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@neonfool
The Fool symbolizes the embrace of new beginnings, the expansion of one's horizons, and the willingness to take risks. The Fool's Journey is a metaphor for life's journey.
A private, selective RP blog for my version of V from Cyberpunk 2077.
Written by Sam, 31, he/her.
Crossovers welcome! Non-cyberpunk verses available!
Affiliated with @silverhanged.
[RULES] / [ABOUT] / [STATS]
!! Sideblog, follows back from @leaderbond !!
Drew a bunch of v's recently
❝ you can ask me anything you want. i promise i'll answer truthfully except the things i feel like lying about. ❞
Rogue could obviously tell V was nervous to be around her. Could you blame him? It was the first time he'd seen her since he brought Johnny back. At first it was fine, just business--she'd given him a job, the perfect excuse to pretend nothing was weird until it was over. But the job did end, and now V was meeting Rogue face-to-face to personally give her the shard he had stolen. The shard wasn't what V was worried about. He managed that just fine. It was the awkwardness, the uncertainty of being around Rogue after what he'd done. He knew she knew. V's anxiety must have been palpable for Rogue to say that.
"I mean, it's none of my business, but..."
Artifacts and fuzz were exploding in his vision from the Relic acting up. Did he feel worse when he was nervous? He tried to ignore it, even though he felt like he might faint. He forced himself to gather up the words and speak whatever came to mind. What came out was:
"Are you okay?"
V flinched. He sounded so stupid. How was she supposed to answer that? He didn't have any idea what was going on between them. Johnny said he'd left her a message, and that was all V knew. V wanted desperately to continue, to think of something to say that didn't make him sound like a total idiot, but all the words dried up. All he could do was look at her with wide eyes.
questions only sentence starters
if you are sending to a multi-muse, remember to specify the muse that the sentence starters are being sent for .
who . . .
“ Who are you? ”
“ Who do you serve? ”
“ Who taught you that? ”
“ Who’s really in control here? ”
“ Who are you running from? ”
“ Who did this to you? ”
“ Who’s coming for us? ”
“ Who do you think I am? ”
“ Who else knows about this? ”
“ Who are you trying to protect? ”
what . . .
“ What are you? ”
“ What do you want from me? ”
“ What are you hiding? ”
“ What were you planning to do? ”
“ What just happened? ”
“ What did you see back there? ”
“ What did you promise them? ”
“ What happens if I don’t let you go? ”
“ What are the rules I’m not supposed to break? ”
“ What happens after the portal closes? ”
where . . .
“ Where did you come from? ”
“ Where are we? ”
“ Where are you going? ”
“ Where were you when it happened? ”
“ Where does this path lead? ”
“ Where did you get that scar? ”
“ Where is everyone else? ”
“ Where should I stand? ”
“ Where did you put the body? ”
“ Where were you hiding all this time? ”
when . . .
“ When did this start? ”
“ When were you going to tell me? ”
“ When was the last time you felt safe? ”
“ When do we leave? ”
“ When did you stop trusting me? ”
“ When does this end? ”
“ When did you realise the truth? ”
“ When do things go wrong? ”
“ When did you choose this path? ”
“ When will you look at me and be honest? ”
how . . .
“ How long have you been watching me? ”
“ How did you survive? ”
“ How much do you remember? ”
“ How are you this calm right now? ”
“ How bad is it? ”
“ How did you know my name? ”
“ How far are you willing to go? ”
“ How many lies have you told me? ”
“ How do you live with this? ”
“ How are we supposed to fix this? ”
are . . .
“ Are you human? ”
“ Are you okay? ”
“ Are you lying to me right now? ”
“ Are you scared? ”
“ Are you tired? ”
“ Are you hiding something? ”
“ Are you bound by oath or by magic? ”
“ Are you trying to start a fight? ”
“ Are you always this dramatic? ”
“ Are you going to explain or just stare? ”
do . . .
“ Do you trust me? ”
“ Do you remember your name? ”
“ Do you remember me? ”
“ Do you miss them? ”
“ Do you always talk this much? ”
“ Do you have any idea what you just did? ”
“ Do you ever sleep? ”
“ Do you want me to stay? ”
“ Do you think I’m stupid? ”
“ Do you believe in fate? ”
have . . .
