In the meantime, they continued to fight random hosts around Urasaria. Iris could usually solve their location with just a single Timeline, a fact she was beginning to be bored by. They were driving back along a detour that took them to a road flanked by forest, when out of the side of her eye Iris caught something: as did Natasha.
They stepped out. Near the edge of the forest was a small, pink imp-like creature hailing them. They positioned themselves carefully, about 50ft away from it, when it began dancing for them, gesturing them further in.
"Not sure we should trust this." muttered Iris.
"Eh, if it's strong, Meteorology has a forest-specific ability." Natasha shrugged. "I've never had trouble with any host in a forest and I never fucking will."
"Maybe."
They stepped a little closer to it. It continued dancing and smiled to them. It said: "I bring you love!"
"Kill it!" shouted Natasha. "Kill it quickly and violently!"
"Break its legs!" shouted Iris.
They rushed into the forest as it shrieked and tried to flee, its stubby red legs hurtling over short roots and the underbrush. Yelling like a woman possessed from 30ft away, Natasha hurtled herself forward and shouted for Meteorology as it continued to flee ahead; the entire forest ahead of it burst into flames. No option left, it leaped up to a nearby branch and was swinging its stubby legs over when another branch grew and impaled right through its skull, leaving it to flail then sputter.
Imp still alive, Phantom rotted the branch and it fell -
- right into a Natasha kick that punted its head clear off and sent its body sailing into another tree, corpse smashing and not even writhing as it fell dead to the ground. Natasha rushed up to it and kicked it again, sending it spinning into the dirt as Iris caught up with her.
"That's right, bitch, stay down!" Natasha stomped on it.
"Don't get back up!" Iris stomped on it.
Natasha stomped on it. Iris stomped on it. Natasha stomped on it. Iris stomped on it. Natasha stomped on it. Iris stomped on it. Natasha stomped on it. She wiped her face and the forest extinguished itself. "Well, now what?"
"It's either a Revenant or a cryptid." muttered Iris. "Suppose we can go search for its host."
They searched around a little, keeping close with the other, until they heard a song deeper in the forest. Knowing what they were likely about to find, they followed it regardless, and the scenery blurred & glowed; outside existence faded. They saw a clearing ahead but not what was in it, and passed by mushrooms holding hands as they danced in circles. A single satyr played its flute. In the distance, humans rode centaurs and rabbits played cards.
A pond lined by rocks was within the clearing. Several women were bathing nude in it. One of the women saw them and gestured them over. The music curled around the shafts of light that illumined her hair, though Iris could see no source for its chords.
Iris mostly kept her gaze averted, but when she looked down, she saw the woman was a mermaid. Judging by what was peeking out of her crotch's shell, the forest they stood in was not the only one here.
She liked that.
"Greetings, sweetie. How are you feeling?"
"Aroused."
She laid her head on Iris's thigh. "Hahaha. Is this your first time?"
"No, I've been aroused before."
"Are you a top or a bottom?"
"I'm a student."
"Oh, terrifyingly aggressive top. What's in your pants?"
"A Revenant."
"And your sexiest fantasy?"
"Murder."
Iris glanced over to Natasha, who was sitting down on the edge of the rock basin. One of the women had laid her breasts on Natasha's head: one on each side. A few other women had gathered around Natasha, stroking her hands as she talked about her problems.
They were visibly becoming disturbed fairly quickly.
Iris paused the air below herself using Phantom, sitting in midair. She gestured to the woman, laying her legs over her back. "Be a good girl and get between my thighs." she muttered, watching Natasha carefully. Her hand rested in the woman's hair.
"I'm sure you tell that to all your girlfriends." She placed her head between Iris's thighs, and in the next instant -
- with one motion Iris twisted her legs and ripped the woman's head clear off; a gust of lightning shot into the water -
- and a green one combined with it exploded every other mermaid in it into puffs of red & pink gore; a hook of wind pulled Natasha back over to Iris, two of them backing away as the remaining mermaids scowled & screamed at them.
