[Translated from French]

[A synth-song plays for one minute. The tune is slightly dramatic and escalating]

B - "Hello my people and welcome to Mindsong, host of the See something, Feel something braincast. It is Tuesdays, T-E-youse-days, we are live every Tuesday here in the Île-de-France arcology, right outside of Paris proper. And today we are here for another special episode, im sure some of you have been looking forwards to, isn't that right, Michele?"

M - "Ah, that is correct, Bayard. We have a few hundred live listeners right now in the server, and that's probably due to the supernal amount of… how do they say… buzz, in the world right now."

B - "Buzz is a good way to put it, and a very delicate thing. Everyone who remembers the excitement of the War that Never Was or the crushing disappointment of the Ubermensch Powermind Braindance Wreath, knows what it's like to have stirring of emotions fill their everyday life. Over the last six months one of the most infamous cybermen to ever live, Adam Smasher has been causing quite a stir with his everyday actions. Over the last three months our recurring guest Kalaurmann has let us in on the more esoteric details. From culture to economics, our overseas expert has let us in on things that wouldn't readily occur to mainlanders like us."

B - "With the leak that Adam Smasher would no longer be working for Arasaka earlier this week, literally every community, not just Mindsong, has been carefully watching and listening for what comes next. Although he wasn't a particular sensation before, barely more than a rumor if anything, the cyberman has exploded into the public awareness shrouded in no small amount of mystery. Thankfully, we have contacts like Kalaurmann to help dispel some of the fog. From pre-datakrash articles and accounts to insider rumors, tips, and analyses, Kalaurmann has proved to be remarkably consistent in getting and translating information from overseas to the people of Europe."

B - "With all this buzz in the air, we've decided to host a special episode tonight. A full three planned hours going over just about everything we know of so far, and reviewing everything that might happen in the future. We have about a hundred questions from supporters and about a thousand of our own, but we want to start by asking about what we haven't gotten to see. Adam Smasher released a new album for Japanese markets some time ago, and it was met with simultaneous applause and bewilderment for his appearance. Kalaurmann, our genius in the machine, you know more than we do, what's the most bewildering thing that our topical cyberman has done?"

K - "Well first of all I want to thank you for that very nice introduction. Those are all very kind words. Unfortunately I think I'm not going to be able to answer that question, unless you're willing to write my obituary."

[Brief chuckles]

K - "I'm serious, I felt like a ghost watching my own funeral for a moment when you asked that!"

[Laughter from all three voices]

K - "More seriously… the most bewildering thing… you're going to need to split that into two categories I feel. One for most bewildering for his character and the other as most bewildering to us, taxpayers and non-taxpayers of the EC. Most bewildering for his character would probably be the most recent song, what with him singing forlornly in Japanese backed by three young Japanese Idol women, that's very unusual for him."

M - "Oh? Is it really that strange compared to everything else?"

[A brief grunt of acknowledgement.]

K - "Adam Smasher is a very stubborn individual when he wishes to be, and he used to be quite open about his opinion of 'touchy-feely bullshit' music as he called it. This was years ago, of course, so it's possible he's changed his mind on the subject, but If I had to guess it was another incident of Arasaka ordering a product that he didn't particularly enjoy producing."

M - "That's going to break the hearts of so many, I'm sure. It's a very compelling performance from someone who doesn't care then."

K - "You must keep in mind. Adam Smasher is almost a century old at this point. He is very, very old fashioned in many regards. Men expressing their 'vulnerable' emotions at all was… frowned upon back then. Anger, lust, pride, these things are safe and strong. They are reliable and sturdy. Fear, doubt, uncertainty, these things are open to attack, open to getting rebuked. They are not safe to express, certainly not during the North American Collapse which he grew up during."

M - "Ah! So it's not so much that it's a love song, or that it's a song in which he expresses emotion, it's a song of vulnerability that is out of character?"

