(click to enlarge)
STORYLINE:
Mission objective: Get Dirt on MasterGin. Destroy Monstrum.
Team: Solo. Hexa Herald Investigative Journalist / Influencer.
Location: GIN AESTHETICA™ plastic surgery clinic.
She zoomed in. As the smoke thickened, a silhouette materialized in the haze.
"Oh, hell naw," Lisa muttered, backing away from M10.
Plumes of smoke began rolling across the marble floor. The scent of clove hit her like a physical blow, thick and suffocating.
“Guess who, everyone,” she announced.
The silver hair. The cigarette. The posture that should be wrong but isn't.
“If you guessed it’s your not-so-favorite chain-smoking Discount Dracula, you win a prize. M10, tell them what they won! …Trauma. The answer is trauma.”
The figure in the rolling cloud moved.
“Wait."
She squinted through the haze.
“…Jihoon?"
He stepped forward with liquid confidence. Silver hair spilling over his shoulders. A clove cigarette pinched effortlessly between his fingers.
But his eyes were the wrong color. They were calm in a terrifying, ancient way. And he smiled at her with a poised, million-dollar smirk. It was exactly the way MasterGin smiled at things he already owned.
The heavy doors behind Lisa slammed shut, the locks engaging with a heavy metallic clack. Then the door behind him hissed open, revealing a paranoid nerve center. Floor-to-ceiling monitors bathed the luxurious room in a cold, phantom-blue glow. Hundreds of live surveillance feeds flickered across the screens.
He gestured dramatically for her to join him inside.
“Do come in. That is, unless you really don’t want the scoop of the century.”
Location: GIN AESTHETICA™ plastic surgery clinic.
Lisa pressed her back against the cold, sterile wall of the VIP clinic corridor. Somewhere behind her, Kyra was lying on a crisp white bed with her chrome skull-plating unlatched. Diagnostic arrays jacked directly into her exposed mechanical brain, pulsing with cold data instead of life. No blood. Only the flickering, phantom glint of synthetic pathways.
Her long-time best friend.
Seeing under Kyra's hood wasn't the worst part. The worst part was realizing how much of her had always been hidden, and how little Lisa had ever thought to look. The girl she grew up with was buried somewhere deep inside all that hardware, and Lisa could no longer find her.
She was the same girl who had followed her into hell just because Lisa wanted a scoop.
Lisa squeezed her eyes shut. One tear cut a clean line through the sewer grime on her cheek. Just one.
Then she shoved the grief into a mental locker, slammed the heavy iron door, and threw away the key. Sadness didn't pull views. Sadness didn't dismantle a corrupt, blood-sucking empire. She was Lisa Liemawr of the Hexa Herald, professional chaos correspondent, and she was going to burn MasterGin's pristine world to the ground. She needed dirt.
But first, she needed a camera.
She slipped down the immaculate hallway. An Enforcer stepped from the shadows, his heavy hand clamping onto her arm.
Time to activate Slippery-Bar-of-Soap mode.
Lisa went limp, twisted her shoulder to break his grip, swiped the Halophone right off his tactical belt, and was three steps down the corridor before he even processed the theft. She bounced into an open elevator, slamming the override. The doors sealed, and the car plummeted at breakneck speed.
Lisa raised the stolen Halophone, tapped the screen, and flashed her signature grin.
“That’s right, Dragonlets! Your favorite reporter is back! Today's sponsor is Poor Decision Making™, and apparently we're going for the platinum subscription.”
She let out a quiet, forced laugh.
The elevator chimed. The doors slid open. She bolted out, rounding the corner with her camera raised.
The next three doors were wide open. She filmed the empty passage, her eyes darting across the screen.
“How suspiciously helpful is that? But Lisa doesn't look gift doors in the mouth!"
Down the hall, another elevator chimed. It was coming down. Someone was following her.
“Ruh-roh.”
The overhead lights flickered, buzzing with a sharp electric whine.
A heavy mechanical thud echoed through the gleaming marble floor.
Then, total darkness.
Emergency lights flickered on, bathing the corridor in a sickly, blood-red glow.
“To the unknown person of awesomeness,” she whispered to the ceiling, giving a crisp salute. “Your hack skills are Amaze. Whoever you are, I owe you a coffee.”
Then, she smelled it.
Clove smoke.
She spun the camera around and waved to the faint tendrils of smoke with feverishly bright eyes.
“Yo Yo Yo, it's your girl Lisa Liemawr, making yet another series of decisions my future therapist is going to hate. This newshound just caught a scent!” She did a crazed happy dance. “Let’s see where this cursed yellow brick road leads.”
The spiced scent hung heavy in the stale air. She raced after it, going deeper and deeper underground.
She stopped.
The silence was absolute. The guards were entirely gone now. The smoke was stronger here. Thicker.
