A03 Tags!

Characters:

Female V (Cyberpunk 2077)/ Judy Alvarez, Evelyn Parker (Cyberpunk 2077), Jackie Welles, Panam Palmer, Mitch Anderson (Cyberpunk 2077), Viktor Vector, Misty Olszewski, Rita Wheeler, Blue Moon (Cyberpunk 2077), Meredith Stout, Lizzy Wizzy , Kerry Eurodyne

Relationships: Judy Alvarez/FemaleV

Memory Loss V and Judy do the do (eventually), V is an engineer and I am not but we're doing this anyway, Angst, the author cannot smut but isnt letting that stop her, Rita attemps to be a good person, Blue Moon is here and is possibly a decent human being, V is awkward and unable to adult, clingy Judy, brain damage and truam,a an incredible amount of angst, unification war side plot The State of Texas is not having a good time, V is not having a good time, Judy is not having a good time, Actually nobody in this fucking fic is having a good time, no editors or betas we die with courage, I have no regret,s Panam and the Avacados are complicated, internal Militech and the USA fighting, Araska is not having a good time either, social media, texting and emails, the author is attempting to rewrite most of the lore of cyberpunk and has no regrets, tw child abuse, tw ptsd, TW extremely clingy relationship,s TW death wish, therapy with Lizzie Wizzi,e Fun time with best friend Panam, healing with Mitch and the other,s 420 with Kerry, Car driving, Lore rewrites, Heavy World Building, Possibly depressing, possibly uplifting

Seven To The Head

Episode One "Snowglobes"

"Oh shit is that a EBM 2066 coupling you've got linked up to the power grid?"

"Yeah I uh, the 2073 stuff could handle more but wasn't as certified for rapid loads so I figured the reliable was better"

"No kidding right? You could probably link up some Militech receivers to your net cables so you could transfer info to that braindance chair without having to rely on floor stuff"

"Seriously? I was under the impression that it always had to be hard-wired"

"No for real like, the new tech Militech allows for it. It's expensive but gets rid of so much needed floor space it's not even funny"

V was enjoying herself, she hadnt had a good tech talk with anyone in months. When she got the job to go to the cities resident nightclub/gaybar/stripper joint she'd been expecting a bunch of psyched up scantily clad girls with spiked baseball bats and exposed wirings that littered the building, she got both and with embarrassed flushes had to have asked where the electrical closet was. Also someone somewhere was having a orgy. She wasnt a prude but the sex stuff didnt really sell after being in Militech for ten years.

So naturally she was glad when she, in her oversized boiler suit and backpack full of various things had bumped into Judy's den, initially the green haired women was skeptical about letting someone else tinker around with the power supply but after five ten twenty forty minutes of animated conversation regarding the building, upgrading and even discussion of Judy's massive supply of machinery and computers (there was also a number of flashing lights), the two had at least something in common to discuss. V leant against a nearby wall with her hand idly playing with a wrench while Judy sat on her desk with a mug of coffee titled "BD#1'.

Judy gestured to one of the larger machines tucked away in the corner, one that was practically decked with enough switches and buttons to take V endless joyful hours of rigging to use. "That's the power grid, thingy. It's actually pretty new"

"But the actual power cables are not? I spotted a few sparkies on the way here"

"It might be simple wear and tear use, I think Suzie thinks that we need to replace the whole thing"

"Shows what Suzie knows" V grinned and elicited a smile from Judy back on the silent agreement that they, the nerds were in the know.

"What doesnt Suzie know?" The doors V had used were opened in a very dramatic manner making the two girls snap to attention, with a figure strutting through like a queen dressed in elegant clothing and a smoking cigar in one hand.

"Hey Ev' " Judy immediately relaxed and crossed her arms.

"Hey Judy, found a friend to conspire with?"

"Eh?"

"I'm just messing with you, hey what's your name?" Evenlyn turned round to V and offered a hand which V accepted and shook with her much smaller one. With Judy's bright hair , crop top and boots combined with Evelyn's rather rich appearance V was starting to feel somewhat left out considering she was boringly equipped with a standard boiler suit and a simple beanie.

"V, I got hired to fix the power issues" V replied with an awkward finish.

"We have power issues?"

"Suzie has power issues" Judy joked, eliciting a snort and then a huff of amusement from Evelyn who took it in stride, she turned back to V and with a raised cigarette, asked.

"Is it going to take long? I have a client who needs to use the brain dance chair?"

V took a look at the connecting wires snaked literally everywhere, making a mental map of the ones that she could identify and sort as being necessary or not. Quickly V disregarded the power nodes and supply that the BD chair and Judy's equipment would take and focused on the walls instead.

"A few hours but it wont interfere, Judy's stuff is fine for now" V confidently answered and after gleefully accepting a cup of coffee from Judy who had turned from suspicious to friendly geek, got to work.

V liked to keep it a secret that she was formerly from Militech's engineering corps, although she couldn't remember that much considering that they were all hooked on a behavior chip and V had lost hers, she always retained the know-how on mechanics and tech, not so much net running or anything Net related which people often confused the two practices.

