Ghost in the City: Cyberpunk Gamer SI

[TheHoneyPot]

I really should have just killed someone last night, at least if I had a level up, I'd have something to ponder while we waited.

Click to shrink...

yeah the producer

 

[Rin_Morita]

More Motoko shenanigans are required. I do wonder if she played Warframe before getting yeeted into Cyberpunk.

Could introduce Warframe music to Cyberpunk. If nothing else, the aesthetic would probably catch on really quick considering a lot of the stuff is Japanese in style.

Nikanas, the Edo armor plates (though I prefer the Prime stuff), and a number of things like the Shawzin. Heh. Gamer Motoko making games.

 

[Тенши]

So... How many scav will die this time?

 

[MC2]

So... How many scav will die this time?

Click to shrink...

The amount is going to be both prodigious and woefully insufficient at the same time, as usual.

 

[Тенши]

By the way, I'm interested in one thing. Educational braindances are completely canon. Why didn't Motoko even think of doing this to enhance the skill and survival of her friends? A little refinement (a little for Toko, for the rest it's probably years of work) and you'll get an extremely exciting virtual reality, which over time increases in complexity and requires very real skills to solve the tasks set in it. Starting literally from children's steps, gradually and imperceptibly increasing the difficulty, they will be able to master many useful skills, and develop reflexes for a variety of combat situations, in relative safety. Especially if the combat experience is almost completely conveyed. Pain is a damn good teacher. Unless, of course, they explain to you exactly what you're doing wrong.

 

[OneFallLeaf]

By the way, I'm interested in one thing. Educational braindances are completely canon. Why didn't Motoko even think of doing this to enhance the skill and survival of her friends? A little refinement (a little for Toko, for the rest it's probably years of work) and you'll get an extremely exciting virtual reality, which over time increases in complexity and requires very real skills to solve the tasks set in it. Starting literally from children's steps, gradually and imperceptibly increasing the difficulty, they will be able to master many useful skills, and develop reflexes for a variety of combat situations, in relative safety. Especially if the combat experience is almost completely conveyed. Pain is a damn good teacher. Unless, of course, they explain to you exactly what you're doing wrong.

Click to shrink...

I can recall Toko using them herself for netrunning at the very beginning, I think she also provided some to Malcolm at one point? But there's nothing stopping them from getting them themselves, nor this having happened offscreen

 

[UndeadLord22]

Title: Onyro and Oni song (Unintentionally)

Motoko makes a theme song for the two of them (unknowingly)

AN: Reposting from SpaceBattles. For posterity ofc. Kinda ass for only 1 site to know about this kind of snippet/omake.

---

The dim glow of Motoko's laptop screen was the only real light on in their new flat… Or it was technically growing old as time passes now. The faint hum of the city filtered through the metal slats over the window—distant sirens, the low rumble of AVs overhead, the occasional bark of a street vendor—but inside, it was quiet. Just her, the soft clicks of keys, and the rhythmic tap of her fingers against the worn keys as she tweaked yet another piece of daemon code.

She leaned back in the creaky chair, stretching her arms overhead, feeling the familiar pull of muscles that were finally starting to feel like her own again after all the grinding.

'Breach Protocol subroutines... still clunky. Need to optimize the handshake sequence.'

Her eyes drifted over the lines of code, half-lost in the flow, when something sparked.

Not a bug fix. Not an efficiency gain.

A melody.

It hit her like a rogue quickhack—sharp, unbidden, insistent. A driving beat, heavy synths layered under a haunting vocal line, something fierce and mournful all at once. Words started forming in her head, fragmented at first, then locking together like perfectly slotted chrome.

Bang bang... they shot them down...

She blinked, fingers freezing over the keys. Where the hell had that come from? She hadn't been listening to anything like it lately. No radio, no shards. Just... inspiration. Pure, stupid inspiration.

That was what she first thought, but there was a narrowly annoying piece of mind that was in the back of her head that she was certain she had heard that somewhere… In her first life…

But no dice.

Motoko exhaled slowly, saving her code with a quick keystroke before opening a fresh audio editor shard. Her Rockerboy skill might still be low-level, but she'd messed around enough with beats and vocal synths to know her way around a track. Thumbs flew across the touchpad as she laid down the backbone—a pounding electronic rhythm, distorted guitars that sounded like chainsaws in the rain, and a vocal filter that made her voice echo like it was coming from the other side of a grave.

The lyrics poured out.

Bang bang, two legends, one legacy...

Surrounded by enemies...

Go ahead and cry... you're all about to die...

She layered in more. Battle cries turned into choruses. A sense of unbreakable bond against impossible odds. Blood, grime, laughter in the face of death. It felt... personal. Like it had been waiting inside her all along.

Combined as one, you'd wonder why their enemies would even try...

They didn't get to say goodbye... they only had the time to die...

By the time she hit export, the track was done. Rough, raw, but done. She played it back once, quietly, headphones on. The bass thumped through her skull, the words hitting harder than she'd expected.

The track felt... inevitable. Raw edges, no polish, but it fit. Two individuals clawing their way up the chaos and endless grind that is Night City together. The song wasn't about romance or heartbreak like the old covers she'd heard. Unspoken loyalty. Shared vengeance. The kind of bond that didn't need words because it was written in chrome and scars.

Motoko pulled her headphones off, exhaling slowly. The waveform stared back at her, peaks like gunshots.

The front door hissed open.

Jun stepped in, shaking rain off his jacket, Oni mask clipped to his belt like always. He sniffed the air—probably smelling the instant ramen she'd half-eaten earlier—then spotted her at the table.

"Still fiddling with that daemon?" he asked, dropping his keys with a clatter. "You look like you just flatlined something."

Motoko minimized the audio window too fast. "Just... experimenting."

His eyes narrowed playfully. Big brother radar pinging. "That's not code. That's audio." He beamed. "New song?"

"It's nothing. Rough draft. Trash."

Jun crossed the room in three strides, leaning over her shoulder. "Play it."

"No."

"Come on, Motoko. You've been humming weird shit for days. Let me hear what the my little troublemaker has been cooking."