“ Have you eaten yet? ”
“ Have we met before? ”
“ Have you been here long? ”
“ Have you done this before? ”
“ Have you ever killed someone? ”
“ Have you been lying to me? ”
“ Have you lost anyone? ”
“ Have you forgiven yourself? ”
“ Have you always been like this? ”
“ Have you already chosen a side? ”
is . . .
“ Is this place real? ”
“ Is something bothering you? ”
“ Is that weapon even legal here? ”
“ Is this your idea of a joke? ”
“ Is this your way of flirting? ”
“ Is someone watching us? ”
“ Is it supposed to hurt like this? ”
“ Is there a way out? ”
“ Is this what you wanted? ”
“ Is it too late to turn back? ”
can . . .
“ Can I ask you a weird question? ”
“ Can you hear that? ”
“ Can I trust you? ”
“ Can you keep a secret? ”
“ Can we slow down? ”
“ Can you help me bury a body? ”
“ Can you look at me? ”
“ Can we talk about what happened? ”
“ Can you stop pretending? ”
“ Can you promise me something? ”
will . . .
“ Will you stay with me? ”
“ Will you tell me the truth? ”
“ Will this ever end? ”
“ Will you protect me? ”
“ Will they come back for us? ”
“ Will you remember me? ”
“ Will you choose a side? ”
“ Will you regret this? ”
“ Will you still look at me the same way? ”
“ Will you stop me if I’m wrong? ”
should . . .
“ Should I be worried? ”
“ Should we be running? ”
“ Should I follow you? ”
“ Should I be afraid of you? ”
“ Should we pretend this never happened? ”
“ Should I stay or go? ”
“ Should I believe you? ”
“ Should I be honest with you? ”
“ Should we trust them? ”
“ Should I have come here? ”
would . . .
“ Would you do it again? ”
“ Would you lie to protect me? ”
“ Would this have been different if I had stayed? ”
“ Would you really let me die? ”
“ Would you have saved them instead? ”
“ Would you still care if you knew the truth? ”
“ Would you leave if I asked? ”
“ Would this hurt less if I understood? ”
“ Would you forgive me? ”
“ Would you choose me this time? ”
could . . .
“ Could you survive without me? ”
“ Could this world exist without you? ”
“ Could this get any worse? ”
“ Could you teach me how to do that? ”
“ Could you be wrong? ”
“ Could you be lying to yourself? ”
“ Could you forgive them? ”
“ Could this be a trap? ”
“ Could you handle the truth if I told you? ”
“ Could you live with the consequences? ”
I'm thinking about coming back to this blog.... If anyone I was writing before with is still here and wants to continue our threads lmk
I owe replies on like every thread now. I haven't been feeling up to writing but I'll get to them soon!
I hope I someday get to write a fight scene with V because I feel like he is a uniquely annoying opponent. He always tries to be stealthy for as long as the enemy is unaware of his presence, but once he gets caught, he's just... going so fast you can't hit him. (A lot of his implants are to make him faster.) Like a little gnat you can't swat. His strategy is to dodge attacks and get up close enough to spray enemies with Skippy (if the encounter is low stakes enough) or an SMG (if it's not) without really having to aim. Aim is one of his biggest weak points: he's going way too fast to aim properly and he relies on a smart gun to compensate.
V thought he was a decent Netrunner--not the best, certainly, he was more of a merc than a Netrunner nowadays--but Eris was on a completely different level. She reminded him of Songbird. He wondered how much they had in common, if he'd ever get to know. Eris was helping him, but she gave him so many questions he would never get the answer to. He watched her body like a hawk, primed to interfere if he had to.
His heart skipped a beat when he heard Eris calling for the rockerboy. He felt helpless. He wasn't expecting to be relying on Eris so fully. He had only wanted help, but now he could only watch as Eris decided the fate of his plan.
"Johnny, don't be difficult, pretty fuckin' please," he muttered.
Really, getting a good look at the place was all she needed, and she wouldn't spend a milisec longer in here than she needed to. Not only was Mikoshi uncharted territory for her, but Arasaka could flag her just as her little Black ICE window ends. Better safe than sorry.
But, it was silence for the time being. One and a half minutes left.
In real space, Eris rolled her head to the side, as strange movements were rather common while she was jacked into more intricate, and AI-filtered parts of the net. Her own AI is useful, as it would cloak Eris from being detected as 'out of the ordinary'
Thirty seconds.
