#i can’t actually play cyberpunk 2077 so this was the next best thing

[tsunanami17]

Shocking revelation: Rewatching a series that made me emotional to research for oc lore made me emotional!

[seonghwaddict]

the best of the best — jeong yunho

in which yunho didn’t expect his tiring shift to end with fucking the prettiest girl who’s ever walked into the clinic.

ripperdoc!jeong yunho x fem!reader. genre. smut. cyberpunk 2077 au. warnings. non-sexual use of daddy, explicit sexual content mdni, big dick!yunho but what else is new, fingering, BACKSHOTS, yunho is a tease, implied voice kink, creampie, he gets a little rough, nicknames (pretty, baby, princess). wc. 2.5k. rating. mature.

lilo’s notes. this is really REALLY rushed because i was hit with inspiration and started writing without actually stopping so like sorry if it’s ass lol. her cyberware is based on this.

DEFINITIONS. ripperdoc; medical practitioners that can install cybernetic prostheses, called cyberware // eddies; game currency. feel free to ask for any clarifications.

listening to. cyberpunk, ateez (duh).

masterlist.

yunho sighed as he threw a bloodied towel into the sink, hands finally clean after having installed some new cyberware on a customer. his day was spent operating edgerunners, never quite seeming to catch a break. but what else could he do as the best ripperdoc in the district, let alone this shithole of a clinic? besides, he somewhat liked his job and the pay was good, his way with words getting customers to give him a few more eddies than they were obliged to.

but, alas, it was finally closing time and he’d no longer have to deal with people until the next day. or at least that’s what he hoped.

the familiar sound of the clinic’s door rang through the lobby, singaling someone had entered before he could lock up and making him sigh in exasperation. he pinched the bride of his nose, calling out over his shoulder from the backroom, knowing whoever it was would still be able to hear him. “we’re closed, come back tomorrow!”

“please, it’s an emergency!” the person replied and he froze.

a desperate, feminine plea. yunho can’t say he’s used to hearing that tone in the clinic. with furrowed brows, he emerged from the backroom to the lobby, right behind the counter as he laid his eyes on you. he was obviously much taller than you, looking up at him with round doe eyes and softly flushed cheeks. you wore a short black skirt and a loose sweater; not a sight he was used to here either, not that he was complaining as his eyes momentarily flickered to the sliver of cleavage exposed by the low neckline. maybe he could make an exception… no. he wanted nothing more than to go home, and a pretty little thing like you couldn’t just magically change his mood.

“my ‘ware has been acting up and i heard this is the best clinic in the area,” you walked closer to the counter, one of the steps looking particularly painful as you winced mid-sentence and stumbled before continuing, “please, sir, i promise i’ll pay you well.”

he looked down at you with a raised eyebrow, letting a beat of silence wash over you before he finally answered with a sigh, “fine. go through that curtain and wait on the table. the metal one.”

you followed his hand to see him pointing at a curtain much like the ones separating beds in hospitals. with a quiet nod, you shuffled over as he ducked through the door he previously came out of. there was a small space behind the curtain and it reeked of hand sanitiser as you sat down, the table cold against your thighs. you smoothed your skirt down as he walked through the curtain and set down a tray of tools on a desk pushed against the wall.

“so, where’s the problem?” he asked, crossing his arms and giving you a once-over that had you feeling a little nervous.

“my back,” you muttered, looking down at your hands shyly as they played with the hem of your sweater, “i’ll have to take this off, if that’s okay.”

“oh, um…” he blinked before nodding and clearing his throat, moving to stand behind you. “yeah, it’s fine, go ahead.”

after a moment of hesitation, your body stretched lightly as you pulled the shirt over your head, his jaw nearly dropping at the sight. an intricately designed thin silver chrome spine merged with your skin and extending from between your shoulderblades down to just above your ass. instinctively, he reached out and brushed his fingers down the length of it, biting his bottom lip as he caught the way your back arched slightly.

“god, you’re a masterpiece.” he couldn’t help but sigh out as he let his fingertips explore the metal and the skin surrounding it. the clasp of your bra covered up just a little bit of it, but there was plenty more to see. after a moment, he caught a glimpse of a little spark in the metal on the small of your back, humming. “i see the problem… must be some sloppy wiring. i’ll take care of you, baby, just relax and stay still. you can do that for me, can’t you?”

“y-yeah.” you practically squeaked out, mentally slapping yourself for making it obvious how his words and touches made you feel.

he grinned but didn’t say anything, reaching for his tools and beginning to work. as he did, he deliberately brushed his fingertips or his wrist against your skin, against anywhere he could reach while fixing the wiring between the blades of the metal spine, just because he enjoyed messing wiht you. your waist seemed to get the most reactions out of you, unable to hold back your hitched breaths and your thighs pressing together. you were so sensitive and sweet, trying to hold back all your sounds as he riled you up with teasingly calculated touches.

“how’d you pay for this, anyway? a mod like this must’ve cost a fortune.”

“my daddy paid for it,” you explained with a shrug, “i’ve been wanting something like this for forever, so he let me get it done on my 18th birthday.”

he raised his eyebrows in surprise, nodding with a soft smile. “well, baby, you must be daddy’s pride and joy if he’s willing to drop so much on an implant like this that does nothing but make you look that much more appealing.”

“appealing?” you echoed his description of you, glancing back at him over your shoulder, “you think so?”

“of course, i’m not blind,” he roles his eyes playfully, licking eyes with you before going back to work, “in fact, i’m jealous i wasn’t the one to install all this ‘ware.”

it didn’t help that as he talked, his breath fanned over the back of your neck since he adjusted the table to raise you higher for him to work more comfortably. you learned each other’s names as he talked you through the procedure, trying to distract you from the occasional prods of a needle and sparks of the wires. he also liked to watch goosebumps form on your skin and the way your back arched just a little more as he responded to your words with low hums or muttered acknowledgments.

his hands feel a little colder than your skin as he barely runs them down your back, eyes trained on the gleaming metal. the tips of his fingers momentarily dipped below the back of your bra before slipping out again.

“does anything hurt?” he asked quietly, in a tone he noticed always made you stutter a little.

“n-no.” you shook your head before holding your breath, feeling his hands covers your waist and move down slowly, holding your hips lightly.

“good.” he hummed, nodding and removing his hands before stepping away from you completely.

the loss of his hands made your brows furrow as you looked at him, stepping into your line of vision with his back turned to you as he put away his tools.

“did you need something, princess?” he tilted his head at the sight of the pout you were trying so hard to hide, voice taking on a mocking tone.

your cheeks warmed and your brain short-circuited as he took a step toward the metal table he sat you on, standing a breath away from your knees and leaning down to your eye level. his hands braced on the table of either sides of your hips. if he wanted to, he could lean forward just a few inches and his lips would finally press against yours.

“you.” you blurted out without thinking, unable to process any thoughts in the flustered state he put you in.

“me, huh?” yunho chuckled, silky and low, fingertips brushing against the hem of your skirt as he pulled himself up to his full height and looked down at you. “a ripperdoc like me who works in heywood fixing cyberware? you need me, baby?”

flustered and a little speechless, you could only nod, lips parted as you left out soft breaths and looked up at him with eyes that begged him to kiss you. his hands left your skirt but found you again quickly, one on your waist and the other cupping the side of your face, half of his hand buried in your hair as he leaned down and finally pressed his lips against yours.

a whimper made it past you as his tongue swiped along your bottom lip before slipping into your mouth, mingling with yours and exploring. you felt him smile against your lips as you let out that sound, his fingers in your hair holding you a little tighter as his hand on your waist slid down your thigh. you, however, didn’t feel that hand moving until his fingers pressed against your soaked panties, somehow easily finding your clit through the fabric and eliciting a whine as he pulled his lips away from you.

“so wet and i’ve barely done anything.” he whispered, kissing you again as he nudged the fabric aside to run two digits through your folds, quiet squelching sounds mixing with your little moans and whimpers as he circled your clit excruciatingly slowly.

not expecting his hands to feel so good, you couldn’t stop your hips from squirming, unable to kiss back very skilfully. he circled your clit with just the right speed and pressure, keeping you restless as your pussy clenched around nothing and click slowly dripped out to smear against the table and inner thighs.

yunho gave your swollen nub a sudden pinch and you winced, your hands on his biceps clenching as he pulled away from you with a click of his tongue. “didn’t i tell you to stay still, princess?”

you parted your lips to respond but could only moan languidly as his fingers easily pushed themselves into you, crooking and perfectly prodding against your sweet spot.

“do my fingers feel too good? is it too much for you, pretty?” he mocked with a fake pout, drawing his fingers out before pushing back in. you felt his hand drop from your hair to reach for something and with a push of a button, the table lowered itself smoothly.

moments later you were on your knees, facing away from him, hips pulled up and chest pushed down. some time while he moved you to this position, he managed to remove your skirt and bra. your nipples brushed against the cold surface of the table, shuddering at the feeling combined with one of his hands kneading your ass intently while the other ran down the length of your spine. as he got to the small of your back, he pushed down a little harder, making your back arch.

“hm, so pretty and perfect,” he hummed as his clothes and very much erected cock pressed against your flushed core. you let out a broken whine, burying your face into your forearm comfortably, his fingers sliding through your folds again and spreading them apart. he groaned at the sight, your wetness glistening in the neon lighting of the clinic, spread between your thighs messily, needy hole fluttering.

when he finally pressed his tip into you and eased his way in, your breath hitched followed by a moan of his name, hands clenching as you pushed back against him. he steadied your hips with his hands, eyes rolling back from your tightness as he bottomed out and stilled to revel in the feeling if you wrapped around him for a moment.

butterflies roared in your stomach as he leaned down and kissed the top of your spine sloppily, pulling out before rolling his hips against yours. you weren’t used to this angle, especially not with someone as huge as him, but your embarrassing amount of arousal made it easy for him to move. you cursed softly, a string of whines and moans falling from your swollen lips as his fingers dug into your hips and his teeth explored your upper back, licking and sucking and biting marks into your skin.

“f-fuck, you feel s-so good.” he moaned, forehead dropped between your shoulder blades for a moment before he straightened up again, pulling your hips against his harshly as he thrusted into you, teeth sunk in his bottom lip.

not long after that you felt a knot quickly tightening in your abdomen, feeling your breath knocked out of your lungs with each snap of his hips. one of his arms wrapped around your waist before venturing lowers so he could rub at your clit quickly, the knot drawing tighter and tighter until you couldn’t take it anymore.

“y-yunho- i’m g-gonna-“

“let go, baby. go on, be a good girl and cum for me,” he cut you off, voice gentle despite his rough movements, snapping the waistband of your panties against you, “you’ll cum for me, won’t you? i’m making you– fuck, i’m making you feel so good, right? p-please cum, baby, just let go.”

his words egged you on and soon enough you did as he said, shuddering and clenching and squealing as you came all over his cock, your juices drooling down his length as he continued pounding into you. his hand left your clit to grab your hips tightly, chasing his own high now that you finished. knowing what he needed, you clenched around him rhythmically, whimpering softly because you knew he liked the sound.

without warning, he spilled himself inside you, filling you up with his hot release. your combined panting and shivers filled the area as he emptied himself. once he collected himself, he pulled out slowly, shuddering as he did so before tucking your panties back into place before his cum could seep out of you. he flipped you around easily and found your lips.

you kissed each other lazily for a while, mind foggy after your orgasms. you gasped against his lips softly as you felt his fingers press right on the fabric covering your hole.

“if you can keep everything in while i close up, i’ll take you to my place for another round… or maybe a few more,” he kissed your cheek, reaching to the side and giving you your clothes before tucking himself back into his pants, “if you’re up for it, of course.”

you giggled, also kissing his cheek in return. “i’d like that, actually. you have a really good dick.”

“is that so? good thing a pretty girl like you only deserves the best.”

networks. @cromernet @wonderlandnet @cultofdionysusnet @pirateeznet @atzhouse

permanent taglist. @ad0rechuu @sankatchu @mlink64 @yeosangsbb @seonghwasbbgirl @likexaxdaydream @dreamingofyeo @yalyallic @yunhoswrldddd @coffee-addict-kitten @thunderous-wolf @chngbnwf

[edenmemes]

cyberpunk 2077 starters

more to be added !

❝  the wider the smile, the bigger the lie.  ❞ ❝  it’s called a reputation. you should try having one.  ❞ ❝  if only you were the one calling the shots, you would already have the city at your feet.  ❞ ❝  seems like you’ve got a real problem with authority.  ❞ ❝  well, then it’s a good thing i’m on your side then, huh?  ❞ ❝  you’re starting to remind me of me.  ❞ ❝  only people who know me real well can use my real name.  ❞ ❝  hope that’s it for last requests. not sure i can handle more.  ❞    ❝  look at me - see this? this is a look of un-fucking-surprise on my face.  ❞ ❝  actually, i don’t think of you at all. ever.  ❞ ❝  wanna part ways on good terms. as friends.  ❞ ❝  listen, i know i fucked up a lot of things. either let down or used every last person who gave me their trust.  ❞ ❝  been a rough year...and to make things worse, i fell in love.  ❞ ❝  funny how you still manage to surprise me sometimes.  ❞ ❝  haven’t managed to get my head straight yet, not after everything that happened.  ❞ ❝  hey, look at me. right in the eyes. choose your next words carefully. might be the last choice you ever make.  ❞ ❝  i’m a master of cuddling, too - got a black belt, multiple disciplines.  ❞ ❝  tsh...gonna miss you something awful.  ❞ ❝  here come the test results: you are a horrible person.  ❞ ❝  there is a saying in your country… one moment, it will come to me…ah now i remember! go fuck yourself.  ❞ ❝  you need anything, i’m here.  ❞ ❝  wanna see me give up? sounds like something you’d do.  ❞ ❝  i’m sorry, do you hear me poking around your personal business? digging through your past?  ❞ ❝  what you did for me, i’ll never forget it.  ❞ ❝  it’s hard to believe, but it looks like everything’s gonna be alright.  ❞ ❝  you ain’t dying yet. i got you.  ❞ ❝  see ya in the next life, friend.  ❞ ❝  i allowed my temper to flare and for that i apologize. even i can get carried away at times.  ❞ ❝  shame. was starting to like you…  ❞ ❝  i’m just glad your mother didn’t live to see this. the heart should break but once.  ❞ ❝  there are not many like you, but without you the world would have long turned into shadows and dust.  ❞ ❝  you put a barrel to my skull not so long ago.  ❞ ❝  there’s a difference between being an idiot and believing people wanna do good.  ❞ ❝  you plot, you plan, you calculate, and weave webs so tangled you sometimes lose yourself in them.  ❞ ❝  i’m a serious man. and serious matters are what, if not all, that concern me.  ❞ ❝  you’re tough as nails. a warrior without mercy.  ❞ ❝  i’ve managed one thing for now. not to fuck this up... what we have.  ❞ ❝  you got a short fuse, sure, but there ain’t no dynamite in that soul.  ❞ ❝  really think i can make it? survive this?  ❞ ❝  if there’s nothing you can do to help me, then…what the hell do i do?  ❞ ❝  i’ll kill anyone who gets in my way. you included.  ❞ ❝  if they find us, they won’t bother with arresting and interrogating, do you understand?  ❞ ❝  everyone admires you, but you know that your only reward will be the next task you’re given.  ❞ ❝  just don’t fall in love with me…  ❞ ❝  promise you’ll try to get some sleep?  ❞ ❝  it often seems that you’re on your own, but always remember you have a team you can count on.  ❞ ❝  whatever you’re planning, make sure you see it through to the end.  ❞ ❝  it can get tough when it feels like there’s no end to it in sight.  ❞ ❝  i don’t need this world anymore, but i need you.  ❞ ❝  it doesn’t matter how well you do something, as long as you look good doing it.  ❞ ❝  i always felt like my mission was to cross the ultimate frontier. that frontier is death.  ❞ ❝  something in me died back then. i just couldn’t handle it.  ❞ ❝  would you take a bullet for me?  ❞ ❝  what, a little guilt creeps in and that’s that? you give up?  ❞ ❝  it’s an awful place...it is no wonder you are losing your mind.  ❞ ❝  i realize you’re there, always were, and a wave of relief washes over me.  ❞ ❝  remember when you were asked: quiet life or blaze of glory? shame you chose wrong.  ❞ ❝  ooooooooh, i get what’s going on here. you’re jealous.  ❞ ❝  think dangerous; be dangerous. think weak; be weak.  ❞ ❝  it’s true what they say. you’re good. really fucking good. got a stick up your ass, through.  ❞ ❝  hah. my mind. that’s…that’s a touchy subject.  ❞ ❝  y’know, they say time is the best teacher. i used to think that was true.  ❞ ❝  you know what, sweetheart? we’ll have plenty of time to tear at each other’s throats later.  ❞ ❝  i have to sit and think…about everything.  ❞ ❝  no really, it’s ok. it just scraped me.  ❞ ❝  a peaceful death in this town? guy won the jackpot.  ❞ ❝  sorry you had to witness that. things just get complicated sometimes.  ❞ ❝  who you work for? start talking!  ❞ ❝  well, well….looks like fortune favors the stupid, too.  ❞ ❝  day’s not over yet. you still have a chance to piss me off.  ❞ ❝  what’s free comes most costly.  ❞ ❝  sometimes two people find themselves at the wrong place at the right time.  ❞ ❝  i’m in this city, free to do whatever i want with my life, but…am i really free?  ❞ ❝  i sense anything going wrong, i’m out.  ❞ ❝  drop by if you ever want to talk. or if you don’t we can just sit together in silence. either way, i’m here for you.  ❞ ❝  i’m nobody, i’m a zero.  ❞ ❝  you know, i still got that contract to kill you.  ❞ ❝  have you known love? do you know what it is?  ❞  ❝  talked in your sleep, you know.  ❞ ❝  tsomeone…someone should give you a checkup, see if you’re ok. someone you trust.  ❞ ❝  goodbye, and please - stay away. you’ve done enough already.  ❞ ❝  one thing we can’t do is be afraid of others.  ❞ ❝  that the pick-up line you settled on?  ❞ ❝  right…so, gonna stop by? or gonna make me grovel?  ❞ ❝  i’ve missed you, you know, heh…  ❞ ❝  it seems all good, like nothing bad ever happened.  ❞ ❝  i…i was angry…i must’ve lost control.  ❞ ❝  if you wanna change the world, there’s always a price to be paid.  ❞ ❝  you ever wake up in the middle of the night…and not know who you were for a second…? you ever feel like you weren’t really ‘you’?  ❞ ❝  here i feared you’d forgotten about me.  ❞ ❝  all right. you know why we’re here, don’t you? say you do.  ❞ ❝  you don’t realize it, but…you’ve given me something beautiful.  ❞ ❝  i’m really starting to feel like your puppet.  ❞ ❝  if you wanted my attention, you just earned it.  ❞ ❝  the stronger survive. you’re either somebody or you fizzle out into nothing.  ❞ ❝  now answer my question. honestly. forthrightly. are you here alone?  ❞ ❝  my whole life’s a fucking cosmic joke.  ❞ ❝  i know that it might seem like you’re trying to help, but i’d rather that you just left us alone…otherwise things won’t end well.  ❞ ❝  so you can be nice when you feel like it.  ❞ ❝  it’s always good to have the strength of others to support you too.  ❞  ❝  you’re worth more than you think. trust me.  ❞ ❝  talked in your sleep, you know.  ❞ ❝  well, i slept like a puppy. that’s a crazy shoulder you have there.  ❞ ❝  is that a quiver in your voice i hear?  ❞ ❝  what makes someone a criminal? getting caught.  ❞ ❝  the only limit to what you can do is what you’re willing to do.  ❞ ❝  you only have to look at you. a venomous spider wearing the mask of a nice lady. but i will not be fooled.  ❞ ❝  ugh, trust issues, again? thought we’d talked it all out.  ❞ ❝  what the fuck is going on? i feel like i’m not in control of anything anymore…  ❞ ❝  sorry, but, i’d rather be alone right now.  ❞ ❝  remember, a while back, you told me to give you a solid kick in the pants if i saw you diving into the stupid pool again?  ❞ ❝  sit your ass down a minute, honey, and breathe.  ❞ ❝  lately i feel like i’ve been ranting and raging, so i just want to make sure you know i appreciate what you did for me.  ❞ ❝  i’ll just lie here a while, by your side, gazing at the stars.  ❞ ❝  when the time comes, it will be my life for yours.  ❞ ❝  how did we grow so far apart?  ❞ ❝  no more mayhem, no more shady-ass schemes. done with that.  ❞ ❝  say it. say it out loud. not for me, but for yourself.  ❞ ❝  a pathetic attempt to get under my skin.  ❞ ❝  i loathe it - this whole ‘playing tough in the face of death’ thing.  ❞ ❝  the road to the stars is always paved with darkness.  ❞ ❝  wait up! don’t do this. you can still change your mind.  ❞ ❝  dammit, no matter how hard i try, i can’t forget you...  ❞ ❝  plenty of others out there’re more deservin’ of life. but even so... i’d never wish you dead.  ❞ ❝  truth is everything’s going off the rails. i feel worse and worse.  ❞ ❝  i’m nowhere near as tough as you and i can’t pretend to be anymore.  ❞ ❝  you don’t seriously think i’ll just up and leave you? i’m with you - through thick and thin.  ❞ ❝  i’d say i’m happy to see you, but it’s not good to lie.  ❞ ❝  i’ll get us through this, you’ll see.  ❞ ❝  i’m just happy, like, dumb happy, you know? you’re really amazing.  ❞ ❝  you’re playing with fire. don’t dare cross the line.  ❞ ❝  i’m afraid things won’t be the same between us if i tell you the whole truth.  ❞ ❝  do you even know what i had to sacrifice to get where i am? the price i paid?  ❞ ❝  your first time here, isn’t it? want some advice? go the fuck away.  ❞ ❝  when someone tells me to not worry, they’re usually hiding something.  ❞ ❝  it’s not easy talking about what’s biting me at the ass.  ❞ ❝  just promise me one thing: don’t forget me.  ❞ ❝  legends - know where you’ll find most of them? the graveyard.  ❞ ❝  ah, you try to provoke me. is this wise, you think?  ❞ ❝  i can lead others away from the darkness.  ❞ ❝  the more i say everything’s okay, the more i feel like i’m straight up lying.  ❞ ❝   you need to take a few deep breaths. then rethink all this, hard..  ❞ ❝  you can call me back. do you know why? because i am here for you.  ❞ ❝  why’d you wanna meet me here? for the view, or you turning sentimental on me?  ❞ ❝  know what? think i figured you out.  ❞ ❝  if not for you...i’d be long dead. several times over.  ❞ ❝  you’re adorable. didn’t realize you still had a child-like imagination...and intelligence.  ❞ ❝  death walks in your wake.  ❞ ❝  just trying to live with it. survive, actually.  ❞ ❝  the world doesn’t forgive. it eats people alive. but you - well, you survived.  ❞ ❝  everyone i’ve met so far says i’m far too gone.  ❞ ❝  hey, come on, you’re not the one at blame here.  ❞ ❝  don’t make the same mistake i made. say goodbye to the people you love.  ❞  ❝  well, aren’t you just bursting with a can-do attitude?  ❞

[fandom-necromancer]

Guitar Lessons

Fandom: Cyberpunk 2077 | Ship: Judy/V, SilverV (interpretable)

‘Of all the shitty ideas you’ve had so far, this is the worst.’ ‘Oh come on!’ ‘No! I'm not some ability-splinter you picked off some unfortunate dead merc! I'm a person!’ 'A person with amazing guitar skills’, V purred. ‘A rockstar whose songs are still famous and loved by his fans even fifty years after his death.' 'Yeah, with lunatics and rebellious youth maybe. You do know that tactic won’t work with me, right?'

