your eyes are broken bottles [ 2024 catchall ]

[lunardreaming]

who: lucy kushinada (lunardreaming) + others
when: all throughout 2024
where:
what: 2024 catchall, open quest starters
warnings: will add as necessary




[ note: open starters will be posted in the comments! if you'd like to do something with Lucy, hit me up at cosmonautdelta ]

Comments

[bodyoftheseus]

V found himself out here picking flowers for more or less the same reason: there was pay promised, and it never hurt to build a reputation as someone that was willing to help. He was good at playing all sides of the equation back at home, and he hoped he could do that here as well.

He was already crouched before some small critter and seemed to be talking to it when Lucy spoke out, his attention diverting to glance her way as he fished something out of the pocket of his jacket and offered it to the creature.

"Yeah, seems like. Haven't seen nothing big though. Yet." Which is how he hoped it would stay. "You good?"

[lunardreaming]

"I'm good. It's nothing scary -- not yet."

Unless raccoon-shaped shadows could be scary? Lucy's pretty sure the answer to that is no. With her tech working again, she's got access to the whip-thin cords in her palms, and those can slice through bone in a moment. Can it slice through shadow things? She's... not sure.

Just in case, Lucy finishes picking a bush, and makes her way a little closer to V. No harm in safety in numbers.

"This city is so weird," she sighs. She plucks a Nightglow flower, studying it's faint shine in the dark. Magic, Bios, Synthesis, it all still seems to strange to her. She's not acclimating very fast. "At least Night City used to be predictable."

[bodyoftheseus]

While the critter was distracted, V started to pick the flowers before him. When he noticed that it was looking back at him he gave it another of whatever he was holding, then returned back to picking the flowers. It was habit how he glanced back when he heard Lucy's movement closer but his attention turned back to the flowers once he realized what she was doing, listening to her speak.

"Gotta admit I'm not to keen to be here. Don't really acclimate to new places that well," he replied as he thought of his relatively short stint in Atlanta. He couldn't run back to Night City this time, though, no matter how much he may want it.

"Miss the rhythm of Night City. Like you said: made it predictable. And I knew what I was walkin' into wherever I went, knew the risks that came with each neighborhood. Here?" He shakes his head a little with a frustrated little sigh. "Just waiting for the cracks to show 'n this pretty facade to fall off. Don't like this feeling of eggshells under my feet."

Not to even touch on the topics of magic and synthesis, which he still wasn't entirely sure he was fully sold on. Those were things he was still turning over in his head because they just didn't make sense to him.

[lunardreaming]

[ Despite herself, Lucy cracks a smile. ]

Think there's a term for that? Night City induced CPTSD or something?

[ Because, taking a step back, they both sound like war veterans expecting a minefield, but maybe that's not too far off from the truth. Night City was just like that. Full of all sorts of ways, big and small, to worm under your skin and make you shake. She had catalogued her walk from her apartment to the train station by a series of dangers: the cyberpsycho junkie that hung out next to the corner shop, the gang that loitered three streets down, the Arasaka execs that waited at the station.

She knows V has got to be the same. He looks like he can defend himself -- she doesn't know what cyberware he's packing, but she'd guess it's something useful -- but still. Even the biggest baddest edgerunners were cautious 24/7.

As she picks some more flowers, the rich Bios in them staining her fingertips, some more shadows slink up in the corner of her vision. Like animals hungrily eyeing a juicy treat. ]

Cracks'll show eventually. Maybe something like that symphony of disruption message we got back in the garden during the tech challenge. Maybe something else. A city like this has got to have corruption somewhere.

[bodyoftheseus]

Maybe just NCPTSD. Have to ask my ripper if we somehow get sent back.

[ There was a moment where V had a genuine, unfiltered smile quirked on his lips, a playful gleam in his eye. It was quickly pulled under control and hidden by that cool mask that all edgerunners seemed to hide behind, a habit hard learned from his childhood. He picked another flower and looked down at it, considering the glow and its source: something he was not particularly contributing to, given his standoffish nature.

A nature well-earned over his life. He couldn't honestly say that he'd ever known what security felt like, even in a Night City sense. Even when he thought perhaps he could have it, the issue of the worm eating through his brian still persisted. Now that he was somewhere safe, he couldn't believe it, and he still found himself glancing over his shoulder or keeping his back to a wall like he did when he was a little girl. ]

Yeah, sure it'll either rear its head here soon, or one'f us Otherworlders will sniff it out 'fore too long.

[ V didn't mention that he'd probably be the one to look for it. He put the flower in his basket and reached for another, momentarily glancing to the side as he saw something in the corner of his eye. His gaze lingered as he tried to figure out what it was. V finally gave up and turned his attention back to the flowers as he spoke again. His voice was a little softer, the edges of him a little sanded down. ]

Gotta admit that I hope there's some part'f this place that's as fucked as Night City. Feels real shitty that we come from a place so close to this, but... [ He paused as he looked for the word. ] So thoroughly corrupt. [ V didn't say it, but he hated how unfair it felt. Every time he turned it felt like the universe was spitting in his face, and being here was just another slap in the fucking face. He'd been brought back to life just to see how different his life could have been, how much better it might be if he'd been born just one little dimension over. ]

[lunardreaming]

I'm not sure what I hope.

[ It's unexpectedly honest, and Lucy says it with a sigh. She knows what V means. It's like... if a city with this much technology baked into it can be good and clean and safe, why'd they have to get stuck with the one that turned into a dystopia? What means the people here deserve better than they did? What are the leaders doing here that they didn't do in Night City? Why did greed and lust for power have to take central stage in their city, but not here?

On the other hand, if this placed is just as fucked up as Night City underneath its clean veneer... well. That sucks too. It sucks that they can't escape the urban nightmare. Sucks that they might think they're getting a second chance only to have it blow up in their faces.

It's a pessimistic way to think, sure. But that's what nighttime is for, right?

She tosses a flower to the little gathering shadows, and they descend on it in a way that makes her grimace. ]

I'm slowly starting to understand this Bios thing, at least. Still trying to figure out a way to easily engage Synthesis if I need it.