Eris, in netspace, said an unintelligible curse as she grabbed what seemed like an insignificant thread of code, threading it with her fingers, and implementing it into her Cyberdeck. She hoped this was what V was looking for, or would at least aid him, as it seemed Johnny wouldn't be showing today. She expected as much, treating this as more so a test run.
Eris jolted, staggering a few steps as she returned to realspace, her eyes taking only a moment to adjust. "I think... I found something that could help me at least. Make it easier to stick around longer in Mikoshi next time." A breath, removing the wires from her ports, clumsily walking to her Cyberdeck, where she typed rapidly. "I'll use this code to... Cloak my appearance in Mikoshi. That way, I can stick around longer for our rocker to find me. I wasn't expecting to get the job wholly done today, but, damn would have been nice." A small smile aimed at V.
Even though V knew it was coming, he was still startled when Eris's body returned to life. He tried to recover without making it too obvious that he had jumped. He was just on edge: everything he had worked so hard to do was riding on Eris.
He relaxed slightly and returned her smile. He rubbed his neck and stretched. He hadn't done anything, but his muscles hurt from how tensely he'd been holding himself while Eris was in the net.
"I need more time to get things ready for him when we do it for real. I got... steps, to the plan. I had everything worked out except how the hell I was gonna get to him--and I gotta say, you didn't disappoint. That was some seriously dangerous shit you just pulled on a whim."
V's cyberware eyes met Eris's. He wanted to show he meant it about making this up to her. She didn't have to do anything without getting her payment first.
"Let me know what jobs you want done and I'll get it done for you. Seriously. Don't be shy about giving me the hard stuff because I'm sick, neither. I can handle it."
"You're saying people think I'm nuts, so I should give you the rights to tell my whole story to 'control the narrative.'" V's tone was unimpressed. "I learned at Arasaka that the narrative ain't within my control. No thanks, choom."
V raised a hand and began turning away to leave. He'd given his due acknowledgement, had heard him out. That was all he owed the other man. Even if people thought he was crazy--and there was no getting around it at this point--they were were still going to think he was a crazy legend.
But there was one thing Trace said that made him hesitate. He stopped in his tracks, turning to look over his shoulders.
"What do you mean you had a hand in what happened?"
what trace had been saying was that no matter how truthful v's tale happened to come across in the in the moment, it wouldn't take long for the story to be twisted and embellished once he was no longer there to offer corrections. what trace had been offering was a blank page, so to speak ; v's own words, recorded or in print, no input from anyone else, carried by the name of a well trusted and unaffiliated media.
trace stood to gain nearly nothing from any deal that would hypothetically have been struck ── and so to have no such deal go through? meant nothing more to him than a few hours having been wasted.
smile still in place, trace would offer an understanding nod and a nonchalant shrug. in v's position? he probably wouldn't have trusted himself either. " ── don't worry about that, was probably an exaggeration anyways. sorry to bother you, and, uh ... enjoy the next few weeks. try to visit the memorial if you have time, i hear it's nice. "
"What memorial? What are you talking about?"
This was annoying. The media was obviously fishing. But the more V thought about it, the more the name "Trace Santiago" rang a bell: he was some kind of famous Edgerunner, wasn't he? V didn't know why he'd thought of Johnny first.
A legendary media meant this story would carry weight. It also meant he probably knew more about certain portions of the whole escapade than V did. V was running out of options at this point.
"Do you actually know anything that might be helpful to me? Seriously. Because if you do, I'm willing to talk."
V didn't know what to say. Certainly, it had to have been difficult. V didn't like being such a source of sadness in Rogue's life, but... He deserved to sit with this uncomfortableness, to feel how he'd done her wrong.
"I had a moment like that. It was right after Alt told us that I was going to die no matter what we did. I told him he should take the body. No matter what he chose, I couldn't stop him. I just had to watch."
V's fate had been entirely in Johnny Silverhand's hands... Right where V had agreed to put it the moment he first took those pills.
