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Messengerofgods
Snowdrops
Moonshadow
BlazingBark
Ariamis
The Irish Tree
4323O2
Autumn Moon
Red Hood“And that Emily is the long and short of why we are not in the office and around a hundred fifty miles away from Night City... Sora you gotta try this coleslaw.” Dusty spoke offering the container and a fresh spoon to her as the pair sat on the hood of the Clydesdale near a rustic little diner with a spread of country fixins. Fried chicken, Okra, green beans, mashed potatoes, and pork ribs. “Wish you could join us for the meal. One of the families recommended this place, apparently it’s a hot spot for the Snake nation smugglers... So how was your day?”
Dusty had casually explained the fact he had a blood feud with his own sibling, said sibling was marshaling the Raffen Shiv, Sora had massacred an entire Shiv encampment, nearly started a war, and apparently their may soon be high way wars going just outside the walls of her home city which meant the price on everything was gonna go up.
Dusty took a sec to grab another rib, offering a bottle of fire water to Sora. The moonshine the Nomad’s drank was stronger than Night City cocktails, smelled more pleasant than synthetic alcohols and drinks they mixed in the dive bars... Even if you could be pretty sure Dusty used the same stuff to clean the brakes on the Clydesdale. “I dunno, maybe we should take Emily on her first field trip out of the office... Have you ever been camping Emily?” Dusty gave Sora a shit eating grin to let her know he was mostly just trying to get a rise from the little blonde.
“Security needed a revised clearance request form, accounting required the monthly expenditure statements, ‘Joan’ stopped by wanting to see you and requested you let her know when you have time…even though she wouldn’t give me any contact details at all…”
The irritation in Emily’s voice was subtle, but plainly heard, Sora’s only reaction was to, literally, spit in disgust. Her dark eyes hardened in the twisted disgust of betrayal as she glared at Dusty and threw the container of coleslaw over her shoulder to the ground, “I hate you.”
“…what?” Emily audibly double-took over the line.
Sora sighed softly, “Not you—send anything I need to sign, and ‘Joan’ is an auditor from the New York office I helped a few times when I was Danger Gal. No idea what she wants, but if she wouldn’t tell you then it’s likely personal and can wait until I’m back.”
“Why does she hate you?”
At the same time, in contrasting tones, the two answered her: “Coleslaw.”
“Oh, that’s foul, Dusty,” Emily ick’d from the other end of the line. “A few other notes; a MiliTech rep passed security checks to reach out to you, a Lauren Westin. Just left contact info, nothing else.”
At the name, Sora accepted the bottle and took a strong swig, before handing it back, though nothing on her surface suggested anything distressing. It was a pure juxtaposition of words and flat, unfeeling, tone, “About the last operation. Expected.”
Intrigue sounded in Emily’s tone, despite some manner of effort to conceal it, “…is it about the woman?”
“Yes. About the woman.”
Something was right there, but Sora didn’t have the processing capacity to deal with it, or think on it, at the moment. “Anything else?”
“R&D want to see you when they can, something about your chrome…and, uh, Michiko’s office wanted to set up a meeting for you with a Gaertner-San. I told her office three days, they seemed satisfied with that.”
Sora blinked at the handheld device on speaker, lying face-up on the hood of the car, “Emily…you maybe wanna lead with that next time a member of the Arasaka clan personally requests a meeting?
“They said there was no rush.”
Sora chortled, sarcastically, “Right. They also said at my earliest convenience?”
“They did.”
The universal look of corporate ‘fuck me’ rolled along Sora’s face as deeply as her eyes rolled into the back of her head. That, the MiliTech woman, and Sora suddenly wasn’t feeling very at ease with any of it.
What the hell kind of fallout was Eddie going to pull down around her ears?
“I couldn’t dig anything up about Gaertner?”
Sora looked as if she might try to stick her fork in her eye, her eyes slowly closing and reopening only after a series of deep breathing, “He’s German. He’s smart. Investigator.”
“Like you?”
She shrugged, as if Emily could see it, “Smarter. Absolute shit in a fight, but that’s not what they pay him for. Don’t worry about it right now.” Because I’m not, either, but she didn’t include that part. It all had to do with Eddie, and that was enough for Sora to push it out of her brain at the moment and enjoy the pork ribs.
At the mention of camping, Emily laughed, loudly, “Yes, Dusty, what Night City girl doesn’t go camping? You two don’t get killed. Talk soon, boss.”
“Coooleslaw,” Sora said, mockingly, shaking her head in disappointment and disgust.
