Natasha Milk

Iris had been working out more with Natasha recently, and learned that the trick to gaining weight was to use her Revenant for menial tasks; she ate more than she exerted. Natasha had a mysterious protein-filled concoction called 'Natasha Milk' (but not that kind) that Iris drank frequently while refusing to ever use that god-forsaken name for it.

She frowned to find none of it left in the fridge. "Natasha, are we out of the..." She thought of the 'Natasha Milk -- Now rated for human consumption!' label that her mentor would crudely-affix to a gallon jug. "…the shakes?"

"Oh yeah, I need to make more." Natasha walked in. "Okay, here's how you do it." She led Iris over to her most prized possession: an industrial-grade floor-mounted blender. "This thing holds 4 gallons, I stole it from an Applebee's."

She turned over an entire tub of protein powder and dumped it inside. Then, she added 2 gallons of milk, 1 carton raw eggs, 1 jar of peanut butter, 4 bricks of chocolate ice cream, 1 cup malted milk powder, 2 cups corn syrup.

(Reduce recipe by 1/4 for civilians.)

Iris was horrified. "I've been drinking these things."

"It has 12,000 calories and 1000 grams of protein. Speed up the blender so this thing doesn't take an hour to blend."

It was done.

"Gimme the gallon jugs so I can pour it back in."

Iris's phone vibrated.

(Amelie) "Are you available to come over?"

"I'm going over to Amelie's." muttered Iris.

"Okay, I'll just be here with my Natasha Milk." said Natasha. "Tell me how it goes. Just not in detail."

Iris nodded, freshened up (though she never wore makeup), then went over. Amelie answered the door, showing Iris her new badge.

Iris kissed her. "Two star already?"

Her badge read: NIGHT SURGEON.

"If I were slower by two days, I wouldn't have broken Swarm's record. And she had an actual mentor, so I'm even more proud of it." Amelie smiled. "Please, come in. I've wanted to see you. Four hosts a week hasn't allowed me much time to rest."

Iris came in. "I'm happy for you, Amelie. You haven't been working yourself too hard, right? I just don't want to see you over-pressuring yourself into danger."

"Well, I'll have expectations to keep, but I've been in that position my entire life. Amelie is gifted. Amelie should be ahead two grades. Amelie has to fulfill her potential." She glanced off. "…um, but speaking of, I'll likely be out on a contract, again, soon. Kate said she would start slotting me into higher-paying, riskier contracts and work. I wish I could take you along, but I understand you and your mentor have been a little embroiled lately."

"I wish I could tell you more about it, but I get the feeling the government would kill me if I did. But it should be over soon."

"Good. There's this perverse serial killer I've read about, recently - the type who decapitates women after he finishes r-... I'd like to investigate it if no one else currently is. The evidence points to him being a host, but it hasn't seem to have been picked up on besides a few podcasts."

"I could never get into those."

"I'm not surprised." Amelie smirked. "But I understand. Actually, they haven't had the same effect on me since Delinquent activated. I suppose part of it is because fear used to anesthetize me. To be a host is rather liberating, as with having any monopoly over violence." She shook her head. "I'm sorry if I can sound a bit morbid, sometimes. I picked that up from my mother: she would constantly tell us that the world is awful for women, and how men could get away with murdering us if they wanted to."

"Doesn't seem right to put that much fear in you."

"It wasn't, but I suppose Delinquent made it irrelevant. I think part of it was she enjoyed imparting this harsh philosophy onto us; so she could criticize us for resisting it. At home, she would always ride us very hard. Me, especially. If you've ever seen the film Another Woman, she... oh, that's a bit of an older film. But the daughter remarks that her mother judges people: that she just stands above people and judges them. She calls me a lot to check how I'm feeling, but I haven't even mentioned you to her yet, partially because of that, and..." She shifted a bit. "I'm still rather flighty with what I want romantically. I apologize if I come off as uncaring of your feelings, Iris."

"It's alright. You were saying about your mother?"

"No, I was just about to say that it might have been why my father left her." She frowned. "I shouldn't say that. But I feel that she did make it easy to abandon her with that sort of cryptic distance she keeps. It's why I don't disdain my father for having done so. Yes, a part of me believes men have a duty to care for their children, and not to abandon their mother. But how could I accuse him of what I would do myself?"

She turned to Iris and smiled, tentatively placing her hand on her thigh. "I should focus on you, instead. Have you, um, been seeing anyone else?"

"I haven't. Have you?"

"Mm. No. And I think you know why I invited you over." She leaned in and kissed Iris. "If you would like."

Iris pulled Amelie onto her lap, and they started making-out. The sex Iris usually had was dirty and vulgar and detached; with Amelie the opposite. Bizarrely, she was a bit of a Romantic; she felt certain positions would not be conducive with Amelie. Soon she had her hands under Amelie's tanktop and noticed that she had already prepared for this. "Mentor is out?"

"Mmhm. I don't care where she is. Mm... I think we should... like last time."

Iris went with Amelie to her bedroom. Amelie laid down for her and allowed Iris to begin undressing her, and nearly had her boyshorts at her knees when Amelie suddenly smelled, winced, then rushed out of the room.

Iris smelled it and frowned.

She went after Amelie to the kitchen, who was opening the oven and cursing: "God DAMNIT, I ask her -- I ask her to FUCKING CHECK -- Iris, can you find the fire extinguisher-"

"What?" Iris went over and saw something burning in the oven; Amelie was beside her, visibly distraught and her hair mangled.

"God damnit, it's something Claire left -- Iris, I can't put this out with Delinquent! Can you go-"

Time shifted and Amelie sighed as the fire lost existence. "Thank you-"

- the fire burst up again and she shrieked, grabbing Iris -

- who laughed a bit to herself.

"Damnit, Iris! Just put it out!"

Time shifted and the fire lost its existence. Amelie still placed Iris between herself & the oven. "God, I just despise that woman. She reminds me of - oh, but I, ugh..." (Iris wrapped an arm around her.) "Not now, Iris, I'm pissed off. She knows how anxious I get about something very much like this, and the one time I don't check, and she fucking enjoys-"

"Were you trying to do it for the insurance?"

"Iris, I don't…"

"Because, you know, I think we could really have something going here. Eventually they'd have to give us a mansion."

Amelie sighed. But Iris saw her smiling: just a little. "…well, now what?"

"I was hoping we could get back to what we were doing. Or maybe just a kiss."

"Iris, I'm not sure if I'm..." She laughed as Iris made an exaggerated pucker with her lips. "Stop, you look ridiculous."

"A kiss could really help seal the whole scene here. Unless you're planning on starting more fires, or you're trying to b-"

Amelie kissed her, curling her arms around Iris.

"-for the insuran... let me finish my jo-"