Part of the advantages was that her body didn't actually contain that much cyberwere, instead her epidermis layer had kevlar and rubber reinforcements, skeleton had synthetic muscle fibers instead of metal. All of this made her perfectly suited to grab a sparking open wire that the electrical closet was filled with and turned it off with a few deft touches, being immune to electrocution certainly had its benefits.

She turned switches, adjusted cables and placed them in the correct positions, manipulated surges and downsurges on keyboards while the room next by was filled by an extra person, someone called Jackie whose "considerable bulk" filled the Braindance chair, V even watched the power readings slowly increase on the monitor.

Having fixed the issues in the closet which mostly involved minor adjustments and simple rewiring, now bored. V twiddles her thumbs absently before running down fingers to amuse herself at the lack of hair and electrostatic charge that seemed to build up on everyone but her.

Raised voices grabbed her attention and she watched/listened as Judy refused to have a hacker? Be included in the braindance while Evelyn frantically paced and pleaded that it would only be a one off, Jackie seemed to occasionally respond with answering or asking questions and eventually they reached a settlement.

Someone muttered something about a bio chip and when it turned to hushed whispers between Evelyn and Jackie, V and Judy shared a glance between each other, one that pretty much said "I ain't getting into that".

And then a brief smile.

With flashing eyes.

"Hey" V walked up to Judy, taking her former position near the wall. "Anything interesting happen?"

"I guess so, but can't really talk about it if that makes sense"

V shrugged and quickly changed the conversation,mindful of how little time they'd get before Jackie or Evelyn came back. "S'pose so. Anyway I fixed the circuit breakers and the wires are back where they should be"

Judy nodded. "Glad to hear it V, and well thanks"

V grabbed her nearby backpack and made to leave, her internal timer had clocked time spent at five hours and she'd have to catch the last bus home. "So I'll be going then?" She didn't want to overstay her welcome of course, Judy had been lovely.

She brushed past Judy on the way out but a hand on her shoulder stopped V cold. Judy looked away and removed her hand, V detected a sigh and let out a "hmm?" back. Her skin flared a little from where Judy touched but she was too busy feeling, other things.

"Hey V? You stopping by tomorrow?" Judy half whispered then cleared her throat.

"Yeah? I'm here all week, you remember?"

"Just checking, you can uh, go now?"

V left again, a odd feeling pooling at the pit of her stomach but paid no attention, she was busy feeling a bit bland compared to Judy, no tats or fancy hair, she was basically hairless all over and with no real markings.

"V?"

V turned round again.

"See you tomorrow"

V gave an awkward wave in return.

It was dark again, three twenty? Three thirty in the morning? A barren dirt track with mud that clung to the soles of even the hardiest of boots, V kept running though no matter how fast she kept sinking into the mud, she had to escape.

Her armor was utterly shredded, a massive plasma blast designed to either utterly obliterate or EMP fry anyone who got in its had wiped out her entire squad, people she'd known for years were suddenly erased and their synapses had basically ceased to exist. She had to go, the Utah border with Nevada and then California was close. If only she could get away from Arasaka's damm drones.

Her own drones, two Flathead combat models had already been wiped, they killed six of theirs though and her behaviour chip rewarded a good kill rate with a steady dose of adrenaline and later serotonin.

V found a fence at her height and she vaulted over, her heavy armor pieces designed to withstand hits from vehicle mounted machine guns were slowing her down and she almost fell face first into the ground. She recovered well for someone at below average height and carrying a shotgun, 70kg of armor and a heavy backpack. Her helmet equipped night vision hud that linked with the chip gave her ample vision and it was the only piece of her that was actually "online" and therefore trackable, apart from the chip.

She was already sweating beneath, not even the synthetically grafted skin could hold back the residual heat of the plasma and the short but terrifying sensation of burnt alive , regardless V kept sprinting, the drones would find her and she minutes at best or seconds at worst.

The worst came to happen, they found her before she could reach the cover of a dense forest and a laser beam cut the ground infront, V dived and with a massive "thump" hit the deck, with deft hands she pulled out her shotgun loaded with slug rounds and killed the first drone, then the second. And then she started running around in a zig zag,mindful of Arasaka's tendency to play with its food. Her heart was going, beating faster than even when defusing bombs and she only had to reach a wild spot to escape, she could do it.

V's thundering footfalls gave her position away, again and a snipers bullet barked through the night sky, going through a tree ahead and V did her best to dodge the second one. She couldn't though, she was weighed down by useless armor and a backpack meant to hold drones, not even the chip could contain the screams as a heavy calibre bullet ripped into her shoulder and dislodged the armor plate protecting it, and then without stopping burrowed its way through synthetic flesh and kevlar hardened bone, sheer force of the impact toppling her to the ground.

V managed to get up though , her one good arm grasping at a rock while the other flailed uselessly, she managed to drag herself upright and the HUD showed only ten more meters to go.

She did her best to run again, to get away.

But not before the third shot blew her helmet off, the edge of it searing just past the outer layer of her neck, dislodging the behaviour chip with the sudden disconnection immediately short circuiting the power feeds and with a mass of blood, some bone and Militech graded tech, V staggered around blinded and deaf.

She eventually fell into a hole, or was it a river? Memory loss and maybe a bit of brain damage couldn't ever really come to a conclusion on where she ended up.