I passed through the outer doors, only to have to push my way through a curtain of metallic beads. Argh, the overhead lights were way too bright. Both my eyes and ears were assaulted as the rattle of the beaded curtain filled my ears. When my senses had managed to adapt a bit, I noticed that there was a counter off to my right.

The décor of the room was touched by purples and pinks, undercut with blue everywhere. There was a pounding beat, vibrating my chest and head even though it was muffled out in the lobby. Looking closer, I could make out sound insulating panels, so it was probably going to be deafening in the actual club.

"Hey, a new face. Not too scop either." That was the the girl manning the counter. At first, I was taken aback by the neon sign behind her proclaiming, "Fuck to Death!" Ah, What? This place seemed to be trouble that I didn't understand yet. The girl behind the counter was a chipper little thing, maybe 5' even, with pink hair that blazing with neon light. Her eyes were like two purple hearts. No, I meant that literally.

Alright, I didn't get it, but okay. Her green and purple leotard, barely covered the important bits. Well, on second glance I supposed she had nothing to be ashamed of. Though I could tell she had a lot of little cyberware mods. That detail lead me to the thought that these augments, were as much fashion as functional? I found that unsettling.

There were coats on display behind her, all greens and purples with some pink highlights. Yeah, I was getting the theme.

"Hello, could you give me the name of someone, who'd be willing to give me the run down on this City. I'm from out of town." Again despite it probably being a bad idea, I went with honesty. Maybe the fact she was pretty had little something to do with it as well.

Her eyes flashed at me. That still sent shivers down my spine. "Bennie, eh, and 100% Ganic too," She let out a manic little giggle, "Tempted to take you into the back and dock in meatspace, just to see the difference." There was something odd about the tone of her voice. I had no context on what it might mean.

"Oookay?" I'm sure I looked totally lost, felt it, didn't I. I slowly placed my Omaha on the counter, like I was afraid she take a bite out of my arm. Or lick it. Yeah, I was getting the vibe that she might just try to taste me, whether I wanted it or not.

"Oh, that's a nice piece, needs a little color though. I wonder if your other Iron needs some color?" She glanced down at my dick. Like she could see it through my pants, or was really trying to. Now, I'm no prude but that was setting off all kinds of alarms in my head. Then again, I've never been the center of this kind of attention before. Flattering and sickening all at once, is that a thing?

Thankfully, I was saved, from further embarrassment. A lady with one of the largest 'fros I'd ever seen, stuck her head out a door to the left. "Kimmie, you are there to help people get detes not hit on them," She glanced me over, "Sorry she's a newbie, and still getting use to how we do things." She nodded her head like that was enough, and vanished back into that room.

The atmosphere shifted almost instantly, with Kimmie giving me an apologetic grin. "Sorry, too much? I just get sooo excited. But to answer your earlier question, Mateo at the bar can set you up. He knows most everyone. Any sitch you need laid out, he can find you who you need."

"No you're adorable. But yeah, maybe dial it back a tad. I still don't even understand what I've gotten myself into yet." I shook my head. "So I'm looking for Mateo?" At her nod, "Thanks, Kimmie."

"Alright, have a good time." She was deflated, but shrugged it off in a few seconds. Her grin returned, and her eyes started to wander over my body.

I went through another beaded curtain, marveling how more sound didn't pour into the entryway. The main club room was a large space full of contrasts, being both too bright and too dark all at the same time. Some kind of laser light show was flashing off to one side. Holograms were dancing at tables. The people gathered around those tables, talking, drinking, were an eclectic mix of styles and colors. I couldn't get any kind of read on what was normal. Sure it was a club, and all of these people were probably dressed in their "best". I felt like I was in an insane music video. The music wasn't bad though. A little too beat heavy, filled with too many odd noises, but hey, it got that heart rate up.

The feeling I was really out of my element hit me hard as I passed another lady who was scanning the crowd like a hawk. Bouncer, I supposed. She focused on me for a moment. "Bar?" She gestured with her head. "Thanks." She nodded and went back to her job.

I wove through the dancing people, trying not to touch anyone. Not out of some, "ew, gross" sense, more out of a "I don't want problems." sense. When I finally took a seat at the bar, I clung to it, like it was a life preserver. Somehow everything felt a touch calmer over here.

