#V-Techie Courses

[vtechiepteltd]

Elevate your skills with V-Techie! Explore a diverse range of online courses with certifications, including Data Science, Full Stack Development, Python Mastery, Web Designing, and more. Join our expert-led programs for a transformative learning experience and unlock new career opportunities. Your journey to expertise begins at V-Techie.

[elvenbeard]

"C'mon, V, help a choom out. Promise, I'll pay ya back for it!" "Only 'cause it's you, Jackie."

Look at these up to no good Heywood (but one of them not really) boys aaahhhh!!

Vince ran away from home at 17 years old and was a little lost and wandering for the next few years, stumbling from odd job to odd job. Before he found his way back into the corporate world after a chance encounter with Jenkins, his last (and longest) job was as a techie at a Heywood car mechanic. He was really good at what he did and enjoyed the time there, and of course he'd help Jackie out however he could - he got him the job in the first place!

This would have been in 2071, roughly!

Little bonus pics because I'm OBSESSED with his ears aaahhh!!

[unknownperson246]

Can you do a smut of Duff Mckagan and it's his first concert in awhile, after he's done hes full of adrenaline and he doesn't know what to do with it and readers a techie so they're the first person he sees?

hiii I’m very sorry it’s late.

Welcome Back:

Words: 694

warnings: *smut* *p in v* *cussing* *sex in a dressing room*

✮⋆˙ ☠︎︎ ★☠︎ ✮⋆˙✮⋆˙ ☠︎︎ ★☠︎ ✮⋆˙✮⋆˙ ☠︎︎ ★☠︎ ✮⋆˙✮⋆˙ ☠︎︎ ★☠︎ ✮⋆˙

Duff McKagan was coming back to play only a gig or two for the band he was once a part of. It was Guns N’ Roses. Axl wanted Duff to come back for a bit and Duff agreed to it because he wanted to keep up with his bass. Once he left GNR. He has been doing small gigs with Slash and Izzy. He basically tried to keep his distance from Axl. The one time Axl called Duff happened to miss Axl and the GNR day’s so he gave Axl a call letting him know he agreed to do a couple of shows. The night of the concert came and you were the techie for the band. You helped with all the technology the band was using for the concerts. You watched him enter backstage.

“Hi, Duff welcome back,” You say smiling at him.

“Thanks,” Duff says setting his things down and making his way to Axl. 

You were surprised he even replied back to you with all the noise going on in the background. You continued to do your job thinking nothing of your interaction with Duff. Once the concert was over Axl and Duff ended up shirtless. Duff was gleaming with sweat. He looked like he fell into a container of oil. You ignore that and focus on your job. After a couple of minutes, you ended up backstage to find Duff running around like Axl. Duff was full of adrenaline. He bumped into you and you fell over.

“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry” Duff say’s kneeling down to give you a hand. 

“Thank you, Duff,” You say while he offers you a hand.

You get off the floor and Duff sees dust all over your clothes. 

“Hey you have dust on you,” He says trying to get the dust off of your clothes. 

“May I?” He asks you like a gentleman. “Yes,” You say letting him wipe the hard-to-reach places.

He places his hands on your ass. He gently strokes it. He sees the dust come off. He pulls you into his dressing room. “Here. You can borrow my pants for now” He says handing you his jeans that were also your size.

He feels super guilty for bumping into you. 

“Thank You,” You say grabbing them.

He turns around and lets you change. 

“Hey so I was wonde-” He says while he is being cut off. He feels your hands on his shoulders.

He feels you turning him around. You place your naked figure in front of him.

“Wow,” He says as your hands rest on his hips.

You put his hands on your chest. He feels himself getting a strong boner while his hands feel your soft and bouncy breasts. He gets closer to you. He cups your face and holds you. He starts to kiss you on your lips. You both make out like wild lovers for 1 minute until his hands go down to unbutton his shirt he removes his shirt and pants within a minute. He holds your hips. You feel his breath on your neck. You feel his cock go slide inside of you slowly. 

“Uh,” You moan.

“Duff” You cry out while he leaves small trails of kisses on your body. 

“Y/N,” He grunts as he is stuffed inside of you. 

“You feel so good” Duff moans as he feels you wrap around his cock. Your head goes back while you take deep breaths. You both exchange your come at the same time. He still feels the adrenaline coursing through his veins. The adrenaline stops and he feels so tired. You feel yourself come on his cock. He pulls out and plops down on the couch behind him. He is knocked out. You put your clothes back on and exit Duff’s dressing room. You hear Axl calling your name out. You run towards Axl and the rest of the band. “Where were you?” Axl asked suspiciously.

You panic trying to make a good excuse.

“Duff was helping me with some of the technology stuff. He is really good at it” You say trying not to raise your voice too high or too low.

[toweroftickles]

❤️ Valentine's Day Morsels ❤️

(A Whole Month Late 😅)

These were all supposed to be done for the holiday itself, but obviously that didn't happen. The problem is that I care way too much about my writing and try too hard to make it actually good. That's not why anybody reads this crap. Anywho, I've been in an anomalously sappy, romantic mood lately and whipped up some sugary, snack-sized tickle drabbles involving a few of my all-time-favorite (canon) fictional couples. :) Hope these are sweet enough! Disclaimer: this is all obviously just meant to be cute, silly fun.

Link/Zelda (utilizing "Wilds" era)

Whenever Purah developed a revolutionary new piece of tech for the Hylian Royal Family, she of course needed a volunteer to test it out. At those times, Princess Zelda was always on-hand to make sure she had one. And it was usually Link.

The Sheikah techie was putting the finishing touches on a new observation platform propulsion system...she called it a "Skyview Tower." The Hero of Hyrule stood in the center of the device, bracing for the upcoming vertical rush. It was somewhat against his will that he was being held in place by six clinking, clanking Guardian arms. He felt like a prisoner in the teeth of a hungry beast as they hooked him to the machine, but Purah just clicked away happily on her control Pad.

“How ya doin, Link? You comfy?” she asked him. He nodded reluctantly. "Ok, I'm gonna launch you in 10...9..."

Suddenly, at the sight of Link ensnared in the repurposed robot arms, Zelda bounced up and down and excitedly tapped her compatriot on the shoulder. “Oh! Oh! Purah, wait!”

Everything paused. The princess knelt and whispered excitedly into the inventor’s ear.

What they were talking about, Link couldn’t decipher, but he saw that in the midst of Zelda’s sentence, Purah’s smile stretched bigger and bigger. After a breathy exchange, both ladies were giggling to themselves. Uh-oh. He recognized that energetic sparkle in Purah’s eye…that only happened when she knew her tests were going to have “funny” results.

Beep. Four of the Guardian arms remained holding Link's wrists and ankles still, but the other two raised up and took on new purpose. The octopoid metal tendrils zipped around his torso, snapping their claws like hungry snakes. Their laser sights booped to life and swam their little red eyes all over him...targeting certain areas...and once Purah pressed that button again, they dove right in for the attack.

The little pincer claws skittered and tap-danced under his arms, across his stomach, between his ribs. At first he panicked. Then he grinned. Squirming and struggling, Link began to laugh.

“HHHHeh…Heheh…Heh-Heh Ha-Ha Ha-Ha! Z-Zeld…Heh! Haha!”

"See, I told you he was ticklish," the princess chuckled.

"Oooo, and you were right! This is fun! Look at him dance!"

"Heh-Heh, Heh-Heh Ha...Haha-Heh! Nn-Heh!" Bolts of Gerudo lightning didn't make Link jump around this much. It wasn’t until Zelda sauntered over and tickled him herself that the machine finally wound down.

And just like that, being shot out of an untested military-grade cannon didn't seem so bad.

******

Parzival/Art3mis (Ready Player One)

Spring Center Fortress was always a fun place in the OASIS for testosterone-soaked one-v-one games. Each arena in the cubist coliseum was a giant trampoline, regardless of size or layout, and combat was fast and frantic when no one could stand still. Only true acrobats thrived in the chaos there. Entering one of the battle boxes, Parzival and Art3mis removed their shoes and jackets and stepped barefoot onto the bouncy black floor.

"Choose your weapon, sir." Arty's declaration of war was cheekier than usual. She smirked, already sure of her victory, and make a flashy show of unveiling a fully-2D Airbender staff. Rare gear.

Parzival eagerly cycled through the digital blue pockets of his inventory...lots of options to choose from. Neither he nor Arty were pulling admin privileges and just dropping rare junk into their accounts; this loot had to be earned like everyone else’s. Oh, there was a good one...

"Toymaker Energy Bo," he finally announced. The glowing green stick popped from hammerspace and into his hands, extending four frog-like fingers from its tip that snapped and pinched at their target.

Art3mis nodded. She looked impressed. "Spy Kids 3D. Nice."

At the sound of the buzzer, a blade of cartoony wind sliced through the room and nearly split Parzival's staff in two. Their weapons clacked together as the couple danced and dodged on the springy terrain...the fight was a wild flurry of flips, leg sweeps, slides and parries. Dodging a strike at her knees, Art3mis bounced into a full backwards aerial somersault, a mere hair's breadth away from the Game Over bo's snapping claws. Just as she landed and stumbled back, the very tips of metal fingers pulled at her body, grazing against four particular spots along her torso that they couldn't quite snare.

One, on the right side of her neck. One deep in the hollow of her left armpit. One just above her hipbone. And one smack in the center of her right side, under the ribcage.

“BAH!!” Art3mis nearly slipped on the undulating floor, swiveling on her heel and pointing her finger at Wade, and had to catch her balance against the back wall. Her staff zipped off on an air current and glided away across the stadium. Disarmed. In her most stern, commanding voice, the Goddess of the Hunt blurted “Hey! No. ...Z. No tickling."

"Hey, come on, it was an accident," Parzival laughed.

For a moment everything was still, both anticipating the other's next move. But he'd seen the flash of panic on her face...blood was in the water now. Her eyes darted to her glider. Slowly, Parzival raised his staff again. Its four-pronged hand spun around and wiggled in Arty's direction, closer and closer, and the sight made her jaw clench.

“...God, sometimes I love these Boot Suits.”

“Wade, no. N...HHHA-Ha Ha-Ha! …Ng-Heh! Nuh...nonono, God n-HNN!!"

Art3mis' arms contracted, trying to block the ravenous mechanical fingers, but that only pinned them even more snugly to where they could feast on her ticklish ribs. Her trembling knees buckled. Soon she was wrestled flat onto her back and rolling around atop the rubbery floor, her leg weakly kicking at the air. The Spy Kids staff no longer attacked her...it was Parzival's own fingers that she felt clawing beneath her loose crop-top, squeezing her belly until the cackles burst out of her. The two were bouncing and wrestling and laughing until the floor squeaked. Streaks of charcoal soot blackened her soles…the trampoline's worn surface had almost-literally painted a target on her bare feet, a target which Parzival didn't ignore for long. Arty was surprised by how hard she was cracking up...and, despite the soreness in her cheeks, by how much fun she was having.

“What, what’s the matter? Ya n00b. Stop laughing.”

"Ha-Ha Ha-Ha! Uncle! Uncl-hle!"

The dull fingernails that had been scribbling beneath her toes retreated. Arty was free again. Up and down, the trampoline reverberated to the rhythm of her diaphragm's spasmodic wobbles. Even after all this time, it was still an out-of-body experience, to catch one's raspy breath as a digital avatar...when she was worn out inside the OASIS, her real-world meat puppet followed suit. Slowly she and the trampoline both calmed. She sat up, folding her arms across bent knees, and her middle finger dabbed at her eyelash.

