Dina watched with curious fascination through the giant glass walls how Homelander was aggressively flailing around a plethora of diapers, closing and opening them while gesticulating wildly towards the crowd in what could only be anger and frustration.
She wasn't the only one watching of course, everyone was doing their best to be inconspicuous from their desks, but she was the only one actually standing outside the giant see through glass of the board room walls. That was only of course because she was early for The Seven's weekly stand up meeting.
Normally they would use 'The Seven' meeting room on the top floor however Homelander had made it an unofficial policy to once in a while schedule their meetings in other floors of the company 'so the employees can see us!' his reasoning was.
Smart move she thought. It's always good to connect with the rest of the company, the rest of the people.
Ever since she'd join 'The Seven' she'd seen a lot of smart moves not only from Vought but specifically Homelander. He wasn't quite the man she'd seen in Maeve's memories though he could simply be doing a better job at hiding it…or as maybe as Maeve said and something was 'wrong' with him.
Today's meeting wasn't one of those smart moves. The videoconferencing system had crapped out in 'The Seven' meeting room so they had to re-schedule to a different room.
Whatever was happening was bad. Well bad enough that Homelander was actually throwing a fit in public.
"Hey Silver Kinkaid!" She was broken out of her thoughts. "Any idea what is going on in there?" Golden Boy asked.
"No clue." She said looking at the golden costumed young man.
He was Maeve's maternity leave replacement, fresh out of Godolkin.
The newbie settled into a crossed armed position next to her.
She had to admit, he looked good, no not just good he looked 'Golden'.
Top of the class at GoDU graduating one year early with honours, dean's list, the works and with charm and looks that made him a teenage girl's wet dream.
It was another smart move by Homelander to snatch him up early.
"It's seven past ten." He said slowly. "Should we go in there or is our meeting canceled?"
Before she could answer she saw Homelander turn to them and motion for them to join the room.
"Guess their meeting is over." She said and opened the door but Homelander wasn't actually done talking.
"Well don't care how they either change their production or we change supplier. I don't care how much it costs!" She saw him say to Josh the head of product for Queen Maeve as a portion of the room shuffled out.
"There are contracts we'd be breaking here. We can't simply change it on a dime and even if we can make a change this fast there's already hundreds of thousands if not millions of units shipped. We'd have to-"
"No, no, no." Homelander answered frustrated. "I don't want to hear this. We've already had this meeting with the ELT and the board. Every-thing related to 'The Seven' has to be of superior quality no generic crap and especially and I cannot stress this enough everything related to Queen Maeve's baby brand, things that we are charging an atrocious amount of premium on." He paused briefly.
"These are good quality diapers." Josh said defensively.
"No they aren't, you see how flimsy they are size four and up! It's a completely different fucking diaper." Homelander continued.
She and Golden Boy took a seat at the far end of the table.
"I can see this and so can the fucking customers! You weren't the one that was just assaulted by a Korean grandmother in a grocery store and berated for ten minutes on changing the dam diapers!" Homelander said and threw the diapers in his hand on the table.
Josh looked repentant, ashamed and sighed.
"We still have to take it to Ashley. This could cost us quite a bit depending on how we handle it."
"You let me worry about Ashley. I'll get in touch with her after she lands."
Ashley was gone to deal with some issues with the park in Hong Kong, Dina remembered.
Josh nodded and left the room, leaving them with Homelander.
"Where the hell is everyone? It's almost ten past." He said as he turned to them. "I've got five launches to do today and first one starts at eleven."
Before she could answer the door opened with Deep rushing in phone in hand.
"H.L did you see the video!" The Deep went straight to Homelander.
"What video?" Golden Boy asked.
"Shit it's out already?" Homelander asked leaning in over The Deep.
Both her and Golden Boy joined him.
They saw a portrait phone video of an old Asian lady yelling at Homelander in a grocery store while holding two small boxes of diapers.
The words were explicit and embarrassing.
"Wow." Dina couldn't help but say. "That old lady is really letting you have it."
