#susan abernathy

[merge-conflict]

chaser

“For God’s sake, Valentine,” Abernathy says, her facade beginning to crack. “I learned my lesson. If you can’t forgive me then at least let me help keep you alive.”

“Which is it you prefer?” V demands, suddenly battling the feeling that she is about to cry. “Mercy or forgiveness?”

“They shouldn’t have done that to you,” Abernathy says, her voice cracking like a whip. She has her hands clasped together in her lap. From this distance they look identical. “It’s cruel. It was cruel to do that to you. Even that–“ She gestures at V’s left hand.

“Too late,” Vim snaps, caught in crackling anger that V still does not know how to soothe. She curls her fingers into a fist on her behalf. “It’s already done.”

“You didn’t go through all the trouble of cutting off my hand just to let me die,” Abernathy says. “I’d tell you I’m sorry, but it’s done, isn’t it? It’s already done.”

shot (wip)

“I suppose next you’ll be asking me to use my new position to spy on Jenkins for you.” (petulant. bitter. a tool, you were always a tool)

“No. I know how you get when you’re angry.” (thinking. malicious. flippant.) “Besides, I thought you’d enjoy a chance to get your claws into him.”

(silently angry. is the implication that she’d do for him what she’d done for abernathy? that she’s just a dangerous beast? that abernathy knows her and her anger so well?)

“Well?”

“What do you want me to do? Beg for leniency? Make some emotional plea? You want me to ask if you ever even gave a shit about me? You want me to put on a show?” - “You wouldn’t believe a word I said anyway. Give me a cigarette.”

(hands one over, lights it. finally makes eye contact. this is real.) “Don’t look so glum. You wouldn’t have gotten half as far as you have without my help. You can cry about your bank account if you want, but it’s not like I’m kicking you out on the street.”

“Alright.” (inhale. peace. emptiness. drains her drink. drops the cigarette into abernathy’s.) “It’s done.”

tagged by @wanderingaldecaldo for wip wednesday

tagging (no pressure) @luvwich, @vox-monstera, @fly-amanitaa

[sakuranplays]

~ Eye For An Eye ~

[corpocyborg]

Secure Your Soul: A Cyberpunk 2077 Fanfiction

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

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

An AU in which Corpo!V never leaves Arasaka.

CHAPTER SIX: LIKE A MILITARY COUP

[read on ao3]

PRESENT DAY

“Get up, you backstabbing bitch.”

V’s mind crossed the threshold into consciousness, and she jolted awake. Her neck ached from sleeping at a desk, but it was a familiar ache. She’d pulled all-nighters at a desk her whole life, staring at a pile of paperwork or a computer monitor until the lead she needed jumped out at her. She looked up at Abernathy. “Morning, m’am. Do you have more questions for me?”

Abernathy slammed her head into the desk. 

“Fuck,” V muttered. She had cranial armor implants, but they’d been taking a serious beating lately. Abernathy must have gotten the same holiday bonus that she had. No one without gorilla arms could exert that much force so effortlessly. “That's the second time in 24 hours someone’s done that to me.”

“It won't be the last,” Abernathy promised. She lifted V’s head and slammed it back down again. Then she lifted it once more, but this time she held it so that V’s eyes were looking into her own. “What did you say to him to get him to squeal?”

“I've been locked in here for hours,” V said through clenched teeth. Despite the armor implants, her head was pounding viciously. “I haven't had any communication with anyone since you were last here. You can check your surveillance footage if you don't believe me.”

“Then you planned it together.”

“Jenkins and I? What would be the point of that? Just to fuck with you?” V’s words were muffled by Abernathy’s hold on her face. “I came to you because I was trying to switch sides. I wanted to work for someone more level-headed. Although this display is making me doubt whether I was right about you.” 

“How dare you?” Abernathy spat, but V was pleased to hear a slight catch in her voice. She’d guessed that line would work on Abernathy primarily because it would have worked on her.

“Look,” V began, wincing as Abernathy squeezed her head. “You can waste your time here, tormenting someone who isn’t even in on Jenkins’ plans, or you can go after your actual enemy. One option is far more productive than the other.” 

Abernathy paused, her grip never lessening, for a few seconds that felt much longer to V. Her vision was just starting to swim when Abernathy abruptly released her head. Inertia slammed it back into the desk one final time. When V looked up again, Abernathy was gone. 

