Cyberpunk 2077: V

Chapter 15: Waiting Game

When V woke up that next morning, everything felt...normal. 

Jackie was gone, but he'd texted her saying he'd gone to help Misty out with energy cleansing her shop, and joked that V looked like Death when he left. And that she'd drooled all over herself. And that she snored like V-12 Avenger. She laughed at that.

V did feel like death though, but was able to roll out of bed without too much pain, though her muscles screamed and the slice in her back ached. 

Jackie had apparently gone to her other apartment to bring back some clothes, AND gotten her some takeout from the sketchy Chinese stand outside of the Neon Palms. V sent a quick text thanking him for his help, and that she hoped the cleansing went well. She managed to shuffle her way to the kitchenette and plop herself down at the rickety folding table, where she proceeded to inhale the half-scop orange chicken and chow mien. As she chewed on rubbery noodles and synthetic orange paste, V tried to put into words how she was feeling in that moment. Things felt normal, sure...but also different? 

That different feeling was good, V decided. There wasn't tension anymore. There was decision. She and Jackie had walked together to a chasm that could have ended in both of them falling, but instead they worked together and built a bridge. They could still pound shots, throw gonks into dumpsters, and run gigs...but Jackie was getting them to the big leagues. And big leagues meant big changes. Professional and personal.

They both grew up a little last night. It felt good. Healthy, even.

What didn't feel good or healthy was V's body. There was a sort of weird shaky energy shivering in her spine. A dark energy. It went beyond exhaustion at having gone hand to hand with a cyberpsycho; it had something to do with her dreams. 

At the edges of V's memory she could recall dreaming, but she couldn't remember what exactly. The strange feeling in her body was the same reaction she had when she had that one terrifying reoccurring dream, the one where she ran from the Void...but since she'd woken up peacefully and not screaming and soaked with sweat, she at least knew it wasn't that nightmare. Even just a thought of the strange dream that haunted her gave V a little shiver.

After demolishing her takeout breakfast, V picked up the duffle that Jackie left and made her way to the bathroom. She slipped off Jackie's large tank top, folded it, and tossed it into the other room on the bed. It would be washed then discreetly returned to him. 

V then took a moment to examine her body, doing a damage assessment.

There were deep purple splatters across her abdomen from where Mower's uniform had dug into her flesh. Lighter bruising sat on the top of and inside of her thighs, as well as her arms from holding onto the thrashing psycho for dear life. V suddenly realized that the bruise and pain from Meredith Stout's bodyguard had clocked her was gone. She absentmindedly ran a hand over her jaw, huffing with shallow amusement. V seemed to heal pretty quickly, despite spending a good portion of her childhood malnourished and without access to medicine. Whether it was a cut or a scrape or a bruise, Jackie always took a bit longer than V to heal up, lamenting about his need to still wear a Band-Aid for a papercut while V was healed within the day. She hoped the slash on her back would heal just as quickly.

It was difficult removing the bandage herself, but V managed. She angled herself so she could see the wound in the grimy bathroom mirror. An involuntary gasp left when she saw the jagged slice in her skin; she must have hit a broken screw or something. The cut wasn't a clean straight one, but was instead a deep ragged slash. While deep, it hadn't gotten down to the bone or soft tissue or anything; and looking at the edges of it she realized it was on its way to healing quite nicely. Just some bandage changes and pills and V wouldn't have to worry about infection...but there would definitely be a scar though.