“Hey. I like it better than synthetic meat and veggies... Better than the tofu.” He taunted as he laughed a moment. “You sure don't wanna head back to the city? I could get you back to your bed and personal chef before nightfall and get myself back here before midnight if you don't wanna sleep with the Nomads.” He chuckled, he couldn't imagine Sora roughing it in the desert. Sand in her chrome, her hair getting split ends and skin cracked and dried from the heat.
He also couldn't picture her on a cattle drive or living out of a camper. He could definitely see her as a fan of freedom and bikes... She had visited his place a few times to see his custom bike in pieces on the kitchen table. Either way as they wrapped up the meal Dusty cleaned his hands with water from a bottle and then some soap usually meant for decreasing his hands after fixing the car.
He slipped an extra hundred Eddie's to the chef and waitress each. Then stretched a moment. “You sure you can put up with country and Nomad rock for a night? Or should I see if the Meta's can get you an AV to NC?” He teased one last time.
“Sometimes, it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way, to come back a short distance correctly,” she said, knowing he wouldn’t recognize the quote, or the man who said it a century ago, and as she wiped her hands clean of the rib sauce, she put it another way: “getting lost is not always a waste of time, Dusty.”
And then, as she swirled from her perch and began to collect the handheld device, cigarette, vintage lighter, and handgun, she stuck a cigarette between pursed lips and struck the ignition wheel of the lighter, allowing a plume of pale, thin, to rise as she threw in something at the end, before she walked off to take her smoke, “you don’t think I have an AV, as an executive level employee of Arasaka?”
She didn’t wait for a response, or look for a reaction, of the fact that she had available to her most efficient and effective means of transportation at her disposal besides him, and she would leave it to him to work out exactly what that meant.
“No. But you like how Nomad's drive better than suits... You ought to see how space jockeys and independ aero smugglers fly... Pretty sure you'd crack a smile. Edward Albee... Decent writer.” He moved to take a seat in the Clydesdale as he pulled the radio up, giving Sora her first hint he might have a brain behind that hat. “This is Dusty Rhodes, come in Jodes camp, need a Texas size ten four on where to head.”
He stopped a moment listening in as he nodded and frowned. “Uh huh... Well tell the others we are bringing company and keep my sister locked up for the evening. I don't need her hitting on my boss.” He added to the dispatcher, as he moved to roll his own cigarette and wait for Sora to finish her smoke. It was a short drive, but once they got there it was gonna be a party and a half... Apparently they were calling a war council for the new Shiv threat. Meant the representatives from the seven nations would be meeting in the Jodes camp... The entire Jodes nation was mobilizing.
Her mind was a haze, the air of the badland gloom felt thin, and it seemed to her as if she could chain-smoke anything. Her own little Hell was packing up and moving with the Nomads, but her mind couldn’t have been further away, it wasn’t even planet side. The horizon of the endless wastes became the horizon of Lunar wastes, blinding bright, with the smell of recycled air. No amount of perfectly tuned processors could help her feel anything but lost at the time.
Middle finger and thumb ejected the dying cigarette butt into the sands, Sora silently slipped into the bucket seats of the car, closing the passenger door, and settling in. When they arrived the just as quietly slid out, and followed him with the backpack slung over one shoulder, sheathed katana with plain, black, hilt and hand wrapping in the other hand like she was the new kid to the psycho’s summer camp awaiting bunk assignment.
The Jodes encampment was buzzing with activity, must have three or clans worth of Nomads here. Militech, Arasaka, homemade tech, and more being loaded and prepared. A little brigade of three armored Militech tanks and some support vehicles were assembled. More custom cars than any NC car show, with better fire power and armor than even top of the line gangs.
Overhead AV and several flavors from the Meta's were making their arrival. Aldervado bikers and Snake Nation smugglers. “You know how you always tell me I wouldn't fit in your Arasaka meetings? This is kinda that but with you and my people.” He explained as his Aunt Viv barked orders. As they walked up, suddenly a very perky teenage redhead popped up staring up at the cowboy.
“Duston! Oh, this is your corpo boss?” She hugged her brother covered in grease in a dirty white t-shirt and orange coverall pants. “So... What is she using as a joy toy or something? Cause you ain't got many other uses to someone as scary as her.” She cracked a grin as she laughed at Duston's expense.
“Autumn Rhodes! Mechanic and Dusty's baby sister!” She offered her grease covered hand. “And you must be the infamous boss lady. He wouldn't give us your name.” She spoke looking her up and down before leaning towards Dusty who stood next to and slightly too loudly whispered. “Is she single?”
