[b]Pink![/b]

Being a good sorcerous puppet is as much mindset as aesthetic; it means paying intimate attention to even minor details. The hand to the hat could be a signal, it could be a wizard's mistake, but both were the same to a spirit bound. She offers her empty left hand daintily. "Ariel," she says, smiling.

"I must ask, sir Luis, what inspired the goats? I hear the rumours but I can tell from the clarity of the vision here there is a stronger truth," her voice is lilting, an air of poetry to it; how a creature of the wind might speak.

[b]Red![/b]

"Right, yeah," she said, stepping back and brushing her hair out from her eyes. "I just see this guy, chromed to the gills on a quest to be a better version of himself, doing big brain moves, right past the point it makes him a vegetable, past the point where it gets him stuffed full of fungi, past the point where he's ripping himself off the slab like Frankenstein's monster, and I can't help but think that I'm headed for the same place, right? Some days I'm trying to bite the world. At some point it'll bite back so bad that I can't be rebuilt."

"So, uh, can I ask what the moment was that made you decide to quit hospitals?" she said. "I mean, the point you stepped away from the safety of it to come out here on your own."

[b]Black and White![/b]

"Is this it?" asked White. "The moment when we kill each other in fated conflict over the heart of a maiden?"
"It could be," said Black. "Just give me a moment to figure out what the fuck what my opinion is."

They sat in silence for a long moment.

"We can't tell her the news," said Black. "It's an active operation."
"And this is an active operation for her," said White. "It's a project. A project we could well have inspired with our whole rainbow explosions stunt the other day."
"Fuck, you're making me change my opinion," said Black. "If we tell her the news it could make her so depressed that she drops the idea."
"Or make her so mad that she burns down an insurance agency," said White.
"Maybe we can stage manage the transition from anger into depression to cover the operational window?"
"Ah excellent, your plan is to make our girlfriend so sad she gives up her dreams."
"The very credible alternative is having her burn down an insurance agency!"
"Hmm," said White. "No. Literally anything that happens in the news is just going to make her double down. It won't just be an art project at that point, it will become her act of rebellion, the project that channels her fury into something productive."
"So the only way to deter her is to confront her directly."
"Exactly. And in so doing turn a bad week into an awful week, rendering her sidelined and demoralized. Are you comfortable with that?"
"... We can't tell her."
"She knows our whole terrorism secret already. She can be discreet. It's better she hear it from us."
"No. This is operational. It's not our secret, it's Pope's."
"He gave it to us. We're journalists. We can choose when to use it."
"This whole thing is a cascade of operational security issues!" said Black. "Revealing secret information to an untrained partner in order to manage emotions! Committing to a high profile art event that could turn into a furry uprising! Not to mention that the whole inciting incident is Fiona's [i]inability [/i]to keep a secret! If we tell her she's going to spend two weeks paralyzed unable to interact with her entire social circle while this eats her from the inside, without even the consolation of breaking into a judge's house! I understand you have a commitment to the abstract principle of honesty and trust, but like you said she [i]knows [/i]we're up to spy shit, and she [i]knows [/i]we're not telling her everything."
"... she would schedule her event to be on the day the news drops, wouldn't she?" said White.
"She would attend wearing a fucking Che beret," said Black.
"Do you think it'll go much better if she coincidentally schedules the event for that day?"
"... she wouldn't. The odds - no."
"Or if the event is scheduled for after that day do you think she does not update the dress code to match?"
"Hmm. I am starting to wonder if you are simply projecting your own desire to have a well organized and timely riot onto Crystal," said Black.
"I am very angry," said White.
"I am angry also," said Black. "Though admittedly most of that right now is aimed at Fiona for being unable to keep a secret. Even broaching the subject will cause a loss of trust."
"Not everyone is as concerned with operational secrecy as you," said White.
"Oh, that's rich coming from miss 'telling her is the right thing to do'," said Black. "No, I'm prepared to compromise on this and scout this situation out, maybe even tell her [i]if [/i]it would help, but this is where I draw the line."
"... fine."

*

Black: We'll talk to her on one condition.
Black: You must first admit to Crystal that you told us her secret.
Black: This is a big deal for us. We work in an extremely low trust environment. We are committed to being as honest with you two as we can be, and we don't like that 'as we can be' is not 'completely'. 
Black: Adding additional layers of concealment is not good for us. 
White: While we're being honest, we also cannot guarantee we do not wind up stabbing you in the back and agreeing with her.
White: I hesitate to remind you that we are probably the least mentally stable person in your life and our risk calculus is very different from yours.