I don't own BeBop!! If I did the show would have ended different
Wow, people are actually reading this story!! Although ff.net lost eight, count em', eight reviews between my three stories! Oh well, thanks for reading and reviewing. It keeps me motivated. Hopefully in the next month or two I'll be a little bit better about updating, I'm building a bebop site and it's been sucking up most of my time. Besides work anyway. I also wanted to mention that the narratives will change throughout the story. Basically it will switch from the way the last chapter was written to they way this one is. I like to pick the best way to convey the chapter for each one. It works, I promise. Ok, I'll shut up and get on with the story.
Song credits for Novocain for the Soul go to The Eels.
Life is hard
And so am I
You'd better give me something
So I don't die
Today started out like any other.
I woke up at noon. Took a cold shower.
There was no food, surprise.
Jet was in a pissy mood, again surprise.
But fortunately for me he was pissed at Spike and not yours truly. It's always better when Spike's in trouble and not me.
As much as I pretend that being kicked off of the ship wouldn't bother me, it actually scares me to death. I've inadvertently grown used to being here. Even though I can take care of my self just fine, there's just something comforting about being in a group. What do they say about there being power in numbers?
They might be assholes, but they're still company. Well, Ed isn't an asshole. She's the only one on this bucket of bolts that makes any use of herself. Besides me of course.
I'm fucking indispensable. Just remember that.
Sitting in the common room trying to paint my nails was an exercise in futility.
Ein kept licking my toes and Ed insisted on bouncing up and down on the ugly yellow couch that my sweet little ass was parked on.
Other than the sea sickness and inability to get my nails done, I really didn't give a shit. It was Spike's bed not mine.
Let Ed jump on it with her dirty feet. Let Ein lick his balls on it. Hell, I'd let one rip on it if I was alone.
I smirked to myself and decided to give up the nail battle just as Jet entered the room. A stern look plastered across his face.
Ed took the hint and made a final bounce to launch herself up to the pipes that hung overhead. I pretended not to notice him as I went back to my previous task now that the couch was once again stationary.
"Faye" he grunted in my general direction, "got a bounty….Ed, down here now!".
'What flew up his ass?' I wondered.
Ed obeyed and somersaulted down onto the couch, she then flipped onto the floor and scurried over to her tomato. Jet nodded his head in approval of her action and looked back at me while still addressing Ed.
"Get all the info you can on a man named Tiger Gray."
She simply nodded her head and did as she was told. A remarkable feat that only Jet could manage.
He then diverted his attention to me. I gave him a look that screamed 'what the fuck do you want' and by the way his eyebrows knitted together creating what looked like a bushy mustache for his forehead clued me in that he wasn't pleased with my expression.
Well I wasn't pleased with his bald head but that's life.
As if he could sense my thoughts he let out a small growl and got right in my face. Leaning over me so that it was impossible to finish my nails.
"You're going to pick this guy up and not fuck up…got it?" he spoke slowly and evenly to me like I was a six year old.
I stopped what I was doing and made eye contact with him before responding, "yeah, I got it."
I didn't want to fight with him so I just agreed. Besides, he wasn't any fun in an argument.
Spike on the other hand was a trip and a half. Even when he was blatantly wrong he would argue until he was blue in the face. Then he would walk off and brood.
'I sure hope that he comes back soon', the thought of having to be with just these three would actually make me want to leave the ship of my own accord. I stood up and took myself and my nail polish to my room.
As I dug around for my spare ammo, a thought from earlier crossed my mind. The one about leaving if lunkhead never came back.
I really don't quite know the reason why, but that's one of the only things that I'd actually follow through on. Yeah, I always tell myself shit like that but I never do it.
So maybe that whole company thing might have been wrong. Maybe I was just here because of Spike?
Or then again it could be the combination of all of them that makes me stay.
After leaving my room I headed towards the hanger. Doing my best to push all of the thoughts from a few minutes ago out of my head. I really wasn't in the mood to think about that shit at the moment. Besides, I was supposed to be getting ready to catch a bounty, not rethink my life.
'What life?', I let out a snort and continued down the corridor.
Novocain for the soul
Before I sputter out
Before I sputter out
Upon entering the hanger, I see Jet fueling up my redtail.
He looks in my direction as I round the hammerhead. The previous look of contempt is now gone from his features. He realizes that he's staring and clears his throat as he turns his attention back to the gas line. As I approach he steals another glance at me before speaking.
"Faye, about earlier…", he starts but I raise my hand to cut him off.