'I know for a fact it did with others', she teased the engram. 'Yeah, but I wasn't in their head and knew exactly what they think of me and my music.' 'I do like your songs, okay? Just... Nevermind.' V gripped the neck of the guitar a little stronger, torn in between Johnny's familiarity to the sensation and her own completely foreign one.

'I will let you take over for a night, so you can have your fun', she tried again after much consideration, even though it felt like defeat. 'Giving up so easily?' 'I won't beg you', V stated stubbornly.

'She that important to you?' V sighed, eyeing the crappy guitar she haggled off some homeless in the streets, then looking up to the open window of the run-down apartment complex. She was very quiet when she answered: ‘Yes. I don’t have much time left and I've been alone long enough to know I don’t want to die alone too.’ ‘You know you might be the only person in this world not to die alone’, Johnny commented. ‘Also I won’t let you.’ He said it with such confidence, V wanted to believe him. But at the same time, she knew better than to hope for such a thing. ‘Fuck off. Neither of us will know what happens and how – if – we can survive. Is it really that absurd I want to have a few good days before shit hits the fan?’ ‘You want to forget for a while’, Johnny stated, and V was surprised to hear a slither of real empathy in his voice.

‘Fine.’ ‘You will do it?’ ‘Don’t fuss over it, I’m not doing this for you’, he brushed it off, despite V knowing that was a lie. ‘You owe me an evening with the living, understand? It’s a trade-off.’ ‘If that’s an excuse that helps you sleep at night’, V chuckled. ‘Shut up. What should I play for your output? And if you say Ponpon Shit I take back what I’ve said and kill you myself.’ ‘She’s not my-‘, V began, but couldn’t continue, laughing at the thought of making the great Johnny Silverhand play that song. ‘I mean it.’ ‘Now that you say that-‘ ‘V.’ ‘I’m joking, come on. No, Play Kill the Messenger. It’s her favourite song.’ ‘Urgh. Okay, give me a minute.’

The feeling when Johnny took over her body was as alienating as ever, but she didn’t fight his control and he didn’t push her into unconsciousness as he had done before or as the pills had. He pulled the guitar up to put the strap around her shoulders. Almost automatically their hands came to rest on the strings and V suddenly felt how everything fell into place as if the instrument was a well-known part of her. She knew it was Johnny’s doing, but as her fingers plucked at the strings experimentally and tuned it right, everything felt like she had done this uncountable times already.

The first chord brought a smile to her face that wasn’t hers but could have been in better times. ‘Damn, how did it go again’, Johnny mumbled to himself, trying to figure out the main chords and getting them right after just a few times. ‘You definitely listened to that song far too much, V’, he teased as he tried the melody part next. ‘But some practise time would have been nice.’ ‘You’ll manage.’ ‘Fuck yes I will.’

He pushed V’s mind further into the backseat, but not far enough to shut her out completely. It felt more like an enthusiastic ‘move over, I drive’, than anything, but V couldn’t help the instinctual cold shiver running down her back knowing just how easily the engram could take over if Johnny really wanted to. It was brushed off the next moment anyways, as the rush of the music captured them both and she felt her mouth move on its own. It was hard to say who of them was singing though. V knew the words by heart and Johnny knew how to use a voice, but at that moment it was them singing Judy’s favourite song underneath her window, not really knowing why and at the same time hoping for her to recognise it. It should have been confusing; at the very least it should have been worrying. But all V felt was an almost forgotten sense of unity. For once her own head wasn’t full of fighting thoughts and foreign emotion and conflicting feelings. It was a whole new sense of relaxation she likely was the only one to even know of.

She had wanted to wallow in that sensation for a little while longer, but their synchronisation shattered, as Judy appeared at the window, grinning and looking down at them. ‘V! I didn’t know you could play!’ V stopped singing, but Johnny kept playing the guitar. ‘I can’t!’, she screamed up at her. ‘Only this one song.’ She felt the engram thinking of something and quietly grumbled ‘don’t you dare’ at him, but the tune had already changed to heavier chords. ‘And Samurai’, she awkwardly added then and shrugged with her shoulders as best as Johnny allowed it. ‘Are you coming down now? I’ve reserved in Night City’s finest!’ ‘Taking me to another of your merc bars?’, she chuckled. ‘Yeah, wait I’m coming.’

V sighed and put the guitar down, not without indulging one of Johnny’s habits of sliding her fingers over the strings. ‘Thanks’, she muttered, meaning it. ‘Yeah, yeah’, he waved her off, leaning against a parking van. ‘Just don’t forget my promised evening.’ ‘Alright, I’m here, who is driving?’, Judy asked, hurrying out of the building and meeting V in a messy kiss. ‘Also, you can play Samurai songs? Don’t tell me you actually like them?’ V smirked, side-eying Johnny over her shoulder. ‘Hey, don’t disrespect the classics! And I drive, come on!’

She could still see Johnny shaking his head as she climbed into the driver’s seat but was already thinking about where to take Judy to. ‘Have fun, princess.’

[heartofsnark]

Can You Feel The Sun? (Chapter Five): Just To Want It All

Notes: As stated in last chapter notes, i have a decent chunk of chapters done so these are coming out pretty rapid fire. Otherwise, I don’t have much to say other than massive thanks to my friend who reads these over for me and has been cool with me dropping 80+ pages of fic on them in a week. because yeah...I finished another chapter of this. 

Word Count:  7885

Chapter Warnings: mentions of alcohol and cursing, if that counts as a warning in cyberpunk 2077.  

If you haven’t yet, you can read the previous chapter here!~

Lizzie’s Bar stands out brilliantly in the city; out of all the gangs, she thinks she likes The Moxes aesthetic the best. Vivid pink and bright teal. Their colors splashed across the overpass, along with a neon pink skull sign with hair and a bow. At the side of the building is a towering neon skull girl sign, full bodied with an animated kicking leg and axe held above her head, the same hot pink color.

She parks and gets out of her car, doing a quick scan of the area, searching for more Militech drones. None that she sees, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. The credchip burns in her pocket, remembering some of the stuff T-Bug has taught her. How to crack an encrypted shard and see what’s on it, how to transfer its contents. V rifles through her bag, remembering she had a blank credchip somewhere. If Militech did anything dirty, V should be able to transfer the eddies onto a clean chip.

V makes a beeline to the front door, cement blockers and walls covered in graffiti.  More neon signs, the bars name over the door in glowing turquoise letters. Lizzie Jizzie scrawled across an outside wall; two screens on each side of the double stores, all covered in Nicola ads requesting V ‘taste the love’.  Groups of people loiter in the open outside the bar. V’s eyes are drawn to the two bouncers outside the doors.

Two women, one leans against the outside wall as she puff away on a cigarette. Short slicked back hair that starts blue and then fades to green, eyes hidden behind sunglasses and a gold septum piercing in her nose. The other one stands in front of the doors, a yellow spiked bat held over her shoulders. Long hair pulled up into space buns, purple roots and pink ends. Both of her arms are metal; black with pink and teal accents as well as spikes along the forearms.  Both women are skimpily dressed, no shame in that. The one wielding the bat has a white top with cleavage going beyond her breasts,  showing her almost plastic looking skin and the Moxes tattoo across her chest. The other shorter haired bouncer is wearing neon pink pasties beneath a teal bomber jacket.  V’s been here before, has maybe seen them in passing, both really attractive. She’s not sure there’s a Mox member who isn’t.

“Hey there, dollface!~” The bat wielder greets her with a grin, as if she could actually see V’s face.

“Interest you in a preem BD?” The smoker offers.

“What you got?” V asks to be polite, she doesn’t honestly even like brain dances. But the girls are cute, so… no harm in a little small talk.

“What don't we got? Women and men of your dreams, synaptic acting A-listers. No washed-up virtuporn boytoys or blow-up dolls here.”

“Auteur stuff - It'll grip your heart and blow your nerves right outta your body. Pure bit-based ecstasy - that’s why people come here.”

“Sure know how to sell it, don’t you?” V signs, trying not to laugh as the bouncers give her the spiel.

“Not a sales pitch, it's a warning. I'll give you one word - bespoke. Not for everyone's synapses.”

“Think you can handle it?”

“Think I can manage it,” she tells them, knowing damn well she has no intent to get any sort of virtus.

“Mmhm. Couple of things you need to know first,” she affectionately rubs her bat, “Ahem. Severe penalties for any unauthorized recording… “

“No drugs, no groping. Someone catch your eye, you do not grab 'em. You find 'em in the catalog, ask for a BD and get yourself a box.”

“No worries, not even my first time here.”

“Door's open. Have fun, Doll.”

“Welcome to Lizzie’s.”

The double doors open and V walks through a blue beaded curtain. There’s a front room, a stand where a woman with a bright pink mohawk is selling clothes, under another Nicola ad and neon letters saying ‘Fuck To Death’ behind her.

“My what a sweet face you have,” she says, her tone honeyed but its clear she hasn’t looked up from the counter, not even noticing as the masked merc walks past through another beaded curtain and double doors to the main club.

“Here in Night City~”

Music thrums as she steps in; the room is lit with strobing pink and teal lights. Couches with neon glowing lights on the underneath, some people with BD wreaths and others playing on their phones. People dancing  to the club music and  bar tucked away in the corner.  She doubts the client will be right at the start of opening, so V finds an empty stretch of couch, sitting down on black leather with a pink neon light at her feet.  V slides the Militech cred chip into her mask, it takes a moment, but she manages to crack it and get a look at the inside.

Ten thousand eddies and malware; it was meant to send all of Maelstrom’s data to another server and then fry the systems. Meaning, if V handed it over Maelstrom would get their systems fried, with her and Jackie dealing with the aftermath. V slides the blank cred chip into another slot in her mask’s edge, transfering the clean money over to it. Fucking around with tech and daemons isn’t her strong suit, but if she recalls Bug telling her that fairly simple malware like this could be reworked pretty easily. She works through the coding with her thoughts, the data and interface all on her mask. If she can get the coding right, she might be able to have it send something other than data back to the Militech servers…  Shifting and twisting what she thinks will work… if she’s done it right, instead of sending data back to Militech’s server, it should inject the same malware back into their system. If used, it would spike both Maelstrom and Militech.

She’ll call up T-Bug before they hit Maelstrom, double check she did the steps right. If Maelstrom play nice, they can pay and be done, if not...she can fuck over the gangoons, Militech, and walk away with an extra ten thousand in her pocket.  She puts the credchips in her pockets, spiked one in her left and clean one in the right.

Time to have a look around for the client. V making a beeline for the bar, bartenders always have all the info. Lizzie’s Bar in neon over the drink station, a brightly blue lit corner where a man works at making drinks, shelves of booze behind him.  She climbs onto a blue vinyl bar stool, feet no longer on the ground and unable to resist swinging them a bit. The bartender comes to her; a man with slicked back dark hair,  glowing white cybernetic eyes, and silver embellishments run across his cheeks and jaw. His shirt bright blue with a tropical design and if not for a single button above his pants, it’d be completely open. Beaded necklaces bringing even more attention to his exposed chest and stomach.

“Get you something?”

“Looking for Evelyn Parker,” she speaks the woman’s name, not wanting to waste time fingerspelling it even if the sound feels tight in her throat.

“And you are?”

“V, me and her were supposed to meet here.”

“Well, V,  it’s a pleasure. I’m Mateo.”

“Nice to meet you… any idea where she’s hanging around?”

“Club's big. Gonna have to look around. Can't do it for you-”

“It's all right, Mateo,” a feminine voice calls out and V’s eyes are drawn to a woman at the bar, “I was waiting for this one.”

There’s something about her, distinctly Mox and also not. Her hair is a short vivid blue bob with bangs cut straight across her forehead. Heavy makeup, a tight silver sequin dress with a dipping neckline, red thigh high vinyl boots, a black trench coat that pools around her knees with a pink and white feathered collar.  She holds two fingers up to the bartender and moves to the bar stool closer. There’s a clang and tink of glass; Mateo getting out a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses.  

“That won’t be necessary,” V signs before he can fill the second glass, “I don’t drink on the job.”

“Aww, what a good girl,” Evelyn coos, a smile pulling at her painted lips, “Evelyn Parker. I knew it was you as soon as you walked in.”

“And you decided to let me wander around instead of introducing yourself?”

“I wanted to get a good look at you first.”

“And?” V watches as Evelyn takes a swig of her tequila.

“Rest assured, if I didn’t like what I see, you’d know,” she takes another drink, “C'mon. Know a place we can talk where ears won't prick up to listen. We'll be in the lounge, Mateo. Anyone asks we're not here.”

Evelyn takes her black clutch purse and leaves the bar, V puts some money down for Mateo; if nothing else to compensate for his time. V hops down from the stool and follows after Evelyn, through a pair of double doors that goes into a hallway tinted red and pink, booth doors lining the way. The blue haired woman opens up a door, standing to the side as V walks in.

The booth is small, circular with a red vinyl couch around it’s curve, a table in the middle projects a hologram of a stripper who twists and dances. V sinks into the cushions, watching Evelyn stride in and light a cigarette as the door closes behind her. Everyone in the city a smoker it seems.  As Evelyn puffs on a cigarette, V is somehow just noticing the gold nail like finger caps she wears.

“Dex had a load to say about you. Called you professional, effective. And trustworthy. I hope he wasn't overselling…“

“You don’t give a shit what he says,” V retorts, not missing the tinge of disdain Evelyn’s voice. V doesn’t need anyone to blow wind up her ass.

“You have trouble accepting compliments?”

“Flattery’s beneath you.”

“Maybe Dex is beneath you,” Evelyn moves around the table, grabbing an ashtray from the table, then sitting down next to V, crossing her legs, “Have you known each other long?”

“First time working with him.”

“Hmmm, I've heard there are two kinds of fixers. Those with stable crews on long contracts and short leashes. Loyalty and predictability they value above all else. Then there's the other kind- Dex's kind.”

“Meaning?”

“Headhunters. They lay their trust elsewhere, not in people but in a thing- their intuition. They bet on potential. And if they lose that bet…It's the last mistake they ever make. I’m hoping Dex’s intuition served him well in this case.”

“Let's get to the point, why am I here, what’s this about?”

“Your target - I trust you know what it is.”

“Arasaka biochip.”

“Mmmhmm, their Relic, secure your soul technology. Arasaka's poured billions into personality transfer technology. But me - I just want the data on this one. The chip is tucked away inside Konpeki Plaza, the hotel. You ever been?”

“Fancy corp hotels? Yeah, no, way out of my price range.”

“The decor's to die for. As you'll see for yourself.’

So, V and Jackie have to bust into some fancy hotel to get the chip people are arguing about on tv. Understood, so far. But, theres a lot of risks involved in a heist of this scale. Its one thing to rip off a dropped piece of cargo or a convoy from a corp; but this kind of top notch tech?

“You know where the chip is, exactly?”

“In a suite on the top floor. The room's occupied by Yorinobu Arasaka.”

V swallows the lump in her throat, the son of Saburo Arasaka, heir to the entire fucking corp. She’s once again finding herself wondering why Dex thinks her and Jackie can handle a job of this caliber, the Arasaka’s seem downright un-fucking-touchable to a merc like her.

“He’s in NC?”

“Don't you read the screamsheets?”

“Not particularly, no.”

“Well, the media couldn't get enough of Yori coming to Night City, it was all over the headlines. He's heir apparent to the Arasaka empire - Saburo Arasaka's only surviving son.”

“So, he trying to take over while he’s in town?” V asks, trying to understand what exactly is going on.

“Only a handful of people in Night City know what the Arasakas' real plans are.”

“And you included in that?”

A smirk stretches across her face, green eyes devious; “Yorinobu is a puppet. He lost all his cards years ago when he failed to do daddy's bidding. Saburo's had Yori's balls in a vise for years. He might just turn the screw and crush them outright if he learns his son's up to no good again.”

“Someone like him is bound to have an army surrounding him, that hotel is probably a fortress by now.”

“Yorinobu keeps exactly no muscle around. Not one guard. Got rid of them a long time ago.”

“Why?”

“Surely you know what they say about Arasaka intel? Sneeze in Night City and a blossom drops from a cherry tree in Tokyo. Yorinobu was convinced his Arasaka security detail reported directly to his father.”

“If you got a spare ache up your sleeve, I’d love to see it.”

“ Now, this should make your tits perk up,” she says, putting the ashtray aside and leans forward.

“My tits are quite comfortable where they are, I assure you.”

“Cute, but more importantly, Yorinobu recently swiped the chip from an Arasaka laboratory. He's made a deal with NetWatch, aims to sell it to them. Have you spotted my ace yet or do I need to spell things out?”

“Okay, no muscle because he has daddy issues and no security on the device because he stole it from said daddy. Any idea where he’s hiding the thing?”

“Likely in a specialized container, one that mimics an organic neural environment. On the outside, it looks like an ordinary briefcase.”

“Which would be where?”

“You'll see for yourself soon enough,” she stamps out her cigarette and stands up, walking to the door, “Provided we're done gossiping about the Arasakas.”

“You know anything else about him?” V asks, wanting to see if she can mine any more useful information about the heir that could help.

“Quite a bit, actually. He studied finance and biotech in Tokyo. Hm, probably didn't have a choice in the matter, come to think of it. Saburo was grooming him to be his successor. But then Yorinobu vanished to chase his own dreams, cut himself off from the corp for years. Long story short, though the black sheep returned, the bitter taste remained. But that's only one side of him. There's another - an intelligent man who has always walked his own path and so has his own designs on the corp.”

There’s no doubt in V’s mind now that Evelyn knows Yorinobu personally, the way she talks and speaks is clearly colored by experience. Some prodigal son who ran away from his father and then came back with his tail between his legs when he couldn’t cut it alone. An odd lump in V’s throat at the thought; running away from shitty dads, being a black sheep…

“Sounds like any other corpo dick to me,” V signs, not liking the parallels her brain is starting to draw.

“Hm. Ever tried to imagine what life might be like for an emperor's son? You have everything, yet you are no one, nothing. At least as long as you remain in Saburo Arasaka's shadow. I…” she scratches almost sheepishly at her neck, her wannabe femme fatale attitude slipping for just a moment, “...sympathize. It's a vulnerability I understand well.”

V is still finding herself finding uncomfortable similarities between herself and fucking Yorinobu Arasaka. Its stupid, she doesn’t know the man and he has the wealth to destroy her for pretending she does. But, a power hungry leader for a father, leaving home, terrified of being under his thumb. Only difference, well many, but most pressing is she’s managed to make it on her own...so far… at least. Not that she hasn’t had her doubts or worries.

