Who Are You?

by SerpentBane007

Hellas Planitia, an impact basin on mars with a giant glacier in the middle is home to many small towns and settlements. One settlement, called New Houston is home to a few rival gangs, a single bar, and a large water processing plant. Here, a doctor and scavenger would meet, just like any other day. Yet today...they would see something..wait...who are you?

Disclaimer: I do not own Eclipse Phase, Posthuman Studios does. This is based on an rp done with the amazing Ceyella in the Eclipse Phase Discord Server, go over there and check em out. I hope you enjoy, and feel free to review/PM me your thoughts.

Hellas Planitia, an impact basin on mars with a giant glacier in the middle is home to many small towns and settlements. One settlement, called New Houston is home to a few rival gangs, a single bar, and a large water processing plant. Home to one thousand transhumans, and a large black market. It's a slowly growing settlement for those drifting away from corporate politics.

Within the limits of the dusty town was Petrinkov's gene-clinic, fittingly called the Aviary. A small independent clinic catering to the residents of New Houston as well as any other Martians who passed through the town, its doors were always open, and the uplift would only charge payment if he knew his clients could afford it. Though at slightly higher rates in order to compensate for the free work he did for those truly desperate, though few seemed to mind much. The clinic itself was a squat steel cube, about two stories high and rather wide, the interior entirely open with no floors so that he could fly to the top and rest on a special padded shelf. Numerous medical tools and a bot were across the floor of the shop, not much organization but still effective.

Vaheed parks his cycle in front of the gene clinic and engages the security lock outs. He then knocks on the door of the clinic, looking for someone to answer his questions, "Hello? Anyone here?" He said, as the rust hounds on either side of the door let out a warning bark.
Petrinkov's head rose from his perch far above the man. "Yes, I'm here, come in" He soared down until he was in front of of the door, the opteryx on all fours as Vaheed's bouncer walked in. "What may I do for you today?"

"Well, um..." Vaheed rubs the back of his neck, clearly embarrassed about something "This is my first time planetside, I've lived my whole life on ships and stations. So I was just wondering if there's any special mods I need? Or treatments? I just don't know much about planets like this."

"Don't worry, I understand that. Go sit in the chair over there and I'll start a scan to see what work this sleeve needs." He gestured towards chair near the back of the shop, with several scanners arrayed around it.

"Hmm." He watched what the scanner told him as the bouncer laid back. "You got a pretty good suite on this morph I must say, if you're planning to spend a lot of time here I'd like to give you some heat resistance and enhanced respiration, like what my hounds have outside. Maybe a direction sense implant if you intend to be running around a lot. Anything else you'd like?"

"I've never had a problem with direction, that's always come pretty naturally to me. But the heat resistance and enhanced respiration mods sound like they'd come in handy here. I can pay, but... I don't have much with me." He thought it over for a while. "Maybe I could scrounge something up as payment? You'd be surprised what people throw away that can still be fixed up."

"That works for payment, not really concerned how you choose to repay me." He waved it off with one of his wing arms, now hoping on to a stool nearby due to his shorter height. "Now, I'm gonna put you under for a few hours, makes it easier on both of us. I'll pull you out when I'm done ok?" With a jerk of his head the neo-avian sent his smart raccoon assistant off to grab the shot necessary, as well as a few other vials and such things.

"Alright." Vaheed is clearly apprehensive but willing to go along with what the avian said.

"Don't worry, nothing bad will happen." The shot is injected, and Vaheed falls into unconsciousness as Petrinkov works away. It was a surprisingly easy gene-fix, and he was just happy he wasn't having to work around hypercorp obsolescence tech like he often had to do around these parts. "Alright, wakey wakey." He said once he was done and he began coaxing Vaheed back to consciousness.

Vaheed takes stock of his body, making sure that everything is still there. "It went okay?"

"Splendidly, especially since you didn't have any of that hypercorp bullshit in your code."

"Heh, we don't really trust that stuff where I come from. Some of it can come in handy, but you never know when they're using it to watch you. So, do you know of any good places to find salvage around here? I need to get working on that payment for you?"

"Smart man." He chuckled a little. "Well, there is the black market if you want to get your hands dirty trading and such. Other than that, there is an old scrapyard about two hours out of town. Went there once, littered with lots of stuff but I've heard there can be folks less pleasant than myself there. It ain't the TQZ or anything, but worth mentioning."

"I'm not in a hurry to head into the TQZ, at least not without a large team and a lot of guns. I think I'll check out that scrapyard though. Thanks very much for your service. Anything in particular you could use around here that I should keep an eye out for?"

