Judy mumbled something incoherently as she stepped into the apartment; leaning against the doorway with her left arm as she reached down to remove the sneakers she wore.
"Shoes off, leave em' next to mine." She said, glancing back at me before continuing inwards.
I took off my boots as she had instructed, placing them next to Judy's lopsided pair.
My eyes strained towards the unkempt manner she had left them in, irritated by their imperfect placement.
I bent over, grabbing both mine and hers and putting them all side-by-side against the wall.
'Much better.'
After I was satisfied; I stood back up and took a right, following in Judy's footsteps and finding myself in the main room.
I remembered this place.
A wave of nostalgia washed over me, and even though I hadn't been here in my person; I knew it oh so well.
As I reminisced, Judy's head popped out of a door to my left.
"I'll have to order a bed for you, although how it'll fit properly I have no idea." She chuckled at that last part, clearly trying to plan ahead but to no avial.
Guess I'm going to have to help her out with that one.
"You don't need to do that for me," I mumbled, averting my gaze ashamedly. "I can sleep on the couch, I don't mind."
Judy looked at me sympathetically, before fully stepping back into the main room to rejoin me.
She placed a hand on my shoulder and jerked her head towards the furniture I had indicated,"I don't wanna hear any of that, its fine; really. I won't be able to get to sleep knowing I'm forcing my friend's kid to sleep on this overpriced trash."
I looked at her silently, then strode around her and made a show of scrutinizing the room she had come out of.
It was a pretty small room; at least compared to how large the living area was.
Attached to the left wall was a series of spacious shelves; some contained books, various clothing items, and even what looked to be an ammo box. Childish doodles of jellyfish and stickmen wearing scuba masks lined the back wall, along with a few posters advertising who knew what. A small, decrepid bed took up the rightmost corner; along with a large purple dreamcatcher hanging above it.
'Looks like getting a new bed wasn't only good for me after all. That thing doesn't look hospitable.'
Turning back around, I considered her somewhat confused expression for a moment.
"If your're really going to do something like that for me then… Bunkbeds; I won't accept it any other way. I don't want to impose or take up too much space."
I crossed my arms as I said this, sticking out my chest defiantly as if daring her to argue back.
"Pfft." Judy stifled a laugh, and my expression faltered slightly as I stared at her reaction; my newfound confidence slowly beginning to crack.
"W-whats so funny?" I asked worriedly, and she replied quickly; dissuading my now doubtful demeanour.
"Okay, we'll get bunkbeds. I'll go order them now."
She did a 180, walking into the other room to the right of this one; leaving me behind to ponder the 'sitch' that I was stuck in.
I walked over to the bed and sat down on it, closing my watering eyes and noticing just how strained they were by our short trip outside.
Photosensitivity too, really?
Well the matter of accomation is settled; I won't have to worry about that for now.
Priority two was getting new eyes, and priority three is finding out exactly what date it is; as the timeline could be anywhere from 2070-2077.
'Preparation for the main plot is going to be exciting.' I thought, controlled excitement bubbling under my unreadable expression. 'Its all about the journey; not the destination.'
'That's bullshit, only the ending matters.' Laughed Pride, and I felt his amusement poke at my psyche jauntily. 'Now, what are we going to be about V hmm? Are you really going to let that tragedy play out again before our very own eyes?'
'Yes' I answered, steadfast in my opinion of not altering the storyline in any way.
'Are you sure your're satisfied with that?' Pride questioned me again, and I now saw his real intent behind asking me these inane things.
'You want to save her don't you.' I said.
'Obviously, why else would I ask. We have a chance to repaint this beautiful tapestry to our liking, and you don't want to take advantage of that?' Pride was unbothered by my deduction, instead he pressed forward his agenda; as if he didn't just try and manipulate me into doing it beforehand.
This shamless bastard.
'If its beautiful already why bother repainting it? If we slip up the whole thing could be reduced to a flawed mess of paint and paper.' I replied.
'There is still beauty in flawed things Judas, something that is too perfect almost always has a dark side hidden away from public eye. Besides, what do you mean 'we'. I would never slip up at doing anything, let alone at a task as important as this one.'
Words of wisdom I didn't care for in the slightest.
I pushed Pride back down with the others, silencing him only because he wouldn't have shut up otherwise; he could be rather obsessive when something managed to catch his attention.
This did make me think though, what kind of V could I expect to be in this world.
After mulling it over for a bit I narrowed my guess down to one of three: Female corpo, male streedkid, or male nomad.
(A/N: This is where you guys get to vote on what operating system V will be using as I don't particularly care, and community voting would be cool. The choices are: Cyberdeck, Beserk or Sandevistan.)
They seemed the most likely to exist out of all other combinations, simply because of how the original dialogue went during the game.
A large part of me prayed for it to be a female version, because then there was a high chance would become Judy's partner; getting me front row tickets to view V as she changed overtime.
But ultimately I would be fine with V being any of the original lifepaths, so it wasn't a matter I dwelled on beyond a few stray thoughts.
Deciding to check on Judy, I stood up from my position on the bed and walked out into the main room.
Tracing her footsteps into what I knew to be a BD editing studio was easy.
Parting the numerous strings that hung from the doorway with my left hand, I brushed them aside and stepped into the dimly lit room.
"What is this place?" I asked, feigning awe while looking around.
"This is my BD editing studio. You could say this is where the magic happens." She replied, not even sparing me a glance as she stared fixedly at her fourth monitor.
"Bed's on its way, although I'm gonna have to pop out and go to the bar in a sec; tell em' about the Angel sitch. The Mox aren't gonna be happy when they find out what happened to her."
"I- Okay." I muttered, pausing slightly before continuing. Almost as if there was something I had wanted to say but thought better of it. "I'll wait for you to come back."
Judy stood up, powering off all but one of her active monitors. As she walked by me and exited the room, I felt a stray hand pat the top of my head comfortingly.
"Don't worry, I won't be long."
(A/N: One final vote to finish off. I've split this chapter in half so you can vote what the timeline should be. Pre or post edgerunners; Pre-edgerunners would mean I can include Maine's gang in the story, Post-edgerunners means I'll ignore them entirely and focus on V instead.)