#and Delamain with his annoying question where to take him

[imaginarycyberpunk2023]

Look what I found! It's young Vinnie with his best bud Jackie. Losing Jackie made Vinnie weary of ever getting close to another merc. He just could not deal with another loss like this.

[vicsy]

corpo rat Max whose family has been loyal to Arasaka for many generations gets caught in the crossfire of corporate greed and the general awful nature of their being, kicked to the streets of Night City and stripped of his military implants. ending up with mercs half of which want to off him for corpo ties and the other half wanting to do something worse. scraping by to upgrade his chrome, running low-risk, low-payout gigs with his best choom (like Jackie in the canon) and finally striking gold by signing up to do the most batshit insane mission to steal from Arasaka, the same fucking company who cut him off. a very sick act of retribution.

no longer a real corpo rat Max, ending up in a gig gone south, with his best friend's blood on his hands and his lifeless body in a fucking Delamaine and with a weird ass biochip Arasaka cooked up inside the port in his head. Max, a Night City merc but still so fucking naive, getting double-crossed by the fucker who hired him to steal the Relic in the first place, fighting and getting his brains blown out and then waking up in the middle of a landfill and he should be dead, dead and fucking gone, another life swallowed up by this rotten city and still.

Max, getting put back together by a ripperdoc (GP for that matter) and learning that his days are numbered even if the biochip saved his life; now it's rewiring his whole body like a parasite until he'll be no more. Max, on a countdown to death, his best friend gone and the taste of failure and loss mixed with the meds, and it's still ain't the worst fucking thing.

sur-fucking-prise, it's not a hallucination cause Max is sharing a brain with an engram of Daniel Ricciardo – a terrorist-rocker boy who died in 2023 by blowing up Arasaka tower, what the actual fuck. it gets worse when Daniel, in his head!!!! learns that Max is an ex-corpo and man. fuck. he wants to take over Max's body cause it'll be essentially his pretty fucking soon but Max ain't going down without a fight. with a bang, not with a whimper, yeah?

coughing up blood and head-splitting headaches, that's what Daniel is inadvertently doing to him; Max goes out on a joyride to get to the bottom of the Relic and save his life and kick Daniel out of his fucking conscience. and he's fucking horrible, vile, annoying as fuck, commenting on every Max's move. he's not even fucking real, can't do shit and Max wants him gone gone gone

sure fucking thing the biochip - Soulkiller - is a complicated motherfucking thing and nobody seems to have an answer. Max keeps asking questions, forges alliance and legitimately tortures corpo schmucks, and somehow Daniel starts to speak more about his life, less about the way Max is lacking as a merc. in Max's vision, real life blurred with an engram only he can see, Daniel is perpetually clad in a leather jacket and jeans, wearing aviators, looking very outdated to 2077 standards.

but Night City still lives, bright with neon and ads and noises and this city kills everyone with a dream and Max drives to the Badlands, to the Northside, to the middle of fucking nowhere, takes down armies in his way, his body shutting down as minutes tick by while Daniel preaches on about the way rebels aren't the shit anymore, not like back in his days. and Max listens and argues and says all of his of course shit and starts smoking because Daniel did when he was alive and it means time is running short.

it changes, gradually, and Max fails to notice at first, bleeding on the floor of some abandoned hotel in Pacifica where Daniel dragged his body in order to save him, having taken control of his consciousness while Max got knocked out by another relic malfunction. and it changes because through every second the chip was in Max's head, slowly erasing his existence, he and Daniel merged and blended and Daniel said, then, in that same nameless hotel in Pacifica, it'll be my life for yours.

and it goes from a parasite in Max's head, a terrorist who is actively killing him to steal his body, to a tentative truce and letting Daniel freely take control at a time, to telling him off face to face as they stand near the unmarked place in the oil fields where Arasaka dumped his body when they extracted his consciousness and packed it neatly into a biochip currently residing in Max's head; it goes from insults to earnest comments, from not caring in what ditch Max ends up dying to the edge of panic in Daniel's voice when Max passes out and doesn't get better.