She crossed her arms. "It's embarrassing. Drop it."

He didn't. Just stood there, patient, arms folded, that immovable Big Brother energy filling the room.

After a long, stubborn silence—and Jun refusing to blink—she groaned and hit play.

The song filled the apartment. Heavy bass thumped through the cheap speakers. The lyrics rolled out, fierce and unapologetic. Motoko kept her eyes on the table, cheeks heating under the neon glow.

Jun listened without moving. When the final "Bang bang... You're all about to die..." faded into reverb, silence settled.

He straightened slowly.

"That's... Good." he said quietly. "Really good."

Motoko shrugged, still not looking up. "It's just beats and words."

"No." He reached over, gently turning her chair so she had to face him. "That's us. Two legends. One legacy. The quick one and the tall one. Fighting back-to-back. The city tries to take us down, we just keep coming."

Her brain did the digital equivalent of a hard crash. Rebooting... Emotional subprocess stalled.

She stared at him, mouth open, words gone.

Jun's expression softened, the hard lines of his face easing into something rare—open fondness. "You didn't even realize, did you? You wrote our song. Onryo and Oni. Against everyone."

Motoko's throat clicked. "No it's not! But... I... it just came out like that. I wasn't thinking—"

He ruffled her hair, careful not to snag on the ports behind her ear. "Yeah. But it fits. Perfectly."

She ducked her head, hiding the stupid, warm flush creeping up her neck. Her voice came out small. "Shut up, Jun-Nii."

He laughed—low, real. "Make me another one sometime. This one's ours."

The apartment felt warmer, smaller in the best way. Just them.

Two souls. One legacy.

---

Gonna need more of them Motoko songs m8. Love seeing reactions. @Seras

And for anyone curious; its this:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsxAjuntB-M

 

[Seras]

"There, just perfecto! Just keep that look, no, don't touch your hair, it's falling perfectly, ruffled and teenage angsty! No no! No, talking you will shift your hair." She demanded from me, as I almost opened my mouth to ask what teenage angsty was supposed to look like.

Fucking weirdos, and that was coming from me!

Thankfully, even with the bright lights setup, my Kiroshi were more than capable of adjusting to the glare of camera flashes.

"Ugh, look at this, even with the picture and my work at it's best you are wearing such old chrome, worn! Do you never polish yourself?"

I pointedly only shifted my eyes to glare, because she was half a second away from telling me not to talk anyways.

"Ah yes you can learn, good." She teased. She was lucky I hadn't gone first. If I hadn't seen her treat everyone this way, I'd have introduced my fist to her face at some point.

Whatever, just a photo shoot. Just part of the contract, just something tedious and stupid and uncomfortable I had to do.

I had actually said no at first, but well…

Agreeing to be a Rockerboy meant I should get used to this sort of thing. It was fine, besides there were some advantages to all this.

"Okay you are done. Very good girl, yes?" The woman asked, in that thick accent that I was still trying to figure out what it was meant to be.

Probably entirely fake just to make herself stand out. I was in that sort of circle right now.

"Good." I grumbled, and rose up, adjusting myself. They'd absolutely coated my hair in some gunk to give them control, and already an assistant was rushing up to readjust my hair for another shoot I was sure.

I tapped my new jacket. Similar in style to my old one, but this one wasn't an off the shelf addition. It had actually been handed to me out of a box when I arrived today. The fact they'd taken my current jacket style and just… Having an expensive shiny new one made was kinda a flex.

Also it was comfy as fuck.

I was pointedly not thinking about how expensive it no doubt was, cause I wasn't going to just not roll around in blood and guts when in a gunfight because my jacket was expensive.

It would just have to deal with the stains of merc work, it would add realism to it or something, insert corpo buzz word here. Hiromi would know.

I looked over the others, Alice, Jared, and Klein had already started taking advantage of all the goodies MSM Records had provided. Most of their chrome had been adjusted, if not swapped out. The cheap garage band cyberware was now the expensive chrome of a made Rockerboy.

I was still sporting my normal stuff, but I was going to bring their catalogue to Vik, and ask for his advice. Hiromi had finally sort of convinced me that I should take advantage of the offer.

It's not like I hadn't already sold my soul to the devil, might as well get a benefit out of it. "You look like you're planning to run away." I glanced up, frowning a little at the well dressed man. He was wearing a suit sort of like what V wore, similar style. Black suit expensive, and chrome just hinted at, enough to show he had eddies to burn.

"Do I know you?"

"Not yet, but I'm Alex Angelopuoulos, just call me Alex." He said, offering a hand. I took it warily and he smiled. "Welcome to MSM, I've been hearing good things about you Miss Kusanagi."

"Okay?"

"Ah, my first impression isn't doing so well huh? Well I've been assigned to you as an assistant."

"I don't need an assistant."

"I understand, trust me, that's a fairly common reaction, but let me be clear, it's more that I'm a Rockerboy Wrangler." He chuckled at his own joke. "I'll be working with you, and of course Miss Mitsunashi. I'm simply here as a point of contact between MSM and yourself and Manager. Think of me as the one that is responsible for making sure you show up to the events, and handle any issues that arise."

"Isn't that just the manager's job?"

"Only unimportant managers, handling third stringers. We are MSM records, we only handle true talent."

I frowned at the man's confidence, since I smelled some nasty trap here, but I shrugged. "Talk to Hiromi, I don't care."

"Of course Motoko, can I call you Motoko?"

"Whatever dude."

"Excellent. I'll be helping you with anything you need, are you thirsty? Hungry? We can get a table at Dark Matter if you'd like? I hear Kala Tsui from Watson Whore will be there tonight!"

"The fuck would I care?" I grunted as I decided now was a good time to walk away from this conversation.

Of course the man followed.

"Not a fan then? I'll make sure to make a note about that. Still she won't be the only one. Or I could order something in for you? Bleu is the finest restaurant in Night City, we could bring in a sample platter from the restaurant, or get a reservation. A few pictures and an endorsement would cover that."

"I'm good, thanks." I said, walking out the doors of the studio and back out into the sunny Night City afternoon light. I took a minute to break, it was almost suffocating being surrounded by so many people all of them treating me more like an object than a person. I ran a hand through my still styled hair.

