Reading: "Arktalus" from EVENFALL OF THE HELICAL (A.Glass 2022)

Tadri Hannah walking through the crowded bar area, eyes its patrons, all stylishly dressed, sitting at the elongated bar setting, chatting, drinking. She notices Safra Delante, and in an excited manner in seeing her friend, Hannah waves, as Delante, sitting at the far end of the bar, reciprocates. Hannah quickly makes her way to where Delante, to which she stands as both women embrace. Delante steps back looking at Hannah's outfit, pursing her lips together in an admiring way, she points with her left index finger at Hannah's sheer stylized one piece dress. “You look amazing!...” she then looks at Hannah's features and hair. “...Haven't seen you in such a long time.”

Leaning forward, they both kiss each other gently on the lips, as Hannah smiles. “Happy to see you Safra, it has been a while...And your outfit...” she says in a reciprocating way. “...One word, covet.” Studying Delante's tulle bodysuit, with stylized stitching and detailing, with darker areas covering her breasts and pubic mound, with sheer dark knee high stockings, high heel pumps and a Avant-garde asymmetrical cropped blazer which is open.

“You cheeky thing, come on gorgeous, I have a table reserved.”

Delante holds up her left hand in the direction of the bartender, as he nods, reaching over, pushing a button beneath the bar counter, so that a tabular array is illuminated at the far end of the bar room area. To which Delante leads Hannah over to where the table is located, both women walk onward towards the two embedded padded chairs on either side of the table, passing a waiter who is walking in the opposite direction carrying a tray of drinks. Both women sit down.

Delante stares into Hannah's eyes. “How you holding up?”

“I'm good,” Hannah replies in an accepting and resigned manner.

“I mean, to lose your job, in this crazy fucking city. And you loved it, you were so good at it. All that blood and guts,” Delante says smiling, aware of Hannah’s sense of humor.

“Mostly heart attacks, seizures, strokes, the occasional stabbing, violent act...” The bar attendant approaches their table, as Hannah looks his way. “...I don't miss it.”

“Drinks! What would you like? All on my account tonight, closed a big deal today. So order up!”

“Can I take your drink orders?” The attendant asks, as Hannah looks at his right thumb and index finger that appeared to be sheathed by a synthetic skin. Robotic fingers, she thinks to herself.

“I want the ice moon Enceladus cocktail,” Delante requests, as the attendant takes her order via his data-sync.

“Blood Sun,” Tadri says, looking up at the waiter, studying his face, to which he promptly logs in the order as Tadri quickly turns and looks at her friend sitting opposite her.

“Nice, one of my favorites...” Delante says, as the waiter moves away from the table as she leans back into her seating. “...Been thinking about that moon recently.”

“His fingers...”

“What?” Delante asks

“The waiter, they were…” Hannah pauses in mid sentence, looking at Delante's ample breasts beneath her sheer bodysuit. She returns her gaze to Delante's hazel eyes. “...Robotic.”

“Could have been an Off-World miner...Like my last lover.”

“He was killed, wasn't he?”

“Yeah, accident in the outer atmosphere of Enceladus.” Delante replies

“How you going? I mean, you know?...” Hannah asks, changing conversation in her levity of dialog, to which Delante’s shares the same conversing trait, prompting her to discuss the viral infection that she had contracted several years ago.

“The virus?…” Delante replies.

Hannah nods in a polite manner.

“...Well every hour I gotta shoot a cocktail, excuse the pun...” As the waiter places the two cocktails in front of Hannah and Delante, to which Hannah chuckles at Delante's timing “…, to suppress my neurological issues while keeping the virus from replicating, thus keeping me alive...” As Delante looks at the pale azure colored cocktail, holding it up. Her thoughts return to the vision she had earlier whilst at work, of her dead lover's hard and erect cock spurting its load of semen into Space. In slow and successive spurts of its creamy and translucent mixture. Delante begins to feel the inner sanctum of her vagina throb. She sips the cocktail. “...Yummy...” Placing the drink back down, she looks over at Hannah in a caring expression. “...It’s you that's been through hell.”

Hannah holds up her drink, studying it admiring the blood reddish hues with a dash of orange liqueur, giving it its dark yellow streaks, taking a sip, she continues holding the cocktail up so that it blocks the vision of her robotic right eye, while she stares at her friend with her left eye. “...I think, I still am...”

“In hell?” Delante say, finishing Hannah's sentence as an open question.

“Yeah,” Hannah replies, placing the drink down onto the table.

Delante looks around the crowded bar, watching the various people in attendance for a Friday night, in what would be expected for one of the higher priced establishments in Arktalus. She then turns her attention back to Hannah. “There is another C-Storm coming,”

“When?” Hannah replies, staring into Delante eyes.

“Later tonight,” Delante says, as she sips her drink, padding her lips with a napkin.

“We all have injuries and I have suffered. It's taken a while for me to heal up, I have to take a mixture of medications...But, it is the mental, the mind...Seems to take longer. The post trauma of life.”

Both women look into each other’s eyes.

“The human suffering and all of its woefulness,” Delante replies

“And the bliss?”

“This...” Delante holds up at cocktail. “...And who says when I sip this, I don't drink the whole Universe and savor its pointlessness,” she says with a smile.

“My sexy divine and nihilistic one,”

“Like you sweetie...But, sex...That, unfortunately has gone a little haywire for me.”

“Because of the virus,” Tadri replies, placing down her drink onto the metallic coaster.

“Yes, but it is all we have, really, I mean...” She looks briefly up at the ceiling which is darkened, except for two lights that have been diffused for the ambiance. “...it is just Sex and Death...” She sips her drink again, looking at Hannah with a smile. “...Let's order some eats,” Delante says, as she eyes the waiter that had served them drinks earlier.

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Reading: "Arktalus"  from EVENFALL OF THE HELICAL (A.Glass 2022)