She crossed her arms on the desk and rested her head on them, struggling for air at first, then progressively slowing and deepening her breaths. It was a technique she’d learned from her life coach at Quantified Satori. It helped, but only to a degree. The pounding in her head had not subsided, and V wasn’t sure how long it would be before she’d have the strength to lift her head again. She supposed there’d be no point to now, anyway. Whatever happened next was outside her control. And, despite their differences, she trusted Jackie. He’d know what he had to do. 

Continuing to breathe deeply, she began a new neuromotor relaxation exercise—one targeted at releasing tension in various muscle groups, one at a time, in a particular pattern. It seemed like a good choice because it occupied her mind as well as her body. With this welcome distraction to guide her, V gradually found her way back into unconsciousness.

—

When she woke up again, a different coworker was standing over her.

“Nostra,” she said groggily, “Abernathy sent you?”

“No, V,” Nostra replied. “Abernathy’s offed herself.”

That snapped her awake. Ever since Jenkins had first given her the order to go after Abernathy, V had been anticipating every potential resolution to the situation that she could come up with. She thought she’d become especially effective at predicting Abernathy’s reactions, largely because she so often reacted the same way that V herself would have. But she hadn’t seen this coming.

“You look so shocked,” Nostra commented. There was a slight twitch at the right corner of his mouth. “Weren’t expecting it, huh?”

“Were you?” 

Nostra sighed quietly. “In a manner of speaking. She wasn’t depressed, if that’s what you’re assuming. Wasn’t a quitter either. Hell, I’ve seen the woman dodge shit thrown at her from every angle and still walk away clean. She wasn’t weak, V.”

He paused, looking directly at her. Gauging her reaction, V knew. She didn’t try to hide her confusion. A poker face was a decent enough tactic for certain types of lies, but generally the superior strategy was to react the way you would have reacted if you were innocent. 

“Then why-” she began.

“Why did she kill herself?” Nostara finished her sentence for her. “Because she didn’t have any interest in life after Arasaka.” 

A sudden sense of understanding dawned in V’s mind. Nostra nodded at her. “Now you get it,” he said. “Anyway, that’s the internal factors. As for the external factors, your man Jenkins got too trigger-happy. He was blackmailing her, as you know. Hadn’t released anything, was just making demands at first��� then, suddenly, he uploads it all, every bit of dirt he’s got on her, to Arasaka’s intranet.” 

Well done, Jackie, V thought instinctively. She forced that thought into the back of her mind. Her face showed nothing but doubt. “But why?” she demanded. “And how do you know it was him?”

“Fair question. He deleted any metadata or other digital trails that could lead to him. He tried to, anyway. It was a tech specialist from your department who caught him, actually. Carter Smith. I believe you know him.”

“I do,” V replied cautiously. She was unsure how Smith factored into the situation and that made her nervous. He knew about her deal with Jackie, but he didn’t know exactly what was on the datashard she’d left him, and he certainly didn’t know about the dirt she’d added to it over the past six years. But it was hardly an impossible intuitive leap. If he'd connected the dots… “We’ve worked together in the past.”

“Apparently, he’d been keeping an eye on Jenkins since he overheard him telling you to ‘make sure Abernathy won’t be a problem anymore.’”

“Jenkins did tell me that. And as you know, I didn’t listen.” 

“Didn’t you?” Nostra asked. “Abernathy won’t be a problem for Jenkins anymore, will she?” Before V could say anything in her defense, Nostra added, “Of course, Jenkins will hardly be able to benefit from that, seeing as he’s dead.”

“Jenkins is dead?” V was intrigued to find that she was actually a little sad about that. She’d barely known Abernathy, but Jenkins had been a constant presence in her life for several years. She wouldn’t have called him a friend, but then she spent more time with her coworkers than she did with her friends.

“Yes. Apparently, Smith didn’t like the sound of Jenkins’ plan either. Went directly to Abernathy and reported everything he’d heard. Then offered to keep an eye out for her regarding any further developments. Interestingly enough, he said he didn’t think you’d go through with it. He seems to like you.”

V looked down at the table, smiling slightly. Well, well. You never did know which allies could turn out to be valuable in the long run. “That’s kind of him,” she mused, momentarily lost in the private joke. “But you still haven’t told me how Jenkins ended up dead.”

