A Match Into Water


Pepper’s grip on her bag suddenly tightened as she was hit in the gut with what gail was saying. She said it with the undertones of someone it had happened to, which was… Gods above and below, incredibly tragic. But it also suddenly smacked Pepper in the face with something she hadn’t thought about. Would Hades–? Could Hades–?

“You know, you didn’t have to freak her out like that. Who knows if Eldritch gods can have children with humans. Do you know if that’s been tested?”

Pepper felt her mouth move, but Hades’s words didn’t calm her down. In fact, it just reinforced the sudden spiral that she found herself starting to ride. She was going to spiral down this hole. Cody thought she was going to make a great mom. She had always wanted kids. Cody thought she was going to make a great mom. She had always wanted kids. Cody thought–

She quickly reached into her bag and pulled out one of the cans of Ghost that she had brought. She had stuck them in the freezer before leaving to ensure maximum frostiness, and now she used that frostiness against herself. The chill of the can bit into her hand, and she cracked it open quickly and drank a few long gulps.

The intense cold flooded through her and the staticky noise she’d begun to hear dissipated. She could feel her body switch to focusing on the chill, almost like touching an ice cube. The sickly sweet strawberry flavor was an affront to her senses, which only helped the sudden distraction to take hold. She swallowed hard around the gulps before she tipped the can back upright and waited.

Slowly, sensation became outwardly focused again, and she gave a very shaky looking smile. “Right. So. I don’t suppose there’s a easy way to test whether or not my body can… purge interlopers, is there? What happens if i drink that coffee and i can’t? It eats me from the inside out?”

“Pepper, you are not ready to try, please do not drink that coffee. It won’t kill you, but your body will take a very long time to heal whatever damage it does to you.”

Pepper sighed and adjusted her hair clip. “On second thought, my advisor is telling me that isn’t a good idea.”
 
There it was.

Hades put in his take on the matter, and there was a collective pause. There was a unity to it, the entire team acting as one, focused intently on this novelty. Half a moment passed, and the room seemed to be full of air once more, and the team had faded back to their respective selves, or perhaps this was just something that was being imagined.

The words themselves elicited only a snicker. "I mean, maybe not in the usual way..."

Of course, Dr. Krasniqi didn't have clearance for the unusual way discussion, which involved their Councilman and a certain Question. That was the way things went in the Foundation, though, and some things were on a need to know basis. It was somehow collectively decided to focus on the nature of the comment rather than the specific words of it.

"So that sounds like a protective instinct."

"Threat-triggered. Implies that damage to the host would be problematic for the... Eldritch god, then? Confirmed?"

"Pepper just told me on the way over here, but yes. Not sure if that's metaphysically problematic or just emotionally problematic. Could be both. Could be the same."

"You never know, with Eldritch gods."

Pepper had taken this opportunity to fortify herself with an energy drink that might have been as much of an abomination as the coffee, depending on who was asking. Once she'd gotten herself handled, the conversation opened a little more, making sure she was included if she wanted to be. The team's evident fifth had made his way out of the kitchen as well, dressed in scrubs and drying his hands on a dish towel stained with coffee residue.

"There are a plethora of ways to experiment with that, Doctor. Some of which are even still permissible under the new ethics code. The simplest to try is probably a possession - I assure you, I can pop it right back out if it looks like it's going to take."

"Not today, Joshua. I have a meeting later. And I don't think Pepper came out here expecting to be possessed."

"I mean, from a certain point of view, she already was..."

"Indeed. And how, precisely, did that come about?"
 

If anything weird had transpired, it was missed by Pepper, who had been trying to relax as much as possible. Hades was whispering reassuring things in her head, telling her there was nothing to worry about. She put her free hand to her ear, as though there was too much noise going on. At that moment, if anyone was sensitive enough to pick it up, a small wave of panic and spiciness like chili powder rolled off Pepper. It didn’t travel like it did on the Sphere, but it was enough that she had been feeling so intensely overwhelmed that it had manifested at all.