"Sorry, I forgot to mention I have someone for that already." said Iris.
'And she's very good at it.' she added mentally, then smiled thinking of Amelie.
More mermaids rose out of the pond and did not seem as lascivious. More were slithering towards them from the outer ring of the clearing, shouting angrily and their breasts wagging. Natasha & Iris slid up back-to-back as the horde encroached upon them, and with one mighty lurch rushed into the two for a hellish melee. Nails and tails were whickering and smacking about them, centaurs rearing and stamping, mermaid heads nodding among mermaid necks that were stained crimson.
As Iris caught a mermaid's neck in her grip, she yelled for Phantom, snapped the neck in half and broke it with such force that the accelerated blood shot out and cut through the next arc of foes ahead of her. In another instant she hoisted the mermaid over her shoulders and snapped her body in half, sending electricified blood all over the clearing that burnt another dozen creatures to death.
Gusts of wind blasted apart mermaid skulls with such efficiency and hatred that Iris accepted this absurd scene without comment. In that inferno of smacking tails and spurting blood there was no time to strategize. A raincloud formed over the clearing and dropped a frozen hail that Phantom accelerated into a hundred skulls, slicing and rending them apart as easily a fork does chicken.
More foes were ahead...
"Okay, are we done?" said Natasha.
Iris shrugged and nodded.
"Meteorology: Wildfire."
The entire visible forest burst into flames; smoke and ash consumed their foes as Natasha kept their own vision safe with a dome of air, hearing screams of mermaids in mythical agony outside. After ten seconds, Natasha's finger twitched and the forest was snuffed, winds blasting the smoke away to clear their sight.
"Is that the only location-specific ability you have?" said Iris.
"It's the only one I've found so far, anyway. Guess it's because it's a natural disaster specific to forests."
"But what constitutes a forest?"
"We're not getting into that here."
Iris glanced around and saw there were no more mermaids coming or cuming. The pond was empty. "Sorry if I was about to interrupt you getting laid."
"They weren't going to fuck me, they were going to be nice to me, which is a lot rarer."
Iris mused to herself that if Natasha considered that kindness it was no wonder she was how she was. She checked the bodies, but most had disappeared beyond their initial interlopers; one corpse was a woman with nostrils as wide as a subway tunnel, wearing a cheap mermaid costume.
Natasha carved out her chest and scanned the Revenant inside.
[Paradiso: Brings you love.]
"Boring." said Natasha.
Iris laughed. "Bet you that imp was just some midget in a costume."
On their way back out, they retraced their steps and ran across the imp's corpse. It was not any different.
Natasha frowned. "Let's just get the hell out of here."
They drove back to Urasaria and Natasha checked her mail, as she had for the past few weeks. She had a letter from the municipal government and read it aloud. "'Dear Natural Disaster, this is...' Okay, it's the water treatment people. 'The sample you have given us is consistent with municipal water. More details are below.'"
"What?" Iris frowned.
"Residential, specifically. They drowned that woman in someone's home."
"God damnit. They can't figure out a county?"
"Well, they have the county, but it's New York, Iris. Even the smallest county here has about a thousand homes. If it was a small body of water, maybe, but..."
Iris ruminated internally, turning her mind to the mafia and not devils. She had already checked for the non-host's ID; she felt he was an IV drip they could use to find Salvatore. If Lucca did live nearby him, perhaps she could spend a few days with Timeline to trace back his vehicle, or...
"…I'm not terribly sure this'll work, but I'd like to try reversing the car." said Iris.
"Are you sure you can do that?"
"I don't see any reason I shouldn't be able to. It's not linked to a corpse, unless he was killed in his car, maybe. My guess is the non-host male can help us find Salvatore. And he was picked up by that car."
They went back to the house of the drug deal, and Iris created a Timeline as she had before. They got into the car, fitting themselves in between the four corpses. Iris tried to manipulate it and was relieved that she could do so; he had not died with the vehicle. "Got it." She closed her eyes. "So, there's two things I can do here. Consider it like a number-line. I can move this forward in time -- really, from -45 to -10 -- or I can go from -45 to -60. Understand?"
