Unipsi, lovely entity
chapter 78c: sickness
Eating a self-making ice tea was only the tip of the iceberg. Scilla was going to experience even more bizarre occurrences. But maybe the absolutely most bizarre of them all was Iris herself. Iris was an angel. She was a beam of chaotic light.
Upon their return from the surface, Scilla received access to her own room inside Iris’s living zone. Based on what Iris said, Scilla received one of several guest rooms that consisted in self self-sufficient 4-room apartment. Each unit had a living room with outside view, 2 full bathrooms each with its own shower and tub built separately, a kitchen, a studio, and 2 bedrooms. From the moment she received the room Iris started giving Scilla some privacy. If not invited Iris would not enter the room except for the predefined days. Iris had placed some strong boundaries between them and most were used to regulate their sleeping sessions. Once every 3 days Iris would meet with Scilla in her room to sleep in the same bed. Such sleeping sessions had rules, mostly related to keeping each other as distant as possible while still receiving the benefit of sharing a bed.
They spent a few days relaxing and letting Scilla adjust to all the changes. During those days Scilla realized how peaceful and joyful was living with Iris. She was just a joy to have around. But even in such cases, Scilla could feel a barrier always kept up between them. They were friends… and she realized… that she wanted more. She was in love again. Or maybe she was never out of love. Maybe she moved from 511 to 608. but did she ever stop loving?
Her newfound realization however was soon going to be placed on hold. 3 days after their return Scilla had just finished preparing lunch, but Iris was nowhere to be found.
“IRIS! LUNCH IS READY! WHERE ARE YOU? I ALREADY CALLED TWICE” shouted Scilla hoping that Iris would come, and she did.
From behind Scilla Iris spoke.
“here”
Scilla jumped scared as she heard nothing and Iris was just half a meter behind her.
“When did you get here and how? I didn’t hear you”
“just now. Time to eat right?”
Scilla noticed a missing detail. Iris no longer had the collar. Scilla nervously tapped her neck by instinct.
“your collar…”
“what about it?”
“it’s gone.”
“yeah. That’s what I worked on this morning. I removed it once I’ll remove it twice” Smiled Iris.
“so… you… you are free now… right?” asked fearfully Scilla.
“Are you scared?”
“is… is it… obvious?”
“even if it wasn’t I would be able to smell your fear”
“sorry…”
“you don’t have to be sorry. I would be scared too. I mean if I wasn’t a Leermorf… you got it didn’t you right?”
“I… I understand”
“do you fear what I am? Or do you fear who I am?”
“I don’t fear you… but… sorry I can’t help it…”
“you are uncertain about my nature. It’s understandable. From your perspective, I could be a space invader wearing the skin of the woman you loved… I understand… it’s not easy”
“no… it’s not… fuck I just don’t know how to express it. You are like… super peaceful and all… but I keep overthinking. Because… because we are not the same… I mean me and the rest of us…. And you. I have one body and one body only. I can’t change. My way of thinking is just engraved in me. But you can change. Shift into someone else. Is what I’m speaking to really you… or is it a fragment… sorry if it…”
“I see. You have interrogated yourself a lot about my existence. I’m not displeased. I asked and kept asking myself the same questions. What makes me… myself? My core body is as malleable as all others. I have almost no fixed point. Where does my personality come from? My brain? The same brain I can live without? Does it come from my core aspect that I can change permanently? Does it come from my memories which I can erase forever? From my atoms and molecules which I can replace? I don’t know what makes me, Me. But I know that I am myself.”
Scilla remained silent as they sat and started eating. She kept looking at Iris and once again noticed a peculiarity. She forced herself to remember and her memory didn’t fail her. Iris had an eating pattern. The same eating pattern as 511. Upon receiving her food, Iris would cut parts of almost identical size. Mix them with the same amount of side dishes and eat them in series. Then repeat the process. It was one of several quirks. At such realization, Scilla smiled.
“We should discuss our future” said Iris.
“I…”
“since you came, you gave me a new objective. I’ll restore my spaceyard and we will build a new spacecraft. For you to return to your people and for me to venture among the stars. First, we fix the machine then we look for plans and knowledge on the engines. I’ll increase your clearance level and you will already be able to search for new plans.”
“Sounds good for me… when do we start?”
“With the spaceyard today, with the research I would say from tomorrow. Now that I can change I no longer depend on your help for moving things around. Still two entities could be useful during several procedures. But we will see about that.”
