Working on new Arx Erebos I swear (including Character Bios), but just wanted to pop in to say @achinocreations Studio Lighting is a game changer. Especially the Shadow Intensifier. The pose (by @nell-le ) actually positioned him out of much of the AOE of the other lights but with the Shadow intensifier saved the day!
Wanted to show some comparison of edited and unedited versions so you can see how powerful it really is. I have an apple computer so I can’t really do fun stuff like do renders (no simripper) or use reshade, so this lighting cc is a godsend.
Buildbuy CC featured: @peacemaker-ic couches // @yellowjealousy futon // @mimoto-sims space bedroom set (shelves / helmet) // @rumorukaraizon screens // @mechtasims ceiling override (also a godsend!)
PART TWO: Prologue // the Fine Print (630-ish words + CC credits under cut)
Beginning // Previous // Blurb // Next
DB -60
“Corax isn’t going to break. He’s practically made up of pure ACorp tech.”
Unfortunately, the fuckers up in ACorp were brilliant and paranoid. So many protocols and redundancies in place that it was a bureaucrat’s wet dream. Everything was proprietary tech, and everything was encrypted, but there was so much data being transmitted between host and client. There had to be a weak spot somewhere.
She picked through the takeout containers collecting on her desk. Her screens continued to track Corax as he left the fighting pits— cycling from drone feed to drone feed.
“Please tell me you’re not eating,” Mal said. He was still typing on the other end of the line, his keystrokes a steady rhythm that she’d learned to tune out.
“Relax. I still have the helmet on,” she scooped an errant noodle into her mouth. She’d cobbled together the VR helmet using salvaged tech and specs from an earlier prototype that Mal had ‘found’ in a seedier corner of the Grid.
“If you go under, that food is gonna come right back up,” he said. She just rolled her eyes.
Onscreen, the debauchery of Launch Day swirled around Corax, and they lost him briefly in the crowd. The screens cycled rapidly as her programs triangulated his location. Finally, an errant Syntro security droid registered him talking to leggy woman with white hair. Mal stopped typing, and she sat up nearly spilling noodles on herself.
“Syntro, identify that woman,” she commanded.
“Identifying.”
Corax moved closer to the woman, who smiled beguilingly.
“Do you think—“ Mal asked.
“Clients never read the fine print,” she breathed. If this Client aka Dipshit, violated Corax’s terms of use, then he’d get booted out of the body. The TOU was simple but strangely specific. No sex, no psychedelics, no killing in cold blood.
If Mal was good (and he was really, really good) he could take that split nanosecond of unoccupied Host to splice her in.
Syntro chimed. “Real name: Unknown. Alias: Trinh. Affiliation: Dantai.”
“Damn. She’s just a drug peddler” Mal swore softly.
On the feed, Trinh held up a packet for Corax’s perusal. It glowed green. Corax accepted it, peeled off the backing and slapped the transdermal patch on the back of his neck. Not enough of TOU violation except—
“Mal, look at the location,” she said urgently, noticing the surroundings for the first time. Red and pink neon signs bleeding from huge storefront windows could only mean one thing. La Rue Roux, one of the classier thoroughfares of the Brothel District. La Rue Roux or the Roo for short, made use of long abandoned storefronts where pleasure workers could showcase their wares for a fee.
Corax meandered, staring up at the windows like they were works of art. She didn’t blame him— some pleasure synths were exquisite things, designed to override rational thought and appeal to good old-fashioned lust.
“Be ready,” Mal’s voice broke through her reverie.
Corax had paused at a window, staring at lavender haired Synth wearing a sheer dress.
Heart pounding, she stepped into a sleeping pod. It was no luxury VR suite— but it had been hardwired to take the brunt of the Tenancy data. She stepped in as Mal typed furiously, constructing code that she could ride right into Corax’s body.
Syntro pulled up the feed on her visor just in time to see Corax stumble as he tried to walk into the pleasure house. She adjusted the helmet and lay down, letting the pod seal her in.
“Goddess speed Sam,” Mal said. He didn’t mention the food she would inevitably throw up afterwards. She watched Corax try to take another step, but his tech had locked up. He slowly crumpled to the ground. There was a chime, and the VR helmet pulled her into the waiting dark.
Thanks for your patience. And again so grateful for all the CC creators out there (there has been a wealth of Cyberpunk CC that’s come out this past month).
Mal’s Office desk/screens by @streetlightaurora - here
La Rue Roux halos by @toskasims and @aisukurimutoxic // Street signs & Neons by @nickname-sims4 , @ dominationkid , @sims41ife // Deco Buildings @hydrangeachainsaw // Deco Sims by @xldkx-cc // Robots by @bananahut // Also ty to @radioactivedotcom for her tarot card mesh that I recolored to make a transdermal drug patch // Wires by @rumorukaraizon
Please check Part One for other CC details of the Hacker’s apartment.
As always, WCIFF so drop a line, and I’ll try to find the link for you.
