Infinity Loop-Phases 3 and 4

Infinity Loop

[phase 3]

Vyolet was on her second cup of coffee by the time her Nova TL8 chimed once more with another message from her mother.

"My office, right now."

Vyolet heaved a sigh and deleted the message taking another sip of her coffee, she stood kicking off her work shoes and sliding on a pair of sandals that weren't covered in machine oil and grease. She made a stop by the coffee pot to refill her cup and headed for the lift. Vyolet took a casual sip of her coffee and opened the ornate wood and glass door to her mother's office. Out of the corner of her eye her sister was sitting in one of the leather chairs in a dress of her mother's design, lacy, frilly and pink. Three things Vyolet hated all in one dress, four if you counted the dress itself.
"Vyolet I've been waiting all day for you, where have you been?"

Vyolet took a sip of her coffee and seated herself a couple of chairs between her sister "The same place I usually am. I gave Marcus the message that if you can't wait that long, you know where to find me."

Her mother ignored the attitude out of the eldest child, wishing that she would have turned out like her younger sister. "I wanted to talk to you about your father's celebration lunch, it's very important to him that the whole family be there and dressed properly"

The emphasis on dressed properly was clear, this meant no nice slacks and a button down shirt for her this time. Silent curses rose in her mind as she tried to figure a way to get out of the entire thing, it meant socializing with her father's partners and their families and worst of all wearing a dress.

Her mother designed clothes for a living and had set the standard for high society dress with her last line, something Vyolet wore slacks and a button down shirt to the grand presentation of and thus began the ban of pants to anything her parents held.

"Now I have something that you will even like, it's simple and light and you'll wear it."

"Anything is rarely simple with you, if it's got lace, frill or pink you can forget it" Vyolet's tone got her a kick from her sister.

"She put a lot of work into the dress, at least look at it" Angeline had the tone of a kiss up, looked like a kiss up and acted like a kiss up. Vyolet opened her mouth, but closed it as her mother held out a white floaty looking number. She did have to admit this was the first dress she'd made without it being pink or frilly, the lace overlay however was pushing it.

"Well that's all fine and fantastic, but I'd rather not go."

"I didn't give you an option of whether or not you were going"

"I don't see the point, I stand around with a big fake smile to make the rest of you lot look good."

"You're a part of this family so you will be attending the party, it's important that we support him in his business ventures. This is a big achievement for him and also this will be an opening for new opportunities for your father's business and who he partners with in the next fiscal year."

"I do not get why I have to be there to show support, I'll send up one of my prototypes for a new engine and hand over the rights to it. That can be my contribution to the family and then I can continue working on more things and you can not have to worry about me saying something off to the first loser that tries to get buddy buddy with me."

Vyolet narrowed her eyes at her mother, the last event which happened to be the fashion show she was introduced to every eligible man at the entire show. Though to her delight half of which were gay and ignored Vyolet for other men. That suited her just fine, a relationship and marriage from the circle her parents knew meant the same life style of maintaining appearances, keeping in the right circles and above all be something akin to a trophy wife. Her mother would have to face the facts one day, her eldest daughter was not going to be one of those.

"It's not up for discussion, I refuse to have our family embarrassed because you're anti social." Her mother's words were firm and final sounding. Vyolet left the office without the dress and returned to her room where she'd slip back into her workshop.

[Phase 4]


The afternoon of the party finally arrived, the dress with the lace overlay was hung up on the back of Vyolet's door and a note was attached threatening all sorts of terrible things if there was motor oil or metal shavings on that dress when she was in public. The thought of taking a can of grease to the dress was tempting, but there could be something gained out of attending this party.

"Vyolet! Mom wants to know if you're ready yet." Angeline's voice broke the solitude of the room.

"I will be ready to be out there when I have to be, I'm not prancing about in some dress earlier than I have to."

"Also no wild make up, I know you too well."

"Was that from Mom or are you already trying to fill her shoes?"

"No I'm just covering all the bases of things you'd pull with her today. This isn't important just for Dad, it's also important for her as well. And us if we play our cards right."

"You dreaming of catching a rich one?" A tone of disgust carried with that question. Vyolet had always hated the fact that her sister's goal in life was to get married to some rich guy and live the life her mother did. There was no ambition in living a life mirrored to their mother's life, the story was already being told.

"No, I meant it's a good way for us to get in with the right crowds that have the right connections." The embarrassment could be heard.

"Right right, fitting in with a social crowd that treats you as a step stool." Vyolet looked at the clock on her desk. It was time to pull on the dress and wear one of the two pairs of heels she owned, the white pair.

"They see us more than that, it's not like they aren't people themselves. They need company and companionship." This statement was a typical argument her sister used to try to force socialization.

"Oh I know they're people, but they're different from me. They have different goals, they want to make their lives easy, find the shortcuts to big success. I want to actually have to work and run the risk of failing."