None of us are the emotional types, but on a scale from one to ten, Jet is the most emotional of the crew. It comforts me and scares me all at the same time.
Knowing his need to clear things up, I quickly finish the whole conversation before it has a chance to begin in the first place.
"Forget it, the lunkhead tends to do that to people" ,I say. Jet nods his head in agreement.
He hands me a sheet of paper with the bounty's stats on it. I hop up into the redtail and prepare to take off. Jet gives me a short wave and moves over to the control panel that operates the magnetic lock that holds our ships in place while in space.
The pod lid closes around me and immediately the glass darkens, reducing the glare from the over head lights in the hanger. I wait as the doors slowly open and my ship is shot out of the BeBop and into absolute zero.
Quickly glancing down at the temporarily forgotten stat sheet, I notice that my bounty hunt is taking me to Neptune. A further glance tells me that this guy is a small fry and shouldn't be much trouble at all.
They never give me any big bounties. It is automatically assumed that because I have tits and a vagina that I can't handle a bounty over two million woolongs. It really is frustrating trying to convey to your extremely chauvinist crew mates that not all women know how to cook and clean, but they can shoot a gun and kick some bounty ass instead.
It was like trying to convince Ed to wear shoes. Fruitless.
After a two hour flight, I reach Neptune. The bounty is supposed to be in the vicinity of a city called Presaria. Which is convenient because I'm already in Presaria. The city is small and I find the bounty drunk and passed out on a bench in the park. The day was picking up already.
I stunned him with my taser just incase I woke him up while cuffing him.
After dragging his sorry ass to the nearest ISSP office, I collect my reward and remove my share of the bounty from the cash card.
My grumbling stomach directed me to a small diner down the street from the police station. It was cheap and it was pretty good. I ignored everyone's stares as I shovel food in my mouth. They had no clue as to the last time I had eaten. Let alone something edible. Once my meal was gone I resisted the urge to lick the plate and got up and left.
It was still pretty early and I decided to take a look around to see if there were any casinos. I'm a creature of habit, what can I say.
Life is white
And I am black
Jesus and his lawyer
Are coming back
There had only been one casino in the whole city, but one was all I needed. They never knew what hit them. The legendary Poker Alice strikes again.
Now several million woolongs richer, I head back to my redtail to check in with Jet.
I had made up my mind while walking out of the casino that Jet needn't know about my little unplanned stop. I'd let him think that I actually had to work to catch this bounty. It was hard being a sneaky bitch, but I think that I always did a good job.
The walk back to the redtail seemed to be taking forever, that's when I realized that I had gone the wrong way. All the excitement of cheating the socks off of every dealer in that casino had impaired my sense of direction. It was when I walked past the same post office twice in twenty minutes, that I felt that my suspicions were confirmed.
Since I was of the female gender, I found no pride issues with going into the post office and asking for directions. Something Spike would have never done.
Spike was the typical sitcom male. He was obnoxious, he was stubborn he was dense and he sat on the couch most of the day. It was like Bruce Lee and Al Bundy had a kid and Spike was the twisted result.
'Thank god he came out good looking'.
It didn't really matter if he was good looking though, he was spoken for. He had 'Julia', I couldn't help but wave my hands with a great amount of flourish at the mere mention of that name, like she was some kind of deity. It was like my mind was convinced that if I didn't , then a great punishment would befall me. Something very 'Clash of the Titans-esque'.
Julia, what a slut. I couldn't stand her and I'd never even met her.
I couldn't help it though, she had Spike so fucked up it was unreal.
That's where he was now, looking for her. If she really loved him that much wouldn't she be with him? It didn't make sense.
Yeah, I still felt a little something for Whitney. But not enough to forgive him. Spike needed to wake up.
Julia wasn't coming back to him anytime soon. But he would never really find that out now would he?
I knew the whole story. Gren and Vicious had filled me in on separate occasions. I had made up my mind not long after meeting Vicious and Gren and finding out about Julia that I should mind my own fucking business.
Being an extremely nosy person by nature made this new decision in my life very difficult to adhere to. But with each new day brought new hope. That and I really didn't like to see Spike upset.
Well, more specifically upset over Julia. If I said that I didn't like to see him upset over anything than I'd be a liar. I loved to push his buttons, the feeling was mutual. I was sure of it.
That's what made things so damn frustrating.
Spike and I were totally meant for each other. Only I was the only one that saw it. He would get this sparkle in his eyes every time we fought. Actually, every time we did anything competitive for that matter. Just like the first time I had met him.