Focusing on letting the visuals stand on its own so the prose section (211 words) is not required reading anymore. Though you are more than welcome to! The written stuff and cc details will be placed under the cut from now on (unless otherwise noted of course.)
“Hmmm,” Alix looked nonplussed. She adjusted her glasses and peered at me, “How many hours of Tenancy were scheduled for you?”
“Six.”
“And you started Chrysalis Protocol an hour before Tenancy began?”
“Yes.”
“What time was that?”
“DB Negative Eight Hours,” I replied, realizing what she was getting at. “Wait are you saying that—“
“It’s a logging error,” Alix said looking down at her tablet, shrugging one shoulder.
“Logging error.” I said with just as much forced casualness.
“These things happen. You know how the Pulse can glitch out tech,” Alix gives a long suffering sigh. “Particulate levels coming through the shield are up. Use a respirator if you insist on wandering around in the daytime.”
I was already pulling on the standard issue ACorp mask. Not that I needed it, but it beat having Alix stare at me disapprovingly.
I followed Alix to the exit, deep in thought. Thirty-some minutes between me going into Crysalis mode and waking up was unaccounted for.
Alix muttered under her breath about bugs in the patches, but I think she was trying in her own way, to cover for me.
Neither of us say what we’re both thinking because the Corps were always listening. Thirty-five minutes was plenty of time to get into trouble.
CC DETAILS:
mask by @star-rear-admiral // Alix poses with tablet by @akuiyumi / pose of Corax putting on mask is by @koshkasims4 (morning pose pack) - so hard to find getting dressed poses by the way, this was a real find. / @helgatisha and @nell-le male poses were also used.
Please see previous chapter for most of the stuff featured here. As always I’m WCIFF so drop a line!
“Welcome to Arx Erebos, former outpost of the fallen Antropos Commonwealth, and Grid city shrouded in near-perpetual darkness. Here, almost anything can be simulated by the Corps, and everything is for sale.”
Corax Tanaris is missing time. Thirty-two minutes to be precise. Ironic, since the ex-gunner has been living on borrowed time ever since ACorp salvaged him from near death nearly two decades ago. Considering that he’s been trying to pay back life-debt with Tenancy Gigs-- letting the city’s rich and restless take over his body in hourly increments-- 32 minutes of unaccounted time is not a big deal.
Except now there’s a strange symbol blazed into his retinas, and a memory of a woman he’s never seen before. Meanwhile, the most powerful woman in the city offers to pay off his life debt, if he does one last job. Tasked with finding the good doctor who saved his life, Corax finds himself tangled up in gang turf wars, political power plays and secretive religious sects, all of which seem connected to the clues he carries around in his head.
The more Corax searches, the more he realizes that he is an integral piece of a plot that’s unfolding in the city one that promises him redemption or destruction, maybe even both.
Build/ Buy CC credits and thanks to: @radioactivedotcom @bananahut @hydrangeachainsaw @nickname-sims4 @toskasims @sims41ife
Wear CC Credits and thanks to: @star-rear-admiral @trillyke @mmsims @tomiochan @simandy
Also still so grateful for @simstober and their month-long prompts for pushing me out of my comfort zone last October and inspiring many, many elements of this story.
I’m WCIFF, so just drop a line if you want more specific details.
In which we finally meet Corax! More below the Cut [550ish words + CC]
[ACorp]Invoice Log
Gig # AC-2345
Timestamp: DB -00:25
Tenancy Hours: 6
Life Debt Hours Remaining: 157678
Waking up after a Tenancy gig was always a bitch. Not unlike a hangover after a night partying— and the nights in Arx Erebos are long.
“Syntro” I whispered, throat raw like I’d mainlined rusted shrapnel, “Scan, full-body.”
“Scanning.”
I flinched, the AI’s voice clashed with the pounding in my head. The clients kept messing with my audioviz settings. Assholes.
“You have two bruised ribs on your left side, skin lacerations and facial bruising. Would you like to begin MedKit protocol?”
“Yes.”
“Dispensing.”
There was a hum in my ear as MedKit nanites are dispatched. Pain receptors flared as they got to work, but I forced myself to assess my surroundings. There’s a mess of holo ads popping up around me, but the pylons curving overhead and the smell of Udon bowls mixed with the stench of piss and garbage was answer enough.
Dammit. The shithead client left me in the Boneyard. Again. The Boneyard was a transit hub so named because it was built from the remains of the old spaceships that brought us here. I always figured it was because the pylons that served as moorings for the Lev-trams resembled the rib bones of some gigantic carcass, and we Arxians were just the scavengers picking it over.
“Fifteen minutes to Daybreak,” Syntro reminded me.
The thrum beat of the Sub-trams rattled the drain I was currently using as a bed, setting off more aftershocks of pain. I pushed myself up to stand on wobbly legs, ignoring the slime-like substance coating my left hand. My stomach grumbled. The smell of noodle bowls enticed, in spite of the underlying stench of trash left over from Launch Day revelries. A fluorescent sanitation droid drifted nearby but it wouldn’t clean this close to Daybreak.
