Cyberpunk

[automatmods]

CYBERPUNK

The world may have crumbled into chaos, but at least you have some pretty sweet tech. Hack your way to liberation. Make a robot friend. Lose yourself in a VR world. And do it all with that 80's neon view of a distant future. ⇨ Post a top level with your character and canon. Include any preferences you may have. If you're feeling bold, write a starter! ⇨ Tag around, make your own world. ⇨ Please mark any potentially triggering content

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[dandeliongirl]

The joint between Kotomi's pelvis and leg hissed, before her metallic leg snapped off by the pelvis. Kotomi tried to keep her balance as she carefully pulled the artificial limb from its metallic socket, then leaned forward to clean and fix the entry plugs that had made movement a little difficult.

Kotomi was indeed part of the richer classes, and it was clear by all four limbs, titanium spine, silicone skin, and smooth face and smooth artificial hair weave that enveloped her whole body. She was not an android or an A.I., mind. After your original body is rendered unlivable, and your brain and all of your internal organs are migrated into an artificial body, it still counts as you, as it's everything on the inside.

Right?

Everything had to be in order before meeting Shuri, a representative of the Outreach, and Kotomi was afraid said leg would stutter or turn defective mid-walk, which was why she tried correcting the slightest error in her movements before meeting her. She did want to work on that better world, using her bright mind of hers to improve things...

[memetic_princess]

Cybernetics was Shuri's specialty, or one of them, at any rate, and that was something else the members of Outreach had in common, that each one of them had a set of skills -even just from a hobby- that would aid in keeping their little utopia running. Because it wasn't about being perfect, it was about making it work.

Which was part of why Shuri had actually reached out to the other woman in the first place, arranging a meeting at a little face-to-face cafe -as opposed to a VR cafe- in the upper promenade of the shopping district.

Shuri herself was a little early, ordering a tea and choosing a seat where she could see the walkways to either side, so that she'd be able to see Kotomi coming and be able to greet her properly when she arrived.

[dandeliongirl]

The hard metal-plastic eyes turned to Shuri the immediate moment she entered the store. They flared and glowed with a cyan LED as she scanned the girl from the interface her still-organic brain seamlessly processed what she could of the woman: Most public information was limited to usernames and e-mails that could be immediately discarded, with most of her knowledge coming from what Shuri herself willingly gave.

Kotomi plugged her leg back onto her pelvis with a soft clock, and stood up. Her movements were natural, as smooth as those of a human being would be, and even the smile on her silicone polymer face was as adorable as that of the young maiden she would have been in her original, discarded body.

Her movement to place her hands over her lap and bow whirred with smoothness, like a fully programmed routine.

"Hello. My name is Kotomi Ichinose. My hobby is reading books," a half-truth, as in this form, she now devoured books at a lightning pace, aided by additional storage capacity with additional hard drives for her brain, "I would like to become friends with you."

Kotomi herself wasn't dressed, per se, but her parts of 'herself' that were revealing were instead modestly covered in decals or metal for modesty. Just like clothes, Kotomi had gained the habit to change, replace, and use legs, arms, and even waists or faces depending on what she was going to do.

This body was small, nimble, balanced with every step of her walk as she approached Shuri, almost with a preprogrammed strut that Kotomi wasn't sure if she would have been brave enough to pull off in her biological body. She stopped in front of the table, then whirred softly to sit.

"Thank you allowing me to speak with you," Kotomi's pitch-black irises blurred around the tea Shuri had offered, remembering the taste. She had mastered its recipe and preparation, but she had long since lost the ability to taste it. All her body relied on, now, were nutritional mixes and hydrating solutions she inserted as batteries into her body to directly supply her internal organs.

She missed the taste of green tea.

"I would be more than glad to assist you with the social, economic, and political proposals you mentioned," Kotomi smiled to Shuri with the same seamless emotion, hiding her own wishes to taste tea once again, "I have a collection of seven hundred million items under both copyright and public domain I can happily supply."