But unfortunately his eyes were on Julia and mine on him. It really blew big hairy dog balls too!
Pausing in front of the doors of the post office, I had to stop and look back at the conversation that I had just had with myself. Basically I just told myself that I was in love with Spike. Not in so many words, but still I had.
Nothing was worse than finding out that you were in love with someone that would never love you back. But I had always been content with admiring him secretly so I should persevere just fine.
The thoughts from earlier this morning also flitted through my love sick and delusional brain. The ones about leaving if Spike never came back. I sure hoped that he came back. I didn't want to uproot myself just yet. I also didn't want him coming back with her either. I'd slit her throat in her sleep.
My homicidal thoughts on Julia were halted when I heard someone shout 'Look Out'.
I did the usual three sixty to see where it had come from and what I was supposed to be looking out for and found nothing.
But the direction that I should have been looking in was up. I heard a whizzing noise above me that was growing progressively louder. But yet I still never thought to look to the sky.
I never saw that scaffolding winch coming either. Nor did I even notice in all of the time I was standing in front of that fucking post office that it was being painted. So needless to say when the winch came undone from it's perch, it landed directly on my head, knocking me unconscious.
The only comforting thing about this whole mess was that Spike had been the last thing on my mind before I was cold cocked. I could still dream, couldn't I?
Oh my darling
Will you be here
Before I sputter out
Before I sputter out
Before I sputter out…..
I had been having this dream a lot lately.
I would be looking at myself, but I had no make up on. I also would be in some sort of ship. Someone that I couldn't see would ask me if I liked space. I would smile and nod my head. Then I would usually wake up. Not this time though. I saw myself in a wider view. Almost like a letter box edition.
I also saw the face that went with that warm, loving voice.
A man, possibly in his late forties or early fifties. He had such a warm smile on his face. Laughing green eyes that mirrored my own.
He asked me the question and I proceeded to smile and nod as I always did. But instead of everything turning black and fading away, my attention was drawn to the small round window to the right of my dream self's head.
The moon was shining brightly through it. I remember that the moon existed, but I have never seen it since being thawed. It was truly a beautiful sight to see.
The view once again pans out and I now see that I'm in some sort of shuttle. As I take in my previously unseen surroundings my attention his caught by the screams that start to erupt from the other passengers on the shuttle type craft.
I steal a glance at the round window once more, it's like I'm drawn to it.
That's when I see it, the moon. There's a bright flash of light that fills the ship and then the moon splits and explodes. Then everything turns to darkness. Now the dream is over.
What I had just witnessed was the lunar gate explosion of 2014. I am shaken by it and I look forward to waking up. But instead of opening my eyes to a fresh new day, I am jack hammered with a series of images.
It's very Doctor Who-ish. I see myself playing at the beach, another sails by of me running up a hill dressed in my Sunday best. Thousands of vivid pictures flash by my head at a high rate of speed. I feel them rush by me, but I can't seem to catch them in my out stretched hands. There's nothing more I can do but commit them to memory. That's when it hits me.
This is my memory.
Guess who's living here with the great undead
This paint by numbers life if fucking with my head, once again
When I woke and found myself still on the steps of the post office, I had a splitting head ache.
An EMT was at my side asking me what year it was. I told him to fuck off and give me some drugs for my head.
Unfortunately he couldn't until I went to the hospital and got my head stitched back together. I didn't want to spend my hard swindled money on a fucking hospital visit. So I offered him a reasonable sum to do it in the back of the ambulance.
I was used to getting and giving stitches on that shitty couch back on the ship, so being in the back of an ambulance was like heaven. Actually getting the freeze solution injected into my head before getting stitched was a pleasant change of pace as well. It beat having a few swigs of whatever booze we had available on the ship hands down.
After getting stitched up I paid the EMT and slowly made my way to where I thought my redtail was. In all of the confusion I forgot to ask for directions. I didn't feel like going back and asking now, so I just decided to find my way on my own.
My legs were a bit wobbly and my head still hurt. It wasn't as bad as before, but it still was pretty shitty. It was then that I remembered about that dream.
I remembered that my name was Faye Matsura instead of Faye Valentine. My pulse quickened as the images flashed by me once more. Using a street light as a brace, I waited for my head to clear. It seemed to take forever, but the images did stop. Leaving me with both a sense of peace and one of confusion at the same time.
