voidtreckerexpress | healing sans magicka

Entry tags:

~x~atem [au]

healing sans magicka

Who: Open
Where: Quiet Car
When: Llama 15ish-Llama 21, intermittently
What: V's learning to use Yondu's printer & making airhypos
Warnings: Can't think of anything, will update if something comes up

Laptop Wrangling - llama 15 only
Yondu and his little team of thieves had proven to be more than capable in the last mission when they'd gone out to definitely legally procure certain items that would help in the investigation as to why people were falling unconscious and if they were okay or not. (Generally, they were, usually. Thank goodness.) V had asked for a laptop if it wasn't too much trouble - something that he could do his coding on without having to do it all in his visual field. He'd left his Agent atop his bed with the laptop the past few days to run through some pen testing he'd built - very basic stuff, low level, very slow - to break through into the laptop.

Once Lara had notified him of that, well... At that point, he'd perched himself in a quiet cabin with both of his cats and had blown what was on the laptop before away. Completely. After bricking the machine he jacked in and then kicked back and started the process of shoving a backup of his laptop from home onto the machine. He might be fiddling around on his Agent, playing with Jackie the cat, or starting to doze with one of both of the cats resting on his chest as he waited for this restore.

The world they were in just didn't make hardware as Night City did.

3D Printing
Luckily V already had the blueprints for making air hypos on Lara's storage - that made this so much easier. He didn't have to do all that much designing, though he did have to have Lara make some modifications for the fact that these would primarily be metal instead of plastic. Something something durability something.

He could be found loitering before the 3D printer with his laptop hooked up to it, printing parts with metal he'd salvaged from the mission. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to make a few air hypos to use on a sort of trial basis with the next mission they went on. It was slow, the printing, but he stood there simply to keep an eye on things and make sure nothing jammed. He might be chewing on a fingernail that sorely needed a new coat of black paint as he waited.

On occasion, he may glance to the side as if he heard something, but his attention wasn't captured for very long as he returned to watching the printing.

Some Assembly Required
V holed himself up in one of the quiet cars yet again (yes, both cats with him). Nibbles, his Donskoy, was curled up in one of V's hoodies that he'd turned inside out so that the soft side was out. She was observing the entire process as a good supervisor did, making sure all went according to plan. Sometimes such observations happened with closed eyes and slow, deep breathing, but do not judge her process! Jackie, on the other hand, was having a bad case of the zoomies and had found some loose parts to bat around excitedly. The game went from the top of the table to all over the floor of the room. V had given up on retrieving the parts at this time.

V's laptop was sitting across the table with the blueprint specifications of the original airhypos from Night City up so that he could see them. Lara was playing some calm, ambient music as he worked. A lot of his time at this point was figuring out how the pneumatic mechanism actually worked and how he could adjust it for different dosages pending the medication - or otherwise - inside. Those were parts he usually salvaged and didn't bother messing around with when he was in Night City but now was as good a time as any to figure it out.

...You know, when Jackie wasn't trying to bat the thing out of his hand, anyway.

(OOC: Will match format.)

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Rich doesn't usually want to interrupt when people are in the medical cars, but well, it's been a while since he's seen V, and his adorable kittens. He especially wants to check in since what happened with Jack... he doesn't know if V picked up on any weirdness, since he seems to have tech that interacts with the SQUIP, or if he was blissfully unaware, but he may as well check to make sure.

He offers a wave to grab V's attention and walks up to look over the blueprints.

"Hey. What're you working on? ...Needles?"

It wasn't a habit of V's to constantly scan people he already knew. Things didn't change all that much in the day to day. V had talked to Jack though, and he was told a version of what happened regarding Rich, Jack, and the SQUIP. V knew there was likely more to that story and that Jack's point of view was horribly biased.

V looked to Rich as he entered, his focused expression relaxing and even turning into a slight smile as he entered.

"Hey Rich. Yeah, auto-injectors. Use a pneumatic mechanism to inject a discrete amount of medication. Yondu thought it would be a good alternative for those wary of magical healing." Which V was one of. "Be good for anyone who'd need injections on the regular as well."

There's a small pause as he glanced over the blueprints, then looked back to Rich.

"How you been?"

Rich is at least relieved to see a smile on V's face. Either he hasn't heard, or what he did know didn't bother him. Rich didn't mind either way, really, though the latter might make his self-hatred protest just slightly.

"Huh. I mean, considering what I've got going on, that might work well for T." He remarks rather casually, but he knows V is trustworthy about that kind of thing. The question gets him to hesitate, looking away for a moment.

