ANIMATED GIRL SUITE: A COWBOY BEBOP FANFIC
PART ONE: ANASTASIA POP
When they hear I was a cold sleep case, everyone compares me to Sleeping Beauty. I saw that film. The fairies put everyone in her kingdom asleep, too. She woke up to find her home and friends and family still there. Whereas I was thrust into a strange new world, with princes who were just illusions. Companions I couldn't trust. And my kingdom was in ruins.
Nonetheless, I guess my life is a bit like those animated classics—just that it isn't all G-rated.
See if you remember this film. I don't think it was a Disney film, but it was a lot like one. Jet, Spike, and I watched it, while Edward bounced around the room, somehow already knowing all the words to all the songs. Anyway, it was about a girl who was a princess and didn't know it. Because she lost her memory, like me. And like that girl, I was looking for love, family, a place of belonging. Hell, she even talked like me: "Men are such babies!"
This brash young kid like Spike and his friend, a big teddy bear of a man, like Jet, were going to use her to pose as the long lost princess, not knowing she really was the princess. Well, the girl ends up remembering, and the kid repents of his con artist ways. But by this time, the girl doesn't want to be a princess anymore. She's fallen in love with the kid, and only wants to be with him
It sounds like me, doesn't it? I finally realized my place was with that brash young kid, only in my case, just as I decide that, he ups and dies over some other princess he loved more than me.
So where is my place now? With the older "teddy bear" man? Man, that would have made for a weird ending to the film.
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Jet woke up one morning, running his feet along something soft and warm. As awareness dawned, he suddenly realized he had no idea what his feet were nudging. Was it his new dog, Spike Junior? But SJ had his fenced-off cabin, and besides, whatever his toe was touching didn't feel furryHe sat up. Curled up in a fetal position at the edge of his bed was Faye.
Warily, he poked her. "Mumph," she muttered, then went back to sleep. Jet poked harder. "Mm. Oh, hi, Jet!" She swung out of bed. "I got lonely last night. See you at breakfast." And without another word of explanation, she exited the room.
This so puzzled Jet that he remained frozen in thought a few minutes. Finally he muttered to himself, "There are worse things that could happen to a guy than waking up to find a beautiful woman in his bed."
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Dick White sat at his computer, typing rapidly in his cluttered studio apartment. On the window sill sat a cage holding a disinterested, immature iguana.
"Ha ha, Iggy, with this virus, anyone trying to download my 'free porn' will get their hard drive wiped out—but not before I get their friends' e-mail addresses!"
Iggy remained unimpressed.
Suddenly, the door was kicked open by a shapely leg. Faye Valentine leveled a pistol at him, and Jet Black stood behind her. "Richard White, you are wanted for computer hacking and virus spreading," Faye announced, as though reading him his rights.
"Yiii--!" Dick squealed.
"Just come along with us and you won't get hurt," Jet advised.
"Can't I get someone to feed my iguana while I'm gone?"
Faye fired a bullet that grazed his upper arm.
"Aahhh! I'm bleeding! Okay, okay!" Trembling, Dick stood. Walking past Faye, he stumbled. With his metallic knuckles, Jet struck his nose.
Dick fell to the floor, feeling his nose. "Ack! More blood! More blood!" He passed out.
For a moment, Faye and Jet stared at his crumpled body, oozing blood in two large puddles.
Finally, Faye spoke softly. "He was going to cooperate, wasn't he?"
"Yeah," Jet said simply.
Faye let out a breath. "We've really crossed the line this time. We're scum." She put her gun away, and ripped a sheet off the hacker's bed, trying to tear a strip off of it, but the material was difficult. She handed it to Jet. "Just give me something to bind his wound with."
"Okay."
After Jet handed her the strips, she wrapped them around Dick's arm. "Jet, are we gonna be like this forever?"
Jet shook his head. "Nah. We're just burned out, that's all. We need a break."
"A vacation?"
"Yeah."
"Can we afford it?"
Jet knelt down by Faye and Dick as the latter began to moan. "From where I see it, we can't afford not to."
"You guys are vicious," Dick mumbled.
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When Spike had died, Faye had taken to sleeping on his bed, it consoling her somehow. But now, that wasn't enough, so she found herself sneaking her way into Jet's cabin. She wasn't sure what she wanted, she only knew listening to him breathe in and out calmed her. I just…I just need some companionship, that's all, she reasoned.
