Fandom Cyberpunk: Streets of Fire

[ThatGuyWithSouvlaki]

Anibell

​

Out of all the places, even after considering her quick rising star and where it had taken it, she had never thought she would end up here: The Afterlife. The legendary club of mercenaries, where various legends were said to have made their start and have their regular tipple and work. The solo and merc world was still new to her having only dipped her toe in through the nomads who occasionally took jobs from the fixers, she had even been a central figure in such worlds to earn a reputation as hire. It made her wonder what possessed the person to send an invitation for her to join the group. Could be through her fame as an actress, she supposed, her choice to go and research the nomads was well published and some of her jobs were commented upon by the media. Still, as said, not like she really impressed on mission.

That curiosity was what made her decide to see what it was all about despite the nomads not really being keen for her to join, at least the couple who really started to look at her as family. She took a deep breath and refocused, getting back into character as Anibelle. Anibelle was tough enough to get in there and face down all those mercenaries despite her inexperience in the world. She stilled her look and entered, climbing down the stairs towards the guarded door. The bouncer bulk covered the door, the unmovable wall she suspected many try to get by and failed miserable. She walked up to him without fear, meeting his gaze and holding with a cold look as if she towered him, rather than the very evident reverse of the situation.

"Name." The bouncer said simply crossing his arms. His read was unreadable, though she suspected he was doing some acting of his own. She wondered what he was when not on duty, where did he go home to and to who and what allows him to enter this mode and do day to day. Still sadly she had to go on to her job.

"Anibelle. Here to see an Eddie." She replied simply as she placed a hand on her hips.

"Hmm." He replied and there were a few seconds of silence where she would swear that he saw his eye turn blue before he nodded and stepped aside. "He is the table on the left side. You can't miss him."

She walked through, barely acknowledging what the bouncer said. A little cruel, but her character was indeed very aloof, trying a little too hard to be tough. She took a few steps until she had most of the cub in view and looked around, noticing the large bar area and the series of tables on the left. Not sure what she felt about this place, it seems to wearing it history as morgue on its sleeve and the mechanical style was certainly appropriate, but she found it a little oppressive. She showed little of her thought as she noticed the collection of misfits in on one table. It seemed like the most likely group for her and she wondered how to approach it. She would go directly or go get a drink first at the bar. Scouting the place out to be sure.

She might have stood there a few seconds too long, and so she began to feel self-conscious. She quickly moved to the bar and order a drink, a basic larger. She had tried to develop a taste for something stronger for her role but she did not quite develop a taste for something like whiskey. She figured it was based to remain simple rather than try something stronger and seem idiotic. As she waited, she peeked at the table, trying to confirm whether it was the people she was looking for.

 

[Steve Jobs]

» Vaitiare Moreau

『 MENTIONS 』 Everyone

Vaitiare stood under the cover of darkness, body still as she observed the staircase. She caught word of a gathering in Little China happening tonight, spearheaded by some of the best and brightest of Night City's university which only meant two things: alcohol and a whole lot of Lace. While she didn't have the power to enact a drug bust, she could stop one person from attending.

As the sound of footsteps descended upon the living room, Vaitiare turned on the lights and revealed her brother dressed in black pants and a flickering, neon jacket.

"Tevaiharoa, where do you think you're going?"

"Out," he shrugged with his hands shoved in his pocket.

"Out where?" Vaitiare gave her brother a squint, green meeting hazel as she tried to read his expression.

"I'm not paying your tuition just so you can go clubbing every night."

"Yeah? Nobody asked you to pay for me! I could have dropped out and gotten a job like you!"

"You want to end up like this?" She asked, gesturing to the bare metal along her forearm.

"Chromed out and zeroing corpos?" Her brother asked with a raised brow.

"I'm not fucking Robin Hood. Half these gigs are me killing people like you."

"Still beats working as a fucking fry cook." Tevaiharoa grumbled, crossing his arms.

"You wouldn't last a day on the job."

"How would you know? You never let me come along!"

"Tevaiharoa? Vaitiare? E haere oe ihea?"

The two paused, turning over to see their mother standing in her doorway.

"Te hoo nei au i te...ma'a." The words came out stilted and shaky from lack of use; it was an approximation of "I'm going out for food," but only because she couldn't remember the word for groceries. In the days since she began working as an edgerunner, she felt the language slipping away, replaced by the street slang of Night City's black market.

There wasn't much of a Tahitian community in either Santa Domingo or Arroyo which meant that her mother was the only one she spoke Tahitian with and vice versa. Tevaiharoa, despite his name, understood the language but could only respond in French (save for a few words). At the time it seemed practical--that was how Mama and Papa talked to each other anyway.