"Ha......Ahhhhhhh Ha Ha....Huheh...Okay, okay, you got me," she chuckled. Her toes clenched up against the rubbery ground. She tried to affect a serious expression, but that wide-eyed grin of hers just wouldn't dissolve. “But don’t do that again!”

"Eh, can't make any promises," Z taunted, helping her stand. For that, he received a playful punch in the shoulder.

Like most of the OASIS, there were no real rules in Spring Center Fortress. The important thing was how you won.

******

Aang/Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Waterbender training was going...as Sokka would put it...swimmingly. Aang and Katara stood ankle-deep in the waters of Chameleon Bay, practicing their stances. Liquid swirled around them, rising and falling like tides at their command.

"How's your octopus form?" Aang's teacher asked him.

Quickly, Aang struck the proper pose and focused. A stream of ocean foam snaked upward into the air and corkscrewed multiple arcs around his body. With a twist of his arm, the water coalesced into a near-solid tentacle, its rippling surface smoothed out, and he made it sway back and forth in a friendly wave. Katara giggled. She, meanwhile, was focused on maintaining six hovering spheres of water that orbited around a rock in front of her. Gesturing with her palm, she relaxed into a simple Single Whip posture, her right knee bent and arms outstretched, and the water balls merged into a lash. She was focused and precise...and totally oblivious to what her pupil was doing.

Guided by Aang's slow dance, a water tendril slithered across the bay and breached the surface. As soon as Katara wasn't looking, its tip rose up and wiggled against her tummy - right next to her belly button.

"Ah! Haha…Aang, stop it!" Laughing, she jumped in place and covered her ticklish spot with her hand. Instantly the Avatar’s octopus construct fizzled into droplets and splashed the flowing sea below. He stood there all sheepish and rubbed the back of his tattooed head, grinning like a buffoon.

"Heh...sorry. You were wide open." Aang couldn't escape his own mischievous nature. He was 12, after all.

There was a brief and fearful pang in his stomach...is Katara mad at me? But her smile was the brightest he'd seen on the waterbender's face all week. In fact, if he didn't know any better, he could've sworn she was starting to blush. Both benders just laughed shyly and turned to face the sandbank once more.

"Alright, let's keep going."

******

Gwen/Miles (Spider-Verse)

The multiversal headquarters of the Spiders didn't just have a lockup, a science lab, and a cafeteria (no bagels allowed). There was also quite a museum of trophies and mementos gathered from past battles, defeated villains, and fallen heroes from all across the cosmic web. It was like Batman's basement on the scale of the MoMA. And Gwen couldn't wait to show Miles all she'd learned there.

Clasping one another's hands they dashed through the halls, often pulling eagerly in opposite directions. Miles was a kid in a candy store, and every time his eyes lit up, it reminded Gwen of a thousand reasons why she liked him. After passing the wrecked granite namesake of one "Big Wheel 5000 BC," the two skidded to a stop, lured by an exhibit that stood out from the rest: a single hand, perched atop a pedestal.

An Infinity Gauntlet, this was not. It was a cheap canary opera glove, with long, fluffy white feathers glued to its digits in lieu of fingernails. The plastic plaque beneath declared in full voice to the pair:

“‘The Tickler?!’" Frog-mouthed in shock, Gwen doubled over, laughing wildly. “No. Freaking. Way."***

"Are you serious right now? Ha…Wow, they just get lamer…”

"Heheh-Heh! Ok, ok; you’ve gotta hear this: 'Crude homemade weapon retrieved from Whedon Winslow, Earth-57780.' Some name... 'Failed stand-up comedian who turned to larceny. Distracted victims and pursuant Spider Society with...'"

But Miles wasn’t paying attention to Gwen's narration. He was busy cracking his knuckles and reaching toward his distracted girlfriend from behind, trying to project confidence from a playful smile that was actually quite shy. He was gonna get her so good, he encouraged himself.

In the midst of Gwen's sentence, kneading fingertips hooked right into her sensitive, squishy waistline.

Her gasp was loud and shrill. The girl almost popped like a chocolatey toaster pastry, but a right forearm encircled her collarbone and held her firmly in place. Before she knew it, Gwen was immobilized in a tickle hug and fell straight into Miles' lap as the two collapsed to the floor.

"AH!! *gasp* Huhuh-Huhuh Heheh! *gasp* Ah Ha-Ha Ha-Ha Ha! St-HOP ihit! We're supposed to be quiet!!"

She screamed and elbowed Miles in the stomach, but he maintained his hold. Then she tried pulling on his wrists. No good. Gwen was the most squirmy, wiggly human being Miles had ever seen; champion swimmers didn't kick their legs as hard as she did. He might as well have been trying to hold onto a hagfish in an oil spill…even with sticky fingers, it was a challenge! But watching her smile and laugh like this was so worth it.

“Wait, hold up a minute!” Miles laughed as if Gwen would actually obey him (not that she had much choice). One THWIP! of spider-silk from his wrist, and The Tickler’s glove was yanked right off its perch and into his hand. Miles didn't put it on...all he needed to do was hold one of the fingers and wield the feather like a wand.

The quills prickled like thousands of tiny needles against the nape of Gwen's goosebumpy neck...right at the signal source from whence her Spider-Sense was screeching. Any measure of defiance left in her crumbled to dust. Both of her palms slapped over her face...anything to hide it from Miles. She could have fried an egg on her cheeks for how they sizzled.

“VVVVVVVFF-EEEE!!! *Yeek!* OmigodNO - N-no feath-hers, oh my GAWWD, no feahehther-her-hers…*SNORT* AHHHMilesstoppit!” she whined and cried. The feather stroked down across her collarbone, her shoulder blade, under her armpit...

It wasn't long before one of the nigh-innumerable Spider Society horde noticed the sound of embarrassed squeals echoing throughout the gallery and swooped in to investigate. But when this particular Peter Parker entered the hall, it was found vacant. Nothing but various museum exhibits, all undisturbed in their places. And so he left.

Miles, as it turns out, had been practicing a new technique. He wasn't the only person that he could turn invisible.

"Shhh!" he whispered. Gwen was absolutely trembling in his lap, even though the tickling had stopped - it took two hands to stifle her uncontrollable belly laughs. There, with his arms around her and feeling her heartbeat against his, a warmth washed over Miles. There were a million worries flapping around inside his brain...his future with the Spiders, his parents, and he & Gwen...was it right, how they felt about each other, what they were doing? But for a few quiet moments, where nobody could see them, none of that mattered.

He almost kissed the top of her head, but got too antsy.

Maybe next time.

******

*Note: Actual Spider-Man villain. Seriously. I did not make this up.

Victoria/Misto (Cats 2019)

The Egyptian Theater was warm and sleepy that evening. The old sun-shaped stage prop created the perfect napping spot for a young Jellicle, and the white cat lolled blissfully in its hollowed-out cradle. Her left leg dangled down off the side, pendulous and swaying like a metronome, right next to her boyfriend’s nearby head. Mr. Mistoffelees was kneeling there on the floorboards directly beneath, fumbling with a deck of cards.

Victoria peered over the side of her perch and smiled, unnoticed. Just laying beside her magician (well, a bit higher and to the right of him, anyway) carried her off in a cozy bubble of comfort. She just felt content around him. Her hands couldn’t reach to pet him…not from this angle…so instead, she held her slender leg out and, with her big toe, traced gentle crescents behind his ear.

His ear twitched. At first Misto instinctively ducked away from the impromptu scalp scratch, inquisitive chuckle aside ("Heh...what are you doing?"), but he soon came around to her affection and began to purr. His head rolled around across his shoulders, his back arched, and his ears flopped and wagged. Tori could tell the scritches were making him happy. Tufts of black fur shot up like grass between her marble toes, bristling the ball of her foot back and forth, until out of nowhere it made her shiver and pull away.

"Hmhm! Hmf..." she giggled sweetly through her nose. "Your fur tickles."

The tuxedo cat grinned and looked up at her. There was his opening. "Oh, it does?" he taunted. "It does?" With one quick yank, Victoria’s foot was down near his chest, and she was laughing and gripping the sunbeams with all her might. In her meek struggle for balance, that varnished wooden nest fought back with bumpy scrapes against her stomach and her thighs. Taking hold of his tail in his left hand, Misto started painting broad brushstrokes across Victoria’s foot with its fuzzy black tip, and she immediately began to fidget. “What about this?” Misto asked her.

"Heehee-Hih! *gasp* Hn-Hih! Th-hat's not fair, I'm stuck...Hee! It tihickles," the snow-white kitten’s jubilant squeaks bubbled up from inside her. Her ears flattened shyly. Why did this kind of thing happen to her so much? She didn’t hate being tickled, but lately it felt like she’d become something of a Jellicle magnet. If this kept up, she’d have to start wearing her ballet flats 24/7.

Almost as soon as it started, Misto let her go, and Victoria scurried her legs back up inside that little hovel, before turning around and facing him once more. She loved the chalky pink way his nose blushed, and that awkward, crooked smile of his, the one that popped up whenever he finally let himself be playful. He loved how her persimmon lips stood out against her face, and the way her head dropped timidly down to her shoulders when she giggled.

Soon the two were snuggling in each other's arms inside the heart of the sun, just waiting for the Jellicle Moon to rise again.

******

Vi/Caitlyn (Arcane)

The papery bandages around her forearms chafed against Vi's chin. Her elaborate clockwork tattoos peeked out through the rips on her sleeveless blue-hooded top. Pink-and-orange sunset streaked through the glass. She still wasn’t used to laying on a bed as big and comfy as Caitlyn’s.

"I haven't had a back rub in...probably forever," she mused, still a little apprehensive about this kind of intimate contact.

"It's really relaxing, I promise.”

Warm palms kneaded into the Trencher girl's scapula. Spindly fingers performed slow, smooth taffy-machine pulls on the muscles between her shoulders and neck. At first she resisted, but slowly surrendered to the touching and let herself sink deep into the soft mattress.

“Wow, your…you’re rock solid,” Caitlyn murmured, impressed. Under that jacket, Vi’s physique felt even buffer than it looked. And that intricate body art…Caitlyn was so busy admiring that she neglected to notice how her hands were moving faster, stroking in tandem with a nervous pulse.

Vi froze. Her fingers skittishly drummed against the bedsheet. Everything about Caitlyn's technique was wrong in precisely the right ways: the thumbs were rubbing a little too gently down her lats, the fingernails squeezing a smidge too firm between her ribs. It was clumsy, inelegant...ticklish. All it took was one especially-wrong nerve hit, and when she could no longer keep her mouth shut, Vi’s whole body shuddered.

“DAH, Huhuh-Heheh! Hey…watch it,” she laughed. "Careful back there."

“Sorry,” Cait replied, smirking. Her hands plunged back down.

Oh come on…not again. Vi felt like a grape in a wine press when twisting thumbs pushed down hard on her obliques. Her lumbars. Her hipbones. Every knot in her lower back. Her eyes widened, and all the air in her chest squeezed out from between her lips like a squished football deflating.

“Mmff…PFFFFTHnhn!” More wriggles. The bed whined from the kicking lower legs that thumped against it. Caitlyn was at a befuddled junction halfway between offense and joy, between pouting and grinning. Vi always made things difficult for her.

“I am trying to do something nice for you; could you just hold still?”

“GRRRR, stop tickling me!” Vi snapped.

No apology this time. Only a playful tsk, and then the massage resumed.

The fluttery rubbing sensation drilled down through Vi’s back until it scorched the inner wall of her stomach. Her frustrated, reddening facial features scrunched themselves tightly together. She repeatedly slapped the nearby pillow with the ferocity of a grunge drummer. If her bared teeth had ground any harder together, her gums would’ve bled.

