RavensDagger

  Chapter Fifty - Tempoodbyes

  "Thank you," Ivil said. "That was an amusing way to spend the day."

  Across from her, Pixie smiled wide and gave Ivil a little bow. She bounced back straight, the bags she held onto swishing with the motion. "No, thank you. That was... more fun than I've had in a long while. I guess it's a little bit of an old-Earth cliche to spend girltime shopping, but it was a lot of fun."

  "I hated every minute of it," Missy said.

  Ivil and Pixie both ignored her, as they'd been ign most of her pints for the st few hours.

  Missy was standing slightly to the side, weighted down by several bags. The tents of these ranged from the softest, most silky pyjamas avaible oation, to lingerie the cost of which could very easily be calcuted on a dolr-per-thread basis. There was some more normal stuff as well, though Missy had very musisted on keeping to her style. That mostly meant that she'd picked up more jumpsuits, but they were at least of higher quality with fewer pany logos on them.

  "I hope we see each ain soon," Ivil said holy. The date with Missy and Pixie had been both educational and amusing. It had, in many ways, matched up to what she'd imagined from seeing soap operas and romantiedies. Not every detail, of course, most of those didn't take p a rickety space station, but there had been enough simirities that she had found herself able to rely on her romantic education to figure out what to do .

  "Y-yeah," Pixie said as she kicked at the ground, scuffing her shoe on a grating. "Well, uh, it was nice seeing you, and Missy too, and I hope that I'll see both of you again soon. Oh! I might o meet you again once I have news from the Bounty Hunter's Guild."

  Ivil nodded. She couldn't see why any suews couldn't be transmitted via eleic mail of one sort or another, but another excuse to meet Pixie wouldn't go amiss.

  Ivil had very few friends, aherapist was always egging her on to meet more people and bee closer to them. It was supposed to 'humanize' her.

  She wasn't so sure if that would truly work, but today had been fun, so maybe they were onto something. "Well... goodbye." Ivil hen turo start walking off. Her bags hurried after her, knowier than to slump on the ground and not follow. She hadn't purchased much, really, a few ges of clothes and one or two items that Missy had suggested.

  For someone who only wore ohing, Missy had an impressive eye for fashion.

  Though she had insisted that Ivil buy a nice luxury jumpsuit.

  Ivil waited until Pixie was far out of hearing range before she spoke up again. "Did you enjoy yourself?" she asked in a more subdued tone.

  Missy shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Never was one for shopping. Usually just order what I need a over with, but this was nice. We burhrough a lot of mohough."

  "It's my moo burn," Ivil said. "And besides, we're expeg a detly rge payday, aren't we?"

  "I suppose. One of the first things that I learned when I became first mate on the Held Together was how much maintaining a ship cost, and then I quickly learhat pany money isn't the same as people money."

  "I'm not sure I follow," Ivil said. They were both navigating out of the nicer, tre-most stations of Driftwood and towards the less-reputable ones on the edge, specifically towards the ohat had the dog facilities they were using now.

  Missy hummed. "It's just a matter of scale, I guess. Nevermind."

  "No, I want to uand. Do you mean to say that the amount of money one person move is nothing pared to a pany?"

  "More or less, yeah. The Held Together ain't the richest ship around, but just keeping her going costs more than a station-living person makes in a decade. But it also makes as much every trip. In the end, we're still just scraping by, but the numbers have more zeroes tacked on."

  "I see," Ivil said. She nodded along. "I think I uand. I had a simir shock when I started to question the amount of mohe gover could spend on things around Mars. Even the simplest of budgetary shifts start in the low billions."

  "Yeah, I guess it's all scale," Missy said. "Anyway, I never was much fger-scaled things. I'm a simple kind of woman, you know?"

  "Hmm," Ivil said nonittally. "I do hope you had a simple kind of fun. I enjoyed myself."

  She felt rather than saw Missy eyeing her from the er of her eyes. Her hair ulled up a little before her face, masking the look to those without Ivil's senses. "Yeah, I guess I did. Has anyone ever told you that you're weird?"

  "And survived?" Ivil asked. She hummed. "You'd be the first."

  Missy chuckled. "You know, I feel like y scary-woman act loses a lot of its bite after spending half a day with you ag like you're sixteen and shopping with daddy's credit card."

  "I have to admit, that never actually happened. I was never much of a... family person."

  "Oh?" Missy asked.

  "Orphaned, raised by the big scary gover," Ivil said.

  "Ah," Missy replied. "Sorry fging."

  "It's nothing," Ivil said. She was aware that sharing about her past was a required part of building a healthy retionship, so she was ready and willing to speak about it. Not that her young life had been overly traumatic or was all that iing. "So... you and Pixie?"

  Missy grumbled. "Yeah. But hey, I apologised to her, we're good, I think. She's a good woman. I kinda... fucked her up a little. It was dickish of me. Sorry fing you into that, even if it was just in the periphery. You don't deserve to get caught in my drama."

  "It's fine," Ivil said. "I appreciate that you're so... mature about it."

  "If I was more mature, I wouldn't have dug myself into that hole in the first pce," Missy said. "Maybe I'm growing too old for the whole dy at every port thing. You might have the right to it, Evelyn, I should think about settling down one day." She snorted. "If you told me that I'd be thinking that even just two years ago, I'd think you were delusional."

  "Why? I think it's a very normal way of thinking as we grow older. I wasn't too keen on romail a few years ago. Before that I mostly focused on being straining a reputation, making sure that people kheir pce."

  Missy grinned. "Sounds like you might have been good at that."

  "I'm the best at it," Ivil said. She was. "What I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't be nervous about ging your approach to things in life. Maybe the step really will be to find a pce to settle down in."

  "I don't know what kind of pce would want me," Missy said.

  Ivil grinned smugly. "You live in my pace, of course. You have experience as a first mate, I'm sure that would transte well into a more managerial role."

  Missy ughed. "Sure! Does your butler uniform include jumpsuits?"

  "Only if you're wearing nothing but the tents of that bag underh," Ivil said with a gesture to a tiny pink bag that Missy had stuffed shamefully inter one.

  Missy's ugh ged in pitch, turning a little more nervous. "Yeah, that's not a kink I'm familiar with... might be kind of hot, though."

  "The cssic butler outfit would suit you well too, I think. You've got the figure to pull off wearing a three-piece," Ivil said. "Ask Aurora, I'm certain she'd agree."

  "I think I've had enough people poking at my way of dressing for one day," Missy dismissed.

  Ivil smiled, then paused as she noticed someone approag them with a knife in hand. "Hey dies, looks like you had some cash to spend, how about yo--"

  Ivil tio walk on. There was a slight hitch as Missy went around the mugger's lower half after it fell to the floor, but she soon caught up, looking somealer. "What the fuck was that?"

  "Hmm? Oh, a mugger, I think," Ivil said.

  "Fuck. Uh, okay, we should probably hurry up, then," Missy said.

  "Yes, I suppose if there's ohere might be more about. They're like roaches, I swear. I suspect that I'm somehow cursed to always run into some unimportant mugger or mook every time I enter a location of ill-repute," she said with a shake of her head.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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