#cyberpinked

Whenever Johnny materialized one of his many mortal vices into existing in the life of code that he was now cursed to live in, he wonder if he’d ever be able to taste any of them again. The tequila, the whiskey, the vodka, the beer, the cigarettes. Any of it. He remembered the tastes, but the only way he could taste them now is if V chose to partake.. for his sake, and that was like pulling his own teeth.

Looking at Night City through V’s eyes had looked like watching a movie, at least that’s what it had REALLY felt like when he’d staggered out of Arasaka.. in his own body. He knew he had been a THORN in Saburo’s side back then, but he hadn’t expected to be kept like a trophy. He had expected to stay with Alt in the Net, but when the visage of his former lover didn’t even look at him before he was coughing up fluid out of a cryo-chamber in the same room as Mikoshi. He wondered how many others there were, but that was BRIEF. Taking the uniform off of one of the many bodies along the way, he even holstered a gun. Tucking his hair the best he could up into a hat, the first few hallways were literally staggering as he readjusted to walking and continuing to cough up whatever fluid had been pushed into his body to keep him alive.

The trek consisted of a lot of walking. “Fuck.” He complained, he HATED walking. It took... well, longer than Johnny liked to admit, he did happen to catch a cab the remaining three quarters of the way to Misty's Esoterica. Keeping his head down as he got out of the cab, then stepped toward the door. Misty looked at him, or rather through him, and he hadn’t realized how much she had weirded him out until that moment.

“I tried to tell V to expect company.”

Johnny had been listening to her phone buzz for the better part of the last thirty minutes, and he sighed loudly from his perch on her window. Basking in the sun with the hairless cat she’d found in the alley. The comparison wasn’t lost on the musician. “Ya gonna get that?” He questioned, knowing she just hadn’t HEARD it, since she was in the armor, screwing around with something. Probably a weapon upgrade or something. Right now, he just wanted to be closer to the radio, since it was one of HIS music days.

But as the phone buzzed once more, he glitched across the room to look at it laying on her bed. “Its tha fuckin’ cop.” The way he said the word COP sounded just how he meant it. “Oh, think I’m gonna puke..” The message that showed on the screen was asking her to dinner. The one below asking if she was busy tonight. “Want me ta tell’im to go fuck’imself?”

                                      Johnny’s body jerked awake, suspended in the cylinder full of some sort of liquid, but he didn’t have time to think about it before a valve released and the water rushed out. Dropping him to the bottom of the container with a thunk and a groan before he removed the mask over his mouth, coughing up some overly thick water mixed with bile. It was silent for a moment,before his hearing faded back in, fluid left his ears slowly. The blare of an alarm sounded throughout the building still. Alt’s voice came over the intercom, telling him to get up. He did as he was told, surprisingly. He was confused. She told him his things were stored in a cabinet next to the container he’d be in. He was wobbly in his effort to get dressed.

                                      His fingers wrapped around a scalpel as he walked through the row of containers. Some had people in them, some were empty. He had other plans. If there was an alarm blaring, that meant something was happening, and THAT meant there was a distraction. Wait.. he paused at the doorway, his finger hovering over the sensor to open it, “Alt..?”

                                      “We have been over this. I am not the Alt Cunningham you knew. I am a construct beyond the wall.”

                                      He remembered finding Alt dead. Breathing became difficult as he hit the button, sliding out the gap in the door before it opened fully. There were dead bodies, and a drone floated by him. The eye focused on him, then it floated on, as if it didn’t see him as a threat.

                                      “Nothing under my control will attack you.”

                                      That was Alt’s voice, but none of the emotions Alt ever had when she spoke to Johnny. He leaned down, grabbing a pistol off the ground, he took off running down the hallway.

                                      “Look out! Don’t shoot V, Johnny!”