I'm gonna kinda talk about the meeting but not too much since, well, it wasn't the most delightful meeting.))

~~~

Sometimes, Addilyn really wished she had the ability to blow things up at will.

Especially when she was pissed off, like she was at the moment. After the wonderful little date with Jason the night before, she'd brightened up a little, but at the ringing of her alarm clock her mood immediately darkened. She'd been having the most wonderful dream too! Unfortunately, the dream had ended, and she'd soon arrived at the HQs. At the time, she hadn't exactly been mad, more aprehensive than anything else, but by the time the meeting was over Addilyn wanted nothing more than to knock out someone's teeth.

It was one thing to be told that your work was dissapointing, that was something Addilyn could handle, but being told that her attitude towards other heroes had to change as if that was the problem pissed her off. She'd thought the meeting was going to be about her almost getting unmasked, but instead it'd been about her going off on Bronze Fist. It had been incredibly hard not to punch any of the people in the room, and even now her body pumped with heated adrenaline and she could hear her heart beat pounding in her ears. The people in that room, the highest position holder in the HQ, had dared to blame her for getting angry at the other, arrogant ass of a hero even though he knew information that he wasn't supposed to know in the first place. Knowing that she had gotten the stern talking to instead of him pissed her off more than anything.

In order to calm down, Addilyn decided to head over to the Elite gym, to get rid of the adrenaline in her body, even though her injuries from the previous day ached badly. Hopefully, that pain could help her forget how angry she was. As that was what training often did. With practiced ease, she pulled her mask up higher around her nose, painfully aware of the other people that drifted down the halls like her.

After a good walk across the building and down the escalator that led to the Elite section of the building, Addilyn placed her hand on the panel next to the huge, metal doors. After a moment, a little light blinked green and the doors slid open silently without Addilyn having to push them open. Her eyes caught on the high ceilings and openess of the hallway, the air was surprisingly chill, and her cheeks turned a soft pink under the mask.

Not many roamed this hall, in fact, she didn't see anyone, though she could hear distant voices a long ways off. This whole place was huge, she could practically feel all the places she could disappear to. Of course Addilyn had heard of the Elite section of the HQs and all the things it had to offer. Everything from the gym, to free haircuts, even a large buffet with only the best of foods (which was almost as attractive to Addilyn as the gym). The Elites got everything, and Addilyn too now, as she was technically one of them.

Holding up her watch, she opened the map of the Elite section, which was accessible to those who had access to this area, and headed over to the locker room. Which was more than Addilyn had expected. Of course there was a men's and a women's, but there was full changing room, and a machine that provided multiple gym uniforms to wear, as they weren't allowed to bring their own. It was a lot to take in, but Addilyn definitely enjoyed it. Though it did remind her of the unfairness of it all, the Elite were guaranteed this for life, even if they retired, and could get in if they had enough connections.

Sometimes Addilyn wondered why she chose to be a good guy.

There was a crash as a locker door was slammed shut, "Aye!" Skylar waved at Silent Shadow, and tipped her head towards the locker next to her own, while leaning against the cool metal, "I'm pretty sure we're locker-mates now."

Skylar had already changed, wearing a pair of biker shorts and a sports bra, with a headband pushing back her short hair. "I was planning on hitting the weight rack, if you wanted to join or whatever. I don't think you've been in here before, so I can point out what to absolutely avoid and what is actually good." The hero shrugged, a careless movement that showed that she was fine with whatever. Skylar would show her around, or if the other hero preferred to find her own way around - that would be fine too.

-

i have 0 inspo for all rps execpt for like 3 so i am so sorry m8

From the weird dispensing machine thing, Addilyn chose the clothes she'd wear while training. So far, she had yet to see anyone, either everyone else was already out and about, eating or training, or not there at all. In fact, the place seemed as if it was a little too quiet, not the hustle and bustle she'd been told it would be. Not that she actually cared, if anything, it meant that her identity was that much safer.

Addilyn grabbed her training clothes from the weird dispenser thing, just a pair of black biker shorts with a maroon spaghetti strap. It was simple clothing, that allowed for free movement. Addilyn turned around to the closing of a locker door, and her eyes settled on the woman from earlier, the one she was supposed to be working with. It took her a moment to remember what the other woman's name was, but she quickly remembered. "Oh, hi Neon," Shadow paused, the speaker sounded less robotic today, more human. "I could definitely use some help figuring out the place, this facility is huge." Her eyes widened with curiosity, though she quickly snapped out of it.

"If you wouldn't mind waiting for a second, I can change and follow you to the gym, if you don't mind that is." Shadow's mouth didn't move beneath the mask, so one couldn't really see what she was thinking from her facial expressions.

~~~
(I remember when I thought writing a masked character would be hard, then covid came along and now I know exactly what its like lmao. The irony.)

Skylar shrugged, "Yeah, sure, I'll wait. And call me Skylar, by the way."

While she waited for Shadow to change, Skylar swiped mindlessly through her phone. Once they were both ready to go, Skylar pocketed her phone and pushed up off of the lockers, "Alrighty then - I'll show you where the pool is first, just to get it out of the way, then the main weight room. Is there anything in particular you wanna see, though? There are also a lot of specialized exercises and features here to help heroes work their powers, and shooting ranges."

