GG and The Chef: The Bond
Old Military Friends
"They became 'old military friends' the way you do when one is sent to kill the other and decides not to." — On GG and The Chef's first meeting, 2181
Overview
GG and The Chef are old military friends—a phrase that means something different in the post-Cascade Sprawl. They didn't serve in the same unit. They didn't train together. They became "old military friends" the way you do when one is sent to kill the other and decides not to.
Their bond is built on three foundations:
Shared Loss
Both had mothers and families destroyed by corporate indifference
Parallel Purpose
Both wage war against systems that crush individuals
Mutual Recognition
Each sees in the other what they might have become under different circumstances
They are the only two people in the Sprawl who truly understand each other. This makes them allies. It also makes them dangerous—to each other and to everyone else.
The Mission That Changed Everything
The Contract (2181)
Three years after GG went rogue, the corporations pooled resources for a joint assassination contract. The target: The Chef, whose expanding army threatened supply chains across four sectors. The payment: enough to fund GG's war for a decade.
GG accepted. Not for the money—for the access. A contract against The Chef meant corporate intelligence, security details, supply routes. Information she could use whether the target died or not.
The Corporate Intel Package
- Psychological profile: "delusional, messianic complex, cannibal"
- Threat assessment: "expanding virus, must be contained"
- Tactical analysis: "army loyal but disorganized, leader is the weak point"
- Recommendation: "surgical strike during feast celebration, maximum psychological impact"
GG spent three months preparing. She infiltrated The Feast's supply chain, mapped patrol patterns, identified seventeen different assassination opportunities. She took none of them.
What GG Found
The intel was technically accurate and fundamentally wrong.
What the Corps Saw
A cannibal warlord expanding through conquest, feeding delusions of godhood to chrome zealots.
What GG Observed
- Soldiers who ate better than corporate employees
- Conquered populations being fed, not starved
- A leader who knew every soldier's name
- Organization that ran like a professional military, not a cult
- And at the center of it all, an elderly dog receiving better care than most humans in the Sprawl
GG watched The Chef for six weeks before making contact. What she saw wasn't a monster. It was a mirror.
The Conversation
GG revealed herself during a feast—not with a blade, but with a question. She walked into The Chef's tent unannounced, past guards who hadn't seen her approach, and sat down at the table. The Chef's hand stopped halfway to a knife.
The tent went silent. The Chef's generals reached for weapons. GG didn't move.
GG walked out. The Chef didn't stop her. Three weeks later, after every detail checked out, The Chef sent an invitation to dinner.
What They Share
Loss
Both women carry wounds that define them:
GG's Loss
- Mother died from a denied healthcare claim
- The corporation she served betrayed her
- Her identity was erased to protect their secrets
The Chef's Loss
- Family abandoned her during the frame-up
- Seventeen people she trusted participated in her destruction
- Her name, rank, and future were taken
They don't talk about their losses often. They don't need to. Each carries the weight visibly—in how they move, how they trust, how they measure every interaction against the possibility of betrayal.
When they're together, that weight becomes lighter. Not healed—shared.
Purpose
Both wage war against systems, not people:
GG's War
Dismantle corporations from within. Plant chaos seeds. Make the machines eat themselves.
The Chef's War
Build an alternative. Feed the hungry. Give the discarded a home. Prove that something better is possible.
They approach the same problem from opposite directions. GG tears down; The Chef builds up. Neither strategy is complete without the other. They know this.
Recognition
Each sees in the other the path they didn't take:
GG sees in The Chef
What she might become if she stopped hiding. If she claimed power openly instead of working from shadows. If she let herself have something worth protecting.
The Chef sees in GG
What she might have become if she'd stayed patient. If she'd fought the system from within instead of outside. If she'd kept her discipline instead of surrendering to rage.
They admire and fear these alternate selves in equal measure.
The Ritual: Shared Meals
When GG visits The Feast, she always joins The Chef for a meal. This is sacred time—not for strategy, not for intelligence, not for war planning. Just food and conversation.
