Swamped

After some time Iris returned to Suki. She expected more tsoris from her and already dreaded such, yet when she returned, Suki simply asked if she had checked on whatever she needed to check on. She seemed to realize that Iris had been affected by something within that eavesdropped monologue, yet left it uncommented upon.

"Still haven't found his motivation." muttered Iris. "Figured out how we'll track him. Can find his appearance from the reflections in his studio, yet why he would kill this woman is still the question hanging from my mind."

"It's fine, we just go kill the bitch."

"It's not usual for me to fail to find motivation. If he had no relation to her, no relation to the husband, then he must have..." She attempted to focus, yet could not; she felt an inexorable welling of thoughts in herself of Olivia, and of the self-hatred and anxieties that followed such. She recognized that the largess of this relationship to her mind and of all it had dredged up within herself would be a barrier against all other expressions of self, yet still hoped to believe she could stifle the ache of her consciousness by rumination alone. There seemed no slice of action to her that could peel open something to flower within herself, yet she wondered if this was only another delusion she had kept: the belief that she could stow her consciousness away as something separate from material reality or the pains of such.

She did not drive quickly to Nathaniel's photography studio, but sliced open the locked door with her wind and crouched down to focus within. She paused her reel of time around where the woman had gone missing, and noticed an invisible aura at the counter, along with a bottle of water still tainted by globs of swamp. The woman's corpse walked through the door, and she spoke with that invisible aura for some time, until she was walked to the bathroom and the invisible aura grabbed her, pulling her to the counter; Iris stilled her Timeline before it would attempt to revert when she had been pulled into that fetid drink.

"About what I figured." she muttered. "Thought at first he might've dumped the initial swamp water into his toilet and a second sample into the other one, but no. He only used one. He was hoping he might frame somebody else and in the process confirmed to me no one else could have done it."

She cautiously carried the glass of water with her wind, removing it from her Timeline as she reverted it back the path it has once been carried. She walked out from the outlet mall and found a parking spot not far from there, the elevation of the bottle suggesting its former position in his cupholder.

"His car was once parked here." muttered Iris. "Suppose I haven't seen how this works yet." She checked her phone and called the model from earlier. "Hello, it's Kronos. I need you to call Nathaniel for me. Tell him that there's two Urasaria students here to speak with him about the woman he murdered. … Yes, exactly that wording. Nothing else. Thank you." She hung up.

"He's going to flee us, not meet up."

"Precisely. Kairos: Timeline."

Suki was confused as Iris crouched down and began focusing, then laughed once she realized it. "I- shit- where do I need to be-"

"The back… preferably..."

Suki went over to Iris, then crouched over her back like she was her spotter (sniper, not weightlifter). Iris glanced up at her as her eyes millioned, wondering if she would actually stay like this the entire time, until an hour later she pulled Nathaniel's car back from the present and hit it with a bolt of red lightning that blasted his driving right arm clear off and sent it sailing through the windshield; he shrieked and a coat of swamp covered him, yet the air heated and fizzed around him as smoke filled his vehicle; Iris was a few feet behind his truck and sent another three red bolts into the swarm of smoke, Suki transformed behind and spraying a stream of acid alongside her electric barrage, corrosive & electrifying Revenants combined until -

- a dozen swamp tendrils shot out from the vehicle and spewed their electricity back upon them -

- but a hook of wind pulled Iris & Suki back 20ft as a coat of swamp claimed the entire truck, a wave of heavy humidity following and dispersing into the air as conducive water. Ahead and below, the swamp enveloped the ground before them and began spreading towards them; another gust of wind blasted herself & Suki left, gusts of fire spewing from the marsh ahead and towards them, and Iris's thoughts were instant. 

'He wants us to create water. Can't use his own Revenant as transportation -- he needs non-Revenant water to transport.'

