Scene 13 - October 30th

Interior MLED Compound, Late Afternoon

Susan Shepard

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” I said as I stepped into the conference room, nodding to Henry and Canaveral, who were already sitting at the table and chatting. Anima, who I had met in the elevator, greeted them as well.

“Good afternoon, ladies.” Henry said with a smile. “What brings me in so early?”

“I’ll explain when Loki gets here,” I told him, taking my own seat at the head of the table and beginning to connect my laptop to the room’s projector system. “No point in going over it twice.”

“I’m not sure if she’ll be in costume or not,” Canaveral told me, “but either way, it shouldn’t be long before she arrives. I know she’s around today. She and Simone were brainstorming a costume for this party that she and Quinn are going to.” He himself was in costume with his cowl down, as he often was around the base. He wore casual clothes on days that he wasn’t actually on shift, but as the leader of the New Champions he was on duty most days. Not that he didn’t hang around even when he wasn’t.

I couldn’t help but be a little amused at his choice of topic, but instead simply commented, “It sounds like Holly is already rather attached to Mx. Kaufman.” The meeting wasn’t scheduled to start for another two minutes - she had time.

“If by ‘attached to’ you mean ‘crushing hard on’, then yes, Holly is quite attached to them,” Canaveral agreed with a chuckle. “It’s kind of cute, in fact. She’s somehow both very completely lacking in subtlety and too shy to actually make a move.”

“Very cute,” Anima agreed.

“And what does Kaufman think of it?” Henry asked.

“I think they’re open to the idea, but they don’t really believe that she’s interested. They’re second-guessing themself too much to do anything either. They... seem to do that a lot, I think.”

Henry smirked. “What’s the betting pool on how long it’ll take them to get together?”

“You know that betting isn’t allowed,” I warned. It wasn’t my policy, of course - I felt that communal bonding of that type would be a benefit, in fact - but the director of the MLED as a whole, August Redding, disagreed.

“Hypothetically, of course,” he clarified, and I let it pass. I had made my views on the topic clear when Redding had set forth the policy, but still. A little plausible deniability is all I asked for.

“Hypothetically, it might be split pretty evenly,” Anima told Henry, “between them getting together within a week of Quinn joining up, and it taking more than a year.”

“And what do you think?”

“I think - ah, Loki!” One of the topics of discussion had suddenly appeared in an unoccupied chair - in costume, as it turned out. “Ah... how long have you been there?” Canaveral asked, sounding a little nervous.

The younger hero raised a perfectly-sculpted brow. “Long enough,” he replied. “I thought you were against gossip in the workplace, boss?”

“That was in a crisis situation,” Canaveral protested. “This isn’t an emergency - is it, Director?”

“No,” I agreed. “But we should turn to the real topic. Let’s set Loki’s possible romance with Mx. Kaufman aside and turn to the reason I asked you four here...” I couldn’t help be relish the moment as I turned on the projector, placing Quinn Kaufman’s face on the wall behind me. “...Mx. Kaufman.”