"Hooohyeah!" exclaims Abby as the cold vapor washes over the bar and causes them to empty the bar. She would laugh, but she inhales the vapor and has a coughing fit instead. She shoved her way to the bar, grabs a random unopened bottle and drinks to try and clear her throat.
This impulsive decision expedites the whiteout that follows.
When she comes to her senses, Abby is laughing as she looks up into the hazy night sky and the crowd moves her aimlessly around. The stinging cold vapor has been washed from her throat, and she has the lingering cherry taste of whatever she had imbibed to do this. Looking down at herself, Abby groans to realize most of her armor was gone. She has grown very fond of it since first trying it on. Her vision is still blurry, and she does not register the things written on her remaining clothes and armor. The first familiar face Abby sees is Artyom, also plying the waves of the crowd. Looking around further, she looks up at the stage as the band has finished sets up.
"The stage! I need to get there!" Abby yells at the crowd below her and they move her towards it as requested. She flips, and moves her arms as if swimming through the mass of people. Her motions become more frantic as the Bohemian announces the arrival of the last person she was expecting on that stage.
"ALEC! Alec I'm coming baby!" the woman proclaims excitedly.
Alec, in his own drunken stupor, didn't notice Abby swim her way atop the crowd and join him on stage to save him from the purple haze they were all under. He just kept on going, with the Bohemian rocking out with a guitar solo.
"Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!~ Yeah, ha-ha, oh bring it on, calm down!~
I'm out of money, 'course you know I need some. Ain't gon' run on lovin', ha I must run, gotta keep moving, never gonna slow down
You can have your funky world, see you around! I got to ramble!"
"Ramblin' Man!"
"Yeah, I got to Gamble!"
"Gamblin' man!"
"Oh-oh, I got to ramble!"
"Ramblin' man!"
"I was born a ramblin', gamblin' maaaaaan!~"
Once he did finally notice her stumble up on stage, his eyes grew wide with happiness. "ABBY!" He shouted to her, before charging over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist, and giving her the biggest, snoggiest kiss you ever see did from two drunks.
"Let's here it for Alec and Abby!" The Bohemian shouted to the crowd, who quickly cheered for Abby and Alec's affection for each other. "We're not done tonight, ladies and gentlemen, oh no, no, no! We're going all night! We're gonna show off what a multiverse party looks like! GIMME A HELL YEAH!"
"HELL YEAH!"
And on went the music, with the Bohemian returning to his guitar licks, and his eyes glowing purple yet again as he faced all the crowd. The chaos grew more and more, until once again, a haze of drunken blurriness overtook everyone again. Sights and sounds were all a watercolor painting of saturated colors that were being rained on, while eyeliner leaked down across the canvas at the same time. Time was an afterthought, what mattered more was the good times, fast live, and even faster booze. The night was young, and everyone was going to try dying young too and leave behind a good-looking corpse.
They were never gonna slow down!
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It was not a good morning to wake up to.
The faint sounds of a somber song played over a radio as everyone gathered their minds again. You know that feeling you get when your body knows it's going to vomit? That bundle of nerves rushes across your skin like you just got off the bumpiest car ride in the world, while adrenaline shoots through it at the same time; preparing for that horrible feeling of bodily fluids coming out the wrong way. Imagine waking up to that feeling times two. With the midday sun shining through the windows and across your face, and no matter how hard you shut them, your eyelids can't produce enough darkness to put you back to sleep.
All you can do is hope that no movement whatsoever will set off that horrible chain of events your body is preparing for. But, where were they now? Last they would remember, they were in the streets by that bar 'Afterlife.' Now, they were in a massive hotel suite, as large as a house, atop a skyscraper that overlooked the whole of Night City. How the hell did they get here?
However, and whenever they did, enough time had passed that the sun was up. Late morning by the looks of it. No sign of the Bohemian fellow, or Michael. They were all back together under one roof, at least.
OLIVER:
The last thing the fixer would remember before this newest blackout of time was taking the battle to the mangled corpse thing. He could remember making the first swing at it, which successfully beheaded one of its three other heads, but after that? A jumbled mess of hacking, slashing, chopping up body parts, demonic laughing, and way too much blood. Like, a scary amount, his blackout was more like a 'redout' from how violent his hazy memories were.
And when he took a look around to see where he was, he could see why. Oli was drenched in blood, and surrounded by body parts. Not all of them human. Some looked human for sure, but others were cybernetic parts, pieces of some sort of alien bug thing, a couple wings from a wyvern, monster teeth, fins, a giant gun that was chopped off a tank or large mech, and all of which were neatly oriented around him like he was in the center of a serial killers' hideout. Except he was right in the middle of the living room, sleeping on a bean bag chair in the shape of a hand.
