Seras
Well-known member
Coming up on it yeah.
Ghost in the City Cyberpunk Gamer SI
- Thread starter Seras
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- cyberpunk gamer self-insert
xachariahxx
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Music might be funny because Play Instrument is a cyberpunk RPG skill, and weirdly enough it's governed by Tech.
It would be hilarious if Motoko started out on the guitar doing some Samurai covers, and then just suddenly learned how to make grenades better. "No, stop it, I'm trying to enjoy myself not grind.... ooh, shiny EXP."
EDIT: Wait, empathy covers Perform if motoko actually plays for an audience. Would performing roll into cool because it covers a similar role, or cause better cyber-adaption gains, or just do nothing since it's not part of the stats in the story?
It would be hilarious if Motoko started out on the guitar doing some Samurai covers, and then just suddenly learned how to make grenades better. "No, stop it, I'm trying to enjoy myself not grind.... ooh, shiny EXP."
EDIT: Wait, empathy covers Perform if motoko actually plays for an audience. Would performing roll into cool because it covers a similar role, or cause better cyber-adaption gains, or just do nothing since it's not part of the stats in the story?
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Seras
Well-known member
Yeah the skills are all over the place with Rockerboy. I uh simplified it cause I don't want to deal with it.
Chapter 51
Seras
Well-known member
I spent the rest of the day resting. No grinding, no plotting. Just hanging out at the apartment and watching TV, or even reading a few shard books. I finally finished another chapter in the Solo’s guide, but decided to put that to the side soon enough because it too felt a little too much like training still.
I had never been a particularly focused person in my last life. I wasn’t dedicated to self improvement, I liked TV shows, and games, and movies far too much for that.
So why was it that I barely did any of my favorite things in this life? Was it a good thing? Some people would say yes.
But I wasn’t sure it was healthy for me. The closest thing I had done creatively had been working with tech, but that was just another aspect of grinding to grow stronger.
Every aspect of my life was rotating around improving my ability to kill… Was that right? It didn’t bother me exactly. I liked it. I liked fighting, and I loved being better than others at killing. Anyone who played nearly any video game could attest how great it felt to be strong.
But was that all I wanted out of this second life? Was all the freedom I had thanks to my growing skills, only meant to create paths towards more killing more death?
No.
I realized that my life wasn’t just this. As much as I enjoyed it, I shouldn’t exist solely as a merc. I mean this wasn’t a game, even if I was a gamer. Did I want to spend the rest of my life as nothing but a killer for hire?
No.
I had just been having so much fun I hyper focused!
Oops!
So I took the rest of the afternoon to watch future TV shows, some of which were at least interesting, and some awful. I didn’t really like TV in the future. I didn’t really like the books… But I also hadn’t really searched for things I would like. It’s like watching daytime TV and thinking that was all that was on the TV.
As I explored the different channels and read, I was texting with Hiromi who confirmed she had gotten permission to skip school to come along to the Aldecaldo BBQ!
Road trip with the best choom is a go.
—--
“Finally!” I groaned as I pulled out from Hiromi’s garage the next morning. I had been running late as Jun had gotten all protective when I told him what I was up to.
It had taken me a few minutes to remember I was fourteen, and heading out to the badlands to party with a bunch of nomads.
So okay, when you put it like that Jun had a point.
But when I explained it was mostly about what we had done that night, and that I certainly would shoot anyone that tried something, plus Hiromi was coming. He had finally loosened up and I had managed to escape his clutches.
Hiromi hadn’t taken long to flop into the car, her bag of snacks she was bringing along dropped onto my own bag of goodies once she settled in.
“Wooo!” She screamed out the window as we headed out onto the city streets, “Freedom!”
“Don’t be too happy yet, choom. We have a long drive to get there.”
“It’ll be a lot shorter if you let me drive.” She grumbled at me, and I just chuckled.
She had no idea.
I drove safely, and followed all the laws within the city, but as soon as we started hitting dirt?
Well I waited for Hiromi to be slightly distracted, with nothing on the road in front of me, when I suddenly floored it.
Her jerking reaction to my sudden acceleration was great, her mouth full of some chips, or some snack food meant her shocked gasped sent her into a coughing fit as I tore down the road.
“Motoko!” She said in delight when she finally got herself back under control, and seeing me absolutely flooring it over the desert road.
“Hiromi!” I chirped back, completely at ease despite going so fast.
“You’re going fast!”
“So I am.” I said smiling which had her giggling in delight.
“So there is a troublemaker in there!”
“I’m not in the city, and there is no longer a posted speed limit. Of course I’ll drive how I want.” I said simply but my firm tone was ruined by my lips fighting back more smiles.
“You are such a gonk. You should just drive like this from now on.”
“Nah. Jun made me promise not to drive fast in the city, I apparently scared him the last time I did it.”
“Aww I wanted to see that.” She said laughing, and I just shrugged as I noticed my turn off. With a casual press of the clutch, shifting slightly, and then pressing on the break I was in a perfectly controlled drift.
Hiromi couldn’t enjoy the look as she wasn’t wearing her seat belt properly, despite my multiple warnings to stop taking it off. So she soon found her face pressed up against the passenger window for a few moments until I finished the drift and was heading straight down the new road.
“Wha… Wha?” She muttered looking delightfully confused at her new situation.
“I told you to put your seat belt on. Hold on.” I said as I was coming up to the next street I needed to turn onto.
This time Hiromi was actually able to realize what was happening.
I ended up pouting from then on, because she didn’t scare like Jun instead whooping and hollering in delight every time I drifted,
It wasn’t fair! I wanted to mess with her!
—---
I pulled up to the Aldecaldos camp going a much more sedate speed. Despite Hiromi’s badgering to speed up again. I didn’t want to come in too hot with the nomads. I pulled up to the camp and parked off the road near where a few of their cars were parked including a few familiar and freshly painted cars.
I stepped out, Hiromi following me a moment later. Her head was practically on a swivel as she took in the new location.
“Be cool Hiromi.” I reminded her as I walked up to a familiar face who was walking up to greet me.
“Motoko!”
“Scorpion!” I greeted right back smiling as the older man laughed and to my surprise instantly invaded my personal space pulling me into a hug and literally spinning me around.
“Nice to see you too Scorpion.” I mumbled a little dazed as he set me down.
“I still owed you that from when you pulled my ass out of the Raffen nest. Who’s your friend?” he asked, pulling away a bit giving me some space.
“I’m Hiromi! Motoko’s best Choom!” She said suddenly at my side and grabbed my arm.
“Hey, nice to meet you. Any friend of Motoko is one of mine.” He said with a smile before turning and waving me on. “C’mon I bet you’re hungry the drive out from the city takes forever. Let’s get some food in those bellies. Saul is distracted right now, so it’s the best time to meet everyone.” Scorpion offered with a laugh as he guided us deeper into the camp.
A few minutes later with a plate full of barbeque ribs, that were definitely not actual meat, but was tasty. And something that looked sort of like pulled pork, but wasn’t. I was sitting around a table with a few nomads all tossing around stories of their own run-ins with the Raffen, made me realize how nice it all was.
I get it. I understand the reason Nomads live like this. Out on the plains and deserts of America. The freedom was only part of it. The other part was the connection you feel with everyone. These people weren’t all blood related, but they were all family. All lived together, got along, and knew each other's jokes.
There was an actual connection between them. something that was missing from Night City.
It was nice.
“And then she sits in the closet and waits for the guy to ‘finish’ up if you know what I mean.” Hiromi’s voice suddenly pulled me away from hearing about other Raffen raids over the years.
“Hiromi! Don’t tell people about that!” I called out as I quickly put down the pretty tasty BBQ I was eating to yell at my choom.
“Motoko you literally recorded it. You can’t complain about people talking about it.” She offered looking to Scorpion who was sitting beside her, and who she was telling the story about.
