"(What did you see, exactly?)" said Aimee in Thai, standing outside of his house in a Bangkok suburb.
"(It was r-right in my backyard.)" he said. "(T-These drops of blood started appearing in the grass, and when I reached my hand out to them, t-they began moving like they were alive. And yesterday, I-I thought I saw the K-Krasue in my bedroom, b-but she disappeared when I turned the lights on.)"
"(The Krasue?)" said Aimee, glancing back to Mia & Marisa 12ft away.
"(A-A female spirit, with only organs below her neck.)"
"(You saw intestines?)"
He nodded. "(Y-Yes, and this isn't the first time. That -)" - he glanced over his shoulder - "( - that damn academy. T-They never investigate anything I ask them to.)"
"(I'm sure.)" nodded Aimee. "(Did you see what direction the blood or intestines were going?)"
He pointed to a crimson spot on his window. "(T-That was there when I woke up.)"
"(…north, then.)" Aimee frowned. So far, everyone they'd investigated had that same direction. "(We'll look in to it. Been dealing with a host in America that matches up with that. Any questions for me?)"
"(Y-Yes.)" He pointed to Mia & Marisa. "(Why are your friends staying so far back?)"
"(Uh, she's got a host flu.)" said Aimee, relevantly. "(Super contagious. Probably would kill you if you got it.)"
Mia adjusted her N95 mask. It was purple to match Worldwide's flames.
"(T-Then why is the other one standing right next to her?)"
"(I don't believe in germs.)" shrugged Marisa, relevantly.
He nodded. To him, the existence of Revenants disproved most real science; there was not much difference between spirits and hosts. "(M-May I leave?)"
"(Sure thing.)" said Aimee. "(We'll look in to it and let you know if we find anything.)"
The three walked away, and once they were around the corner, Mia winced and pulled her mask down. "How the hell does anyone breathe in these?"
"Uh, try this one." said Marisa, giving her a Boudoir-brand mask.
Mia put it on and nodded. "Much better. What did he say?" (Rosetta could only give one language per host. Mia already knew Spanish.)
Aimee started relaying it.
Marisa kept watch as they came into the city. Bangkok's pride parade was that week and they stayed away from the sidewalks with civilians. She was reminded of her experience volunteering with local LGBT+ organizations over the past year, mostly out of a desire to find a date. She had stopped going after being lectured by a man twice her age to not use the word 'dyke'.
It disappointed her how a movement that had begun in a Mafia-owned bar was now debated in boardrooms, rights won through law and not bricks & bats. Part of her identity was latched to this conception of lesbianism as quintessentially apart from normal society. She felt that was a practice that unfortunately would not be inherited.
Marisa passed the corner, then gestured Mia & Aimee to her to the next sidewalk, and in the next instant -
- she pushed Aimee & Mia back as her back hit the corner, wincing as she pointed around it - " - Revenant."
"What is it?" whispered Mia, Rider's tendrils in her veins.
"Careful." muttered Aimee. "Might accidentally go purple if you Solar Beam."
Marisa peeked around the corner, seeing a man tearing apart a rainbow flag, rainbow-colored fabric-dogs sitting beside him. "…uh. Don't see a badge…"
"Check how he reacts." whispered Aimee.
Marisa showed herself around the corner, and in the next instant -
- one proud dog turned and started running towards her; she raised her palm as it came within range, shouting Boudoir as it leaped towards her -
- and a volley of fabric bullets committed fratricide as they tore it in to kibbles & bits; ahead, the man caught sight of her and pointed right at her -
- and another Boudoir-barrage tore the next three animals to bits, Mia & Aimee coming up behind Marisa now, 60ft separating them & their foe already tearing apart a new flag.
"Ten seconds already passed." muttered Aimee. "Can't use Time Spiral."
"Use what?" said Marisa, glancing back.
"Nothing." she muttered, smiling a little to Mia.
Ahead, another bunch of fabric formed a rainbow dog that rushed at them, but a pillar of homophobic purple flame disintegrated it without a single ash left.
"Uh, how are we gonna knock him out?" whispered Marisa. "Mia-Mia?"
Mia frowned, realizing the only non-Worldwide option was strangulation. "…I still don't want to get in close."
