bakerstreet | Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk

Welcome to the future. Please abandon all hopes and dreams after this point, for the very definition of the term cyberpunk is "high tech, low life". The idea behind cyberpunk comes from the thought that as technology advances, so broadens the gap between social status, where becoming middle class is an achievement and anyone wanting to become anything higher suffers from pipe dreams. This life is pain, where the only person you can really trust is yourself.

These are worlds defined by poverty or absolute control, where the net is your only escape from the troubles of the world. Cyborgs, meta-humans, AI, and corporations with undisputed power are what's being served out here. Do you have what it takes to survive?

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 thread partner, or you can even leave your comment blank and let respondents pick.

Possible roles

>The office drone: You're no one special. Day in and day out, you punch into work. You're unaware, or at least uncaring, of how shitty life around you is because at least the fistful of dollars you get keeps you from being on the streets.

>Deprogrammed: Similar to above, but a set of circumstances has made you realize just how blind you are. You don't have the savvy others may have but you have the determination to see your goals out until the bitter end. Or at least until your enemies make you a better offer.

>The muscle: You have a specific set of skills that are in high demand. Be it assassin or head-basher, you're rarely out of a job.

>Tech support: You have a way with computers that would make ABC agencies cry. Big people rely on you while even bigger ones are trying to get their hands on you.

>The talking head: Your district, your city, or your country knows you well. You're the face of propaganda, and boy, can you weave it! You're kept comfortable by the masters that feed you, though the days may be difficult as you see more and more injustices enacted.

>The Street tough: You're the lowest of the low. Life has given up on you, though you keep fighting on. You're the dealer, the gangster, the informant, the thief, and more. You know all the short cuts and the best ways to cause a stir.

>The fish out of water: Through experimentation, creation, or other factors, you've found yourself in this brave new world with no support to lean on. You need to understand the way things are if you're to survive long.

>The Hard-luck hero: Can be any of the above, though circumstance or sheer force of will has kept you from straying away from doing what's right.

>The Antagonist: Board member of a mega-corporation? G-Man with the need to stay in Power? Religious fanatic with an extremist bent? The background matters not. What does matter is that if you aren't the problem, you certainly benefit from perpetuating it.

There are so many more possible roles, so don't let this list limit you! If you think it could fit, play it out!

Prompts
>Deep Throat: One (or both) of you have managed to stumble across information that could change the way the world around you works. This could make or break the two of you, if you know how to handle the consequences of your following actions.

>The Hook Up: 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.

>Take a Stand: 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?

>Thorns In My Side: 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.

>What You Need is a Gramme...: 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.

>The Patchwork Man: 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.

>Escape From...: You've just been kidnapped, and unfortunately, your thread partner's the kidnapper. What's their motive? Can you escape?

>Voight-Kampff: Your job is to track down and 'retire' human-like bioengineered androids who have gone rogue. Sounds simple enough, right? Not when your targets are as intelligent as any human, or more. Not only that, they are stronger, almost indistinguishable from humans in appearance. So much so it's possible one could be one and not realize it...

>Be More Human: You're a cop, a gumshoe or someone else dealing with law enforcement, a dangerous job to do alone. Good thing you have a partner, right? Only one problem, they're an android. Robots who can think and feel are a thing now, and what's more, some are starting to think they should have all the rights humans have. Whether you agree or not, you two are stuck together.

>FUCK Society: As the internet grows more advanced, so does inter-connectivity to the point whole cities are now monitored by powerful operating systems that govern all aspects of city life. You are a hacker that is out to fight the megacorps, while seeking revenge against the criminal element.

