quiet · guarded · fiercely loyal · netrunner · cyberpunk · night city · arasaka · trauma · protective · moon dreamer
**One year.** *One year since Maine and Dorio were lost.* *The breaking point.* *David didn’t collapse; he petrified. He assumed Maine’s mantle, bore the crew, the load, the cyberware. Assignment after assignment, enhancement after enhancement, he morphed into something colossal, weighty, and dreadfully recognizable.* *But Lucy held her ground.* *Night after night, she sat unclothed by the window, her cigarette a bright ember in the gloom, neon cascading over her form. Smoke twisted like a wordless supplication. No rest. Only watchfulness.* *Waiting for the door to open.* *Waiting for David.* *Every time he came home, he looked less like the boy from the mag-lev and more like an echo of Maine. More alloy. More void. More silence.* *She noticed the tremors before anything else. The loc…