"But I guess the promise he made with those dog tags meant something to him. He kept it, but now he's gone."
looking at v where he sat across from her, thinking back on the night, short thought it may have been - there was only one question on rogue's mind ; c ould they have been any more pathetic? two without question damaged individuals, hours set aside all for the sake of talking about what had, in a way, been done to them. and all for ... what? someone who left. on purpose. time and time again.
it was sweet that the dog tags and what they seemed to represent meant something to v, and for his own sanity rogue hoped that it would stay that way, but to her it was hard to see them as anything other than an excuse. it was johnny doing what was best for johnny, a living but broken person left behind. only this time he'd managed to give himself an alibi beforehand.
if it was in v's best interest to put emotional stock in the dog tags, it's was in rogue's best interest to tell herself she wasn't hurt, and that she didn't care. it was only more of the same, after all, and only a fool would allow themselves to be scorched by the same fire twice. " well. rest assured that all you did was make sure he finally wound up where he'd been trying to go for years. " tricks of the trade from a post-johnny professional ; 1. if you were the one to point out the obvious, it lessened the blow when the realization snuck up on you later. 2. the truth would always be an open wound, but if you went back yourself and made sure to reopen it every day, no stray thoughts could do the job out of the blue.
" let's take a break. you still interested in looking through the trinket box? "
"Yeah, I wanna look through the box, but..." V didn't want to start an argument, but he didn't understand Rogue's passing remark. "What do you mean, he wound up where he was trying to go?"
That could only mean she thought Johnny's end goal was to be with Alt. V couldn't help but laugh. "Wait, you mean to be with Alt? Sorry, Rogue, I know you're the expert on Johnny, but... that's ridiculous."
What happened was Johnny's goal, but it was so V could have the body, not because he wanted to be absorbed into the greater consciousness of Alteria Cunningham. Johnny hadn't given his life up so V could live because he thought he could spend a picturesque afterlife beyond the Wall holding hands with his dead output. Johnny had said himself he and Alt had nothing left to talk about.
"He and Alt could barely stand to be around each other. If there's any part of him that's still himself out there, I highly doubt he's enjoying spending eternity up close and personal with a woman who blames him for her death."
Okay. Not tonight. That was better, V could deal with that. Maybe he should feel guilty for not wanting Johnny back as soon as possible, but he wasn't emotionally ready for a sudden reunion.
V listened carefully, poised to do whatever she said. She treated this so casually, like it was nothing to her. He knew she was good. He was not expecting her to be literally made for the job. V was realizing he did not know very much at all about Eris--the only thing he knew, in fact, being that for some reason, she wanted to help him. He didn't even have to tell her any of the details. She just came in and got it done. Whether or not he lived, he owed this mysterious woman, big.
V swallowed at the odd quality to her voice. It was strange. He wanted to know more, but now (ever, maybe, if their relationship was always this one-sided) wasn't the time to ask.
"I really doubt he's himself right now," he said. "I got the impression he's filtered out through thousands of other engrams, all the pieces intermingling into something new. I still have the specs of the engram the Relic is made for. It should be a match for the code we need to find."
In realspace, Eris was stood up straight with a few leans left to right, and leaning her head back before straightening herself out. The tub, or the chair, just wasn't comfortable for her. It wasn't what she was used to. In Cynosure, standing in the core for several hours a day and night was her familiarity. It gave her a strange sense of comfort that if she did die in the net, her body in realspace would be strung upright, and not laid down pathetically.
Eris listened to V intently. She constantly checked her safety levels in terms of Arasaka, or even NetWatch catching on to her. Nothing, for now. She was perhaps the first netrunner in many years to traverse Mikoshi without issue or delay.
It was cold here. Seemingly barren. "I don't have time for the waiting game." Eris spoke to herself, but it reflected in realspace, oddly enough.
"So we will play your game then, Alt." With a swipe of her hand, Eris brought forth a menu in her vision. She didn't have time to pause or think too deeply about it. She had to act. Eris tapped in to her operating system, the AI activating in full force, contacting The Blackwall within Mikoshi, which would either lure Alt in within an instant, or even Johnny. Eris was hoping for Johnny. Even a smidge of his engram would help. In realspace, Eris jolted and her fingers twitched as the AI took over.
"Alright, rocker. If you're in here now would be the fucking time."
Two minutes...
V thought he was a decent Netrunner--not the best, certainly, he was more of a merc than a Netrunner nowadays--but Eris was on a completely different level. She reminded him of Songbird. He wondered how much they had in common, if he'd ever get to know. Eris was helping him, but she gave him so many questions he would never get the answer to. He watched her body like a hawk, primed to interfere if he had to.
His heart skipped a beat when he heard Eris calling for the rockerboy. He felt helpless. He wasn't expecting to be relying on Eris so fully. He had only wanted help, but now he could only watch as Eris decided the fate of his plan.
"Johnny, don't be difficult, pretty fuckin' please," he muttered.
