Ghost in the City: Cyberpunk Gamer SI

“Nova! Absolutely qualitatively nova! I’ve been sooooo bored.” Sasha whined at me, with a laugh throwing her arm over my shoulders only to wince. It was her chrome arm she had used, and there were obviously some issues with it.

“Still getting used to it?”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” She said a little too fast as she slipped her arm away from my shoulder and instead pulled a shower curtain away from what I was definitely not expecting to see.

“An Ice Bath?”

“Yeah! I’m gonna jump on the net obviously. Want to join me?” Sasha asked, her eyebrows moving in a waggling wave.

“I mean, I could go to my netrunner den I guess. I don’t use a Ice bath. I have a chair.” I said as I walked over and crouched down by the bathtub. It was already full of half melted ice cubes, I could tell it would be absolutely freezing.

I really didn’t like the idea of using this method.

“You have a netrunning chair?” Sasha asked surprised and I nodded.

“Yeah I had a gig from Wakako to kill this guy. He was a runner, good too. Had a bunch of equipment, since I flatlined him, I took it for myself. Big server, Chair, everything I needed.”

“You have a server!? How big!” I shrugged and sent her the details on the server set up and I looked up to see her choking on nothing.

“N-Not fair! Sasha doesn’t have a server! How does her Kohai have one!” She whined childishly which had me laugh at her.

“You really don’t have a server? Why not?”

“Eh. I’m not a data runner. The only data I grab is for a gig, or to immediately trade out.” She answered calmly, the childish act disappearing. Then as suddenly as her calm answer appeared it disappeared. “Waaa! Maine! My Kohai is bullying me!” She whined loudly towards the stairs and then ran up the wooden steps.

“What?”

Then I blinked realizing I could hear her faux crying up the stairs that she had taken two at a time. I hurried after her, mostly because I was so confused.

Is this what it was like dealing with me, when I was being a little shit? No. Everyone liked when I was a shit.

Except Jun of course, but he doesn’t count.

I made it up the stairs and blinked as Sasha was sitting on the couch besides Maine looking up at him with big crocodile tears in her eyes.

“-Need a server! I can’t be bullied by my cute little Kohai! Just a little one is okay!” She begged and Maine took a sip from his beer.

“Maybe when you're older.” Maine offered cooly. The look of outrage on Sasha’s face at the absolute burn from Maine had Rebecca start cackling and Dorio’s chest started heaving as well.

“Maine!” She eventually squawked out in outrage, slapping the larger man's chromed out arm, but that did less than nothing.

“Don’t get upset when someone teases you back.” He retorted and she huffed crossing her arms, but her chrome one didn’t move as easily, and she sort of flubbed the whole thing. Looking down at her arm. A change went over her face.

I don’t think Sasha was handling her loss that well.

“Next time I have to flatline a netrunner, I’ll keep an eye out for another server for you?” I offered and my words startled everyone in the room but Rebecca who just looked thoughtful and then nodded.

“I gotta admit, Kitten, klepping everything after wiping a place, even the stuff bolted down, certainly made for a nice payday.” Rebecca agreed and I nodded, throwing her a thumbs up.

“It’s not klepping Becca! Once you kill them it’s looting!”

She looked at me, I looked at her, and we both broke into cackles of laughter.

“‘M I missing something here?” Maine asked, and Becca nodded.

“Yeah. While you guys have been out of touch. Kitten here called me up and asked if I wanted to join in on a gig. Let me tell you Maine. The payday took a few days, but when it came in? Way more than I ever made working under you. Maybe I’ll find myself a new crew.” Rebecca said but her tone showed she was teasing.

Even so Maine and Dorio both looked shocked while Sasha was just curious.

“You took a gig?” Dorio managed to ask first and Rebecca nodded.

“Wiping Scavs. Honestly the way Kitten here ran the gig it was… Pretty smooth. I still want a chance to play with that Minotaur.” She said, turning to me.

All I could do was huff. “So do I. Ichi basically stole it! I’m the one that had to fight it while some Raffen gonk was using it while trying not to damage it cause… I mean it’s awesome.”

“Wait wait. A Militech Minotaur?” Maine asked, his sun glasses instantly sliding down his nose to lock eyes on first Rebecca and then me.