"Eh. Good and bad, I guess. I've been getting better slowly, but... definitely screwed up not too long ago. A couple times in a row, really."

In truth? V was just glad to see Rich. It had been a while since they had talked and V was just glad that Rich decided to come around and 'bother' him. V knew what had happened, but it wasn't up to V to chide Rich for making what were probably objectively bad choices and he wasn't going to drag Rich into any conversation he didn't want to have at this time. No reason to.

"It works very well for T. If you want one you can have one - just gotta get the dosing for all this set right." He thinks he might have it, but he needed to test things out.

V leaned back in his seat. Normally he'd be glad for a break but he had a feeling this conversation might be a little tough. Normally he wouldn't dig but Rich probably wanted to talk about this, else he wouldn't bring it up. V carefully pushed what he was working on to the side, closed his laptop, motioned for Rich to take a seat if he wanted.

"What'd you do?" His tone was calm and level, without judgment. He would have been amused if it weren't for how Rich glanced away. It weighed on him.

Rich was happy to see V too, no matter how complicated he might feel about the things that have happened since they last spoke. He's missed him, and considering the tech implants he has... it's probably only fair to warn him.

"It's okay, I can wait..." He finds himself cowering just a bit when V turns to him, putting his work aside, but he does nervously sit down, reminding himself this is all for a good cause.

"I trusted Jack," he says flatly in response, before adding, "Hurt a lot of people doing it. I'm back to normal now, but... still sucks just thinking about it."

V noticed the way Rich cowered and some part of him felt a sadness about it, but his expression didn't change to show it as Rich sat. He had been absent, though, so it was likely more his fault than anything for not being around when whatever happened had happened.

His brows raised slightly at the statement that he trusted Jack. V already didn't really trust Jack, but he didn't really trust most people. That was nothing new, but he also had no context to specifically understand why that may be an issue. He and Jack had always gotten along well enough with each other. Which, really, might be why Rich trusted Jack to begin with: they got along well enough despite Jack's stupid pranks.

"Sometimes we make some pretty big mistakes. Most we can do is 'pologize 'n ask for forgiveness." Though Rich probably already knew that.

"What happened?"

It's not at all V's fault. Rich is just scared. It's hard not to be, when he's convinced himself he doesn't deserve anyone's effort and kindness. He keeps expecting someone to decide being his friend just isn't worth it anymore, and maybe V could be that person. Maybe V liked Jack, since they both had experience with tech.

"I know. I do know that, and I apologized... it's just still overwhelming that people are okay with what happened. I feel like, you know, they've gotta be lying somehow."

He runs a hand through his hair, and eventually, he mumbles, "You know about the SQUIP in my head. Jack said if we turned it on and got info from it about how to get off the train, he'd destroy it for good. He... didn't follow through with that."

As far as V's concerned? V's hands were likely quite a bit dirtier than Rich's, and quite a bit more directly involved with the snuffing out of lives. It'd be hard to convince V that anything Rich had done was crossing some line. Not that either of them was particularly forthcoming with their pasts.

"Don't think they're lyin'. They're a kind group'f people 'n based on what I seen if they disapproved they'd definitely let you know." Given, you know, the gravity-based supergluing of Jack to a ceiling over a terrible recorder solo.

V was quiet for a moment as he considered what happened, as incomplete a picture it was. "He activate the SQUIP and fuck off? Or something worse?"

Rich knows his problems seem so dreadfully normal in comparison to most people's, but he still does believe he's not worth the trouble, even if he hadn't actually killed anyone. He's pretty sure nearly mass dosing a high school is bad enough.

But here he is. So many people have heard and seen the trouble he causes, and yet, no one's disowned him for it. He doesn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed, so he just shrugs.

"He... decided to take over himself. He got in my body by using the SQUIP's hardware, and he decided to pilot it all on his own. I don't know how long he was planning to do it... think it was at least a week before people noticed."

Kerry is glad that he and V have agreed not to worry about avoiding each other, because when he comes into this car and sees a little furry kitty running around, he really doesn't want to leave. He's gotten used to the idea that animals aren't all dead here, but it's another thing to see something so tiny.

"Oh shit, you're too fuckin' cute," he comments to the cat, his voice low to not disturb the vibe of the quiet car.

V chuckled at the comment made towards the kitten, smiling easily as he peeked down to watch Jackie as the little soot sprite of a cat pounced onto Kerry's feet to bat at some invisible thing that only he could see.

"Yeah, he's a cute little fucker isn't he?" V's fondness for the kitten was clear on his face. "Pick 'im up. He's softer'n sin 'n he'll be your best friend 'til you put 'im down."

In this moment V had given up on continuing his work, quietly glad for the break.