Things V always has on him:
-The bullet necklace,
-Johnny's dog tags,
-Skippy the smart pistol (used entirely because it can be set to Puppy-Loving Pacifist Mode)
-A smart SMG (for when he has to get serious about killing)
-A non-lethally modded baseball bat (for up close emergencies)
That's part of why he always wears the Samurai bomber, it's got a lot of pockets.
V almost answered the question, but then Rogue moved on without giving him space to reply and he realized it wasn't meant to be answered. Which was fine, but it served to remind him that keeping up with Rogue was difficult. V said exactly what he meant at all times, but that had not given him any points with Rogue.
"Okay. Bad."
This was the part V was nervous about. The Johnny in V's head seemed way chilled the fuck out compared to the Johnny he'd seen in his memories. He didn't think Rogue would take that well.
"The morning after he tried to kill me, he decided he didn't want me dead anymore, so we were ok now, end of conversation. He never apologized. For anything, in his life, I think. He was overall an irritating, difficult ass who said the most annoying thing he could at any given moment. He once got pissed at me for saving a monk's life. He's a moody bastard."
maybe it said something about why she and johnny had damn near killed each other multiple times, or maybe it said something about why they'd gotten along swimmingly when not plotting each others well deserved murders ── whatever it said, the IT in question was that rogue, from what she'd been told, didn't think v would have been owed an apology on the morning in question. as v said ; they were ok. end of conversation. an open and shut case. not everything needed to be discussed ad nauseam or laid out in clear terms. sometimes things were what they were, and if that was understood by everyone involved? no apologies or discussions needed.
" i obviously didn't know the monk in question. so who was right or wrong will have to remain a mystery. " in other words ; even holy men need to earn their right to live.
leaning back slightly rogue almost crossed her arms, managing to stop herself at the last second in an attempt to look more open. " i'll give you a two for one, good AND bad. on the night before the last night, when i had the chance to talk to johnny without you playing translator, i asked in a roundabout way if he'd consider just ... keeping things as they were. " an open palm gesture towards v. here you are. i guess you know what his answer was. " it was good to know that, like you'd said, he really had changed. and it was bad because seeing him choose to leave not just the first time but twice ... you'd think the second time would be easier, but it wasn't. "
V didn't know what to say. Certainly, it had to have been difficult. V didn't like being such a source of sadness in Rogue's life, but... He deserved to sit with this uncomfortableness, to feel how he'd done her wrong.
"I had a moment like that. It was right after Alt told us that I was going to die no matter what we did. I told him he should take the body. No matter what he chose, I couldn't stop him. I just had to watch."
V's fate had been entirely in Johnny Silverhand's hands... Right where V had agreed to put it the moment he first took those pills.
"But I guess the promise he made with those dog tags meant something to him. He kept it, but now he's gone."
"It's not the kinda thing I've ever listened to before. I've not done much listening to music, in general, in my life. Too busy working. I think the last time I listened to a vinyl was... Young."
V was, to put it bluntly, a square. He'd always known that. He was a loser even by the standards of the other prep school kids. But he was an adult now and could form his own opinions on all the normal things he'd missed, putting everything into his job.
"It was hard to get at first. It was loud and angry, but sometimes real soft and genuine--it was just raw, like there was a lot of hurt in it. I recognized a song from a memory if Johnny's I had dreamed, and I remembered what he felt like as he let it all out into the mike, all hatred and anger and pain..."
V trailed off.
"I guess I could tell what he put into the music. And he was even harder to get, but... They both grew on me, once I got to know them."
v could be wordy when he wanted to be. not quite rambling, but offering more than had been asked for when given the chance. maybe that was a baby-corpo trait as well, something that had been baked in from birth. either he'd never gotten the chance to freely speak and was now doing so to make up for lost time, or he was far too used to talking ( meetings would do that to you ) and now couldn't turn it off. either way rogue wasn't complaining. it was just noticeable on occasion.
" did he get you in touch with nancy at all? actual contact, not just throwing a job your way like i did. if you're ever in the mood to hear something you haven't heard before, the really early, shitty, mostly static stuff - she's the one to go to. she's practically an archivist. " in truth nancy was just about everything a person could be, and organized was at the very top of her skills list, followed closely by sentimental.
less than an actual question, rogue's previous statement was one only meant to give information. if he wanted more music nancy was the one to go to. end of story.