Tonight, she was more modest, and instead of sleeping at the edge of his bed, she positioned herself on the floor instead. She tossed and turned on the cold floor. When she finally got into the stage of semi-consciousness, she was awakened by Jet shouting out, "Vegas!"
She leaped. Jet was sitting up in his bed. "Vegas?" Faye asked.
"Vegas-on-Venus. It's where we should go. It was all in my dream."
"Your dream?"
"Yeah. The greats from twentieth century Earth were there, in the ultimate session. There was Charlie Parker on alto sax, Thelonius Monk on piano, Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet. On vocals was the divine Ella Fitzgerald."
"Whoever. Don't know them from Adam."
"And Spike was there, playing the worst sax ever. And Julia."
"And they told you to go to Vegas?"
Jet nodded. "They said we should both go."
"Are we gonna win money?"
Jet nodded again. "Yep."
"I thought you'd given up gambling."
"Faye, this was more than a dream. It was a vision."
"If you say so."
"And Faye—"
"What?"
"Don't sleep on the floor. At least get a futon from the storage closet. You'll throw your back or shoulder out."
Faye sighed. "Oh, all right. I'm going back to my cabin."
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The Bebop had set its course on Vegas-on-Venus. Faye and Jet were sitting in the control room, watching the land draw closer.
"Why did we act that way?" Faye wondered, referring to their injuring the hacker. "It's got to be more than Spike. I mean, that psychic told us he was okay."
"It's because everything came together just before falling apart," Jet explained enigmatically. "That's the biggest tragedy."
"What do you mean? What came together?"
"After months of living together like strangers, we were finally beginning to work as a team and develop a sense of camaraderie—like the way we all did our part to stop Vincent Volaju. You may have been out of it, but the rest of us really pulled together to stop that Scratch cult and rescue you. Then Ed and Ein deserted, and we thought you did, too."
"I was just…" She searched for a word. "..Distracted. I didn't intend to be gone forever."
"Then Spike gets terminally obsessed with avenging his past. Everything just fell apart."
Faye rested her chin in her hands. "Yeah, I was forgetting about Ed and Ein. Ed was always cheerful no matter what was going on," she said, as though eulogizing the girl. "Maybe too cheerful. And Ein, he was cute. He just wanted what every dog does—to love and be loved. I probably should've paid more attention to him."
"Don't you worry—where we're going will make you forget everything. All those neon lights will show you the world isn't such a dark place after all."
"Aack! What the hell was that?" Faye cried, as if on cue, a bright light flashed through the viewscreen. "Damn light nearly blinded me!"
"That's the spotlight atop the pyramid of the Karnak resort," Jet informed her cheerily. "They say you can see it from outer space."
"And what would the point of that be?" Faye wondered crankily.
Jet shrugged. "I guess they just wanna make it into the Guinness Book of Solar System Records."
Faye dared to look back out. There were lights, festooning every building. Bright and flashing. In every color imaginable. It was like a neighborhood decorated at Christmas, and then some. She began to feel good. Life was continuing.
"Have you been to Vegas-on-Venus before?" Jet questioned.
"No. You?"
"I was there a few years ago, before they refurbished the Strip. It was rundown and seedy then. Look at it now. Suddenly it feels like some place new. I hear it's just the thing to make you forget all your troubles."
"If you don't end up deeply in debt." She turned away from the aerial view of mega-resorts. "We all met at a casino," she recalled, then frowned. She made no noise, but Jet could read her lips sadly mouthing the name "Spike".
"When have you ever let being deeply in debt stop you before?" Jet asked jovially, to distract her from thoughts of Spike.
She smiled sadly.
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She was wearing a black gown and had her hair up. He was wearing his white suit, shades, and Panama hat. "My, you look very dashing and debonair," she said, and she meant it.
He tilted his hat and smiled at her. Then he offered her his arm, and they strode into town in style.
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They walked up the steps to the Monaco. Outside were four giant alabaster statues of classical-looking people. Faye eyed one of a nude god. "Mmm, nice décor."
"Stop ogling the statues," Jet said impatiently, grabbing her arm. "Let's try their casino."
Faye looked across the street and gasped. In front of a hotel was a merlion fountain, just like the one from her homeland. "What's that place?"
"That's the Singapore," a stranger said. "Its theme is Singapore, as you might guess, and Malaysia, and Indonesia."
"Oh, Jet, let's go over there instead!" Faye pleaded.
