Troll Gun

Surprise your friends! Emotional damage at a discount!

— Troll Gun Marketing Slogan

The Troll Gun is a Digital Warfare weapon that uses the all-compassing web of social connections and augmented reality to attack its victims. Instead of bullets, the Troll Gun slings insults on a sliding scale of obscenity and mean-spirited snark right into the target's social media accounts, AR display, or whatever makes them most upset.

What Does It Look Like?

Point and click to ruin someone's day!

— Troll Gun Marketing Slogan

Troll Guns are little more than handheld, roughly box-shaped devices with a grip and a trigger. Despite the name, most commercial models go out of their way to not look quite so much like a gun, since pulling one of those tends to be bad news for everyone involved. Instead, many sports exaggerated features, like enormous barrels, fins, wings, or garish colors. Others focus more on the functionality of being an insufferable git, with a minimalistic frame that makes their use easier to hide and a troll's face harder to pinpoint for a beating.

Higher-end models are sleeker, usually black, and probably have skulls or flames on them.

by Obnox

The guns are controlled by an AI, slotted in at the top or grip. They come in patented, bullet-shaped cylinders and can be replaced when the user grows bored of one flavor of assholery.

Different types of AI come in brightly colored or branded 'bullets', and there's a busy market for collectors of AI that have gone out of print or even been outlawed.

In addition, Troll Guns come with a dial that allows the user to set the tone and severity of the abuse, but most just stick it to the maximum and forget about it.

There is a thriving community of Troll Gun hobbyists that customize their guns, including making their own type of AI or hacking existing ones. Many of these miscreants inevitably end up on a Troll-Hunter's list, depending on the popularity of their additions. Some Troll Gun enthusiasts consider it a badge of honor to be targeted by the Troll-Hunters, but usually change their tune pretty quickly after the first face-to-face encounter with an irate Troll-Hunter.

How Does It Work?

Make 'em beg for a real bullet.

— Troll Gun Marketing Slogan

Troll Guns work as scanners, digging into the victim's exposed data points to figure out who they are and how to hurt them. Out of the box, Troll Guns can only find publicly available information, but that's not much of a barrier in Megacorpolis. The longer someone holds the trigger, the deeper the AI in the gun can dig, using one piece of information to unearth the next.

By using whatever data the scan can acquire, the AI can generate messages that are tailor-made to really sting.

A quick pull of the trigger will just launch a rude word or fart noise into the target's profile, while a long scan will dig up insecurities and past indiscretions long buried. Sometimes, just reminding someone of "that thing" is bad enough, but Troll Guns like to really rub it in.

by Outlaw Star

Some brand of Troll Guns even market their AI as something akin to a pet that the user can develop and grow through use and limited input. After all, it's unlikely they'll have any other friends, so might as well buy one.

In reality, that's true for about half of all Troll Guns. Marketing campaigns will throw around phrases like 'machine-learning' and ''evolving AI', but many really just pull from a massive library of insults and terrible grammar. These are culled from every corner of the internet, from that uncle's social media posts to the latest vitriol in the blogosphere. If it's been used to hurt someone's feelings, it eventually ends up here.

The exact location of the database containing all this is a highly guarded secret, since pretty much everyone would love to wreck it and wouldn't care too much about collateral damage.

Digital Warfare

In a city where everyone is always online, and everything is connected to everything else, someone thought it'd be a great way to hurt his fellow man. Digital Warfare attacks or manipulates these connections, turning machines against their operators or manipulating social media features.
Digital Warfare is an evolving art with its roots in the older Electronic Warfare technologies, but with a much broader scope. These days, every idiot and their dog has a digital presence to attack and exploit.

by Zebra Technologies

Asshole Elitism

Troll Guns are sometimes called "Lazy Guns" by people who take pride in making their hurtful interactions with others something of a personal passion project, i.e., assholes.
In turn, Troll Gun hobbyists will sometimes go on "troll hunts" where they seek out such people and coordinate mass firings of their Troll Guns on them.

Of course, that's not what they are. No Troll Gun has ever once fired a badger or black hole.

by Literally Media

Have A Nice Day

In a rare show of unity, there's not a single soul in Megacorpolis that likes Troll Gun users. While some chose to demonstrate their displeasure quickly and repeatedly at the troll's face, others chose a more subtle route.
The 'Have A Nice Day' virus is an memetic data-key, stored on social media profiles and hidden in messages. When a Troll Gun scans it, it short-circuits the AI and causes it to send lovely compliments and well-wishes instead of whatever horrible mess it was going to send. At least one marriage has started that way.

"Hello, whatever it is you're doing, you'll do great!"

The creation of the 'Have A Nice Day' is generally credited to the Mórrígan, but often suppressed by Corporations that don't want to give anyone a reason to like her.

by Cyber Protocol