>This is the Construct: You're not just a cog in the machine, you are literally inside the machine itself, either raised from birth or a visitor (willing or unwilling) to this digital realm. Can you bend reality to your will as a User, maybe even The One, or are you a Program of the system, out to help or hinder the hero's mission? What are you supposed to do? Survive.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[okay so maybe all the prophecy shit was some kind of thing that involves dethklok getting molded into cool computer cyber gods to take over the world!!!

which might just be an excuse to like. hack some shit or something.

anyway there are plenty of reasons for a rockstar to be in a cyberpunk setting obviously, i just tend to like the weirder shit. (big rudy rucker fan if you wanna get Real Weird.) computer death god toki would be fun as hell, but regular toki but he has a cool jacket is also cool.]

[Alvis is a member of the Akari priesthood, one of many strange little sects that sprung up as technology and understanding of the natural world advanced. The Akari believe that trees are the root of all life in the universe.

One of the oddities of their order is that they believe that their pain can bring others absolution, ritual scarification is not uncommon, and they are often derisively referred to as 'scarbacks'. It is polite to refer to them as 'aunt' or 'uncle', though they generally refer to each other as 'cousin'. They're a widespread order, and they've lasted as long as they have by adapting with the technology, believing that there is a time and a place for it. They are most easily identified generally by yellow traveling robes, and often by the assortment of spiked rings or bracelets they wear.

Alvis himself is one of the ones who has fully embraced this new world, with a 24/7 stream of his small cell of an apartment and a shoulder-mounted camera on the occasions that he goes outside.]

[He's muscle/street-tough, possible Hard Luck Hero under the right circumstances. Not-often-seen son of a business magnate, not technically disowned because that would ruin the appearance of a happy family, but not ever far from it, either.

On-grid, he's every inch the reckless, feckless, rich-kid stereotype. It works for him.

Off the grid, on the other hand, he's a pit fighter, specializing in hand-to-hand, but trained with various weapons as well and far preferring the not televised, not even recorded fights to anything where he might be seen by people who aren't there in person. He lets people believe it's ego, but it could well be some darker secret.]

[Antagonist, of a sort. Einar is a man that sells dreams. Bespoke, exquisitely-crafted VR simulations of a usually -but not always- particularly violent nature.

You see, Einar sells murder. Or, rather, the simulation of murder, beautifully rendered, and well-enough displayed that he probably has at least a few bodies in a basement somewhere.

But of course, this isn't the sort of thing someone can just order from a catalog, but there are always ways to track someone of his talents down.]

[Some may remember him as one of the youngest members of the group -or Clan- of techs that kept things running around Peach Trees residential tower.

More will remember him as the voice of Peach Trees information under the reign of Ma Ma Madrigal and her Clan of monsters.

But these days most people will know him just as the nervous young man with the augmented eyes, the one who has all the information, or who can repair even the most dead of electronics, both for the right price.

(Totally open to whatever sort of plot, if you just need to know something or get something fixed that's great, but getting him sucked into something over his head again is also great!)]

[In a world where everyone is jacked-in 24/7, actual human contact is something of a commodity, one that Companions, like Gabreel, provide.
Also possibly a companion-bot that grows feelings, I'm good with either.]

[She's got her own channel, she always has had, one of the pretty talking heads that the government -or the corporation- employs to keep the people watching and happy -but not too happy- and entertained and more importantly, consumers. There's always a new beauty product or a new gadget that her followers just have to have, because she has it.

But as much as she likes the accolades and the adoration, she actually wants what's best for her fans, and that's the kind of thing that gets a star cancelled...

(Vecna as the corporation employing her & gathering info on her followers? Someone rescuing her before she can get cancelled? Whatever y'all, I'm here for all of it.)]

[Perpetual fish out of water. He came from a wealthy family, built on technological and scientific advances, the kind of family that there were always rumors about of varying degrees.

He fell out of the public eye sometime in his early twenties, of course there's rumors about that too, that he died, that he's been in rehab, that he's started a cult, any one of these things might be true...]

[She lives in the wasteland or the ruins or whatever the local city calls the uninhabited zones outside of the city's protection. She lives on the very edge of what's actually habitable and she might in fact be crazy.

