\+/ PAST \+/
Marilyn's deep, labored breaths grow heavier with each stride... her shoes slapping pavement and cracking broken glass ties together with loud sirens, and gun shots. Marilyn... having never done this before is in a clear panic... her mouth and eyes wide open as she sprints down the street as fast as she can. Her dilated pupils illuminate her big, beautiful green eyes under Night City's neon glow.. passing by advertisement after advertisement. Countless holograms of eye catching marketing tactically placed in your pathway like a game trail snare... right in front of your face for as long as possible. The fabric of her jean shorts rubbed together vigorously as she hops a loud, clanky chainlink fence.. landing hard before sprinting down a back alley shrouded in shadowed darkness.
Moments later, she makes it to an edge... the rubber of her shoes skid her sprint to a stop, hesitating with a startled look down... just pavement and streetlight.
The hesitation is short lived... she remembers her reasoning... her why... sending herself right over the edge... a final leap down a 10 foot dead drop... the impact stumbles her down to hands and knees with a subtle grunt. She scrambles back up to her feet, taking on a brisk walking pace up the dimly lit street toward a parked Cortes... the occasional look back over her shoulder.
She swings the passenger door open... hopping in out of breath and close to hyperventilating. Brian sitting in the driver's seat calmly smoking a cigarette slowly looks over at Marilyn struggling to catch her breath. She glances at him and reaches over.. yanking the cig out of his mouth before using her labored breathing to take a deep puff of it. She presses into the headrest while arching her back... nervous energy flushing itself from her body. The intense adrenaline coursing through leaves her wide eyed and restless... struggling to calm herself. Its as if she had plenty of energy left to spare... like the sensation of her run on the edge itself was fueling her. The mellow, Royal Blue playing on the radio has the volume lowered creating a calming atmosphere in the car... as if Brian knows exactly how to settle her.
"Shard?" He asks flatly.
Marilyn produces the shard from her jeans pocket... looking at it with longing curiosity... Brian quietly observes.
She goes to slot the shard before her forearm is grabbed with a skin slapping speed that startles her.
"Klep... the shard. Not slot it." He calmy reiterates... taking the small, metal piece from her hand and holding it up in front her. He continues.
"This is corpo trash Mare... alright? Less we know about it the better. You can use your imagination to discern what's on it... and i'm sure it'd be pretty spot on. Some corpo gonk tryna get a taste of the NC night life... probably got a bit too comfortable and started openin' his mouth... or has an acquired taste for somethin' he'd rather no one knew about."
Marilyn, takes another long drag of the cig before a response.
"A corpo this sloppy..." She plops back into the seat. "hm... couldn't we see what's on it and like... use it to our advantage or something? Maybe get some extra eds out of him- Or a favor...? or both? I mean he is doing biz around here outside of a fixer after all... his recourse at this point is practically zilch right?"
He looks over at her with a proud smile. "Easy tiger... this guy's low level... scop tier... a corpo rat like this wouldn't have much worth extracting even if it meant having a favor owed... But yes. You're right."
He pauses with raised eyebrows... tilting his head to the side. "Already using your discretion huh... eyes trained on potentialities... unseen opportunities to be seized... hm... I'm not creating a monster am i...?"
She looks over at him with a pearly white grin... before looking forward out into the streets.. taking another drag of the smoke. He switches subject.
"And The Moxes that had it...?"
Marilyn looks over with a shifted expression... almost forgetting that part of the job.
"Oh! uhhm... they love me!" She chuckles. "Initiation for me is 'sometime in the near future' she said."
".....Good... You'll be ready." Brian responds promptly starting the car.
Marilyn flicks the cig out the window, sitting up in her seat. "So where we going..? Off to the rat?"
"Off to the gym...if we take longer... he'll think the job was harder."
The pair glance at each other at the same time "Extra Eddies!" They exclaim in sync... laughing together with a casual drive away into the night.