Thursday, April 25, 2013

115: Zelda Amenatsu

ENTRY 115: Zelda Amenatsu

In an age of transcendental personal apathy and self-centeredness, where each ego seems situated on their own personal transformation and entire habitats are given over to the exploration of radical morphs, upgrades, and concepts of being, there remain certain constants to the human tribe—and individuals who have dedicated themselves to ensuring that transhumanity, or at least their version of transhumanity, continues to exist in some form. The mildest of these adherents are so-called bioconservatives, who have formed communities, habitats, protests and discussion groups resolving around the need to preserve and propagate the human genome and form, to retain whatever quixotic, quintessential elements that they believe defines humanity, and without which they believe that transhumanity will not survive, not as it has, even if individual human-derived consciousness continues in some form.

Then there are the Bloody Wrenches, the Clank-Haters, the Meat Brigades, PureGenSect, and all the others. Extreme action groups, gangs, domestic terrorists in all but name, they take the bioconservative ideals and twist and exploit them, or maybe they just get their adrenaline rush by destroying synthmorphs, pods, and exotic biomorphs. When the clanking masses won’t be bullied and cowed, when they start to fight back, these groups call in aces like Zelda Amenatsu—more than an assassin for hire, but a quiet fanatic, the four horsemen rolled into one. Where she walks, death follows, a wake of broken shells and blasted minds, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ironically, Zelda is more of a robot than the synthmorphs she hunts. The original Zelda ego has been psychosurgically broken and rebuilt so many times that little of the original personality remains, leaving only a fanatic hunter at the peak of human physical development. Behavioral controls prevent her from turning on whatever puppetmasters run the bioconservative extreme action groups, while selective neural damage assures she can never identify those who issue her orders and her social skills were pruned out to avoid excess socialization that might jeopardize her missions. Zelda receives commands through certain coded phrases, blending into the biomorph humanity she thinks she fights for but never really a part of them, drifting from habitat to habitat—and when she dies on one of her missions, she knows all she has to look forward to is opening her eyes in a new morph and doing it all over again.

COG
COO
INT
REF
SAV
SOM
WIL
MOX
15
27
15
22
13
16
13
-
INIT
SPD
LUC
TT
IR
DUR
WT
DR
7
1
26
5
52
30
7
45

Morph: Splicer
Skills: Academics: Computer Science 44, Academics: Cryptography 55, Beam Weapons (Lasers) 67, Blades (Swords) 45, Clubs (Hammers) 56, Deception (Bluffing) 67, Demolitions (Improvised Explosives) 45, Fray (Full Defense) 56, Free Fall (Microgravity) 45, Gunnery 65, Hardware: Electronics 55, Hardware: Robotics 55, Impersonation 55, Infiltration (Sneaking) 45, Infosec 66, Interests: Synthmorphs (Weak Points) 56, Interfacing 55, Kinetic Weapons (Rifles) 67, Language: Native Belarusian 85, Language: English 55, Language: French 55, Language: Russian 66, Networking: Autonomists 45, Networking: Criminals 55, Perception (VIsual) 66, Programming 5, Spray Weapons 33, Unarmed Combat 45
Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack
Traits: Allies (Bioconservative Terrorist Cells), Danger Sense, Edited Memories, Exceptional Aptitude (COO), Modified Behavior (Ability to harm morphs that resemble baseline humans, Expunged), Neural Damage (Loss of face recognition, Loss of voice recognition), On the Run, Right at Home (Remade), Situational Awareness, Uncanny Valley

2 comments:

  1. I'm finally here in my editing of the PDF, sorry I forgot about it for so long.

    Anyway, I'm curious why she has been "been psychosurgically broken and rebuilt" so many times. This seems like something bioconservatives would shy away from.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No worries, CG. Glad to have you at it.

      Re: Zelda - Think Jason Bourne. Gotta break somebody down to build them back up again the way you want.

      Delete