But now, she could see the light in her mother's eyes whenever someone spoke Tahitian. Even with the broken phrasing and increasingly popa'a accent, it was the only cultural comfort she could provide.

"Oh, 'e." Her mother nodded.

Vi lowered her voice to a whisper before turning back to her brother. "Please, can you make sure she stays in bed tonight?"

"Tch, fine but I want half the eddies!"

Where do you think the money is going, you gonk? Vaitiare wanted to say, but settled for "okay, sure" before leaving the apartment.

The commute to Central Night City went from being the bane of Vaitiare's existence to one of her few, sober pleasures. Where the bridge used to be the chain between her shackles, it was now her lifeline to the city's underbelly. Feeling the jagged bumps transition to smooth asphalt under her CST40, she turned on the radio and shoved an aux cable into the car's adapter.

"Music these days is too synthetic! It's all slop!" Her father used to grumble. "This? This is real music."

But those were the words of every generation weren't they? Everything that came after them was derivative, incomprehensible, and fake. He yearned for 2020s that never existed: one that subsumed the 2000s in equal measure. Though Vi was inclined to agree, she preferred Night City's synthetic gloss to the unfinished buildings of her home town. Celebrity holograms, overproduced adverts, and neon lights masked Night City's horrendous pollution so she could at least pretend that she was another one of those normal, middle class workers until she stepped out of the car.

Little China was just another example of NC's poor, yet opulent identity. It was the only place where you could get a dirty dog on the same street as Michelin Star dumplings. It was the only place you could see a beater parked next to a sports car. Vaitiare approached the entrance of the Afterlife, pausing when she saw a familiar face guarding the door.

"Allen! Long time no see!" She gave him a hug before fishing her ID out of her pocket.

"You're damn right it's been a long time! Last time we met, you were still wearing a skin sleeve."

"Yeah and groceries were less than two hundred eddies a trip. They still have you working twelves?"

"Two years and counting, but I can't complain. It's the only way I can attend classes." He sighed before handing it back to her. " So are you here to see Eddie too?"

"How did you know?"

"Call it a lucky guess. He'll be in the VIP Lounge."

"Thanks, choom." Vi stepped forward before pausing. "Oh if you happen to see a blue-haired brat that looks a bit like me, tell him he's banned."

Allen let out a snort before gesturing for her to head inside. "Yeah, yeah I gotcha. Just be careful, we've got a lot of crazies today."

Vaitiare skipped the bar and the dance floor, heading directly to the VIP lounge. Either Eddie didn't have much faith in his contacts or the mission was harder than he claimed because thirteen was a hell of a lot of edgerunners for any job. Too many cooks ruined a good kitchen and too many loose lips will sink a ship.

But it wasn't her place to push back against a fixer--her job was to execute the mission and collect the money. She stood to the side, trying not to take too much room on the off chance that more people would stream in.

"Alright Eddie, what's the gig?"

code by @Nano

 

[Midrick]

Interest Check

Lore

Applications

In Character

Thornhill - Casanova

▶

Cyberpunk

Streets of Fire

01

In Character

Not backing down. Never backing down.

The Afterlife

Watson

Just as Eddie had finished his sentence the first of his fledgling crew had arrived, an exotic by the looks of it, followed in by a collection of odd and visually clashing individuals, An ex corpo operative, two booster adjacent individuals, rippers that spoke with accents betraying heritage outside of the u.s. with bespoke cyberware to boot. with each face that walked into the lounge, Eddie felt the odds simultaneously tip in and against his favor. The eclectic mix of edgerunners giving them a decent chance with numbers against the maelstromers, but each individuals personal eccentricities could cause the whole op to go pear shaped. "Glad you all could make it on such short notice. We're here for business, not pleasure, so I'll spare you the pleasantries." Eddie said to the collected group. A holographic keyboard appeared at his fingertips, a few keystrokes brought up projected images of a warehouse and it's interior layout. "The reason I've enlisted you today is because some rocker named Mili Anders got herself kidnapped by a group of Maelstromers, and put simply the label she works for wants her back, and they're willing to pay." Eddie pulled up images of their rescue target, white hair and gaudy outfits befitting a rocker. Although she would probably look worse for because of her captivity, it would be problematic for his crew to extract the wrong person. "Our friend here was kind enough to give us the blueprints to their little hideout, so go over the layout and memorize where your entry and exits are." Eddie said as his eye's briefly flashed blue as he sent the blueprints and floor plan to the assembled crew or mercs.