I must have wandered for hours. But finally I found my ship. Right where I had left it. I opened the pod and jumped in. Placing my newly purchased items behind the seat, I opened a comm. link to the BeBop. Jet immediately answered, a look of worry etched across his face.
"Faye? What the hell happened?" he rasped out.
"I had a little trouble with the bounty" I responded, "but I got him".
A smile appeared on my older comrades face upon hearing this news.
"I'm leaving now", I quickly added.
I proceeded to get the redtail ready for take off while Jet continued to speak.
"Meet me in an hour at Roxio seven so I can get some money for supplies".
I nodded my head in agreement, although I regretted it soon after. The course was set and I took off.
In about an hour I landed in the Roxio seven satellite. Jet's hammerhead was in plain view in a municipal parking lot. I parked as close to him as I could get and exited my ship.
Ed came running up to me with Ein in her back pack. Jet soon followed. Apparently he and Ed were going to go grocery shopping with the rest of the bounty money.
I quickly handed him the cash card and said my goodbyes. The ship was empty and I was going to make good use of it. It was a rare occasion and I wasn't going to let it pass me by.
Besides, I could feel some sort of emotional shit welling up inside of me and I really didn't want to be around any one for it.
Life is good
And I feel great
Cuz mother says I was
A great mistake
Another hour passed by and I found myself docking the redtail in the BeBop's hanger. Much to my dismay the swordfish was here as well.
Now in ordinary circumstances I would have been all excited and relieved that Spike had returned. But after the events of this afternoon, I really wasn't in the mood to be around anyone. That and I wanted the ship to myself for a change.
Fucking Spike had to go and ruin it for me too! If he had Julia with him then there was going to be blood shed.
I exited my ship and made my way out of the hanger with my shopping bags in tow. As I passed the bathroom on my way to my own room, I heard the shower running.
I took this opportunity to give a quick look into Spike's room to see if there was any girl stuff in there. After deciding that he was indeed alone, I let out a small sigh of relief and continued my journey to my room.
Placing my bags on the bed, I kicked off my boots and changed into my pajamas.
About ten minutes later I made my way to the common room. Spike was still in the shower and I was going to make use of the empty common room. In my hand was a plastic bag filled with my purchases from earlier in the day.
On my way to my ship I had come across a tobacco shop and decided to treat myself. Since I now had paraphernalia in my possession, I then had to go and find something to put in it.
That was pretty easily done. Now I was on my way to go and use it in peace before that ass got out of the shower. Stepping through the hatch I stumbled a bit and then headed in the direction of the kitchen.
Once I had finished what I needed to do in there, I plopped my ass down on the couch and packed a bowl. I thought that I deserved it with all of the shit that I had been through today.
Getting my memory back was not all that I thought it would be. Yeah, I was happy. But at the same time, I still wasn't satisfied. Maybe I had hyped it up so much for so long in my head that when it finally did happen it wasn't as grand as I thought it would be?
I still had a lot of questions that still weren't answered. I'd probably never find out the answers either. Feeling dissatisfied with my past I decided to fry my present with a little THC goodness. I hadn't smoked in a while and was eager to get fucked up. Dulling the world away would suit me just fine right now.
Placing the flame of my lighter to the freshly packed brass bowl and inhaling the sweet smoke felt so good. The world seemed to melt away with each hit.
I suddenly felt giddy. My senses were starting to get a little fuzzy. But not before I spied Spike hiding in the shadows by the hatch. He thought that he was so damn sneaky.
Everyone new that he hid in the shadows when ever he could. I guess that his mafia habits were hard ones to break. Just like my gambling. Oh well, the pot was making me a lot more social than I was before so I figured it couldn't hurt to call him out. No sense in partying alone now is there?
But I had to be cool about it. Act like I knew that he was there the whole time. Who knows how long he had been watching me. Spike was a little weird like that. I keep my head facing forward as I ask him a question making sure my voice is neutral.
"Are you going to stand there in the shadows all night or are you going to come into the room?".
He lets out a gasp that's barely audible and then pops his head through the hatch. He looks a little bewildered, I don't know if it's from his fruitless journey or the sight of me smoking dope out of a blue devil head. Regardless, he looks like he could use a hit anyway.
Novocain for the soul
You'd better give me something to fill the hole
Before I sputter out
Before I sputter out
Before I sputter out
Before I sputter out……
Ok, good? Bad? This is the first time that I've used this type of narration. I'm planning on alternating this with the last chapters style. Let me know what you think. I'll try and update more often. Any suggestions or help on my paragraph skills would be greatly appreciated.