"Small" Riley Post-Mikoshi Info Dump because I'm bored lmao:

Follows DFTR -> Temperance, so spoilers at your own risk

I've been going on and on in servers about how I think V should be extraordinarily fucked up after going toe to toe with Smasher, even if it's an close match, since Smasher just seems like the kinda dude who'd tear you to ribbons even if you have the upper hand. Riley ends up needing to replace two limbs, dislocated her organic shoulder, breaks her organic leg, loses her left optic, ruptures her left eardrum, you get the drift. I beat her up to hell and back, basically.

Post-Mikoshi, Vik determines that Riley's cybernetic leg is just beyond saving. It's barely functioning because the wirework and neural connection were damaged in the fight and Vik just doesn't have the materials on hand to fix homebrew cyberware, so they ditch it (despite a lot of protesting from Johnny). He gives him a RealSkinn prosthetic that's standard in NC, the one with the hydraulic kneecap that all the NPCs have.

Johnny gets Riley's left optic replaced, same neon-green color as before. It leaves him with two huge scars over and under the socket at a diagonal (direction-wise, think around 11:27 on an analog clock, the scar curves slightly downwards). The cut requires upwards of 75 stitches between the forehead and the cheekbone-- it fades better around the eyebrow but still looks pretty gnarly the further down you go.

Riley's final blow to Smasher was a point-blank firing of her projectile launcher that essentially blows the entire mechanism (as well as her left hand) up, so Vik digs out the shards of what used to be the launcher and seals up her now-empty forearm with a black plate. He recovers her left hand with matte-black subdermal armor and leaves it at that (covering up the tattoo ink she has there, RIP). The yellow areas in the picture below are all black plating while everything else is RealSkinn.

From a distance it sort of looks like she's wearing a glove and wristguard, probably not very unusual in the grand scheme of things. Johnny wears a lot of long sleeves post Mikoshi to keep the thing under wraps regardless.

When Arasaka eventually comes a-knocking on H10, Johnny barely has time to grab the Malorian, her Samurai jacket, a few personal items, and an old guitar he'd bought before corporate guards swarm her place. Everything else of Riley's-- her bike, her weapons, her personal belongings, all of it-- are seized by Arasaka and eventually wind up as evidence in the NCPD.

After Johnny fucks off to squat in Pacifica, he starts changing Riley's physical appearance up-- partly out of fear of Arasaka hunting him down, partly out of guilt and an unwillingness to see her face whenever he looks in a mirror, and partly out of depressive negligence. He grows her roots out, and when her hair's long enough, he dyes it black with CHOOH-station hair dye just to feel a bit more like himself. He wears more makeup, even though he's shit at remembering how to do it. He gives her a few more piercings (nose ring, eyebrow piercing, he tried to give her a tongue piercing but it got infected so he was forced to let it close up). He pretty much ditches her entire wardrobe for long sleeve tshirts and flannels and sneakers because it's all he can afford and all he can afford to bring himself to wear.

He starts going by "Jo" (this is something I'm still workshopping tbh-- I don't think he'd refer to himself as a derivative of "Robert", and calling himself "Riley" seems in incredibly poor taste and a disrespect to V's memory. Calling himself a simple "Jo" a la a John Doe seems like the easiest solution) and warms up slowly to Steve, who won't stop pestering him about music because Johnny's depression-playing's easy to hear from down the hall. He also strikes up a weird semi-friendship with Steve's mother, Gillian, who asks Johnny to watch Steve sometimes when she goes to work and doesn't want him alone with his dad.

Between the alias, the hair change, the new piercings, the radical change in wardrobe, losing Riley's cybernetic leg (arguably her most identifiable physical feature) covering her cloud tattoo (arguably her second most identifiable physical feature), and already being absent from most NCPD databases, pretty much no one's able to tell that the woman in West Wind Estates used to be the most famous merc in the city for four months. Johnny's able to fly pretty under the radar for the most point moving forward, save for watching his back regarding Arasaka, and most people who knew V have a somewhat hard time realizing it is V under all the new changes. The only people who don't struggle are Rogue-- she's too astute to be fooled by something like that, imho-- and Mama Welles-- she's seen Riley change her facial apperance several times under her roof, I have no doubt she'd be able to pick her out beneath all that hair dye too.