Whatever.

"I was also supposed to talk to you about a Militech Showroom visit?" He spoke then, and I actually stopped. I turned to look at the man again, who was just a little too smug.

"Well?"

"We reached out to Militech, and set it up. There is some discussion about those Condors of yours."

"What about them? I didn't agree to swap my chrome."

"Not yet you haven't, and I understand, you've had that chrome for a while, solid work, but Militech is very interested in a sponsorship deal, their new Eagle Cyberarms. I have the data here." He started sending me a file and I really did consider uploading something in reverse, but Instead just blocked the transfer, checked the file, and other than some corpo tracking shit, which I tore apart, I took the file and checked it out.

The image in my eye was of a new Cyberarm. They were of the more expensive Militech Eagle Cyberarms. The Condors, much more expensive and fancy brother.

If the Condor were excellent in their durability for standard troops, the Eagle was the fancy special forces version.

I looked them over. They were… Good, honestly. Not quite as armored as my Condors, but better flexibility and the sensitivity settings were way better. The sense of touch and dexterity was crazy high if the numbers were accurate.

Not even touching on the modifications pace.

These were next gen, easily modifiable for what was needed, more than enough space for the common cyber arm weapon augments. Even used a core of the Orbital Crystal to make the frame twice as durable at half the weight.

At least according to the blurb.

It was… Honestly, kinda tempting. They certainly looked good, and I liked the PSI grip strength, I could do some awesome movements with that much grip strength…

I looked up, pushing the files away to see the man. Alex, standing there with that smug little look on his face.

He was definitely that type. A devil offering goodies, but why?

Whatever. It didn't matter, I'd let Hiromi deal with this, and if it got annoying, well…

A head in a box tended to send messages. That was probably not too over the top, killing overly annoying 'assistants' was probably like…Normal?

No, probably not, whatever.

"I'll think about it."

"Don't think too long! The Showroom is holding an opening next week on Thursday, we'll need confirmation at least two days before that so they can get everything they need."

"Tuesday got it." I waved him off as I turned and walked away. My Kusanagi was waiting for me in the secure carpark and frankly a nice drive to get away from all this sounded nice-

"Do you want me to call up a car for you? We have a few Rayfields in the carpark, if you want to get behind the wheel of something nice."

"My buddy has a Caliburn, I've driven it plenty." Well technically I had only done a few around the streets, Malcolm was a baby about his baby, but still. I preferred my Quadra anyways.

I made it to the Kusanagi and started her up, relaxing a little as her rumble filled the air.

"Ah, more of a motorcycle gal, huh? Well you know Yaiba could always be reached out to, there is a rumor they are producing something new."

"That's great. Bye." I throttled up and took off, leaving the man in my dust, and the entire situation with it. As I managed to get on the main streets after flashing my credentials at the security stop I took a moment to really give her some throttle, feeling the wind in my hair and finally being free.

Only… My stupid hair felt weird with all the shit in it. So even as the wind flowed around me, it felt almost like I'd already been changed.

Stupid comfy jacket. It was probably made with evil too.

—--

"So after that I called Hiromi, she told me it's a fairly common scam, well she called it a corporate playbook. They try to show an 'assistant' that can do things my old manager can't. Set up deals, brand stuff, expensive food and all that." I complained as I stared up at the ceiling.

The faint noises of whatever crappy show Jun was watching filled the living room, but I'd pointedly turned the volume down when I flopped on the couch so Jun would stop watching such terrible shows and stuff. That's definitely why.

"I like expensive food."

"Shut up Jun, I'm telling you about the evil corpo plots, it's not something you are supposed to want." Then I looked at him firmly. "Besides, you only want XXL Burritos."

"Well yeah. The XXL is the expensive brand version. I don't eat XL Burritos Motoko." He responded as if I was stupid.

"I don't… Jun they would try to make you eat like XXXL Burritos or something."

"Do… Do they make those? Is there a triple XL Burrito? Why didn't I know about this?"

"God dammit Jun, stop joking around." I grumbled at him, and for a moment I wasn't sure if he was actually joking at all, as he had a look on his face like he was considering it before shifting into a smirk at me. "Idiot."

"Heh. XXXL Burritos. That's funny."

"I'm serious!"

"I know, I know. Go on, tell me about your crazy day."

"That's most of it. He's going to be sickeningly helpful until I either kill him, or I switch from Hiromi to him as my manager, that's the sort of plan."

"But Hiromi knows about it, and you're good."

"I know about it, sure, but they might cause issues for Hiromi, if they think it'll make me switch."

"Won't they not do that, now that you know?"

"I don't think they care very much… But if they mess with Hiromi-"

"Head in box?"

"Head in box."I agreed. Jun had taken my idea in stride and even agreed it was a good idea. I don't think that actually meant it was a good idea, but I was willing to accept my brother's stupid advice if it was something I wanted to do.

I'd literally gotten texts from 'Alex' after I took off.

The guy was lucky I didn't upload a virus that made his Agent scream at him constantly or something.

Maybe later.

"I think…"

"What?" I said instantly a little defensive as Jun had sounded like he was about to start critizing me.

I take criticism super well Jun, but you better not be able to tell me I'm wrong!

I think he understood my innocent and peaceful look that I shot him through narrowed eyes as he thought about it then seemed to just shrug.

"I think you take things personally a bit too much. You should just enjoy the benefits of what you have going, you earned it."

"I enjoy things just fine, and I don't take things personally! You moron!"

"Uh-uh." He said flatly. "Listen Motoko… You're stressed out, like more than you should be. You like music, so make music. You like food, so eat good food, you like chrome, so get some new chrome. Who cares where it comes from? If some chrome falls off the back of a truck, or you find it in the trash, you don't complain about it, you go and chip it-"

"Jun please tell me you didn't chip in literal garbage chrome?"

"What? No, of course not, I had my TC contacts… You though?" He uttered, teasingly and I sent him a look.

"I've never chipped in garbage Jun."

"Mhmm. Sure." He said slyly, and I felt my eyes narrow even more.

