#i also hc him as the kind to stress puke out of guilt but to never address it

[cyberpunk-20xx]

Reading about people calling Johnny abusive (not just that one post, I've come across a lot of that in forums and Discord servers too) and I'm like 🧍🏻 where?

The only person who we have solid hard proof he actually manipulated is Henry (ie he slept with him to keep him interested in the band, and even that isn't specified enough to give a solid judgement- for all we know about Henry the guy could have tagged along willingly, dude was not exactly healthy to begin with).

And like yes Johnny's manipulative, but tbh... We mostly get told he is? I'm still miffed about that, because he's not the only one from 2023 who's manipulative, but since he's the only one who's called so by the authors, he seems to be the only one we hold accountable on that. That bothers me.

But people keep saying he abused Rogue and Alt??? And I'm sorry, like, where??? Yes he was an asshole, yes he cheated on Rogue, but he didn't have power over these two women?? Hell Rogue used him just as much as he used her in the end. She sold him off to Blackhand's plot for her own gain and she sold out for good afterward, I'm really tired of people sugarcoating Rogue and Alt just because they're women and conventionally attractive, they're not your helpless damsels in distress, those women were made of grit and blood and tears just like the rest of the OG Cyberpunk Red cast.

And Alteria motherfucking Cunningham was NOT a victim lmao, if anything out of the two of them she had the upperhand lmao, didn't you catch how she was his dealer (even if that's a one-time thing, which we can't know if it is) ? Or how she insults him every sentence? Like I love that woman but she was literally just him, but genderswapped, and not tech-illiterate, unlike Johnny, who death-unplugged her.

They were toxic to each other but there was no villain out of the two, same with Rogue??? And I repeat, I insist, Johnny didn't have the control over those two women that warrants being called abusive, given we have squat all in terms of actual canon proof of what he did to them?

If anything the other person he could have been abusive to would be Kerry, but even then it's a stretch/headcanons. Like, I got no problem with that, even got my own in fact, but to just come in and state he's canonically abusive?

We do see him trashtalking Kerry if we make him choose that, but even then there's still not enough of a pattern. Abuse isn't just a dude being an asshole to everyone, or being a bad person, because yeah I won't say Johnny's someone good to the people around him- it's a relationship that relies on active dependency from person A to person B, and person B holds power over what person A needs, be it emotionally, psychologically, or materially. Person B needs to have power over person A though, and not by accident or punctually.

And btw I agree that he assaults V, and that he fucking needs to back off, but that's him wanting to kill himself more than anything, really. Cus he knows damn well that if they do take him up on his "advice" he's gone too. By 2077 the man just wants to stop, there's not a single route where he's happy about the perspective of a second chance at life.

And yeah, Johnny can be called abusive of V by proxy, in his quest to get himself flatlined for good, but that's the only person we actually do see him mistreat on the regular, in a power dynamic where he has the upper hand.

But the way he acts with other people, that's not being abusive, abuse isn't a fucking buzzword to throw around to qualify someone who's a shit person, I know I'm getting worked up over semantics but like in this case I feel it's warranted. Johnny is too much of a loser to have abused people, in canon. He's a guy screaming in a mic desperate to be heard, but he never did anything to force people to stay. I know it's a bit repetitive coming from me, but I keep thinking the man was more of a victim of his own success than a mastermind of anything, much less the social kind.

[asrisartarena]

What would happen if Anti was having one of his really bad anger outbursts and it cause Robbie to go into some sort of panic attack? I'm talking shaking, tears rolling down his face, gripping his head, etc. (I'm sorry but I just like angst and i think you could do justice to it and give it a good ending!)

Aaaa no it’s okay! I love me some good angst too if it’s done right, so no worries!!

I actually have had this little headcanon drabble thing in my mind for a while that’s very similar to this, so I’ll post it under a read more!!

One time Anti and Marvin started having a heated argument around Robbie, and Robbie basically went nonverbal the moment they started raising their voices at each other, but they both got super heated in their argument and Robbie could smell wave after wave of anger coming off from them, and it started making Robbie have a silent panic attack. Shaking, rapid shallow breathing, glazed-over eyes, the whole nine yards, and the anxiety from it all started making Robbie feel incredibly nauseous. 

The stress kept building up and up and up until he just… throws up from the stress, since I hc that Robbie pukes when he’s too stressed/anxious, kind of like how zombies in some video games upchuck as a defense mechanism. 

The sound gets Anti and Marvin to stop arguing and divert their attention from what they were arguing about. Marvin quickly goes to grab Schneep while Anti helps Robbie calm down somewhat, and when Schneep gets there and takes Robbie to his office to check him over, Anti and Marvin look at each other with guilt in their eyes bc of how badly their arguing affected Robbie.

After Schneep’s done checking overRobbie, he sheepishly goes over to Anti and Marvin, who are both silently sitting at the kitchen table, and Robbie’s like “’m…sorry”, and Anti and Marvin are just “??? For what?” and Robbie’s like “For…worr-ing…Ati, an…Mar-Mar”, and Robbie’s voice is all shaky when he says that and it makes Anti and Marvin’s hearts hurt so fucking much and they look at each other for a second before immediately consoling Robbie and telling him that they should be the ones apologizing for working Robbie up like that, and that he didn’t do anything wrong, and that he shouldn’t feel bad for how he reacted to the situation bc his reaction was totally justified and he shouldn’t feel bad about that.

While Anti and Marvin are consoling Robbie, tho, they’re interrupted by Robbie sniffling, and they’re like “Robbie?? Robbie, what’s wrong??”

And that’s when the tears start spilling out of Robbie’s eyes and he’s crying like a little kid and he’s just “No…like, to…hear…f-fight…from, b-bro…thers” and he cries harder and he’s wiping his eyes with his sleeves and whimpering and crying like a small child, and the sight breaks Anti and Marvin’s hearts all over again. Marvin starts quietly crying and not really caring that it’s in front of ppl at the moment, and Anti’s eyes are teary, and they both just hug Robbie and they promise him that they won’t fight in front of him ever again and that they’ll do their best to try and get along with each other, and Robbie just quietly sniffles into their shoulders and hugs them tight, mentally exhausted from the events that took place earlier, and all he wants to do is sit between them on the couch and watch dumb movies together.

Once the trio has calmed down, Robbie asks them if they can all sit on the couch and watch movies for a few hours, and Anti and Marvin smile and nod and while they’re heading to the couch, Anti suddenly scoops up Robbie, who screeches in surprise and then starts laughing, and playfully tosses him on the couch like a big brother would his little brother, and Anti flops onto the couch and grabs Robbie in a gentle headlock and starts ruffling his head and giving him noogies, which Robbie responds to with shrieking laughter and playful struggling, while Marvin is in the kitchen making popcorn to snack on during the movies (he also grabs some beef jerky for Robbie bc that’s one of Robbie’s favorite snacks).

A few hours of watching really stupid comedy movies later, Schneep finds the three of them all on the couch, sound asleep, with Robbie sleeping in between Anti and Marvin, the popcorn bowl still sitting in Robbie’s lap. Marvin’s mask is sitting crookedly on his face and he’s snoring lightly, whereas Anti’s fast asleep and snoring loudly, and Robbie, despite being undead, breathes softly and has a slight purr to his snore.

Schneep takes a picture of them all sleeping together and puts it in the SepticEgo Scrapbook, and to this day he’s never let Anti and Marvin live it down.