"It scares me that I'm starting to. So, you just can't see the future."
"I wish."
"If you revert, we'll have all four of their addresses. Might be best." Natasha looked behind herself. "If terrifying."
"I'm sure we can survive a crash."
"I was talking about for civilians."
Iris guided the car backwards, reversing along the same path it had in life. After they exited the Timeline, Natasha threw the four corpses out as the car continued to revert. After thirty minutes of the most terrifying drive they had ever been on and fifty near-crashes, they reverted into a suburban home's garage. The passenger door opened and closed.
"That was our non-host."
Natasha nodded, removed her asshole from the upholstery it had been clenched around for the past 30 minutes, then left the vehicle with Iris. "Pretty close to where his friend lives, isn't it? Think it was just around the corner in this same neighborhood."
"Seems like it." Iris looked around the garage, then tentatively knocked on the door into the house. No response.
Natasha blasted it inward with a gust of wind and into the living room they swept, kitchen at their right and a hall up ahead with several doors, ending in a stairway up. Natasha suggested they start on the second floor, and they came out to another hallway with a few rooms; a bedroom, study, and bathroom.
They checked the bedroom first. Nothing. Most anything of potential interest had been destroyed; bookshelves, computers and electronics. Iris crouched down, and was beginning to revert the room when they heard a noise below.
She checked with Phantom and felt the front-door's state below shift; it had been opened.
"They know we were heading here." whispered Natasha.
"Why is this man so goddamn important?" muttered Iris.
"Iris, I ask that about all of them."
Phantom rotted a miniscule hole in the floor and Iris peered through it. Several men were below, searching around the living room and kitchen. She saw the glass cabinet of china beside the kitchen, and slowly she rotted a miniscule crack in it. No response from the men. She rotted it again, louder, and a few turned their heads to check.
"Oh my god." whispered Natasha. "These are civilians. Look how slow their reactions are. Iris, have you ever fought a civilian?"
"Yes."
"…you know that's super illegal, right? Anyway, ready to reduce some dudes to red mist, like you probably did whoever you fought?"
Phantom rotted a hole in the floor and they landed in the middle of the men; before any could react a superheated wind ripped the flesh off one and left a pile of crumbling bones, and Iris had caught up another by his neck and scraped his face into the glass cabinet, until finally:
" - run!" shouted one, and Iris felt him open the door a second later -
- but Phantom slammed it hard back on him and crushed his right arm into a pulpy red husk; beside, Natasha had caught up two men by their hair, bonking their heads together with enough force that their necks exploded. "Hahaha, you didn't bring a host with you?"
Another two men were trying to rush out to the living room; Iris caught up with them in one second, but watched as they frantically tried to open the window. Behind, she heard Natasha kill a few others, still laughing.
"You guys are about as coordinated as an alligator in winter." mused Iris, watching them struggle with the latch ahead. One smacked the other and tried to take over undoing duties, until the other shoved him away, unlatched it, then immediately latched it again by mistake.
He dejectedly deferred to his compatriot, until a fist of pressure compressed both of them into cubes of flesh & bone not unlike Flickendecke's patches. Satisfied, Iris turned to Natasha walking up to her.
Natasha looked to Iris once they verified no foes were left. "So, did it go like that last time you fought a civilian?"
"It was less violent last time, fortunately. It was a coworker."
"The dangers of too much overtime."
"My bank account liked it." Iris rubbed the back of her neck. "It was back when I was a mechanic, this little asswipe I knew. His name isn't important. But we'd get into arguments over the most inane things; geography, conspiracy theories, trucks. And you know that once you hate somebody, everything they do becomes annoying?"
"Someone in my class has this way she eats crackers and it bugs the absolute shit out of me. Yeah."
