Chapter 5: The Techie

Today was the day I would be getting my BDs. I was already smiling as I looked in the mirror.

Bad Tesha. Bad. Porn addiction bad.

My mind, or rather my [redacted], didn’t seem to agree as I had a little bounce in my step as I got to change for outside. For some reason, my path really wanted me to look extra huggable today. Wearing a soft white sweater and some black leggings, I put on a white beanie to complete the look.

I didn’t want to spoil this BD like I had the last one so I asked as little questions as possible all while ensuring the bare minimum; no killing, no excessive violence, don’t draw too much attention. 

Contrary to expectations of Night City, not everyone got robbed or killed every time they stepped out their house, especially not in Japantown. The area was too important to the city (and the Tyger Claws) for a multitude of reasons; tourism, cash laundry, night life, and a lot more Corpos than anyone’s spouse would want to know. This mainly resulted in two things; lots of NCPDs and Tyger Claw members keeping peace while generally ignoring the other faction.

The criminal elements from other gangs or independents tended to avoid the area if they could help it. The areas was a hotbed for Tyger Claws, fast responding NCPDs, and trigger happy Corpos who had hired guns at their beck and call. In an ironic sort of way, a semblance of peace was kept in the district through extensive corruption and gangs in plain sight. Mains roads policed by the Police, the alleys and smaller streets under watch by the gangs.

So it came to be quite a surprise when my path suddenly decided it wanted to talk to a camera in the middle of nowhere. Passing through an alleyway to cut some time, the path took control completely as my facial expressions turned to stone as I turned to face a doorbell.

[Path Unspecified: Turn to camera, speak]

“I already warned you not to do this.” The words flowed from my lips in a language I couldn’t comprehend. The path shaping my mouth to make the sounds.

“You failed to comprehend the present so you looked into my past.” I raised my gemini hand towards the little camera on the doorbell. “Yet you were foolish to believe that my past would provide you with answers.  Can’t you see? Even in my past, I can see everything.”

My cyberdeck reacted as tens of thousands of lines of codes, utterly incomprehensible, wrote themselves into existence. Lines and lines of 0s and 1s before compressing into trojan files to wait years before being set to trigger on very very specific conditions. 

“That was your last warning. That was strike two. I’ll let you live this final time since you and yours sincerely have been ‘excellent’ clients.” I nodded gently towards the camera. A clear taunt. “I will have to take away your sight, for good. Goodbye Arasaka-sama.” And with that, I booby trapped the doorbell with what was no doubt an incredibly lethal program.

[Path Unspecified: Deactivated]

As the path returned control, I looked through the steps to see what in the world had just happened. 

[Path to ‘Protecting Identity’] [Path requested by ‘Passenger’ 4 Month in the future] 

[Step 37 & (-23): Prevent Arasaka from attempting to find identity of persona ‘Clairvoyant’ including information of the Past]

Who is passenger?

[Passenger is Self Proclaimed: Tesha Comtesse]

Why am I called passenger?

[Passenger: Designation. PURPOSE]

Why am I acting out a path from the future?

[Current paths dictates that this action will be necessary to fulfill a prerequisite of a path in the future]

Am I living in the past? 

[False. Passenger is in Time: Present]

What happens in the future that requires this path?

[Revealing information may cause deviations in future paths. Continue?]

Will I feel that knowing the information is worth it?

[Summary: Not worth the deviations]

I sighed as I shook the thoughts out of my head. The implications of a future version of me affecting the present me was…I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. According to how the path phrased it, it would still be me.

I made a mental note to look into it deeper later before continuing to follow the direction the [Path to BDs I like] gave me.

… …

The steps didn’t simply stop at getting the BDs from the parlor but rather bringing them to an editor to fine-tune them further to my taste. The plastic bag full of scrolls in one hand, I made my way to Megabloc H8.

Like most Megabuildings, H8 was essentially a small town in of itself. The first floor opening up to a large area filled with food vendors, small shops, and the office for the megabloc. The dark colors of the building contrasting with the ultra-kitsch aesthetics which adorned the walls, advertisements, and even the very atmosphere of the building. There was an aura of…sex, as if the building was run by the Mox instead of the Tyger Claws. Neon Pink and blue stickers on every surface with ads for questionable services with numbers written on walls with glitter ink pens. 

Despite the Mox and sex worker colors, everyone who lived in Night City knew that H8 was a Tyger Claw stronghold. The gang had managed to purchase most of the higher floors of the building and had the administrators of the building in their pockets. Just taking a look around the first floor revealed a number of obvious Claw members loitering around.