I don’t know how but the two had swiftly started swapping stories. Mostly about me, and seemed to be getting along.
“You really hid in the closet?” Scorpion asked, looking half a second away from bursting into laughter.
“It was the only other door in the room. They didn’t catch me or anything. And he was fast… At least.” I grumbled a bit but Scorpion was already chuckling.
“You said this was a BD. Where can I get a copy. I gotta see this.”
“Motoko gave me my set, but it’s the Mox right?” Hiromi asked and I sort of twisted my hand.
“Honestly, I’m not sure it’s officially a Mox thing. Nox is the guy selling the BD’s. It was his idea and well, he is a Mox, but I’m not sure how official it all is. If you really want a copy, I can figure something out?”
“Eh. I’ve been to Lizzies before… I mean-”
“Oooh. When did this happen Scorpion?” A voice called out and I looked up only to be forced to fall into Cold Blood to keep myself from gasping in delight.
Panam!
I watched in delight as she threw an arm over Scorpions shoulder and teased him about having visited the BD bar when in the city.
She glanced over Hiromi and me with a curious look, before it suddenly struck her. “Oh! You’re the one that cleared up the Raffen! And saved Scorpion.” She said, a teasing in drawl added on the end, but I could tell it was to tease Scorpion, not because she didn’t care.
“I’m Motoko, this is Hiromi my Choom. Yeah. That’s me.” I added smiling at the older woman. What else could I do? Panam was cool.
And we wore similar outfits! She had a leotard and jeans on too! She was obviously a woman of excellent taste!
“Then I guess I owe you one. Name’s Panam. You saved Scorpion, so you’re owed one in my book.” She said reaching over and pushing Scorpion a bit on the shoulder earning a slapping hand in return, a few moments of nearly siblings squabbling went on much to my delight.
Yeah, I guess I kinda liked the Nomads. It was cozy.
Then, a voice cut through all the chatter. “So this is her.” The man was instantly recognizable to me. Saul. The head of the Aldecaldos. Or at least this group fo them. The man in charge.
“Saul! Yeah this is Motoko.” Scorpion called out pushing Panams hand away where she had been messing with him. “Motoko, this is Saul, Leader of the Aldecaldos.” He introduced me and I nodded, grabbing a napkin and wiping away as much of the barbeque sauce around my mouth as I could.
Thanks Aldecaldos, couldn’t have introduced me to your leader until after I was two hands deep into a plate of barbeque huh?
“Nice to meet you.” I added once I was cleaned up.
“Walk with me.” He suddenly said and while he didn’t quite start walking away he made it obvious it was more command than request.
I kept a smile on my face even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of being ordered around. I let it go. Just couldn’t take it personally. Saul was used to getting his way, that’s all. Besides, I wanted to know what he was thinking.
Nomads didn’t usually welcome people into their camp like this, at least as far as I could pick up. It’s not like most people in Night City even gave more than a passing thought to the Nomads. They were a different breed as far as Night City residents were concerned.
I rose up waving off Hiromi, as she was rising to stand up as well, “Scorpion keep Hiromi company okay?” I asked and he gave me a nod and the table seemed to relax as Scorpion started up another story to Hiromi who looked conflicted but settled down.
I followed after Saul as he started walking through the camp, not really seeming to head anywhere in particular, just walking around.
“Twice now you’ve done us a favor, and that I can’t just ignore.” He finally said as we came to a quiet part of the camp, empty tents and places where people slept setup all around. “Not a fan of outsiders doing us favors. Always leads to some sort of trouble. But I also can’t just let it go. You saved Scorpion. Even if he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to, he is one of us.”
“I was just hired for a job.” I demurred, but Saul just ignored it.
“You don’t know, but the Wraiths have been in a frenzy since then. Twice now we’ve been raided. You saved Scorpion, but threw the Wraiths into a frenzy. Now you did it again. You helped us, gave us access to new vehicles, but the fact is, you also made living out here more dangerous. With so many cars lost the Raffen will seek out new ones. See the problem?”
“I guess I understand what you are saying. Poking the Raffen means they try to poke back.”
“Exactly.” He stopped walking, turning to me. Which was annoying as the guy was pretty tall. And I was only fourteen.
“I appreciate your help. I do. You did us a favor with good intentions, but good intentions can still cause us problems.”
“The Wraiths really that big of a deal? I’ve killed a bunch of them by now. How many more do they have?”
“Hundreds. Thousands.” He answered simply to my surprise. “You city folk think the Raffen are just another street gang, but they are worse than that. They hunt anyone on the roads. Doesn’t matter who. The Wraiths circling Night City are more than a thousand strong. My clan only has five hundred and some extra.”
I blinked at that. Those numbers were crazy. The camp here only had what, maybe a hundred?” Seeing my confusion and looking around he scoffed.
“We don’t all stay together at once. Too many mouths to feed in one camp. Split up it’s easier to keep everyone fed, but makes us easier prey.”
“So why not gather all together and wipe out the Wraiths?” I asked the question that had been bugging me for a while. The Aldecaldos were a massive group, even if they were spread out across America.
“They have backing kid. You think the corporations aren’t more than happy to have a bunch of sociopaths like the Wraiths willing to hunt people for them? You noticed all the equipment they had at the camp you rescued Scorpion from didn’t you? Ever wonder where they got all the expensive sensor gear for their camp? Millitech, Arasaka, Kang Tao or any of the others. Any corp that wants a competitor to have some trouble, to have shipments suddenly stop arriving through the badlands.” Saul grunted scratching at his beard for a moment.
“I see. The Corps use them as deniable forces, hit their enemies… it’s not like the Raffen are considered a threat to anyone outside the badlands.”
“Exactly, but that’s not what we are here for.” He looked to me his green eyes dark. “The Clan owes you a debt. I don’t like owing debts to outsiders. Twice now you’ve helped us. I can’t pay you for the vehicles not fully. Not in eddies.” He said bluntly.
“Okay? So what can you do? Honestly. I’m not bothered about it… I don’t much like the Raffen so just hurting them was good enough for me.”
“Well I am. We pay our debts. Always. I’ve been forced to think about what we can do. What we can afford to offer in exchange for the cars… Damn Scorpion for being so stupid to take them without asking.” He cursed suddenly to my surprise the man looked…
Stressed.
“Saul?”
“Not your fault kid. Not Scorpions either. He was right to do it. This is my problem. The vehicles were needed, but now I’m stuck trying to figure out how to pay for them.” He grumbled, looking down at me with a look in his eyes that expressed his frustration.
Yeah Saul wasn’t having a good day.
“Okay so let’s push eddies off the table. Again, I only called up Scorpion because I knew he needed a ride. And that he could get the vehicles out of Wraith hands. You guys did me a favor that night.”
“Hardly. Wraiths are a nomad problem. Not exactly something Street Kids have any issues with.”
“They shot me. So Yeah. I have an issue with them. Getting shot makes me testy.” I countered instantly, a little heated. “But fuck it. You don’t have eddies? Fine. I’m not really hurting for eddies anyways. Merc work pays well. So what do you have? You want to pay me back? What can you offer?”
“Membership.” He said suddenly, surprising me. “You’re young. Gotta know how shit it is in the City. Join our Clan. Become an Aldecaldos Nomad. We’d welcome you. It might take a while to adjust, but you’ve proven yourself to my people. You’d fit in here.”
“I can’t.” I refused instantly, shaking my head.. “I have family in Night City, friends. As nice as it sounds to wander the desert, living life as it comes, it’s not for me. I’m a city girl.”
“Well I expected as much.” He said with a shrug. “But still. You’re welcome here. That offers some benefits. You might not realize it, but most of us have military experience. You want to be a merc? Then you’ll need knowledge, stuff you can’t just get on the street. We can help. Will help. We have stuff we make that can be useful to someone looking for a fight.” He tilted his head over and led me to a truck, which when he opened up I understood what he was saying.