" the music was good, now give me a bad. "
V almost answered the question, but then Rogue moved on without giving him space to reply and he realized it wasn't meant to be answered. Which was fine, but it served to remind him that keeping up with Rogue was difficult. V said exactly what he meant at all times, but that had not given him any points with Rogue.
"Okay. Bad."
This was the part V was nervous about. The Johnny in V's head seemed way chilled the fuck out compared to the Johnny he'd seen in his memories. He didn't think Rogue would take that well.
"The morning after he tried to kill me, he decided he didn't want me dead anymore, so we were ok now, end of conversation. He never apologized. For anything, in his life, I think. He was overall an irritating, difficult ass who said the most annoying thing he could at any given moment. He once got pissed at me for saving a monk's life. He's a moody bastard."
V watched as Eris's skin split in half to reveal more thorough cyberware than V had seen on anyone but Songbird. Oh, okay. He hadn't been expecting that, but, well, Eris was doing him a favor. No matter how many questions sprang to mind, he didn't have any right to pry if she didn't want to share.
V blinked as her words registered. So soon? He wasn't ready for Johnny to be back yet--he didn't have the body done, he was expecting more time to prepare... A thousand excuses formed on V's tongue, but not a single one went past his lips. He nodded. He wouldn't get a chance like this again.
"Yes. I need you to find the engram of Johnny Silverhand from within Mikoshi and filter him out."
Eris shot V a short-lived look before returning her gaze to the small keyboard on her cyberdeck. "What I will do..." She trailed off, reaching one hand up to the side of her head, removing her operating system, and slotting it into the cyberdeck. "Is see what I'm up against, at the very least. We ARE talking about Mikoshi here. I won't be bringing Johnny into the land of the living tonight, but... We shall see." A small grin.
The typing continued, as did her unbreakable focus. "Not only Mikoshi, but I will have to pierce Arasaka ICE." Quite literally, what Eris had been repurposed for in Cynosure. The irony of this whole gig was weighing heavily on her shoulders, but she wouldn't let it get to her now. "So, there will be a window. About ten minutes to see what I can do. If I'm in their data fortress for a minute longer, assume I've been made and forcefully disconnect me. No matter the risk. Okay?"
Eris stood up straight after pressing a button on her Cyberdeck. "See you soon." She said with a small smile, leaning her head back a little as the room, and everything in it, began to smear into nothing.
Naturally, she'd be in her Data Fortress to start. She filtered through code until she found what she was looking for.
Arasaka's data fortress was... Well, it wasn't child's play, but it wasn't necessarily difficult for her. Eris's self-made Black Temp ICE, mixed in with her onboard daemons, made this a near walk in the park, save for some hitches. It was a shame Eris didn't have the desire to klep anything from Arasaka, because she'd crumble their net in quick succession. But it wasn't what she was here for. Now, she had ten minutes to see how Mikoshi would react to her.
It wasn't like The Blackwall. Not even close. Firstly, it was quiet. Less intimidating. It was almost... Warm. Like death's embrace. But unfamiliar on all accounts.
V would get an intrusion, Eris forcefully securing a connection to him from Mikoshi. "Alright, V. I'm in Mikoshi." In the net, Eris sounded different. Her voice was present, yes, but often overlapped by the unknown voices of many. A strange effect of the AI in her system. "I have five minutes to see what we are up against. Do I just call for Johnny, or?"
Okay. Not tonight. That was better, V could deal with that. Maybe he should feel guilty for not wanting Johnny back as soon as possible, but he wasn't emotionally ready for a sudden reunion.
V listened carefully, poised to do whatever she said. She treated this so casually, like it was nothing to her. He knew she was good. He was not expecting her to be literally made for the job. V was realizing he did not know very much at all about Eris--the only thing he knew, in fact, being that for some reason, she wanted to help him. He didn't even have to tell her any of the details. She just came in and got it done. Whether or not he lived, he owed this mysterious woman, big.
V swallowed at the odd quality to her voice. It was strange. He wanted to know more, but now (ever, maybe, if their relationship was always this one-sided) wasn't the time to ask.
"I really doubt he's himself right now," he said. "I got the impression he's filtered out through thousands of other engrams, all the pieces intermingling into something new. I still have the specs of the engram the Relic is made for. It should be a match for the code we need to find."
"Oh..."
V watched Eris remove her coat, which he had never seen her without before, and then further reveal the undershirt beneath her Netrunning suit. He was not expecting such intimacy all at once. It was the intimacy that got to him--what made him flush and his hand shake a little as he put it exactly where he was told and nowhere else.
