Chapter 37

Despite being midday, Lizzie’s was already busy.

That’s just Night City for you. As I pulled into a parking spot I could see Rita the bouncer throwing some drunk out of the club. The poor guy not able to fight back against the borg woman who happily tossed him on his ass onto the asphalt.

I walked up stepping over the groaning drunk as I headed up to the door only to be stopped by Rita as she sauntered into my path.

“Nox finally found ya huh?” She seemed to question her eyes locked on mine.

“Yeah, I had someone let me know he was trying to get in touch.” I told her as I stopped, as the way she was looking told me she wasn’t happy.

“We aren’t the type to be pissed with avoiding someone you aren’t interested in, but it’s fucked not to at least let him down easy.” She said with a little glare. Telling me in no uncertain terms that my disappearance wasn’t taken well.

Jeez what is it with these Mox? “There was nothing like that. I was out of touch because of some Maelstrom trouble. I was under a jammer. I didn’t even know he was trying to contact me.”

She snorted a bit but stepped aside letting me in. Thankfully it seems she wasn’t taking the matter into her own hands.

I decided to ignore every Mox’s weird assumptions and just get back to business.

Side Quest!

I walked through the entrance without stopping at the desk. I wasn’t here to buy BD’s after all.

Honestly BD stuff kinda creeped me out. The fact that you could feel other peoples emotions during a BD, rather than your own? It was like…

Art that forces a perspective on you. Which was sorta weird. Imagine watching a TV show, but instead of enjoying it from your own perspective, you felt the emotions of the main character, watched from their eyes.

It was just weird.

One of the reasons I hadn’t done any Brain Dance stuff since I woke up in Night City, normal TV and games was good enough for me.

No need to stick other people’s emotions in my head.

The main room was actually surprisingly full. Again the fact it was mid day seemed to have no effect on Night City debauchery.

But I didn’t see Nox.

So I did what any gun toting merc does when you enter a bar.

I walked up to the bartender and settled into a chair, waiting for him to finish an order before walking over.

“What can I get you?”

“Just information. I’m looking for Nox, he asked me to meet him.”

“Ah. That’s right, you’re that one girl.” The bartender gave a chuckle as his eyes went yellow. “I let him know, he’ll be here in a minute.”

I shrugged, I could have sent a text too.

“So Mox tends to be defensive about the kids… Might be a good idea to let the kid down flat if you aren’t interested instead of ghosting him.” The man offered as he wiped a glass clean.

“Wait.” I couldn’t help but ask as I brought up my hand to the guy to stop him from saying anything further. “Did Nox tell everyone that I ghosted him or something? You’re the third Mox I’ve met today that mentioned that.”

“Well less he told us, and more he has been mopin-”

“THANKS MATEO!” Nox yelled as the boy practically jumped the bar to try and shut the bartender up. “Hey Motoko! Glad you made it. C’mon I have something preem to show you.” He said glaring at the bartender who was smiling behind the teenager’s hand as waved his hands in a ‘go on then’ motion.

“Sure.” I offered shrugging which grabbed Nox’s attention.

“Whoa. That’s fresh chrome. Double full arm replacement?” He asked, looking curiously at my arms.

“Yeah, the reason no messages went through. I got kidnapped by Maelstrom. Ended up needing some ripper work done after. Been under a jammer for the bit. Sorry about that.” I explained. Hopefully the explanation would stop making every Mox I ran into tell me off for ignoring Nox.

Seriously Suzie didn’t seem to be too happy with Nox, but considering everyone’s reaction, he must be pretty loved by the Mox.

“Damn.” He muttered looking shocked as he took in my arms.

But I wasn’t about to get into it right now, especially with someone I wasn’t super close to. “So the gig?”

“R-right. Yeah c’mon it’s this way.” He offered slowly seeming to come to some conclusion as he finally slipped off the bar and waved me to follow.

We went through the back down some halls until we came to a place I actually remembered.

Down a set of dark steps into a server room. The room that carried all the Mox’s BD’s probably, considering they literally ran a BD club it made sense they would need a ton of storage, and processing.

But this was the realm of a certain character.

“Judes!” Nox yelled out as he hurried forward rushing into the next room as I hesitated.

I don’t know if I was ready to meet Judy!

I’d seen her naked!

Well I mean. It was a video game but still!

She was real here. How do you respond to someone that you’ve basically seen in a porn!?

I resisted slapping myself but only just, as I shook my head. “Focus Motoko.” I demanded as I let cool slip over. Then I walked into the room where Nox was standing next to Judy Alvarez.

She was… Younger. It struck me then, that Judy was pretty young in 2077. Right now, she practically looked like a teenager, or only just out of it.

