Cassidy was so entranced by her mushroom culture that she had stopped eating. Her captors at the Social Justice Army assumed that this was because she was a thoughtful genius, utterly absorbed in her work. In fact Cassidy was running a test, using herself as an experiment. She often thought about the first humans, and how they had to slowly decide which new foods were edible by getting so hungry that they became desperate enough to try anything. The survivors effectively invented a new food source. But surely, a lot of people had died consuming poison along the way.
Other animals could rely on their sense of smell, of course, but that was not necessarily so useful for humans, particularly with mushrooms. What Cassidy found was that by limiting her food intake, she could force her sense of smell to make the mushrooms seem unusually attractive and delicious. Cassidy was attempting to make herself to want to eat them. That was a particular feeling she had always craved, a lack of control over natural instincts, a total deprivation of conscious thought.
To tell the full truth, of course, Cassidy was also fascinated by the context of death- another means by which the agony of her endless overthinking might be eliminated. The apparent permanence of the experience was enough to put Cassidy off of getting herself into too suicidal of a mood, most of the time. But the potential of an edible mushroom culture to affect the world, even in the event of a worldwide environmental disaster...the possibilities were too magnificent to contemplate. In a way this would be a special sort of hell, which was probably all humanity deserved. That, in the end, was why she was really working for Jerry Shankar, why she wanted him to succeed. But of course, no one could ever phrase the question just right.
It was in the midst of this stupor that Homer Ikari was able to come into her room unnoticed. Cassidy did not pay Homer much mind. Many would-be interrogators had been in to see her. None of them had any particularly interesting questions or insights. Huma was noteworthy solely because Cassidy had already identified her influence on the world at large as the Goddess of Light. Cassidy certainly did not expect to meet another God before the Social Justice Army finally gave up and released her- yet even as Homer spoke, Cassidy had a premonition that this unforeseen event was about to pass.
"You aren't eating," said Homer. "I'm worried about your physical health."
"Oh it's only been a few days," said Cassidy dismissively, continuing to stare at the mushrooms. "I've been drinking water enough. That's all you really need."
"Why are you doing this?" Homer asked.
"I'm trying to provoke myself into a state of fugue hunger-"
Without warning, Homer marched right over to where Cassidy was sitting and grabbed a fistful of the mushrooms. Before Cassidy had a chance to react he had shoved them in his mouth, chewing them briefly and considerately with a pained expression on his face, and then very deliberately swallowing.
"Those weren't very good," said Homer, sniffling. "But they were edible I think. Probably not very nutritious either. I'll give you a readout later."
"Are you mad?" asked Cassidy. "Those could have been poisonous!"
"But they weren't," said Homer. "And if they were were, my augments would have flushed out enough of the antitoxins that they wouldn't have killed me."
Cassidy took a careful look at Homer. He was clad in the same dark black uniform as the rest of the Social Justice Army. In times of yore, they used to wear those ridiculous looking rainbow colored outfits to represent diversity. Hence the name Rainbow Shirts. Cassidy couldn't figure out why they adopted the derogatory name of Rainbow Shirts as their own when they changed the uniforms. Regardless, Cassidy didn't care enough about the subject to ask directly.
"What do you want?" she asked suspiciously.
"Actually, I want to know what you want," said Homer. "This entire sequestration has been a fantastic waste of time and opportunity cost on our part. I would guess that you and Jerry Shankar have cooked something up to distract us- except that nothing is going on. We're still in the dark on Chicago. Murdering our people at that...pig excrement swamp may have hurt our ego, but it wasn't a widely reported event. All anyone knows for sure is that Jerry Shankar probably survived that interview, since if he was dead or captured we'd be parading him everywhere."
"Is that what you want to do to Jerry Shankar?"
"Heavens no!" cried Homer, a look of disgust permeating his face. "That's disgusting! And barbaric! If we ever did get a hold of him I'd go for something more measured, like a public admittance of guilt."
"Would your friends go along with that?" asked Cassidy.
"Probably not," said Homer with a sigh. "But what does it matter? We're never going to catch Jerry Shankar. There is no Jerry Shankar."
"Ah yes," said Cassidy. "The illusory show trial conspiracy explanation of Jerry Shankar's existence. That's one of my favorite theories."
"I also happened to note that it's completely incorrect, as do you," said Homer matter-of-factly. "Jerry Shankar is real and he's also not that important, right?"
