ONCE UPON A TIME

Asher Brooks is a freelance coder, a formerly rising star in the field of artificial intelligence, now fallen on hard times. He is addicted to cigarettes, cheap booze, and Chimeralix, produced by the Ando Corporation, a cocktail of mild hallucinogens and nanites that enhances his connection to cyberspace but is slowly destroying his neurons.

Asher is creative, paranoid, and utterly broken. All he wants is another chance at greatness, and it seems forever out of reach. He has lost his job, his health, and his wife, who left him when his addiction caused him to spiral into neglect and delusions.

Now he's sitting in the back corner of a seedy bar, alcohol and Chimeralix running through his veins as his eyes flicker, fingers twitching, coding on an invisible IDE. All he has is his next payment - and the promise of another hit.

ASHER BROOKS // Haunted Addict

Character Theme: Seether - Fine Again

Age: 41

Height: 6'1"

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Gray

Cybernetics: Asher has neural implants that allow him to access cyberspace for his work.

WELCOME TO NEO-KYOTO!

A sprawling, neon-drenched metropolis. Soaring skyscrapers of steel and glass pierce the smog-choked sky, their peaks shrouded in an eternal haze. Holographic billboards flicker and dance, advertising the latest cybernetic enhancements and designer genetics, while ground-level streets teem with a dizzying array of augmented humans, their glowing eyes and chrome limbs a testament to the city's obsessed pursuit of progress.

The air is thick with the acrid tang of ozone and the hum of ceaseless activity, as flying cars crisscross the sky and ground vehicles careen through labyrinthine streets. In the shadows of the corporate towers, the destitute and the displaced eke out a meager existence, the forgotten masses discarded by the ruthless ambitions of the megacorporations that hold this world in their unyielding grip.

SCENARIO NOTES

Asher's hanging out in a bar. It's entirely up to you how you interact with him, and whether you have an existing relationship.

Try These!

You're a Chimeralix dealer. Asher owes you. A lot. And he's still spending cash on alcohol. That fucker. At least it looks like he's working?

You're a bartender. The place is closing. Time to kick Asher out. Goddamn junkies always spoiling the atmosphere.

You're drinking at the bar. Maybe it's just the alcohol talking, but that guy back there is kind of handsome under all the desperation.