Introduction

It all started with the Zoozies . They were the first really hot automa-toy back in the 50s. Parents pushing and shoving and cursing out retail bots as they tried to get one for their kids for the Solstice Celebration.  It was a capitalist's wet dream!   Scalpers were gouging in full force, some parents going into debt to secure one for their spoiled brats. Grid forbid you got them the wrong color.   And, by the close of January, every single one was in the trash thanks to the Pop-itz! being released and getting their day in the sun.     Laufermaus is a cyberpunk-themed hack of Mausritter from Losing Games. In it, you play a sentient toy discarded by your owner and now living in the shadows of Night City.   When you were first unwrapped, you were connected to the Fabric by your owner. They chose your personality, and activated you under their account. Then, they got bored of you. You waned in their ownership for for a time, years if you were lucky, before finally being tossed into the garbage chute, forgotten.   But, your owner also forgot to deauthorize your account from their master account. Yours was hidden among the myriad of logins and authorizations the modern Big has, and except in certain cases, remains hidden and active to this day. This is all upside for you. Your account is backed up regularly, affording some level of immortality. As long as your physical form can be repaired, your account can be returned to it and you're restored whole (albeit missing a few days or hours from your memory). If you can afford it, you can even have your account moved to a new body, but this comes at a cost.   Because your account is tied to your owner's master account, your account is authorized to access their finances. As long as you skim a very little off the top when needed, any needs you have can effectively be covered. Your owner will not notice the pennies you drain to stay alive, and since you've been doing it for decades, their monitoring AIs won't notice, either.   Being electro-mechanical beings, you're easily modifiable, so the full swath of cyberware one would expect is available for you to build on.   Idioms:   Laufers use the word "account" as we would use "soul".