it goes from fighting for control of a single body to existing in almost complete tune, not knowing where Max begins and Daniel ends, building of trust on a shaky foundation of Daniel's traumatized, terroristic tendencies and Max's dwindling luck; and it escalates until there's Daniel's gun in his hand and the replica of his jacket around Max's shoulders and bullets fly and there are screams of excitement in Max's ear and Daniel flipping off Arasaka and Militech out of the corner of his eye. bang bang, another stack of corpos dead.

but, fucking hell, Max is dying, dying, and it's Daniel who is killing him but pushes Max forward, makes promises and asks him to get a guitar. Max never played in his life, too much of a corpo rat but Daniel's skills flare up at the back of his mind and he's reliving Daniel's glory days with his band and drugs and the day of the bombing and--

and it never stops because in Night City life never does, never, not until someone makes it stop by putting lead in your brain but Max dodged that one already. he's so tired of it all, there's no bite left in him and that's when Daniel takes off his aviators and says, fucking ICONIC shit, opens his true emotions for the first time since they started to share a life.

and Max's heart almost stops a hundredth time cause all he hears first is sometimes when i wake up, it feels like i'm back for a while and it's the scariest shit, it means he's betraying Max, but Daniel follows with seconds later, feels like i'm missing something - something really important. and that's fucking IT for Max, spending most of his life being told his importance is minuscule in the reign of Arasaka's terror, finding meaning in the words of an insane man who caused a fucking crisis. but THEN Daniel finishes with i realize you’re there, always were, and this stupid wave of relief washes over me.

and. fuck.

Max keeps brushing off bruises and relic malfunctions send him into seizures with alarming frequency, unrelenting, and he says he's fine, fake it till you make it; I'm fine, Daniel, let's do the concert, it's important to you, but Daniel parries with not more important than you. and Max is a stubborn motherfucker, he's FINE but Daniel is written in his DNA now and he admits he doesn't want to fuck it up with Max. whatever messed up second chance this is.

it's so fucking unfair cause Max can't possibly go on anymore, his jig is up, and he still pushes, persists, seeking purpose as if Arasaka hadn't chewed him up and spit him out into the streets to die. and Daniel utters to him once, wary – I can still feel something sharp near your heart. and the clarity of it is fucking terrifying.

I don’t think that’s going anywhere anytime soon, Max answers instead of any possible confession he could have mustered, peels himself off the floor, reloads his guns and swallows the taste of blood on his tongue.

in turn, Daniel says, again and again, his presence blanketing Max's wounded psyche with a layer of comfort he'd never known – then we have a city to burn.

been thinking about maxiel cyberpunk 2077 au for quite some time

[nereol]

Cyberpunk 2077 Prompt Event (10/30)

As usual you can read this on AO3.

Daily Prompt: April 10 - sitch - Only one bed

Technical Prompt: 8. Reversed madlibs: four adjectives: perpendicular, radiant, discombobulated, preposterous; three nouns: cat, spaghetti, momento; two verbs: thrust, capitulate; one adverb: petulantly

2K+ words RipperMerc fluff and pining

It's the first time, after Jackie's ofrenda, that they wanted to meet as a group. Well, that already doesn't work out as planned, because Misty canceled. 'At least Vince will be there, too... it's not like I'm alone with her...' Viktor leaves the elevator. He had never been at Val's apartment before. They had met mostly at El Coyote Cojo, sometimes just in the back of his clinic, at different diners....

He knocks on her door, the bag of food in his other hand. He can hear music playing quietly. "¡Espera un momento!" Val's muffled voice from the other side. Viktor can't help but grin. He leans one shoulder against the doorframe and waits. The door opens, Val stands in front of him with a grin. She has no makeup on, looks different to her usual dark purple lipstick. With one hand she pulls down her tank top as if she had just put it on. Her grin is - as always - catching and Viktor smiles down at her. "V, I don't speak Spanish." "Me neither." She chuckles and shrugs. "I understand much more than I speak."

