Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI

[Seras]

“I guess it’s okay.” I mumbled, Ichi had led me outside, into his little backyard. It had actually been a surprise that Ichi lived out in Arroyo, because I had always thought he had rented near the rest of us, but apparently this was his Grandmother's home.

It even had a little garage outback, with dirt cutting through the grass leading through a side gate.

He quickly opened it up, and showed his van.

His van that still had my Minotaur in it.

“Umm… So do you need it for something?”

“Not the Minotaur itself. I’m going to grab the control program, and see what it’s made of.” I explained as I hefted myself up into the van, noticing the control crown and plopping it on my head.

“Oh, great. So is that new chrome?” He asked suddenly and I threw him a smile as I showed off my neck.

“Sure is! New Neural Link, and Sandy.”

“Whoa. Sandevistan? What’d you get?”

“Just a Dynalar. I was going to wait on chipping one until I had the perfect one, but… Jun reminded me I should be looking at the short term as much as the long term.”

“That’s preem Motoko. What’s it like?”

“I don’t know!” I laughed at the reveal. “I’m not allowed to turn it on yet, docs orders. Install is still fresh.”

“Oh, tell me about it once you use it.”

“Why? Thinking about one yourself?”

“Speedware is useful for drivers.” He answered in turn before humming. “Do you need me? I got work.”

“Just give me one minute, and I’ll get out of here.” I looked at Ichi who looked relieved. “The SCSM job?” I asked for clarification as I worked.

“Yeah, I kinda like it, I guess. It’s simple enough, lets me drive around and I don’t get shot at. At least not yet.”

“That sounds nice. Make sure you bring your gun though. You never know when you’ll need to shoot back.”

“Obviously.” He agreed and seemed to relax. Ichi had been kinda high strung this morning. I wonder if he just didn’t process well in the mornings? Needed a cup of coffee or something first?

While I was talking to him, I was plugged into the control crown for the Minotaur, pulling the data, downloading all of it, into a set of shards I had plugged into my new chip slots.

I was downloading into multiple shards at once a barrage of data flowing into me much faster than my old system could have done. The new neural link was definitely an upgrade even at a base level from what I used to own. It was very very cool.

“Okay all done. Before I leave, what security do you have for the garage?”

“Uh… A lock?” He answered and I nodded, reaching into my back pouches and pulling out a TachiCama.

“Here, let’s set it up somewhere it can see your garage, just remember to charge the battery once a week. Set a reminder or something okay?” I offered as I started examining the back porch on his home to find a place to hook it in.

“Uh. Sure. I can do that… Thanks Motoko.”

“No problem.” I muttered as I found a good hidden place in the rafters where it could see the garage while being mostly hidden. Once its cute little feet were clamped on I turned to Ichi who was still sort of nervously moving from foot to foot.

Okay fine.

I reached out and flicked his forehead suddenly.

“Ow! Motoko!”

“That’s for totally stealing my cool Minotaur, that I totally wanted to use myself. Also-” I interrupted myself, walked over and slapped him on the back. “Good job finding something you can do to be extra useful.” There. That should solve the problem with his nervousness. Seriously it was like he expected me to attack him for stealing my Minotaur or something.

“Alright I’m out! Have fun at work!” I called out, waving an arm over my head as I headed out.

“Uhh.”

—--

I was back home looking over the program for juicy bits when I got a message from Hiromi. Checking it I nodded.

Payday. Enough of the equipment from the gig had been sold off, Hiromi sent out the first quarter… Wait no, there were six of us. The first sixth of the payday.

It was pretty juicy and I nodded pleased before refocusing on my program. I was still using my chrome as little as possible so I was just looking over the programming as I displayed it on my laptop.

But suddenly I had a call come in.

*Ringing.*

Rebecca? Preem! I quickly accepted before the second ring.

*Hey choom.*

*What the fuck?*

*Uh… I don’t know?* I asked in turn and had a moment of quiet before Rebecca responded again.

*I just got the pay from your choom for the gig. What the fuck?* She repeated almost breathlessly.

*Oh! Now I get it! Relax,that’s not the full payment! Hiromi hasn’t sold off everything yet, but she sold enough of the loot to give us part of it.*

*Yeah I know! I read her message, but what the fuck! That’s more eddies than I’ve ever earned before from a gig! By a lot! So what the fuck!?*

*That’s just a sixth of what we earned from selling the loot. Why? I don-*

*A sixth… This is a sixth!?*

*Uh yeah? We split the eddies evenly between everyone I told you that remember?*

*I thought you meant it was a split of the percentage!*

The line went quiet for a while and I was almost wondering if she had hung up when a quiet voice that I was pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to catch spoke.

*These kids are fucking nuts.* Then she spoke up clearly again. *Okay seriously, is this like a first time bonus or something? How do you do anything?*

*No? We always just split the eddies evenly. I thought it was a good idea. That way everyone knows the more we make the more they make. I mean the gigs we do, everyone has some danger, so it’s hazard pay.*

*Hazard pay… That’s hilarious choom.* She said and then actually broke into cackles. *Okay okay, seriously though. How do you pay for anything!? Ripper costs? Tech prep. Ammo?*

*Well Ammo we just buy for ourselves? Ripper costs haven’t really come up, but we have a great ripper in Vik and he takes care of us… Tech I just buy that myself. It’s one of the things I take care of in the team.*

*Bribes for information? I mean, I want to ask about a bunch of other stuff too, but hell you guys seriously just split the fucking loot… That’s fucking crazy.*

*Um… I usually do the information myself, so it’s free other than time.*

*Netrunner… That’s right. Fuck.. Wait. Sasha never does that for us! That bitch!* Rebecca cursed a bit and I actually laughed at her foul language. *Fuck you’re weird. Fucking hell. Alright fine. When is the next gig? Eddies like this are pretty nova.*

*No idea. One of the downsides to the way we operate, we have to hunt our targets ourselves. I mean, sure I could probably talk to Wakako… Maybe Rogue too? I’m not sure what the Rogue situation is yet, she said she might offer me gigs, but we haven’t talked since… Anyway! We find our targets and clear them out. So it can be a little bit. One of the reasons the pay is so good.*

* No Fixer pay? Well fuck… But a good fuck. Even if it’s not all the time, a payday like that ain’t something I regret. Damn choom. Just damn.*

*We still need to get your armor sorted out as well.* I reminded her, and she went quiet again.

*You really are a good kid huh? Heart of gold and all that.*

*No I’m not! I’m a badass merc that kills people for money!*

*And worries about her allies acting like a mother hen! It’s cute as shit. You’re a funny one Motoko… Hey listen, change of topic a bit. You doing anything right now?*

*No! What’s up? Want to hang out choom?*

*Something like that. I got a call from my brother. I’ve been kept away from their safehouse until now, but things are cooling off, and my bro wants me to bring some shit. So you want to come see Sasha? I know you were worried about her.*

*Yeah! Yeah I really do! Is that… Is that okay? Will Maine even allow that?*

*I’ll message him, it’ll be fine. I vouch for you. Not like you are going to tell Biotechnica where she’s hiding out. Meet up at my place? A ride would save some time.*

I paused for a second before cracking into a smile.

*Is the main reason you are asking me to come with, because you don’t want to haul whatever your brother asked you to bring on the N-Cart?*

*I don’t know what you are talking about.* She said airly.

Yep, that was 100% it.

I laughed at her making sure it went over the agent. *Sure choom, send me the address?*

*Already done.*

I nodded, it was indeed. And I rose up and stretched. Time to check on Sasha.

—--

“Whoa choom. New chrome?”

“Yeah I picked up a Sandy, but I needed an upgrade to my Neural link.” I confirmed as Rebecca flopped into my passenger seat a large duffel bag full of stuff plopped onto her lap.

“Head towards Arroyo, I’ll guide you there. They don’t want any digital info on where it is.” She said suddenly and I nodded as I set off. “That’s preem. You doing okay?”

“Yeah, Vik is amazing, and I’m not allowed to use the Sandy or anything yet. It’s still settling in.”

“Heh, you’re so funny. You got this bad ass killer vibe one second, and the next you’re all rule abiding the next. I can’t quite pin you down.”

“A lot of rules are there to keep everyone safe.” I said pointedly looking at her complete lack of seatbelt.

“Pfft. Who needs a seatbelt? Those things just-Whoa!” I of course was speeding up unnoticed, and when she refused I just slammed the brakes.

“That’s not funny.” She told me, looking up from the passenger footwell glaring up at me.

I just smiled.

“I beg to differ.”

“I’m not putting on the seatbelt.”

“I’m not promising you won’t go flying a few more times through the ride.” I retorted back instantly, and she glared, and to my pleasure regained her seat and put on her seatbelt.

