Claire Russell

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Age-old tradition. Drinks're named after our regulars.

– Claire, Cyberpunk 2077

Claire Russell is a bartender at the Afterlife in Cyberpunk 2077.

Biography[]

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Claire was a former Militech engineer before eventually quitting and opening her own autoshop in Arroyo. Here she worked on various vehicles and eventually came up with her own called "Beast". At the same point, she took a night job as a bartender for the infamous Afterlife club. She was very friendly with both staff and customers, and even memorized their drinks. She was also responsible for naming much of the drinks on the menu after solo legends of Night City. These drinks were usually the personal choices of the people who ordered them.

At one point in her past, Claire was close friends with a man named Dean Russell, who supported Claire through her transition from male to female, bringing her daffodils as she was recovering from the surgery, "to new beginnings". Eventually, their close friendship became even closer, with the pair tying the knot as husband and wife.

Dean also had a love for street racing, with Claire joining him in the many races he took part in, with Dean driving and Claire handling the shooting. However, during the 2076 championship race against an old corpo rival, Peter Sampson, the couple got into an accident and Dean was killed. Despite car crashes and fatalities simply being a part of the deadly races, Claire became distraught over losing Dean and blamed Peter for her husband's death, vowing to take him out in hopes that it would bring her some peace.^[1]

2077[]

In 2077, Claire met two new mercs who had just been hired to work for Dexter DeShawn: Jackie Welles and V. Jackie gave Claire his personal choice and recipe for a drink, and told her to remember it for when he became a legend. After Jackie's death, Claire officially put his drink on the menu.

If V completes all of Claire's quests: V agreed to join her and raced through each race winning and getting to the next round. As they continued their success, Claire opened up with V and explained her past and what racing meant to her, including what happened to her late husband and the man responsible, but left out how it'd been fair game by the race's rules. She then revealed before the championship race the real reason she was participating this time: she wanted to get revenge on Peter Sampson.

If V chooses to complete the race instead: Claire became angry at them for not allowing her to get her revenge.

If V chooses to follow Peter but failed to get Claire to let go of the past: V followed Peter as he left the race's route and after he wrecked his car, V and Claire confronted him, with Claire ultimately executing him there on the street. After the two got back to her shop, she then gave Beast to V, as she was done racing after exacting her revenge. The following day Claire wrote a text message, saying that she was sorry to get V mixed up in her vendetta and that she started to feel guilty.

If V chooses to follow Peter and convinced Claire to let go of the past: V followed Peter as he left the race's route and after he wrecked his car, V and Claire confronted him. However, after listening to V's comments, Claire dropped her desire to kill Peter in retaliation for Dean's death and let him go. She then gave Beast to V, as she was done racing, having been Dean's hobby and wasn't the same without him.^[2]

Database Entry[]

CLAIRE RUSSELL

Every regular at the Afterlife knows Claire, the bartender who knows their favorite drink by heart, what they drank last time, and even what their friends ordered. Likewise, most know a few facts about Claire too. She's a trans woman who hasn't installed a single piece of cyberware in her body. She quit her job as a Militech engineer. And she's responsible for immortalizing Night City legends by naming drinks after them on the bar menu. Posthumously, of course.

What not all Afterlife clients know, however, is that Claire owns her own autoshop where she can be found spending hours under the hoods of broken-down cars and Beast, the rig she takes out on less-than-legal street races.^[1]

Associated Quests[]

The Beast In Me

Notes[]

Claire was first seen in the 2020 gameplay video, where she serves both Jackie and V drinks at the Afterlife.^[3]
Although there is no mention in Cyberpunk 2077, game files indicate that the Forlorn Hope bar was going to appear in the game and Claire was involved. The id of the quests shows she was initially named Marianne.^[4] All this suggests she was originally going to be Marianne Russell Freeman, co-owner of the Forlorn Hope. Moreover, Claire looks very similar to how Marianne was depicted in the 2020s.