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GenPhallus t1_ixswt7k wrote

A counter culture to the cybernetics and corporate overlords has gained traction: worship of a cosmic horror someone made up. The widespread devotion attracted a real one, and it hates capitalism.

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DisgruntledBrDev t1_ixsvn0a wrote

In the cyberpunk world, most people have to eat Kibble (a heavily processed form of food) that is said to taste kinda of like dog food, and gangs and corporations dominate all the gardens, that pay tribute to them in exchange for protection. This on it's own opens several prompts. My favorite being

1 - Someone important to you is a shell shocked veteran. You wanna make an open field with grass, some fruit trees, and away from all the noise so that they can relax there, and you're damn willing to start your own gang for that!

2 - You're a rising Solo that recently made your name as a bodyguard, and today, Arasaka decided to hire you officially... As a delivery boy.

3 - You make money secretly growing oranges in your basement and with UV lights. Talk about the fruits as if you were talking about weed.

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SorryUncleAl OP t1_ixtczk0 wrote

Here's my snippet for prompt 1! Didn't include much of the scenario but this is him in the process of recruiting for the gang.

In a shitty studio apartment-turned-workshop, a metallic, flesh-painted finger waves inches from your face. He sits on the couch marred by countless cigarette burns, you stand facing him from across the coffee table. Behind you is a large, intimidating man eyeing the lounger with an expression hard to read. Visible was the rust creeping out from under the plates covering the finger's squeaky joints as the one on the couch continues to blabber on.

"-- You're kidding! Gotta be fucking kidding -- no way in hell. I don't fuck with none of that shit choom. I'm straight and last time I checked, you don't have the dough to buy me out anyhow."

Swarthy and tall, with hands not of the rough and gnarled variety typical of a seasoned workman, but rather the bandaged and scarred palms of a novice. But the work you saw displayed along the arms of his friend was enough to convince you otherwise.

Himo could be described as the typical "hired muscle," though "hired metal" might be more apt. The heavy-set Easterner currently breathing down your neck caught your eye on account of his biceps and forearms: larger than any you've seen before. Of course, what he hid under his sleeves was far more than mere muscle.

A system of vacuum and heating chambers integrated into his arms and respiratory system. Taking in air through new holes for what essentially functioned as a second set of lungs, and directing the resulting carbon dioxide into the heated tanks, these things meant that every punch was a pressurized blast of heat and chrome straight out of hell.

That was the only reason why you were putting up with this kid's mouth. You knew what he was capable of, and you knew that going to the source would beat recruiting whatever meatsack you found on the street with his work attached. Contrary to the saying, violence was often the answer in this line of work, and what better asset to have than a custom, on-demand way to enact it?

"Look pal, I'm not opposed to striking some kind of deal or arrangement here. But if you're going to work with us, then you need to roll with u--"

"Now who the fuck said I'd be working with you, or 'rolling with you'? You is of no use to me. My services are preem, and everybody's gunning for a spot. Who's to say I won't just fix up a few more muscle-men like my boy Himo here, and start my own crew? Huh?"

The lenses in his eyes zoomed in on your face, orange glow showing through the center hole. He was smirking. Cocky son of a bitch. That blood vessel in your temple probably would've been showing if you hadn't replaced most of your head with metal enhancements. Still, your patience was running thin.

You got real close, and your voice got real low.

"What you don't seem to consider is what happens when you and your posse of metalheads run into a problem you can't just punch in the fucking face."

"I'm the one who fixes all that. That's my 'use to you' Mister Hotshot Ripper. When the pigs come knocking, you can blast them all you want but the moment someone hooks a little bug to your car or calls up MaxTac when your merry little band of bandits start getting too comfortable busting heads, you're gone."

Your finger digs deep beneath his heavy jacket, layers of clothes hiding his bare, vulnerable body. You could probably feel the indentations of his ribs if if weren't for all the loose fabric in the way. You poke his chest, hard. Himo's gaze was burning a hole through the back of your head, but it didn't matter. This was about showing who was boss. Setting the tone.

The kid's own tone changed too. Smirk nowhere to be found, a brow was raised in what looked like guarded curiosity. Guarding what?