"You look lost." A man had come over, I would have called his fashion Miami Casual back home. The posture he put up was kind of like the guy who stole your girlfriend, then wondered why you were upset with him. Having never had a girlfriend, a small amount of envy stirred in the back of my head.

"You could say that. I'm from out of town, looking to get a rundown on how things work around here, people pointed me this way." Once more, I played my cards fairly straight. If I appeared to overshare without actually giving away the important part of my story, people would be less likely to ask the uncomfortable questions.

He gave me a long stare, trying to get a read on me. In a lot of ways his attention made me far more nervous than Kimmie's did. Probably because he wasn't in the least interested in playing. "I'm Mateo, and I can get one of the girls to update your files. She'll dance and answer questions, but nothing more, alright?" He seemed chill, unflappable. A little smug. I really didn't like him. Those muscles were probably fake.

"Ryan." I gave him a Bro nod. He returned it, the fraternity of brotherhood had been established. Okay, maybe not so bad a dude.

After scanning the menu, which he was amused that he had to pull out a plastic sheet with all the options printed out, I bought a coffee and a pretzel like thing, while I waited. Neither was great by my standards, but no where near as horrid as Buck a Slice.

Maybe Meadran could figure out a way to produce fruits and veggies. I could make a killing feeding people actual fucking food. If I could keep them from killing me over it.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Mateo set me up with a dancer called Sinnamin. She was a brute of a woman, who looked down at me with boredom, but maybe apathy was better than the alternative.

Her price was 20 Eddies for 5 minutes of dancing and questions. I threw down $340 for 85 minutes. I required info more than cash right now, and that should be enough time to get at least the basics.

Sinnamin guided me into one of the back booths, where it was a little quieter. I caught glimpses of people doing all manner of unsavory thing back there even if I didn't understand way some of those thing were messed up, I could still tell they were thing to avoid doing. The zonked out behavior of some of the people with headsets bothered me the most. It seemed like an extreme version of folks back home with a phone addiction.

Once we were in her assigned booth, I leaned back on the couch and asked her to start at the beginning.

Sinnamin, as it turned out, liked talking a whole lot more than dancing.

She laid out a lot of information for me, about the Corps, about the Gangs, and about how life worked in a day to day sense for people. That left me without a lot of deeper context, but I now knew some places and people I should avoid.

She did drop a major bombshell on me though. I had casually mentioned Ruger, and she got real quiet about that. Her face went through a wide gamut of emotion very rapidly. Shock, envy, and surprise were the ones I managed to notice.

"So you must be super preem rich? You a puppet?" She started pulling a little back. Her tone had grown cold. Whatever a puppet was she didn't want anything to do with one.

"I don't know what that means?" These cultural landmines were getting a little old. That's why I had to keep her talking.

"Nobody can afford gene rebuilds that aren't top shelf loaded." She told me, and I thought she was lying, I mean she had to be. No dogs, no cats, no birds, barely any rats, but plenty of bugs though.

I started sweating from my eyes. I might have let out a couple of unmanly sounds. My behavior caused her to become incredibly distressed. I guess she had never seen a man leak stress from his eyes before. She started making all kind of awkward gestures and stuttering sounds. I got the sense she had a big heart to match her giant body.

"How do you get through life without dogs?" She didn't have an answer. Were these people even worth saving if they let dogs die out? I felt a stone begin to form in my heart. I wasn't sure those folks could or should be helped. I held on to that feeling for a moment, as it burned through me, but let it go. For now. The average person probably had nothing to do with it. So had had to be careful about assigning blame. I needed to rein in these more aggressive tendencies, before they got me in trouble I couldn't get out of.

We went back to talking, her more helpful attitude had returned. I guessed she didn't think I was a puppet anymore, whatever that was. We haltingly talked about Ruger, she seemed almost desperate for stories about him, and any other stories I could remember about animals. Her eyes lit up with joy when I talked about their crazy antics. It was hard thoughas everything I told her was overshadowed by the fact cute fluffy critters were missing here.

Which made her seem almost happy to get to lighter topics, like gang violence. The Strom, the Tygers, The Scavs, The Mox, The Valentinos and her personal hang up the Animals. I got a brief rundown of each group, who was fighting who and where to avoid to not have to deal with them, as much. There were countless smaller gangs almost too many to count, but these were the major players.