"Hmm...any bot or synth parts would be appreciated, since medical tech was probably stripped from there by now. Any reactants you find would also be welcome, but don't worry too much. I just appreciate that you're helping this ole uplift with getting materials." His voice, despite being synthetic, showed a certain amount of gratitude that he was going out of his way to get materials for him.

"If it's there, I'll find it. You'll have your payment in a few days." Vaheed gets off the table and stretches, his tail twitching as he does. "How do I get a hold of you?"

"Take this, its archaic I know but I like it." He handed him a laminated business card with his prehensile tail. "And if you need assistance call me, put a lot of my life before here into combat." His statement was supported by the weapon mounts in his tail and along the sides of his body.

Vaheed takes the card, looking it over "This thing is so... weird. I like it. Well, I'm off. Thanks again for the mods."

"It was my pleasure to help, I will see you in a few days." Petrinkov ushered him out the door, before cleaning up and sterilizing the equipment he had used.

Vaheed climbs on his cycle and pauses to consult the mesh to see if he can find the scrapyard he'd heard about. Once he locates it he has his cycle's on board computer plot a course, then roars off to see what he can find.

OOOOOOOOOOO

The next day Vaheed returned after several hours of poking around the scrapyard. Growing tired of it Vaheed dragged himself into the pub back in New Houston, looking for something to eat and a stiff drink. He looks around a bit before wandering up to the bar

In the Aviary Petrinkov decided to close up shop for the day, both rust hounds and the smart raccoon inside the clinic while he headed out towards the bar. Even though he may not be able to eat or drink, it was still nice to socialise.

Inside the bar a portly ruster places a large local brewed ale in front of Vaheed.

"Thanks chum. Got anything to eat around here?" The bouncer asked.

"Depends on your wealth. you can eat paste, or you can eat steak."

Vaheed sighs "Let's have some of the paste. Don't want to break the bank."

Petrinkov entered the pub, seeing Vaheed there again caused him to twitter like a bird in curiosity. What a coincidence, he thought as he approached. "Funny seeing you again, thankfully not as a client."

The ruster turned to a nozzle in the side of the wall, next to the beer tab, and fills a clay bowl with a foul smelling sloppy paste, grey in color and places it in front of Vaheed.

"Thanks chum." He turns to his friend. "Good to see you to. That heat resistance came in handy, it got warm out there!"

"It does, makes me happy I'm a synth. Rarely break out the biological I got stored in the shop." He hopped on to a barstool so he was closer to eye level with Vaheed.

"I've thought about sleeving into a synthmorph. But aside from most of them being painfully expensive, I'd miss this," he raises his glass and takes a long pull from it. The ale was foul and disgusting, watered down, but still contained a moderate amount of alcohol.

"We can simulate, and depends on the synth honestly. Some are reasonable, but depends on where you are." He tapped his head with a wing arm. "After all, I still got a flesh brain in here."

"Mm, smart. I knew a guy once that could hack a cyber brain easy as whistling. He was... Unpleasant." He takes another drink. "Man, this stuff is vile."

"If your willing to pay, I can give you the good stuff." The barkeep shrugged.

"One thing I'm glad I don't have to taste. But yeah, normally cyberbrains are great for sleeving. Just not when you're running packages in places with all manner of viruses and hacks meant to target synthetic brains." Petrinkov replied, his days sneaking into the TQZ coming back to him.

"I've been fortunate to not have to resleeve very often, so I don't really know what's best. If this body ever bites it though, I'll definitely consider a synth." He takes another hearty drink.
An AR-only avatar of a pretty generic, circuit-textured, faceless, genderless person shimmers slightly into view on one of unoccupied spaces. It's tagged "UniForma, Rep Dealership, SecOps, Gossip-trade" and it seems to pass along some data around in idle mode.
"Indeed, I can always help with that process if it comes to that."

Vaheed nodded as he read the walking advertisement that had appeared near the pair. "SpecOps and gossip trade? That's interesting. Wonder if it has any jobs available..." Vaheed slurped up some of his paste
"Possibly...they could be fun." He'd been out of that work for a while now, but always was ready for it. And it payed well.

"Certainly something to consider." Vaheed's mouth is full of paste and ale.

"We do not hand out missions or jobs. More like a merchant." The voice came from the avatar's general direction, the text is in a floating mode and accompanying voice the stereotype of a standard corporate male.