“Smith kept his word. He was monitoring Jenkins’ online presence. After the blackmail data leaked, he was able to trace a pattern of suspicious activity that indicated that Jenkins was the source. Abernathy had just gotten back from your last interrogation. He showed her what he’d found. She decided if she was going down anyway, Jenkins was coming with her.”

“So she killed him?”

“Yes. Personally, in fact. A first for her.”

V didn’t miss the implication. Abernathy had killed coworkers before, but never by her own hand. V knew that, of course. It made up the bulk of the info that “Jenkins” had revealed. Still, it was interesting that Nostra was comfortable speaking about it so openly. She wondered how much of that reveal had not actually been a surprise to him.   

“What about his security team?” she asked.

“He had one, of course. But they primarily look out for threats in disguise, assassination attempts. Not a known coworker who simply walks directly into his office with a weapon. That’s the danger of an enemy with nothing left to lose.”

V stayed silent for a moment, allowing her mind to mull over this new information. It was hard to be certain how much of this story Nostra actually believed, but she suspected it wasn’t all of it. “So what happens now?” she asked finally.

“Now Arasaka has two high-ranking positions to fill on rather short notice. I’m acting Director of Spec Ops, naturally. The acting Director of Counter Intel, by the typical order of succession, should be you.”

V looked up at Nostra. A deep and familiar hunger roared to life in the center of her chest.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Nostra warned her. “It’s temporary. A full investigation of the incident is pending, then Arasaka will decide if you can keep the position. But, yes. It’s you. For now.”

V released a deep breath. She inhaled another one, held it for four counts, then released that one too. “Okay,” she said. “Then I’m free to go?”

In answer, Nostra walked over to the door and opened it. 

—

V sat behind the desk in her new office. For the last eleven hours, she'd been suppressing her sense of awe in order to allow herself to focus on the seemingly endless stream of meetings and holoconferences she'd been hosting. There had been much to do. The Frankfurt incident had still needed resolving. As soon as she'd gotten to the office, she'd put her extensive collection of international contacts to work, trading favors and information in exchange for influence over the appointments of the new heads of the European Space Council. 

By now, she felt secure that she'd managed to position a majority of figureheads who would either be loyal to or manipulatable by Arasaka. It had been easier than she'd expected. The job wasn't desirable lately, and she could offer a level of protection and security that had skyrocketed in value. She mentally thanked Jenkins for that. 

Jenkins… 

Now that she had a second to breathe, it hit her again. She was sitting in Jenkins' chair. Behind Jenkins’ desk. In Jenkins' office.

In the last few years, she’d spent more time in the Tower than she had in her own apartment, and as she'd risen through the ranks in Counter Intel, she'd spent more and more time in this office in particular. It was such a familiar place. 

Still, she gazed around, sponging in the sights as if she'd never seen them before. Memorizing every detail. The giant Arasaka logo on the floor. The couch in one corner with the liquor cabinet beside it, the full length dining table in the other. The plants displayed behind the glass built into the walls. And finally, the windows and the view outside. Her gaze lingered there the longest, her chair angled to face the window.

Someone knocked softly on her door. 

“Come in,” she called out. She swiveled her chair back towards the door. 

Carter Smith was poking his head through the crack. “Hey, V,” he said nervously. “Are you still busy? I didn't want to interrupt.”

“It's fine. You can come in.” 

He walked across the room and sat in the same seat she'd occupied yesterday. Had it been yesterday? It felt like a lifetime ago. She cleared some papers off her desk and closed her laptop. “What do you need, Carter?”

“I wanted to see how you're doing.”

“Well, we've made good progress in mitigating potential future issues with the Space Council. Our lunar base licenses—”

“No, V. I meant I wanted to see how you’re doing. Personally.”

V paused. “Oh.”

Carter’s cheeks turned a telling shade of pink. “I just… I know Abernathy had you locked up, and… after learning what she’s capable of, I wasn't sure…”

“I’m fine,” V reassured him quickly. “She didn't do anything to me that I can't recover from.” 