Iris laughed. "So he despised me, when I first started working there. Not just by making me do menial tasks, which was what everyone else did, but he would berate and belittle me. He was a piece of shit to everyone, really. So as I'm leaving work one afternoon, he calls me over, and he starts asking if I'm going to suck pussy at Urasaria, and if every female student is a man-hating dyke. That pissed me off, and I've always felt you get as much respect as you take. So I slammed my knee into his stomach and he flipped right over onto the concrete, with these two little groans coming out of his chest. He didn't get back up."
"Damn, how bad did you fuck him up?"
"I pulled it, but it was still two hits: I hit him and he hit the ground. It wasn't like he stopped breathing. I just got in my pickup and left. That was risky, looking back on it, and I started worrying when I got home. I wasn't sure if I should go back, and -- I don't know, get rid of a body? Call an ambulance?
But that was unnecessary, because as it happened, I came back the next day and he showed up with a brace over his ribs. He can't work. But he pulls me off to the side. Now, I'm thinking he'll beg me not to kill him. But he doesn't. Not only does he apologize, but he begs me not to tell anyone that I did it to him. That even if I am a host, I'm still looked at like a woman, and being beat up by a girl is just a vicious level of weakness for a man. So I didn't tell, and he got a few days off. And so my philosophy that violence won't solve every problem, but it sure as shit solves more than you'd expect, was reinforced again."
Iris shook her head, deep in the sojourn of comedic violence again. She had not yet shed her enjoyment of it.
"I'll see if I can do a bit more than usual here. It might just about encompass the house, but we'll see. Phantom: Timeline."
Her eyes became as multitudinous as Phantom's as she sat down in the living room and focused. An unknown time had passed when her focus was interrupted by Natasha smacking her in the head: "Iris! Iris! Revenant!"
Iris winced and stood up; Phantom quickly retreated to her, as did its webs and her progress. "W-Why did you smack me?"
"I didn't know how deep you go into that ultra meditative shit you do, but-"
- a scraping began in the wall ahead, and several metal wires twirl out of it towards her as Natasha spoke: "- control over metal-"
- a superheated blast of energy hit the wires and melted their advance, twitching slightly as the two backed away; twin copper blades shot out from the wall and sliced it apart, revealing nothing but the lawn outside and the knowledge their foe was nearby.
"Gotta be careful." muttered Natasha, stepping back again. "I was fighting him for a minute and he was actually approaching me. Pretty unusual for a host to approach a student."
A skittering began in the walls around them, metal scraping against itself and wires reconfiguring themselves; random spikes of metal shot down from the ceiling but stopped a few inches above their heads, Natasha stopping Iris's movement: "If he was actually close, he wouldn't be using spikes."
Iris caught the trend and nodded. A heaviness limped her hands for a moment; she thought it might be lingering Timeline fatigue but made note of it for later, as she looked up the hall leading to the bedroom. A set of spikes burst up ahead and rapidly grew towards the two -
" - Phantom!" she shouted, aiming Phantom's ire at one sike in the back for the next instant scene.
A low electrical current went through the spike and magnetized it weakly; a second stronger current went through it and magnetized it strongly -
- and every other spike peeled into it with such force that they shattered on impact; iron dust spewed out and shot to their faces, scraping at their skin, and as Natasha tried to wipe it from her face -
- a spike formed from the dust and pierced straight through her right hand; a gust of wind cleared it but left her wounded, groaning for a second as the gush of her blood spurted over into the kitchen, and in the next instant -
- a bolt of electricity burst out from the television behind them -
- but the next scene was instant. Phantom's strand checked the television's stand and knew it was plastic; it reverted back the path it had gone when it was first taken into this home as a member of the family, a molten plastic shield forming behind Iris -
- and into the insulator went the electricity, wilting uselessly as it often did. Iris turned just in time to see more electricity spurting from behind the television screen, arcing over to several spikes sprouting from the floor & around them, distracting their sight as -
- a copper blade formed in the ceiling above and slashed a hole through it -
- but before their foe could even fall through it, Natasha instantly hit him with a gust of wind that shot him up into the sky and through the roof with a sickening crunch; he wouldn't be returning for a while, but still they stayed cautious for when he would land again -
- as the bolt of electricity arced to her shoulder and left a burn that would stay until Flickendecke; she winced, usually not terribly immune to weather effects not her own. "Think long-range counters, 'k-kay? We've got longer range than him."