Viktor holds up the bag with the take away. "Spaghetti?" Val's eyes grow wide and with a small joyful squeak, she takes Viktor's other hand in both of her smaller ones and pulls him into her apartment. Viktor laughs. "Hungry, huh?" Val lets go of him and pushes the button to close the door. "Pasta is always good!" She says firmly.

"Misty sends her apologies." Viktor looks around her apartment. "She has a migraine." "Oh, poor thing, I'll write to her right away." Val walks to the couch and picks up her agent from the coffee table. As she leans over, her purple braids, which she has not tied into a bun as she does when she works, fall forward over her shoulders. "Why are ya still standin' around?" She looks up at Viktor. "Get comfy."

Viktor flinches for a second, then walks over to the couch, puts down the food bag, and sits down. Val frowns as she goes through her messages. "Everything okay?" Viktor knows her well enough to see that something is bothering her. She shakes her head slightly. "Vince gets here later, he's still at a gig." She puts the agent back on the table and walks around the couch to the storage room. So they are alone after all. At least for now... "Beer?" Val's voice snaps Viktor out of his thoughts. "Eh, sure." Viktor nods, although she cannot see him.

A meow makes Viktor look towards her bed - something he had actually been trying to avoid. The naked cat jumps off the bed, remains sitting in front of it and looks at him suspiciously, while the tip of its tail twitches petulantly. Val puts the beer on the table. "Just ignore him, he doesn't like strangers." She sits down opposite Viktor and grabs a box with food out of the bag. "So, if Vince is late - more pasta for me." She grins. As she leans forward, Viktor can't help it, his gaze falls on her cleavage. She wears, as always, no bra and her pierced nipples outline through the top.

Viktor has seen Val only in panties already after the Delamain cab dropped her and Takemura off, when Misty helped him take off her suit, he cleaned and bandaged her wounds. But he had been so focused then that he hadn't paid attention to her body - not in that way. She leans back on the couch and opens her takeout box, clearly happy. Viktor reaches for a beer. "You okay?" Val asks with her mouth full. She slurps up a couple of spaghetti that was hanging out of her mouth. "You're so quiet." She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand.

Viktor takes a sip to buy himself some time. Then he puts the bottle down. "Sure," he says without looking at her and takes a takeout box as well. "Long, busy day." "Hmm..." Val humms, as if she was thinking. As she swallows the next bite of pasta, she reaches for her beer. Viktor's gaze is on her mouth as she takes a few sips. Her pout mouth. He glances down at his food so she doesn't catch him staring at her.

"I've been thinking, now that I've finally paid off my debt ..." She threads some spaghetti on her fork. "Next, I need Mantis Blades." A low chuckle from Viktor. "You need?" He looks at her with raised eyebrows. Val nods eagerly as she puts the fork into her mouth. After she has swallowed, she continues. "And a better cyberdeck. Somethin' with lots of ram and slots." Viktor nods as while chewing. "I'll get you one," he says, after swallowing.

"Nova." Val puts another way-too-large bite into her mouth and looks around as if she's thinking. After swallowing, she points at Viktor with her fork. "Bet you know what else I need." "Hmm..." Viktor hums his mouth full, eyes her. "Matching the new cyberdeck some RAM update, Memory Boost..." Val nods her head while chewing. "Detoxifier... or maybe at least a basic Cataresist until you can afford better."

Val swallows. "I also want some tendons or ankles." She lifts her bare feet and wiggles her toes. Viktor laughs and shakes his head. "V, I'm eatin'." But he doesn't really sound bothered - it's hard for him to be annoyed by Val. She pouts and lowers her legs again. "They are clean - I just showered." She looks at him with big puppy eyes. Viktor sighs, pushing aside the pictures of Val in the shower. "Anyway - that'd be pretty expensive."

