Peach-toned lips curl around an ivory smile with a feral yet delicate accent.
Gidra wipes the steam streaks off the mirror to closely admire the sharpness of her new incisors. A wide smile grows from pride; finally she was able to afford the best; the Titanium-Inconel blend with Nickel-Silver and organic bone plating.They are so low maintenance. I hated cleaning the other ones. It’s disgusting they continue to make that old kind with such inferior anti-microbial properties. What if I kiss someone and it turns out they wear them? Ugh. Well, people get worse things put in their mouth these days.
Gidra dutifully inspects each of her features while admiring her exotic reflection; how human beauty mates with the mechanical; how the mechanical is eroticized by a touch of the primal. All of her mods perfected additions to an overall Aesthetic. She feels most at peace when pleased with her attractiveness.
It’s culturally chic to complain about the maintenance routines as the downside to having mods. For Gidra the process only adds to the appeal like they’re the building blocks of her life purpose.
She speaks a string of words and activates the moveable area of wall where the refractory rests concealed. Inside the dark space is the device that stores her physiological system's codebase. Her hand glides across the sensors to summon the holographic images. Neon characters stream by, a wall in front of her eyes like a flickering blur of hieroglyphs. Pain sears through her body like it’s fighting to escape through her flesh.
Gidra licks her lips at a familiar metallic taste. Her nose wrinkles as a smoky carbon scent replaces the taste of blood in her palate. At the sound of a shrill squeal she recognizes the scent as bone burning under the high rpm of a surgical drill. She discovers where her mind has wandered. How the vibrations assaulted her body.
The way my nerves seemed to oscillate around my spinal cord like a winding, squeezing, fuzzy serpent. I’d give anything to forget if it were possible…
Gidra attempts to stabilize her mood with an appropriate rationalization;
It serves a purpose. It’s what I signed up for. I don’t suffer for nothing. I shouldn’t worry so much. I’m secure.
I’m secured.
It’s okay; better than being naive. Better than ignorance of the possibilities. Desperate people who—
The familiar swoosh of the chute door snaps her out of the trance. Synched and ready to go her mood uplifted again
The future hasn’t been so exciting since the Eco-Tow was revealed. Revealed, yeah, that’s the right word for it, for sure. Doesn’t matter now. Only a few more mods and I can apply to move into High Society. Funny how literal that has become, what used to just be a saying. If I can get that level of semi-immortality I could just die from joy! Ah, irony.
Invigorated she skips right out of the pod before the door completely opens, headed straight to the coffee shop as is habit. Coffee in hand she goes toward the Dome’s main exit. Skipping out into the open world she sees a small group gathered at the Spirit Circle. It’s been a long time since she attended. Curiosity slows her down as she hears teenage voices whine:
“Tell us about what happened on Mars! Please!”
"We have to start in order, it’s my duty to begin at earlier times. Because why?”
“Because History Repeats itself.” the teens chorussed
“Repeats itself! Repeats itself! Repeats itself! Like you old Eldies!” a girlish voice giggled
“Very funny, Laney, you youngbloods have to take this more seriously. But that’s right. History repeats itself, so I’ll tell you about it in proper order and give it the respect it deserves. Today it’s time to learn of the Ranch-Pacts”
“Pacts?! Bah! That was Genocide!” chirps an unusually baritone voice for an Elder man.
"Get your facts straight! Those stubborn land-grubbers had it comin’. And ain’t you too old for testosterone injections!?”
“Come up to floor 200 and I’ll show you! You won’t diss it after that!”
“On Mars , you rotten old eggplant”
The Elders exploded in laughter.
“Eggplant!” they simultaneously coughed out from their bellows.
“Egg..ha-ha plah-ah-ah-ahnt. Whew! ”
“Been so long since I seen an emoticon! Can’t believe you remember that, you old ...peach!”
Laughter bounces off the Dome’s curved windows in layered echoes; gradients of sound disperse to the skyline as Echo rushes with the wind to mate Horizon.
Gidra exhales in marvel at the brush strokes of orange hues shaded between earth and the azure sky. Still smirking from the elders’ conversation her thoughts relax with her slowed breaths. The air tastes crisp and clean. Her modifications run like a well-oiled machine.