“Hush! Just stop talking! You’re overwhelming me, Hades.”

“Pepper, please don’t let this get to you. There’s nothing to prove that this will happen to you. Listen, she doesn’t smell like us. She’s not like you. Her experience may very well not be yours. And for the record, I am not protecting myself here. I am protecting you. Don’t listen to–”

“Enough. Please. We can talk about this later, okay?”

He receded into the back of her mind, with what felt more than sounded like a whimper. She looked up and tuned in to the conversation, replaying it in her head. She realized then that she was being asked how she had come to be bonded to Hades. She took a second to compose herself, taking another long drink of the practically toxic strawberry drink to trick her body into focusing on something else. Then she spoke in a soft voice, an underlying tremble still present despite how she tried to suppress it.

“I was just traveling through the dimension when I was little. He asked me to take him with me. He was running from Ira and just wanted to escape. I don’t think– no, he knew before he approached me that we were compatible. But he wanted my permission. I’m not sure he needed it. He was all power then, with a newly forming consciousness. He could hae erased me but chose not to.”

Hades made a sound like a purr in the back of her mind to confirm her theory. She tried to smile, but it felt too disingenuous. So instead she let her eyes focus on the one Gail had called Joshua. Joshua Seimar, if her research was right. He was offering something, and as she eyed him up, she hesitated just a moment before saying, in an equally soft voice, “How would you go about doing that?”
 
"So, a short form verbal contract. It might not have been necessary, but was probably more beneficial in the long term." Gail thought about that for a moment. "It's a bit messy. I could probably get you out of it by claiming you were a minor at the time and unable to consent, but that doesn't always work. And that's assuming you wanted to get out of it, which you don't seem to." Interestingly, she didn't argue about that.

"Well. I could still probably use that as a jumping point to recodify that into a proper contract. Might be able to put you in better control of the verbal ascension process."

"That's the when Hades starts talking over me thing," Cait filled in, in case Pepper wasn't used to speaking in legalese. "You do seem to be having some trouble with that. But that's pretty common with possession."

And on the topic of possession, Pepper asked quietly about giving it a go, presumably For Science. Joshua, being similarly research-minded, brightened. "Oh, that's easy. First, we'd just have Cait draw up a summoning circle with you as the central point, and-"

Gail made a tiny motion, barely noticeable, and he stopped, ceding the floor. "First, we'd have you sign a consent form agreeing to be possessed. Then I'd have you get signatures and statements from three Foundation personnel - at least one in research, at least one in agency, none of whom report directly to you - stating that they understand that you have agreed to this and that to their best knowledge you are doing this of your own free will, without influence from any anomalous, Eldritch, or other sources. Then we have a twenty-four hour waiting period that allows you to change your mind and ensures you haven't been pressured into this. And then Joshua and Cait take over."

"Man, even the new ethics code doesn't require all that." Nic rolled his eyes. This seemed like way too much paperwork, which was the worst part of the job, unless you were a lawyer and got off on that sort of thing.

"I am fully aware of that. However, given the current situation, I intend for our paperwork to be impeccable."

"You keep being responsible and they're going to promote you."

"Fortunately, I am above such things." She returned her attention to Pepper, with a determined I am ignoring them air. "I realize this is a lot to think about. You don't need to make any immediate decisions. And if something happens and you suddenly do need to make immediate decisions, call Cait."

"Me? Oooh, why?"

"Hey, yeah, Cait's an idiot."

"She's not an idiot, she's just chaos incarnate. And a bad influence."

"It'll be fun."
 

Pepper bit her bottom lip, turning her mouth to the side as she thought. Then she directly spoke to Hades. “Are you going to behave, or do we need a contract? Because i will take her up on her offer and then–”

“NO! I mean, no. I’ll behave. Whatever you want. But no contracts, Pepper. Okay?” There was an edge of panic to his voice that made Pepper pause and look up at Gail. She kept her gazze on her as she responded to him.


“Why not? Why do you sound panicked? What’s wrong with a contract?”