“NGK! Nooo-hoho; Hng-Hn! Gkkkk…Sss-sss-st-hop i-hih-hit…! Kkkkk!!” The redhead choked on desperate glass-shard sniggers that scraped against the roof of her mouth. She couldn’t stop her angry tough-girl giggling, and it drove her nuts.

"C-hut it ouuut, I'm gonna punch you!!!"

That one wasn't a threat; it was a genuine, heartfelt warning. Caitlyn couldn’t help but flash a buck-toothed grin...that was probably enough, for both their sakes. She drew back her hands and watched Vi's quivering shoulders slow down, listened to her breath steady itself.

"Ugh...What the hell, Cait?"

“Sorry, it wasn't on purpose. You’re just…I think it’s very…*ahem* …" Now it was the cop's turn to be flustered and rosy-cheeked. "...adorable. How frustrated you get when you’re feeling ticklish.”

Caitlyn was expecting a tease, a playful slap, a snarky reprimand...some kind of retaliation...especially when she saw that smirk in the corner of Vi's mouth. But instead of payback, she got a pleasant surprise: Vi sat up, turned around, and shoved her lips into Caitlyn’s so hard and fast that the blue-haired Enforcer almost fell backward.

...Perhaps she'd have to try this again soon.

******

Kiki/Tombo (Kiki's Delivery Service)

“Hey, Kiki, I was wondering…can witches call their broomsticks to them like a magnet?” Tombo asked studiously, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He and Kiki were relaxing on Ursula’s front porch with glasses of fizzy lemonade, the sticky kind that makes your spit hurt when you drink it. It was a foggy spring morning and the crows were flapping in the damp emerald lawn.

“Hm…I don’t know; I’ve never tried,” she observed. Spying her broom across the clearing, rested against a tree stump, the young courier witch reached out her right hand, poked her tongue out, and concentrated. Unfortunately, Star Wars hadn't been invented yet, so it didn't occur to her to make an Empire Strikes Back reference.

At first her flying stick merely turned. It rocked in the crook of the tree’s roots, but nothing more. Maybe she wasn’t concentrating hard enough? But no sooner had the idea entered her mind than the crude vehicle hoisted itself horizontally, hovered a few feet off the grass, and charged. An invisible hand threw the broom at Kiki like a chucked javelin, and it was soaring straight for her face.

"Whoa! Look out!" Tombo immediately sprung into action, and his quick dive shoved Kiki out of the way just in time for him to take the blow. The broom's handle shot into one sleeve and out the other, dragging the junior aviator off the porch and tossing him headlong to the ground before it finally twitched its last.

“Oh my gosh, Tombo! Are you ok?!” Panicking, Kiki rushed to pull her friend up out of the grass. The broom handle was caught against his neck, parallel to the red-and-white stripes on his chest. He wobbled a bit when he stood...a few green stains on his knees...but was otherwise unscraped.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little crooked here," he reassured her, swinging his arms around like a weathervane.

“Oh, thank goodness...Heh...you know, you kind of look like a scarecrow that way."

She was right...he did...but the boy’s gangly T-pose did nothing to deter Ursula’s avian buddies. In fact, right on cue, several of them flocked to his outstretched forearms. One even pecked at his ear.

“Heh-Heh! Guess I’m not a very good one!” The two shared a chuckle, before Kiki helpfully flapped her arm and shooed the birds away. "Hey, thanks. Can you help me get this out? My arms are kinda stuck."

But Kiki wasn't interested in helping right away...his pose had given her other ideas. Before Tombo knew it, Kiki's fingers were strumming up and down his sides with gleeful abandon. She kept pinching his belly and in between his ribs and affectionately watched him wiggle.

"Heh! Heheh-Haha! Hey, cut it ou-howt! Heh! You know I'm ticklish!" Tombo's smile was wide and sunny and dorky as he jumped around in place. Kiki, meanwhile, was positively giddy. She only tickled for a few more seconds...any longer and she would've gotten much too embarrassed...before carefully extricating the misbehaving broom from Tombo's sleeves and throwing it out into the field. Crisis averted.

"Heehee-Hee! I'm sorry, I couldn't help it!"

The boy brushed his sandy hair back and grinned broadly as the two sat again. "Well, you know I can't just let you do that!"

Kiki glanced down. Slowly...making sure to stretch out each moment of tension to its unbearable limits...Tombo was reaching his hands towards her, performing a spidery midair dance with his fingers.

The teen witch was already in a fit of helpless giggles and starting to blush. “Hmhm! Oho no, please don’t do it…” But instead of fleeing or curling up like an armadillo, as Tombo expected, Kiki bent over and quickly slipped her shoes off…first left, then right…and then lifted her arms skyward. “Heehee! Oh my gohosh, no, please…please don't...”

Suddenly, an old door hinge groaned. Bare feet creaked on the cold grey porch step. When Kiki & Tombo turned to look at the source of the noise, there stood Ursula, grinning and tapping her fingers on a steaming blue coffee mug.

"Hey, what are you two doing out here?"

*******A Few Seconds Later*******

"AHHH, Ha-HAAAAA Haha! *gasp* Ha-Ha Ha-Ha Ha!" Kiki screamed.

"Heheh...Heh! Hng…Heheh-Haha Haha...Hng! Heh! Stop!" Tombo's turn.

Ursula was pinning both of her young friends down to the floorboards, aggressively wiggling her nimble fingers across their bellies and watching them squirm & kick in sync together. “Uh-ohhh; look out! I'm the world's most evil tummy tickler!” She laughed, they laughed; Ursula was clearly relishing her position.

That is, until Kiki and Tombo managed to grab the artist’s ankles amid their struggle, tripped her up, and tickled her feet with her own paintbrushes until she was completely out of breath from laughing.

Kiki often wound up in tickle fights with her friends back home. But she couldn't remember one that was this much fun.

******

Robin/Maid Marian (Robin Hood)

Cops and robbers, such as they were, didn't exist in 12th-century Britannia. So "Robin Hood vs. Prince John" was the game of choice for the rabbit brood. Skippy was playing Robin Hood, of course, which meant Sis & Tagalong were his cohorts. Maid Marian volunteered to be Prince John, so Lady Kluck had to be the Sheriff. That left Robin himself to portray the benevolent King Richard, and Toby Turtle as Sir Hiss.

“A pox on the phony king of England!” Robin cheered. At his command, his noble servants were chasing the “Prince” all over the castle courtyard. They all ran in wild circles over and over, laughing merrily, until Skippy and Tagalong managed to hop up and grab Marian by the wrists. The bunny siblings dangled off of her like bracelets swaying in the breeze, and she bent at the waist as she tried to keep walking.

"We've gotchu now, Prince John!" crowed Skippy. "Give up?"

"Oh no, what-EVER shall I do?" Marian giggled in her most over-dramatic performance yet. "Sir Hiss, seize these scoundrels!"

Toby's head - SHLUNK - sucked back into his shell. He certainly wasn't going to help. Eager to catch their dastardly villain, Sis took matters into her own hands. Jumping in front of the pack, the bunny girl reached up and pawed at the struggling Maid Marian's belly, and Skippy joined the fun by grabbing her side. Immediately, the vixen broke into breathy peals of soft, melodious laughter.

"Ohoho no...Oh no-ho-ho-ho! *gasp* Noooo; anything but tickling, Ha-Ha Ha-Ha Ha!"

She knew full well that a plea like that would only goad the rambunctious tykes on, but if she were being honest, she was having far too much fun to care. This was as close as she'd get to playing with kids of her own, at least for a little while. Letting loose an enthusiastic yip, Marian fell into the dandelions, and the wrath of the rabbit swarm rained down upon her.

A sextet of bunny hands and paws were grabbing and squeezing and scratching at her tummy. Their little fingers pulled through creases in the silky dress she wore; their feet slid and stomped along her sides and made her wiggle. The kids' squeaky machine-gun giggles were very contagious, and the already-helpless fox couldn't stop laughing herself silly. She jostled and squirmed and had to push Tagalong off of her stomach.

“Ah-Ha Ha-Ha! *gasp* Help! K-Klucky-Hee…Ro...Robin, Heh-Heh-Help!”

"Bawk! Milady! Yer noicest drrrrress!" Klucky honked.

Robin himself was busy chuckling at Marian’s misfortune. Quite clever of them, he thought. They'd make Merry Men yet. His yellow bycocket cap shifted atop his vulpine ears - and suddenly, his thoughts turned to the feather that adorned it. He removed the hat, pulled the long scarlet plume from its sheathe, and twisted it between his fingers, amused. "Ah, there we are..." the outlaw remarked to no one in particular, as if he'd made some unexpected discovery.

Kneeling down, Robin grasped Marian's right ankle and gingerly lifted her leg up out of the weeds. With that roguish, wry smile and an absentminded hum, he stared right into her eyes and swooshed the feather back and forth across the bottom of her foot.

"Oh!! *gasp* Ha-Ha Ha-Ha Ha!! *gasp*hic* Haha-Ha! Oh dohon't, please, I...I d-hon't think I can stand any more, Ha-Ha Ha!” she cried. Pools of pink stained her cheeks. Her long eyelashes were dripping wet.

"Hmm, I think the prisoner has learned their lesson, don't you, kids?" Robin declared. Despite a few protests and "awwww"s, everyone backed off, leaving the exhausted Marian alone in the grass to catch her breath. "The Prince has been vanquished!!"

"Long live Robin Hood!" Skippy cried, holding his wooden sword triumphantly aloft, cheered on by his adulating sisters. While the kids danced in a circle singing "Prince John the Worst" off-key, Robin traipsed through the flowerbed over to his lady fair and tenderly offered her his palm.

"Oh, my hero; you've come to rescue me," Marian sighed, still all atwitter and breathless and fanning herself.

But instead of taking his hand, Marian pulled Robin down into the sunny spring field with her. Robin sent her his most disarmingly handsome smolder, and when she shied away, he slowly kissed her cheek. Their embrace was perfectly accompanied by the sounds of Sis and Tagalong giggling at them in the background...and of Skippy pretending to vomit.

"Blech!" he mumbled. "...Sissy stuff."

******

Neytiri/Jake (Avatar)

Neytiri sat up and slowly pulled her feet from beneath the powdery white sand. Infinitesimal shards of salt and earth and coral and glass sifted through the gaps between her toes with a quiet hiss. Pandoran beaches were very soft.

Jake emerged from the water and strode over to her resting spot. The sand was so smooth that he didn't even leave footprints; the pale flecks of dust simply clung to his body. "You think we should get back?" he asked her. "Mo'at's probably gonna be pissed."

"Mmmm..." Neytiri sighed contentedly and closed her eyes. "Not yet. I am too relaxed to move."

“Well here…lemme help you.” Not waiting for a rebuttal, Jake immediately stepped over her reclining legs, turned his back, and plopped down right on her ankles, straddling them. Neytiri looked bemused by his antics.

"What? What are you...AHH!!!! HN...Huheh-HEEE Heehee-Hee! NO! No PLEASE; HA-HA HA-HA!!"

The Omatikaya princess’ loud shriek scattered the nearby flock of tetrapteron into the salty air. Her grin threatened to split her cheeks open. Jake's fingertips were mercilessly prodding and caressing underneath her toes, and every single touch made her want to scream.

"Not that! G-get AWAY from MEE-HEE!!!" But her mate said nothing. Grinning, Jake bent all ten of his fingers...those damn Sky People with their extra digits...and scratched them up and down on her massive sky-blue soles.