“Syntro, partition off data from the last six hours.”
The agreement was for Clients to leave me at the Safehouse for Debrief Protocol, but they always forgot or were too damn lazy. I wasn’t allowed to know what went on during gigs hence the Debrief protocol. I didn’t care either way, though my stomach protested loudly as I walked away from my usual noodle place.
Muscles twinging from nanite repairs, and cursing overzealous clients, I limped over to the safehouse. Caligo Row was one street over from the Boneyard, past the decommissioned Antropos defense turret that was the demarcation point between the Strata and the Flats. It wasn’t a street so much as half of one— a cul-de-sac of compact housing meant for Antropos military types. Since the Fall, most of them have been repurposed into commercial spaces, untaxed and unregulated by the Corps. Or so they thought.
“Ten minutes to daybreak.” Syntro reminded me.
I picked up the pace, even though breathing still felt like getting stabbed. The nanites were taking their own sweet time with their repairs today. In a narrow alley between an AV store and Scrapper, I squeezed past some crates and trash bags to climb up the metal stairs to the entrance of an appointment-only Tattoo Studio— the clunk clunk of my shoes announcing my arrival to the Tech on duty. The door swung open before I reached the landing.
Alix didn’t even look up from her work, “Where’d the client leave you this time?”
CC:
Boneyard: Flyers/Holos by @toskasims // Error Holo by @strangestorytellersimsBottle by @quiddity-jones // Crosswalk Decal & walls by @sims41ife // Neon Screen by @rumorukaraizon // decosims by @xldkx-cc
Caligo Row Street/Stairs: Billboards by @brazenlotus // Tattoo Neon Sign by @nickname-sims4 // Neon Tubing by @strangestorytellersims.
Corax: Shirt by @gorillax3 // Pants by @belaloallure3 // Shoes by @s4simomo// earpiece & dog tags by @star-rear-admiral // Hair by @simandy
Alix: Doctor’s coat by @sudal-sims // Glasses by nords [TSR] // hair [True Damage pack] by @trnhtm // tablet by inabadromance [personal recolor] //
[will post Safehouse CC in next part since that scene will play out exclusively there]
“I was twenty-three when I crossed paths with a Shrapnel mine on a moon with the Antropos designation AC2342. The experience was too short to be particularly harrowing, a click, pain, blinding light in such quick succession that it was over before it began.
I would’ve been left for dead had the exosuit not been preprogrammed to return to base camp on its own.
Somehow, I did not die.
My military record had rendered me worthy of the salvage designation. I went into the grow tank a mass of burnt limbs and infected scar tissue, and rose up out of it as something else, more tech than man.
And so, I became one of the first Kintsukiroi- broken men that had been put back together again and made the better for it. Hence, my K-Class designation.
While I spent six years in a tank growing new organs and skin— Antropos Prime, Homeworld of the Commonwealth went dark. Just like that ancient word in an ancient language no one really spoke anymore, I was rendered irrelevant.”
CC Details Under the Cut
Trying a new format instead of the comic style. Might switch between the two for future episodes. Also when I made this post I was binging Westworld (which basically does everything I’m trying to do in this story tbh) can you tell I was very influenced by the dope credits?
CC Used: Black Water by @pictureamoebae // Leather shorts by @verbatimsims // I can’t seem to locate the exact pose, but this set by @bignaicc has a similar one. //
It’s not very clear in the gif but I used @plazasims mask from here // scars and tattoos from @moonpres-sims // @pyxiidis Demon Days skin details (tinting of Corax’s limbs) // Full body Burns Scars by Flerb
Apologies for posting again -- navigation links and tags got all messed up because original post was deleted by accident. (thanks Mercury RX)
Transcript and CC Below Cut
DB +60 // Location: Safehouse, Caligo Row
“I always forget how you like to wax poetic in Debrief. Just stick to the facts please,” Alix says dryly.
“Then how will you know it’s really me?” My voice echoes around us, though I haven’t opened my mouth. In the darkness of the Debrief virtual construct, thoughts are transformed into words and imagery with lightning ease. A rare luxury on my part.
In the real, I’m wearing a helmet bristling with wires, all of them a hard-wire connection between my augments and ACorp’s encrypted servers. It makes speaking easier. Even with my eyes closed, I can feel her roll her eyes. A few moments pass as she taps on her tablet.
“This is Alix Gilderoy, Tech ID 423 debriefing Asset 998 Corax Tanaris. Asset’s memories are intact. No signs of personality bleed. Syntro stop recording please.”
“No progress with the aphasia?” she asks as she releases me from the construct.
“Not really,” I ease myself up, still balancing the helmet on my head. My inability to speak the words rattling around in my head was the least of my problems but judging by the look on her face, Alix was about to add to them.
CC Details:
Please Check Part Three Here for Alix’s Outfit Details / Please check the Blurb for Corax’s Outfit Details /
Helmet by @kaguya-fox // Netrunnner Chair by @neriney // Scifi Screens by @nickname-sims4 // Holo Wall Screen by @strangestorytellersims
