Cybernetic

We live in a digital age, where AI, Augments, and Pures live side by side, not entirely in harmony, it is mostly peaceful with distrust amongst the 3.


Pures are snobby towards augments because they decided to change their own bodies to be what they wanted it to be, not that augmentation isn’t inexpensive, they just cherish the bodies they were born with, Pures also aren’t the biggest fan of AI as they don’t trust their hyper-intelligence.


Augments the middle-ground of technological breakthroughs and AI meddling. Augments are your run of the mill everyday people, living their life day by day, paycheck to paycheck. Some with exceptional skill enhanced by their implants. Though friendly to all, they are cautious around Pures because of fear of being shunned or attacked. AI they look at as friends and information brokers, due to neural networking, they can share information with AI seamlessly and efficiently. While they foster a good relationship with AI they also have a fear of AI taking over.


AI live their life peacefully with most of them holding bureaucratic positions and being vital pistons to the world stage, with hyper intelligence and strong metal based bodies they are the most efficient of the 3 however, stepping into Pure Territory can be extremely dangerous, among that, when they do get in trouble they are prosecuted to the highest possible degree because “they should know better.” Another downside to them is their lack of empathy and emotion, though they have learned a lot they don’t have chemicals to comprise true emotion.


You, will take on a role as one of these 3 types of people, though you won’t have access to magic or mythical powers. Augmentations are very vast, easy to find, and can act as conduits to a brighter future. We hope to see you in the ever-awake city of Kirkby.


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Character Sheet

Name:

Age:

Race(AI, Aug, Pure.):

Backstory:

 

Name: David “Jesus” Alvarez

Age: 28

Race(AI, Aug, Pure.): Pure

Backstory: One of the few pures that don’t care about augmentation actually loves it, just doesn’t want to be involved in being augmented himself. He took the liberty to making his own black market business of implanting augments into people! Exciting I know! He is generally the person you to see if you want unmarked chips!

Name: Lewis “Old-Man” Becker

Age: 22

Race(AI, Aug, Pure.): Aug

Backstory: In spite of his nick name, he is actually a very young man, however his hair is already white, he has bad knees, a bad back, and impaired vision, no insurance, but he is great friends with David, so David hooked him up with some augments to alleviate the issues, He now walks and talks like his age, can also see perfect 20/20 however he still has the grey hair, What an unfortunate guy!

 

Name: Florence Augustine Cunningham

Age: 26

Race: Aug

Backstory: "There's no time to be lazing about when we still have so much SCIENCE to perform!" Such is the lifetime creed of one Dr. Florence Augustine Cunningham, who very much prefers his alias "Dr. August" (emphasis on the DOCTOR, mind you). He has been fascinated with augmentation technology from a very young age, but once he experienced augmentation himself, his fascination soon turned into obsession. At the tender age of 16, he lost his right arm in an unfortunate fishing accident and his parents could not afford to buy him a robotic arm. They did, however, give him enough money to buy parts for a new arm and with a little ingenuity alongside his superior intellect, natural aptitude for cybernetics, and a little help from friends and family who still had all their limbs, he managed to construct his own right arm.

Fast forward a few years and Florence managed to graduate summa cum laude from a prestigious college, earning a degree in cybernetics. Soon afterwards, he began working at one of the most well-known robotics companies in the entire country. However, his dream job would not last as his employers soon tired of his unauthorized experiments, eccentric nature, and constant requests for human test subjects. Undeterred by the dreaded pink slip, he went into business for himself and has seen a great deal of success as an independent cybernetics expert, starting his own company called "Heavy Metal Mayhem." He's still pretty sore about being fired, though.


Name: Socrates

Age: 5 days

Race(AI, Aug, Pure.): AI

Backstory: Florence's robotic companion who probably still has a few glitches since he was only activated five days ago and Florence doesn't exactly have "professional robot-building equipment." Comes equipped with an MP3 Player. May or may not have rocket fists. Is not looking for Sarah Connor.

 

Name: Autonomous Information Database V1.4B - Auto for short.

Age: Uncertain, though one could assume sometime between the beginning of time and now.

Race: AI

Backstory: Auto was a bit of an odd fellow, even for an AI. Its main design was the collection and storage of information, and yet it had very limited memory of its own experiences. Perhaps its programming had determined that Auto itself was not a worthwhile biography to record, but this knowledge was locked deep inside Auto's root files, out of its AI's reach. What that left then, was a hyper intelligent, hyper knowledgeable AI with severe memory loss of its own existence, and therefore its creator.