“J-Jake!! My JAHAY-HA-HA-HA!!!” Neytiri tried to beg, but couldn't get the words out. Her voice leapfrogged through the entire octave scale, from bird chirps all the way down to breathy hyucks erupting from deep in her belly. She thrashed around frantically, her butt bouncing against the sand, and left a flurry of stinging open-palm slaps across her husband's back; even he could barely wrestle her down. Braids and beads tangled themselves like seaweed across her screaming face...how undignified it was, to constantly spit out strands of dreadlocked hair in between her bouts of tearful hysteria.

Jake didn't quit torturing her until she managed to lurch herself forward...the crunch burned her elongated stomach...and threw both of her hands at his armpits. He laughed and jumped aside at the unexpected tickle, before spinning around and scooping Neytiri into his arms. In a moment she was flat on her back once again, with Jake hovering over her and blotting out the sun, a toruk in his own right. The tremors in her chest slowed down, but her anger only boiled hotter. The smug, dopey jarhead smile of his...why didn't she hate it?

"I...*huff*...will...make you suffer for this...*wheeze*...Jake Sully," she hissed at her mate, flashing jagged fangs.

Rather than fear her, or even apologize, Jake simply tweaked her nose and pecked her on the forehead. What an asshole.

Maybe she could let him off the hook. Just this once.

******

[maleficentmrsofallevil]

Slow, but appreciative, clap

Maybe I'm just having a Chris Evans "I understood that reference" moment, but I appreciate MGA's commitment to the bit for this doll:

I know she's the MGA Entertainment Rainbow High Shadow High Series 2 doll, and a darn near exact copy of the series one doll (which I also own). I don't know what her name is, and I don't care, but I'm guessing she's the "techie" character, since she has a laptop, tablet, and a smartphone. I'd make some kind of joke about overkill if, uh, people who live in glass houses wanted to throw stones...

So we've got a bustier modeled after a motherboard, some 3.5 mm A/V jack cords as a belt, and CD-ROMs in clear sleeves on the front of the skirt. I respect this.

On the side of her shoes, you can see the tiniest little swoop that I'm guessing is supposed to be like the "Intel Inside" logo. I'm guessing, cuz 1) I can't really see it, and 2) maybe it's supposed to be Pentium? That's pretty old, tho. Like, she's not wearing actual floppy disks.

She comes with the standard stand and comb we've come to expect. The only thing I'm sad about is that prior series dolls had a case to go with their cellphone that had a little thumb holder, and this doll doesn't have that case. Maybe she's one of those cellphone purists who doesn't do cases cuz she needs the thinnest possible phone. Or maybe it got cut cuz cost cutting. Meh. I can't be bothered to figure it out. I saw the leaked photos for the new series, and slime is back. This line is officially dead to me now.

Oh - I figured out the way to use the thumb holder is to center her long-ass nails in the hole and push gently upwards until the tablet stays in place. The phone is just balancing on her hand.

Of course, I bought her on clearance. MGA pushes these doll lines out too frequently and too fast, forcing retailers to clearance out prior lines while current lines languish in stores, which is why I refuse to pay full price.

[corpocyborg]

Secure Your Soul: A Cyberpunk 2077 Fanfiction

This fic was previously published under the title “Before the Event Horizon.”

Summary: Six months ago, V’s boss at Arasaka ordered her to assassinate his rival. Instead, with the reluctant but invaluable help of her old friend Jackie Welles, she pushed them both off their thrones and claimed one for herself. Now the new Director of Arasaka Counter Intel has a problem. She’s uncovered information that indicates that Yorinobu Arasaka, the heir apparent to the Arasaka dynasty, is a traitor. But without solid proof, she’s forced to take matters into her own hands.

An AU in which Corpo!V never leaves Arasaka.

CHAPTER FIVE: THE MISSION

[read on ao3]

SIX YEARS EARLIER

V sat in a parked car and discreetly watched the windows of the hotel across the street through her Kiroshi. Assuming the rookie techie they’d partnered her with had done his job properly, this was the place where she’d find her mark. 

Not that V wasn’t technically a rookie herself. She’d only been working for Arasaka for a few months. But she came from a legacy family—both her parents had been Arasaka employees—and she’d attended Arasaka Academy for the last four years and transferred directly into Counter Intel post-graduation. The job fit her like it was made for her. Or, more accurately, it fit her because she had been made for it. 

On the other hand, Carter Smith, the techie in question… he was a smart guy, but too squeamish by far. V didn't understand reluctant corpos—if working for Arasaka hadn’t struck her as the best thing she could be doing with her life, she wouldn’t have done it.

But if he had successfully tracked the target, he was worth something. She’d give him the benefit of the doubt. For now. 

As she watched the hotel, V mentally reviewed the details of her case. Stephen Blackburn—a former Arasaka employee, pissed off that he hadn't been able to cut it in the corpo world—had made off with a datafile full of dirt on his former bosses. She knew the type. Jaded risk-takers with nothing left to lose. Dangerous because they were desperate, but predictable too. 

Blackburn wasn't her direct opponent here, though. She knew from Smith’s interception of his messages that he'd hired a merc to transport a laptop with the data on it for him. A merc whose identity was still unknown. V didn't like that. She planned better when she could analyze her enemy. So she waited outside the hotel, hoping to catch a glimpse of him long enough to ascertain his identity. 

Her patience paid off. Forty minutes into her stake-out, a curtain moved in the top floor window of the building—in exactly the room that Smith had claimed was occupied by her target. She quickly zoomed in that direction. There. A face glancing furtively out at the street. Gone almost as soon as she’d spotted it, but her optics had been fast enough to grab a scan. If he had an NCPD record… and, as it turned out, he did. The relevant file popped up in the side of her vision. A surprisingly short rap sheet, starting with a carjacking when he was fifteen. The record identified him as Jackie Welles.

Hmm. An interesting coincidence. She recognized the name. The associated image, too, though of course he was older now. After her parents had died in the line of duty, but before Arasaka had offered her a spot at the Academy, she’d been forced to spend a couple of miserable years at a public junior high. He’d been one of her classmates there.

She even recalled attending his birthday party in eighth grade. One of those patronizing "everyone is invited" affairs. Truthfully, she’d only shown up to observe her classmates. Ever since she’d first arrived at the junior high from her high-end private elementary school, the other kids had baffled her. They’d spent far more time focused on the latest braindances and lazrpop songs than on their grades or futures. She’d figured that couldn’t be all they cared about, and she’d made a point of attending every social event she could score an invitation to until she figured out what truly motivated them. 

She’d learned a lot of useful information. Most scrawny thirteen-year-olds in Heywood, with no cyberware but a pair of Kiroshi, had to worry about potential abuse leveled at them from their classmates. Not V. It was amusing how easily bullies could be managed when you knew all the dirty family secrets that drove them to pick on those they assumed were weaker than them.  

She’d even used her Kiroshi to record all those social events she’d attended. She still had the recordings in her personal archive. V was in the habit of never deleting any of her data, no matter how old. Her experiences, even the ones she’d loathed living through, had shaped her into who she was today. Those memories were hers, and she wanted them kept safe.  

So then… what could they help her recall about Jackie Welles? She pulled up her archive and set the date range to May of ‘63. She located the recording of the party on the 26th of that month and clicked play. Suddenly, she was thirteen again, looking out at the past through her own eyes.

She sat in a bright red plastic chair in the corner of a crowded living room. It was abuzz with the sounds of children—laughing, talking, shouting, and eating. She watched as teenage V zoomed her Kiroshi towards her priority targets and lingered there one by one. She waited until teenage V focused on Jackie. He’d never been a problem for her, but considering it was his party, she’d still taken the chance to learn what she could about him.

There he was, surrounded by his family—a deeply affectionate mother and more brothers than was reasonable. No father. He’d been admitted to the hospital the year prior and had never returned to the Welles household. V had suspected that either Jackie or one of his brothers were responsible for that. She hadn’t missed the improvement in the Welles boys’ temperament after their father was gone. She’d bet he probably deserved it. He’d been a Valentino of the old-school variant, the kind who believed his word was law when it came to his family and liked to take on the role of the judge, the jury, and the executioner. Say what you will about modern Valentinos, but at least they’d left that mentality behind for the most part. 

It occurred to V that she’d seen a mention of the Valentinos in Jackie’s NCPD file. Originally, he’d been known to take on solo mercenary work, but he’d recently been flagged for involvement in gang activities. Had he decided to follow in the old man’s footsteps? Odds were his mother was sick with worry. A weak point if she'd ever seen one. 

An idea began to formulate in her mind.

She pulled up her optics' phonebook through the appropriate series of eye flicks, and called her techie. "Hey, Carter," she said when she received an answer. "Can you create a vocal modulator for me? Want to imitate a particular voice." 

"Sure thing. As long as you've got a sufficient sample."

"Think I should…" V began, pulling up the birthday video in her personal archives again. She identified a portion featuring a brief speech by Jackie's mother. Should be just long enough for her purposes. She forwarded it to Smith. "Will that work?"

"That's perfect," he said. "Give me a minute…" The voice on the line shifted. “All right, Jackie, time to blow out the candles, mijo.”

“Not bad, not bad. You sound just like her. In fact…” V grinned conspiratorially. “Feel like doing some role-playing?”

—

Getting into the building wasn’t difficult. V simply walked in and booked a room for herself. She asked for a room on the top floor, citing fear of a break-in as her excuse, in case the elevator was programmed to only allow access to the floor a guest was actually staying on. 

As she stepped out of the elevator on the top floor, she spoke quietly to Smith, whom she’d kept on the call, “Almost there. You clear on the plan?”

“Yep. I call his personal line, use the vocal modulator, and distract him long enough for you to grab the data and get out. No bloodshed for once.”

“That's the idea,” V confirmed. “No need for this to get messy.”

V turned the corner into the hallway that contained Jackie’s room and scanned the area for security cameras. There was just one, and it was situated in an obvious position near the top of the wall. Her optics were able to trace its trajectory in mere milliseconds, and they lit up its field of view for her so that she could pass by without being caught on video. 

“Almost there,” she told Smith. “And remember—don’t be afraid to scare him. If he’s not scared enough to get out of our way, we’ll have to take him down the old-fashioned way.”

“Understood.” 

“Good. Make the call in three minutes. I’m going silent.”

She was just outside the room now. She set her Kiroshi to thermal mode and spotted Jackie almost at once. He appeared to be sitting in a chair on the far side of the room.

V crouched and activated her optical camo. Her body vanished from sight, though of course, she was very much still detectable through a myriad of alternative methods. The thermal scanning she was using to keep track of Jackie, for one. But she didn’t plan to rely solely on the camo. 

Exactly three minutes later, she heard Jackie’s anxious, slightly muffled voice from the other side of the door. He was speaking Spanish. Interesting. Either Smith knew Spanish, or he’d set up a program that could translate his speech fast enough to sound natural. Generally, it was easier to translate for the listener, so most translation software didn’t bother with the other way around. She was pleasantly surprised that he’d exceeded her expectations. 

“Okay, okay, mamá,” Jackie was saying, as V’s cyberware translated. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”

While Jackie was talking, V unlocked the door. It wasn’t difficult. The defenses were woefully outdated, and Jackie was making enough noise that it was unlikely he could hear the lock click.   

“Please, you have to calm down.” Jackie stood up and moved to the right side of the room, away from the desk. That was exactly what V had been waiting for. While he continued his increasingly impassioned pleas, V quietly pushed open the door.  

She immediately spotted the laptop on the desk on the left side of the room. Jackie himself was near the window where V had seen him the first time. His back was to the door. Perfect. 

She dashed toward the desk and stopped before the laptop, gazing at the screen. She considered grabbing it and getting out, but she needed to confirm that it had the data she was looking for or she might miss her best opportunity. So, despite the increased risk, she took the time to breach the laptop’s defenses.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Jackie was explaining. “They wouldn’t do that. It must have been someone else.”