They heard a crash in the roof above; he had landed again in the roof above but skittered out of sight. More metal spikes rained down from the ceiling, and Iris raised her hand high: "Phantom!"
A superheated blast hit the spikes and melted them to molten metal -
- and she realized a second later she shouldn't have done that as the molten cloud descended upon her; a swift chill froze it and another wind threw it away, keeping both their eyes up & above for when their foe might appear again. Phantom's million eyes peered into eternity and saw his outline still in the same room; Iris quickly relayed this to Natasha.
"Did I ever tell you I love that scanning shit?" said Natasha.
"Think we should glass the sands." muttered Iris and Natasha grinned.
"Meteorology." "Phantom."
Natasha threw her hands up and a sandy wind blew into the room above, filling the air with sand that heat soon turned into a whirlwind of glass around the room; Phantom felt the walls shift and sheets of metal grasping their foe, trying to pull him to safety from the storm of glass - but she has her one counter. Thumbing out a few nickles from her pockets, she flicked them up & into the room, crafting them into magnets as she had before -
- and the two burst into laughter as his iron sarcophagus slammed right back into the nickles in the midst of the storm of glass; his severed hand fell between them and a scream of agony came from him above, until more iron fingers pulled him away & from their sight and the next scene was instant
From the severed hand's blood between their feet, iron blades sprouted that slashed at their boots & sought their ankles; they swept back and avoided the first slashes, but the blades moved swiftly upon them; Iris could think of no counter to this attempted maiming but throw her hands below, grab the blades and threw them across the room.
It was no cautious counter and her hands leaked blood, but she had no better option as her & Natasha rushed up to the wall leading to the lawn. Natasha was panting; an unusual sight for her, as they made their way out to the lawn & backed away.
Ahead & 20ft away, their foe dropped out of the hole ahead and hit the ground -
" - Meteorology!" shouted Natasha, throwing her two hands forward; a dual arced bolt of green lightning shot towards him -
- but a metal scimitar formed in his hand and blocked both; they could not understand how until Iris saw he was using the molten plastic earlier as a hilt. She saw that his blade was pointed diagonally downward and smirked for the next instant scene.
Phantom accelerated the ceiling above his right hand and down went the rubble, hitting the hilt with such force that his blade shot up like a mismatched seesaw -
- slicing his entire face off in one agonizing sweep; he could not even scream as Natasha burst into laughter beside, and a slicing wind slashed his leg clear off and sent it spinning across the living room with a spurt of blood -
- that was all they saw as a sheet of metal closed the wall between them, mentor & protege still on the lawn, and in the next instant -
- a hand of wind pulled them back to the sidewalk and avoided a carpet of scissors bursting up from the mineral & metals in the dirt ahead; no time to waste, the two started running up the sidewalk and away from the home.
"It's - probably iron, or - fuck -" wheezed Natasha; behind, they heard the wall of metal part open -
- and there was their foe again, his severed leg & face attached to him by heavy bars of iron formed from his own blood.
"He gets his ass kicked by me forming m-magnets and goes for that?" muttered Iris, relevantly.
Natasha snickered, but reminded her to stay focused. "N-Not like he had a choice." Her wounded hand was still bleeding, and every few moments it attempted to tug back without her consent as their foe rushed in pursuit, and as he took a lurch forward -
- a razorblade shot out of one of Natasha's finger and sliced it clear off -
- but a gust of wind pulled her hand back to her side, hand of wind holding her's (the first hand that had done so in a while) and keeping her relatively safe as they rushed up. Middle-class lawns flanked them to the right, a suburban road at their left; another wind blasted Iris & Natasha forward and gave them 50ft from their foe.
Spikes shot out of the lawns at their right, but blades of grass grew accelerated and blocked them. Iris glanced back and saw him crouched on one of the lawns, pausing and focusing. "H-He's trying to burrow." She was panting as well; most likely the iron moving unnaturally in their blood was taking some oxygen with it, the usual role of iron in the body being such a transporter. "Natasha, need a drought."
Natasha nodded and slowed, making sure he was within range; she shouted for Meteorology and a drought came over the area that ruined every lawn, destroying every Homeowners' Association rating as every leaf of grass wilted -
- and as Iris flicked a superheated pebble into the man, he looked up and shouted just in time for -
- a horrific tongue of flame shot from the dead grass and consumed him whole, rapidly burning as his screams intensified; his face slid off in the flames, but in the next instant -
- an iron scythe spun below him and cleared out a burrow into which he fell, dirt frantically burying him alive to douse the flames -
- and as he rose out of it again, he was little scathed; the fire quickly snuffed (though the HOA ratings would never recover).
Iris smirked. She shouted over to him: "I was wondering where the metal in the dirt was; mighty thanks for exposing it for me!"
His glare to her was soon snuffed as Phantom touched the metal scythe near him; an electrical current turned it into a strong magnet -
- and his head slammed right into the blunt end of it; he shouted a few words that won't be repeated here, the bars in his head like an uglier Frankenstein as the scythe dispersed and the dirts took him once more.
"Fuck, I saw it." sighed Natasha. "He cut his foot off right before he burrowed. He's using it as transportation; he's constantly reattaching the rest of his body into it."
"Burrowing again." frowned Iris.
A man of iron popped up 10ft to their left; it remains an open question whether he is alive or dead, has he thoughts in his magnetic head. Phantom felt the dirt rapidly shifting below, a system of self-sealing tunnels as iron parted & resumed themselves for his burrow. He moved so swiftly that Phantom could not quicken the dirt and burrow him further down, and soon heaviness had returned to their limbs -
- a pillar of wind shot them up & into the air, a cloudy platform catching them and keeping them hovering 20ft above the sidewalk, yet slowly lowering. The weight in their legs was growing, and they felt miniature blades beginning to form in the iron of their legs; their ankles spit a few out, though not enough yet to cripple them.
He burst up from the lawn below, their cloudy platform still lowering. Iris reviewed her options: to rot the blades would invite rust & tetanus, to superheat would molten her veins, to electrify would -
" - Meteorology!" shouted Natasha, patting Iris's back to indicate she needed intervention as two rains of water swept over their legs -
- and as Iris felt the constituents of this rain, she knew why; the water evaporated away and left only acid that corroded through the blades; a third geyser shot towards the man and burnt a hole through his face, but as Natasha's cloud began to fall -
- a gust of wind blasted them across the street and onto another sidewalk, catching their breath for a moment but both of them further winded, panting and their attacks mutually weakening. Iris leaned on Natasha, then pressed herself up.
"F-Feel i-it too, huh?" panted Natasha.
"Y-Yeah."
Natasha gave them both an infusion of oxygen; how well it would do without the iron to transport it they could not know. "W-Weakening. But need to be closer."
Their foe was still across the road; Iris glanced right and saw a car pulling out of its driveway, hoping it wouldn't be coming their way.
It did, and she groaned incredulously as it passed by between them, then suddenly spun out and towards the two -
" - Meteor-FUCK!" shouted Natasha; a heavy wind blasted it into the horizon and Iris suspected she didn't care if its driver died; a second one was coming out of the driveway at their left, oblivious as a suburbanite as it spun towards them -
" - Phantom." winced Iris, accelerating the car into rust and dumping the civilian out -
- and the flakes of rust flew towards Iris & Natasha, burrowing into their precious wounds; tetanus struck their legs and their muscles began to lock up as Natasha tried to stagger away, forced to use another gust of wind to avoid their foe now crossing the street.
He was 30ft ahead and on the same sidewalk now.