[Grunt of acknowledgment]

K - "I was not alive then, so I cannot confirm this, but if you were to tell anyone who knew the cyberman before the Night City bombing that he sang a song, the last thing any of them would think of is a song about a lost lover with lyrics that accept a personal failing. To a child of that era, the image of strength is equally important to actual strength. It still is today, they were just more honest about it back then."

M - "That matches with what we know of his first proper album, MGR, So then what about his Protomen album? It has characters that express doubt, fear, regret, and many other 'vulnerable' emotions."

K - "Ah, that, I think, has to do with the nature of cyberpsychosis itself."

B - "The nature of cyberpsychosis? That's a pretty hot-button word these days with how much it gets overused in the media. Can you define which definition you're using here first Kalaurmann?"

[Grunt of acknowledgement]

K - "Ah, this is actually a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. When I say cyberpsychosis in regards to Adam Smasher, I am referring specifically to his personal mindset."

B - "Chicken and egg?"

K - "This is mostly historical trivia at this point, but do either of you know where the term 'cyberpsycho' first appeared?"

M - "I have a suspicion now that you mentioned it."

K - "New York Times, June 6th, 2009. "Massacre in low-income district Mallplex caused by deranged 'Cybered-Up-Psycho'" It was an article referring to one of his early jobs, in which he… well… caused a massacre. Hired to track down and eliminate a spec-op team that ran off with corporate secrets, he lost the last one in a crowd and resolved the issue by gunning down the entire crowd."

M - "Oh my, and he was allowed to get away or did his corporate backers pay off the officers?"

K - "The term 'low-income district' was the media term for Manhattan. Manhattan was a no-go zone back then thanks to the one-two punch of the terrorist pocket nuke and the Collapse. Crimes reported there were not followed up upon by the crumbling infrastructure of New York City."

B - "Ah… so wait, getting back to the point, you said this was the first time… Are you saying that Adam Smasher is the reason we have the term 'Cyberpsycho' to begin with?"

K - "Technically no, but practically speaking yes."

B - "That's absolutely wild, I had no idea."

K - "Interesting, isn't it? Getting back to the point now… wait where were we?"

[Laughter from all three voices]

M - "I believe I had just asked you about the Protoman album?"

K - "Yes! That was it. Adam Smasher is reason we have the term Cyberpsycho, and thus he is the most cyberpsycho you see? But he is not suffering from cyberpsychosis, at least, not the way we think of it."

B - "You're talking about the Czechian Movie style, correct? Where one goes insane as the machines replace your soul and such?"

K - "Not only that, but the modern legal and medical definitions as well. Cyberpsyhosis for all practical reasons is simply normal psychosis, as well as any incident of public violence, so long as the perpetrator happens to have cybernetics at all. That's the way media uses it. The difference between a proper 'Cyberpsycho' and a normal psycho in most people's minds is simply how dangerous they are on their own. A man who gives up on life and decides to commit suicide through officer is only a cyberpsycho if they manage to kill a few a few officers with cybernetic weaponry before being arrested or killed."

K - "That's the practical truth behind it, but the public perception of cyberpsycho is someone who is… essentially an addict. Rather than gambling or sex or drugs, their addiction is to cybernetic modification. It's almost a combination of body-modification addiction and steroid use addiction. Strength and perceived escape from who you were. Eventually you push people who are not addicted to the same away, leading to a spiral of low socialization and susceptibility to fringe ideologies and such. That's the modern view of cyberpsychosis.

K - "Adam Smasher shows many of the same stereotypical symptoms, but little of the underlying addiction and impulsive behaviors one might expect to see. Adam Smasher is callous, brash, egotistical, hateful towards any perceived weakness, heavily enhanced with cybernetics, and most crucially, utterly in control of himself."

K - "Like all addicts, Cyberpsychos begin to lose the ability to effectively function without, and eventually even with, their 'fix'. They begin to lose the ability to think in any terms that aren't 'getting more enhancements' or 'getting rid of weakness'. They lose sleep over it, they suffer mood swings, they have issues with memory or concentration, they develop anxiety, and a whole host of other issues."