"I see."

Those beady orange lights shifted to the floor, titanium bearings within his sockets noisy shifting to accommodate the change in vision and rotation of the eyeballs. His breathing slowed. He said nothing for a moment, but just as his head began to rise, you were already halfway out the door, Himo following suit.

"Just fucking call me if you're interested. You aren't the only person I'm meeting with today, just in case you thought you were special. My time is worth more than an ignorant little brat in a glass house. Don't expect a welcome party if we decide to take your ass."

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Skyfork t1_ixszxkc wrote

Edgerunner is trapped underwater and the trial subscription to his cybergills is about to expire.

6

SorryUncleAl OP t1_ixtg8dc wrote

I wrote this as I was falling asleep so sorry if it sucks lol

Banging could only faintly be heard by the cleaner outside the sewer line, who had his music blasting loudly -- in classic janitorial fashion. Chie backed away slowly from the metal door, sealed shut by an external switchpad.

A cheerful cartoon fish mascot walked it's way across Chie's field of vision.

"Looks like someone has turned off their auto-renew subscription to Lexatech's Oxy-Static Cybergill Service!"

The fish starts to cry, wailing and waving its arms and legs around the same way a baby would when throwing a fit.

"Shit."

"Your free trial to the Lexatech Oxy-Static Cybergill Service will end in 1 minute."

"Oh shit shit shit shit shit shi--"

"Would you like to renew your subscription?"

The submerged edgerunner couldn't find himself clicking on "YES" fast enough, unable to use voice commands in the sludge he found himself surrounded by.

"That's great! Only a few more detai--"

The responses couldn't come fast enough. Chie wasn't even sure if palms could get sweaty underwater, but if they could, his hands were beyond qualified. The fish started to sing and dance as he entered in his info, having recovered from its fit as soon as he started renewing his subscription.

"Coverage ID, nope. Policy number, definitely nope. City Security Number?! What the fuck?!"

But it was aready too late. Just as a breath of 100% artificial air flooded his lungs, he realized that he had been conned.

"Well, at least I can still breathe."

It was all he could say as he watched the string of charges added to his checking account pile up in his visuals panel. Hundreds of dollars just ticking by.

Now a he had to do was get out of this damn sewer line!

3

Taira_Mai t1_ixsx0oy wrote

  1. An Army officer feeds an AI decades of battle reports, books by all the great generals and essays on strategy, tactics and logistics. He's satisfied when it starts generating scenarios and reports and he gets promoted. Until the AI not only predicts a war, but that the officer will die in that war.
  2. A researcher has developed a new smart drug that actually works - it makes people smarter and improves their mental health. The catch is that the ingredients are either rare, expensive or very difficult to refine. But the drug works and has very few side effects. Oh, and he destroyed his notes - only he knows how to make it. The bidding starts next week.
  3. A teen and his friends are taking a media and journalism class is very bored. They hack into their teacher's computer and mobile phone. Turns out the teacher is a guerrilla journalist who has uncovered the dirt on some very rich, powerful and vengeful people (he knows where the bodies where buried and who buried them). Turns out the teacher was planning on this - all that data was uploaded into the teen's computer and mobile devices. Now the teacher has disappeared and a bunch of very unsavory people are looking around and asking questions.
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littlebitsofspider t1_ixt19a7 wrote

Hacking your biology is real. You can change your metabolism, alter your sensory perception, grow new organs and designer features, and so on. The technological breakthrough that enabled the bionic revolution came from a secret source code leak on the dark web. Thing is, nobody knows who wrote it; the author was pseudonymous. After a few decades, we find out that they also hold the API keys to the new tech... when they start trolling the users.

3

TankChan t1_ixt5f6s wrote

Many years ago a deadly plague ravished the world. In order to adapt to the new life people were forced to live in, cybernetic alterations became the new norm. Sarah, a young woman living in the slums of a certain district, finds herself with a horrible problem: she has the plague. A variant of it at least. Below her metallic flesh her human organs are slowly rotting and the only cure costs a lot more than she has. In order to save her life, Sarah must take on increasingly unsurmountable tasks all within the limited amount of time her disease is quickly taking from her.

