(Draft) Remiel's Enlightenment - Chapter 2 (Patreon)

This story has been through a self-edit and a read-aloud. This is what my beta readers are currently going over. If you want a glimpse into my writing process, compare this chapter with the final version. Or just read this a day or so early and enjoy it and then read the newer version later.

DRAFT - Remiel's Enlightenment Chapter 2

Despite all of Cuber's beeping and gesturing, I had no idea what her story about acquiring this watch involved. It was the nicest watch I'd ever seen. The hours were marked by rubies and the band was made out of the same rose gold as the rest of the watch. Rubies and sapphires were set around the bezel which shaded from red to yellow seamlessly.

After another minute of having no idea what Cuber was trying to tell me, I said, "You know what? Never mind how you got it, we'll worry about that later. I want you to show me where you got it."

I went over to my living room, which was also an anything room. The wall and floor looked like a well-stuffed quilt and the quilt sections actually popped up to become different furniture. I used my implant to make a thin big screen slip out of a slit in the wall and unfold into a four-foot wide display. I used the adjustable arm it was on to lower it to the floor so she could interact with it. And then I pulled up a map of the Trilliant.

Uninterested in the screen, she came over to me and offered me the watch, beeping excitedly as she reached up as high as she could, just past my waist.

Knowing she'd keep trying to give it to me no matter how many times I told her "no," I took the watch.

She trilled and motioned for me to look at it.

"Cuber, this is the most expensive thing I have ever held and I need you to show me where you got it." I pointed at the map.

One half of the screen showed the Trilliant from above and the other half had a side view. All three of the Trilliant's towers were faceted to look like rough quartz crystals that tapered as they rose from the ground. Connecting them were central complexes that looked like trilliant-cut gems similar in size to the great pyramid, but upside down so amusement parks and other things could occupy the flat top of each.

As I sat beside Cuber, she used her three-fingered hands to manipulate the touch screen. Even though she was going so quickly that I was getting dizzy, she wasn't damaging the screen at all. She slowed down when she was at the ground level gem, which was two gem levels below ours. Zooming into the ground-level train station, she tapped a finger on the floor next to one of the pillars.

"So, it was just laying on the floor?" I asked.

She shook her cubical body, giving me a game-show-like wrong answer sound.

Sweat beaded on my forehead, "Did you steal it from someone?"

She crossed her arms and beeped harshly at me.

"Then how did you get it?" I asked.

Cuber went over to the shoe rack and grabbed two different shoes. One was dark blue and part of my work uniform, the other was one of my grey-green walking shoes. Then she walked over to her stash of electronic and came back with a screw. Beeping to make sure she had my attention, she pointed at my watch and then pointed at the screw.

"Ahh, so the screw represents my watch?" I asked.

She nodded, tilting the cube upper part of her body on her spider-like legs. Setting the shoes down, she tied the screw to the end of the gray-green shoe's right shoelace. When she picked the shoes back up, she grabbed that shoe lace with her third arm and had that shoe offer the screw to my work shoe. It shook with anger and batted the watch away with a shoelace. After that, she pantomimed the shoes arguing with each other. During that argument, the watch fell to the ground.

Cuber stopped her puppet show and picked up the screw, making the same victory fanfare she'd made when she'd come in with the watch.

My heart was pounding in my ears. Was some drug lord going to come looking for this watch? Was Cuber going to be the death of me?

"Did they see you grab it?" I asked.

I saw a flash of movement and then the screw was in my hand while the watch was in hers.

My mouth dropped open. "Cuber, you're a pickpocket?"

Cuber cheered.

"No, that's not a good thing. You can't just take other people's stuff," I said.

She crossed her arms and scolded me.

"We could get into trouble, I could get into trouble. Stealing stuff like this often results in the cops getting involved and we don't want to have to talk to them about stolen watches and such," I said. "You should give this back."

Cuber held out the watch to me, making a pleading rising beep.

I took the watch because I got the same feeling I did when a dog brought me its leash to get me to take it on a walk.

She curled my fingers around it and made a soft, reassuring bweep.

"Are you trying to cheer me up?" I asked.

She nodded.

I tried to hand the watch back to her, but she closed my fingers around it again. "Hey!"

She scolded me with harsh beeps.

"Cuber, stop!" I said.