“Yeah. The gig that got me into the Afterlife? They shot down an Arasaka AV and captured a bunch of stuff, including an Arasaka brand Minotaur. It’s mine now… When my choom isn’t stealing it out from under me.”

“It was nova to have on that gig though. When you jumped on the back of it for mobile cover? Fuck it was preem. Made me jealous that I didn't think of it.” Rebecca offered and I smiled because it had been fuckin cool.

“You just… Used a Minotaur against Scavs?” Maine asked, sounding a bit shell shocked.

“It was a big base. They were a major group. Selling XBD’s of the people they murdered out on the market. Lots of eddies involved.” I answered. “It was pretty effective in drawing attention, letting us wipe them out while they pissed themselves at the mech.”

“And Becca you went on this gig?”

“Yep! Actually was one of the four solo’s. Right up front.. Well second line. The Kittens brother is the Oni. You know the Tyger Claw one with the rep.”

“Kamikaze or something right?” Dorio asked, looking worried. Between Rebecca and me. “It was okay?”

“Jun isn’t a cyberpsycho.” I butt in quickly. “He had some problems, he uh… Lost someone important to him and went a bit wild, but he’s actually stabilizing really well.”

Becca kinda snorted. “He seemed fine outside of the fight, but when shit got wild so did he. I get why they call him the Oni now.”

“Yeah Jun is still a moron.” I agreed, and Becca just scoffed.

“He’s an older brother, are they ever not morons?”

“Nope.” I said and we both looked at eachother with shared tooth filled grins.

“Right.” Maine muttered seemingly a little lost.

“Well it was nice to be treated as part of the team at least.” Rebecca suddenly added, rather directly, and Main stiffened.

“You are part of the team.”

“Maine… You don’t ever use me as a shooter. I can do it.” Rebecca added and Maine and her both stared at each other for a moment before Maine looked away.

“We’ll talk about it for the next gig.” He offered, and Rebecca didn’t look like she was going to accept before shrugging.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“Ah! My Kohai is so skilled! She’s even got Rebecca on her side!” Sasha interrupted rising up and to my surprise pulled me into a tight hug. Squeezed tightly at least with one arm into her chest. “I’m soooo proud!”

“Wha!”

Then before I could even start struggling I was pushed away.

“We should go on a dive together! I want to see how good you are!” Sasha demanded and I blinked.

She smiled.

I shrugged. “Okay? Sure, sounds fun.”

“Yay! You can use the extra Ice bath… Unless you want to join me in mine.” Sasha teased me with a big smile, but I scoffed and chuckled before remembering and stilling.

“Ah I can’t today. I just got this Neural Link chipped in, and my ripper has me on a few days of rest before I can do anything heavy with it. So… Couple day rain check?” I offered and Sasha looked at me like I was crazy.

“You actually listen to that nonsense?” Maine asked suddenly, his rumbling voice cutting off whatever Sasha was about to say. “If you’re tough you can handle it. Never seen someone actually listen to that garbage.”

I instantly frowned. Deeply.

I turned from Sasha and marched right up to Maine. Maine that even if he was sitting on a couch was still nearly twice my height.

“Taking care of your health isn’t weak! And ignoring doctors' experience with medical matters doesn’t make you tough, it makes you dumb! I chipped in a new Neural Link, and a Sandy and was told to give it a few days to make sure it settles into my nerve endings. Of course I’m going to wait. Otherwise I could burn out or injure myself, making myself weaker over time!” I snapped at him practically poking him.

Maine didn’t appreciate that though, and reached out, pushing my finger off him, which I let him do without complaint.

“Careful kid, don’t go poking me like that.” Maine rumbled out, but I had made my point and turned away from him.

“Hey Becca, I think I’m gonna head out. Sasha. Call me in a few days and we can do that net dive okay?”

“Sure Kitten.” Sasha offered and Rebecca nodded, but didn’t say anything, as my leaving was watched over by a silent grumpy Maine.

I don’t think I liked Maine very much,

—--

I got home and flopped onto the couch. Jun wasn’t around so I had the place to myself. I didn’t really feel like doing much just yet. My neck had a weird tenseness that made me feel like I wanted to crack it, but couldn’t. The larger Neural link didn’t diminish my range of movement, but it did make me feel all stiff.

So I did what I always did when I felt a little annoyed.

