18:00
Bruce got out of Maine's purple 66.
"Maine this is a goddamn stripclub."
Maine grinned.
"You ready to get your game on?"
Disappointment rippled across Bruce's face.
Maine laughed.
"HA! You should see the look on your face."
He wiped a tear from his eye and patted Bruce on the shoulder.
"But I wouldn't do that to you, we're here for someone else."
Maine kicked a nearby rust bucket, setting off its alarms.
*wheeeeooo wheeeeooo
Shortly after, a tall twink of a man with a visor for eyes walked out of the bar.
His hands were evidently switched out for disproportional replicas of the glorious human musculature.
"Him?"
"Yeah, HEY PILAR!"
The twink waved.
Maine spoke to Bruce. "This guy, guess what he does all day long?"
Bruce looked at the visor that covered or replaced the clanker's eyes.
The disapproval was great in this one.
"He jerks it to porn all day long?"
"AHAHA HAAHA! YOU HEAR THAT PILAR!?"
"Haaa? What's wrong with treating myself when I want huuh kid?"
Pilar leaned forward as he walked up to Maine's car, pointing at Bruce accusingly.
Maine introduced him. "Bruce, this is Pilar, our resident techie, Pilar, this is Bruce, today's new friend."
He reached his hand out but Bruce dodged it.
"You don't even wash your hands after do you?"
Pilar was confused, "It's a machine synched with the BD choom!"
"Huh?" Bruce had never considered that there was still a market for such toys.
He thought for a moment, 'With all this porn in public, I guess it makes sense for the toy industry to boom. Even if we're in this place.'
"What do you mean huh?!"
Bruce shifted his attention.
"Maine, why'd we come here when your car only has two seats?"
"What are you just gonna ignore me?!"
Maine rolled his eyes at Pilar.
"Because some gonk was so jacked in, the only thing that could get him out was the alarm of his trash heap of a car."
"What? You got a problem with old Betsy? she's been with us for years I'll have you know!"
Bruce evaluated the rust bucket, "I guess he is a techie if he can keep this thing running."
He walked around it avoiding Pilar's attempts to convince him his hands were clean.
He looked under the car, not that he knew about how cars should function.
"This shit's less rusted than you are addicted to porn Pilar."
"What the fuck did you say!!"
Pilar was getting ragebaited while Maine continued laughing his ass off.
Maine stepped forward.
"Ok! Now that you're all introduced and caught up, let's go to that bar I mentioned now yeah? Pilar you know the one, go get Rebecca too, she's at the gun range waiting for you to pick her up."
"Hop in choom, you're meeting the whole crew today."
"Just a moment." Bruce said, walking over to the nearby data terminal. He took out one of his many phones.
"How many of those bricks do you have choom?" Maine felt like Bruce was grabbing a new one every time he reached into his pocket.
"This one's the laundry, I'm getting a metro subscription, it's faster than driving."
Maine lowered his sunglasses, "Laundry?"
"Tax evasion."
"Woah, a big criminal already?"
"You know it." Bruce finished his business and hopped into Maine's car.
"Where we headed?"
"Great spot, you'll love it, it's even got veggie options."
"Cheers, I'll drink to that."
"Hell yeah that's the spirit choom!"
…
…
…
18:45
They arrived at the diner, parking the Quadra-type sixty six in one of the few empty parking spots.
"Maine, how many people you got in your crew?"
Bruce adjusted his clothes, a white dress shirt with cuffs and matching pants in gray. Strangely his shoes would be the same as any man's shoes in the 20th century.
He wore black fingerless gloves and a dark blue fabric mask.
"Minus Pilar earlier, we got Rebecca, Sasha, Dorio, Falco, and Leia."
Maine had an epiphany, 'That's who he reminded me of!'
In the meantime Bruce stretched, his dress shirt being unusually flexible allowed him full range of motion.
"Are you sure it's fine to introduce everyone to me? We've only met because of a moving ad."
They walked in the front door, Maine looking around the restaurant for a booth.
"We don't just make friends inside of work choom. Work-life balance is the key to any success."
He found a booth in the corner, filled with people.
There was an incredibly pale midget waving frantically at them. Her skin was marked in some pink design, as were her eyes which held a mishmash of colors.
