Obolus

A speculative venture into the grim and seedy world of cyberpunk. In the grim future in a bid to fight overcrowding people share bodies. Society is divided into the day cycle and the night cycle with each consciousness inhabiting the shared bodies for 12 hour shifts before swapping over. Only the super wealthy and the political elite have the right to their own body. Amidst this dystopian nightmare Paig is an illegal solo entity. In order to keep his secret and avoid a mind-purge he must live a double life as the chief of police and a local crime lord. All without sleep. And all without allowing his two lives to cross.

For those who are interested the first paragraph or so was composed while I drunkenly performed grossly uncoordinated dance moves at a nightclub.

“You only need alcohol till the beat takes hold. Paig could feel the beat in his veins, and it pumped. Oh how it pumped. A haze of drugs and alcohol flaked away into the bright colours of rhythm and the pulsing sound of the jive. Sweat, smoke and the tears of a hundred broken hearts hung thick in the air and made the walls bleed. The beat was loud. The beat was strong. It was the here and the now. The beat was inside your veins and under your skin. It pulsed and flowed until it took you over from the inside, until you were the beat and the beat was you. Deals might come and go, business may ebb and flow, but the beat? The beat was forever…”

Obulus Alpha was posted in its entirety in the blog post Paying the Ferryman.