"I-Iris, need a counter." winced Natasha, dipping into her energy to separate them by a few more feet. The weight deepened in their legs and their arms were heavy, palms sweaty and knees weak; a final infusion of oxygen hit Iris, and she turned to stand her ground as their foe rushed at them ahead.
Only a few seconds separated them now, and two men of metal burst out from the ground beside him and embraced him, covering him in a skin much like their own; all three shambled with identical gait in an attempt to decoy her, but Iris knew it was the right man and she had her counter prepared -- an electrical current struck one metal man and turned him magnetic -
- but she felt a pair of scissors forming in her throat that the magnets threatened to yank out -
"GLASS STORM!"
- and the next scene was instant. A ferocious sand-wind burst into their foe's face and a superheated blast followed; expecting a gust of glass, his face thickened with more iron to block it -
- but a geyser of lava burst up behind him, Phantom cooling it into crystals of titanomagnetite; a single current turned it ultra-magnetic -
- and ripped his entire face off, revealing his bloodied skull to Iris that an arid air evaporated as a supersharp wind sliced him into pieces.
The two hit the ground, panting some. Her usual habit impossible right now, Natasha shouted over the civilian whose car they had destroyed and said she would forgive them if he made them a sandwich.
"I-I-I can repair it, by the way!" coughed Iris as he left. "G-God damnit, now he's going to cum in those sandwiches."
"N-Nah, he won't, because if he does I'll make him eat both."
The scissors gradually faded into Iris's normal bloodflow, though she still was not normal until a sandwich & Flickendecke. "…g-god damn." She glanced to the man's corpse; dark hands had already reclaimed his Revenant.
"Gonna be alright if we go back to the house?" said Natasha, already standing and finished eating her non-cum sandwich.
Iris nodded and stood up. "Need to repair his car, anyway."
"Yeah, probably not getting that other guy's car." Natasha sighed and seemed genuinely guilty. "Ugh. I really hate having to do that, but some civilians are just so fucking stupid..."
"You shouldn't feel too guilty about that, Natasha. You're worth more than a civilian."
"I guess, but I do actually buy into all that stuff people find cringey about honor as a student and all." she mumbled. "Ugh, whatever."
Natasha wiped some sweat from her hair and Iris repaired the man's car. They went back to the initial home and Iris repaired the damage from the fight.
"Anyway, they're really intent on this place, huh?" said Natasha. "First the civilians, now a host. Next time they might actually send someone who poses a threat."
"If that's their idea of a weak host, I'd prefer they not." winced Iris.
Natasha snickered. "Ugh. Maybe we should call up back Amelie, or something, or... hey, I was meaning to ask. Why doesn't her mentor come along with her?"
Iris was not sure she should tell Natasha, but it was something that rankled her as well. She felt that Amelie's kindness was wasted on a woman like Claire who did little with it. And it's generally assumed around Urasaria that to tell a protege is to tell their mentor. "Don't mention it to her, but her mentor's... bit of a drinking problem."
Iris expected Natasha to show some concern: instead she received an odd glance. "So what?"
"She doesn't mentor Amelie much."
"Why? She can't put aside her personal problems for mentorship?"
"I don't like her either, Natasha, but she's an alcoholic. Amelie's told me about when she has to go pick up Claire because she's staggering around drunk. Even civilians laugh at her. I don't know how it operates for hosts, but she might not be able to quit that quickly."
"Well, fuck, there's still always free will, Iris. She chose to grow an addiction instead of solving it for her protege's sake. That's the problem with too many mentors at Urasaria: they don't realize that once you have a protege, it ceases to be about yourself. We're responsible for you. We look after you." Natasha frowned. "Maybe I should go have a talk with Claire. She's in my class. Alcoholic or not, that isn't right."
Iris shook her head. "It's between her and Amelie. I wish I could do much more than listen to her guilt over it."
"You're telling me Claire is the drunk and yet Amelie feels guilty over it? Was she raised Catholic?"
"No, it's more she feels a responsibility to someone who hasn't exhibited any. Occasionally I've gotten the feeling that she finds it easier to examine Claire's problems than solve her own."