“I-I don’t want to be bound. I like the way things are now. So please, whatever you want, I will comply. Just don’t make a contract.”

With her eyes still on Gail, though her words clearly meant for someone who wasn’t her, she said, “You have a deal.”

There was a sigh of relief from the back of her mind, and then his presence faded, the same way it would were they around Cody. She felt like she’d just made a bad deal, like he was hiding something from her, but she wasn’t exactly sure what. She would talk to him about that later.

Pepper tore her eyes off of Gail and looked up at the group as a whole. There was a moment of silence, and then she gave them a crooked grin. She downed the rest of the energy drink, feeling the buzz start to kick in. Her panic wasn’t forgotten, but pushed aside for the time being. There would be time to talk with someone about that later, maybe Dr. Holt. Definitely Cody. “Well, I suppose you better get me some forms, then, because I’m up to [EXPLETIVE] around and find out.”

Then her face became thoughtful and she tentatively asked, “Agent Weber. You seem to know a lot about all of this. The contracts and the… ability to purge things. Cait was the one who suggested I talk to you initially, about Hades. Would it be safe for me to assume you are or have been possessed by something then? Sorry, this is really rude of me, but I haven’t talked to many people who might… be in a similar situation as me.”
 
The first words out of Pepper's mouth were you have a deal, and obviously weren't meant for the Locusts.

"Pepper! Gods-below, come on!"

"Man, she wouldn't last five minutes at nine." This seemed to sum up the sense of vague foreboding horror.

"Shush. Connor?" The surname, they knew, meant they were all on Formal Alert, and the switch from chill to operating team was instant. Brian - Agent Connor - had pulled a drawer open and gotten out a pen and notebook, which he handed to Pepper with an air of one hundred certainty that she was going to take it. Corby's hand slipped in, unobtrusively, lifting away the energy drink to give Pepper her hands free. "Write down exactly what just went on in your head, Dr. Krasniqi. Word for word. While it's still fresh."

Having just made a binding contract was bad, of course, but having made one and then forgetting what it said would be even worse. At least having a record of it would mean that they knew what they were dealing with. In the strange manner of how can someone that big actually move so fast - and so quietly? Nic had abandoned the couch and was loitering by the doorway, hands idle at his side, watchful as the crystals on the ceiling, which were every one of them somehow reflecting eyes from somewhere.

It added, very much, to the air of this is not optional that pervaded the scene. No one said anything, giving her the time and quiet to write it out, but no one was going to relax until it was done, either. A surface team that got into the sort of things that the Locusts did needed to know when to take action and be able to do it in an instant - even if taking action, in this instance, meant getting the paperwork done.

Only then would anyone return to anything else that had been mentioned.

"It's not a polite question, but being polite isn't always the best option." She considered it, dislodging the coffee from her fingers and letting it sloop back into the depths of the cup before handing it off to Joshua. "Have a seat, and when you're ready, I'll tell you a story."
 

A notebook and pen were deposited in her hands just as her empty can was removed. She almost dropped them, but quickly caught hold of them. Her smile faded as she realized that she had apparently just made A Mistake. Pepper balanced the notebook on her thigh and quickly wrote down the short interaction they had just had, despite Hades prowling at the edge of their invisible line. He didn’t like this, not one bit. It was clear he wanted to say something, but wasn’t going to immediately break the deal he had just made.

Remembering word for word what had just happened was not a challenge for Pepper. She had an excellent memory, and had a talent of catching conversations while spacing out and being able to replay them in her head. Very quickly she finished her writing and then underlined his exchange request. “Whatever you want, in exchange for not signing a contract.” He didn’t specify and one time use of it either. It had come out like a blanket promise to do whatever she wanted in exchange for the lack of a formal contract.

Had she [EXPLETIVE] up, or had he?

She lifted the notebook and pen off her thigh and moved over to the couch, taking the spot that had been left on the couch from Nic. She hesitantly sat down on it and placed the notebook and pen on her lap, unsure of who to give them to. “You guys are acting like- like that was binding. But I’ve felt binding before, and this wasn’t like that. Is it different because our souls are bound?”

