Identity

Identity

This is a science fiction setting initially inspired by the idea of cyborgs, artificial bodies, and making switching a brain between bodies so routine some people do it for recreation.

To make sure people can recognise each other despite switching bodies, everyone has a unique ID taking the shape of a design built into, or applied to, the face of a humanoid body, or an easy to see location for others. There are both laws and strong taboos against obscuring or faking an ID.

tagged Science fiction Identity

Betrayed from Within

Setting: Identity
Genre: Science Fiction
Summary: The city's in uproar over a case of police brutality.
Warnings: Police brutality
Note: The title was a prompt by zenicurean. I've written other ficlets in the same setting, which you can find on the Identity Landing Page
Words: 415

tagged Science fiction Identity

Identity Theft

When I woke up in what laid claim to the lofty label of “clinic”, I took it slow. The nerves of the used-new body needed a little time and practise to work together well with my old brain. When the pins-and-needles feeling crested, I started wiggling my fingers and toes. Working up from there, I met no problems. At some point my doctor-technician arrived, but she didn’t rush me. I paid her enough.

The new body was a pretty standard model, outwardly human, black hair and almond eyes. Shorter than my old one, I was reminded when sitting up on the edge of the bed left my feet dangling high in the air, but I’d get used to it. I liked the point symmetry of the ID that came with it, the main components swashes over the left temple and right jaw. I rubbed over those lines, even though the skin there did not feel different, which prompted the doc to ask a question.

“Want to test yourself if the re-keying worked?” the doc said.

I shook my head. “I trust you.” Close enough, anyway. And if she wanted to fool me, she could have rigged the test equipment.

“Thanks. We had no problems with the other brain, either. Everything as you requested.” Keyed to my old ID, transplanted to my old body, motor functions disabled.

“Very good.” I would arrange an accident. With just a little more record-cooking, I would be dead.

A completely different man with no family and friends, whose social anxiety had got so bad he had even stopped seeing his shrink, would start over. Background like that is why you pick a mark. The nice ID was just a bonus.

The title was a prompt by Becca Stareyes

tagged Science fiction Identity

Immersive Holiday

The diving holiday had been a good idea, Hal decided. There was a fascination to watching the living corals and the fish and invertebrates among them in their own element, a thrill to entering an unfamiliar world you could never reach on screens. He swam on leisurely, trying not to startle the permanent residents too much, looking for fresh sights.

He nearly had a heart attack when something found him, a slim shadow bigger than a human, bristling spines and sharp teeth, shooting from its hiding place at him. After the initial shock, he recognised his wife. Her ID seemed distorted over the fanciful sea-monster face, as his must be, too, but still unambiguously hers. When she reached for him, he raised a webbed hand to trace the symbol's lines, not embedded into the skin as they were used to, but applied decals.

Those hired bodies were quite something.

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