words, scribbles, and sketches

One of her moms was a local, neighborhood mercenary in Heywood and occasionally worked in Japantown. Vivi, got to a point where she was a well-loved and selfless merc who stayed close to home. She basically became a Robin Hood of sorts for the neighborhood. Pissing off cops so they’d chase her instead of harassing neighbors. Or slipping into Westbrook’s wealthier areas to steal and pocket meds, food, and other necessities that they needed down in Heywood.

The neighbors nicknamed her as ‘V’ and eventually when Nova was old enough to get into trouble just like her mom, they took to calling Nova ‘lil V’ as an endearment. When her mom, Vivi, “retired” from merc work and Nova began doing jobs in Heywood, the name of ‘V’ sort of was passed down onto her. People in Heywood that she knew growing up still might call her ‘lil V.’

As for the name Nova. Vivi, one of her moms, knew that “nova” was used as slang for cool or awesome. She’s a little chaotic, and was like, “hell ye. let’s name our daughter Nova.” Her other mother, Natia, is in the simplest of terms a witch who also works as a netrunner & ripperdoc of sorts. She didn’t know it was a slang term until much later. Her witchy side just liked naming her daughter after something so strong, beautiful and celestial. And that’s why her full name is Nova, and why she took on the name “V” as she was becoming a mercenary.

Outside of her name, I’m going to explain more about Nova’s background, parents and growing up in Heywood below~

So. First with her parents.

Vivi or Vivienne (though she probably doesn’t even answer to the formal version anymore) also grew up in Night City as a streetkid. Her parents, living in Japantown, died when she was very young. She was sent to foster homes and orphanages, though, when she was old enough, Vivi began running away and living on the streets. Eventually she was taken in by a merc who lived right in Heywood. Vivi grew up in her apartment, even though she wasn’t always around and was not really a mother figure to Vivi. More like an older sister, if anything. Nonetheless, the stuff Vivi hadn’t learned on the streets such as fighting, using melee weapons, firing a gun and understanding the different parts of Night City better. When Vivi got older, she started working as a merc herself, but found that she preferred to stay in the neighborhood rather than run around to different fixers and different parts of the city. Her whole career was based on helping and running jobs for people who didn’t have much and didn’t have money to pay fixers. Vivi, became a local Robin Hood, using her skills to try and help Heywood and other neighborhoods on the edges of Heywood. However, with all the daily dangers and risks she took, Vivi eventually had no choice but to pay for prosthetics that helped keep her alive. Nova has only ever known Vivi having plates for skin, synthetic organs, and other necessary upgrades.

Natia, Nova’s other mother, was actually a foreigner who came to the NUSA looking for a better life and an escape from past ghosts. Eventually, Natia began to travel the States with a nomad group that would wander from city to city. Natia had always been a witch of sorts and often did tarot readings, and small spells to better the life of those around her. When with the nomads, Natia worked to learn how to netrun and even basic medicine that a ripperdoc could provide. When reaching Night City, Natia found a small little shop for a cheap price in Heywood and decided to stay in the city and open her own little store. She became a skilled netrunner and, with the basic ripperdoc practices she had learned, began trying to help the locals. She found a lot of them had old prosthetics that were failing and they couldn’t afford newer models. Natia learned to help fix and prolong the use of prosthetics for people and save a lot of lives as she grew more and more comfortable with it. Nova has never seen her mother officially call herself a ripperdoc, because she felt as though the title didn’t fit her and didn’t want people who would hear “ripperdoc” and avoid her store thinking that they would need to pay her. Natia still kept up her witch practices in her shop and her business, was simple and not focused on making money off people in need. She asked for donations at times from the neighborhood just to keep her shop and necessities to help. Whenever she asked, her past patients and neighbors, who knew they might need her help one day, were happy to give her what they could. Natia managed to scrape by with this and has been working this odd combination of jobs for as long as Nova could remember.

Vivi and Natia met due to Vivi hearing rumors about her shop, and would occasionally slip in to peek around and ask for a tarot reading. Vivi would ask questions and upon learning about the things that Natia didn’t have and needed, Vivi would search for the various items she needed, whether they were tools, medicines or even just credits and sneak in at night to leave whatever she collected at the time. Of course, Natia was a netrunner and Vivi was not always as slick as she thought she was, therefore, it didn’t take long before Natia learned she was doing this and confronted her. Vivi assured her, that she stole the items from the richer areas of Night City or worked some job in exchange for whatever she had collected. It took time, but Natia began to trust her and Vivi found herself growing a little crush on the ‘cyber-witch.’

Though their business is still active at the time of Cyberpunk 2077’s plotline, they are still confined to the neighborhood and keep the little business that began with Natia from branching out too far. Afraid that some gang would try to extort them, (the Valentinos almost had before Padre had stepped in.) In addition, certain corps would hear of this ripperdoc and sometimes send people to hunt for the little shop. Natia’s witch shop was a good and sturdy front, and none of the residents in Heywood had any interest in snitching to corps about something that was actually doing good.