She felt Hades shake his head, as weird a sensation as that was, but he didn’t speak up. She got the distinct feeling of regret and wistfullness as he stalked the border between their mindspace. Whatever he was saying no to, he seemed like he was intensely regretting the deal that had just been made. Or more so, that the Locusts were involving themselves in the deal.
 
"You know, that's not too bad," Cait stated, reading over Pepper's shoulder.

"No, actually. This is something we can work with. We'll keep it on file." Gail took the notebook back and handed it off to Brian so that he could process it and get it uploaded to the Foundation and append it to Pepper's files. Since the situation was apparently resolved, Nic wandered over to look over his shoulder.

"Oh, hey, this is super Cait-like. No wonder they get along."

"I know, right? It's uncanny."

"It is not! What does that even mean?" Cait was indignant, which was not unusual for Cait. She handed Pepper back her energy drink, under the assumption that Pepper probably wanted it. Also, her fingers were getting cold.

"I believe they're referring to that thing you do where you act cute and innocent until someone agrees to something that they shouldn't, and then you turn their bathroom into a six inch snow globe."

"...Yeah, but that's funny. And I've only done that twice. Three times."

"Four."

"Eight, by my count, and as I have the dubious privilege of being the longest acquainted with her, I fear my numbers are more likely to be accurate."

"So... what I'm hearing is that we must be a good influence."

"Ugh." Cait rolled her eyes, emphatically, "I'm just ensuring that Foundation personnel think about what they're saying, regardless of who they're saying it to. It's a public service!"

"In any case. Do be careful, Dr. Krasniqi. Even if you believe someone to have your best interests in mind, you and they may have very different definitions about what your best interests actually are, as Cait has so thoughtfully demonstrated. On more than one occasion. And I can't speak for what you felt and whether it has to do with the way your souls are entwined, but it very easily could be a binding deal, if it needs to be. So, keep that in mind for the future - because, have no doubt, Hades will be, and you won't get away with that a second time."
 

Pepper crossed her arms after the notebook was taken from her and made a face. It slowly changed from indigent to almost gleeful as Nic compared her to Cait. She would take that as a compliment, given she very much liked Cait. “I feel like you guys thought I was agreeing to something less favorable. I’m trusting, not naïve. I know what’s a bad deal for me.”

To be honest, they had really scared her into thinking she might have messed up, but now they all seemed to be okay with it. Still, she listened to Gail and nodded her head. She could feel Hades simmering away, but she left him to be for then. The two of them could hash out whatever he was feeling when it was just them. She was almost certain that Gail was right– she would not be getting away with that a second time. Hades almost certainly hadn’t meant for whatever he said to be binding, but the way he was acting told her that somehow, it was. Maybe something had changed in his magic, something only he could feel, but Pepper was sure it was binding. “Well, given how he’s acting right now, I think it might have actually been binding. Either that or he’s putting on a good show.”

Pepper took a sip, not a long gulp, of her energy drink and felt it wash through her. She was going to be walking away from this impromptu meeting with a lot to think about. She raised her eyes to Gail, and this time did speak to her. “I’d like to hear your story now.”
 

"We usually prepare for the worst, then we can be pleasantly surprised when things don't explode." Brian had stowed away the notebook from wherever it had come, and gone back to sitting on the couch fiddling with a laptop. Cait flipped down beside him over the back of the couch, head downward and knees hooked over the back in a way that could not possibly be good for anyone's spine, somehow managing to execute this maneuver without spilling her coffee, which she promptly realized she couldn't actually drink while upside down and reluctantly turned herself right side up again, patting the space beside her for Pepper. Gail grabbed a chair from a card table off to one side of the room, pulling it over with the sort of callousness that implied that maybe this chair was in an abusive relationship. The worst thing she did was sit on it, though, albeit backwards, arms folded over the back and tipping it up a bit on two legs.