Bright colored hair, shirtless with incredibly detailed tattoos of dragons, tigers, other mythical creatures adorned with beautiful calligraphy. 

[Dermal Imprint] The path helpfully provided.

On my way towards the elevator, there were a couple of Claws sitting just close enough to the contraption. It was rather obvious what they were here for. Asking for a quick answer through the path, I resigned to just do as the Romans do. I nodded to one of the bigger ganger, a chromed up junkie with a blue mohawk, as I flicked him 100 Eddies. As he nodded back, he gave the same look towards his chooms who gave me a slight look-over before thumbing the elevator button up.

I ignored them awkwardly for the next minute as the elevator took its sweet time getting down. Finally I made my way through the elevators rusted metal cage doors before choosing the 13th floor. Walking right past the VIP area of Clouds and a few more shops and apartments until I found myself in front of a hole-in-the-wall type shop.

Just from the looks of it, it wasn’t really obvious what the shop was for. Old mechanical parts were strewn around the floor looking like they fell off the half completed robotics projects on the tables. Wherever the shop wasn’t crowded with bits of metal were occupied with monitors and implants, half scrolled BDs mixed with old film tapes. 

It was chaos.

What added to the chaos was whoever decided that having aquatic creatures painted and doodled onto the grey concrete walls was a good aesthetic choice.

By this point, I had come too far. My shoulders hunched and my steps got smaller as my path instructed me to look and act as timid as possible. I stepped near the walls as I gently came to the edge of the hole-in-the-wall shop before speaking out.

“He-hello?” My voice cracked slightly. “Is-is any-anyone there?”

My organic hand reached across my body as it grabbed onto the gemini arm as my feet slowly made its way into the shop. I kept to the walls as I carefully avoided the tables and the mechanical parts on the floor as I tried to search for the shopkeeper.

“Umm…maybe I’ll just leave? If that’s okay…” I whisper out loud before I turn around, coiled. My body seems to be breathe in relief as it starts to head out of the shop when a voice stops me.

“Hey!” “EEK!” I jump a foot into the air but somehow I manage to mess up the landing as I feel a cog or a screw slip from underneath my foot as I flail for a moment. I sense the moment my right foot mess up only to realize that my left foot also be up in the air.

In my panic, I furiously consult the path but all of the paths return positive answers of how I won’t be harmed. All while I could feel my head getting closer and closer to the hard ground. I close my eyes to at least save myself from the humiliation when I feel hands behind my head and back.

They lower me slowly to the ground as my bum safety lands instead of crashing. My optics, still closed, I decide to take a small peak…

“Hi” *squeak* Did that sound come from me?

I looked up to find-

“Name’s Judy. What can I get for you?”

-an angel. I doubt I would have needed the path’s help to stutter. I ran a path immediately as I got to learn the girl in front of me.

[Judy Alvarez. 21 years old. Techie, BD editor, tattoo enthusiast, aquatic creatures lover, mechanic, amateur neural scientist and certified badass.]

And? I pressed on. 

[In a relationship]

Fuck!

[Break up happening naturally in 2 weeks]

Oh?

“Hey, you ok? Kind of blanked out there for a second.” I realize I’ve just been blankly staring at her (wow) face. I wanted to flirt or saying something but the main path to BDs blocked me. Instead, I turned away as my cheeks began warming up. I could feel the blood pumping in my head as I scrambled to get back on my feet.

Judy (such an angel) helped me up while looking as if she was holding in a laughter.

“You sure you’re alright?” She had such a husky voice. Oh my god.

“Yeah” I brushed off my knees. “Yeah, I think so. Thank you.” I grabbed the plastic bag filled with the BDs before looking into them to make sure they were alright. Thankfully it seemed like none of them had been damaged from her rather pathetic fall.

“Umm…” I held out the bag of BDs towards Judy, both hands. “I heard…Braindances?” I looked down. “Editor?”

I felt her hand slide across mine as she gently took the plastic bag. She dropped them on a table before taking one out and plugging one into a monitor.

I reacted immediately as I almost sprinted towards her before pushing her slightly away and trying to cover the booting up monitor with my hands. My eyes furiously looking out the shop for any passerby before looking directly at Judy, The path directing the muscles on my face to scrunch up into a mix of panic and anger (which Judy unfortunately saw as an angry kitten).

“Not here!” I hissed.

The techie was trying to hold in her laughter at this point. “You must really be into some messed up shit if you’re that afraid.” She ejected the BD from out the port before reading the description tag on the back. She waggled her eyebrows as she mouthed the warning tag.

I felt myself literally shrinking at each second.