Next to the childlike human was a behemoth of a woman, though not the largest in the city she matched Maine in height. Her pale blonde hair looked like it was suffering in the polluted air.
Then there was a well dressed man, his mustache was well groomed and his demeanor was approachable and kind.
Finally there was-
"Maine, is this your new choom?"
The giant spoke.
"You know it babe, everyone, this is Bruce, Bruce this is Dorio, Rebeca, Falco, and Leia."
Maine pointed with his open hand at the people in the booth.
"If Rebecca is here, where is Pilar? And how did they get here before us?"
Bruce was fairly certain that the traffic wasn't so bad that allowed Pilar to get to two stops faster than he and Maine could do one.
"Pilar? Oh that gonk is dropping a log."
Leia turned her head over scrutinizing Bruce as Rebecca continued talking.
"We got no traffic on account of we took a different street."
Bruce pulled out his phone to check the navigation app.
"Motherfucker."
Rebecca leaned back in her seat and began kicking her legs while holding onto the table.
"Ha! Did you get caught in that shoutout choom? How's Maine's ride? Is it beat up? Any new bullet holes?"
Bruce shook his head, and shook hands with Dorio before he sat into the booth, next to Leia.
"Just traffic."
He shook hands with Falco.
Maine and Dorio were discussing the food they would get.
"He doesn't eat synthmeat either!"
Tssst*
He exchanged a wave with Sasha, splaying the fingers out and twisting the wrist a little. She kept a small smile on her face and blinked her eyes closed longer during the wave.
Leia was still staring at him, completely silent.
Someone left the restroom, Bruce looked over, it wasn't Pilar.
"He drives a mahir! Mahir supron!"
Falco turned over as Sasha took Rebecca's attention, clapping hands with Rebecca in what Bruce would call patty cake.
"So, Bruce."
Bruce gave his attention.
"What work do you do? How'd you meet Maine?"
Bruce rolled up his left sleeve, revealing his makeshift cyberdeck.
"I do minor netrunning, skimming off vending machines y'know?"
Falco was confused by the device.
"Is that your?"
Bruce nodded, pressing a button and letting the device extend its keys.
"Homemade deck, pain to make, fun to use though."
Falco looked in admiration, "I never could understand netrunning from its basics, but you're even making custom cyberdecks? Is it difficult getting the materials you need?"
Bruce shook his head.
"Not really, I could just buy computers and make one giant super computer. Then I just remotely connect to it with this, and then let things continue."
Falco was intrigued, Sasha was busy with Rebecca, leaving her out of the netrunning talk.
"But, and correct me if I'm wrong, isn't that a little slow and unimportant in combat?"
Bruce smiled.
"Do I need to be in combat? I just skim off the top of whatever I find and I'm set to live my life."
Falco nodded his head along,
"hmm hmm, but how do you get past ICE? I've heard it needs the full speed and attention that your brain can provide alongside the cyberdeck."
Bruce leaned back.
"Well, at the end of the day I just need to train a model to recognize all the different basic types of ICE and add in new algorithms every now and again."
He fiddled with his proxy cyberdeck.
"Isn't that incredibly illegal?"
Falco was concerned that before even growing Bruce was committing a crime prevalent to AI.
"No, the illegal stuff is when I try to give the model sentience, or model it closely enough to make the model begin to act purely in its own self interest."
Falco rubbed his chin,
"hmm hmm, what a fascinating route you've decided to take. Oh yes, how did you meet Maine?"
Bruce rolled his sleeve back down.
"I sent out a small gig, he helped me move apartments."
Falco raised his brow.
"So even on rest days he's looking for eddies to make huh? Well, welcome to the group choom, you'll surely have fun here."
Falco glanced at Leia, who still stared at Bruce.
"Thanks Falco, it's great to be here."
With a nod Falco turned away to engage in conversation with Rebecca and Sasha, they seemed to be discussing their favored ways to complete gigs.
Now untethered by social connections Bruce turned towards Leia.
Those were eyes that he would never mistake.
But Bruce needed to confirm it.
He looked at the woman in front of him, sharing the same dark brown hair color, the same dark brown eyes and the same dressing scheme.
A cap over her shoulder length hair, bangs that just reached the eye, a black fabric mask the same as his. A matte black coat that seemed to be breathable and stretchy, along with black sweatpants and black fingerless gloves.