"But that doesn't make sense, you have the ability to do whatever you wish, when you want to. You can literally do anything." Angeline sounded confused, at this point in the discussion Vyolet could have taken some low blows or spouted off a snide remark to her sister about not knowing the meaning of hard work. But today she let it go, she'd rather have a confused Angeline rather than an angry one.
The bedroom door jerked open and Angeline inspected her older sister for any flaws that would cause an unholy fit from her mother. She looked clean, neat and feminine, this pleased Angeline deeply that for once there wasn't any kicking or screaming from Vyolet. Although it made her suspicious to make her wonder why there was little to no fighting, however it meant that there would be some peace during the party.
"Stop looking so bored, you're not even there yet."
"It's a dress and I'm wearing high heels. I feel like I'm standing on a bed of hot coals while listening to the kinds of fabric that can be dyed Jupiter Cream without having a dye inconsistency."
"I've never done that to you before!" Angeline frowned.
"No, but you told me the same thing except that the colour was called Earth Rush. And Mom pulled the Jupiter Cream bit about two months ago, so I've suffered twice. Now before I flee, let's go." Angeline laughed, there was some hope for her older sibling, at least her humour was intact enough that there would be a good chance that the guests wouldn't be easily offended.
The party was set up to sit out on the balcony that over looked part of the glass smooth moat, the staff was running about following the Matron of the household's orders, the napkins weren't perfectly straight or the colour of the fruit was off. Vyolet ducked as a panicked waiter scurried by with a large platter of fruit, the sounds of her mother yelling something about the fruit needing to be a better shade or else there would be hell to pay.
"Mom have you ever considered that the synth machine may be slightly off and it's not producing the correct date? And that yelling threats at the staff people does nothing?" Vyolet rolled her eyes as her heels clicked off the stone balcony.

"Now I don't need that sort of talk, I just need the fruit to be ripe and the table to look organized. Things must look perfect or else I don't know what I will do when the guests arrive."
Vyolet sensed that her mother was on the verge of a breakdown and, for the sake of a peaceful afternoon, stepped in.
"Okay, here's how it's going to go; Refold the napkins under the direction of my mother, I'll go check with the kitchen about the synth machine and Angeline you and Marcus go make sure the front entrance is covered by the right staff people. Now let's go before I am forced to put on work boots."
Vyolet normally would have just let her mother panicked and lost it and enjoyed the chaos long enough to slip back inside her workshop to tinker more with her invention and perhaps work out some design flaws. But not today, she'd never hear the end of it from her sister, mother or her father if she just let it slide to dash away.
The kitchen was large and airy when it was empty, but the prep chefs had filled most of the available space and were adding finishing touches to platters and drinks and pulling ingredients out of the Food Synths mounted on the wall. The standard synths would pop out just about any ingredient you could think of with some restriction on the amount it could produce. The machines needed quartz to stay powered and the only place to get quartz was either on asteroids or down on earth.
Vyolet waved her hand to shoo aside a few panicked waiters who were trying to tune the machine to get the right shade of colour for the fruits.  She popped open a panel with a near by knife, no doubt she'll hear from someone about that later, and went to work following certain wires and nodes that were causing the fruit to not be at peak ripeness.
"Hey! Hand me something metal, not pointy and with a non metal grip."
"Would tongs work? If you need pliers they should do the job without causing much issue." A waiter handed her a pair of pliers. He was different than the usual catering bunch her mother hired, he didn't seem to fit the usual criteria of staff. He was actually helpful with something that didn't involve cooking or wining and dining the rich.
"Yeah should work fine, I also need an-" She was cut short when the ice pick she was about to ask for was presented to her. "I like you, they should keep a waiter who knows how to fix these, they have more issues with them now that they've switched the chip boards."
The waiter only blushed softly and smiled.
"It's a temp thing until my other job gets off a labour dispute case, then it'll be back to the outer ring."
"I envy you, not having to put up with the bull I put up with on a daily basis, I don't belong here. " She nudged something with the tip of the ice pick and heard a fizz and a click.
"It can't be all that bad, having all the time and money to do what you want."
"Everything in this place has a price, never forget it. But you're good to go, the fruit should please mum now and I think she's probably done freaking out over the napkins so your temp job should be safe."
She trotted off back to the balcony to inform her mother the fruit was now edible by her mother's standards, Kale watched her leave the kitchen and stopped picturing her in normal every day clothing. Rather than the high end dress that didn't seem to suit her attitude, he pictured her in regular denim and a simple t-shirt, he could see the slim hands with grease and grime from a mechanical device. She didn't seem all that different from him, he was snapped out of his day dream when a chef started barking orders about getting a platter ready to go out as guests would start arriving. For the rest of the day he never saw the girl again and all his efforts went to waste as the many large guests crowded him for both food and booze.

Vyolet walked out just as her father was starting to welcome the guests to their home and make the introductions to those who didn't know each other, but all three children knew it was a show of hospitality and also a show of power by naming off who he knew well enough to address by personal names. Vyolet maintained her carefully practiced fake smile as she was introduced to the crowd and caught a nod from her mother toward a guy younger than her. To the untrained eye, the smile never dropped fro the eldest child's face, but to those who knew her well enough that smile along with the eye contact with her mother meant more than just an acknowledgement, it was a threat. A quick roll of the eyes from her mother and a nudge from Marcus broke her eye contact and she resumed her role of making the rest of the family looking good and trying to blend in with the white linens on the surrounding tables.

"Vy, please be a lovely hostess and mingle with the gentlemen your age." Her mother's tone noted that this was not a request but a polite command.
"I want a pass to the ship yard then, full access to everything and yes that means leaving the district. I have some engine work I wish to study. I get that, then I will be a damn twin to Angeline's attitude and composure." Vyolet was already beginning to formulate an escape route for this party and maybe even this placid rock.