253: Recess

ENTRY 253: Recess

“Youth, on your schedule, on your terms.”

- Recess viral advertising campaign

Many transhumans throughout history have tried to figuratively recapture or relive their youths; only now in the time of pods and resleeving can this actually be accomplished. Rejuvenation, resleeving into a younger cloned body, even a neotenic morph are available for those transhumans with the pull or the credits to feel young again—the supple body, the boundless energy, the smooth skin and fresh eyes. For those that cannot afford to be a child full-time of course, there is always Recess.

Situated on Gerlach, Recess is a collaborative role-playing environment where customers take command of neotenic morphs adapted as pods, puppet socking their charges and living vicariously through various scenarios, from a night with parents to a day at school. The most popular scenario is a literal infinite recess on a multi-microgravity level playground-city, where there are no “adult” morphs around, and only employees (either real neotenics or other puppeteers) to keep the peace and help make friends, leading activities like rival playtime gangs.

Specialist scenarios catering to more rarified tastes are also available, reproducing elements of childhood punishment and embarrassment, sexual encounters, and even an annual and quite brutal “child soldier” re-enactment which has appalled many and yet been lauded for accurately representing the physical and psychological trauma, thus discoursing its proliferation. Many habitats aware of these less-savory elements of Recess’ business have seen fit to limit their inhabitant’s access, but the permissive administration of Gerlach allows the business to continue so long as all egos enter into the process with full consent.

Using Recess

Recess is basically a good locale for letting PCs interact with neotenics and as neotenics, either by resleeving or puppeteering one of the available neotenic pods…and there is considerable reason to do so. Recess’ clients include hypermedia executives to burnt-out petal abusers, politicians with unpopular kinks and bored house-husbands, all eager to shed their old skins and experience life as children again. The distinction of neotenics is that while they may look like children, they are not—and nowhere is that quite so obvious as when a group of mature egos is piloting a group of childlike bodies in a three-story microgravity playground with no obvious supervision. Even outside of the “special scenarios,” violence (even sexual violence) is a possibility, and we’re not talking about Jhassa stealing Corban’s crayons… As always, the gamemaster should decide how visceral and gritty they want to play this at their own table; adults in the bodies of children can get as dark as an episode of CSI: Special Victims Unit, or be a relatively light frolic where people really do just act like kids, complete with tantrums and poor bladder control.

Seed

• A special “group enrollment” into the child soldier annual event has the management staff of Recess worried. The PCs are quietly approached and offered free enrollment passes (valued at up to 10,000 credits each) if they can track back the client. Doing so leads to a brinker community on the dark side of the Moon—who is using the virtual child soldier simulation to help train real child soldiers. If the PCs can obtain hard evidence (or sufficient testimony), then Recess will cancel the event and alert the lunar authorities.

195: The Forever Virgins

ENTRY 195: The Forever Virgins

The transition into space was anything but a smooth colonization designed to keep the multitude of Earth cultures intact, and many took to desperate measures to sustain their traditional practices. Whether those cultures were worth saving is another debate entirely, and one still being played out. Old arguments about whether one culture has the right to level moral judgments on another, or the cost to transhumanity should certain practices be allowed (or forced) to die out. But while different parties argue, some people still cling to the old ways…and someone, some specific individual, always pays the price.

Many cultures hold special consideration for virgins. They occupy a certain place in society, and are the subject of considerable status and desire; some assign superstitious benefits to sexual congress with a virgin, or hold virginity as a sexually desirable trait in a potential partner. Whatever the case, the demand for virgins among those seeking to preserve that part of their culture exceeded the supply—so a compromise was made, and a new flesh trade was created.

The Forever Virgins are specially-augmented neotenic morphs, designated as professional virgins to accommodate the needs of the culture-groups they serve. They are willing volunteers in their positions, though some may argue that they have agreed to these positions without consent. Depending on the culture involved, a virgin may occupy specific duties, have their virginity ritually “tested,” or be called upon to be sexually initiated according to the group’s customs. In some instances, this has led to Forever Virgins being ceremonially “sold” to “husbands” or “clients,” most notably in the Mizuage Project on Luna.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
15	13	15	10	10	8	13	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
5	1	26	5	52	30	6	45

Morph: Neotenic

Skills: Academics: Anthropology (their culture) 55, Animal Handling 50, Art: Dancing 46, Art: Singing 46, Interests: Art History (their culture) 55, Interests: Child Development 36, Kinesics: 65, Language: Native (their culture) 85, Language: ASL 60, Networking: Scientists (Anthropologists) 45, Perception 40, Persuasion 45, Profession: Virgin 55, Protocol (their culture) 65, Unarmed Combat 30

Implants:** Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Medichines*, Sex Switch

Traits: Edited Memories, Social Stigma (Neotenic)

* Modified version; the Forever Virgins “heal” normal sexual trauma, including restoring hymens and undoing the effects of circumcision or genital mutilation. The healing process triggers an automatic ego-pruning procedure in the cortical stack, removing from the ego the memories of the traumatic event.

** A minority of Forever Virgins are actually pods, with the Cyberbrain and Puppet Sock implants, designed to allow infomorphs to take part in coming-of-age ceremonies and the like.

