Dionysus International, bringing evolution to your doorsteps.
A MegaCorp which had it's home firmly in the industries of food, drink and bodily modifications, Dionysus International was one of the 6 MegaCorps which made the Pan-Italy Pact following the Robot Wars of 2248. Alongsides weapons manufacturer Izanagi, construction magnate Beaver's Dam, the housing and hotel focused Venka Hotels, robotics experts Xibalba Tech, and the company that invented Cyberspace, Dream Maker Inc., they were the ones at the top of the world, all recognized as AAA companies with global control over many of the world's cities.
Dionysus International in particular, while not the one who came up with the pact was a vital part of both the pact as well as the world. The leading force in food production worldwide, Dionysus stocks not just the supermarkets but also the food stalls, restaurants and anywhere else one can find food in the cities. Without Dionysus, a city could starve itself to death slowly and agonizingly, due to the relative hardness of growing natural crops in a cyberpunk world.
In the coming years though, Dionysus branched out into other branches much like the other five megacorps. In particular though, it saw great use in the rising number of modifications in the world. With a long line of CEOs and board members who saw the benefit of full body modifications, they took to monopolizing on legal modifications that could be used to help humanity survive and become better than they were before.
In recent years, they have even invented full body treatments to allow humanity to fully express themselves. Their first set, the Blin was a sleeper hit when it first released in 2340 which had a surge of popularity ten years ago due to it's potrayal in a movie funded by Beaver's Dam. The surge of popularity from the Blin's resurgence led to the development of further sets with their own purposes, such as the musclebound Amazon and the Canvas, meant for the modded individual to use their own body as a piece of art.
In the present day, they had just debuted their fourth official set, the Toady. Created by the current CEO and her... obsession with toads and frogs for their adaptivity, the mods frog-like traits and incredible jumping skills made them a welcome addition to the modding scene. Of course, many other unofficial black market modifications existed for any sort of purpose have also leaked onto the market, but at least according to Dionysus only the Blin, Amazon, Canvas and Toady were considered real mods.
And when they came across illegal modifications, they cease and desisted hard with their best Enforcers. However, it wasn't a perfect solution as sometimes those illegal modification developers sometimes struck back. And on the day of April 4th, 2375 Scarlet came across the aftermath of such a case.
"Demi Calidi, age 38. Impaled through the throat by a steel pipe. I'll admit, this is a unorthodox way to die..."
From the files, Scarlet knew that Demi was a highly ranking supervisor of the greenhouse farming depots in the northern districts of town. Nearly half a ton, the woman had undergone Amazon modifications just to be able to move even with her life of indulgence, though with her weight the most she could do was waddle. She was leading a campaign against a illegal modification, one meant to give people sharp horns that could be disconnected and used as blades.
Analyzing the scene though, it was clear that this no incident caused by such a modification. Rather, by all evidence it didn't even seem like the confrontation was even caused by anything biological, but rather cybernetic. The fact that the security cameras across the entire greenhouse building was hacked and bricked during the course of the crime was evidence enough for this theory.
But... why would someone with cybernetics do such a thing? Cybernetics and modifications, due to having separate but compatible visions of the advancement of mankind were usually neutral to each other. So long as a certain cybernetic part didn't interfere with a certain genetic modification, there usually wasn't a argument to be had. At the least, she wasn't alone to question this.
"Excuse me, Ms. Stingray? Do you know what this symbol means?"
Dana Stingray was a private investigator, who commonly worked with the local police and enforcers in solving crimes. While this was Scarlet's first time meeting the woman, she had heard good things about her deductive skills and as such treated her with equal regard.
"Hmm..." Picking up the symbol found to the side of the woman's corpse, Dana pulled out her phone and scanned it to check it with a database of symbols. "It's a ancient symbol, dating back to worship of the goddess Aphrodite. In modern days, it's mostly used by sex workers under a company known as Love Incorporated."
"You mean that startup that got super successful around ten years ago?" Scarlet asked? She knew little about the company, besides the fact that it made it's bucks in dating services as well as their own brand of AI, of which her Tee was among them.
"Indeed. But I don't think this is a calling card..." Continuing to examine the paper that showed the symbol, Dana pointed out the blood that existed on the sides as well as a important tear. "The writing on it seems to have been torn off, and there seems to be splatters indicating that it was being held before the incident."
"Does that mean Demi was contacting someone within the company before she was murdered?"
"Most likely." Dana admitted. "These rich blob types do tend to be perverted, so it makes sense that they'd be looking for a potential lover to hire for the night. The big question though... why would she be looking at such documents during working hours? She'd have been ridiculed if someone checked the security footage and found out."
"Unless she bribed the people in charge of that." Scarlet interjected. "Still though, you are right in wondering that. Maybe she was worried about a past transaction with the company?"
"Hmm... that's very possible. I'll look into it after we're done investigating the scene, and try to find out all of her previous contacts in the last year, to look for possible connections to Love."
Besides the symbol, the crime scene was very much standard for this city. While the room was closed and locked at the moment of murder, a witness claimed to have seen a body run across the roof right before discovering the body. Finding a possible entrance from the roof was going to take at least two days according to the chief, but there was enough time to look through all of Demi's contacts before a way was found at least.
After investigating the crime scene, the rest of the day was simple clean up procedure. Applying yellow tape, ensuring that nobody intruded on the crime scene, and making sure that Ms. Stingray was not interrupted during her job. By the time the sun set and Scarlet was off the clock, she was already heading at McDougah's, to eat some good old fashioned fast food after a stimulating day.
*Bring... bring...* *klick*
"Hello?"
"Hey, honey... I miss you, you know."
Unsurprisingly, it was Tee making a call to Scarlet now that she was off work. Set back to her loving wife mode as soon as Luiza left, she was back to caring for Scarlet and was simply calling due to missing her. Tee was a good deal more independent than most AIs of her type, due to Scarlet's personal care and refusal to reset her every once in a while. Also the romance, considering that Tee was a sort of lover just as much as she was a help around the house.
"Any new messages while I was working today?" Scarlet asked, biting into her burger.
"You have four new messages from Sha Shin. I can read them to you when you-"
"Don't bother." Even with her life having gotten a bit better with a neighbor she liked, Scarlet was still very much not wanting to deal with that woman. That relationship was over, and she didn't even want to acknowledge her anymore. "In fact, can you delete that contact if possible? Burning that bridge."
"Understood. Deleting contact "Sha Shan" now. By the way, you also have a message from your neighbor, Luiza. She says she wants to hang out with you again if possible."
"...tell her I'll be glad to do that tomorrow, but today I need to do some things."
While it was tempting to have her over again tonight, this case was very much an important matter for the enforcers of 0B. Such high profile cases required maximum effort from every person, and when it came to Scarlet's part she needed to take part in finding out the culprit and bringing them to justice, along with help from detectives and the press.
Finishing her burger, Scarlet ordered a second one alongside a large cappucino as she went over the notes. This was going to be a long night, and even if her uniform was going to be a bit snugger from two days of indulging herself, she needed the energy to stay awake.
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