ANRI:
The child's tango with the crystal lizard had her play rodeo on top of it, like she was a monkey riding a dog. The lizard tried throwing her off several times, charging through people's legs, bucking and kicking with its little legs, even rolling over several times to crush her, but to no avail. The kid would keep a strong grip on it like the teddy bear it now was for Anri.
But, like the others, what happened after was a mystery. Not a clue what happened once she tired out the poor little creature. Instead, what she woke up to was total darkness. She couldn't see anything around her, and moving around was a struggle. She was trapped inside something, like a box. The walls were tightly compacted around her, and she had little room to even breathe in.
AHSOKA:
The Jedi would have the friendliest wake-up. She was meditating in front of the largest window in the suite that overlooked the grand scope of Night City. But, she was still missing most of her clothing, only still wearing a small piece of cut-offs around her waist. Although, the more baffling part of herself, whenever she could see herself in the mirror, was how much of her body was covered in paint.
As in, it was completely covered in paint. From top to bottom, she was painted in an extravagant style which complimented her orange skin in a way that made her a walking, talking piece of artwork.
FLYNN:
Flynn's unfortunate meltdown of mind, body, and let's just add spirit to that, made waking up either more confusing, or less, depending on if you can understand her. (Or her writer.)
She was locked inside a gilded cage, covered in jello and surrounding her cage were countless empty husks like the one she used last night. Except these were of both men and women, and were piled together like they were worshiping her.
AGATHA:
The cybercop would have no idea who came out the victor of her fight with that big Maelstrom fella. Although, she could make a guess with the evidence at hand. She was covered in cuts and bruises, and her whole body, at least the parts that were still human, was so sore, moving a tiny bit felt like small pins and needles stinging her across the inside of her skin.
She could even feel one of her upper teeth missing, with blood still fresh between the gap. She could taste it with her tongue, yet putting even the tiniest bit of pressure there also felt like a sharp blade stabbing itself into her gums. But, on the bright side, when she opened her eyes to see that she was curled up in a ball on the living room couch, she was holding an arm.
Just an arm. The whole right arm of the Maelstrom fella she was fighting with. Like she had ripped it out the shoulder socket and taken it with her to bed as a teddy bear.
CHIKA:
The samurai woman may have been the worst off of them all. She would find herself clutching at the bottom of the bathroom toilet, even more sick to her stomach than the others. Any sounds made her head pound like she put it right next to a ringing church bell. Even the colors of the world were disgusting to look at. It would be too over-saturated, any sudden movement from her head would make her wozzy and nauseous.
And you don't even want to know what was inside that toilet she hugged so closely...
ABBY & ALEC:
Finally, the lovebirds themselves. Alec had sung away the night on stage, dressed like a femboy, and Abby found her man again at last, sharing a kiss together before a rallied crowd. What happened after, like usual, was a mystery to them. And for Alec, waking up hungover was nothing new. His first instinct upon finally forming his consciousness back together was to use the bathroom. His bladder was filled to the brim after a night of intense drinking, and he had enough clearance of mind to get out of bed to find the toilet.
He and Abby were asleep in the master bedroom. Abby had her arms wrapped around the waist of a strong, muscular man, and Alec could feel someone's hands hugging him closely to their body. Slowly, and with blurry, dizzy vision, he moved the blankets off himself; the hands sliding off his waist with ease. Gently, he moved through the suite, taking no mind of the choatic remains of the night before.
The suite they were all in was a train wreck. Bottles and trash everywhere, furniture flipped, holes punched in walls, a window was broken, the floor felt moist, and the subdued tones of Johnny Cash played throughout all the rooms. Ahhhhhh, just like in his college days. When he found the bathroom, (thankfully not the same one Chika was in), he mindlessly stood there before the throne, a small smile on his face while thinking about how fun the night before was. Even if he couldn't fully remember it, or the context of how it all happened.
But as he reached down to grab at that which was between his legs, he couldn't find it. His hand kept swiping at the air. His muscle memory was failing him at this moment, so he looked down to find it. That's when he noticed something peculiar. There was nothing there.
In fact, his legs looked a lot skinnier now. In fact, they were completely hairless. In fact, his chest was bulging out quite a bit. In fact, his pecks were swollen to the size of balloons. In fact, his nipples were poking out from under the white shirt he was wearing quite a bit. In fact... since when did he have skeleton hand tattoos along the sides of his stomach? They looked stupid.
Then he finally realized he should look into the mirror besides the toilet. The reflection was quite surprising.
He was now a woman.
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"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Alec let out a girlish scream from his bathroom, waking everyone up from their sleep for sure. Abby would find that the man she was holding wasn't Alec, but instead the passed out, Half-Drow hunk who was infatuated with Flynn back at the bar; snooring like a baby.
