[Scum Barge] Uberti

1 post / 0 new
Axel the Chimeric Axel the Chimeric's picture
[Scum Barge] Uberti

In its diaspora across the solar system and the cosmos, one of the most persistent memes has always been hedonism. Pleasure and happiness are what much of transhumanity has worked towards since before the term transhuman even existed; the simple joys of existence are what keep some people from killing themselves and being done with it, especially after the horrors witnessed in the Fall.

However, not everyone agrees that this is a worthwhile goal. Some argue that unmitigated search for pleasure only leads to corruption and misery for others and oneself, some that those who would seek only happiness simply choose to wallow in indolence. However, the inhabitants and crew of the Uberti offer a third option.

Former professor of Philosophy, creator of the popular VR game Misery City, and infugee Shad Naveed enjoyed a change in perspective in the loss of his body and his world with the Fall. Coming to believe that suffering and hardship were necessary components of the human condition, Naveed delved deeply into Epicurean philosophy. Exploring various VR worlds and listening to data on habitats, Naveed worked, for a time, creating his own experimental VR simulations as social and cultural art pieces. It did not take long for him to develop his philosophy further, eventually using significant donations from his eager followers (including a few anonymous hypercorp heirs) to purchase an abandoned evacuation ship to transform into his latest project.

The result was the Uberti. On the smaller end of barges, the Uberti only has the life support and space capacity to support approximately a thousand people comfortably, but this does not matter to Naveed. Dedicated to bringing his expanded philosophy to full realization, the Uberti is the home for those who believe all facets of emotion are a part of the transhuman experience and should not be denied. Inside its confines are a number of environments that are designed to allow the visitors to feel the fully resonant effects of an area with whatever mood they might be feeling at the time, along with large amounts of server space that allow visitors to enjoy more in-depth simulations to induce these emotions. These simulations range from the mundane (a greyed rendering of a balcony apartment on pre-Fall Earth, overlooking rainy city) to the outlandish (a wild, bacchanalial festival, festooned with colour, parading through alien and stylized streets) to the disturbing (enduring XP generated by rape victims during their attacks and after, complete with Emotion track).

The Uberti is also a development ground, with older, more "perfected" experiences being released on a low-cost basis to the public. The majority of the funding for the Uberti, however, is derived from visitors who can afford the price of visiting the vessel, who are given enviable position of trying the latest and most innovative of these programs before they are available to the general public.

Naveed, for his part, has little to do with the day-to-day operations of the Uberti, leaving it largely to a group of devoted acolytes that practice his philosophy. He spends much of his time trying to hunt down new experiences to add to his bizarre sensorium. At present, he is particularly interested in any XP available from the Fall itself or gatecrashing.