I didn’t tease her any further as she was sending me glares, instead I threw on the radio and just settled in to drive all the way from Watson down to Arroyo.

“Get off at MLK… We’re going into Rancho Coronado.” She added as we hit Arroyo and I nodded. I knew the place. The pink flamingos were something that was hard for me to forget. Delemains offshoot that hated them as it drove around the suburbs had made me laugh while playing the game.

Maybe I’d run one over in memory of that fragment.

I pulled off at MLK Blvd and down into the suburbs. Going around a bit, following Rebecca’s ‘directions’ that got us lost twice, as we tried to figure out where the address was, before finally finding it.

A house that looked like any of the houses in the area. There was a whole bunch of trash built up around the edges of the fence, hiding what was inside, and as we pulled in, I noticed that despite being a run down sort of place, it did have a few much newer looking security cameras hidden in places.

“This is it?” Rebecca whispered, looking a little confused, but I think I understood.

“This is the address right?” I said as I turned off the engine and stepped out, but before I got far A familiar face poked out through the front door and then relaxed, opening the door the rest of the way, showing Dorio was holding an Overture.

“There you are Becca, and I see you brought a choom.” Dorio greeted, as Rebecca walked up with her arms behind her head.

“Yep, I needed a ride, plus I figured Sasha wouldn’t mind a distraction.” She offered and Dorio just sighed before letting us in. Shutting and then locking the door behind us.

“Hey, listen kid. This isn’t some place we want shared around. So-”

“It’s a safehouse, where Sasha is lying low after the Biotechnica gig. Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.” I assured the larger woman who blinked at me in concern before looking to Rebecca.

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t tell her!” Rebecca denied, but I just ignored that because stepping up out of the basement was the girl in question.

Sasha had looked better.

Instantly I could tell what had happened. One of her arms, the left one from the middle of her bicep down was all chrome now. New chrome.

New enough she hadn’t even gotten Real Skinn, with red irritated skin surrounding where the chrome met flesh.

“Hey Sasha.” I greeted gently, and I watched as the woman actually jumped a little in surprise. She obviously hadn’t noticed there were visitors.

She looked at me with wide surprised eyes for a moment before noticing Rebecca, and then she blinked and she smirked.

“Hey Kitten. How’s my little Kohai doing?” She called out, faking a much happier attitude than she had a moment before.

“Good.” I said instead of what I wanted to say which was ‘Better than you.’

“Becca.” Maine rumbled echoing through the house from the living room. Maine was sitting on a couch making it look more like a single person reclined. “Why did you bring the kid?”
“What was I supposed to walk here?” Rebecca asked and then scoffed. “Besides, Motoko is Sasha’s choom. She was even worried sick when I told her that Sasha was hiding out.”

“This isn’t a place where I rolled out the fucking welcome mat.” Maine rumbled and sensing some issue I decided to step in.

“Hey, I know me showing up wasn’t on the books. Sorry about that. Honest, this is your safe house so the more people that know about it the less safe it actually is. I totally get the frustration. But I mean… Isn’t it less conspicuous if I drive Becca here, instead of making her walk?”

Maine looked to me, and the man who was easily four of me in size didn’t look like he agreed.

“Easy Mainey! We needed to bring in Rebecca to get some stuff, and Motoko only makes that easier yeah?” Sasha intervened, and the big man held his glare for a few moments before sighing.

“Just don’t tell anyone.” He demanded finger pointing at me.

“I won’t. Promise.” I added which didn’t seem to add much to Maine's confidence.

“There you are! Did you bring it?” Pilar demanded coming down from the upstairs practically leaping down the stairs as he charged at Rebecca.

“Ugh get off me you fucking gonk.” She snapped, but did reach over to the duffel bag and slide open the zipper, letting Pilar laugh insanely as he reached in and came out holding a toolkit.

“My babies!” He cried out and then disappeared back up the stairs, and Rebecca just rolled her eyes at his actions.

I kept my mouth shut despite my desire to yell at Pilar for being so rude. If Jun treated me like that I would have kicked his ass.

Pilar hadn’t said anything to Rebecca after getting his tools.

But I shook it off and instead looked to Sasha. “How’re you holding up?”

“What? I’m fine!” She denied, but I mean that was obviously a lie. But then she perked up and sent me a smile. “But I’ve been super duper bored! So hey! Distraction!” She called out as she grabbed my arm and started tugging me along, her new arm was weaker than her old one only gently pulling as I let her lead me away.

“Ah, Sasha! Hey Rebecca-”

“Don’t worry choom. I knew Whiskers would do this. I’ll catch up, wanna talk to Maine.” Rebecca responded, throwing the duffel bag onto the kitchen table clearing off tons of empty food boxes.

“Yeah! C’mon!” Sasha demanded and I followed letting her pull me downstairs into a small barely there netrunner setup.

“You’ve been out on the net?”

“Only a little!” She said and I frowned, because if I had Biotechnica after me, I wouldn’t be going anywhere near the net.

“Oh don’t worry.” She answered as if reading my mind. “I’ve already reached out to an old contact at Biotechnica. The company barely cares about what I did. They sent out a kill team, and if they find me, they’ll kill me, but they aren’t looking real hard. Give it a month, and that order will be removed from their system after a small ‘update’ goes through.” She said with a shrug, and I was reminded that despite Sasha’s personality this was a woman that was an elite netrunner.

“Will they really just let it go?”

“They will.” She said her voice going from sugary sweet to dark and angry. “They barely even noticed… Biotechnica stock didn’t even dip.” She said and I frowned at that. I did remember that the Securicine reveal hadn’t done much damage to the company, but nothing?

“Nothing?”

“Barely anything. They made a public apology, and fired one of the managers in charge, for damage control but… It’s Biotechnica. They are untouchable as long as they’re producing food, medicine, and Chooh2.” She said as she flopped into a chair in front of a laptop and taped fingers to an almost manic anxious beat.

Food, Medicine, and Fuel. Biotechnica were the creators of Chooh2, as long as the world relied on it for fuel…

Yeah I guess I can figure out what happened. Everyone in the know, just ignored the securicine update, no government wanted to make waves. It was like the middle east and oil. The money just kept flowing in, and no matter what nonsense they got up to, as long as it kept going, they were untouchable.

“That stinks.”

“It’s bullshit.” She agreed darkly and then she turned and her face turned into a smirk. “So little Kohai! Want to keep your Senpai Sasha-chan company?”

“Um… Sure?”

 

[Carrot of Truth]

I guess short circuit combined with spread saved her life and fried all the robots.

 

[Guardian Box]

Instantly I could tell what had happened. One of her arms, the left one from the middle of her bicep down was all chrome now. New chrome.

New enough she hadn't even gotten Real Skinn, with red irritated skin surrounding where the chrome met flesh.

This is an emergency. She needs to kidnap Sasha and get her a checkup at a real doc's like Vic instead of whatever backstreet butcher who installed that.

 

[xachariahxx]

This is an emergency. She needs to kidnap Sasha and get her a checkup at a real doc's like Vic instead of whatever backstreet butcher who installed that.

People go to other doctors all the time and they're fine. 2077 cyberware and antibiotics are fantastic, and basically everybody will be fine short term. David survived 6 months getting parts constantly swapped out by a dude who was garbage. Hell, Fingers the molester guy on drugs still manages to keep nearly all his clients alive.

She should probably get a checkup eventually, but it can wait for the heat to die down.

 

[Seras]

“Nova! Absolutely qualitatively nova! I’ve been sooooo bored.” Sasha whined at me, with a laugh throwing her arm over my shoulders only to wince. It was her chrome arm she had used, and there were obviously some issues with it.

“Still getting used to it?”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” She said a little too fast as she slipped her arm away from my shoulder and instead pulled a shower curtain away from what I was definitely not expecting to see.

“An Ice Bath?”

“Yeah! I’m gonna jump on the net obviously. Want to join me?” Sasha asked, her eyebrows moving in a waggling wave.

“I mean, I could go to my netrunner den I guess. I don’t use a Ice bath. I have a chair.” I said as I walked over and crouched down by the bathtub. It was already full of half melted ice cubes, I could tell it would be absolutely freezing.

I really didn’t like the idea of using this method.

“You have a netrunning chair?” Sasha asked surprised and I nodded.

“Yeah I had a gig from Wakako to kill this guy. He was a runner, good too. Had a bunch of equipment, since I flatlined him, I took it for myself. Big server, Chair, everything I needed.”

“You have a server!? How big!” I shrugged and sent her the details on the server set up and I looked up to see her choking on nothing.

“N-Not fair! Sasha doesn’t have a server! How does her Kohai have one!” She whined childishly which had me laugh at her.