‘The difference,’ she wanted to retort, ‘was that I don’t care if I don’t fit in.’ But she kept it to herself. Sora didn’t appear nervous; she certainly didn’t feel out of place—super weapons were useful anywhere they went in this world. Even in the wastes of the badlands and the lost tribes that populated them.
“He reminds me what humanity is supposed to look like,” Sora interjected to answer the girl’s curiosity for him. Before the girl she stood straight and unmoving, the very stature of a ninja, with all the impossible training and lethal intent that came with the dark eyes that captured the image of the girl and wouldn’t move from the target.
To someone who knew anything about her, it was the tiny smile that crept across her lips that was the real warning. Worse was the tone that came out of those smiling lips; warm, dripping in Japanese honey, “Sora Hayami, Board of Directors, Arasaka-Night City.”
Internalized cloak, dermal regenerators, embedded acoustic dampeners, sub-dermal EMP lining, and far more devious counterintel cyberware that could play on the neuro-receptors of another person turned Sora’s very touch into a weapon could be used for purposes of nearly every imaginable desire and motive.
Even the ignorance of youth would know the impossible dark depths of the deep end Autumn had just plunged into when Sora took the girl’s hand, and stepped a step closer, not even a foot away from Dusty’s sister. The grip was intractably silken smooth and warm, inviting, and somehow at the same time an impossibility to escape, as if there was no limit to the strength her current delicate hold on the girl’s hand whispered about.
Sora’s eyes tumbled to the hem of the girl’s tank top, as the Saka super ninja let go of the girl’s hand, and casually as wiping her hands on a dish towel used the bottom of Autumn’s tank top to wipe the grease from her hand.
“The more appropriate question would be…hand of fate, or demon’s claw?”
Her eyes rose once more to capture Autumn’s gaze as she spoke, that little smile on her lips hiding in the shadows at the corners of her mouth, becoming a secret between the two of them.
Autumn's eyes went big as she watched Sora her smile only growing. “Dusty... Seriously, how did land work for someone this cool! I thought Corpo's were all suits and briefcases... Or the kind where you point a gun and they piss their pants like that con-” She suddenly shut her mouth and remembered not to talk about robbing people in front of strangers. “I thought you were small time! This seems like a big leagues job.”
Dusty just groaned as he watched Sora both scare him and charm his sister. Great, she could multitask messing up his family Dynamic. “Absolutely not, Autumn , go work on your bike. I'm sure you got chores too. I am not gonna watch my sister flirt with my boss.” Shooing her away he sighed, as she walked off sticking her tongue out at Duston before winking at Sora. Girl had a crush now, clearly.
“Sorry about her... Autumn has a thing for new people. She's bored easily and Nomad life can be... Boring.” He sighed as he shook his head and marched them towards his old place. “My trailer is up here. Can bunk up here, I'll crash with my family.” He answered by offering his own place for Sora.
Stepping in it was covered in pictures and postcards from across the states and beyond. However, a single picture frame of a much younger Dusty and a blonde young woman in a pilot's jumpsuit leaning over him sat center. Along with a model AV and a few other little photos. She'd heard his stories, his fiance.
She paused at the threshold of the trailer’s entrance, her square-rimmed retro sunglasses dipping down the bridge of her nose to allow her eyes to take in the full sight before her. It only took her a beat to flick the glasses back over her eyes, and say, “It’s a fucking dust covered shit hole…I see you retained the same interior designer for your Night City apartment.”
The delivery was so flat, so utterly without feeling, that the humor behind the words would have been more obvious than the steel of her katana embedded in a man’s skull. Otherwise she noted the ghost, but ignored it for now, instead tossing her bag and katana down and freely yawning.
She needed sleep, and a system diagnostic.
“I’ll have a doc sent over to go over your chrome... Technomancer one, since uh... Pretty sure most wouldn’t know what they are looking at with some of the chrome you have. If you want someone to check it out.” Dusty added, before sighing. “I’ll go see what’s for dinner and find out when the war council will be... You, nap. If you need it, I keep a stash of booze under the gun safe, you are strong enough to move it.” He smirked, Sora’s humor about his bleak trailer was just her way of being funny, even if he knew she didn’t like the look he’d certainly been in worse places with her... After the fight with Eddie’s crew especially.
“No one but Arasaka touches me.” Sora knew the deal she’d made; she was more than bleeding edge tech, according to Hanako, she was future tech conjured from unspeakable sources. “Go, I’ll be…around.”
“Gotcha. Well you have fun. I’m gonna go get a lecture.” He sighed and took off his hat as he walked off to find Viv, and keep Autumn far away from the trailer. As the Meta AV’s began to land.
