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“You’re joking,” Alec says, looking to Brian as if for confirmation of the assertion, but Brian’s firmly knit brow doesn’t offer any certainty.
“Nope,” Lisa smiles back, offering Alec the letter with an outstretched hand. Rachel scowls— she was the one Marquis’s man had delivered it to but she’d given it to Lisa to read, not knowing the contents. This was as much a surprise for her as anything else.
“Did we know Marquis had a daughter?” Brian asks, reading over Alec’s shoulder.
The letter is printed on unnecessarily nice parchment, seemingly hand written, and the envelope was shut with an honest to god wax seal, with Marquis’s stylized M. More than a touch extra, but Lisa respected the man’s commitment, if nothing else.
“The general public? No. Me? Yes. She doesn’t have powers, and she was mostly raised by private tutors.”
“Did you know she was a lesbo?” Alec asks, waggling his eyebrows.
Lisa shakes her head, both an answer to the question and dismissive of Alec’s words.
“She could be bisexual,” Brian offers.
“I’m more inclined to say gay, since the offer wasn’t for Alec, but that’s besides the point.”
“Me?” Alec says, at the same time Brian says “him?”
“You fit his aesthetic way more,” Lisa points out. “But this isn’t really about finding his kid a partner. There are way easier ways to do just that, ways that don’t involve bringing in a rival supervillain.”
“Lise, I know you’re not supposed to say, but—“ Brian starts.
“I can tell you he’s not the benefactor,” she says, leaning forward as she thinks, her legs crossed on the sofa. “Think of this as a potential alternative arrangement. He’s offering an alliance.”
“A marriage alliance,” Alec says, shaking his head. “Who does that? It’s not the eighteenth century.”
“It’s not as unheard of as you might think,” Lisa replies. “E88 does it, for the most obvious example.”
“Oh, great, let’s be like the nazis!” Alec replies, rolling his eyes. “You can’t seriously be considering this.”
“I’m considering my options. If nothing else, I could bring it to our boss as a way to negotiate for more money.”
“I’m interested in at least hearing him out,” Brian says. “You’re sure this isn’t a trap, though?”
Lisa taps her head. “First off— he’s got his whole women and kids thing. I’m inclined to think part of this is him trying to absorb us into his organization so he doesn’t have to deal with us as enemies down the line. Second off, if it was, he wouldn’t bring his daughter into it.”
“You’re sure,” Brian says, and it’s a question with a period at the end of the sentence.
“I’m ninety percent sure he means us no physical harm. At worst, this is a fishing operation meant to gather more information about my power and us as a team. But like I said, I don’t think he’d bring Amelia into this if he wasn’t at least a little serious.”
“Marquis is stupid,” Rachel mutters. “Talks too much. Thinks he’s so smart.”
She didn’t like being confronted with her own illiteracy. Who would?
“He doesn’t do dog fights,” Lisa says. “And he’s the type of guy who could be persuaded to make protecting dogs a pet issue. I think it’d fit with his whole vibe.”
“Maybe,” she says, her body language suggesting she’s not at all sold.
“It’s not a job, currently. It’s a conversation that I intend to have,” Lisa says. “The risks are all mine.”
“You’re not going to meet up with Marquis on your own,” Brian tells her.
“Okay, the risks are mostly mine,” she caveats. “There’s a scenario here, and I don’t know if it’s the best case scenario or what, where I go all the way through with it. I end up joining the Estate as —“ she has to take a second to appreciate what she’s saying, “Marquis’s daughter in law. I’m fairly sure I’d have the option to bring you all with me, but that’s not necessarily guaranteed. And that’s assuming you’d want to come.”
“Aisha…” Brian starts.
“Marquis would probably want to send her to a fancy boarding school that she would absolutely hate,” Lisa says. “She’d be basically his niece. Pros and cons— she’d probably want to murder him and you for getting her into it, but she’d have an easy road to the Ivy Leagues. You’d have to work less, too, since he’s already established as a villain.”
Brian nods.
“What’s the worst case scenario?” he asks, after a minute of more thinking.
“Exploring this option ends up losing us the support of our current sponsor and we don’t end up with any sort of deal. I’m inclined to say that’s highly unlikely.”
“How unlikely?”
“Five percent or so. It’s much more likely we‘re able to walk away with a better set up than what we’ve got, either with the old boss or a new one.“
Brian nods thoughtfully.
“Sounds like you’re trying to sell us on it,” Alec points out.
“I’m laying out the options.”
“And the options include you getting married?” he says, his voice going higher at the end of the sentence to suggest the absurdity of it.
“For political reasons,” she shrugs. “It says there won’t be any expectation of consummating the marriage, and there’d be a long engagement.”
“You’re not even gay,” Alec points out.
“You don’t know that, I could be.” Alec side eyes her. Brian does too. Rachel is the only one who doesn’t. “I don’t know, the whole idea of dating seems unnecessarily complicated, and my power kind of kills any excitement I might’ve gotten out of it anyway. Why not just get it over with, while getting a powerful ally and loads of resources out of the deal?”
“So… are you?” Brian asks, and she shrugs.
“Bisexual, I guess? If you really had to push me on it. But again, not the point.”
Brian nods, as if happy to have a label.
“It seems like an option worth exploring,” he says after thinking about it for a few minutes. “Especially if the thought of getting married doesn’t bother you.”
“Little Miss Marquis is probably going to be a major freak,” Alec points out, less for the sake of arguing and more to just give Lisa shit. Brian rubs his knuckles into Alec’s head, as if to point out Alec is just as much of a freak, and Alec resists with mock outrage. “It’s true! I bet she’s going to be into weird shit with bones and roleplaying as a vampire like her dad.”
“Good thing I’m worse!” Lisa says cheerily. “So, we’re agreed? No objections to me at least setting up a meeting?”
Rachel grunts something that’s not a no, Alec shrugs, and Brian nods.
Lisa wonders if on some level she wanted them to come up with a reason this was a bad idea. She’s kept bringing crazier and crazier plans to the group, and they’ve been able to pull them all off so far, but eventually, they’ve got to fail, right? This is significantly safer than robbing a casino, but it still manages to feel like doubling down.
It’s not like there’s any other viable option, of course. Going with Marquis might be less freedom in the immediate future, but Coil’s going to close the net eventually, and she wants out before that can happen.
“Alright, let’s get me married, then,” she grins.