Putting the spaceyard back into service was fairly fast and took only 2 weeks. However, looking for spaceship knowledge was far more complex and long. Knowledge of spacecrafts and space travel was clearly widely documented by the Idras. The few and sparse documents found had hundreds of variations and tens of thousands of citations to recover all the knowledge that one could need to understand said document. But it was not all work and search. Rarely, when the weather allowed, Iris would take Scilla outside to explore the surface. Those secondary trips were shorter as they usually happened during calm but still snowy days. Of course, Iris was no dictator, so she gave Scilla a lot of free time. Scilla spent said time trying to learn more about Iris and about her upbringing. A questionable choice that unrevealed more horrors than what she was imagining, but still a useful trauma. Her frantic search led her to a video. A recording straight from 484’s suit. The file was placed under 608’s development accidents. It was named ‘tearing’.
It started with 484 being led by Idra 493 into a room. 493 was clearly agitated.
“I sense no alarm. So why did you bother me sister?” said 484 while approaching a window. The room she was in was some sort of observation and command post. On the other side below them a chamber with fake natural lighting and an outdoor setting composed of few fake plants. Inside on the opposite side, there was a young 608, she was at best 8 years old, but probably younger. On the other side a clearly scared Droxi woman. The Droxi was naked and deprived of any object. Iris on the other hand was wearing her usual clothes just smaller to fit her size. Her head was covered and so were her eyes, yet her mouth was left free.
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“what’s going on with 608?” asked 484.
Iris was not standing, she was on the ground stuck in a corner pressing her hands on her ears.
“That’s why I called for you. You know her better. Do you think it’s because of the droxi?”
“I doubt that. When did it start?”
“like 10 minutes ago she started breathing strangely. It sounded as if she couldn’t breath but the sound didn’t come from her at all. All scans suggest that she can breathe and is breathing just fine.”
“I never seen her this way too. Did you ask her what is wrong?”
“yeah, she had her tablet but she hasn’t replied”
“ok let’s pull her out.”
“LET ME OUT OF HERE! HEY!” shouted the Droxi in the testing room. Her shouts seemed to have triggered Iris who moved from the corner.
“hey, hey look look. She is moving…”
Iris was not walking, she was crawling toward the shouting Droxi. Hers was no uncoordinated movement. No Iris’s crawl was akin to a jaguar approaching her prey. Loud acute pings that sounded like a mix of a banshee scream and an active sonar echoed in the room. They frightened the Droxi even more which prompted her to scream louder for help.
“Sister! What do we do?” exclaimed 493.
“nothing. We watch. Whatever got to her is probably…”
Iris jumped from behind a bush onto the Droxi. The Droxi fell on the ground as if a way bigger mass than just a 120cm creature hit her. On the ground Iris recovered immediately and while keeping the 4 points of contact posture stared into the Droxi's face. Iris's smile broke her face. Teeth extended going full circle around her face. The Droxi was in absolute shock and so were the Idras observing. The smile extended more crossing above Iris’s eyes. Then the head burst open exploding with bleeding pure black breaches like a burned tree. Pieces of brain slowly fall from the branches as small creepy hands were growing on them, each holding onto cracked teeth. As soon as the Droxi stood up to run away Iris grew multiple arms and tentacles on her back and grabbed the Droxi. The tentacles pushed under the creature's skin that obviously screamed as they pushed underneath and literally tore away the skin from the body. Immediately after the tentacles vanished while the grabbing harms grew bigger to deliver the last blows. They grabbed onto the completely skinless woman and started smashing her violently against the ground and the wall. Iris stopped only when the Droxi was reduced to a bunch of meat pieces scattered around. As her carnage ended she let out 3 more pings. Each was exponentially louder than the previous one. The first was as loud as a sonic boom. The second so loud to shake even 484 that was “safe” beyond the reinforced glass and the third radiated so much energy that the reinforced ground broke and so did the safety windows. In all this, the Idras looked in shock and fear. All but one. 484 behind the camera was delighted by such view.
“tell me that all the instruments were on” were the first words out of her mouth.
“yes. We got it all”
“wonderful. I’m going in, she seems to be calming down. Send all the data to 499. we can capitalize on so much destructive power”
Scilla was shocked. Fear paralyzed her body. Such horrific death. She never saw anything worse except a few times all committed by 511. Was that the real 608? Of course not. What Scilla saw was a scared creature defending itself as hallucination fogged her mind. Yet those were just a fraction of the true horrors that Leermorfs can bring to their enemies. That’s why it’s better to leave them alone.
If I have to guess this is the only accident, but wasn't she supposed to have killed a human?… unfortunately there seems to be no more knowledge on it… at least not here. Well, it’s time for my return home. Should I worry about Iris? She didn’t look good in that video. Was she sick? Will it happen again? How do I even prepare for that?
