Logfile from brass.

Zach is sitting on a bench near Bacchus's fountain, reading a 
newspaper. Or pretending to, at least. The sharp observer might notice 
that he's indulging in some furtive ogling of passing females of all 
ages (more or less).

MeiQin walks along the sidewalk towards the fountain with a smile on 
her face. Her tote bag is slung over one shoulder and she whistles a 
merry tune as she walks. (The astute listener might recognize it as 
being from Monty Python.)

Zach rustles with the paper, as he turns a page and finds even more 
uninteresting articles. Peeking over the top of the paper, he notices 
the Asian woman he scared the other day, and he smiles. "Hey, MeiQin!" 
he calls out to her.

MeiQin looks over at the sound of her name. Hey, it's Harriet's crazy 
boyfriend! She heads over to perch on the bench next to him, slinging 
her bag off to he side. "Hiya, Zach. What's up?"

Zach lays the paper down on his lap and smiles warmly to MeiQin. "Not 
much, fortunately. I'm lazing away some time, enjoying a paper and the 
view. So how're you?"

MeiQin smiles. "Oh, I'm doing well enough. Madly jealous of Harriet, 
but that's par for the course." She drops a quick wink and grins. "Say, 
did she get a chance to ask you about our plan yet?"

Zach grins naughtily to MeiQin and winks back, then he shakes his head. 
"Nope, no she didn't. We kinda got, uh, distracted. Care to enlighten 
me?"

MeiQin chuckles and raises her eyebrows. "'Distracted', huh? I just 
bet." She leans forward and glances around. "You can't tell anyone else 
about this, okay? It's supposed to be a secret, otherwise it won't be a 
surprise. Promise?"

"I promise," Zach says sincerely.

MeiQin whispers, "We want to give Cosmo a soundtrack. Do you know the 
'Accountancy Shanty' from Monty Python?"

Zach nods slowly and looks fascinated. "Keep talking..."

MeiQin explains earnestly, "The current plan is to rig his car so that 
it plays whenever he opens the driver's door. I had originally been 
thinking of trying to get the music to trigger in most of the places he 
normally goes, but Harriet seemed to think that breaking into his 
apartment and hacking his computer might be taken then wrong way." She 
sighs. "It would have been neat, though, to replace his default startup 
sounds..."

Zach starts shaking quietly with laughter. "Oh my God... What has poor 
Cosmo done to deserve all this, then?"

MeiQin blinks innocently. "'Done to deserve this'? My dear sir, do you 
intend to imply that our attentions are anything less than an honor? We 
do this because we like Cosmo, and desire to bring joy and delight into 
his otherwise dreary workaday existence." She smiles beatifically.

Zach smiles wickedly. "And you do not believe that he finds joy and 
delight in his workday existence without a soundtrack?" He snickers 
again, eyes sparkling.

MeiQin concedes reluctantly, "Well, perhaps he finds a certain relaxing 
serenity in the flow of the numbers, and maybe a measure of 
satisfaction in the knowledge that he works for a good cause. But 
that's not the same as the bubbling happiness of being reminded that 
one has friends who go to the trouble of pleasantly surprising one with 
cheerful music, right?" She giggles.

Zach twinkles at her, andrelaxes back against the bench. "There is 
certainly some merit to that. But why not wive him a cool, groovy theme 
instead? Like..." he breaks out in a snicker, "The Shaft theme..."

MeiQin blinks. "But... that wouldn't be as appropriate. I mean, Cosmo 
really is an accountant. But he's not black, and I'm pretty sure he's 
not a sex machine. Or any of the rest of that stuff. He's a middle-aged 
accountant, not some sort of action hero. I doubt he's ever been in a 
fight in his life, at least since getting beat up in high school." She 
pauses and bites her lip. "I mean, I was going for gentle teasing 
rather than theater of the absurd. And it's not nice to rub in the fact 
that he's not getting any, no?"

[Public] MeiQin says, "In which we discuss whether Cosmo is a sex 
machine or not... I love this MUSH."

[Public] Harriet votes Yes.

[Public] MeiQin O.O "And how would you know?"

[Public] Harriet shifts her eyes.

[Public] MeiQin wants the dirt! And pictures...

[Public] Harriet respects the confidences of her friends!

[Public] Zach eyes Harriet. "Am I having to throw Cosmo in the duck 
pond again?"

[Public] Harriet innocents.

Zach snickers. "Oh, who knows. For all we know, Cosmo would be a 
veritable love machine under that prim, besuited exterior of his. But 
yeah, I suppose Shaft is a wee bit far out..."

MeiQin's eyes cross and she slowly tips over off the bench. From below 
her voice comes floating up weakly. "...I overvisualized..."

Zach leans over and grabs the end of the bench, sticking his head out 
too look down at MeiQin. "Overvisualized, eh? Was is keen? Is he hot? 
Need hepl getting up?" he asks smilingly.

MeiQin blushes and giggles, and extends a hand for the offered help. 
"He's old, Zach. He's a middle-aged accountant, what else do you 
expect? He's almost certainly got warts and wrinkles and flab and 
stuff. And yes, I could use a hand up."

Zach helps her up and pretends to dust her off, without actually 
touching her. "Oh, trust me. Cosmo has no flab whatsoever. Where on 
earth would he put it, on that wiry corpus of his? I've sparred with 
him, and he's fit as a fiddle."

MeiQin groans. "Zach, knock it off. This is cruel and unusual 
punishment. I do NOT need people telling me what a great body Cosmo 
has. I..." She shakes her head and sighs. "And I most especially do not 
need to imagine the two of you hardbodies sparring, all sweaty and-- 
NO!" She closes her eyes and chants, "I am not imagining this. I am 
thinking about pretty rainbows, and butterflies, and bunny rabbits..."

"Bunnies, eh? Interesting choice," Zach teases. "If it helps you at 
all, I threw him in the duck pond. He wasn't very sexy when he 
clambered out of it," he smiles.

MeiQin auughs. "I didn't mean it like that, Zach! Er, wait, how did 
/you/ mean it?" She clears her throat. "Anyway. Duck pond? Does this 
happen often? Why did you do it? Are there pictures?" She smiles 
hopefully.

Zach smilingly ignores her first question, and shakes his head at the 
last. "Sadly no, but there were witnesses, so we had to clear out 
quickly before anyone called the cops. It only happened that one time."

MeiQin tsks. "Too bad. I wish I could've seen it. So why did you do it? 
What had the poor thing done to deserve it?"

You say, "We sparred, and he lost."

Zach straightens up and peers at his watch. "Aw heck, I gotta jet. It 
was nice meeting you again, MeiQin! Hope it won't be too long 'till 
next time. So long!" he says cheerfully and gets up.

MeiQin waves Zach off. "Nice talking to you, too. Now go before my 
brain explodes!"

Zach laughs and takes off.

The End ... for now.