“That’s a lot of guns.”
He nodded, having flicked on the lights to the moving truck, showing me the inside was literally an armory. “We keep well armed. Even have things you can’t find easily in the cities.” He said, pointing out a beautiful Techtronika SPT32 Grad.
It was an anti-material Sniper Rifle.
I want one. I want one sooo bad. Bitches love cannons!
Instantly I walked over to it, it was resting on a bench tool strewn around. Someone was tinkering. No, I noticed as my eyes scanned it down. Someone had already tinkered. This wasn’t just any Grad. It was the fucking Overwatch.
I instantly hyper focused on the Suppressor attached to the end of the thing. I didn’t remember the exact name of the nomad, but one of them had managed to get a Suppressor working on the AT rifle.
“Okay who did this, and where are they, because they need to teach me.” I told Saul as I started taking scans and checking over the Overwatch.
“Mitch. He made that during the war. Saved his hide a few times from the stories he tells. Not for sale.”
“Don’t want it. You wanted to pay me back? Then, I’ll consider it a fair trade, if you have Mitch teach me about his work on this baby.” It old him, my hands already feeling over the suppressor as my eyes scanned it down.
“Huh. Bit of a tinker are you?”
“Yeah! Just a bit.” I mumbled. Looking over the Overwatch. Normally a suppressor was either screwed into the barrel, or an attachment you would hook over the edge of a muzzle break and lock in.
This one? There was no separate attachment. The entire barrel was a custom job, suppressor included. Which was crazy. Suppressors didn’t last forever. So Mitch would have to replace the entire barrel pretty consistently.
Unless he figured something interesting out.
“I’ll talk to him, see if he’s willing. But that alone doesn’t square us. So let’s talk.”
I would be happy with a few of the shinies that were hanging around the armory, but as my eyes scanned the inside of the place, something caught my eye.
“That.” I demanded with a pointed finger.
“Hmm? What? Kid. What would you even use one of those for? We don’t even use them.”
“Those of the words of a man who has never created a situation to shoot a rocket launcher before. That’s the deal.” I said hungrily looking over the stack of boxes that had “Techtronika T40 Uragan” Stamped on the side. I recognized the name. They were rocket launchers.
10 shot homing rocket launchers.
Why didn't I have a 10 shot homing Rocket Launcher!?
Saul let out a sigh and shrugged.
“Fine. But if anyone ever asks you didn’t get them from us.”
“Deal.”
I didn’t have any real use for a Rocket Launcher, but being able to say “Hey I have a Rocket Launcher.” Is all the reason I could ever need!
I had never been a particularly focused person in my last life. I wasn’t dedicated to self improvement, I liked TV shows, and games, and movies far too much for that.
So why was it that I barely did any of my favorite things in this life? Was it a good thing? Some people would say yes.
But I wasn’t sure it was healthy for me. The closest thing I had done creatively had been working with tech, but that was just another aspect of grinding to grow stronger.
Every aspect of my life was rotating around improving my ability to kill… Was that right? It didn’t bother me exactly. I liked it. I liked fighting, and I loved being better than others at killing. Anyone who played nearly any video game could attest how great it felt to be strong.
But was that all I wanted out of this second life? Was all the freedom I had thanks to my growing skills, only meant to create paths towards more killing more death?
No.
I realized that my life wasn’t just this. As much as I enjoyed it, I shouldn’t exist solely as a merc. I mean this wasn’t a game, even if I was a gamer. Did I want to spend the rest of my life as nothing but a killer for hire?
No.
I had just been having so much fun I hyper focused!
Oops!
So I took the rest of the afternoon to watch future TV shows, some of which were at least interesting, and some awful. I didn’t really like TV in the future. I didn’t really like the books… But I also hadn’t really searched for things I would like. It’s like watching daytime TV and thinking that was all that was on the TV.
As I explored the different channels and read, I was texting with Hiromi who confirmed she had gotten permission to skip school to come along to the Aldecaldo BBQ!
Road trip with the best choom is a go.
—--
“Finally!” I groaned as I pulled out from Hiromi’s garage the next morning. I had been running late as Jun had gotten all protective when I told him what I was up to.
It had taken me a few minutes to remember I was fourteen, and heading out to the badlands to party with a bunch of nomads.
So okay, when you put it like that Jun had a point.
But when I explained it was mostly about what we had done that night, and that I certainly would shoot anyone that tried something, plus Hiromi was coming. He had finally loosened up and I had managed to escape his clutches.
Hiromi hadn’t taken long to flop into the car, her bag of snacks she was bringing along dropped onto my own bag of goodies once she settled in.
“Wooo!” She screamed out the window as we headed out onto the city streets, “Freedom!”
“Don’t be too happy yet, choom. We have a long drive to get there.”
“It’ll be a lot shorter if you let me drive.” She grumbled at me, and I just chuckled.
She had no idea.
I drove safely, and followed all the laws within the city, but as soon as we started hitting dirt?
Well I waited for Hiromi to be slightly distracted, with nothing on the road in front of me, when I suddenly floored it.
Her jerking reaction to my sudden acceleration was great, her mouth full of some chips, or some snack food meant her shocked gasped sent her into a coughing fit as I tore down the road.
“Motoko!” She said in delight when she finally got herself back under control, and seeing me absolutely flooring it over the desert road.
“Hiromi!” I chirped back, completely at ease despite going so fast.
“You’re going fast!”
“So I am.” I said smiling which had her giggling in delight.
“So there is a troublemaker in there!”
“I’m not in the city, and there is no longer a posted speed limit. Of course I’ll drive how I want.” I said simply but my firm tone was ruined by my lips fighting back more smiles.
“You are such a gonk. You should just drive like this from now on.”
“Nah. Jun made me promise not to drive fast in the city, I apparently scared him the last time I did it.”
“Aww I wanted to see that.” She said laughing, and I just shrugged as I noticed my turn off. With a casual press of the clutch, shifting slightly, and then pressing on the break I was in a perfectly controlled drift.
Hiromi couldn’t enjoy the look as she wasn’t wearing her seat belt properly, despite my multiple warnings to stop taking it off. So she soon found her face pressed up against the passenger window for a few moments until I finished the drift and was heading straight down the new road.
“Wha… Wha?” She muttered looking delightfully confused at her new situation.
“I told you to put your seat belt on. Hold on.” I said as I was coming up to the next street I needed to turn onto.
This time Hiromi was actually able to realize what was happening.
I ended up pouting from then on, because she didn’t scare like Jun instead whooping and hollering in delight every time I drifted,
It wasn’t fair! I wanted to mess with her!
—---
I pulled up to the Aldecaldos camp going a much more sedate speed. Despite Hiromi’s badgering to speed up again. I didn’t want to come in too hot with the nomads. I pulled up to the camp and parked off the road near where a few of their cars were parked including a few familiar and freshly painted cars.
I stepped out, Hiromi following me a moment later. Her head was practically on a swivel as she took in the new location.
“Be cool Hiromi.” I reminded her as I walked up to a familiar face who was walking up to greet me.
“Motoko!”
“Scorpion!” I greeted right back smiling as the older man laughed and to my surprise instantly invaded my personal space pulling me into a hug and literally spinning me around.
“Nice to see you too Scorpion.” I mumbled a little dazed as he set me down.
“I still owed you that from when you pulled my ass out of the Raffen nest. Who’s your friend?” he asked, pulling away a bit giving me some space.
“I’m Hiromi! Motoko’s best Choom!” She said suddenly at my side and grabbed my arm.
“Hey, nice to meet you. Any friend of Motoko is one of mine.” He said with a smile before turning and waving me on. “C’mon I bet you’re hungry the drive out from the city takes forever. Let’s get some food in those bellies. Saul is distracted right now, so it’s the best time to meet everyone.” Scorpion offered with a laugh as he guided us deeper into the camp.