“You really don’t have a server? Why not?”

“Eh. I’m not a data runner. The only data I grab is for a gig, or to immediately trade out.” She answered calmly, the childish act disappearing. Then as suddenly as her calm answer appeared it disappeared. “Waaa! Maine! My Kohai is bullying me!” She whined loudly towards the stairs and then ran up the wooden steps.

“What?”

Then I blinked realizing I could hear her faux crying up the stairs that she had taken two at a time. I hurried after her, mostly because I was so confused.

Is this what it was like dealing with me, when I was being a little shit? No. Everyone liked when I was a shit.

Except Jun of course, but he doesn’t count.

I made it up the stairs and blinked as Sasha was sitting on the couch besides Maine looking up at him with big crocodile tears in her eyes.

“-Need a server! I can’t be bullied by my cute little Kohai! Just a little one is okay!” She begged and Maine took a sip from his beer.

“Maybe when you're older.” Maine offered cooly. The look of outrage on Sasha’s face at the absolute burn from Maine had Rebecca start cackling and Dorio’s chest started heaving as well.

“Maine!” She eventually squawked out in outrage, slapping the larger man's chromed out arm, but that did less than nothing.

“Don’t get upset when someone teases you back.” He retorted and she huffed crossing her arms, but her chrome one didn’t move as easily, and she sort of flubbed the whole thing. Looking down at her arm. A change went over her face.

I don’t think Sasha was handling her loss that well.

“Next time I have to flatline a netrunner, I’ll keep an eye out for another server for you?” I offered and my words startled everyone in the room but Rebecca who just looked thoughtful and then nodded.

“I gotta admit, Kitten, klepping everything after wiping a place, even the stuff bolted down, certainly made for a nice payday.” Rebecca agreed and I nodded, throwing her a thumbs up.

“It’s not klepping Becca! Once you kill them it’s looting!”

She looked at me, I looked at her, and we both broke into cackles of laughter.

“‘M I missing something here?” Maine asked, and Becca nodded.

“Yeah. While you guys have been out of touch. Kitten here called me up and asked if I wanted to join in on a gig. Let me tell you Maine. The payday took a few days, but when it came in? Way more than I ever made working under you. Maybe I’ll find myself a new crew.” Rebecca said but her tone showed she was teasing.

Even so Maine and Dorio both looked shocked while Sasha was just curious.

“You took a gig?” Dorio managed to ask first and Rebecca nodded.

“Wiping Scavs. Honestly the way Kitten here ran the gig it was… Pretty smooth. I still want a chance to play with that Minotaur.” She said, turning to me.

All I could do was huff. “So do I. Ichi basically stole it! I’m the one that had to fight it while some Raffen gonk was using it while trying not to damage it cause… I mean it’s awesome.”

“Wait wait. A Militech Minotaur?” Maine asked, his sun glasses instantly sliding down his nose to lock eyes on first Rebecca and then me.

“Yeah. The gig that got me into the Afterlife? They shot down an Arasaka AV and captured a bunch of stuff, including an Arasaka brand Minotaur. It’s mine now… When my choom isn’t stealing it out from under me.”

“It was nova to have on that gig though. When you jumped on the back of it for mobile cover? Fuck it was preem. Made me jealous that I didn't think of it.” Rebecca offered and I smiled because it had been fuckin cool.

“You just… Used a Minotaur against Scavs?” Maine asked, sounding a bit shell shocked.

“It was a big base. They were a major group. Selling XBD’s of the people they murdered out on the market. Lots of eddies involved.” I answered. “It was pretty effective in drawing attention, letting us wipe them out while they pissed themselves at the mech.”

“And Becca you went on this gig?”

“Yep! Actually was one of the four solo’s. Right up front.. Well second line. The Kittens brother is the Oni. You know the Tyger Claw one with the rep.”

“Kamikaze or something right?” Dorio asked, looking worried. Between Rebecca and me. “It was okay?”

“Jun isn’t a cyberpsycho.” I butt in quickly. “He had some problems, he uh… Lost someone important to him and went a bit wild, but he’s actually stabilizing really well.”

Becca kinda snorted. “He seemed fine outside of the fight, but when shit got wild so did he. I get why they call him the Oni now.”

“Yeah Jun is still a moron.” I agreed, and Becca just scoffed.

“He’s an older brother, are they ever not morons?”

“Nope.” I said and we both looked at eachother with shared tooth filled grins.

“Right.” Maine muttered seemingly a little lost.

“Well it was nice to be treated as part of the team at least.” Rebecca suddenly added, rather directly, and Main stiffened.

“You are part of the team.”

“Maine… You don’t ever use me as a shooter. I can do it.” Rebecca added and Maine and her both stared at each other for a moment before Maine looked away.

“We’ll talk about it for the next gig.” He offered, and Rebecca didn’t look like she was going to accept before shrugging.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Ah! My Kohai is so skilled! She’s even got Rebecca on her side!” Sasha interrupted rising up and to my surprise pulled me into a tight hug. Squeezed tightly at least with one arm into her chest. “I’m soooo proud!”

“Wha!”

Then before I could even start struggling I was pushed away.

“We should go on a dive together! I want to see how good you are!” Sasha demanded and I blinked.

She smiled.

I shrugged. “Okay? Sure, sounds fun.”

“Yay! You can use the extra Ice bath… Unless you want to join me in mine.” Sasha teased me with a big smile, but I scoffed and chuckled before remembering and stilling.

“Ah I can’t today. I just got this Neural Link chipped in, and my ripper has me on a few days of rest before I can do anything heavy with it. So… Couple day rain check?” I offered and Sasha looked at me like I was crazy.

“You actually listen to that nonsense?” Maine asked suddenly, his rumbling voice cutting off whatever Sasha was about to say. “If you’re tough you can handle it. Never seen someone actually listen to that garbage.”

I instantly frowned. Deeply.

I turned from Sasha and marched right up to Maine. Maine that even if he was sitting on a couch was still nearly twice my height.

“Taking care of your health isn’t weak! And ignoring doctors' experience with medical matters doesn’t make you tough, it makes you dumb! I chipped in a new Neural Link, and a Sandy and was told to give it a few days to make sure it settles into my nerve endings. Of course I’m going to wait. Otherwise I could burn out or injure myself, making myself weaker over time!” I snapped at him practically poking him.

Maine didn’t appreciate that though, and reached out, pushing my finger off him, which I let him do without complaint.

“Careful kid, don’t go poking me like that.” Maine rumbled out, but I had made my point and turned away from him.

“Hey Becca, I think I’m gonna head out. Sasha. Call me in a few days and we can do that net dive okay?”

“Sure Kitten.” Sasha offered and Rebecca nodded, but didn’t say anything, as my leaving was watched over by a silent grumpy Maine.

I don’t think I liked Maine very much,

—--

I got home and flopped onto the couch. Jun wasn’t around so I had the place to myself. I didn’t really feel like doing much just yet. My neck had a weird tenseness that made me feel like I wanted to crack it, but couldn’t. The larger Neural link didn’t diminish my range of movement, but it did make me feel all stiff.

So I did what I always did when I felt a little annoyed.

I grabbed my guitar. I had to go easy with my Neural Link so direct programming with my cyberdeck was out, but I could still work on a new song.

I lay there on my back tapping on my guitar as I ran through all the songs I knew, which one did I want to play right now?

Strumming a few notes here and there as I considered, before I could even figure it out, the door opened, and I sat up to see. Jun and… Alice. Rockerboy girl herself.

They walked in, although it was obvious to me that it hadn’t been planned. Jun was looking a little awkward as Alice followed along behind him.

“Hey Jun. Alice.”

“Hey kid! You like music, tell your brother he should take my advice! I’m inviting him to a recording session! He gets to hear professionals at work!” Alice called out to me, and Jun sent me a look.

Ah, that’s right.

Jun’s taste in music was trash. He probably hated Alice’s sound.

“Jun! I’m disappointed in you!” I called out, as I rose up, smirk already stretching across my face. “You love music!”

Jun’s pleading look turned into a promise to murder me after this, but that was fine.

“See! You love music!” Alice agreed, uncaring about the truth. “Come with! You’ll get to meet some famous Rockerboys and enjoy some music! As my plus one of course.” She offered and Jun continued to prove he was the densest person in any room he entered.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude, if you are doing music stuff, I’m not good with that sort of thing. But if you want someone that will be good with the music, you should take Motoko! She’s amazing with that stuff.” He offered, and I could literally see the look of frustration on her face as he continued to not notice she was into him.

“Oh no I couldn’t Jun. Alice is your choom.” I replied doing at least a little to keep Alice from just dying on the spot at my brother's inability to notice interest in him.