She could not merely douse the wave of flames shooting towards them with snow or rain, and tensed as Suki's demonic throat at her side gurgled -

- but sighed relieved as a bile of pig flesh erupted from herself and into the flames; a single flame shot down the line of fatty meat as she hocked another tenderloin at his swamp-coated vehicle, immense heat melting away at his wetland protection, yet a sphere of steam expanded from the flames -

- but a hand of wind pulled all vapor away and cleared their sight to see him running out of his truck ahead & away; Suki's throat gargled again and spat a stream of acid towards him -

- and another hook of wind pulled it away as Kairos accelerated its evaporation, Iris reminding Suki: "-no wate-"

"-FUCK, I FUCKING KNOW, BUT-"

The swamp of tendrils was encroaching below them once more; another wind tried to pull them out, yet a heavy humidity dispersed from the swamp and clouds of superheated steam claimed the two -

- but an aura of air claimed the two first as time accelerated above and all heat dispersed evenly into the air; another gust launched the women forward 30ft and they were 30ft behind him as he hit the sidewalk ahead, his head turning, his lips opening to shout: "-Overgrow-"

- but a hook of wind ripped his tongue clear out from his criminal mouth, Iris laughing as a swamp tendril replaced his former appendage and desperately attempted to fetch it, shouting with her working tongue: "-Kairos!"

- and the gone-piece of himself decayed as Suki laughed at her side. Ahead, his swamp-tongue-tendril shot towards them and the tip opened into a flower that spewed a corrosive hazs that claimed the two, their skin beginning to corrode away in moments; Iris was forced to launch themselves back & away once more, yet the swamp behind them pulled itself into a wall 20ft behind them, opening to greet them with a similar wave of corrosive haze -

- but the next scene was instant. She felt Phantom's half alight as the concrete sidewalk below reverted back into a freshly poured paste, a state she knew to be highly basic; a hook of wind pulled it up and over the women, coating them against the pH of the air outside as she planted them safely down. Suki began mumbling at her side, yet Kairos' stole her blabbering voice as Iris waited for his realization ahead that both were coated in a fluidic state. A million eyes peered into the state of the sidewalk ahead and felt his step slow as he turned and realized, stepping cautiously towards them, until after a third second she accelerated their concrete coats hard and blasted a hundred concrete spikes into him, laughing at the dumb son of a bitch weakened by his addiction to water, for he had been taken hold of such and regretted its absence.

Their sights cleared, she saw his bloodied body staggering ahead; she nodded to Suki as a gust of wind launched her forward and she stepped into his shadow, her claws shooting for his throat -

- but a bevy of frantic tendrils slammed him through the wall of the building to Iris's left and within; yet she decayed away the building's wall to collapse the rest in upon him -

- yet a wall of tendrils shot up and reinforced the building itself, shooting all throughout what walls remained, crossing & tying themselves in layers of reinforcement; she tried again with her wind as Suki caught up beside, yet could not penetrate through the impenetrable swamp, its abandoned brethren behind decaying once their connection to their master had been severed.

"He'll be looking for the water lines." muttered Iris, hearing more tendrils burrowing through the walls ahead; her spider's million eyes were a frantic scan throughout the building and below, attempting to find the main line before he did, until tendrils shot from the wall ahead and sprout towards her, latching upon her skin as she felt something attempting to bubble through the water in her blood; she was forced to launch her blood & muscles & skeleton back with Suki as the tendrils tore the flesh off from her arms, but Suki shadowstepped to her and demonic fingers injected new flesh into her, the air aridifying around her robbed flesh ahead so that no blood could be sapped nor traveled through; still the tendrils were burrowing through the building ahead, their presence indicating his still within the store.

She still had not found every pipe of water, yet the next scene would make such superfluous. Suki muttered something to her that impressed her, nodding as she shouted for Metamorphosis and her demonic legs turned into that of a cricket's; a single twitch of her legs and a wave of sound resonated through the entire building ahead, Kairos' scan ascertaining the hollower timbre that suggested a pipe of water; in moments she had decayed every pipe of water within the building, the tendrils still searching ahead yet unknowing that their quest was unwinnable.

