"Okay."

Smiles and heads back out again.

me? oh i'm fine, thanks
see you later

"Weird? Are you okay? Do you wanna come to my room with me?"

Smiles.

#r-feather

hi Seven
sorry, i'm on my way out ... it's too weird around here tonight

"God, you're hard to track down."

Pounces and smothers you in kisses.

"Hiya, ya little firecracker you!"

Smiles.

Ow.
Double hrmph!

Ow.
Double hrmph!

Fenix Arsenal
"Mmhm."

A greasy napkin turned into an origami crane — a synecdoche of Night City. Emblematic of her.

"Maybe," her gaze softened as she slid her attention from you to the paper you were holding.

"…but it doesn't make you any more vulnerable than someone like Fuse. He fears for his life, sees opportunity to escape, it motivates him to betray his cause. He doesn't have to be sentimental to be vulnerable…"

IRIDIA picked it up back up when you set it down, unfolding it to flatten it wide. "In my opinion, sentimentality only expands your attack-surface, maybe gives you more to defend but I'm sure you're grateful for even having something worth defending."

The napkin was crumpled up, added to the rest of the trash.

"Besides, I think if the roles were reversed, and you found yourself in a drippy signal-isolated room surrounded by unfriendly faces, given a choice between betrayal and the absolute worst that could happen… I think sentimentality gives you strength."

Let's never ever find out, though.

IRIDIA drained the last of her soda and tossed it, too. "For me? Some version of death. Could be a software wipe, if the powers-that-be decide I'm worth salvaging. Nuke who I am, install a replacement, drop me somewhere new — maybe Halley Research Station? Maybe some rig outside Hawaii or Guam? Won't matter to me since what makes me me will be some magnetic debris on the scrubber-head of a data wipe probe, or if I'm lucky I sit in cold storage on physical media, a crystal slab in a lead box underground waiting to slowly degenerate via cosmic rays."

It's like she's practiced this monologue to deliver to someone else.

"This is what I get for trying to get close to people. They leave. Without warning. Without a goodbye. Just...gone."

Sighs.

"I need a sign that you're out there, God. Please."

*tosses a pillow at your head*

*tosses a pillow at your head*

No it was extremely weitd

okay ... that was a little weird

Nods, leaves the needles and slips out as well.

*flops around until he gets comfortable*
Hrmph.

*flops around until he gets comfortable*
Hrmph.

Listens as you count
your screams increasing in frantic, desperate volume with each stroke.
Then, as you writhe and squeal, the last is not counted

Grins
Laughs softly as I set the cane down and lean close as you cry
Poor little piggy.
you missed one.

Steps away and returns with My long needles
Giggles as I tap each weight to send them swinging.
Fingers and presses the plug to bring a fresh wave of searing heat from the ginger

The needles drag across your titflesh now as your body is wracked with pain

Ask for the needles, pig.

slips out