"I never chipped in Garbage Jun. Vik is the best, and he doesn't get his stuff out of the trash."

"I never said anything about Vik, but I do remember a few years back my little sister coming into the house carrying a thrown out Cybermatrix Holo Tattoo."

"I did not!"

"In a bucket."

"No!" I gasped horrified.

"Oh yeah. You found it thrown out behind Ryders clinic."

"Oh god I'm going to be sick."

"Yep. Got it chipped in, I mean sure you cleaned it for days, and eventually Ryder chipped it for you. Cost me a pretty penny for the work, but you wanted it."

"I don't want to live anymore." I whispered as Jun took far too much pleasure in telling me what kind of Goblin Motoko Kusanagi had been.

"I don't want to ask, but I think I have to… If Ryder threw it out, then why did he chip it, if it didn't work then why throw it away?"

"Oh, it worked, but it was disgusting. Apparently some gonk had gotten himself killed and just rotted away, someone klepped it from the corpse and tried to sell it to Ryder."

"Oh no. No no no!" I grabbed the couch pillows and threw them up to my ears. I didn't want to hear this!

"Yep. So that's how you got your light Tat. Well you don't have it anymore."

"I'm filthy. Unclean." I whispered horrified, and Jun just laughed.

—--

I was definitely not hiding in my room doing some programming trying my best to forget any previous conversation, when I got a surprise call.

*Wakako. Didn't expect to hear from you.*

*I have a job that needs done. Now. I'll pay extra if you will take it.*

*Okay I'm suddenly very interested.*

*Hmph. Don't be. I need a gun recovered from a safe. It's a murder weapon and must be removed before the cops arrive and search the residence.*
I was already up, an excuse to get out and do something? I was there.

*Send me the address, any other details I need to know?*

*The client is a Tyger Claw, he got arrested for killing his wife. He did it. I've been asked to make sure the evidence disappears. So now you get paid extra to do it in a rush.*

*Fair enough.* Whispered, that was… Kinda dark for a gig. I loaded up, and was out the door, a part of me was asking if I wanted to do this, sounds like the guy deserved some justice.

The other part reminded me I was a merc that killed people, sometimes people that didn't deserve it, for money.

A message popped up from Wakako with the address and info.

"Motoko?"

"Got a gig from Wakako! Should be an in and out, no fighting, I'll be back in an hour!" I called out as I rushed out. Jun making an accepting noise from the couch.

Okay time to get to work. The place wasn't far, taking the Quadra I headed out onto the streets and towards the Sakura Market. It wasn't right next door to the old apartment, but it was fairly close.

I ended up needing to drive right past the apartment complex at first.

There were NCPD cars out front.

Suboptimal. Very not good. Shit was fucked.

Parking a bit away I headed over and in through the complex's back door, which didn't resist me for more than a moment.

The guy wasn't a top level executive, he only had a fourth floor apartment, and if the cops were already here, shit was not good.

In fact it was insane that the NCPD would be here this quick.

Maybe it was just for another incident. Maybe someone got into a fight, or a shooting or something, or-I had gotten into the elevator and was on the fourth floor.

And the cops were there.

Or maybe the cops were here for the client.

I reached over and hit the 5 on the elevator playing up looking annoyed before relaxing as the doors closed.

Okay. Time to do this.

The door opened, and I moved. The hallway was empty, but I just needed window access. I knocked on the first door and when I heard movement ducked back around the hallway. Not my entrance point.

Once the poor homeowner cursed me out and closed the door, I went to the next apartment. Then the third. That no one responded, so I just… Opened the door. The door that was open, that totally wasn't locked, that I totally didn't break into.

Moving straight through it I hit the outer patio the apartment had and just looked down. Let's see it was… Five down the hallway. I flipped over the edge, landing silently on the next rows of patios and jumped snuck across until I was able to peak into the apartment.

Cops were inside.

Fuck.

Luckily they were in the living room checking the place, and the safe was hidden in the bedroom, now I just needed a way inside. The only patio entrance went into the living room, so that was a no go. There was a window, but…

I sighed. Leaping up and then across the upper patio, and then back down so I couldn't be seen through the large apartment doors. The bedroom window was fairly small, and it had armored shutters, which made noise to open, so I was going to have to distract the cops…

I peaked over and after a moment found the TV.

Hacking into the programming it only took a few seconds for me to find the volume control that the remote control would access.

Dialing it all the way up, I switched the channel to something more loud, and just settled in to wait for a minute. Come on, just go close to the remote. I grumbled internally watching the cops wander around flipping the couch cushions or looking around.

Then it happened. One of them reached up and was searching through the TV's internals. Right through the holoads that were playing.

"-UCK ME HARDER!" The scream from what I assumed was Watson Whore echoed loudly enough even I flinched, but it gave me a chance, as they were all deafened, I activated the shutters, and started getting the bedroom window fully open so I could slip through.

I hope it was Watson Whore, because that show was awful, and if I had to deal with copy cats, trying the same raunchy terrible ideas that Jun would inevitably watch cause his taste was shit. I'd probably break the TV.

Thinking all that I leveraged myself through the window, flipped in, and landed quietly, before hurrying and hiding behind the desk that was in the corner. As the noise of the TV cut off… Quiet.

Good.

I reached over for the safe, hidden under the desk pulling up the carpet that thankfully was already cut hiding the entire thing. Quickly tapping in the code, I waited a second.

Then the fucking safe beeped.

Loudly. As it opened.

My Sandy activated, as I pulled it open, found the Unity inside. Grabbed it and took off. My boots were just passing through the window in a full dive as I heard the door open. No time to stop, they would check the window.

I reached out, grabbed the patio bars, and used them to angle and control my descent. Doing it one handed was a pain in the ass, but I managed, jumping down a floor at a time, and then rolling away when I hit the ground floor.

I walked casually once I was up, and I just managed to appear normal when I heard a shout from above from the officers.

Gig complete…Mostly.

Fucking hell Wakako. You better pay extra for this shit.

 

[Oglymogly]

"Do… Do they make those? Is there a triple XL Burrito? Why didn't I know about this?"

Click to shrink...