She backed away.

"Giving me stolen things won't cheer me up, it'll only make me anxious," I said. "If you really want to cheer me up, you're going to have to do it in other, less illegal, ways."

This time, she took the watch, walked solemnly over to her electronics pile, and carefully tucked it into a container full of lighting strips. Then she went over to her charger and sat on it.

It was no surprise that cuber was worried about me and I wished there was more she could do. But there was so much about the world she had yet to learn. I'd given her an allowance to buy stuff, but she hadn't used it so far. Maintenance bots didn't need to buy transit tickets or anything and I wasn't sure she even knew how to use money. I should've shown her how, but leaving the apartment meant I had to deal with people and each of my job's orientation days had sucked my social battery dry before I'd even got home.

Maybe I needed to start trying harder to distract myself. Entering the hallway that led to the bathroom, I opened the door to my right and went into my tiny bedroom. I walked straight through the doorway and continued to the far wall, which had a sliding door in it. When I opened that door, I revealed a walk-in closet that was bigger than my entire bedroom. It was meant to be my main storage space in addition to a closet and was one of the things I liked most about my apartment.

I grabbed the case with my VR headset and other gear and brought it into the living room. As I summoned the VR crane from the wall using my implant, I popped the case open and noticed that things had gotten jostled a bit from the case falling before I got onto Ramda's ship. The case held everything pretty firmly, but I'd been forced to put the cool pistol-shaped controller I'd gotten as an Easter present in with the headset.

I pulled the pistol out of the headset, grimacing at how realistically heavy it was.

Then I got into the VR exoskeleton dangling from the crane and put on my headset only to have to fuss with it because my long hair had gotten snagged in it. I loved my hair and didn't want to risk breaking any of it by being too rough. Once the headset was situated, I put my arms in the arms of the exoskeleton and it inflated air bags to snuggly fit around me. A couple seconds later, the VR system was running and I was getting a headache. The stereo vision wasn't lining up and I was seeing double on the menu screen to the point I had to close one eye to read it.

"God DAMN it!" I yelled. Now I couldn't even entertain myself.

After getting out of the VR exoskeleton and taking all my stuff off, I just laid on the couch, sulking.

Cuber came over with my VR headset and trilled in question.

"It's broken," I said.

Cuber tilted her head and trilled again.

"It's not functioning correctly."

She brought it closer and started pointing at various parts of it and then looking up at me to get a response.

"You want to know how it's broken?" I asked.

She nodded.

"The stereo vision got misaligned because it fell."

She nodded, turning it in her hands. Then she opened up a panel on her side and switched out one of the fingers on her left hand for a screwdriver.

"Maybe we should leave it alone? Opening it might void the warranty."

Cuber tilted her head and then let out a series of critical beeps while making frustrated gestures.

"I know it's a stupid idea on the manufacturer's part, but I might be able to get them to fix it," I said.

Cuber pointed at my Miramanna shoes and then at my VR headset.

I sighed. "You're right, it was made on Trinity Stronghold and it's probably a lost cause."

With a happy trill, Cuber started taking apart my headset.

As I watched her, I said, "Cuber, your nonverbal communication is amazing, but it's really difficult to talk about abstract stuff. I think we need to teach you how to use written language."

She beeped and bounced excitedly while holding her hands completely steady.

Her excitement worried me.

* * * * *

I entered Miramanna Earth Operations's lobby carrying lattes in a multi-cup holder. Passing the sky blue reception desk with a slab of wavy-patterned sandstone behind it, I walked through the frosted set of double doors that went into the office. Stretching out before me was an open office space filled with desks and no privacy. Twenty meters to my right, a wall of glass made out of triangular down-tilting windows offered respite from the light blue and white of the office interior. Through the windows, one could see a large expanse of desert surrounded on two sides by white-and-green-capped mountains that were about an hour's drive from the Trilliant.

The lattes in the cup holder were the result of ridiculously complex instructions. Miramanna higher-ups liked to put their underlings off balance by making even the most simple tasks overwhelming. My cheat on orders was just opening an ordering app with my implant and let the app parse their orders for me. Why they didn't order their own food or let automation handle menial tasks in this day and age baffled me. The only reason I could think of that they wanted us to do the ordering and other stuff is that they liked the idea of having human servants who they could berate for making mistakes. And that was creepy, like everything else about Miramanna.

