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seeker-of-truth · 6 months

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VERENA SOTO

So post 2.0 some things about my gorl changed. Figured it was high time I updated her profile, enjoy!

BASICS

AGE: 27 during game

DOB: June 10, 2049

ETHNICITY: American Latina

GENDER: female

PRONOUNS: she/her

SEXUALLY: Queer, uninterested in labels

NICKNAMES: V, Rena (reserved for the people closest to her), Rennie (childhood)

BIRTH PLACE: Wellsprings, Heywood, NC

HEIGHT: 5'6"

WEIGHT: 138 lbs

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English almost exclusively, some Spanish picked up from around the home.

BODY TYPE: Think super featherweight boxer during off-season || ex: Alycia Baumgardner || Strong but with curves and softness – still a round-faced queen tho

HAIR COLOR: natural - very dark brown || During her corpo days, she keeps it gray as a small form of self-expression, always pulled back into a tight bun. || After Konpeki she wants to feel in control of her body again and dyes it canary yellow and cuts her hair to a shoulder-length mullet to make the shaving Vik had to do to save her life look more intentional — both the cut and color stick.

EYE COLOR: Kiroshi optics designed to look identical to her natural deep brown eyes.

CYBERWARE: EMP Threading || Contraceptive Implant || Neural Link || 2 Chip Slots || Interface Plug || Auxiliary Netrunning Interface Plug || Smart Link || Raven Microcybernetics Syn-Lungs || Arasaka Cyberleg || NetWatch Netdriver MK.1 Cyberdeck || Modified Arasaka Self-Ice || Kiroshi Sentry Optics || Kendachi Monowire || MoorE Technologies Bionic Joints || Dynalar Universal Booster || Militech Revulsor Reflex Tuner || Dynalar Subdermal Armor || Kang Tao Optical Camo || Zetatech Pain Editor || MedTech Biomonitor || Zetatech Reinforced Tendons || FIA Behavioral Imprint-Synced Faceplate

CLASS: What I’ve taken to calling the “Buff Netrunner” - mostly relies on combat hacking but will physically mess you up if you get too close.

WEAPONS: her main weapons are a Tsunami Nue with a discontinued XC-10 Alecto Silencer and her monowire || she will often carry a non-silenced tech pistol on gigs, after giving Johnny his Malorian back she takes to using her old Arasaka JKE-X2 Kenshin (he totally gets her a 3516 after everything tho) || On Jobs that look to be messy, she will take a Kang Tao G-58 Dian as an insurance policy.

VEHICLES: a Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X is her daily driver || she also has a Quadra Turbo-R V-Tech for the days ya just need a car || (Johnny's Porsche is returned to him and Jackie’s ARCH is kept in the penthouse and taken out twice a year)

PERSONALITY

Extremely guarded, likes to keep her thoughts and feelings private, feels embarrassed when her feelings spill out || Patient to a fault. has the world's longest fuse to a very big explosion || all icy, calculated fire || slow to trust but once she does, she considers that person to be family || will go to the ends of the earth to protect the people she loves || sarcastic || can be very ridged || highly empathetic, and will try to get people to better situations, regardless of the cost || will lie to get the best possible outcome || loves living in Night City || good with words, has learned to talk her way out of most situations || reserved, hates being approached || feels like her life happens to her a lot and is desperate for control

FAMILY HISTORY

MOTHER: Diana Soto – alive, estranged

FATHER: Mario Soto – alive, estranged

Both of her parents were regular blue-collar workers, her mother is a machinist, and her father a welder. They had met in passing as she was dropping off parts at the mechanic shop he was working at and quickly fell in love, getting married and having Verena not long after.

Her relationship with them was always strained as they were both very closed off with their emotions with her. Because of that and being an only child, she never communicated with them well, eventually closing herself off to them completely.

CHILDHOOD - TEENS

2056 - At the age of 7 the standardized tests given to students flagged her as having an aptitude for netrunning so she was placed in an exclusive boarding school in Charter Hill as part of a special outreach program sponsored by Night Corp. She excelled at her studies but struggled to make friends as most of her peers were the children of corpos. She spent summers back at home with her parents and seeing the difference in the quality of life had an effect on her, jading her to NC as she aged. Her parents were ecstatic at the thought of their child having a better life than them, so failure became something that was severely punished.

2060 - By the time she was in middle school she had a small but close-knit group of friends, both from corps backgrounds and backgrounds like her. She was fiercely protective of them and got in multiple fights defending them from the same bullying she had received.

2064 - When not studying she became very interested in edgerunning, specifically solos, but rockerboy culture as well. She liked the inherent rebellion they represented and wished she could do the same. But she knew that she would disappoint her parents if she strayed from the path she was on. She would listen to records and read about the legends of NC under her blankets at night.

2065 - At 16 she was chipped with her professional ports, she viewed them as the final seal in the life that she was going to live, like it or not. As an act of rebellion, she shaved her head and got multiple ear piercings. She was reprimanded by the school, an action that brought her parent's fists down on her as well. During the summer she would often sneak into clubs and bars to get away from her home environment.

2067 - She graduated with high enough grades that she was able to attend NCU on a full ride where she majored in Cybersecurity with a focus on Offensive Hacking. She looks back on her time there fondly as she met more like-minded people, many of whom pushed her to express herself more. She joined a small band as a guitarist. Eventually entering a relationship with the bassist – Sara. It was a very toxic relationship and they both treated each other like shit. V’s generally guarded nature closed her off the deeper in the relationship she got.

20’S

2070 - The unification war caused the university to push its students through faster, so she graduated a year early and immediately started looking for a job, not wanting to disappoint her parents.

July 2070 - With Arasaka now back in Night City they were doing massive hiring and V managed to get her foot in the door in the Counter Intelligence Division – Branch 3.

August 2070 - After an internal incident her bosses found her to be adept at espionage (both traditional and corporate), so they sent her to do black ops work with a small crew in South America for approximately a year and a half. During this time, she honed her skill with a pistol.

October 2072 - leaves to spend 11 months in Rio De Janeiro tracking a “terrorist” cell. Her team eventually took out the group after she was captured on a solo reconnaissance mission and interrogated/tortured for over a week.

September 2073 - Rio traumatized her and she crawled into herself and didn’t want to return to work so Arasaka wanted to drop her, Jenkins saw her skills as exploitable and invited her to stay in office. During this time, she became estranged from her parents.

June 2074 - Meets Jackie at the Mexican border, he saves her ass by helping her extract an agent.

July 2076 - Moves into the Wells household.

Mid-January 2077 - Konpeki Plaza Heist

End of May 2077 - I, Pre Defined Starts

#oc: verena soto #there's honestly not a lot of changes to her but the ones there are important to meeeee #also CDPR can fuck off with that V is 23 bs #and yeah she has og male V's b-day because I need her to be a gemini not a libra lol #cw: violence #cw: torture #cw: child abuse #(alluded to)

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wanderingaldecaldo · 1 year

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Gush about your OC

✨ Post 5 facts about your CP77 OC.

✨ Open the latest section of #cyberpunk 2077 tag and reblog 5 posts of people you don’t follow, giving them nice tags.

✨ Tag 5 people to spread the game.

Finally catching up on tags, and ages ago @morganlefaye79, @fereldanwench, @fonfan121, @miss--river, @jessxmetal, @chilljustacat, @thenocturnalblossom, @zinkleberg, and @lizzy--wizzy all tagged me to gush about my OC, and more recently @nananarc and @ladyotakukiut, so thank you two for reminding me to go back and do this 😂

Valerie Vermilion

✨ Her First Cyberdeck

V got her first cyberdeck at age 10 when she stole an old one from a used tech dealer in a street market. She wanted one for a long time after seeing some older streetkids use them to hack vending machines for food. She taught herself to use it by hacking all the appliances in the apartment. Mark -- her guardian after her mother Virginia died -- used her skills to supplement dinner and his low wages from his job at Night City Maintenance Department. V didn't mind. It gave her an excuse to be out of the tiny apartment when he was home, and it turns out she's pretty damn good at it. In her late teens, when she starts to be able to save up money, she is able to upgrade to an implanted cyberdeck.

✨ Tech Skills

While her primary specialty is quickhacks, V also loves to dabble with hardware. To her mother's dismay, Val took apart their radio when she was six, then spent six months putting it back together. It never quite sounded right. That Christmas, Virginia scrimped and saved and picked up extra johns so that she could buy Val a good quality multi-tool.

A few months later, Virginia died an innocent bystander in a shootout between Tyger Claws and Maelstrom and, of course, the NCPD. Mark, a middle-aged man who never wanted kids, took guardianship of Val, only because of a promise he made to his favorite cousin, and he couldn't turn away the pathetic creature who turned up on his doorstep clutching her radio and a trash bag with a handful of clothes and a ratty old teddy bear that was losing its stuffing.

Mark didn't know what to do with a grieving seven-year-old, and gave her the closet in his studio apartment so she could have some privacy. With that multi-tool from her mother, V spent days at a time alone in there. She took that radio apart again and obsessively worked on it until it sounded better than ever. V still carries the multi-tool.

✨ Her Mother's Necklace

Val didn't have many physical mementos from her mother. They shared a tiny studio with another joytoy/friend of Virginia's, and had few material possessions. V can't remember the roommate's name, can only see her banged up, second-hand faceplate with permanently etched eyebrows. Upon Virginia's death she immediately found a replacement roommate and was ready to displace Val onto the street. She also kept most of Virginia's small wardrobe, though Val did save the necklace that her mother regularly wore -- a simple lab-grown ruby, which was Virginia's birthstone. In her late teens, after she started getting real gigs as a netrunner, V saved up her eddies and replaced the synthetic ruby with a real one. She rarely goes without wearing it.