Iris leaned her head right. "Closed, right?"

"YEAH." 

"Time to cook this fucker."

A first wind launched them up and over the building; maws sprouted from Suki's demonic body and dripped tenderloins & shoulders & butts & other fatty flesh all over the building as they curled up over the building, another wind blasting them down to the other end; Iris & Suki turned as they landed, a single acceleration of air lighting the fuse of the flesh-coated building and turning it into a bizarrely appetizing-smelling bonfire -

- but the swamp-undercoat burst out from it, tendrils spewing the fire back upon them -

- but a cloud of volcanic ash claimed the flames and blotted out the heat as another wind curled them around to the entrance to the store, another acceleration of air heating and lighting the fuse once more; the entire building burst into an inferno ahead, and they watched through the melting glass doors as Nathaniel began burning to death within, his wounds melting and skin dripping off from his blood; he ran desperately to escape through the front doors, but two fists of pressure slammed it closed as he continued to burn.

Iris noticed the swamp retreating back to him and coating him, coalescing into his own growing ecosystem as the heat upon him abetted; she muttered to Suki "-control over environmental factors?-" as her wind tried to peel open the doors ahead, yet a seal of pressure kept him locked within, the swamp once again growing from within the building; tendrils of swamp doused him in his Revenant's water, and Iris noted how these tendrils seemed far flimsier than normal; the swamp could hardly survive such a flood.

A coat of swamp grew over the building ahead, a corrosive haze descending from it and down upon them; yet another gust of wind blasted herself & Suki 20ft back from the spreading ecosystem ahead, tendrils rushing and walls rising around themselves, and out from the building rushed a wave of swampwater that corroded all in its path; more tendrils grew to block their escape behind and above, and as the wave came 30ft within, the next scene was instant.

Iris recalled what she had seen earlier of the flimsy swamp tendrils and imagined a marsh flooded; she threw her hand up and a straw of magma burst up from the swamp ahead, hardening into obsidian and seeking to suck the wave back into its source -

- but the wave corroded through it like there had been nothing there at all; twenty feet within, she shouted for Meteorology again as she pitched a bolt of red lightning into the drink and the trillion-volt current vaporized every drop of water ahead, electrolysis separating its constituent element into pure hydrogen and pure oxygen; the air accelerated around the gaseous mixture, a cocoon of obsidian protecting Iris & Suki as the enormous explosion burst outside -

- and again & again & again & again as Iris repeated it again & again & again, hearing a final scream from Nathaniel and decaying a line of sight out from their cocoons as the swamp withered around them, nothing but a still beating heart barely having survived the blasts in the ruins of the building ahead.

Iris & Suki walked up, the latter feeling hungry again as Iris crouched down to scan.

[OVERGROWTH: Creation of swamps and control over its abiotic factors. Allows travel through swamps via mixtures of Revenant-created swamp and non-Revenant water.]

Despite the issues she had had with Suki thus far, her mind continually turned to Olivia, as it had since they begun dating. She was still unsure what to do, nor what her decision would be; with the knowledge of that eavesdropped monologue she wondered what her reaction should be. She noticed that she had rarely put herself in agency of her own decisions with Olivia. She wanted what she believed best for Olivia, but that itself was a sheath over her own desires and needs; she could engage in self-destruction under the guise that it was this Olivia wanted. And yet she had tried to do so because if she were to admit that Olivia improved her life, then contained within that was the judgment that her life needed improvement. 

Of late she had noticed her attraction to Amelie intensify, and she had found herself fantasizing about her daily still. Yet it was in the idealization of dream that no reality could ruin her hopes by intrusion; she could turn outward and away from herself there, for when she fantasized about Amelie she truly fantasized about Olivia.