A few minutes later with a plate full of barbeque ribs, that were definitely not actual meat, but was tasty. And something that looked sort of like pulled pork, but wasn’t. I was sitting around a table with a few nomads all tossing around stories of their own run-ins with the Raffen, made me realize how nice it all was.
I get it. I understand the reason Nomads live like this. Out on the plains and deserts of America. The freedom was only part of it. The other part was the connection you feel with everyone. These people weren’t all blood related, but they were all family. All lived together, got along, and knew each other's jokes.
There was an actual connection between them. something that was missing from Night City.
It was nice.
“And then she sits in the closet and waits for the guy to ‘finish’ up if you know what I mean.” Hiromi’s voice suddenly pulled me away from hearing about other Raffen raids over the years.
“Hiromi! Don’t tell people about that!” I called out as I quickly put down the pretty tasty BBQ I was eating to yell at my choom.
“Motoko you literally recorded it. You can’t complain about people talking about it.” She offered looking to Scorpion who was sitting beside her, and who she was telling the story about.
I don’t know how but the two had swiftly started swapping stories. Mostly about me, and seemed to be getting along.
“You really hid in the closet?” Scorpion asked, looking half a second away from bursting into laughter.
“It was the only other door in the room. They didn’t catch me or anything. And he was fast… At least.” I grumbled a bit but Scorpion was already chuckling.
“You said this was a BD. Where can I get a copy. I gotta see this.”
“Motoko gave me my set, but it’s the Mox right?” Hiromi asked and I sort of twisted my hand.
“Honestly, I’m not sure it’s officially a Mox thing. Nox is the guy selling the BD’s. It was his idea and well, he is a Mox, but I’m not sure how official it all is. If you really want a copy, I can figure something out?”
“Eh. I’ve been to Lizzies before… I mean-”
“Oooh. When did this happen Scorpion?” A voice called out and I looked up only to be forced to fall into Cold Blood to keep myself from gasping in delight.
Panam!
I watched in delight as she threw an arm over Scorpions shoulder and teased him about having visited the BD bar when in the city.
She glanced over Hiromi and me with a curious look, before it suddenly struck her. “Oh! You’re the one that cleared up the Raffen! And saved Scorpion.” She said, a teasing in drawl added on the end, but I could tell it was to tease Scorpion, not because she didn’t care.
“I’m Motoko, this is Hiromi my Choom. Yeah. That’s me.” I added smiling at the older woman. What else could I do? Panam was cool.
And we wore similar outfits! She had a leotard and jeans on too! She was obviously a woman of excellent taste!
“Then I guess I owe you one. Name’s Panam. You saved Scorpion, so you’re owed one in my book.” She said reaching over and pushing Scorpion a bit on the shoulder earning a slapping hand in return, a few moments of nearly siblings squabbling went on much to my delight.
Yeah, I guess I kinda liked the Nomads. It was cozy.
Then, a voice cut through all the chatter. “So this is her.” The man was instantly recognizable to me. Saul. The head of the Aldecaldos. Or at least this group fo them. The man in charge.
“Saul! Yeah this is Motoko.” Scorpion called out pushing Panams hand away where she had been messing with him. “Motoko, this is Saul, Leader of the Aldecaldos.” He introduced me and I nodded, grabbing a napkin and wiping away as much of the barbeque sauce around my mouth as I could.
Thanks Aldecaldos, couldn’t have introduced me to your leader until after I was two hands deep into a plate of barbeque huh?
“Nice to meet you.” I added once I was cleaned up.
“Walk with me.” He suddenly said and while he didn’t quite start walking away he made it obvious it was more command than request.
I kept a smile on my face even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of being ordered around. I let it go. Just couldn’t take it personally. Saul was used to getting his way, that’s all. Besides, I wanted to know what he was thinking.
Nomads didn’t usually welcome people into their camp like this, at least as far as I could pick up. It’s not like most people in Night City even gave more than a passing thought to the Nomads. They were a different breed as far as Night City residents were concerned.
I rose up waving off Hiromi, as she was rising to stand up as well, “Scorpion keep Hiromi company okay?” I asked and he gave me a nod and the table seemed to relax as Scorpion started up another story to Hiromi who looked conflicted but settled down.
I followed after Saul as he started walking through the camp, not really seeming to head anywhere in particular, just walking around.
“Twice now you’ve done us a favor, and that I can’t just ignore.” He finally said as we came to a quiet part of the camp, empty tents and places where people slept setup all around. “Not a fan of outsiders doing us favors. Always leads to some sort of trouble. But I also can’t just let it go. You saved Scorpion. Even if he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to, he is one of us.”
“I was just hired for a job.” I demurred, but Saul just ignored it.
“You don’t know, but the Wraiths have been in a frenzy since then. Twice now we’ve been raided. You saved Scorpion, but threw the Wraiths into a frenzy. Now you did it again. You helped us, gave us access to new vehicles, but the fact is, you also made living out here more dangerous. With so many cars lost the Raffen will seek out new ones. See the problem?”
“I guess I understand what you are saying. Poking the Raffen means they try to poke back.”
“Exactly.” He stopped walking, turning to me. Which was annoying as the guy was pretty tall. And I was only fourteen.
“I appreciate your help. I do. You did us a favor with good intentions, but good intentions can still cause us problems.”
“The Wraiths really that big of a deal? I’ve killed a bunch of them by now. How many more do they have?”
“Hundreds. Thousands.” He answered simply to my surprise. “You city folk think the Raffen are just another street gang, but they are worse than that. They hunt anyone on the roads. Doesn’t matter who. The Wraiths circling Night City are more than a thousand strong. My clan only has five hundred and some extra.”
I blinked at that. Those numbers were crazy. The camp here only had what, maybe a hundred?” Seeing my confusion and looking around he scoffed.
“We don’t all stay together at once. Too many mouths to feed in one camp. Split up it’s easier to keep everyone fed, but makes us easier prey.”
“So why not gather all together and wipe out the Wraiths?” I asked the question that had been bugging me for a while. The Aldecaldos were a massive group, even if they were spread out across America.
“They have backing kid. You think the corporations aren’t more than happy to have a bunch of sociopaths like the Wraiths willing to hunt people for them? You noticed all the equipment they had at the camp you rescued Scorpion from didn’t you? Ever wonder where they got all the expensive sensor gear for their camp? Millitech, Arasaka, Kang Tao or any of the others. Any corp that wants a competitor to have some trouble, to have shipments suddenly stop arriving through the badlands.” Saul grunted scratching at his beard for a moment.
“I see. The Corps use them as deniable forces, hit their enemies… it’s not like the Raffen are considered a threat to anyone outside the badlands.”
“Exactly, but that’s not what we are here for.” He looked to me his green eyes dark. “The Clan owes you a debt. I don’t like owing debts to outsiders. Twice now you’ve helped us. I can’t pay you for the vehicles not fully. Not in eddies.” He said bluntly.
“Okay? So what can you do? Honestly. I’m not bothered about it… I don’t much like the Raffen so just hurting them was good enough for me.”
“Well I am. We pay our debts. Always. I’ve been forced to think about what we can do. What we can afford to offer in exchange for the cars… Damn Scorpion for being so stupid to take them without asking.” He cursed suddenly to my surprise the man looked…
Stressed.
“Saul?”
“Not your fault kid. Not Scorpions either. He was right to do it. This is my problem. The vehicles were needed, but now I’m stuck trying to figure out how to pay for them.” He grumbled, looking down at me with a look in his eyes that expressed his frustration.
Yeah Saul wasn’t having a good day.
“Okay so let’s push eddies off the table. Again, I only called up Scorpion because I knew he needed a ride. And that he could get the vehicles out of Wraith hands. You guys did me a favor that night.”
“Hardly. Wraiths are a nomad problem. Not exactly something Street Kids have any issues with.”
