Life Lessons

Ruby Winters was a young woman of around twenty two, not that her parents would remember this fact. She was their youngest child. A mistake. Surplus to the achievement of creating their eldest. It hadn’t taken long for Ruby to stop ‘bothering’ her mother with her drawings as a toddler, knowing the response would always be the same; ‘Lovely’, without so much as a glance. She had taken up the piano, to which her father had told her was a waste of time and energy, after all... they didn’t need two pianists in the family. As she grew older, Ruby tried to ask her father to school her in the family business, to which he had told her it was not her place to know the family business. The business would belong to her elder sister one day, it was a useless endeavour to show Ruby how it worked. Eventually Ruby simply ceased interacting with her parents. She spent her days living in the farthest part of their sprawling mansion from them, not that they noticed. The young woman tried finding a job as anything at all, but as soon as they saw the name ‘Winters’, she was laughed away, most companies telling her to just go ask daddy to make her a pony, or whatever it was little girls wanted these days. Such statements barely made sense, as she had only the faintest understanding of what her family did. She knew they were part of a partnership that owned an extremely popular theme park that only the very wealthy could afford, such was her reason for staying away from it; She wanted nothing at all to do with anything Winters.
While she had grown up wanting for nothing in the material sense, the youngest Winter’s daughter was extremely poor when it came to personal relationships.

Josephine Winters was bored with people. None of them made her happy. She'd begun to think there was nothing new in the world to be learned. 
She'd spent her life being taught the nuanced of people and how they worked. She hated every moment of it. But most of all she hated the park. If she had the choice to shut the whole thing down and burn it to the ground she would. 
It made people monsters, her parents included. She could still see her father on the video announcing to the public that the park brought your best self forward. She didn't believe that for a moment. It certainly hadn't for her parents.

Jack Winter’s was a very wealthy man, even before he had helped conceive the park. As such a man, he believed he only deserved the best, which made his choice of wife extremely shallow; his only stipulation had been that she was both beautiful and submissive. He had gotten everything he wanted at first, but with time Marissa Winter’s had grown enough of a backbone that her husband simply allowed to do whatever made her happy, for the sake of his sanity. She had given him his beautiful successor daughter, that was all that mattered. A beautiful daughter, meant he could be as selective as he wished with who he chose to marry her.
Ruby had returned home this evening after spending the day in the science museum. She spent a lot of time there, knowing all the exhibits by heart, though it never seemed to occur to her that one little word to her father or sister, and she could experience any one of these scientific breakthroughs first hand in their family park. The younger sibling dropped her battered and worn bag on the island in their massive kitchen as she leaned into the fridge looking for something to eat that wasn’t there as part of yet another of her mother’s fad diets.

"She's gone vegan." Joe said, seating herself at the bar and looking over her sister's shoulder. "There's nothing in there but veggie shakes and crackers."

Ruby sighed, her slender shoulders slumping, though it was a long moment before she closed the door again. “So what is Joseph eating?” She asked as she turned and leaned against the fridge door once it was closed. Ruby had pulled her oversized hoodie sleeves over her fingers and now toyed with the edges, it too was as well worn as her bag on the island. The slender legs that poked out from under the hoodie were wrapped in black socks that came up over her knees, and on her feet she wore battered black Dr. Marten boots with deep red roses up the sides, with red ribbon in place of laces. Despite being as beautiful as her mother and sister, the younger girl seemed to hide away from attention, and clearly didn’t dress like the child of a billionaire.

"He gets stuff at the office. You know that." Josephine snorted, getting up and taking one of the shakes off the shelf above her sister's head. 
Joe was taller than her sister and unlike her was forced to dress the part of the rich debutante. She looked every inch of it too from her long silken Raven colored hair to her name brand shoes. Currently she was wearing a jogging outfit, an activity her mother insisted her participate in every morning. "Get packed." She told the younger frumpier version of herself as she turned to leave the kitchen. "We're going to the park this afternoon."

