Chapter Forty-Eight - Reputation

In an age where humanity is spread across distances best measured in astronomical units, it only makes sense that certain societal systems would fall apart. Long-distance relationships take on a whole new meaning when long-distance can mean across the solar system.

One thing never changed, however. If anything, it grew more important.

Reputation.

This wasn't just a natural evolution, though there are certainly natural reasons why in the current environment that humanity inhabits, reputations gained a significant level of importance. But the importance of reputations were also pressed hard by corporate and planetary interests.

Want a decent, inexpensive warship that won't kill you with maintenance costs? There were several shipwrights around Earth that could provide, with decent reputations that stretched back decades.

Spacers trust them, because if they fuck up, a lot of people will be dead.

In a time where a single malfunctioning device could lead to the death of an entire crew, and therefore the loss of a ship and all it carries, reputations are something that everyone has to rely on.

Losing rep was the quickest way to dismantle a corporation.

Unsurprisingly, reputations extend to people as well as organisations. It's the reason why Ivil stepped back from the table where Pixie and Missy were drinking to use the ladies room. She hadn't had to step into a washroom in over a decade and she didn't plan on changing that now. Instead she snuck to the back of the store and pulled out her pager. Three button presses later and she had sent a wordless ping to MINT.

She waited for a moment, timing her return with the return of another patron of the bar who'd stepped into the washroom nearby at about the same time as Ivil slipped by. She summoned a faint dampness over the skin of her hands--it wouldn't do for anyone to think that she was unsanitary--then she started to walk back to the others.

Her hearing picked up the two talking before she turned the corner and walked into either of their line of sight. It helped that they were sitting on the same seat, back to Ivil.

"S-so," Pixie said.

"Hey, uh, I wanted to talk while Evelyn wasn't around, since, you know, it'd be dickish not to," Missy said.

"About what?" Pixie said.

"About last time. We, I had fun. But then I kind of just ran off. Look, I do that a lot. There's a string of guys and gals across the system that I've spent some time with, but, uh, you kept texting, and I got the impression that--"

"It's fine," Pixie cut in.

Ivil slunk to the side, a SEP field springing up around her to keep onlookers away as she snooped in. This was utterly impolite of her, but it was also grade-A gossip and drama.

"I don't think it is," Missy said. "Usually, when I meet someone and we have a good time, there's an... understanding. It's fun now, but it's not meant to last. I stayed around Jupiter for... what was it, three weeks?"

"And four days," Pixie said.

"Yeah. Longer than we usually stick around somewhere," Missy said. She tsked, as if to herself. "The Held Together was fucky. Anyway, I didn't make things clear from the start, and I kind of strung you along, and it was fun, or it was fun for me at least, but... yeah, look, I was a bit of a cunt."

"No, no, you were..." Pixie hesitated. "Maybe a little? I thought we had something. I'd never really, you know."

"Oh," Missy said. "Uh, yeah."

There was a very long, very awkward silence, and Ivil almost dropped her stealth to go and join them, then Pixie spoke up again. "I think it was just a crush. I'm not good at the whole romance thing. I've always been on my own, doing my own thing. It was a good lesson."

"A lesson?" Missy said.

"That I shouldn't let myself be vulnerable like that," Pixie said with obvious determination.

"Ah, fuck," Missy said. "Shit, that's... wow, okay, I'm just a massive bitch then. Look, Pix, I did you really dirty, yeah, but that doesn't mean that you can't, or won't find someone better. There's probably hundreds of people around Jupiter alone that are better than me. Dozens... at least a couple."

Pixie snorted. "God, how can anyone be so confident in themselves? It would be almost insulting to see if you weren't so hot at the same time."

Missy chuckled. "Ah, you still think I'm hot? See, we have common ground."

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Pixie sighed. It was the kind of sigh that came from the heart. "You really are. It's not fair. Stupid clown genes."

