V went silent after my victory with nothing to refute my perfect argunt for what Samurai song was the best. I settled down as well. V looked Tired.
Honestly I kinda wondered who would look more worn. V now, Or V dying from the engram?
I felt a little sad for the woman knowing her future. Knowing that all the stress and heartache and pain she was suffering under from Arasaka would all amount to nothing. Hell less than nothing. A bullet to the head, if Jackie hadnt been there.
And two drinks for mis amigas! Jackie said, showing up with his hands full of drinks, dropping a tumbler in front of V, one for himself, and to my surprise a martini style glass, and a can of soda in front of . You dont have to drink the alcohol Hermanita, but and V do this every ti after a gig its our little tradition. He said as he settled down.
V?
Im fine Jack. Just been needing a drink. V said, arching an eye at Jackie who chuckled.
Sorry choom. The lines were a little long tonight, had a big group dropping off like forty orders right in front of . He just laughed it off and V looked for a second like she was going to go bust so assholes down to size but just shrugged it off and grabbed her drink.
To good fortune. V offered.
To good friends. Jackie replied back.
To the good fortune to have good friends! They both said at the sa ti and then looked to .
Ugh. Miserable bad influence adults!
I grabbed the stupid martini glass.
To adding new friends to that list. I added on my own and Jackie burst into a bright smile. I guess I had done well then we clinked out drinks and took a swallow.
Blegh! So gross!
--
A thing of beauty! I know! Will never fade away! I shouted out standing on top of the table V right beside singing along with . The Corpo woman had a pretty good voice!
Motoko! Get off the table!
Rita! Hey! Hold on the songs almost done! I called back. I don't know why she winced. I had just yelled a little!
We were partying! V and I were great chooms now! Sure she was a little drunk, having been absolutely hamring back shots, but that was okay! One of us had the brilliant idea of requesting so Samurai songs from the system, and one thing led to another.
I dont rember exactly who got up on the table to sing first, but I was having a great ti!
Oh no you dont. There was a jumble of movent or sothing there and the next thing I rember is waking up as I crash into a pile of trash bags.
It had been surprisingly gentle though.
You able to get a handle on these two?
No p-prob-prob I can do it! Co on now Hermana! Hermanita, lets stand up yeah? Jackie was there and I blinked, raising my head out of the trash.
You okay there kid? Rita asked and I checked myself. No injuries. I threw her a thumbs up. You good to have these two help you get ho? She asked as well, glaring a bit at Jackie which was unfair. He was really struggling with V from the looks of it. Was the Corpo woman passed out face down in the trash? Oh no she was just puking.
V and Jackie and I are chooooooms! I called out in response. I even reached out and pulled Vs head out of the trash.
The regurgitated flood of nastiness ant I quickly let go of her hair ignoring the slimy plop as she fell back.
Well be okay Rita, Honest. Ill drive them ho. Jackie offered. The man sounding a little tipsy. You shouldnt get so drunk Jackie.
Wait. Driving and drunk?
NO! Drunk driving is bad! BAAAAD!
Ill call a cab.
Yay!
--
I blinked awake instantly. Unfamiliar ceiling. I muttered as I Rose up and stretched. Oh gross what died in my mouth? I grunted wanting to stick out my tongue at the taste, but other than that I was fine.
No headache or anything, I patted myself down noticing most of my gear was settled on the table next to , but my Kang Tao armor was missing
I dont rember what happened to it.
Looking around I tried to figure out where I was.
The array of n stuff around the room gave a hint to where I was. This Jackies place? I asked, looking around in surprise. I was on his couch with a little blanket strewn over .
Oh you awake too kid? I sat up and there was V. Not a hair out of place, the corpo woman looked like she was ready to step into a boardroom or a battlefield.
You can just call Motoko. I told her as I got up and stretched.
It hit then. Aw man. I got drunk. I hated that! It was so gross! Huh no hangover or anything huh? Must be nice to be a kid. Poor Jackie is still laid up.
Heh. Really?
Yeah nasty hangover. The oaf. V said as she sipped on a can of sothing. Ill be heading out soon. Kid, it wasnt horrible working with you.
Is that your nice way of saying Im more competent than you expected and Im useful? I asked as I took a seat across from her.
She scoffed but didnt actually deny my words.
So I threw her my deets.
Really? She asked with an arched eyebrow.
Hey, I know what its like up in that stuffy office they probably got you in. If you ever need soone you can trust to watch your back, I am a rc. I explained and she seed kind of surprised at my words for a mont before her face blanked as always.
Ill keep it in mind. She sends her own deets back. Giving a number and even an email although it was a .Arasaka address which ant I wasnt going anywhere near it. Oh I looked into our little jaunt last night. Kang Tao are frothing mad, but they dont have much to go on. Id suggest you get your car repainted, maybe reset the ID, and dont let it spread around.