“I see.” He said and Alice’s face brightened up in delight as he seemed like he was finally understanding.

He didn’t of course. I would have told her that, but Jun did it himself before I got a chance.

“Why don’t we all go then? Motoko likes music, it’ll be a good chance for her to meet some other musicians. Maybe get someone to ‘jam out’ with you?” He said, looking at me.

Jun. Brother of mine with the mental density of a black hole. I don’t want to ‘Jam out’ with people, and the way you said it was super cringe.

Alice had a similar look on her face, the full body cringe was there.

But Jun’s charisma was stronk. Before the disgust could kill her ardor he turned to Alice, and smiled.

Damn Jun. Throwing deadly smiles like that around, you were going to melt hearts… Along with something else.

Not that Jun was attractive or anything. He was ugly, and fat, and he ate XXL Burritos.

“How about it? Wouldn’t that be more fun?” He asked, smiling at Alice and she broke.

“S-sure? Sounds fine I mean. Yeah. I can uh… Get her a pass in too?”

“I didn’t even say I wanted to go?” I offered but Jun just threw another look at me.

“You’ve been practicing your music stuff so much, but you never do anything with it! This is a chance to meet other musicians, and maybe you’ll like the idea of joining a band.” Jun offered and I realized what was going through his mind.

“Jun, you gonk, even if I join a band, which I’m totally not. I’d still do merc work.”
“Maybe.” he said with a shrug.

I rolled my eyes and rose up. “Alright, fine. I’ll go.” Only because I knew if I refused he wouldn’t want to go, and I felt some distance sympathy for Alice right now.

Which is how I ended up sitting in the back seat of Alice’s run down Mahir Supron. Practically riding on top of her band equipment.

“This is an interesting ride.” I commented as we went over a bump, my head nearly slamming into the roof.

“It’s cheap, and I spend most of my money on music stuff.” She answered back a little hotly. “It runs on hopes and dreams, and carries my shit.”

“It’s fine.” Jun tempered her. “It wasn’t until recently that either of us had a car. We just used our bikes for the longest time.”

“You’ll have to give me a ride sometime.” She shot back flirtatiously. “Uncle always threw a fit when I said I might get one.”

“Uh… Sure? They aren’t the best bikes to start on, but I can-”
I rolled my eyes as I zoned out Jun’s misunderstanding. He thought she wanted a lesson on driving a Kusanagi, instead of just wanting to ride one…

Heh. A very specific Kusanagi in fact.

—--

Alice drove us down into City Center, and then into a small strip mall, but instead of going into a shop she walked down an alley and towards a side door, up a small set of concrete steps.

“Don’t tell people about this place.” Alice suddenly said. “A lot of big names come here, so they don’t want fans and stuff to know about it.” Then she opened the door and I relaxed.

It really was a music studio. We just used a back door for some reason. White hallways dotted with doors. Small pieces of the door were glass letting me see inside to small studio rooms full of sound equipment. I could just make out the small performance rooms as well. No sound escaped them though as everything seemed to be soundproofed.

We walked pretty deep into the building, passing by door after door, that inside I could just see through the small window on each door were often occupied.

I guess music was big business in Night City.

No one I recognized was inside though, but then I could only really see the editing room and not the performance box.

Then Alice waved at a man that I did sorta recognize. I’m pretty sure he was one of Alice’s bandmates? I vaguely remembered him from the gig I watched.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.” She called and the man looked over at Jun and I with a quirked eyebrow.

“Don’t even. This is Jun, The Oni.” She said proudly at Jun’s nickname, which even Jun looked a little embarrassed at being called out like that.

“Riiiight.” The guy shot back. “Who's the kid?”

“The kid is… Actually pretty good. Jun’s sister.” And I realized that Alice probably forgot my name.

“I’m Motoko. Don’t mind me. I’m mostly here because my brother thinks I need to get into music to escape my life of crime.”

The man blinked and then laughed a bit at my joke.

“Funny. Too many late night joy rides in klepped cars?”

“Nah. I have my own car. Mostly it’s the shootouts.” I answered truthfully and then looked at the door. “So what’s going on exactly?” The guy looked a little off but shrugged it away after a moment.

“A friend of ours got a big gig, making a song for a Ni-Cola advert. He wanted us as his band. So we get to set up here.” He explained with a curious look to Alice. “You brought them without explaining?”

“It sorta went that way.” She shrugged completely unashamed at the situation. She wanted to hang out with Jun after all. The way she entwined her arm with Jun’s said a lot.

So did Jun’s very confused look towards his arm wondering what was going on.

“Well alright. C’mon, Tessa is already in the booth.” He offered and opened the door. Inside was a small studio, a few chairs and a ton of equipment. And beyond that the small room that was soundproofed where a man was seemingly already working.

I didn’t recognize him. Or anyone else in the room.

But that was fine. It was kinda just interesting to see a real studio like this.

“Ah, there you are!” A heavyset man in an ill fitting suit and enough gold chains on his neck to hang himself with pointed a set of pudgy fingers at Alice. “Kept us waiting.”

“I’m on time. You just wanted me here early. Violent Hemorrhage is here to perform.”

“Well get to it. No, hold on. This is a good line.” He ordered and turned back to the equipment. A headset half off put back on, as he hit a few buttons.

There was a man, the sort of guy that looked like a titular Rockerboy fancy clothes, and styled hair, and probably a grand or more on accessories, and even more on fancy chrome. His styled hair buzzed with electricity as he sang.

But I couldn’t hear him so I just shrugged. Alice pulled Jun inside, and we were put into a corner, as Alice was prepping to enter the booth, but at least she gave us a pair of headsets so we could listen.

I put it on, and instantly frowned. Electro-hair was doing the same shit that Alice did. It was all the chrome's work. His voice was shit.

Sure, it sounded okay, but if you knew what you were listening for you could hear him missing notes or just slurring the song a bit too much.

Bad auto-tune. That’s what it reminded me of. The fatty producer didn’t seem to mind, and I could tell Jun didn’t seem to notice bobbing his head a bit to the song. Then they cut, and Alice and her bandmate entered, quickly grabbing some instruments already set up, and this time they played together with the singer. Checking harmony and timing from what I was hearing the producer guy, and another guy on the equipment mutter to each other.

Honestly it was kinda interesting I guess. Similar to what I do, but I don’t need some weird guy to do it for me.

I sighed. That was just because of the system. So I shouldn’t bad mouth people just trying to do their thing. I shook off the sense of arrogance and instead listened. What would I do to improve the song?

I’m actually not sure. Rockerboy gives me a lot of information to work with, but I’ve never tried to edit a song that had bad singing before.

So instead I focused on what the producer? I’m not sure what his actual job was, but I watched him work.

It was interesting, and made me want to play with it too. But I kept out. No way he would want some teenager messing with his equipment while he was putting together a song.

I wouldn’t want someone interfering in my work. So I stayed back, Jun and I listened for a good thirty minutes as they ran through the song multiple times before they took a break.

 

[Carrot of Truth]

I always thought Minotaurs were robots.

 

[Blasterbot]

Not that Jun was attractive or anything. He was ugly, and fat, and he ate XXL Burritos.

Ah he is already working on the dad bod for real DILF energy. no wonder he is such a hit.

 

[Seras]

When they finally took a break, Alice came out of the sound stage and nearly bounced her way over to Jun.

She was sweating a bit, but looked amped up, energized and excited.

Oh my. Jun brother of mine, you might finally understand that Alice is interested in you tonight if you aren’t careful.

“How does it sound Simon?”

“Sounds smooth Carmen my boy. I’ll send this copy down Ni-Cola and see what they think ya?” The producer offered up pulling out a shard and throwing a heavy arm over the Rockerboy who looked excited.

“Great! Let me know what they say, we can definitely make some changes, and-”

“Hey hey no worries kid. You let me handle that.” He waved off and then the two left along with most of Alice’s band.

“Hey Jun! What do you think huh? I mean it was kinda cheesy stuff, but our music might be all over the city next week.” Alice offered with a chirp in her voice.

“It was nova. I liked it.” Jun agreed, and Alice beamed, even if she didn’t realize that Jun’s bad taste in music meant he wasn’t saying she did good, but that he did actually like the commercial music.

I cringed down to my toes at the idea. But Jun’s taste in music was well known to me.

“Thanks, hey, listen, everyone is going to be going back and forth over and over. There’s a bar upstairs we can use. So why don’t we go relax for a little.” She gestured for us to follow and we headed out, back down the white hall.

Alice had Jun’s arm in her grip as she tugged him along.

For once Jun just seemed happy to go along with it, obviously picking up how happy she was at that moment.