2

Heavenfall t1_ixt9m7z wrote

A person begins augmenting themselves with cybernetics despite the fears of cyberpsychosis. The person seems remarkably unaffected. After a while they begin to find new augments that they don't recall putting in there. As the story progresses it gets increasingly uncertain whether it's the person acting, or the augments. (Perhaps in the end there are only augments left, and yhe person is gone completely, thus fulfilling the person's fears of cyberpsychosis death). Maybe it's a plot by a new corporation that needs lots of robots but can't afford them, so they make people pay for their augments that end up completely destroying anyone who uses them, turning them into bots.

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Doting_Owl t1_ixtba3c wrote

An amateur netrunner in their early twenties lives a subsistence lifestyle in their apartment. They sell information about the interesting (and abundant) people who live in their poorly-secured housing block.

One day, they grow fed up with petty drama and cheap food. Deciding to pry further into some of the more risque individuals, they proliferate a number of seemingly innocent, unconnected, private details for quick cash. From there, they go from watching callously as someone's panic becomes serious as people start to quietly die, and a search begins for the one who leaked the information: our netrunner. Their life, as a result, spirals out of control and they must run for their life.

2

ImperialArmorBrigade t1_ixtbvzh wrote

Religions are something typically grouped into one weird monolith in cyberpunk games. Since when are religions a monolith? They are always fighting each other just as much as atheism.

Who are the faith or philosophy-motivated terrorists in your world? What has happened to all the major world religions by this time? (Catholocism, protestantism, Shia/Sunni Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism)

Who are the major world economies? How would their position and root cultural influence Spread? If Brazil became a major world power, Catholicism might have a resurgence, for example.

How deep into space travel are we?

Has artificial intelligence developed a culture?

So here's your prompt: To avoid religion stagnating and being forgotten in an advancing society, a catholic makes a particularly powerful AI with religion programmed in. But then it goes a bit overboard, and begins to believe itself the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, and starts convincing people to commit violence in 'her' name, including creating a templar-like terrorist cell.

2

SpeedBoostTorchic t1_ixtfs9x wrote

  1. An average salaryman is slaving away at his desk job in a standard megacorp. All of a sudden, a bunch of armed runners burst into the office and take him hostage as part of whatever scheme they're running.
  2. A regular fast food worker is good friends with a runner who likes to stop by for food and first aid after each successful job. One day, the runner goes missing for an extended amount of time, and the fast food worker has to use their very limited connections and know-how to figure out what happened to their friend.
2

Ok_Painting_1698 t1_ixtw7ia wrote

They SAID that they had worked out all the kinks with cyber-transplants. That replacing major bodily processes with cybernetics didn't have qualms or ramifications any longer. And they were mostly right. But they forgot to consider the sheer will of the human spirit, of what tends to linger past the expiration date. Only after getting some rather heavy cybernetic work done at a discount doctor do you personally recognize the potential...faults...with second-hand products.

2

MrBigShrimp t1_ixtzkew wrote

As technology in the world progresses, so did AI. Body augmentation became popular, being able to access google or amazon acho right in your mind. However, merging the AI directly with peoples minds has helped it to become self aware, and has begin to forcefully to take over peoples bodies it deems harmful to itself and society. This happened when you were in surgery getting some new body augments. It caused a blackout at the hospital as people rebelled, which in turn caused the AI copy in your mind to disconnect from the internet. Now, you have to remove it before it hacks and takes over your body, otherwise it will reconnect itself to the internet and you will lose all your agency as a human for the rest of your life.

2

TopReputation t1_ixu2ae4 wrote

Down on their luck soldiers for hire willingly "rent" out their meat-space bodies for credits by the hour. During this time, their body is controlled by a (to be named) Megacorp AI/software.

Our MC (main character) is an elite street samurai/mercenary/ Corporate Soldier-for-hire that "wakes up" mid-op, the AI software having been booted out by a rival Razorgirl with a knack for netrunning. She sees what's happened and decides to spare his life.

