Kel's Tale

TLZ 2nd Ed. Cyberpunk Islam edition

Mar 19, 2026

The giant yellow hologram of a tall blonde woman is trying to sell me something from across the street. She walks off the billboard she’s supposed to be bound to and struts in tall heels my way. She gives me a wink and grin before she changes her appearance: blonde to brunette. Her form: tall and thin as a rail to short and busty. All in an instant. Get yourself a woman who can do all this. I’m not really sure what she’s trying to sell me — not that I’m interested. I brush her off as I keep walking northbound toward Vat’s Gastrobar. The living ad is put off by my apathy, throwing up the bird before she dissolves in front of me, returning to her place in the billboard now 15 paces behind me.

I brush my hand over the frame of my glasses and activate a program that lights up on my lens display. A tall pale woman in a bright red raincoat passes by me heading southbound and her profile begins to run vertically through the glass. Racquelle. Fitness coach. Looking for something short-term. “Visiting Gamorra-1 for the weekend, looking for some fun.” I shake my head and keep walking. A small ‘X’ appears over the profile and disappears in an instant.

A woman veiled in a shiny hijab wearing black cocktail dress is sitting at an outside bar to my left. I shift my eyes ever so slightly to catch her countenance in the lens. Noor. Executive at VieCorp. Long-term, open to short-term. “Looking for shared values and romance.” She catches onto my glance and pulls herself away from her conversation to shoot me a cold look and says something in a language I can’t understand. I throw my hand up – rusted and missing the ring finger, leaving only frayed nerve wires at the knuckle – in a defensive wave and walk past as quickly as I can until I make it to Vat’s Gastrolounge.

‘Soul: Meet Your Life Mate’ boasts an overwhelming success rate of matches made on the program, however the exact data has never been published. Its integration into all neuralink operating softwares since OS-2278, and VinciGlass 7 models allows one to see who else is using the program whilst carrying out the daily tasks of life. “Meet-cutes have never been easier,” the marketing claims. I’ve never had any success.

A body rebuilt almost entirely by cybernetics doesn’t make for an attractive candidate on the program. Neither do androids, as pretty as they may be designed. The bio-fundamentalists, whether the liberationists and the progressives agree or refuse to admit, have a grip on all things across the region, including love. “Man can not enter the Kingdom of Paradise unless he is born flesh from flesh.” Not flesh from the bioplants in the south. “Man can not enter the Kingdom of Paradise if he has mutilated and deformed his body, making him unfit and unable to cross through the gates.”

If you take the descending stairs just beside the Free Clinic on Harrow St. and Dyne Ave., you’ll find a grey metal door that looks locked. It isn’t. Vat’s Gastrolounge doesn’t announce itself to the city like every other microbrewery, pleasure lounge and coffee shop does.

Vat’s is unsuspecting. What used to be the basement of the Free Clinic is now a rather cozy restaurant. Vat never bothered to polish up the floor. Its black concrete is the foundation for a vintage space. Wood paneling along the walls, worn out old fairy lights hang from corner to corner along the walls. Eclectic seating sourced from who knows where anymore. I look out toward the bar and counter at the center of the lounge, and then out to the rest of the space; it’s empty, save for a patron in the far back corner, working on a large tablet. It’s empty save for her.

Her hair is a new color. It must just have been dyed. A deep, bright blue, almost like the color of the slush drinks they serve at every convenience store. But what’s left of her platinum blonde days can be seen when the light catches her just right. She’s got a pale, soft face; save for the acne scars riddled across her profile. Her long neck is bound by a large studded collar. She wears an oversized, black shirt with long sleeves like it’s her uniform. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in anything else.

I take a seat at the bar and she greets me with a thin, closed smile. “Your usual, Kel?”

I shake my head. “Just a water, please, Shin. When do you get off work?”

Shin turns her back to me to grab something off the back counter. “I’m going to charge you for the water if you don’t order anything else.”

She pulls her hair up into a messy bun and for a moment I can see a series of vertical scars stretched along the faded black lines of an ID code: A-778-56-2480. It’s a secret everyone who’s been at Vat’s long enough knows. I was the first to know the secret. She turns back to me with a short glass of water. There’s some sort of film floating in it. But there’s always some sort of film floating in the water here.

“You know I just started my shift, Kel.” There’s no one save for the occupied patron in the back and yet she starts moving around like the dinner crowd has just come in.

“That’s fine, I can wait.” I pull the ragged paperback I’ve been meaning to finish out of my coat pocket and set it on the counter in front of me. Chances are, I probably won’t even open it in the time that I’m here.

Shin looks over at me from the other side of the bar with a frustrated look etched across her face. She sets the glasses she’s washed three times now on the drying rack and walks over to me, and leans over the counter to look me straight in the eyes. They’re a deep brown. Up close I can see the faint ring around her pupils that denotes an android. “Wait for what?”

“Wait to tell you I want to take you on the Skytrain, out to the mountains. I found a cabin there on my last assignment.”

Her eyes widen and she pushes herself up from the counter to distance herself from me. “You know I can’t. We can’t. That new legislation is being passed and – And besides I thought you were trying to see other —”

Her voice trails off as I pull my glasses off my face and crush them in my hand. “It’s only ever been you, Shin.”

She laughs. “Those were an 800-credit pair of glasses…” And then she grows quiet, staring at me. “Let me think about it…”

“That’s fine. I can wait.” I pick up the paperback and flip to the opening page and pretend to read in silence as I watch Shin serve the incoming lunch crowd. I order my regular drink after some time, and wait.

It’s 10:45. I’m standing outside the back entrance of Vat’s, a cigarette shaking in my fingers. I hadn’t said a word to Shin the rest of my time there. I’m startled as the backdoor is kicked open and the busboy, looking very disgruntled. He storms out down the alley without a word.

Another 20 minutes pass and the door opens slowly and gently. Shin throws her grey overcoat and takes the cigarette from my hand and takes a drag.

“Have you made up your mind?”

She lets out a puff of smoke and keeps my cigarette. “I think I’d like to see that cabin in the mountains. Tonight.”