NOCTIUM IC INBOX

[disrupts]

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TEXT ✧ AUDIO ✧ VIDEO ✧ ACTION
V ✦ CYBERPUNK 2077

RESIDENCE ✦ Chez Eurodyne, Silverhand, Strife & V

GEMBOND ✦ Sapphire
"This is V. 'pparently 'm busy right now so leave a message."


INFO ✧ PERMISSIONS ✧ KINKLIST

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[engrams]

[Real funny, V. Johnny even tries to say as much, sputtering out-]

Think you're real f... real fuh-

[Real funny? Real fuckin' funny? Take your pick. Either way, another round of coughing interrupts whatever bite he wanted to add to his statement, and Johnny just waves him away with a dismissive hand until he catches his breath again, hoping that it gets the point across.]

Fuck you. [There. Said so weakly you can squint and maybe it's closer to a thanks than anything else.] "Let's delta", he says, like I didn't nearly just fucking drown.

[Johnny frowns down at the flowers lining his organic arm, and uses his other to grip the wet blossoms by the fistful and pull. The grimace betrays some kind of pain at the action, but he'll take ripping out unwanted flowers at the bed of his skin, versus sprouting something he sure as hell didn't ask for -- much like finding himself wandering into that cold, dark water, an offense to the very notion of free will.]

Can't give me like five minutes here?

[disrupts]

[ Despite the gentle jibe, V's not completely unsympathetic to the state Johnny's in. It gives him just enough pause to not immediately disagree with that plan. Five minutes doesn't seem like long but he has no idea how safe they are here.

He doubts they're safe at all.

But eventually all he does is stand up, takes a few steps in front of Johnny and keeps watch. There's something that turns his stomach about Johnny ripping out those plants, even if it's gotta be done. ]

Not the only person who's been here. Others too.

[ He glances over his shoulder briefly to check on Johnny's progress before his optics are back on the water. If it feels like he's playing guard dog it's probably because he is. ]

How'd... what made ya go in there? ...coulda drowned.

[ If Johnny's listening, he might be able to pick out the tone even with V faced away and out towards the water. It's preoccupied, like V's brain might be playing him a montage of what things might've been like if he hadn't been here. And then the shake of his head like he's trying to jostle that tragedy away. ]

[engrams]

[V’s got a faraway sound to his voice, and Johnny has no doubt that he’s got his look trained at the water gone eerily still, but the rockerboy is busy with the blossoms embedded in his skin. It takes a few good pulls, coupled with an awful wet, ripping sound—but he manages to tear them out and toss the red, sopping petals into the sand. It leaves a long red line of raw welts across his arm, stinging where they’ve been uprooted, but it’s better than having the damn things growing there.

He shakes out his arm, looking discontent.]

Heard something calling. Like I had to figure out what it was — couldn’t think of anything else. Sure these flowers had somethin’ to do with it.

[He’s still drenched, of course. Johnny doesn’t have a Sapphire’s tendency to make water slick off of him like it was nothing, instead dealing with his hair plastered to the sides of his face and thus pushing strands out of his eyes.]

This damn place... One minute it’s all festivals and flowers, then it’s what? Mind control and people drowning at the bottom of a lake? Can’t trust a single thing, can’t let your guard down for a minute. Serves as a—

[He pushes himself defiantly to his feet, wobbling only just a little. Cynicism mode running at 110%.]

—stark fuckin’ reminder.

[disrupts]

[ It is a stark reminder, V can't disagree, though rather than putting that agreement into words, he hums his assent and turns 90 degrees so he's got the lake on one side and Johnny on the other. Now that the man's on his feet maybe they can get moving. Just not before he's holding out his hand, a silent offer.

Those red welts look angry and while that might suit Johnny's understandable disposition right now, V's got the ability to heal them. He's got enough left in the tank to help Johnny out with them, either way. ]

Fucked up it took this long for those disappearances to get looked into.

[ Admittedly, authorities that don't give a fuck about the everyday person isn't anything new. He knows how that song goes. But like Johnny said, it's a stark reminder that not everything's peachy. ]

[engrams]

Fucked but not surprising.

[Not surprising at all. Some things are universal, authorities dragging their feet when it comes to nameless gonks getting dragged into the water to die. Johnny’s own biases are ringing loud in his head, twisting everything into pessimism, but he’s 100 percent certain that if some big-wig with bottomless pockets had taken the plunge, something might’ve been done about it a lot sooner.

Instead, they got gembonded here to deal with the mess. V’s probably not the first to have dove in and rescued some guy with their magic, and isn’t that just peachy? That they get to do the saving again. Feels a little like being used, if you asked him.

Johnny pushes V’s hand away with his knuckles.]

No, don’t need it. Fine with feelin’ the pain this time.

[A reminder, indeed. Let it leave a mark — he thinks it’s fitting.]

[disrupts]

[ Dropping his hand back to his side, V's chin tips forward into a nod; he's not going to argue. Call it too much experience with having choices taken away. A fleeting desire to understand that choice without having to guess bubbles up, but in the end he just exhales heavily and jams both hands in his pockets. ]

Gonna feel less bad 'bout edgerunning if this is how this place operates.

[ At least he's got more motivation now to do whatever the fuck he has to in order to keep his people safe. If this place thinks it can fuck with them? He's gonna do something about that. ]

C'mon, sooner we get some place away from open fuckin' water, sooner you can inhale 'n drink yourself level.

'sides, got that fucked up feelin' like I'm empty.

[ Like he's burnt through Manna faster than usual and now he's starting to feel tiredness creep in. ]