Aimee nodded and pulled her knife out, and in the next instant -
- he was headless in the next - Marisa & Mia-Mia burst in to laughter as Aimee reappeared beside them -
" - Aimee, just because I said -" - cackled Mia - " - you didn't have to -"
" - what the fuck -" laughed Marisa, relevantly - " - I would have just like, choked him out or whatever -"
" - works every time." chimed Aimee, corpse falling to the ground ahead. "Just gotta hope Chokchai doesn't find out."
Mia glanced at Marisa, and a strand yanked the evidence in to a wall of purple flame.
"Damn, what a homophobe." Marisa looked around. "…uh. I need to find a bathroom real quick."
"We'll wait here." said Aimee and she nodded.
Mia watched her go through a restaurant's doors, then leaned against the wall. She looked over the line of shops. She could see Chokchai Academy in the distance, and as far as she remembered, Kamon's street was a mile beyond that.
She could call to mind the yogurt restaurant where Serena had asked the three to let her place their orders with her new voice. A few streets over, they'd ate at a diner where Serena kept glancing at her new face in the glass. Naomi had pointed Chokchai's transsexual student out to her, and they had talked for nearly an hour. It had been the last trans woman Serena had talked to in a while.
In recent months, Mia had noticed Serena's aversion to pictures of herself in her first & second year. The past year has given her an idea of Serena that she unconsciously accepted to where, until she spoke with Yuruko that December, she forgot had once been another way.
Marisa came back out, smiling to Mia as she stepped up.
Aimee tapped her tablet and the wall shimmered behind they. The three stepped through it back in to Timepact's meeting room.
"Still need to hire our own transporter." muttered Aimee, glancing at Mia.
Mia shook her head. "There aren't any new students with one."
"Damn." muttered Marisa as they sat down. "Still gotta pay for in-flight internet."
"Well, at least we know Thai now." mumbled Aimee. "Gotta go add that to the list, and Charlotte should be calling soon, so..." She stood up, kissed Mia, and left.
Mia turned to Marisa. "Alright. Now, who was it you were telling me about? Cara?"
"Ah, I dunno if I wanna talk about that, Mia-Mia." Marisa sighed. "Like, it's just difficult to date now, you know? And the women I meet, like, they just keep making it so difficult. I keep trying all these different apps."
"Come on. What happened?"
"Well, I don't know. We met for coffee a few times. Not really my idea of a nice date, but okay, like. I start getting the feeling she just views her life too easily. Like, she's telling me about this dream she has of being a musician and all that. But I can't be the only one bringing money in, you know? I don't want to be with somebody who's gonna look up from their life one day and see how much slipped away from them. Musicians don't make anything. That's why they're all like, starving."
"Well, that's part of the problem with dating civilians, isn't it? I don't know. That might be part of the problem. Because - because otherwise, I just don't see why you've had trouble with... I mean, you're obviously very attractive. And you're a lot of fun to be around, Marisa."
"Yeah, that's my problem, I'm always just fun to be around. I'd like to get married eventually, Mia. Not just flings. What ever happened to lesbians being able to put on a bit of romance, anyway?"
Marisa's earliest views of romance were conditioned by the relationship she saw between her father & mother, and the judgment she had made of it. The worst of a human is what tends to stay in one's recollection, so for Marisa they seemed a perpetually bickering couple, arguing over how they would pay the bills or split up the household duties; always she sided with her mother. She felt that her aunt had chosen correctly when she would bluntly opine that women were better off without marriage or men.
But her mother knew her husband. He frustrated her sometimes, but oftentimes he would flash a smile or crack a joke, and she would remember why she had chosen to marry him. There was a nice winter coat he had bought for her for Christmas, and it was one of the few times they had kissed in front of their children. He had discussed with her how to take care of the girls if a Revenant hurt her, and they continued their dates even as he worked extra hours to financially support Penelope.
But to Marisa, a lesbian relationship should be like a magical utopia, free from compromise and suffering. Her biggest fear was dying alone without having lived in that paradise. The golden hue such a utopia seemed to possess made reality a secondary thing to her beliefs. Bitterness is not uncommon to any single person, yet its worm slithered under Marisa and left caverns of emptiness in its echoic passages, and may eventually traverse above the flesh.