“Okay.” Carter looked relieved. “Good. I couldn't stand it if anyone else got hurt.” V had the sense that he wanted to say something more. He rubbed the back of his neck, then sighed. “Can you believe what happened? Abernathy… I wanted to protect her… I never thought…”

It was rather sad. Abernathy would've wiped him out without a thought if she'd deemed it necessary, and yet here he was, lamenting his part in her demise. Some people just refused to look out for their own best interests. “There’s no point in blaming yourself,” she said. “Abernathy made her own decision.”

“I know. I know that. But V… you didn't see it…” His eyes scanned the room warily, and V wondered if he was considering revealing some sort of secret information. 

“Didn't see what?” she pressed.

“This office. Afterwards.” For a moment, his eyes glazed over and V knew his mind was reliving the memory.

“Carter?” she said, trying to anchor him to the present. “It's all right. Just breathe.”

He took a deep breath. He shivered, but seemed to come back to himself. “Anyway,” he said, looking abashed again. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'm gonna go now. I've wasted enough of your time. Just needed someone to talk to, I guess.”

“That's fine,” V said cautiously. She didn't want to alienate Carter. He'd proven valuable lately. But she didn't have time to become his regular shoulder to cry on. “Maybe try focusing on your work?” she suggested. “I know you like working with tech.”

“Yeah,” Carter said. He smiled, but it was obviously forced. “Thanks, V. I'll try that.” He left the office.

Well, either he didn't suspect V’s involvement in Jenkins and Abernathy's downfall, or he was the absolute damn best liar she'd ever met. She almost hoped it was the latter. That would make him much more interesting. 

She rotated her chair back towards the window. The sun was setting, and the city was coming to life. It lived up to its name, she thought. Its neon colors looked more beautiful against a backdrop of black. And the sky in City Center was always a deep, pure black at night. Night City—the city so bright, it blotted out the stars.  

The clock on her optics started flashing, an indication that it was time for her to go home. She dismissed the alarm, but made no moves to leave. As acting Director of Arasaka Counter Intel, it was her right to sleep in her office if she deemed it necessary. She pulled a cigarette out of a desk drawer and lit it. It was Jenkins’, but he wouldn't be needing it anymore. She reclined her chair, took a deep drag from the cigarette, and exhaled slowly. 

Night City, she decided, looked its absolute best from out the windows of Arasaka Tower. 

[elvenbeard]

Everyone's favourite Arasaka Counterintel employees ~

Honestly, I just wanted to play around with adding and posing a lot of different characters for one scene, see how AMM fares and what the challenges are. So I ended up with this "company-internal newsletter" style photoset XD There isn't a deeper story here beyond maybe this is right after Abernathy's promotion, or after someone important from Tokyo HQ came over for an unscheduled inspection and everyone had to line up prim and proper for a quick photo. Also, it was nice to see all the named NPCs from the Corpo lifepath in one spot like that (plus one random Arasaka NPC lady I added for symmetry purposes XD).

Caption for the last photo: Jenkins, through his teeth: "I will kill you for this..." Abernathy, through her teeth: "You can certainly try..." V, through his teeth: "Please, leave me out of this..." ... and then they didn't.

[fereldanwench]

2022 | cp77 virtual photography outtakes 📸 15/31 a collection of my unreleased cyberpunk 2077 vp from 2022

[byberbunk2069]

The Corpo Grind 🦾⚙️

[slyzz]

arasaka devils | faces of arasaka

Susan Abernathy

[jedi-kat-18]

[mysterythief]

Can’t wait for my babygirl (he’s an adult alcoholic) Haymitch Abernathy to find himself (experience extreme trauma) in the hunger games and stick it in Snow’s face so that he can teach two teenager twenty-five years later that the power of love really can bring down dictatorships and heal wounds

[snow-acotar]

favorite duo of all time. glamorous and upbeat x emo and depressed? amazing

and the parenting dyamic? oh my god. haymitch is the realistic slightly bad influence father, and effie is the slightly helicopter mom who just wants her children to be happy

the way they fight is such an intriguing relationship imo

throughout the whole series, it's just haymitch or katniss and peeta doing something effie finds either inappropriate or irrational, and then instead of getting super mad... she just gasps and starting girl boss walking around the room

[niremedy]

Everlark🫶🏻❤️‍🩹

[merge-conflict]

happier times

[sakuranplays]

~ RAT WARS ~

[corpocyborg]

Secure Your Soul: A Cyberpunk 2077 Fanfiction

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

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

An AU in which Corpo!V never leaves Arasaka.

