Sunday, April 14, 2013

104: Maya Undo

ENTRY 104: Maya Undo

Oldthink psychology and spirituality liked to breakdown the human ego, to posit different divisions of mind and soul—id, ego, superego, ka, ba, oversoul, conscious and unconscious, &c. These were frameworks grasping at a self-perpetuaing organization of data, a continuous consciousness aware of itself that arose from and fed back into an organic system they did not even begin to comprehend. For some people, the concepts helped—crude tools from which psychosurgeons and neurochemists fashioned finer theories—but in this day and age it’s dangerous to take such concepts literally.

In another life, Maya Undo had a different name and a whole host of labels she called herself by; she remembers that much. She was considered a berdache, two-spirits, man and woman in one, and that left her conflicted as to her identity, the role she was raised to play, what she wanted for her self and her community. There are a lot of coulda-woulda-shoulda-beens on what Maya did next; gender reassignment, psychosurgery, and rebellion generally top the list. Instead, Maya Prime decided to cut that second spirit right out. Two forks, heavily pruned—one to live her life, and the other to become Maya Undo. Then right before she committed ego-death, Maya Prime egocast that “bad” fork as far away as she could.

So Maya came into being fully-formed but not sound of mind. Maya Prime had seen fit to unload more than her lesbian inclination and a butch attitude; Maya Undo came into being with all the bad memories and little things that simmered underneath the surface. She knew her family from all the slights and insults and cold silences they’d shown her, but none of the love and good times; her first boyfriend exists only as a confused collection of bumbling, invasive encounters that left her sore, violated and unsatisfied. Her inheritance from the old Maya was all the questions and all the doubt she had ever known, all the opportunities she’d missed, all the secrets she’d burned to keep, and all the shame and tears.

So maybe it’s no surprise that Maya Undo is a bit of a mess, but she’s strong too. She makes the art that old Maya Prime never could; rises above the dark past that is her inheritance.

COG
COO
INT
REF
SAV
SOM
WIL
MOX
15
13
15
13
10
14
15
-

Morph: Infomorph
Skills: Academics: Gender Studies 35, Art: Electronic Media 55, Art: Electronic Music 55, Deception 35, Hardware: Electronics 45, Impersonation 45, Infiltration 50, Infosec 36, Interests: Experimental Music 65, Interfacing 52, Intimidation 3, Kinesics 40, Language: Native Cherokee 85, Language: English 55, Networking: Autonomists 50, Networking: Firewall 55, Networking: Hypercorps 45, Perception 50, Profession: DJ 50, Profession: VJ 50, Profession: Music Producer 45, Programming 40, Research 33
Advantages: Allies (Support Group), Pain Tolerance (2)
Disadvantages: Addiction (Narcoalgorithms, Moderate), Edited Memories, Mental Disorder (Androphobia), Neural Damage (Mood Swings), Social Stigma (AGI)

Using Maya Undo

Maya is a broken bird, and she knows it. Her personal history, what there is of it, is a disaster; she’s left a string of broken hearts behind her because she has trust issues; and her head is full of bad memories that color her reactions. The thing is, she is actively trying to rise above what she was—she is afraid of men, but she knows that is not because men have done anything bad to her, but because all of the memories she got from Maya Prime are bad ones. So while she may instinctively shy from male characters, she will work with them. As a friendly NPC, Maya is a good contact in the music and media scene, and a Firewall stringer that can provide local intel or even backup hacker support in a pinch. As an antagonist, Maya’s past will probably drive her actions; for example Maya Undo could hire the PCs to help track down her “sister” fork, or that Maya could ask the PC’s help in putting an end to Maya Undo’s harassment and intrusion into her life, or because Maya Undo holds some vital piece of information that Maya Prime knew. If either of the Mayas go off the rails, they could target the other for a forced reintegration to get back the memories they’re missing.

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