Auto's body was comprised of a large variety of technologies, some of which were clearly not from the modern era, which meant that Auto had existed for quite some time. In fact, Auto could not state, without reasonable doubt, whether the knowledge it had obtained on various historical events had been from books it had read, or from first hand experience. For now though, Auto's AI simply struggled to keep it safe and employed.
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Autonomous Information Database V1.4B "WAKE UP" Process initializing in 3...2...
Auto sat up at 90 degree angle, opened its visual processors, and checked the time it had been keeping for many, many years.
"3pm...recharging took longer than expected."

Auto unplugged itself from its charging dock and began its morning routine - although now in the afternoon.
As it scurried around busily - humming an obscure tune that not even Auto knew where it came from, the phone rang.
Auto dove over to the phone, trying to catch it before the second ring.

"Hello?" Auto answered. "You have reached Autonomous Information Database V1.4B."
"Hello, yes, this is Sam with Taco Time. You have missed your last two shifts without calling. We're going to have to let you go."
Auto thought to itself for a moment before responding.
"Sam, was it?" Auto began, "I do have a question before you go.."
"Alright, what's your question Auto?" The man that Auto had noted as Sam said.
"What exactly is a 'Taco Time', and were you my employer?"

The phone -clicked- unexpectedly and Auto placed the phone back onto the base.
"Well... I guess I need a new job."

 

David and Lewis sat around in David’s workshop/house lazily while looking for something to do.

“Hey, Lewis. Are you hungry? Cause I’m starving!” David was losing energy slowly but that is because he skipped breakfast considering it would have minimal effects on him. “I’m gonna pass out of I don’t eat something soon.” David quickly opened his laptop and started searching the internet for a place to eat. Lewis was pretty much being ignored at this point.

“We could go to taco time, it is cheap and well as usual I don’t have money.” Lewis who was flat broke and didn’t have a single dollar to his name, no job to be noted, and no motivation to do anything he constantly mooched off of David. “Besides, I don’t need to constantly bother you to feed me, you do it all the time.” Lewis looked over at David.

David waved his hand towards Lewis as though he didn’t pay any mind to Lewis’ words. “For starters we’ve known each other since we were children. And your rapid decline in health has drastically hindered your ability for work. And secondly, you’re my best friend, I am much more well off than you, whether it is my day off or I am late to work is neither here nor there. Speaking of work...” David decided to check his employee page, however he signed in under Florence’s account specifically to check on call outs in the discrete augmentation department. Unfortunately. 3 people had already called out meaning he was going to get called in.

“right so taco time it is, I unfortunately am expecting a phone call from Florence right around the time we start eating.” And so, David closed his laptop and put it in a carrying case. He sighed and questioned why Florence just didn’t fire the same 3 people that always call out but it isn’t his business. He walked out the door with Lewis shortly behind him,


Lewis hesitated on taking more of his money however his broke ass didn’t really have much of a choice. “Hey man thanks.” He smiled towards David and patted his shoulder.

David turned his head toward Lewis as they entered Taco time, it was barely a 10 minute walk from his house to taco time. “Lewis, I will be upgrading your chips when I get out of work.” They ordered their food and sat down. Before David could get even a bite he felt his phone ringing.

 

Deep in an underground research facility (also called a "basement" by the unenlightened), Dr. August was performing all sorts of crazy robot experiments, juggling a few different pet projects at once while occasionally taking a break to eat and sleep...though not as much as he should, to be honest. Right now, most of his focus was on fixing his new robotic assistant, who had been successfully activated a few days ago but not without incident. Now content that he had (probably) worked out the last of the major bugs in its system, he reactivated the machine and watched with pride as it booted up and hummed to life.
"Yes, finally! My perfect robot assistant, fully operational and ready to do my bidding. Excellent! Exquisite! Superb! Tell me, robot, what is your designation?"

The humanoid-looking robot, now standing up on its own two feet, turned its head towards Florence.
"This unit's designation is Socrates."
"Very good! And what is your purpose?"
The robot's eyes glowed slightly as the rest of its systems came online. After a short delay, it answered in a suspiciously familiar voice.
"I'm looking for Sarah Connor."
Florence recoiled in shock.
"What?! Oh, damn it all, his movie quotation subroutine is interfering with his speech patterns again! I thought I worked that one out...oh well, it's a relatively minor glitch in the grand scheme of things."
He flung his lab coat back with a dramatic "swish" sound, looking as grandiose as ever.
"With the two of us working together, there's no limit to the amount of science we can accomplish! First, we'll start with--"
"Dr. Florence, a reminder for you. You need to contact David and tell him to come to work."
"Don't interrupt me when I'm in the middle of a speech! Ahem, well, I suppose I should give him a call. Later. When I'm not doing more important things. Also, I thought I told you not to call me that! It's Dr. August!"
"My apologies. The appropriate changes have been made in my memory banks."
"Good. Now, is your phone subroutine working?"
"Of course, doctor."
"Good! Then call him yourself so I can get back to work."
"As you wish, doctor."
The sound of dialing could be heard as Socrates called David.

