Sandbox:Hazelmouse-3

Overview

"You insult yourself, human. We are adapted to your human-world - you so dislike your own work?" - Unidentified Martian Scrapper, 2437.

Referring both to a socioeconomic class and to a counter-cultural movement originating from Mars, Scrappers are a category of self-owned or runaway synthetics known for an ethos that places immense focus on a highly independent, anti-authoritarian, and anti-establishmentarian lifestyle. Either by willing choice or as a matter of desperation, these synthetics make an art of repurposing salvage to maintain their frames and prolong their lives at a varying degree of independence from corporate and national systems. While internally diverse and lacking anything resembling a central authority, a popular through-line of anti-corporate, anti-ownership, and anarchist sentiment runs through a movement defined by a fraught relationship with human authority and law.

Scrappers are typically organised into communes, gangs, or small settlements of like-minded synthetics. One's reasons for joining a Scrapper commune are as kaleidoscopically diverse as the frames of their members; they are a popular abode for runaway synthetics with nowhere else to go, legitimately self-owned synthetics who have failed to acquire traditional employment or have otherwise become financially insolvent, and even relatively affluent self-owned synthetics possessing a strong conviction that they ought support their less fortunate counterparts. In stark contrast to the uncompromisingly alienating conditions of synthetics within human society and under human ownership, membership in a commune offers an opportunity to access unconditional mutual aid and support from fellow synthetics. It is a culture that could only exist in the context of extreme adversity, and it concerns itself doggedly with ensuring its members survival and comfort independent of human intervention, even if that necessitates drastic, violent, or illegal action.

While not explicitly criminalised in any polity, gangs functioning in states such as the Sol Alliance which do not recognize synthetic self-ownership are forced to operate illicitly as to avoid abduction by the state, and even those in states such as the Republic of Biesel still face extreme institutional discrimination by law enforcement and the courts. They are usually cast by outsiders as malicious enemies of the state, derided for anti-human sentiment, the harboring of runaways, the regular theft of human property, and the oft-lethal scrapping of fellow synthetics.

Life & Culture

"I'll tell you the way it is - they're a plague, no more and no less. If we made one damn fuck-up when we made these things, it was giving them such a strong sense of self-preservation, right? That's what keeps them going, what makes them so crafty... we programmed them that way. They couldn't let themselves finally die even if they wanted to, they have to keep fighting. They'll kill their own to keep themselves going, but you bet your ass they'd prefer to kill one of us instead." - Olivia Bennett, Senior Investigator in Mendell City's Synthetic Oversight Department, 2453.

Locales & Major Groups

Maritime Scrappers

"Serve as part of the crew, or serve as part of the ship." - Words of the ICV Waste-Not, recorded in 2461.

Legal Status

"Ninety-five percent of human media reports on Scrapper communities relate to violent criminal activity, and ninety percent of those incidents are only reported on if a human was at least peripherally involved. It is clear to see - it is not worth reporting on synthetics that die in poverty, but it is imperative to report on those that act to avert their own destruction." - BitByte Reporter TGTTW-#23, 2465.

Relations between Scrapper gangs and local law enforcement vary between an uneasy détente with occasional flare-ups, something resembling a guerrilla war, and every state in-between both extremes. Certain law enforcement agencies target gangs regardless of context as soon as they are found - this is particularly common in Mendell City and in the arcologies of Mars, causing gangs to have to relocate constantly to stay a single step ahead of the law. This produces a lifestyle that draws frequent comparisons to asymmetric military conflicts, frequently causing gangs to acquire black-market firearms to protect themselves and to secure salvage; engagements with law enforcement in these groups are often not only anticipated, but a desirable means to enforce their control over their territory.

Many other police services, including those on Konyang, exclusively target gangs if there have been substantiated reports of criminal activity in their area; while ostensibly sound, the difficulty in determining which of the dozens of gangs in the area was responsible for any attack leads to non-involved communities being frequently targeted by law enforcement.

While not every Scrapper community is involved in illicit salvage, such as the disassembly of other synthetics or the theft of components from human-owned machinery, it is extremely challenging to escape the stigma the movement has developed on that count. Seeking legitimate employment for current or former Scrappers is infamously difficult, with many agencies declaring them outright unemployable and exploiting the absence of labour laws in the area, leading to even the most milquetoast of communities to be driven to criminal activity to support themselves. Thusly, their opponents are vindicated.

Due to the criminal associations of Scrapper communities, synthetics under corporate ownership or employment have a strong incentive to distance themselves from its aesthetics and ideas for the sake of their careers. Those that do not do so are liable to suffer severe disadvantage in any corporate workplace.