Blue Response
by Spacewheat76
Forward & Informational Introduction
[Author's Note: My goal is to provide a detailed enough story using Cyberpunk's environment and characters that those who are completely unfamiliar with the world would still understand and enjoy. In order to assist with this effort I am going to provide some background information upfront (some of which is slightly altered for this fanfiction). If you do not need it, feel free to skip down to the marker for Chapter 1. Anyone else can return to this for any questions they have regarding groups or locations. Thanks in advance for your support!
The year is 2077 and America is largely a Dystopian wasteland of abandoned buildings. Some bigger cities have sprung up in the remnants of the old world. This story is set in Night City, which is a coastal autonomous metropolis overrun by Corporate corruption, gang-violence and myriad drug usage.
Anyone of note is "chipped" at age 18. This means that their body is cybernetically altered to allow for later modification. The doctors that install these mods are called Rippers. Because of these modifications, normal life expectancy is generally extended and people can live longer. (However, drug usage and gang violence exist to strongly counteract this possibility).
Incredibly advanced technology is the backbone of life in Night City. For example, individuals that are chipped use cybernetic phones and currency. A large element of Night City is a cybernetic experience called a braindance. This is an interactive pleasure simulation that individuals partake in. Most braindances are enjoyed in nightclubs.
Night City is a melting pot of cultures, some of which are Spanish and East Asian. The population contains a handful of socioeconomic groups. For the purposes of this story, there are three prominent groups (which line up with those offered on the video game)- Nomads, Streetkids and Corpos (corporate affiliated individuals). Each group experiences a varied risk of corruption (the highest of which lies with Corpos).
In regards to Corpos: The more well-off individuals live political or corporate lives. The leading technological/cybernetic production industry conglomerate is called Arasaka. Their headquarters are located in Night City. Other companies of note include quite a few different nightclubs such as Lizzie's Bar and Afterlife. There is also an esteemed pleasure venue called Clouds, where cyber-enhanced sex workers called dolls can be "purchased" for the evening. (This is comparable to the lower class versions called Joy-toys).
Night City is made up of six districts called Watson, Westbrook, City Center, Heywood, Santo Domingo and Pacifica. The outskirts that surround the parts of the city that are not bordered by ocean are called Badlands. Each sector is controlled by a corresponding gang. (see the list below) The gangs are, for the most part, lawless. However, each sector is "governed" by an individual called a Fixer. A Fixer acts as a correspondent between gangs and other affiliated individuals. Mercenaries, such as our protagonist, do jobs for Fixers, such as Wakako Okada.
TERRITORY—-—-GANG(S)
Watson—-Maelstrom & The Mox
Westbrook—-Tyger Claws
City Center—-(not a gang per say, but this area is ran by Corpos)
Heywood—-Valentinos & 6th Street
Santo Domingo—-6th Street
Pacifica—-Voodoo Boys & Animals
Badlands—-Aldecaldos
Finally, I want to discuss a few things in regards to this story alone. While the main characters are largely taken from the game, the general plot is fabricated for my own entertainment. This V (female construct) was born and raised in Night City. Aesthetically, she is unlike the standard V from the video game ads. Anyways, I don't own anything..blablabla. On to the story….
Blush Response
Chapter 1
[Author's Note: A lot of people liken love to fire, but to me, it is like water. In Arthur Golden's novel The Memoirs of a Geisha, the protagonist says "We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course". That's what this story is about- happenstance, serendipity, love and pain. That's what all of our stories are about though, aren't they? I think we can learn from water because it doesn't hesitate when met with adversity; it rushes in regardless. As people, we should love with that same unapologetic intensity. The tide may ebb and flow as we lead our lives, but if we're patient, it will always come back to us.]