The Rules
The opening dishes are for settling in, for presence, for acknowledging that they're more than their roles.
The Chef prepares whatever she wants to serve. This is a gift, not a negotiation.
The old dog lies between them, receiving pieces of meat from both hands. A shared responsibility.
These meals happen in private. Whatever is said stays between them.
If GG can't answer a question truthfully, she says nothing. The Chef extends the same courtesy.
What They Discuss
Philosophy
GG and The Chef have fundamentally different views of power, and they debate constantly:
Neither wins these arguments. Neither expects to.
Food
The Chef teaches GG about cooking—not as a skill, but as a philosophy.
GG has started cooking in her safe houses. Nothing elaborate—she doesn't have the time or equipment. But she takes care with ingredients now. Arranges plates thoughtfully. Eats sitting down instead of standing.
The Chef considers this one of her greatest victories.
Memories
They share stories from before—before the betrayal, before the rogue years, before they became legends.
These stories are gifts. Neither shares them with anyone else.
Sage
They don't discuss Sage's condition directly. The Chef can't—speaking it aloud makes it too real. But GG understands the subtext of every conversation about "long-term planning" and "finding specialists."
GG has quietly added The Keeper to her intelligence gathering. She doesn't tell The Chef this. She's not sure what she's looking for. She just knows The Chef is running out of time, and if there's a solution, it's probably on that mountain.
What They Argue About
Methods
GG believes in precision. One target, one solution, minimal collateral damage. Her chaos seeds are surgical instruments designed to unravel specific systems.
The Chef believes in overwhelming force. When she conquers a territory, everyone knows—the conquerors, the conquered, the watching Sprawl. Her approach is statement as much as strategy.
GG never answers this question.
The Expansion
GG worries about The Chef's accelerating conquests. Since Sage's prognosis worsened, the army has been moving faster, taking bigger risks, accepting more casualties.
The Chef doesn't answer. She knows GG is right. She can't stop anyway.
Chompy
The Chef is one of the few people who knows about Cyber Chomp. She's watched the digital creature hover around GG during their meetings, demanding attention, presenting "gifts."
She's also noticed the pattern GG can't see.
GG doesn't pursue the conversation. She doesn't want to think too hard about why The Chef is looking at Chompy that way. The Chef never pushes. She's not sure herself. But she watches. And she wonders.
Trust
They've never fully trusted each other. They can't—trust is a liability for both of them.
They've tested each other repeatedly. Small betrayals, minor deceptions, information held back to see if the other notices. Neither has found the line the other won't cross. This is reassuring and terrifying.
They continue meeting anyway. The alternative—being alone with what they know—is worse.
The Unspoken
What The Chef Knows (That GG Doesn't)
The Chef has sources GG doesn't know about. Through them, she's learned fragments:
- GG was involved with someone before going rogue. Someone significant.
- That someone erased themselves from her memory. Technology that shouldn't exist.
- The Architect is watching GG through channels even The Chef can't trace.
She hasn't told GG any of this. Partly because she's not sure it's true. Partly because she doesn't know what GG would do with the information. Partly because some wounds shouldn't be reopened.
What GG Knows (That The Chef Doesn't)
GG has been quietly gathering intelligence on The Keeper. Not for herself—for The Chef. If there's any solution to Sage's condition, it's probably on that mountain.
She hasn't shared this research because:
- She doesn't want to give The Chef false hope
- She doesn't fully understand what The Keeper is
- She suspects the price for his help will be catastrophic
What Neither Says
"I need you."
They've never admitted this to each other. Neither admits it to themselves. But the truth is obvious to anyone watching:
Without each other, they would both become something worse. GG would disappear entirely into the shadows. The Chef would disappear entirely into godhood. Together, they stay human. Or as human as either of them can manage.
Scene: The Meal After Sage's Prognosis
The Chef's private tent. Night. Sage sleeping fitfully on a heated bed. GG sits across the table, plate barely touched.
The Chef says nothing. Her hand rests on Sage's head. The old dog sighs in her sleep.