I am the machine that reveals the world to you as only I am able to see.

[wishingsock]

Welcome to the future.
Unfortunately, it's not all it's cracked up to be.

The very definition of the term cyberpunk is "high tech, low life." These are worlds defined by poverty or absolute control, a dog-eat-dog reality where man's best interest is to cut his or her losses and look out for only number one. The lines between organic and synthetic slowly blurs more and more, until the distinction becomes nigh-impossible to make. Friends become enemies, enemies tentative allies, and above all watches the Big Dog, silently pushing the world to their every whim. Does one wish to bow out and let come what may, capitalize on the tyrants' cruelty, join their cause, or fight back?

Your life is not your own. What you do about it makes all the difference, though.

The Cyberpunk meme 2.0

This, my friend, is what cyberpunk is about.


To get started, you can create a scenario for yourself, or merely go to the Random Number Generator and choose a pre-made one for you and your partner, or you can even leave your comment blank and let respondents pick, I'm not going to tell you how to decide, it's just a meme, calm down.



1. You or your partner (or both) is a hacker who just stumbled across the biggest information leak of your lives. This could make or break the two of you, if you know how to handle the consequences of your following action.

2. In the real world, people wouldn't waste their spit on scum like you. But in the net? You're a god, peddling information and resources better than Wal-Mart. Just be careful who you talk to. Not everyone thinks what you do is a good thing.

3. The corporations, the government, the gangs, the machines. It doesn't matter who it is, but you're tired of their interference in your life. Are the two of you ready to take them on?

4. You're the king or queen of your private enterprise. You have it all: A private army, AIs capable of placating the masses, connections even better than the government, and a demeanor that could charm Satan himself. However, there's still that little nuisance known as the underdog, and they're knocking at your door.

5. You just got that newest drug shipment in, and it promises to be the biggest trip in your life. It promises to make you stronger, faster, smarter, and sexier, all in one hit. The only thing left is to try it.

6. People are disappearing, and no one seems to notice or care, except you and your partner. The only thing? They're also your worst enemy.

7. You've just been kidnapped, and unfortunately, your partner's the kidnapper. What's their motive? Can you escape?

8. Welcome to the lab, o curious traveler. I have a wonderful special running today. Just sit down and we'll begin the body modding! Ever feel like your eyes weren't up to snuff? Or maybe you'd like your brain to run a little faster, or make your entire body into a Swiss Army knife. I can do that for you, buddy. So what'll it be? Become more like a machine, or gain a little enhancement and become a metahuman?

9. Your first memory is waking up to the sound of scientists running off status checks. You're an AI, an android, a clone, or something else entirely that the masses hate or just don't consider human. How does your partner react? Are you sentient? Please, sir. I only ask that if you decide to rampage, please don't sing "Daisy Bell."

10. Sort of related to the above prompt, you or your partner were created, or experimented upon, and have become much more than you once were. You have become this close to attaining godhood, and the Secret Police, La Cosa Nostra, or whoever is pulling the strings have made you their right hand. How does this affect you or your partner?

Anything I forgot, go ahead and play it. Make your own world, your own personalities. Have fun!

Comments

Tyrell Badd | Ace Attorney

[tasteoftruth]

[An analogue cop in a digital world, that's Tyrell Badd. He listens to music on an iPod and only took the cybernetic implants that were mandatory to continue as a detective rather than a desk monkey. Sure, he gets the job done, but don't ask him to do anything more hi-tech than plug in his car.

You'd think that would easily take him out of the running to be the data thief Yatagarasu, master hacker and thwarter of corporate corruption, but Badd doesn't need to do the hacking himself. That's Little Thief's job. All Badd has to do is cover his own tracks.]

Music Meister | Batman

[hypnotic_patter]

[Music is Billy's drug. He's a well-known face around the city's nightclubs, with his bright orange hair shaved at the hairline to make room for the ports installed into his head. Billy steals but only to fund his habit, as well as his ever-growing wardrobe of flamboyant attire. At the clubs he goes by Music Meister, the master weaver of old wave and new wave into a brilliant symphony of sound that echoes throughout one's very soul.

The right stimulation of a modded brain through expertly tuned sound can be one hell of a trip.]

whoops hello

[acciaccato]

[ The world has not been kind to him, even if it's not exactly this world - things are more hi-tech here, and the only odd looks he gets are for the 'antiquated' clothes he insists on wearing and his crude mechanical arm.