She raised her left hand, peeled back the gloves from the wrist with her right hand, and holding onto that section with the middle and ring fingers of her left hand, exposing her left wrist towards him.
Bruce mirrored the gesture, showing his wrist to Leia.
They let their gloves snap back into place, a silence washing over them.
Maine and Dorio were still deeply engrossed in their discussion, Pilar yet to leave the restroom, and the other three were seriously discussing something.
Perhaps another confirmation was needed.
Bruce turned to Leia, words ready to exchange.
""Fire.""
They spoke at the same time, but that one word was all they needed.
Immediately Leia leaned into Bruce, grabbing one of his arms and wrapping it around her shoulder.
Bruce hesitated, but in the end he scooted closer towards Leia.
"Whaaaat? You've only just met the crew but you're already picking up our ladies? Choom you gotta-"
Rebecca refrained from shooting her brother, it was a public area after all. Leia however took out a playing card and flicked it right at Pilar's gorilla hands, lodging it right into one of the seams.
Her glare spoke enough for Bruce to understand.
"Woah woah woah! I get the message don't shoot!"
Pilar put his hands up for a moment before lowering them and squeezing past Dorio to sit next to Rebecca.
Bruce and Leia exchanged glances. Inciting surprise from Sasha, Maine and Dorio, who had kept their spatial awareness.
Maine gave a quick smirk before handing a shard over to Leia.
"This is the menu."
He sat down next to Bruce.
"You two find what you guys want and we'll order in a moment."
Leia took out a brick and plugged the shard into it.
She looked over the menu quickly before handing the brick to Bruce.
They looked up and Bruce nodded.
That earned a brow raise from Maine.
"You two are hitting it off quite quick huh?"
Bruce and Leia nodded.
""Yes.""
"Hello chooms, are we ready to order?"
Bruce and Leia exchanged glances, 'Who the fuck is oui? Are we speaking French?'
"Fries, hashbrowns, Tofu and bean salad."
As the others gave their orders Bruce and Leia began to communicate.
Bruce glanced between Leia and the crew.
'What are you doing here?'
Leia shrugged and rubbed her fingers.
'Money.'
She poked his cyberdeck.
'How does this thing work?'
Bruce rolled his sleeve up again, unwrapping his arm from Leia in the process.
He pushed a button letting the keys pop out.
'I can show you.'
From his jacket he pulled out a few phones and his custom screen that he attached to the cyberdeck.
He started typing away at the keyboard, and one of the phones turned on.
Leia picked it up, reading the text on it.
[Parent situation?]
She looked at him and quickly snapped her head to one side and resetting it.
'Dead'
She pointed at him.
'You?'
[Dead too.]
she snorted, a little smirk under her mask.
'How ironic.'
She looked towards the street and looked back at Bruce, opening her hand once.
'Were they streetrat clankers too?'
Bruce nodded, the screen pinging with new text.
[Scavs, karma came round for them.]
He jutted his chin a little and looked at Leia.
She shrugged.
'They were hardly even around.'
The food arrived.
Bruce took a bite of the fries, raising his mask a little to do so.
[How'd you eat then?]
Leia thought a little bit, then grabbed a forkful of their salad and a portion of the hash browns.
She hid the greens under the hashbrowns and then wrapped the hashbrown and ate it.
'Stole from under their noses, took their shit while they slept.'
Bruce nodded, and shook his cyberdeck a little.
'Did the same, this way though.'
From the corner of their eyes they could see Pilar gawking in disbelief.
Maine was laughing boisterously, Dorio sharing a smile with him.
Sasha and Falco were whispering to each other, faint amusement in their eyes.
Rebecca was just as disbelieving as Pilar.
They shared glances, an agreement established.
Bruce and Leia scarfed down their shared food together and sat further apart.
They both reached their left arms out.
Rebecca immediately started to get hyped.
Pilar was screaming something again.
Maine stepped in to referee, Dorio enjoying the scene from the sidelines.
Sasha giggled a little and Falco smiled like a proud parent.
"ARE YOU READY!"
Maine's enthusiasm was infectious, though the other diners were less than satisfied with these mercs.
Faintly from the back of the diner a phone call was held.
"Yeah boss, the corner booth this time, can you reserve a replacement?"
A brief pause, "No not yet, but they're doing it now."
"No it's just another crew, we can't just kick them, it only happens once every few visits."
"They always get enough food to let us break even on the tables."
"No, they're huge! I don't want to risk my life to do that!"
…
"Boss no please, I'll do it, just don't do that, anything but that please."
Just as Maine was beginning his countdown an employee came out the back.
Her blonde hair was dirty, marred by city smog. The whites in her uniform the same as the white coloring used in hospitals.
"U-u-um excuse me."
She clutched a tray close to her chest.
Maine stopped and turned to her.
"Yes? How can I help you miss?"
The woman became more nervous.
"W-would it b-e possible for you to do these things outside? The um, the booth and tables are cheaper out there."
Her knuckles were white.
Maine grinned, "Of course. You heard her chooms, let's take this outside!"
Bruce kept hold of Leia's hands and pulled her along as he got out of the booth.
She stepped out just as smoothly as he did.
Maine settled the bill and bought a few more beers as the crew exited the diner.
They found a round outdoor table to continue their arm wrestling.
With beers on the table and the contestants ready, Falco began accepting bets.
Rebecca, Sasha, and Dorio bet on Leia.
Pilar and Maine bet on Bruce.
Left arms extended, the players waited for Maine's call.
"READY?"
"GO!!"
Immediately Bruce and Leia flexed their arms. Beginning the match with a stalemate.
A tense staredown ensued, Leia gaining ground on Bruce.
Seeing this, Bruce adjusted his posture, bringing their hands back to the center.
Leia held steady pressure in her hand, her arm structuring itself towards a steady hold.
Bruce mirrored that structure, holding a new stalemate.
"GO GO GO GO!"
Cheering came from both sides, Rebecca pulling through the most in volume and excitement.
The cheering elicited a twitch from Bruce and Leia, bringing them both closer to each other, and altering their structure.
Leia started gaining ground again, her strength showing more than Bruce's.
Not giving up, Bruce found a new structured hold, turning the game back into attrition.
The two locked eyes, joyous as they had never before found an equal in such competition.
Leia noticed something and began changing her posture, twisting her whole body more to supplement her needs.
Bruce reacted quickly, reinforcing his hold even more.
He began losing ground, inching quickly towards his loss.
He smirked, such exhilaration was enjoyable.
Maine and Pilar were cheering for Bruce, their financial gain in the balance.
"YOU'VE GOT THIS CHOOM!"
"PULL THROUGH!"
From attrition to pure strength was always an issue for Bruce.
But he persevered. He adjusted his feet again, doing his best to match Leia's offensive, his quick change pushing her back slightly, leaving him still disadvantaged but much further from loss.
Their shoulders tensed, the match carrying on into greater heights. Leia began showing fatigue, much earlier than Bruce.
He grinned, his game of attrition proving to be the right strategy.
Leia grinned too, subtly adjusting her stance.
With a sudden push and pull Bruce's structure wavered, and with her full strength Leia brought Bruce's hand to the end of the table, a single instantaneous change to end the attrition, and to win the match.
Falco split the winnings, Dorio smiling, Rebecca whooping and cheering, and Sasha nodding her head.
Their match finished, Leia jumped at Bruce, a hug telegraphed by her by arms spread around him.
Half a beat later Bruce caught her, his hands a little hesitant to initiate such contact.
Leia didn't care, she reduced her hug's area of effect to let Bruce keep his vision.
Now she hugged him from the side, restricting his hands and securing her prize.
Bruce gave her a raised brow, she only smiled bigger and hugged tighter.
Rebecca came up to the pair, excitedly chittering about Leia's performance.
Leia joyfully nodded along, displaying her acquired prize.
Sasha looked on in amusement.
Bruce turned to Maine and Pilar.
"Betting on me in my first match?"
Maine laughed,
"I thought you'd be able to match her, at the very least you seem to be just as fast as her and strong too."
Pilar whined.
"I thought she only liked guys stronger than her! It's not fair! How did you get her the first time you met her!?"
That earned another playing card from Leia, lodged into his hands.
"Stop throwing cards at me damnit!"
He snapped.
Leia pulled out the rest of the deck.
"Ok ok I give!"
He handed the card stuck in his hands back.
"Come on choom you gotta give me your secret!"
With Rebecca distracting Leia, Bruce got his left hand free and pulled down his mask for a moment.
The smuggest smile appeared on his face.
"You gotta be hot first."
Pilar processed for a second before lunging at Bruce.
"AAARGH I'M GONNA KILL YOU YOU GONK!"
Maine held him in place with one of his gorilla arms, laughing with Dorio and Falco.
Sasha only politely smiled from her distance.
'It's a good night.'
Leia got back to glomping Bruce. Her fingers tracing the edges of his muscles, a habit from the past.
And yet, this time, it was different, renewed by time and perspective.
She stretched her left hand behind Bruce's back, releasing its lingering tension.
Using her fingers she poked Bruce's left arm, aiming each time at centers of tension, relieving the arm of stiffness.
Bruce looked down at her, he could struggle, but she's already doing things he would've done.
There was no point in resisting.
She giggled again, moving up his arm, looking into his eyes.
'It's a bit weird since it's not you doing it this time huh?'
He smiled and shook his head.
'It's just the same.'
She raised a brow and got to his shoulder, the point of connections with his lats and his chest.
Bruce's arm fell limp and his posture was reset.
'No difference?'
He shook his head and rolled his shoulder.
'Some difference, better now, more force to and to be used.'
Leia nodded in satisfaction, reengaging in the embrace with renewed vigour.
They watched as the rest of the crew began to arm wrestle, Dorio and Maine going first, Pilar betting on Maine while Sasha and Rebecca bet on Dorio.
"GO GO GO!"
Another round of fun.
"I bet my beer on Maine."
"And mine on Dorio."
The respective bets of Leia and Bruce were cast. Their beverages untarnished
Falco nodded, that's a five eddie stake in the pot each.
They watched the arm wrestling commence, Maine and Dorio sharing in the joy.
"You got a job Bruce?"
In all the excitement, Leia hid her voice, only letting Bruce hear.
He turned, "No, was just gonna skim off the top, polish my skills."
Leia shoved her head into Bruce's embrace, forcing one of his hands to rub her head.
"Work with us, please."
Bruce gently moved his fingers along the top of her head, his eyes filled with conflict.
"You know that's not what we should do, it's best to wait, fish in the waters."
She tightened her hold.
"You don't need to let go of this to move on Bruce. We're already different people now. We've already moved on."
Bruce held his tongue, thoughts slowly forming into complete sentences.
"I'll try, but I don't want to be stuck here."
She clenched her hands.
"We can't go back."
He nodded, "I know, but we can still rebuild."
She nodded her head.
"We have the time, we have the speed. Can't you do it here? With me?"
He faltered for a moment, conflicted by who was asking him to stay.
"I guess we are not the same anymore,"
She flinched.
"-but I guess I can stay, we can figure out who we are here."
She relaxed and held onto his embrace.
"Together, I can't imagine anything else."
He chuckled. "I guess given this world, there is no one else."
Dorio won the arm wrestling by a hair, gloating over Maine's gorilla arms.
Pilar lamented his loss by slamming the ground repeatedly.
Bruce grabbed the two beers from the table, Falco wiring some eddies to his phone. He got a nod and a small smile in return.
He opened one beer cap with the bottle, and popped the last one up with his thumb.
"For tonight, a light buzz is ok. It's been tough on us."
Leia nodded, disengaging from the hug.
"Yes, yes it has."
Bruce
STR: 25.2302 - (added 0.0004 arm wrestling with Leia)
DEX : 25.2299
CONST : 35.2999
INT : 27.4277
WIS : 18
CHAR : 15.5156
Raw
STR: 1079.95
DEX : 1111.1433
CONST : 659.1041 (int) + 547.5 (ext)
INT : 1752
WIS : 18
CHAR : 109.5
Leia
STR: 26.7892 - (added 0.0004 arm wrestling with Bruce)
DEX : 25.2299
CONST : 24.1295
INT : 18.6699 (rest day studying + 0.005625)
WIS : 18
CHAR : 18.4688
Raw
STR: 1479.025
DEX : 1079.85
CONST : 789.15
INT : 231.974
WIS : 18
CHAR : 219