“What?!” Ruby’s usually soft voice shrieked all the way across the kitchen. “Why on earth would you need me to go there?!” 
From a distance it seemed that Ruby too had the same long raven hair as her sister, though up close it was actually dyed a deep shade of midnight blue with a few violet sections running through the under layers.

"Cause you need to get out." Joe said as she dumped the shake down the sink and turned the corner to the ornate staircase. "And I need a distraction." She added only once she was halfway up.

“What? A distraction from all those dates you go on with Kraven?” Ruby asked from the bottom of the staircase once she had grabbed her bag. “I get out just fine anyway!”

"Not that kind of distraction. Now hurry up." Joe said, slamming her door. She didn't bother to pack or change. She knew the drill. She just told her sister to pack to keep her busy.

Ruby sat on her bed for some time, simply staring into the mirror on the other side of the room. She didn’t want to go. What was the point? Life sucked here, why would it be any different in some fake world? She sighed heavily, sending the hair that fell just short of her eyebrows flying upwards. A few hours. She would appease Joe and go to the stupid park for a few hours, then she could come home and finish that book she was now staring at on her nightstand.

Joe contacted the park to announce her plans, only to be told her father had already anticipated them. He'd even invited their partners perverted son to join her. Her skin was already crawling at the thought of having Kraven within two feet of her. 
She knew what he did once their dates were over. The two of them played nice and had since they were children but she didn't trust him as far as she could throw him.

Ruby was waiting in the lobby for her sister once she had packed a few things, surprised when the doorbell chimed. She didn’t give any of the servents a chance to answer, figuring she was like three feet away anyway. The second Ruby opened the door, her pale grey eyes seemed to grow even wider than usual when she saw Kraven standing there. The small woman had to tilt her head back just to meet his gaze. That gaze... eyes so dark she swore there was nothing but darkness swirling there. His equally dark hair was styled as it always was; in that way that was supposed to look effortless, but clearly it took longer than most women spent on their hair. 
“Oh... it’s you.” Kraven was clearly disappointed to see the younger sister when the door opened. He didn’t even wait for an invite, pushing her aside roughly enough that the slender woman stumbled slightly. Unfortunately, this only caused Kraven to laugh when he saw it, making a snide comment about knowing where all the grace in the family genes had gone.

"She's not one of them, Kraven. Be a little nicer or I'll tell my daddy." Joe said from the top of the stairs, her tone as icy as the man who pushed his way inside. 
Joe had in fact changed, now wearing a floor length black dress with a crimson and black beaded bodice so tight it left little to the imagination. She'd even pulled her hair down so that it fell in the natural curls that left most men drooling in her wake. "Is that what you're wearing?" She asked her sister with the shake of her head. "Oh well. There's places to change on the train."

Ruby glanced down at her own clothes, feeling ever more the ugly ducking. “You didn’t tell me I had wear... that.” She muttered, gesturing to the excuisite dress her elder sibling wore.
“Oh honey, why even bother? You would never look even half as good in it.” Kraven sneered in Ruby’s general direction.

"Leave her alone, Kraven. She can't help what she is." Joe said, giving him a dark look with her own storm colored eyes. She gave her sister a gentle pat on the shoulder as she passed her And took the tall mans hand. "Ruby, I said bags. We're staying at the park for the weekend. Dad is hosting a new narrative party here and doesn't want us under foot. Don't you ever listen?"

What little colour that was usually in Ruby’s pale cheeks seemed to drain entirely. “W-weekend?!” She stammered. “No! No way, I never ageeed to that!” She added hotly, trying not to let the double put down upset her too much, after all... she had had a lifetime of them. Everything she did was compared to Joe, even the way she looked. 
Kraven could easily see how much the younger Winter’s girl was squirming, and he loved every second of it. If he was lucky, he could have a host take her somewhere when they got to the park, and have Joe all to himself. “Don’t worry, midget, a host will dress you when we get there.” He called over his shoulder as he lead Joe out to the waiting limo. While it was the truth, he only really said it to make the girl all the poor nervous and uncomfortable with the whole situation.

