So you're looking to get some piece of cybernetics installed, huh? Payment plans outside your budget? The clinics balk at your request? "What you're asking for is impossible, and even if it wasn't I still wouldn't attempt it" -- these words sound familiar to you? Talk to Min-Jeong, she'll hook you up! A Terran wrench-spinner who operates out of an old maintenance room she found unlocked somewhere beneath the Titan General Hospital train station, Min-Jeong is unburdened by licensure or liability and she'll totally do the job for you. She's willing and able to graft any piece of machinery to any part of your body and she'll do it for barter- if you have something cool to trade you can forego credits entirely and still find your way under her knife. It goes without saying, but Min-Jeong does not take patients from Titan General, all of her clients are volunteers. Just keep in mind there's no takesies-backsies if you're not happy with the results of her work. Caveat emptor!
Min-Jeong trades in Scrap style cybernetics.
- [+] Scrap tech has no limitations. If you can build it, you can have it installed.
- [+] Very inexpensive compared to other available styles.
- [-] Healing and recovery time is very long.
- [-] Rejection rates are very high.
- [-] Maintenance is unscheduled.
- [-] Aftercare is not provided.
- [-] No refunds.
Scrap cybernetics is a pretty big tent without any stylistic specifications in the same sense that the other more clinical providers can offer. "No limits" does genuinely mean anything is possible, although Min-Jeong tends to procure her goods from a few reliable sources. Android parts are distinct from cybernetics in that they're not generally meant to be grafted to or operated by organic tissue, but Min-Jeong is genuinely talented and she can find a way to make it work. Heavy industrial hardware can make a pretty handy makeshift limb, and Min-Jeong has grafted a few pilebunkers or plasma cutters to the occasional starfarer. She knows the backdoor keypad code to get into Titan General's incinerator room- that's usually where she unloads the leftovers from one of her procedures- and she's got a keen eye for spotting second-hand synthetic organs set aside from patients who no longer require their services; you can hose them down real good and then they're ready to tinker with. "Machines only do what they're told to do, so if you can figure out how to translate what a body is saying to what a machine is hearing you can do anything!" This is Min-Jeong's working philosophy, a mote of wisdom that is not generally shared or appreciated by the Titan Garden Cyber-Medical Oversight Committee. They can keep their dumb licenses, and the body-rejected hardware Titan General occasionally has to remove from her patients; the hospital keeps a store room collection of these failed curios outside of public access. Rejections aren't a failing of Min-Jeong's handiwork, it was simply the flesh that was weak, and that's bad luck on your part, buddy. We'll try again when you're all healed up.
Booking an appointment with Min-Jeong can be difficult, since she doesn't maintain an office anywhere. You gotta know someone who knows a friend who can text her and tell her she's got a new patient, and then you'll have to wait a few days to get a text back from an unlisted number. "wat u l👀kin 4?" That's your in. Describe what kind of work you want and if it sounds interesting Min-Jeong will meet up with you at one of her favorite late-night breakfast spots, usually a 24-hour diner in a backstreet of the A-District but sometimes she'll be in the E-District so you gotta hoof it out there instead. She won't do a job if it sounds boring- she's cool with cranial computer installations, ocular work and organ enhancements, but she really likes any job that lets her cut something off with her cauterizing laser saw. Her eyes light up when, let's say, the lead singer of her favorite scuzcore band wants to have a United Robotics android arm mounted on his shoulder. She's super into those kinds of jobs, like maybe a little too into them.
Speaking of, Puke Commander is a regular patient of Min-Jeong's. He'd originally sought her out to have his extra-strength United android arm installed, but it was her idea to add the high-torque motor, and that basically sealed the deal for Puke Commander. In exchange for her services he offered her free lifetime admission to all Pukes concerts, and that instantly made him one of Min-Jeong's favorite patients. When she happened across a piece of high-end ocular technology Min-Jeong fired off a text to Puke Commander, giving him first dibs on the hardware. When she found a couple synthetic bladders in the Titan General incinerator basket she had a great idea for how to never have to pee when you can't or you shouldn't, and she pitched the idea to Puke Commander- he loved it, he's never gotta worry about long flights or shows any more. The two became instant friends, an artist and a living canvas, an inseparable duo. When an unhappy customer is discharged from Titan General and comes around looking for Min-Jeong, The Pukes step in to intervene. She's a VIP.
While Min-Jeong can turn up anywhere around Titan Garden, she'll pop into the Dockyards frequently, looking for parts to inspire her next big idea. She'll hit up the Grizzly Bear Scrapyard, Jumbo's Parts & Performance, Timberwolf Reclamation and Red Raven Towing & Salvage to see what bits of hardware they have on offer. She heard from Puke Commander that he's done some salvage work with Red Raven, and that there's some really weirdly-good mechanics on their staff, if she's ever stumped on a technical problem to go talk to them. She has learned to look out for Amy or Lydia, and will usually pull them into a question she has about how to get so-and-so bit of machine working with this bit of computer, and you pull the right strings on those two and they'll talk shop for hours. Scarlet, however, is wise to Min-Jeong's games; she can see what Min-Jeong values most in Red Raven's salvage offerings, and it's not junior engineering science projects, that's for sure.
Scarlet isn't one to spoil Min-Jeong's fun, though; she's got a little arrangement of her own worked out with the young woman. Antique jewelry, heirlooms, tarnished old rings or anything sparkly- if any of Min-Jeong's clients offer some inherited bits of grandma junk as barter for her work, come see Scarlet right away. Or better, if she happens to mention old jewelry at her consultations her clients might recall some old box they packed before moving to Titan. Scarlet will give Min-Jeong really good deals on Red Raven's salvage and, if it's really sparkly, even get her some time to help work with the house mechanics on whatever project they're working on. Scarlet can't stand when Amy and Haley hire Puke Commander to help on a job, but he has brought this funny little crow to the Red Raven nest, and Scarlet knows enough to teach a crow to trade shiny rocks for tasty snacks. Min-Jeong doesn't value that old jewelry very highly, but some of Scarlet's other contacts sure do. Everyone's happy, and that's what's important, right? Everyone walks away happy.