CHAPTER FOUR: HALL OF MIRRORS

[read on ao3]

They left her in an interrogation room on one of the unlisted levels of Arasaka Tower. It would have been pointless for her to speculate where exactly in the building she was. At least four different floors of the Tower included sets of interrogation rooms, and those were just the ones she knew about. Besides, they all looked alike on the inside. 

The room was small, but so sparsely furnished that it seemed both cramped and barren at the same time. A single table stood in the center, flanked by two rigid chairs. One of these was occupied by V. The other was empty. The lights in the room were bright red, and they glinted off the metallic gray surfaces in a manner that made it hard for V to look at any one thing in the room for too long.   

She didn’t need to look. V was highly familiar with the features of an Arasaka interrogation room. She would know what was in it with her eyes closed. She was even aware of what couldn't be seen—the extensive surveillance system. Every inch of the room was covered with various sensors, and datasevers in an adjoining room were undoubtedly busy compiling detailed reports on her body language, skin temperature, heart rate, and vocal inflections. It’d almost be enough to unnerve her, if she didn’t know that they could already obtain all the same basic information from checking the logs on her cyberware. Besides, V had been trained to withstand interrogation. She could fool the sensors nine times out of ten. 

As she waited, V wiped the food stains off her face, pulled her hair back into shape, and resisted sinking into the shame and frustration that came along with having underestimated an enemy. 

A few minutes later, the door opened. Abernathy stepped in. As she settled into the chair on the other side of the table, V straightened her back attentively. Although they worked in associated departments, V had only met Abernathy face-to-face on a handful of separate occasions. This was a rare opportunity to compare what she’d learned about her from second-hand sources to the actual woman. 

Her style struck V as slightly incongruous, but immediately comprehensible. She wore a neatly-pressed black suit jacket, and her hair was in a tight, high ponytail similar to V’s own. On the other hand, she’d forgone the classic immono-cotton slacks that V tended to prefer in favor of a short pencil skirt, and her knee-high boots had heels even taller than V’s pumps did. She had followed the general Arasaka dress code but incorporated her own flair. Professional, but not demure. It was a delicate balance that V knew well, and Abernathy walked it proficiently.

Abernathy had neither spoken nor taken her eyes off V since she’d walked into the room, and V was sure a similar assessment was brewing in her mind, with V as the subject matter. Her legs were crossed and she was leaning back in the chair, one arm draped across its side. An open posture that was either meant to imply trust or lack of fear. V would venture to guess the latter.

In all probability, she was waiting for V to speak first and planning to let her lead the conversation. It made sense. The more V said, the more likely she was to slip up and reveal something she didn’t want Abernathy to know. At the same time, dominating the conversation inherently yielded the opportunity to control the narrative. If V could weave the proper story, she could influence Abernathy’s conception of events while letting Abernathy believe that her tactic was working. She’d bite. 

“What does he have on you?” V asked suddenly. She twitched forward in her chair as she said it, as if she simply couldn’t hold the question back any longer. 

“Excuse me?” Abernathy responded. She tilted her head in a gesture of confusion.  

“Jenkins,” V insisted. “Come on. You don’t believe I’m trying to frame him. So why all this, then?"

Abernathy didn't respond. She wouldn’t, not for a while anyway, if V’s assessment of her strategy was accurate, and she was quite certain it was. But V waited, counting the reasonable amount of seconds in her head, as if she expected an answer.   

"I have a theory," V continued. "I think that datashard wasn't everything he had on you. It did feel a bit lacking. Full of facts, but none of them substantial. Nothing I could actually use."

Abernathy remained silent. V waited again, but this time she decreased the length of her pause, imitating a loss in patience. 

"So it was a trap all along then, wasn't it?” She went on. “He suspected I was disloyal, and he knew for a fact you hated his guts, so he decided he'd take us both down in one fell swoop. Dig up dirt on you, then give me all of it except the parts that matter. If I manage to make it work anyway, he's rid of you and I'm bound to him via guilt. And if not, then he extorts you himself and forces you to let me take the blame. Either way leads to victory." 

Abernathy’s face finally betrayed a hint of emotion. She seemed as though she was slightly amused. "I used to think he lacked nuance."  