We went up an elevator and came out in a large bar. The cozy atmosphere was actually pretty nice. Much more classy than some of the places I had been dragged into.

High end too. With the entire wall having open windows, and a stage up in a corner, although it was empty for now.

But the bar wasn’t. Lots of Rockerboys hung around, some drinking, some chatting, some drugging. I ignored them all, instead splitting off from Jun and hitting the bar, sliding into a stool.

“Something for you?”

“Just a soda is fine.” I answered and I got a funny look from the bartender, a very pretty woman that was a bit obsessed with silver chrome, but I got my drink and that was good enough for me.

I noticed Alice looking at me from a booth with Jun and the rest of her crew and threw her a wink.

There. That’s all I will do to help you with Jun. Don’t say I never did anything for you.

She nodded in turn and then focused on Jun smiling.

“Not a regular are you?” The Bartender asked, and I noticed I was the only one still at the bar itself.

“Nope. Following my gonk of a brother and the Rockerboy girl that’s into him, not that he noticed. Bit dense. Place is kinda cool though. Wouldn’t mind using a sound stage like that sometime.”

“Hey. Well the prices are crazy, but you get some perks. There’s an instrument room downstairs you can use.”

“Instrument room?” I asked suddenly, because that sounded more fun than just sitting at a bar.

“Yeah, they got everything. Rental comes with the membership.”

“Hmm.” I mumbled. I wasn’t about to pay a membership, but if this place ran that sort of stuff off a computer…

I got up. “Thanks.” I threw her a few dozen eddies and wandered back downstairs. I should be able to track down the instrument room without too much issue.

—--

I walked into the instrument room. The computer beeped confirming my access. I smirked at the noise.

Finding the control room, and breaching in from inside was easy peasy. The place did have some pretty solid ICE, if I was attacking from outside the building I might have been troubled by it.

I felt the back of my neck. No overheating issues, or problems from my Neural Link.

I rolled my neck as best as I could and while it still wasn’t comfortable, the actual performance had been fine.

The instrument room lights turned on, and I whistled.

That was a lot of gear. Guitars, drum sets. Common Rockerboy things were there, but that wasn’t all.

Piano’s, a full brass section, and some other string instruments, were all stored in the room.

I understood why they had such high security for this room. It would be an expensive heist. Luckily I didn’t steal things. Only looted. So it was all safe from me.

Instead I was just perusing. Mostly just wasting time as Jun was flirted at. I popped open a case that had a trumpet, and just snorted. It wasn’t a normal trumpet, but an electro trumpet.

Something that seemed utterly silly to me, but I did have the instincts on how it worked as I thought about it.

I put it away. I didn’t need a trumpet that would do all the work for me. Instead I opened another case, older, much older.

It was worn, and probably needed a good polish, but it was a trumpet all right.

I moved on, checking out different instruments. Trombone, Saxophone, the list went on.

Not that I was all that interested. I didn’t have a lot of songs that I had any interest in that used a brass section.

I started humming, an ear worm in my mind as I checked on the Piano, tinkering on the keys and shaking my head. Just an electric Piano pretending to be an antique.

The ear worm was digging at me. Something my brain was trying to remember, but not getting there. Right on the tip of my tongue.

The door opened, and a man I didn’t recognize entered carrying a guitar. He didn’t notice me, and I took two steps to the side sliding in amongst the racks, and now he never would.

“Get everyone together, and the stuff! Don’t leave anything behind this time asshole!” He yelled out as he popped the guitar into the case and then headed out.

The brainwave connected.

“Get everybody and the stuff together… Okay, Three, two, one, Let’s jam.” I repeated softly the only lyrics from a song I remembered vividly. One that every ounce of my being wanted to recreate.

I loved that song.

Instantly I went to work. I would need a space, and luckily I was in the perfect place to get this done. I walked out of the room, and headed back into the empty control room that quickly opened at my approach. There I simply accessed the system, and checked which of the sound stages would be open.

A small adjustment and the one empty room was now reserved.

Okay, let’s blow this scene. I practically giggled as I hurried back to the instrument room and started gathering what I would need. Trumpet, Trombone, Sax, Drums. That took a few trips back and forth. Chello, I had to grab an electric one, but it would do.

Back and forth I hauled everything inside the soundproofed room, and then since I would be doing this solo, I walked over to the equipment in the production room and slipped my personal link in.

Ah good. I wasn’t the only Rockerboy that wanted to handle the editing in real time, or by themselves.

I unplugged and headed inside, plugging into the internal connection and then started setting everything up. I hummed the song as I prepped, going through every line, every note.

I started on the chello. No bow, just plucking the strings, I activated the recording, and played the notes perfectly to what I knew they needed to be. I had heard this song before after all.

I knew it. As intimately as I did the palm of my hand, chrome or not.

Drums were next, then trumpet, to really get going. All the while I was using my personal link to manage the song recording in real time. Recording, pausing, cutting all as I played through the song. Copying it all to a single track when I was sure it was right. Some tracks needed multiple copies, trumpets, and the like. It wouldn’t sound right without multiple players, so I played just that slightly differently on another track, merging them together into a big band jazz sound.

Over and over I played the song. Getting every track with real instruments, and just blasting out the noise of Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts, remade.

I was doing another play through on the Sax when I caught it out of the corner of my eye.

I stopped.

Someone was in the control room.

I looked on, and they looked at me.

That… Holy shit.

I recognized her.

She looked none too pleased either, and seeing me stop she walked over and opened the door.

“Lot of chrome tits to walk into my Studio klep my personal recording booth, and grab about half my equipment.” The woman offered arms crossed.

“You’re Denny. From Samurai.” I said, because that was honestly all I could say.

She quirked up an eyebrow at me, under her massive afro and then just rolled her eyes.

“Yes. How the hell some teenager recognizes me from Samurai, and not any of my other bands. Sure whatever. Now focus gonk, cause I’m deciding whether to kick your ass out with a boot between the ass cheeks, or call security and let them escort you out the hard way.”

“Let’s not get your security killed for something this stupid. Sorry, I was just bored, and I did a bit of hacking, noticed this booth wasn’t reserved, so I figured no one would mind. Honest, didn’t mean to cause any trouble. Figured I would put everything back after and no one would even know.”

Denny’s eyes scanned me down. Literally, they glowed as she obviously checked me out, and I could see her notice my weapons, armored clothing.

“You’re either a psycho little shit, or you aren’t a little shit at all.”

“Motoko Kusanagi, Mercenary… Ah, well I guess technically I’m an Afterlife merc.” That didn’t get a visual reaction, but Denny was thinking, and thinking hard.

“Was listening to you play. Weird shit. Then I saw you putting the track together. Finish it. I want to hear. If it’s shit, I’m not taking calling security on your gonk ass off the table.” She demanded and then to my surprise she walked out of the room, and then I watched as she put on the headset and started messing with some settings. I was still plugged in so I saw what she was doing. A few adjustments, that… Yeah that probably would sound better, on the track.

I nodded and then restarted the Sax track. Adding it into the piece.

—--

“Okay, three, two, one, let’s jam.” I spoke into the mic, making my voice as husky as I could, I checked the vocals and nodded. Sounded good. Different from the original but good.

I was finished. I took a moment to play the completed song, letting the sound of Tank flow through my agent into my ears.

It sounded good, not perfect. It lost something with only one instrument for the brass section, even repeated over and over, but it was tank. Unmistakably so.

*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*

*Rockerboy skill level up!*

Slowly I let out a breath as I checked my system. I did it! Another level! Level 9. There wasn’t much left of Rockerboy for me to learn. I let the information flow into me. More and more on how to play to bring the best sound out. How to maximize my charisma on the stage. I shook it off.

I looked up. Denny had been listening to it as well. She had done some work on the song as I worked, adjusting a few things to make the different repeats of the brace sound slightly different, understanding what I had intended.

I slipped my personal link from the connection port in the room and then walked out. Denny was still listening, a head set slid into her afro. Then finally the song ended and she took it off her head.

“You got some real soul kid.” She offered and I just shrugged. Hard to explain that jazz wasn’t my usual preference, but everyone loved Tank.

“Sorry again, about the whole taking your space thing.”

“Clean it up.” She demanded suddenly. “Put everything away, clean it up, and maybe I’ll forgive you.”

“Sure.” I answered back without really minding. I had pulled the instruments, of course I should put them back.

“Afterlife merc huh? You play with Violent Hemorrhage?”

“Oh, no. Alice, the lead singer, is our neighbor. She likes my brother. Jun wants to get me out of merc work, so he tries to drag me into Rockerboy stuff. It’s my hobby. Playing music.” I shrugged.

