In Hippodrome City, life is cheap and chrome is prized. The rich fill their bodies with implants and graft on appendages their species isn't born with, or chop off perfectly good limbs to replace them with upgraded hardware, all in the name of fashion and performance. After all, why bother to save for the future when everything can come crashing down in a hail of gangbanger gunfire or deadly corporate-warfare systems hacks?
Better live life while you can, and on Nightmare Night there's no better way to do that than to go partying in costume.
In the criminal justice system of Hippodrome City, the Chief Cyber Medical Examiner is responsible for forensic autopsies of the deceased found in unusual or suspicious circumstances. This is the story of one such exam.
Written for the 2023 Cyberpunk Nightmare Night Story Contest, where it won second place