Rubi: Revisited First 800 Words

     Rubi Rascke woke up to the startling vibrato of an operatic soprano; her emerald eyes popped open.She ran her fingers through her inky black hair; a red streak framed her face.

open. She sat up and stretched, yawning loudly she looked around her. She threw back the sheets. A swallow was tattooed on her left hip. A spiral of branches dotted with thorns, and toped with roses wrapped around her right leg and up to her hip. A series of lines mimicking the design of a motherboard circuit crisscrossed her right shoulder and a line of Cyrillic characters were placed vertically on her left forearm, translated the message read, "The sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly”.
     For a second she didn’t know where she was, but as her mind began to clear she remembered the previous night. She swung her legs over the bed and began to feel around the floor for her clothes. She found her underwear and her acid washed jeans, but she couldn’t find her shirt. What the fuck, she thought. She stumbled to the door control and hit the open button.  The door slid open She could smell food cooking and she was hit by the full force of the music, she recognized it as Richard Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung”. Danielle and her fucking classical music, thought Rubi.

     “Jesus Christ…” she mumbled. She found her way to the InfoScreen and turned the music down.

     “Hey! I was listening to that!” came a voice from behind her. She turned around. A young woman with cropped brunette hair stood in the doorway that opened into the kitchen. She wore the standard issue camouflage pants of the Planetary Colonial Defense Force, which were unbuttoned and hung low around her hips, and a Kindstod, band shirt. Rubi recognized the shirt immediately.

     “ What are you doing with my shirt?” she grumbled.

     “Why did you turn off my music?” asked Danielle.

     “Don’t change the subject!” hissed Rubi. Danielle rolled her golden eyes.

     “I like it,” commented Danielle, “And I thought that wearing the shirt of the person that slept with you, is like planting a flag.” Rubi couldn’t disagree with her, Danielle did look good in the shirt. Despite her current state of dress, Danielle usually leaned more towards the feminine side of things; pretty make-up, dresses and heels were her style. Rubi often teased her about how she was only marine that liked to be pretty.

     “That’s for, like… the first couple of times you fuck someone!” stated Rubi, “Not after you’ve been dating them for almost a year and a half!” Danielle slid up to Rubi and wrapped her arms around her. Danielle was much shorter than Rubi and her face pressed against Rubi’s breasts. 

     “You like it, don’t lie baǒ-beì!” exclaimed Danielle, looking up into Rubi’s eyes. Rubi grinned and kissed her. 

     “You do look really cute,” complimented Rubi. 

     “Xièxiè!” grinned Danielle, “Come on, I have breakfast cooking.” Rubi allowed herself to be lead into the kitchen. The smell of bacon and scrambled eggs filled her nose. 

     “How did you get this?” marveled Rubi. Meat was expensive, due to its extensive manufacturing process.

     “The perks of being a marine! The government wants us to be healthy and protein just doesn’t cut it,” grinned Danielle as she slid the bacon and eggs onto a plate, and handed it to Rubi. Rubi rarely got to taste real meat and she savored the bacon as it melted in her mouth.

     “Ooohh…” purred Rubi, “It’s soooooo good!” Danielle simply smiled and served herself. The ate in relative silence and when they were finished they each dropped the plates into the dishwasher.

     “What time is it?” asked Rubi. Danielle looked up as if the time was displayed on the ceiling tiles.

     “Six-ish, abouts?” she guessed. 

     “Oh shit! I’m going to be late!” shouted Rubi, “Gimme my shirt!” Danielle pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it to Rubi. Rubi caught it, but before she could pull it on she became distracted by Danielle’s toned body. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her breasts were perky and smooth.

     “Rubi! You don’t have time to admire the scenery!” scolded Danielle. This brought her back to meat-space. She pulled the shirt over her head and skidded back into the bed room. She found her holster and pistol and tucked it into her waist band and hurriedly ran her belt through the loops. She skittered back into the living room and began to pull on her boots; hopping around on one foot. She pulled on her leather jacket whose lapels were studded with badges and pins, and slung her messenger bag over her shoulder. She gave Danielle a quick kiss before pulling her respirator over her mouth and nose and sprinting out the door. Once in the elevator she pulled her earbuds out of her pocket, hurriedly untangling them she put them in her ears and chose a playlist from her mobile terminal.

