Fragments from the Vault #011: Goodbye to Jig-Jig Street

 "See you at the Afterlife..."

____________________

Game: Cyberpunk 2077

Location: Watson, or somewhere in the Badlands

More information: Night City | Cyberpunk 2077 Wiki | Fandom

Jig-Jig Street, Japantown. Photo credit: FetchQuester

"In the shad0w of the ziggurat" / Where the grifters congregate, / I laid into y0ur wilting hive, / A l0nely reprobate - / Discons0late on skezzed-out dreams / And pining in the heat, / Your stick-slick chr0me can chide my vibe -

Go0dbye to Jig-Jig Street.

"I dreamed the dream of endless seas" / Where the Ic0ns come and go, / Trailing dust from Jacks0n Plains / To find my feet am0ng the cr0ws, / Fr0m Totentanz to Kabuki stalls / The n0ise consumed the beat, / A pariah's heaven, the wretched's hell - 

Goodbye to Jig-Jig Street.

I played the card of High Priestess / Whose g0ld-lipped grief unflowered / And fled the Path of heady-fuelled excess / Edging wisdom from the Tower - / A crass pedant who plied a trade / In c0rners once discreet, / But kept the Clouds ab0ve my head,

G0odbye to Jig-Jig Street.

I loved the hurt, I l0ved the ache, / - It never really fades that much - / C0nscience transmutates its wares... / A relic lost, the Silk R0ad calls, / Only c0rp0rats can sleep - / Bohemia awaits, my ch00m,

Goodbye to Jig-Jig Street.

But fortune's favor can't be klepp'd, / Though eddies faith acquire - / The Santa Madre's laid to rest / While her flatlined scops expire / The Tyger won't get off my back / Though I cull their bitter feast - / It's been undone and all but won,

Goodbye to Jig-Jig Street.

My metr0jungle litany: / Arasaka's helm will burn, / The Sunset r00m on desert grit / Reprieve the Long Return, / Gango0ns, their XBD-laced lairs / Turn cyberpsych and bleed, / I'll raise flasks of Chromantic0re -

G00dbye to Jig-Jig Street.

My bo0tleg barricades are spent, / - N3tSh4m4ns! / My s0ul, secured and free - / I've pretended to be everything / ... 'cept the shade of apple trees, / C0gito erg0 sum, they say, / One prov0cateur su-preem, / A last dance with a ripperd0c, and

Go0dbye to Jig-Jig Street.

[EPILOGUE]

By n0w, the jarbled holgrams / 0n Aldecaldo s0il / Stutter, when the Basilisk / Usurps their steel for t0il, / I thought I'd never see the h0ur / When the n0vas pierced the deep, / But n0w I'm flying with the pack -

 To Hell with Jig-Jig Street.

The Sunset Motel, Badlands. Photo credit: FetchQuester

- Lucy A.

***

Sources: 

Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red/CD Projekt); fandom.com [note all quotation marks attribute direct quotes from Cyberpunk 2077 with influences from William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", T.S. Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock", and Leonard Cohen's "A Thousand Kisses Deep"]

*Dedicated to my nova choom, Stacey.