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wentik0 · 2 years ago

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Interwoven within the grit of Night City, neon lights and holographic peddlers hawk their presence like old haunts; a koi fish spanning the size of a 12 foot monument flickers between megabuildings, each pixel coloured a vibrant shade mimicking the real thing…. Once, maybe - it was a rarity to see one in the flesh. They still can appreciate the view from underneath with their head craned upwards, lost in the detail of the holographic, they’ve seated themselves on a wooden bench just outside of Jig-Jig street. It’s wednesday, the weather is gloomy and only 15% of it is marked as acid, so says the newscasters —– Newscasters talk of new optics just released from Kiroshi with the ability to scan at half the rate of its old model.

You wouldn’t find moments of zen within Night City, not if you are one of the Buddhists; all organic, all self-righteous in their organic composition. Your optics ding at a nearby mark, and all slotted biochips whir synapses awake and alert; you’re no longer admiring the view, you’re waiting in plain sight.

Night City denizens are a cut above from the rest, especially when they’ve made this city of innovation its home; no stranger was just a stranger, no one stopped to say hi, how are you?

[ ❛ that price on my head , was that dead or alive ? ❜ ]

Angle in on Winnie, all pretense cut chrome and mean; she smiles in kind. It doesn’t reach her eyes; one forensic blue optic gleams neon for a milli-second and surveys the risk, and the prey.

❛ This is beyond your value –– ❜ She admonishes, head tilts in question and she remains unfazed; prefers it actually, the cut to the chase.

❛ Or the NUSA would have never sent me. ❜ Finally, they turn to @cyberpawn with a neutral regard; as though they were casually meeting for a bite at the local dive. You’ve been through this too many times to count and you’ve lost all taste for the explanation of your presence and the titles you bear, the weight of who you were lies in mythologized grandeur. They smile again, and it’s all teeth.

❛ I am not the enemy. ❜ Records indicate that you are, just search their name in the scream sheets.

❛ But you, Vale, have every reason to be if you don’t live up to the standard the NUSA expects from you. ❜ The preamble drones from them by rote and they’ve not moved an inch from where they stood. If the other didn’t scan them for any outside interference, they may as well have been a doll; a mouthpiece for someone bigger. ( * you’ve been granted certain luxuries only the top dogs can gnaw from, the freedom to act however you will so long as you acted within the constraints of the contract. Nothing was sacred to them, but finishing the job? Maybe that was. )

❛ In just one year, you’ve dismantled a megacorp from inside out in ways the NUSA suspect didn’t go unaided without … help. ❜

You’ve read the reports, you’ve been given the debrief and that part right there gave you the most pause; Rogue AI’s have been nothing new to Night City, even at the growing rate of Black Wall breaches. Arasaka has always been an a corp of innovation, especially in the pursuit of immortality, in cheating death. The life cycle of Megacorps mattered little to the NUSA when they had the rest of the world to attend to.

EXCEPT VALE REEKED OF IT. ( * Death? Immortality? )

❛ The price the NUSA offers is your life, for the good of humanity, at the cost of understanding the biochip slotted in your neural port. Even now ... it’s degrading into your prefrontal cortex, ❜ Eyes narrow, and she taps a Cyberfinger at her own neural port on the crook of her neck to signify she understood more than most and all she had to do was look at him. The space between them closes; a breach into the neural networks offered her a more clearer view than most others. The way their heart beats per minute, the way which neural input was activated, and which was not. Vale made for an interesting case, especially when their brain activity blared red off the charts.

❛ We can give you your life back, Vale. ❜

#cyberpawn #* ᓂᔪ. ›› asks‚#I DIDN'T MEAN FOR THIS TO GET LENGTHY #ndfhjbndjkbndg #Flexing the new muse; tysm sam for sending in the ask <3 #long post /

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