"Wanna see my weapon now?"

"Also, he's ugly. Man, it's gonna kick ass living in a matriarchy and being able to say that about men now." She considers asking what their policy is on trans people, but it's probably too touchy of a subject and she should be glad she at least gets to do it to cis men. "But yes, show me your weapon."

Will rolls his eyes, almost imperceptibly.

"Pro tip: you don't actually wanna say that about people's husbands or sons."

Raven pulls a revolver out of her purse.

"Loaded with Celestial bronze bullets, to kill monsters. Could also do regular ones if we're expecting mortal threats; I'm the designated person on that because, frankly, I'm the least trigger-happy. But when I'm really not fucking around..."

The gun turns into a wand.

"This is the magic focus you were asking about."

"Oh. Oh Jesus. I'm so sorry. I thought he was just like, your platonic slave or whatever, I didn't know,  and like, I'm a dyke, if Raven didn't tell you, I think that about everybody's husband. Like, I don't generally judge other people's tastes, but like, when society is pushing shit on you you just want to tell it to fuck off, right? Raven did say you guys weren't the homophobic kind of radfems."

^{"I'm not a slave!"}

"Nah, we're cool, he's not my husband or son. Just warning you it's not an entirely un-fraught thing to say."

In response to "when society is pushing shit on you you just wanna tell it to fuck off": "True as shit."

"Oh. Okay. Like, only husbands or sons of Amazons, or am I only allowed to roast incels whose moms are dead?"

"No one's gonna, like, challenge you to a duel over some mortal dude. They might civilly disagree, if he's her type."

"Got it. Also, we're calling them 'mortals'? Are you guys immortal, or is it one of those weird linguistic things like how we cook bacon and bake cookies?"

"The latter. Monsters respawn when they die, everyone else goes somewhere. Most commonly judgment in the Underworld."

"Got it. I try not to ponder my own mortality more than absolutely necessary, so uuuh, were you all gonna show me your weapons or whatever, because there's still two of you left."

Hope looks at Raven.

"Uhhhh, did you mean my backup weapons, or the abilities I actually use in battle?"

She turns to Katie, pulling out in one hand a sewing needle that turns into a shortsword and in the other a scalpel that turns into a scythe.

"These are the backup weapons. My real power...do you happen to be sick right now? If not, I'd have to make you sick and revoke it real quick, to demonstrate."

"No, I'm good, thanks. Does it just work on pathogens, or like, stab wounds, headaches, period cramps?"

"Just pathogens. I'm quite skilled at treating wounds, though, on account of the medical degree and all.

...and wow, now I almost wish that so long as my blessing has an offensive aspect it'd work on period cramps, it would be fascinating to see how a man reacts to that."

"She means a well-paid and consenting man," Raven clarifies. "Hope, people don't know you."

"Are there a lot of monsters with disease-inducing powers in the Labyrinth, then?" Katie is entirely unfazed at the mention of human experimentation.

"Nah, not a lot, I'd say. The hordes are overall more scared of me than I am of them. There are disease spirits, and we've tangled with 'em a few times before, but they're more common in the Underworld or Tartarus itself than up in the Labyrinth."

"Ah, okay, so it's mainly the offensive aspect that's useful. How bad does it go? Can you like, instantaneously give someone late-stage AIDS or Black Death?"

"I can, but I wouldn't. Too great a risk of collateral damage in battle, and little research value. Unless I had some exceptionally brave volunteers for a human challenge trial and some exceptionally promising vaccine or treatment, I guess. What I use against monsters is prion diseases, they clean themselves up because monster bodies dissolve into dust upon death."

"Huh, dissolving on death but being susceptible to prion diseases kind of gives mixed signals on whether monsters are biological creatures vs magical constructs that just look like animal life. Have there been studies on this?"

"A few? The field's still in its infancy. Their flesh looks like it's made of cells under a microscope, genetic testing shows genes in common with whatever regular animal species they appear to be derived from, and so on.

If they're like gods, then the way it works is that they are magical constructs, but the constructed body is a perfectly faithful replica of a real one, down to the cellular level. If a god impersonates your husband, the demigod kid would pass a paternity test."