“So, what’s next?” V asks, practically shaking her head to dispel the weirdness swimming in her brain. Black sheep or not; Yorinobu Arasaka has a silver spoon in his mouth. She’s a nomad turned Night City edgerunner; their lives couldn’t be more far removed.

“Now comes the best part,” Evelyn opens the door and turns to leave, “Follow me. Got somethin' for you. Should help you plan. Braindance from Konpeki Plaza.”

V follows Evelyn out into the hallway, “ how’s a braindance going to help?”

“Think BDs are only good for fondling virtual tits, jackin' off to in those boxes?”

“Thought that was the main selling point, yeah,” V teases back as they turn a corner in the hallway, headed towards a door.

“No. They can be a very useful tool. Good for analyzing details human perception, even boosted, doesn't grasp. Exactly what you need,” Evelyn teases as they enters a dressing room, a few Mox at the tables painting their faces with makeup and styling their hair.

“What's on the tape?” Through another door and neon lights fade to harsher, darker lighting.

“Yorinobu's suite. The glorious interior,” the walk down a short metal flight of stairs, “You'll need to locate the Relic yourself. Hope I grabbed enough detail to make that possible.”

The stop at the end of the steps, Evelyn turning to look at V with a hand on her hips. Not that V really had any more doubt about it, but she’s been given more evidence that Evelyn and Yorinobu know each other.

“You recorded it?”

“Mhm. BD rec implant. Why, you object?”

“Not particularly, who you know and what you do with them is none of my business, lets see the braindance.”

“Judy'll help. She's a Mox, too,” down another short flight of stairs, deeper into the basement, “Besides, we go back… years.”

Evelyn stops them again outside a pair of double doors, Lizzie’s is starting to feel like a little maze at this point. But more importantly, Evelyn’s paused again, stumbled over her words and showed something under her facade. V felt something was off, a Mox but somehow not, and she’s starting to think Evelyn is purposely trying to put up a front. That she’s trying, a little too hard, to come across like femme fatale or corpo. Evelyn clears her throat.

“V, this is important. Judy's always been there for me. Always helped out. I trust her. But she's a Mox, not the latest member of your crew. Try not to forget. So you'll be a good girl, tread lightly and keep that tongue on a leash.

“Oh, but it's not my tongue you need to worry about.”

“Hmm, can feel you smirking under that mask, keep it up and I’ll tie those hands down, too,” Evelyn says with a wink as they pass through the double doors into another hallway, then through one more door.

Evelyn leads her through the basement doors, a dark little room with servers, netrunning chairs and screens. In an office chair slouching with one leg on a desk is a woman; late twenties or so with olive skin. One side of her hair is shaved, the other shaggy and down to nearly her shoulder, a deep green color with bright pink ends. The woman is heavily tattooed, bright red roses nestled above her collar bones, a spider web on her right shoulder, a cartoon ghost sitting in a shell, and a large number 13 on her bicep are among the standouts. But V could spend hours describing each artwork.

“Ahem.”

“Hey, there you are…” Judy greets Evelyn, a playful almost flirty tone to her voice.

“This is V. She's here for that BD roll. And V, this is Judy - best braindance editor I know.”

“Enough already, gonna make me barf.” There’s a slight accent to Judy’s voice, not unlike Jackie’s.

“Impressive set up,” V signs, at least, she assumes it’s impressive. Tech is already a bit of a blind spot for her, especially when it comes to brain dances.

“Mhm, Analyzers, sensory sig amps, acoustic and emotive wave monitors, facial expression translators.”

“Ahem, Judy,” Evelyn stops the inked editor before she can tell V more.

“All right, all right… Compiled your BD, Ev.”

“What do you think? Will it do?”

“Still pretty raw… but yeah, oughta do.”

“Mhm. V needs to get deep inside, that's most important.”

“So, let's calibrate, tune it to her,” Judy stands up from the table and moves to the desk closer to the door, sitting down below a neon pink light, “Believe me, I've dealt with worse. Should see the dig-Jig Street porn we gotta contend with sometimes.”

Evelyn has followed behind Judy, standing behind the editor’s chair, “So we drop V inside? Let her look, let her rummage around, right?”

“How 'bout it, V? Raw braindance - ever taken a dip before?” Judy leans forward on the desk, looking at V.

“No, not at all, but I’m a quick learner,” that feels like a lie as soon as she says it, “ and need to know what I’m dealing with. So.”

“Siddown, settle in, and we'll get you goin'.”

V turns around to the chairs, either netrunning or ripperdoc chairs, she’s not sure. But, she climbs into one, settling down into it as Judy comes back out around the desk. Judy is nearby, fiddling with a brain dance wreath.

“Be easier to fit without the mask.”

“Mask has optic tech, linked to my neuroport and biomon, should work just like it does with any set of cybereyes.”

“‘Fraid of ruining the mystery?” Evelyn asks, teasing again.

“Mask is for business, lot harder to track a merc if you got no clue what they look like. You that curious, feel free to try and track me down during my off time.”

“Fine, fine,”  Judy affixes the BD wreath around V’s head, lining it up properly on the merc before walking back to the desk,  “Gotta create your sensory profile first.”

“Go for it.”

“Now, sit still, look at me. Gonna run the analysis soft should feel a slight tingling…”

V’s breath catches as it prickles across her skin, a crackling and warm sensation crawling across every nerve. From the base of her skull, down her spine, across her arms to her fingers, running down her legs to her toes. A vague pulse, a current of something.

“OK now let's set the optics and other sensory sigs. Look smack into these two screens, pretend it's an eye exam.”

The two wreath panels flash and strobe white light, building in urgency and frequency.

“Gimme two more minutes. One more sec, need to get the pain receptor limiters in… OK. All set. Need to test your profile first. Tossing in a sam-”

“We can just use my recording, there’s no point in wasting time,” Evelyn interrupts Judy.

“It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“I’m fine with just jumping to her BD,” V interjects her opinion, “better to get right to it.”

Judy sighs and rolls her eyes; “Fine, fine, what do I know.”

“Great, I’ll just need to patch Bug in.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Who?” Judy jumps up from her desk, crossing her arms and looks at V like she just asked to summon Satan.

“Runner from my crew, security specialist. She'll tell me what to look for while we analyze. No problem, I assume?”

“Actually, it is a problem! You’re already asking me to cut fucking corners and now you want to bring someone else in?! Not what we agreed, Ev!”

“It’s not a big deal,” V signs, not sure what Judy’s sudden problem is.

“No big deal! You don't quite grasp the risks I took by lettin' you in here! What I'm risking pokin' around with this stuff!”

Judy continues to yell and V rolls her eyes, she’s a BD editor, not part of the actual crew, the client, or the fixer. If Arasaka goes after anyone it sure as shit won’t be Judy, so why is she throwing a fit.

“And you don’t seem to grasp the risk I’d be taking if me and my partner went stumbling into that hotel with no fucking clue as to what we or our runner are up against. I miss one hidden turret and I get pumped full of lead, either my runner links in or I’m gone.”

V makes a point to twist her head and look at Evelyn at the last part; Bug is the most highly trained member of their crew and Dex’s go to runner. Without her involvement and eyes on it, the job won’t be going anywhere.

“Bye then!” Judy yells out, “good riddance and don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”

“Judy, please…”

“Ev, she wants to bring a 'runner in. What part of that don't you understand?! How do I know she'll only perch in this footage, observe, not fuck with anything?!”

“Because Bug is literally involved with the heist, has a dog in this fight, and wants it to go well too,” V signs, hoping the AI voice is getting her annoyance across, Judy does level a glare at her over Evelyn’s shoulder.

“Me,” Evelyn steals Judy’s attention, “I'm your guarantee.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Help me, this one last time. I promise everything'll work out,  just like we planned.”

And it hits V, between the flirting and the soft drop in Evelyn’s voice here. The reason Judy is so worked up about this; her and Evelyn have something. Friends teetering the line into something else, girlfriends already, or maybe even more than that. V’s not sure. But there’s something distinctly not platonic to the way they interact. Maybe that’s the play on Evelyn’s. Scam Yorinobu Arasaka then run away with her porn editor girlfriend.

“Fine,” Judy shakes her head and sits back down, the anger gone, “call Bug and we’ll dive in.”

That issue taken care of V rings up T-Bug, the netrunner answering after a ring or two.

“What’s up, V?”

“Bug, listen. I got some useful footage from Konpeki Plaza. It's a braindance.”

“Konpeki? Ohhh, thought as much…” Judy looks up at Evelyn.

“Someone there with you?”

“Client and her...friend...is what I’ll settle on; that’s not what matters right now, its going to give us a layout of the room, a chance to find where the chip is, and some idea of security.”

“All right, see if I can walk you through it. Jackin’ into your tech now,” notifications alert across her mask’s interface, “Mh, you've gotta give me access. Opening port 1779… Secure protocol? Good, I'm goin' in. Should be getting my request… …now.”

“Got it. You ready?”

“Millisec. OK, connection confirmed, now some quick temp ICE and… we're clear. Ready to dance.”

“Let’s do this.”

And with that the wreath panels begin to flash and strobe in front of V’s eyes, quicker and quicker until the world goes out in white. And in the next snap of a moment, one reality becomes another. Her body is no longer her own, she’s placed in Evelyn’s mind standing outside an elevator. What feels like her body, moves to adjust a purse strap, gold capped nails.

“All right, V - eyes open. Gotta find out where Yorinobu is keepin’ the Relic. Everything is controlled by thought and intention; you can step into editor mode, access everything her cyberware picked up a signal of, can scan, rewind, fast forward. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

The doors open, exposing the hotel room, and a horror show of a man walking towards her. V can feel the spike in fear, whether from Evelyn in the moment or V’s own instinctual reaction; she isn’t sure. He’s around eight feet tall, complete metal and cyberware from his feet to his upper lip; more machine than human. Wire, hydraulics, steel; all branded with Arasaka. The flesh section of his head is sickly ashen protrusive veins, glowing red where eyes should be. As he draws closer there’s a whirr of machinery, hydraulics pistoning to give him movement. How is he alive? How is he functional?

“You look like a cut of fuckable meat. Are you?” He asks as he walks past, voice edged with something inhuman.

Evelyn reigns her fear back in, the past version of her walking deeper into the room, where a dark haired man sits at a table in front of a large screen where another blonde haired man speaks back to him.

“I said no,” the dark haired man speaks out, his voice colored by a Japanese accent and V knows it’s Yorinobu. Evelyn continues to walk closer, her heels clicking against the floor.

“They'll have my head for this…”

“Then you shall perish for a good cause.”

“But I-”

“Make yourself comfortable. I need a minute to finish,” Yorinobu tells Evelyn, sparing just a glance over his shoulder.

“Listen in on that conversation, V! Could be something important.”

She wants to watch through first, do an initial watch to look for things and then go more in depth. Two watches at least should mean she’s covered everything. Yorinobu switches the conversation to his holophone, pacing around the room. Evelyn meanwhile puts her purse down on the chair, then walks behind him, trying to keep him in range

“My father is a tired, visionless old greybeard who thinks nothing will change and he'll live forever in his tiny, frozen bubble! You will listen to this - Saburo is an addled despot utterly removed from reality, stuck in some fossilized vision of a world that no longer exists! Of a world that may never have existed! We have not seen eye to eye for the last twenty years. I am quite sure we won't now.”

Yorinobu continues to talk as Evelyn pours herself a glass full of champagne and takes a drink, the tech allowing V to taste the sweet bubbles as if they were on her own tongue. Glass in hand she takes a slow look around the room and walks back to the center of it, sitting at the table, the plush of the cushion letting her sink into it.

“Noted,” Yorinobu says into the phone as he starts to walk back to Evelyn, there’s something in his eyes, “enough.”

He hands up, putting the phone down on the table. Evelyn looks up at him and V through her eyes gets her first good look at the Arasaka heir. Dark hair with the sides shaved down close to the scalp, glasses perched on his nose. His cyberware is surprisingly minimal for a man of his wealth, two streaks of silver going up his neck to his jawline.

“Sorry, to make you wait,” he touches Evelyn’s shoulder and the woman rises, “business can be stupid.”

They’re close and V can feel his hands on her, Evelyn’s, hips. Evelyn’s hand on his shoulder.

“Mmh, it wasn't long,” Evelyn hums and it feels wholy unnatural to feel like she’s speaking with someone else's voice, “Not even long enough for me to grow bored.”

His hands start to creep and Evelyn goes to pull away, movements playful, when Yorinobu pulls her back in. Then he starts to dip his mouth.

“Fuck no!” V yells out as she pushes the thought to enter editor mode, separating her senses from Evelyn’s before she has to feel Yorinobu’s lips on Evelyn’s neck. She looks down and sees herself, though slightly digital, her bright blue nail polish and not gold jewelry. The scene around her has paused and a digital filter over them.

“Something wrong?” T-Bug asks with a slight laugh.

“Nearly had corpo droolon me,” V signs, happy to find the tech allows her translator to work in editor mode, “was going do a watch through, then a second go in editor mode, figured two look throughs would be best...then”

“Then you nearly had to lock lips with Yorinobu Arasaka.”

“Gag, rewinding back to scan the call fully.” With a thought she watches as Evelyn and Yorinobu move in reverse, getting back to win the heir was starting the call. Once she gets where she needs to be she scans his phone and restarts it from editor mode, thankful for the sensory disconnect. She hears the man on the other end of Yorinobu’s call speak.

“Please speak with your father. He's taken a particular interest in this project, he can certainly explain the risks invol--”

“My father is a tired, visionless old greybeard who thinks nothing will change and he'll live forever in his tiny, frozen bubble!”

“I should not even be listening to such things.”

“You will listen to this - Saburo is an addled despot utterly removed from reality, stuck in some fossilized vision of a world that no longer exists! Of a world that may never have existed! We have not seen eye to eye for the last twenty years. I am quite sure we won't now.”

“Read the documentation carefully. The Relic requires specific storage conditions. You MUST provide them.”

“Noted,” Yorinobu hangs up again and V pauses the BD.

“Heard that? Relic docs gotta be around here somewhere. Look for them,” Bug confirms.

“Once we find where the chip is stored we’ll do a clean sweep of the security, okay Bug.”

“Smart thinking.”

V watches half-heartedly as Yorinobu and Evelyn interact; her range of vision and senses limited to Evelyn. She fast forwards through the two canoodling, only mildly catching Evelyn mentioning something about ‘candy’ though V assumes it’s of the nose variety. Evelyn separates away from Yorinobu for a moment and walks to a control panel, offering to lend music to the scene.

But V’s interest is piqued when she catches Evelyn rifling through Yorinobu’s messages, a few spam and scam emails. Then she pulls up an email from Clouds, a dollhouse in the city. Evelyn deletes it, V rewinds back and pauses. The email thanks Yorinobu for his patronage; hmm, heir has a taste for doll prostitutes. Something, Evelyn doesn’t want that email to be there… Its all beginning to make more sense and V’s not sure she likes it.

The merc fast forwards further through the BD, moving through to Evelyn playing awful music and going to meet Yorinobu in his bed. Where he sits with a tablet, the second the screen is clear. She pauses and scans it, bingo.

“Manual details a special temp controlled container. Relic needs to be kept real cool,” T-Bug explains through the technobabble.

“Chip’s got to be in a freezer.”

“Yep. Could damage it otherwise. OK, switch on thermal layer detection in the editor. Should be easier to spot where Yorinobu's keeping the chip.”

V switches with a thought, the world turning into temperature signatures as she searches for unnatural cold places and spots. An air conditioner pumps out cold air, but that would be a stupid place to put billion dollar tech. One malfunction and you lost it all.  She rewinds back to get more of a view, a ice bucket for champagne, a fridge?

“That’s just a regular fancy fridge, not cold enough,” Bug tells her when she spends t0o long contemplating it.

V rewinds further and an amass of blue ice cold air from behind a pillar catches her eye, It seems to come up through the floor, unlike the AC, ice bucket, or fridge she has no clear idea where this one is coming from. A secret container in the floor? Seems like a much craftier place to hide expensive stolen tech, V scans it.

“Right, grabbed the heat sig. Matches the spec in the docs,” T-Bug tells her.

“Chip has to be here, we got it.”

“Mmhmm, time to scan security.”

V switches back to the regular mode, looking for what she needs to scan. The camera system first.

“Shit, cameras packed with newtech motion sensors, heat sig activators. IFF.”

“Can you kill it?”

“With access to their subnet, but we need the Flathead bot for that.”

They continue on, with Bug commenting on each security measure they scan. Alarm with fresh firmware, Automated turrets connected to the hotels server. Yorinobu’s pistol, loaded with the safety on. V rewinds and fast forward, searching anything else that might be an issue but comes up empty handed.

“Seems like we got everything. Looks like all their security systems are linked to the hotel subnet. We need the Flathead. No other way to shut down these systems,” T-Bug sumises.

“No way around it ourselves?”

“Nope. Least I'm fresh out of ideas. Think we got everything we need.”

“Okay, but hang on the line with me after we get out of the BD, need you to look over something for me, if you don’t mind.”

“No problem.”

V exists out of the brain dance, a flash of white and the world returns. Judy and Evelyn looking at her from across a desk, T-Bug still in the call panel of her mask. Her eyes hurt, her throat feels dry, and she can feel a migraine pushing at her temples. She fucking hates brain dances.

“Get everything you need?” Judy asks, a dark raised eyebrow.

“From the BD, yeah, got to clear something with Bug while I got her on the horn,” V gets the chip she fucked with out of her pocket and slides it into the proxy reader of her mask, “got a chip I fucked around with; decrypted and tried to rewrite the virus on it, so it will spike the people who gave it to me. But I want to make sure, I didn’t fuck up.”

“Need me to grade your work, V?”

“Kind of…”

“Oh, shit, V. You fucking over Militech?” T-Bug exclaims, a little pride in her voice as she reads over the code, thankfully her voice is only audible to V through her hearing aids.

“Mmhmm.”

“And you don’t want to sign and have your translator read it, because you don’t want to risk the client knowing you’re fucking over Militech while prepping to fuck over Arasaka.”

“Mmhmm, will it work?”

“It will fry the servers of any tech it’s plugged in proper and fry the servers it’s linked to, a Militech van from the looks of it. Won’t be a dent in their bottom line, but will surely piss off some reps. That what you meant for it to do?”

“That was the plan.”

“Preem work then, but I do want to make some...edits,” T-Bug edits the chips code in front of V’s eyes, “there we go.”

“Something wrong with it?” Nerves creep up V’s throat, if she fucked up, she’d rather learn her lesson now.

“Nah, I added a bit of a personal touch for you, nothing wrong with a little style added to your hacking.”

“Appreciate the help.”

“You know I won’t always be here to check your work.”

“I know, I know, but it doesn't mean I won’t take advantage while I can. Thanks again, talk soon.”

“Later, V.” With that V hangs up the call and slots the spiked credchip back into its respective pocket. Judgement, suspicion, and resentment are radiating off of Judy.

“I'll wipe the cache and your data. You were never here.”

Judy stands up from the desk and V tries to decipher a few of the tattoos she sees, noticing more sea themed ones, like a dolphin and sharks. V flinches behind her mask as Judy removes the BD wreath, glad to be free of the contraption, but she could have taken it off herself.

“Thanks…” V signs, despite this, just trying to be polite despite their spat.

“Keep it,” Judy hands her the wreath, V getting a good look at the octopus tattooed on the woman’s hand,  “I'll put it on Ev's tab. Portable device for handling BDs. I already uploaded your calibration settings. Not as sophisticated as what we got here, but should do the trick.”

“And it keeps you outta harm's way. Clever.”

“Speaking of harms way, know what I see looking at you,” Judy pins her hands to her hips and gives V that look again, “walking, talking corpses.”

“We needed this recording, just… relax, will you?”

“Relax! If Arasaka finds out you have it, you're dead. I'm dead! If you fuck this up and Arasaka comes knocking on my door!”

“Judy, relax, that’s… not gonna happen,” Evelyn is the one trying to soothe the editors temper again.

“Evelyn, please… no shortcuts. You go that route, city'll always win. So be careful.”

“'Course I will be. Besides, we'll talk in a bit,” Evelyn looks to V,  “lets walk.”

V stashes the new BD wreath into her bag and climbs from the chair, following Evelyn out of Judy’s basement space. It’s not like V is heartless or doesn’t know anxiety; but of everyone involved, Judy has the least skin in the game. V can’t spend her time coddling someone who doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot to worry about compared to her, Jackie, or Bug.

“Well? What do you think?” Evelyn asks and V can see that hint of nerves coming back.

“You’re not worried about this coming back on you, if they start looking through everyone he’s been dealing with?”

“They'll have a long list, then. Packed full of big names. Much bigger than mine. You tell me who they check first. Corpo hotshots and cutthroats? Or a little bedroom plaything like me?”

“Well, then... “ V tries to find her words, this all seems, too good, “intel on the heir, on the place, know roughly where the chip is, and how we should get to it… Seems like a perfect plan and job.”

“Mm. Thanks. Now the punch line, please.”

“Seems too good to be true, there’s got to be a catch…”

“Cold feet? Are you looking to get out of it?”

“I want to know you’re in control here; that there’s no secrets, no catches, no surprises that turns this heist from a cakewalk into a bloodbath.”

“V. I have zero reasons to haze you. We’re in this together. Really. Trust me that I got this.”

