mingling )

( Starlight's Speech )

( And afterwards )

[Lots of this is lifted right from The Boys 1.05, 'Good for the Soul,' and Billy Butcher shows up in this post so please consider yourself warned for liberal use of the C-word, as well as general homophobic/misogynistic/nationalistic gross shit (though that's not Butcher's fault.) Preplayed with *deeeeeep breath* knife_bender, apocalypsehow, thatwaslucky, somethingwithturquoise, firstofitskind, grenadesandohana, hatesparadise, superjoanjett, stykera, and badassprodigy. Good god no this is not open for interaction (I coded almost 500 comments, ffs), but OOC is so, so welcome!]

Okay. So. She could do this. She could totally do this.

It was just -- there was a statue behind her of these people. Homelander was on the other side of these doors. Never mind that the last time she'd been in the conference room had been -- no. Nope. Not thinking about that. She was just going to remind herself of what that guy -- Hughie -- had said on that park bench.

Just because she'd fallen on her ass didn't mean she had to stay there.

She was a fighter.

And now the doors were opening.

( Starlight, don't want to be late to your first official meeting.... )

After the meeting, Ashley had caught her to let her know she'd be going on her first patrol tomorrow night, which actually lifted her spirits a bit. Finally. She'd been here two days and there had, thus far, been no talk of crimefighting.

She'd retreated to her apartment -- which, honestly, might have been the one thing to not disappoint Annie in the slightest, so far, even if it didn't exactly feel...hers. Maybe that would come with time. She wriggled out of her uniform, feeling a sad little twinge when she had to reach back to undo her zipper by herself, and practically dove into a soft t-shirt and some sweatpants. She climbed into bed with her phone, ignoring the fact that the sun was barely setting, and reached for the remote to turn on the TV.

Maybe there were, like, some Housewives she could watch? And maybe she could order a pizza later, or something? Just sort of...veg out? Feel a little normal? Everything right now felt like too much effort. She had never been so exhausted, and already the idea of waking up and doing this all over again tomorrow was just...a lot.

[totally open for calls and texts, even if Annie is tired lol. Dialogue in the above scene taken from The Boys 1.01, 'The Name of the Game.']