The camera dipped just for a second.
"Hey, Ky." Her voice dropped out of the influencer register entirely. "If you're out there somewhere... I'm coming. This whole operation, the story, all of it. That's for you. Because you followed me in here, and you never once asked if it was worth it, and I never once said thank you."
She stared at the faint red light lining the hall.
"I'm saying it now. Thank you. And also, I'm sorry. And also,” she paused, “we're getting out."
She raised the camera back up. The grin returned, just a little less polished than before.
"Okay! Emotional moment over. Back to committing corporate espionage against a centuries-old vampire."
She rounded the final corner.
This place had the quiet confidence of somewhere ordinary people were never meant to enter. It looked exactly like a place that needed to get broken into.
Lisa pushed open a pair of heavy doors and stopped dead.
The phone dropped a fraction.
Rows upon rows of polished machines stared back like an audience waiting for the curtain to rise.
Silence.
"Oh my cyber-soul," she breathed.
Then her chin lifted.
“Jackpot, Dragonlets. It’s your girl Lisa Liemawr reporting live from inside the belly of the beast. No signal down here, but Lisa films anyway, because that's just what a Lisa does.”
She winked and flashed a victory sign.
“I’m a hundred and fifty feet under the center of the Forbidden Zone.” She gestured dramatically downward. “Exactly where I traced the threatening phone call from that nasty, chain-smoking vampire himself: MasterGin.”
She panned the camera around the vast space.
“But Lisa, what is this place? A museum exhibit? No! It’s a storage room of white marble and gold trim. Like even Mr. Diva’s storage rooms need to be beautiful. Compulsive much?”
Her camera swept across the room to reveal her entire bot army. The seven flawless avatars. The reporter drones. All the tech MasterGin had confiscated when his lawyers raided her apartment.
“He sued me for selling merch. Took all my gear. Shut me down. I thought he destroyed it all. But he kept them. He kept them like trophies.”
Her eyes landed on the centerpiece.
"M10?"
The little reporter bot rested perfectly still, powered down but completely restored. MasterGin had fried him with a casual flick of his electrical claws back at Jae Won Stadium. But M10 was whole now. Better than whole. He had little mechanical arms and legs. His glossy blue chassis gleamed.
“I don’t get it. Why rebuild a broken drone?”
She lowered the phone. Her reporter brain was already running the math.
"Intel," she whispered. "His lawyers didn't just confiscate you, M10. They must have rebuilt you to mine my data. My sources. My network."
A violet glow leaked around the edges of the bot's LED face screen, pulsing with a sinister low hum that made the hair stand on the back of her neck.
“Shit.” Her head dropped.
All her bots were now running on the Zone’s cursed energy. Even if she managed to steal them back somehow, they were corrupted.
Every broadcast she'd ever made. Every source she'd ever protected. Every face she'd hidden behind an avatar. He had it all.
She stood very still.
Then she lifted her head and forced a tight smile into the Halophone.
“I think I'm going to cry, which is very off-brand, so let's not.”
In the corner, propped against the marble wall like it belonged there, was a baseball bat. Black chrome and neon. The word LATHANDRO burned along the barrel.
She had sold unlicensed merch with that name. Sold it on five continents.
She stepped closer. There was fire damage on it. Her hand trembled as she studied the charred outline of fingers that once held it.
She hadn't thought about that since the day everything went up in flames. Jihoon with cleats, a drool-worthy batting average, and a million dollar smile.
Her guy was supposed to be the next biggest thing in college baseball.
A thick hiss of smoke seeped under the far door.
Her long-time best friend.
Seeing under Kyra's hood wasn't the worst part. The worst part was realizing how much of her had always been hidden, and how little Lisa had ever thought to look. The girl she grew up with was buried somewhere deep inside all that hardware, and Lisa could no longer find her.
She was the same girl who had followed her into hell just because Lisa wanted a scoop.
Lisa squeezed her eyes shut. One tear cut a clean line through the sewer grime on her cheek. Just one.
Then she shoved the grief into a mental locker, slammed the heavy iron door, and threw away the key. Sadness didn't pull views. Sadness didn't dismantle a corrupt, blood-sucking empire. She was Lisa Liemawr of the Hexa Herald, professional chaos correspondent, and she was going to burn MasterGin's pristine world to the ground. She needed dirt.
But first, she needed a camera.
She slipped down the immaculate hallway. An Enforcer stepped from the shadows, his heavy hand clamping onto her arm.
Time to activate Slippery-Bar-of-Soap mode.
Lisa went limp, twisted her shoulder to break his grip, swiped the Halophone right off his tactical belt, and was three steps down the corridor before he even processed the theft. She bounced into an open elevator, slamming the override. The doors sealed, and the car plummeted at breakneck speed.
