Halfway done! [Earthsiders]
12. Rebirth
Futatsu came to Earth in a rain of fire.
It might not have said that in the reports, and it probably didn’t look like that from the ground, but that’s how he remembers it.
He tells Boss about his crash and about phoenixes. Mythology isn’t something they get into down here. He says how there’s only ever one of them, and it comes down to Earth in flames.
Boss looks at him and says, no wonder you spend so much time setting shit on fire.
Futatsu grins and changes the subject, but, yeah. Someday the phoenix has to fly again.
13. Dirt
Futatsu is absolutely filthy. Seriously, it’s disgusting. Between dirt, sweat, and blood, he thinks if he took off his coat it could walk home by itself.
This whole soldier thing is not all it’s cracked up to be. He can deal with the constant death from above, and okay, he can snipe, but for the love of Heaven he needs to wash his hair. It’s becoming one huge dreadlock.
He looks over the edge of his rooftop - nothing. He sits back down, nervous. The silence is too silent, and no amount of bitching will take his mind off the danger.
14. Childadult
He has brown hair, hers is red; her slang is Español, his is Spacer; she shoots bullets where he shoots lazers; he’s pushing thirty, she’s on the low end of sixteen.
Boss has known her for eight years, him for a little over ten. As a kid, she was quiet and observant and leader material. Boss didn’t know him as a kid, but he thinks maybe he wasn’t nearly so driven. No one gets loud like that without practice.
The weirdest thing about them, Boss thinks, is that every single person who meets them comments on how alike they are.
15. Bet
‘Tatsu fights dirtier than ‘Kueh does, but ‘Kueh’s got the badass factor of doing it with a sword. A popular sport among the youth of the city is betting on their fights.
Hali likes ‘Kueh for bloodiness, but puts her money on ‘Tatsu for most killed. Maddox doesn’t do the mortality pool, but he goes in for ‘Kueh when the odds on big explosions are better than three-to-one.
Rela’s the bookkeeper. Years later, ‘Kueh will find her notes from that time and she’ll shrug and grin, and he won’t be able to decide whether he should laugh or kill her.
16. Medicine
Futatsu always throws painkillers away. Always. He has an addictive personality; he’ll deal with a little annoyance now to keep away withdrawal symptoms later.
He remembers, back at the start of his illustrious piloting career, two weeks of throwing up in hospital. Not for him.
Watching other folks suffer, though - he can see why Tien was always so damn insistant. The lady’s shoulder is not gonna heal fast, but the stupid pills could help. But Rela is stubborn, more so than Futatsu is, even, and so Futatsu pretends to turn a blind eye when she, too, throws the stuff out.
17. Victory
The conditions for defeat are easier than the ones for victory. You know you’re beaten when you have to surrender - how do you know you’ve won if your enemy’s indestructable?
Rela thinks this over, on nights when she goes roaming. Schuu follows her, and they sit on broken concrete. She looks up, finds the colonies, and glares death their way.
“So do we take them out of the sky, or what?” she asks.
“If you can’t meet the goal, redefine it,” he answers, thoughtfully.
That’s like giving up, maybe, but if she has to, she’ll make her own damn victory.
18. Honeymoon
A week after their half-assed wedding, Boss sends them on recon, alone.
“Think of it like a honeymoon,” he says.
“Maybe when ya send us to Hawaii. Can we do recon in Hawaii?” Futatsu’s been smiling all week.
“No. Get thee to a complex.” Boss makes shooing motions.
SingKueh smirks. “You’re certain we can’t get we to a nunnery?”
“You would say that. Classics pervert,” Futatsu says.
“The Bard aside, there ain’t nowhere Earthside I know of for that. Go. No detours, you sex fiends.”
“If you insist.” SingKueh tugs Futatsu’s ponytail. Futatsu pretends to fight, but follows him, grinning.
19. Blind
‘Kueh gets jumpy when ‘Tatsu comes in the room. ‘Tatsu can see it in how he shuffles nearer the wall, how his shoulders tense and his hand twitches toward his gun. The diagnosis would be PTSD. Shellshock, ‘Tatsu thinks, is more descriptive.
Six months ago, ‘Kueh lost the sight in his left eye to an ill-timed grenade detonation. Futatsu knows this, and is careful not to approach him from the left without making noise. The tension’s bad enough; he doesn’t need his partner going attack-mode on him.
‘Kueh relaxes when he recognizes the thump of ‘Tatsu’s combat boots. It’s something.
20. Monocle
“I’m just saying, it would look distinguished. Very sexy.” Futatsu is half-buried in some arcane piece of machinery, and his voice echoes.
SingKueh looks up from his runner’s letter. “It would hardly discourage people from staring.”
“’Kueh, people stare at you anyway. They stared at you before. You’re a very… stare-able person.” Futatsu’s hand flails expressively.
“I am personally opposed to the idea.”
“It’s a piece of glass, ‘Kueh, we’re not talking about dead rabbit skins here.”
“Where did you get this obsession?”
“It’s complicated.” Futatsu is silent momentarily. Then, “Please?”
“Fine. I will wear the monocle. Once. Choose wisely.”
21. Father
He never thought he’d have a daughter. Maybe some offspring, somewhere, but not a daughter. Not someone who he’d be responsible for, who he’d teach and send to bed early, comfort and yell at, want to kill and love more than life.
She calls him ‘Boss’, dyes her hair, talks half in Spanish and shoots people in his defense. She’s amazing. He adopted her, sort of, and during the ceremony she told him in a whisper that she loved him.
He’s got no more relation to her than the fact they’re both human, but he’s sure as hell her father.
22. Cooking
Rela can’t cook worth crap, but she does anyway. Schuu doesn’t much care, but when they have folk over - which is oftener than Schuu’d thought, as Rela picks up strays like other folk pick up debt - Schuu kind of quietly takes over. It works.
As it happens, it works elsewhere too. Rela does things, and does ‘em loud and flashy, and Schuu does what she can’t. He’s got used to it, to sniper shots and security ‘cause she can’t or won’t deal. She doesn’t even thank him anymore - it’s assumed. Far as everyone else is concerned, they’re the same person.
23. Nap
In the north-west corner of the city, there’s a big slag heap that used to be a skyscraper. Two doors down from it, a hotel still stands. Rela lives in the penthouse and holds court from the warehouse between them.
She doesn’t look at the fallen building; she remembers when it was part of the city’s skyline. Some days, though, she can’t get it out of her mind, and in the afternoon she goes over and finds the half-circle of bent I-beam that happens to be the same size she is.
Half-asleep in the arms of her city, she dreams.
24. Rumor
Rela loves rumors. She’s getting good at them.
There’s a cadre of physicists working in France she lets grow. Even if it’s not true, it helps.
The Soylent Green meme, she just laughs at. Once word gets around it’s a joke, it’s not dangerous.
The Boss is in league with the Spacers she stamps out right off with The Spacers are genetically modifying super-soldiers, which is more interesting, and possibly more truthful.
Her favorite rumor, though, is the one about empires. She’s not sure if she believes it, but there are worse nicknames for a fledgling city than Neo Rome.
25. Party
They hold a party when peace is declared. Kir pulls out his drums and Paul his guitar, someone starts dancing, and Rela doesn’t sit down the rest of the
night.
It’s a little desperate and a lot wild with the release of adrenaline. The soldiers are giddy, because they don’t have to wake up tomorrow ready to kill. The civilians are relieved, because they didn’t want to die and now they don’t have to.
Somewhere in there someone raises a toast to the fallen, and Rela throws her cup of wine on the fire, red smoke rising into the sky.
Futatsu came to Earth in a rain of fire.
It might not have said that in the reports, and it probably didn’t look like that from the ground, but that’s how he remembers it.
He tells Boss about his crash and about phoenixes. Mythology isn’t something they get into down here. He says how there’s only ever one of them, and it comes down to Earth in flames.
Boss looks at him and says, no wonder you spend so much time setting shit on fire.
Futatsu grins and changes the subject, but, yeah. Someday the phoenix has to fly again.
13. Dirt
Futatsu is absolutely filthy. Seriously, it’s disgusting. Between dirt, sweat, and blood, he thinks if he took off his coat it could walk home by itself.
This whole soldier thing is not all it’s cracked up to be. He can deal with the constant death from above, and okay, he can snipe, but for the love of Heaven he needs to wash his hair. It’s becoming one huge dreadlock.
He looks over the edge of his rooftop - nothing. He sits back down, nervous. The silence is too silent, and no amount of bitching will take his mind off the danger.
14. Childadult
He has brown hair, hers is red; her slang is Español, his is Spacer; she shoots bullets where he shoots lazers; he’s pushing thirty, she’s on the low end of sixteen.
Boss has known her for eight years, him for a little over ten. As a kid, she was quiet and observant and leader material. Boss didn’t know him as a kid, but he thinks maybe he wasn’t nearly so driven. No one gets loud like that without practice.
The weirdest thing about them, Boss thinks, is that every single person who meets them comments on how alike they are.
15. Bet
‘Tatsu fights dirtier than ‘Kueh does, but ‘Kueh’s got the badass factor of doing it with a sword. A popular sport among the youth of the city is betting on their fights.
Hali likes ‘Kueh for bloodiness, but puts her money on ‘Tatsu for most killed. Maddox doesn’t do the mortality pool, but he goes in for ‘Kueh when the odds on big explosions are better than three-to-one.
Rela’s the bookkeeper. Years later, ‘Kueh will find her notes from that time and she’ll shrug and grin, and he won’t be able to decide whether he should laugh or kill her.
16. Medicine
Futatsu always throws painkillers away. Always. He has an addictive personality; he’ll deal with a little annoyance now to keep away withdrawal symptoms later.
He remembers, back at the start of his illustrious piloting career, two weeks of throwing up in hospital. Not for him.
Watching other folks suffer, though - he can see why Tien was always so damn insistant. The lady’s shoulder is not gonna heal fast, but the stupid pills could help. But Rela is stubborn, more so than Futatsu is, even, and so Futatsu pretends to turn a blind eye when she, too, throws the stuff out.
17. Victory
The conditions for defeat are easier than the ones for victory. You know you’re beaten when you have to surrender - how do you know you’ve won if your enemy’s indestructable?
Rela thinks this over, on nights when she goes roaming. Schuu follows her, and they sit on broken concrete. She looks up, finds the colonies, and glares death their way.
“So do we take them out of the sky, or what?” she asks.
“If you can’t meet the goal, redefine it,” he answers, thoughtfully.
That’s like giving up, maybe, but if she has to, she’ll make her own damn victory.
18. Honeymoon
A week after their half-assed wedding, Boss sends them on recon, alone.
“Think of it like a honeymoon,” he says.
“Maybe when ya send us to Hawaii. Can we do recon in Hawaii?” Futatsu’s been smiling all week.
“No. Get thee to a complex.” Boss makes shooing motions.
SingKueh smirks. “You’re certain we can’t get we to a nunnery?”
“You would say that. Classics pervert,” Futatsu says.
“The Bard aside, there ain’t nowhere Earthside I know of for that. Go. No detours, you sex fiends.”
“If you insist.” SingKueh tugs Futatsu’s ponytail. Futatsu pretends to fight, but follows him, grinning.
19. Blind
‘Kueh gets jumpy when ‘Tatsu comes in the room. ‘Tatsu can see it in how he shuffles nearer the wall, how his shoulders tense and his hand twitches toward his gun. The diagnosis would be PTSD. Shellshock, ‘Tatsu thinks, is more descriptive.
Six months ago, ‘Kueh lost the sight in his left eye to an ill-timed grenade detonation. Futatsu knows this, and is careful not to approach him from the left without making noise. The tension’s bad enough; he doesn’t need his partner going attack-mode on him.
‘Kueh relaxes when he recognizes the thump of ‘Tatsu’s combat boots. It’s something.
20. Monocle
“I’m just saying, it would look distinguished. Very sexy.” Futatsu is half-buried in some arcane piece of machinery, and his voice echoes.
SingKueh looks up from his runner’s letter. “It would hardly discourage people from staring.”
“’Kueh, people stare at you anyway. They stared at you before. You’re a very… stare-able person.” Futatsu’s hand flails expressively.
“I am personally opposed to the idea.”
“It’s a piece of glass, ‘Kueh, we’re not talking about dead rabbit skins here.”
“Where did you get this obsession?”
“It’s complicated.” Futatsu is silent momentarily. Then, “Please?”
“Fine. I will wear the monocle. Once. Choose wisely.”
21. Father
He never thought he’d have a daughter. Maybe some offspring, somewhere, but not a daughter. Not someone who he’d be responsible for, who he’d teach and send to bed early, comfort and yell at, want to kill and love more than life.
She calls him ‘Boss’, dyes her hair, talks half in Spanish and shoots people in his defense. She’s amazing. He adopted her, sort of, and during the ceremony she told him in a whisper that she loved him.
He’s got no more relation to her than the fact they’re both human, but he’s sure as hell her father.
22. Cooking
Rela can’t cook worth crap, but she does anyway. Schuu doesn’t much care, but when they have folk over - which is oftener than Schuu’d thought, as Rela picks up strays like other folk pick up debt - Schuu kind of quietly takes over. It works.
As it happens, it works elsewhere too. Rela does things, and does ‘em loud and flashy, and Schuu does what she can’t. He’s got used to it, to sniper shots and security ‘cause she can’t or won’t deal. She doesn’t even thank him anymore - it’s assumed. Far as everyone else is concerned, they’re the same person.
23. Nap
In the north-west corner of the city, there’s a big slag heap that used to be a skyscraper. Two doors down from it, a hotel still stands. Rela lives in the penthouse and holds court from the warehouse between them.
She doesn’t look at the fallen building; she remembers when it was part of the city’s skyline. Some days, though, she can’t get it out of her mind, and in the afternoon she goes over and finds the half-circle of bent I-beam that happens to be the same size she is.
Half-asleep in the arms of her city, she dreams.
24. Rumor
Rela loves rumors. She’s getting good at them.
There’s a cadre of physicists working in France she lets grow. Even if it’s not true, it helps.
The Soylent Green meme, she just laughs at. Once word gets around it’s a joke, it’s not dangerous.
The Boss is in league with the Spacers she stamps out right off with The Spacers are genetically modifying super-soldiers, which is more interesting, and possibly more truthful.
Her favorite rumor, though, is the one about empires. She’s not sure if she believes it, but there are worse nicknames for a fledgling city than Neo Rome.
25. Party
They hold a party when peace is declared. Kir pulls out his drums and Paul his guitar, someone starts dancing, and Rela doesn’t sit down the rest of the
night.
It’s a little desperate and a lot wild with the release of adrenaline. The soldiers are giddy, because they don’t have to wake up tomorrow ready to kill. The civilians are relieved, because they didn’t want to die and now they don’t have to.
Somewhere in there someone raises a toast to the fallen, and Rela throws her cup of wine on the fire, red smoke rising into the sky.