Then she got into the Corps. Arasaka, Militech, Biotechnica, Petrochem, and the familiar Kang Tao. You couldn't avoid their influence no matter where you went. So her advice; just choose the flavor you might live with the easiest.

I managed to get the year, if not the month, through context. 2074. That was shocker, I was on some alternate future version of my world. I wished the folks back on my world never had to face these kinds of terrible times.

Also, a picture began to form about what I needed to do to get by here. I required work, and I had no acceptable form of ID. The answer to both of those problems was a Fixer. Fixers were shadow brokers dealing in everything below board, anything from just a little shady to outright illegal. They could be your fence, your bookie, or your limited contractual boss. They could get you information, or buy the things you knew. Yeah, I needed one of those. Sinnamin knew a Faceman, which was kind of a lackey to a bigger Fixer. Someone that could be cut out before you got to the head honcho. She gave me their contact detes.

Before that, though, I had to "get chipped". At least enough to interact with the world everyone else was a part of. Enough to get an identity setup, trying to get setup without a netconnection was a major problem. There was the addition consideration that there were plenty of answers to be found on the Net.

So I needed a Ripperdoc. Sinnamin gave me a few names from here and there, and a list of pro and cons. One name stood out as being the least likely to screw me over. Viktor Vektor. Best of all, he wasn't too far away. I'd head that way next.

When time was up, I thanked Sinnamin, and headed back to the bar. It was even more balls to the walls busy.

"So you get caught up, Ryan?" Mateo asked as I sat down. He gave me a bro nod, and I returned it. Yeah maybe I had been too quick to judge. Still wouldn't trust him with my girlfriend though, if I could ever find one.

"At least a little better of an idea how screwed I am." I shrugged, then had an idea, "You got anything substantial to eat around here, I'm running on fumes?"

He nodded. "Sure, we can whip up something, just don't expect The Gourmand experience." He chuckled as he pulled out the menu again. Then he frown as he realized why I'd asked the question the way I had. The menu was mostly drinks and quick snacks.

"Better than Buck A Slice will be great. Please."

He saw the terror on my face and chuckled. "Yeah we can do better than that scop." His eyes flashed putting in the order. I decided to live a little and order a rum and cola, to wash whatever they came up with down.

A few minutes later, I had a plate of what looked like over loaded nachos. It wasn't bad at all, just off. Cheese not quite right, which was unsurprising. Meat with a weird texture and not quite beef flavored. Jalapeños that really weren't snappy or really spicy at all. But compared to that "pizza" it was heaven.

As I got up to leave, I payed up and left a good tip.

"Thanks Mateo." Despite my initial impression of him, I really meant it.

"Anytime Ryan. You're not bad for a Bennie." He gave me a cocky grin and a wave.

I went and collected my iron. A different lady was working the counter, friendly but not overly so. No problems there.

The scary bouncer lady, who name was Rita, according to Sinnamin, was displeased. "Hey gonk, your car fried a couple of Dorphers. Keep it on a leash. We don't need bodies stinking up the joint." I unconsciously snapped to attention. But this brought up an interesting point, apparently they couldn't see the Probes right now.

"Yes ma'am. You want me to drag them away?" Wouldn't hurt to be friendly about it. She was just doing her job.

"Nah, we already threw 'em in the dumpster." She sigh exasperated, "Cars zeroing junkies. What next, vampires?"

"Thanks Rita, you have a good night." She snorted at me, not even phased that I knew her name now.

"Get out of here, Bennie. while I'm willing to let ya." Smirking at me. I think she was checking out my ass as I walked away. Which would have been quite the feat, in these robes.

Scuff and Fix reported it was clear. I was amused that they seemed to be happy to zap some "gonks". We loaded up quickly.

Back in the car, I made my way over to where a place called Misty's Esoterica was supposed to be. this was where I had to go to get in touch with Dr. Vektor. The store was across from Gomorrah, a Dollhouse. The concept of Dolls disturbed me. Both the sheer surrender of personality and the fact they recorded everything that happened. Then there was the levels of abuse some of them would probably face, it made me shudder.

I left Fix to guard the car, and took Scuff with me.

When I found Misty's, it was still open. Upon entering, I got another surprise.