I laughed for a solid minute at that. They was gold.

You really do a great job showing off family interactions, this reminds me of me and my bros hanging out.

 

[NitroNorm5688]

Yes! another chapter to fuel my need for good Cyberpunk!

Thank you, thank you.

Also, I feel Motoko's pain. Just in the last year I had some stuff that I needed to replace. Been with me forever, and I can't find a replacement online or anywhere. It's like loosing a part of yourself.

On the other hand, those arms were originally given to her by some Wrath, and she had some shoulder work done, right? This fic is long and I don't have a list of everything she's had done. At this point she's replaced everything at least once, cyberdeck, eyes, shoulders, smart link. Seems like she's holding onto the trauma and being difficult because someone's trying to impose the change from the outside and keeps on pushing. If a new set of arms was just given to her she'd probably leave them in her room for a week before deciding to upgrade.

If it was me I'd get my head armored to survive one or two shots for the Golden BB.

I vote that she replace the arms. But don't make them lighter, that'll throw off your balance, and you need the weight when you cut something to have some force behind your sword.

You can always have the arms made to look worn, with old rivets and machine marks. Hehe. Machine welds for scars and tattoos.

 

[GasperVladi0]

Damn, literal last minute gig. Rude as fuck Wakako. Jun teasing more Makoto is also gold, I'd also be mortified. Thanks for the chappy Seras!

 

[Winged One]

Damn, literal last minute gig. Rude as fuck Wakako.

Click to shrink...

Tbf, that seems to be either the client's fault or that one clean cop in all of Night City (I forget his name, he was a love interest for V after getting fired for being clean) was on the case.

 

[GasperVladi0]

Tbf, that seems to be either the client's fault or that one clean cop in all of Night City (I forget his name, he was a love interest for V after getting fired for being clean) was on the case.

Click to shrink...

River Ward, yeah. Never actually did his route because Judy and Panam had me in vice. And yeah, probably clients fault.

 

[Gaffhook]

Yes! another chapter to fuel my need for good Cyberpunk!

Thank you, thank you.

Also, I feel Motoko's pain. Just in the last year I had some stuff that I needed to replace. Been with me forever, and I can't find a replacement online or anywhere. It's like loosing a part of yourself.

On the other hand, those arms were originally given to her by some Wrath, and she had some shoulder work done, right? This fic is long and I don't have a list of everything she's had done. At this point she's replaced everything at least once, cyberdeck, eyes, shoulders, smart link. Seems like she's holding onto the trauma and being difficult because someone's trying to impose the change from the outside and keeps on pushing. If a new set of arms was just given to her she'd probably leave them in her room for a week before deciding to upgrade.

Click to shrink...

The Maelstrom gave her gorilla arms. Her condors are a replacment from the tigers.

 

[MARch Of Time]

There were NCPD cars out front.

Suboptimal. Very not good. Shit was fucked.

Click to shrink...

It says a lot about Wakako's confidence in Motoko as an infiltrator and stealth operator, when essentially every other merc on her speed-dial wouldn't bother with this gig, couldn't make in time anyway, or as soon as they got there and saw NCPD already on-scene would have called the gig scratched and fucked from the start, or even went in guns blazing and caused Wakako even greater headache and mess to clean up.

nin-nin Motoko, the hobbyist Kensei and enthusiastic scav-killing murderblender, who also dabbles in a Rockerboy career, was bored enough and greedy enough to take a something-to-do-for-extra-pay gig, and was perhaps the only person Wakako could have called and relied upon on short notice to do this.

And so she did, she called Motoko first, and Motoko handled a fucked mission and snatched gig-completion from the jaws of defeat. And Wakako wouldn't have been able to close the gig without her. Considering everything Else(TM) Wakako has learned about Motoko, and how she saw Motoko-the-streetrat back at the start... as well as being an Afterlife-tier Solo operator, well, it's serious Rep circulating in the undercurrents, almost certainly.

Slowly earning a class of consideration as Wakako's Mr. Wolf, her Big Gun, her cleaner who gets called in when shit's fucked. Like when 6th Street was about to try a bit of War and she stared their General down, or when she was willing to assassinate anyone needed for Wakako's granddaughter, or when she assassinated a Tyger higher up without ever being detected and none the wiser

It's great background storytelling, and of course Motoko is too busy number-go-up living in her own world to really care or notice unless prodded.

 

[Vasstago]

I don't remember ever reading about it, but what happens with the points she expend on the cyberware if she replace it with another? I don't think that she has changed anything once she fully acclimatized or expend points on it.

 

[Seras]

I don't remember ever reading about it, but what happens with the points she expend on the cyberware if she replace it with another? I don't think that she has changed anything once she fully acclimatized or expend points on it.

Click to shrink...

Points either go to the new cyberware, or if the new cyberware needs less adaptation, they points are refunded.

 

[some one]

That state of the art next gen milititech set of cyberarms sounds neat on paper but because its a sponsorship deal it likely comes with strings attached like being out right forbidden from voiding the warranty (not that they give those anymore)through specific actions like flashing the bloated spyware infested militech OS it will come with and no turning off the analytics..ect all in the sponsorship contract

Better to just use the Rocker girl job's fast stacks of cash to buy her cyberware outright and call it a day , I am sure legitimate purchase comes with a crappy end user license agreement likely enforced by corpo death squads and legal registration but those can be bypassed through the most powerful super power in the setting being rich

She can just bribe the corpo sales rep to forget about those steps

 

[BoML]

Nice, a new chapter of Motoko goodness. After two days with no computer thanks to how expensive electricity is atm, this was a great discovery.

And, yeah...I knew her going official with MSM was going to up her stress levels. Hopefully she finds a way into a happy medium where she's "reasonably" happy with her choice...with less heads in a box for the corpos.

At least the Showroom gig is still on track, so there's that payoff.

...damn, Jun, way to go for the jugular with that embarrassing memory.

And a surprise gig from Wakako to brighten up a shit situation in Motoko's life, but...yeah, Motoko wasn't really having fun with this one. She succeeded, but damn, that was a close one.

Great chapter as always, Seras.