After a few agonizing seconds, V successfully accessed the data. It was all there. Everything she needed. Excellent.

Behind her, she heard the click of a trigger pressed partway down. An acidic voice filled the room. “What kinda sick fuck uses the sound of a man’s own mamá's voice against him?” 

V froze. Too slow. Bile-flavored dread rose in her throat, but she swallowed, pushing it down where it belonged. He hadn’t shot her yet. She still had a chance to talk her way out of this. She deactivated her optical camo. Slowly, she raised her hands in surrender. “Okay, you've got me,” she admitted. “Don't do anything rash. Let's talk. May I turn around?”

“Fine,” he growled softly.

Cautiously, avoiding any possible sign of aggression, V turned. The man she remembered as a constant optimist had clearly found some hidden stores of rage to draw from. He looked at her with open hatred, his gun pointed directly at the center of her forehead. 

“Now,” began Jackie Welles. “Do you have her? Do you have my mom?”

That explained the level of anger. For a second, V was torn. It could be useful to let him believe that, but it was likely more prudent to calm him down.

“I asked you a question, demoña.”

“No,” V stated clearly. “Nothing like that. I’m sure your mom is just fine. We don't have her. It’s just a vocal modulator.”

“You think I don’t fuckin’ know that?” He was nearly shouting now. “Can tell the difference between her and a stranger, even one that sounds just like her. But I know how that tech works. You need a voice sample to set one up. So how’d you know what she sounds like?” 

V felt a slight tremor of fear, mingled with excitement and appreciation. He'd been onto her all along. He was more astute that she’d given him credit for. This might actually be a fair match. “You and I, we went to middle school together. Eighth grade. I was at your thirteenth birthday party. Still happened to have the recording.”

“Eighth grade?” he said uncertainly. “I don't remember you.”

“That doesn't surprise me. I mostly kept to myself.”

“More like thought you were better than everyone else.”

“Ah.” V smiled slightly. “So you do remember me.”

“You trying to make me angry?” He moved slightly closer, still keeping his gun aimed steadily. A good sign. If he was trying to intimidate her, it was because her casual manner unnerved him. 

“No. The opposite, actually,” she said emphatically. “I’m trying to make you realize that we have a valuable and fleeting opportunity here.”

“There you go,” Jackie scoffed. “Always trying to make a deal. This isn't your office, demoña. I'm not your coworker.”

That much is obvious, V thought. She carried on regardless. “In about five minutes, my backup from Arasaka’s going to come through that door. Yes, you could kill me before then, but could you make it out in time? Could you hide the evidence that would allow them to find you again?”

“And what's your offer? Turn myself in? Surrender and maybe my punishment won't be that bad?”

“My offer is to let you go free.”

His shock made her smile again. No one could ever claim that she didn’t make reasonable deals.

“Let me go free? Just like that?”

“Indeed. With a guarantee of future protection from Arasaka’s wrath, assuming you don't antagonize us too badly. That's for letting me live.”

“A guarantee, huh?” He mocked her sales-pitch tone. “So I'm meant to, what, take your word for it?”

“No. I’d never ask anyone to take me on faith,” she explained. “That data you've got, it's very valuable. Could ruin any number of my superiors. I'll have to take it back to Arasaka, of course. However, I'm willing to let you hold on to a copy.”

“You'd leave evidence behind? If your superiors find out, they'd kill you.” He emphasized the word ‘superiors’ with the same mocking tone.

“Exactly,” V stated proudly. 

He looked at her like she’d sprouted a second head. 

"If I try to betray you," V continued patiently, "all you need to do is leak enough data to make Arasaka realize I let you keep a copy. They'll zero me, but they'll come for you too. And if you betray me, I can initiate the same events in reverse order. Continued loyalty would be the safest, most logical choice for each of us."

"That your foundation for an alliance?" Jackie cried in exasperation, his gun never straying from its mark in the center of her forehead. "Mutually assured destruction?"

V kept her hands held up, but she dared to lift her chin. "Yes." She looked him steadily in the eyes. "Because it works.”

A loaded silence followed. 

“And that's for letting you live?”

“That's for letting me live,” V confirmed.

He was silent again. Then, slowly, he lowered his gun. “Okay. Deal.”

“Excellent.” V lowered her hands just as slowly. “I’ll copy the data right now.” 

She turned back to the laptop, plugged in one of her extra empty datashards, and began the duplication process. She noted Jackie watching her movements closely. She kept her hands open and within his field of view, so he’d know she wasn’t trying to sabotage anything. As the loading screen appeared, she said to him, “There's more we can offer each other, if you’re interested.” 

“More? This ain’t enough for you?” His initial answer came quickly. But after a second, he sighed and added, “Like what?”

“You’re new to the Valentinos, right? Got contacts there. Could pull some strings. Keep you safe, help you rise.”

“Valentinos wouldn't make deals with ‘Saka.”

“Are you sure about that?” 

“Yes,” he insisted. “Honor means something to 'em.”

“Honor means something to us too, Jackie.”

“Right.” His voice was heavy with sarcasm.

The loading screen reached a hundred percent. She unplugged the datashard and handed it to him, then closed the laptop and placed it under her arm. “Think about it,” she told him as she pulled out one of her business cards. “Here's my contact info.”

He took the datashard from her and plugged it into the port in his head, confirming that everything he needed was on it. Then he took her business card. “Okay. I'll think about it.” He started to turn away, but then he paused and asked her, “What about Blackburn?”

It took her a second to place the name. “The guy who hired you? He's a dead man. But you don't care about him.”

“How would you know?” 

She chuckled slightly. “If you did, you'd have brought him up way earlier.” 

Jackie scoffed. “Sheesh. Cinco minutos we’ve been talking and you think you know me already.”

V didn’t respond. He hadn’t denied it. 

“What would you want?” he asked bluntly, dropping the thread of the previous conversation. “For the protection?”

V smiled. She’d guessed he’d be interested in that offer. He was a man driven by competing goals—he wanted to stay safe for his mother, but he also wanted his chance at becoming a Night City legend. He’d probably agonized for years over which path to follow. And she’d just offered him a way to do both. “That’s easy. I’d want you to keep that data safe. In case I have a misunderstanding with a superior some day and need to settle the matter properly. But that’s an issue for the future. Right now, you should leave. They’ll be here soon. Go on. I’ll make sure they don’t come after you.”

He nodded at her and walked out. V let out a breath and leaned her back against the wall, allowing herself a brief moment of celebration. Nothing like a brush with death to make you remember you’re alive.

“That was kind of you, V,” said a soft voice in her ear. “Protecting him like that. Instead of solving all your problems with violence.”

“Carter—”

“Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me. Someone’s gotta keep our bosses on their toes, don’t you think? Over and out.” 

He disconnected the call. V smiled to herself in amusement. He’d called her kind. It was strange the way people's minds worked. But she didn't have time to dwell on that now. She gripped the laptop tightly and left the room, already planning what she'd say when she brought in the data but not the merc that should have gone with it. 

Letting him go hadn’t been her original plan, but she had to admit she’d wanted a copy of that data since she’d found out about it. It was far too dangerous to keep on her person, or leave unguarded in any of her safehouses, or entrust to any ally that could be traced back to her. But Jackie Welles… who would ever guess the two of them were working together? As long as she could keep him in line—and she believed she could—she could even send him updates as she collected new intel, growing his database of Arasaka’s dirty secrets but making sure they were used only when she wanted them used.

She smiled to herself again. This might be the start of a lucrative partnership.

[aggravateddurian]

Boy golly, I've just come back to tumblr and...

It's WIP Wednesday Whenever, my dudes (gender neutral, of course)!

Thank you to the following who tagged me: @wanderingaldecaldo, @chevvy-yates, @olath124 and last but not least, @ouroboros-hideout.

Judy and Val have arrived to serve cunt. Night City, you have been warned...

Where Has Durian Been?

Firstly, I've been on a bit of a tumblr hiatus. There's something screwy with my feed that means I'm not seeing everyone's new stuff (some people yes, but for others it's weeks, even months old). I stopped posting for a bit in the hopes it was something on my end. Alas, it appears not to be so.

I have elected to therefore charge ahead and just post anyway.

Yet Another Valerie Ocampo-Gonzalez Lore Rewrite/Character Respec

I've recently become very interested in netrunners, and in a move that I feel fits Val's established backstory well, she's becoming one.

Vik is surprised to find that not only has Val had two girlfriends in one year (she has relationship dramas that are often not her fault) but they have the same haircut! Clearly she has a type...

As some may be aware, I recently began writing The President's Lady, a Myers x Vega 'V' Hawse AU fic. I made some changes to Val's speciality and abilities.

Val has moved from being a Solo with a strong techie background to a netrunner. In a lore post coming up soon, Val goes on the net by the handle 's33lynx' (a play on the word 'lynx' and 'c-link', the latter being the official name for the interface plug on the back of netrunners' heads, and the former her favourite type of cat). She loses the Apogee Sandevistan for Class III netrunning hardware.

Otherwise, there's no major change in her character.

(also, if you know how to do tattoos for the VTK texture system and would be interested in a commission or request, hit me up, I have cool ideas for Val's tattoos that I've drawn sketches of, but no real idea of how to make them appear on Val's body because I ain't really a visual artist. I know my strengths, I'm a writer, not a visual artist haha)

Val's Pussy... cat, I mean cat!!!

xBaebsae released a Nibbles replacer mod about a year ago. I mentioned Val is a cat person and owned a ginger cat.

This is Pumpkin, Val's cat. In both appearances of Val (Brother's Shadow and Chorus) she's Val's cat, and both times, she's a gift from Melanie Foster. In Brother's Shadow, Melanie, of course, ghosts Val for unspecified reasons, so Val keeps Pumpkin. Pumpkin (or more appropriately, calabaza) is Judy's pet name for Val, so there's also that, I guess.

Writing Projects Continue

I am continuing to write Chapter 4 of Brother's Shadow. It's gone through the wringer as my perfectionism has once again claimed another victim. Rest assured that if you're interested in that story, it will come out before Christmas.

Chapter 3 of The President's Lady is also coming out by the end of tomorrow. Those who have me on Discord have already seen a preview, but if you're not one of those people, have a look:

Myers grinned as she placed her chin on V’s shoulder, “I can relate to that loneliness. It’s easier to talk about with someone who’s experienced it.” V nodded, “Yeah.” Myers’ hands began to explore beyond Vega’s arms, towards her hips, “If I’m out of line…” Vega felt… odd. The President… Rosalind was her boss… but at the same time, Rosalind was the only other person who really knew how Vega felt. She didn’t really want her to stop exploring. All Vega could do was smile, and follow Myers’ hands, “Glad to see we’re on the same wavelength.” The door creaked. Vega’s smile faded as Myers’ hands quickly retreated from Vega’s body. Reed stomped into the room. Myers clasped her hands as she turned to face him, “Solomon.” Reed eyed the pair of ladies. He seemed somewhat suspicious as he held up a sealed shard container, “The report, Madame President."

There are now two new projects in the pipeline. The first is The Alpha Bitch of Dogtown, a story about my femV character Vega becoming the leader of BARGHEST and Dogtown after allying with Colonel Hansen in an alternate ending to Phantom Liberty.

After being dumped by Judy (it's Vega's canon event for Judy to leave/move on from her due to various reasons), she falls in love with Bennett, who she then dumps and exiles from Dogtown after he is revealed to betray her, and she falls in love with another BARGHEST soldier who she has grown close to.

It forms part of Chorus Timelines, an AU where basically any time something begins to rot my brain, a new timeline is created where said brainrot occurs. Vega goes through a lot, I feel sorry for her.

The second is an as-yet untitled Rogue x V fic, based on an idea I developed spontaneously on Discord. I thank @merlgeim and @awwwokay for planting the seed of brainrot in my mind. Basically, Rogue falls for V(ega) after Johnny and Rogue go on their movie date, and Johnny is beside himself over it all. Queue funny interactions with Johnny about how V stole his girl.

Virtual Photography

My VP is in a moment where I come up with cool ideas, I snap them, and they either become photo stories or illustrations for future chapters of my fics. I have a few non-specific ideas that will get put through, including another Val x Judy photo story set in 2077.

I've kinda based it around one idea, and that's putting V (Val's half-brother) to rest in the columbarium after he is presumably killed at the Crystal Palace. It's the last act she does before she and Judy leave Night City with the Aldecaldos, and a capstone to the tumultuous relationship she and V have had, with Vince's final epitaph.

"See ya, V. Save a seat for me next to mom at the big bar in the sky."

What I intend to be the last words of Valerie to V in Brother's Shadow. How we get there? We'll have to find out as I develop Brother's Shadow.

Other Random Stuff

I've decided that at some point, Val and Songbird can meet and be very normal about how similar their hair is.

...

That's about it. I would like to tag: @merlgeim, @awwwokay, @ratsstick and @byberbunk2069.

Thank you to everyone who follows and supports my horrific brainrot content, and enables my continued spiral into fanfic shenanigans. Please continue to tag me, comment and/or dm me.

Cheers.

[yanderecyberpunkimagines]

Good luck with your new blog! Royce with an obsession who is the daughter of a massive corporation’s rich CEO? Bet its impossibly difficult for him to get her! But I’m curious how it can go. We need more Royce.

--------------

Creative ask! And thank you very much! I’ll try to post things whenever I can, although very slowly as some may have already noticed.

And you are right! Underneath *normal circumstances*, I believe it’d be impossible for a gang such as the Maelstrom to kidnap someone of such a tremendously high profile. But, considering how V’s adventure went down, perhaps nothing is really impossible right at this point. Counting double in the glorious world of fanfiction. Of course, I wrote it in such a way what the risks are, and how big the chance would be in the way this universe works in my eyes. I also made a little scenario in case he manages to pull part of it off.

-------------

Warning: Gun violence, mentioning of gore!

Simon “Royce” Randall

All it took was the simple mention of your name in some magazine article as he surfed the net, looking for information about your father/mother's gigantic company and the latest high-end microchips and associated hardware and firmware they were about to release.

As a precaution, because he didn't quite know how intertwined you would be with corporate affairs surrounding your parent's company, he sought you out through various sources. Flawless skin, a pure smile, sparkling eyes and a youthful and innocent aura surrounded you with the surprisingly scant amount of photos he found about you, in addition to some minor details about who you approximately were like as a person…

You eventually got him hooked as heavily as a partygoer who snorted up their very first line of synthetic coke....

Getting to you directly is an impossible task for a notorious gang leader such as Royce. He doesn't have the right technology, the money, the influence, the reputation, the experience, the delicate skillset and the natural charm and social skills needed to even be able to get anywhere near you, let alone take you away underneath some pretense. Nor do any of his underlings or any of his direct contacts. He is smart and barely tactical enough to realize this, but not smart enough to spend any length of time viewing and observing the bigger picture, for he is incredibly impatient, aggressive and impulsive to the titanium synth-bone.

Still, his tough, ballsy and unpredictable nature might be the desired trait that could be his little blessing in a situation like this. Although there’s a huge chance that it could quickly become his unbreakable curse if he doesn't play his cards right. Especially because he’s about to play them in the middle of Night City, where even the air itself is under constant watch by almost every corporation out there.

Still, the very first thing he does is convincing his fellow gang members that you should be kidnapped anyway and used as a bargaining chip for large amounts of money, hardware and important information through some sort of an intermediate construct. Anyone who even thinks about questioning him about his crazy plan is eliminated almost immediately, causing the rest of the Maelstrom to automatically fall in line, not knowing that he intends to never let you go at all, especially when you somehow end up falling for the black-hearted Maelstromer in return.

Just to prepare for your kidnapping, he will cash in a lot of favors from various sources, try to get a rival corporation of yours to help him in some way and he will work his subordinates until they leak synth-blood to finance the operation itself. A little bit of extra manpower; especially a small group consisting of at least one experienced netrunner, the right corpo rat from your family’s corporation, one techie and two seasoned solos would be needed to successfully take you to him in a relatively short amount of time without leaving behind too many clues that his gang’s about to be involved in it. The ones who are not cheap at all, but whom he will drop and forget as if they are a very bad habit. As long as they get the job done without a single minor flaw, that is. He will randomly try to kill at least one of them in the most brutal fashion he can think of at the time if they do, without caring about the consequences, whatsoever.

Speaking of consequences; the chances of him successfully catching you are still very, very slim at this point. If anything, he will crash, burn and take most of the Maelstrom with him if they don't figure out soon enough what he is actually trying to do. If they do and realize what his actual plans are, then they’d love nothing more than to put him down like the murderous animal he already is that he has become when antagonized for the actual reason he’s set up this very risky, dangerous and downright psychotic operation.

If he by a wonder manages to get you, there’s still a lot that needs to be done.

First of all, your tracker would needs to be surgically removed and destroyed by a relatively skilled and trustworthy ripperdoc who isn’t too well known. A woman who he currently has at his disposal at Clean Cut clinic.

He also needs to find a way to vastly alter your biomonitor data- make you a completely different person than what’s recorded at NC’s MedCenter with an expired subscription up to boot. A person who obviously doesn’t exist in direct comparison to their records, but a creative plan of action for the time being. If it fails, he’ll just force the ripperdoc to disable, or preferably remove and/or replace it like he already planned to do with almost any other non-vital piece of [L/N]’s company chrome that may be embedded inside of your body. He wouldn’t want you to summon the Trauma Team; and even the S.W.A.T. and the [L/N] company’s private military forces to an extent, when the former realizes who it is they need to rescue from the abandoned All Foods factory after you may deliberately manage to hurt yourself somewhere in the short long run. 

One wrong move from the doc though, and an accidental ping from either your biomon or your tracker’s transmitting signal to the local open network may bring in a whole different kind of hell for the Maelstrom. Of course, Royce already planned that out too, although not at all in detail because he obviously isn’t the type who’d think too far ahead about any potential possibilities. He’ll throw the entire gang to the dogs as a pathetic attempt just so that he has a bit of a smoke screen to leave Night City as soon as he can, forcefully pulling you along with him with a rough sketch of a faraway destination already in mind.

In a way, it’s remarkable how a man who’s ended up having a large part of his frontal lobe removed managed to plan, organize the mission and execute it in the way he did the second he developed a severe crush on you. Of course, he’ll never lose his highly aggressive edge and has the distinct lack of being able to self-monitor and control most of his own actions. Actions which are often brutal and bloody by nature. Of course, he isn’t the smartest tool in the shed during certain situations, either.

Ending on that note; what if he magically manages to make the first few steps of his original plan to actually work? I imagine it goes something like this;

~Short scenario~

Your father/mother ultimately had a premonition of what the city's underworld was about to do with the information that the company's private security department had eventually gathered through trusted business associates and from the streets through the use of their company's ever-present undercover agents.... Although they could not yet determine exactly which gang would be the ultimate mastermind behind the up and coming attack.

Yet, the safest place for you to be at would be within the company's highly secured penthouse at the very top of one of the mega-buildings found in Night City’s City Centre, right between Biotechnica and Arasaka tower. You had to be transported from your family's private property in the middle of North Oak by air. They decided it should happen on the hush hush, so they believed it’d be better that no other company aerodynes with an unique set of extra bodyguards should circle around yours during transport. It would catch too many unwanted attention…

Unfortunately, it happened so quickly and from such strange angles, in meat- as in cyberspace, that they barely had time to firmly increase security around your well-being and to think this plan of action through with their private advisors, nor to fully prepare for a proper counterattack as a precautionary measure.

The company's aerodyne was struck by an unexplainable malfunction during flight, practically forcing it to land somewhere in the middle of an intersection barely on the outskirts of Japantown. Your personal group of bodyguards immediately arranged for reinforcements because of this sudden change in circumstance. One that seems almost perfectly orchestrated as black cars and SUVs swiveled through the string of suburban vehicles that have long since screeched to a halt at and near the surrounding traffic lights.

Or at least, the bodyguards tried to call for reinforcements just before the high-security communications line, normally used by the company's private security, was hijacked by an outside source. Apparently, your private tracker was also turned off, and you couldn’t get it back on after you ran your systems diagnostic and repair software, the latter somehow being corrupted by a virus.

This was the moment when everyone, including yourself, knew 100% that you were all currently under attack by a party that knew exactly what they were doing.

With the special locks activated and your group’s netrunner having hacked into the local network to determine the angle of the overall attack through the cameras, your bodyguards eventually instructed you to follow two of the guys as soon as they would unlock the left door, while the rest would cover your retreat by firing back from either sides of the AV. The final destination would be the exact coordinates of a S.W.A.T. team’s armored hovercraft that would meet you somewhere halfway, and had already been summoned for your immediate extraction the second the flying AV got struck. The rest of their cavalry would also soon arrive, including a fraction of your mother/father's private company army.

Your organic heart hammered indiscriminately against your ribcage the moment you saw a bullet fly by, followed by a pained scream echoing from somewhere across the other side of the aerodyne as you were pulled along.

Plenty of people scurried from their cars the second the shoot-out started, screaming in fear instead as they did.

With a quick glance, all you could see was that the people who were attacking you most definitely didn’t belong to the selfsame group. A group that clearly is not of the ordinary sort. Still, their disguises fully prevent you from seeing who they actually are.

"Eyes forward, Miss [L/N]!"

You obediently do as told, letting yourself be guided towards one of the side streets. From afar, you already see a bunch more people scrambling away for their lives after you’d rounded the corner- obviously haven heard the loud, distinct pops of gunfire from afar.

They escort you into a narrow side street, trying to bring you round back in order to avoid any vehicles that could have been zeroing in if they’d decided to take the main sidewalk directly towards the supposed destination instead.

Alas, the enemy took this scenario into consideration as a spray of blood suddenly washes over you just as your group entered some inner court between three skyscrapers.

 The bodyguard who walked in front of you slumps to the ground with a wide gape torn through his neck. You completely froze in place, eyes wide with fear and your nose instinctively crunching up at the distinct smell of warm iron.

The other who ran behind you pushes you to the side, ready to attack, only to be hit in the leg. He screams, still stands upright, and manages to take aim at one of three attackers. He shoots. As another bullet hits his selfsame leg- crippling him, his bullet pierces through the skull as they fall backwards. Dead.

Panicked, you try to help up the man, but he simply pushes away your arms. “Just go!” he screams, taking aim again.

Decided with a heavy heart, you start running back to where you came from, and look back. Another shot. This one hits the helmet of a mysterious guy who decided to rush forward with a shotgun.

A violent exhale of air escapes you, however, as your widened eyes rolled over the revealed face of one of your many attackers, showing you only a deep red set of LED optics.

Does this mean that It is the Maelstrom who is involved in your possible abduction? The most brutal and dangerous gang currently known to Night City? This is bad… Very bad…

He shoots the badly injured bodyguard in the head - and officially finishes him off, before coming after you like the devil is on his heavily modified hind legs.

Without losing another second, you run even faster and curve into one of the alleyways that directly leads towards the open road, already making a second attempt to turn on your personal tracker, but in vain. You needed admin access to turn it back on again.

It is certain now. There is a big rat lurking in your family's business. A rat that has somehow found the right software and protocols needed to remotely disable your tracker and overwrite it’s attached user access almost instantly.

With clenched teeth, you run in hopes of reaching the S.W.A.T. team that should be lurking somewhere nearby by now. But before you could round a corner, you are suddenly pulled back by the collar of your bloodied, expensive designer cardigan.

A lanky mechanical arm clamped you and both your arms against the attacker's larger body, before something was jammed into your neurosocket after being pried open, closely followed by a shard being inserted into your neuroport.

You kicked behind you, screamed and threw your head back at least once as an endless series of code and warning signs flashed before your fear-ridden eyes. The few blows you managed to land might as well mean nothing, for he was strong enough to take all your desperate hits. A man clearly jacked up by subdermal body plating and with bones long since replaced by a metallic endoskeleton.

Alas.

The world slowly turns to black after that as your body weakens by each passing second.

The last thing you could make out was the goon calling someone through a burner agent before you completely lost consciousness; “Caught ‘er, boss. We’ll be heading towards the meat processor straight up. Meet ya there halfway.”[1]

1 = I somehow stumbled on https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Agent whilst searching for something else, and came on the idea that the Cyberpunk universe must have something similar to burner phones. I also bet that the Maelstrom’s smart enough to make use of such things during their most brutal and/or risky kidnappings and hit jobs.

[trashcatsnark]

Some Cyberpunk NPC Fashion Headcanons: Misty, Judy, and Panam

Okay, so this has been burning in the back of my brain for five thousand years- as an unfashionable fatass loser who loves the idea of clothes and style in theory, I project this love onto fictional characters. Mostly my oc, but also canon characters. So, of course in game characters wear one outfit but I've developed kind of my own idea of what their style would be based both off those canon outfits and the vibes I get~

If you disagree, that's your business- but I'm having fun with the barbie dolls rn.

Misty- Cozy quirky goth gf

dresses in quirky goth fashion or like a victorian ghost, no in between

eclectic as fuck

cozy sweaters are always a favorite though

dresses with peter pan collars, i have no explanation, i just feel it

those kitschy chunky earrings that are like little raisin boxes or like weird clown babydolls

general kitsch touches, she likes things a little weird, keeps life interesting

**crystals~**

definitely has a purse or bag with thousand of weird little pins and keychains- she sees the value of minimalism but she just loves weird cute little things

fishnets and different patterned tights

weird chunky boots

Examples:

Judy- Punk contrast techie

shorts and overalls obviously, always with a strap undone for the aesthetic~

idk why but i just get the vibe she loves asymmetry- one shoulder, asymmetrical cut out, fuck yeah

and like contrasting patterns and stuff, like shorts and pants with mismatching legs

i see her in bright plaid punk pants, it just fits the vibe, don't ask me why

crop tops more often than not- likes showing off her tattoos

bushido merch

not a big jewelry gal but she likes a fun belt

has to have pockets- do not get her on the topic of non-functional pockets

feel like she probably has tattooed on eyeliner, not her full eyeliner look is tattooed- but like a base layer of it is

has band merch shirts and clothes too for sure, she's passionate about her interests and will wear them with pride

Examples:

Panam- Nomad tomboy gremlin

fashion isn't exactly a huge priority in the nomad world, but Panam still has her taste- notably her love of bodysuits

also does love the off the shoulder look- but finding bras that work with it and her tits is the bane of her existence

Bras are generally the bane of her existence- you wanna hear a rant ask this woman about having the underwire snap in her last good bra and stabbing her in the tit when she's 4 hours into a 12 hour drive and miles away from civilization

cargo pants, torn jeans, and ratty shorts

so many of her clothes are torn

tattered old crop tops and tanks

almost always has her aldecaldo jacket thrown over whatever she's wearing- even if it clashes

also not a big jewelry person, just not super practical- her and a friend in the clan tried to piece their own ears when they were kids and all they did was earn themselves some nasty infections

this girl has camo pants, idk if that's my brain associating her with 6th street from that one gig or the connection between aldecaldos and vets- this girl has camo pants

more of her clothes are stolen from other aldecaldos than she'd care to admit

Examples (ignore the jewelry in some of these):

Bonus Round:

My V (Aidan Becker)- crouching punk hidden pastel

leather jacket 9 times out of 10 (definitely stole it off a corpse)

black crop tops, stomach almost always showing

ripped pants and shorts, often with fishnets beneath

subtle hidden touches of cute stuff, like she'll take off her combat boots and have pink heart socks on beneath

skirts when she's feeling fancy or slutty

flannels for pops of colors occasionally

if she's not one arm raise away from flashing her tits- whats the point?

only wears bras if they're meant to be seen

bright blue nail polish always

teddy bear hoodie when she's home alone and vibing- very few have seen it, embarrassed by it- but it's very cozy

Examples:

[elvenbeard]

2076

"I'm tellin' ya, mano, this is only the beginning! A few months down the line we're gonna be Night City legends!"

"I think before I wanna be a legend I'd just like to start feelin' like myself again..."

The day Vince was sacked in November of 2076 was the newest low point of his life. He'd lost everything, from a job he was good at, financial security, to what he'd assumed had been friends. Over the course of the year his health had been on a steady decline, mentally and physically. His first so harmonious, almost too-perfect relationship with an older coworker had found an abrupt and bitter ending filled with betrayal. Jenkins' paranoia and revenge fantasies reached new heights, and several particularly precarious operations went wrong in a row. To cope with the stress, silence his depression and anxieties, and be able to keep up with his coworkers-turned-competitors' performance, Vince turned to substance abuse over the course of his last 6 months at Arasaka.

In Jackie's eyes, the termination of Vince's contract couldn't come soon enough, seeing his friend spiral and lose himself in the corporate mud more and more with each passing day.

Like many times before - even though this one had been Vince's highest fall so far - Jackie helped him back to his feet. He and his mother took Vince in and kept him company through his withdrawal from both self- and corporate-administered drugs. Slowly but surely he got better.

From the first day they'd known, Jackie had always urged Vince to consider teaming up as mercs. Together they'd be one hell of a duo, muscle and tech, street-smarts and corporate education, guns and hacking. They'd make it far in Night City's underground world in no time, or so he thought.

By 2076, Jackie was a respected Solo, particularly in Heywood, but still far from achieving his dreams of becoming a legend - and really, those had always been Jackie's dreams alone. Sure, Vince wanted to leave an impact and be remembered, not just fade away into the shadows, but who didn't? Dying in a blaze of glory though, never reaching age 30, just for the money and fame, for doing other people's dirty work? He never saw the appeal... but also, so far he'd failed to find a satisfying middleground.

By mid-December 2076 Vince had somewhat recovered, had been clean for a little over a month, but his cash started to run dry. The next time Jackie asked him to accompany him on a job - just a small one, a little favor for a choomba, nothin' dangerous or dramatic - Vince gave in and tagged along. "Just this once," he told himself, simultaneously looking for other job opportunities. He even considered going back into the corporate world, a smaller company, something less exhausting than Counterintel, maybe media, or a lowly techie position like Jenkins had intended for him originally.

But the small job went well, was fun, even. Jackie's enthusiasm had always been infectuous. After everything he'd done for Vince, he didn't think it fair to continue saying no to him and to something that indeed worked out better than he could have ever imagined... He still had no intentions of dying young, or a legend, but as Jackie put it: would be a shame to let all that Arasaka training go to waste, so why not use it to do some good with it, help themselves and others in their lives?

Vince through the years (6/9)

The set above is basically the followup to this VP comic I did a while ago, the evening after V's and Jackie's first job together.

As mentioned, Vince was never eager to be a merc, and by early 2077 he simply treats it as one of his many previous part-time jobs: a way to keep a roof above his head, food on the table, and make use of his skills somehow. Maybe do some good, or at least leave a positive impact on a single person's life after 4 years of corporate scheming.

He is sort of picky with the gigs he takes, always weighs pros and cons. Sometimes he takes a gig he usually wouldn't out of sheer curiosity. But thievery and sabotage, even rescue missions, are really his favourite things to do because they come closest to what he did for Arasaka predominantly.

It really is easy money with his skills and knowledge, and also usually non-violent. I think that would be the main reason why he decides to go on with the Konpeki Plaza Heist with Jackie in the end, despite having a bad gut feeling. With the information they have it seems like something just down his alley, and he's very confident that he did his best in setting everything up. His biggest mistake is really putting so much trust in Dex doing his part for the preparation of the heist.

Vince is really used to his superiors just supplying him with all necessary info, no questions asked - both back at Arasaka and with the fixers he's worked with at that point, mainly Regina and Wakako. Both are thorough and reliable, do their work, hold nothing back that could be useful. He is also used to his team-members speaking up if they think something feels off. But I think T-Bug is in a similar boat as him, confident that all will go as planned, in her mind already in Cyprus. And Jackie, who just really really wants this to happen so badly, does not speak up despite potentially having a bad feeling.

So, even though Vince feels like all of it sounds too good to be true, everyone else involved being so confident and presenting themselves so competent, in combination with Jackie's aforementioned enthusiasm, convinces him that his own worries may be unjustified. He's overthinking, this can't go wrong, they were all really thorough, they can count on each other... right?

He'll learn the hardest way possible that on the street the saying "every man for himself" is even more prevalent than in the corporate world in the end.

(CW below for drug abuse talk!)

Little sidenote re: Vince's substance abuse. I often put great emphasis on the fact that he neither smokes nor drinks, one of the many reasons why Johnny pisses him off so much by doing both regardless and repeatedly whenever he's in control of his body later. Not smoking is really just Vince's personal preference here, but he actually wouldn't mind drinking now and then - his body is really just against him on this. He can't process alcohol well and just gets drunk and nauseous really quickly, even from "just a beer" or "just a glass of wine". So he avoids it, not for moral high ground reasons but more "I dont wanna puke my guts out and have a headache for three days" reasons.

Since drinking and smoking are off the table when it comes to numbing himself through his worst time at Arasaka, drugs are the next best thing. Initally it was just downers and sleeping pills, but when those started affecting his performance during daytime, he picked up neuroboosters and other performance enhacing stuff. It was a constant struggle to balance this drug-cocktail out, in combination with the canonical stress-blockers Corpo!V is on during the start of the game.

In short, by the time Vince is kicked out, he's a walking pharmacy and needs some time to readjust to a life without being constantly on something. He's doing his best to remain clean once he gets there... and he hates that taking pills is the one thing he can do to silence Johnny, cause it brings back a lot of bad memories and associations. It's probably one of the main reasons why he ends up talking to him more instead of just blocking him out like he used to block out everything else for a while. And even though he never fully trusts him, this way he at least gets to understand him better and gains his trust and understanding in return.

[kleinewahines]

Verse Roulette | Judy (@torntruth)

Perhaps they hadn't slept in days. Perhaps they had simply gotten a little too deep into their own head for a while there. Either way, they weren't sure where the last few hours had gone and why the ol' bank account looked a bit lighter than it should. At least until noticing the empty bottles of beer and their system computer informing them of the addition of a new set of gorilla arms. Don't drink and buy cyberware, apparently. Luckily, it was something they'd actually use.

Stifling a yawn, V(i) checked the time. Almost noon. Sure, that seemed right. Rolled over, nearly fell off the couch they had been using as a bed. Meant to do that. Of course. A stretch revealed a patchwork of tattoos and scarring on the strip of skin between the hem of their shirt and pants to complement the work on their arms that was easily seen without obstruction thanks to the tanktop. To say nothing of the tattoo on one upper cheek which didn't entirely divert attention from the eyes that glowed a faint silver thanks to their modded Kiroshi optics.

"Mm. 'Ey, Judy, y'done with that rig update yet?"

V(i) couldn't actually see the diminutive techie thanks to the towering electronics but assumed she was still somewhere in the mess.

[wanderingaldecaldo]

🚓💻 for the meme-ory!

Thanks for the ask, bb! 💙 Using Streetkid Val as default... From the Core Meme-ory game:

🚓- River Ward

As V walks up to the table, River's partner makes her immediately. River scowls up at her and she inhales sharply when she sees his face close up. She knew from looking him up on NCPD that he'd be handsome but he's even moreso in person, and then his width -- he takes up half the booth.

As usual when interacting the first time with someone attractive, V nearly forgets how to speak and gapes at the two detectives before she finally gets out, "You River Ward?"

Good job, fucking gonk. Of course, that's him.

"In the flesh. V, right?"

💻- Judy Alvarez

V follows Evelyn into the room, eyes widening as she scans all the equipment. Judy is the real deal, looks like, and then her eyes land on Judy herself, oblivious to their presence as she works -- her features made soft by the flashing BD lights; her asymmetric colored hair; her overalls and sneakers, with one foot kicked up on the desk. Evelyn clears her throat and Judy finally looks up. She glances first at V, and her stomach does a little flip, then she turns to Evelyn.

"Hey, there you are," she says with clear affection. Evelyn, for her part, acts professional and introduces Judy as the best BD editor she knows.

V doesn't doubt it, and because she can't talk to people she thinks are attractive, she starts rattling off the equipment she recognizes. At least Judy seems to appreciate it, but V can't shut up and keeps going, bringing up the faulty matrices on the expression translator, as if any BD editor with half a brain couldn't swap out the matrices. Before Judy can lecture her on just how easy it was, Evelyn clears her throat again and Judy holds up a hand in surrender.

"All right, all right."

V sighs. It's not the first time she's fallen for a cute techie with a problematic girlfriend.

[drakor127]

Louise: Actually has a pretty decent handle on things such as computers and phones. Doesn’t see why you need them to do a job that can be done with magic, but she can work them. Also, don’t tell her that magic is just science that hasn’t been explained yet. That’s a good way to die.

Hibiki and Kanade: two of the more tech-savvy of the bunch, since the two were raised in modern times. They're perfectly at home with pretty much all electronics.

Cyclonis: She has a deep knack for technology, especially crystal technology.

Uzi, N, V and J: They're robots, of course they have a good handle on electronics.

Jinx: Knows how to hack, and has an amazing grasp on technology.

Luna Girl and Motsuki: They got a decent hand with technology.

Mera and Indus: These two have a good grasp with technology.

Harry, David and Robin: Do computer day once a week, so they have a good grasp on technology. Just make sure David knows the password.

Montgomery: Can't find Google Maps for the life of him. He does have a good grasp though.

Coco and Sho: The two also have a good handle. Also know way more about video game consoles than anyone else in the core team because of being in the Reaper Game for so long. Can and will destroy you at Super Smash Bros.

Gentlu: This is a 50/50 split. Either she can perfectly program a sonar device to track one specific target that even the military can’t find and make robots, or she’s trying to turn on the TV with the garage door opener. There is NO indication as to which you’re going to get.

Garrat: He knows how to work a computer and phone, so he has an good grasp of technology.

Altair: Hides the true depth of her knowledge on the subject. She’s actually adapted enough to modern times, and she's accepts that people think her an expert in it, IT/repair questions are set to her.

Jason, Alicetaria, Shadow Lucky and Vathek: Nope. Just nope. They learned how to use a cell phone and that’s the most we can expect.

Roman, Neo, Aria and Paxton: Some of the more tech-savvy end of the team. They designed and built their weapons themselves, so they're actually fairly decent weapon engineers - though as soon as actual techies got brought onboard the operation, they took a back seat, since it’s not one of their favorite things and really only play with the basics. The one thing they can’t handle? Kitchen appliances. These people can design a ballistics chamber and yet routinely forget that you need to have a lid on the blender before you start it. (And for the love of all that is holy, DON’T let them drive)

Mimi, Sheshe, Natalie, Linda: Have a good grasp on technology, know how to hack.

Snatcher: Has a decent hand with technology, thanks to Neo, Aria, Paxton and Roman. But please don't let him in the kitchen.

Rui: OH DEAR GOD. Everything is an “infernal device” that he doesn't understand and curses out. Can't operate ANYTHING (especially not anything that resembles a vehicle; getting in the passenger seat of a car he's driving is another good way to die). And when he doesn’t understand a device, he at least owes up to the fact that he doesn't know how to operate. He also got pretty good with using a phone, except whenever he texts, he NEEDS to write with perfectly constructed grammar, and he’s a slow typer. You send him a text, you might be waiting 15-30 minutes for a response even if he does see it right away, and then you’ll get hit with a novel. Also, if Rui attempts anything in the kitchen, that kitchen is on FIRE. It’s best to just…not let him near anything with a motor or a microchip unless he has supervision from Cyclonis, Hibiki, Kanade, Neo, Lumpus, or Roman.

[gloryride]

FEMALE V PHOTOMODE - NETRUNNER

After Male V photomode, i wanted to create (almost) the same for female V ♥ 31 static poses and an animated one, netrunner/techie theme, but of course, you can use it as you want ! ♥ Some info : • You need Appearance Menu Mod (AMM) for adjusting some poses, especially sit, and add props • Knuckle Sandwich is free for a custom animation • This is for female V only (Male V version HERE) • “I know Kung Fu” animation doesn’t work with gorilla arms • Weapons poses don’t work (T-pose) with custom photomode A big thanks to @wingdeer, she shared beautiful Vivi as a model 😍 If you use it, you can tag me if you want, I’d love to see your girls !

>>>> DOWNLOAD <<<<

[breadqueen95]

I have been unfair to our dear Tony, so I am back, once again, to rectify that. So what I want to know is what is it about the reader that Tony finds attractive? (They don’t have to be together and honestly we love some good ol’ pining!Tony) The reader can be whatever (a mutant, a spy/agent, a techie, a genius engineer, a civilian, bomb specialist, etc.), but I would love to know what you think Tony looks for in a significant other and what he finds attractive.

BTW thanks for putting up with all my questions! You’re the best! 💜💜💜

BESTIE AS YOU KNOW TONY STARK IS V GORGEOUS TO ME

Send any AoT or MCU headcanon requests here!

tony stark x fem!reader

ooooooo tony mf stark

where to begin with tony stark

so here's the thing, tony absolutely has more depth when it comes to relationships

he appreciates physical attractiveness don't get me wrong, but there are different things that reel him in

something he notices first about someone is their attitude. tony LOVES confidence

he needs someone who can keep up with him, put him in his place

tony pretends that he loves being in control 24/7, but get a woman who can put him in his place, that man is GONE

he's also insanely attracted to intelligence

i feel like that's a given, considering that he's a certified genius

kind of goes back to that attraction to someone who can keep up with him. doesn't even have to be science smarts or book smarts in general; if you show him you have an instinct for something, he is PAYING ATTENTION

those are all the things that drew him to you in the first place, made him look beyond his individual scope

it takes someone special to get him to do that, so he knows he's in trouble

he first meets you when you're working as a spy for SHIELD, very much like how Natasha and Clint started out

you collaborated with the avengers on a mission due to your talent with gathering intelligence; nat and clint can't necessarily contribute in that way anymore, because they're too well known

you're fiery. you're deadly. you're brilliant. and tony can't get enough of you

he flirts with you pretty much right away, because of course he does. even with people he's not interested in

but you shut that mf DOWN. you don't even give him a SECOND

you just raise one brow at him, eyes icing over. completely and utterly dismissive

tony is G O N E

i'm talking infatuated

he's respectful about it, more so than you'd ever deemed him capable of, but it's no secret that he's attracted to you

when you attend a party and get dressed up, or if he sees you after a workout in your ratty exercise clothes, his eyes linger. it's electrifying

you're attracted to him too, but you try to ignore it. his reputation precedes him

but the more you get to know him, the more you wonder if all the rumors about him are still true

then SHIELD gets disbanded, and suddenly you don't have a job

you get an offer with the CIA like sharon, but tony and steve actually reach out to you to work for the avengers directly

as the team has gotten more solidified, they've realized more and more how much they need people for intelligence and spy work

the entire team is excited to utilize your talents when you accept, but tony has more of a selfish motive

he just wants to get to know you. you're a hard person to get to know, just like him

even if you never reciprocate his attraction, he finds you fascinating. you're an equation he can't seem to unravel, and he never likes to leave things unsolved

when you move into the tower, you realize just how much of tony you haven't seen yet

you see this domestic side of him that he's never shown you, and vice versa

you have trouble sleeping at night, just like he does

you're rough around the edges, but you care deeply about others. tony does too

the two of you start to have meaningful and deep conversations in the wee hours of the morning when you wander down to his lab one night

you surprise him with how soft you actually are underneath everything, and he feels incredibly lucky that he's one of the few you allow to see it

and tony surprises you in almost every way. he's so different during those quiet hours together, almost the opposite to what he presents during the day

you ask him about it one night, why he doesn't let people see this side of him

"i don't know, i guess i don't trust people with it"

"oh"

"i trust you, though"

you were taken aback for a minute, hit with the importance of those words. especially from him

"i trust you too, tony"

with that, you got the warmest, most genuine smile you'd ever gotten from him

it was that night you started to feel something more for him, something you never expected

tony had always been attracted to you, sure. but now that he's had the chance to get to know you? all of you?

god, he can't hope to ever get enough

[viotelle]

you built your own pc? damn I wish I could but it seems so scary lol… I have absolutely no experience with pc building and I’m not techy at all. I don’t wanna risk fucking it up so I’m thinking about buying a prebuilt 💔 I know people say they’re overpriced and not as good or whatever but anything’s better than my iMac😭😭 sorry that’s kind of random lol but I love your builds !! you’re so talented <3

nothing to be ashamed of if you feel more comfortable getting a pre-built over building it yourself, anon (: but i would 100% recommend doing a bit of research on a few sites so you know you're getting the best value for your money.

if you plan on purchasing a pre-built computer, try sites like nzxt, cyberpowerpc, ibuypower, bestbuy to get an idea of what kind of computer meets and exceeds the criteria for the games that you play / want to play. (i also recommend taking a gander on their 'same day shipping/same day ready' options since those are just waiting to be shipped out and already built) it'll then recommend you all the parts to achieve that. it will also tell you how much the estimate is for the entire pc, but before you decide to purchase it go to —

pcpartpicker & newegg to look up the prices of the parts that the first site recommended you in order to have a reference. of course, pre-builds/ custom pre-builds are more likely to cost more since they understandably factor in labor for putting the parts together.

the biggest pro i can think of when getting a pre-build pc is that the company you purchase from's warranty typically covers the entire pc vs. just individual parts like when building your own computer. i'm sure this was a lot to digest, but it pays to do a wee bit of research so you know you're not getting over-charged sfjgksndkg good luck, anon ((:

not rude at all, anon but let's just say ;--; my 2020 tax return went straight to it sdnjfkns ts4 with all my mods (93.9 gbs now wtf) runs between 2-4 minutes on first start up 😌

hey, yes i dooo (:

gta v

the witcher 3

cyberpunk 2077

days gone (it's on pc nowww)

horizon zero down

detroit: become human

red dead redemption 2

mass effect

dragon age

fallout 4

death stranding

ghost of tsushima (ps4)

tlou / tlou 2 (ps4)

i’ll add more when i think of the rest 🤔