Missy barked a laugh at that. "You say that, but you have no idea how rough these clown genes of mine get."

"Missy, I'm four foot five. Six with good shoes on," Pixie said. "I have every right to be envious of anyone tall and mysterious and hot. Speaking of which..."

"Are you about to ask after Evelyn?" Missy asked. Ivil perked up at that. "Because wow, you'd be jumping into a heap of complicated right there."

"Complicated how?" Pixie asked. She twirled a straw around in her glass, making a faint metallic clink that Ivil could only just pick up.

"Complicated in the relationship department," Missy said.

Pixie groaned. "She's taken too? Wait... is she dating you?"

"Me, and two others."

Pixie sat up straighter. "You're poly?"

"What? No... I mean, I've had my fun in a group before, because the more the merrier, but I've never really been in anything long term with one person, forget it with more than one. Evelyn is on this mad quest to find love. Some two-bit seer told her she'd find it if she looked around here and she's basically lusting after every woman she runs into."

"Huh," Pixie said. "That's strange."

"Tell me about it," Missy said.

"And you're one of those women she's lusting after?"

Ivil glowered. She wasn't lusting after anyone. Yes, she might have had some thoughts about Missy, and Twenty-Six, and Aurora, and all three together, that were less-than-pure, and yes she would thoroughly enjoy ravaging all three. And yes, she did occasionally stare at them when they weren't looking, often focusing on... she frowned. What was she on about? Oh yes. Ivil wasn't lusting after anyone, saying so was a gross exaggeration.

Ivil started towards the booth, but she walked slowly. There was only so long she could pretend to be in the washroom before it would grow suspicious, after all.

"I guess so," Missy said. "Honestly, yeah, she's attractive, strong as hell. Those pirates we took out? That was mostly her. She's not all that smooth though, but she does have a sort of charisma. Like a bulldozer."

"What's like a bulldozer?" Ivil asked as she came to sit across from Missy.

Missy grinned. "You are," she said unabashedly. "I was just telling Pixie here about the pirates." Pixie nodded, easily joining in on the lie.

Ivil hummed, then took her drink and had a sip. "They weren't that impressive," she said. "But I suppose it's for the best that they're gone."

"Pirates are scum," Pixie said. "And I say that as someone whose job relies on them existing. If they disappeared tomorrow and I had to find new work, or retire, then I wouldn't be sad about it."

Ivil smiled. Pixie wasn't as stuttery and shy as she had been earlier it seemed. Maybe that talk with Missy had done her some good? "So, Pixie, you caught Missy and me in an interesting situation," Ivil said.

Pixie's eyes widened. "Oh? Oh, you mean, uh, a date? I can go!"

"Nonsense," Ivil cut in. "Obviously you're a friend of Missy's, I'd love to get to know you!"

Missy gave Ivil a look that was complicated, with one eyebrow raised and a corner of her lips quirked in a smile. "Digging for secrets?" Missy asked.

"Oh no, more like cute quirks," Ivil said, and she was being entirely honest.

"R-really?" Pixie asked. She smiled, then glanced at Missy out of the corner of her eye. "I can probably think of a few things. Um... Missy really likes pyjamas, did you know?"

"She does?" Ivil asked, surprised. "I wouldn't have taken her for the sort."

"What sort do I look like to you?" Missy asked. "The sleep naked kind?"

"Yes."

Missy huffed. "Pyjamas are warm and soft. Look, I only wear one thing, and that's jumpsuits, because humanity's fashion needs peaked in 1919 when the jumpsuit was invented. Pyjamas are an obvious extension of that."

"That was far more passionate than I expect," Ivil admitted.

"I don't have any pyjamas on the Held Together," Missy said. "I basically just switch suits as I go because I always end up having to get up and run after some problem or another."

"So, how do you know that, then?" Ivil asked Pixie.

The young woman's face reddened. "I just do," she said. "B-by the way, I have a few things of yours to give you back, Missy."

***