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Post By Visionary Sun Aug 01, 2004 at 01:36:36 am EDT |
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Working Late | |
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This story takes place prior to the events of Untold Tales #160
“Hello, Sir Mumphrey… Working late, I see” Visionary observed from the doorway of the Lair Legion chairman’s office.
Mumphrey Wilton looked up from the report on his desk to glance at the open pocket watch doing double duty as a paperweight, and then out his office windows into the darkness beyond. It was well past midnight. “Indeed… time seems to have gotten away from me a bit, eh? Not too common an occurrence, actually.” He glanced back to his visitor and gestured to the stuffed leather chair opposite his desk. “Please, come in. You’re wandering about rather late yourself, what?”
Visionary settled into the comfortable chair with a slight grunt. “Junior LL paperwork.” He said by way of agreement. “Have to do most of it myself these days. Too late I’ve come to the conclusion that I didn’t pay Troia nearly enough for her judicial use of the shredder as a filing tool. Sure, I lost a few ties on her bad days… and at least one sandwich when I made her cut her lunch hour down to a sparse 135 minutes, but now I’d give most anything to make the bulk of the papers go away. I’m thinking of leaving Kerry alone in my office with her lighter and a tempting ‘in-box’.”
“And how is the young Miss Shepherdson getting along?” the temporary LL leader asked with a smile and a polite chuckle, finishing up the file on his desk and setting things aside for the night.
“She professes her hatred of me with a passion. White-hot most days… judging by the scalding.” Visionary answered with a sigh. “Actually, she’s staying with her sister for the weekend. I’m on my own for the night.”
Mumphrey leaned back in his own chair. “Ah. I might hazard to guess then that paperwork isn’t the only thing keeping you here to ungodly hours of the night.”
Visionary’s face clouded as his eyes looked inward. “The condo has felt… a bit empty recently” he admitted wearily. “Yo’s been spending a lot of his time here, what with his new duties. Donar sends word when he can. Fleabot and Quoth… well, that’s a whole story unto itself. But to say the least, they tiptoe around me, embarrassed to go on with their lives it seems… at least in my presence. Lisa comes by regularly to kick me into some semblance of forward momentum when I start slowing down…”
Mumphrey’s eyebrows raised slightly at this candid assessment of their relationship, but also let this pass without immediate comment. “Asil has expressed her concern about you more than once.” He offered instead.
Thoughts of the young clone girl animated the Regular’s features once more, though his eyes didn’t change. The smile on his face was genuine enough, however. “Probably not the best of signs, when Asil worries I can’t handle something.”
An affectionate light lit in the Englishman’s own eyes. “See here… it may strike others as a rather empty hero worship, but I know for a fact the kind of head that girl has on her shoulders, and she’s anything but blind in her devotions… or her assessments.”
Visionary accepted this without comment, and the two sat in the silence of the soft light of the desk lamp under the lazily spinning ceiling fan. The darkness of the quiet mansion seemed to insulate the office, narrowing reality to its cramped yet comfortable space. “How…” He began, finally working around to asking the question, “How do you learn to go back to being alone?”
Mumphrey sighed softly, his own unfocused gaze out the darkened window. “Damned if I know” he answered with a slight tinge of bitterness.
Visionary nodded. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to compare…” he left it hanging. “The situations are hardly the same.”
The older man waved this off. “Every situation is different” he stated. “That’s the hellishly wonderful thing about love. Most personal thing in the world. Even if the exact same sequence of events were to unfold, deep down our situations couldn’t be the same. But the symptoms they cause… the crushing emptiness, the second guessing, the loss, the whole bloody lot… we all seem to be lucky enough to share these well enough.” He turned his gaze back to the man opposite him. “No… I meant what I said. I don’t know of any way to learn to go on alone. It seems to me that a chap either does or he doesn’t. Which it is depends on the man… and the kind of people he has around him.”
Visionary digested this for a bit. “Just this morning, Sarah Shepherdson was telling me something that seems to fit along those lines” he noted. “She said that you don’t judge a man’s character by how he is when things are well, but rather by how he behaves when he’s beaten and hurting.”
“She’s a wise woman” Mumphrey noted.
“Of course, she also said that this was overridden by the fact that all men were scum.”
The proper Englishman blinked. “Can’t say I approve of that…”
Visionary smiled. “I think she makes allowances for acceptable levels of scum. Some scum she might even look on with affection. In any event, I’m coming to a conclusion that if I can make myself a good enough person, I’ll survive.”
Mumphrey harrumphed disapprovingly. “Not sure you’re getting the point at all, now. You’re a member of the world famous Lair Legion, a former leader of it no less. Not only are you counted among a most extraordinary and worthy lot, you personally are held in high regards by them. I’d say the doubts as to your character are well nigh settled.”
“Flattering, but overstated” Visionary answered simply. “I was a former leader, sure enough… I still have the nightmares and mental scarring to prove it. But the ‘high regards’ is a bit of a polite fiction on your part, Sir Mumphrey.” His eyes returned to the desk. “When the team talks about leaders, four names invariably come up… Jarvis, Lisa, Finny and you.” He hurried on before Mumphrey could respond. “Oh, I’m liked well enough… and believe me, I don’t wish to diminish that at all… I wouldn’t trade that affection for anything in the world. But respected, especially as a leader… that’s something else entirely.”