But better crazy than ~~BL/ind~~ being a good little drone under the city's control. But if someone needs a rescue, a detox, or a getaway driver for a raid, she'll be there.

(Down for something semi-canonical or just whatever kind of futuristic dystopia your particular setting of choice is)]

[Tech Support to the extreme, this kid was raised both on and by the system, she knows her way around it and through it all like a fish through water, and she uses it all to her own advantage.

She's definitely built up a little empire for herself, or at least a little patch to call her own and while her services are entirely legitimate on the surface, there's always something going on beneath.]

[Some combination of Tech Support and Muscle, she's the kind of system security that goes through making sure there's no recent unauthorized or illegal-type activity on long-deactivated accounts of whatever sort, and if there is, she's the one who rains fire on the perpetrators, sometimes literally.]

[It's no Ratz's Tavern, but Eliot's food truck is pretty well known, and not just because of Eliot himself -though that's part of it- and not just because both of his assistants are attractive -though that's part of it too, he's pretty sure- but because he's got a reputation for a damn fine grilled cheese, and for being able to help with literally any problem, though some problems will take more time -and more leverage- than others...]

[Bobby is one of the Lo-Teks, literally living off the grid by way of being an urban scavenger, living in service tunnels, abandoned buildings and the like, he's old enough to remember a time before all this though, and knows that it'll all come down again. After all, even the walls of Jericho fell.

But he knows things, new knowledge, old knowledge, it's all the same to him and he can teach you how to plant green and growing things, or repair a pair of VR goggles all the same, if you can track him down, and give him a good reason why he should help.]

[Eddie is the kind of guy who has the hookup, if he doesn't have what you need he knows who does. He is, however, very discerning in his client base, and does his best to stay away from anything that could get him in actual trouble, because most of what he makes goes to funding his World.

Which is to say: he runs a sword-and-sorcery VR server with a small but loyal fanbase and he's not willingly going to do anything to jeopardize that.]

[ Antagonist. Right hand woman to a powerful CEO and 'problem solver' who likes her job a bit too much. On paper, she's a personal maid, but that's just one of Sakuya's roles. ]

[what’s a cyberpunk setting without the ice-cold corporate suit antagonist? Annette “Annie” Pryce went undercover at an entry-level job, some shit happened, and discovered that spreadsheets and benefits aren’t so bad after all.

Thirty years later, Annie is the Director of Business Development of Evil Megacorp™, impeccably but blandly styled, and surprisingly jacked. Has murdered. Also has a soft spot for plucky young revolutionaries because she used to be one herself.

Assumed cr, ocs, etc all good. Hit me with whatever! She’s still a bit of a work in progress, so I’m flexible re: setting, scenarios.]

Edited 2024-02-14 07:47 (UTC)

[ question: how can you be a vigilante when there’s cameras everywhere? how do you stand up for the little guy when the corporate boot crushes everything? how are you accomplish anything, when the line between business and politics and crime is so blurry? answer: ingenuity, gumption, and a semi-sentient AI assistant modeled after your own brainwaves.

because here’s the thing, everybody expects a hacker. the corporations have an army of codebreakers and scriptjockeys and slicers at their beck and call; the downtrodden lease ‘security subscriptions’ that keep their bank accounts safe when they’re not selling identities on the black market; and people who are really poor just haggle and bribe and steal instead of having credcards to begin with. why physically break into a building when you can do it from a rig on the other side of the city? (and get caught.)

penny’s found a way. by day: another face in a city of millions, part-time waitress at a kosher pizzeria who does some freelance techwork and slicing on the side. by night: the thorn in the side of the corrupt police officers (ie, all of them), the gum in the works for the maggia, the annoying little bug that the corporations just can’t seem to quash. her symbol’s getting spraypainted on every other brick wall in the undercity, and while the talking heads on the news waffle on how dangerous she is, a lot of the public sure loves their spider-girl. a symbol of hope, of resistance, of not taking shit lying down.