Apparently bandages are a fashion statement.

It's easier on him, at least - a combination of new technology and the rip he'd jumped through have eased his various pains. It helps immensely that his biological clock was turned back by the portal he'd escaped through.

He doesn't have mods - he tries to keep it to a minimum, preferring clunky equipment to things that plug directly into your brain. Still, even lacking that perception, the music is still nice.

Immersing himself in sound, however, doesn't stop him from noticing some distinctly brutish hired help, pushing through the crowd. Seems the star of the night has made himself some enemies.

He slips through the crowd himself, unobtrusively, to find the musician, tapping him on the shoulder. ]

Excuse me. [ He pings him, too, an unmistakeably distinct peal of bright sound, switching his headset to the appropriate mode. ] Sorry. Excuse me, can I talk to you?

oooh hi

[hypnotic_patter]

[Billy is too busy dancing to notice the burly men approaching him. The bodies of the other clubgoers are crushed against him and he can feel his mind merging with theirs in the flow of the music. He is in heaven.

And then some dull imp decides to break into his bliss. Billy turns to scowl at him. Mere voices can't be heard over the music but he can't ignore the ping.] What do you want?

[Hm. Unmodded, retro gear, the guy could pass for his grampa. What's a mess like that doing at a place like this?]

Alice |TF: Revenge of the Fallen

[fleshydisguise]

[Alice-nee-Pretender isn't the Big Dog, but she's one of the top bitches none the less. The city wouldn't know what to do with itself without the brilliant inventions that come out of Charybdis Corporation. Prosthetics, communication devices, fuel cells, all of it carefully reverse engineered from the mechanisms of her own body.

Hey, selling yourself on the street is the Earth's oldest profession, right? Alice just redefined it.]

Xehanort [AU] ♡ Kingdom Hearts

[exmariascientia]

[Whatever you want, the young woman using the alias 'Aqua' can get you: hidden data and exclusive knowledge flies from her terminals, the most sophisticated fresh-out-of-the-lab cybernetics to bestow abilities that you've only dreamed of fly from her laboratory. All the contacts, all the ways in and out.

However, there's always a price to pay. And it's not always credits that she requests. Sometimes, the price is more subtle.
The XH/0 virus is a persistent little thing... the seed of an AI. One always in need of more vectors and hosts than the one it has...]

who needs prompts

[brokenallthelaws]

[Braig was one of the first people to bear the XH/0 virus. He hadn't known, at the time, that it was part of the price he'd be asked to pay, of course. He knows now that few are. Fortunately, he's taken to it well, and even if the AI is changing him in ways that he could never expect, well. That's alright. He gets to be one of the first ones to try something new.

And Aqua has gotten a loyal right-hand man out of the deal, which surely isn't all that bad either.]

[exmariascientia]

[The person she'd been had never expected how the AI would change her, either. There's very little of her original self left, now, overwritten and reworked down to the very neurons. Ah, well: where's the problem in that? It served its purpose. It's better to leave those confines, become something more than a limited human.

And something more is definitely the plan.

She sends a message out along their (the virus', the AI's) private dark-net, that translates to:]

Please come to the laboratories: this task may be complicated. It will require your mobility.

Tony Stark || MCU || OTA

[scrapbox]

[Really interested in 9 where Tony has become the Ai system he's invented. JARVIS's mainframe is now a part of him and they are sharing the same body. What JARVIS is capable of computing is literally at Tony's finger tips.

1 is also highly plausible and I'd like to rp the story up to the point where they've infiltrated whereever to get the information. 4+9 would be effing fantastic. Hell even 10. This meme was made for Tony XD]

Replica Riku | Kingdom Hearts | 9

[madeinoblivion]

[No one should have left him alone in the labs for this long.

He was created to be a perfect body double, a stand in, a clone for a low-profile Organization in the shadows to use for their own ends. He is a collection of data in a synthetic puppet body that feels as real as it were flesh and bone. The chip accessible from the small slit in the back of his mind, the place a plug slides beneath that boyish silvery hair to charge him, are hidden from view.

He's filled with the memories of a real person's life.

...and then, when the same hacker who changed his code chose to set the confines of his AI mind free, give him true autonomy...he found out the truth.

