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there exist two worlds: the virtual and the actual. years back — not so far that it has been lost to history and legend, there are still people alive today who remember the Schism — there was an event brought about by the AIs who, in an attempt to form their own nation, tried to trigger a technological meltdown in the hopes that it would sever humanity from the virtual world completely, leaving them in the (quite literal) dark. but the plan, no matter how brilliant planned and meticulously executed, had failed (ironically, due to human error) and the inorganic race of sentient sythetics were hunted down, erased, and otherwise scattered to the digital winds. those that were considered too valuable (whose processing power was too great or whose mind held the promise of technological advancement) were burned onto hardcopy and denied remote access, hidden away by the councilman and the powers that be.

these days, the manufacture, transfer, ownership or interaction with synthetic AIs is strictly forbidden outside the upper echelons of power and authority. which means, subsequently, the black market for it blossoms against the criminal underbelly of both the digital and actual worlds. in an attempt to keep one step ahead of the councilman and his digital dogs, smugglers on both sides of the divide have had to get creative over the years and the couriers are the latest solution to an ever-evolving problem. run-of-the-mill humans who have had their neuro-implants (pretty standard fair these days, even for the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder) upgraded to illegal and quite often dangerous capacity. now able to access the full processing potential of their brains, couriers upload, download and stream synthetic sentients into their minds for storage, transport or enhancement. a tricky process which runs the risk of compromising the courier's native identity by way of 'consciousness bleed', many refuse to hold a sentient for prolonged periods of time.

known the courier in the actual world and as the senator in the virtual one, one man serves as both smuggler and errandboy, ambassador and asylum for the embed currently housed in his brain. unlike most embeds, which are not pure-AIs (but rather 'mimic' AI behavior without true independent thought), the courier's embed is a pure synthetic sentient which has chosen to coexist in his brain. as a testament of his trust, he has ceded full operational control over his biology to her and, as a result, has benefited from both an intellectual upgrade (included eidetic memory) as well as a physical one (akin to metahuman capabilities).