The conference room I was headed for obscured some of the window space with more goddamn sky blue. When I entered, Josiah grabbed his cup right off of the carrier while still talking to Noah about some buzzword-infested business thing that was probably going to make my job suck even more down the line.

Nothing good ever came from my bosses talking. I'd learned that during orientation.

Noah, a tall thin man with overly-gelled gray hair and a giant gold crucifix hanging from his necklace, grabbed his cup without even acknowledging I was there.

I turned to leave.

"Whoa, hold up there, Remiel," Noah said, with more drawl in his accent than Josiah had.

With my heart sinking, I turned and faced him. "Yes?"

"I think you need a haircut, young man," he said.

Josiah nodded. "Good catch, I'd been thinking he didn't fit the image we're going for."

I forgot to breathe. My hair was the only thing that helped me stand out. Growing it out was the only openly rebellious thing I'd ever done.

"Strange that you didn't address it before he got to Earth, isn't it then?" Noah raised an eyebrow at Josiah.

Letting out a fake chuckle as his cheeks pinkened in embarrassment, Josiah said, "I suppose it is. The trip to Earth was far more eventful than I was prepared for."

"If your trip here was too much to handle, Earth might not be a good fit for you," Noah said.

Even though it wasn't directed at me, I felt a chill in the air after that statement.

"I'll admit, it's been challenging to switch from preacher to company man, but I'll catch up." Sweat beaded on Josiah's brow. "Managing a parish in the outlands prepared me well for change, after all."

"Good, I'll see that you keep your word," Noah said, before turning to me. "Young man, the next time I see you, your hair needs to be a more appropriate length, understand?"

"I--I can tie it back..." My stomach lurched as I tried to think of other ways to meet his demands, "or put it under a hat," I said, the tightness in my chest causing pain to travel down my arms.

"Tying it back will only make you look more like a girl and we can't have that," Noah shook his head. "And you have to start standing up straighter. Your chest should be swelling with so much pride that God made you a man that your shoulders are back and your head is held high. Women are the ones who should slump, they're the ones that are carrying more sin, after all."

As I processed what Noah had said, my nervousness turned into something hot and angry. "But Jesus had long hair," I said.

Josiah said, "Everyone had long hair back then, especially carpenters and other people on the lower rungs of society. Getting a hair cut was a luxury many couldn't afford."

"They fed themselves didn't they? They had to have knives. Why couldn't they cut their own hair?" I asked.

"None of that matters, long hair was in style for men back then and it's not in style now. That's why you're going to get it cut," Noah said.

"I see tons of men with long hair on the metro every day," I said.

Noah showed his teeth. "Are you saying we're Earthers now? That we should wallow in sin like pigs in their own shit?"

"No, I'm just..." I said, wanting to run out of that room and never come back.

"You. Guided prayer. The rest of your shift," Noah said. "I'll tell Pastor Thomas what you need to work on and I'll expect to see that you cooperated when he sends his end of day report. Now go." He pointed out the door.

Not wanting to

The chapel was directly across the office from the conference room through doors that had red-and-white marbled stained glass windows in them. Inside were sky blue pews on top of a maplewood floor. To my left was a trio of confessionals and to my right was a mahogany pulpit with maple inlays that depicted the backs of a crowd watching Abraham about to sacrifice his son to God.

There were a few other people in the chapel praying and I sat in the first pew to be as far from them as possible. I wanted hit something or just jump around and scream. Knowing Noah had more power than Josiah made me so anxious that I could hardly sit still while I waited for Pastor Thomas or one of his assistants. My job was like a form of torture I got paid for.

A heavyset assistant soon walked out of the door behind the pulpit and led me through Bible readings and prayers that reenforced traditional gender stereotypes, until I was just mumbling the bare minimum to not have him make me repeat stuff. I had to work really hard to stop myself from sprinting out of the building when it was over and I opened the chapel doors hard enough that Luke had to dodge them.

In his arms were takeout containers that higher-ups had left on their desks. He asked, "How are you, Remiel?"

I spoke quietly, saying, "I'hey want me to cut my hair."

He  asked, "Jesus had long hair, didn't he? Why would they care?"

After cringing at his lack of volume control, I decided that this conversation needed to happen outside of work. "How about I tell you over dinner?"