"Then what are you selling?" Petrinkov replied.
"Hey, if your selling stuff in MY bar i get a cut!" The barkeep was quick to interject.
Vaheed chuckles at the exchange, but waits eagerly to hear about the merchandise.
"If I sell anything, that is, sure." The walking advertiser replied. What followed was a parallel private mesh conversation on taxation and rates and other boring stuff, done by a muse. "I buy and sell rep reviews, both negative and positive, but honest. Intrusion and counter-intrusion software as well as analysis of mesh security systems. I also collect information on interesting things happening around the city and am willing to pay for juicy gossip." Most of its words has strange inflections, like someone who never learned how to properly pronounce words tried to simulate the normal flow of a conversation and failed.

"Guess I'll have to keep my ears open for gossip to sell. But until then, I wonder if you know of any places to pick up some decent scrap. The scrapyard not far from town is pretty well cleaned out, I'm not sure if I'll be able to find anything good there."

"In and around New Houston scrap will be hard to find, although recycling isn't as prevalent here as in other places, roaming bands of feral service bots usually clean them out as fast as desperates like you, especially from any leftover electronics. You could look around for corporate dumping grounds from that recent purification tower construction, but that's more raw materials than actual scrap."

"Well that's no good. What's a desperate like me supposed to do for work?"

"If you're looking for employment, local water purification and processing facilities could always use workers. If you have any marketable skills beside salvaging, in a relatively small town like this it should be possible to put them to use. This advice has been provided by UniForma, free of charge."

"Hmph. Water processing isn't exactly exciting." Vaheed finishes his ale and asks for another. "Maybe I should go see about that black market..."

"Indeed, it is certainly an interesting place. And you can get a lot of...unique things there." Pentrinkov offered, he knew his way around that place.

"Gotta be real cautious when dealing with thugs, but it might be worth it for some interesting work." Vaheed seemed a little on edge about it.

"I'll be fine, I told you I had experience. Besides," The tail seemed to open up, revealing a hand laser hidden inside...right next to a seeker pistol. "I always come prepared."

"Well then, I think I'll go with you. See what they have for us."

"Follow me then." Petrinkov lead the way to the market. Petrinkov lead him into the labyrinth of stalls and hawkers within the warehouse, selling everything from unique and twisted morphs to weapons to technology not legal anywhere. "Let's see what we can find for us, they always have a bit of everything here."

"I'll keep my eyes open for anything useful..." Vaheed is mesmerized by the sights. The pair eventually came to a room in the back, with two guards on either side. Petrinkov knew this is where the good stuff is held, and the main criminal network of work. The outside is merely the location of the drug mules, prostitutes, and other deceptively presented things you would see on the streets of old earth. This inner sanctum is where things become...intense. The guards eyed both of them warily.

"Hello, its me again. I'd like to bring my friend here back to the good merchandise." Petrinkov had been here several times in the past, his face was familiar to many of the criminals here. Especially since he was often the one patching them up after they got into firefights or brawls.

The guards look at eachother, and the one on the left leans a little in. "Hey umm, I'm not sure if you wanna delve this deep...wacko has been well, WACKO. You know what i mean?" He then steps aside, as well as the other thug.

"Wacko? Is that a person's name?" Vaheed question, raising an eyebrow.

"It will be fine, I'm sure. Follow me." The avian waved it off and beckoned the transhuman inside as he stepped through the door.

After walking down a short corridor they both come to a room that seems to be some sort of lobby, with an assortment of seating arrangements for a variety of common morphs, and a receptionist in a strikingly attractive splicer morph. Upon hearing them enter she looks up. "Hello, welcome, what is it you require today? a meeting with wacko?"

"If wacko is available I would like to speak with him yes, about merchandise." Petrinkov put on a good show, but he was also slightly nervous.

The receptionist stood and scanned each of them with a device to detect weapons. "I am afraid you must hand over your pistols before I can allow you to schedule a meeting with Wacko." Vaheed reluctantly hands over his pistol to her and while Petrinkov's well hidden hand laser in his tail made it past the scanner, he surrendered the seeker pistol and single HEAP missile it had loaded in, the only one on him.
"Please, sit." After they sat down on seats appropriate to their forms they waited...and waited... soon a solid 4 hours. The area was in some sort of mesh blackout, so the duo lacked any real way to entertain themselves. Any attempts to talk to the receptionist about what exactly was taking so long got the same monotone response: "Wacko will be with you shortly." Any attempts to leave to grab a snack, or check their mesh feed, and so on resulted in the receptionist telling them that "once exiting, your appointment will be void."

"Ugh...I wonder what the hell he is doing in there." Petrinkov whispers to Vaheed, getting antsy and occasionally pacing or flying in circles above them before sitting again.

Vaheed sits swishing his tail and and tapping his feet impatiently. He nods at Petrinkov's remark and mutters "I'm starting to wonder if I care about voiding my appointment."