I grabbed my guitar. I had to go easy with my Neural Link so direct programming with my cyberdeck was out, but I could still work on a new song.

I lay there on my back tapping on my guitar as I ran through all the songs I knew, which one did I want to play right now?

Strumming a few notes here and there as I considered, before I could even figure it out, the door opened, and I sat up to see. Jun and… Alice. Rockerboy girl herself.

They walked in, although it was obvious to me that it hadn’t been planned. Jun was looking a little awkward as Alice followed along behind him.

“Hey Jun. Alice.”

“Hey kid! You like music, tell your brother he should take my advice! I’m inviting him to a recording session! He gets to hear professionals at work!” Alice called out to me, and Jun sent me a look.

Ah, that’s right.

Jun’s taste in music was trash. He probably hated Alice’s sound.

“Jun! I’m disappointed in you!” I called out, as I rose up, smirk already stretching across my face. “You love music!”

Jun’s pleading look turned into a promise to murder me after this, but that was fine.

“See! You love music!” Alice agreed, uncaring about the truth. “Come with! You’ll get to meet some famous Rockerboys and enjoy some music! As my plus one of course.” She offered and Jun continued to prove he was the densest person in any room he entered.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude, if you are doing music stuff, I’m not good with that sort of thing. But if you want someone that will be good with the music, you should take Motoko! She’s amazing with that stuff.” He offered, and I could literally see the look of frustration on her face as he continued to not notice she was into him.

“Oh no I couldn’t Jun. Alice is your choom.” I replied doing at least a little to keep Alice from just dying on the spot at my brother's inability to notice interest in him.

“I see.” He said and Alice’s face brightened up in delight as he seemed like he was finally understanding.

He didn’t of course. I would have told her that, but Jun did it himself before I got a chance.

“Why don’t we all go then? Motoko likes music, it’ll be a good chance for her to meet some other musicians. Maybe get someone to ‘jam out’ with you?” He said, looking at me.

Jun. Brother of mine with the mental density of a black hole. I don’t want to ‘Jam out’ with people, and the way you said it was super cringe.

Alice had a similar look on her face, the full body cringe was there.

But Jun’s charisma was stronk. Before the disgust could kill her ardor he turned to Alice, and smiled.

Damn Jun. Throwing deadly smiles like that around, you were going to melt hearts… Along with something else.

Not that Jun was attractive or anything. He was ugly, and fat, and he ate XXL Burritos.

“How about it? Wouldn’t that be more fun?” He asked, smiling at Alice and she broke.

“S-sure? Sounds fine I mean. Yeah. I can uh… Get her a pass in too?”

“I didn’t even say I wanted to go?” I offered but Jun just threw another look at me.

“You’ve been practicing your music stuff so much, but you never do anything with it! This is a chance to meet other musicians, and maybe you’ll like the idea of joining a band.” Jun offered and I realized what was going through his mind.

“Jun, you gonk, even if I join a band, which I’m totally not. I’d still do merc work.”

“Maybe.” he said with a shrug.

I rolled my eyes and rose up. “Alright, fine. I’ll go.” Only because I knew if I refused he wouldn’t want to go, and I felt some distance sympathy for Alice right now.

Which is how I ended up sitting in the back seat of Alice’s run down Mahir Supron. Practically riding on top of her band equipment.

“This is an interesting ride.” I commented as we went over a bump, my head nearly slamming into the roof.

“It’s cheap, and I spend most of my money on music stuff.” She answered back a little hotly. “It runs on hopes and dreams, and carries my shit.”

“It’s fine.” Jun tempered her. “It wasn’t until recently that either of us had a car. We just used our bikes for the longest time.”

“You’ll have to give me a ride sometime.” She shot back flirtatiously. “Uncle always threw a fit when I said I might get one.”

“Uh… Sure? They aren’t the best bikes to start on, but I can-”

I rolled my eyes as I zoned out Jun’s misunderstanding. He thought she wanted a lesson on driving a Kusanagi, instead of just wanting to ride one…

Heh. A very specific Kusanagi in fact.

—--

Alice drove us down into City Center, and then into a small strip mall, but instead of going into a shop she walked down an alley and towards a side door, up a small set of concrete steps.

“Don’t tell people about this place.” Alice suddenly said. “A lot of big names come here, so they don’t want fans and stuff to know about it.” Then she opened the door and I relaxed.