The story wasn't new, not for the rest of the team, but Pepper hadn't heard it before.

"So. I don't know what came up when you were asking around," because Gail was absolutely aware that Pepper had been asking around, and wasn't afraid to bring it up, "But before I was in the Foundation, I was a contract lawyer. Mostly corporate, but a few other things here and there. One day, I was approached by a representative of what the Foundation would call a Group of Interest. They wanted to summon up a demon and bind it to their will, and being slightly smarter than the average GOI, they wanted a lawyer to do the paperwork."

She made a somehow incomplete gesture with one hand. "Naturally I thought they were full of horse [expletive]. But - they were willing to pay my retainer and my hourly, even after I'd tacked on the additional cost to put up with this nonsense fee, and they were fine with payment in full before any attempted summoning in case it all went badly, and law school is expensive and I still had loans. And it certainly wasn't going to be any more evil than the corporate merger I'd been working on. So, I wrote the contract."

She shrugged, amused by it all. "It was a very good contract. Oh, I'd learned a few things since then, but it was interesting work and I figured I might as well do it right. In any case - the relevant-to-the-story part is that, because I had seen enough horror movies to know that the first thing that you do once you summon a demon is feed it the spares, like your lawyer, I'd included a clause that bound the theoretical demon equally between all signatories of the contract, and not mentioned that being the lawyer on the damn thing also made me a signatory."

"Anyway, I was pretty surprised when they actually managed to pull something up from the abyss, and because I am good at seeing things coming, we were then renegotiating that part of the contract." There was something about the way that she said this that implied less in the way of paperwork and strongly worded legal arguments and more in the way of violence and mayhem. "Fortunately I'd spent enough time with it that I knew it inside out, and since the demon was contractually bound to defend its contracted bodies, as long as I didn't try to cause harm to any of them, it'd be bound to protect me rather than them. It was somewhere in medias of this particular negotiation that the Foundation arrived."

Gail set the chair down on all four legs for a brief moment, reaching out to accept her coffee cup back from Joshua, now having a scalpel sticking out of it and no additional movement from within. "I surrendered. The rest of them chose to engage in further negotiations with the ACF team and by the end of it, it was just them and me, which meant I had the whole of the bound entity, which meant that I was quickly given a new employment opportunity and no longer needed to concern myself with student loans."
 
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Pepper was silent for the entire story. She listened raptly, her eyes never leaving Gail’s face as the woman spoke. She nodded in parts, softly and thoughtfully. And at the end, she had only one question to ask. “So this demon is still bound to you, then? I mean, I imagine if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be telling me this story.”

She scooched over while she spoke to sit closer to Cait, in the spot the young woman had pat before. She twisted the slightly less frosty can in her hand as she thought. In the back of her mind, Hades had finally calmed down and was listening intently to the story as well. And then, in a very hushed voice, he asked her, “She’s not telling us everything. May I speak for a moment?”

Pepper paused. She had thought that Gail wasn’t telling her everything, but she hadn’t been planning to press her on it. But if Hades wanted to… “You may. But only for a minute.”

That voice that sounded like dozens of voices rang out, this time with an undercurrent of something musical.
“What is the purpose behind this story, Agent Weber? Is it just so that she understands you better, or are you making a point about us? This can’t possibly be just because she asked about it. You could have simply answered ‘yes’ or ‘none of your business’. So why the not-so-full story?”
 
"It is. Yes. For another hundred and two years." Gail peered down into the depths of the mug, where the dead coffee had been lain to rest, then shrugged and took another drink. "I advise against binding things until death. You don't generally want your dying to be beneficial to them." That was just asking to be set up for murder. The original contract had specified one hundred eleven years, because Gail had figured she'd be reliably dead by then without any assistance from the demon, plus it would be bound to help her navigate whatever hell came next. That would be an interesting event, but she could wait for it.