It wasnt exactly a big deal. I said honestly. I an you dont see AVs much in the ga, but that was engine limitations, those things are everywhere in Night City. Id honestly been surprised I hadnt gotten involved in an aerial chase through the city until now.
Pfft. You took out a Kang Tao AV kid. You do know the price tag on those things right?
Million or sothing?
More like twenty. She said with an actual laugh. And worse, it crashed in the city. NCPD, get involved for things like that, which ans KT is paying fines and bribes to make it go away. Like I said. Alter your car a bit, and keep it quiet.
I hesitated but nodded. Sha. I wanted to make a BD of that explosion. Commorate it a bit.
V went still for a mont before speaking. You record BDs while on gigs?
Yeah! Its preem! I have a choom with the mox that edits and then another that sells them off. I explain in a rush, happy to share. V just shakes her head.
Not sure if thats preem, or just crazy. Be careful kid, and dont put in any of them. Last thing I would need is my boss finding out.
Deal.
Alright Im out. I already checked on Jack. If youre feeling good feel free to leave when-
YOU BITCHES! A voice scread out as the door opened and a woman I didnt know stomped in. She started absolutely going off in spanish, which my limited vocabulary recognized most of them as insults.
Hello to you too. Youre Camillla right? V said calmly, seemingly unbothered by the slightly short spanish woman that was ranting and raving at her.
Oh and . The woman spit out sothing at too.
Who wants to know so howrecking whores in my Jackies ho!?
I blinked.
Did Thats right. Jackie ntioned he had an Output.
So this was the girl that Jackie had left, eventually dating Misty.
The girl that Mama Welles had preferred.
Huh. No accounting for taste Mama Welles.
Im V. An associate of Jackies.
Yeah Im sure he associated with you all night you- And there was the string of spanish added on.
Awkward.
This was so awkward. My cringe ter was absolutely blasting and that thing was broken half the ti.
Hey, how about we all take a second. Jackie V and I all had a gig last night. We didnt like Do that. I said, waving my hands in different shapes to show the things that we didnt do.
Before the woman could turn to and start exploding because she was definitely about to Jackie ca stumbling out of his bedroom.
Jackie looked like shit. I almost wanted to giggle as he stumbled into the room clutching his head. Voice croaking as he barely could open his eyes.
Cami? That you? Everything alright? He asked as he stumbled over and finding the right woman pulled her into a hug. But she slapped him away and started screeching.
Ow.
That was making my head hurt, and I didnt even have a hangover. Jackie looked utterly fucked up.
Jack. Im gonna head out. V said showing zero sympathy as she just walked out after everything leaving poor Jackie to his fate.
I followed after her, because I wasnt a gonk.
--
V and I split up, and I did as she recomnded. Jackie had dropped so eddies into my account last night at so point, so I just headed over to a detailing shop.
This ti my Reaver didnt look like a Raffen vehicle, so it only cost a more reasonable amount to redo the black paint and add so purple in for highlights. By the ti it was done, I had already modified the identification with a bit of netrunning and it was lunchti and I was getting hungry so I stopped for so noodles.
Oh, and my Kang Tao Armor had been in the passenger seat. I must have taken it off at so point.
Then I pulled open my system alerts.
I had to whistle a bit as I looked through the alerts. Blowing up that AV had certainly given a nice stack of Engineering XP from the Uragan.
And a level up.
*Engineering skill level up!*
Jeez that skill was so low. And it still made no sense why Engineering had to do with explosions!
I shook it off and continued going down my list.
Assault XP, Assault XP. Assault level up!
*Assault skill level up!*
Assault 6! I guess using my Assault Rifles instead of just defaulting to my Burya all the ti ca in handy.
Aww yiss! New levels!
*Driving skill level up!*
Driving 7!
I guess that race through the city while being shot at had helped out!
Well that and my daily driving.
That was all my skill upgrades from the night of hell raising with V and Jackie, but that wasnt all I pulled out of the wreckage.
*750 XP Gained.*
*750 XP Gained.*
*750 XP Gained.*
*750 XP Gained.*
A short burst of XP in the middle of the fight. That was where I blinded everyone and shot a few guys.
But then there was the big bunch.
A single 1000 XP stack, and then five more 750 drops.
In the end I wasnt quite at a new level up, but I was very close. Considering it had all happened sort of on accident. I would have to do sothing nice for Jackie as thanks for all that XP.
Ah wait, he wouldnt know what I was talking about. Better to just be there for another gig if he ever needed .
I slurped up the last of my ran and dropped a tip to the Ran chef who gave a bow as I headed out of the shop.
Id been running around doing gigs a lot recently.
Ti to go get so more songs! I decided as I stepped away from my empty bowl of ran.