"Sure! Get us a table at Greta's and I'll join you in about fifteen minutes," Luke said. "Hosanna will likely want to come too."

"Greta's, again?" I asked.

"They give out free popovers," he said.

"Luke, that can't be the only reason," I said, keeping my volume low.

"Greta's gay, so no one from here goes there," he said.

"Oh," I said, feeling really dumb. Of course the woman that I often saw Greta with was her lover. This was Earth, not Trinity Stronghold.

"See you soon," Luke said as he walked toward the trash chute.

Exiting the building, I squinted at the light from the sun lamps dozens of meters above my head. The walkway I was on was suspended above the next level down and went between two wide buildings that leaned toward the road. Just outside the building on the right, in front of a transit stop, was a cologne ad featuring skinny naked guy with his hands over his junk while a burly naked guy whispered in his ear. Whoever paid for the ads on that tall screen seemed determined to piss Miramanna off and I loved them for it.

The transit stop's circular seating area was cut right out of the front of the building, as if someone had pressed a spherical eraser into it. At the center of the seating area was a little moss garden guarded by tree ferns. I took a right after passing the transit stop, going through a tunnel that was cut through the building. The tunnel was lit with reds and yellows that slowly rippled across the walls opposite the direction I was walking.

At the end of the tunnel was a diamond-shaped plaza that had two levels. Looking down at the street that went around the plaza's lower level, I spotted a health clinic, an augmentation shop, and a delicious steamed bun restaurant. Across the composite walkway ahead of me was a rock garden with miniature trees surrounding a boba tea place with a steeply-tilted roof. I turned right and followed the walkway that went around the periphery of this level, passing a store selling anime paraphernalia and an Ethiopian market that had really good bread before entering Greta's.

Greta's entire ceiling was covered with a bunch of colorful flags that I didn't know the meanings of. Every table, chair, or other piece of furniture was made of repurposed wood glued together to form free-form mosaics. Nothing matched, but somehow that made everything fit together. I used the touch screen on the podium at the front to ask for a table and then an antique lantern on a table near the front flashed. I went over and sat at it, waiting for Luke and Hosanna.

A woman with blue fox ears and a floofy tail walked up, asking, "It says you're waiting for two more?"

"Yeah," I said, trying not to stare at her tail.

"Is there anything you wanted before they arrive or should I just wait till they get here?"

"No, I'll just wait for them," I said.

"No problem," she said and walked away.

A couple other people in the restaurant had augments. A guy with bunny ears, a woman with small antlers, and an ambiguous person with a raccoon tail. They all looked so happy. If I'd been born an Earther I definitely would've--

"Hey Remiel!" Hosanna's voice came from behind me.

As she sat to my left, I said, "Hi."

Luke plopped down asking, "So why did they ask you to cut your hair? I don't get it."

Hosanna's jaw dropped. "What? I don't get why they'd have a problem with it, Jesus had long hair, after all."

Apparently everyone used the Jesus long hair argument. No wonder Noah had been so unimpressed. I sighed. "Noah said that it was normal in the past, but I have to match current men's fashion."

The waitress came back and Hosanna looked her curvy body up and down. I hadn't seen her look at another woman this way since Ramda. Maybe she liked ears and tails as much as I did.

The waitress smiled at Hosanna, saying, "Your eyeliner game is out of this world, girl."

Hosanna giggled, putting her hand over her mouth. I'd never seen her react quite that way. She was blushing.

Luke's brow was furrowed.

Hosanna said, "Thanks, I love your ears and tail. They're my favorite color of blue. Just a hint of green."

Now the waitress was blushing. "You are just the cutest--" she bit her lip and offered her hand to Hosanna, "I'm Julia, what's your name?"

"Hosanna," she said, shaking Julia's hand exuberantly.

Julia turned to look at me and Luke, "Sorry that I got so distracted by your gorgeous friend. Would you like anything to drink?"

Luke and I ordered sparkling water. It was a house special that had a couple mint leaves in it and was very refreshing.

Hosanna asked, "What do you recommend, Julia?"

"Do you like thick and creamy or light and fruity?" Julia asked.

"Light and fruity?" Hosanna said, in a bit of a daze as she glanced at Julia's lightly-wagging tail.