Eddie turned to Konrad, who had been busy downing the rest of his drink. "How much resistance should we be expecting, Konrad?" Eddie asked as the Maelstromer placed his empty glass on the table before leaning forward and regarding the gathered mercs with his crimson optics. "All the other chooms in the gang who are partial to a change in management won't be there when you guys go in, so that leaves about twenty bodies for you to take care of, I also made some arrangements with the other gangs in the area so you won't have to worry about Richter and his boys getting backup." Konrad leaned back into the booth's cushioning before continuing. "The main will be Richter and his inner circle, all those boys and girls are chromed up to the gills and are on the cusp of going cyberpsycho. Our girl is being held in Richter's personal room and before you let your imagination go into the gutter, I talked Richter out of doing anything to her in favor of ransoming her, but I don't know how long his patience will last." Konrad looked over at Eddie as he finished his part in the briefing. "I'd say you got about three days and change before Richter gets bored and either uses her as his entertainment or throws her to the jackals in the XBD 'studio'." Konrad stood and walked to the bar for another drink as Eddie took over the briefing once again.

"We have time to form a plan and do some light recon on the warehouse, I've already got the beginnings of a plan for possible infiltration and assault to secure the target, I should also mention that most of these Maelstrom gangoons have posted bounties from the NCPD especially Richter, so if you want to get some extra scratch, clean house and make sure all the 'stromers don't walk out of that warehouse alive." Eddie appraised the faces of his assembled crew once more, mentally going over who he expected to survive the job, when one face in particular stuck out to him. A quick cursory scan showed the mystery man to have no cyberware, not even something basic like a neural link. Eddie narrowed his eyes and bored into the stranger. "Don't think i sent for you, choom. You mind telling me exactly who you are and how you got here?" plans already forming on how to liquidate the unwanted intruder to his business.

Code by Nano

 

[americanCaeser]

Michael Smith
Mentions: Everyone
Interacts: Midrick Eddie
​

A few more stragglers show up, mercenaries of varying levels of augmetic enhancement. Of them, the most augmented was undoubtedly the grey skinned woman. She looked... off, like she was ready to snap at any moment. Seriously though, Michael was surprised at how much cybernetics were used among the people of Night City. He knew such places used them plenty, but he could count the number of people who weren't cyber-augmented on one hand... and that's assuming they didn't have augmentations he didn't notice.

The man in the glasses and the suit (who looked a bit like Michael, though only vaguely) began to speak up to this as well. He gave the description of what the job the mercenaries were gearing up for would be, a celebrity being kidnapped by 'Maelstromers'. A local gang? The rest was a form of mission briefing mixed in with a lot of verbal slang. With how serious Eddie, for that was only who this man could be, was treating this whole ordeal Michael felt a bit of unwanted nostalgia come back to him. It felt like he was back in the mountains, during the raids from Idaho.

He frowned slightly, and suppressed those thoughts. He ignored the weight of the pistol hidden under his coat. Those thoughts and emotions were for another time.

Eddie had just finished saying something about bounties some of the gangsters had when his eyes settled on Michael, and immediately his expression shifted as he evaluated Michael. It even felt like his eyes were glowing as they pierced through him. This was a look that Michael was getting more and more used to, the look one gave to an unknown that was either dangerous or weak. Michael knew that, regardless of what Nick's note said, what he did next would go a long way in deciding whether or not Eddie would help or brush him off.

Michael stood up after a moment, wiping the proverbial sweat off of his hands as he spoke up.

"My name is Michael Smith." He reached into his coat pocket, but held up a hand to make clear he wasn't reaching for any piece and pulled out Nick's note. "An... associate of yours, a Mr-"

He hesitated, not wanting to say the full name but knowing the only reason he didn't was unreasonable prudishness.

"Mr 'No Dick' Nick sent me your way. He said you could help me with someone." He held out the note which Eddie took. "I'm not asking for charity. Just some help, and I'll do my best to return the favor."

 

[Teh Frixz]

Amaryllis
Amaryllis snorted loudly as the amazingly ganic gonk announced his contact, her snort rolling into a grating, as in metal grinding on metal, laugh. Only ceasing as she leaned over, snatching a half empty glass from a neighboring ledge. It didn’t have a taste other than watered down by ice, but it was a free drink.



“Mmmhmm real deal stuff huh?” She swished the remaining liquid in the mystery glass, letting it run down the sides. “Waterrrd down, probably cheap but can still taste the burn. Much better than nothing, it’s free and doing its best.” She nodded a few times, blinking rapidly as delayed sensors fired off all at once to brute force their way into her partially fried brain. “What more can you ask of our Gigi here? ‘Ganics always do better than you expect, they could have a dweller fry us all and he’d zero her unphased. Sorta nova isssnt he?” She pointed over her drink, waggling her finger at Michael.