“Motoko! This is Judy, she is absolutely NOVA at anything tech, but she is the best BD Maestro in Night City. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Jude, this is Motoko, she backed me up before, didn’t even try to cred me. She is running as an Edgerunner, and would be perfect for that idea I talked to you about.”

“Yeah I remember Nox. Didn’t she ghost you?” Judy asked as she pulled up a BD wreath set and set it on the desk she was sitting at.

“N-no! It wasn’t like that. She got into some trouble that’s all… Her arms weren’t chrome before.” He offered the end quietly, practically whispering it, but I picked it up without much trouble.

Judy’s eyes shifted to me, to my arms back to him, and I could just make out through a side profile that Nox was looking… Worried?

“Right moving on from that.” Judy grabbed her wreath and sort of pointed it at me. “You know anything about Virtue?”

I blinked at the random question, I opened my mouth to answer then closed it. The word was familiar, and it was on the tip of my tongue. But Judy didn’t wait.

“Virtues are raw BD’s unedited. The base recording. Then a BD editor like me goes through, fixes it up, gets rid of the dangerous highs, or the uncomfortable lows. Makes it usable for people.”

“And Judy is the best!” Nox offered with a grin as he sat back on the desk. “But there are a lot of markets for BD’s. Not just… Porn.” He offered chuckling a little with a blush across his cheeks.

“Right. I get that… So what’s the gig?”

“Nox’s idea. Wants to move into Edgerunner BD’s. They are extremely popular, although usually, they are snuff films.” Judy offered looking at me.

Oh!

“Oooh. You want me to record BD’s?”

“Exactly!” Nox offered rushing up to me practically bouncing on his feet. “You were nova when you fought Ian and his assholes. It gave me the idea see! What if we start putting out Preem BD’s of Edgerunners on gigs. With the best BD editor in Night City cleaning them up, we can offer the experience to people that they can’t get outside of XBD’s.”

“Not that we expect you to do something crazy right away.” Judy interrupted, waving her hands a bit as she tried to calm Nox down. “We don’t want you doing something crazy and flatlining, but whatever is normal is fine, the goal is to sort of…” Judy trailed off as she rolled her wrist as she searched for the right word.

“My goal is to build up a catalog, and brand. Right now there aren’t really any BD’s of Edgerunners working that isn’t an XBD. The only BD’s that come close are like Jimmy Kurosaki’s Edgerunner, but those are all Cyberpsycho shit.” Nox said, shaking his head as Judy nodded along.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I guess the Mox had an issue with that sort of BD?

“I mean sure, sending out an edgerunner to do gigs while we record is asking for some deaths. But I want to make a BD that a normal person can enjoy, a taste of, ‘What it’s like to be an edgerunner.’ Nox said, speaking quickly and almost rambling, I could hear the excitement in his voice as he talked.

“So you want me?”

“Of course! You’re preem! You fight really well, you’re a good person, and…” Nox trailed off blushing a little as he tried to figure out what to say.

“You are good looking.” Judy interrupted with a smirk causing Nox to jump and glare at her. “You’d be surprised how many people enjoy a BD from the perspective of someone good looking.”

“That… and the pay probably won’t be great at first?” Nox added, looking apologetic. “It’s gonna cost to get everything started. Shards to store it on, Judy’s services, which aren’t free.”

“Hey I know I’m good, and I already work all day doing this.”

“I know I know!” Nox offered hands up. “Anyway, yeah… So the pay is gonna be shit?” He said questioningly looking towards me.

Ah I see.

The real reason behind choosing me.

“I’m a young Edgerunner, someone you know, and probably the only person that heard your deal and then heard the pay and didn’t walk out.” I said, smirking myself as Judy chuckled as she seemed to watch what was happening with no intention of getting involved.

Nox on the other hand was going red in the face from embarrassment.

“I…”

“Sure. Sounds fun.” I interrupted as I looked around the place. “So this is your setup? Preem, Judy very preem. I don’t even recognize all of this stuff.”

“Most of it is tweaked under the box, only the cases are standard.” She offered with a grin as I seemed to ignore Nox’s confusion as he looked around like the world wasn’t on its right axle.

“You will?”

“Sure. It’s not like I don’t already go out and take gigs. Making extra money on the side for some of them? Sounds like a good idea. Just as long as the eddies do end up in my pocket once everything has started.”

“Deal! I promise you won’t regret this!”

“Cool. So what do I need to record a BD, I don’t have the Cyberware for that.”

“Right… About that?” Nox asked, once more wincing.

“Kid’s broke, and a good BD recorder is about 500 eddies.” Judy interrupted with a flat response.

I gave Nox a scowl that he looked like he desperately wanted to do something to fix before I sighed.

“I’ll go talk to my Ripper.”