“This perception of yours bothers you, obviously.” The current leader noted without conceding the point. “Not that you make it obvious to the others… in fact, I dare say many would be completely surprised.”
Visionary managed to look both tired and embarrassed. “I didn’t want to be leader, and nearly chewed my arm off to escape once I found myself in that position” he admitted. “But I really did try my best..” He sighed then shook his head. “But this really isn’t about that. At least, I didn’t intend it to be. The thing is, you’ve only held this position for a short time, and yet… people know it’s right. You’re not any temporary stop-gap measure. You’re the real thing.”
“Mmmm” Mumphrey replied noncommittally. “I think you’re underestimating yourself and your teammates with your assessment of your own stint as leader…
Visionary looked at him shrewdly (a rather surprising turn of events) and shook his head. “We’ve talked about my problems enough for one night. I think we need to talk about you for a moment… and about what Asil has to say about you.”
“Asil?” he asked, reshifting his train of thought.
“You’re not the only one she confesses her worries to. She says you like it here. What’s more, she says that it fits you.”
“Does she now.” Mumphrey answered guardedly.
“And considering that she thinks the world of you, and wants what’s best for you, I’m inclined to believe her.” Visionary leaned forward intently. “I may not be the quickest of the bunch, but when somebody important to me says something that heartfelt, I pay attention. What’s more, I know you’re too damn proper to even hint about inviting yourself to stay on one minute more than you deem necessary, no matter how much you like it or how it fits you… or us.” He reached into his coat pocket and produced a folded sheet of paper. “That’s why I prepared this.”
Mumphrey reached out and accepted the document, unfolding it and scanning its content quickly. “A request for additional fire extinguishers in the classroom and surrounding corridors?”
“Hmmm?” Visionary replied, snatching the paper back. “Oh. Wrong pocket… although you should probably keep that also.” He produced another document from his left pocket and checked it before handing it across the desk. “A written request to grant Sir Mumphrey Wilton full active membership into the Lair Legion.” he explained. “I know multiple Legionnaires have suggested it before, but I thought I’d make you actually formally decline the offer. Of course, as acting leader you can veto the idea on your own… but Lisa suggested that you’d find that to be an overextension of your position as temporary chairman.”
“Ran this little ambush by Ms. Waltz, did you? How very thorough.”
Visionary nodded sympathetically. “If it’s any consolation, I insisted we not tie the membership into making your stint as leader permanent. I just couldn’t do that to somebody I admire. That’ll be the next battle.” Visionary rose from the chair with a sigh. “I doubt I’ll be the last of your visitors as well… I didn’t keep this visit a secret, and I encourage others to drop by. But even if they somehow don’t show up, I’d like you to send through my request for consideration. I may not have been a great asset for the team, but I did my best… and if it earns me this one favor in return, then I think I’ve done some serious good for the Legion after all.”
Mumphrey studied him as he put on his coat. “Asil put you up to all this?”
The Legionnaire shook his head. “No, not really. I think she’s picking up some of your overstated sense of propriety. But… she does inspire one to take those steps to be a better person… And if it makes her happy as well, then that’s quite the bonus.” Visionary paused when he reached the door. “I think I’m ready to go home and call it a night finally. And… thanks… for the advice earlier. Things are still going to feel pretty empty in the condo, and I still don’t really know how I’m going to do it… Go on alone, I mean. But if you’re right about a big factor being the people around me, then I suppose, in a very real way… I don’t have to. It’s… a comforting thought.”
Mumphrey nodded slowly from the warmly lit confines of the Lair Legion office, the request laid out upon his desk. “Indeed.”
Notes for Ian Watson and other interested parties:
Okay, so I took your "How are you going to stop him?" question in your response to my comment about not letting Mumphrey go (under the Why the Legionnaires are in the Legion story) literally.
I know you're uncomfortable with writing your own character into the Legion and into the leadership role (despite the fact that there is no poster current or past who has done more to deserve it)... which leaves us in a bit of a jam, as you're the main chronicler of the Legion's exploits and who else is going to get him in there? So while I didn't want to intentionally derail any of your plans for the character, I wasn't going to let technicalities about some imagined conflict of interest keep Mumphrey out of the Lair Legion. So there's no more hiding behind that excuse. I won't stop you from writing Mumphrey out, but I wanted my preference on the record. You can still choose to act against it to follow whatever plots you've laid out, but I'm taking responsibility for pushing this into continuity. If Mumphrey becomes a Legionnaire, it won't be something you have to feel you did on your own.
Sorry again to screw things up, but I do feel strongly about it.
To the rest of the board, I'd just point out that, like Shrike, I worry that Mumphrey's time among us is quickly running out. If you want to take the time to drop by his office and ask him to stick around, or at least give him a bit of thanks in continuity, now might be the time to do it.
And let this be a lesson to you all about the dangers of rhetorical questions.
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