“They shot me. So Yeah. I have an issue with them. Getting shot makes me testy.” I countered instantly, a little heated. “But fuck it. You don’t have eddies? Fine. I’m not really hurting for eddies anyways. Merc work pays well. So what do you have? You want to pay me back? What can you offer?”
“Membership.” He said suddenly, surprising me. “You’re young. Gotta know how shit it is in the City. Join our Clan. Become an Aldecaldos Nomad. We’d welcome you. It might take a while to adjust, but you’ve proven yourself to my people. You’d fit in here.”
“I can’t.” I refused instantly, shaking my head.. “I have family in Night City, friends. As nice as it sounds to wander the desert, living life as it comes, it’s not for me. I’m a city girl.”
“Well I expected as much.” He said with a shrug. “But still. You’re welcome here. That offers some benefits. You might not realize it, but most of us have military experience. You want to be a merc? Then you’ll need knowledge, stuff you can’t just get on the street. We can help. Will help. We have stuff we make that can be useful to someone looking for a fight.” He tilted his head over and led me to a truck, which when he opened up I understood what he was saying.
“That’s a lot of guns.”
He nodded, having flicked on the lights to the moving truck, showing me the inside was literally an armory. “We keep well armed. Even have things you can’t find easily in the cities.” He said, pointing out a beautiful Techtronika SPT32 Grad.
It was an anti-material Sniper Rifle.
I want one. I want one sooo bad. Bitches love cannons!
Instantly I walked over to it, it was resting on a bench tool strewn around. Someone was tinkering. No, I noticed as my eyes scanned it down. Someone had already tinkered. This wasn’t just any Grad. It was the fucking Overwatch.
I instantly hyper focused on the Suppressor attached to the end of the thing. I didn’t remember the exact name of the nomad, but one of them had managed to get a Suppressor working on the AT rifle.
“Okay who did this, and where are they, because they need to teach me.” I told Saul as I started taking scans and checking over the Overwatch.
“Mitch. He made that during the war. Saved his hide a few times from the stories he tells. Not for sale.”
“Don’t want it. You wanted to pay me back? Then, I’ll consider it a fair trade, if you have Mitch teach me about his work on this baby.” It old him, my hands already feeling over the suppressor as my eyes scanned it down.
“Huh. Bit of a tinker are you?”
“Yeah! Just a bit.” I mumbled. Looking over the Overwatch. Normally a suppressor was either screwed into the barrel, or an attachment you would hook over the edge of a muzzle break and lock in.
This one? There was no separate attachment. The entire barrel was a custom job, suppressor included. Which was crazy. Suppressors didn’t last forever. So Mitch would have to replace the entire barrel pretty consistently.
Unless he figured something interesting out.
“I’ll talk to him, see if he’s willing. But that alone doesn’t square us. So let’s talk.”
I would be happy with a few of the shinies that were hanging around the armory, but as my eyes scanned the inside of the place, something caught my eye.
“That.” I demanded with a pointed finger.
“Hmm? What? Kid. What would you even use one of those for? We don’t even use them.”
“Those of the words of a man who has never created a situation to shoot a rocket launcher before. That’s the deal.” I said hungrily looking over the stack of boxes that had “Techtronika T40 Uragan” Stamped on the side. I recognized the name. They were rocket launchers.
10 shot homing rocket launchers.
Why didn't I have a 10 shot homing Rocket Launcher!?
Saul let out a sigh and shrugged.
“Fine. But if anyone ever asks you didn’t get them from us.”
“Deal.”
I didn’t have any real use for a Rocket Launcher, but being able to say “Hey I have a Rocket Launcher.” Is all the reason I could ever need!
xachariahxx
Well-known member
I've been in this spot in my life, and this makes me a little sad to see Motoko feel this way. I hope that Motoko realizes that it's totally okay to hyperfocus too. Sorry if this is long, it's a good sign when a story hits close to home.
I've done programming for work, while doing programming for education, while spending my free time on programming as a hobby. I had people tell me it wasn't healthy which made me feel like I ought to branch out, but in retrospect, they were totally wrong. I was having a blast and creating great things and learning a ton. I think it's honestly a great state to be in; when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. That feeling doesn't stay forever and eventually my interests mellowed out. So, IMO, if you're in a spot where your interests all align like that you should push it to the max while you can.
I've similarly seen a friend who got really interested in his creative work, where his passion became his art/hobby/moneymaker all in the same, and he was honestly living his best life like that. I think it's the best state a person can be in. It's like a flow state, but for your entire life.
Picking up new interests is cool, but this sounds less like that. If Motoko is doing what she loves and getting paid for it, she shouldn't feel pressured to do anything different just because other people say she "should" do other things.
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Seras
Well-known member
Oh I agree with you. It's more "I really shouldn't hyperfocus on killing and preparing to kill more when there is more to life than just murder." Rather than "I like doing this, but I shouldn't only do this."
Blasterbot
Well-known member
I can't argue with it. She has a rocket launcher.
Vetrom
war
Isn't this the perfect setup for "Whoops! Here I go killing again!"? Granted, that struggle seems to be a theme, especially for our totally-not-a-Kamikaze definitely-not-a-killbot.
.
.
.
inb4 she turns the Quadra into a HiMARS technical rocket lobbing monstrosity.
(Just put that compact turret on top. Sarna provides!)
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Chapter 52
Seras
Well-known member
It took a while to get everything sorted with Saul. First I got my Uragan of course, but I also got dragged around to talk to Mitch, and a few other Nomads regarding some of the stuff I wanted to know.
Mitch had been a bit grumpy about having to give away the knowledge of how to craft his baby, the Overwatch. Which really just meant the Suppressor. Turns out the reason it worked was a little trick with some crazy nanite goop that he had come across and fiddled with during the war. The inside of the Suppressor was literally a nanite swarm.
Fucking cool.
He did relent to give me the blueprints for how to make the stuff myself in a shard, but only after I promised to never tell anyone else.
Works for me. It’s not like I wanted someone else to have a silenced AT rifle.
With that done, and everything packed up in the trunk of the Quadra I went looking for my Choom.
“Hey Hiromi.” I greeted as I settled down onto the wooden stump beside her.
I had found her sitting around a firepit where all the nomads were hanging out, a few were even singing along to songs a cowboy was strumming out.
It was homey, and Hiromi was obviously having fun.
“Motoko! Done doing business?”
“For now! Saul finally pushed enough stuff at me, that he isn’t feeling bad about a debt anymore. But we are welcome to hang around. What’s this?” I asked as I took the seat next to her.
“Oh Daniel over here isn’t bad with a guitar and nomad karaoke is hilarious.” She tells me, the last part in a whisper. Grinning in delight as the singing continues, some weird country sounding tune that was very Cyberpunk being belted out at the top of the group of singers lungs. They were obviously drunk, and having the time of their life.
“Preem.” I said with a laugh as the voice cracks were making me giggle along with Hiromi.
“Hey don’t poke fun, unless you are willing to do it too.” Scorpion said, over Hiromi’s head. He was sitting on Hiromi's other side, laying back and seemingly enjoying the atmosphere.
“No way. I don’t sing.” I denied instantly crossing my arms in an X.
But this of course only threw blood into the water.
Scorpion and Hiromi both turned to me with a sinister grin.
“Don’t even think about it.” I grumbled. But that only made it worse. A few moments later I was being pushed into the ‘singing’ spot and watched over by my betraying chooms.
“C’mon! I don’t even know the lyrics to these songs!” I grumbled, but that only made Hiromi giggle all the louder.
“But you know the Samurai songs! Hey hey! Mark play Chippin’ In! Motoko knows the lyrics!” Hiromi called out, but I was trying to smother her.
“No I don’t!” I hissed, but then cheers went up around the fire as the intro to Chippin’ in started up.
“Fuck.”
