The Electric Archipelago (WIP)

Chapter 11: Cheap

Lights glare off of the rain-soaked asphalt so that I am almost blinded if I look downward. The children of the night are undeterred by the recent downpour. They ducked under awnings or into shops, playing around on their IC's while they waited it out. Now they are out on the walkways again.

A biomechanical woman struts along, getting as many looks of horror as of lust. A group of young men in green and black lad shirts are being followed by a police drone. An anthropomorphic dog jokingly barks at a cat girl Kawaiichen with a set of cute little ears on top of her head. She hisses back at him playfully, the exchange causes a few pedestrians to cheer, laugh, and mockingly call for a fight.

I need a safe, private place to conduct a detailed search of the data. There is a Charles Fauré owned motel that isn't too far away. It is a cheap little place for wayward lovers and degenerates. It isn't that far away, but the walk is still long and lonely. I love her, but I don't want to. It is a horrifying realization.

I pay the Water Certificates, which completely drains that account. The big fat zero is a reminder of why I'm doing this.

The place is cheap, but it doesn't look it. Fauré has truly mastered the art of making the lowbrow seem luxurious. The first thing that I notice is that the doors are the old kind, the ones that move on hinges. It is a place for illicit meetings, both criminal and sexual. In the halls shady characters and covert lovers walk silently, eyes glued to the floor. I do the same, I am just another freak that is up to no good, same as you, nothing to see here.

I reach the room, it is small and lightly decorated, it is what it needs to be and nothing more. I inspect the bed with learned caution before sitting down on it. I scan the drive with every virus detector I have at my disposal, better safe than sorry. As the programs do their job, I stare at the drive unsurely. Do I really want to do this? Do I want to see inside the mind of someone like Mason?

The answer is yes. But the question isn't even an accurate one, because his IC isn't his mind. I will be looking at his personal assistant, his internet searches, his notes.

The programs are done, the drive is safe. The drive is safe, but I just sit there looking at it apprehensively. I get an idea, a way of finding out more about Goëtia.

I go online, my IC sending my awareness racing across cyberspace, exposing my soul to its wonders and horrors. I go to the places that focus on body modifications. He is a Burabō man, so I assume that he got his body from them. Their version of the internet is a bit too polished for my taste, but at least it isn't the Alpha Prime net.

I fire up my bots, sending them to forums and comment sections and testimonials. While I wait, I try to get a handle on the Burabō body mod scene in general. Alpha doesn't do body mods, docks your Social Credit heavily for having them. Echo only lets you get the ones that they want you to get. Charles Fauré lets you go wild. Charles Fauré doesn't care if you show up one day as a member of the opposite gender. Charles Fauré doesn't care if the guy watching the janitorial robots has the body of a fantasy creature or if the woman that monitors the guard drones is a metallic gynoid. The only thing that concerns them is that you used one of their clinics to get your work done. Délta and Burabō tend to do milder stuff, with Délta focusing on practical modifications; but both companies will go into heavier territory if you have the tokens or dollars.

The searches for claws bring back a disturbing number of results, the ones for white fur and scales make me worry just as much. If the things that I have seen in the real world are what people spend time and money becoming, what do they get up to in the zero-consequence world of VR?

The search is a journey into madness and the darkest depths of human depravity. I am loving every second of it. I don't care what the Pee Bees say, let people get the bodies that they want, for good or ill. I want to see how far people are capable of going. I want to see the insanity that we are able to achieve.