Oh! You Pretty Things

The darkness beyond the dome was very much real. Inside the bubble's protection, artificial lights made the skyscrapers glow. Any brighter and it'd dazzle the populace. Any dimmer and it'd fail to hide the endless ink surrounding them.

"It looks like a city during Christmas Eve," Stella told Fuyukawashigure.

He glanced around, mostly above. "Maybe. I'd never really noticed before."

So that meant Christmas still existed, late-stage capitalism and all. It was a good and a bad thing. "Do people here ever consider how they're inside an isolated system with no means of escape which could malfunction at any moment causing a chain reaction with a zero percent chance of survival?"

"Cab," Fuyukawashigurebob told his wristwatch instead of humoring her. Within seconds, a giant egg stopped by the edge of the street leading to the station. It greatly disturbed Stella, but no one else seemed to care. "Let's go," he said, gesturing to the egg. Stella didn't budge. "That's the cab. It's safe, don't worry."

The egg cracked, but no yolk spilled out. Instead, within it was a cabin. Fuyukawashigurebob was so tall that he hit his head against the top of the eggy door on his way in and, based on how he just kind of sighed and curled into the egg, this was probably a common occurrence. Another glowy screen showed up on a small table between the seats, which Fuyukawashigurebob tapped onto. The driver was nowhere to be seen. With no other option, Stella activated her emergency nuclear compartment before crawling into the egg; both her and the cabin glowed.

"I'm not sure what's going on," said Fuyukawashigurebob, "But if you're about to self-destruct or something, I'd rather you not."

The egg began to move. "I won't," Stella replied, "Unless I have to."

"Well... just don't?"

"Speaking of which, the injury on your forehead won't bleed, but it might leave a bruise. I'd advise going to the doctor so you don't get any more scars on your face. It might decrease the chances of you finding a mate to..." Stella trailed off. On their way out, their 'sterilization' had consisted of being sprayed with a scalding liquid that evaporated within seconds. It was probably more of a pathogen cleanse than ending dynasties, but still. Best not to bring up the subject just in case.

"Noted," replied Fuyukawashigurebob.

"If I can ask, is the already existing scar due to hitting yourself with eggs?"

"No?"

"Was it your criminal past?"

Fuyukawashigurebob pressed something to lower the 'walls' of the egg. "I forgot," he said. "If you press the glowing button to your right, you can activate the windows. Press twice if you want to lower the pane. I usually just keep them closed, so that's why I hadn't done it before. Sorry."

Stella pressed twice. It was disturbingly close to wind blowing on her face back on Earth. But the moon had no air...? Wait, no. It had to have air or the humans inside the bubble would be dead. Where had they gotten it from?

"Also, I keep forgetting to connect you to the network, so let's do th—"

"No."

"Why?"

Mind control viruses. "Don't wanna," Stella said.

"Oh. Well. That's fine. If you change your mind at any moment, just tell me."

Stella nodded even though she would not. Several eggs traveled along them, on a lane that differed from the ones cars...? Seemed to take. There was a train, too. Someone had once told Stella that 'trains hadn't changed in three centuries for a reason'. It seemed like the same held true for half a millennia. She liked trains. They looked like centipedes. She especially liked when they curled into elevated streets that seemed to curl around the glowing skyscrapers like vines.

Once they arrived to their destination—the 'catgirl neighborhood'—Stella tripped on her way out. Shameful. She'd wrongly assumed she'd gotten used to the weird gravity already. Fuyukawashigurebob didn't help her at first, which was very distressing, but then she noticed he was just paying...? The cab driver...? By tapping on his wristwatch until something flashed green, so then it was all good.

The catgirl neighborhood also looked disappointingly like Earth. Not too much, though. It had notably more foliage than back at the station, and it inched close enough to the edge of the bubble that Stella could see the inky void beyond, but the houses had been arranged in quaint little rows, with pebble roads, tile roofs, pastel colors, and a lawn in every single slot.

"Oh, okay," said Stella. "Which one's mine?"

Fuyukawashigurebob had his hands on the pockets of his slacks again. She still had his suit jacket. She didn't give it back because it smelled good and she kept sniffing at it and, besides, he hadn't asked for it yet. "If you don't like it, we can go somewhere else," said Fuyukawashigureebob. "I'd never actually come here before. Just got told it was 'recommended'."

"By the experts?"

"Yes."

"I don't like or dislike it."

"Then let's keep looking."

But Stella didn't want to bother Fuyukawashigurebob any more, especially since he was a high risk citizen she'd have to keep a close eye on. "I'm fine with this," she said. "Are they all free?"

"Checking." He used the ball line screen this time. Why not the wristwatch? Perhaps the latter had more specific use cases. "Here you go. The ones with a green check are free. Please don't drop it."

He handed the ball line screen to Stella. It was way heavier than it looked. Most of the houses shown on the sketch in the screen had a red cross floating on top. "That's a lot of catgirls."

"Yes."

"How many of them are waitresses?"

"I couldn't possibly know."

"It doesn't seem like the infrastructure allows for much transit. How do they reach their workplace? Hmm..."

"Like I said," Fuyukawashigurebob reminded, "We can always look somewhere else."

"Like where?"

He shrugged. "Plenty of neighborhoods. This is way outside of my scope of support, so."

"Where would you like to live?"

"Me?"

Stella couldn't reveal the full scope of her plan yet—to keep him under her wing until he could re-integrate into society.

Retirement? Self-fulfillment? Art?

Worthless.

Stella handed the ball line screen back to him. "You choose," she told him.

"...uhh..."

By then, a few individuals had begun to peek at them from the windows of their homes. None of them seemed to be a threat, but Stella kept her nuclear compartment activated just in case—without the glowing.

Fuyukawashigurebob gestured at the screen. He did that a lot, just kind of wave his hand at something. "I don't know, anything's fine by me. They're all the same. I mean, they all look very uh. Very nice. If you're worried about walking, there's one right at the entrance that isn't occupied, but it says it's not recommended. Apparently there's a bus stop right in front, so it gets noisy."

"So no one else wants it?"

"I guess..." He trailed off. "You're choosing that one, aren't you?"

Stella nodded. She didn't mind noise. 

Fuyukawashigure tapped at at the screen. "Got it. Great. It's all yours now."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. If you have any further questions or concerns—"

"Come with me," she said.

"—you can refer to the... fucking knew it."