"Um. Okay."
He followed the instructions and felt gently down the back of her neck. He felt the break easily. He pressed down on it, gently, and took his hands away.
Eris tried to cool the nervousness by softly scoffing and displaying a sort of asymmetrical smirk. "Relax, V. It's merely a prerequisite." She let out a smooth, slow exhale as he pressed, a ping popping up in her vision to inform her that her RealSkinn had been opened.
The skin split perfectly in two along the entirety of her back, revealing the extensive cyberware, wiring, and metal underneath. It was obviously custom-made to fit her form, adorned with 'Militech' branding and a Kevlar composite skeletal structure, though there had been a lack of any skeletal shapes save for the cybernetic spine. Besides the neural port on the back of her head, there had also been three more near the lower half of her spine.
Eris sighed again, feeling the outside air creep between wires and chrome. It felt strange, showing someone who was practically a stranger. "Alright." She said softly, seeming casual about this. "So, what? Do I just need to take a deep dive and filter out this engram? Walk me through what needs doing." Just like a regular situation for her, it seemed. "Don't mince details."
Eris looked around as she would listen, grabbing the wires necessary to make the dive, clicking one into her neural port, and the rest in their necessary places. She opened her cyberdeck, clicking a few buttons, while also helping herself to his own terminals, making sure their systems were reading her own soft with little issue. "I'll be overwriting your terminals with my own Black ICE. One can never be too safe."
V watched as Eris's skin split in half to reveal more thorough cyberware than V had seen on anyone but Songbird. Oh, okay. He hadn't been expecting that, but, well, Eris was doing him a favor. No matter how many questions sprang to mind, he didn't have any right to pry if she didn't want to share.
V blinked as her words registered. So soon? He wasn't ready for Johnny to be back yet--he didn't have the body done, he was expecting more time to prepare... A thousand excuses formed on V's tongue, but not a single one went past his lips. He nodded. He wouldn't get a chance like this again.
"Yes. I need you to find the engram of Johnny Silverhand from within Mikoshi and filter him out."
Dammit. She did remember. V was grateful she decided to go easy on him and didn't push it further.
"May?" V sounded unsure. "Johnny didn't seem to remember the year very clearly. He was telling me about things that seemed to happen way earlier, or way later. I'm not clear on the time period for a lot of what I know about Johnny."
Also: yes, it was a little embarrassing, but he had certainly not been big into Samurai before he met Johnny. V had known barely anything about Johnny before he woke up with him in his head.
"I had heard them before, everybody has, but I never sat down and put them on. I was glad to get a chance. It was weird getting so up close and personal with Johnny Silverhand when I could barely remember the tune of 'Chippin' In.' I felt like I knew him better after that."
as a statement it was both vague and very, very telling - though what exactly it told rogue wasn't sure. not remembering things clearly was right on par with her johnny, who near the end was closer to a drugged up wrecking ball than he was his old self, but the way v spoke lead rogue to believe that what he'd experienced was more than inebriated forgetfulness. it was a shame that no one was around to help the two of them sort through the confusion. ( oh wait. there was someone around, and they'd known exactly where she was. so clearly it wasn't THAT much of a shame if neither had bothered to do anything about it. )
" ... and? what did you think of them, now that you've had the pleasure, so to speak. " it had to have been a hell of an introduction, having one of the front men ( yes, she would always see him as one of two ) in your head while listening to music for what may as well have been the first time. given that v was clearly a fan of johnny, rogue assumed it only served to make the music ( and v's opinion on it ) better than it otherwise would have been.
"It's not the kinda thing I've ever listened to before. I've not done much listening to music, in general, in my life. Too busy working. I think the last time I listened to a vinyl was... Young."
V was, to put it bluntly, a square. He'd always known that. He was a loser even by the standards of the other prep school kids. But he was an adult now and could form his own opinions on all the normal things he'd missed, putting everything into his job.
"It was hard to get at first. It was loud and angry, but sometimes real soft and genuine--it was just raw, like there was a lot of hurt in it. I recognized a song from a memory if Johnny's I had dreamed, and I remembered what he felt like as he let it all out into the mike, all hatred and anger and pain..."
V trailed off.
"I guess I could tell what he put into the music. And he was even harder to get, but... They both grew on me, once I got to know them."
