Upon nearly reaching the end of the corridor, Mikah stops in front of the very last of the doors set into the right-side wall. Perforce of their current positioning, Lucas can’t see the nameplate mounted on the door that Mikah is in the process of opening, but he can see the one on the lone door at the end of the corridor.

The visible nameplate is a large golden rectangle affixed to the solitary door at eye level, with a very ornate scrollwork engraving that spells out ‘Mind Flare’.

Once Mikah has opened his targeted door, he freezes after taking half of a step into the room. After making a confused “Huh?” he hesitates for a few moments, giving his overworked brain a chance to process what he’s seeing. Once he realizes just what it is he’s looking at, as well as remembering the events from earlier in the day that led to its occurrence, he doubles over laughing.

Now that Lucas is granted line of sight of the nameplate on this door, he glances at the same-sized and equally ornate golden plate spelling out ‘Mikah E. Valdez’ with a line under it in a far less fancy block-lettering spelling out ‘CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER’.

‘...Head of HR? Sure does feel like Mark just uses him as a personal assistant, though..?’

Tangled in the middle of Mikah’s laughter, he manages a disdainful snort. While he’s getting his breathing under control and goes to stand fully upright once more, Lucas takes a look around the room before his vision is blocked again.

And that sight is of, well, what is probably a fairly normal office, but it is completely covered in an astronomical amount of printed-out memes taped over everything. EVERYTHING. Only the wall-to-wall carpeted floor has been spared. Someone even either used their powers, or got a ladder, to manage to get a few plastered up on the double-height ceiling.

Once Mikah has successfully composed himself a bit, he proceeds to actually walk into the room. He is followed closely by Lucas and Jonathan, both of whom are now laughing while pulling out their phones to take a few shots of the office. Mikah was a step ahead of them in this regard as well, already having unlocked his phone, and started snapping a few pictures at a couple of different angles.

Mikah stepped off to the side near the doorway, letting the two others come inside and shutting the door behind them. Once it’s completely closed, he makes a small sigh.

“I appreciate that you didn’t say it out loud. But, yeah. It’s not like I can just say ‘no’ to him though, even if I’m already busy with something else. Though, at least everyone’s aware of it, so no one really blames me when I get sidetracked a few times before eventually managing to actually tend to their matters. Er, well, I guess if anyone could get away with refusing to do something for him, I guess I’m probably second place behind Josephine? It’s really not worth the gamble to find out, though. Haah. I’m not sure what kind of rumors go around outside of MF’s, but anything you hear about him being an absolute diva is probably fairly accurate. Oh, you guys can feel free to sit down for a bit, if you want.” Mikah makes his way over to the wheeled office chair behind the desk while saying this, pulling a few meme printouts off of the seat so he can sit down.

Once he goes to settle in, there’s a clearly audible crinkling sound as he leans back against one that is still stuck to the backrest of the chair, causing him to chuckle a bit. Shortly after, he scoots over to the side to start unwrapping the densely meme-covered desk drawers.

Lucas and Jonathan similarly clean off two chairs opposite from where Mikah sat down at his desk, sitting down once they’re cleared free of the invasive memeage.

“Ha! I almost forgot about the whole meme thing back at the DVO! This is great! An’, at least Mark seems pretty chill when he’s in a good mood, yeah? But uh, heh, guess he’s one of those ‘my way or the highway’ types?” Lucas is smoothing out some of the printouts he removed while saying this, folding the tape back, and stacking them up on some of the mostly clear space on the top of the desk.

“Well, yes, you could certainly say that. But… Err, well, one sec.” After saying this much, Mikah sighs softly, and then his eyes dart around the area a bit. Not entirely confident that there isn’t some sort of recording device in place to catch his reaction to the freshly updated ‘decor’, he pulls his phone out and types up a lengthy message. But, instead of actually sending it, he just holds it out for Lucas and Jonathan to see.

To Lucas: I’d appreciate it if you two don’t breathe a word of this to anyone else but I’m about 80% sure he’s bipolar. I figure you deserve to know in advance since obviously we’ll all be seeing each other a lot in the future thanks to the HQ arrangements. I’m hoping that his relationship with Josephine stays serious past their honeymoon phase. If anyone will manage to convince him to start taking medication it’s going to be her. As long he considers someone useful enough they have to mess up pretty bad for him to pop them. But I’ve seen him flip out over some pretty minor things while other times he’s laughed off things that lots of people were convinced would set him on a warpath. Sooo… Try not to take it personally if he seems to randomly blow up. As long as something serious isn’t going on he USUALLY cools off fairly quickly after realizing he’s riled up. He’s probably being more self conscious since you guys are new friends but once he’s more comfortable around you you will probably start seeing it in action.

