"Hey, ma." David stepped into the little Thorton Galena more upbeat than usual. Even after working a double through the night and through the day, Gloria wasn't so worn down that she couldn't catch her son's almost buzzing energy.
"How was school today, baby?" The Galena lurched forward as she pulled away from the curb. She'd need to have the mechanic take a look at the capacitor leads again when she had the time, it seemed like every day something was breaking on their only car. Here at Arasaka Academy surrounded by million eddy vehicles, it stood out nearly as much as her baby boy did from his fellow corpo students.
Oh, she knew he didn't fit in. Your eyes could be the worst chrome in the market and it would still be impossible to miss. Between his posture, his attitude, his intelligence, it was clear he hadn't made any friends since earning his scholarship. The bruises and split lips only enforced his outcast status further.
But this was the only way.
"It was okay… I met The Ghost today!" David excitedly chittered. Well, that was a good change of pace. What was the ghost again?
"She was so nova! She's like total edgerunner already, Arasaka's already hiring her for Ops! But she's not corpo at all, even though Hiromi kind of is. Oh, shit, I should have got her to sign a BD!"
Was this a BD star of some kind? Gloria knew her son had a small gig selling BDs, they watched some of the tamer ones together in the rare moments that she had time off, and he wasn't busy with school work. Not the XBD ones though, he tried to hide those under his mattress, but he was still a boy, not yet grown enough to hide things from his mother.
It wasn't much, but with his meager earnings, he was able to afford small luxuries he proudly shared with his mother. Going out of his way to buy them dinner, or purchase new clothes that weren't fraying at the edges. It was enough to make her heart burst with pride, so despite the disquieting content, she allowed him to continue his little BD business.
"-she has these chrome arms, they got real-skin on them, but they were Militech and not super high end ones either so that was weird, since she's friends with Hiromi I thought she'd have preem 'Saka chrome or something. But she really does have a Burya! It was in her jacket but that thing is massive, way bigger in person than it looks in the BD's."
Burya? What kind of BD star carried that kind of iron?
"Wait, is this the one who makes those violent XBD's?"
Her son stiffened and the torrent of words halted.
"David! I told you I don't want you watching those kind of things!"
"Mom, she's not cyberpsycho! She does ops like a pro edgerunner! And besides she's totally chill, she bought me lunch!"
Was this a BD star they were discussing or a girlfriend she'd have to interview? "Oh, so all it takes is lunch, huh? And then it's open admission to all the gore-junky XBD's you want, is that it?"
"Mom-,"
"No, David. I don't care if you sell those XBD's, but I don't want you zoning out at gore." She saw too much of it at work as it was.
This was Night City. It was impossible to completely avoid crime, but for the slim chance to rise above the filth and violence, Gloria would work a hundred thousand hours more. She'd carve every corpse she found if it meant her son could escape this life. So she would ignore his school bruises and slumped posture, as long as he made it through the academy and landed a job in Arasaka tower, he would have a better life.
It was the only way.