Iris was backstage with Eva Leone. For your memory: Eva was last seen in the second chapter of ARC 27, taunting a male student whose ears she had blown out. She was a black butch with curly hair, wearing leather pants with tall goth boots, and oftentimes rimless sunglasses.
Security work is generally mixed, for nearly every event that has Revenant security does not announce it; a typical civilian superstition that hosts attract hosts.
"She fucks like a rabid wombat." said Eva. "She's perfect, though. Shy outside of the bedroom, and once she's in it, no inhibition at all. She told me she loves my huge butch dick."
"I've never even seen a wombat and you're telling me you're fucking one." said Iris. "A rabid one, no less."
"You wanna see a pic?"
"Not a nude, I hope."
"No no, I'd never violate someone like that." Eva checked her phone. "But no peeking while I'm scrolling... mm... here."
"Well, she isn't blind, but it's still possible she's either an idiot or suffering from severe depression."
"Bro. She doesn't have mental illness, she has good taste. That's what she's got."
"Yeah, right. Does she know you're a student?"
"She does, and she loves that speed and stamina. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff she says. She says 'oh Jesus, you're fucking me'. I fucked her so hard she started seeing God."
Iris was silent. Then she said: "Oh, Moses, you're mounting me."
Eva started tittering. "No."
"Oh, Satan, you're damning me."
"No, dude."
"Oh, Pontius Pilate, you're crucifying me."
"Hey-hey, I got told off once for feeling like I drove a nail into somebody." Eva rubbed the back of her neck. "Sometimes, you know, you're fingering someone and you forget that she's a civilian, you start putting a bit of the host speed in it..." She mimicked it. "She shrieked a little. Probably didn't help I had the hiccups."
"At that speed I'm surprised the friction didn't scrape the paint off her walls."
"Oh, maybe a bit, but I apologized and was very sweet about it. She was bi, too. You know how bi women are. They date men, so they're very impressed by things like basic kindness and hygiene."
Iris heard the song end outside. "Is he done?"
"I hope so. Ugh, I gotta get in some strums." Eva summoned Maestro: it looked like a thick, double-necked guitar with exhaust pipes and a strap keeping it tight to herself.
"For Violet?"
"Yeah, she's strict." Eva rubbed the back of her neck. "10,000 strums and de-strums every day. I'm lucky we can't develop tendinitis."
"Does that help your reflexes?"
"It's supposed to."
Violet & Olivia stepped through the curtain and the other two shut up.
Violet Cassiopeia was Eva's mentor and a black woman of medium height, with a certain sternness to her features. Her short black hair was tightly braided, and austerity hung from her gaze. She typically wore dresses, sleeved in the colder states or winter, and underneath these sleeves slithered the infernal chains of her Revenant. Her projected sense of propriety typically had the same effect on others as well, or at least always perceptible if not contagious.
She was the highest-ranked second-year, and generally someone other students went to for advice on hunting; although she had always said that simply because she knew what was best for herself did not mean she knew well for others. But she did not believe to examine that which was working; she had achieved some success and popularity for herself, and eventually would achieve a bit more.
She called out behind her, and a man in his 30s followed; he had curly hair and was rather nebbish. Almost instantly his agent came to him and spoke with him for a few minutes, before allowing him to go over to the students. Iris knew him as Ike, which was not his public name.
"Thanks f-for coming on such short notice." he said. "God, I can't believe it -- he was fine the first three limbs t-they cut off, but t-they got him on the fourth one. We h-had all this footage with him, too, a-and for what? Now we have to make an In Memoriam and e-everything, and... but you students did great. I love your... Revenant?" He pointed to Eva's Maestro.
"It's a custom-made." said Iris.
Eva strummed it. "Yeah, I've had it since I was-"
"-since you were born, yeah? Well, it's a little impractical, but I dig it. Now, w-we'll be in Chicago for the rest of the week, and then a few different cities next w-week... y-y'know, I-I gotta keep track of those better. By that time, I-I should be up on the wait-list for a p-professional bodyguard. They said they'll be putting me with this ugly little redhead w-who controls electricity. Not exactly m-my idea of intimidating, but al-alright."
His agent tugged at him. "Ike, with me, please."
Ike went off with him. The students glanced at each other, and Violet turned to Iris. "I'm sorry, we didn't get the chance to be properly introduced. We drove over here so quickly..."
"Iris, this is Violet, my mentor." said Eva. "Violet, this is Iris. She was... um... Natasha's protege."
Violet frowned and nodded. "I'm sorry. I didn't know her very well, but she was in my class. I remember the week she got two-star and started wearing that parka." A little cheekily she said: "That was a sad day for a lot of us."
"Hell of a lot of muscle on her, though." said Eva.
Violet nodded. "But Eva's mentioned you chose to continue on her Revenant; I think that's wonderful. And judging by your ranking, you and Olivia have melded together well, yes?"
Olivia smiled at Iris. "We have."
Iris nodded.
"Sometimes the emotional connection is more important than the connection through hunting." said Violet. "But I'm sure you'll continue to make her proud of you."
Ike returned and asked if two of the students could escort him to his hotel room, to which Violet & Olivia assented and left with Ike.
Iris turned and told Eva she would be back in a minute. She walked out and used her wind to launch herself about a mile away, then found an alley with a dumpster and barraged it with her fists. The metal bent and she slammed it against the wall, repeatedly breaking then repairing it then breaking it against the concrete. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! GOD! FUCK!"