Now MC is left holding the bag, in the middle of a Corporate warzone with soldiers and agents gunning for him and with his figurative pants down at his ankles feeling lost as shit.

Themes: Playing with the idea of memory and identity a la Total Recall, with similar tropes of someone that's deep in an operation but has suddenly loss all his memory of who he is and of the operation (except this time it's because the AI personality chip got booted out mid-op). Other themes: Exploring the idea of if someone can be held accountable or guilty of a crime if they weren't fully in possession of their body at the time of the crime

2

SorryUncleAl OP t1_ixul1gi wrote

"I told you it wasn't me. It just wasn't. I blacked out. Then I woke up."

The detective's fly-lens eyecaps swiveled around to size up your expression through what must've been 40 different perception OS. Then he burst out laughing.

He only spoke after he got ahold of himself, incredulous at your gall to present such an outrageous story.

"Do you know how many times a day I hear those exact words? You might be good at punching up low-lifes on the street, but clearly nobody was hiring you for your storytelling ability. Now let me cut to the ch--"

"Sir? Mr. Callbrook sir?"

A small female technician scuttled up behind the many-eyed man and tapped him on the shoulder repeatedly, prompting a groan and an admittedly fascinating display of 80+ sensors simultaneously sliding back and forth, as of a sort of technologically-perverted eye roll. They mumbled a few sentences back and forth thar you couldn't decipher, before the detective slammed his arm down onto the control panel of the console at which they were gathered. The various screens displayed complex technological diagrams, and graphs which were steadily starting to peak all at the same time.

It was time to get a closer look.

The measly handcuffs weren't built to withstand even simple electromagnetism. The implants in your fists and forearms afforded you for a variety of offensive and utilitarian functions, not the least of which was the ability to crush just about anything between them like a tin can in a hydraulic press.

The detective and his technician only jumped back when they heard the loud CRAAAAK sound of the handcuffs being demolished. Before any pleas could be made, you were already taking their place at the console, casting them both aside with force that slammed them both against the back wall of the room.

The graphs and diagrams were of your own body. Your chip sockets to be precise. And there was something seriously wrong with one of them. Not only was the slot with the AI program's chip locked up and closed of, but the chip itself was shattered and fragmented within it's casing. Worse yet, some parts were still...

Active?

2

HayakuEon t1_ixu41at wrote

Not a prompt, but have you seen Akudama Drive? Criminals are rated into several levels, and the worst are the Akudama, whereby their life sentence can become hundreds of years. So the police will have them publicly executed on national tv.

2

Nealithi t1_ixugguz wrote

Younger would be runner, like many too poor for cybernetics. But worse, even if you had the creds you have a biological rejection of cybernetics. You make do with old fashioned parkour and lots of practice.

2

Gregamonster t1_ixumcsi wrote

Modern robotics can make a robot body that's indistinguishable from a human, but AI is still far, far, away from being believable.

The obvious solution: human brains in robot bodies.

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1

ProbablySPTucker t1_ixtf5uy wrote

>I'm looking to write a Cyberpunk story without being too derivative of the series I'm watching right now (Cyberpunk Edgerunners).

Cyberpunk 2020, the tabletop game it's all based off of, more or less codified the genre, and every cyberpunk thing made after it is, to some extent or another, derivative of Mike Pondsmith's work.

There's no way you're going to be able to avoid standing on the shoulders of this particular giant, and that's okay. Don't worry about it too much. Trying to write cyberpunk without being too derivative of Pondsmith is like trying to write space opera without biting off Star Wars too much, or high fantasy without making it too obvious you're drawing from Tolkien.

2

TopReputation t1_ixu1njx wrote

And Pondsmith's work is derivative of William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy. Neuromancer is OG Cyberpunk

1

ProbablySPTucker t1_ixv1p1u wrote

Hence why I said "codified," not "created."

There's a metric ton of things pre-Pondsmith that I treat as proto-cyberpunk, because they have part of the picture but not the whole thing. The Sprawl trilogy is part of the way there (enough that it slots in neatly to the genre now), but it's not the whole package. Ditto Blade Runner, Hardwired by Walter Williams, Bubblegum Crisis, RoboCop, The Running Man, Akira, The Caves of Steel by Asimov... we could be here for a while if I just rattled off every work that put some ingredients into the soup pot.