“Okay, if you say so, what next?”

“V….” there’s nothing good in the way Evelyn pauses, words stuck to her tongue for a moment, “Do this job for me. I mean me alone. No splitting the payout with anyone else. No middlemen. No Dex.”

Of course, of fucking course, there had to be something. Evelyn’s trying to play cutthroat corpo, fucking over a fixer because she has dollar signs in her eyes. But, she’s too damn naïve to the game to know that no merc with the lead in their gun would pull that shit. Greedy mercs who screw over their fixers end up broke on the street at best and swimming  with cement shoes at worst. And a high profile one like Dex has the means to destroy her.

“Fucking knew there was a catch, you want to fuck over our fixer.”

“Dex is a middleman. And a useless one at this point.”

“You don't fuck with fixers. That's the one rule every merc in this city knows - and actually follows!”

“But if we're smart…”

“There is no smart to this, a mistake like that will cost me my reputation and without that, a merc is fucking nothing in this city. Are you serious about this?”

“Better ask yourself that question. Do you want to spend the rest of your days blasting scavs? Or become a legend overnight? Your choice.”

“He would put me in the ground, if I pulled some gonk shit like that.”

“I could give you fifty percent, V, . Eddies enough to do whatever the hell you like, without needing Dex for anything. With cred like that, you wouldn’t want for anything, you could retire.”

“It’s not about the money.”

“I thought you were a merc. I thought it was always about the money.”

“No, its not actually. He trusts me, he’s taking a leap with me. And even if he weren’t, I’m not the only person I got to worry about. Bug vouched for me too and Jackie is my partner. I fuck over my fixer, it hurts them too. I’m not going to send them down the river for a bigger cut of the pie.”

“Fine. I never asked. But V?”

“Yeah.”

“I just hope you're as good as you are naive.”

“Pff, you think I’m the naive one, here. Cute.

“If you need me, call. I'll send you my number. Now go. I need a few words with Judy.”

“Later, then.”

And with that V heads back up the stairs, tension draws tight across her shoulders. This whole damn thing with Evelyn throwing her off. The BD and everything seems clear cut, if they get the Flathead, the job might even be easy. But, wanting to fuck over their fixer. Evelyn is not the corpo or femme fatale or whatever she seems to think she is. A doll, V’s sure of that.  Evelyn must have deleted the email from Clouds because its’s connected to her and the Mox offer protection to sex workers; must be where she and Yorinobu met. Clouds even has connections to Arasaka through the Tyger Claws. And she managed to become a powerful rich man’s plaything, so now she thinks she’s smart enough to fuck over not only him but Dex too.

She’s a messy client with good intel. V doesn’t want Evelyn to get hurt. The older woman is in over her head and doesn’t know how the merc world works. She doesn’t deserve to get hurt for that, the last thing V wants is for Dex to lose his cool and hurt the woman. But, V also owes it to him to let him know Evelyn put that deal on the table. If she doesn’t, what’s to say Evelyn won’t pull this on another fixer? Or Dex gets another job aligned with her and the next merc she offers this to isn’t so loyal? She has to tell him.

V fumbles with her holo as she walks back through the club, doing some quick research on Konpeki Plaza. Finding their policy on guns. Given the stealth nature of this mission, she can assume the only way they’re getting in is to find a way to get in like regular patrons. Which means they’d be scanned for guns as soon as they get through the door. If something goes south, she doesn’t want her and Jackie left unarmed with a hoard of Arasaka soldiers on their ass.

But they can’t confiscate cyberware.

Might be time to cash in her savings for something. Her holo buzzes in her hand as Dex calls; her stomach drops. Unsure for a moment what to say to him, if she should go ahead and tell him what Evelyn tried to pull. Would he lose his temper? Drop the entire damn heist? Would he hurt her for it? It weighs on her shoulders as she pushes through a blue beaded curtain, considering her options with a finger hovering over the phone.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Final Four: Beaks in the Shell! or JESUS WEPT!

This.. this is a big occasion for me. It’s a return to regular Ducktales coverage.. but it’s also the first episode of the LAST four of the series. It was thanks to Ducktales my blog got a following, first through in character chat things, then through my reviews of this very season. It was starting this last year that took my blog from something I was passionate abbout but did ocassionaly to a vital part of my being and my source of income via one lucky boy who just wont’ let me stop! I kid of course, I thank kev for it, though i’d gladly welcome any other review comissions from you fine folks and fit them into the schedule. There’s a page on my blog for how and if your on mobile you can simply send me an ask or submit to ask about comissiong an episode or episodes of an animated shwo you like and i’ll give you my prices and what not. But it’s thanks to these Kev started comissioning in the first place and thanks to you all clicking on these reviews every week I do them that kept me doing them early on. So I wanted to thank you all. 

Covering the last four episodes is really bittersweet for me. It’s not the end for ducks here: I have most of seasons 1 and 2 to cover, and will be covering a lot of season 1 next month so I can properly cover shadow war for my Lena retrospective, not to mention continuing to cover life and times when I have the space, various birthdays, including Carl Barks Next Month!, and so on and so on. But this is not only the first show I covered on a weekly basis but it’s the first show i’ve covered like that to end. To put it in perspective, Loud House won’t be leaving until it WANTS to and even then nick will probably prepare a second spinoff to follow it up in some form, Amphibia has both the rest of season 2 to go, starting next month!, and a third season renewal meaning while that probably WILL be it i’ll have had two full seasons to cover by the time it’s over, and I went into Close Enough FULLY expecting it not to make it past season 1 as it’s long and harried production cycle lead me to belivie Time-Warner was just going to dump it on HBO Max and be done with it.. and to my utter and everlasting delight the opposite has happened: It didn’t just get renewed but it’s become one of HBO Max’s most popular shows, the flagship of it’s adult animation lineup, and been given THREE more seasons, two of which are coming very soon, and likely will get as many as it wants for the forseable future. 

The point is.. I went into covering Ducktales expecting at least one more season and genuinely not knowing if i’d make it thorugh covering this one, and once this started to really work out for me, to the point from doubting i’d EVER be able to set up a Patreon to having one that nets me ten dollars a month, feel free to contribute if you enjoy these reviews even a buck a month helps, honest. Plus thanks to that ten bucks a month i’ll be covering the five part 87 Ducktales pilot in April and if you get it up to ten i’ll cover super ducktales. But I wouldn’t even had one without these reviews giving me something to start with, and I figured they’d be around for a few more years, at least one more season. I didn’t think the show would just.. end with this season and while the season IS a proper final season of the show, wrapping up arcs, introducing long overdue cast additions, giving us the biggest and best overarching plot thus far.. a good final season dosen’t make it hurt any less. But as a wise Synthizoid once said...

It hurts it’s going.. I wasn’t prepared for it.. but it’s giving us one hell of a last act, and if this episode is any indication, just because the end is in sight dosen’t mean the last few eps before the finale are phoning it in. This is the end... so now i’ve got my emotional stuff and the weight behind it out of the way, for now i’m defintely going to be bawling come the finale and I’m not ashamed, we can dive into the begining of the end. Counting down.. because really when else am I going to get to use this...

We’re at four and under the cut it’s beaks in the shell. Let’s get dangerous. 

We open with a crime in progress as Gandra is stealing a thing for FOWL and Fenton has shown up on the scene to stop her as you’d expect.. along with Huey the boy wonder! He’s finally Fenton’s Sidekick!

Seriously it’s just so sweet to see this little payoff, to see Huey, after talking about it and clearly wanting to assit Fenton however he can, actually participate. Granted he dosen’t have an armor, yet, of his own, but still he’s been through enough stuff to be helpful> plus, Gyro’s reaction to Fenton trying to ge the resources for another gizmosuit was...

Gandra trips up his wheel, and im with 87 Scrooge in Ducktales Remastered, which I finally got to play recently! Horay!, what WAS gyro thinking with that design. Regardless she gets away, and our heroes return the loot off screen. Good day’s crime fighting. 

Except something’s off with Fenton as he’s been working extra late lately and lying to both Gyro and Ma’Ma about it with both suspcious, Gyro because he dosen’t like not knowing things and especially not knowing what his former intern’s up to because he’s a bit of a control freak.. and because he probably can’t go visit his new clone farm and work on speeding up the process of his replacement bodies after moonvasion used em all up without Fenton finding out as he’d tell Scrooge and Scrooge would be like “Stop playing God in ways that could get me a steep fine!”. It’d be a whole thing. The fact Fenton’s also using their now shared intern in Manny and neither is telling him why probably isn’t helping and i’ts only that workplace harassment seminar that keeps him from trying to strangle either of them again. That and Manny dosen’t have a neck.

Ma’Ma is more upset that not only is he lying to her again, more on that later, but .. that she’s figured out he has a new girlfriend and understandably thinks there’s some dark reason he’s not telling her, and unlike Gyro turns out she’s two for two. I mean she is a detective while Gyro is more worried about his clone army, his man horse and his robot son. I mean the last two are valid but still Mama just has to worry about her job and her socially awkward adult son. She has more time to focus on this.

But yes, not only is Fenton seeing someone.. but it’s Gandra again. A bit abrubt but honestly this isn’t the first Fenton episode to move his life fast.. and frankly i’m more lenient on final seasons, or seasons INTENDED to be the last ones in terms of offscreen stuff, as your trying to get everything you can wrapped up in the span of 13-24 episodes depending on how lucky you get, if not less. Sometimes you just gotta use a reveal and some exposition to hurry things along and if presented right it works.. and here it is a while the summary for this episode spoiled the reveal, i’ts still subtly dramatic that not only has hef ully forgiven her.. but their together.. despite the fact she still works for fowl. Wuh-oh.  After the credits we get an idea of what their working on, as Fenton used the gizmoduck suit to enter some kind of VR scape. This is the Gizmoscape! It’s a vast virtual reality landscape.. that looks like a fancy version of the VR Interface from community. Marble pillars, flowing water falls. Though ironically enough Jim Rash’s character is NOT a part of it and despite Fenton suggesting letting him in to help with their glitch problem she’s reluctant as it’s THEIR baby and she wants it to be perfect first before they allow other people in. Though i’m also sure part of it is that Gyro would start screaming JESUS WEPT! over and over. 

Meanwhile Mark Beaks is having a big flashy press confrence to announce the new Waddlephone. Only a 50% chance of exploding! And that’s not my dig at Samsung but the shows as that’s really Beaks sales pitch. Unsuprisingly only one VERY bored looking nerd is there at the confrence. As for why he’s finally fallen so low part of it is explalined in the episode: His attempted thefts of the Gizmoduck suit have gotten stale. As the bored nerd puts it he’s tried to steal it four times already, two that we’ve seen but i’m VERY unsuprised he’s tried again off screen. He’s made it PAINFULLY clear he has no ideas of his own, constantly steals them, and the public’s tired of it. As for why it took THIS LONG.. this is sadly realistic. As the throngs of “hardcore gamers” defending Cyberpunk 2077 before it was released can attest to, internet nerd culture can often be toxic, stupid and defend big personalities even when they’ve CLEARLY done something terrible as long as their doing something they like. Beaks was clearly pilfering enough good products and doing enough antics on social media to still be liked and for them to ignore his blanat and douchey crimes and had enough money on him during said crimes to walk away from it. 

Problem is.. while people can be awful and defend someone despite them not deserving their loyality, being a douche in public and doing VERY terrible things.. you have to have something to earn that loyalty. Waddle had that at first iwth project ta-dah, Waddleduck, various aps i’m sure... but it’s clear from context by this point Beaks has nothing left and no cult of personality to insulate him. Unlike say Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos he dosen’t HAVE some big product to mask his shadier wealth hoarding actions, he just has rampat supervilian attempts to steal someone else’s power armor and a hired hyjacking to get back at his cold unloving mother. Even when he does supervillian stuff like that.. he can’t be bothered to do it originally. The public will, and very sadly, defend you from terrible stuff, we’ve seen it with people supproting Gina Carano even though she’s actively spreading harmful disnfermation and then had the GALL to compare herself to jews hiding from the nazis, and one journalist trying to defend her had the gall to compare this to the hollywood blacklisting if the 50′s instead of you know, someone who woudln’t shut up about harmful dangerous shit finally getting fired for using teh platform said job provided to spread said harmful dangerous shit about masks and the vacine. But if you have nothing to offer.. thieri just going to forget you and move on. He has nothing to offer so they’ll gladly gravitate to some other jackass who can at leasat given them a neat phone instead of trying to steal a superhero suit for the 8th time. Mark realizes if he can’t steal something soon.. he’ll be forced to go with the Nuclear option: MAKE SOMETHING HIMSELF. 

Back at Fenton’s toilet lab, Huey finds Fenton having some cyber makeouts with Gandra... which translates to him kissing the air and Huey feeling evne more awarkd than usual. As for why Huey’s here despite it being late, he got a piece of Gandra’s nanotech during the robbery and figures they can track her. Fenton is.. less than enthused about that for obvious reasons but things soon get worse for our hero as our other hero notices the linkup. And while sidekicks are a good thing in my eyes; They allow young heroes to get proper training, help nuture their talents and prevent assholes from telling them to stop it instead of you know helping them. It’s.. a more common trope than you think let me tell you. 

But Fenton’s discovered the Downside is they can show up anytime, want to hunt your criminal girlfriend down not knowing the full story, and if their a genius like you, figure out what your up to with no effort and really want to try it. Seriously Huey’s almost as smart as you Fenton and will no doubt surpass you one day, this was a matter of when not if and you shouldv’e been more prepared. But Huey wants to try, and while Fenton tries deflecting since he only has the gizmoduck helmet and it only works for him now... Manny comes in with a bunch of vr rigs and Huey dives in.  Naturally, Huey soon running directly into Gandra dosne’t go great.. and given this is huey his natural instinct is to have a panic attack over his best friend, mentor and the only person besides maybe his family, boyfriend and girlfriend that really gets him possibly betraying him and his entire family. Gandra is of course mad Fenton invited someone in when she didn’t want that, and even more someone whose clearly not happy with her and will likely tell on them because that’s basic hue-man nature. 

Fenton explains he didn’t ask for this, so we get easily the best part of the episode: Gandra’s solution to the child having a mental breakdown.. is to summon a weighted blanket and throw it over him, which Huey mistakes for a trap and she explains helps with Anxiety.. and while he struggles.. it really does. Damn gotta get me one of those. Also while his Autisim remains vauge, likely on puprose, Huey having anxiety disorder, while obvious before, is now 100% confirmed. 

So now he’s calm, though his Anxiety meter shows he’s still not happy and Gandra doubts he’ll listen, Fenton can at least try and explain: The two have been seeing each other and working on this in secret.. but it has NOTHING to do with FOWL other than Gandra embezzling resoruces to make it happen. Gandra also explains why the project is so important to her and Fenton via her own backstory: Super Science is a dangerous, unrpedictable field and accidents happen a lot, and given people tend to hate what they don’t understand, hence why the X-Men founded their own island  after getting spat on one too many times, it often gets an unfair bad wrap.. and she shows she’s had to put up with this her whole life, making an intresting lazer thing as a kid that lost to a volcano and getting glared at for it accidently destroying said volcano. And as an adult due to her work’s dangerous and experimental nature, no one would take a chance on it and like many a super villian she had to experiment on herself. It’s also why she worked for Beaks last season and works with FOWL now, only supervillians with thier grandiose ambitions and lack of care for property damage would fund her. 

That’s part, at least, of why this is so very important to her: The Gizmoscap eprovides an invorment where scientests and others can experiment unabated, where the only limit is imagination and those glitches they keep having and any accident can be frozen , dragged and dropped away with no damage. There’s no risk but all the reward and they plan to give it out for free, to let the public use this and let the world grow from it. 

It also fills in a lot of Gandra’s character and gives weight to her last apperance: Her working with Beaks, while hypocritical, now has a tragic edge as he was simply the only one who’d fund her work. Her hatred of Fenton’s corprroate job and people like Scrooge.. is that in general billionares like him usually aren’t good people, and even SCrooge has his clear faults, and she assumed he was just making Fenton shut up and do things just to beniefit him and make him more money.. when Scrooge was instaead paying him to do a genuine public service as gizmoduck, and gives him and Gyro a LOT of leway and a pretty bottomless budget and only turns things down if their way too dangeorus for public release. The tragedy here is if she’d gone to Scrooge.. she never would’ve had to work for FOWL. He wouldd’ve genuinely supported her and likely given her a full ride and a spot in the lab of her own, maybe as an intern but probably on her own merit given how game changing her tech is and how he of all people understands a ballance of risk and reward. It turns her from a very hypcoriticla techie who works with the very people she scorns.. to someone who has no choice and desperatley wants out.  And this is her way out: something new and bold that’, while not hers alone as Fenton co created it, could change the world and make it safe for people like her to do what they do without ridcule, scorn or risk. It’s everything she could’ve dreamed of and more and once it’s done she promises to leave fowl and as the end of the episode bares out, and as her tone makes clear, she’s genuine about it. She also TRULY does love fenton and vice versa and both are desspearte for Huey to keep a lid on things from Gyro till it’s ready, as she rightfully worries if it gets out unfisnished they’ll just be mocked agian.  Naturally being a good soft boy Huey is now entirely on board, because he loves science, and he loves love and this is both. And frankly given what we saw way back in Astro BOYD... .he knows more than anyone what its like to be laughed at and mocked for being diffrent and simply being smart. And even though his family lvoes him.. only one member is as smart as him in the same way, his mom whose still a very diffrent person, and it wasn’t till this season he really got to connect with people his own age like him. And both Violet and BOYD could benifit form this.. everyone could. So he’ll keep it secret for now.  This proves problematic as both Gyro AND Mama are there and both have questions. And while Huey ducks gyro, Mama.. interrogates a small child who she’s defintely met and likely knows has anxiety over something as trivial as her son having a secret girlfrined. You.. you guys might’ve wanted to remove this bit given last year. I”m just saying. Does not play well. The most Huey can come up with is a girlfriend in Canada which fenton plays along with... but given neither her nor gyro are really buying into things, though Mama has a check done on seamstresses in canada just in case because this bit was clearly written years ago and not rerecorded for whatever reason, Huey uses little bulb to fake a gizmo emergency so Fenton can get out of there, go home and work on this himself while Huey stalls and lies. But since his best on the fly lie was “a girlfriend in canada”, which is somehow worse than “who’s Dewey”, and while our boy is many things: excellent at opera, a good friend, a wonderful wingman, excellent at setting a mood, a good son, great at panic attacks, a genius, an expert woodchuck, knowledgeble on quantum mechanics.. the list goes on lying is not one of those things and he seems to be in a pickle. 

Meanwhile Mark is struggling to create, can relate, because he’s entirely creatively sterile. And that’s probably why out of Scrooge’s foes.. he stopped being a threat. He has no vision. And while true the Beagle BOys also don’t besides steal stuff and maybe get our deed back, that’s by design as Ma knows they can’t take scrooge or gizmoduck so why cry. Stick to petty crimes and stuff he isn’t aware of or dosen’t care about. But Magica and Glomgold do. Magica is cunning, if not subtle, and manipulative and when on full blast horrifyingly powerful, and it took everything Clan McDuck had to stop her at full, and she still nearly won without any powers when she came back, and even if Lena can keep her in check now, she still GOT her powers back and got her new arch enemy to defeat her old one. Glomgold while only slightly more comipitent than beaks, and even then VERY slightly, he at least has vision. His schemes are entirely stupid.. but he dosen’t stop coming up with them. They may be his first draft but damn if they aren’t entertaining and damn if one or two haven’t WORKED. Simply stealing a few cents from scrooge and gaslighting him in a devil costume NEARLY drove him insane and cost him his fortune.  Beaks.. has no ideas. He has ambiation.. but it’s to steal the same tech that even if he got it, he woudln’t know what to do with. The ONLY time he’s been a full on threat has been using someone else’s scheme, that Gandra clearly came up with and STILL required piggybacking on the gizmo suit. He has nothing and while it was fine for a while.. eventually h’es left iwth nothing. Glomgold at least has money, magica at least has power... Beaks HAD both.. but had no idea what to properly do with it and now is on his last legs. Even his idea for a coffee cups with aps is taken because of course “even the dumbest ideas are taken”, this is america. Making dumb shit for rich morons is our primary export. But he sees the fleeing fenton, has a breakdown and declares FINE if that’s what fate wants i’ll steal the armor I’LL STEAL THE ARMOR ALL DAY. 

So Fenton heads home to recharge in both senses of the word, and to tell Gandra the timetable’s moved and Huey can hold them only so long. And he seems to be wrong as Huey confidently prepares to answer their questions.. but is seemingly thrown when we get the real reason Mama is so upset: She’s just worried and still a bit hurt from Fenton not feeling he could tell her he was gizmoduck and it breaks her heart that her son feels he has to hide from her again. However while this is genuinely sad and emotional.. the reason he’s thrown is it’s NOT huey, but Louie, whose a bit miffed as he DIDN’T know Fenton was Gizmoduck, and can’t properly bullshit without full info. it’s also really nice that bit FINALLY came up as the rest of the four main kids have known for a while now. But Huey convincnes him to do it.. for 6 months allowance. Frankly the real shocker here is that they actually GET an allowance. 