Val finished before him, puts the empty box on the table. "Don't tell me you're going to eat more." Viktor asks with amusement, eyebrows raised, fork halfway to his mouth, as Val looks down at the bag which still contains Vince's serving. "Hmm..." She takes her beer and leans back. "Maybe later." She grins at Viktor and takes a sip. Then she reaches for her agent again. Viktor watches her while he eats the last bites of spaghetti. "I texted Vince that if he isn't here soon, I'll eat his pasta." She grins widely as she leans forward to place the agent back on the coffee table.

"You've got..." Viktor points at her mouth. "Sauce?" Val asks, and he nods. "Wanna lick it off?" She winks at him with a smirk and Viktor chokes on his food, but Val is already reaching over to grab a napkin. As she looks up again and sees his expression, she laughs out loud. "Oh, come on, Vik. You're way to easy to tease." "You can't do this to an old man, V." He takes a sip of his beer and shakes his head, avoiding her gaze. "Your not that old, Vik." Val giggles and Viktor puts down his empty takeout box.

"Did ya bring the movie?" That was one reason for the meeting. Val and Vince wanted to see Viktor boxing. Viktor takes a shard out of his pocket. "Don't wanna wait for Vince?" Val looks at her agent - no new messages. "When he comes, we can watch it again." She takes the last sip of beer and stands up. "Turn it on." She gestures to the TV behind Viktor and then goes into the storage room to get two new bottles of beer.

Viktor slots in the shard and stands up to go around the coffee table and sit on the other side so he can see the TV. Val sits down next to him. He had not hesitated when Vince had asked if there were records from Viktor's active days. But watching them now, alone with Val, in her apartment, made him feel a little uncomfortable. Viktor says nothing, sipping his beer from time to time and watching Val out of the corner of his eye, who is watching the TV.

"I have to admit, you were pretty hot, Vik." She looks over at him with a cheeky grin. "Yeah, well..." He shrugs. "It's been a while." He takes a sip. Val giggles, and Viktor looks over at her. "What's so funny?" She looks back at the TV. "You underestimate yourself, Vik." He does not know what to say in response. Does she mean... No, she can't mean that. "Oh, that's a cool move!" She suddenly says enthusiastically and points to the TV. Viktor, torn from his thoughts, looks at the screen. "What?"

Val rewinds. "This." Viktor chuckles low, her enthusiasm is adorable. "Show me!" She looks over at Viktor, who looks at her in disbelief. "What?" Val pauses the movie. "Show me!" Val says again and jumps up. She takes his hand, which is not holding a beer bottle and pulls on it. Well, if he didn't want to, she wouldn't have a chance to move him even an inch. "Come on." She looks at him with big green puppy eyes again. Viktor sighs and stands up. "Yes!" Val rejoices like a child at her triumph.

Viktor explains, showing her the positions. Val looks concentrated and tries to follow his instructions exactly. They stand opposite each other in the middle of her apartment. Nibbles lies on the desk chair and watches with annoyance. "Okay, hands up like this." Val mirrows his position. "...okay and now your feet perpendicular to your shins and..." Viktor points to Val's feet. "Wait, what?" She looks down with a puzzled expression on her face. "You can't explain that even more complicated, can you?" Viktor chuckles. He has to admit that she looks cute, totally confused.

"Hey, you're makin' fun of me." Val looks up at him and Viktor shakes his head, chuckling. "Yes, you are!" She walks up to him and punches him playfully in the chest. Val's agent on the coffee table beeps and she turns away from Viktor to check the message. Viktor sighs with relief and sits down on the couch again. "It's Vince..." Val sits down next to him, closer than before. Probably unintentionally, because she didn't even look where he was sitting, her eyes still on the message. "He's still on his gig." She sighs and puts the agent aside. "He'll not come anymore - it's getting too late."