"How's our iced peach green tea sound? It's got lemon and ginger in it too. It's my favorite thing on the menu," Julia said.

"That sounds perfect," Hosannah said.

"Actually, I want to try that," I said.

"Me too," Luke said.

Julia's ears perked up. "So, nix the sparkling water and bring three peach green teas instead?"

"Yep," Luke said.

"Okay! I'll be right back with that and your popovers," Julia said.

Luke looked straight at Hosanna, asking, "Are you attracted to Julia?"

Hosanna blushed bright red. "Don't say that out loud."

"So you are?" he asked.

"I don't know, I've never felt quite like this and I have goosebumps," she said.

"If you want to hang out with her, Remiel and I won't tell anyone," he said.

Her blush got worse and then she turned to me. "Remiel, they were saying you have to match modern male fashion or something?"

My chest tightened. "Yeah, Noah sent me to guided prayer when I tried to argue with him about it."

"Noah isn't a good listener," Luke said. "You should probably talk to his boss, I've heard that guy's a bit more reasonable."

"That's not what I heard. I heard he's more by the book than Noah. So, it depends on whether the rules favor Remiel's stance or not. Plus, if we go over Noah's head, I think he's the sort that will get really petty about it," she said. "Let me check our code of conduct quick." Then she stared off into the distance as she used her implant to bring up the document.

Luke started to speak, but was interrupted by Julia setting down our popovers and drinks. When she leaned toward Hosanna to set her drink down, she made a point of letting Hosanna stare down the cleavage window in her blouse.

"Are y'all ready to order or should I give you more time?" Julia asked.

Luke ordered synth beef curry stew, Hosanna and I ordered the synth chicken massaman curry. The whole time, Hosanna was unable to focus on anything other than Juila's tail.

After taking our orders, Julia walked closer to Hosanna and turned so her tail was well within Hosanna's reach, saying, "Why don't you stop gawking and admire it more closely? I don't mind."

At first, Hosanna just fidgeted nervously, but then Julia flicked her tail so it was a millimeter from Hosanna's right hand.

Hosanna touched it with the tips of her fingers, "It's so soft!"

"No need to be shy, I like being touched by pretty girls like you," Julia said.

Hosanna giggled at the compliment and then started petting Julia's tail while inspecting it closely.

Julia bit her lip and arched her back a bit, breathing a soft sigh through her nose. Then she closed her eyes, letting out a deeper sigh that was just shy of a moan.

The deeper sigh got Hosanna to let go and then readjust herself in her chair.

It took Julia a good few seconds to shake out of her pleasured daze. "I'll be back with your orders in about fifteen minutes."

"Hosanna, your face is really red," Luke said.

"Not now, Luke." Hosanna sat up straighter, pretending nothing had happened. "I can't find anything that mentions the appropriate hair length directly. Lots of the code of conduct is pretty straightforward, but the part about the dress code is so tangled up in legalese that I can't make heads or tails of it. They say that men's styles should be shorter than women's, but they don't say how much. For just about everything associated with our dress code, and even some of our conduct, they keep using the phrase, 'appropriate for an off-world corporate missionary setting.' I think they're just giving our managers free reign to decide what's appropriate while taking away our ability to argue."

Luke leaned toward me. "Why don't you ask Ramda about this? She seems to know a lot about dealing with Miramanna."

"She's probably too busy to deal with something like that," I said.

"You two had lots of sex, Remiel, I think she would want to help you," Luke said.

"Luke!" Hosanna said.

"What? It's true," he protested.

Now I was blushing. "I shouldn't go asking for her help every time I hit a minor snag like this."

"This isn't a minor snag, Rem, it took you over a year and a half to get your hair to grow that long. And you look really good with long hair. I bet Ramda likes it too," she said.

"I need to stop being so belligerent and just do what they ask of me for now. I'll never make it to a higher position if I fight them every time they ask me to do something as small as cut my hair." I said, feeling a bit sick.

Hosanna put down her glass and swallowed some peach green tea. "You look really unhappy, Rem. I don't think it's a small thing for you."

"Yeah, you seemed really off when you came out of the chapel today," Luke said.

"This is so stupid." I grabbed the edge of the table as my chest ached from all the tension in it. "I'm so stupid."