--
Despite only being Rockerboy 7, it wasnt hard to basically recreate songs. Any mistakes I made while recording them through my music box were easily fixed with a bit of digital chop shopping.
But it was a nice ti waster.
Each song had to be played through multiple tis, then multiple tis on top to fix errors. Then mashing it all together, which took more ti.
The very second song I wrote out for my box?
Never Fade Away by Samurai!
Maybe I would bug V soti and get her to co vocal it with ? I had been pretty drunk, but I still rember noting her voice was really good.
The song after that, I went with sothing that didnt exist.
Slls like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.
It was a simple song to work on and grind so more experience. I an. So of the songs were incredibly technical, and it was only because of a perk giving perfect mory that I could rember how they went.
Nirvana was Simple by comparison to The Only Thing They Fear.
Not that it wasnt a good song.
I an. It would fit right into Night City, the first lyric was Load up on guns, bring your friends. If there was ever a song lyric that fit Night City that was it.
So I added the song to my list. Enjoying crooning aloud as I recorded the audio.
As I was finangling the drum track, which was taking a while, considering I had to do it completely digitally. Jun got ho, opening the door and seeming to relax at seeing camped out on the couch like normal.
You left last night. He comnted as he put down so of his stuff. His Katana joining my own on the Katana rack near the shrine.
Jackie called for netrunner help on a gig. I told him leaving out all of the actual exciting bits.
You could have left a ssage. He said and I nodded at that. He was right. I an. I hadnt because Jun might have tried to stop , or follow along, but I could have. He sighed seeing I wasnt going to actually do the right thing and say I will in the future.
You okay?
Oh Im fine. I t one of Jackies Chooms! Vs so cool. Arasaka Counter-intel. She has this Ill kill you and destroy your entire family aura about her. But she can sing Never Fade Away so she isnt all bad!
Jun blinks at my rather odd words before seemingly deciding asking isnt worth the effort.
Counter-Intel? Those kinda of people are Crazy. Im not sure I want you hanging out with soone like that.
Nah. Vs more Jackies Choom. They saved each other on so gig. I didnt get the deets. Anyway, shes safe enough. I dont think Ill hang out with her, without Jackie or sothing, and hes like Her weakness. She goes all buttery soft around him. Its adorable.
They Input-Output?
Nope. I think they might have sothing there, but neither is willing. I think Vs life is just complicated. I shrugged, deciding to take a break from this drum section.
And the gig he pulled you into?
Break into a corpo laptop for so info on where sothing was taken. When I got there everything was quiet. Took like ten minutes to break in.
You were out all night. Motoko, youre avoiding saying what you actually did on the gig. You always blab about the entire adventure when I ask. I usually have to leave to get you to stop.
Rude!
Avoiding the question.
Okay, fine. Yeah the corp was Kang Tao. So minor gang of kids klepped a car that had so stuff in the trunk. Kang Tao wanted it back, and killed the kids. Jackie was hired by Padre to get the stuff back, mostly in revenge for the killing and well I followed Jackie and V on the gig as their backup. Shit got a little crazy.
Define crazy. Jun said flatly and I winced before looking around a little.
Okay, first. You cant tell anyone. V ntioned Kang Tao has no idea who did it, so thats good, because they are pissed.
What did you and your chooms do?
Well This is more of a thing?
Jun was done paying attention to his gear that he was taking off, he walked over and sat on the couch glaring down at .
I blew up an AV with my Rocket Launcher! It crashed and made a massive crash and Jun-Nii it was the coolest, most preem thing EVER! Ive been wanting to tell soone all day! I let it all out in a rush making an explosion motion with my hands to emphasize how amazing it was!
I blew up an aircraft!
I always wanted to do that!
Fucking hell. Jun said as he tried to process what I had done. It wasnt like you could just walk up to soone you know and say you shot down an airplane with a rocket launcher and not have it be a bit of a deal to process.
So I remained quiet just squirming under Juns gaze as he ca to a conclusion about how he felt.
Ow! He hit right on the head.
Dont go to war with the corps you idiot! He hissed at quietly, obviously not wanting to shout sothing so incendiary through the walls.
I didnt!
High explosives is an escalation!
Well! Fine! Ill get a Techtronika Grad and use that as an AT rifle instead! Ill just snipe the pilots ou-Ow!
Dont blow up AVs! Fuck I cant believe I have to explain this!
Okay fine! Ill leave the AV fuckers alone. Ill just kill everyone they drop off if I ever run into them or sothing.
Just stop putting yourself in situations that corps are sending AVs at you! Ive never had this problem!
I considered it.
He had already hit twice so you know what?
Wow, thats pretty sad Jun. You should get on my level. There was silence for a mont between us as we locked eyes.
OW!
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