 

[Hell's Razer]

Starting up, a correction @Seras:

Not yet, but I'm Alex Angelopuoulos,

Click to shrink...

This should be "Angelopoulos", you have an extra "u" in there.

Secondly, excellent characterisation with him there. I am really looking forward to Motoko delivering his head in a box.
Given I generally do not have such visceral reactions with story characters and yet from the moment he started speaking I was "oh god please Motoko just shoot him and put him out of our misery, please", I feel his was very on point.
So well done!

 

[Tukata]

I kind of want some scav to try and mug her while she is out and about when that MSM guy sends her a text. She then sends him a video of her brutally killing the scav to see if he gets the point. Or send him the head in a box with a note that it could be his head in the next box.

 

[Despacitoleo]

Goated chapter amazing

And GAWDAMM those gonk headed fucktards are gonna get brutally murdered in such a way that they wont be able to identify there corpses if they keep pushing Motorola corolla

 

[Winged One]

Also, Wakako knows for a fact that Motoko will admit when she's unable to complete a gig and pull out without fucking things up worse. She might have been expecting to say "I put my best thief on this, and she said it was too late to do it."

 

[zecorezecron]

I kind of want some scav to try and mug her while she is out and about when that MSM guy sends her a text. She then sends him a video of her brutally killing the scav to see if he gets the point. Or send him the head in a box with a note that it could be his head in the next box.

Click to shrink...

It is odd how everyone seems totally unaware that she is a serial killer who doesn't flirt with psyberpsycosis so much as she slaps it on the ass.

It's probably because she's smol.

 

[Vanbers]

she is a serial killer who doesn't flirt with psyberpsycosis so much as she slaps it on the ass.

Click to shrink...

Gonk: *Slaps ass*
Gonk: "This baby can hold so much cyberpsychosis-"
Gonk: *Gets stabbed*

Malcolm: "He's right. I mean, he's outta line, but he's right."

 

[Seras]

"Hmm."

"Don't hum at me." I grumbled at Wakako. "I got the gun out of the place while the police were actively raiding it."

"You were supposed to not be seen."

"I wasn't."

"They know someone broke in."

"Yeah and the guys hidden safe beeped when it was open. Tell your client if he wants to install a safe make sure it's a quiet model."

"Hmm."

I sent Wakako a glare and she puffed on her cigarette before nodding. "It was the best that could be done. I wasn't expecting the police response so quickly."

"Yeah no kidding. They were inside the apartment. I thought you said I'd have some time."

"I did. There was information that was not given to me, that changed the protocol."

"Yeah?"

"The woman that was killed had police connections. Likely an undercover agent. Hence the fast response."

"Shit. So your guy married a cop?"

"Probably." Wakako replied, exhaling some smoke which I leaned away from. Ew. "Baby."

"Hey! I plan on replacing my lungs eventually, but that doesn't mean I want that shit near me. It smells."

"Humph!"

"Humph!" I responded right back as I got up and made a face at Wakako as I walked out.

She sent me a flat look, as I backed out through her beaded door.

Jeeze. What a mess, but at the same time.

I felt myself grinning a bit. It had been really fun.

Infiltration really was my favorite type of gig. As I walked through Jig-Jig street back out to the main road. Slipping into the Quadra that I had left parked, I pulled out into Night City traffic.

I had another stupid band meeting tonight. Considering MSM wanted to start publishing Stand Alone Complex as soon as possible every night was taken up by time in the recording studio, or some sort of band thing. Modeling pictures, and whatever. There was even a conversation that had drifted past me that if our first single did well on the MSM production then we'd have a talk show segment.

Me.

On TV.

I was fairly confident I'd end up shooting someone at this rate. Probably on live TV. Considering I would need to blow off some steam, I turned back into Japantown towards the gun range I liked.

I sent a message out to my chooms if they wanted to join me for shooting, but only got negatives in response, which wasn't a surprise.

Parking, I took out the Tactician Shotgun from the trunk and walked inside. I got some side eyes from the owner behind his bulletproof glass, but when I flashed him the eddies he waved me through and even sent some shells over for me.

It's like the guy knew me or something!

Laughing as I set up and looked over the range. I needed this. Just some good old fashioned grinding of a stat. No chooms to get distracted by, just me, and repeating an action a thousand times to try and make myself just that little bit better.

Time to Grind Annihilation. It was only level 5 after all! Flicking a set of shells into my fingers I quickly loaded the shotgun working on the habit as frankly quick loading a shotgun was a bit different from other weapons, and I should practice it to make sure I wasn't fumbling anything.

Then I brought the shotgun to my shoulder and activated the range.

I breathed in.

And pulled the trigger, I rocked with the bang, pumped the shotgun recentered fired again. Then again. Eight rounds were shot, and eight targets blinked as they registered shots.

I pulled the shotgun away, swiped more shells in my other hand's fingers and slid round after round into the chamber.

A quick pump and I started firing again. Again and again. I let myself fall into the rhythm. Just burning time and stress by following the motions. Each trigger pull sending buckshot into holographic targets. Each little number giving me just a little endorphin rush.

Or at least something like that. It was fun to just hit the targets and see the numbers go up.

But not nearly as much when I got a little alert noise. 100 Annihilation XP, just one more step towards level 6.

I smiled and continued firing, still had half a box left after all!

Fire, pump, reload. Fire pump reload.

Barrel flash after barrel flash.

—--

*Flash*

"Thank you for the picture!" The photographer said bowing politely as she moved on. I actually smiled for that one, she had been much nicer than some of the others that just ran around snapping pictures without a word.

It was lucky my Kiroshi didn't get glare because I'd be blind at this point if not for them.

"Come on Motoko, smile wider and wave. This is our party!" Klein called out, waving at the men and women that walked by.

MSM had decided to throw a party for us, although I had a feeling the party would have happened regardless, we were just an excuse.

Up at the top of one of the skyscrapers in Night City where many of the rich and famous gathered to party.

I'm pretty sure that was the woman that played the titular Watson Whore. Seriously, that show kept coming up with the new season out. It's like it was everywhere… It probably was. I know Jun said it was popular.