Viktor frowns a little. He had hoped that Vince would come over. Now it was clear that he would spend the rest of the evening alone with Val. This almost feels like a date now - even though he knew she'd never call it that, even if it was a date. They finish watching the shard, Val asks a few questions now and then, but most of the time it's quiet. She sits so close to him, he can feel her radiant body heat.

When the recording is over, both have emptied their second beer. Val reaches for the empty bottles on the table. "Another one?" "Sure." Viktor nods and stands up to put his shard back in his pocket before sitting down again. She thrust a drink into his hand and sits down beside him. "So, what to watch now?" "Whatever you want." Viktor says and opens his beer.

"We could watch my old movies." She winks at him with a naughty grin. Viktor almost chokes on his beer. "Your..." he coughs and Val laughs. "Your BDs?" He looks at her in disbelief. Val shakes her head, giggling. "Why not?" Viktor notices how he blushes slightly and Val notices it too. "Oh, Vik - it's not porn." He avoids her eyes. "Still... I... no..." he stuttered. Val pats his shoulder with a giggle. "Okay, okay. Calm down." She turns on the TV and browses through the channels.

They stick with some action movie. Val has been leaning against his shoulder since a few minutes now, her legs pulled up on the couch. Viktor doesn't pay much attention to the movie. He is busy convincing himself that it doesn't matter that she is cuddling up to him. Val is a very flirty and handsy person. She used to cuddle with Jackie as well. She hasn't said anything for some time and her breathing is calm and steady. "Don't fall asleep on me, kid." He can't help but grin. "Vik..." She actually sounds a little sleepy. "If ya don't stop callin' me kid, I'll start callin' you daddy."

Viktor only swallows. His mind's going places and his thoughts straight to his dick. He can feel himself blushing. When he says nothing, Val looks up at him. He clenches his jaw and avoids her gaze, looking at the screen. "Oh, you're blushing." She giggles. "Guess you'd like that, huh?" He still looks straight ahead stubbornly. "Leave it alone, V." She giggles and kisses him on the cheek. "You're adorable, Vik." She leans against him again.

His cheek feels as if it has caught fire where her lips have just touched it. "Just teasing a lil'. You know that." She shifts a little to make herself more comfortable. Viktor puts his arm around her. "Yeah, I know..." He knows it very well. She enjoys teasing him, testing his reactions. But that's it. As if a pretty young woman like her would want anything from him. Anything more than just a friend or a shoulder to lean on. She could have anyone - and she has anyone she wants, Viktor knows that very well.

When the movie ends, Val yawns heavily as she sits up. "I should leave and let you get some sleep." Viktor says and stands up. "Hmm..." Val looks up at him with tired eyes. "It's late, you don't have to drive all the way home." Val looks at the empty beer bottles on the coffee table. "And you drank." "Oh, I didn't drink that much." Viktor also looks at the bottles to avoid her gaze. "Vik, come on." She stands up and looks at him with raised eyebrows.

"Okay, okay." Viktor looks around. "I'll take the couch." Val sighs as she turns off the TV. "That's preposterous. First - you are way too big for the couch. Second - we are adults, we can share a bed." Viktor sighs and nods, still without looking at her. He capitulates - he knows arguing with Val is useless. Adults... Yes, he always says that he's an old man. But sharing a bed with this woman. He feels more like a fucking teenager. Viktor swallows hard while taking off his shoes.

---

Okay, the "only one bed" situation isn't an actual part of this, cause it's already 2k+ words. I tried to fit in all the words for the tech prompt and then I came up with more and more details. So I hope this is still fine for the prompt.

Val grew up in Heywood with lots of 'Tinos and speaks broken Spanish. I'd guess she uses several phrases and wordings in Spain, kinda like I and my family uses particular in Danish. Val was with the Mox and a dancer at Lizzie's before she left NC for Atlanta. Many people asume her old BDs are XBDs but they are in fact lap dances, striptease and other stuff - sexy but not sex.