Using the Forever Virgins

Sexual norms and unusual cultures are not fit for every game; before bringing the Forever Virgins into play at your table, please make sure that your players are mature enough to handle the concept…and be willing to abandon it if it looks like it’s going to be a serious fight-starter. That being said, here are recommendations for using the Forever Virgins.

The most obvious choice for Forever Virgins is just to present them unaltered as part of the background of an adventure—maybe a sect of brinkers trying to maintain their pre-Fall culture and “needing” virgins for certain tasks, maybe an anthropological project to sustain a certain cultural practice for further study. In this case, the PCs are exposed to the practice, allowed to ask questions, come to their own conclusions, and decide and debate how they feel about that…and maybe what to do about it. It is very easy for the Forever Virgin practice to resemble child prostitution or worse, even if the entire concept is carefully explained, and the PCs may well feel inclined to “rescue” the virgins. Whether this works or not is up to the gamemaster; remember there are no right answers and have fun.

The other alternative is to have an ex-Forever Virgin—a character who was a participant in that lifestyle, but escaped or was broken out of it. Such a character probably still struggles with issues related to their morph’s unique traits and their former social role, and may have the Real World Naïveté trait. A strong reason for Forever Virgins to “break” from their social role is if their memory programming fails for some reason, leaving them to remember repeated sexual initiations or genital mutilations. The mental stress alone from such memories can cause the character to develop any number of mental derangements and social hang-ups…or the character may be met several years later, having overcome that trauma and emerged as a self-assured, self-empowered character; a good NPC contact for deep insight into mental trauma or their “home” pocket-culture.

101: Prisoner of Youth

ENTRY 101: Prisoner of Youth

Fads don’t last. Every generation learns that the hard way. Clothes, vehicles, jewelry, philosophies, religions, politics, attitudes; those can all be discarded, tucked away, or changed as public opinion shifts, latches onto the ice-hot new thing. Technology is very fad-driven, dependent on the early rush of interest to generate wide adoption, spur development, get investors to throw their credits at you. Early adopters take on a lot of risks, and none moreso than those who put their faith and their resources into body modifications and morphs. It’s an old story: the dye job you couldn’t wait to grow out; the tattoo you got that was just an embarrassment later; those hologram dermal inlays on your eyelids that were all the rage for about two weeks before the basilisk hack hit people when they were sleeping… Fads hit morphs even harder. A body or a shell doesn’t quite come cheap or easy in most places; there’s too much infolife and not enough bods to go around.

Of course, that’s cold comfort if you’re born in one. Prisoner of Youth was a Luna kid just when neotenics was taking off like wildfire; their parents actually had to buy into a lottery for the procedure. Hypercorps were scouting the fetus in utero, promising scholarships and guaranteed contracts for smallships in the half-size colonies they were planning. By the time Prisoner of Youth hit full growth at six, the opportunities had dried up; the mass exodus from Earth meant there were too many full-sized bodies, no need to muck about with pint-sized habitats. So PoY didn’t get the world they were promised, the world they were built and trained for, a walking talking fashion disaster a decade out of date with the rest of the ‘verse. Others handled the transition better; immortal “child” models and actors and sex workers who could always find a market for what they were selling, but Prisoner of Youth knew they were meant for the stars, and that’s where they’ll be some day.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
18	17	18	16	14	12	16	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
7	1	32	6	64	30	6	45

Morph: Neotenic (Neuter)

Skills: Academics: Astrophysics 45, Academics: Physics 55, Deception 35, Fray 33, Free Fall (Microgravity) 67, Gunnery 55, Hardware: Aerospace 50, Infiltration 33, Infosec 45, Interests: Gatecrashing 55, Interests: Spacecraft 55, Kinesics 45, Kinetic Weapons 55, Language: Native Korean 90, Language: English 55, Language Japanese 50, Language Javanese 50, Language Swahili 45, Language Urdu 45, Navigation 80, Networking: Autonomists 35, Netowrking: Hypercorps 55, Perception 50, Persuasion 40, Pilot: Spacecraft 65, Profession: Navigation 60, Profession: Pilot 65, Unarmed Combat 30

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Medichines, Oracles

Advantages: Eidetic Memory, Hyperlinguist, Limber (1), Rapid Healer

Disadvantages: Morphing Disorder (3), Social Stigma (Neotenic)

Using Prisoner of Youth

Priz to friends, Poi to workmates, full name for formal situations. Prisoner of Youth looks about nine years old, in that androgynous way where primary sexual characteristics haven’t hit yet, and will remain looking terminally prepubescent for the rest of their life, no matter how much war paint they put on their face and arms, or how many beads they weave into the waist-length dreads that they wear. PoY isn’t precisely an adult in a child’s body, the genehacking that goes into neotenics is a lot more involved than that. They heal quick, like a kid, bouncing back from scrapes and even broken bones easier than an adult; and they’re bright like kids are at a certain age, picking up skills easily, but Prisoner has the attitude of a pissed off teenager whose physical reality denies them the opportunity to make full use of their skills. PoY faces discrimination as a fact of life, and will meet it head on when they perceive it; but give Prisoner a chance to shine as a space pilot or navigator and they’ll slip into the zone.