GoldenKids: Super-rich heirs of the Corporate State

From the diamond and iridium bracelet-com on your wrist, to the private aerodyne on the roof, you're every inch a GoldenKid. Born and raised on wealth instead of parenting and privilege instead of ethics, you're so used to getting your way that you no longer even bother to question the fact. You live in a world of corporate highrises (or private estates), with private suites, bodyguards and dedicated Virtuality links. You own your own gold corporate credit card, exotic pets, expensive jewelry, a huge (but tasteful) wardrobe, a personal aerodyne, and a forged driver's license. In short, you have everything a juve could want except parents who can spare some time just to be with you.

You're rich - really rich. You're also probably not a native; many of you have parents who originally came to the U.S. from Japan or the EC to oversee an American branch of a large international megacorp (which has since defected to the ISA). Some of your friends come from California, Texas, Florida, or the Northeast, where hereditary fortunes are still common. But money isn't all of the picture; what you really have is power. Raw, unadulterated clout: the ability to shape events and squash lesser mortals like bugs that comes naturally to those who regularly dine with Presidents.

Your toys and position come at a price; one parent works sixteen hours a day and flies around the world with six bodyguards, and the other makes the whirl through the Corpzoner social scene and flies around the country with six bodyguards. But that's not a high price to pay to get everything you ever wanted, to be able to satisfy even the most trivial whim. In fact, you lack nothing, except something to do with your time.

You are also terminally bored.

What You Look Like

As a GoldenKid, you always wear the latest fashions,or else eschew popular convention entirely and wear whatever style pleases you. Whatever the style, you always look polished. Since a true GoldenKid always goes for the subtle show, the cut of your clothes and the craft of your jewelry ensembles are designed for low-key flair, flash, and a sinister edge of arrogance and elitism.

Subculture

GoldenKid culture is based exclusively on status in its various forms, and parties are the main way for status to be developed and asserted. Appearance is one way to establish domniance; another is status through argument. In your circle, the most popular GoldenKids are known for their ability to philosophize, and although their points may lack any actual basis in experience, the ability to debate is more important. The winners know that under the omnipresent eyes of their parents, the strongest and the cleverest will be the inheiritors of their progenitors' staggering power and wealth

Status through entertainment comes third, and is perhaps the most startling way in which your fellow "taddys" claim ranking. Peer pressure is the stablilizing force of GoldenKid society, a mirror of the cutthroat Corporate culture you inhabit. In vicious attempts to sabotage or smear rivals, the major weapon in a GoldenKid dispute becomes the opinion of the clique.

Belonging

Everyone knows that one doesn't join the GoldenKids; one either is a GoldenKid or isn't.

Your Allies and Enemies

Unlike other yogangs, your circle usually has cordial relations with corporations and the authorities. These relations may even be warm and friendly, depending on how good you are at hiding your little games from those in power (as if they didn't know). You look on the corporations as a means to an end. GoldenKids have no friends among yogang culture, largely because you think everyone else is beneath your dignity. In return, other yogangers think you GoldenKids have no firm grounding in reality, and live in a fantasy world of your own devising.

Slang

Bank: parents.

Buffy & Biff: GoldenKids fro Old Money, down-eastern families. Anyone from Yale, Harvard or Vassar.

Leverage: money, power.

Lugomen: faceless Corporate bodyguards, family Solos.

Mondo Showdown: exclusive GoldenKid party.

Nuvos: GlitterKids with money but not Corporate power or connections.

Ram: to be passe, to fail.

Taddy: GoldenKid.

Them: anyone but a GoldenKid.

Yogang Skill: Contacts (INT)

As a GoldenKid, you know power comes from the ability to know and use important, powerful people. Having Contacts means you know somebody important who can help you in Corporate (Average) or Government (Difficult) circles, sometimes even at the most exclusive places (Very Difficult). Note: This skill only works as log as the GoldenKid is not publicly exposed as a member of the CyberEvolved. But as most GoldenKid families will use any means to hide the scandal of an infected child, you are unlikely to be exposed unless you commit a very, very public action while using your Evolved powers. Even then, they're more likely to cut you off than publicly denounce you.

If You're a GoldenKid:

1) Tell me your name, age and sex.

2) Describe what you look like.

3) Tell me about your parents. What Corp does the ol' bank belong to? Excepting Arasaka and EBMA, you may affiliated with any other megacorp of the world.

4) Besides your V-Trodes, pick four different things from the list below that you are currently carrying:

Personal Cellphone.

Gold smartcard bank account with $2000 in it (last month's allowance).

Personal V-Term (personal assistant/computer).

Snoopbox (privacy protection device).

Cardlock smartcard to your family's private, luxury Corpzone conapt.

Expensive armored sports jacket (AR 5).

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