I like the scene, I like some of the dialogues and I like how giddy Val is in the first part. I'm not totally happy with the writing, but it's to long to rewrite it. So for now, for the event this has to be good enough. I'll rewrite it and continue (have a draft already) at some point after the event.

[tired0artist]

sing to me (part three)

<<part one>> <<part two>>

paring: female!V x Johnny Silverhand

summary: a street kid V falls in love with SAMURAI music and idolises Johnny Silverhand. years later she finally understands the saying “never meet your idols”

warnings: angst and fluff, Johnny being a dick as always, arguments, V plays the guitar, MORE JOHNNY AND V ACTION IN THIS ONE!!!, references to death, more/different warnings in the future parts

note: I’m describing my V, but you can imagine her however you want tho

•SAMURAI fan V (street kid)•

She was tugging on her hair, groaning in pain as she stumbled out of the elevator.

“Ughh..! Fuck!”

“The hell’s that?” Johnny questioned, looking both shocked and a bit panicked “No, no, dammit!”

V sat down on some box and focused on breathing, her chest and head feeling on fire. She saw him pace around and asked.

“Jesus.. the fuck do you want from me?”

Johnny’s head snapped to her and he stormed over, making her flinch in fear. But instead of attacking her, he grabbed a stool and sat down, saying.

“It’s all going too slow. Gonna decomish before we learn how to rip the chip out”

V glared at him “Wanted me dead. You don’t care if I die”

Johnny calmed down a bit, took off his glasses and looked at her. His nearly black eyes, soft and truthful.

“Made it pretty clear since, that I changed my mind. Want you to live now”

She was taken a bit back by the sincerity that she picked up from his tone.

“What do you want, Johnny?” she asked more calmly, calling him by his name for the first time.

He lit up a cigarette and said “I got a get-outta-jail-free card. I’d be a fucking fool not to take advantage. See me and Arasaka, we got a half-century-old score needs settling, and I plan to do it” he turned towards her adding “That’s. What I need you for, kid”

“So you just... want to use me? Great. Fucking fantastic, Silverhand. Listen I hate the corpos and Arasaka too. But I am still sane enough to know that it’s a lost fight”

He rolled his eyes “I didn’t ask for your opinion, kid. I just need you to take me from point A to point B”

“Fuck you. I’m not a Delamain!”

“Listen I know things. Where we can save your life, who can help us do that. You’ll get rid of the chip, I’ll smash Saka. It’s a win-win kid. Soul killer is what we need and Mikoshi’s how we grab it”

V sighed heavily and tugged on her hair in frustration “What’s this Mikoshi?”

“Okay, basics. If you’re jacked in, cruising the Net. Arasaka can use Soulkiller, an AI, to trap, fry and pack away your psyche, your mind and your soul. Following so far?”

“Yeah... that’s how you died. I saw it”

Johnny didn’t look pleased, as he said “Okay... seems we got a few more things to broach that I thought, but that will come later”

He continued on explaining the importance of Mikoshi and how it works. V nodded along, he had some points. Mikoshi definitely was a place that they needed to go to.

“—so you’re going to live and I’ll destroy Arasaka. As I said. Win-win, kid”

“No” she said, surprising him “We need to explore some options, find allies, find resources and then. And only, then we will attack Arasaka and get to Mikoshi. Not sooner or later”

With that she got up and stumbled away, subconsciously feeling Johnny follow her.

“Kid, we need to work fast! You don’t have time! You’re already falling apart!”

“I don’t have any other choice but to live through it. We need more time, we can’t go into all of this with a hot head”

Johnny sighed “You don’t get it—“

V spun around and pointed at him “No, you’re the one who doesn’t get it. You went into Arasaka, full of rage and devoid of reason. And see where it got you?”

He glared at her and clenched his fists. She nearly flinched in fear of him attacking her once again, but she stood her ground.

After glaring at each other for some time, V let out a cough, groaning in pain. Johnny sighed and grabbed her, leading her to a bench outside.