You let Faye pick the casino. Jet recalled Spike's advice. "Okay, it's your choice." He and Faye joined the crowd at the crosswalk. And he remembered Ella's advice: that even a lady who'd been bad could be good.
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Faye and Jet were making their way through the maze of slot machines and gaming tables when they saw it. An oversized slot machine, with cherries and lucky sevens as big as a man. Hitting the jackpot could take care of you for life.
A uniformed man stood by the contraption. With a hand regally gesturing towards the slots, he asked, "Care to try?"
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"I'm glad you wanted to come over here," Jet remarked chipperly, as he left the cashier's booth, many woolongs in hand. They hadn't won the biggest amount, but had been thrilled with what they got. Not enough to erase Faye's debt, but enough to have some fun and stock up the Bebop as well.
"Hey, Jet, let's try that table over there," Faye suggested.
"Haven't you ever heard of quitting while your ahead?"
"Yeah, I've heard of it. So, then, what are you going to do with all that money?" Faye wondered, smiling and taking his arm again.
"Every decent hotel on the Strip has a shopping mall," Jet reasoned. "Let's go check it out."
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The Singapore's shopping arcade was called the Singapore Sling and featured boutiques and other upscale stores. Jet and Faye walked into the jewelry store. Jet handed Faye a stack of woolongs. "Here, go pick out something pretty. In this store, not out on the floor."
Faye stared at him, open-mouthed. "Really?"
He nodded.
"Oh thank you thank you thank you!" She kissed him on the cheek, and then hurriedly turned to examine the rings beneath the glass container.
"Is there something I can show you?" a pleasant middle-aged woman asked. She was ever so slightly plump, and wore her gray-streaked brunette hair in a bun. Her name tag read "Maybelle".
"Can I see that gold one with all the little stones?" Faye asked, pointing. Jet came over to see.
"Oh, is this for an engagement ring?" Maybelle asked.
The two looked embarrassed. "No," Faye said.
"Oh, you're already married."
Faye blushed. "No. This is..just because."
"Oh, that's the best kind. Just because." Maybelle got the ring out of the case.
Faye tried to slip it on. "Aw, nuts!"
"That's okay, dear," Maybelle said. "It can be resized."
"Mrs. Valentine!" a youthful voice called out.
Faye whirled around. "Hunh?"
A lanky kid dressed in a drab brown uniform walked up to the counter. He handed two packages to Maybelle. "I need you to sign for these."
"Okay, Freddy." Maybelle signed for the mail, and Freddy was soon on his way.
"Your last name is Valentine?" Faye asked.
Maybelle nodded.
"That's my name! I'm Faye Valentine."
"Well, how do you do, Miss Valentine? We're probably related."
Faye sensed that she would be disappointed, especially as that doctor of hers had told her he made up her last name. "Probably not."
"We all go back to Adam and Eve, you know. Now about that ring—are you staying at this hotel?"
"We're staying in our starship, actually."
"Well, no matter. As long as you can come back, we can have that ring resized for you."
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In the middle of the night, back on the Bebop, Jet was awoken by the sound of words. It was Faye, muttering to herself. She obviously had crept into his cabin again, and now she was sleeping right beside him!
Jet's first impulse was to kick her out, but he stopped to listen in on her ramblings. "No..it's not fair. You took away my life, my family..then you take Spike, too." Was she talking to God? "I have nothing..nothing."
She could go on all night like this. Jet wondered how to stop her. Without waking her. Timidly, he patted her head, and with his fingers, brushed back her hair. She made some kind of contented moan, repositioned herself, and settled down. Now she was nestled right against his body. He had nowhere to put his natural arm except around her back.
Jet sighed, recalling how Spike had told him a rather mishmash version of Faye's early days since coming out of cold sleep. Jet knew Spike's version had been slanted against Faye, so Jet asked Faye to tell him the story herself. At first, she clammed up, so Jet began repeating Spike's version, and an angry Faye just had to set the record straight. So Jet heard how she was once innocent and trusting, driven to a more ferocious and jaded nature by unscrupulous men who took advantage of her. Jet got the story, and when Spike came in, he got a sharp kick in the shin from Faye.
Jet knew what Spike hadn't ever seemed to realize, that there is a story behind people's bad traits, and most often, they weren't always like that. Perhaps he had learned this as a child, watching an early twenty-first century version of A Christmas Carol. At first, he had thought Ebenezer Scrooge was just mean, but then he saw his past, and how he had come to be that way, and he had sympathy for the old man. He understood. He had forgotten, at first, to look through Faye's selfishness that way, but her running away to Callisto drove in the fact that she was essentially a lost child. It was why he had been so intent on playing back the beta tape that provided a glimpse of her childhood.