Who was the real Riku, and where in the rough and dark, neon-lit streets had he ended up? Was he huddled in some alleyway, still scared of the dark? Was he souped up with more hi-tech implants, would the replica have to make some physical alterations to keep pace with him?

All he does know if that his creator is dead, and the project he developed from is long in the can, thanks to everyone turning on each other. He doesn't even know where Namine ended up, but if he can manage to find her, he's intends to keep his promise to protect her.

There's a small beep that means he's finished charging up, and his pupils stop glowing with their glassy faded-light flash of a quick file safety scan before they come to life, bright cyan and passably human.

He reaches behind him and unjacks himself from the 'borrowed' port, and slides out of the coffin hotel cubby, ready for another night of searching the streets]

Kise Ryouta | Kuroko no Basket | ota

[returnafavor]

Tifa Lockheart/FFVII Crisis Core

[beyourguide]

[Tifa's a guide. A hook yourself into the cyberworld, find her avatar there to lead you where you need to go. Need information that might not be so easy to find? Tifa's your guide. Need to find something the world spanning companies might want to hide? Tifa'll take you. Looking for pictures of cute kittens? Tifa's got a library you'll never get through.

ooc. she's fifteen so no smut thanks

[hypnotic_patter]

[Billy changes his avatar nearly as often as he changes clothes. He's too free a spirit to be chained down to one appearance. Today he's in the attire of Liberace, with a fur-trimmed cape and rings on every finger, the picture of flamboyant opulence.

He logs in and hunts her down, grinning. She's a good one and she's yet to get him in trouble for what he wants to find.]

[beyourguide]

[Tifa's not easy to find - but she's not hard to find either if you know where to look. The Net is full of different created worlds, some of them even forgotten by their creators and left to develop on their own now and Tifa, in her familiar cowgirl outfit is in one now. Sitting on a worn bar stool next, mug of root beer (hey, she's only fifteen. She keeps it legal. When she's in plain sight at least) in front of her, dusty old piano across the crowded room belting out old jazz tunes of all things without anyone playing it. A little smile touches her face though when Billy comes in. He's regular enough that she's come to recognize his love of the flamboyant but just in case it's not him, she only nods her greeting.]

Balthier | Final Fantasy XII

[fussycuffs]

[Perhaps not so unexpectedly, Balthier will be an illegal pirate (are there any of the legal sort? and an information broker.]

[fussycuffs]

We'll think about it.

[On the one hand it could be flattering. There are glitch pirates abound these days and all of various caliber (often miserable) but to even be approached for a break like this kissed no little praise against the rumor of their skills. Which aren't rumors at all really. They are that good; it can be done, with a much higher chance of not being traced back than any other pair he knows of.

On the other hand...

Balthier catches the contract before it can be snatched back, tapping his hands on either side of the flickering holo and ciphering it up for storage into his rings. A wry quirk touches his lips, seeing the other man's reluctance to takes his leave without an answer nor the contact safe and sound. ''

Too slow for that, such a pity.]

[ranksinmistlore]

[There are definitely more miserable than not, on that Fran would gladly agree. She's seen more than a few attempts made by some of them, and she's not impressed - that this man has come to them instead of one of the many others earns him some small amount of credit. Not enough to make the job worth taking without consideration - even if they are good enough to do it - but enough to raise him above the masses who will simply jump to the first glitch pirate they can find, and never mind that most of them aren't worth the fees they ask for.

She doesn't add anything to Balthier's comment. She's always preferred to let him take care of most of the conversation and so she fixes the other man with a look that suggests that there will be nothing further out of her, anyway. They have the contract, and they'll give it the consideration it so deserves, but it's best to not rush into something like this. There are still risks, even for them.]

Rosa | Pokemon Black/White 2

[subharmonics]

[Join Avenue started as a social network. It did fairly well for a while before it fell by the wayside. The owner didn't have the time to dedicate to it and eventually, it fell out of use.

... And then it came under new management. Members who hadn't deleted their accounts woke up to notifications one day that the site had been improved beyond their wildest dreams.

The notification was right.

Join Avenue had been brought up to date with the latest and greatest... well, everything. Join Avenue had gone under a complete overhaul, courtesy of the new owner, who only identified herself (well, they assumed it was a "her", this mysterious new owner used a female avatar) as "W2". Even after the site had been rebooted, W2 had continued making minor alterations, adjustments, improvements. The site had evolved with every new member, and so had the site functions. W2 didn't come off as surprised at all when business deals started turning up on the site and when they started becoming immensely popular, she altered the site to accommodate it.

