Phantom Coaster

In the lead-in to October, they were not contacted by the FBI and had not revisited the apartment.

Iris had been texting with Amelie since they met, though she had not yet been invited over; whether she would be was difficult to ascertain with lesbians. Amelie was mature and intelligent, but Iris still felt she needed to be careful, for a fuck-up here could determine her Urasaria reputation. She tended to be paranoid about these secondary effects.

Partly she had inherited this from her mentor, whose relation to Viktoria Zamolodchikova (the most despised bitch on campus since Kirihara) had stamped her reputation. There was a common sentiment towards Viktoria that most female students wouldn't care if she was raped and murdered, and it didn't need to be in that order. A misogynistic lesbophobe could have little other reputation at Urasaria: one perpetually bitter that her heterosexuality had been forced from her.

However scathed her reputation, so too was Natasha's in that she was still friends with Viktoria and would ask her for advice. She had never taken well to the way other students talked about her, for as stated earlier, Viktoria was the only one still centering Natasha in her life; she loved Natasha, though to what extent it resembled love is debatable. It was not that she had seen traits of Viktoria others had not; Viktoria acted privately as she did publicly. Time had simply muted Natasha to her worst qualities.

After two weeks of this, Amelie invited Iris over and said her mentor was out. Iris went over. Amelie was sitting on the couch, wearing a spaghetti-strap tanktop. She smiled to Iris as she sat down, close to her. They hugged.

"I'm sorry I haven't asked you over in a while. I've been wanting to see you." Amelie's face pulled away slightly. "I just got back from a contract, a few days ago."

"Everything go good?"

"Mm, as good as solo work can be. I don't particularly like dealing with the police, but I suppose it was a little nice not needing to rely on anyone but myself in fights. Kate doesn't seem to have any issue with it."

"Sounds right." Hesitantly, Iris kissed her on the cheek. "This alright?"

"Mm." She kissed Iris. "It is."

"You smell nice."

"Maybe it's my new medication. I'm sure they put something minty in them now."

"I didn't know hosts could take medication."

"Well, it tends to be much higher dosages than civilians, but it mostly works the same. First, they have me take pills for the panic attacks, which ruins my sex drive, so they put me on medication that raises my libido but keeps me up all night, which they fix with a tablet that lets me sleep but makes me anxious."

"What do you do for the anxiety?"

"Masturbate, usually." They separated. "Or hunting, recently. I'm quite close to two-star. I'd like to try to beat Swarm's record."

"Already?"

Amelie nodded. "It's been stressful, especially with how little help I'm receiving, but I'd like to be a few kills away from it by November. It'd certainly help give me a little more self-esteem."

"Did you want to go out hunting if there's a call?"

"Mm. No, I wanted to spend time with you. I have enough trouble letting myself sit still." Amelie leaned into Iris, then slid down between her legs so she was sitting below her. Iris started rubbing Amelie's shoulders. "You can be a little more sensual, if you feel comfortable with that." Amelie's phone vibrated. "Oh, god damnit." She checked it. "I'm sorry, my sister annoys me all the time. Let me tell her I'm busy."

"Older or younger?"

"She's a year younger than me."

"Is she a host, too? I'm sure it'd be awkward growing up if she was. You know, little sibling spats that end up with half the street demolished. Having to follow her perfect student sister."

Amelie laughed. "Mm... no, she's not a host. And as for perfect, no: my mother says I'm a natural at everything I do. But I always end up not being too great at any of it." She looked up at Iris. "You wouldn't mind if I dress down a little, would you?"

"I could help you."

Amelie smiled and sat up on Iris's lap, moving her hands lower to undo her bra. "…well, if my mentor *could* stay out, I'd… let you spend the night, if you wanted to."

"She wouldn't do it for you? Just one night alone together?"

Amelie laughed. "You're being very forward, you know. You should be a little more careful: you don't exactly know me all that well. …but, I don't know. For all I know she may be drinking again and be with someone else until tomorrow morning. She hasn't exactly been doing a lot of mentoring recently."

"You know, you've mentioned her drinking like that before. She's not an alcoholic, is she?"

"She's familiar, if nothing else. Some people have told me she was like that before this semester, but... well, I worried at first that it was my fault, in some way. Not that I could have actually directly caused it, but..." Amelie closed herself slightly. "You know, it gives off this feeling of not being appreciated or really wanted as a protege. And I have to believe that some of that is her natural inclination towards me; some sort of intangible poison she senses in me."

