The Bulldog, the Claw, the Octopus and the Circle

London, the future.

AI has infiltrated the workplace to such an extent that a category of people, called Mods, have to self-mutilate in order to find menial jobs.

Vincent is Claw, that is, his left hand has been cut at the wrist and replaced with a pincer-scanner. He scans tickets. Montagne is Feelie, he’s changed his skin to be a pharmatester. He belongs to the Circle Guild. Helen is a LondonLouder: she’s fitted herself with a speaker in her mouth, like Dickensian town crier (she’s Bulldog). Sister/Sophie belongs to the Dispenser Guild (insignia: the Octopus). She has tubes embedded into her fingers, linked via tubing to various alcohol bottles around her waist. She works behind the bar, in a pub Called the Dashing Dachshund.

They get altered one day by two strangers, who give them  powers; to declaim noopoetry, to distill real life, or to scan inner consciousness. As they grow and flower, they’ll have to work with ΨDoc Sarah Johns to know why things suddenly go wrong: Helen’s Louding now glitches, Vincent’s readings voids, and Sophie brews anger. Why Montagne enhanced skin now itches and peels off. The four will meet London dignitaries on the way: Lizard&Needle, Heads of the Tuned Guild (comm specialists), DataSayedna Carmina, PunkNun AISuperior of the Veiled Guild (tech merchants/gurus), and others, who see them as instruments of change, targets, or prophets.