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 Has this ever happened to you? You're standing at the counter of a local StufferShack™, paying for your slurp-ee and soy-slopies, and you hear the roaring of engines as an entire contingent of Halloweeners come pulling into the parking lot. Before you can say anything, you're standing next to Harry Hardcore who's decked out with the most outrageous looking cyberware you can imagine. You're wondering if it's really blood that courses through his veins, or if it might be hydraulic fluid. His eyes are replaced with bulky looking lenses that make slight whirring noises as they focus and refocus on the soda and crackers he has in his hand as he stands there waiting in line. Oh, and his hand; not a single digit on his hand hasn't be cybered and chromed. I swear, some people make it into an artform. The chrome of his cyberarm can be seen running all the way up to his shoulder, where the orthoskin is crudely stretched over the metal, fastened with nails to keep it in place. Odd, almost Islamic geometric designs have been edged into the surface of the metal, decorating it all the way up to the elbow joint. Small hydraulic pumps run along the bicep, connected to the lower arm, and on the inside of the arm small plugs are available for the diagnostic unit that undoubtedly came with it. To top it all off, the chummer has a datajack hammered into the side of his temple, and it must've been a recent job because the skin around it was still enflamed and irritated, and of course the mandatory, never-leave-home-without-it, implanted headware cellphone bolted to the side of his head, behind his left ear. All in all, it looks...Frankensteinian.
Under these circumstances the average Jane and Joe will be intimidated, and they will consider such heavy body alterations and modifications unsavory, unhealthy and in very bad taste. They see the use for, say, a datajack, or perhaps a chipjack, but for the majority of people heavy cybernetic modifications is something for thugs and criminals, or police and military people...not for the average citizen. And even those people that are expected to sport cybernetic modifications are looked upon with suspicion. Many people have followed the debates and research into cyberpsychosis and though all of the legal cybermods are FDA approved people still notice the difference in attitude and interaction between someone who is heavily jacked. The disapproval, contempt and fear is even heightened if the wearer seems to sport their modifications like a fashion accessory, flaunting what they have, showing it off, being proud of it.
The last thing someone will be able to comprehend is a person having perfectly good eyes removed in order to be able to see in the dark. Or having their arms chopped off only to have them replaced by cold steel. Many people who lose their limbs in an accident and are fortunate enough to have them replaced by cybernetic replacements are looked upon with pity, seeing only the dread of the cyberlimb and not the fact that the wearer is now able to walk again.
The Genetic Purity Council
With this social stigma still firmly in place, there are people who take their distaste for cybernetic modifications rather far. Usually in the upper and upper-middle class of society, these people form protest groups and lobbies against what they perceive to be another sign of moral decay as people take one step further away from humanity - and with that, of course, compassion, sympathy and a bunch of all the other proper human traits. Some of these people form policlubs with much of the same sort of goals as any of the anti-metahuman or ethnic policlubs that exist.
One such group is a bunch of swanky, wealthy Seattle up-towners, that go by the name of "The Genetic Purity Council". They have a very strong political lobby, working on the other side of Lake Washington, in the Bellevue district, whose goal it is to "raise awareness among the ill-informed about the neurological and psychological damages done through invasive cyber-surgery." Their strength, mostly lies in the fact that they are wealthy, and can throw money at just about every problem.
The word on the street is that they have already been accredited a number of cyber-clinic bombings and sabotages. Their work reminds me of the late 20th century anti-abortion pro-lifers. Picketing in front of clinics, threatening, harassing and kidnapping cyber-surgeons, bombing and sabotaging clinics, etc. There is also a rumour going around that many of their members are doing their part simply for thrills.
>>>>>[I ran into one of these motherfuckers. Or rather, ex-motherfuckers. His name was Sabbacatus St. Aubens, a rich kid - son of Romulus St. Aubens of the St. Aubens Prosperity Group in Seattle - and he was a completely nutball. They've got a profile on this guy here, take a look here. He started threatening me one day after he had lost a couple of thousand of nuyen on betting against me in a fight, telling me I was impure and disease-ridden. He had me followed, he had me kidnapped, and if it wasn't for the fact that I managed to escape, I'm sure he would've had me killed, too.]<<<<<
· Tempered Steele [18-06-2003 / 09:16:23]
>>>>>[I also remember, once you got away, a van driving up in the middle of nowhere, opening the double backdoors, and a troll hosing down the car Sabaccatus was in with a machinegun. You wouldn't know nothing about that, would you?]<<<<<
· Maximilian [18-06-2003 / 12:01:17]
On The Street
When walking the streets in downtown Seattle, you will probably get away with sporting a little cyberware. People don't look up anymore when someone has a data- or chipjack, or even a pair of cybernetic modifications to the eyes - straight replacements is still right out with the masses, though - but as soon as the modifications become more apparent, like dermal plating, then you'll quickly gain the attention of the law-enforcement providers who will want to check your id and licenses for all the cyberware you're sporting. Of course, when you get higher grades of cyberware, you don't really have to worry too much about that. The more obvious, the more shit.
The more traditional or snobby people will probably have a hard time looking past the cyber, and will treat you differently. Usually their reaction is that "don't hurt me, here's my wallet, just don't hurt me" kind of reaction, or the "oh, just another gutterpunk" reaction. But there are those who are more at home with cybernetics and they will probably treat you a lot better than they would if you were without any mods. These people are either very at home amongst those with cyberware, have their own cyberware, or are in awe of those who do. So either way, the reactions you get are pretty extreme. In a few exceptional cases, people won't treat you any different. Which just goes to show that no matter who you are, you have to be very apathetic or unjudgemental not to have an opinion on cyberware.
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