Metals & Roses | Dum Dum NSFW | Edgerunners2077 Spin-Off

Dum Dum: 1

District: Northside, Watson

Totentanz

We leave the Edgerunner prisoner in her confinement downstairs, in a place Dicky likes to call the Wreck It Hall. Some bozo with too much Glitter in his system had the bright idea to set up explosives and hook them up to the walls so all the rooms run together. Idiot was so high he wanted to make life-size hamster tunnels! I shouldn't judge him. When you're fucked up everything sounds like a neat ass idea, that is until you wake up from said high, half dead and hungover with Brick steaming at the ears about how we can't use those rooms anymore. Great guy, Brick. Great leader too. Yet not so great when he's handing your ass to you on a silver platter.

Being the very active member of Maelstrom that I am---I fucking hate the phrase 'high-ranking'-- I have to set an example for the newer recruits. Should be an honor, but really it's a double standard. High-Ranking is a fancy ass word for a babysitter.

I give Metaldick a firm fist bump before the gonk joins the dance floor, and I head my ass outside to get some fresh air and a smoke.

Totentanz is great when all you need is a little booze and a shitty show, but I've heard all the bad music covers and tasted every cheap bottle we serve at this wannabe bar. Your dude needs something else. Something different. Anything that didn't consist of the same boring routine I have day in and day out. When I was a lower-rank, I could dick around with hardly anyone taking notice. Now I could barely move a muscle without immediate orders from our head honcho ringing me on the Holo.

I have half a mind to find a Ripper and play spin the bottle on whatever implant it fucking lands on and get it installed. I wanna feel the heat, feel the pain. Feel the burn of a new implant integrating itself beneath my flesh. Feel the wires wrap around my bones and the new metal on my skin.

That kind of high is normally one only Maelstrom would understand. That high you get when you're freshly tatted in new ink? Yeah, it's even ten times better than that shit! Glitters' great, but implants insults are better. WAY BETTER.

Outside, just behind the old rundown hotel was my truck, decked out with the Maelstrom Spider. It used to be a Militech caravan the gang 'stumbled' upon and repurposed for Maelstrom use. This heavy-duty military grade truck saved my ass more times than I can count, and it's great for when I go solo for deals and deliveries.

Inside held more ammo and explosives than a MaxTac hovercraft. An obscene amount of tech too. I'm talking klepht shit. From Arasaka, Militech, Kang Tao. You name it, we got it.

The Militech Convoy we hit earlier this week made us some serious eddies in the resale business, especially after Royce jacked up the prices. Would have been a hell of a lot more too if it weren't for those fucking Edgerunners!

I light one blunt I pre-rolled at the bar, the embers igniting the night with its orange glow. Northside was shit compared to the rest of Night City, nothing but factories and the all too familiar rank smell of the Bay. I chuckle with the bud between my teeth. I used to fucking love Northside.

What changed?

Maybe it was the bare-boned buildings, the colorless streets, the tasteless food. Maybe it was the repetition, or Royce constantly on my ass. Or maybe it was something I'd seen tonight.

V, of all people, came to Totentanz with her Input at her side. Even Night City's newest legend has time for a little action on the side. Hell, even Metaldick, as obnoxious as he is, gets laid from time to time.

But what about Dum Dum? I know my gonk ass is a fucking butterface, but shittttt. I can pull a Maelstrom girl or two, right? Now that I think about it, when was the last time I got laid?