“and Vanilla, really? You really are just a little cinnamon roll.”

“…braindance editor please?”

“Sure” She swiveled around her chair. “It’s already been edited though. Quite professional too. Luv4two is a big studio.”

“Well…”

“You want me to crank up the orgasm or something?” Damn, it was hard to look at her in the eye. Why can’t I just look at her straight? Path!

“No!” 

She raised her eyebrow. 

“Well, not specifically.” 

“Technically I’m not allowed to edit already edited Braindances cause of copyright, intellectual property, and blah blah blah.” Judy smirked as I felt something going down my spine. “But since you’re cute let’s say I never realized this was company property. Come, sit.”

She pushed a stool towards me as she put a braindance rig on her head. “Alright, describe to me what you want.”

I think I wanted something more than BDs.

… …

*clink*

Judy took a swig of her beer as I sipped mine from the bottle. The beer itself wasn’t anything exceptional but like most alcohol, it wasn’t about the drink.

“So just enjoying your funemployment then?”

“I guess. Not much you can do in this city without being pulled into the murky depths though.” I sighed. “So brain dances. 

We were out by the river, sitting on a bench as we went through the bottles of beer. Courtesy of Judy’s.

“This city is like that, you know? It keeps promising you that it’s going to get better…only to pull you in deeper and deeper.” Judy turned to face me, looking completely sober. “Ever feel like you’re being choked in this city?”

Choked? Possibly. Maybe if I had never gotten me powers I would feel that way. But I didn’t. I had the world of infinite possibilities at my very fingertips. Yet at the same time, I wasn’t as free as I had once thought. This fucking city, this fucking shithole of a world managed to present her with nothing but the worst options for the most worthy causes.

“We should get out before it’s too late, you know?” She leaned back on the bench, one hand going over the wooden back. “Feels like nobody has a fucking future in this city.”

I kept my face straight as I looked at the stragglers, the people passing by. Everyday people…possibly people whom I would never see again.

I asked for their future.

[Kevin Jin. Betrayed by close associate in Corporation. Cut off from family. Death in 2 years as bystander in gang war.]

[Sophia Parker. Pregnant. Heavy nicotine dependence. Death in 7 months by misdiagnosis.]

[James DJuan. Death in 5 years due to homicide]

[Sasha Yakovleva. Netrunner. Edgerunner. Grieving for mother’s death.  Death in 3 years due to Security Bots in Biotechnica NC-HQ avenging her mother’s death]

I turned back to Judy. “Is leaving the only way?” 

[Yarrick Stone. Maelstrom Initation in 10 days. Adopt name of ‘Dum Dum’. Running along cyberpsychosis. Killed by rising Solo]

“Wouldn’t it be the same anywhere else?” I already knew the answer. I’ve already seen the answer. The world was turning to shit and trying to fix it would only turn it into more shit.

“Maybe Europe? Heard ECC’s pretty uptight about crime.”

“My bet’s on a civil war within the next twenty years. Probably Greece, Bulgaria, or a Scandinavian country fed up with the status quo.” It was going to be a chain reaction which would force the world into yet another world war with consequences worse than even the 4th Corporate War.

“I dunno then.” Judy replied. “Wish I could just fix it with a snap of my fingers. World would be so much easier if it ran the same way as a Brain Dance.”

I almost choked on my beer as I looked at her.

“Imagine just fixing people’s lives from behind the scenes. Just editing out certain parts which would cause problems later on. Or amplifying the parts which the world needs.” She snapped her fingers. “Just like that. Wouldn’t that be a dream.”

I looked over at the jogger who had stopped for a little rest. I asked the questions again, and again. Ignoring the sirens, ignoring the medicine, ignoring the screams and cries of her companions. 

I asked the right questions.

[Summary: Possible]

World Peace without genocide?

[Possible]

Ending Poverty without enslavement?

[Possible]

Could I save her?

[Judy Alvarez. Death in 8 years by Nomad outcast raid in Oregon.]

[Path to influencing the world with ‘Limitations by User’]

[Answer: Possible]

[Kevin Jin. Interference with Gang Leadership]

[Sophia Parker. Warning message and advertisement at the right time]

[James Djuan. Change traffic light timing by 3 seconds]

[Sasha Yakovleva. Release Biotechnica information prior to her raid]

[Yarrick Stone. Ensure Merc meets with Militech representative]

“It’s not a dream.” I turned to face the girl whom I met today. It felt as if I had known her for a lifetime. “We can make it happen.”

[Judy Alvarez. Kiss]

[Path to becoming ‘Clairevoyant’]

[Step 1 Complete]

… …