[memetic_princess]

Shuri had unfolded from her seat at the other young woman's approach, returning the bow of greeting before settling again because it had never occurred to her not to be polite, even with the wealth she'd been born to she'd always had good manners.

She lifted a hand, just briefly, the gesture somehow regal likely just due to the poise with which Shuri held herself, "We'll get to that." Mostly because the members of Outreach didn't actually talk about being part of it openly, not in public anyway, and really the public meeting place was just for both of their safety, to determine whether or not one of them was a government operative in disguise, or something worse.

"For now let us just talk, get to know each other." She smiled, easy and warm, "Let us become friends."

[dandeliongirl]

The interruption likewise sent an immediate response to stop introductory and social processes Kotomi had programmed herself for her own mind and body.

Her eyes widened in curiosity, and rose her finger. Her biological mind pondered how to respond to this, and in fact delayed in finding the appropriate social routine to use to become friends. For such a long time, she had entertained her still living mind with books, she forgot how to talk to most people.

Servos whirred when Kotomi turned to her left, then to her right, as her legal boundary application warned her that Freedom of Assembly had numerous caveats, and 'peaceful assembly' was something that had turned blurrier in time.

She then straightened, pushing her chest up and smiling.

"My name is Kotomi Ichinose," she spoke outside of her routines, "I have loved reading ever since I was born, and it was my parents who made me love learning. Especially regarding the nature of the universe."

She then glanced down, smiling. Her eyes, brow, face, and all artificial limbs of her body moved in unison as they followed what remained of her instinctive body language.

"It made it easier when I was forced to migrate into this body," she revealed a copy she had of The Spirit of the Laws by by Charles de Secondat and the Baron de Montesquieu, "it is a little lonely, since not a lot of people read..."

[memetic_princess]

For a moment, Shuri was concerned that the other woman was caught in some kind of feedback loop, but she pulled herself out of it -if that was even what it had been- with what seemed to be minimal effort and Shuri relaxed again.

She inclined her head slightly, listening -and watching- as Kotomi introduced herself and she gave a small smile, "People have found other ways to proclaim their intellectual superiority these days." She shook her head, lifting a hand briefly, an indication that she didn't think that's what the other woman had been doing, "I think most people have forgotten that it is something we as a species used to do for fun. Something to pass the time. The same way that learning a new language or writing a new poem or musical composition was for."

[dandeliongirl]

Kotomi clutched her physical book defensively with her artificial arms, almost in a maternal way. She remembered loving the smell of old books.

"Senators have proposed closing down all libraries," Kotomi's artificial voice sounded with worry, "and place all public domain works under private distribution."

The news reports she had processed were all selling the idea that libraries were no longer in necessary with the network, and thus needed to have their doors closed, and all their works destroyed. And selling the rights to all public domain works to private enterprises, allowing them to sell, distribute, and edit them at their leisure, under the public idea that 'private enterprises will ensure the long life of important works of literature through profit that will benefit all that read them'.

Behind hose acts, it was clear why Kotomi had contacted Shuri. The fear it might come to pass.

Kotomi's servos whirred as she glanced up, "I just like the feel, and images a book describes. There is something much clearer, much personal about seeing inside the mind of another person."

[memetic_princess]

"I agree." She said, nodding once, "There's a... sort of weight to books that's more than just the physical." It was something she'd never really been able to quantify or explain herself, but definitely something she liked. She'd certainly seen some of those proposals herself, and while she wanted to think it wasn't the kind of thing that would come to pass, she had the same fear.

It was part of why The Outreach's next public works project was a library, many of the members had already been stockpiling physical books, Shuri among them, or had family libraries that they were slowly siphoning books away from to add to the collection. It wasn't many yet, a couple hundred or so, enough to fill a couple of bookcases, but they were gathering more, magazines, too, because popular culture and cultural shift could be tracked easily through weekly or monthly publications.

Her smile broke through a moment later, "Can you imagine, this future where there's a black market for literature?"