After clearing it with Eva & Amelie, she decided to head back to Urasaria alone the next day. She decided to surprise Olivia by unlocking the door to her mansion: she knew Naomi would likely not be home, for she had inherited Kate's work ethic when it came to presidency (however little respect she garnered for it).

As she stepped inside Olivia heard her and stepped out from the kitchen, thinking it was Naomi, but smiled when it was Iris. She walked over and hugged her, then kissed. "Finished up with the investigation?"

"Just killed who did it."

"Why'd they kill her?"

"He, singular. Just turned out to be some photographer. I didn't exactly have the chance to discern motive. Been too busy with myself lately to think over it yet."

"Well, it's mostly irrelevant now, isn't it?"

"Maybe so." 

Iris sat down, and Olivia beside her. She leaned over and kissed Iris deeply. "Someone's affectionate."

"I haven't gotten to see you at all lately."

"Well, you've been training with Naomi too, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but we're done for now. Are you staying past the investigation?"

"Few things I'd like to get checked here with Suki, but most likely. Don't want her fighting until that's done."

"Exactly, I can go with you."

"Alright."

Olivia climbed onto Iris's lap, and she smiled. She kissed Iris, who squeezed her arms around her. They reposed into each other, and for a moment Iris was raptured like she had not been in some time. There was romantic tension and undecided possibility, as Olivia rubbed against her, and strands of light danced around her as there seemed a nascent music to the room. The moment was responsive and alive, nurtured by her conceptions of such and troped towards a greater ideal, as Iris tightened her grip around her and pulled her closer. 

Olivia laughed, but it was not a laugh of passion, her body pulling away from Iris. "If you squeeze any harder you're gonna make me pee myself, you big brute."

Iris's grip loosened. As Olivia got up to go to the bathroom, Iris wondered why her life was so unstructured, for perfection had passed, even in its momentary and mimeographed way. She wondered if she had ever felt such a moment with Amelie, or if her memory could conjure one of such. Perhaps if there had been one, she would not have abandoned Amelie as she had. But most likely she had simply been afraid of the feelings she had for Amelie, and had done such many rationalizations to avoid that, those she realized and not. Whether such a moment had occured with Amelie was irrelevant now.

She recalled a pair of sneakers she had once seen hung from a power line, the result of likely some teenage prank or the sign of a nearby drug dealer, or perhaps a teenage test of coordination and accuracy. What it was is irrelevant but for the effect it had on a younger Iris, who many times had returned to it, only to one year no longer see it and that the ideal she had towards it no longer held. There was no avatar that could again coax that same emotion from her, for a memory was no apt conveyor of what she felt, as she wondered now if a memory is something you experience or something you remember.

Her internal consciousness tightened as Olivia returned, yet she attempted to loosen such through understanding how Olivia felt about her; that perhaps she carried her desires for Iris in unusual ways, as Iris had with her. As she realized, her habit counterwaxed against such belief and empathy, until in an unpitiable flicker of recognition did she say to Olivia: "I love you."

Her feelings swirled, and she thought of how beautiful Olivia looked at that moment, although Olivia was surprised, and just as quickly an instinct came over Iris to screen her out, an embarrassment over her own expressions, to retreat again into introspection and guilt. She felt frightened by her own show of passion, and for a brief instant she believed that Olivia would pick up on this fear, and again she would regret having taken the opportunity to open herself, to try to allow herself to be caught in longing and affirmation. But this fear retreated, and she felt no longer the need to convince herself against her own desires. She felt indestructible, in a sense.

"I love you too."

Iris could not remember what she had said afterwards, but to it Olivia replied yes and kissed her. She pressed Olivia around herself, as if a mannequin whose strings she sought to use to suture the more frayed parts of herself so they could again grow. She felt a strange mix of wistfulness and hope, which was not a state she held easily given her life's abrupt and dark rhythms. It alight upon her with a penetration deeper than any word, whose images danced and merged through what she felt, authoring something more beautiful than memory alone.

[END OF ARC: IN THE MOOD OF ANOTHER]