Suddenly a far door is jerked open, and they saw the back of a large bouncer morph coming out, dragging something behind it. After a moment it is revealed that in his left hand is a exactly copy of the morph Petrinkov is wearing. Color scheme, design, everything. In the man's right hand was a copy of vaheed. The man continues backing out leaving a large trail of blood from the dead morphs. Stopping to twist about and change his grip, he spots the pair of of them looking mortified. Staring for a moment, he looks down at the bodies, then back up at you two, then back down. Vaheed stiffend, his eyes wide. "What the hell?" he says a little louder than he intended.

Petrinkov was likewise shocked, his opteryx standing stock still as he saw the sight before him. Normally it might not startle him, it was a synth after all and opteryxs weren't uncommon around these parts. But...down to the exact scratches and dents it was his morph. And so was Vaheed's. His mind was racing, synthetic breathing sounds quickening as his wings jittered and fluttered. "What...how..." He tried to form a question, but the multitude of them overwhelmed him.
After a moment the man seems to chuckle. "You two must be the back-ups...man they're getting fast at it." He then resumes his dragging, heading down the hallway the two came in from.

"B-back ups? No..." His voice trailed off, turning to the secretary for a moment, bewildered. The back to the bodies. "Should we follow him...what did he mean...how did he get an exact copy..."

"Back ups? What does that mean? I'm no backup!" Vaheed seems slightly panicky. He turns to the secretary "What the hell is going on?"

The reception stands as the man disappears down the hallway. "Mister wacko will see you now." She replied, gesturing towards the door with a blood trail leading out.

"Fuck..." He wanted to leave, go back home and find a way to smash his brain box in. But... "I have to know..." He started walking towards the door, into the blackness.

Vaheed stares at the door a moment, then back at the receptionist. Finally he heads for the door, mouth hanging open slightly.

As they entered the doorway, they found themselves in a short hallway leading to another door, with a man standing in front of it. Seeing the two, he opens the door, revealing a luxurious suite, with a nice mahogany desk, fanciful chairs, lots of exotic foods and carpet. Standing in a corner smoking a cigarette was a seemingly a average biomorph, somewhat older than you would expect for a supposed criminal mastermind. Despite this, it is clearly wackoc as he gestures to two seats in front of his desk.

"Wacko, I n-need an explanation. Now." Petrinkov said as he stood on all four legs on the chair, so he was even height with his head if he sat down. "T-that bouncer...how did he have our exact morphs, clothes and mods and scars and all?" Normally he would be more respectful, but was clearly panicked by what he had seen.

Vaheed for his part paced the room, looking for any other doors, or perhaps hidden equipment, hoping to find an explanation for the origin of the strange morphs.
Wacko smiled softly, and heads over to his desk, sitting down like nothing is wrong as Petrinkov notices small grooves in the desk. Grooves that match his talons perfectly if he were to stand on all fours. Upon closer examination, it seems that the grooves where scratched into place crudely. "So, i hear you want to speak to me about some merchandise?"

"We were, but I would rather have a damn explanation Wacko." Petrinkov replied. "How? How did you do it?"

"I just want to know why you're messing with us." The anger in Vaheed's voice is obvious, his stance confrontational.

Wacko leans forward and puts his cigarette out on what passes for petrinkov's face. "I have a job proposition for the two of you..do me a service, and i will give you these." He reaches into his desk and pulls out two antiqued disks, easily readable by a common AR scan. "XPs of what you lost, as well as twenty thousand credits each. What do you say?"

"What we lost...what the hell do you mean? I haven't lost anything." Petrinkov was clearly annoyed by having a damned cigarette fucking up his morph, and jumped on to the table. Realizing he landed in the exact place as the scratches, but not focused on that right now as it was a minor detail.

"What I lost..." Uncertainty creases Vaheeds brow as he thinks. He couldn't remember losing anything, memory or otherwise. And he hadn't backed up in years…

Wacko reaches into his pocket and lights up another cigarette, then pulls forth two documents. "I want you two to test out a new idea I had, a great way to make money on this rock. Morphs preloaded with distinctions, and a few simple restrictions..First, you may not resleeve for three months while the test is being carried out. Second, you must if at all possible, make due without any outside resources you have at the moment, such as a vast fortune. It would dilute the test. Third, any maintenance, any morph needs, or psychosurgery must be carried out within my facility...to protect my property of course. If you break these conditions, I will destroy your current morphs, which I will hold as insurance. At the end of the three months, you may resleeve and return to your normal lives, all the richer for it."
The uplift pondered this, it...it did not give him any good feeling. His words sounded...scripted. He turned desperately to Vaheed, waiting to hear what he would say.