Pepper turned the conversation over to Hades, who had a few questions about how it went. His voice had a song in it, not one she knew, but she hummed the harmony anyway, or something did. And as for the answer, she just offered the most simple: "She asked."

It could have been yes or that doesn't concern you or have you filled out a request form for that information, but Gail had offered and Pepper had asked. It was a social contract, but a contract nonetheless. Her gaze intensified, staring at - definitely at Hades, not at Pepper. "Asking was all that was needed. And because you asked: Also, because I remember what it was like, trying to find my place while convincing people I could do the job I wanted. Pepper will have some of that ahead of her. She'll need to know she isn't the only one."
 

Hades wasn’t entirely sold, Pepper could tell. She felt Gail’s stare go right through her, into her eyes where Hades lay behind, curling his tendrils to make flickers of gold in her eyes. He wasn’t fully possessing her, not as he had done with Isaac or with “Bridge”, but instead it was as though there was so much going on inside him that it was just impossible for him to contain it. Pepper felt flickers of uncertainty, of sharpness, bitterness like raw walnuts, a taste that left a stinging on your tongue. And she smelled the faint scent of honey and summer wind.

“I believe you for now, Gail Weber. I would like… to talk to you again. At a later date.”

He receded again, and the flicker in her eyes died down. She raised a brow and sent a breeze of a question to the back of her mind, but he didn’t answer. He simply curled his tendrils back up, leaving her alone. Well, as alone as either of them got these days. She looked up and Made a face, as though confused by his statement. Which was fairly accurate given she was confused.

“I… thank you. That’s actually really reassuring to me. Knowing that you have been where I have been.” She paused and then she looked down at her hands. “I have been nervous about a lot of things recently, things to do with what I had initially hoped would be a simple promotion and change. My paper was almost done, but now I’m possibly getting it for an entirely different reason. Nothing can ever be simple, though, can it?”

She had yet to really voice that concern to anyone else. She wasn't entirely sure why she was voicing it now. She hadn’t thought that being involved with Ira was going to be the reason that she got Class-D. She hadn’t expected that being involved with Ira would do, well, anything for her. She had expected her paper, the one she had spent years working on with the right methods, the proper components, and the actual science and mathematics to be what got her that promotion. Her hand subconsciously reached out to Cait's, not seeking comfort necessarily, but looking more for resolve.
 
Cait didn't need to be asked to take Pepper's hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. "Well, he sounds grumpy." Maybe grumpy wasn't a generally accepted way to describe dead Eldritch gods in researcher residence, but maybe it was - and also, this was Cait, so there was that factor as well.

Still, she was very much having the mental image of Hades stomping off in the same manner as Ira did, which... wasn't even unnecessarily that implausible. Also, it was great. "Story upon story upon story upon [expletive]ing story!" Cait giggled, rather helplessly, which was going to be weird if Pepper didn't catch the reference. Of course, since Cait was weird most of the time, maybe that didn't matter either.

Brian put his head in his hands, in an obvious what have I done to deserve this sort of way, which also served to hide the fact that he'd, against his better judgement, cracked a smile.

"If anyone gets in your way, you can just threaten to introduce them to Cait," Gail advised, finishing the last of the misbegotten coffee and dangling the mug from two fingers by the handle. "You'll find it surprisingly effective."

"So effective." Brian apparently agreed with that statement rather emphatically.

"Miss... ah, Pepper - one more thing. Just because your paper isn't necessarily what earned you your promotion doesn't make it any less valuable. Don't discredit your work just because something else happened first. The paper I earned my Class-D for has been much less useful on a regular basis than some of the other work I've done."
 

Pepper got the joke and realized that Cait must have read the report from the time she was introduced to Ira. A smile graced her face and her shoulders moved in silent laughter for just a moment. That silent laughter became real laughter at Gail’s recommendation. Introducing Cait to someone didn’t seem like a threat to her, but she supposed to others it might be.