“Right.” She offered, obviously not that interested in my life. “Well damn. I was expecting this to be another shitty teenager thing but this isn’t bad. It sounds old. Sort of jazz I’d have heard a century ago.”

“Yeah well… I just had it stuck in my head.”

“Had to get it out?” She asked back and I nodded.

“More like I had a chance to get it out, I only have a guitar and some equipment, hard to do brass with that.”

“Yeah electronic brass never sounds right. Especially for Jazz.” She agreed, but her foot was tapping and she was looking distracted. “Alright. Clean up, and don’t let me catch you in here again. You want to use the equipment? Then sign up.”

“Right. Sure.” I answered but it looked like she wasn’t completely ready for the conversation to end. Her finger tapped on the equipment as she watched me.

“What’s that song called?”

“Tank.” I answered back instantly without really thinking.

Then I hurried to clean everything up. Hurrying back in and packing up a few instruments, and walking out, past Denny who was fiddling with the equipment, ignoring me as I entered the white hallway, which wasn’t empty.

“Hey Jun.” I said as I walked behind him to the instrument room.

“Motoko! There you are! Where’ve you been?”

“Mostly getting in trouble!” I called back and entered the equipment room and settled the cases into place before hurrying back.

“Motoko, what did you do?”

“Broke into a room that belonged to the owner. She wasn’t happy, but she let me finish the song I was making.” I said as I hurried past, but he followed, and so Alice did as well.

I entered, and Denny was now inside the booth, tapping away at the drums.

Weird. I looked at the track and realized she was playing to Tank!

I jerked and hurried inside, not really caring about the sound proofing.

Inside Denny was in the groove. Slamming the drum beats, while my rendition of Tank played through the speakers above.

“What is that?” Alice asked, having come up behind Jun to see what was going on, but I just ignored her.

Denny was jamming out…

Fuck it.

I walked over to the Sax that was still out, and threw it on, and plugged into the system. Pausing the sax track so that when it came up.

I just played it myself.

Denny wasn’t playing the exact track instead jamming out, and I did the same. Entwining the sounds with her drums. We jammed out, ignoring anything else for a few minutes until the song ended.

“Not bad kid.” Denny agreed and then looked over Jun and Alice with a frown.

Jun only had eyes for me, smiling proudly, but Alice was looking at Denny in awe.

“Denny.” She uttered in shock at seeing the woman step away from her drum set.

“Random gonks that all wandered into my private space. Jeeze what kind of night is this where every street kid has the chromed out balls to just move about as they please?” The woman scoffed out looking at me. “How much?”

“Hmm?” I asked as I was breaking down the sax, pulling out the mouthpiece, and the reed.

“For the song kid. How much?”

I stilled because that was a random and very uncomfortable question.

“What?”

“Wait, that song? Is that something you wrote Motoko?” Jun interrupted, definitely not knowing who he was in the same room as. Jun didn’t like Samurai to start with.

“Yeah, I uh. Snuck in here and started it, but this is Denny’s private booth. Which makes sense in hindsight, being the only room without a reservation…” Really smart there Motoko.

“Yeah yeah, explain after. How much for the rights to the song. I like it. Not really modern, but because it isn’t I think that’s why I want it.”

I opened my mouth to give some blaze answer. How was I supposed to know how much a song could be worth? But then in my head, an image of Hiromi popped up. Black chrome gleaming as she frowned at me.

“Don’t make any decisions about money Motoko! You are terrible with money! Let me do it instead!”

Right. Mind Hiromi was probably right…

“I’ll have to ask my manager?” I questioned, not at all convincingly.

“You have a manager?” Denny asked, emphasizing her disbelief.

“I have a manager… Probably.” I answered back, only muttering the last part.

She snorted and flicked me a number. “Have your manager call my firm. Mention the song name, and they won’t just hang up on you. Now really… Clean up and get out of my booth!” Denny demanded and everyone except Jun jumped. He just looked like Christmas came early.

“Right, let’s go… Don’t want to ruin your vibe or anything.” Alice spoke, trying to sound casual, but it was obvious she was a bit star struck. “Come on Jun, we don’t want to bother Denny!” She demanded but could barely tear her eyes away from the woman to grab Jun’s arm to pull at him.

Jun didn’t budge an inch instead looking at me.

We did the sibling communication thing, I just threw him a small smile.

“I’ll finish cleaning up.” I offered and Denny nodded as if that was obvious.

Jun nodded and let Alice pull him out, and I got to work, packing up the instruments and moving them back. Denny didn’t stick around, instead leaving back out the door.

Ten minutes later everything was put away, I wandered over to find Jun. The moment I opened the recording room Alice was on me.

“What the hell was that? You know Denny?”

“We just met tonight.” I answered, and frowned as she was tugging on my jacket.

“What the fuck! Denny talked to you! Wanted to buy your song? What song!?”

“Tank.”

“What the fuck.” She exhaled and shook herself. “I want to hear that song again. Pop it in.” She demanded pointing at the recording booth.

I didn’t move.

I kinda, sorta, maybe a little liked Alice. She was doing the musician thing, and while she was bitchy she had the charisma it came off more amusing than anything.

But I didn’t just play music on command, and certainly not when ordered.

“Motoko?” Jun interrupted as the moment between Alice and I stretched and she realized I wasn’t going to do what she wanted.

“Jun?”

“Can we hear your new song? I only heard a bit there.”

I scoffed at Jun’s obvious attempt to settle things, but I also couldn’t just deny Jun like that.

I pulled a shard out of my neck and stuck it into the recording booth system, and set it to play. The speakers in the booth came alive. Instantly with the sound of horns, and then a thrumming chello.

Alice jerked at the instant noise and then settled in to listen. Looking to me at the vocals, but then just listening foot tapping at the beat.

“That’s certainly different.” She said finally as the song ended, but Jun just threw an arm over my shoulder in a side hug.

“Awesome job Motoko.”

“It’s nothing.” I mumbled, a little embarrassed that everyone had heard it. I hadn’t wanted anyone to hear it! I shook it off. “I’m going to head home Jun.”

“Hmm. I guess it is getting late. Let’s go home.” He agreed, and I could see Alice twitch at his words, but he then did something that surprised me. He turned to Alice and threw her a smile. “Thanks Alice, this was interesting.”

“Ah… Yeah sure! Anytime!” She agreed, and Jun and I headed out.

What a weird night.


A/N Hi! It's been a while since I really chatted with you guys. If you follow me on Spacebattles, you might know that I've been fiddling with a snippet of a Vampire the Masquerade SI. It's been fun, something to help me relax for sure. I might move it over here at some point if you don't want to go back to SB. I know some of you don't.


But the relaxing is needed because I've been a little writers blocky with GitC. I haven't managed to really get much done in the last two or more weeks. It just isn't flowing. So, I know I just had a break over Christmas, but I'm going to go on a week break. Hopefully during this time, I'll be back on the GitC train. I plan on playing some 2077 to help get me back into the swing of things. Until then. I did just write a whole bunch for that Vampire story if you have any interest, you can read it Here.


https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/serass-dumpster-of-random-snippets.1143040/


Sorry to drop this all on you. It's been rough for me, but at this point I'm basically at a very shortened Backlog and I really need the backlog to properly write things out. That means, expect chapters again probably the 20th? Let's say the 20th. Thank you all for your support, and I'm sorry to do this.

 

[Guardian Box]

"Get everybody and the stuff together… Okay, Three, two, one, Let's jam."

Been a while since I've been saxually assaulted by this song :V

Sorry to drop this all on you. It's been rough for me, but at this point I'm basically at a very shortened Backlog and I really need the backlog to properly write things out. That means, expect chapters again probably the 20th? Let's say the 20th. Thank you all for your support, and I'm sorry to do this.

It's fine, stuff happens, no need to apologize.

 

[Bigking321]

Thank you all for your support, and I'm sorry to do this.

Nonsense. You write excellent stuff and we get to read it for free. You don't owe us anything.

Thank you very much for the story. Take as long of a break as you need or want.

 

[PeaceMaker 03]

Seras….. Thanks for all the great writing at this point, I have read everything I could find of your work. I would guess you have put out more work than most pro writers. Cough cough ( R R Martin) and keep doing it.

Thanks for all of it, take all the time you need.

 

[LordSunhawk]

No need to apologize, and I am loving this story!

 

[Martenzo]

Seems you forgot to Threadmark the latest chapter @Seras

 

[Seras]

Seems you forgot to Threadmark the latest chapter @Seras

Good spot. Not sure how that happened.

 

[Seras]

I woke up and slowly stretched out. I had decided to sleep after we got home last night, and now I was ready to start the day.

More importantly, I was ready to test out my new chrome!

Viks time limit was over.

I stood up and felt for the mental toggle for the Sandy.

