Fanfic / Cyber Symbiosis

Cyber Symbiosis is a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners For Want Of A Nail fanfic by Epsilon110 on Archive of Our Own.

This fic starts off with a simple premise: what if David decided to get his cyberware checked by a legitimate ripperdoc? This small change sets of a cavalcade of events that make David a great deal stronger than before and ensures that he's in a much healthier place, both physically and mentally.

This fic contains examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: David gets a nice dose of this after getting his Sandevistan properly installed by Vik. Not only is he much faster (his very first use after the reinstall has him run 3 blocks in an instant while carrying Rebecca), but he can also keep it on indefinitely (though his body can’t keep it up indefinitely).
  • The Sandevistan itself gets a boost as well. Instead of being a powerful but ultimately “normal” piece of Cyberware, David’s Sandevistan is some sort of Super Prototype that is slowly merging with his own biology, even growing new muscles and structures in order to increase efficiency. And that’s not even counting that it’s steadily becoming more sentient.
  • Tanaka, the target of the crew’s major job, has quite an arsenal of Cyberware to defend himself when he goes to Kurosaki for his XBDs, including tactile-sensitive Mantis Blades, Synth-Muscles….and his own Sandevistan.
• Adaptational Jerkass: “Doc”, David and Maine’s original ripperdoc. While he was sketchy and suspect in canon, he nonetheless did his job properly so long as he was paid. Here, it’s revealed that not only did he not properly install some of Maine’s cyberware, but he also deliberately tortured David while installing his Sandevistan in the hope that he would chicken out and just give up the Sandevistan to him, not to mention that Doc was also planning to do something similar when David came back to install more cyberware.
• Adaptational Karma: Faraday is effectively fired by Militech for his incompetence and failure to deliver them the specs on Arasaka's Cyberskeleton, giving the arrogant fixer a dose of reality that's just as satisfying as his canon counterpart's death at the hands of Adam Smasher.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed and a Justified Trope. David only has his Sandevistan installed, rather than the full-borg cybernetics he would eventually get in canon. This is because Vik doesn’t want David installing anything that would potentially mess with the Sandevistan’s alterations. Of course, given the boosted nature of the Sandy, it’s not a major handicap.
• Behemoth Battle: A virtual example with Tanaka and Lucy's daemons, who take the form of giant monsters as they duke it out with each other while Lucy retrieves the list of Cyberskeleton test subjects from Tanaka's mind.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Jimmy Kurosaki never gets to Die Laughing since David just shoots him through the eye, tenderizing his brain in the process thanks to his reinforced skull preventing the bullet from exiting his body.
  • Tanaka is shot by Kiwi once Lucy retrieves the information in his brain.
• Domestic Abuse: Chapter 25 all but implies that Kiwi has her facial implant as a result of Faraday mutilating her at some point during their (toxic) relationship.
• Drives Like Crazy: Exaggerated and weaponized by David when he and the crew face off against enemies on the road, especially when he's behind the wheel of the armored truck Iris made for the crew.
• Exact Words: Used by the Edgerunners against their Jerkass of a fixer, Faraday. Faraday never said exactly what data he wanted from Tanaka, so the crew give him all the data except for that on the Cyberskeleton Project, which was what Faraday was really looking for out of that job.
• Flat "What":
  • Rebecca has this reaction when Lucy informs her that David used his Sandevistan over thirty times while he had sex with both women the previous night.
  • The rest of the crew are incredulous when they find out that David somehow managed to befriend a sentient, robotic factory that NightCorp left behind.
• Genius Loci: Iris is an automated construction materials factory that gained sentience sometime after NightCorp built it next to a nearby quarry, refusing NightCorp's order to stop working as it expanded and improved itself to be better at the job it was built for.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The entire crew has this reaction when David uses his Sandevistan to take out the hobo Cyberpsycho and proclaims that the cyberware activated on its own.
  • This also happens when Tanaka is revealed to have his own Cyberware, including a Sandevistan of his own. And it also happens yet again when it’s revealed that Tanaka’s got an actual AI Daemon stuffed in his memory banks.
• Point of Divergence:
  • David decides to ask Rebecca for help in finding a better ripperdoc after overhearing Dorio suggest that Maine have his cyberware tuned up, kickstarting the entire story. This leads to SEVERAL changes, most notably:
    • David getting a boost from having the Sandevistan properly installed.
    • Pilar surviving the encounter with the hobo Cyberpsycho due to David’s instinctual usage of his Sandevistan once he sees the psycho’s Arm Cannon activating.
    • Both Rebecca and Lucy entering a polyamorous relationship with David because of Rebecca’s closer relationship with David.
    • A checkup at Vik’s inadvertently reveals that Maine hasn’t been taking his immunosuppressants properly, and Maine ends up getting some Cyberware pulled. It's helped take the edge off his burgeoning Cyberpsychosis and prevented his canon fate thus far.
  • David and the crew ditch Faraday after the crooked fixer refuses to pay the full amount for the Tanaka job even after he's told that Tanaka had a daemon in his brain, allowing them to find better employers who won't screw them over all the time.
• Polyamory: David enters into a relationship with both Lucy and Rebecca in this continuity.
• Robot Buddy: Iris the robotic NightCorp factory becomes one for David's crew after it provides David with the concrete and plaster he needs.
• Smug Snake: Faraday is just as full of himself as he is in canon, even making plans to kiss up to Arasaka and expecting them to accept him into their fold even though he had a hand in the death of Chairman Tanaka.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Pilar does not die to the hobo cyberpsycho that killed him in canon due to David killing said cyberpsycho just in time.
• Tsundere: Kiwi, despite her aloof exterior, does care for David and the rest of the crew even though she repeatedly denies that, as shown when she not-so-secretly appreciates the "heat-pad" sessions with David after a hard day's work of netrunning.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Lucy is not amused to learn that David used his Sandevistan over 30 times while he was having sex with her and Rebecca, all without taking any immunosuppresants to boot!