The revealing of Neon's name came to Addilyn as a surprise, she didn't think someone would give up their name so easily unless they were in it for the attention being a hero would give them. For some reason, Addilyn doubted that Skylar was like that, she just didn't give off the same arrogance those people did, and for that, Addilyn was thankful. As it was, they already had Sandstorm on their team, they didn't need another, copy past version of him as well.

Shadow pulled on her clothes quickly, and double checked that her mask was tight around her ears, so it wouldn't fall off. Obviously she hadn't taken it off while she was changing, although Skylar had trusted Shadow with her name, Shadow didn't trust Skylar with her face.

Shadow listened to Skylar while pulling back her long hair into a high bun, and forced herself to not shiver at the mention of the pool. At least she'd know where that was so she could avoid it. "I mostly just wanted to see the gym parts, and anything that could help with training really. Plus, I wouldn't want to intrude on your time here or anything like that." Addilyn knew very well that people had lives outside the hero work, and she didn't want ot ever bother someone.

Personally, Skylar didn't care about her identity being known. It pretty easy information to get ahold of, and she didn't try to keep it under wraps. Sure, it wasn't like it was something Skylar shouted from the rooftops, but with a search in the hero database: there it all was.

It was honestly really surprising that the public hadn't figured out her identity yet - Skylar didn't even wear a mask. Plus, she was also a part time photographer, and had a decent following on social media. It was odd people hadn't put two and two together yet, but Skylar wasn't exactly complaining.

"Alright then. I do have a date in about," Skylar checked her watch, "Six hours, but there isn't much of a rush. I was mostly just going to run on the treadmills."
Skylar began to guide Shadow through the facilities, pointing out different things, and showing her where to go, "Off to the left," Skylar pointed down one branch of a hallway, "Is where the shooting range is - bows, guns, stuff like my light blasts - you name it, you can practice your aim there. Straight ahead is stuff like the different weight rooms and where your more... typical gym stuff is. On the right is where people test the limits of their powers more, and experiment. There are also powers-on and powers-off training fights over there." The pool had been behind them, as was the salon, the spa, buffet, and other amenities. There had also been other assorted gyms and places to work out there as well. "Oh! And there is a yoga class on the top of every hour in the main gym section. I'm probably forgetting some more stuff as well, but you can ask almost anyone here and they'll tell you."

Addilyn couldn't help being distracted by the intricacy of the place, it was just so large, and there was literally anything you'd ever need in there. It was such an upgrade compared to what basic heroes ha, and, to be entirely honest, was completely unfair to the smaller heroes. Personally, Addilyn didn't quite care about how she was treated, she hadn't wanted to be a hero in the first place, but some of the lesser known heroes would do amazing if they'd had access to the Elite center.

It was just another reminder as to why Addilyn hated the hero system.

"Still, thank you for taking the time to show me around, it's really kind of you." Addilyn's eyes crinkled in the corners, showing that she was sort of smiling at Skylar. Addiyn paid close attention to Skylar, not wanting to ever get lost in the huge maze that was the Elite center. Although it seemed like people were kind enough here, Addilyn didn't want to be seen as the clueless minor hero that didn't deserve to be up with the Elites. "Damn, this place is absolutely huge, thanks for the tour, and I'm sure I'll be able to get it all eventually. Thanks so much for all of this."

Skylar shrugged, "Yeah, no problem. I'll be off, then. See ya later, Shadow." She gave the other hero a distracted, but not unkind, smile and wave, and turned to jog towards another hero.

As she hurried away, she raised her voice from its soft pitch to yell at another hero, "Ryan! Ready for our treadmill competition?" The man she was calling out to - a popular and well known person both in and out of the costume - looked up from his phone, "Sky! You fuckin' bet. I'm going to beat your ass."

The two headed off toward the treadmill room, with Skylar turning back once to wave off another goodbye to Shadow, a more genuine smile on her face this time, "Find me if you need me!" She called out, then disappeared into the workout room.

Let's ~hop~ on over to the bros. I also am just bullshitting my way through this first half so excuse me.)

~~~~~
Julian was having a pretty shit day. It wasn't like that was abnormal, most of the times, things didn't go right for him, and that was just his luck. None of his job interviews so far had gone well, whether it was his fault or not, he wasn't sure, but all he knew was that he needed some good coffee to get him the hell out of the slump he was in. So, that's exactly what he did, Julian looked up the nearest coffee shop, and within 10 minutes, he pulled up to the cafe.

Once he was fully prepared with his order in mind (did I just project my anxiety onto this man? yea, yea I did) Julian hopped out of his car. He entered and immediately looked the place over. This new villain shit always had him on edge. He then proceeded to get into line, which was pretty long all things considered.

All in all, Jason's day was pretty bland. There hadn't been any alarms on his stupid 'hero' watch, and the most he'd done that day was pick up his new costume and gear from the costume designer. It had been exactly what he wanted, and Jason couldn't wait to test it out. He was debating going down to the villain fight bar once it got dark - and kill two birds with one stone - test out the gear and make sure no-one thought he was going soft, or that he woulf rat them out to the heroes.

For now, though, Jason settled with getting some coffee. His favorite place always had a long line, but the people were efficient, and it didn't take nearly as long to place his order and be waiting off to the side as he expected it would.

Jason fiddled with his phone, not really doing anything in particular, until his order was called.

"Jason, with the XXX coffee!"