I flipped it on, and winced as I felt my body react.

Nerves lit up on fire, adrenaline spiked. Biological, and mechanical responses activated and suddenly everything was slow.

I moved, running towards my bedroom wall, but it felt like I was moving through molasses.

Yet, I was still moving fast. Even faster than I could have before my movement felt slow, and I knew that this Sandy wasn’t as good at letting me cut through the sense of slowed down time.

I nearly reached the wall and made to stop, only for my feet to slide a bit on the floor.

I blinked stars out of my eyes.

“What the hell was that!?” Jun demanded as he burst into my room.

Had I? I blinked again. Yep. I had slammed into the wall so hard I knocked myself silly.

“I’m okay!” I called out arm up in the air from where I was laying on my back.

“You don’t look okay. Your nose is bleeding. Motoko, what the hell?”

“I uh, miscalculated my Sandy.” I mentioned, and instantly Jun’s worry vanished.

“Gonk! Don’t practice new chrome in the house! Look at the wall!”

I didn’t want to look at the wall, thank you Jun. If I can’t see the hole in the wall where my head smashed into it, it doesn’t exist!

Jun looked down on me for a moment longer before sighing, and disappearing. I slowly rose up, and noticed my nose was bleeding. Groaning in annoyance, I was gonna go find something to clean it up but Jun walked in with a towel and a moment later he was gently holding my head and pressing the towel against my nose.

“Ow.”

“I know it hurts, you might have broken your nose.”

“I don’t think so.” I muttered, it didn’t hurt like I broke it.

“Well that’s good.” He said and then glared at me. “This was dumb.”

“Sorry.”

He nodded at my apology, and that was that.

—--

I huffed a Maxdox after Jun stopped fussing and I was fully healed. But I had learned my lesson.

Sandy are difficult to use.

I considered dropping my one stat point into it, but my neck was also still super stiff, and I was tempted to drop a point into that for comfort.

So instead I didn’t do either. I got dressed for the day and left the apartment before Jun could notice my sudden healing.

I walked the streets for a bit. Heading down towards Jig Jig street. While I walked. I did some testing.

I activated the Sandy and just tried walking. I could feel the hitch in my step as everything grew slow and my steps had to be forced to keep pumping through the thick air.

I turned it off, and the feeling left my heart beating and a warmth in my neck.

I walked on. Just cataloging the feelings the Sandy left in its wake. I shivered a bit as the heat from its activation didn’t really go away. A hand pressed onto the chrome on the back of my neck, right where the chip for the Sandy was, gave me a rather uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.

There was no heat in the chrome left. The heat I was feeling was my nerves. Probably inflamed from the forced acceleration the Sandy caused. Needing to find out how long the effect lasted, I finished my walk to the Sakura Market, and ordered breakfast slurping down some nice Ramen.

Unfortunately I didn’t really feel any better after my meal. My neck still felt hot and it was making me a little nervous. Yet before I went running to Viks to get checked out, I decided to pop another MaxDoc.

Instantly a sense of coolness ran down my spine and I stretched and adjusted myself. Throwing the used inhaler into a nearby trash can, I headed back home and once more cataloged the feeling.

I felt okay. No further heat or pain. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to look into this issue.

*Motoko: Hey Vik, not an emergency, but I activated my Sandy for the first time. Want to come in for a checkup.*

*Viktor Vector: If something is wrong come in kid, I’m at my office now. It’s a slow morning.*

*Motoko: Yeah, okay. I’m on my way over. I’m okay though, I just want a check up.*

And with that I had the first stop today.

—--

“And you said a Maxdoc removed the feeling?”

“Yeah. I thought the Sandy was just overheating at first, but after a few minutes the feeling didn’t go away and the Sandy cooled off.”

“Not unusual. Probably just put a lot of unusual stress on your nervous system.” He mumbled out as he set me up for a scan. A few minutes of him just mumbling to himself he came back to himself. “Everything looks good.” He determined looking to me.

“That’s a relief.” I exhaled shoulders slumping.

“Well it looks fine now, so your healing obviously helped, but I would like to get a scan of you while you activate that Sandy of yours.” He said, and I threw him a thumbs up.

“Sure, just tell me when.”

“Go for it.” He answered instantly, turning to look at a screen, and I activated the Sandy.

Instantly everything slowed down. I blinked my eyelids felt heavy and slow at the motion.

I could basically ‘feel’ the cooldown on the Sandy tick down. A sense of energy or time limit built into the chrome that fed information to me through the Neural Link.

Then it deactivated and I gasped as I realized my heart was beating fast from the adrenaline surge,

“Alright, do you feel the heat again?” Vik asked, and I focused on my neck and nodded.

“A little? Maybe? I think I didn’t really notice it until I used it twice.”

“Alright, let’s do that then. Go ahead whenever it’s ready, kid.”

I nodded, feeling the Sandy’s cooldown finish its long cool down cycle and then I activated it again.

The experience was truly unique. Each time I activated the Sandy, I noticed something new. How air felt a little heavier making it harder to breathe. But it was actually just my sense of touch and my sense of time conflicting.

The Sandy turned off, and I was more ready for the feeling of the adrenaline surge ending as I calmed myself and just let my adrenaline fade away.

“I would bet you are feeling that now.” Vik muttered as I shivered, my neck hot.

“Yeah.”

“Well good news and bad news. Good news, this is pretty normal. It’s nerve strain, pretty common with reflex boosters. As long as you give yourself time to recover you’ll be fine. Bad news? It’s not likely to go away. It’s just how your body responds to the chrome.”

“When I used a MaxDoc, I was fine after, does that mean I can keep doing that?” I asked, normally I wouldn’t want to abuse my body's limitations, but only being able to use a Sandy twice sounded pretty useless.

“Honestly? I don’t know kid. I wouldn’t recommend it. Better to not risk it, but your healing is so unique, and filled with unknowns to start with. Be careful.”

“I will. Thanks Vik. I appreciate the check up.”

“Honestly, it’s a nice change of pace, having a customer come in before the problem spiraled out of control.” He joked, but there was a twinge of seriousness in this comment.

“Well I have the best ripper in Night City checking my chrome. Seems silly not to ask him for help.”

Vik to my delight did a little scoff at my words, but his ears got a little red. I thought about teasing him, but no. I didn’t want to embarrass him.

Thanking him once again I headed out.

I had a lunch date after all!

—--

“What!? Oh my god, Motoko! Eeee!” Hiromi rambled and squealed in happiness while we sat across from Arasaka tower in the City Center park. I had asked Hiromi if we could meet during her lunch. So we were enjoying a meal I had brought with.

“It was kinda awkward more than anything. But Denny liked Tank… I don’t know if I want to sell it though? I mean, Tank is… I don’t know, special I guess. So can you help? Act as my manager or somet-”

“Yes! I am your manager now.” She demanded poking my chest with a finger. “No music deals of any kind without going through me! I know how you are with deals!” She ordered and I just laughed at her, because she was so serious about it.

“Okay okay. You win. I’m a bit of a gonk with eddies, I know.”

“Good. Then I’ll reach out after class, I’ll need to do some research as well!” She said before turning to her food and stuffing some noodles into her mouth with the energy of someone in a rush.

I felt a little uncomfortable though. Hiromi already did a lot of work for me. Acting as a Fixer for Section 9, even doing all the selling and buying for Section 9.

And all of that on top of going to school. Taking classes, homework and schoolwork.

I reached out and pulled Hiromi into a hug. Ignoring her surprised noise as I pulled her in while making sure she wasn’t going to drop her food. “Hiromi. Just don’t overwork yourself okay? Definitely not for me, and not for something this silly. I’ve been throwing a lot on your plate and I just want to make sure you don’t get too stressed okay?”

“Wha-t-this is nothing! I can do all of this and more! You can rely on me!” She stuttered before nearly jumping to her feet in her eagerness to assure me, but I wasn’t happy to hear that. I frowned at her, and then reached out before she could get away, chrome palms trapping her cheeks so she had to look into my eyes.

“Don’t overwork yourself.” I demanded and she nodded slowly looking almost embarrassed at my firm tone.

At least she understood now. I would be really mad if she made herself sick or something over this!

“Okay. The music thing can wait, it’s not really important.” I said flippantly, but Hiromi whined in her throat.

“I’ll deal with it tonight! Do you have any idea what that number means?” She asked and I shook my head and she sighed. “It means that I now have a contact in the music industry. When I call, the manager will try to trip me up, I’ll haggle, and we’ll end up with lots of eddies, and a new name. A contact I can reach out to speak to for any information in the music industry. Contacts are better than eddies Motoko!”

