"And the other half?" 

"Being surrounded by corporate slimeballs."

"Ouch," Morrison says, though it's pretty clear she's not hurt by this. "There are a lot of benefits to this lifestyle, and most of the people working here, who you haven't met yet, are not corporate slimeballs. We do good work here, even with the villainy. But it's getting pretty clear that as fun as this is, it's not something you want to be doing. As I said before, we can look into working something out so you can go be a lumberjack if you want to -- or more likely go back to working as a software engineer if you'd prefer, once the Lombardy Convocation is over. And you do get the five million dollars regardless." 

"We'll see, I guess."

"I know things have gotten off to a rocky start," she says. "And I know you're skeptical. But I do think we can come up with something." 

"There is no possibility of this not being rocky."

"I suppose that's fair," Morrison says, swallowing a bite. "Well, leaving that aside for a moment, do you have further questions about our operations, before we head off to see hydroponics and everywhere else? Since the direction of orientation thus far has been, well, lacking, for you." 

"My question is still 'what are the fucked-up surprises' but who knows, maybe this time you can figure out how to answer it."

"I think we're out of those," she says, grinning a little. "Though who knows, last time I thought so it turned out sentient dolphins was a problem." She thinks for a little bit more. "Chac Four has powerful enough lasers to carve someone's initials into the Sea of Tranquility?" she tries. "I have personally verified this fact. Does that count, or is that too specific?" 

"...did you, personally, graffiti your initials on the moon?"

"There are advantages to working with villains," she tells April, smiling. "And sometimes you need to prove that your services work as advertised, in a way that can be easily verified with nothing more than coordinates and a high-powered telescope. With the added benefit of not actually blowing up a satellite. Though that may not have been the only consideration." She grins again. 

"I can see why you have such a hard time guessing what's going to count as a fucked-up surprise."

"Well then, I guess we'll have to figure things out as we go," she says. She finishes her last bite. "Are you ready?" she asks, swallowing. 

"Does it matter?" She stands up.

"If you want to get a good picture of what projects we're currently working on -- and find out about any of those 'fucked-up surprises', this is the best way. And it's really important that you know what you're going to be managing." She stands up as well. 

She sighs tiredly, then shakes her head. "Fine. So, hydroponics, you said?"

"It's a bit out of the way, and I wasn't planning to show you it first, or at all, really, since it's not a core part of our business. But I am reasonably certain that you won't find anything you dislike about it; currently we're only using it to grow food to feed the people that work here." 

Pippi hops off the table, rubs up against April's leg, and then goes back onto her haunches, ready to let the humans lead the way. 

"I think a farm with no fucked-up surprises sounds like a great place to start."

"Perfect." She says. "It's probably faster if we go through the kitchens, though it's a bit roundabout no matter how you do it." She turns towards the grill station, and walks off, leading the two of them through a door in the back. The person manning the grill station looks up confusedly from the vegetables he's cooking when she goes back behind the counter, but when he sees who it is he goes back to his vegetables. 

April trudges after her, hands shoved deep in her pockets. It's a little awkward just barging behind the counter, but it seems to work out okay. Perks of having your own crime island volcano lair: get to do mildly awkward things with no negative consequences? Doesn't seem worth it.

Through the door is a larger kitchen area, done up in a bit of an assembly line style. There's not a ton of cooking going on here, though there are a couple of pots full of liquid being tended to -- most of what's going on here seems to be chopping up various vegetables and putting them into large bins, the kind you put in for salad bars and such things. There's more than just vegetables here, of course, but that's the first and main thing that April sees. 

Several of the line cooks pick up their heads, then turn back to their work when they see who it is. One of them, however, puts down his knife and heads over to Morrison. 

"Hey, Tils," he says. "Showing the new boss around the place? Wouldn't have expected you to come here. We're not all flashy like the rest of the science projects." 

"We're just passing through on the way to hydroponics," she says. "April, this is Carl Matthews. He's in charge of food prep here." 

He holds out a calloused hand to shake. "Nice to meet you, April." 

She shakes his hand, and after an awkward second or so manages to summon up a, "Nice to meet you too."