I ignored Klein's words and just fell back into the table.

Today was a launch party. MSM had decided which of the singles we'd drop first, and Pretender had been it.

We were technically here just to party, but it was always more than that. We'd be up on stage before the night ended to play the song, and show off, to draw some hype among the rich. Investment strategy is what Alex had described it as.

I just called it lame, but whatever.

"You should just get something to drink and loosen up." Alice offered, and I scoffed.

"I don't drink."

"You can get some food then." She offered, annoyed at me, and I blinked.

Food actually did sound kinda good.

Was there a menu?

No. There was not a menu. But waiters were everywhere, and I waved at one of them that hurried over.

"What food do you guys serve?"

"I'll send you the Menu, but the house special tonight is a Beef Wellington. Real cloned beef!"

I blinked because… That actually sounded fucking amazing. I'd never really had fancy Beef Wellington before, but just real meat sounded good.

I got the blip of the menu offering, and after checking it out, and removing some adware from the program I pulled it open.

Oh… It all looked good. Then I remembered that the tab was on MSM tonight.

"I'll take that, and this sushi platter, and let me get the real baked Potato as well."

"Of course!" The waiter agreed and disappeared.

Real food! Hey there was a benefit to all this after all!

With that distraction over I focused once more on what was going on around the club. People sitting in different booths, most of them seemingly enjoying more than just drinks. It was a den of debauchery and while we were a bit of a showpiece today, it was a nearly lusterless one. Barely anyone outside of the media people going around with cameras even seemed to care.

We were just a minor spectacle among the debauchery. Not that Klein, Alice, and Jared seemed to understand that. The three of them were partying like this was the big time.

We hadn't even technically had our big time debut.

I was about to fall into another pit of bitter irritation at this still being rather un fun all things told when something was placed in front of me, and the scent hit me.

"Oh." I whispered looking over the steaming pile of pasty, real pasty, and beef that was already cut and steaming.

A real potato was put next to it.

Real. Food.

My hand instantly grabbed the knife and fork, twirling the knife around for a moment before bringing it down and cutting a piece free, and that went right into my face.

Heaven!

Aaaaah! So good! Yummy yummy meat! None of the preservative taste of Scop. This was real food that could actually go bad.

As I was chewing, Alex walked over and slid into the booth, his slicked back hair and manufactured smile put me off guard.

"It's almost time, the release of the single on the radio stations is in five minutes. We're going to have you play a surprise run at the same time. This is it, while it might not seem like it if you can impress the people in this room, you are guaranteed stardom.

I chewed my beef.

I didn't want to walk away from the beef.

Oh! Oh! The Sushi platter! It was dropped off in front of Alex, and he reached out to take one when suddenly my knife was embedded into the table in front of him.

I chewed slowly, staring at him with absolute murder.

My sushi.

He seemed to actually have two brain cells and he slowly withdrew his hand. "My Apologies, I thought that was for the table."

"Mine." I mumbled around the beef I was chewing and then went back to eating.

"Well all of you are needed backstage, to get this show on the road.

I frowned as I stared at hot real food.

Fine. Whatever. I'd come back.

I reached over and klepped the other plates on the table and put them over the food to try and keep them hot.

"Yeah let's go." I said then dunked four sushi rolls into my mouth.

Show time.

—--

"Keep you in the dark, you know they all pretend." I crooned, the lights in the club shifting to focus on us, just as an announcer finished introducing us. There was mostly disinterest among the rich. That was fine.

I, unlike everyone else, didn't care if they liked it.

No, I only had one interest, an interest that made the heat in my voice all the harsher as I put my all into the song.

YOU WERE THE REASON I WASN'T EATING GOOD FOOD!

"You're the Pretender! What if I say I will never surrender!?" I roared, before flipping to the guitar and making the guitar they had set up for the gig sing, chrome fingers making every string scream and sigh as the song progressed.

"Yeah, who are you? Yeah, who are yoooou!?" I yelled, letting my voice vibrate just right to get the tone to carry through the entire hall, with the vocal fry.

I whipped off the guitar, and walked away as if I didn't care about them. Because I didn't.

But why was there actual clapping? They did realize the song was literally about people like them right?

I let it go, even as the rest of the band roared and paraded around. Alice called out that they were Stand Alone Complex. She cheered and played up the crowd.

I made a bit of a commotion by just jumping the stage, and flopping back into the booth to finish my meal.

Sigh. It wasn't quite as good as it had cooled a little.

I still ate that shit though.

—--

"Hey, like that was a nova song." I was chowing down on a second course. Real vegetables. My body craved it! When the voice called out over the table.

"Holy shit." Klein whispered looking up at the beautiful blonde woman that was at our table. She looked a little tipsy, but…

I narrowed my eyes.

An act? Ninjutsu gave me knowledge of poisons and stuff, and she only seemed inebriated.

"Like I was totally into it! What if I say I'll never surrender! Yeah!" She did a terrible rendition, but it was… I narrowed my eyes, she knew how to sing, that was purposefully bad.

"You're Maggy Electric!"

"Well I play Maggy on Watson Whore, but I'm Kitty Thunder in real life!" She broke into a giggle, and I just had to wince at the terrible naming sense.

Yikes.

"Holy shit, I love that show." Klein said, sounding star struck, and she sent him a flashing smirk and a wink.

The tough rockerboy nearly swooned.

"Can I get an autograph?" Jared asked, and Kitty giggled as she nodded, but he literally just pulled open his jacket to show his chest.

Without skipping a beat, Kitty pulled out a marker from in between her chest, her top which I was pretty sure only stayed on because of an incredibly strong boob job, barely wobbled as she pulled the pen out. She yanked the cap and signed Jared's chest even planting a kiss of all things on his peck at the end.

And Jared looked like he melted at that. Before anything more crazy could happen as Klein looked like he was about to lose his pants of all things a voice called out.

"Ah, Stand Alone Complex! I see you've met the illustrious and beautiful Kitty!" Alex called out as he walked over and Kitty made a laugh and waved at him as if he was kidding.

"Kitty's newest season is nearly finished. I hear she's always looking for new music though." Alex offered, slyly and I just hummed, as I figured out what was going on.