Lisa raised the stolen Halophone, tapped the screen, and flashed her signature grin.
“That’s right, Dragonlets! Your favorite reporter is back! Today's sponsor is Poor Decision Making™, and apparently we're going for the platinum subscription.”
She let out a quiet, forced laugh.
The elevator chimed. The doors slid open. She bolted out, rounding the corner with her camera raised.
The next three doors were wide open. She filmed the empty passage, her eyes darting across the screen.
“How suspiciously helpful is that? But Lisa doesn't look gift doors in the mouth!"
Down the hall, another elevator chimed. It was coming down. Someone was following her.
“Ruh-roh.”
The overhead lights flickered, buzzing with a sharp electric whine.
A heavy mechanical thud echoed through the gleaming marble floor.
Then, total darkness.
Emergency lights flickered on, bathing the corridor in a sickly, blood-red glow.
“To the unknown person of awesomeness,” she whispered to the ceiling, giving a crisp salute. “Your hack skills are Amaze. Whoever you are, I owe you a coffee.”
Then, she smelled it.
Clove smoke.
She spun the camera around and waved to the faint tendrils of smoke with feverishly bright eyes.
“Yo Yo Yo, it's your girl Lisa Liemawr, making yet another series of decisions my future therapist is going to hate. This newshound just caught a scent!” She did a crazed happy dance. “Let’s see where this cursed yellow brick road leads.”
The spiced scent hung heavy in the stale air. She raced after it, going deeper and deeper underground.
She stopped.
The silence was absolute. The guards were entirely gone now. The smoke was stronger here. Thicker.
The camera dipped just for a second.
"Hey, Ky." Her voice dropped out of the influencer register entirely. "If you're out there somewhere... I'm coming. This whole operation, the story, all of it. That's for you. Because you followed me in here, and you never once asked if it was worth it, and I never once said thank you."
She stared at the faint red light lining the hall.
"I'm saying it now. Thank you. And also, I'm sorry. And also,” she paused, “we're getting out."
She raised the camera back up. The grin returned, just a little less polished than before.
"Okay! Emotional moment over. Back to committing corporate espionage against a centuries-old vampire."
She rounded the final corner.
This place had the quiet confidence of somewhere ordinary people were never meant to enter. It looked exactly like a place that needed to get broken into.
Lisa pushed open a pair of heavy doors and stopped dead.
The phone dropped a fraction.
Rows upon rows of polished machines stared back like an audience waiting for the curtain to rise.
Silence.
"Oh my cyber-soul," she breathed.
Then her chin lifted.
“Jackpot, Dragonlets. It’s your girl Lisa Liemawr reporting live from inside the belly of the beast. No signal down here, but Lisa films anyway, because that's just what a Lisa does.”
She winked and flashed a victory sign.
“I’m a hundred and fifty feet under the center of the Forbidden Zone.” She gestured dramatically downward. “Exactly where I traced the threatening phone call from that nasty, chain-smoking vampire himself: MasterGin.”
She panned the camera around the vast space.
“But Lisa, what is this place? A museum exhibit? No! It’s a storage room of white marble and gold trim. Like even Mr. Diva’s storage rooms need to be beautiful. Compulsive much?”
Her camera swept across the room to reveal her entire bot army. The seven flawless avatars. The reporter drones. All the tech MasterGin had confiscated when his lawyers raided her apartment.
“He sued me for selling merch. Took all my gear. Shut me down. I thought he destroyed it all. But he kept them. He kept them like trophies.”
Her eyes landed on the centerpiece.
"M10?"
The little reporter bot rested perfectly still, powered down but completely restored. MasterGin had fried him with a casual flick of his electrical claws back at Jae Won Stadium. But M10 was whole now. Better than whole. He had little mechanical arms and legs. His glossy blue chassis gleamed.
“I don’t get it. Why rebuild a broken drone?”
She lowered the phone. Her reporter brain was already running the math.
"Intel," she whispered. "His lawyers didn't just confiscate you, M10. They must have rebuilt you to mine my data. My sources. My network."
A violet glow leaked around the edges of the bot's LED face screen, pulsing with a sinister low hum that made the hair stand on the back of her neck.
“Shit.” Her head dropped.
All her bots were now running on the Zone’s cursed energy. Even if she managed to steal them back somehow, they were corrupted.
Every broadcast she'd ever made. Every source she'd ever protected. Every face she'd hidden behind an avatar. He had it all.
She stood very still.
Then she lifted her head and forced a tight smile into the Halophone.
“I think I'm going to cry, which is very off-brand, so let's not.”
In the corner, propped against the marble wall like it belonged there, was a baseball bat. Black chrome and neon. The word LATHANDRO burned along the barrel.
She had sold unlicensed merch with that name. Sold it on five continents.