✨ First Kiss & Girlfriend

When she was fourteen-going-on-fifteen, she decided she knew what was best for her life and moved out from Mark's closet. He had tried to enforce a curfew after she got busted by NCPD for trying to rip off some corpos with a couple of friends, and rather than listen to him, she took her radio, her multi-tool and cyberdeck, and a backpack's worth of clothing and moved out.

She spent three months on her own, sleeping in doorways and park benches during the day because she was scared to sleep at night. On occasion she would ask one of the few friends she had made for a night's shelter with them. After a few months she met Emma, another orphaned streetkid a little bit older, and they quickly became friends and partners. V would distract the targets -- primarily corpos in Westbrook -- while Emma would use her Sandevistan to steal their wallets and bags, anything she could grab.

Emma took V "home" to a rundown apartment in an abandoned building in North Side, Watson that she shared with a handful of other streetkids, some already working as joytoys, others playing pretend as netrunners. The first night, she led V upstairs to the roof and they watched the sunset and the city come alive with neon. Emma kissed her, and they became inseparable, for a moment at least. They were exclusive for eight months, then they broke up nominally. Until V finally moved out a year later, she and Emma continued to have a rocky yet passionate on-again-off-again relationship.

✨ 6th Street Era

When she was seventeen V met Travis on a gig and fell pretty quickly for his big teal eyes. He was a member of the 6th Street gang, and he recruited her to join. She did so nominally, just for access to regular food and shelter, plus the good dick. Her quickhacking prowess proved valuable to the gang and she secured a number of steady jobs. She stayed with Travis for almost three years before she grew tired of his regular cheating and constant broken promises. She left the gang and went out on her own for a few years, finding a place with a couple of Mox. They heavily recruited her to join them but V wasn't interested in joining another gang. In retrospect, she wishes she had joined them and met Judy sooner, and maybe saved Judy from the heartbreak of Evelyn.

✨ Tags

Gonna take the liberty of tagging more than five people. I know this went around awhile ago, so forgive me if you were already tagged, but feel free to do it again with a different OC or five new facts about the same OC! If you were one of the people who tagged me, consider yourself re-tagged. And of course, no pressure to play!

@aurorartz, @ugh-my-back, @86maylin, @cybervesna, @velmesh, @thegunslingerandthevoodooboy, @a-pirate, @arcandoria, @cinnamon-mey, @gloryride, @breezypunk, @holofishes, @tarmac-rat 😏 plus @bnbc for good measure 😘

#tag meme #cyberpunk asks #seriously thanks for the tags #been meaning to flesh out some of her backstory #streetkid!val #valerie vermilion #streetkid val things #streetkid!val lore #val things #oc lore

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procyo9 · 1 year

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✨️TELL ME ABOUT YOUR OCS✨️ by @vincentmatthews

♡Name Elegy Yukimura

♡Nicknames E, Trace, The Plague, The Omen, Christian Girl (jokingly by Crystal), r4cc00n (her old netrunner cryptonym)

♡Age 27 (birthday: 30/09/2050)

♡Pronouns She/her

♡Sexuality Bisexual

♡Hair Color and style Messy, short, electric blue hair with dark roots (her natural hair color) and a shaved side

♡Eye Color Dark gray, almost black - she likes to keep her natural color when installing new Kiroshis but she did experiment with weird cyber-eyes back in the day.

♡Height 5'4" / ~162cm

♡Body Type Fragile but athletic enough to outrun the cops.

♡Personality Elegy is a very straightforward person and can come off as mean sometimes because of this, but she doesn't mean that in a malicious way (most of the time). She really doesn't like to beat around the bush when something is bothering her and that's why she doesn't get along with most of the mercs. Loyalty is everything to her - she thinks that a loyal choom is rarer than a chance of meeting a healthy animal on the street. She would do anything for those she loves and trusts.

♡Tattoos Upper torso floral circuits tattoo, although I wish there were more cool choices (I love tattoos <3)

♡Piercings She changes them quite often, but her favorites are a bridge and a labret, accompanied by a nose ring and, of course, ear piercings (she'd totally have an industrial if there were more piercing options in character creator lol)

♡Any definable features such as: Birthmarks, Scars, Freckles, Beauty Marks, Accent when they talk, Lisp, Natural slurring of words, Walk with a subtle limp, ect. She's got a lot of small moles all across her body; also you can sometimes hear she was raised in Heywood - a little bit of an accent creeps in.

♡Hobbies Since always she loved to work on her netrunning abilities, including her own daemons and quick hacks; she also likes to tinker around with tech, like upgrading her optical camo. She also has a secret hobby of painting that only a chosen few know about.

♡Gang/Occupation {Mox, Max Tac, etc} She's not affiliated with any gang, but she grew up around Valentinos and made many friends among Moxes (both of these gangs treat her like their own).

♡Do they smoke? Yeah, although she's not addicted. She just likes to look cool with a smoke.

♡Do they drink? Is so, what's their poison of choice? She's not a big fan of alcohol but her favorite drink while taking a break at Afterlife is David's drink (vodka on the rocks with NiCola).

♡What do they usually wear on a normal day? Her style was mostly influenced by the 'tinos, but as of now she experiments a lot with her wardrobe - mostly, but not limited to, alternative clothes.

♡What do they wear when they "Get dressed up"? And what would be considered a "special occasion" to them {such as an "Oh they're gonna be there so I have to look my best." Or an "It's our anniversary".} She doesn't really see the need to dress up nicely for special occasions; she thinks all her clothes are her best clothes (although she keeps a few dresses, if she ever changes her mind).

♡What do they smell like? {For example: they smell like cinnamon flavored liquor, cigarettes, leather, and motor oil.} Citruses and jasmine.

♡How do they walk? Do they sway their hips? Do they walk with a sense of determination? Do they bounce as they walk? Etc. Her walk isn't feminine at all, and her step is kind of "energetic" in a way. ("Elegy has gta online default female walking animation" -Heather)

♡Are they more of an early bird or a night owl? Night owl. If she's up early in the morning, it means she didn't sleep at all.

♡If you had to use one word to define them, what word would you use? silly :)

♡What words or catchphrases do they say that's unique to that character? N/A

♡Favorite Season Summer (mostly because she never experienced other seasons; I think she'd love to play in the snow)

♡Favorite type of weather {Thunderstorms, sunny, etc} Sandstorm is her favorite weather because she can stay at home and chill with the quiet sound of wind and pieces of sand hitting her window. Also sunny weather for when she goes for a long motorcycle ride.

♡Do they have someone they're with relationship-wise? If so, who? Nope! At least not yet 😈

♡Main Ship/Pairings I think it's obvious already but Elegy x Crystal is my current OTP uwu Elegy has a massive crush on C ever since she saw her first at Afterlife

♡Side Pairings N/A

♡Favorite/Self-indulgent Pairings N/A

♡How do they show affection to their loved one? Warm smiles, soft kisses, face cupping, getting them something to eat, taking care of them if needed, listening to everything they have to say and a lot of small thingies like that! Elegy's an affectionate girl :3

♡How do they sit in a chair? She has a very butch manner of sitting (kinda similar to Judy's)

♡How do they sit in a chair {uncomfortable version} Backwards, so she can rest her arms and chin on the backrest.

♡What do they wear to bed? Old t-shirt + comfy shorts or panties.

♡How do they usually sleep? {Side sleeper, back, fetal position, backwards, nest sleeper, blanket mountain, etc} Tummy sleeper!!

♡How do they sleep in a place they don't know? {Can't due to anxiety, in small bursts of sleep that are short lived, holding themselves, etc} Huge chance she won't sleep at all, or will be waking up every twenty minutes without any apparent reason.

♡Do they have to have a form of "white noise" in order to sleep? {The sound of a fan, the sound of rain, the sound of a city, etc} She sometimes puts on a vinyl from her mom's collection before going to bed. Especially the jazz ones make her sleep better.

♡What's a place they go to feel comfortable, that's their "spot" they always go when they're upset? El Coyote Cojo! She spent most of her childhood and teenage years there. And most likely this will never change. Also her room, for the days when she needs to be alone.

♡What do they do when they're nervous? {Fidget with jewelry, pick at nails, bite nails/lips, play with knife/zippo lighter, etc} She tends to bit her lip and cross her arms, her palms gripped unnaturally on her upper arm.

♡What is their "tell" for lying? Elegy was never a fighter type, so she learned how to lie and deceive at a really young age to avoid trouble. If there could be any "tell", it might be that she tries to put a lot of emotion in her "performance" when under a lot of pressure - idk if that makes any sense lol

♡What is their favorite color? Blue! She also loves black.

♡Favorite flower/plant Her favs are leaf plants! Monstera deliciosa for example.

♡Favorite sweet of choice Are powder candy bracelets still a thing in 2077?

♡Do they have any pets? If so, tell me about them She'd love to, but pet taxes are way too high. She loves to play with strays and buy them food if she ever sees one.

♡What are their triggers {If they have any}? If so, what calms them down? She sometimes has flashbacks of what happened to her parents (even though she was very young, she can faintly remember everything) - at times like these she activates her optical camo and just... ceases to exist for a while. Watching people go by, living their lives. The camo was something that saved her life back then and she cannot imagine not having it on her at all times.

♡If they could visit anywhere in the world, where would they go and why? She always wanted to see Fukuoka - where she was meant to live before her parents moved to NC.

♡What is their favorite comfort meal? This will sound cliche as hell but - it's pizza. Although she also loves to devour a whole extra large burrito to make her tummy happy (or upset, if you know what i mean)

♡Do they have a food they hate? Anything that's slimy. She hates that texture.

♡What is their favorite {non-alcoholic} drink? Anything sweet or sour! She likes carbonated stuff and oolong tea.

♡What are their plans for the future {if they have any}? She wants to stay alive for those that care about her. She'd also love to get out of NC, be it just for a while - try out a different city, and a different life.

♡What's a song that "fits" them? This one when it comes to lyrics ... also, "delamain play track 44"

♡Give me 5 facts/random bits of information about them - she's a parkour amateur and often uses it to her advantage when cops or enemy gangs are chasing her - she owns a Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X that's very dear to her; she feels very comfortable riding it, like it's just another part of her body - her favorite lipstick color is purple - she got her favorite pistol from Tiny Mike as a thank you gift - before Crystal, Rebecca was Elegy's closest friend

♡Give me their backstory {can be long, or brief.} Actually - I have a full-blown backstory in the works in a separate big post! So stay tuned <3

♡Free Space! Give me any sort of extra information about them you'd like to share I just wanted to say that Elegy means so much to me. Like it's unreal how much she helped me with lately!! I wrote a lot about her and Crystal since I began posting her pics online and like. I haven't written anything for years and then I made this dork and suddenly I write? And try to draw again?? I think about her when I feel bad and I'm kinda better, haven't felt like this for a long ass time... Thank you Elegy <3

PS If you liked antidepressant 044 you should also check out this remix it's badass!!!!

Whew... That's a lot of info lol. Spent a few days working on this!! So! Thanks for reading if you made it this far! <3

(rawr)

#cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk game #fem v #female v #cyberpunk oc #im so happy im finally done lol #and like seriously thank you if you actually took the time out of your day to read this #it means a lot #and elegy sends u a kiss #<3 #elegy #.txt #.jpg #i wanted to paste the pokemon body type thingy under body type but it looked wrong so no pokemon references today #vpm #otp: nothing's gonna hurt you baby #oc: elegy yukimura

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gloryride · 5 months

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3 and 18 for both Virgile and Vanessa on the oc questions thing? 👀

Thanks for asking ♥♥ the question about weapon is perfect, as i replay with both, i thought about it ^^

[oc asks if you're interested]

weapon of choice? any particular reason they chose their weapon?

VANESSA

Vanessa prefers not to kill, but to go behind their backs to neutralise enemies or knock them out. Her favourite? A good old-fashioned baseball bat! She has two of them, a pink one and a gold one, but any improvised weapon that can stun works too.

When it comes to guns, she's team silent power pistol. Small, discreet and effective, it's undetectable. In game, she first uses Kongou, then Seraph offered by Padre, with a silencer installed. And after PL, Her Majesty silent pistol, a real gem!

And when it's there to eliminate, especially the scavs for whom it shows no mercy, it's SMG! A good machinegun does a great job killing the bastards. She loves the Militech M221 Saratoga SMG, and even have the Fenrir. In my hc, a Maelstromer gave this gun as a gift !

VIRGILE

He's a netrunner, so he doesn't need a weapon to take down enemies. Virgil doesn't like killing, so he prefers to knock out his enemies using hacks rather than killing them for good (even though he works with Valentin, who is quick on the trigger). So he's made his own daemons and hacks to suit his needs, enabling him to neutralise the enemy without violence.

But having a weapon is always useful. As a nomad, he learned to shoot rifles from his grandfather and knows how to use precision rifles, such as the SOR-22, a rifle common in the Free States. But he prefers tech rifles, and has a Militech M-179 Achilles that he takes with him when he works in the Badlands. In game, he has the Widow Maker, and I have hc that Panam gave him after picking it up from Nash (a reconciliation gift).

But a rifle isn't always handy, so he's got a pistol. I hesitated for a long time between a smart and a tech pistol, but I preferred the smart, because he can use smart-targeting more easily. A smart boy can only use a smart gun! In game, he first got a Kang Tao A-22B Chao, and now I'm waiting until I get to Dogtown to give him a nice Tusnami Kappa whose design I think is too cool, and especially the Crimestopper iconic because he has a chance of uploading Cripple Movment quickhack + CRIT damage!

their opinion on lying, stealing, and killing?

VANESSA

Vanessa a moral compass on a case-by-case basis Lying: not a big deal, if it's not malicious or to protect someone. Everyone lies a little, don't they? On the other hand, she doesn't lie to her family. At worst, she avoids the question! Stealing : from the corpo? that's good, you've got to rip those scumbags off. For her, it would just be a way of spreading the wealth more evenly. Robbing the bastards too, that's fine. The rest is morally questionable. Killing: scavs, shitty corpos, assholes … some people deserve to die, she doesn't even think about it. After that, she's against wanton murder and attacking innocent people. She would never accept a contract to kill a decent person.

VIRGILE

Virgile is very strict about the way he believes Lying: he hates people lying to him, and prefers a hurtful truth to a lie. Does he lie? Of course, but it's mostly to hide something about himself, or silly lies where he quickly gets caught out because he's such a bad liar. But in general, he's honest. Stealing: apart from data on the net, he doesn't steal. Killing: He hates killing, it repulses him. He has fewer scruples when it comes to scavs or raffens, but he rarely kills anyone unless forced to by the situation.

#cyberpunk 2077 #about : vanessa vergara #about : virgile sarto #thanks for asking #love the moral question and the duality between the grey moral of a streetkid and nomad honesty

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arcandoria · 2 years

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OC Intro - Farren Wright

Fandom: Cyberpunk 2077

Role: Ripperdoc / Techie

BASICS

| Full Name: Farren Wright

| Nickname(s): Fae, Bambi (B4MB1)

| Pronouns: She / They

| Sexuality: Bisexual

| Occupation and Titles: Ripperdoc, Doctor Wright,

| Birthday & Age: July 13, 2050

| Physical description: "Renaissance painting", with round body, full hips and thighs. Heavily freckled skin accompanied by strawberry blonde hair and baby blue eyes. Not much visible cyberware, arms fully tattooed as well stray tattoos across her body.

| Clothing style: On the simplistic side, preferring comfortable jeans, oversized or loose shirts, and favoring plain / stamp-less clothing. Often wearing worn boots or sneakers. (Moodboard)

BACKGROUND

Farren was born in the Bakkers nomad clan and lived among them for almost 19 years. Family leadership chaos and the lack of direction added to the loss of her father to Raffen Shiv and the initial rumors of joining the Snake Nation ultimately led her to leave the clan and seek to improve and conclude her medical education in Night City.

She happened to cross the sights of Rogue Amendiares, that whilst not a necessarily charitable person, read Farren well enough to see her as potential asset. Rogue proceeded to fund Farren's studies under the contract that the ex-Bakker served as her personal ripper and other jobs around the Afterlife, mainly nomadic connections and other useful know-hows.

Once established both academically and financially, Farren opened a clinic in Vista del Rey in Heywood with the objective of providing decent care on a poor neighborhood, though she still remains paying her debts to Rogue on occasion.

COMBAT & SKILLS

| Preferred fighting style: She prefers not to fight. That doesn't mean she's entirely helpless. Farren rather remain at a range where she can either hack or explode her targets from a safe distance - but those who come too close learn that she has a mean swing with blunt weapons.

| Favorite weapon(s): Grenades and smart weapons are preferred, though she knows how to handle a tech weapon quite well. For melee, a baseball bat suits her best.

| Special skills: Although no match for a competent and dedicated netrunner, she has a good set of quick non-lethal and incapacitating hacks. An exquisite medic, she's fixed people in the most condemning situations with very little resources. True to her nomadic roots, she's not unfamiliar around cars or providing creative solutions to technical issues.

RELATIONSHIPS

| Family: James Wright (Father - Deceased); Catherine Wright (Mother - Deceased)

| Love interest: Charon

| Best friends: Misty Olszewski

PERSONALITY

| Positive traits: Diligent, selfless, empathetic

| Negative traits: Narcissistic, impulsive, dependent

| Likes: Baseball, tattoo art, old movies

| Dislikes: Gangs, corporations, roaches

| Fears: Helplessness, being lonely again

| Guilty Pleasures: Old western movies, trash horror, pineapple on pizza

| Hobbies: Arcades, tinkering with bots, esoterica spiritualism

#oc intro #cyberpunk 2077 #Farren Wright

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johnnysilverhandsimpressivecock · 3 years

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Teddy

my nomad boy 🥰

#i love him very much #cyberpunk oc: Teddy #hes not a v but #hes in our canon as like just a side character #little rockerboy wanna be #netrunner with a love for old tech #big samurai fanboy #cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk oc

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vos-videmus · 3 years

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Tagged by @pinkydude to share details about the Fave™️ fucker pulled me out of my dishonored playthroughs smh

Starting off broad but just his facial structure 😩😩 Stupid bright blue eyes and how they're bloodshot (and the eye bags) so you Know netwatch got him working some rough nights

Then the cyberware lines on his face that are most definitely because it's a faceplate (if the screws don't already give it away.) And in his concept art, the ones on his cheek connect over his nose and I will never not talk about the concept art and how cdpr robbed me of so much more

Moving on to general cyberware, man's got a filter on he head, saying to change the filter every few weeks. The same sticker is found on some cars. The neural port/personal port/whatever it's called is also on the side of his head which checks out cause V jacks in there if you decide to bonk his ass

The writing in that little arrow that goes over his "ear" says something along the lines of "opening is prohibited," which, makes sense considering the man's got millions of dollars worth of netrunning tech superglued onto him. Repairs are most likely done via machines or robots idk. I refuse to believe that he has flesh organs ♥️

Just love all the little details that went into his cyberware. Coolant tubes aside, he's got vents on his head, and those metal bits that go around are what's holding those tubes in place. (The tubes also go down to his neck but that's mostly covered [concept art :^) ]) Then that port thing on the back of his head that's used by netrunners to jack into their chairs, though netwatch doesn't really need to use those

We got his ugly ass ID card that states his date of birth/hair/eye color and what I assume is his ID number (cyb for cyber I'm guessing) Fucker would be 6 years old now

Then his (default) arms have the same kind of latex covering around them as his neck, and I say covering because that's what I believe it to be, covering important wires and shit idk

There's a bit of text on some of those wires that says to stand clear because it gets hot and ?? Not even mentioning all the scuffs and scratches everywhere on his arms and head, and the creases in the latex from where his elbow bends is just a neat little detail. Shows that it's durable and flexible

Now we gettin into crackpot territory cause this is just what my brain tells me. The way he carries himself just screams Smug Charismatic Corpo. When you take his deal and he says "I knew we'd have a meeting of the minds," you can just hear it in his voice. Fucker just won the battle and he knows it. He got what he wanted and I hate him for ghosting me

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moved-attre · 3 years

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info dump for my v! was gonna make this into a whole tag meme but the prompts aren’t very original. oops.

THE BASICS:

FULL NAME: Valerie King.

ALIAS: V / Veronica Li.

DATE OF BIRTH: August 27th, 2049.

AGE (AS OF 2077): 28.

PLACE OF BIRTH: Heywood, Night City.

RACE/CULTURE: Chinese American.

RELIGION: It’s complicated. (Raised Catholic... Now unsure.)

SEXUALITY: Bi

GENDER / PRONOUNS: Cis female, she/her.

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: English and Spanish.

RIGHT OR LEFT HANDED: Right handed.

EDUCATION: College drop-out.

OCCUPATION: Agent at the counterintelligence division of Arasaka, second to Assistant Director Jenkins. Later, mercenary.

APPEARANCE:

HAIR: Black. Mid length. Straight. Loose. Briefly changes to neon green, bob cut. Then, back again.

EYES: Dark brown.

NOTEABLE FEATURES: Freckles on face and body.

TATTOOS: Snake wrapped around left wrist / Dragon wrapped around left shoulder / Lovers tarot card on left inner forearm / ‘LUCKY YOU’ on left hip joint just above crotch. Angel wings & halo with ‘JACKIE’ on right inner wrist / Collection of roses on right hip and upper thigh / ‘DEATH CAN WAIT’ on bottom of right ribcage. “Johnny + V” in a heart on right inner forearm.

PIERCINGS: Right and left lobe, double piercing. Philtrum piercing. Navel piercing.

CYBERNETICS/PROSTHETICS: Visible golden cybernetic... plate? on her neck. It can have a skin-like texture covering but it’s sorta transparent. Replaced right hand, and again: has a skin-like texture finish but slightly transparent so the gold chrome is visible. Kiroshi eyes (natural color). Enhanced knee caps/ankles for long distanced jumping. Mantis blades. Cardiovascular and Respiratory system is almost all tech, as is much of her nervous system etc.

SCARS: None from combat. She has stretch marks on her butt, boobs and tummy.

BODY SHAPE: Curvy / plus size. Not skinny or muscled. Soft.

HEIGHT: 5′3.

FASHION SENSE: Neon, metallic, holographic. Short skirts, crop tops and big coats / jackets. Wedged sneakers or heeled boots. (Johnny says her style is “hooker”, but what the fuck does Johnny know. He’s worn the same outfit for like 70+ years. Get with the times, grandpa.)

MAKE UP: Neon. Loves yellow or green eyeshadow / eyeliner and shiny colored lip gloss.

NAILS: Long and pointed, like triangle shaped. Always with a metallic finish, colored either: Red, blue or silver.

PERSONALITY:

ZODIAC: Virgo sun, Aries moon.

MBTI: INTP.

5 FLAWS: Anxious, high maintenance, clingy, emotionally unavailable, jealous.

5 STRENGTHS: Patient, detail-oriented, ambitious, witty, passionate.

SECRET TALENT(S): Can sing.

LIKES: Crappy daytime soap operas, artificial strawberry flavored foods and skin care, MONEY!! and NC in the rain at night.

DISLIKES: Healthy food (She has never touched a vegetable... She’s pretty gross.), other people’s mess, anything with a matte texture and rock music (Sorry to Johnny. But she’s never heard a Samurai song and never will.)

HOBBIES: Boxing. (Not that she ever actually goes more than once a month... She’s got 50+ missed calls from Coach Fred.)

FEARS: Loneliness / being left behind. Being replaced. FOMO.

DREAMS: Stability. A family, whether that’s with a romantic partner or friends. Just someone who’ll stick around.

MUSIC TASTE: Pop, dance, rap. The majority of her library is filled with “girl power” tracks about making money, beating people up and being sexy. 😙

DRINK AND DRUGS: Weed. Likes beer. Smokes cigarettes, thanks to Johnny. Tried various other, harder drugs as a teen but outgrew it.

BAD HABITS: Chews her bottom lip / plays with jewellery when nervous. Tends to bottle up her emotions until she explodes. Has a perpetually messy apartment and will not tidy up.

REASON FOR WANTING TO MAKE IT BIG IN NC: To prove a point. She’s not quite sure who to, sometimes it’s her mom... Other times it’s herself... (She puts a lot of importance on being “self-made”.) For a while, she wanted to succeed for Jackie. Until it got him killed. Now she just wants to survive.

CHILDHOOD HERO: Morgan Blackhand. Corpo-backed mercenary who took on Adam Smasher and may or may not be alive yet? He was like a comic book character to baby V.

COMBAT/VEHICLES:

COMBAT STYLE: Netrunner. (Stealth.)

PREFERRED WEAPONS: Her hands. Hacking. A pistol with a silencer. Mantis blades, in an emergency.

WEAKNESSES: Open combat. She can be slow to react, as she’s overthinking everything. This isn’t the Matrix, unfortunately. 😔

SIGNATURE VEHICLE: Type-66 Avenger, or Jackie’s ARCH.

FAMILY/OTHER RELATIONSHIPS:

FATHER: Everett King, deceased. Low level office worker for Militech.

RELATIONSHIP WITH FATHER: Generally positive. He was her only family for a long time, so V grew very attached. When he passed, she was very angry.

MOTHER: Chloë Li, unknown. Housewife.

RELATIONSHIP WITH MOTHER: Non-existent. Her mom left the family years ago when V was a young child, so her memories of her are vague at best - and clouded by V’s feelings of abandonment.

SIBLING(S): Jordan King (younger brother), deceased.

RELATIONSHIP WITH SIBLING(S): She loved her little brother lots, for the very short time she knew him.

PETS: Nibbles the (creepy) cat.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A. Briefly, River Ward. (Johnny... but it’s complicated. 😢)

CHILDREN: N/A. She doesn’t want children, ever.

OTHER MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS: Jackie, Mama Welles, T-Bug, Misty, Vik, Judy, Panam, River, Kerry, Padre. Jenkins, in a mentor role.

META:

LIFE PATH: Corpo.

CHOSEN ENDING: Worst ending. V [redacted] and dies with Johnny by her side. She doesn’t see the point in struggling on and letting other people die for her, nor does she want to run away. She’s bound to Night City, for better or for worse, and she’d rather go out on her own terms with the most important person in the world to her by her side.

ACTUAL ENDING: V explores the Old City ruins, finds Arasaka’s top secret cryogenics facility. Johnny’s body is recovered, his engram restored and they live happily ever after in Night City. Tah dah! The end!

PRIMARY SKILLS: Intelligence and Cool.

SECONDARY SKILLS: Body and Technical ability.

#ocstuff #how can she be emotionally unavailable and clingy?? well.#3 #4 #5 #v

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solo-net · 3 years

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Alicia V Cole ( Trivia! )

Here are some random facts about my newest Cyberpunk oc. My lovely little street kid Alicia.

- Her full name is Alicia Valerie Cole. She hates her middle name but prefers to be called V to sound tough. The only ones who can call her by her middle name are her parents, Jackie and Padre.

- Alicia’s father was a family man who worked for Trauma Team but was killed when he and his team were caught in the middle of a violent turf war.

- Her distraught mother (a woman with strong ties to the Valentinos) left Alicia under the care of Sebastian and left for Atlanta to deal with her grief in private.

- Eliza Cole never returned to Night City, and Alicia was raised by Padre up until she was old enough to care for herself.

- Padre acted as a kindly surrogate father figure and doted on Alicia, taking charge of her education and making damn sure that she understood the value of faith and loyalty.

- Alicia fostered her netrunning skills at the age of fourteen and became skilled enough to steal eddies from the system. She was careful not to get too greedy and set up a safe space for any leftover eddies she needed for emergencies. With each successful hack, her skills as a netrunner grew until she was able to slip into the most complex mainframe system with ease and disappear without a trace.

- She kept her netrunning abilities a secret from her foster father. She was afraid that Padre would use her skills to advance the Valentinos, and while she loved him dearly, she valued her freedom more and had no desire to ever become a Valentino or be used to further their ambitions.

- Alicia has a very dry sense of humor that borders on disrespect. Padre was always quick to scold her whenever she got too “mouthy,” but that never stopped her.

- A fast learner and is proficient in weapon tech and strategies. Is terrible at melee fighting but excels at sniping. Works better with a partner.

- She moved out of Padre’s home at age twenty and left for Atlanta to be with her mother and create a new life for herself.

- Moved back to Night City when Atlanta didn’t work out. She still keeps in touch with her mother and sends her money.

- She is deeply in love with Jackie but was so ashamed of herself for these feelings that she kept them buried deep until she fooled herself into believing that what she felt for him was platonic.

- Even after Jackie and Misty broke up before the heist at Konpeki Plaza, Alicia refused to acknowledge her feelings for him out of loyalty to Misty and not wanting to make things weird between her and Jackie.

- Jackie survived his injuries, but Alicia kept her distance and shut him out for his safety. Wanted to find a way to remove the chip from her head without dragging him into it. This causes many problems as Jackie found himself adrift without his best friend and slowly began to resent her for ignoring him.

- He has no idea that she’ll be dead before winter.

- And that’s probably for the best.