However Mama.. is again a cop. One who REALLY needs to rethink her ethics.. but a cop, and the best one on the force, and thus has easily guessed this is not Huey, and given she’s probably ran into his schemes before, figures out which one he’d bring in to buffer for him and easily gets rid of Louie by asking him to tur informant on himself, since the REAL Huey would under pressure and Louie instead flees in terror not wanting to get arrested and leaves both the lab and the episode. Though I’m pretty sure i know where he went

So yeah things are not great and only get worse, as Mark breaks into fentons house via the open window and upon finding out abotu the Gizmoscape naturally plans to hack into it and take it for himself. Before he does Fenton talks to Gandra and admits they may have to let other people in and we get another reason: She’s worried she’s not good enough. He reassures her.. and this tender moment is interupted by Beaks who imprisons them, hyjacks fenton’s security system aka a gizmo armor, and while still a creatively sterile douche, does have a decent if horrifically scummy way to profit all of this: use the open coloabreation concept to get the legal right to steal all this and say it’s his. 

Fenton bemaons the fact that Gandra was right, one bad apple spoiled the bunch and unveling it too qiuckly would’ve gone bad as she feared.. but Gandra’s grown and realizes Fenton was also right, and that they needed more people. While the wrong people can ruin a project, collaboration can help, finding perspectives you didn’t see and helping fine tune ideas. Huey, whose collapsed at Fenton’s due to the exustion of lying, wakes up to find Beaks crimes and being unable to just unplug him, as while Beaks is VERY dumb, even he’s not THAT stupid. But Fenton gets out an SOS over morse to tell everyone So Huey does.. and the calvary arrives, as Huey enters the Gizmoscape with Mama and Gyro. And while Mama is pleased to realize she’s right about the girlfirend thing they don’t really have time for that, so once Huey explains the basic concept, he uses it himself to give himself GIZMO ARMOR. AT LAST. 

He also has extra long legs, because of course, just.. of course. Naturally Beaks steals it, and everyone else takes a stab at their own gizmotech armor: Mama daawns a stunning police themed one, Gyro goes for a bulb mecha based on the giant version of little bulb from the great dime chase, an idea brought up by LB, and Gandra goes for a sleek tron esque nanotech number. Beaks take sa bit from each and our heroes wonder how to beat him.. but Fenton realizes that’s simple: Beaks can only copy and steal... they can create. And Gandra uses this against him by pointing that out so he drops his super armor.. to look like Andross from Starfox.. which shows that EVEN when trying to come up with a cool final boss form... Beaks has to steal from something. The rest of the Gizmo Corps, my name for them I own that, Gizmo Legion would also be good, after Iron Man’s iron Legion, suit back up and kick beaks ass as a team. I smell second spinoff.. or first if darkwing ends up hyjacked by Seth Rogen.. who I have nothing agianst he’s just not the one who put in the work for a reboot. 

So our heroes win in an awesome sequence, seirously spinoff and Beaks is knocked the fuck out and presumibly will FINALLY go to jail for good to this as he can get away from a lot but directly breaking into an officer’s house and stalking her son, they can omit the gizmopart and even if Fenton went public.. no one would care and he and Mama can take care of htemselves, as can Huey, Gyro, Gandra and Manny, so it’s not like anyones in danger. Beaks is well and truly defeated: he has no idea, an imminet jail sentence, and no one to back him up. Fenton’s finally got the little boil off his back

So now the big fight is over, Gyro can actually process the Gizmoscape.. and is genuinely impressed.. he tries to hidei t because of course he does.. but it’s clear for someone who himself has constnatly been called crazy and had his ideas blow up.. this is paradise to him. a place where he won’t be judged and has unlimtied funds to experiment with his ideas without having to get yelled at when they destroy a city block or nearly choked to death by his own robot son, daughter or nonbinary person. He also easily fixes the problem and proves Fenton right for wanting to include him, as he points out they hadn’t been DELETING anything, simply downsizing it and it naturally caused stress on the server.  Fenton talks about Gandra and defneeds her to Mama.. whose just happy he’s happya nd someone can take her son. Alls well that ends well right. 

Final Thoughts:  So this was a... wait.. why are we cutting back to fowl.. why is bradford there. 

Yeah turns out megalmanoical diabolical msterminds kinda monitor their employees so he knew she intended to quit and stole resources, and while she plans to leave, he simply calls in a bunch of eggheads who overwhelm her with sheer numbers and has her fined two weeks pay.. and taken to the lost library to indefintely lock her up. What’s that she asks “You have your secrets, I have mine”

So yeah a bit of a downer ending

Actual Final Thoughts: 

This was an excellent capper to Fenton’s character arc. While the Gandra relationsihp is a bit rushed the rest is a masterful capper to his character arc: This episode shows off how he’s changed from EVERY one of his previous three focus episodes, while a major part of astro boyd and how he got his docterate it dosne’t quite contribute to his character arc,  and grown from them: From beware the buddy system! he’s learned to colaberate properly and taken his desire to WORK with other people, like he always did with Gyro but was constnatly shut out, and found a proper and brilliant way to that allows people like him, gyro, gandra and huey to really express themselvs. He’s grown from a niave rookie trusting the wrong people in who is gizmoduck.. to someone whose STILL fully trusting despite constant betryals, but now knows who to trust, and an experinced hero who once freed easily counters his nemisis.  And finally from Dangerous Chemistry, he’s finally got a ballance in his life: inastead of running from gizmo or treating his alter ego as something else.. he’s found a way to use the gizmotech for science, and FINALLY found his world changing invention one so good and so practical even his mentor, despite trying to walk it back, is genuinely proud of him and genuinely in awe.

Every step lead to his happy ending.. well okay his girlfriend still needs to be freed from her insane ex-boss, but that’s just a few episodes away. Fenton has everything he wanted when he started: his boss finally respects him and treats him as an equal, his mom not only knows who he is but is proud and supportive of him, he has a loving partner creatively and romantically.. and a best friend who while a good two decades younger, is there for him and who he genuinely apologizes too for putting so much on him. LIke all the endings so far this season.. it feels like a throughly satisfying end to the journey we’ve been following. This fits in nicely with Penny realizing earth could be her home and that she dosen’t have to constnatly fight to have a purpose, Lena finally accepting magic instead of running from it and thus gaining peace of mind and power to stop her former abuser from hurting anyone else, Goldie finally accepting how much she cars about Scrooge and his family and that she CAN change... all of this, except penny obviously has been built up through three seasons and while I DEFINTLY could see frank and matt returning to all of them.. i’ts nice to get some closure.  It feelsd earned and impressive. The episode is also.. REALLY fucking funny, from the weighted blanket gag to Beaks in general, to Huey yelling at fenton about Mama “She somehow broke Louie!”. It’s a masterful and throughly satisfying end to Fenton’s story. And again we’ll likely see him in the finale but character arc wise.. its a good place to end his. 

Next Week: FINALLY, AFTER 10,000 YEARS, IT’S THE TAILSPIN EPISODE. OWEEOOO, OWEEHHHH. 

Tommorow: We return to the noiry furry world of John Blacksad as everyone’s favorite panther detective battles white supremacists to find a missing girl and we’re introduced to your faviorite sidekick and mine Weekly. 

Later on this week: The Lena retrospective continues with Jaw$, we celebrate Tex Avery’s birthday, and I tackle the awful original tom and jerry movie. 

So if any of that tickles your fancy see you at the next rainbow

[kumoriyami-xiuzhen]

Hakuoki Shinkai Hana no Shou Drama CD - What I Believe In

Special thanks to @nollatooru for volunteering as tribute and extracting the text for this drama since there's no way I would written out the text for this anytime soon... or translated this otherwise. this will be only hakuoki drama i translate this month (currently subtitling dramas).

as always, final edits will be done when I get to the video.

Also, i’m sooooo happy right now!!!!

Feeeling supeeeerrrrrrrrrrr excited for the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect games!!!!!! Saw the new teasers from the Game Awards and i still feel over the moon about them! when those games get released, I’m definitely going to be doing nothing aside from playing them... sorry but not sorry? 

lol. i suppose that brings the count of games i’ll put aside all my free time for to four.... tho that would have been 5 (also I would be gaming right now) if I had access to a ps4 right now since Im still waiting to play Cyberpunk 2077. i can’t play that since im lending both the console and my game to my bro right now... and probably won’t get to play it until post-pandemic. ah well.

And I can’t believe Suzuki Shogo is going back to playing Kazama in hakumyu souma-hen! he’s honestly my fave actor from hakumyu!!

anyway, enjoy!

bold text used to indicate something being spoken in the background.

Hakuoki Shinkai Hana no Shou Store Bonus Drama CD: What I believe in

Translation by KumoriYami

Saito: Nn. This is quite good. Such an excellent blade is hardly ever/rarely seen. There are few blades that have been polished to this brightness [reword later. can't figure out how right now]. I'd really like to have/get a closer look at it.

Sakamoto: Oh...? That's a familiar face/a face I recognize/seen before.

Saito: ...! You are.... Sakamoto Ryouma.

Sakamoto: Oh, you remember me!

Saito: People everywhere want your life/There are people after your life everywhere. What are you doing in a place like this?

Sakamoto: well, I'm basically on a walk. Why don't you focus on what you were looking at?

Saito: I was the one who first asked a question.

Sakamoto: Calm down, don't put on such a scary expression/make such a terrible expression. Were you looking at this katana just now?

Saito: Ah, yes.

Sakamoto: Ah! It really is a good katana.... it's understandable why you were fascinated by it.

Saito: Do you know what a katana is/anything about swords?

Sakamoto: Don't look down on me/underestimate me. I was a disciple of Hokushin Ittō-ryū.

Saito: I see. So that's how you're not lacking in this [So that's why you know about the subject/this].

Sakamoto: Well, it doesn't matter.

The future will be for these guys/From now on will the time/age of this guy.

Saito: Guns/A gun.

Sakamoto: Oh. These weapons are the best.

Saito:...Do you mean to say that it's better than a katana/than the sword [check audio later]?

Sakamoto: That's for sure.

No matter how famous the sword, it's like a baby [might change to 'child'] in face of a gun.

So/That's to say that guns are really quite powerful.

Saito: Indeed/It's true that Western guns are outstanding/excellent [check audio for pacing]. Even if that's the case though, that's not to say that swords cannot be compared with guns/ it's not appropriate to assume that a sword is no match for a gun

Sakamoto: Don't get so upset. I also appreciate/value swords, but the era of guns is imminent. That's an indisputable fact.

Saito: No one has ever decided that is fact.

Sakamoto: Eh. It will be difficult for samurai to accept this, but in order to establish a new Japan, guns will be essential. This is guy is my best trusted partner [reword later].

Saito: Is that all you want/have to say?

Sakamoto: That expression looks like you're going to cut someone down [You look you're going to cut someone down/something?]. Nn, in that case, tell me why swords are better than guns.

Saito: Fine. The katana is the soul of a warrior, only by wearing it at the waist---

Sakamoto: Hold it/Wait

Saito: Why are you telling me to stop?

Sakamoto: The spiritual aspects don't matter. Tell me how it's better than a gun

Saito: It doesn't/won't matter what is said/you say.

Sakamoto: Aaah, I also agree with that. But even if I agree, I'll put that aside for now. Right now, I want to ask you to compare the usefulness between swords and guns. 

Saito: Nn. In that case... First of all, swords are better. Regardless of what is said, they can be used in a variety of/many ways. 

Sakamoto: Oh.

Saito: Swords aren't like guns in how they don't rely on bullets to be used. In contrast to how guns can only be used in one way, swords can be used to slash, stab, and so on, [with] different combat techniques that can be adopted to different situations.

Sakamoto: Nn.

Saito: During a fight unexpected things may happen, but even if something unexpected happens, they can be quickly dealt with. 

Sakamoto: Nnnnn. There will be situations where you have no bullets too. But when you're dealing with multiple enemies, don't you think that guns would hold the advantage in wiping them out? 

Saito: uh.

Sakamoto: Furthermore, unlike swords, they can be used to fire from a distance. [check spacing]

Saito: Then don't fight on unfavourable terrain.

Sakamoto: Really, what a stubborn guy. Is there anything else?

Saito: There is how lethal a sword is.

Sakamoto: hey hey [check audio], [you're] saying such a terrible thing so suddenly.

Saito: It's difficult for a bullet to hit a moving enemy. Even if it hits, it is difficult to actually kill or incapacitate them. However, a sword can be used to take another person's life with only a single blow. The importance of this advantage cannot be compared.

Sakamoto: If you're going to say that, then a bullet to the chest, the abdomen or head, will certainly kill. Not only that, there's still a secret I haven't told you yet.

Saito: don't beat around the bush and and tell me.

Sakamoto: hey, you seem interested/looks like you're interested.

Saito: [That's only] Because you're so roundabout.

Sakamoto: Don't worry, I'll tell you. The best thing about this gun, is that it is capable of firing six times. 

Saito: So what about that?

Sakamoto: That firing six times in a row/six rounds/bullets! Don't you think that's great/that'll be hard to deal with?

Saito: That's no different than holding six guns.

Sakamoto: That being said, it's actually impossible to walk around carrying six guns. But this single gun is able to be carried around on one's person. You don't think that's great [check audio for sakamoto earlier sentence]

Nagakura: Saito.... and Sakamoto? Why are you with a guy like this?

Saito: Shinpachi. I met him by chance before leaving.

Nagakura: Incidentally, well, it doesn't look like you're casually talking anyway/just chatting. 

Sakamoto: Oh, you're also in the Shinsengumi. We're actually talking about what weapon is better between swords and guns. What do you think?

Nagakura: So that's it/I see. The Saito is supporting the sword while Sakamoto is in favour of the gun? Although I have a rough idea about what's going on, you're [plural so may change to guys. check audio] too naïve.

Sakamoto: What do you mean by that?

Saito: How are we naïve?

Nagakura: Regardless if you use a sword or a gun, there's something even more important than both of those.

Saito + Sakamoto: What?

Nagakura: Hm.. don't you get it?

Sakamoto: That's to say... 

Nagakura: Exercise to have a body like steel. Look at this remarkable body [check pacing]

Saito: Shinpachi, this the street. [we're on a street outside right now]

Nagakura: This was the fastest way to show you the benefits of exercising.

Sakamoto: Hrm. It's true that your body is pretty amazing, yes, but firing a gun doesn't rely on this sort of thing. 

Saito: Swords too, they shouldn't be randomly waved around with brute force.

Nagakura: Oi, why are you agreeing on such a thing.

Sakamoto: Even if you say that, well....

Nagakura: Hold it/Wait a sec. I also don't think that just having a body and weapon [check audio for "ken" or "juu"] is enough to confront the enemy/I also don't think you could fight against a sword or gun with only a physical body. But, regardless of what you do, it's necessary to train one's body/exercise.

Sakamoto: I see. That's something you'd know/understand.

Nagakura: Of course/That's for sure. Furthermore if studying/practising swordsmanship, you'll also exercise your body, right?

Sakamoto: Indeed, that is exercising a bit.

Saito: Practising swordsmanship can also be considered exercise.

Nagakura: Nn, right. Exercise for the/your body is the foundation of everything

Sakamoto: Hey, has this guy always ben like this? Nagakura: Speaking of which/By the way, training your body/exercising...

Saito: Ah Shinpachi will not stop talking about subject for a while Nagakura: The key is to eat well and getting enough sleep, and all that's left is to believe in your body

Sakamoto: That is troublesome/inconvenient. We're only halfway through our argument. Nagakura: Don't think that's the entire secret to how I train myself.

Saito: It doesn't matter if you continue arguing about it./I don't care if you want to continue arguing this. Nagakura: To tell you the truth, the secret to how I train my body/exercise is....

Sakamoto: No, not today. But even if we don't argue, the imminent age will demand an answer. Then I'll be going [check audio]. I had a good time talking with you.

Saito: a reckless guy as always. [check audio for spacing]

Nagakura: Nn, where's sakamoto/where did sakamoto go?

Saito: he already left/he left earlier/left a while ago.

Nagakura: what? i was going to talk about the highlights next/I was going to talk about the best parts next [ check audio].

Saito: Will the coming era provide an answer? even so, I still believe in this/it.

Nagakura: Nn, did you say something just now?

Saito: It's nothing/No. Shinpachi, let's go.

Nagakura: Oh, alright.

Saito Hajime, Toriumi Kōsuke Nagakura Shinpachi, Tsuboi Tomohiro Sakamoto Ryouma, Ono Daisuke

-----------

image from suruga-ya

For the record, the games I’m waiting for are: Dragon Age 4, the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Horizon Forbidden West, and whatever new Mass Effect title that is being worked on.

(i think i had to much good news in the last few hours. been smiling like an idiot for three hours now as i subtitle something lol.)

[eurodynesass-moved]

Playin’ Doctor

SPOILERS FOR CYBERPUNK 2077

A brief look at V in the fight with Razor, before Vik takes care of her in his clinic and they… celebrate.

Female V / Viktor Vector

This fic takes place after the end of the game with my own scenario in place, but there’s no explicit mention of what goes down in the ending.

Ao3

— — — — —

Something was clearly wrong with her head if she was waking up from a dream like that.

For the entire morning, V was extremely hot and bothered. She could not believe the fabrications of her own mind would betray her the way that they did. The night before was rather calm, the usual. Nothing too bad, everything was quiet, she got to bed without issue, fell asleep normally. Then, her stupid mind decided to grace her with stupid images that kept her in a bit of a stupid tangle the entire day. Sure, he was in it, but probably only because she was thinking about her scheduled visit the next day.

But why did it have to be a dream like that.

Partway through her errands, V had to stop by at home to get changed, having gotten rather excited thinking about the dream while in a fucking diner, waiting for a client. She decided to take a cold shower in the end and simply just forget about the whole thing.

It did not work.

What was with her? She shook her head and huffed in annoyance, knowing that there was no avoiding thinking about it now. She was headed to see him, after all. V had to simply just breeze through it and get out before she could make a fool of herself. Surely that was possible.

—

It was not.

The second V pulled the gate aside, she stopped in her tracks. Viktor was walking across the room carrying a rather heavy crate. One look at his muscles and she was reminded of a very specific image of the man that hovered comfortably between her legs, muscles tense and flexed as he held onto her naked body.

No, no, nope. She couldn't do this, she could not stay. She turned, looking at the path behind her, when she heard him.

"V! You made it just in time. Come on in, have a seat," he told her, grunting as he placed the crate down somewhere out of sight.

V swallowed hard and shut the gate behind her, slowly stepping into the clinic. She heard some clanking and a thud off to her left and witnessed Viktor as he pushed past his punching bag. She still remembered the day she had once walked in on him beating it to shit. V was certain that it was going to fly off its chain and right into the wall. Much like she wished her body would at that moment.

He smiled at her, walking up to her and clapping a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, V. Good to see ya."

"Hey, Vik," she smiled, seeing his eyes and remembering that look he gave her when—

"You go sit, settle in, I'll be right back and we'll get those diagnostics started," he told her, his hand resting on her bicep a moment before he walked off.

This was going to be fucking difficult. It was Viktor. Viktor. Her friend, Vik. She had to stop. She couldn't wonder about how his muscles would bulge this way and that when he picked up yet another seemingly heavy crate. She couldn't think about how when she sat herself down in the chair, she saw Viktor walking to the other room again, her eyes lingering lower than they should. V especially couldn't think about him when she laid down in the chair, wondering what he'd look like if he were to climb on top of her and—

"Alright, let's get this started," he called, going over to his chair and giving it a good kick to move it over to her. Sitting down beside her, he brought down the screen and began to configure the software for her. "Here you go," he pulled up a wire for her to jack into her port. There was an innuendo in there somewhere—

She needed to sort her life out.

Jacking herself in, she took a deep breath and sighed, looking anywhere and everywhere else that she could. "Whoa," she heard him mumble. "So, uh, how's your day been so far?"

"Oh, you know," V waved it off. She hoped he didn't know. "Business as usual. Had to meet up with a couple clients, one went down without a hitch, the other needed a little bit of, uh... reminding. That sort of thing."

"That all of it?" he asked, tapping away at the screen in front of him and sparing a glass at her.

V nodded and shifted in her seat. "Yeah, I mean I do have a couple of stressful jobs coming up later, but nothing I can't handle."

"Huh," he took a breath. "Well, you just make sure you get back in one piece. Now, let's take a look at that chip of yours."

Viktor stood up from his seat, swinging one of the monitors to the other side right over her head, then sat back down and rolled himself around her. He moved up to where her head was and tilted it by her chin so that she would face away. "There we go," he muttered, fiddling with the screen a moment, out of sight but certainly not out of mind.

Shutting her eyes momentarily for comfort, V felt her heart beginning to race for more than just the obvious reason. She always hated this part, always expected something to have gone wrong after her last visit. She felt his fingers gently press against her skin here and there, around where the biochip was slotted, moving her hair out of the way to get a good look.

"Looks to be okay on the outside. No swelling, nothing out of the ordinary..." he then turned his focus to the screen and shifted in his seat a little.

She tried to take a deep breath to keep herself calm, and tried to think of absolutely anything other than the biochip. She thought of the silent wrestling match that played on Viktor's screen on the other side of the room. She thought of the fights that she herself had been in. She thought of Viktor punching the punching bag right there in the corner of the room.