Behind her layer of sassiness was a layer of sweetness. Behind her worldliness, a faded innocence. Behind her tough façade, a vulnerability. He had known it for awhile, even before the video or the capture of Whitney, the original man who had done her wrong.
He caressed her back lightly, and drew her in closer. She remained asleep, but made that little moaning sound of hers again. Jet closed his eyes, thinking It's gonna be a long night. Then, without realizing it, he instantly fell asleep himself.
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He woke up feeling more refreshed then he had in a long time. Actually, it had been nice having Faye beside him. A guy could get used to that.
He let Faye continue to sleep, and got up to make breakfast and feed the dog. He also checked the computer to see if any messages had come in.
"I'm not gonna wear the gown when we go back out," Faye decided after showering and changing back into her usual garb. "Everyone else was in tee shirts and shorts. You can still wear the suit if you want to."
"We got an e-mail you'll want to see," Jet informed her.
"From who?" Faye asked, scratching her head in puzzlement.
Jet jerked his thumb toward the computer. "Check it out."
"This better not be another past due statement." Faye looked at the screen. It said, "Dear Faye-Faye and Jet," then contained row upon row of frowning faces. Faye scrolled down, thinking the emoticons would never end, when mid-line they stopped, and words replaced them. "Edward and Ein are very sad to hear Spike is kaput. Things not working out either between father person and Françoise. Will you come back?"
"Who's Françoise?" Faye wondered aloud.
"Oh, that's just another name for Edward," Jet said.
"So she's got a split personality now?"
"I dunno."
"Wouldn't be harder to handle than any of her other eccentricities, I suppose. So, are we going to go pick her up?"
"I was leaving that up to you."
"Well…maybe after vacation. Yeah. Let's go for it. We're not far from Earth anyway. But won't her father mind?"
Jet remembered the perpetually distracted Appeldelhi. "He probably won't even notice."
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"There!" Maybelle said with satisfaction. "That ring fits perfect now."
"Looks good," Faye agreed, admiring the glittering, little diamonds. "And I have you to thank." She reached up and gave Jet a peck on the cheek.
"Well, for a boyfriend, he's certainly on the ball," Mrs. Valentine remarked.
"I'm not—" Jet began.
"Oh, he's not—" Faye said simultaneously.
Maybelle smirked. "Okay, what is he? Your agent?"
"I'm not a model. Or actress. We are business partners of sorts, though."
"We're friends," Jet explained.
Maybelle looked unconvinced. "Tell me more about your branch of the Valentine clan, Faye."
"There's not much to tell anymore. That's not even my real name. We lived in Singapore."
"Our family comes from the United States," Maybelle said.
Faye looked disappointed. "Oh, then you're probably—"
"Nonsense! Like I said, if you have to go all the way back to Adam, we're related somehow."
Faye smiled wistfully.
"What are you doing for dinner?" Maybelle asked.
"We were thinking of trying the Italian restaurant at the Monaco," Faye answered.
"Why not come to our house? I'll call Don and tell him to whip up some pot roast."
"Well…" Faye began hesitantly, glancing at Jet. She wasn't accustomed to such overt hospitality. Don't trust strangers. But then again, even if Maybelle and her husband turned out to be criminals, it was nothing Faye and Jet couldn't handle. "Okay."
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The combination dining/living room of the Valentine house was filled with wood furniture, green carpeting, and photos of the kids at various ages. A painting of Jesus holding up a pathetic wretch of a twentieth century man hung on one wall. A basset hound snoozed in a cozy basket, and forced himself to get up when Maybelle walked in with her guests. He lumbered over. "This is Caleb. Don, I'm home!" She went in another room to fetch him.
Jet and Faye looked around warily. "Do you think it's safe?" Faye whispered.
"We'll wait and see."
Don, who had some straggly hair left, walked in. He was wearing a red and black flannel shirt. He seemed a bit taken aback by the sight of Jet and his metal plate, and Faye in her skimpy outfit, but he quickly recovered. "Well, howdy, folks! You'll ready to see Vegas?"
"I thought we were having pot roast," Faye pointed out.
"Some other time, dear," Maybelle responded. "Let's hit the town."