"Fuck. And all I wanted was to buy some dam Gatorade." They all looked at him. "I like the taste." He said rolling his eye.
"So the previous meeting was about this video?" Golden Boy asked.
"Yes, yes it was. Now never mind that. Where the hell is everyone else? Are they online?" Dina saw him go start the Tv screens. "I thought everyone replied to be in to-."
The door burst open again.
"Did you guys see the video?" A-Train burst in.
"Ajuma vs. Homelander?" The Deep asked.
"Yea old feisty Korean lady. That is going mad viral!" A-Train said. "Not a good look." He said with an amused smile.
Dina could see Homelander was getting annoyed now, differently than his previous frustration.
"Yes they saw the stupid video. Now why are you late?" He asked annoyed. "No, how are you late? You're the fastest man alive!"
A-Train looked sheepishly and said. "I…may have stopped for an extra bagel in the cafeteria."
"Of for fucks sake. Where the hell are Starlight and Noir? It's almost a quarter after-"
Homelander was interrupted by his cellphone ringing.
"It's Ashley." He said and took the call.
"Hey Ashley….yes I saw the stupid fucking video!" Dina saw him pause and heard rapid fire talking from the other side.
"So you just talked with product and legal?..."
"No…no…I don't care. We talked about this before." He continued while pacing.
Dina could tell Ashley was trying not to lose her shit on the other side of that line.
"I don't give a shit how much it's going to cost…well." He said and turned back to them holding the phone down to his chest. "I've got to go." He simply said and headed to the door.
"Where? I'm going to pull them out of whatever meetings they are in now so they can tell me that to my face!" He said doing everything he could not to fully shout in the phone.
Dina could see Starlight just turning the corner coffee cup and laptop in hand. Homelander bumped into her making her spill a bit of the coffee on herself.
"Captain get your fucking team in order!" Dina heard Homelander say without skipping a beat or stopping at all.
"No Ashley I don't care…!" Dina heard him say as he rounded the corner.
"What the hell was that?" Starlight asked confused as she entered the room. "What's up his ass and where is he going?" She made a move to get the napkins in the middle of the table.
Before any of them could answer the conference room door burst open once more.
Noir silently strode in one hand holding his phone and the other pointing at it.
Starlight looked even more confused.
"You have to watch this video." The Deep said.
-
Author Note:
I have gotten questions on whether Gen V will play a role in my story. My story has the diverged too much from cannon so GEN V WILL NOT BE HAPPENING but I might use characters and powers from there. Here's why:
1. All the shady stuff like research and cover-ups at GoDU are happening with Vought help and funding. HL(SI) would be on top of this stuff as soon as he found out about it, which would be early on in the SI's time and shut it all down while blaming previous administration for it (Stan and previous execs, board members etc.). Not only because he wants the popularity boost and to play the PR game but also because HL(SI) is consolidating all of the V- Related research under Martin and severely restricting access.
2. Because of the point above any deaths, suicides or others would be taken very seriously by HL(SI). He would immediately be all up in everyone's ass at GoDU to find out the real reasons and actually solve the problem. HL(SI) would get rid of a lot of the professors that are fucking around as well. Additionally HL(SI) sees GoDU as a funnel for Vought, which it is in everything but name, so he already sees those supes as under his purview and his 'house'/'kingdom'. As mentioned in other chapters HL(SI) will not have disorder in his house.
3. I'm imagining Golden Boy to have a different background than Gen V. In my story Golden Boy will be an actual 'Golden Boy'. He comes from upper class America. Single child. Lower end rich parents, partners in law firms or something like that, that love him and raised him right. He's popular, kind and charming and well adjusted. Most people whether at school or outside like him. He's a top student. He's had the best training money can buy. He's never been experimented on like in Gen V he's just naturally powerful. He's everything Homelander could have been if only he'd had loving parents…or any parents at all.
As for this chapter I wanted to show a few things:
No matter how 'super' and capable Homelander is sometimes things just don't go his way.
Let me know what you think in the reviews.
Thank you for reading!