Kerry bends then to pick up the kitten and finds himself really pleased by how soft and nice it is to feel that. "Shit..." he mutters. He's about to completely melt and that's not a very rockerboy thing to do. The kitten starts to paw at him to get him to play. He chuckles and moves to sit down to make that easier.

"How'd you end up with these guys?" He's trying not to find it endearing that V's collected pets here, and failing miserably at controlling the warmth in his chest.

What's the point in kittens if not to melt? This was a safe space: Kerry could melt as much as he wanted to over the little soot sprite. Lord knows he'd watched V - a man who couldn't even begin to give a ballpark estimate of how many people he'd killed in his life - tear up over how cute a kitten was. Give in to the charm of the fuzzball.

"The one you're holdin' - Jackie - had an owner 'fore me, but he left, I guess. Poor little guy was stuck in a room meowin'. Yondu was scared half t'death of 'im so I grabbed him and looked for his owner. Couldn't find him, so I adopted Jackie." A pause. "His owner actually came back for a time, but he left again at last platform." A shrug.

"Nibbles, though..." Golden eyes opened halfway at the name, expression almost irritated. "Gal named Renee decided to leave. Got Nibbles for me as a surprise before she left."

Kerry keeps playing with the cat because focusing on the tiny baby is much better than dealing with the emotions in his chest.

"Nibbles' the name o' the cat you got back home, yeah? The one you--Johnny--left with your neighbor?" He hadn't had the chance to meet that cat before it was part of the narrative of V leaving him.

Jackie is absolutely elated with the attention - happy to bat away at Kerry, or rub his cute little head into Kerry as he demanded more pets.

"Yeah. He's a gutter punk like me, isn't that right?" V gave the cat a good scratch behind one ear as he asked. Nibbles definitely appreciated it despite being bothered. He reluctantly purred despite his better judgment.

"I know he ain't as cute as Jackie, but he's a real good boy." V quit petting Nibbles and pulled his hand back. Nibbles yawned.

V wasn't actually completely sure this was exactly his Nibbles from home. The cat sure looked like Nibbles, and he seemed to know most of the commands that V had taught him, but who knew where the train got these critters. He was glad enough to have the cat, and his affection for, well, everyone in this room was apparent.

"That's just 'cause he's older and cats all lost their fur when the world went to shit," Kerry points out as he looks over at Nibbles, considering how a furless cat looks so different from the ones with fur. "But he's still cute as fuck, you know. Age and survival got their own marks."

V chuckled when Kerry said Nibbles was cute, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, both are cute little fuckers. Glad they're mine, love 'em both to bits." He leaned back in his seat to let Nibbles go back to his nap.

"Why didn't you ever have any pets when we were together? You could certainly afford the licensing." V had a story in his head he told himself but he was curious what Kerry's actual answer was.

"Are ya kiddin?'" Kerry asks with a raised eyebrow. "You saw the state of my house. What makes you think I was in any state to take care of an expensive animal?"

There's a lot of truth there. He hadn't been in any state to care for a pet before meeting V. There was much more to that story, but admitting to the details there is a much deeper conversation.

"Before we were here when was the last time you saw me sober?" The answer was never. "That gonk cat ate better'n I ever did back home." When Kerry wasn't making him eat real food, anyway.

"Havin' somethin' to take care'f makes things different." He shrugged. He knew what he wanted to say, but he didn't want to bring up that difficult conversation.

"Everythin' I try to take care of ends up in worse shape once I'm done," Kerry points out. "Except a couple of my prized axes, but sometimes I smash those up for no good fuckin' reason too."

"Doubt I would've ended up any worse, but I got enough bad luck to fuck myself over any day'f the week." A sigh. "And I make gonk enough choices on m'own without help."

"You just say that because you think I'm a better man than I am," Kerry says carefully. "Rose-colored glasses and all that."

"We met over you tryin' to hurt a group'f idols, 'n start dating after burnin' down the yacht of your old manager. I know you ain't all rainbows 'n sunshine. But I get a feelin' you never had any intention on sellin' me to the highest bidder to be turned into a doll or scrapped for parts."

A pause. "I know it's selfish to say, 'n I'm not tryin' to disregard your history, but you always treated me right."

"It helped that you were fun as hell," Kerry points out. "Had no doubt you'd help me with all that shit. After you went and helped with that concert even though you didn't even get paid for it."

V chuckled. "Still help you with anythin' you need. Still free'f charge."

His smile eased off a little. "Point is, don't think you'd've left me any worse'n I started. Granted, hard to go lower'n rock bottom."

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healing sans magicka

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