It really was a music studio. We just used a back door for some reason. White hallways dotted with doors. Small pieces of the door were glass letting me see inside to small studio rooms full of sound equipment. I could just make out the small performance rooms as well. No sound escaped them though as everything seemed to be soundproofed.

We walked pretty deep into the building, passing by door after door, that inside I could just see through the small window on each door were often occupied.

I guess music was big business in Night City.

No one I recognized was inside though, but then I could only really see the editing room and not the performance box.

Then Alice waved at a man that I did sorta recognize. I’m pretty sure he was one of Alice’s bandmates? I vaguely remembered him from the gig I watched.

“Hey, sorry I’m late.” She called and the man looked over at Jun and I with a quirked eyebrow.

“Don’t even. This is Jun, The Oni.” She said proudly at Jun’s nickname, which even Jun looked a little embarrassed at being called out like that.

“Riiiight.” The guy shot back. “Who's the kid?”

“The kid is… Actually pretty good. Jun’s sister.” And I realized that Alice probably forgot my name.

“I’m Motoko. Don’t mind me. I’m mostly here because my brother thinks I need to get into music to escape my life of crime.”

The man blinked and then laughed a bit at my joke.

“Funny. Too many late night joy rides in klepped cars?”

“Nah. I have my own car. Mostly it’s the shootouts.” I answered truthfully and then looked at the door. “So what’s going on exactly?” The guy looked a little off but shrugged it away after a moment.

“A friend of ours got a big gig, making a song for a Ni-Cola advert. He wanted us as his band. So we get to set up here.” He explained with a curious look to Alice. “You brought them without explaining?”

“It sorta went that way.” She shrugged completely unashamed at the situation. She wanted to hang out with Jun after all. The way she entwined her arm with Jun’s said a lot.

So did Jun’s very confused look towards his arm wondering what was going on.

“Well alright. C’mon, Tessa is already in the booth.” He offered and opened the door. Inside was a small studio, a few chairs and a ton of equipment. And beyond that the small room that was soundproofed where a man was seemingly already working.

I didn’t recognize him. Or anyone else in the room.

But that was fine. It was kinda just interesting to see a real studio like this.

“Ah, there you are!” A heavyset man in an ill fitting suit and enough gold chains on his neck to hang himself with pointed a set of pudgy fingers at Alice. “Kept us waiting.”

“I’m on time. You just wanted me here early. Violent Hemorrhage is here to perform.”

“Well get to it. No, hold on. This is a good line.” He ordered and turned back to the equipment. A headset half off put back on, as he hit a few buttons.

There was a man, the sort of guy that looked like a titular Rockerboy fancy clothes, and styled hair, and probably a grand or more on accessories, and even more on fancy chrome. His styled hair buzzed with electricity as he sang.

But I couldn’t hear him so I just shrugged. Alice pulled Jun inside, and we were put into a corner, as Alice was prepping to enter the booth, but at least she gave us a pair of headsets so we could listen.

I put it on, and instantly frowned. Electro-hair was doing the same shit that Alice did. It was all the chrome's work. His voice was shit.

Sure, it sounded okay, but if you knew what you were listening for you could hear him missing notes or just slurring the song a bit too much.

Bad auto-tune. That’s what it reminded me of. The fatty producer didn’t seem to mind, and I could tell Jun didn’t seem to notice bobbing his head a bit to the song. Then they cut, and Alice and her bandmate entered, quickly grabbing some instruments already set up, and this time they played together with the singer. Checking harmony and timing from what I was hearing the producer guy, and another guy on the equipment mutter to each other.

Honestly it was kinda interesting I guess. Similar to what I do, but I don’t need some weird guy to do it for me.

I sighed. That was just because of the system. So I shouldn’t bad mouth people just trying to do their thing. I shook off the sense of arrogance and instead listened. What would I do to improve the song?

I’m actually not sure. Rockerboy gives me a lot of information to work with, but I’ve never tried to edit a song that had bad singing before.

So instead I focused on what the producer? I’m not sure what his actual job was, but I watched him work.

It was interesting, and made me want to play with it too. But I kept out. No way he would want some teenager messing with his equipment while he was putting together a song.

I wouldn’t want someone interfering in my work. So I stayed back, Jun and I listened for a good thirty minutes as they ran through the song multiple times before they took a break.