#solo musings #it'll probably get worst before it gets better #you know all of this could have been avoided if she had just been honest with herself

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seeker-of-truth · 11 months

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VERENA SOTO

Here's the lore for my favorite girl! PS I adapted this layout from this post from @glitchinginthegarden for her fantastic profile for Vaye (please head the tags friends!)

BASICS

AGE: 27 during game

DOB: June 10, 2049

ETHNICITY: American Latina

GENDER: female

PRONOUNS: she/her

SEXUALLY: Queer, uninterested in labels

NICKNAMES: V, Rena (reserved for the people closest to her), Rennie (childhood)

BIRTH PLACE: Wellsprings, Heywood, NC

HEIGHT: 5'6"

WEIGHT: 138 lbs

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English almost exclusively, some Spanish picked up from around the home

BODY TYPE: Think super featherweight boxer during off-season || ex: Alycia Baumgardner || strong but still has curves and softness. She's still a round-faced queen tho

HAIR COLOR: natural - very dark brown || During her corpo days she keeps it grey as a small form of self-expression, always pulled back into a tight bun. || After Konpeki she wants to feel in control of her body again and dyes it canary yellow and cuts her hair to shoulder length with micro bangs and an undercut. She also shaves both sides to make the shaving Vik had to do to save her life look more intentional. Both the cut and color stick.

EYE COLOR: Kiroshi optics designed to look identical to her natural deep brown eyes.

CYBERWARE: EMP Threading || Biomonitor || Contraceptive Implant || Neural Link || 2 Chip Slots || Interface Plug || Smart Link || Kiroshi Optics Mk. 3 with Chyron and Low Light filter || NetWatch Netdriver Mk.5 Cyberdeck || Kendachi Monowire || Arasaka Syn-Lungs || Self-ICE || Reflex Tuner || Arasaka Cyberleg

CLASS: What I’ve taken to calling the “Buff Netrunner” - mostly relies on combat hacking but will physically fuck you up if you get too close.

WEAPONS: her main weapons are a Tsunami Nue with an XC-10 Alecto Silencer and her monowire || in addition she will often carry a non-silenced tech pistol on gigs, after giving Johnny his Malorian back she takes to using her old Arasaka JKE-X2 Kenshin (he totally gets her a 3516 after everything tho) || On Jobs that look to be messy she will take a Kang Tao G-58 Dian as an insurance policy.

PERSONALITY

|| Extremely guarded, likes to keep her thoughts and feelings private, feels embarrassed when her feelings spill out || Patient to a fault. has the worlds longest fuse to a very big explosion || all icy, calculated fire || slow to trust but once she does, she considers that person to be family || will go to the ends of the earth to protect the people she loves || sarcastic || can be very ridged || highly empathetic, and will try to get people to better situations, regardless of the cost || will lie to get the best possible outcome || loves living in Night City || good with words, has learned to talk her way out of most situations || reserved, hates being approached || feels like here life happens to her a lot and is desperate for control. ||

FAMILY HISTORY

MOTHER: Diana Soto – alive, estranged

FATHER: Mario Soto – alive, estranged

Both of her parents were regular blue-collar workers, he mother is a machinist and her father a welder. They had met in passing as she was dropping off parts at the mechanics shop, he was working at and quickly fell in love, getting married and having Verena not long after.

CHILDHOOD - TEENS

2056 - At the age of 7 the standardized tests given to students flagged her as having an aptitude for netrunning so she was placed in an exclusive boarding school in Charter Hill as part of a special outreach program sponsored by night corp. She excelled at her studies but struggled to make friends as most of her peers were the children of corpos. She spent summers back at home with her parents and seeing the difference in the quality of life had an effect on her, jading her to NC as she aged. Her parents were ecstatic at the thought of their child having a better life than them so failure became something that was severely punished.

2060 - By the time she was in middle school she had a small but close-knit group of friends, both from corps backgrounds and backgrounds similar to her. She was fiercely protective of them and got in multiple fights defending them from the same bullying she had received.

2064 - When not studying she became very interested in edgrunning, specifically solos, but rockerboy culture as well. She liked the inherent rebellion they represented and wished she could do the same. But she knew that she would disappoint her parents if she strayed from the path she was on. So she would listen to records and read about the legends of NC under her blankets at night.

2067 - She graduated with high enough grades that she was able to attend NCU on a full ride where she majored in Cybersecurity with a focus on Offensive Hacking. She looks back on her time there fondly as she met more like-minded people, many of whom pushed her to express herself more. She joined a small band as a guitarist. Eventually entering a relationship with the basest – Sara. It was a very toxic relationship and they both treated each other like shit. V’s generally guarded nature closed her off the deeper in the relationship she got.

20’S

2070 - The unification war caused the university to push its students through faster so she graduated a year early and immediately started looking for a job, not wanting to disappoint her parents.

July 2070 - With Arasaka now back in night city they were doing massive hiring and V managed to get her foot in the door in the Counter Inelegance Division.

August 2070 - Her bosses found her to be adept at espionage so they sent her to do black ops work with a small crew in South America for approximately a year and a half. During this time she honed her skill with a pistol.

September 2073 - Rio really traumatized her and she crawled into herself and didn’t want to return to work so Arasaka wanted to drop her, Jenkins saw her skills as exploitable and invited her to stay in office. During this time she became estranged from her parents.

June 2074 - Meets Jackie at the Mexican border, he saves her ass by helping her extract an agent.

September 2076 - Moves into the Wells household.

Late February / Early March 2077 - Konpeki Plaza Heist.

End of May 2077 - I, Pre Defined Starts

#oc: verena soto #she deserves to have at least one pic of her smiling lol #cw: violence #cw: torture #cw: child abuse #(alluded to)#cyberpunk 2077 canon typical violence #(please let me know if I missed a content warning!)#Did I give her male V's b-day because I needed her to be a Gemini not a Libra? Maybe lol

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reliqucry · 3 years

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@malwarfare sent five times touched

i . see , they were perfectly fine . both in the back of the delamain as it takes them back to hq . there’s blood on her dress , the shoot out was more than she expected . it could have been a lot worse , she’s never been more thankful for his ability to fry people via the net before but she’s also never seen it in person either . watching those around her drop like flies as she takes cover had been something both amazing and terrifying . left arms stings , the bullet had only grazed her but she hadn’t felt it until just now . head falls softly and lands on his shoulder as she takes a deep breath . there’s bruises all over her skin from close combat interactions and exhaustion on her face . she asks if they can stop by a ripperdoc but king tells the car to keep moving , they’ll let arasaka handle it . she utters a groan but resigns , refusing to lift her head from his shoulder . she mutters a joke about him owing her if arasaka leaves her with a scar and she can feel the smirk and the roll of his eyes without even seeing it .

ii . there’s panic , stress in every one of her movements . hands shake , this was a terrible idea , she’d told him from the start and he hadn’t listen . who the fuck blindly trusts like this ? she wants to be angry , but how many times had she just gone in because he said he could do it for her , was it not the same ? hand resting on his hand shakes before a text comes through , she lefts out a sigh of relief . he’s okay , he’s stuck but he’s okay . another text , instructions this time and hand removes quickly . they don’t have time to waste and she needs to do this perfectly or they would both be in trouble . she has to remind herself to get it together , only seconds before he tells her to in a text as well . she wants to glare at him , she’ll do that after she gets him out . how the fuck do you get stuck in the goddamn net ? there’s a reason she has respect for netrunners , even if she doesn’t quite understand . their timer is running down , they are going to be overrun soon and she knows she’s going to have to fight and help him out of here and down to the car . a simple summons of the fastest ride she’s got before he points the way , whatever he says , she does . he trust her , and she’ll prove it wasn’t wasted .

iii . laughter as hand meets his arm and she shoves lightly . there’s no intent to push him seriously , and it’s only because he’s talking about stupid shit that she can validate the action . it’s their ‘ date ’ night , and he’s felt the need to bring up an old arasaka story as they sit on balcony and snack on v’s handiwork . it’s a story from when they first met , one of their earliest jobs together . king was still learning that v was a tragedy in the form of a human and v was only adding to his frustration while admitting the tech aspect of life only confuses her and she prefers not to know how to function . he recalls a job in which he’d locked her in a room until she repeated an outrageous declaration of love for him and she lightly shoves him again , shaking her head as she laughs . she still has trouble with doors sometimes .

iv . when his door flies open , she smiles . if she hadn’t remember her breakdown to him over the phone , it probably wouldn’t have turned out like this . her name from his lips propels her forward and arms wrap around his neck tightly . she’s careful not to put too much weight into it , doesn’t want to make it hard for him to breathe but she can’t help but relax into a hug that didn’t hesitate even in the slightest , for the first time in all the years she’d known him . she didn’t know if he would have been home , but she’d texted him she was leaving the station and that she was going to drop by . maybe because she needed a familiar face , maybe because she needed the comfort of her best friend . “ i have something to tell you . ” it’s weak , it’s full of tears , an indication that she’d begun crying in his arms . the vision of her tough exterior crumbles as she pulls away slowly to reveal tear streaked cheeks .

v . there’s pain in every breath she takes but he’s come just to check in on her so she bring herself to the best shit she can . her decline started slowly , but the way it tore her apart was visible and though she distanced , barely spoke on calls , and answered messages shortly he was still there . maybe that’s why she agreed to the move , at least for a bit . he worked too much for it to matter anyways , hardly home if arasaka really wanted to make him work for it . but this way , she was somewhere ‘ safe ’ . he’d used that excuse , she figured he just wanted to make sure he could know if she passed out or fell over , because she simply regarded herself as bad and never gave the details ; he hadn’t been too happen when he’d called her one day to find her on the floor . there were a lot of excuses , a lot of complaints about being in a cleaner place and she’d finally given in . it was easier . she reaches up when he says he’ll see her later and he catches her hand with his . a soft squeeze from him and she returns the gesture , fingers tightening for a quick moment . she mutters a soft and weak goodbye , watching him close the door as he leaves to plug into a chair , she can feel it in the pain with each breath that she won’t get the pleasure of saying welcome back this time .