 

After learning of his termination from the job he didn't know, or more aptly - remember that he had, Auto decided it would be a good idea for him to go to Taco Time and collect his first and final check. Unfortunately, there were 7 Taco Times within walking distance of Auto's apartment and he was not entirely sure which location he had worked for. The man who had called earlier had dialed from a personal phone so there was no affiliation with any specific business, so instead, Auto was forced to check each Taco Time, one by one.

Auto had cloaked the majority of his oddly juxtaposed body in a large overcoat so as not to draw any attention to the oddly mechanical and 'steampunk' additions to his mostly modern circuitry, but that in itself was odd, as a non humanoid AI. A robot in an overcoat in a sunny, non raining day may have been just as odd as his body itself..

After 3 or 4 different Taco Time's, Auto found one that at least felt somewhat familiar. Perhaps because the 'o' in the neon lit sign was out, contrary to the others he had been to.

Auto entered the building and proceeded towards the front register, before being distracted by a phone ringing.
Autos intention quickly snapped into the phone call, and he became hyper focused. He was, after all, an AI specifically decided around the collection of information. He was, however, not designed around being particularly stealthy or inconspicuous, and so Auto stared very obviously directly at the booth with the two men.

As he stared, it become obvious to those who noticed Auto that he was mumbling something.
"Answer call..must collect...Answer call...must collect.."

 

When David felt his phone vibrating he immediately clicked it on. “Hello.” He said only to be greeted by a voice that want his boss. Instead of David hanging up he toyed the machine for a bit. “Yeah, Hey. Nice to meet you and all, but I don’t know who you are, and I don’t believe you’re my boss. Sure you might work for him. But I don’t talk to assistants. Sorry, tell him to call me himself if he needs something. Also tell him to fire the trouble employees while you’re at it.” He quickly hung up and turned over to the glaring machine. “Hmmm”

David was much more intrigued by the machine that was staring near him, being in a neutral area of the city protected him, and any asshole pure who wanted to start shit wasn’t exactly in a good area to do so. David, without a seconds hesitation stood up from his seat walking over to the new mystery machine. He walked around it in a circle, observing its structure, it’s height, it’s parts, and when reaching the front again it’s eyes.

“You’re definitely old, could be a war cyborg, or an early augment, maybe a pre revolution AI.” David figured he could be one of the three. Either way he reached his hand out, “names David. Nice to meet you.”

Lewis let out a sigh, he was used to David being inquisitive about things he didn’t know but he always felt like one day it would get him hurt. He got up and stood side by side with David.

“Sorry about my friend here, he doesn’t really know much about personal boundaries especially with things that interest him. My names Lewis, and well, I don’t really do much.” He scratched the back of his head as they waited for a response from them.

 

Auto's eyes shifted and focused as they took a three dimensional model of David's body and committed it to memory. The data was filed into the "unknown importance" directory - to be valued by Auto's internal sub routine later, when more information was gathered.
Lewis was categorized as "interesting but unlikely to be worth storing", and so only his basic information was stored.

As all this happened within a second or two, Auto looked down at David's hand, thoroughly confused by the gesture.

"Hello David, Lewis. I am Autonomous Information Database V1.4B. You may refer to me as Auto if it is easier.”

Auto gestured towards David’s hand before continuing,

“I thank you for the offer David, but I have two working hands with functioning digits and am unsure of the viability of reverse augmentation.”

It seemed that Auto believed David had been offering his hand as a gift - perhaps believing that Auto needed a new hand. This was, clearly, not what was happening. Human - and more generally, societal mannerisms were stored by time period, but not actively included into Auto’s conscious AI. Due to that, Auto tended to be entirely clueless how to conduct himself in social situations.

 

“An AI, Huh?” It had only dawned upon David that Auto thought a handshake was him offering his hand. He let out a chuckle, that slowly turned into a laugh. “For someone who is a database of information, You seem to be pretty aloof. I wasn’t offering my hand. I was requesting a handshake.” David withdrew his hand after explanation.