“Well just… Don’t work on it too hard.” I said, not really understanding how a business deal would turn into contacts in the future. But that was Hiromi’s thing so I would take her word on it. “I mean… It’s a lot of work for nothing.”

“Nothing?” And then Hiromi surprised me, by instantly pushing into my personal space, her face reddened but she did it anyways poking me in the cheek with her face really close. “I’m taking twenty percent off the top.” She said almost sinisterly and then settled back onto the bench with a cackle.

Hiromi around eddies was scary!

—--

With the music issue passed off to Hiromi, and my chrome settled and functional, I made a call.

*Kitten! What’s my little Kohai calling about?” Sasha said cheerfully, although it did sound a little forced.

*Well you asked me to netrun with you last time. Just got my final checkup from my ripper, if you still want some company?*

*Yeeees! It’s so boring! The only thing I’m allowed to do is Netdive or watch TV! Okay! You come over and use the bath?*

*I’d much rather just head to my place, and we can meet on the net? My chair is way more comfortable.*

*Pfft. That’s right you are so prissy about it! It’s kinda cute! Very moe-moe point! Okay fine you can have your senpai stuck with crappy ice baths while you get your fancy equipment, it won’t matter. I’ll show you what a real netrunner is like, chu!*

Did she just kiss noise at me?

*Right?*

*Hehe! Okay where should we meet? Should I give you my lobby code? Did I clean it up! What if I left dirty laundry laying around!* She fake gasped at that, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

*How about we meet at the Roundabout? Yoko is a choom of mine.*

*Ugh. The foxs den? Paaaass. Here I know a fun net club. I’ll send you the IP. Meet me at the bar yeah?*

*Sure.*

*Preeem! Now I gotta go get dressed up for our date! Bye!*

*Wha- It’s not a d-* The call ended.

“That cat is going to be trouble.” I whispered to myself, suddenly feeling like I had just invited a stray cat into my home.

—--

Plugged in, I dived into the net and landed in the casual atmosphere of my lobby, stretching my body. I took a moment to feel the slight differences that new chrome brought with.

Sure, my cyberdeck was the same, but a new neural link did make a difference.

My old one was a civilian model, something kids would get. My new one wasn’t state of the art, but it was vastly improved.

But now wasn’t the time to enjoy the slight difference in latency I could feel. I stepped out of my lobby and into a search engine and then I was across the city in a blaze, connection after connection, until I appeared in a blink on a busy digital street.

The server was somewhere in Charter Hill, and there was a ton of traffic through the streets. Mostly business traffic, large massive data streams that were more like trains to my senses than a normal user's connection demanded priority in the air above.

But I wasn’t going up there. No, the IP that Sasha had given me tugged my attention down. I was at the top of a set of stairs that led down into darkness.

The IP matched, so I took a step, and then another. Deeper into the darkness. I came out upside down which was an irritating fact, stepping ‘up’ out of what had been down a moment before until I was level, and then I stepped off the last step that ended in empty air.

I felt the world flip around, and I was right side up, landing on digital concrete. I was in an alley now. Faux trash cans, and dumpsters lined the sides, with fire escapes leading to nothing looming overhead. But it was a single difference that caught my eye. A warm yellow light, like from a lightbulb streaked across the alley from a small round window in a door, indented into the side of the alley.

I walked over and even as I approached I could hear laughter, and noises like you would expect before walking into a bar.

Someone went to a lot of work to get that track right. Digital as it was. I opened the door, and the noise changed, soft strobing electronic music, and another set of stairs.

This server Sasha invited me to was seriously deep in the net. Down again, this time into a warm burgundy carpeted entrance.

“Welcome to Elysium.” A woman greeted me, sitting behind the counter. Her eyes hidden behind a magazine. Like an actual paper magazine. A glance closer showed it was just a file she was reading, made to look like that, but it was still weird.

“Thanks. I’m here to-”

“Ah-ah-ah.” She interrupted. “That’s none of my bizz. Go on in. No trouble, or I introduce you to Elysiums darkest Black ICE. All the other rules should be self evident if you found the server.”

I nodded in exchange and walked through the door, instantly I was blasted by heavy music, the entire server set up so the music felt like it was right there.

It was actually kind of overbearing, but I powered through it and looked around. The club actually looked less techno than what I would expect from a runners club. Instead everything was more old school. Hard wood and warm colors. The lights actually looked like lightbulbs giving the place a warm glow.

But it was obviously fake. The facade peeled and cracked in the dark corners. As data shone through.

The server was old. That was what I came to realize as I looked around. Unlike Yoko’s club, this was the sort of place that had been around for a long time.

But I shook that off and headed for the bar. I frowned when I realized there was no Sasha. Had I beat her here? I shrugged it off and took a chair. A bartender behind the counter wasn’t actually a person, just a daemon watching over everything.

It would definitely agro the moment someone caused trouble.

I hadn’t managed to sit down for more than a few moments before a back door of the bar opened and out came a giggly Sasha.

“Yay!” She cheered happily bouncing around. Her appearance and cheer caused a few of the netrunners sitting in booths around the bar to groan and feign outrage at her.

“Kohai!” She cheered, noticing me and bouncing over.

Instantly I realized the difference between Sasha in real life, and Sasha on the net.

She was happy here. Or at least faking it way better.

“Sa-”

“Nenene!” She demanded a finger hovering over my lips, not that her finger would have reached me anyways. “I’m Mysterious Neko-Nyan!<3 on the net.” She demanded with a wink.

“Shut up Sasha you gonk!” A man called out from across the room and Sasha instantly zipped away to glare at the man.

“Don’t do that, you rusty pipe!” She hissed very much like a cat but he just laughed at her.

“Okay Neko. Wh-”

“Neko-Nyan<3!” She demanded and I glared. The fact she had added a fucking emote into her speech and my brain actually processed it as such was toxic.

“No.” I said and she huffed a sigh, before looking pleased as punch and reaching out to fake poke at me.

“Fine Kitten, we-”

“Ghost. On the net I’m Ghost.” I poked back right on her nose.

“Eeee, Cringe! You and like fifty others! Whiskers is better!” She denied and I huffed at her.

“It’s what I called myself before, and it’s what I’m using. Ghost is cool…” I said ignoring the look of disgust she was giving me. “But if I have to, It’s Ghost in the Shell.” I answered. Adding a bit more onto it so I wasn’t just all the other ‘Ghosts’ on the net.

“Hmmm… Less Cringe, but not very cute. Very 4/10. Not very Nova-Preem of you.”

I visibly cringed in response, what else could I do. She had said that like some old out of touch lady trying to be cool.

“Hehehe!” She giggled at my obvious disgust.

“Why are you like this?”
“Cause it’s fun, Duh!” She chirped, before looking more serious. “Okay so! Elysium isn’t just a hangout, it’s a gambling den! We are here to make Sasha some eddies! And you! Don’t worry Senpai won’t cheat you!”

“I don’t gamble.”

“Psh. Don’t worry, it's not gambling when we will definitely win!”

“Said every gambling addict ever.” I mumbled a little annoyed. What was up with this? Sasha hadn’t mentioned gambling.

“You are such a cute little kid! Don’t worry so much! You don’t have to do anything! I just need a second body so I can go into doubles. Single battles aren’t making me as much anymore, but you are fresh! Odds should be preem.”

I just looked at her for a minute before feeling like I wanted to rub my nose. “Sasha what is even going on. What double battles?”

“Oooh, you are so new! Like a shiny fresh Daemon just created and naive to the ways of the netrunner! Elysium is the number one Netrunner combat zone in NC.”

 

[Carrot of Truth]

Not sure if you're aware but Sasha does have an older sister that you meet in Phantom Liberty.

 

[Seras]

Not sure if you're aware but Sasha does have an older sister that you meet in Phantom Liberty.

Yep! I'm aware. I kinda want her to show up randomly at some point, to Motoko's complete surprise.

 

[Carrot of Truth]

Yep! I'm aware. I kinda want her to show up randomly at some point, to Motoko's complete surprise.

She's also a cop too so the relationship between them is probably awkward.

 

[xachariahxx]

“Don’t overwork yourself.” I demanded and she nodded slowly looking almost embarrassed at my firm tone.

"Anyways if you need me, I'll be spending 120 hours this week Netrunning, Crafting Gear, Going to the Gym, Shooting at the Range, Recording New Songs, and Killing Scavs. Seriously, don't overwork yourself counting the huge piles of eddies I'm making you."

 

[LordSunhawk]

Huzzah! I'm so glad to see this update!

Motoko, Motoko, Motoko... the 'do as I say not as I do' clueless protag, I love it!

Why am I suddenly imagining her challenging some musclebound gonk avatar to a dance off, Guardians of the Galaxy style?