“That’s not the lyrics!” Scorpion cheered and I felt myself flush a bit. Fine! I went cold, which thankfully cleared out the embarrassment. Mostly.
“C-can you feel it!” I belted out the first words to the song only stumbling a little on the words as the drunk Nomads cheered. Mark the guitar player wasn’t perfect, but he did a pretty good job of keeping up with the tempo of the song, and I had listened to the songs pretty often while driving around Night City. Or just on the radio while I was tinkering, or grinding.
So fine. Yeah I know the lyrics! What of it!?
When the song finally came to an end everyone was cheering Hiromi laughing in delight as she hugged my side and the Nomads were just having a great time. I blew out a heavy breath making Hiromi giggle even more.
“You’re so bad it’s great!”
“So embarrassing.” I uttered now that I let go of the cold blood.
“Now now kids, be nice. Relax kid this is just meant to be fun, you should hear Saul trying to sing to his favorites, man is completely tone deaf too… Anyway you a Samurai fan?” Mark asked from his stump.
“I mean… I guess?”
“Well hell let’s do another then, not often I get to play the classics. You aren’t Silverhand, but I’m not Eurodyne. Just have fun with it.” Mark the guitar player said, strumming a few notes and smiling up at me.
“No, no I think I’m done playing Rockerboy right now.” I grumbled which had Hiromi pouting. But the nomads laughed along and soon another song was playing.
Which gave me a bit of time to check on my menu. I had gotten a beep of an alert coming in while I sang, and that was…
Weird.
What the hell was leveling up?
Then I opened it and nearly choked on my tongue.
*Rockerboy Experience Gained.*
*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*
*Rockerboy Unlocked.*
What the fuck? Rockerboy!? I was blinking away my shock trying to process when I remembered. In the TTRPG, Rockerboy was one of the classes, like how Solo, or Netrunner were a few of the others.
I guess… It made sense. 2077, had streamlined the classes as part of the system, just creating the skills as part of the skill tree. V hadn’t had any Rockerboy skills, but then again he also had Johnny Silverhand in his head sort of acting as a max level Rockerboy…
So I guess this was a thing… Fuck! It was so embarrassing! I had been singing! I was level 0, that meant my skill was garbage! If I had known I could have grinded out a few levels and actually been amazing before I had to sing in front of strangers! Hiromi! This is all your fault! I groaned into my arms as I put my head against my knees. I could feel my ears burning!
I was pouting for the next few minutes. I knew that. Hiromi knew that and was even teasing me a little for being all embarrassed about it.
But it was! I was gonna go home, and grind so hard! I was gonna be an amazing Rockerboy the next time Hiromi tried to embarrass me, and then I would shock her! She would be like ‘Motoko you’re so amazing! I’m so sorry for trying to embarrass you!’ and stuff!
It would be perfect!
Wait… It made me think. I did like music, I just was terrible at it… Wasn’t music a pretty good hobby? I could play an instrument and sing, and it would give myself something to do completely outside of me being a merc. I could grind and practice it while having fun making music! There! See Rita! I can do more than just merc stuff!
Something that wasn’t murdering people, or better ways to get to people to murder!
This could work.
Hiromi poking my cheek distracted me from my thoughts, “C’mon ‘Toko don’t be so grumpy. It was just one song.”
I shook my head wiping the thoughts away. I wasn’t going to let a little embarrassment hold me down!
“I’m fine. You want to grab some more food?” I asked her as I rose up and she nodded, reaching up to grab my hand as we wandered back to the kitchen area.
Barbeque! It was pretty good even if it wasn’t real meat.
—--
As nice as it was, I did eventually get started on the drive home that night. I didn’t really feel like sleeping in one of the Nomads tents, as nice as they were to offer. With everything decided between me and Saul I packed up Hiromi in the passenger seat, as she was getting pretty drowsy by now, and started driving home.
As we headed out I left the headlights off. Honestly my Kiroshi let me see better without the light. Trying to see into the darkness through the bright lights was actually harder.
“Can you even see anything?” Hiromi asked, surprising me, and of course my many years of filling my brain with movies provided me an answer.
“I see everything.” I said back mimicking Arnold's voice for a moment. Ah Terminator 2. Such a good movie.
Then I realized Hiromi had no idea what I was doing. “Ah yeah. I see just fine. Want me to turn the lights on so you can see?”
“Nah ain’t anything to look at anyways. You okay to drive? Not-” She broke up her sentence with a long yawn. “Tired?”
“I’m fine. Actually a little energized, I talked to a Mox I know the other day and she suggested I take up a spiritual hobby, something that won’t just leave me running towards fights all the time… I think I found it.” I told Hiromi. Although afterwards her many questions were ignored, I would tell her when I was ready.
Because music was very spiritual! It wasn’t directly related to me being a merc! I could grind and practice it while having fun making music! There! See Rita! I can do more than just merc stuff!
I was tempted to start grinding on the way home by singing along to the radio, but Hiromi was there, and my stat was still 0. And I hadn’t gotten any alerts for doing that before. There may be more to grinding it than just singing along to a recorded song.
I would need to experiment!
—--
After dropping off a sleepy Hiromi at home, I didn’t instantly head home myself. Instead I did a quick search and went looking for a store.
Luckily this was Night City.
A 24/7 music store was pretty easy to find. It was mostly empty at this time of night, but it would do. I walked in, the instruments along the walls weren’t open and free to take all of them secured and under surveillance, and a pop out turret if my eyes didn’t deceive me.
This was Night City after all.
Instead I found a guitar that I thought would work and let the man at the counter know. Only after paying for it did he go bring it down, I did grab a “How to play the Guitar” shard as well on my way out, it was cheap, and I honestly didn’t know how to play.
I just needed enough of a start to hit level 1, and I should be good to go.
So I headed home. The apartment was quiet when I got in, and I dropped the Guitar on the living room table right next to my laptops, and my tinkering gear… And my guns.
Okay so Jun may have a point when he talks about me needing to clean up a bit.
Speaking of Jun, I peeked into his bedroom and he wasn’t there. Considering how late it was, that made me a little concerned, so I sent off a text asking if he was alright. Then sighed in relief that he wasn’t here as I headed back outside to my Quadra.
The Uragan needed to be brought inside… After successfully. Mostly. Bringing the crate with the launcher and ammunition into the apartment and hiding it under my bed.
I mean not hiding it. Because hiding it meant I was embarrassed I now had a Rocket Launcher. I was just… Saving it. For later. Along with a few of the other goodies that Saul had sent me off with. Honestly I was just glad the Quadra had a big trunk because it had all barely fit.
Once that was done I settled down on the couch.
“Okay Motoko, just… Play the Guitar.” I told myself as I picked it up, and strummed a chord… Well tried too.
I winced at the tone in my head. The noise was… Well.
It wasn’t any musical note I had ever heard. Realizing how loud it could be as well, I grabbed my cord out of the back of my neck and pushed it into the access port of the guitar. One of the reasons I bought this guitar specifically. I could jack into it, and instead of playing the sound aloud, it would play in my head.
I also grabbed the How to Guitar shard and clicked that in. Following along as it walked me through playing baby chords.
The problem was, it wasn’t giving me any experience. I stopped after about twenty minutes with nothing to show for it.
“What am I missing?” I wondered, grumbling as I rested back and closed my eyes. It wasn’t just singing or something, because I sang along to the radio plenty of times.
Was it the people? With no one to hear, did I not get Rockerboy XP?
That seemed… Annoying. I guess I could go outside and play on the street?
The flutter in my stomach at that thought told me that wasn’t going to happen. Instead I decided to try a few other things. I turned on the radio until I found a song I actually knew the lyrics for, and started singing along, strumming the Guitar as best I could following along.
When the song finished I flushed in pleasure.
*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*
Okay! So I could gain XP without people watching… What was it exactly though? I continued working on it, a few hours of grinding and I had some basic answers.