#malwarfare #SYS.FILE : answered #/ i am weak for them it hurts .

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soybeeftacos · 3 years

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A Long Rant and Mediocre Analysis of the Future of My Beloved Jinteki Faction, by scd.

I have been thinking about Jinteki and the impending rotation of a lot of Jinteki cards...

As many have, I eagerly anticipate the upcoming System Update and System Gateway releases from NISEI. I’ve not been the hugest fan of Ashes, to put it mildly, especially their ID design. As someone on the Green Level Clearance Discord said the other day (I forget who, sorry), it’s almost as if they made every Runner a different kind of Shaper. And the Corps are, by and large, uncompetitive and overly fiddly for my tastes — oh, how I wish Hyoubu Institute was any good! I’m dipping my toes back into Standard after a few years away, and have lately been trying to get my head around what’s coming around the corner, especially since beyond Engram Flush and LaCosta Grid, I don’t see a ton to be excited about in recent Jinteki cards.

Then it dawned on me, with the upcoming replacement of SC2019, Honor & Profit, and the SanSan Cycle, we are actually losing a lot of Jinteki cards. This hit me most the most at the level of identities. On the potential chopping block are: Jinteki: Personal Evolution, Jinteki: Replication Perfection, Harmony Medtech, Nisei Division, Tennin Institute, Jinteki Biotech, and Chronos Protocol. Add in that Mti Mwekundu and Jinteki: Potential Unleashed are currently banned, this leaves the competitive pool as of System Gateway/System Update: one of the above identities (if the rumors that System Update will have only one Corp ID per faction are true), the new Jinteki ID in System Gateway, then Pālanā Foods, AgInfusion, and Saraswati. No other legal Jinteki IDs. I understand that the first two are solid glacier choices, and I actually quite like Saraswati, but I want more and more variety.

So it’s a bit of a bummer for my favorite faction, which has had goofy FA Tennin decks, Punitive Medtech techs, Complete Image Chronos Protocol kill decks, lots and lots of different PE decks. Will we see the death of the Jinteki I loved? Or will it rise again from the proverbial coffin of rotation? (Yes, this was all an elaborate justification for using the old GIF above that I think Eric Caoili made many years ago).

I’m basically just sick of Jinteki glacier. It’s never been fun for me, nor does it feel like what the faction should be primarily “about.” Jinteki’s current state as a glacier faction primarily has as much to do with what’s been banned as much as what’s been printed (LaCosta, for instance). If there are enough net damage cards in the pool, someone will make yet another new version of the caustic “Potatoes” deck and then NISEI will ban a bunch of the most troublesome cards again. Ignoring currents, there are five Jinteki cards on the current banlist, which is tied with Weyland for the most — followed by four NBN cards, two HB cards, and four neutrals.

If System Update has only one Corp ID per faction, as the recent rumor has stated, then I’ll be bummed out. If it’s true, I fully expect that Personal Evolution will be the one to stick around. It’s always been at least marginally playable, it does something different (a net damage tax), and it’s intelligible for new players. But what other cards stick around? What else should stick around? I thought I’d look and see what cards are actually going to rotate and which ones I was most upset about. What I found was actually a little surprising to me — while I claim I love this faction, I’m, uh, not going to miss many of these! I’ve gone through below and identified from SC2019, Honor & Profit, and the SanSan Cycle all of the cards that I suspect just can’t go and/or I’d be real sad if they did.

From the pool of SC2019 Cards, here’s what I’d hold onto:

Jinteki: Personal Evolution Nisei Mk II Fetal AI Philotic Entanglement Project Junebug Ronin Snare! Neural EMP

All of these are such key cards to me, I just can’t see Jinteki without nearly all of them. Fetal AI, Philotic and Ronin are possibly marginal, but I think NISEI really made the right call bringing Fetal back (t’s a beautiful card on a number of levels); Philotic being limited to 1-per-deck has always made it a fun surprise and/or a welcome 3/2 in the faction; and without Ronin or a suitable combo-kill replacement, I don’t see the faction moving beyond just glacier decks. Can you imagine Netrunner without Snare!? Or NISEI getting rid of Nisei Mk II? Personal Evolution, Neural EMP, Junebug — these have always been faction-defining cards to me, and I don’t see NISEI being foolish enough to mess with that.

So, what would I lose from SC2019?

Jinteki: Replicating Perfection Sundew Hokusai Grid Celebrity Gift Trick of Light Himitsu-Bako Wall of Thorns Lotus Field Yagura Neural Katana Swordsman Tsurugi

A lot of great cards here, but push come to shove, I could lose any of them. I’ll miss all of these if they all go, and I won’t be sad if any are kept (other than maybe RP, as I think there are better options, if NISEI has more than one core Jinteki ID in System Update; see below).

Onward and on to the Honor & Profit Cards:

Psychic Field Mushin No Shin Komainu

This genuinely surprised me! I had expected that there would be many, many more Honor & Profit cards I’d want to keep. As a Jinteki lover, I’ve played with all of the cards in this box (with the possible exception of NeoTokyo Grid), but only Psychic Field, Mushin, and Komainu seemed obvious keepers to me. Now, now, I’m sure there’s some group of people out there who think Mushin is "bad” and I understand that, but without Mushin there needs to be something I want there to be something that has a similar effect — Saraswati is kinda it, but it’s also the ID itself and Mushin as an ID is not the same. I think Mushin needs to be kept to help facilitate the shell game Jinteki that has been a staple since Hinkes’ Cambridge PE. In the online play world of Jinteki.net, many people would love to see mind games and traps leave the game entirely, but I don’t think NISEI does (given that they kept Cerebral Overwriter in Uprising). Psychic Field, I’d keep, partially to facilitate this but also as a necessary, hard 419 counter — a counter on a mechanical vector that is not just about money and math. Komainu is a beautiful piece of ice, and one I’d love to see stay in the game.

So, what are we losing if I ruled NISEI?

Harmony Medtech Nisei Division Tennin Institute House of Knives Medical Breakthrough The Future Perfect Chairman Hiro Mental Health Clinic Shi.Kyū Tenma Line Cerebral Cast Medical Research Fundraiser Inazuma Pup Shiro Susanoo-no-Mikoto NeoTokyo Grid Tori Hanzō

Ouch. There are a lot of almost-keepers here. House of Knives, TFP, Tennin, Pup, and Susanoo, are all cards I’d love to see stick around but frankly, I don’t think they really need to. TFP is a great defensive agenda but we already have some fantastic defensive agendas in the faction (and I’d love to see what NISEI cooks up for other defensive Jinteki 5/3s). House of Knives is a great card and maybe it should stick around, I dunno, but perhaps there’s more interesting space to explore in net-damaging 3/1s (plus, we just got Sting! somewhat recently). These remaining ice don’t get a lot of play, even if they once did (like Pup); I’d be happy to see any of them stick around, but I’d also like to see new ideas. So, they can all go.

What about the SanSan Cycle? I’d keep:

Jinteki Biotech: Life Imagined Crick Cortex Lock Marcus Batty An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Okay, whoa, there’s actually an ID in here! Yeah, I love Biotech, even if I haven’t played it in a long time. I feel like Biotech needed just another couple of cards to make the other non-Brewery flip sides workable. I’d love to see NISEI attempt to fix an ID rather than just rotate it. Crick and Cortex Lock seem like such solid, interesting ice that I wouldn’t want to lose either — Cortex Lock is of course a wonderful facechecking ice, good early game ice that was only really ever a problem during the Mti meta. I’ve always loved the positional ice of that cycle, and Crick is lovely. Batty is too fun to ignore and is versatile for multiple decks, and is not stifling like other defensive upgrades. And An Offer You Can’t Refuse — clearly the weirdest, least-played card of this entire post — I just want to keep it around, for the novelty of forcing a run on the Corp’s turn and its related rules confusions. And for the memes.

What would we lose?

Genetic Resequencing Ancestral Imager Allele Repression Genetics Pavilion Lockdown It’s a Trap! Clairvoyant Monitor Chronos Protocol: Selective Mind-Mapping Recruiting Trip Valley Grid

Not a lot here that I really care about, I guess? Genetics Pavilion is probably the one I’d miss the most, not that it’s had much play since Wyldside rotated. And Chronos Protocol — I’m glad it got a brief moment to shine in the sun of Complete Image, but I’m not going to miss it otherwise. Maybe Allele Repression, but frankly, Genotyping, Preemptive Action, etc. have shown that Operation-based card recycling is the best way to go post-Jackson. The rest of these cards were, I think, pretty mediocre design; I’m surprised at how little wheat to chaff there was in SanSan for Jinteki, as my memory is quite different!

And, of course, with the release of System Update, we’ll presumably get some other old cards resurfacing that we haven’t seen in a while. I certainly hope NISEI gets aggressive and interesting with these choices, as I think they did a pretty good job with SC2019 (even if I found Core Experience to be a slog of a format). I’m excited at the options of what from the original core, Genesis, Spin, and Lunar might resurface. If it were up to me, here are the four cards that I would bring back:

Hostile Infrastructure Shock! Edge of World Industrial Genomics

Okay, okay, Hostile Infrastructure won’t be popular, but I love it. It’s expensive to rez and with SanSan gone there won’t be the old Breaker Bay Grid cheese to get it rezzed for free. It’s been back in the meta with Salvaged Memories for a bit now and doesn’t appear to be the scourge of the meta, so why not just keep it? More importantly, I’d love to see Shock! come back — it felt infinitely more fair than Breached Dome with a similar (albeit costlier to trash) effect. Edge of World was a jank-enabler that I would love to see again (perhaps because I’m currently playing Retrunner with these old cards again), and then there’s ... Industrial Genomics.

