Disclaimer – I don't own Cowboy Bebop
Shuffle
By Crimson Skies
King of Spades
Faye Valentine was a gambler, an addict to be sure. She flitted her way from one bet to another in cards or life. Perhaps it was because she had nothing to lose.
An unspecified (because one never asked for a woman's age) number of years ago she'd had a family. Not that she remembered well, but she did. The Faye of that time was young, sweet, and utterly boring. Still, that younger girl had been happy. Or at least, Faye thought she had been. Her memories weren't very clear on the subject. And then the accident happened. Frozen in time, she'd only been awakened when everything she'd known was gone. Instead there was a void, an empty space where her debts resided.
One thing Faye always retained however was her looks and her wits. She was a big girl now, and could scrape her way through life. She'd earned her skills.
When she'd somehow wormed her way aboard the Bebop she'd immediately terrorized the other inhabitants with her sharp tongue and even sharper high heels. The wrong remark would have one of the other bounty hunters limping about for days after. Except for the hacker. It was Faye's rule never to mess with the crazies. She never messed with the dog either. The dog had no aversion to biting her and was way too intelligent for a mutt.
She was a woman who stood alone. Her lack of a past, of family, was also her freedom. With no bonds she could not be tied down. She wasn't obligated to care.
The Bebop was a temporary arrangement. It was never really said, but rather understood, that one day she would leave and not come back. But the days blurred into one another. Soon she had stayed a week longer, then a month. She became comfortable with the state of things. Too comfortable. Barely tolerated acquaintances grew to be something like friends. Or maybe they were like a dysfunctional family – if dysfunctional families caused bodily harm and used each other for target practice on a daily bases. And if they cheated each other out of their money. Well, that could have been just her.
When things when to pieces, she was reminded all too clearly of why she had decided to quit the whole 'giving a damn' business.
The King of Spades, all curves with sharp edges. A King stands alone at the end of the straight. It isolates itself by remaining aloof. It's the card no one wants to be caught holding, excepting the very specific situation in which it's desired above all others.
Faye Valentine was the King of Spades.