April watches him leave with a wary eye and then the rest of them can all have equal measures of her suspicious gaze.

Then after a bit she can be presented with a list of questions!

- What are the obvious things we should be avoiding asking you about?

- What do the words you are not telling us actually do?

- What would asking for your statement do?

- Are you currently working towards causing an apocalypse?

- Do you have any information about any apocalypse plans?

- Are you planning or expecting to hurt, traumatize, and/or kill many people in the near future if allowed to?

- Do you expect that many people may become hurt/traumatized/killed in the near future in a way you and/or the institute would be able to prevent with information?

- Do you know or suspect why you were sent here?

- Does you being here put any of us in immediate danger?

- Will being here cause anyone else to come, that you know of? If so, who are they and do you expect them to be a major threat?

- What are your abilities? What do you expect will happen if you try to use them? What do you expect will happen if you try to refrain from using them?

- What questions should we be asking you that we have not?

- Have you been fully honest with us when not compelled? 

- Is there any other information that you have that you expect we would benefit from knowing?

"...okay," she says, reluctantly, after reading through the list twice and taking a minute to think about it. "I'm... mostly sure none of these will lead to catastrophe. I can imagine maybe having to say a bad word to answer 'what are your abilities' but I think if I have like any control over my phrasing I should be able to dodge it. ...'if so, who are they' should maybe be reworded because one of the things you should avoid asking me for is the names of things. But I think that's it."

"You have control over your phrasing, it's--you're still yourself, answering. If you wanted to answer it in the first place you don't always even notice that he did anything. You can't lie to him, or leave things out. It's been....awkward." Melanie glances at the list. "Would 'if so, what is the information about them we would benefit from having' be fine?"

"Yeah I think so."

"...Do you want a moment before we call him in? You look like hell. I know we've been kind of rough with you, it's just... Well. Can't really take our chances. And sorry about Jon, he's just an asshole."

"...I would maybe like a minute and a drink of water, yeah. Honestly from what I'm hearing your suspicion levels seem pretty fair, and the time I was having before I met you was definitely a lot worse, but, well, that's not exactly a high bar."

"One water, coming up." Water!

By the end of the cup of water she is sitting a little straighter and looks less like she expects to be stabbed the second she lets her guard down.

"Okay."

Oh, good, she fits right in. 'Looking sort of like you expect to be stabbed the second you let your guard down, but not currently panicking': basically the unofficial uniform for the Archives. "Ready for us to call Jon in?"

Reluctant nod.

It takes a few minutes for Melanie to return, this time with Jon. Jon looks... somehow even unhappier, but a little less tired.

"You've got the questions ready?"

"Yes," Melanie says, and then glares at him; he winces back apologetically before clearing his throat and looking at the paper, partly to avoid eye contact with Melanie but mostly because he wants to know what questions they decided on.

"What are the obvious things we should be avoiding asking you about?"

"Anything where I might end up saying a word or a name I learned in the bad caves or repeating a noise I heard there. You shouldn't ask me who or what something is if the answer might be something from the bad caves, or ask me to describe anything that happened there if the complete answer to the question might have bad words or sounds in it. ...also you shouldn't ask me anything where I might end up using a bad word on impulse partway through because I decided I'd rather spend the next five minutes throwing up and wishing I were dead than keep talking."

"What do the words--or sounds, or whatever--that you are not telling us actually do?"

"Hearing the things from the bad caves speak or sing is like... I don't even know if I can describe it... like, 'spend the next five minutes throwing up and wishing I were dead' is sure part of it, but it's just... bad. It's pure concentrated badness. It's like Satan wrote a symphony titled Nails on a Chalkboard calculated to make the audience shit themselves and claw their faces off and then when the orchestra started playing it for the first time he lit the place on fire and summoned an earthquake to drag it all to hell and they're still playing the whole way down with the audience tumbling after them and everything hurts and everyone is screaming and the being on fire and falling into a pit of eternal torment is a relief compared to the music but they won't stop fucking playing. It's very much like that. And they taught me some of their language and you wouldn't think I could make those sounds with a human mouth but it turns out I can, which is about as much fun as you'd expect."

Nod. "So--best that we avoid it, but not--world-ending consequences. That's... good. Or, not good, but better than I was expecting, anyway.

What would asking for your statement do?"

"...well, I'd tell you the whole story, and the whole story involves some words and some names, which would suck as described, and there's a bunch of parts where I might in fact decide I'd rather use a really bad word than tell you about it, because I'm a little used to bad words by now and there's some stuff in there that I don't ever want to think about again. And then apparently I'd dream about it every night for the rest of my life, which would suck even more, and you'd be there watching me—I did catch that right, didn't I, you'd be there watching me?—which means you'd get to hear the bad words, every night for the rest of my life, although come to think of it that implies you could get out of it by murdering me so maybe I'd rather not make that bet after all. But even without that, I don't actually want to make the bet, it's just a vindictive impulse I'm having because of how much I fucking hate mind control."

"I wouldn't kill you. I don't know if that would work but I wouldn't do it.

I do realize you don't have any reason to trust me about that. If you can make me tell the truth I'd let you ask me."

There is a long pause while he stares at the paper before speaking again. 

"Are you currently working towards causing an apocalypse?"

"Fuck no!"

That gets him to relax a little! “Then it sounds like we’re at least mostly on the same side. Do you have any information about any apocalypse plans?“

"Well apparently there's half a fucking dozen apocalypse cults around here or something but all I've heard about them is one offhand comment from you," she waves vaguely at Melanie, "about how they keep trying to kill you."

“It’s... not ideal.

They did kill me, technically. My heart stopped, I mean.”

“‘S not a bloody competition,” Melanie mutters. 

“I didn’t mean it like that. And if it was, Tim and Sasha would win.” Jon’s tone is bitter, but he flinches a little at his own words as soon as they’re out of his mouth.

After a beat, Basira clears her throat. “You were asking April something?”

“Right! Right. Are you planning or expecting to hurt, traumatize, or kill people in the near future if we let you?”

"I mean, no, except for how I'm stranded in a foreign country in a foreign decade with no money and probably no legal identity and also apparently landed in the middle of some kind of secret war between apocalypse cults and all in all that sounds like a lot of opportunities to end up backed into a corner and doing something shitty for lack of better options and I have a few more shitty things up my sleeves than most people because I speak a language that's the verbal equivalent of a flashbang grenade."

"That's fine. The point is making sure you don't torture us to death.

Do you expect that many people are likely to get hurt in the near future in a way we would be able to prevent with information you have?"

"...probably not many and probably not soon and not really with information I have that's useful here but I sure do wish people knew not to touch that fucking fairy ring."