She then couldn't help but think of the dream again, how it was just the two of them in a quiet, dark room, nothing but bare, sweaty skin and vulnerability. She remembered how he was pressed against her between her legs, his hands propped up on either side of her, how he bent down to kiss every inch of her that he could reach without ever pulling away from her. She shut her eyes and swallowed hard as she thought of his hands and where they had roamed, and was just starting to think about how much she would actually enjoy it if he—

"Whoa there," Viktor spoke quietly, turning to her just as she snapped out of her thoughts.

"What, is something wrong?" she asked, her hands now starting to shake at her sides as she grabbed onto the chair tightly.

"No, nothing's wrong with the chip, just... your heart rate spiked, and it's still going. You feelin' alright, sweetheart?" he frowned, looking at her.

No, she was not. "I, um... Yeah, I uh, I was just... I was worried that something might be wrong with the chip again."

"You been takin' those pills I gave you? Still got enough?" He asked, moving in a little closer to look at her.

"Yeah, I think I have... enough for a week. They keep the headaches away," she sighed, quite thankful for that little fact.

"Alright, I'll get you some more before then. The chip's not showin' any bad signs, it's still in good health, it's not growin' anything or breakin' apart, so you're all good. Just... try to keep that heart in check for me, alright? It'd do mine many favors," he chuckled.

V laughed at that, maybe a little nervously. "Trust me, Doc. Tryin' my best." They shared a silent moment, looking each other in the eye until Viktor looked away. There was something on his mind, she just couldn't place what it was. "Hey, Vik?" He looked at her. "Thank you for everything you've been doing."

Viktor smiled and reached over to take the jack out of her head. "No problem, V. What else am I supposed to do for my favorite client?"

"Your favorite, huh?" she chuckled, sitting up slowly.

"You don't really think I let all my clients get free diagnostics and pay for stuff whenever they want, do I?" he leaned an elbow against the arm of the chair casually, a grin playing easy on his face.

"I dunno, Viktor. You're kinda good like that," V countered, wondering just when she should maybe slow her roll.

"I'm not that good," he promised with a small wink before standing up.

It was either the dream, or her vivid imagination, but there was no way she'd be forgetting that image anytime soon.

[tanakavox]

“Merry Christmas!”

The words echoed loudly throughout the Rose-Xiao Long household as they all felt the Christmas cheer in the air. The house had been active with laughter and cheer as everyone had participated in activities throughout the whole day, while Zwei and all of the adults had made final preparations on all of the gifts for the younger members, while secretly preparing their own gifts for one another. Zwei carefully looked over his gift for Xing one last time, making sure none of the wrapping had been torn in any way and that the ribbons were secured on it nice and tight. Rosemary couldn’t stop the smile on her face as she watched her lover carefully look over the gift for what seemed to be the thousandth time.

“I still can’t believe you, of all people, won that thing in a random raffle,” she said with an amused tone. While she said in a joking manner now, Rosemary was actually in pure disbelief mere days earlier at the fact that Zwei had managed to get his hands on the elusive console, and even more so through a raffle of all things! 

“Yeah well, talk about a Christmas miracle,” Zwei scoffed, he himself still a little in disbelief that he had managed to get his hands on a honest to Brothers’ Playstation Five. He was still fretting over the wrapped gift, before his musing was interrupted by an amused Rosemary.

“Oh will you stop worrying already? Your nephew isn’t picky Zwei, I’m sure he’s going to love the gift you got him and that there’s nothing to worry about!”

Zwei glanced over at Rosemary, a skeptic look on his face, before he found his eyes drifting back down to the gift.

“I know, I know, I’m probably freaking out over nothing, I just want this to be perfect for him, you know?”

“Well, I for one think my son is going to love it, and that you’re worrying yourself over nothing Zwei.”

A new voice had proclaimed, causing Zwei and Rosemary to look over to see Yang leaning in the doorway with a smile on her face. Zwei narrowed his eyes at his older sister, before asking her, “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to know that you’ve been acting like a worry wart for the past twenty minutes,” she replied with a smirk, before she walked over to Zwei and took a seat next to him. “But seriously Zwei, Xing is going to love this gift, why would you think otherwise?”

“It’s just a lingering feeling is all, you know,” Zwei said with hesitance, “I’m just worried about letting him down by getting him something that he didn’t want.”

“Trust me Zwei, Xing is going to love it and you’re worrying over nothing,” she said, before she let out a chuckle, “hell, you probably could have gotten him that old Playstation Two you had to get back from that thief and he would have been just as happy!”

Zwei stared blankly at his sister momentarily, before he felt the palm of his hand meet his face. 

“Now she tells me,” he groaned out in annoyance, causing Yang only to laugh harder at her brother’s response. It was at this point that Rosemary had quietly slipped out of the room, leaving the siblings along to their discussion.

“Hey, it’s your fault for not asking what Xing wanted for Christmas little bro,” she said with a shit eating grin, “Maybe you’ll take that into consideration for next Christmas, instead of spending three days chasing down thiefs, beating up snobby couples, and scaring poor Junior into a early grave.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up will ya,” Zwei grumbled out, “Though you wouldn’t be saying that about “Poor Junior,” if you had heard what he said about Xing.”

The temperature in the room immediately dropped as Yang’s laughter was abruptly cut off. The warm smile on her face was replaced with a thin line and her lilac eyes slowly shifted red, burning with a cold, calm, rage.

“...And what did Hei Xiong have to say about my son?”

Zwei gulped at his sister's sudden shift in attitude, before he quickly related to her what Junior’s nasty comment made towards Xing. Yang slowly nodded her head up and down as she absorbed the information given to her, before quietly stating:

“...Looks like I’ll have to pay Hei Xong a visit soon.”

The tone sent a shiver down Zwei’s spine, and he could only imagine what Yang was going to do to the unfortunate information broker when she decided to make good on that next visit. Sure, Zwei was furious with Junior when he insulted his nephew, but he was only going to rough him up a little if he hadn’t either apologized or given him the information that he wanted. But compared to what his sister was going to more than likely do the man? Zwei almost felt bad for ratting the club owner out. Almost.

The temperature warmed backup considerably, and Yang’s eyes shifted back to their normal lilac before she let out an exasperated sigh. There was a moment of silence between the two of them, before Yang addressed her brother again.

“...I never got a chance to say thank you by the way.”

“Thank you? For what,” Zwei asked in confusion.

“For the fact that you went through all the effort to get Xing his gift.”

“Ah come on Yang, it wasn’t-”

“Don’t you start with that,” Yang said sternly, cutting off Zwei’s attempt to brush off her words of thanks, “You didn’t have to jump through all those hoops and spend all that time getting him this stupid thing, but you did and I’m honestly thankful for it. Not because you managed to get it for him, but because you care so much for him that you went to great lengths to make him happy, and for that, I’m grateful to you Zwei.”

Zwei then found himself in a loving embrace, as Yang closed the small distance between the two and held her brother close.

“You’re an amazing uncle, and an even better brother, and I could not be any more proud of the man you are today.”

Zwei was caught off guard at first by his sister's sudden display of affection, but slowly returned the embrace, doing his best to ignore the moisture that was building in his eyes from his sister's words of praise.

“...Thank you Yang.”

The two siblings held each other for a few more seconds, before their tender moment by tiny voices that were echoing throughout the hallway, screaming at the top of their lungs, “IT’S TIME FOR PRESENTS!”

The glee and excitement from the voices of the children(and of course, one Ruby Rose), was enough to cause Yang to chuckle at their antics, while Zwei merely rolled his eyes though there was little heat behind them. Yang got up from her seat beside Zwei, before giving him a smirk, “ready to open some christmas gifts little bro?”

Zwei eyed his gift to Xing one last time, before he returned his sister's smirk with one of his own.

“I don’t know, is Santa fat, red, and jolly? Of course I’m ready!”

A chuckle escaped Yang’s lips at her brother's cheeky response, before she lifted her brother up from his seating position with his gift in hand.

“Well then we better not keep the kids waiting then!”

Not too long after, Yang and Zwei joined the rest of their family near the Christmas tree and the gift giving had begun. As usual, quite a few gifts were exchanged between the Rose-Xiao Long’s and the Thornbushes, and this year was no exception. Ruby had received an extensive amount of custom weapon parts from Jaune and several others, while Jaune himself had received a new Pumpkins Pete’s hoodie and a set of armour from his wife. Yang had received an extensive line up of hair care products and hair devices, along with several different prosthetics arms to be used in the field(the latter gift was planned between Weiss and Ruby). Taiyang had received both a new grill for when the weather had warmed up and a new desk to replace the old one in his study, while Peach had received several sets of rare seeds for her personal greenhouse in Patch and a necklace from Tai. Zwei was gifted Cyberpunk 2077 and several other games from Jaune(called it!), while little Citrine received a Switch with several games and Lilina has received a Tablet for her to write and play games on.

Rosemary had received a similar gift to Peach’s in the form of rare seeds, but was also gifted brand new gardening tools and a pair of earrings’ from Zwei. Daisy had gotten a new drawing tablet, along with several fresh sketchpads and some new pens and pencils, while Forrest had received copies of old movies he’d been looking to add to his collection, alongside some memorabilia from movie sets of some of the more recent flicks he had seen. Aster had received gifts in the form of new medical supplies and instruments for her clinic, courtesy of Peach using both her medical and Huntress connections to fund the expense.

Finally, there was little Xing, who was quietly watching the rest of his family open their gifts while he patiently unwrapped his gifts given to him when it was his turn. He had received several different things, including clothing, toys, even a new prosthetic to replace his current one that he had outgrown. But it had finally come time to open his gift from his uncle, and Zwei couldn’t help but be nervous. Would he like it? Would he hate it? Zwei couldn’t stop the feeling of anxiety creeping through him as he worried over whether or not Xing would like his gift.

However, his worries were put to rest. Because as soon as Xing had slowly finished unwrapping his gift, he let out a small gasp and his eyes lit up at the sight of the Playstation Five that lay before him. A small smile lit up on his face, before he turned to his uncle and said:

“Thanks uncle Zwei!”

Despite Xing’s quiet nature, it was clear to see the sincerity behind his words as he thanked his Uncle for the gift he had gotten him. Zwei felt a great weight lift off his shoulder, before he returned his nephew’s smile with one of his own.

“You’re welcome Xing.”

Yang caught his eyes a moment later, shooting him a smug look that basically said, ‘I told you so,” before covering her smile as he rolled his eyes in response, though his smile stayed on his face. It looks like everything had worked out after all, and as Zwei warped his arm around Rosemary and looked upon the happy looks of his friends and family, he couldn’t help but think that this was without doubt one of the best damn Christmas’s he’s ever had.

‘A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night…’

Edits done by @thatorigamiguy!

[legendarymasterwolf]

My Top 10 Favorite Video Games

Now that The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima are out and I’ve finished both, I’ve decided to finally compile a list of my top ten favorite games I’ve played and have revisited over time. This is my own personal list, make no judgments based on what is here.

And awaaaaaaaaaay we go!

10: Ghost of Tsushima

I’ve never played a game that scratched that samurai itch before, and this one totally did it for me. Whether it was the standoffs straight out of a Kurosawa film, or the ability to scare the shit out of Mongols, or riding through a beautifully rendered world viewed through one of the most natural HUDs I’ve ever seen, I loved this game. Sure, it may be leaving this list once Cyberpunk 2077 comes out, but for now, it takes the tenth spot.

9: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Still one of my favorite Star Wars games. This was the first MMORPG I played where my character actually had a voice. I know, it’s a little thing, but I still like it. Whenever I have a spare moment on the road, a decent connection, and some time to chill, I fire up this game. Plus, it’s still operating even with Disney owning the franchise now, so there’s that.

8: Wolfenstein: The New Colossus

Still scarily relevant at the time of writing (hopefully not for much longer) and one of the best modern reinventions of a protagonist from a classic series. Also, shooting, hacking, and exploding Nazis and Klan members will never get old, no matter how many conservative man-children say otherwise. Plus, there’s one of best female characters in gaming, Grace Walker, who’s got some of the best lines in the game and some great commentary on masculinity.

7: “Assassin’s Creed” Series

I’m cheating here, but I can’t just choose one game from this series. One of the first games I played when I got a PC was Revelations. I played through the rest of them in the year that followed and I became hooked. So hooked, that I got both the Ezio Collection and AC3 Remastered for PS4 when the opportunity came (though the latter was just because it was on the Odyssey Season Pass). Odyssey was the first AC game I platinumed and, barring a few missteps here and there, I loved it. I can’t freaking wait for Valhalla.

6: “Persona” Series

I was just going to have Persona 5 Royal in this spot, despite still not finishing it (damn Okumura boss fight), but I’ve also got Persona 4 Golden and am loving it, so now I need to get Persona 3 whenever Sega decides to port the game to PC. Each game is set in a high school with an other world where your inner self is revealed. The social links system is great and you're basically playing an anime, complete with filler and everything. Some of them have surprisingly relevant themes, too(P5 fans know what I'm talking about). Now to finish them at some point.

5: Marvel’s Spider-Man

A game better than Spider-Man 2: The Game? No one thought it was possible until this came out. The web swinging has weight to it, the acting is great (props to Yuri Lowenthal), and the story, which Dan Slott contributed to, is a fantastic original Spider-Man story. Also, this happened to be the game that convinced me to buy a PS4. Can't wait for Miles Morales.

4: Disco Elysium

When I heard about this game, I knew I had to play it. It's not like any other isometric RPG I've played. In it, you play as an alcoholic detective waking up after a three day bender to find himself with amnesia and 24 distinct personalities that are always clashing, especially when you’re in conversation with an NPC. The story progresses as you try to piece together not only the case you were assigned to, but why you drank for three days straight to forget the case altogether. It’s batshit nuts and I love it. It also runs fairly well on my laptop, with a console port on the way. Also, still need to finish it. I know, my backlog is huge.

3: Red Dead Redemption 2

I never really got into the original RDR, mainly because I didn’t get a console until Christmas 2018. Thankfully, RDR2 is a prequel to the original game, set in the last years of the Old West, so it was easy to get into. While it did take a while for the game to get going and its storage size is massive (105 GB, WTF), when I finally powered on through and played the rest of the story, I was treated to some of the best characters I’ve seen in a game along with a story so heartbreaking, I was tearing up by the credits. Sure, the realism did become annoying to an extent, I could have done without the Guarma chapter, and the epilogue was four hours too long, but regardless, this is still one of my favorite depictions of the Wild West I’ve ever played.

2: “The Last of Us” Series

If the story for RDR2 was heartbreaking, then this series shattered my heart, pieced it back together, shattered it again, and then gave me hope to mend it in the future. I can’t choose between either Part 1 or Part 2, because I think both games are not only brilliant, but oversimplified when it comes to their themes. If we’re being simple about it, Part 1 is about Love and Part 2 is about Hate. In actuality, Part 1 is about the lengths we are willing to go for the ones we love and Part 2 is about the cycle of hate and how love can break it. Beyond the story (going to finally do that Part 2 breakdown in the future), the gameplay in both games is entertaining, the graphics look breathtaking (Part 2 has ruined all other games for me when it comes to graphics), the music is on point, and the performances are some of the best ones I’ve seen for a video game. This series set a new standard for how we see games and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for it. I don’t even mind waiting another seven years or so for the next one!

1: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

While the other games on this list are fantastic, they don’t hold a candle to the game that first inspired me to start thinking about making this list. This was the first game where, when I got to the credits, I felt not joy at completing another game, but sadness at the story finally being over. Geralt of Rivia’s final tale is still my favorite for its choices with no clear terms of morality, monster hunting missions that kept me enthralled even if some of the creatures scared the shit out of me (fucking Aracnomorphs), and the chance to have some fun with several members of the opposite sex (I regret nothing). Oh, and Gwent. Can’t forget Gwent. CD Projekt RED still remains one of my favorite developers to this day and I can’t wait for Cyberpunk 2077 to finally release in December (when it’s ready!!!).

And there you have it, my Top 10 Favorite Video Games I've played so far. This list is definitely going to change in the next couple months once I finish Watch Dogs: Legion and Cyberpunk 2077, but for now, this is how it is (AC already has an entry here, and Valhalla won't change that).

I may be putting my energy into that TLOU Part 2 Breakdown of my thoughts along with that Ellie/Dina fic I've been working on, so expect those at some point.

If you haven't already, go out and vote! Stay safe!

Lemme know what you think!

Until then!

[soyosauce]

Cyberpunk 2077: Is This To Be An Empathy Test?

Cyberpunk 2077 is an adaptation and extrapolation of the popular tabletop pen-and-paper role-playing game Cyberpunk, originally published in 1988. The video game uses an extrapolation of the setting and Interlock system, translated to video game format.

When I finished the game, credits rolled. And rolled. And rolled. More than 15 minutes went by.

Now, days later, as I reflect on more than 70 hours of playtime, Cyberpunk 2077 feels like many people have had their hands in the pie. Its strengths and weaknesses stem from its massive ambition, marketing, and promises.

Different Experiences

I played CP2077 on a Ryzen 7 3700x with 32 gigs of RAM and an RX 2700 GPU. I was able to get around 35 FPS at 1440p without noticeable drops (except when looking in mirrors), and I played on ultra-settings without ray tracing on. I began playing it with the rest of the PC consumers with the day 1 patch.

As a crafted experience, I can say that it is the most impressive looking game I've ever played, and my playthrough seems to be a fortunate one, with maybe a handful of glitches or bugs across the entire 70 hours. None of which were remotely game-breaking. I was never unable to progress in the story. I never had a crash. The most annoying thing I experienced was sometimes crosshairs from a gun would continue to stay onscreen after it was holstered.

I mention this because I think a major component of why I come away with a positive experience is because my computer could deliver the intended experience. And Cyberpunk 2077 is unrivaled in its execution of a funneled narrative. Characters and environments have never felt more genuine and cinematic.

The sound design is some of the best I've heard, and it's perfect in every aspect of the game. From the sound of a throaty exhaust to the scraping of metal-tipped hands against hardwood, the sound is superb and adds to the immersion.

 The World

With a setting as old as Cyberpunk, there will be consumers who are familiar with the setting and have a grasp on the worldbuilding. For the uninitiated, however—of which, I think most customers will be—the aesthetic and gameplay elements the marketing team used in advertisements will be the primary hook. The game doesn’t go out of its way to communicate that it is anything more than that, either.

What was most compelling about Night City was the meticulous detail and care devs clearly put into every nook and cranny of the city. Distinct and disparate, no part of it feels reused or like its filler. It is the most gorgeous and well-realized environment I've encountered in a video game.

Yet the gangs, fixers, and side jobs located within it feel one dimensional when viewed from a macro, worldbuilding perspective.

Typical fixer missions are varied enough and have different small bits of story, but usually just elucidating that specific mission and its characters. You’ll find little bits of lore some of the time, which augment the siloed stories, but often don’t give a wider context to help situate the faction you’re interacting with.

The gangs seem to have a central theme, but I never learned why they were actually there from a worldbuilding perspective, beyond the fact that the game wants you to be looting and shooting.

Culturally, the gang elements are too often a pastiche and don’t feel real. They have scripted lines that are often dehumanizing and feel unrealistic. Some of them don't even make any sense. They'll find a dead body and start yelling for you to come out, "cunt", or some other misogynistic pejorative. How do they know it's a woman? Making them all say and act that way feels so cheap, encouraging you to take them out because they're demonstrably “bad” people. And it doesn’t matter what kind of mission it is. Context doesn’t matter.

With the bits of lore you’ll find all over the place (often repeated), it feels like a missed opportunity to not humanize and characterize the gang identities as a whole; even if you are spending most of your time mowing them down, at least you’d come to understand why the city is the way it is and what its general makeup is better than just knowing which gang claims which area of the city.

The world feels overly concerned with aesthetics that the player never gets context for, so it feels like a caricature used for aesthetic purposes only.

For instance, Arasaka, the megacorporation controlling/running Night City, has a highly traditional, tyrannical, Japanese businessman who has had his life extended with cybernetics. He’s over one hundred years old and controls Arasaka with an iron fist. The inference on my part is that locations in Night City with heavy Asian aesthetics are there because of this megacorp’s influence. But it still feels strange because, in other lore given, the city has been run by other corporations not that long ago and had other cultural influences asserted. So why is Little China, Japantown, and Kabuki a weird pastiche and the only place that seems to assert its cultural influence on the city? When you enter other areas, they don’t look like they’re trying to recreate foreign cultures. Is it because of the Arasaka influence? Possibly, but I never found any lore that explained it. Visually, this aesthetic dominated my playthrough.

The result is a siloed microworld that feels like it might be there simply to justify some of the predominantly Asian gangs, who seem to be basically just cyberized yakuza and come up fairly often in fixer missions. The main story also springboards off some of these locations, so the game really wants this look to make an impression on the player.

When you explore in-depth, all of the interactable, consumable portions of the city have a faux quality because you can only look at them. Sometimes you can buy food from a couple of vendors and clothes, but everything exists solely to be interacted with in a hyper-specific way, rather than extrapolated from a perspective divorced from what would be merely aesthetically interesting and actually realistic enough to let V feel like a character that is a part of this world.