My music on a show called Watson Whore… Kill me.

I tore into my food ignoring it all.

"Wow you like, really put it away don't you? Don't you worry about like getting super fat? I would worry about that." She suddenly rattled off, and I looked up and finished my bite of real spinach with actual cheese over it.

MSM was going to be paying a pretty penny for it.

"Nah." I patted my stomach which was all rock hard muscle.

"Heh! Even if you get all sculpted out, you can still ruin yourself with fat you know? It looks terrible, the fat all goes to certain spots and you get all blegh!" She laughed loudly almost like a donkey and I just shrugged.

"Not a problem, this is real."

"No shit!" She said, and I noticed her eyes were checking me over, before seeming to realize I was being honest.

High end optics, those.

"Real meat huh? You ever think about an acting career?" She asked, her smile more real than it had been before.

"I'm fourteen."

"Like that doesn't matter-" She started but was cut off.

"Kitty isn't wrong. You definitely have that star power we look for. MSM does more than just music you know? We have-" This time I interrupted.

"Not interested. Plus that's something for Hiromi to talk with, since you know. She's my manager." I said looking at Alex pointedly, his smile went a little brittle and Kitty just drunk laughed again.

"Oh she got you on that one. Not Manager."

"Of course, but Kitty is the star of a hit show. With a word she could get you on as a guest perhaps?" Alex offered, and I could hear the greed in his voice.

"I don't watch it."

"Huh?"

"Her show. I've never seen it. I don't like most TV."

"Oh, my hearts!" Kitty cried out faking an injury and Alex winced.

"But you've heard of it of course, I'm sure you're just busy-"

"I don't have any interest in it. No, even if I could watch it I wouldn't. Sorry." I offered to the woman, but it wasn't very earnest.

She seemed more amused, but Alex was panicking a bit.

"Haha! Well maybe we'll do a fun group project where we watch it, anyways. Kitty-" He was trying to lead her away so I sighed and bit the bullet.

"Hold on. Hey, uh.. My brother likes you show, Jun is into it. You mind if I get an autograph or a picture or something. He'd think that's preem."

"Aww. Sure kiddo! Come in and let big sis Kitty leave something for your brother!" She cheered, dodging Alex's arm to lead her away.

She was clingy, but did give a real autograph and a picture of the two of us in a nearby mirror that I snapped.

"Be careful around him." She whispered into my ear, as we were snapping the photo, her entire body melting into mine to make the picture look a little risque, but I guess that was just kinda her theme.

It was just a whisper, quiet, and sharp.

"Oh I know." I whispered back, as I snapped the picture.

"You don't." She whispered, again patting me on the shoulder, and then she was back to drunk actress and the life of the party.

That woman was a very good actress. I still wasn't going to watch the show she was in. It was fucking weird.

—--

"The numbers are looking very good." Alex informed all of us as we were driving back from the party. MSM wanted all of us traveling together to and from, apparently it built band unity, according to Alex when he described it.

Hiromi had told me the truth though. It meant MSM didn't have to worry about a no show during one of their events.

The fact Hiromi wasn't here beside me was unfortunate. She hadn't gotten an invite so to speak. She had told me it was an expected snub. As only MSM agents had been invited, people like Alex.

Or my new team of stylists and makeup artists.

"Perfect." The woman that was looking over my face apparently, said as she finished fixing my lipstick.

I just sighed, the party was over. Why were they still all over us?

"That's good right? The numbers being good?"

"So far." Alex said to Alice the only one that had responded to his statement. "Right now the song is going over the airwaves, we track listening and interest levels through standard ads, and song requests. The media sites are talking, and we are tracking that. We test the waters a little to see what the fan response is, but that'll take a bit longer."

"Test the waters?"

"We put out some posts on and comments on a few City Net sites, if consumers respond then we know there is interest."

Literal bot posting? Greaaaat.

"And if they aren't good?" I asked pointedly.

"Then the support that Stand Alone Complex has been receiving gets dropped to a lower level until you bring up the interest again." He said sternly, a dire warning. "But we believe in SAC! You have the entire media arm of MSM working to build you into the next big band. So just do your best, and ride the wave to stardom." He offered with a wink, and I just rolled my eyes.

I'd talk to Hiromi about it. Maybe she'd have some idea on how to build our rep some more.

I wasn't sure I honestly trusted MSM to handle it correctly, especially since they were constantly trying to mess with the music.

But we moved through Night City, the lights flashing into the limousine they had stuffed us into as I looked out. It felt weird to be on this side of it all. Dining with the rich and famous. I was so used to being out there on the streets.

It made me antsy. Either way I shook it off. I had done this, and I would use the benefits, but I wouldn't forget who I was.

And as I side eyed Alex in the reflection of the window. And it might be a good idea to start planning an assassination. I'd had my dislike of the man, but a real warning from someone like that?

I'd have to take that seriously.

 

[UndeadLord22]

"Oh I know." I whispered back, as I snapped the picture.

"You don't." She whispered, again patting me on the shoulder

Click to shrink...

So far, they haven't known she is a Merc yet. Would absolutely be hilarious if they known her rep as "Ghost" and a highly reputable "member" of the Claws.

So far so good.

 

[Vasstago]

So far, they haven't known she is a Merc yet. Would absolutely be hilarious if they known her rep as "Ghost" and a highly reputable "member" of the Claws.

So far so good.

Click to shrink...

It would be even funnier if they haven't clued it yet that the popular brain dances that go around are hers. Because that is a even more explicit backing of her reputation.

 

[Atomano]

Honnestly I almost wish for motoko to quit her rockergirl career, it's clearly making her miserable. Everyone has been trampling over her wishes for her music to be what she wants so yeah. I'm really hoping for a concert where she goes "This is my last gig!" without warning anyone.

 

[Lakanna]

It would be even funnier if they haven't clued it yet that the popular brain dances that go around are hers. Because that is a even more explicit backing of her reputation.

Click to shrink...

It might not he public knowledge exactly, but she DID also walk into a TC establishment, execute a higher-up, and exit through the window. And nobody could touch her.