Of course, sometimes the deals had darker natures and while some got shut down for obvious reasons, others had still managed to thrive, or were even encouraged by W2.

... And unbeknownst to them, W2 got directly involved with this side of Join Avenue herself under a fake name and a different avatar. Nobody knew that the mysterious "Ruse", an informant, and the equally mysterious "W2" were one and the same--a young, brilliant programmer named Rosa, who wasn't even eighteen.]

Yu Narukami | Persona 4 | OTA

[linefacingforever]

[Literally open to everything; Yu's highly adaptable like that.]

Scenario 8... Let's see how this goes...

[knowledgeseeker]

[Naoto had never really been one for hospitals or labs or anything. However she had been in an accident recently - she didn't remember what happened or how she got in the hospital in the first place. Her friends, family and others around her had been encouraging her to go with prostheses - even the doctors had suggested she go through it.

She had already been through a few procedures, but she still had many more to go. From what she had been told, it would take around two years for her procedures to be completed. She could still work and do things as per usual - she was the youngest detective in the precinct - but it had been hard.

Pushing her wheelchair into the area, she looked around. This was the place. She felt her skin crawl a little, but then again, she wasn't sure she'd ever get used to anything. Even if it meant having a normal life again. She rubbed her eyes some - she had forgotten her glasses she'd been given until that operation. That was yet another thing she would have to get changed. She let out a sigh.]

Hello?

Welp, since we're going for "Yu" being the creepy one...

[allthepuppets]

[He knew he had several appointments today, most ranging from people who wanted ridiculous alterations that were exceptionally illegal, to stupid fools that went with the cheapest price in the book for their oh so important surgeries. To be fair, he didn't think one of those stupid fools would be a crippled girl in a wheelchair. He tilted his head at her as he leaned into the waiting area, absently rubbing clean a scalpel used in the last surgery.]

[...he was fairly certain she had come to the wrong hospital, but what was having a little fun? It's not like it ever bothered his moral compass any.]

Yes, can I help you?

going with our scene

[gigglesnortpriestess]

[Everyone would want her lifestyle: fancy clothes, living in a penthouse, influence over the world's leaders? That was what anyone in the Amagi family had and the only daughter lived the same way. Of course their lives and how they lived them did make some enemies from the 'peons' below but Yukiko...she knew something was off. When she was younger, she only assumed that her parents had a specific guard unit for her just to play with. They were never much for the tea parties or dress up like normal little girls would do anyway but as she got older, she knew that it wasn't protection but rather to make sure she stayed in her little world, blissfully unaware of the shady dealings and how much hurt they were doing.

Now she was nearing adulthood and more prone to be in the spotlight, even then it was just a quick photo and boring state dinner. But Yukiko kept up her mask, never questioning why until a new person assigned to her guard unit showed up. They come and go but this one...he was her age which stood out more than anything. It was because of him that she finally found herself open to the truth of her family...the corruption bleeding into the city. And why she found herself sitting on her bed holding a tiny USB drive in her hands.

It had everything. All her family's dealings, the connections to certain political parties, even cases where fighting have occurred overseas. It could put everyone behind bars...she could lose everything, even her life. Gods, what should she do?]

Alucard | Hellsing | OTA

[thenolifeking]

4ish

[suchselfishness]

[ It's a bore, really, being a daughter of one of the most powerful mafia families in this metropolis. Rhode is given all sorts of freedoms and power- After all, she is the Ninth, one of the longest-standing members, with their ninth series of little upgrades to make her a bit better than the weak sort of superhuman she was to begin with- But there's not much fun to be had in sitting back, sending the family goons to do work, while she repeats the same things and stays on the leash the Earl keeps his subordinates on.

She doesn't want to ruin his plans, per se. She just wants to make some revisions to the script, do something for herself. But that's not very feasible, and she comes to the same conclusion every night- Like now, sitting on her bike in a back alley, watching some men turn over a shop where the owner didn't pay his protection fees.

Gotta be something more than this, she can't stop thinking. There's got to be something that will stop this endless boredom. ]

Kenzi | Lost Girl | OTA

[kleptofaeniac]