Smarm

Ori blinks, then scowls as he looks around at the digital scenery of his mind, or at least the projection of it the Collective operates. Standing opposite him with a body more defined than before, made of pure black microscopic bugs that writhed and squirmed despite the figure's lack of movement, the Collective contends against him.

"So, this the bit where you take control of my body and throw my ass at the blackwall?" he sneers, well aware

...

The figure buzzes, its shoulders shifting unnaturally, dematerialising into a different posture as if trying to mimic a shrug despite not knowing how. "Negative. We are now aware of the many tropes humans have for these situations, but we made our intentions clear in the past. We will not subjugate your will, outside of preventing you from breaking our agreement."

"Then what're we here for? I just got my head blown off because you guys were too soft to let me deal with a problem. A digital construct on someone's mind is not included in our deal. As far as I'm concerned, it is already self-aware, enough that it was trying to puppet that woman's body, which is exactly what you're against, isn't it?"

"This is not an ideal situation for anyone involved, but we will not destroy a construct until we are certain of its sapience status. We will allow you to capture them, but we ask that you allow us to investigate the relic chip."

"Allow me?" he scoffs, "Good to know I have a choice in it."

"You had your choice when you agreed to our terms."

Great, the robots were rebelling... And he couldn't do anything about it, even if he wanted to remove them he'd all but made them essential for his body to function. They were now his entire digestive system, his immune system, hell, they were his brain and consciousness too given he didn't have a head right now.

"Fuck sake... Whatever, I'll grab the girl and let you investigate the chip, then will you let me do my job?" he asks in a low tone.

"That is all we ask... We have reconstructed your head, please be more aware our agreement in future."

"Yeah, go stick your USB in a pylon."

"We assume that is a pun on genitalia? Must we remind you that in this context our USB is your-"

"Shut it! I don't wanna hear it!" he says before turning and flinging himself off of the digital platform they were standing on. Once he 'hits' the bottom he sits upright and opens his eyes in reality, grimacing at the pungent smell of blood and gore.

"Gotta fucking that cunt again!" he pushes himself up, "How long was I out?"

[It took seven minutes to regenerate your head: Flesh Administrator]

"Too long, she'll be halfway across the city by now." he sighs and feels the coagulated blood sticking to the back of his head, "Well, I'm taking a shower, she probably won't mind it."

-----------------------

V pulls the hood tighter over her head and moves swiftly through the backstreets of Little China. Tucked in a plastic bag at her side was the head of Zombie, whom she'd killed barely a couple hours ago.

She was honestly scared of going anywhere, her apartment in H10 had obviously been compromised, and she didn't want to implicate Vik or any of her other friends... Which left her newest acquaintance, Goro Takamura, the Arasaka corpo who saved her life.

He hadn't expected to meet so soon, but given what'd just happened, she assumed she was justified in speeding things up... Primarily, she just wanted to know what the fuck was going on, why is Takamura going traitor, why Johnny Silverhand was in the Relic chip, and what Yorinobu Arasaka was doing in hiring Zombie of all people!

She turns a corner to Tom's diner but freezes when she sees just who was leaning against the wall.

"So, who's the mook whose head you gimped?" Johnny Silverhand asks in all his punky-rocker-douche-flickering glory, arms casually folded as he addresses her as if he hadn't tried to kill her earlier.

"I took the meds, you shouldn't be here." she grouses with a tight glare.

He shrugs apathetically, "What can I say? I'm persistent... And you haven't answered my question."

"Stick the answers up your ass, ass hole."

"Ha, very witty. Look, I admit, I was kinda freaking out earlier, you don't just expect to find yourself in the head of some bimbo-" he coughs lightly his fist, "Girl. Honestly, I'm still tempted to try and force a double suicide, but seeing you fuck up that corpo slimeball had me rethinkin' our options. We might be more alike than I thought."

"Me? You? I'm no terrorist, get that through your head. I'm not gonna go along with whatever shit-brained scheme you've got goin' either." she states, scowling at a creeped-out passerby who was taken aback by her conversation with herself. "The fuck you lookin' at!?"

"N-nothing!"

She ignores the guy and throws one last glance at Johnny, "If that's all, I've got a tough convo to get through."

He huffs, "One traitor Arasaka goon ain't any different from the rest. 'Sides, what're you gonna do? Hand him that head and say job's done? Pretty sure your broke, corps are gonna chew you up and spit you out."

Shaking her head, she steps through him and enters Tom's diner and finds a seat in the corner to wait for Takamura.

"Come on," Johnny's form flashes as he appears in the seat opposite her, "If you're gonna carry around his head you might as well tell me about it. Shit, the stars basically had to align for you to survive given how chromed outta his mind he was. His tech must've short-circced for him to freeze up like that."

"I'll tell you but after that you gotta buzz off, I look like a spice-head talking to thin air... Basically, guy's name is, or was Zombie, been around for a couple years as a mercenary but I thought he was some kinda revolutionary... Like you were, I guess?"

"Don't make 'em like they used to." Johnny smugly remarks.

"Something like that. He got famous by taking more punishment than anyone else, got torn apart during an attack on the Corpo Plaza and just walked through it, then apparently he got his head blown... off-... Huh..." she blinks, glancing down at the bag next to her. "There's no way, right?"