"Well, I don't want to minimize you, so please tell me if I am. But I think addiction rots certain parts of a person away. I've got an alcoholic in the family. Whatever fills that emptiness up isn't necessarily anything that was there before."

She rocked on Iris's lap. "…well, if she... Oh, no, it doesn't feel like you are. I'm sorry, Iris. I ask you to come over and all I'm doing is complaining about my mentor and my sister. I just suppose I've been feeling rather resentful of her recently, and that reminded me of it."

"Well, can you save anyone from their worst tendency?"

"Maybe not. But I've always felt overly-responsible when it comes to other people."

"Right. I guess I just mean that I don't know if it's your place to try, if she's been like that before you met."

"Maybe." Amelie looked to Iris and motioned to her lips. They kissed. "Mm. Well, how are you and your mentor? A little less dysfunctional?"

"A little. She's been helping me strength train, recently; she's got a hell of a discipline with diet and exercise."

"Well, discipline is certainly something Claire lacks." Amelie sighed, almost guiltily.

She rested herself on Iris's lap, who began massaging her shoulders again. Her hands deepened as Amelie looked up at her. She motioned Iris to her lips again, and kissed her a few times, before moving up to better angle herself. "A little softer?"

"Sorry." Iris softened her grip as Amelie leaned into her, and asked if Iris would feel comfortable undressing her. "I certainly would."

Amelie laughed, an easy candor developing between them as Iris peeled down her tank-top. Amelie was rather passive sexually; she let Iris lead during sex and would only speak up if bothered. She seemed dissociated from her physical body at times, as if occasionally she might need to keep account of where she was in a room.

The front door unlocked and Phantom instantly locked it again as Amelie winced. "O-Oh, god damnit."

"Your mentor?"

Amelie pulled her top up. "Yes. Please, my bedroom is on the right down the hall, Iris -- I'm sorry, I just-"

"It's alright."

Iris quickly went to Amelie's bedroom. Film posters adorned her walls, most prominently of Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colours trilogy and of other foreign films.

"Claire, I'm sorry, I have someone over right now. Do you need to be here?"

She could not hear Claire, but Amelie seemed to be trying politeness with her.

"No, that was last week, Claire. I was out on the contract last week. … No, of course I don't. It's just… it's my first time having her over, and I'd like it if... I don't know. I'll ask her."

Iris laid in bed like a French girl as Amelie opened the door. She closed the door behind her and crouched beside Iris. "I'm sorry, Iris. Can we do this at a later time? My mentor is here, now, and I'd like to at least help her spend some time sober..."

Iris kissed Amelie. "It's alright. Natasha'll be wanting me back anyhow."

"I'll let you know as soon as she's gone."

Amelie was embarrassed as they walked out to the living room. A redhead was sitting on the couch and she nodded to Iris, yet seemed as little to want being here as Iris did not. She has no appearance nor scent of drunkenness; in most senses she was normal.

One might think that because she was not outwardly a drunken loser this would mitigate Iris's opinion of her, but this was not so; here & later she viewed the normalcy Claire displayed as a sort of deception, and she hated her for it; her schema of thought gabbed at what mere human behavior disproved it.

Amelie kissed Iris outside and apologized again, to which Iris reassured and hugged her. She felt sorry for Amelie having this parasite upon her life in Claire, though she knew both so little, this could be nothing but viewing another's life as a subtle replicate of her own.

So Iris left. She checked her & Natasha's house first and Natasha was not there, so she went to the gym. Natasha was there finishing up her usual deadlift worksets of 3000lbs x 10 reps, always working out in her parka. It was drowned in her sweat: some students might have paid a good price for it. She had told Iris that by practicing discomfort she could be accustomed to life's many nicks and not be snagged upon them.

Content was not a word Natasha generally knew; the notion of it riled her.

As usual, when she finished up and recovered, she was speaking with some of the men: at least they didn't openly sexualize her.

"Oh, hey, Iris. This is my protege."

"Hi, Iris. I don't know, I just have trouble getting the motivation to go."

Natasha shrugged. "It's not change that's difficult: it's the will to change. Rearrange your priorities and you won't need motivation."