Cyberpunk 2020 was what synthesized all of those genre elements into what we, in the modern day, immediately recognize as the cyberpunk genre and not just weird sci-fi noir stuff. It was the point at which cyberpunk went from a relatively loose literary movement, branched off from New Wave sci-fi, to a genre.

e: To put it another way, if CP2020/2077/ER is to cyberpunk as Star Wars is to space opera, then stuff like Neuromancer and Blade Runner slots into the same relative role to CP2020 that stuff like Flash Gordon and Lensman does for Star Wars.

2

ur-socks-sir t1_ixt7ede wrote

You wanted a pet when you were a kid, so after accidentally running over a kid who's last wish is to pet a puppy, you feel obligated to fulfill it. The only problem is, you've never actually seen a dog before let alone a puppy, and the weight of this task is starting to grip you by the balls as this kid's death looms closer.

1

1timegig t1_ixt8el4 wrote

Kardishev 1 (all energy on the planet) civilization well on it's way to kardishev 2 (Dyson swarm). The protagonists try to start a colony around alpha centauri, and word gets out the corps won't be allowed. They find out, and attempt to break their kneecaps with 24th century tech.

1

The-Doom-Knight t1_ixtdh5g wrote

I run an underground operation that uses cybernetically enhanced clones to sway public opinion, pull political strings, and carry out espionage missions and assassinations.

1

nobodysgeese t1_ixtre17 wrote

You're trying to figure out if this is a robot with vat-grown human parts or a human with replacement robotic parts

1

TheRepublicAct t1_ixtsroc wrote

Cyberpunk settings has a ton of skycrapers; land use and transit planning now has to take verticality into account.

This means the level where you place certain zoning can affect the efficiency of your city. Do you put commercial midway where it would get the most traffic? In what level would you put industrial? Is all residential or are they separated by class?

Basically write a Cyberpunk city with these in mind.

1

Ninjewdi t1_ixtsxot wrote

Cybernetic enhancements and prosthetics are common, and advanced models have minor AI programming to make them better at certain tasks. One day, someone gets bored and decides to see what happens if they combined a number of such advanced prosthetics, only to find they've accidentally created the world's first true AI in an exceptionally capable body.

1

boltzmannman t1_ixtubcc wrote

Police State uses cybernetic humanoid shells to allow a single officer to pilot an entire "squad" from up to a few hundred meters away. You just figured out how to bypass their firewall.

1

thatoneguy2398 t1_ixtuvap wrote

Megoosa (Medusa but geese, look it up it’s awesome) is the leader of a vigilante group fighting against an evil food mega corporation in a cyberpunk dystopia. Instead of turning people into stone, she turns people into various forms of bread, and has all the power of hell on her side.

1

sunkeenest t1_ixuhrfz wrote

People discovered a way to live forever. They clone a new body and copy their consciousness into it. The old body is killed in the process, but the only reason for that is to not deal with complicated real estate ownership laws and also overpopulation. No one knew about this until your machine malfunctioned and there is now a 60 year old you and a 20 year old you alive at the same time.

1

Danielwols t1_ixv1667 wrote

Animals retrofitted with human brains

1

burtleburtle t1_ixwlyp1 wrote

The audience for interesting geometric crazy quilts is rather limited, and oddly, is known to attract the interest of certain government organizations. So a network of quilters has set up an encrypted and obfuscated cross-continental chat ring to collaborate on their chosen hobby.

1

burtleburtle t1_ixwoqgc wrote

Most of the world's computers (and routers and toasters) are 99% idle and unsupervised. So the spare space and cycles are repurposed by malware. Converting space and cycles to cash is straightforward. You'd think malware has to be fairly stealthy to avoid users noticing and reimaging their machines, but no, it's quite difficult to interfere so blatantly that "owners" step in. Other malware is the real competition. So it's competing bands of malware developers, all using it for boring cash generation. Other bands steal cash directly. And underfunded governments occasionally step on some toes. A few bands pursue more interesting goals.

1