K - "Adam Smasher, on the other hand, does not display any loss in memory, concentration, or self-control. As proven multiple times, he can sit down and have a full, relaxed, coherent conversation with you if he wishes. He can be on a talk show and chat over a huge variety of topics utterly unrelated to cybernetics for hours at a time. He can recall details from decades ago and compose entire albums of various styles and genres."

K - "Adam Smasher, as proven by the Paris BD Arasaka released late last year, shows none of the lack of focus that almost every cyberpsycho BD we have on human record normally does. There is no drifting of awareness followed by lightning bursts of hyper intensity focus. There is only that hyper intensity focus. He could be entirely different outside of combat, but at least in it, he isn't a cyberpsycho as we know it."

K - "He is very, very similar to a cyberpsycho, but he isn't, not really. He's something else, and I don't think we have a precise term for it."

[A pause]

K - "Ah shit! I went on another tangent!"

[Uproarious laughter from two voices]

K - "Right! Right! What I was getting at is that one of the key traits Adam Smasher exhibits is what can best be called Pseudo-Solipsism. Solipsism is the belief that the self is all that can be known to exist, right, and that everything you experience might be false in some way. Adam Smasher exhibits a very strong sense of self, and a very weak capacity for empathy and sympathy. He draws a very clear distinction from himself as an individual, and everyone else in the world."

K - "His Protoman album is acceptably in character for him, because those songs are explicitly from the point of view of other people, not 'himself'. You understand?"

M - "Ah! So even if he is the one singing the story, he doesn't consider it reflective of himself in any way, because it's 'someone else'?"

K - "Precisely. Precisely. It's not 'him' expressing weakness. It's someone else. He's just singing 'their song'."

[A pause]

B - "So what's the other thing?"

[Another pause]

K - "...Other thing?"

B - "You said that the most bewildering things that Smasher has done is two things, depending on-"

K - "FUCK!"

[Almost a full minute of laughter as the three voices struggle to control themselves again]

K - "Hehe… Right, right… The most bewildering thing from the point of view of we in Europe that he's done… probably the Battle of Graceland, 2008."

B - "The Battle of Graceland? I've never heard of that."

M - "Graceland?"

K - "Graceland is the name of the mansion that Elvis Presly lived in."

[A pause]

M - "Wait! Elvis, as in the Church of Elvis in the NUSA state of Appalachia?"

K - "The very same. Back in the early 2000s, during one of his first vacation periods from his new job with Arasaka, Adam Smasher decided to go visit Graceland in Memphis Tennessee. He had a Replicator, an early model of Gemini, made to look like a blond Elvis. Or that was what he looked like before he was converted into a cyborg, the records are spotty but we know that he was around the same size and roughly the same look beforehand."

K - "When he arrived, he stumbled across the Elvises, a posergang full of fellow Elvis enthusiasts, trying to seize Graceland building by force. They were barricaded in the building being effectively besieged by swat officers. We don't know precisely why he decided to step in, but we do have records from the Church of Elvis that they were 'saved by a Gold-Crowned King' who 'crashed into the enemy with superhuman ability'. Fullborgs were almost brand new around this time, keep in mind."

B - "So wait… haha… you're telling us that the reason the Church of Elvis is a thing today is because Adam Smasher decided to… hahah!"

K - "Heh… After this the Elvises had enough time to force a negotiation, and started snowballing as a gang and group. They started the Church of Elvis almost immediately after this, and the rest is history. This is one of the reasons Appalachia is such a headache for NUSA as a whole today, because Adam Smasher was on vacation."

M - [A continued stream of bewildered laughter]

B - "Hah… Normally you can predict where conversations will go but… hahah… there's just no way with this one. We're just completely along for the ride right now…"

K - "That tends to be how it goes. Adam Smasher is old, living history, and as violent as he is, there is certainly a charm in learning about his shenanigans…"

M - "So… so… so what about…

[Braincast continues for the next few hours]