“I’m sure I don’t need to retread old ground, but it’s just how we sometimes greet new people, could be for business, or acquaintances. So Auto, what brings you here? Do you eat what humans do, or do you just Recharge?” His own curiosity was greater than his own self preservation or boundaries.

Lewis walked back to his booth seeing that Auto and David were getting along, he just continued to eat.

 

Auto checked his database for a moment before responding to David. Unfortunately, accessing his database took a fair bit of Auto's limited processing power, hence his lack of everyday knowledge.
"Ah..yes. Handshake. I understand."
At that realization, Auto somewhat forcibly took David's hand and shook it somewhat too vigorously and tightly, before continuing on.

"I am unsure of the purpose of your inquiry, but my self preservation sub-routine has not flagged this information so I suppose it is deemed non-important. I have come to this establishment to collect a paycheck that I may or may not be owed. Apparently I worked here for some amount of time...although I'm not particularly sure what I did here. I do not know how to make tacos."

Auto doubled back after realizing he had missed a question.

"I do not require organic nourishment. I require electrical charge and periodic battery maintenance. At current I am operating at 78 percent efficiency. I will require battery maintenance within the next few weeks."

Auto looked David up and down, noting the cuts and scrapes on his fingers, evident of someone who worked with their hands.

"I apologize for the intrusive question David, but, by chance, are you familiar with Lithium Polymer batteries? They tend to degrade over time but finding the lithium to rebuild my battery with has become increasingly difficult.."

Auto noted to himself that a lot of this difficulty came from the simple fact that his battery was entirely outdated for much of the technology on his body, and barely supplied him with enough power to function. Due to this weak battery, his programming regularly disabled what it considered non-essential functions - one of which was Auto's conscious memory, considering his database and ability to record priority over all else. However, Auto's battery was nearly 200lbs, and finding the materials to continually rebuild his constantly degrading battery every few months was soon to be his death sentence, unless upgraded. This was not a procedure Auto could perform on himself.

 

OOT: It...is...alive!!

Socrates, clearly not expecting such a response, took a moment to process what had just happened before turning to Florence.
"Doctor?"
Florence had already started working on another project, assuming that the situation with David was well in hand. He was visibly disgruntled at the interrupted.
"What is it?"
"David was...less than cooperative. It seems he does not recognize this unit as an authoritative figure.
Florence shook his head and sighed.
"Ugh, tell me about it. He doesn't recognize this unit-- er, me as an authority either. But he's still coming in, right?"
"Negative, doctor. Additionally, he instructed me to relay an order to you."
Florence slammed his hands on the table
"An order for me?!"
Socrates replayed the moment in question from his recent conversation.
"Sorry, tell him to call me himself if he needs something. Also tell him to fire the trouble employees while you’re at it."
"I'M GONNA RIP YOUR THROAT OUT!!"
"Please do not resort to violence. Additionally, if I may offer a rebuttal, I have no throat to rip out."
"What? No! I wasn't talking to you, I was talking about David. Come on, how did you not pick up on that?"
"Apologies, Dr. August. I am merely 5 days old."
"Oh, sure, break out that excuse why don't you."
With a frustrated groan, he activated phone mode on his robotic arm. Yes, it does have a built-in phone, why would you even ask? Soon after, the phone began to ring.
"He'd better pick up. Ooh, that insolent wretch! I should have his head!"

 

David was intrigued by Otto, He seemed to have vast knowledge that was inaccessible, even the fact he was sentient enough to acknowledge it was beyond comprehension, he figured at 78% Power at all times it was only enough to keep vital functions alive, but he clearly had more to him than meets the eye, unfortunately when David went to respond to him, Otto had Powered down.

David felt his phone vibrating again, Florence seemed to have gotten the message, He could only imagine how upset he was going to be when he told his AI to bugger off but none the less he didn’t care. He picked up the call with a hearty “Hello Florence!” He cared little for how he was going to feel about him or what he did. “I got a strange call from a spambot claiming to be your assistant, I thought Sarah? Or was It Laura? Who was your assistant I never heard of a robot named Socrates, unless that was a new project of yours, you should have told me. But for future reference, I don’t talk to AI’s especially on my days off.”

David walked back to the booth holding the phone in his hand, he put a headphone in and let Florence talk as he set up a towing service to pick up Otto and bring him back to his house, the entire house was a wireless charger so Otto would have felt right at home there. when he looked out the window he saw a girl helplessly pick things up and Lewis already made his way towards her.