Okay, okay, okay, I hear you, “IG bad.” It’s a mean, mean, Bad People Play It™ identity that made you cry real bad that one time. It did the same to me once, too! I get that perspective, but if we are going to choose a Jinteki ID that is very functionally different than Personal Evolution to complement it in System Update, I’d like one that facilitates the kinds of play IG does. Biotech fits that bill, but frankly, Biotech unless it gets the card support will just be another Brewery kill ID, and I’m not sure NISEI are thinking that’s worth keeping. I’m being hopelessly optimistic that we’ll be getting three Jinteki IDs when System Gateway and Update drop rather than just two, and if I had to choose between Biotech and IG, I’m going IG every time.

Now, with Kakurenbo in the cardpool, a return of IG just can’t happen; so... ban Kakurenbo! It is a ridiculous card that was, seemingly, mainly designed for IG to play in Eternal. I can’t see any other good use for it, at least. Bring back the old IG from before Bio-Ethics prison. Bring back Shock! Hell, even go ahead and ban Bio-Ethics — gasp, I can’t believe I’m typing such blashemy — and give us something that can open up new kinds of play with this interesting, classic, and overly-maligned ID. Industrial Genomics was a weird thing of beauty, and it deserves another run. Laugh at me all you want, you know I’m right.

One more thing — what about Caprice Nisei? Shouldn’t she be discussed? Nah, she gets no love from me, simply because of the playstyle she empowers. Caprice is of course a great and meta-defining card — for glacier! But haven’t we had enough of glacier by now? Like, two years of mainly glacier Jinteki? And I’m the lord of my own barely-read blog fiefdom; I decree that if you really want a psi game to protect your agenda, you should just go play Hyoubu Precog Manifold.

Anyway, just some thoughts by someone who doesn’t play any Standard but wants to do more. I started writing this thinking it was about the dire state of Jinteki, but I’m now left thinking there’s actually a much smaller set of must-keep Jinteki cards than I initially thought. Granted, most of them are non-ice cards, and that’s a problem here — only a handful of ice here seem really necessary to keep. And maybe that’s what this is about; encouraging more deckbuilding that has little to do with building remotes.

I’m most concerned about IDs. Keeping PE and either Biotech or IG would make me personally happy, and Tennin would be an acceptable “sure, why not.” There’s a lot of potential for Jinteki to move into more forms of play that aren’t so glacier-heavy, and I’m hopeful about that. I do think what they do in System Gateway and System Update will need to address the loss of Jinteki cards, but perhaps not as seriously as I had feared when I started writing this.

Anyway, I’d love to hear any reactions to this. Long Live Chairman Hiro!

#netrunner #jinteki #rant #nisei #systemupdate #systemgateway #iloveyouig

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strigital · 5 years

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I WANNA HEAR ABOUT YOUR V if thats ok

you… you really do?

‘cause if that’s true then hell yes! (tbh i’d yell about my ocs from a top of a mountain if only anyone would listen)

heck, where do i even start? anyways, long ass post ahead!

BACKSTORY!

To makelong ass story somewhat short: Jax was raised by her big bro - Alek - and, for aslong as she could remember, she believed her brother’s explanation of theirlonely existence, which was that their parents were, simply put, a couple ofjerks not suited for a family life. By his words their dad was a borderline psychoborgtoo busy ripping implants out of people, while the mom was a dirtgirl tooaddicted to braindance to care for her kids. And when the young lad justcouldn’t take it anymore, he snatched his little sister out of bed and ran withher into the night so they could both start a new life. Jaxine never doubtedthe story, even if the way they lived always seemed kinda fishy - like they werein hiding - not to mention it was somewhat suspicious that her bro wouldconstantly “go to work” armed to the teeth.

Welp, turnsout that all of this was a lie (what a twist!). In truth, Jaxie’s dad was onehelluva Netrunner who got his bread by getting people into parts of the Netthat they had no legal access to and occasionally stealing a few files fromcorpos here and there to sell them to fixers for some extra eddies. And iftheir dad was all about that software, their mom was the hardware maestro whocould build a computer out of scrap metal like it was Legos. They were quite apower couple and managed to attract more than a few followers and basically started theirown tiny little gang whose main job was to ruin all the fun for the corps inthe virtual world. And, of course, something had to go wrong eventually. So itdid. They stole info about a shipment of expensive Arasaka tech and sold it toa fixer. But before they could get their hands on that juicy high tech, somerat snitched on them. One of their guys turned up to be a corpo whistleblower whose sole purpose was to sniff out the infamous Netrunner who was stealing theirdata. A whole ass witch hunt began and the dad knew he fucked up big time. Sobig, in fact, he knew for damn sure Arasaka was coming for him and his family.So he put his little daughter into his son’s arms along with some valuable datashards regarding his work, made him promise he’ll keep his sis safe and senthim on his merry way, whilst running with the wife in the opposite direction.

And itworked! Surprisingly. Alek did such an amazing job at concealing theirfootsteps they managed to live pretty happily and untouched by the corpos formany years. The brother became a solo and an edgerunner pretty early and tookon an alias of the ‘Vulture’ - ‘V’ for short. He was so damn good at his job theynever knew poverty. Buuut as they say ‘the faster you run away from yourpast…’ Jax was almost 18 when Arasaka found them. He gunned them all downlike dogs, even though he knew there was no way he’d survive. In the aftermathof the bloodbath, leaning against the wall of their wrecked living room,bleeding and dying, he promised her he was going to be fine, gave her thosemysterious shards, told her to grab his gun and bike and go to Night City, makea simple delivery to his old friend. Jax felt it was a goodbye and that those mercswere no damn drug dealers who came to collect an old debt. But she listened tohim anyway and rode to Night City.

There, this‘friend’ person who turned out to be the last surviving associate of her parents,told her the truth. The entire story and not a single lie. That day she made ither life goal to harass Arasaka at every turn, make their lives miserable, DDoSthe fuck out of their Net, mess up their systems real good! She adopted herbrother’s alias (though this time it most likely stood for ‘Vendetta’ howeversaucy that might sound) and began to follow in her parents’ footsteps, learningall she could about hacking and tech. Eventually, V got good enough at it soshe could jam tracking devices and disable surveillance programming in order toremain ‘inivisible’ to those who’d find her pranks unfunny. Though, apparently,someone’s been looking for her recently… Wonder what’s that all about, huh?

TL;DR!

JaxineBryce is a trash goblin and a bi disaster, who’s a not-so-bad Netrunner and asomewhat-acceptable Techie. She came to NC after her brother’s death to be apain in the Arasaka Corp.’s ass for personal reasons as well as for shits andgiggles.

She’s ofmixed race, though she mostly takes after her Asian mom. Her hazel eyesare long gone and replaced by some cute orange-glowing optics, and herbluish-black hair is always a hot mess that she just can’t be bothered to take careof it (if she could she’d wear a ‘Bad Hair Day’ beanie hat all day every day).Doesn’t really have that much skin wiring and such, prefers to conceal most of her cyberwareand look as natural as possible due to her fear of slipping into cyberpsychosis.

She alwaysloved to blast Johnny Silverhand on full volume in her room, but ever sinceArasaka kinda sorta ruined her life, she really started to like this guy, evengot herself a glowing tattoo of Samurais (not to mention the Samurai jacket,which was a birthday gift from the brother!).

She can’tdo shit in combat (besides firing a gun and only because her bro took her outshooting once), but boy can she fuck up your cyberware if you get too close.For these reasons she desperately relies on Jackie to be the ‘wall’ between herand the enemy, but at the same time she always makes T-Bug’s work a tad biteasier.

Other thanthat, she absolutely loves NiCola, dreams of owning at least a couple of cats, believes coffee and ramen to be the crowning achievments of humanity, is an AI rights supporter and a speed junkie to the bone despite not being the best driver in the book. Can’treally drive cars that well, but boy does she love bikes! And adding her ownlittle touches to her vehicles. Like, that one time she spray-painted Jackie’snew car neon pink and now he won’t leave her alone with his car unsupervised…

Jaxine issomewhat introverted and really clings onto people that she knows. T-Bug alwaysappeared to her like a caring big sister, while doctor Victor became a newfather figure in her life after her brother’s demise. V’s also got the biggestof crushes on Jackie, though she’d rather die in a fire than tell him, mostlybecause she really doesn’t want to ruin their amazing friendship (besides, shewon’t survive a day in NC without Jackie’s help). And even though she jokesaround a lot, she has a tendency to fall in and out of depression. Jackie’s happy attitudealways helped her deal with those kind of anxious feelings and going out forthe night on the town with her best amigo will always be her preferred way todo therapy. Despite all that, Jaxine’s genuinely a ‘good guy’, but definitely nota ‘knight in shining armor’. Sure, she’ll help you out if she happens upon youwhile on a job, but don’t expect her to go on a righteous quest to save theworld. Her only goal in life is avenging her family, letting go of the past andfinding a place to truly call home and nothing else. As soon as there’s nothingof importance holding her in Night City, she’ll hop on her bike and be gonebefore sunrise.

#she a baby #tho some of it (if not all) may change after release #even though CDPR promissed us roleplayers paradise of a game #ask #anon #oc #v #female v #jaxine bryce #cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #cdpr #cd projekt red #my art #sketch #wip #digital art

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vitalmindandbody · 7 years

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The surprising history of the Magic Pro Tour

The following is an excerpt from A Brief History of Magic Cards, a new book exploring the real-life, human history of Magic cards, currently being funded on Kickstarter. (Rewards include a print and tote of the fantasy map below above, drawn by Seattle artist Cassie Murphy.)