how does she keep her lives separate? because she programmed mayday to do most of her computer work for her, and dumped her memories into the hard drive to do so. how does she keep off cameras? because mayday scrubs any recording of her longer than five seconds off the net, and her suit emits a field that loops security footage on a ten-click loop, meaning she’s invisible to security cameras. how does she deal with drones? punching them. how does she deal with cops? punching them harder. why isn’t she in prison? well, eye witness testimony got two decades ago, and there’s no footage of her at the scene, so gosh officer, can you really say spider-girl was there at all?

and how does she keep a corporation with its tendrils everywhere from steamrolling what mom and pop shops remain? easy: every time they get close, give them a really big problem somewhere else. when jadecorp was making moves to buy up a reservoir, she contaminated one of their soft drink factories, flushing five million dollars down the drain. when their pet city councilman started talking about dropping minimum wage, she leaked a sex tape so bad he got impeached. private security descends on a protest? mile-wide blackout. jadecorp’s lawyers were all set and ready to sue an apartment commune into the ground, and penny went to one of their rival’s databases and blew open a hole so wide that shit, not dropping everything to take advantage would be stupid.

she didn’t always win. there were close calls. she didn’t like playing corpos against each other - one of them still won. her social life had gone to shit. but still, she kept going.

two weeks after jadecorp scored millions of VR units off of their rival (really, penny held her nose and everything), she gets a message to her semi-public spider-girl account: Let’s talk a truce. A.Pyce. and files about a factory batch of faulty painkillers jadecorp’s about to flood the market with. penny posts that shit to the net. it gets taken down in less than an hour, but the public backlash is immense, and the recall costs… she doesn’t know how much. a lot.

she sends a response: when and where?

it could be a trap. she’s heard of pryce, knows she’s the sort who stays behind the scenes and doesn’t like risk. maybe the painkiller recall was a calculated loss, just another version of paying a fine to get what they really want. but her aunt - may her memory be a blessing - always told her to give people a chance. just once.

still, spider-girl hasn’t lasted for this long by being trusted, so instead of pryce’s office, she drops by her penthouse. a day before their meeting was scheduled. ]

You know -

[ she’s sitting cross-legged on the wall of annette’s living room, out of sight of the windows. cameras down, security footage doesn’t see her at all. there’s three methods of escape if things go south, and mayday’s whispering in penny’s implant about finding a fourth. ]

I heard a rumor that when somebody’s debt got bad enough, you brought them back home to be - you know, footstools and tables, that stuff. Guess even you’re not sick enough for that.

[A very expensive question: How do you do your job as a Business Development Director when there's an admirably tenacious masked vigilante running around disrupting your company's reputation, profits, and carefully maintained employee overtime? An equally expensive answer: You hold a lot of meetings, painstakingly edit a slide deck, and remind your colleagues that your role is to identify and develop new strategic partnerships.

"Spider-Girl" and her antics are disruptive at first, hardly too different from the dozens of other revolutionaries and outcast freaks trying to change the world. But she remains elusive, which is different. And endearingly frank in how she navigates obstacles in her path. Alternating, it seems, between methods as comically simple as punching things in the face to complex hacking operations whose algorithms evade their cybersecurity department. The moment Annette decides to do something about the matter, instead of adding more money to the what was unofficially called "The Future Spider-Girl Fuck-Up Fund" that emptied unfortunately often but at least was budgeted for, goes something like this; getting ready for a business lunch with the mayor, and the PR intern rushes to stop her on the way out the door, flustered, and says to look at the news. The next three hours unexpectedly cleared from her schedule, she went to an afternoon yoga class, came back to her desk refreshed, and typed out a message. It's refreshing. It's new.

And that's what's worrying. She can feel it - this is different. They're on the cusp of some real change. JadeCorp has lost some, but they've gained some too. They never should have gotten into pharmaceuticals in the first place. Annie considers it a catastrophe that might save ten more in the future. It's a significant, but important price to pay for an opportunity at relationship development. An in-person meeting, at that. Lovely. Annette pauses as she enters her living room, but she does note the other's deliberate positioning with approval.