You can sleep with and date a few different people, depending on your gender presentation, but the relationship's extent beyond that varies. There are some texts between characters, but you don't get to, say, go home and do anything with them. Their interactions with you in person are the same as though you had phoned them.

You can talk to people on the sidewalk, but they have a regurgitated one-liner and then go back to what they're doing. You can't go up to a gang member and talk to them because once they see you, they’ll attack you if you get too close.

The only things that feel genuinely next level are the prescriptive story elements. And that's okay! It just doesn't jive with the level of detail or how much you think you'll be able to interact with things when you first see them. Marketing makes it seem like the world at large may be something you can interact with, but those all end up being the curated narratives.

Because the worldbuilding framework is from a first-wave cyberpunk perspective, unfortunately, pitfalls like techno-orientalism are prevalent.

The themes around the commodification of those things that make us human, from our body, faith, and art, are all interesting themes present in the genre—but here they are skewed toward fetishizing minorities and subcultures, just as first-wave cyberpunk texts tended to do.

V is ostensibly a cyberpunk and it follows that they would be a part of the same subgroup as the minorities who are underrepresented and lacking nuance in the CP2077 world, but V is actually traversing the story with their only integration into a subculture being that they’re a mercenary. With few exceptions, they all seem to not really share punk values, either. Some take jobs from corps (you certainly can if you want), some don’t like the corps but aren’t particularly anti-establishment or pro direct action. Most just seem to hang out at a bar. You don’t hear about what they do on the news or in the world. You don’t get jobs from fixers that are ideologically aligned with being punk. And you don’t integrate with any other subcultures when out of the main narratives.

The exploitation of people and the world's general themes and sensibilities still feel firmly rooted in the late 80s, early 90s. It is not aware enough to fully realize an actual subculture or even the dynamics of criminal elements in the city, so it frames the story from a mainstream perspective for mass appeal.

The problem is that, with so many people consuming the game, this becomes the default that those consumers will adopt. It has a responsibility precisely because it is so popular and will become a part of the general intellect. Rather than be progressive with its themes and push mainstream depiction of cyberpunk to something in line with what can be found in literature today, it is regressive.

Ultimately, the worldbuilding is the most disappointing aspect of Cyberpunk 2077. The main narratives, however, are a different story.

 Story

Arguably, the most important thing for a role-playing game experience is the story. In 2077, you play V, a mercenary on the edges of society trying to make it big in Night City. In classic cyberpunk genre fashion, a chance at a big score drops into your relatively inexperienced hands, and you seize it. A heist is planned; it doesn't go as planned—and Johnny Silverhand, a long-dead anarchist and misogynistic jerk—basically a proto-typical embodiment of 70’s rock ethos—ends up in your head. He has his own agenda, and V can either go along, get along, or make their own decisions about what to do next. For the most part.

The story beats are as meticulously crafted as corners of Night City. The character animations are the most advanced I’ve ever seen—: they’ll smoke a cigarette for a portion of the conversation, stub it out, then get up and pace nervously while delivering their lines. Their emotions will be written on their face and flow naturally. They'll touch items or other people in the scene. They look and act like real people and sound like it too.

There’s a 4-part storyline with a trans character in which you just won’t ever learn their story unless you talk with them and earn their trust. You can go through the whole narrative and help them out (or not), and never learn much about them. But if you spend the time and ask questions, you'll always get something from these storylines, even if they initially seem to be just another gig on the map.

Because the game's worldbuilding, including in-game ads, is blind to its own defaultism, stories like this are absolutely vital. I wish there were more of them and I hope the free DLC forthcoming are things like this.

2077 is populated with genuine, human moments. They communicate why you should care about the city and the people you encounter. And most importantly: these moments define V as much as the main storyline.

Whether intentional or purely a byproduct of how each facet of the game was developed, these stories augment the play experience a tremendous amount.

What I remember most is finding out if Johnny can, and will, actually change or if he's just trying to manipulate me, discovering how my decisions alter the way he interacts with me, and going down a rabbit-hole, sex trafficking narrative that initially feels a bit too archetypical, only to have it morph into a multi-part story that rooted V's narrative in an emotional and impactful way.

These are the stories that you can actually, meaningfully change. And because I did them all before the main storyline, they all felt like they meshed well with my V’s overall story.

Of course, you could do the main story right away and then go back and do these side stories. I think the experience would be quite different because of the knowledge and relationship you have with Johnny at the end of the main story experience, though.

The main storyline has multiple endings; I've experienced four of them, and they all deliver fairly well on expectations. These endings do not consider anything that isn’t a main or side job, which is labeled as such in your log. Your relationships with the main characters do change the endings slightly, but they don't change the overall outcomes for V and Johnny. This made the game's main attraction for me the fleshed-out side narratives and a few other mysterious side jobs that crop up without a fixer giving them to you.

These other stories were more enjoyable because I felt like I really mattered and could actually mess them up. The main storyline is only preoccupied with whether or not you did X and, if so, you can see the Y ending. It felt like it had lower stakes.

 Conclusion

I do feel like 2077 is a new way to consume an immersive role-playing video game experience. It's unfortunate and unfair to many people that multiple promises the game makes cannot be fulfilled unless they can experience it on a particular platform (with a fairly sizeable amount of money in the investment). A decent computer to play it on is the best way, and it’s expensive if you want to max out absolutely everything. Next-generation consoles aren't even optimized for it yet. Last generation consoles are struggling. Crashes, bugs, poor textures, and framerates.

What is Cyberpunk 2077 when it can’t replicate the ideal delivery for its desired experience?

So much of what made the experience singular and noteworthy for me comes down to how life-like and human the people I came to care about the most in the game looked and acted. Take that veneer away, and the cracks in the façade appear.

Doing most of the side content before the main jobs gave my V a meta-narrative: they were a ruthless killer that would do pretty much whatever a fixer asked of them. Those were the expectations set by the world outside of the story. But then V morphs into a person confronting that life, questions who they want to be, and what it takes to thrive in Night City when you hit the main narratives. That’s why I had a positive experience. And that’s why I’ll return to the city and do things differently.

Ironically, Cyberpunk 2077's overall game experience relies on technology to build empathy between the player and the main cast. Yet, the world outside of the main narrative denies that same empathy to the denizens and factions it populates Night City with. If the platform you’re playing on can’t effectively utilize the demanding Red Engine developed for Cyberpunk 2077, the most likely outcome is an experience devoid of the only substantive thing it has to offer.

[penpwned]

30 Questions

tagged by: @sparkga​ (thank you!!!) tagging: @any of my mutuals that would like to be tagged!

*feel free to change any of the questions you don't have an answer to

Favorite Baby Names – clementine has been my favourite name for a child since i became a father in the walking dead

How People Perceive You – idk... i've been told by people i've met, customers, and even my tattoo artist that i seem happy and confident, like i've got everything figured out ... but man, i'm not feelin' what they're seein'

Switch Friend Code – i don't have a switch "OTL

Describe Your Style – yeah, i'm wearing this hoodie and these joggers for a marathon — a netflix marathon

Best Fruit Flavor For Candy – whatever flavour is blue and pink sour gummy worms. i don't actually like fruit-y candies but i don't mind these

What’s Under Your Bed – i sleep on a couch that goes down to the floor but i'm sure there's a dog toy or two stuck under there

Best Disney Princess – anna when she decked hans

Baudelaire Sibling You’re Most Like – i haven't finished the netflix series and it's been so long since i've seen/read anything about it but i'd say i'm probably most like violet

Magical Element You’d Want To Wield – wind? like, using it as a force to push, pull, or lift things would be neat

Weirdest Celebrity Crush – i wouldn't say weird or crush but apparently it took sunglasses, leather pants, and a bad attitude for me to purchase a ticket for the keanu reeves simp express

What Reminds You Of Home – van gogh's starry night

Share A Bit of Wisdom – you do you

Cover Songs Better Than the Original – wafia's cover of mario's let me love you

the pacing and tones, and i love, love, love alternate gender covers that don't change the pronouns

Guilty Pleasure Song – most of taylor swift's songs. my crime is singing them to my sister when she ignores me

Best Book(s) You Read Last Year – jeez, i don't think i actually read a book last year...

Best Game(s) You Played Last Year – and hoo, i didn't realize how many games i played last year...

shadow of the colossus, life is strange, life is strange: before the storm, life is strange 2 (& the awesome adventures of captain spirit), heavy rain, stardew valley, little nightmares, dragon's crown, slime rancher, fallout 3...

shadow of the colossus, life is strange, heavy rain, and fallout 3 were replays, and i finally played through (and platinum'd) dragon's crown

i also started hollow knight and cyberpunk 2077 last year

Coffee Order – mocha frappucino? idk, my sister knows the lingo and that's usually what she says after i say ‘‘chocolate’’

Favorite Fictional Couple – and just like that i've forgotten every media i've ever consumed

i wave a handkerchief at every cyberpunk 2077 ship that sails my dash because i'm in love with everyone's v's and their collective love/lust for senior citizens

Favorite Superhero Movie – spider-man: into the spider-verse, thor: ragnorak, and the unbreakable trilogy

Unpopular Opinion – ...i like mushrooms. w/ pizza, sandwiches, pasta, salads, stuffed — i will eat them raw

I Hate – microtransactions and the fact that the sims and all its expansions cost $300+

Scars – i have a few but my notable scars are one across my left eyebrow and the other across the underside of my chin

Last YouTube Video - burn it down - daughter [life is strange: before the storm] w/ visualizer

Last Netflix Show – switched, a netflix series with only six episodes that took me 2 years to finish

More People Should – have a piece of bread and maybe they'll calm down

sing and dance like no one's watching

Common Skill That You Don't Possess – i can't ride a bike, drive a car, etc.

Can You Pick the Mean Dialog Options In Games – i will reload if even my tone sounds mean. unless the other guy deserves it then excuse me, google, which of these dialogue choices is the worst

Favorite Video Game Cast - i'm not too familiar with most videogame casts so was nobody going to tell me that the most adorkable android sent by cyberlife, voiced by bryan dechart, plays a vending machine in cyberpunk 2077???

Pokemon That Deserve More Love – i'm sure these pokémon actually get lots of love so this is probably more a list of pokémon i instantly love a trainer for having:

psyduck, magikarp, ditto, jolteon, totodile, zigzagoon, surskit, sableye, kecleon, starly, pidove, venipede/whirlipede/scolipede, dwebble, solosis/duosion/reuniclus, noibat, and minior

Next Thing You Plan To Buy – no money, no plans

[titusmoody]

It’s the end of the first quarter of 2021. Here’s a brief review of the things I watched/played/read.

Games

Donut County- pretty charming, very easy, fairly satisfying to play. I’d recommend Untitled Goose Game over this, though.

Heaven’s Vault- If you only have room in your life for one space archaeology game, play Outer Wilds instead. However, you get to translate alien writings yourself (in a simplified game way) in this one, so I’d recommend both. 

Donkey Kong Country 3 103%- so many fun level mechanics in this one. The difficulty of finding and completing everything in the game was spot-on for me.

Donkey Kong Country 2 102%- Each level mechanic in this one is explored and used in far more interesting ways than DKC3, though I honestly had more fun with 3 this time around. This one is the “dark, edgy” one aesthetically which is extremely dumb. Also, there was a lot of guesswork involved in finding some of the hidden stuff, which I didn’t enjoy.

The Room 4- I like escape room games. This one was good. It continued 3′s trend of trying to shake up the format a little, which is fine (better here than in 3, I think) but I wouldn’t have minded if all 4 stayed exactly the same, just with new puzzles.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales- Everything about it was competent. Not only was each gameplay activity fine-tuned to feel good, but the structure of the game also kept kept you experiencing a good variety of each activity. PS5 graphics are good, too. Nothing about it really got me excited to play it, it was just a good after work unwinding thing.

Cyberpunk 2077- Exactly the opposite of Spider-Man in terms of quality consistency. There are aspects of this game that are amazing, horrible, and every step in between. However, I’ve thought about it quite a bit and will probably continue to think about it for both good and bad reasons.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair- Donkey Kong Country has better level design and controls. Well, the best levels of this were every bit as good as the best DKC levels, and maybe I’m just so familiar with DKC levels that I zone out a little during the boring bits, but had to pay attention to every moment of this game. Still, I didn’t have as much of an overall good time as the DKC games I played earlier.

Hue- Good 2D puzzle-platformer. I’m no longer surprised by these, but I still appreciate them, much in the same way as I like playing escape room games. I was under the impression for a few years that because I understood the potential of puzzle platformers, it meant I wouldn’t want to play any more of them, but that’s simply not true. I had a good time with Hue.

Shows

Gravity Falls- It’s fine. Pretty entertaining. I wish there were more low-stakes kinds of episodes, just to get more familiar with different sides of the characters. It would have made the characters and setting feel more rounded.

Cowboy Bepop- I didn’t get the hype for this show when I first watched it at 21, and now I can say that it’s simply not my kind of show. I have much more appreciation for it now than I did the first time, but it doesn’t hit me emotionally the same way that it seems to hit so many people. 

Seinfeld- It’s Seinfeld. There was precisely one episode that I had never seen before, plus confirmation that I didn’t dream the episode that’s told in backwards chunks like Memento and is set in India.

Paranoia Agent- While it was disappointing that this ended up being a more simple morality tale than every Satoshi Kon movie I’ve seen, I still enjoyed watching this a lot.

Aggretsuko- I liked the mundane, every-day storylines like a modern, more empathetic Seinfeld. Unfortunately as the show went on, there were more and more wacky situations that no one actually gets into. I might watch the upcoming season if I hear that it’s less ridiculous.

Over the Garden Wall- This was really cool and I’m glad it exists. It’s ten episodes long, which is perfect for it. I thought it was at its weakest during the more lighthearted or humorous moments--precisely the opposite of Gravity Falls. The word “classy” comes to mind to describe this show. 

Beastars- Really good when it isn’t falling into anime plot and dialog cliches. A lot of this first season is dedicated to introducing characters and the setting, which I thought was very well done. I’m curious to see what Season 2 is like.

Movies

Scott Pilgrim vs the World- It’s a fun movie to watch. It definitely makes many of the characters’ flaws seem like more fun than it probably should, but I’m more bothered by the criticism I hear that boils down to “it’s a bad movie because the characters are bad people” which I suspect is an impression you only get if you lack both empathy and media comprehension.

Big- Kinda bad. It has iconic moments that are only possible with its weird premise, but it’s just not a premise that supports an entire good movie. 

Phantom of the Opera- Way better and way worse than I remember. Has the precise right amount of horses.

Knives Out- Not really a movie I needed to watch a second time, but it sure is good.

District 9- I didn’t remember most of this movie and unfortunately I zoned out for most of this rewatch, so I still feel like I don’t know what it’s about.

From up on Poppy Hill- Not one of the top tier Ghibli movies, but still really good in a down-to-earth way that I like from Ghibli. 

Enter the Dragon- I knew to expect everything to be turned up to 11, which is good because it really is a lot. I liked it, though.

Shutter Island- I have never actually liked this kind of twist-reliant movie. I thought I would for many years, but I was always disappointed. At least now I am aware that it’s not what I’m into.

Soul- The premise is much too convoluted, but it does have an excellent moment near the end.

Onward- I liked this one a lot. Why don’t more people talk about this one? It’s definitely better than Coco, which itself was really good.

A Silent Voice- The kind of movie that reminds me that sometimes Japanese storytelling is more to my taste than Hollywood style, in that scenes can be more emotionally ambiguous. 

Tangled- Good in exactly the same way as Frozen and Moana. I can’t really complain, but this isn’t the same situation as puzzle platformers or escape rooms. In this case, I do get a little sick of being completely unsurprised. This movie was made first, so it’s only by chance that this is the one that I saw last.

Monsters University- A good movie, but it really doesn’t have to be about the same characters as Monsters Inc. 

Monty Python and the Holy Grail- Still funny

The Departed- Good if you want an enjoyable crime thriller to watch, bad if you want a Scorcese movie.

Titanic- Getting very drunk and watching this with Brittany might be the best time I had in the past three months. Maybe I won’t think too hard about why a movie about the overdue, violent death of a social order resonates with me right now.

Prince of Egypt- Impressive and grand, but I didn’t really care about the characters or story.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan- A good but not great (by TNG standards) concept for an episode that was made extremely enjoyable by the added budget and longer runtime of a movie.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock- Not as good, but still watchable.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home- The kind of ridiculous concept you’d only make when you’ve already had three successful movies and are confident that you’ll be able to make at least another couple. The gang go back to the 1980s (present day to the original audience) and save the whales. It’s apparently exactly the right movie to watch if this is the third consecutive Star Trek movie you’re watching.

Mamma Mia- A lot of fun, but has weird problems that seem like they would’ve been easy to solve at the script level. Maybe if the conflicts had been introduced early on instead of dragging the whole pace of the movie down for much of the last 20 minutes, I would’ve enjoyed the whole thing.

Books

The Well of Ascension- The second book of a trilogy. Very competent. Introduces a whole lot of minor conflicts that really keep the momentum going and give the characters short-term goals that contribute to the overall plot and their arcs. 

The Hero of Ages- The final book in the same trilogy. Equally competent. I wish there had been more long-term payoffs, which is the trade-off you make by stuffing the books full of those short-term conflicts. Spoilers ahead, but not ones that I think ruin the experience of reading. It’s very odd that of three of the central characters, one dies, one becomes a god and then dies, and one becomes God. 

Check Please- About as pleasant as it gets. Full of the type of minor character that sitcoms end up running into the ground because they’re too one-note (Creed from The Office, for instance) but in a series with a pre-planned length, there’s no chance for it to get stale. Plus, I really liked both of the lead characters.

Milkman- Good book about “The Troubles” in Ireland. Very odd collection of characters, but the narrator had an extremely enjoyable voice to read. 

And Then There Were None- Classic mystery story for a reason. Feels more like a Hitchcock movie than Sherlock Holmes. I read it in one day both because the prose was easy and I wanted to know what happened next. Not much substance to it, unfortunately.

Homegoing- Extremely ambitous book where each chapter is narrated by the descendant of a previous chapter, alternating between two branches of the same family. I liked it quite a bit, though because I only finished it yesterday I don’t have much reflection done yet so my opinion has yet to solidify.

[fandom-necromancer]

A thing of beauty

I stumbled about this post of @isibakeoven and I just had to write it! I hope you enjoy!

Fandom: Cyberpunk 2077 | Characters: nomad!V, Johnny and more

‘How could this even happen?’ ‘I don’t think I have to tell you of all people how something like this can happen’, V spoke loud for once. They were alone in their apartment, so why bother? V smiled, petting Nibbles laying next to her on the ground while the small kittens tried to clumsily climb on her outstretched legs. ‘No shit, V. I meant that this is now happening on top of everything else! We are supposed to get rid of the chip, save your life. And now we have to look after… kittens?’ ‘They are cute though.’ ‘Damnit, V.’ The construct likely had wanted to sound frustrated, but there was a certain softness in his voice too. ‘They look all wrinkly…’ ‘Don’t listen to him’, V chuckled and lifted up one of the tiny cats that had repeatedly tried and failed to get a good grip on her pants. ‘You are perfect.’ ‘Well, we can’t keep them. They will grow up and need more space. And I doubt some mercenary that could die any given day could take care of them.’ V sat the little one down on her lab and watched amused as it tried to get underneath her jacket. ‘Didn’t know you would care this much.’ ‘Hell, V, what do you think of me? Who doesn’t like cats?’

V couldn’t help but grin as Johnny sat down next to her, watching the kittens mill about with a tiny smile on his lips. He was right, of course. Even Nibbles herself had been a heat of the moment decision and it was better than leaving her out on the streets. They couldn’t keep them all. But what should they do with them? ‘You could sell them to some rich corpos’, Johnny shrugged. ‘I mean, we would make a fortune with real cats and they would have a nice home with everything they could ever need.’ And that was coming from someone who hated these people. It made V think about it, but ultimately their guts told them no. ‘Fine, any other idea then?’ V watched the kittens play and sighed deeply. Who in this rotten world could they trust still? And who could take good care of a cat? Instinctively a few names popped up in their head. ‘Really? Your mercenary friends?’ Johnny asked. ‘Come on, they are as bad as you are. And don’t you dare give one to- You’ve already made up your mind, right?’ V chuckled. ‘Yes. Once they are old enough, it’s time for a roadtrip!’

-

The meows of the kittens in the box on the passenger seat were almost heart wrenching, but they had grown quite a lot already and begun to rearrange what little furniture V had in their apartment. Besides, V knew they would find a loving new home. ‘But that’s not your only reason, is it?’, Johnny asked from the backseat. ‘It isn’t and you know that, you are in my brain’, V sighed and stopped at the red light. ‘So what? You really want me saying it out loud?’ ‘Maybe so you know it’s bullshit. I won’t let you die, V, and that’s final.’ ‘Even if we find a solution for the chip that works – and I highly doubt that – as you said, I could die any other day. Might as well give my friends something to remember me. Something good in a world that doesn’t give a fuck about you.’ ‘Hell, you’re getting my level’s of cynic here…’ ‘So far I haven’t had the urge to blow up a building yet, so I would say I’m good for a few more days.’ ‘Har, har’, the construct laughed sarcastically, but continued to look out of the window the rest of the ride.

