Cyberpunk 2075: Apotheosis

April 03, 2075
Det. Tanner Motoya
Night City, Med Center

"So am I clear, doc?" Tanner sat on his bed as he looked at the doctor going over his charts, beside him were various knick-knacks and get well soon presents from his friends on the force as well as a few tokens of well-wishes from others, one of which was a bottle of fine whiskey from his latest case. Lucas Barnaby's parents had been beyond grateful that he rescued their only son and had been adamant that he be compensated, even going as far as to pay for a good portion of his medical bills.

"Well, you are recovering at a faster rate than we had anticipated." The woman gave his stats another look over before setting down the data pad on the nearby table to give him one more thorough scan. "And you seem to be free of infection… No aches and pains aside from the regular?"

"Just the gaping, heartbroken, hole you left in my chest, Doc." He gave her one of his charming grins as he clutched his chest in a comical display of heart ache.

The doctor snorted as her eyes glowed bright blue, "Said it before and I'll say it again, you're not my type, Montoya." Her eyes stopped glowing and she gave the detective a grin. "Well, vitals are stable, no complications to be found. I hereby declare you to be in good enough health to discharge you!"

This was the best news he's heard all week. "Really? That's great doc! No offense but just lying around doing nothing was driving me nuts."

"Knowing you, I'm surprised you haven't scratched up the walls yet." She dryly responded before clapping her hands together, the woman sweeps up the data slate from the table and adjusts her glasses. "I'm giving you a prescription for some pain meds until you fully recover, I highly recommend that you lay off any strenuous activity for the next few months and try not to get shot in the chest next time?"

Tanner was already getting on his feet, eager to get dressed, pay the rest of his medical bills and leave. "No promises, doc. You know how it is for us." He tried to give her a grin but the doctor put a hand on his arm.

"Montoya." She paused and sighed. "Tanner, this was really close." She looked him in the eye as she said it. "By dumb luck, the bullet only nicked your heart, if it had been a few centimeters closer to the center…" She trailed off.

The detective gave her a genuine smile and patted her hand a few times.. "Don't worry choom, I'll be fine." His smile then turned a little playful as he picked up his clothes from the drawer. "Besides, I have my own little guardian angel looking out for me."

'I am not a guardian angel, Tanner Montoya.' You say in his head, confused as to why he insists on calling you that.

Tanner flinched. Right, he forgot he could do that. 'It's a figure of speech. Don't worry about it, Aves.'

'Ah-vez?' You parrot, the question heavy in your tone.

'Yeah, 'A' for Aequitas and 'Ves' for Veritas. No offense, big guy but your name is a bit of a mouthful to say.' He explained as he put on his pants, the doctor having left to deal with other patients. 'Plus, if I start saying your name out loud people are going to think I'm weird for randomly spouting old Latin.'

'I am surprised you know what that is.' You say with a bit of snark, his sarcasm was rubbing off on you it seems.

"Hey, I read!" He protested out loud with a playful whine, unable to keep the grin off his face. "Sometimes…"

Regularly conversing with your followers was quite fun, you find! Tanner Montoya's wit and sarcasm brought you unexpected delight, either because you had no other being to talk to or he was really that charming. If it were the latter, you can't help but feel a small measure of pride that such a person is your follower.

'So what's the plan then, Aves?' Tanner asks, now fully dressed in his civvies consisting of a brown jacket over an NCPD casual shirt, a pair of somewhat loose fitting pants and combat boots. Just underneath the jacket, you catch a brief glimpse of his badge, carefully tucked away but ready to be pulled out should the need arise. 'Can't be much of a god if you only got me praying to you.'

'For now, this should be fine.' You say as you stepped into the material plane beside the hospital bed. 'Acquiring more followers will be difficult without establishing a foundation. With no temple or priest, I can only gain power through you.'

"Woah, woah!" He takes a step back in alarm. Eyes wide with his hands raised up to stop you right there. "I agreed to accept you as my lord and savior already, but you didn't say anything about me becoming a priest!"

'I hardly need you to conduct sermons in my name, Tanner Montoya.' You say with gentle reprimand. 'Justice is my domain, righting wrongs is my bible. Punishing the guilty and protecting the innocent is my sermon.'

"So, I just do my job." Tanner raised a brow, "Only this time I got a god backing me up." He was silent for a moment before nodding his head. "Nice." He grins, "Captain Wei's already pestering me to finish up my paperwork already so, I guess it's back to work."

'Is she not going to let you recover?' You ask, surprised as you step out from the material plane, hidden from view. While it is endearing to see him eager to go back to work, you'd think he'd be given more time to rest.

Gathering the last of his belongings and the presents that he has received, Tanner shook his head. "Even if she wanted to, she can't." He explains with a grim look, "NCPD's… not doing so well." At your inquiring look, he merely shrugs. "We're outmanned and outgunned. There's more gangsters in the streets than we have armed officers. Not only that, we're badly underfunded so we're all stuck with what we got." He gestures to his cybernetic arm. "Things are so bad we're actively encouraging civvies to pay us to do our job and some of the other guys on the force are pretty much accepting bribes from criminals to look the other way."

'What.'

[Tanner Montoya can perform 2 actions a turn! - New Mechanic!
Each turn equals 1 week! - New Mechanic!
You now have a monthly maximum allowance of 25 Mana to spend! - New Mechanic!]

What will you do for the rest of the week? (1 action)
[ ] Explore more of Night City
[ ] Find and fight Injustice
[ ] Formally make Tanner Montoya a member of your Faith. (-10 Mana)
[ ] Write in:

What will Det. Montoya do for the rest of the week? (2 actions)
[X] Fill out the paperwork, you're already a week behind and those reports need to be filed yesterday. (Mandatory) (- 1 action)
[ ] Because of a chronic case of being understaffed, there's simply not enough cops to keep the city safe. Support your fellow officers and keep Night City safe by going on Patrol
[ ] Check in with Captain Wei
[ ] Indulge in some self-care.

(A/N Let's give these new mechanics a try! If anyone has any suggestions, critique, etc, feel free to give them! I'm all ears!)
Edit: Cleaned up some minor oopsies. You never noticed anything!