Next Noon
Misty’s Esoterica
Triling
Opening the door, Ken happened to bump onto Misty.
“Hm, ah, the new face from last night.” She smirked, “What? Are you planning to be a regular here?”
“I hope not.” Ken sighed. “Though after yesterday... it might happen.”
Viktor had somehow decided to become his ripper.
“That doesn’t sound very convincing.” Misty laughed softly.
“I mean, he practically argued with me for half an hour just because I wanted a piece of chrome installed.”
“Sounds like him.”
Ken scowled, “Ever wished he didn’t?”
“Haha,” Misty’s smile brightened at his sour face, “Never! That’s the best part about him. He might be hard on his word, but he worries.”
Ken looked around the tiny shop. “A ripperdoc? Worrying?”
“You’d be surprised.”
The room was as peaceful as yesterday. Incense slowly drifted through the air while several customers browsed tarot cards and polished crystals. Someone quietly asked Misty about lucky colors for an upcoming job.
Night City really was strange.
Outside, people solved problems with bullets.
Inside, they solved them with rocks.
“...How does this place even makes money?” Ken muttered.
“I ask myself that every month.” Misty answered with a completely serious face.
Ken almost believed her before she smiled.
Just then—
Triling
The bell above the entrance rang again. A broad-shouldered man ducked slightly as he walked through the doorway. Brown leather jacket, gold chains, confident smile. He carried himself like someone who had already been shot several times and considered that a normal Tuesday.
“Hola, Misty!”
“Morning, Jackie.”
The giant immediately noticed Ken. “Ooh, new customer?”
“Vicky’s.” Misty thankfully added.
Jackie extended a hand without hesitation. “Jackie Welles.”
“Dav–, sorry, that’s my nickname, Ken Martinez.”
The handshake nearly crushed Ken’s fingers.
“You’re Vic’s patient?”
“You almost made me one...”
Jackie laughed, “Kid, don’t sound so worried. Vic’s super nova. If he says he can fix you, then relax. Guy patched me up more times than I can count.”
“That many?” Ken looked at the giant. ‘An edgerunner? So, preem!’
“What can I say?” Jackie shrugged proudly. “Night City's got a way of introducing your face to bullets.”
Misty rolled her eyes. “He’s exaggerating.”
“Hey, amigo, that’s called being poetic!” Jackie admitted with a grin. “Still, if Vic wanted easy eddies, he would’ve stopped patching broke mercs years ago.”
Ken remembered yesterday. That ripperdoc had refused free business simply because he thought it would kill him. “...Unbelieveable.”
‘Yet, sounds legit.’
“He’ll grumble, lecture, and call you an idiot.” Jackie chuckled. He seemed to be speaking from his experience. “But if he agrees to work on you?”
His grin softened. “You’re in good hands, newbie. You won’t find many ripperdocs in Night City I’d trust more.”
As if on cue, Viktor’s voice echoed from downstairs.
“Jackie.”
“Yeah, yeah. Coming.” Jackie pointed a thumb toward the basement. “Looks like the old man finally noticed I was late.”
With a laugh, he disappeared behind the curtain.
Ken stared after him. “...Interesting guy.”
“Told you.” Misty’s smile carried a hint of pride. “Night City changes people.”
“Guess it hasn’t changed him enough.”
“No.” She looked toward the basement stairs. “Thankfully.”
“So, new face... or should I call you Martinez?” Misty asked, tilting her head.
“Ken, just Ken is fine.”
“Misty.” She placed a hand lightly against her chest. “I own this little place.”
“Oh.” Ken straightened instinctively, his Japanese politeness took over. “Pleasure to meet you. Sorry for taking up space in your shop when I'm not actually buying anything.”
“You're more polite than most people walking through that door.”
A brief silence settled between them.
“You're early for Viktor.”
“Yeah, I was hoping to catch him free.”
Misty studied him quietly. Not his clothes, nor the bandages, just... him. It almost made him uncomfortable. Then she smiled. “You’ve been carrying a lot lately, haven’t you?”
Ken gave a small laugh. “Probably more than you can tell from my face.”
“Not your face.” She tapped two fingers lightly over her own chest. “Sometimes people carry noise around them. It isn't something you hear.”
‘Psychic? Does spiritual power exist in this world too? Maybe even aliens then?!’
Ken blinked rapidly. “...noise? Some kind of talent?”
“Don’t mind it.” She seemed used to people not understanding her. “Maybe, talent? You say the same thing Jackie said.”
She walked over to a small wooden shelf and picked up an old tarot deck, carefully shuffling it between practiced fingers. Gently placing them on the counter, she invited him, “Would you draw three cards for me?”
“Tarot reading?” Ken’s face changed. ‘It’s that, isn’t it? Since you’re spending time in my shop, increase my sales.’
“Mhm.” As if reading his face, Misty offered. “Don’t worry, this is on the house.”
“You can read mind?!”
“I can read your face, pfft!” Misty laughed like she found him hilarious.
“If you say so...” Ken chewed his lip. He remembered reading that tarot symbols were some kind of alien communication tools, among many other things.
With some hesitation, Ken picked a card.
Suddenly, his eyes widened.
Just on his left, beside the tarot deck, a transparent mask appeared without him realizing. He could be sure it wasn’t there just a second ago!
It was the same mask he picked in the comicon, then again during the frozen world. Now though, as he was about to turn the card, half of the mask turned pitch dark.
“Ah, is this your first time? Three cards, three.” Misty instructed.
“Um, Misty?” Ken pointed at the item, “...is that mask, yours?”
Misty looked at the place Ken pointed and made a confused face, “What mask?”
“Eh? It’s... never mind. Three cards, right?” Ken drew two more cards and turned them over.
The mask remained the same. Without holes for eyes and mouth, half of it was crystal clear and the other half, pitch black that even seemed to devour light.
“...Hm?” confusion clouded Misty’s face for a moment.
“...”
“I shouldn’t have blank cards. That’s weird.” She overturned the cards in the table.
Blank.
Blank.
All blank.
“Oh,” Misty had a thoughtful look on her face but she shook her head, “I think I had the wrong deck–”
“Misty, can I ask for the usual?” A customer suddenly interrupted.
“Mr. Denver! Welcome, quite unusual for you to visit at this time.” Misty turned to Ken, “Sorry, Ken. I will do the reading for you some time later.”
“Actually, it’s fine. Don’t mind it.” As Ken returned the cards silently, he realized the mask had disappeared at some point.
A few minutes later, Viktor climbed the stairs carrying a mug of coffee. “So you came back.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I’ve learned not to expect stubborn kids to make sensible decisions.”
Ken scratched his cheek and gave an awkward smile. “...Fair.”
Viktor sighed. “Come on. Let’s see what kind of hardware you’re running before we start talking about chippin something new.”
Before following, Ken swept his glance over the store.
The mask was gone.
As if nothing had happened.
“Is it important to run an analysis on my hardware?” Ken questioned as he looked at the two patients. Jackie Welles and another girl, or woman?
Viktor first glanced at his uniform, then at Ken’s face. “You’re seriously asking that?”
Ken wore the Arasaka Uniform because that made him less of a target.
“Hey, I’ve never seen any ripper checking the already chipped cyberwares to install new ones,” Ken defended himself as he made himself comfortable on the only free operating chair.
“And how many rippers do you know?” Viktor demanded as he connected Ken to the machine.
“Ugh,” Ken let his grunt of resignation do the talking.
“That bastard in Arroyo counts less as a ripper and more of a butcher.” Viktor entertained Ken. “Let’s see what we have here... worse than I had expected.”
“What do you find unappealing?”
Viktor named them, one by one, and in the end, Ken realized it was everything. “Cheap optics, common interface plugs with chipware sockets, and ankle reinforcement...” Viktor looked over the monitor. “...who installed this shoddy reinforcement?”
“The Arroyo Doc.”
“Figures.” He zoomed further into the diagnostic. “The calibration is awful. Socket wear, neural latency... I am not saying you are, but are you his regular or something? Not that I believe that butcher can have a regular.”
Ken closed his eyes and turned to the other side, “I used to sell BDs for him. He doesn’t pay in eddies but promised to do the calibration for me. The ankle reinforcement was like a gift...”
“The firmware was outdated months ago.”
“What?! No way?!” that genuinely surprised Ken.
“With such subpar calibration how did you even not feel anything wrong?” Viktor looked at him as if staring at a sane cyberpsycho.
Just then–
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Instruction received.
Ceasing function in the information body.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
It disappeared just as quick it appeared.
A new blue window opened.
However, unlike before, Ken understood the message before even laying his eyes on it. As if the information was coming from him, not to him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Independent System Core Received.
Receiving Customized (Unknown) Data Pack...
Searching Pack Information...
Downloaded 0.001%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
“You still there, kid? Or cat got your tongue, hmm?” The female patient also stirred awake around the same time so Viktor went to that side.
Ken deadpanned, ‘You know, I’m in the middle of something! Ever heard of a line? Come when I’m free!’
The female patient carefully looked at herself in the mirror before they finished their transaction.
Her eyes stopped over Jackie Welles for a moment before it rested on Ken. She nodded at him and left the clinic.
Viktor knocked on Jackie's head, “If you’re done, don’t block my space and just go home.”
“Vik, you didn’t say that woman will be here.” Jackie made a funny face and complained like a kid.
“Huh, she just wants you to take some easy jobs. No need to avoid her that much.” Viktor shook his head, like he couldn't understand Jackie’s childishness.
“Taking the job is fine and all, but they are too time consuming and the pay is just...ugh.” Jackie made a face like even talking about it hurt his head.
“Is she a fixer?” Ken took the chance to join their conversation.
“Gin’s alright.” Jackie curtly replied.
“Gin? Yeah, she is a regular here. A lot of the mercs coming here to upgrade their chrome are sent by her.” Viktor elaborated. “What? Are you looking for a fixer?”
“Isn’t it that? You think she is pretty, heh. Let me tell you, that hag is above 40–”
Viktor yanked the cables attached to Jackie, causing the latter to yelp in surprise. He chided, “Don’t badmouth my regulars and don’t put weird ideas on the kid’s head. You’re already done, just had a few screws loose. Go away, shoo.”
“Don’t be so cold, Vik. I was thinking we could have a round or two, ya know.”
Viktor eyed Ken and put on a thoughtful look. “I’m not free for the next two or three days. Visit me next week.”
“Next week, amigo?! I have a big gig this Saturday, you trying to get rust on my knuckles. Come on, Vik. Nothing makes you that busy!”
“Well, I have to make sure this kid doesn’t fry himself, among many other things.”
Jackie approached Ken and looked at his head and body very carefully, “Eh? Is this fella that troublesome? Ain’t he mostly ‘ganic?”
Viktor completely ignored Jackie, copied Ken’s analysis data and instructed him, “Kid, take out the EMP bag.”
“What about him?” Ken asked subtly.
“Jackie? When that gonk is like that he probably won’t leave even if you pointed a gun at his face.” Viktor shrugged but Jackie grinned as if he was praised. Viktor added, “Don’t worry, for the gonk he is, he is trustworthy.”
Ken didn’t say anything and silently pulled out the Sandevistan from the jacket collar.
Only, the Sandevistan was not packed inside a plastic but an EMP bag.
Last night, Victor had offered him two options. Take back the spine or leave it with him.
No matter how much kindness Viktor had shown him, Ken took the chrome back. Instead, Viktor offered him an EMP bag. According to the guy, it had no strong purposes. It just blocked weak signals from quickhacks such as ping and interfered lightly with scans.
Well, to be safe, Ken did check for trackers and even used a taxi for transportation.
So when Ken slid the spine out of the EMP bag Jackie almost pressed his face against chrome. “...Santa madre... Kid, where the hell did you get that?”
Viktor swatted Jackie’s head like shooing away a fly.
He took the chrome and connected to the machine once again.
Jackie by then, had basically turned into a kid. He nagged the duo until Viktor threatened to throw him out.
“Hm, just as I thought, this thing is lacking the neurological processors.” Viktor connected himself with a socket and his eyes flashed blue. “Kid, give it up. This will put too much burden on your brain, you won’t have to start the chrome, just installing will melt your brain. Even if we were to find a military grade neural processor, we don’t even know what kind of tech this fire is running on...”
“Neural processor? It comes with a neuroport, I have it.” Ken added from the side and took out the neuroport from the same EMT bag. Originally, he didn’t want to hand everything away just in case something went wrong.
Viktor looked at Ken like the latter had destroyed all his thought out plan. After connecting it with the machine, a thoughtful expression surfaced on his face. “This is even better than a normal heavy-duty mil-grade neuroport.”
“Then–!” hope bloomed on Ken’s face.
“Don’t get your hopes high so soon.” Viktor frowned, “This just means your skull won’t fly off for installing the chrome.”
“Wait, wait, Vik, lemme get this. You’re thinking of putting this baby in the kid? He is all meat!” Jackie finally couldn’t hold himself anymore. “Put this baby on me! I–”
Viktor shot a sharp glare at Jackie, causing the latter to shut up like a deer caught at headlights.
Jackie pressed both hands on his mouth, turned around and messed up his head like the world had gone crazy.
“This might actually work...” Viktor muttered to himself after thinking and looking through everything for five whole minutes. Only then he turned to Ken, “I know you won’t stop even if you advise you to. Anyway, I’ve got the gist of how to put this on you without sending you the other way. Come back in 2 days, not before 6 pm, remember.”
“Does it take that much time?” Ken asked. In reality, he wanted to say that it was very possible for the man to advise him against that. Certainly at first he wanted to have this preem shit chipped in no matter what, but now that some time passed, it did start to seem like a bad idea.
“Look, kid. You seem to have some misconception about this sandy here. For a normal Sandevistan, while it’s not a non-invasive procedure, all you have to do is fix it with your original neuroport and connect with your spinal nerves.
“And this?... Is most likely the first of its kind. A Sandy that replaces your original FRIKING SPINE with a metallic one? I haven’t even heard of any rumors for this one. You know what that means? Whoever built this didn’t mean to release it to the market. Meaning no guide on how to install this on your back is out yet. Now that’s gonna make any PROPER ripper think carefully.” Viktor replied and packed up the chrome.
Replacing his spine? This was suddenly sounding like a bad idea.
“Can you give me an estimate of how much the surgery gonna cost?” Ken asked seriously. If it was two days later, he had to plan out the money he was going to send to the academy.
“Don’t worry about that. Just live. If you are alive, we can talk about it then. Just to be clear, the results here shows a high level of mental distress and body toxins. For the next two days, run. Run as much as you can. Basically sweat and keep drinking water until you feel like you are half dead. Should help the chrome settle with your body better.”
Ken turned silent at that. He didn’t even know this ripperdoc until yesterday.
Shaking his head, he fixed the EMP bag on the jacket.
He stopped at the exit. He did not turn around.
“Thank you.”
For...
Not the surgery,
Nor the diagnosis.
For things he couldn’t name.
{Alternative Titles: New Faces; Mask; Blank Cards; The Right Ripper; Vik & Jackie; Diagnosis; Blind Trust;}