Jack: Revisited; First 900 words

     Beads of rain ran down the window casting flickering shadows across the bedroom and a rumble of thunder would shake the glass every so often. A series of drawers were set into the wall along with a closet, only thin lines outlined where the compartments were. Clothing was strewn about the floor and the sheets where crumpled. A small red light pulsed slowly on the wall next to the bed, below a black thirteen inch screen.

     Jack Aric O’Callahan sat propped up against the cool glass, his muscular chest rising and falling rhythmically. His thin, coarse brown hair was slicked back which made his receding hairline slightly more obvious. A silver chain with a single dog tag hung against his chest, a momentum to his past. Cordell wore it’s companion around her neck. He had given it to her as an engagement gift, since he couldn’t afford a ring. In his left hand, a cigarette was balanced between his fingers, and his right arm, a series of wires, servos, and circuits was incased in a flesh-colored carbon fiber-kevlar blend casing, was wrapped around the shoulders of a naked woman, laying asleep next to him. 

Cordell, now she was a special type of woman; she had stuck by his side through everything for the past seven years. She worked down at Yutani’s Gentleman’s Club. Jack knew that she did more than take her clothes off an strut around naked for rich snobs in three-piece suits. He didn’t care how many exec knobs she fiddled with, as long as she came back to him at the end of the day. 

     Cordell had choppy, heavily layered purple hair. Protruding from the top of her head where triangular ears, similar to that of a cat’s, that twitched occasionally, and folded back against her hair when he ran his hand across the top of her head. Protruding from her lower back was a  fluffy purple and black stripped tail, that flicked happily over the edge of the bed. Jack inhaled through his cigarette causing the ember to glow bright for a moment. He looked down at the woman. He could see her eyes moving behind her eyelids. He envied her for being able to sleep so easily. He was haunted by visions of horror, violence and gore every time he closed his eyes. The therapist he had been assigned to told him it was called “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” and had prescribed him some sort of drug called, “clora-prostate,” or some other bullshit medical name. They helped, but not as much as he would have liked. Instead he enjoyed his cigarettes and booze, preferring to smoke away, and drown the memories. 

     They had talked about moving to one of the colonies; to get away from the clutter and pollution of the City. Jack liked the colony of Elysia, a green jewel of a planet. It was known as a vacation destination, and was mostly a farming colony. It was calm and peaceful. Jack thought about lounging on the pale beaches, splashing in the waves with Cordell. Paradise, he thought. But they would never have enough money to move out there. Travel alone would cost him two years wages, and buying a house, maybe four years. He took a good long drag off his cigarette.

Cordell shifted and wrapped her pale arm around his waist and pulled herself close to him. Her warm, honey soft breasts pressed against his leg, causing him to stiffen slightly. 

     He rubbed the back of his neck with his mechanical arm. The finger tips felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand as the colder carbon-fiber touched his neck. There was a round metallic hole at the nape of his neck, his neural connection port. He hadn’t used that for ages, not since he retied from the mercenary work; seeing as his current job as a warehouse worker didn’t require it. Everyone had one, though not everyone used it.

     He reached over and touched the screen with the pulsating red light.  The screen flickered to life and a displayed a simple monochromatic UI that illuminated his chiseled jaw with soft blue light. He tapped the symbol that looked like an analog clock eclipsing a sun. The screen flashed to black and back to blue before displaying the weather, date, and time.

MAR.3.2184//04:13:21

100%HUMID//THNDRSTRM//45ºF

     He hit the window with the back his head in frustration. It looked like it would be another sleepless night. He ran his fingers through Cordell’s hair and a purr of pleasure slipped from between her thin lips. He stamped out his cigarette in the glass ashtray sitting on the window ledge. The rain seemed to let up for a moment. He heard a door close in the other room. His muscles tightened as adrenaline shot through his veins. He pushed on one of the panels on the wall which silently slid open to reveal .45 Automatic. He took it in his hand; the metal against his skin and the weight of it felt calming. He gently released himself from Cordell’s embrace. She stiffened as he got up, but soon relaxed back into sleep. Jack slipped over towards the door control panel. He hit the manual override switch and slid the door open softly and slipped into the room beyond, sliding the door shut behind him. He could hear someone moving about in the kitchen, but when he peered inside, no one was there.