Said knowledge would however be useful a month later, just as the snowy days were reducing and spring approaching. By that time Scilla was now sure to be 42.
Said month later was just a normal day as usual. However, upon getting on the supersonic train to the main base Iris started coughing and breathing heavily. Or so sounded like it. She was breathing just fine but it sounded as if her throat was obstructed.
“Iris are you ok? Your sounds are concerning”
“I’m. I’m… fine. Just need a moment. Don’t worry… I can manage”
“tell me if… it gets worse. I don’t know how I could help, but I will. No matter what.”
“you don’t have to worry. It’s somewhat of a cyclical thing. Happens from time to time. I’ll just have to take it easy for today… and maybe tomorrow”
“do you want to turn back and rest?”
“no need.”
but Scilla was right to be worried. Slowly but inevitably Iris was getting worse to the point that they stopped for her to rest after just some walking. At some point, Iris exhausted just stopped walking and slid on a wall until she sat. Scilla immediately reached for her. Judging by Iris’s eyes things were not good as they kept moving from normal to their strange shape. Iris was also not really herself. She was clearly hallucinating and losing her grasp on reality.
“Iris. Stay with me. What do I do?”
“bag… my backpack. I have medicines…”
Scilla took the backpack and in it found a med kit. Opening it she revealed several pill containers and 2 auto injecting syringes. Iris frantically grabbed one of the pill carriers, opened it and tried to take one of the pills that was supposedly inside. However, nothing came out. When she realized, several seconds later, she tossed away the container enraged.
“PORCA TROIA! (pig slut) empty! Fucking empty! How can I fucking forget!!?”
“Iris, Iris stay with me. What do I do now? Where do I go to get more pills”
“the injector. Do you know how to use one?”
“of course. They are standard issue in the army”
“then used it on me… I can’t use it”
“are your hands not working?”
“I’m scared”
“I know but… eh?”
“I’m scared of the fucking needle!”
“what!?”
“needles! I fucking can’t stand them! We all have fears!”
“I’m judging… fuck it. No time for that shit… where do I inject you?”
“close your eyes for a moment please”
Scilla turned away. When she looked back Iris had exposed her left thigh. She had pulled down her pants to her knees and moved her skirts to leave her skin out but cover the rest. No free view of her layers of underwear.
“you can’t miss it right?”
“I won’t. So close your eyes and I’ll go. You will feel nothing.”
Scilla had a wide knowledge of self injectors as she used first aid on herself multiple times during the war. For Leans it was a standard procedure to inject yourself with lab-enriched artificial blood to help with blood loss and open wounds. Injured Leans would clean the injury and inject close by. The artificial blood would flow to the open wound and speed up drastically the natural healing process. Using a similar injector on a friend was not different. However each time Scilla would get closer to Iris, she would scream and pull away. It was impossible to hit her safely so Scilla sat on Iris’s legs blocking them. Then she placed a hand on Iris’s eyes and prepared herself. She knew that Iris was going to try and run away. So she decided that she had to deliver a little surprise. As she moved the injector closer she stopped covering Iris’s eyes and instead grabbed her nose while pulling her face closer.
Iris was surprised and immediately pissed. She stared with fury into Scilla and didn’t notice at all the needle piercing her skin and delivering the stabilizing medicine. As Scilla pulled away Iris shouted angrily.
“YOU FUCKING BITCH! THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOUR SHITTY…”
Iris noticed Scilla waving the empty injector before her eyes. She immediately changed her tones.
“you… you did it! You fucking fooled me like a cunt.” Iris smiled.
“indeed wench. What now?”
“thanks you… I’ll loose… consciousness… soon… can you… me… home?” then Iris collapsed.
“yes I can. I’ll bring you back home. Into your bed.”
Scilla was relieved and happy that she was able to help Iris. But now. Alone. In such an exposed position. Scilla couldn’t contain herself. After having touched such heavenly soft skin, she had to touch it again. After all the first time she was focused on the injection not on the skin experience. Just like her perfect face, Iris’s skin and body were perfection. Soft and smooth tanned skin with no hair at all to Scilla’s surprise. She had no idea that Esterians don’t really grow hair except on their head and groin. Iris’s thigh was perfectly sized for her body, it was not too fat nor too muscular. Soft while relaxed but defined. Unwatched, except by Us, Scilla gave into temptation and her perversion. She wanted to lick such perfect thigh but decided that it was too much of an intrusion. Instead, she decided to have a good long sniff of Iris leg and a second sniff closer to the skirt gap between Iris’s legs. Satisfied with herself, Scilla pulled up Iris’s double pair of pants and then lifted her up to carry her home.