From that brief concession, V understood that Abernathy respected Jenkins more for having bested her than she did V for not having tried. In her place, she'd have felt exactly the same way. That was how she knew she had just one chance left to convince her she was siding with the wrong person. She gave Abernathy some honest advice. "If you let him get away with this, you'll never be free. Whatever it is you've done, you're better off just admitting to it. Get ahead of the story. Focus on spin control. Don’t let him hold this over you, or he'll own you forever."

"'Forever' is a tricky word, V. What goes up always comes down eventually." Abernathy gestured a rising and falling motion with her hand. "Assuming your little theory were true, I'd already have contingencies in place to erode the impact of any supposed blackmail. The longer Arthur waited to reveal his intel, the more he'd find his leverage shrinking in his hands until it was nothing. All I would need would be time."

V had the uncanny sensation that she was listening to a recording of herself. She held back a smile. Abernathy was so clever. Jenkins was greedy. It was one of his biggest weaknesses as an opponent. She’d first noticed it years ago. He didn’t just want to beat you; he wanted to beat you by as large a margin as possible. It often led him to postpone a win and allow his enemy a chance to recuperate.  

“I see,” V responded, with a slight hesitation that hinted that she didn’t. Then, cautiously, as if holding back her curiosity, “And what if you didn't have time?”

“Arthur’s greedy,” Abernathy said, unknowingly explaining V’s earlier thoughts to her. “Were he to find himself in a position like the one you outlined, he’d want to see how much he could milk out of me before he pulled the trigger.” 

“He could be spooked into firing prematurely,” V suggested. It was true. Jenkins was greedy, but also impulsive. The right surge of emotion could push him into an earlier strike.  

“He could,” Abernathy admitted, “but do you really think you'll have that chance?”

V let her face fall into an image of dashed hopes. “So what happens to me now?”

"I suppose you know what 'firing' means in your case? Considering your level of access to Arasaka intel.”

"Of course I do.” She said it defensively, like someone who was trying to compensate for the fact that she’d been beaten. 

Abernathy had an amused look on her face again. She leaned forward slightly. "I wonder… are you afraid?"

Was that a spark of pleasure she spotted in Abernathy? Interesting. Sadism had not been on her preconceived list of Abernathy’s traits. That could be a useful discovery. She decided to test how much of a difference it made to her. She jutted out her chin defiantly. "No one with a healthy fear of death makes it as far as I have."

"Hmm." The spark went out. Abernathy leaned back in her chair again. "Easy not to fear death when it feels like a theoretical. You might find that changes when the moment comes."

V stayed silent, projecting a sullen indifference.   

"Well, V, I think you've given me everything I need,” Abernathy concluded. “You'll hear our final decision by tomorrow morning.” She stood. “Have a lovely evening." 

She exited, leaving V alone in the nearly empty room.

So she was meant to spend the night here. That didn’t surprise her. It was a common interrogation tactic. Lack of sleep weakened the defenses of even the most vigilant of people. Someday, V thought, when Arasaka finally perfected the digital afterlife, she'd be the first in line to toss away the limitations of the flesh. Well, maybe second in line. She was willing to concede that Adam Smasher might beat her there. 

V crossed her arms on the surface of the table and laid her head on top of them as a makeshift pillow. Nothing to do now but wait for Jackie. Surely he’d understood what she expected him to do. It was time for him to hold up his end of their original deal. 

Jackie’s very own pacto con el diablo, she thought, smiling fondly. For all his moralist talk, when shit hit the fan, Jackie always did the smart thing in the end. If he didn't, she could never have tolerated him long enough for their arrangement to bear fruit, nevermind bloom into a genuine friendship. 

Strange to think the moment had finally arrived, though. It seemed so long ago that they'd come to terms. She readjusted her position and let her mind wander back to that day.

[breezypunk]

JV.

[fereldanwench]

🔴 au: corporate loyalty | prologue

Valerie: A datashard? Arthur: A proof of my trust. It's what I've collected over the past weeks. Biometrics, Trauma Team card, names of her closest associates--driver, chief of security, lover, lover's husband. Everything. Use it. And make sure Abernathy won't be a problem anymore. Valerie: And if I refuse?

→ full photostory under the cut for length