Cassidy gave Homer another very suspicious look. This was among the very last things she had expected to hear from anyone in the Rainbow Shirts for the duration of her stay.
"Why do you say that to me, as if it's some sort of revelation?" asked Cassidy. "Surely you must know that I have said as much, indeed, in those exact words nearly, to most of the people who have passed through here. Jerry Shankar's irrelevance is the plainest possible truth. The inability of your people to grasp that is the surest evidence of your dysfunction."
Homer breathed out furiously through his nose, cracking his knuckles. He began to pace around Cassidy's room like an enraged animal, though his rage was clearly not directed at Cassidy in particular. After fuming for a moment he once again looked straight back at her.
"That's why you're here then!" he said. "You know none of this matters, and you just, you just...it was for the damn mushrooms wasn't it! This whole thing was just a ploy for your stupid science experiment!"
"It wasn't a ploy," said Cassidy. "The Goddess of War wanted to know about my relationship with Jerry Shankar, and I told her the truth."
"I talked to her too," said Homer. "And I happen to know that you're the one who brought Jerry Shankar up first. Esther didn't even ask you about it. Esther was on vacation."
"It was so obviously relevant to her state of mind it would have been dishonest for me to intentionally obscure that information," said Cassidy.
"Even so-"
"Wait," said Cassidy, exhaling in slight confusion. "Didn't you think it was odd that I just called her the Goddess of War?"
Homer opened his mouth as if to speak, but struggled with finding anything to say. Cassidy could see that he found this bit of information just as perplexing as she did. To them both, the notion that Esther Okerye was the Goddess of War was such an inherent and natural assumption it was not worth questioning. That they had arrived at this conclusion independently was a very peculiar coincidence.
"Who are you?" asked Cassidy.
"My name is Homer Ikari."
"Thank you," said Cassidy, "although that was not the intent of my question. Your temperament is so very different from hers...she is lost in the inherent meaninglessness of her existence, yet here you are viewing that same meaninglessness, accurately understanding it, yet somehow concluding that there must be some greater truth at the heart of it. What is it that you want, Mr. Ikari?"
"I asked first," said Homer.
"Fine," said Cassidy. "I want to destroy the world as we know it and Jerry Shankar is an acceptable means by which this task may be achieved. Keep me here forever if you like or just kill me if you please. That's just another means by which my destruction can be achieved, if on a smaller level. But Shankar can't be defeated now, and matters will only turn out worse for you if I'm not around to exert influence on him."
"Well I don't want the world destroyed," said Homer forcefully. "And I will do whatever is necessary to save it!"
"Are you mad?" asked Cassidy. "How can you possibly expect to achieve anything of the sort when you work alongside a woman whose only talent is wholesale destruction?"
"The Rainbow Shirts have contained Esther Okerye," said Homer. "Just as we have contained all the rest of the fascists, and just like we'll contain you!"
Cassidy was troubled by the words. The threat did not move her, as she had already seen every inevitable outcome of the current sequence of events and knew that victory by some definition or other was already practically assured. While Huma Reid's personality had fit neatly, if eccentrically, into Cassidy's overall analysis of possible future events, this added factor had to be carefully weighted. Was Cassidy overestimating or underestimating the impact Esther Okerye's sister had on the woman's state of mind?
There was also, naturally, the added hypocrisy of Cassidy attempting to criticize Homer's position when she herself, was working closely with the God of Lies, intrinsically and strongly relying upon him to do what she could not. But destruction of one sort or another is always assured. War is just one means of accomplishing it, whereas peace...
"The God of Peace," Cassidy whispered. "Of course, why didn't I realize it sooner...another opposing faction, just like all the other sets..."
"I don't know what kind of game you're playing," said Homer, with clear revulsion. "But you've made it clear enough to me that there's no point keeping you here. I'll arrange your release and return as soon as I'm able. You should make sure your mushrooms are ready for departure by tomorrow."
With that, just as abruptly as Homer had made his entrance, he was gone, leaving Cassidy in a continued state of shock. The subtleties of this man were extraordinary, a stark contrast to Huma Reid's transparent stupidity. The people who knew Homer almost certainly did not appreciate his talents. But why-
Cassidy forcefully shook these thoughts out of her head. In the long term it made no difference from where Homer derived his power. It had already been accounted for, and there were limits to his ability to interfere with future events. Besides that, Cassidy had a more relevant short-term problem. She was going to have to prepare the mushrooms.