Beautiful

The Sprawl - Missy

Missy was ecstatic. She finally had enough cash to get her hair trimmed and maybe even enhanced with some synthhair product if she could sweet-talk the stylist. She’d worked fifteen-hour days at the Buzzway coffee shop for a month straight to afford it, and it was finally time to get her style where she wanted it to be.

The best spot for a haircut in her area of The Sprawl was Reynaldo’s Bar, a salon-run-in-tandem bar she hadn’t been able to afford before, but had a reputation for giving clients the look they were after down to the last detail. Her best friend Luke had gone in there one day and walked out with an updated synthskin face and a haircut he didn't even know he’d wanted. It didn’t take him long to lock down the guy he’d been after once his look changed that day. Missy wasn’t dumb—she knew the two things weren’t unrelated.

She walked into the salon from the side street and was immediately struck by the smell: fresh, like flowers, punctuated only by the sterile aroma of whatever was coming out of their aerosol cans. The floor she stepped onto was lined with a long bar with small seats across its left side, while barber chairs stretched down the right. A small woman, petite and pretty, with impressive cybernetics running from her jaw down onto her chest, greeted her with a toothy grin.

“Hi! Do you have an appointment?”

“Yes, thank you. I’m supposed to get a cut from Jessica today?”

“Oh great, you must be Missy! Can you scan your personal chit, please?”

The girl kept smiling and stretched out her open palm, a small chit port installed right in the center of her hand. Missy inserted the chit and watched as the girl’s eyes faded behind a soft blue glow, running through the data. The process ended quickly, her eyes going back to a dark brown as the girl handed the chit back before grabbing a small, sleek paper bag from under the hostess booth.

“Missy, it is so great to have you here with us today! I see your established budget today limits you to the Green Package, but since it’s your first time, I’m going to send you home with these products. They should keep your new look perfect for at least a month and make sure whoever you’re trying to impress can’t take their eyes off you!”

Missy smiled, but ultimately, she didn’t care so much about that. Getting a new look from a salon in The Sprawl was a big deal—it immediately told people you weren’t in a dead end. It told people you were worth something. Maybe even worth moving on to a new district with a room you didn’t have to share. To Missy that was worth a lot more than attracting some random passerby.

Missy took the bag and followed the woman to an open chair.

“Just take a seat and enjoy a complimentary bottle of wine. The fridge next to you should have some small bottles. We’re so happy to have you here! Jessica will be out shortly.”

The woman gave her another smile, warmth radiating from her as her dimples pinched perfectly above the corners of her lips. If Missy could get half of this girl’s aesthetic upgrades, she knew she’d be getting her money’s worth.

She took one of the wine bottles, cracked it open, and settled in with a few sips before a tall woman with a strong figure approached, eyes glued to a tablet before stopping just a foot away from Missy’s seat.

“Missy? It’s so good to meet you. I'm Jessica. We spoke online last night, how are you?”

She extended a hand, the perfect synthskin reflecting the bright lights of the salon. Missy took it and looked up in wonder at the woman.

“So good to meet you! I’m really excited. My friend got his look changed here, and he swears by you guys now.”

“Yeah, your personal chit showed you’re friends with Luke from the Altoville Megabloc! I’m assuming that’s the friend you mean—he’s the best!” she said with a giggle. “Don’t you worry. We’re going to take great care of you today. So, what did we have in mind?”

“Well, I want to get my hair done. I was thinking about the yellow side cut like Dalys has been wearing.”

“Oh my god, I love her!”

“Yeah! And then…I might be stretching my budget, but I was hoping for maybe some touch-ups on my cheeks and chin?”

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll do all of it, and I’ll just charge you for the hair. Any friend of Luke’s is a friend of ours here.”

She placed a comforting hand on Missy’s shoulder and smiled before turning her chair to face the mirror. She immediately got started, buzzing Missy’s hair with a laser cutter, a device used in high-end salons in Vargos that eradicated each hair follicle and left the space open for synthhair roots.

The women made conversation for the first half-hour—Missy complaining about her job and about how annoying her parents were with their constant nagging about taking a certification exam for a job at Violet. Jessica ranted about a fight she’d had with her husband. Funny enough, Missy knew the guy—a local streetfighter on the Second Circuit. He’d just been on a VR cast fighting a downtown girl named Tiny, who was anything but, yet he managed to beat her despite being half her size and having only a single cybernetic arm for enhancements.

Everything seemed to be going great, until the laser cutter sputtered and shut down.

“Everything okay?” Missy asked, a hint of hesitation in her voice.

“Uhm…yeah, I think so. This didn’t come up on your personal chit, but how long have you had this data port here?”

She placed her fingers on a spot near the top of Missy’s head.

Missy froze. Her breath caught in her throat.

She didn’t have a data port on her head. She didn’t have one anywhere. At least…not to her knowledge.

“What…data port?” Missy whispered, quieter than she’d been since walking into the place.

“It’s about the size of a coin. You didn’t know about it?”

Missy felt her stomach twist.

She had never gone under the knife for any augmentations. The aesthetic changes she was getting today were supposed to be her first. What was going on?

“I…I didn’t know about it, no. Does it say anything?”

“No brand marks, no. It looks pretty old, though.”

Silence built between them, thick and suffocating. After a moment, Jessica spoke up again, forcing a cheerful tone.

“I can just place the synthhair right on top of it though!”

Missy didn’t respond—just nodded, enthusiastic and fake, and forced a smile.

The haircut finished, and Jessica spent an hour applying delicate strips of synthskin around Missy’s chin and cheekbones before activating the low-tech upgrade package to enhance their color. Missy smiled and got up quickly.

She thanked Jessica and made her way toward the exit, flashing a bright, empty smile at the hostess as she passed. She wandered away from the salon, her hands trembling as she gripped the bag of products she’d been given.

She felt like she was going to throw up. Why was there a data port on her head? Who put it there? When? She had never gone under the knife. She would have known. Missy felt like she was drowning. Her body, and probably her mind, had been violated.

She turned down her street, walking toward the apartment she shared with her older brother and two coworkers. She wasn’t looking forward to facing them with this knowledge.

As she passed the wide window of the convenience store near her apartment, she caught a glimpse of herself.

Her reflection was flawless.

Her hair was perfect—neon yellow, cut short like Dalys herself.

Her skin was radiant, catching the neon lights littering the street.

She played with her hair a bit, flashed a few smiles at the mirror-like window. Then she spun in place, admiring herself from another angle.

She could deal with the data port another time. Today she was going to flaunt her new look.