Her attention was drawn back to Joshua as he spoke, and a genuine smile crossed her face again. Rationally, she did know that to be true. She also knew the paper she was writing would actually potentially help her, specifically, with something else she had started working on, but could also affect the way that the Foundation examined and utilized extradimensional objects and related anohumans. Ironically, it could lead to other advancements in Ira’s case.

“Thank you, Dr. Seimar.” Just as Gail had said Pepper’s name with a kind of practiced clarity, Pepper said everyone else’s name. Hers was definitely due to the fact that she was used to her last name being misspoken. “I really appreciate the sentiments. I’m just worried that this promotion will be for the wrong reasons. Like I haven’t proven my worth as a researcher.”

She squeezed Cait’s hand in return and smiled up at her. She really was grateful for the other woman’s friendship, no matter how weird it was. Her attempts with Laine had never really followed through to a true friendship, and there were so few women their age who weren’t interns. And while Pepper made herself approachable and fun and kind, no one else had really clicked with her. She might have been struggling with the fact that her developments in the Ira case were what was gaining her a Class-D, but she’d always be thankful for that Tuesday, and the week that had followed. She never would have met Cait if it wasn’t for Ira. So she would always be grateful for that.
 
Joshua gave Pepper a somewhat respectful nod, which could be either for the thanks or just for pronouncing his name correctly. It was always a subject of some annoyance, since unlike others his was pronounced exactly as it was spelled. Did they not still teach i before e, except after c, or when sounded like a as in neighbor and weigh and, incidentally, Seimar?

Of course, mentioning it like that wouldn't have been polite, so he usually just made a gentle correction and moved on. "Try not to think of it like that. This isn't Academia, there's no publish or perish here. We perish often enough regardless, and anything you can research might help someone, some day. Also, if I may, this is L-9. We aren't too concerned about wrong reasons here."

"We like wrong, here," Cait offered. "I do all sorts of things wrong."

"Cait is not a good example." Brian's hand dropped without thinking about it, catching Cait's elbow before she could get it into his ribs.

"I am the best bad example." She sounded proud of it.

"Second best, I believe."

"Well, I can't compete with him."

Gail offered something somewhere between a lazy half smile and a smirk, the sort of expression that seemed to somehow linger after it had gone. "And that is why you're second best."
 

Pepper smiled, a genuine and warm look in her eyes as she looked around at the Locusts. She slowly relaxed and as she did, she pulled her overall covered legs up to her chest, wrapping her arm behind her thighs. But then, although they never mentioned him by name, they mentioned Strings. Her heartbeat picked up and she sat up a little straighter, her legs still clutched toward her chest.

She had promised Eurydice that she would try her hardest to find out about her other half. And so long as she didn’t mention how she knew, maybe, just maybe, these were the people to ask. The Locusts were as close to Strings as you got, as far as she had been able to gather. They were his team, after all. And if she couldn’t get an audience with Strings directly– which, why would she want that?– then his team was the best she was going to get. She groaned and dropped her head to her knees before lifting it with a not-at-all-subtle attempt at a casual smile.

“Speaking of him, or well, not him but close to him, I uh. I need to ask you guys about something. And I need you to not ask me how I know about this. Please. Because I can’t tell you.” She paused and squeezed Cait’s hand tight before letting it go. She had no idea how this was going to go, and if it ended with Cait ripping her hand away, well, Pepper didn’t want to know that. “I don’t suppose you have any halves of an Eldritch baby that might have come out of Strings just… laying around, or preferably running around, do you?”

She quickly released her thighs and raised both hands, waving them a bit as she spoke, trying to urgently get the rest of her statement out without being interrupted. “I promise, I’m not going to tell anyone else, and I don’t want to know anything about it. I just need to know if the answer is yes.”

She said it with a kind of desperation in her voice that she hadn’t used up until that moment. It would be clear as she tried to keep the wide-eyed smile on her face that this was important to her, and that she was afraid of being asked how and where she’d gotten the information.
 
Pepper didn't get an answer, at least not immediately. Instead, the question was met with an interested sort of quiet, not so much a you said something bad quiet as a well, now what? sort of quiet. It didn't last more than a moment, but then again the Locusts were used to making quick decisions.