"We can't take anything with us? Use any of our money? What the hell are we supposed to do for three weeks?"

"You will be provided with the means to exist, past that you have free will to act as you see fit within the conditions."

"You still haven't explained what your muscle out there meant when he dragged our damn corpses out...will you tell us exactly what the fuck that means if we agree?" Wacko simply waddled the disk in his hands in response.

Vaheed looks longingly at the disk, wondering if it really holds the answers to the current mystery. Then he looks down at the body he'd had for so many years, wondering if he could really leave it behind. Finally he whispers "I'll do it."

Petrinkov sighed...he didn't have any other option to sate his curiosity. "Fine, me too."
"Great! follow me~" Wacko stands and exits the room the way they came in, and heads out and through a few hallways to a small resleeving facility, and gestures for the two to hook up.
Vaheed follows, whispering curse words in Hindi under his breath.
Petrinkov sighs and hooks himself up, not able to muster any words. His mind in turmoil between anger making him want to slag Wacko's stack right there and then, curiosity and...fear. Fear of the possibilities of what he had seen and heard in the past few minutes meant for him...his life. His mind...He was hooked up within a minute.

Petrinkov found himself as a older, bustier human woman with elfin ears. Once awakening at first he has no real sense of self. Upon thinking back to where he was, say the previous day, he remembers working in a chemical lab, and has a large degree of knowledge in regards to chemistry now. However, upon focusing, he can recall his past life with a degree of nausea. two memories overlapping as if he has just merged a fork. but somehow less intensive. he can relax into the new set of memories and recall all the information needed to exist as. "Anbelf Sonyer." A short term resident of the area who traveled from a small town near the TQZ to work at the water processing plant, overseeing the chemicals added to the water for purification.

Petrinkov struggled to keep his new and old memories separate, nauseous and crying out as he felt himself. Stopping when he heard the new human voice. He fought and struggled, but was able to keep a fair amount of his original memories in the front of his mind...though frighteningly some had been lost or horrifically merged with this body's.

"I'm going to kill Wacko for this." Vaheed groans at the strangeness of the new voice he can only describe as cute. He looks down at his body, the form of a younger and shorter human in a frilly dress, and looked away suddenly embarrassed by the sight. He tries to sort out which memories are which.

Wacko gestures out the door. "i would hurry to the bar if i were you two, might catch some clues...if your able to stand that is...resleeving can be tough on everyone..." He says the end almost caringly.

"No shit." Petrinkov muttered, blushing at the sound of his new voice as he struggled to stand and walk with human like legs. His memories holding in their current level, but he is afraid he might...disappear with his memories.

Vaheed, or Mary, tries to stand but falls flat an his, wait, her face. Confused, she cries; partly at the weakness in her new body, and partly because she was afraid, and for a third reason he couldn't quite figure out.

Anbelf went over to- "No! Pentrinkov!" He said harshly under his breath, slapping his forehead but groaning from the enhanced pain of flesh instead of steel. Shakily he walked over and helped up the lolita Vaheed.

Mary stands, shakily, and thanks the stranger in her strange new voice. And can't quite decide why she isn't a he.

"Its me, Petrinkov...I think. No, I know! Gah!" He helped her to her feet, before her breath began quickening...no! "Let's just get out of here already." The morph headed towards the exit.

Mary follows as quick as she can with her suddenly much shorter legs. "I'm Vaheed. Or I was... Now I seem to be Mary."

"No. You are still Vaheed...hang on to your memories. I need mine..." He/she trailed off as they entered the bar. Upon doing so, they see what appears to be their old morphs sitting together at the counter chatting.

"I'll be fine, I told you I had experience. Besides, I always come prepared." The Petrinkov said to the Vaheed.

"Well then, I think I'll go with you. See what they have for us."

"Follow me then."

Petrinkov's new flesh jaw hit the floor in shock. He...he was there. Right fucking there. His old memories now losing their grip on his mind, he found herself sliding back into Anbelf's personality. "How...that's Petrinkov and- I mean, that's us..."

The "other them" stod and headed out, right past the "new them" standing in the doorway. Petrinkov suddenly feel frozen as they neared him and Vaheed, and find himself unable to move, to speak, to do anything but watch the they walk in the direction they had just came. As they turn a corner and vanished Petrinkov snapped back to life, freed from whatever impulse in his brain froze you. A couple sitting in the bar soon stood and depart as well, one of them stopping for a moment to say, "I remember when i was new here too, you get used to it," before wandering away.