"But down these mean [Night City] streets a man must go, who is not himself mean..who is neither tarnished nor afraid." -Raymond Chandler
"感じたくないことも感じなきゃ / 何も感じられなくなるから." -Hikaru Utada
I parked my Archer crookedly in front of Wakako Okada's Pachinko Parlor on Jig Jig Street. I could almost hear Jackie's voice as I clambered outta the car, sarcasm lacing his words- Preem Parking Chica. He'd been in the ground barely more than a coupla days and I was still having trouble accepting the fact that he was gone. But my reflection in the building windows served as my reminder; I looked like shit. My left arm was in a sling, the entire right side of my face was a mess of sloppily applied bandages, and I had a noticeable limp. These were all parting gifts of the nearly failed gig that zeroed my best choom.
When I pushed aside the beads and stepped into the classically Kanso themed office, Wakako was writing in a small black accounting book. One of her thin fingers moved the beads on an abacus before her. The radio that sat in the corner by a well-kept bonsai tree played quiet music, the uniquely captivating sound of the erhu intertwining with the harplike tune of the koto. When The Lady of Westbrook Estate finally looked up from her calculations, her snow-white eyebrows lifted on her wrinkled forehead.
"Is that you V?" she asked, her Japanese accent slightly more pronounced in her surprise. "I can see now why you've waited so long to come and settle your accounts. I'll excuse you this time, of course, though you'd best be thankful that I am a patient woman." She folded her hands elegantly in front of her, almost as though she were nothing more than an innocent older lady. Of course, I knew better. Though securely in her seventies, there was nothing old or innocent about her. It wasn't by coincidence that she'd outlived all five of her Tyger Claw affiliated husbands.
"You heard about Jackie?" I asked, lowering myself into one of Wakako's high backed leather chairs.
"Yes," she said, "He met a fate that isn't at all uncommon for those in your line of work." Her misty blue eyes searched my face, the unmistakable red glint in her gaze the tell-tale sign that she was scanning me. She clicked her tongue, disapprovingly. "What a shame to see such a talented young mercenary cut down so soon. So many lost opportunities."
"I know," I replied, cooly, "Jackie was-"
She lifted her hand to signal my silence. "You misunderstand me," she said. "I do not speak of your fallen Valentino. I do not wish to speak ill of the departed at all, but I am if anything an honest woman. The potential of Mr. Wells was limited. But yours V," she shook her head. "Pity." She cleared her throat and looked down once more at her book. "Now for your payment-"
I stood up, my cheeks hot. "Jackie had a hell of a lotta potential," I told her and, "And where do you get off saying my potential is lost?"
She laughed, but it was a dry, humorless laugh. "No fixer will work with a mercenary that looks as though she lost a sword fight with a rather sharp pair of mantis blades." She traced a few symbols on her paper with her fingertip and then said, "We agreed on five a piece, did we not? In the light of your partner's passing, however, I've arranged for both portions to be transferred to you. You'll receive them shortly."
I was still heated, but the blatant nature of Wakako's judgment had knocked the wind out of me. I stood dumbfounded for a moment and then heard myself mutter a pathetic, "Thank you." And then, like a fish on a dock, desperately thrashing in an attempt to get back into the water, I asked her, "Is there anything I can do?"
Wakako Okada took off her spectacles and cleaned them casually with a cloth she'd pulled from her desk drawer. She then fixed them back on her nose and said to me in her natural language- "Nana korobi ya oki." She licked her thin lips. "Fall seven times, get up eight." She paused, perhaps allowing me to form my own interpretation of the proverb. Then- "Take the money you have made today and go see a Ripper Doc. Have him fix you. Not as you were before but better. Enhanced. Afterward, you will come and see me and I will give you a job that will be well worth your while."
"I don't use cyberware," I stated, weakly.
"You haven't used it yet," she corrected. "If you know what is best for you, now you will. Sugitaru wa nao oyobazaru ga gotoshi- Let what is past flow away downstream. It is time to choose a new course V. Adversity is the stone on which you will sharpen your blade." She picked back up her pen and then, with one wave of her hand, she said, "Now go from my parlor. Come back only when you've made the correct choice."
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