"Well. Ain't that a Question."

It would probably be no surprise that every one of them could manage an Alabama drawl on command, but the sudden lilt to the speech pattern changed the subject a little bit, or at least subjected things somehow.

"Mm. Cover our [expletive]s, will you?" Ordinarily, Gail wouldn't have had an issue with making the call, but with the whole security council in a bit of a tizzy over exactly this, and with Strings not her to back her up, she was being more cautious than usual. Oh, she would make the same decision, she was just going to do it in the right order, which meant permission rather than forgiveness.

Brian didn't need her to spell it out; this was a case of send a message to SV-4 directly and let him know we're updating Dr. Krasniqi's clearance on this one, and if you don't like it, you have about ten seconds to countermand that. It wasn't like he wouldn't get the message in time. The man didn't know the meaning of the phrase down time.

"And while we have a minute... I'd like to hear where you encountered such an Idea."
 

Pepper’s face scrunched up as the question came. She bit her bottom lip and then the same forced smile crossed her face. This didn’t sound like a “tell us now or else”. So she would have to hedge around the inquiry, cover her own [EXPLETIVE], as it were.

“I’m sure you would.” She said it softly, with a little bit of amusement in her voice. There wasn’t much she could do to really hide Eurydice if they really wanted her to tell them. And she would do everything in her power to avoid telling anyone about her. It was her request, and they had made a binding deal. If it came down to it, she would use that binding and declare she couldn’t tell them for that reason. It would be a lie, as their exchange hadn’t included a clause about not telling anyone about her, but Pepper had already proven she made deals without conferring with others.

“It’s an interesting Question,” she said in return, emphasizing it the same way that Gail had. She wasn’t going to out her, but maybe a hint would be enough for them to stop asking. “But like I already said, Agent Weber, I can’t say.”

She looked the woman dead in the eye, trying to subtly convey her meaning without saying a word. They had practically confirmed it for her already, but if she wasn’t supposed to know, there was a chance they’d try to amnestize her. Then, Hades’s voice rang out, his tendrils spreading through her mind.

“They could try, Pepper, but it wouldn’t work. The same way it’s never worked before. I retain all of your memories, even if you forget them. And once everything is said and done, they simply won’t work on you at all.”

“Well that’s… good to know. But we definitely shouldn’t tell them.”

“No, I imagine we shouldn’t.
 

"Hmmm... well, that changes things." The hmm went on, in the background, an underNote that shouldn't have really been there, but there was no denying that it had slipped in things.

"You see, it almost sounds like you're putting the needs of other entities ahead of the Foundation."

That was a dangerous statement if there ever was one. Sometimes people forgot who it was who'd put Gail in charge of the team. Oh, Strings, they always remembered Strings - but Hack had signed off on it, on her specifically. Since she had a demon running around in the back of her soul, that meant he'd had to be extra certain of her commitments, more so than usual.

And she'd still gotten the position.

Which was why she was now giving Pepper and Hades a very cat and mouse sort of look, and did they really want to keep playing this game or would it be a good idea to think about it for a few more minutes. One of her legs slipped under her, balancing her on the chair in a way that was suddenly less indolent and more would you like to see how fast I can get across this room?

"Do you really want to do that, E-liz-a-beth Pep-per Kras-ni-qi?" The Name was spoken on an unseen beat, syllables staccato and drawn out in a way that accented the soft background humming that had somehow turned into a harmony. "After you gave me your binding oath?"

The last was almost a purr, a lazy sharp-clawed stretch of the truth. Pepper had written down the binding oath she'd made, and then handed it over. Would that stand up in court?

Did Pepper really want to find out? Less did she want to know, because she was a researcher, but more was that a path she wanted to go down?

Cait squeezed Pepper's hand, in a way that was present but not necessarily reassuring. Her whisper was quiet, but firm. "You don't wanna go there, Pepper. Come on, aren't you going for class-D and all?"
 
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