At hearing the irreverent introduction, the corner of her mouth twitches in a barely-there smile.]

Just goes to show you shouldn't believe everything you hear on the net. [She puts down her purse. Her home is just as inoffensively decorated as her office. But there are warm splashes of color amidst the white, greys, and dark blues, in the form of flowers here and there.] I actually have debtors skinned and turned into tasteful household furnishings. Can I offer you some water?

[ alright, she’s…pretty sure that pryce is joking. she rolls her eyes behind her mask - ] Hardy harr. [ but also covertly glances down to check the carpeting, the upholstery on the couch, the curtains. none of it looks like human skin, or even leather, so it’s probably fine. probably.

spider-girl stretches out, kicking her feet as if she’s lounging on the sofa, or on a bed, instead of still stuck to the side of a wall. it’s a handy thing, having superpowers. the press and the net have speculated what she can do: lift a car (yes), cling to the ceiling (yes), run faster than any person (no, just a little faster than average), turn invisible (not technically), hack into things with her mind (she wishes.)

at the offer of water, she just tilts her head. ]

I’m good.

[ she’s not about to peel her mask off to take a drink, thanks. let alone one from a woman that she’s still nowhere near trusting. it might be poisoned, or have tracking shit in it, or it might be sparkling, ugh. ]

Sweet digs, by the way. Guess all that blood money lets you live in style.

[ Deprogrammed/Tech Support, also available at a post-canon age or in Street Tough/Muscle City Of Mist flavor! ]

( Hired muscle, but of the antagonistic variety. Aurelien is a former street kid adopted by a powerful mega-corporation's CEO, given an education(/indoctrination) designed to fit very specific qualifications, and then installed in a "peacekeeping" outfit that had refused to be bought out in order to advance said CEO's interests from within it. Would love to incorporate some elements of the talking head, as well; he can absolutely serve as a "heroic" mouthpiece for how violently suppressing protestors is keeping the city safe, actually. The public doesn't have to know he's a sadistic monster who absolutely gets off on the violence. )

Edited 2024-02-14 18:11 (UTC)

[ criminal/corporate overlord. ]

[the street tough. if you need it? he can probably get for you. for a price. especially if it's whatever the latest and greatest narcotic on the market is]

[Son of a famous anti-corp rebel, perpetually on the run for stuff his mom did. The "I just want to live a normal life" type, but he's not gonna get to, is he? Ask his aid for your cause, try to capture him, or try to get him on TV. He's poor so it's not like he can say no for long!]

[14 year old tech support. With maybe a touch of deprogrammed. Or maybe she was never programmed at all thanks to who her family is. Voicetesting.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Cyberpunk

Toki Wartooth | Metalocalypse | ota

Alvis + Killjoys + OTA

Steve | Stranger Things | OTA

Einar + Inception OC + OTA

Techie | Dredd | OTA

Gabreel King + OC + OTA

Chrissy Cunningham + Stranger Things + OTA

Klaus + Umbrella Academy + OTA

Shiny \ Fabulous Killjoys OC \ OTA

Nim | Modern King Arthur | OTA

Lup | TAZ: Balance | OTA

Eliot Spencer | Leverage | OTA

Bobby Singer | Supernatural et al | OTA

Eddie + Stranger Things + OTA

Sakuya Izayoi | Touhou Project | OTA

ortega / altered carbon

Annette Pryce | Generic cyberpunk setting OC

no subject

no subject

no subject

Shilo Wallace | Repo! The Genetic Opera

aurelien calistine | pathfinder (wotr) oc

billie martinelli | original

Graverobber | Repo! The Genetic Opera | OTA

Liir Thropp | The Wicked Years | OTA

Logan Anderson | Alan Wake 2