‘Hey, V!’, Judy greeted them at the door and frowned as she saw the giant bow in their arms. ‘Woah, what’s that?’ ‘Complications? It’s a gift. Will you let me in?’ ‘Err. Yeah… Gifted complications?’ V just entered her flat and put down the box on the kitchen counter. ‘You know, the cat I told you about? Nibbles? Well, turned out she was pregnant and left me a bunch of kittens I can’t keep. You want one?’ ‘Do I… V, the only animal I ever cared for are fish and- Oh my god, they are so cute!’ She had already leaned on the counter, looking through the bars and watching the little cats stumble about. ‘Aren’t you just the cutest?’ She put a finger through the gaps and promptly pulled it back. ‘Ouch!’ She pressed on the small cut but smiled. ‘Oh, I definitely want one!’ ‘Then pick one’, V laughed and pointed at the box. ‘Who of you was the one to scratch me, hm?’ She pulled out one of the cats and held her up. ‘Gonna call you Limónita!’ V shook her head, but watched, as Judy was already cuddling with the little thing seeming completely enamoured. ‘Do you have someone for the rest of them?’, she asked. ‘I have an idea, yes’, V answered. ‘Gonna drive by a few friends, see if they would like one.’ ‘Alright! Tell me if you can’t find homes for all of them, I could ask a few Mox.’ ‘Thanks. I will come back to that!’

‘One gone, six more to go’, Johnny commented, as V sat back down in the car and drove off. ‘Yep. Next stop: My favourite Ripperdoc.’ ‘Really? You want to give that butcher one?’ ‘That butcher saved my life countless times. And he is one of the few actually decent people out there. He will take good care of a cat. From all of them maybe the best as he actually settled down and has a more or less safe job.’ ‘Whatever you say…’

V stopped as close to the clinic as they could and stepped out with the box, hurrying down the stairs. Misty was the first to greet them, surprised to see them there. ‘V. What brings you here?’ ‘Is Vic free at the moment? I have something. For both of you actually, if you are interested.’ ‘He should be, I can call him. A surprise?’ ‘Yes.’ V put the box down on a near table and nodded towards the ripperdoc that came out of his room. ‘My cat got kittens. I’m searching for people to give them a home. With the way I live, it’s… difficult to take care of even one, don’t mind all of them.’ They didn’t mention the biochip, but both of them knew what they were implying with that. Viktor took one of the kittens out of the box and scratched it behind the ear with his mechanical extensions. Misty took one, too, surprisingly catching the one that liked to ride on shoulders. She laughed as the kitten clawed the way up her arm and watched the other one that was calmly accepting the pets. ‘Any idea for names?’, Viktor asked, eyes not even taken off the cat for a second. ‘Ying and Yang would be fitting. See? Yours even has a little black spot at the ear.’ ‘Isn’t that a little cliché?’, the doc asked and earned an in-depth explanation from Misty why they were the perfect names. V watched them a little, but in the end just took the box and stole themselves away.

‘Who’s next?’, Johnny asked, arms crossed behind his head. ‘Goro.’ Wait, what? I thought you were against selling them to some rich fucks!’ ‘I am. Takemura is a friend.’ ‘He’s Arasaka.’ ‘He’s Ex-Arasaka at best. And he will take good care of them.’ ‘Maybe, but… God, you’ve doomed that cat.’ ‘To the nice life of a spoiled kitty?’ ‘To sit through hours of meetings…’ ‘He’s a… You know what, I won’t even try. He’s nice and will love a kitty.’

V was proved correct in the end. She met Goro in a flat in a shady neighbourhood, but he had managed to tidy his temporary home up as if it was the corpo mansions he must be used to. He had been sceptical at first but as soon as he had taken a look into the box, he was almost instantly smitten with them and had sat down on the sofa with the kitten on his lap. He obviously tried to keep up a professional, stiff appearance, but as V left, they could hear the delighted ‘I hereby swear to protect you and care for you, Kitty-sama-‘ before the door fell into the lock.

She was still laughing when she came back to the car and drove off to her next target. ‘A cop. You are giving your cat to a cop?’ ‘I’m giving my cat to a loving family that always will have someone around to play with. I grew up knowing a family and I will always treasure those memories. Whatever kitten they pick, it will have a great life.’

‘V!’ They hadn’t even parked the car yet as the kids had spotted them. ‘V is here!’ ‘Are you staying to play?’ They laughed picking up the box. ‘I don’t think so. I have to speak with your dad, is he home?’ The children ran off to fetch him and V followed them, hoping the kittens would stay silent for a little while longer with the kids around. ‘V! What brings you here?’, River greeted them with a wide grin. ‘I’m looking for a home for my kittens. I can’t keep them. You look more of a dog person to me, but I’m not sure, so I thought I’d try.’ The man looked at them wide-eyed, then looking into the box. ‘You think I should… You would give me one?’ ‘I trust you to take good care of them’, V just nodded. He reached into the box and carefully lifted out a cat as if worried to break something. ‘So small’, he laughed, looking at the kitten fondly. He got to his knees, so the children could get a good look and a few pets, too. When he stood back up, he looked at V. ‘I will. This little kitty will have the best life I can give her.’ ‘Thank you.’

‘Okay, that was nice and all, but I have to stop you right there’, Johnny commented once again, as V was back in the car. ‘Kerry… Hell, he can’t even watch after himself. You… You’ve been to his house, okay? This should be obvious!’ ‘We both know that’s you being jealous he actually got over it and is successful now.’ ‘Yeah, well, because we turned up! Who knows what happens when we are gone.’ ‘I thought you said not to think about that because you won’t let me die?’ ‘I… Listen, you said you wouldn’t let me die either. So, I already know this will go to shit.’ ‘Kerry changed, Johnny. I trust him with a cat.’ Johnny sighed and vanished. ‘Why do I even try?’

At least the house was in less disarray than when V had last visited. The security was less hostile, too, allowing them to pass by and park right in front. ‘Hey, V? What’s up? Come in!’ He didn’t even acknowledge the box, leading them inside and pouring them a drink already. ‘My new song may be the best one I ever made; I’m telling you. I’ve made great progress!’ ‘I’m happy to hear that. Maybe once it’s ready, you could celebrate with a feline friend?’ The Rockstar turned around and only then saw the box, curiously looking into it. ‘Where did you get those cats?’ He had already taken one out to get a closer look. ‘They are worth a fortune, somehow I can’t believe you paid for it. Job gone wrong?’ ‘No, I took in a cat I found and she was pregnant. Now I’m looking for a home for them. Interested?’ ‘Interested?’ Kerry pulled the cat to his chest protectively now that he realised, he might get one. ‘I would love to have a cat! I just always saw the costs and… Well I guess my life style isn’t the most stable one. You would just… give one to me?’ ‘Sure’, V shrugged. ‘I mean you have the money to care for one, a place to live and I know you are a softie underneath that craziness.’ ‘Oh, I will take so good care of you’, Kerry chuckled. ‘I don’t need half the space I have; I will transform this home to your wishes.’ He smirked at V and addressed the cat again: ‘You’ll be the most spoiled cat in the world, and I will call you Johnny, so it fits!’

‘Oh, you won’t, you son of a-‘ V had to will the construct away not to laugh and left Kerry with his cat. Back in the car they felt sorry for the last cat in the box. ‘Don’t worry, you will get a nice home, too. You will like it. Always on the move, seeing the world. You will have a big family and believe me, nothing is better than laying in the sun on a warm dashboard seeing the world pass by.’ V felt Johnny’s eyes on them and sighed. ‘What? Back with the Bakkers we constantly picked up stray dogs and cats. Not that there were a lot. But I remember one that loved riding with us.’ Johnny answered by lifting up his hands in surrender and looking out through the window once again.

The drive to the Aldecaldo Camp took quite a while and the sun was already setting, as they reached the edge of it. It was in the progress of settling down for the night, the few guards on post nodding towards her and greeting her friendly but brief. It wasn’t far to Panam’s tent anyway, so V just passed them. ‘V! What a surprise! How are you?’ ‘Good. And you?’ ‘Can’t complain. What do you have there?’ ‘My cat had a litter. I found homes for all of them except this one. Wanted to keep the ride out here for last, you know how the city can get at night.’ ‘Okay’, Panam said, waiting for more. ‘So you want me to take the kitten?’ ‘If you want it’, V nodded. ‘I think you would take great care of a cat. And the Aldecaldos are there too.’ ‘But we will be on the move constantly, do you really think I should take her instead of someone in the city?’ ‘No one I know has a stable life, Panam. And with you I know the kitty is safe. You can always put a tracker on her collar or something if you fear her getting lost. If you want a cat.’ ‘Oh, I would love to! Thank you!’ She took the last kitten from the box, pulling her close to her chest and already looking for one of the larger trailers to keep it in for the beginning. ‘I will take good care of you kitty, V!’

‘And that was the last one of your kittens, V’, Johnny concluded on their way back. ‘I think your friends will give them a good home.’ ‘I hope it brings them joy. A little bit of good in this world.’ ‘Don’t be so pessimistic. The world may be a disaster, but if you know where to look, there will always be a little bit of good.’ ‘A thing of beauty?’, V teased, maybe not nearly as jokingly as they might had wanted it to be. ‘Who knows? Maybe?’, Johnny sighed. ‘However this might end, they will remember you, V. You won’t be forgotten.’ V lowered her head, gripping the steering wheel of the Porsche a bit harder. ‘And neither will you.’

[aion-rsa]

Why Oblivion is Still the Best Elder Scrolls Game

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With their acquisition of ZeniMax Studios finally complete, Microsoft is poised to challenge Sony’s recent reign of exclusivity dominance by potentially making the next generation of Bethesda releases exclusive to Game Pass platforms. For the moment, though, the biggest benefit of this acquisition is undoubtedly the ability to access a good portion of Bethesda’s library of classic games via Game Pass.

While most of the Bethesda games recently added to Game Pass are worth playing for one reason or another, few are more intriguing than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Sandwiched between the releases of the revolutionary Morrowind and the eternally re-released Skyrim, Oblivion is sometimes thought of as the middle child in the modern history of one of gaming’s most beloved RPG series. Nearly 15 years after its release, though, it’s remarkably easier than ever to appreciate the many ways that Oblivion represents the very best of the Elder Scrolls franchise.

Don’t believe me? Use its recent addition to the Game Pass library as an excuse to play Oblivion again (or perhaps for the first time), and you’ll find these reasons (and more) why it remains arguably the best Elder Scrolls adventure so far.

Oblivion Has (By Far) the Best Elder Scrolls Quests and Stories

Let’s start with one thing that few Elder Scrolls fans will argue against. When it comes to quests and stories, Oblivion is a far better game than Morrowind or Skyrim.

I’ve talked about this more extensively in my look at the best Elder Scrolls quests ever, but I remain truly amazed at how much thought and creativity went into even the most “average” quest in Oblivion. That baseline level of quality is really the key point here. While many of Oblivion’s biggest quests (such as the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild assignments) are obviously memorable, even the little quests along the way that you may have forgotten about offer something special that helps them stand out.

I don’t know why the Elder Scrolls quest design and writing teams were at the top of their game at this time, but I doubt even The Elder Scrolls 6 can top the work they did here.

Oblivion Found a Nice Middle Ground Between Accessibility and Depth

For quite some time, the line on Oblivion has been that it’s the “middle” game between Morrowind and Skyrim. While that’s obviously true of its release date, that idea speaks more to the suggestion that Oblivion represents Bethesda’s struggles to balance the more hardcore RPG ideas of a game like Morrowind and the accessibility improvements featured in Skyrim.

Some say that means Oblivion doesn’t truly excel at either pursuit, but I don’t see it like that. In Oblivion, you get a taste of Morrowind’s incredible RPG philosophies and mechanics without having to deal with that game’s most annoying aspects. At the same time, Oblivion manages to be much more playable than its predecessor while still feeling deeper overall than its successor from a role-playing perspective. 

Oblivion doesn’t necessarily combine the best of Skyrim and Morrowind, but it finds a nice middle-ground between those styles that’s easy to appreciate to this day. 

Shivering Isles is Still the Best DLC Expansion Bethesda Has Ever Made

Granted, I can’t (and would never try to) defend most of Oblivion’s DLC. There’s a reason that “Horse Armor” is still used as the gold standard for exploitative and uninspired video game microtransactions.

However, it’s easier to forgive Oblivion‘s DLC stumbles when you realize they all eventually led to the Shivering Isles expansion. That was the expansion that finally dared to answer the question “What if The Elder Scrolls just got weird with it?” By transporting players to a land ruled by Sheogorath (the often hilarious Daedric Prince of Madness), Shivering Isles dropped most of the stuffier fantasy elements of the franchise in favor of allowing the talented Oblivion design team and writers to breathe life into their wildest ideas.

The golden age of single-player DLC expansions was highlighted by the idea of letting studios break free and truly experiment with new and strange creations that would otherwise not likely see the light of day. Shivering Isles is perhaps the greatest example of that era.

Oblivion’s Atmosphere is Consistent and Helps Tell a Story

I will freely admit that the province of Cyrodiil isn’t always the most interesting place. There are certainly times when it comes across as “Capital City, Fantasyland.”

Yet, there’s a consistency to Oblivion’s atmosphere that I remain fascinated with years after its release. While Morrowind’s alien-like worlds are hard to beat from a pure design perspective and Skyrim’s tundras offer a welcome deviation from the most common fantasy tropes, there’s something about the way that everything flows in Oblivion that I’d argue Bethesda has never quite replicated.

Individual regions of Oblivion’s map manage to remain distinct while also feeling like the logical progression of the area you just arrived from and the area you’re going to. There’s also something to be said for how Oblivion sells the idea of people battling to protect their land from invasion and corruption by presenting a fantasy world that you might actually want to live in.

Get Past Their Voice Acting, and Oblivion Might Have the Best NPCs in any Elder Scrolls Game

I’d like to argue that Oblivion’s “bad” voice acting and awkward NPC designs actually give the game a personality you don’t find in refined titles, but I understand that some rough edges are hard to ignore.

Instead, let’s focus on the ways that Oblivion’s NPCs are advanced even by modern design standards. Nearly every NPC in Oblivion has a personality of their own, something unique to say to you, and will legitimately go about a daily schedule that even changes from day to day due to their ability to make dynamic decisions rather than simply follow a tightly scripted path.

At a time when developers are sometimes more interested in putting more characters on-screen rather than crafting richer NPCs (looking at you Cyberpunk 2077), there’s something undeniably refreshing about a game that emphasizes offering more unique interactions rather than simply relying on the quantity of NPCs.

Oblivion Let You Build Wild (and Broken) Characters

The “highlight” of Oblivion‘s character-building system in the minds of many fans will undoubtedly be the time they discovered it’s possible to make a truly invisible character who can pretty much do whatever they want. That kind of mechanical exploitation is certainly one of the most noteworthy examples of how Oblivion let you run wild with the characters you created.

Yet, when I think back on my hours with Oblivion, the kinds of broken characters I appreciate most are the ones who didn’t make it far. While Oblivion’s enemy scaling system has been (often rightfully) criticized for its shortcomings, there’s something to be said for how the game’s attempts at offering a consistent challenge level meant that your design decisions were tested more often throughout the game.

It wasn’t a perfect system, but when compared to a game like Skyrim, or even titles like Destiny, where building a viable character is really about reaching higher levels and reaping the rewards, I miss, at the very least, Oblivion’s attempts to challenge me to master the character I built and the times it would actively punish my worst decisions.

Oblivion is Less About Combat and More About Adventure

In terms of pure combat, Skyrim is really in a class of its own when compared to the other Elder Scrolls games. Its improved controls, cinematic qualities, and smoother animations are more than enough to make it the favorite among Elder Scrolls fans looking for the best action.

I certainly recognize that some of Oblivion’s combat system problems are the result of bad decisions and outdated technology, but years later, I really appreciate how the game was never really about the action; it was about the adventure. Much like how Fellowship of the Ring utilized action sequences as the response to danger that our heroes otherwise tried to avoid, combat in Oblivion is just one of those things that you’ll come across as you explore but isn’t necessarily meant to be the grand set piece or the big draw.

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While Oblivion’s main questline betrays this philosophy somewhat during its most action-heavy (and often worst) moments, there’s still a sense that the game is more about exploration, storytelling, and the little discoveries you make along the way rather than a desire to get you to the next big sequence or other chances to simply fuel a power fantasy.

The post Why Oblivion is Still the Best Elder Scrolls Game appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[theroninknight]

Cyberpunk 2077 criticism

I’m not a reviewer. Just a guy that has played video games the better part of 25+ years. Expectations are a strong factor in how well a game will be received. CDPR had built up a strong reputation with well made games in the pass and Cyberpunk WAS supposed to be an easy homerun for them.

  Bugs, glitches, crashes placed aside, the game just feels half done. It was promised as a deep RPG set in an open world and what we got was an action game with RPG elements. Many of the promises made were left on the cutting room floor. Lifepaths don’t matter beyond the intro and a select few dialogue choices. I played a Streetkid and honestly the game felt like it was designed with V being a streetkid from jump. I’ve heard that folks playing Nomad or Corpo were severely disappointed with the opening and I don’t blame them. Originally, I wanted to have a separate playthrough with each lifepath to better experience the game but with what little choices streetkid offered, I don’t see any point to it.

The world, while fascinating at first, is only knee deep. Giant ads ala Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner play on repeat and if you actually sit there for more than 20 mins, you’ll realize you’ve seen them all. Quest givers and story NPCs aside, the everyday npc of NightCity feels like a shell designed to give the illusion of a sprawling city. On the surface it works so long as you don’t look too close at their behavior. In fact, I could say that about so much of the game and how it feels. Sex is overexaggerated, and that’s coming from a guy who has modded his Skyrim to be a succubus play den. Everywhere you go, there is an ad with some form of sexual innuendo or just plain dicks. It’s a prominent enough for you to notice but stays just long enough as to not overstay its welcome. There was one time I was doing an investigation mission Corpo woman whose penthouse had been broken in.  mood all serious, I’m doing my best Private eye work and then I hear this moaning coming from the walls. I rush over, thinking I found a clue and it was the ad for the Orgasmic drink playing from the TV. It’s a bit of cyberpunk flavor that I’m not sure needed to be in the game at least to this extent.

The gameplay is your typical open world go here and kill or fetch this affair with a sprinkle of real gems in some side missions. This is where the game shines the most in that its not always so cut and dry. One minute you think you’re on a standard assassination mission and the next your going on a joy ride with a reborn Christian looking to change the world. The quests and the world are the saving grace of this game and I can’t think of anything specific about this game I would have to point out.

The story is…unique. There’s a lot to like about it but two things didn’t sit with me well after completing the game. The beginning has you meet with a merc named Jackie and you two become best friends almost instantly. From there, the game does a time skip montage showing all the fun you have with your new bestie until something like a year pass. WHY? The game could have easily took its time to have Jackie show us around the city, get familiar with the place and build a real relationship with the guy. Instead we’re treated to this montage like we were given a relationship skip option and didn’t remember accepting it. It makes your relationship feel forced and rushed and that’s never good.

Keanu Reeves is in the game.

Speaking of Johnny Silverhand. One of the “best” endings in the game is tied to dialogue options you have with Johnny without really knowing about it. This may sound nitpicky but any game that asks you to play for 60+ hours but ties you to dialogue choices without a better understanding of the consequences. True some endings are more organic but as far as I’m concerned, there should never be an ending that requires knowledge prior to starting the game.

Then theres the Roleplay aspect. From a character building standpoint, it leaves a lot to be desired. This game was based on a table top game of the same name and you would think they would give it the same treatment when it came to creating your character or toon as some serious RPers call em. Nope. As I mention before, lifepaths are a shell of a good idea and the perk/skill tree system is a mess. There are two prominent schools of roleplaying, play-as-you-go-jack-of-all-trades and dedicated class builds ala tank, dps, healer, etc. Cyberpunk forgoes the class build system in favor of the more common jack of all trades but with a twist. While you’re not locked into a particular build initially, as you level up, your given two points. One for attributes and another for skills. Your skill tree unlocks as your attributes go up. Once you have an understanding of what playstyle you like, raise your attributes to the required levels and unlock your skills. If you make a mistake, you can go to a ripperdoc and respect your skill points for the hefty price of 100k. At first that may not seem like a bad trade until you realize that your still limited to your attribute point selections from previously. It’s a small oversight and one that can be patched down the line or corrected with mods on the pc but it’s an oversight nonetheless. I’ve played for over a hundred hours and the idea that I have to start a character from scratch for any reason other than to replay the story is atrocious.

All in all, the game is a huge let down for anyone that was expecting to actually roleplay their character beyond surface level shooter. There are a lot of nice components that make the game enjoyable for the most part but it also fails to deliver on what was promised. For me, that’s a bigger deal breaker than bugs and crashes.  Despite how pretty the game can be when it works, its still only a part of the experience as a whole.

There is way more I could complain about but this is already lengthy as it stands.

For fans of Cyberpunk genre I can give this an 8/10. There isn’t anything like it at the time of writing this and hopefully it won’t be the last.

For none fans, I can see this closer to a 6/10. It’s a half decent GTA clone with more steps but a clone none the less. Replay GTA V if you crave a open world city.