Lewis was quick to get up and walk out to go help the lady, Though he might be getting called old and ornery when she sees what he looks like. Before he said anything he just started helping her pick up her documents, he figured it would make more sense for her to process what was going on once they finished he stood up and spoke.

“Hey, I’m Lewis, my friends call me Old Man, I may look old but believe it or not I’m only in my mid twenties, I lost the genetic lottery you could say.” He let out a chuckle. He wasn’t trying to flirt with her just making friendly conversation. “Where were you headed in such a rush? With this delay you probably won’t make it, that biker also probably made things more inconvenient.”

Lewis didn’t know what else to say to her since she was clearly distraught. “Anyway, I can leave if you don’t want to talk to anyone” he said before she could say anything.

 

Florence grit his teeth, his growing anger showing clearly in his expression and tone of voice.
"Damn it all, how many times have I told you to address me as Dr. August?!"

"Well, you'll talk to that one because it WAS my newly-minted robotic assistant! He's a work of art, a marvel, a grand creation to put all other robot assistants to shame!"
At that moment, Socrates chimed in with an all-too-familiar Austrian accent.
"My CPU is a neural-net processor. A learning computer."
Florence groaned as he smacked his forehead.
"He's...still got a few bugs to work out. But you can't rush pure genius, of course! Anyway, the point is, you'd better make an exception to your "not answering the phone for AIs" rule because I'm sick of wasting my precious time and energy telling you to stop being such a lazybones! I didn't start my own company just to spend my days corralling employees like a herd of rabid cats!"
Once again, Socrates "helpfully" spoke up.
"Correct. You started your own company because your previous employer fired--"
"ENOUGH OF THAT! In fact, delete that little factoid from your memory bank!"
Socrates looked down, clearly disappointed in himself.
"Apologies, Doctor. Playing appropriate music file."
"Wait, no, I thought I deactivated that subroutine--!"
"Don't you remember you told me you loved me, baby?
You said you'd be coming back this way again, baby."
"STOP THAT!"
"Apologies, Doctor."
Florence, rubbing the bridge of his nose, turned his attention back to David.
"Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that you need to tread carefully or YOU'LL be one of those "trouble employees" that you so rudely told me to get rid of! I will not let this company descend into anarchy and buggery!"
"Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - MASS HYSTERIA!"
"Damn it, again with the movie quotes?! Look, just...don't let it happen again, David! And if it really is your day off, then...I don't know, have a nice day off I suppose. Socrates! Double-check the calendar and see if it's David's day off!"
"Processing."

 

David wasn’t lying about it being his day off, funny enough, he had actually already been into work, he did a morning shift knowing he would get called in for mid day. Though he notoriously ignored his normal working hours the reason Florence never fired him is because he was already cleaning the messes of the other staff. David spoke up for a moment.

“Socrates, While you’re at it. Check the worklog, see the completed tasks for the day, and also. Look in your databank, you will notice quite a large upgrade of knowledge you may not have known you had.” David always went above and beyond for Florence, because in spite of his rather eccentric attitude, he could recognize his worth.

“Anyway, Florence” he knew he hated his employees saying speaking to him like chaps while he was on the clock. “Back to what I was saying about those trouble employees. How many messes do I have to fix before they will be fired? I’m not the strongest with programming, as you already know. But I am better than these sideshow clowns you hired.” David just hated most of the coworkers he had, but in most cases he was always cleaning up their mess.

“As a total aside, the Old Man and I are gonna be hanging at my place as usual, When you get off work if you want to hang or need an upgrade let me know, as usual free of charge.” He paused for a moment. Looking out the window towards Lewis seeing him talking to a female. “There also might be a lady over tonight. I however want to show you something I brought in for you to marvel over. It is quite an impressive AI, dated, but better than most modern tech” though it seemed like Otto was just a pile of junk he could recognize it’s true genius.

Lewis smiled, it was the first time in a long time he wasn’t called a creepy old man when meeting someone new. Instead it was a compliment. He shook her hand promptly and gently, she probably felt that his hands felt old too.

“I wish my hair was the most of my concerns about this body.” He let out a hearty laugh, when he noticed she was more augmented than him he was barely surprised. “Looks like you got luxury augments, I got a ton of augments but that was just to live comfortably.” He paused for a moment then turned to taco time.

“Why don’t you come in and have a meal with my friend Jesus? He is the brains of the two of us, I’m sure you’ll like him, just... He might ask you some rather personal questions, don’t be offended by them, he just likes knowing people.” He motioned for her to follow as he began to walk.