NEVER FADE AWAY

despite the financial crash and near-crippling rates of inflation, the cunninghams still had access to their funds and made do with a slightly above average lifestyle. this is when alayna cunningham found her new calling in becoming a ripperdoc- whereas sawyer was stuck licking the boots of corpo suits to try and work his way back into the white collar force.

alt's childhood wasn't entirely hopeless; her parents played an active-enough role in her development despite their demanding careers but nobodies perfect. like many tired parents, altiera was often shoo'd away and young alt was forced to put her time and attention elsewhere. schooling was digital, thanks to the access granted by her father's workpath- and this was one of alt's first experiences with the NET.

something something youthful curiosity got the better of her something this began her love for the NET as well as her ever-growing desire to keep learning.

by the time she'd entered her teen years, altiera became even more familiar with the continuously growing advancements of cyberspace and started dabbling in programming.

something something she'd met a few likeminded people in this time something made friends on the NET and decided to wreak havoc as teens with unlimited access to the internet do

this being said, alt wanted the best hardware she can get her hands on. with well-off parents, it wasn't hard to gain access to good equipment on this side of NC that'd help alt achieve exactly what she wanted, bought the neural processors and interface plugs needed to navigate the Net. her little projects and hobbies were continuously funded by alayna and sawyer, family still kept afloat by their medium success in their respective careers.

unfortunately, alayna and sawyer didn't live to see alt's 19th birthday. car jacking turned violent, shot down in the middle of the highway while altiera was home alone. she didn't get to bury them.

needless to say, alt was granted access to the remainder of her parents' funds ( of which most was burned through a few years later bc of her spending habits ) after their death and chose to continue living out on her own in NC. due to the near crippling grief of losing her parents, alt spent most of her time interacting with cyberspace as a means to cope. she found a home in the 0's and 1's and never truly turned back from it.

in the years passing, alt has since healed and eventually landed a few jobs here and there ranging anywhere from flipping hot dogs at a vendor cart to working digital security for local businesses. somewhere along the way, she'd met rache bartmoss and ran the entire pacifica region of the NET alongside him.