The Underground Auction
It had been a well known secret among circles of the M8 community that a highly illegal underground auction existed. Normally runaways, broken goods, or abandoned artificials without an owner, they eventually made their way into “the trading system.” This vile term referred to the practice of buying used artificials, swapping them around to friends to use or abuse as they pleased, or selling them off for a profit when the novelty wore off or you needed the cash. Some artificials went there by choice to find somebody to work for, get into prostitution, or to get the hell away from the less savoury owners who mistreated their toys. Before the advent of the thinly veiled “r-beam” to correct unwanted behaviour, the auction represented the dark side of artificial life.