Joe sighed heavily. Her sister needed help. She was hoping to steer her toward a tame narrative and get her involved with a lonlely rancher or something for a few days while she disappeared into the sunset. 
"I'll send her to Bart's office for dressing. He's got the stuff she'll be interested in." She muttered, not accepting Kravens hand as she slid into the limo. 
There was no doubt what narrative he would get lost in. Madame Laramie. The whore house.

Ruby didn’t speak for the entire drive to the station. She was wringing her fingers nervously as she watched the world pass by the tinted window. She had heard Joe’s comment about ‘stuff she’ll be interested in’, and it had the younger sister wondering if Joe herself knew what Ruby was interested in. The innocent girl had no idea at all that people came to the park purely for sex with the hosts.

The station hosts opened the limo doors and made a show of letting the three of them out. 
Joe watched Kraven kiss the hand of his host. She rolled her eyes and waved off her own grabbing for her sister before the host got too far with her. "I'll take it from here, thank you." She said curtly.

Ruby practically had her back pressed to the side of the limo when the hosts had approached. This was all too much for her. It was for once a welcome relief when her sister grabbed her and pulled her along. 
Kraven was whispering something to his host, grinning when she laughed gently. For the moment, anyone else, even Joe, was invisible.

"He's such a pervert." Joe hissed in her sister's ear. "I swear he screws everything with a pair of tits and an ass." She guided the shorter woman to a room on the right, ignoring the nod of a dirty blonde haired man. "That's Ben, he's a park guide. Stay away from him. He gets shot by mid day every time. I swear. Unlucky son of a bitch."

Ruby craned her neck to see who Joe was talking about, but she had already been pushed into a room that was much bigger than she had anticipated. “Why?” She asked, assuming anything here had meaning. 
The room was quite intimidating, filled with all kinds of clothes and hats and weapons. The young woman didn’t quite know what was expected of her.

"Don't worry, it's not like he'll feel anything." Joe said with a shrug. "Take your pick. Every thing here is designed to fit you perfectly."

“How?” Ruby asked as she picked up a guided silver pistol. “How could they have a room like this for every guest?” She added, seemingly not realising what it meant to be a Winters.

Joe's laugh was real in the slightest. "You don't seem to realize what it means to be a Winters do you? We get everything we want even down to the clothes we wear in the park."

“No, that’s what it means to be a Winters to you. I’m not you. I’m nobody.” Ruby told her sister curtly, disappearing to go and change her clothes, even if she hadn’t yet seen what she would be wearing. 
In the changing area Ruby was staring at her reflection, not recognising the woman she saw looking back at her. Her baggy hoodie was strewn on a chair, her pleated skirt on top, and then the rest, even her favourite boots. In their place she wore a white shirt that only buttoned as far as the swell of her breasts, a black leather vest that was so well fitted it may well have been the bodice that Joe wore with her own costume. No longer was she in her comfort zone of a skirt and long socks, instead her black pants conformed like a second skin with brown leather boots coming just up to her knees. Joe had been right, everything fitted like it had been hand made for her. Ruby clipped the gun belt into place and took another look at her reflection; that wasn’t her looking back. Little did she know that it was simply the woman she could be.
“Laugh, and I’ll get right back in the damn limo.” She warned her sister when she finally re-emerged.

"Oh Ruby, you look amazing." Joe breathed. Those were just those clothes she'd instructed the host to put into the room for her. It was a gamble but it had certainly paid off. And she wasn't laughing.

Outside the room Kraven was waiting for them, and clearly gave Ruby the once over, paying close attention to the poor girl’s breasts. “Well, look at midget playing at being a woman.” He mocked, to which the youngest of their party looked entirely crestfallen and stomped on ahead.

"Kraven, you can be such a dick." Joe hissed as she passed him, purposefully bumping him with her hip. "Why don't you go play with your Dolls?"