#⟨ v. ⟩ ⿻ booting relationship database ▞ ■ ▸ cass

[streetsrot]

HUMANS OF NIGHT CITY - CASSANDRA MONTEIL. aka important npcs to v's story, inspired by the official humans of night city posts ⸻ word count: 1k. tw: abuse, kidnapping, torture, drugs tldr; cass is v's wealthy corpo ex who betrayed her in a series of fucked up events that resulted in her kidnapping, torturing, and drugging v in order to save her own hide.

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cass is v's ex-girlfriend, a legacy corpo who grew up being trained for the cutthroat, competitive chess board that is life when working for any major corporation. cassandra's parents are high level executives at militech, a position she herself now holds. she meets v when the both of them are in their late teens, in the late 2060s. with the unification war brewing and eventually reaching a peak, cass distances herself from her family, wanting to find her own path and break away from the corporate world she's known her whole life. she disavows corporations entirely and she has dreams of working as a media, focusing on boots-on-the-ground journalism. cassandra begins hanging out around mercs and though she sticks out like a sore thumb, she's charming enough that nobody questions it.

this is how she meets v.

the two of them hit it off after v saves cass's life during a regular shootout in heywood. accepting cass's offer to go out for drinks afterwards is one of v's biggest regrets in life. cassandra falls fast, in love with the idea of v and fascinated by the thrilling, high stakes lifestyle that she lives. v warms up to cassandra slowly, unable to shake the worry that anyone from a family like the monteils can't be trusted. every time her doubts come up, v reminds herself that cass has no contact with her family, and cass always seems to find a way to do something nice for v. she showers her in gifts, in loving affirmations, and she frequently makes little moves that fulfill v's desires for physical touch. before long, v is smitten.

their relationship is an intense one, filled almost entirely with soaring highs — an extended honeymoon phase that seems like it will never end. until cassandra messes with night corp. in her efforts to write a tell-all on the elusive, secretive corporation she finds herself wrapped up in a web of her own making and it's not long until night corp catches onto the fact that she's robbed them of restricted files. the corporation assumes she's done it to report back to militech. suddenly, her big break into journalism could be the destruction of a company that's already in the middle of a war, and should night corp work with arasaka, could mean the permanent end to militech's presence in night city. it would mean the brutal torture and execution of her parents and once night corp caught up to her, it would certainly mean worse for her.

out of options and unsure of what to do, she reaches out to her parents and explains the situation. cass, with the help of her mother, crafts a plan that ensures not just her and her family's survival but establishes her as the hero in the whole situation. she makes v, the unloved streetrat with no family, the fall guy. the story she spins states that v, an up and coming merc, stole from night corp in an attempt to hit the major leagues. cass caught word of it, reported the actions back to militech, who, in a show of good faith and as an olive branch during wartime, sent cass to retrieve the stolen materials from v in whatever manner she thought best. that way, they could be returned where they rightfully belonged.

not a word of her story is true.

cass drugs v, waiting for her to pass out and once she does, she slots a datashard into her that plants false memories so that when v awakens, she makes no attempt to deny what she's done. private solos retrieve v's body, throw her into a trunk of a car, and eventually restrain her in an undisclosed drop point. she comes to and finds herself bound and woozy, face to face with cass's mother who explains that "her daughter simply lied to get close to her". when cass arrives, v expects her to deny this. she never does. cass tells herself that she is doing this for her survival, for the survival of her family, and that, as much as she loved v, v likely would have ended up dead in an alley someday soon anyways. this way, she would be dying so another could live.

cass hands v over to night corp where she is interrogated and tortured for days on end. she never expects to see v again, and she assumes her dead as tensions are smoothed between militech and night corp. in reality, the corrupted data slotted into v's head is discovered by a night corp netrunner, tasked with traversing through v's memories. the data is wiped and soon after, v pieces together the truth of what's happened. in light of new knowledge, night corp strikes a deal with v: if she hacks into militech and wipes the copy of the files militech has surely made, she can walk free. but, if she is discovered in this operation, the corporation will claim v escaped from detainment and is acting of her own free will.

v is never caught. days later, a fire breaks out in cassandra monteil's japantown apartment. the rest of the apartment building remains untouched, but due to "mechanical failure", the sprinklers in the penthouse space are never triggered. all that's left in the apartment is a warning : if i ever see you again, i'll kill you myself.

in the year 2077, cassandra has followed in the footsteps of her parents; the end of her relationship with v denoting the end of her dreams as well. she has turned into everything a younger version of herself swore she would never be, but she excels tremendously as an elite corpo for militech and, because of this, looks back scornfully on her youth, scoffing at the idea that she had ever dared to dream of being something else.

v and cass have yet to directly cross paths again, though the chances are high. despite this, the events of her relationship with cass have left a mental scarring on v that she has never fully healed from. while she is by no means closed off to the idea of love or long-term relationships, she does have some trust issues that she hasn't realized are abnormal. v does not speak of cassandra or discuss the events that led to their separation unless she is extremely close with the individual she is speaking with.