I had to actually complete the song to get XP. From start to finish. If I stopped halfway I got nothing.
I guess my system agreed that the show must go on.
Each completed song seemed to get me an alert, so completing a full song was the way to grind. Which meant I spent a lot of time on Morro Rock, for the Samurai songs.
But it worked. As I played along song after song, singing and trying to strum the guitar to the right chord.
It wasn’t the right chord… ever. It was an attempt. Completing a song, right or wrong was where the XP came from.
But it didn’t matter. Alerts came in, and eventually? Eventually I got it.
*Rockerboy skill level up!*
And suddenly I knew the basic chords. I couldn’t perfectly pick out the right chord to a song, but I now at least knew when I was on the right track. I adjusted my fingers, actually holding the damn thing correctly now, and with a movement played my first real chord.
My playing along actually started to sound… Okay.
Just okay.
So I needed more levels. As I worked on it, I was trying to memorize more songs as well.
I wasn’t very good at it, never could remember lyrics to songs perfectly well. Thankfully as long as I kept trying, the system didn’t seem to care if I butchered some lyrics, which I did. A lot.
Which is why I was forced to change radio stations at times. Some of the songs were things I had never heard before. Couldn’t exactly sing along to a song you’ve never heard before. But it was taking a lot of concentration to get right.
Which is why I didn’t hear the door. I was half way through Resist and Disorder by the Cartesian Duelists, one of my favorite songs in this world so far, when Jun suddenly walked in.
I could feel my throat close as my soul died. I had been audibly singing…
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
His lips twitched.
Mine quivered.
I could feel the heat shooting up my neck. My neck, my cheeks, my ears were all growing red. I just knew it!
He turned and walked into his room without a word, and honestly? I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than if he had actually said something.
I turned the radio off. I was done grinding. Instead I pushed my face into a pillow and pretended nothing existed for a while.
Mitch had been a bit grumpy about having to give away the knowledge of how to craft his baby, the Overwatch. Which really just meant the Suppressor. Turns out the reason it worked was a little trick with some crazy nanite goop that he had come across and fiddled with during the war. The inside of the Suppressor was literally a nanite swarm.
Fucking cool.
He did relent to give me the blueprints for how to make the stuff myself in a shard, but only after I promised to never tell anyone else.
Works for me. It’s not like I wanted someone else to have a silenced AT rifle.
With that done, and everything packed up in the trunk of the Quadra I went looking for my Choom.
“Hey Hiromi.” I greeted as I settled down onto the wooden stump beside her.
I had found her sitting around a firepit where all the nomads were hanging out, a few were even singing along to songs a cowboy was strumming out.
It was homey, and Hiromi was obviously having fun.
“Motoko! Done doing business?”
“For now! Saul finally pushed enough stuff at me, that he isn’t feeling bad about a debt anymore. But we are welcome to hang around. What’s this?” I asked as I took the seat next to her.
“Oh Daniel over here isn’t bad with a guitar and nomad karaoke is hilarious.” She tells me, the last part in a whisper. Grinning in delight as the singing continues, some weird country sounding tune that was very Cyberpunk being belted out at the top of the group of singers lungs. They were obviously drunk, and having the time of their life.
“Preem.” I said with a laugh as the voice cracks were making me giggle along with Hiromi.
“Hey don’t poke fun, unless you are willing to do it too.” Scorpion said, over Hiromi’s head. He was sitting on Hiromi's other side, laying back and seemingly enjoying the atmosphere.
“No way. I don’t sing.” I denied instantly crossing my arms in an X.
But this of course only threw blood into the water.
Scorpion and Hiromi both turned to me with a sinister grin.
“Don’t even think about it.” I grumbled. But that only made it worse. A few moments later I was being pushed into the ‘singing’ spot and watched over by my betraying chooms.
“C’mon! I don’t even know the lyrics to these songs!” I grumbled, but that only made Hiromi giggle all the louder.
“But you know the Samurai songs! Hey hey! Mark play Chippin’ In! Motoko knows the lyrics!” Hiromi called out, but I was trying to smother her.
“No I don’t!” I hissed, but then cheers went up around the fire as the intro to Chippin’ in started up.
“Fuck.”
“That’s not the lyrics!” Scorpion cheered and I felt myself flush a bit. Fine! I went cold, which thankfully cleared out the embarrassment. Mostly.
“C-can you feel it!” I belted out the first words to the song only stumbling a little on the words as the drunk Nomads cheered. Mark the guitar player wasn’t perfect, but he did a pretty good job of keeping up with the tempo of the song, and I had listened to the songs pretty often while driving around Night City. Or just on the radio while I was tinkering, or grinding.
So fine. Yeah I know the lyrics! What of it!?
When the song finally came to an end everyone was cheering Hiromi laughing in delight as she hugged my side and the Nomads were just having a great time. I blew out a heavy breath making Hiromi giggle even more.
“You’re so bad it’s great!”
“So embarrassing.” I uttered now that I let go of the cold blood.
“Now now kids, be nice. Relax kid this is just meant to be fun, you should hear Saul trying to sing to his favorites, man is completely tone deaf too… Anyway you a Samurai fan?” Mark asked from his stump.
“I mean… I guess?”
“Well hell let’s do another then, not often I get to play the classics. You aren’t Silverhand, but I’m not Eurodyne. Just have fun with it.” Mark the guitar player said, strumming a few notes and smiling up at me.
“No, no I think I’m done playing Rockerboy right now.” I grumbled which had Hiromi pouting. But the nomads laughed along and soon another song was playing.
Which gave me a bit of time to check on my menu. I had gotten a beep of an alert coming in while I sang, and that was…
Weird.
What the hell was leveling up?
Then I opened it and nearly choked on my tongue.
*Rockerboy Experience Gained.*
*Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*
*Rockerboy Unlocked.*
What the fuck? Rockerboy!? I was blinking away my shock trying to process when I remembered. In the TTRPG, Rockerboy was one of the classes, like how Solo, or Netrunner were a few of the others.
I guess… It made sense. 2077, had streamlined the classes as part of the system, just creating the skills as part of the skill tree. V hadn’t had any Rockerboy skills, but then again he also had Johnny Silverhand in his head sort of acting as a max level Rockerboy…
So I guess this was a thing… Fuck! It was so embarrassing! I had been singing! I was level 0, that meant my skill was garbage! If I had known I could have grinded out a few levels and actually been amazing before I had to sing in front of strangers! Hiromi! This is all your fault! I groaned into my arms as I put my head against my knees. I could feel my ears burning!
I was pouting for the next few minutes. I knew that. Hiromi knew that and was even teasing me a little for being all embarrassed about it.
But it was! I was gonna go home, and grind so hard! I was gonna be an amazing Rockerboy the next time Hiromi tried to embarrass me, and then I would shock her! She would be like ‘Motoko you’re so amazing! I’m so sorry for trying to embarrass you!’ and stuff!
It would be perfect!
Wait… It made me think. I did like music, I just was terrible at it… Wasn’t music a pretty good hobby? I could play an instrument and sing, and it would give myself something to do completely outside of me being a merc. I could grind and practice it while having fun making music! There! See Rita! I can do more than just merc stuff!
Something that wasn’t murdering people, or better ways to get to people to murder!
This could work.
Hiromi poking my cheek distracted me from my thoughts, “C’mon ‘Toko don’t be so grumpy. It was just one song.”
I shook my head wiping the thoughts away. I wasn’t going to let a little embarrassment hold me down!
“I’m fine. You want to grab some more food?” I asked her as I rose up and she nodded, reaching up to grab my hand as we wandered back to the kitchen area.
Barbeque! It was pretty good even if it wasn’t real meat.
—--
As nice as it was, I did eventually get started on the drive home that night. I didn’t really feel like sleeping in one of the Nomads tents, as nice as they were to offer. With everything decided between me and Saul I packed up Hiromi in the passenger seat, as she was getting pretty drowsy by now, and started driving home.