According to old-school Wizards of the Coast employee John Tynes, author of the magnificent Minotaur article (on the early history of Wizardsand that of its signature intellectual property, Magic cards), CEO Peter Adkison had a vision for a new kind of company, a company that could change the corporate world forever. He would do this by empowering nerds, elevating their hobbies from the basement to the convention centerwhere they would stand as equals next to the outside worlds idea of success. It was in this spirit that Wizards started the Magic Pro Tour (PT).

The Pro Tour wasand still isa tournament where the best players fly in from all over the world to duel with recently released cards, crown a champion, and hand out cash prizes. Today the PT is an institution, with established roads to qualification, long-standing cliques, and modest stipends for frequent competitors. It has outlasted any competition of its kind, and is unlikely to ever change much. In the 90s, though, the PT was as limitless as Magic itself. It could have been anything.

The first Magic Pro Tour was held from Feb. 16-18, 1996, in New York City. There had never been anything like it. Entry was first-come, first-serve. Organization was shambolic but eventually effective. A snowstorm delayed the start of the event by four hours. The player who was supposed to win, did not.

It was a massive success. Hundreds of Quixotes attended, eager to tilt together. More importantly, thousands more watched, or read about it later: on the Internet, or in the same magazines that covered (and priced) the cards my allowance would only let me dream of buying.

On the day of PT New York, Magic finally ascended beyond Richard Garfields original vision. It loomed so wonderfully above the skyline of gaming, a paunchy giant on a lean nag, that it lived and would live through its sheer vitality. It stood for everything that was gentle, forlorn, pure, unselfish, and gallant. The parody had become a paragon. Adkison had, for a spell, brought his fantasy world into being.

Wizards capitalized on the PTs success very well, by selling facsimiles of the top eight decks and releasing a video of the event. The Pro Tour has hardly changed since then, though circumstances have. Next to esports in the mid-2010s, the Pro Tour is small, with Dotas $10 million-plus prize pool dwarfing its purse of $250,000; but in 1996, the same sum made the PT both well-endowed and mind-blowingly cool. There was even a junior division, which would turn into the Junior Super Serieshelping the degenerate scamps of the WotC flagship put themselves through college. After PT New York, Wizards put on PT Los Angeles, then PT Columbus, then the World Championships, in Seattle. The competitors were real characters. Thunderstruck, I watched them with admiration and envy.

The parody had become a paragon.

I cannot overstate the importance of the advent of the Pro Tour and its counterpart, Friday Night Magic (FNM). At FNM, lesser mages could spend an evening playing tournament Magic against similarly inexperienced players, in a relaxed atmosphere. Each FNM is like a mini-convention, selling swag and fostering community. Once the players got good enough, they could level up to more competitive tournaments, like Grand Prix (GPsthe closest thing Magic has to its own big conventions) and Pro Tour Qualifiers (PTQs). A victory in the latter earned a berth in the PT itself, which before poker and esports was the pinnacle of competitive gaming.

By connecting FNM with the PT tournament of tournaments, Wizards made it possible for Magic players to live out a fantasy of fantasies. When the PT was well-established, a few years later, Adkison declared Wizards had created a lifestyle opportunity for a young generation of Magic players, fresh out of school, to be professionals. The reality of professional Magic, a decade before esports, was a big part of Wizards marketing strategy: Thanks to the new kid of company, you could make a living playing a card game. Once again, Adkison had worked his Magic: The Pro Tour might not have changed the corporate world forever, but it changed gamingand gaming cultureindelibly.

Today Magic competes with Dota, and a dozen other big games, for market share, power, and prestige. But the PT and FNM, and all the tournament types between them, still make Magic what it is: a fun way to spend time with people, in person. The draw of Magic cards in the era of Dota and League of Legends is the friends you make, in the tournament hall or around the kitchen table.

Wizards had started out as a handful of friends in Peter Adkisons basement; after the success of the PT and the set Mirage, it climbed skyward, like a tech firm lifted by angels. Now most of its efforts would center around not promoting Magic, but on profiting off of itby making more games of its kind.

From 1996 to 2000, Wizards went from 150 to 950 employees, hiring anyone who wanted a job. The company generated many clones: Netrunner, a cyberpunk-themed CCG; BattleTech, a CCG whose cards were walking battle-tanks (gum sold separately); Xena: Warrior Princess, which needs no explanation; and MLB Showdown, a callback to Garfields original vision of a card game that was both playable and collectible. At this time, Wizards also bought out TSR, the creators of Dungeons & Dragons. It was thought that the indiscriminate acquisition of licenses was the only way to keep the high of Magics early days alive. But the Knights of the Kitchen Tablemy friends and Iscorned the proliferation of ersatz Magics, because we thought they threatened the game we loved.

Though the above games could not rival Magic in quality and popularity, we didnt know how right we were. Wizards released Pokmon cards in 1998, and the Knights didnt want to play Magic with me anymore.

With Magic, the Pro Tour, and WotC in general, Brave Sir Adkison had realized a fantasy, starting from scratch a fiefdom in accordance with his noblest instincts and dearest narratives. But making a new world would not be enough to change this one. Fantasy would yield to reality. In 1999, Wizards sold out, and the tragic-Magic cultural contradictions began to take form.

It took a lot of gold for Hasbrothe acquirersto sway the gallant Sir Adkison: $325 million. Yet it was an offer the noble don couldnt refuse, not with his faithful company of riders also set to cash out. So they did what any knight-errants would doleft the court to the courtiers, and rode off to their next adventure under the sun. Crowds at Origins, GenCon, BlizzCon, PAX, greeted Garfield and Adkison with cries of adulation, as they do to this very day. The founders fame has made them the people closest to living out Don Quixotes dream, but it was fortune that freed them from the corporate world. In the Hasbro sale, Sir Adkison made some $80 million. Sir Richard Garfield got $100 million. Other founding members, like Lady Veep Lisa Stevens, also did OK.

Each Friday Night Magic is like a mini-convention, selling swag and fostering community.

Back at WotC headquarters, in Renton, a drab suburb at the foot of Seattle, the work of making Magic continued under a foreign flag. For the first 15 months, Hasbro seemed to be a benevolent despotwhich is what most nerds, fans of sword and sorcery, crave. Pokmon swelled the royal coffers, and Magic tournament play made an appearance on ESPN2. Wizards operated its businesses with continuity and autonomy: the buyout agreement gave them great freedom, so long as the money kept flowing.

Then, in May 2000, Pokmon tanked. It was a chain reaction: The fewer people that played, the fewer people played. Not that many people, only 9 percent of collectors, had ever played Pokmon in the first place. By overvaluing collectors, Wizards had neglected game design and thwarted their chance at capitalizing on a huge franchise. But Magics original business model, combining the play of card games with the collectibility of baseball cards, let it once again carry the day. (When MTGOX.com switched from the Magic: the Gathering Online eXchange to a Bitcoin exchange website, it signed its own death warrant. Cryptocurrency fans and beanie-baby collectors, take note!)

On a personal level, Pokmons fall was great: Magic reasserted itself above a passing fad, and the Knights reconvened around the Square Table. At a corporate level, it was a catastrophe, the dot-com bubble bursting in miniature. Hasbro, which has always governed Wizards remotely (from Rhode Island) and has never really understood its fiefdom at the foot of Seattle, blamed Wizards for the losses. The overlords sold off electronic and movie rights by the franchiseful, fired 280 skilled artisans, and restructured the fiefs finances around five brands: Dungeons & Dragons, MLB Showdown, Pokmon, Harry Potter, and Magic.

Have you ever heard of Harry Potter TCG? Me neither.

At the same time, some of the kingdoms finest work moldered and decayed. A game called Legend of the Five Rings, reputed to be on Magics level, was no longer supported: The brand wasnt big enough. So Legend died off, a victim of Hasbros neglect, indifference, and failure of imagination. So much for benevolent despotism.

Hasbro was, in fact, cutting costs in all other divisions. The days of fanciful extravagances, like Magic camp, where kids would gather around the University of Washington and the Wizards flagship store to binge on Magic for a week, were numbered. Wizards Retail, which operated the flagship and other outlets, was always a small and separate company, sometimes losing out on supply to larger card peddlers: the troubled relationship of Wizards with Wizards. I remember the smaller Wizards store, in Northgate Mall, shutting down, and thinking nothing of itI was in the know; I went to Floyds shop now.

But the writing was on the wall. With the nosedive of Pokmon, Wizards prodigal childhood was over. The only things that would be spared would have to be profitable, in the narrowest sense. The first casualty was the flagship.

Have you ever heard ofHarry Potter TCG? Me neither.

Wizards was making little money from the flagship, and spending a lot. The things that made it a gamers dreamBattleTech sims; the big Minotaur statue; the extravagant waste of space downstairs that was a community center for gamersmade it a CEOs nightmare. Even the for-profit stuff was ineptly executed or hopelessly dated: For example, half of the basement was ringed in horseshoes of computers, which you could rent at exorbitant rates. A friends dad once bought us a half-hour of StarCraft; we got to play the beginning of a game. Home high-speed Internet was becoming popularDSL was my 2000 Christmas presentand soon the horseshoe would serve no purpose.

The lighting in the whole basement, community center and computer lab, was abysmal; Wizards had spent five figures installing a light fixture around the computers, but had taken it down after employees had suffered eye injuries. It was like a joke about nerds in Platos cave, and Hasbro was, then as now, as humorless as Quixote himself.

In 2001, with Brave Sir Adkison long-gone into the sunset, Hasbro shuttered the flagship. John Tynes Salon article details the grisly process, including the death by hacking of the minotaur above the dungeon entrance, which will forever be a symbol of my lost childhood. Thoughts of the store still fill me with nostalgia. Though it had the fragility of any fiction, it did embody Peter Adkisons fantasy of making Wizards a new kind of company, and its demise was the first time I thought the greatest game ever made was anything other than perfect.

Corporate culture soldiered on. The flagship was replaced by Tower Records and is currently an Urban Outfitters.

Illustration by Cassie Murphy (Licensed)

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