"Well, I guess a lot of people are like that, at least. Still, it's one thing if she drinks herself to death by herself. It's another when she's hurting Amelie by forcing her to be a solo protege."
Iris sighed. "You're right, Natasha. Sorry I don't have much to add. Talk of addiction just bores me: every story of it is the same. But I agree with your principles of mentorship. Less and less these days do people feel a duty to something bigger than themselves. I was a rogue host for years, but it was knowing I would join Urasaria or the military at 20."
"Yep." Natasha shrugged. "Still, that lady's partially right. Her son's dead, but he made more money than us and I'm sure he fought a fraction of the Revenants. We'll kill Salvatore, but Marrivelli or the other Underbosses? Doubt it. Killing innocents isn't right, but knowing criminals are selfish slugs makes them more understandable, at least. Better than some religious explanation of sinful evil, at least."
"But the mafia's evil is different than most sorts of evil, isn't it? One individual's bank robbery might be just, if done for his family in poverty. Just not murder."
"I meant more violent criminals, but yeah. Morality can definitely be situational. An unjust law can be right to break."
"And even evil isn't always illegal. Cowardice or apathy. If someone doesn't defend others when they should, or... say, a business owner whose apathy leads his own employees to misery. And given the sheer amount of that in the world, isn't religion an understandable way to respond to that banal cruelty?"
Natasha nodded. "True. I'm not saying that isn't logical, at least. But I think there's a more natural reason for religion. Back in the Ice Age, we were against animals larger than anything that lives today. To survive, we had to be able to see patterns and draw more out of incomplete information: to see the tracks of an animal and infer if it was dangerous. And that was developed by evolution."
"And without the creation of that idea, beyond the physically evident or even possible, there would only be an unknown shape of fear."
"Exactly. Like you said: you joined Urasaria because you felt a sense of goodness to serving as a host. I'm the same way. To give more back into the world than what we take from it. And it's an idea most every student has, because crime would be far better paying and less dangerous."
"I suppose we could call that religious in a sense. Maybe it's irrational, but there's a sense of belonging as a student."
"Yeah. Just remember that you're the person you answer the most to. If you care too much about what other people think about you, you end up outside of yourself. Like I've said, I'm not popular at Urasaria except as a fetish object." Natasha brushed some snow off her parka. "If a guy did what some female students have done to me, they'd call it sexual assault. But, because I'm a muscledyke, I'm inviting sexual attention and because of that I must enjoy all of it. I don't think there's a single sexuality more moral than any other."
Iris nodded. "I'm sorry, Natasha. I know I already told you that isn't right. I'd defend you if I ever heard anyone talking ill of you."
"It's alright. We should get to searching, anyway."
"Agreed. … Still, just don't mention anything about Claire to Amelie, alright? I get the feeling she doesn't enjoy talking about it."
"Yeah, poor gal."
Iris nodded. She felt protective over Amelie, though even in this there was a restrictive core, one that tried to deny her feelings of Amelie and in her wishes that she could control Amelie's decisions. She knew she could not. But she disliked that there were limits to how much of her life could truly be termed her own; she wished also not to be alone yet to not be too close, enough to stand by herself as a woman but without taking the risk such entailed.
She crouched down to focus again, her head a little tired, and in the next instant -
- an enormous & robotic hand swept aside the entire front half of the house, and on the return they heard a shout of "Adam Kadmon!" & "Warlock!"
- a hook of wind pulled Iris back to Natasha in the kitchen and they rushed out the back porch.
"Fight?" said Iris, glancing back to see an enormous golden robot towering over the front.
"Nope, fuck this."
Natasha checked there was no one else around, before a gust of wind blasted them forward & up -
- and another -
- and another, and another, and another; clouds embraced them both and let them ride the wind far from the house, as Natasha spoke beside her and kept them going. "Man, what the hell is with that place?"
"F-Figure it out when we get back."
Iris coughed out a few nimbuses.