[ devin way, agender, they/them ] Look who just landed! AREN KNOX, I sure hope you packed all you need. Perhaps you’re not worried as PRIVATE SECURITY of THE OVERSEERS. The city has plenty of spots for a 32 year old CYBORG like you. You’ll be known in the city soon enough as THE GUARDIAN, being LOYAL and CYNICAL. ( zun, 29, PDT, removed for discretion )
00000 - - INTERVIEW INCOMING - - - 001
001101 1- - ARE you A LOCAL OF MARS OR HAVE you LANDED HERE RECENTLY? WHAT IS your OPINION OF THE CITY OF NEW JAKARTA? - 00011011
"Pretty recent transplant, actually. I'm not sure what all my personnel file says for you, but it's been a couple weeks now and I'm enjoying it." There was a pause before Aren remembered they were supposed to be 'open' and 'cooperative' with the authorities. "The gravity change was the hardest, but the company kitted me out with some weighted boots and everything's been golden since. I'm really liking the food scene here - I don't think I've cooked a single meal myself since touchdown."
They snapped their fingers lightly. "Oh, and when I was with a client - I was a new member of her detail, I actually got to go to the Tiny Temple y'all have - super cool with all those plants. I'm looking forward to a lot more sightseeing"
0101022 - - ARE you AWARE OF THE CRIMINAL CIRCUIT OF NEW JAKARTA? WOULD you BE WILLING TO INFORM THE OVERSEERS IF you SEE ANYTHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY? - 001200
Aren's eyes went sharp. A sharp curve in topics, but it made sense they wouldn't want to waste time with how many of these conversations happen in a day. "I was told there are places in the city that are more safe than others since it relates to my job. But everywhere has things like that. If you're talking about organized crime, I don't know any specifics, but again.... Where there are people, there are those who decide their goals outweigh the law." It would be stupid to admit that sometimes those people were right.
"There's a lot of novelty for me here, but with what I do, thorough and detailed reports of any incident are pro forma, even if I didn't have to take action myself." This was not the time or place to be testing waters, and his employer would NOT be pleased to hear they'd been spouting about the commonalities of the Golden Tears and the rich folks Aren guarded. Those kinds of politics might be true, but they certainly weren't welcomed.
000111311 - - HAVE you BEEN TESTED FOR ANY TRACES OF SIGHIR? HAVE your TESTS ON THE VIRUSES COME BACK CLEAN? - 0012133
"Immigration said I'll take my first test for SIGHIR at the four month mark, so I don't have that one yet. But I do have the results for when I came planet-side!" They pulled a crumpled pile of papers from their bag. "Uh, I think that's pear juice, sorry. Let me see.... Yep, here they are! Company policy on Mars is to submit test results every six months - if you don't, they won't connect you with any clients." Hopefully the interviewer didn't look too closely at the margins on the cyberpsychosis - it was getting better in the last year or so, but still much higher than the average 32 year old.
0113114 - - DO you HAVE ANYTHING TO DECLARE? WEAPONS, AUGMENTATIONS, MECHANICAL PARTS OR AI-RELATED APERTURE? - 0012444
Ah, they'd been expecting this one - it really was like going through customs all over again. "Okay, let me rattle off the list - been doing this a lot lately." Aren ticked off the list with their fingers. "Unmodified stungun and tranquilizer dart gun in my gun safe at home that I only use at the direction of my employers. A plasma cutter in one of the boxes I haven't unpacked, not as useful in the moving process as I was hoping." It was a bit of a skim of the full list that had already been tucked into the iron boxes embedded in the floors, but it had been made VERY clear that Aren would be hanging alone if those were found.
"Natural body was a bit fu- messed up from the get-go so there's a few Augs. I got my eyes done when I was pretty young, the doctors said it would be easier to recover if we didn't wait for my fifth birthday." Their parents insisted on visual scoping and sharpshooter level accuracy so that even the early days of training wouldn't be wasted. Adjusting to the infrared sensor and flash compensators had given them a headache for four months straight.
"I got my right ear done after a pretty nasty infection pretty soon after that - can never get the sensitivity quite right, my music always sounds lopsided." It was an old, well worn story, Aren had more than two decades practicing the details about the illness that never happened, their parents' good wishes and oh-so-difficult decisions. So now they could hear the people talking in the next room if they took even a partial second to redirect their focus, and the buzzing of the light above meant someone would need to replace the bulb soon. But the tip tapping of their fingertips kept the conversation in the forefront, so Aren continued.
"They also told my parents it'd be easier to get a respirator than a lung transplant, so I've got one of the ones that sit in your larynx. Don't remember what it's called sorry." The Tracheal Pneumobypass had been the one that really almost killed them at the age of twelve. But hey, now they could hold their breath for more than 25 minutes so not a single movement would disturb their shot's path to a target! Thanks, Mom and Dad...
"The left thumb lighter is the only one I got for just myself," they chuckled. "I'm a candle fan, and I was always misplacing my sparker." It had turned out more useful than expected as well - always having at least a small light source at any moment.
Aren held out their right hand to point out the various augments on the fingers and palm. "These ones I got for work, I checked the paperwork before I went under the knife, they all meet regulations. Got a palm scanner to machine-interface, there's a pen in the right index, small flashlight in the left, and I actually used to have a non-lethal sonic emitter when I did more dangerous defense work, but I was happy to get that one out, it made my hand so... Buzzy." It had been replaced by a defective signal jammer and luckily the failure recovery process was enough to keep the company from putting something else in. But hey, if the company footed the bills and kept paying them the way they had been, Aren had no complaints to voice.
The part the overseers wouldn't find in the medical records was what the employer had actually wanted - a skeleton key auto lockpick, fingerprint verifier, and a taser. The part their EMPLOYER wouldn't find out was that each of those had been removed under the radar prior to getting on the shuttle. It wasn't worth it to get caught with unauthorized tools or weapons when leaving or landing on a planet. It did give them an idea that would keep with the half-truths Aren had been using in case there was lie detector technology they couldn't see.
"Honestly, I refused a couple of the augments they offered, and then started rejecting proposals for anything new. I was on so much medicine and recovering from surgeries for so much of my life that one day I just decided I was done. I'm happy with the me I've got right now." Lie, oops. They laughed to cover up the pause, "I barely even take safsprin anymore if I can help it!"