Amaryllis finished the glass, dropping it with an audible thunk to the ground. “I vouch for him, if he vouches back. Best place to solo start, zeroing maelstrom boosters. Total chill move” she grinned, one eye drifting off to the side before catching it. “When we going? I’m fired up?” Amaryllis shifted conversation venues with the grace of a truck going from top gear to reverse, staring at Eddy.

“Are you doing like, like light or hard infil? I don want to wait around thumbing my ass and losing our burn.”

 

[ThatGuyWithSouvlaki]

Anibell

​

Turned out the group of misfits was the group she was looking for. It must have be a big gig to need so many people to conduct it. It still did not explain to her why they needed someone like her among them. The best as she could figure then needed someone with either acting skills or genuinely believed she was a genuine nomad and all the skills that came with it for smuggling. Whatever the case, she was here now and joined the meeting, it would not hurt to hear what the job was. She sat back and nursed the beer she got from the bar, sipping it silently as she took everyone around them. The cat girl caught her eyes, it had been a while since seen an Exotic before. They seemed to be rarer in the past few years. She was drop-dead gorgeous and seemed to be very open in showing it off. She wondered what it took to be so confident to have an open boob window while being in a job that tends to get you shot at. Ani had a job offer than needed her to take up the role as an exotic but decided against it thinking it would change her look to much and be permanent. Maybe she could have pulled off.

She quickly returned her focus she man in charge as he began his briefing. A rescue mission of a rocker from maelstrom? Not what she expected, luckily she had been practising her quick draw and gunslinging. From what she heard of the gang there were really brutal even as far as gang goes. She had heard of the rocker too, a real up and comer like her, Mili must be really making money for their rocker if he were willing to save her. If she was not part of a group hire to rescue the rocker, she might have though the corpo hired the gang to get rid of a problem performer. Though hiring them could just be cover for the corp to show that they tried to rescue them, but the crew would have been a lot cheaper looking than this lot.

She raised an eyebrow where the most basic man she had ever seen approached the group and attempted to work their way into the mission. "Some secure operations if a rando from the street can enter a job." She said snarkily, still in character. She looked at Micheal studying up and down before shrugging. "Still, what is another meat shield against the maelstormers."

 

[Slowpokie]

Powder -★
Mentions: americanCaeser ThatGuyWithSouvlaki Teh Frixz Midrick Everyone

The relief the alcohol had granted him fades by the second when Eddie explains the mission at hand; a Rocker kidnapped by Maelstrom… poor girl, he couldn't imagine what she'd gone through, especially given the fame attached to her.
She was a prized lamb sitting in the lap of wolves waiting to strike.

Some anxiety creeps in as he ponders the mission more. He's never been good at killing people - sure, he's gravely injured some Scavs with a few grenades before, but you can't consider those folk people, can you?
Powder's whole thing was non-lethal approach… but, if he really wanted to get out there, then he supposed he could swallow that principle for the time being. To get something, you gotta give something after all.

His bright optics watch as Eddie scrutinizes Michael down to his every organic detail, the disdain as obvious as Luna in the night sky. Followed up by the Nomad woman's comment, and Powder can't help but feel bad for the guy. “Hey, he ain't all bad,” he said to Anibell “Choomba has a lot more up his sleeve, or he wouldn't have made it this far in NC, right? I'm with the grey chick, I vouch for him too.” Powder remarked while giving Michael a slap on the shoulder, even if his word meant little given his lack of reputation.

Deep down, Powder wasn't sure if he wholeheartedly believed in what he said. Michael did stick out like a sore thumb even amongst a sea of oddballs, and not for any good reason either.
But he had a flicker of faith in Michael. Maybe it was just his attraction to him talking here, but Pow held onto it.

 

[Karcen]

Madowasu (Aza) Azamuki
Mentions​

Finally the job was being discussed and it seemed this small army was being gathered to go in and get a hostage out. That was nothing to special even if it was maelstrom they were hitting this amount of people seemed a bit excessive. Really with there only being 20 defenders Aza half thought she coukd do this alone, she had delt with gang hide outs before, but a crew was always better even if it meant splitting the pay out. A netrunner might be an issue but after the datakrash thry had a harder time no more hacking people from a state away. It had to do with how the new nets was built something like each building being a block or sone kind of techno magic amAzahad never understood. If she hadn't left school at 12 she might know more, but with how lacking education was she doubted it. Still a runner or two was only a minor annoyance that she coukd deal with if need be. That many had warrants out meant going head hunting would be well worth the hassle.

" I am in, it has been a little while since I last went head hunting " Aza said a bit more ontresting in tge side objective than the main one simply because she wanted the money. The fear of failing of being hurt was absent in her she was sure she could do this crew or no crew.