As we headed out I left the headlights off. Honestly my Kiroshi let me see better without the light. Trying to see into the darkness through the bright lights was actually harder.
“Can you even see anything?” Hiromi asked, surprising me, and of course my many years of filling my brain with movies provided me an answer.
“I see everything.” I said back mimicking Arnold's voice for a moment. Ah Terminator 2. Such a good movie.
Then I realized Hiromi had no idea what I was doing. “Ah yeah. I see just fine. Want me to turn the lights on so you can see?”
“Nah ain’t anything to look at anyways. You okay to drive? Not-” She broke up her sentence with a long yawn. “Tired?”
“I’m fine. Actually a little energized, I talked to a Mox I know the other day and she suggested I take up a spiritual hobby, something that won’t just leave me running towards fights all the time… I think I found it.” I told Hiromi. Although afterwards her many questions were ignored, I would tell her when I was ready.
Because music was very spiritual! It wasn’t directly related to me being a merc! I could grind and practice it while having fun making music! There! See Rita! I can do more than just merc stuff!
I was tempted to start grinding on the way home by singing along to the radio, but Hiromi was there, and my stat was still 0. And I hadn’t gotten any alerts for doing that before. There may be more to grinding it than just singing along to a recorded song.
I would need to experiment!
—--
After dropping off a sleepy Hiromi at home, I didn’t instantly head home myself. Instead I did a quick search and went looking for a store.
Luckily this was Night City.
A 24/7 music store was pretty easy to find. It was mostly empty at this time of night, but it would do. I walked in, the instruments along the walls weren’t open and free to take all of them secured and under surveillance, and a pop out turret if my eyes didn’t deceive me.
This was Night City after all.
Instead I found a guitar that I thought would work and let the man at the counter know. Only after paying for it did he go bring it down, I did grab a “How to play the Guitar” shard as well on my way out, it was cheap, and I honestly didn’t know how to play.
I just needed enough of a start to hit level 1, and I should be good to go.
So I headed home. The apartment was quiet when I got in, and I dropped the Guitar on the living room table right next to my laptops, and my tinkering gear… And my guns.
Okay so Jun may have a point when he talks about me needing to clean up a bit.
Speaking of Jun, I peeked into his bedroom and he wasn’t there. Considering how late it was, that made me a little concerned, so I sent off a text asking if he was alright. Then sighed in relief that he wasn’t here as I headed back outside to my Quadra.
The Uragan needed to be brought inside… After successfully. Mostly. Bringing the crate with the launcher and ammunition into the apartment and hiding it under my bed.
I mean not hiding it. Because hiding it meant I was embarrassed I now had a Rocket Launcher. I was just… Saving it. For later. Along with a few of the other goodies that Saul had sent me off with. Honestly I was just glad the Quadra had a big trunk because it had all barely fit.
Once that was done I settled down on the couch.
“Okay Motoko, just… Play the Guitar.” I told myself as I picked it up, and strummed a chord… Well tried too.
I winced at the tone in my head. The noise was… Well.
It wasn’t any musical note I had ever heard. Realizing how loud it could be as well, I grabbed my cord out of the back of my neck and pushed it into the access port of the guitar. One of the reasons I bought this guitar specifically. I could jack into it, and instead of playing the sound aloud, it would play in my head.
I also grabbed the How to Guitar shard and clicked that in. Following along as it walked me through playing baby chords.
The problem was, it wasn’t giving me any experience. I stopped after about twenty minutes with nothing to show for it.
“What am I missing?” I wondered, grumbling as I rested back and closed my eyes. It wasn’t just singing or something, because I sang along to the radio plenty of times.
Was it the people? With no one to hear, did I not get Rockerboy XP?
That seemed… Annoying. I guess I could go outside and play on the street?
The flutter in my stomach at that thought told me that wasn’t going to happen. Instead I decided to try a few other things. I turned on the radio until I found a song I actually knew the lyrics for, and started singing along, strumming the Guitar as best I could following along.
When the song finished I flushed in pleasure.
*100 Rockerboy XP Gained.*
Okay! So I could gain XP without people watching… What was it exactly though? I continued working on it, a few hours of grinding and I had some basic answers.
I had to actually complete the song to get XP. From start to finish. If I stopped halfway I got nothing.
I guess my system agreed that the show must go on.
Each completed song seemed to get me an alert, so completing a full song was the way to grind. Which meant I spent a lot of time on Morro Rock, for the Samurai songs.
But it worked. As I played along song after song, singing and trying to strum the guitar to the right chord.
It wasn’t the right chord… ever. It was an attempt. Completing a song, right or wrong was where the XP came from.
But it didn’t matter. Alerts came in, and eventually? Eventually I got it.
*Rockerboy skill level up!*
And suddenly I knew the basic chords. I couldn’t perfectly pick out the right chord to a song, but I now at least knew when I was on the right track. I adjusted my fingers, actually holding the damn thing correctly now, and with a movement played my first real chord.
My playing along actually started to sound… Okay.
Just okay.
So I needed more levels. As I worked on it, I was trying to memorize more songs as well.
I wasn’t very good at it, never could remember lyrics to songs perfectly well. Thankfully as long as I kept trying, the system didn’t seem to care if I butchered some lyrics, which I did. A lot.
Which is why I was forced to change radio stations at times. Some of the songs were things I had never heard before. Couldn’t exactly sing along to a song you’ve never heard before. But it was taking a lot of concentration to get right.
Which is why I didn’t hear the door. I was half way through Resist and Disorder by the Cartesian Duelists, one of my favorite songs in this world so far, when Jun suddenly walked in.
I could feel my throat close as my soul died. I had been audibly singing…
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
His lips twitched.
Mine quivered.
I could feel the heat shooting up my neck. My neck, my cheeks, my ears were all growing red. I just knew it!
He turned and walked into his room without a word, and honestly? I wasn’t sure if that was better or worse than if he had actually said something.
I turned the radio off. I was done grinding. Instead I pushed my face into a pillow and pretended nothing existed for a while.
Blasterbot
Well-known member
poor motorolla is getting bullied by everyone for her bad singing. grind it and show them all. maybe start mixing in music from the old world too.
Seras
Well-known member
Oh shit I did. Fixed!
You should hit the nomads with this bad boy next time, after all legends never die
Blasterbot
Well-known member
what even would count as a big iron in cyberpunk? is there an anti-borg handcannon? if so mokoto needs one.
Bassoe
Well-known member
If we're making suggestions, can't go wrong with some Miracle of Sound.
Seras
Well-known member
Miracle of Sound is on my youtube playlist! I listen to all of those songs while writing at times.
xachariahxx
Well-known member
If the Burya isn't big iron, then the Comrade's Hammer iconic upgrade to the Burya would be.
It's just a Burya, but basically shoots all 4 bullets as one bullet. And then they explode for some reason.
It's just a Burya, but basically shoots all 4 bullets as one bullet. And then they explode for some reason.
The Hammer is a modern volley gun loaded with HEAP rounds. I don't understand the excess recoil on the Burya. It's large enough to mount recoil negation tech. The tech exists in setting, it's affordable in the RPG as a mod you can purchase. So why aren't they in everything? It'd boost accuracy and reduce fatigue.
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xachariahxx
Well-known member
I just discovered that Pon Pon Shit is actually a popular acoustic guitar song in-game.
It's a really slow, thoughtful tune in acoustic. I guess it's the CP2077 version of Wonder Wall because it's easy or something. It tickles me that Motoko will look up tabs or advice, and have Pon Pon Shit suggested to her.
It's a really slow, thoughtful tune in acoustic. I guess it's the CP2077 version of Wonder Wall because it's easy or something. It tickles me that Motoko will look up tabs or advice, and have Pon Pon Shit suggested to her.