‘Oh..? Oh… He’s killed a LOT of people in the heat of the moment, hasn’t he? Fuck, I know there’s been plenty of times I’d have blown someone up if I could just do it by sheer willpower at that moment, and he’s got some range too… Wait, shouldn’t we warn the girlies too? Oh fuck, especially Maria, I think if me or Jon could, we might have already popped her by now, and that’s without a mood swing, so... assuming it’s easy for Mark to trigger his shit… Yeah...’

Mikah is nodding along while Lucas is thinking this, but then sucks in a sharp breath when he brings up the sisterhood.

“Right. Absolutely right. The sisters should also… Err… Yes, please do, thank you, Jonathan. Yes, exactly.” While Mikah seemed to be answering Lucas at first, he turns his gaze over towards Jonathan, obviously responding to his thoughts rather than Lucas’s at that point.

‘Eh..? Oh, guess he offered to tell them all sneaky like, since you don’t wanna go around yellin’ it from the rooftops?’

Mikah turns his gaze back towards Lucas, chuckling a bit before nodding and then saying “Just so. Ah, right, excuse me, just one minute.”

As they had clearly finished reading the message, Mikah promptly deletes it and then tucks his phone away. Once it’s safe and sound in one of his pants pockets, he then turns his attentions to one of the desk drawers he recently uncovered, pulling it open and rummaging around briefly.

With a cheerful “A-ha!” Mikah takes out two keyfobs, setting them on top of the stack of memes that Lucas arranged, as well as a small unmarked shiny tin container. He tugs the lid off of the tin, revealing a bunch of small roundish chocolates.

Without hesitation, he grabs three of them, but pauses before popping them into his mouth. He holds the open tin over towards them, angled towards Jonathan moreso than towards Lucas.

“Want any? They’re dark-chocolate-covered espresso beans, even just a few of them are stronger than a cup of coffee. They’re my go-to for coping with power fatigue, I’ve got tins of them everywhere, and I even bring some with me when going out for anything social that should take a while.” After making his offer, Mikah proceeds to enthusiastically consume the small handful of choco-beans.

Jonathan’s face lights up a bit and he starts reaching forward, but Lucas initiates his newfound parental responsibility protocols.

“Hold it! You’re takin’ a nap soon, ain’t ya? Don’t go havin’ so much caffeine!” Upon Lucas’s declaration, Jonathan flinches and retracts his hand, looking a bit crestfallen.

Mikah chuckles heartily while reclaiming the tin, closing it, and putting it back away in the desk drawer, from whence it came.

-----

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas total deaths: 11

Lucas total assists: 1

Lucas current GDV: 17.28 (+.01 +.01 +.01 = +.03 net change)

Lucas's fame level: 5.0* (Already beginning to receive authentic global attention. His local levels are effectively maxed.)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (More than just passing suspicion for many paranoid individuals, numerous people have realized he's an impulsive idiot.)

Jonathan total kills: 7

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 5.98 (+.01 net change)

Jonathan's fame level: 2.75* (What fame he does have is predominantly local.)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 3.0* (More than just overly-paranoid people are suspicious at this point.)

Willy's fame level: 1.5* (Anonymous meme fame, local fame primarily as 'Xenoclast's dog', but some strangers know him as William/Willy now.)

Supervillain social circle size: 15

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, looking particularly dejected as he sinks back into his chair: You’re right...

Willy is quietly sitting outside the fitting rooms while waiting for Marsha and Maria to finish getting their measurements taken.

Lucas, completely losing his firm tone when seeing how disappointed Jonathan is: Well, I mean, you can always have some later! He just said how he has a ton of them!

427, compiling what data he is able to dig up regarding some of Mark’s public outbursts and taking Mikah’s latest theory into account: ‘Hmm, considering how explosive his temper seems at some almost unexpected times from some of these accounts… Mikah is most likely correct. We DEFINITELY need to warn Maria to be mindful.’

Author, nodding with their arms crossed: Yes, withholding this information from everyone’s favorite Chi would eventually prove fatal. She finds people’s edge of tolerance for pranks and hones in on it with exacting precision, which doesn’t work so well when that line fluctuates erratically.

Mr. Quacks, currently upside down in a large clear glass jar containing Mikah’s main stash of chocolate-covered coffee beans, having somehow already eaten even more than his weight’s worth in highly caffeinated treats: Quack!