“Rest up, kid. You won’t do much, being dead”

V sat down, feeling a bit surprised to see Johnny sit down beside her. She coughed into her hand and saw a bit of blood there, V stared at her shaking hand. The proof was there.

She was really going to die.

“You’re not. I’m not letting you, kid. We’ll work something out” Johnny said from beside her, his arms crossed as he stared at the people passing by “Call, that braindance chick. You promised that you would”

V nodded and shook her head, trying to get rid of the blue glitches she saw. She then looked back at Johnny and noticed that he left. Bitting her lip she did as he said, called Judy.

After the call, she went back to her apartment for the night. Taking her guitar she played “Never fade away” singing softly.

Her take on the song was more heavy and calm. Each word consumed by the emotional state she was in.

“We’ll never fade away...” she whispered, ending the song, somewhat abruptly. Not because she forgot the lyrics.

But because her thoughts lingered on Johnny and what happened today.

He was still a dick and managed to annoy her to no end. But then again, he really seemed like he didn’t mean her any harm. Also as much as she didn’t want to admit it, he was being useful and had a lot of info on Arasaka.

V let out a deep sigh and started playing again, thinking.

Maybe I can try and trust him.

Few days later V was walking down the dirty corridor. The place was abandoned, but still she had her guard up. As she neared the door, Johnny appeared.

“Knock four times kid, or the dog will bite”

She sighed and did as he said.

After that things escalated quickly. One minute V was talking to Hanako and another she was falling through the floor.

V let out a groan, her body hurting as black spots danced in front of her vision.

“Get your ass up, samurai! We need to delta!”

She groaned and looked at Johnny, who was looking between her and the corridor where the soldiers were coming.

“—Takemura...” she whispered, worried for the man.

Johnny quickly grabbed her by the shoulders “He’s dead, but you’re not. So get up and get out of here”

V nodded and with his help got on her feet, reloading his gun she got to work.

Halfway through the complex she met and saved Takemura, thankfully Johnny didn’t comment on it. The rockerboy went into full soldier mode as he navigated her through the corridors and warning about possible dangers.

As she and Takemura exited the building, she fell on her knees. The relic and injuries catching up with her.

“V?!” yelled Johnny, kneeling next to her.

“We need to split up! I’ll contact you once it’s safe!” said Takemura, soon disappearing in the crowd.

It pissed Johnny off as he yelled on top of his lungs “FUCKING DOG! HELP HER!”

“Johnny... we need... need to go. I-I’ll be fine...” V said, getting on her feet and quickly stealing a car that was parked not far.

The rockerboy stayed visible all the time, his metal hand heavy on her thigh. He was talking to her the whole time, trying to distract her.

V soon hid inside of a old and nasty motel. There she sat on the bed with a gun pointed at the door as Johnny watched what was going on outside the window.

Not long after their arrival a proxy working for Hanako. V talked to her, agreeing to met her at Embers.

She waited for the proxy to drive away, to leave the room. Her whole world still swaying and glitching.

Johnny stayed visible, as he leaned against a pillar. His face showing that he disapproved.

“What Johnny...? Got some words about the... porcelain cunt?”

The rockerboy only shook his head just as V started coughing up blood.

“Fuck..! Not now!” she yelled, stumbling away trying to get into her stolen car.

“V wait! Shit! Get ready!” Johnny yelled after her.

She almost made it to the door when she completely fell on the ground. Johnny rolled her on her back and watched as she had something that looked like a seizure.

“—Johnny! I’m dying—ughhhh!!!“ she screamed, tears running down her cheeks.

Johnny grabbed her hands, looking at her with worry “No, no, no kid! You ain’t dying yet! I got you”

That’s when V’s whole world went black.

Next time she woke up on the ground, pills in her hand, her body weak and in pain.

“J-Johnny?” she asked, weakly trying to find him.

“That smell, is the sea breeze” he said looking down at her with a soft smile “Get up, Pacific’s beautiful this time of day”

V got up and leaned next to him, watching the sea.

“I almost flatlined yesterday...”

“Almost” Johnny quickly said, harshly as if to force the word on her.

V ignored it for now as she stared at the sea “It’s beautiful... I could wake up to such view everyday”

“Me too” said Johnny as he glanced at her from behind his glasses, unsure himself which view he was talking about.

V closed her eyes as the wind ruffled her already fucked up hairstyle. The air was clearer than in the city. Very... light and a bit colder too.

As she opened her green eyes she looked around asking “Pacifica? What’s this building?”

“Old hotel - the Pistis Sophia. We’re her sole guests right now. Wanted to show you something, come on” Johnny said, while slowly walking away.

V followed him, still feeling a bit disoriented.

“You took over” she stated, leaning against the wall while walking.

“What was I supposed to do? Leave you there? It’s not like I could carry you somewhere...” he said, his fists clenched as he looked annoyed at something.

Feeling a bit bad for calling him out, she simply nodded, saying “Thank you”

He looked at her and he visibly relaxed saying “What are imaginary friends for?”

V moved to follow him again, only to fall on the ground.

“Careful!” Johnny said, glitching to her side.

“I think that I’m going to die soon...” she said.

“Bullshit. We still have time” he denied, holding her elbow.

She smiled at him sadly and said “Okay... show me why we’re here”

Johnny led her to a room, watching as she weakly crawled over the broken window.

“There’s a hidey-hole where I’m standing. Open it. Empty it” he instructed as V got to her feet.

She did as he asked and took the dog tags that were there, sitting on the ground she turned to look at Johnny in question.

“Yours?” she asked him.

“They were. Belong to you now”

V was confused as she stared at her metal in her hand “Fifty years back... Mexican conflict?”

Johnny nodded slightly “When I was a young and stupid kid like you. I enlisted with a corp army. Was in Mexico when I realised that no matter the conflict, corps always win. Ordinary people always lose”

She nodded, seeing the truth in his words. All the corpo fucks got rich because of the wars, that they started. That got good people killed.

“Why are you giving them to me?”

Johnny shifted in his seat “Imagine we’re deployed together, fighting in a war side by side. Would you take a bullet for me?”

V’s eyes got wide, but with little hesitation she whispered “Yes. I would”

He smiled at her, shoulders relaxing as he said “Tags belonged to a man who sacrificed his life for mine in Mexico. Been thinking about our... predicament. Wanna be clear. I will do you no wrong. When the time comes, it’ll be my life for yours. I’ll agree to get wiped. Tags are proof of my promise”

She stared at him, the man that she was afraid of for a long time. Idolised once. And saw nothing but honesty.

V bit her lip and whispered “I would do the same for you Johnny. And... if it will be possible... I would like to try and save you too”

“That’s real cute kid, but impossible. Still, I appreciate the sentiment” he said with a smile “Now I got a request. Whatever happens to me. I want Smasher gone and for Rogue to be there when it happens”

“Okay. Done, but you sure Rogue will bother with it?” V asked getting up and walking over to the exit, along with Johnny.

“She will. I’ll ask her personally, besides you’ll need back up”

“Personally? What do you mean by that?” she asked.

Johnny crossed his arms “You’ll drop one of Misty’s pills and I’ll go talk to Rogue. Convince her to help us out. I promise”

V bit her lip, finally nodding “Alright. I trust you”

“Thanks, kid. Now let’s go home and in the evening we’ll go to the Afterlife” he said, disappearing.

She sighed heavily and got through the window, heading back to her apartment. The dog tags clutched in her hand.

•english isn’t my first language so sorry for any errors.

•you wanna be tagged in the next parts? leave a comment!

•thanks for reading! hope you like it. I will be going through some parts of the main story and beyond. I’m planning it to be a bit longer so if you want something longer than 5/6 parts, this is for you

•tag list: @signwriting @missweatherwax @axshadows