Hosanna put a hand on my back and stroked lightly. "You're not stupid. We can't just do everything they tell us to do because they tell us to do some really questionable things, especially now that we're on Earth. If they get the idea they can just order us to bend ourselves into pretzels, they'll keep doing it."

"Yeah, I had to tell them at orientation that I can't do company stuff past nine in the evening. I get really clumsy after nine p.m.," Luke said.

Julia arrived with our food on a tray and set it in front of us. "Are the popovers and tea not to your liking?" she asked.

"No, we love them," Hosanna said. "We just got caught up in conversation."

"Well, your food's really hot, so you can enjoy the popovers while it cools. But don't wait too much longer. They're best fresh out of the oven when they're hot enough the melt the cinnamon honey butter," Julia said.

"We'll get right on that," Hosanna said.

"Good," Julia said. She started to turn away, but then stopped and looked at Hosanna. "Where are you from, Hosanna?"

"Trinity Stronghold," Hosanna said, grimacing a bit.

"I thought they killed all their lesbians," Julia said.###I may need a bit of reaction here, but I'm having trouble picturing it. Suggestions welcome. I think Julia is making a macabre joke without realizing it's a bit too much.##

"I'm not a lesbian," Hosanna said.

"Are you sure about that?" Julia raised an eyebrow. "Because if you say you're sure, I won't ask you on a date."

Luke's mouth dropped open. I blinked and felt blood rush to my cheeks.

Hosanna's eyes went wide and her hand stopped in the middle of grabbing a popover. "A date?"

"Yeah, it's been ages since I had this much chemistry with someone," Julia said.

"I, uhh, you--" Hosanna's mouth hung open for a moment, steam practically coming out of her ears.

"Don't worry, hon. You take all the time you need to think about it," Julia chuckled and trotted off.

Luke and I stuffed our faces with food, but Hosanna was on a mission to make sure her mouth was too full to hold a conversation. Out of all of us, I was the slowest because I was very preoccupied by how incredibly good the iced peach green tea was. The bit of lemon and ginger in it made me completely unable to set the glass down for long.

The moment we were full, Luke asked, "Are you going to go on a date with her?"

"I don't know, I've never had a girl ask me out," Hosanna said.

"Neither have I," I said.

"But didn't you do stuff with Ramda?" Luke asked.

"She never actually asked me out," I said. "We just kinda did stuff."

"That makes sense," Luke said. "Hosanna, what's making you so unsure?"

"It's just, wouldn't I be going against what God wants for me if I do it?" she asked.

"How can we truly know what God wants for you?" Luke said. "I read that many of the Christians on Earth are LGBT people. I think Josiah, Noah, and all the other people that tell us what to do only know what they want for us, not what God wants for us.."

"Yeah, and if God's watching and you believe in him giving us signs sometimes, how much clearer of a sign can he give you than having Julia show up?" I asked.

"But what if she's some sort of test? Temptation?" Hosanna asked.

"Since God never bothers to tell me what's good or bad himself, I just do what I think is best and then ask for forgiveness in case I did the wrong thing," Luke said.

"I'm not sure that's how it's supposed to work," Hosanna said.

"Are you sure? If I use other people's assertions about what God wants, they can, and have manipulated me into doing terrible things I never would've done otherwise," Luke said. "It's basically letting other people pose as God to steal my free will."

My eyes were wide. Every once in a while, I got a firm reminder as to why Luke was one of my best friends. "I'm sure if we asked Noah and Josiah if God wanted me to cut my hair, they'd say, 'yes,' but I doubt they know for sure how long God want's my hair to be. God probably has bigger things to worry about," I said.

"That's a good point," Hosanna said.

"Yeah! How about if Remiel agrees to send a message to Ramda about his hair, you agree to spend some time with Julia and see how that feels?" Luke said.

"Sure, it's not like anything's going to happen on a first date, anyway." Hosanna said. "I'll have plenty of time to decide how far I want things to go."

"Are you two sure I should message Ramda? It seems silly to bother her about this," I said.

"Remiel, if you don't promise to message Ramda, I'll opt out of Julia's date. That's the deal," Hosanna said.

"Okay, I'll do it," I said.

A few minutes later, when Julia walked up to the table, Hosanna said, "I'll do it."

Julia's tail wagged excitedly as she beamed a huge smile at Hosanna.