Johnny sticks it out for three months before he decides he's had enough and makes the plans to break for a fresh start. He takes the bullet pendant and his dog tags and puts them in Jackie's niche, since he views Jackie's sacrifice as the reason he and Riley got to meet in the first place. Even when shenanigans happen and Johnny eventually stays in NC, though, he doesn't retrieve the necklace. Not until fix-it gets firmly underway.

HAPPY APRIL 1st, i wrote a fic about the suez canal fiasco bc it's still the funniest thing that's ever happened. synopsis is "grumpy gods from different mythologies argue over whose job it is to unstick the goddamn boat"

lady amber my beloved

bh!Eclipse "asked to reach the top shelf" meets "can't reach the lowest cupboards without folding like a paperclip" - @clxckwork-sun-n-moon

Yeah, I mean, there's a reason SI is laughing here after Eclipse "gets on his level" - man's too tall, he'd need to lie down to get close

But shenanigans are so very fun, so:

vs

It's called symbiosis <3

bloodstain fool by naffeclipse and og detective au by sunnys-aesthetic!

i am most alive in the moments where i am telling someone that cillian murphy is short and it’s immediately clear that i’m upending their entire worldview

anyways *me ignoring my stannic attack* speaking of tkak ( the delicious uncle nina tsot toxic yuri ) i'm conflicted bc writing it in the old english is kind of impossible to read...but having stas say shit like "gwendolyn, your frock looks rather fetching, particularly the bodice Not That I Was Looking Upon It!" and "alas boys! i am ruined! fetch me the mead so that i may drown my eternal sorrows in it before i throw this cruel wretched form from the bell tower" and "butters you are true ally and kinsman! tucker...may your next meal contain many Poisons" IS SO FUCKIN FUNNY THAT I MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE TO

rainy day

[moth and compass is a collaboration with @natdrinkstea]

Does anyone want a cute little college fic where Will wears sweater vests?

The song that plays in the background during Eddie's and Ana's date at Ana's apartment always cracks me up. (Adoniz - Soon as I get home)

The lyrics are about a dude who's like really, really eager to have sex... And he's like "I'll make love to you all night baby... OooOoooh soon as I get home!!" Yep, as soon as you get home to your babysitter, Eddie?

.

taking bets on how long this fic will end up being ljfhhkhkskght

absolutely tragic it isn't socially acceptable for me to randomly go on long rants about how much I love others

damn i DID gain 10 pounds, but unsure if its muscle or fat here cuz. work been making me work like a dawg but also HAVE been eating more to circumvent having that exhaustion. scratching my head. now this isnt me complaining, im more or less trying to see whats more plausible.

i would just like to say my bg3 run has put my little hopeless tiefling bard through the wildest few days

first she got unexpectedly and intensely hit on by lae'zel despite seemingly pissing her off at every point by being too nice

while reeling from that, that night a hot lady appeared to her in her dreams and told her how special she was

after spending a day clearing out an evil swamp karlach comes over and in no uncertain terms makes it clear she also would like to get it on if not for The Fires

reeling from that she and the others kill a hag and gale decides it's a great time to come clean about his shall we say ill-fated romantic escapades and his little orb problem

trying to sleep on that issue, karlach brings up cooling off and a very tired ryse, inspired by how we used water barrels to fight the fire in the rest house, attempts to just throw a water barrel at her. ...and is just about strong enough to pick it up and still walk but her little scrawny lute-playing arms are too weak to throw it, so ends up shamefacedly putting it at her feet and shooting it with an arrow instead. it still sort of works and she manages a kiss. and karlach specifically is like btw if you also want to get it on with the hot alien lady i am fine with that, have fun.

sure enough, later that same night, lae'zel absolutely wrecks shop on her

and in the morning astarion goes full gay best friend and demands to know all about it

this game

wow my last post was in Feb so despite not really having a following here I still feel obligated to say I'm going through a Bad Time both mentally and physically rn I can't even be bothered to think about or play Yakuza or do anything really. not dead but I sure feel like I'm on the way there rn. won't be here for a while take care everyone

you've heard of good omens now get ready for: FOOD omens. it's just aziraphale having one of those restaurant shows where the host goes around the world to different restaurants and trying their food and meeting the owners and such.