"It can't be that easy."

"Lifting weights is so easy they do it in the Special Olympics."

This was the type of brute answer men liked Natasha for. She smiled to Iris and left the gym with her, then grabbed Iris's fingers. "Oh shit, look. You're starting to prune."

"What ar- o-oh." Iris blushed. "I wasn't over at Amelie's that long, was I?"

"Nah, I don't know. She definitely seems to like you, at least. She's been texting you plenty." Natasha scratched the back of her neck. "Hey, you know I'm not going to stop you if you start seriously dating her, right? Are you afraid she'll reject you?"

Iris shook her head. "I haven't ever been rejected, Natasha. I tend to know my way too well around other women for that."

"Well, aren't you attracted to her?"

"She's my type."

"Then why not ask her out? If you wait too long, she might misinterpret your intentions and not see you as relationship material. She might accuse you of only using her for sex."

"What would be the point of a relationship I can't predict?"

"The spontaneity is the fun of it." Natasha smiled. "I don't mean to make you anxious, Iris. I just think you two look cute together. I'd hate to see her stamp you too deeply in her mind as her friend-with-benefits and have difficulty seeing you as otherwise."

Iris nodded, but she was not really listening by now. Natasha had never been able to solve her own problems romantically, so she tried to advise Iris on her own, it seemed. So she attempted to turn her mind back to Amelie, and thought of how her breasts had felt against her chest. She liked how whenever she grabbed Amelie, one of Amelie's legs would fold up against her back and she would arch herself a little higher to kiss Iris.

Occasionally, a part of her mind would extend and attempt to plumb more than that, yet a strong counter-reaction would wax in her and warn her from it. It was not a fear of rejection that paused Iris, for she felt she could have any woman she wanted. On many occasions she had proven it. What Amelie seemed to instigate her was inexplicable by mere sexual eroticism, yet it was why she tried to subsume it underneath the pleasure of the flesh.

Iris looked up to the overcast sky. "I was hoping we could go out hunting today. Somewhere nearby."

"It's starting to rain."

"Exactly."

"Huh? I... oh shit." Natasha grinned. "Can you?"

"I can."

As it began to drizzle, Meteorology cleared a dry dome around themselves. Iris ran out of Urasaria with her to take advantage of this rain, and soon had accumulated a bit of mud on her boots. The pattern to it seemed special and perhaps wonderful, but she quickly reverted her boots dry and crossed over to the other side of the street, as she had many times before.

A call soon came and they had their target: a potential fire Revenant that had threatened a local jewelry store. They quickly made their way to the empty street, road at the center & stores in their eternal positions, and he was just coming out of the store with his jewels when he saw them.

The rain was thick above, and Iris inched herself closer into Phantom's range.

"Stay back!" he shouted, waving an orange-flaming hand. "I've killed before! I won't be afraid to-"

The rain accelerated overhead and snuffed his flame out. Dumb criminal hosts generally do not understand the superiority of students: this one would soon learn it.

He screamed, turned, fell flat onto his face as the rain accelerated and slipped his step -

" - good luck!" shouted Iris, rotting a slope in the sidewalk ahead -

- and down he slid & slid; Natasha launched her & Iris up to a nearby roof so she could properly construct her waterslide, as he took a loop in the road, veered right and flew off when it veered right, landing into another loop-de-loop that took him in for a while. She opened the loop and he went sailing off screaming into the street behind them, his legs breaking as he landed onto another slide that veered left and into the store below them -

- crashing through its glassfront -

- then crashing through its glassback -

- Phantom kept the slide going and veered his bloodied barely-alive body back into the loop, slamming & smashing & crashing all the way through the repaired glass another dozen times, until eventually a final slide came out of the store, veered him up with incredible speed -

- and took a 90-degree drop that slammed his head into the ground and it exploded in a cloud of watery gore.

Throughout this horrific display Natasha & Iris were laughing like fucking lunatics. They slapped each other on the back, tottering on their roof, snow randomly spewing out of Natasha's parka as she laughed alongside her protege.

"I love the rain." laughed Iris.

Natasha laughed some again, but shook her head as dark hands reclaimed the Revenant. "Ugh, fuck it. Let's go back to that apartment, too, because I bet it could lead us to some other hosts."

Iris nodded and they headed back to that apartment.