Raspberry-scented levitation gases billowed amorously from the ship's vents, while the Lady Evelyn Hamilton 77 fussed absently with her neoprene stockings. The walkway's fake wood creaked appropriately. She hated summering in the sky—there were still unmodified birds flying about, doing their business on everything, and Lady Evelyn had to function without a very dry martini, because of Zeppelin City's draconian prohibition. Three months without gin? The very thought! She reached up to pull at her pink hair's tight curls, getting a headache from the altitude. Mustn't have complain, though. It was not in her nature to complain. It did her darling Bertrand so much good to be up there in the low pressure, something about the levitation gas and its dreamy, dreamy effects...
She relaxed her hands, satisfied that her head would not explode. They'd chosen a ship moored at the outskirts of Zeppelin City to give them both some quiet time—as much as she disliked the place, this was to be a vacation for her as well, a safehaven from Oceanic society and its gossip. The altercation with Providence Glassworth 13—a 13, of all people!—ensured that Lady Evelyn needed some time to herself. Away from the casual cocktail party gossip of Zeppelin City's other inhabitants, the curious and wane things that they were.
Which left her alone, discounting the staff, with Bertrand. He was strapped to the ship's gasbag with cultivated hemp rope, upside-down, and she could make out his chest rising and falling. Breathing deeply, and giggling from whatever hallucination currently gripped him. Bertrand was naked, of course, hardly surprising—her husband had his particular preferences, pedestrian as they were. Public nudity? The very thought bored her so, but Bertrand adored the sensations. Lady Evelyn always kept their cabinets stocked with amplification drugs and simply nodded and smiled when he wanted to spend weeks and weeks without a proper onion blossom or octopus-skin knickers. It was her duty, after all.
© Ben Rawluk, 2008, all rights reserved.
The characters are a little cliché for me, sure, but this is more about the setting! I didn't expect Zeppelin City at all. And cloned aristocracy, of course.