She stepped closer. There was fire damage on it. Her hand trembled as she studied the charred outline of fingers that once held it.
She hadn't thought about that since the day everything went up in flames. Jihoon with cleats, a drool-worthy batting average, and a million dollar smile.
Her guy was supposed to be the next biggest thing in college baseball.
A thick hiss of smoke seeped under the far door.
She zoomed in. As the smoke thickened, a silhouette materialized in the haze.
"Oh, hell naw," Lisa muttered, backing away from M10.
Plumes of smoke began rolling across the marble floor. The scent of clove hit her like a physical blow, thick and suffocating.
“Guess who, everyone,” she announced.
The silver hair. The cigarette. The posture that should be wrong but isn't.
“If you guessed it’s your not-so-favorite chain-smoking Discount Dracula, you win a prize. M10, tell them what they won! …Trauma. The answer is trauma.”
The figure in the rolling cloud moved.
“Wait."
She squinted through the haze.
“…Jihoon?"
He stepped forward with liquid confidence. Silver hair spilling over his shoulders. A clove cigarette pinched effortlessly between his fingers.
But his eyes were the wrong color. They were calm in a terrifying, ancient way. And he smiled at her with a poised, million-dollar smirk. It was exactly the way MasterGin smiled at things he already owned.
The heavy doors behind Lisa slammed shut, the locks engaging with a heavy metallic clack. Then the door behind him hissed open, revealing a paranoid nerve center. Floor-to-ceiling monitors bathed the luxurious room in a cold, phantom-blue glow. Hundreds of live surveillance feeds flickered across the screens.
He gestured dramatically for her to join him inside.
“Do come in. That is, unless you really don’t want the scoop of the century.”
Continuing with Cyberpunk Character Card theme, in this post Lisa Liemawr takes over. ....Lathandro's baseball bat makes a reappearance with Masoom Plasma Muse Bat. It comes with a texture hud and flatpack has bonus textures like halogram. ....From Lanevo is the Tamamo tank top, bikini, and pants. Each item comes with a detailed hud to change textures, and that includes left and right leg, from and back. ...From Trash are the Covenant Cyberlox. The texture hud lets you change the textures for different groups with a wide selection of colors. It's very fun. ...From Grima are the sleek Talos Protocol Cyber Arms, which includes a texture hud. ...From Hades are the Cyberhorns. They are unrigged so you best position them. ...The wild glasses are the CyberGhost Lens by Ohmai. They wrap around the entire head and include multiple tech animations on the lens. It has a hud to change the LED colors. They are unrigged and scalable for the perfect fit. ....From Diaboli Design are the Gravicator boots. They come with a stacked hud of texture goodies and fits for men and women. ... From SEmotion Libellune is cute new gacha, and limited editions, and event only color of the Neo Neko Companion. It has hud to change the expression of the visor, and change the animations for the figure. ...From Bersav is the Cyber Nest megapack. It is mod, so I used my own PBR textures to crate that MasterGin Clinic look, but you can see it in legacy texture below. You can add your own textures to the monitor and TV.
On her, Lisa Liemawr:
Baseball bat: MASOOM - Plasma Muse Bat, fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(395L)
Eyes: EUPHORIC - AiraEyes #07 [BOM](CyberFair)(275L)
Top: LANEVO - Tamamo Tanktop, LaraX, Fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(660L)
Bikini: LANEVO - Tamamo Bikini Shorts, LaraX, Fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(660L)
Pants: LANEVO - Tamamo Pants, LaraX, Fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(885L)
Hair: TRASH - Covenant Cyberlox, fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(1000L)
Arms: GRIMA - Talos Protocol Cyber Arms, RC2 [mesh](CyberFair)(600L)
Horns: Hades Cyberhorns [mesh](CyberFair)(666L)
Glasses: OHMAI - CyberGhost Lens, V1 [mesh](CyberFair)(399L)
Shoes: Diaboli Design - Gravicator, LaraX, fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(999L)
Robot: SEmotion Libellune - Neo Neko Companion COMMON 09 [gacha](CyberFair)(88L)
Datapad: StudioOne - Datapad [mesh](300L)
Shine: ABYSSAL - Justice Cybertech With 3d Shine [applier][BOM](499L)
Head, eyes, skin: LOGO - Dawn Desert Nomad [mesh]
Body: Maitreya Mesh Body LaraX [mesh](2750L)
Pose: PSYCHO:Byts - Ailsa-Selfie - 4
Setting:
Furniture: Bersav - Cyber Nest, Megapack [mesh](CyberFair)(1333L)
Furniture: Bersav - Cyber Nest, Megapack [mesh](CyberFair)(1333L)
Skybox: Ambice Store - "007" Sky Tower Building [mesh]
BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:
