[CHAR] Shadowrun: Magic's Blight

[HeySeuss]

Name: George Chen Good-Crow
Street Name: Chopsticks
Metatype: Human
Ethnicity: Chinese/Ogalala Sioux
Age: 29
Class: Physical Adept
Appearance: Average height, average build, indeterminate ethnic-mix of a few different things. He blends in well enough in Seattle and can pass for Asian or Amerindian pretty easily either way. His clothing tends toward jeans and brown leather work boots, and a fringed brown-leather jacket. As Amerindian chic is a look that draws little comment in Seattle, he manages to pass off as a Salish-Shidhe native among those that aren't astute enough to tell the difference, and those who are tend to be other natives who aren't going to tell others the difference. He wears his head in a messy shag that can easily be combed down into corporate respectability, and that's the thing with Chen Good-Crow; he likes to blend in.
Cyberware: None
Magical/Physad abilities:

- Killing Hands (.5)
- Improved Reflexes (3)
- Astral Perception (1)
- Traceless Walk (1)
- Counter Strike (.5)

Equipment:

- Colt M1911A1 reproduction with custom work done to it. It's a popular gun out West, so Ares still makes them, albeit with modern materials.
- PDA
- Earpiece for the phone.
- Display for the PDA in his glasses.
- Pretty nondescript street wear, some very discreet body armor.
- Custom fighting knife, but a pretty short and easily concealed one.
- Shock gloves.
- Basic fake SIN for "Michael Clear-Skies" of the Salish that gets him around in the most basic fashion. It won't hold up to a real check.

Biography:

A mixed-race physical adept born to a pair of Berkeley grad students who were both in the engineering and computer programming field, George was raised primarily by his mother in the Free State, who worked for Ares, one of the few non-Japanese Corps in the region. During his teenage years, his mother was fried by Black IC (it was wired matrix back then) and he moved in with his uncle Jiang. During this time, he managed to get into trouble, as a teenager, with the JIS occupation forces, spraypainting grafitti or somethingg of that nature, and he was duly shipped off to his father, a Sioux government-employed programming and security expert in Cheyenne.

Despite being surrounded by very tech-adept parents all his life, he was identified in Sioux nation as having awakened capabilities and he was raised in the ways of the Sioux, which embraced magic to a much greater degree than Japanese-Occupied Frisco ever would. As he grew older, as was the case with any Sioux citizen upon turning 18, he was inducted into the Sioux Defense Force. As a physical adept, once his capabilities were assessed and tested, he volunteered to serve in the Wildcats, the Sioux Nation's special operations unit and border patrol, a unit highly different from its peers in that it integrated shamanistic magic into its arsenal and concentrated on asymmetric warfare methods, particularly as the Native American Nations, which the Sioux were a part of, was surrounded by larger, dangerous neighbors with more developed economies. Platoons of Wildcats operated in a variety of places doing a variety of jobs, particularly during the events surrounding Crash 2.0 in 2064.

Years later, Chen Good-Crow returned to Frisco, after serving his stint, and became involved in the runner world when he hooked up with some of his old buddies from Chinatown. He went SINless and he was part of a team, working for, largely, the Triads. Their last run was a setup; they were being paid to extract a specific person by another corp, but that specific person turned out to be a plant that Mitsuhama was trying to put into Telestrian Industries, whom the team was employed by. While the run was successful, the Mitsuhama agent made things very uncomfortable for Chopsticks' team as they were suspected as complicit in the plot that was primarily the doing of the Johnson, whose family was held by Mitsuhama, and the Telestrian exec that the Johnson conned, who was trying to tie up the loose ends. The team was put into a position of having to bring down JIS heat on them while clearing themselves of the setup; the upshot of it was that they were a little too high-profile to keep working in the Bay Area as they were on the radar. As General Saito's regime, the California Protectorate, was collapsing, he got involved in work outside of Frisco itself that still required good 'community' connections with both ends of the pipeline.. He spent much of 2068-69 doing runs on behalf of elements in the NAN moving weapons and tech from Pueblo territory into Triad hands in Cali, though he avoided the city directly. He suspected an Ares connection, but never dug too deeply -- the pay was good -- and he never asked the Triads what they were going to do with the weapons, even though he damn well knew there was a war between the Triads and the Yakuza in Frisco and LA.

When the dust settled, with the heat on a little too heavy for him in Cali, he decided it was time to disappear into Salish-Shidhe lands for a quiet year, letting the heat die down while taking small jobs. All the same, he was contacted there by a Johnson that wanted him to work in Seattle, and is working to put together a team of runners that can carry out this sort of work.

Notes: Speaks Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin and Lakota in addition to English. Native Japanese tend to get a snotty attitude about his accent though. Too Bay-Area. Most of his experience as a runner is in courier work and extractions of corporate personnel, a sort of forced career move of researchers and other useful personnel assets.

[The Survivor]

Name: Marcus 'Chief' White-Feather
Metatype: Elf
Ethnicity: Native American
Age: 52
Class: Street Samurai
Appearance: Crow black hair tied in a small braid, 5'O clock shadow, brown eyes, pointed ears, looks like he's in his early 20s. Slim build, but obviously in shape. Wears a black coat with plenty of pouches and cargo trousers with black combat boots. Has a right cyberware arm.
Cyberware: Right arm, has adrenaline auto injectors to increase his speed. However the canisters are incredibly small and expensive.
Magical/Physad abilities: Surprisingly little magical ability.
Equipment: A small medical kit, an Uzi III, and a sharpened shuriken. Plus an eagle necklace carved from a pine tree.

Biography:

Marcus White-Feather was born July 12th, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. His father owned a music shop and his mother worked as a teacher at then local elementary school, neither of them were elves. Growing up, Marcus was bullied lot for his pointed ears and tiny frame and it wasn't until the 5th grade talent show that the harassment stopped. Marcus had a talent, a talent for singing. And his parents encouraged him to enter the talent show to show all the other kids how good he was at singing. While shy and nervous at first, he eventually signed up and turns out, he blew everyone away. This jump started his temporary career as a singing sensation in the NAN and indeed the UCAS. He was discovered by a music producer who was watching his niece at the talent show. He immediately offered a 5 year contract to Marcus' parents who of course accepted.

Marcus's brief stint as a superstar was...tiring, to say in the least. Constantly performing at concerts, recording songs, interviews and whatnot. It was probably the most hectic 5 years of his life. He recorded 5 albums, an album per year, and performing hundreds of concerts. But, the contract ended, life returned to normal...over the course of 3 or 4 years; and he faded into history. His career as a shadowrunner started in a very abrupt in tragic way. A new gang had rolled into Marcus's neighborhood and they thrived on extortion and repression of markets. Marcus was 19, still living with his parents while he decided what to do with his life. For the past few years he had been working at his Dad's shop and now that he was an adult he worked full time there. A note about Marcus' father: he was as stubborn as they come. And when that gang rolled into his shop, he only had one sentence for them- "The safety is off." Now, they didn't like that one bit, but they couldn't make an example of him yet, not in broad daylight, they didn't have enough influence yet. So they left and came back in the middle of the night and nearly beat his father to death. Now, Marcus didn't like THAT one bit, either. His father was on death's doorstep in the hospital and Marcus didn't know what to do, his mother was a wreck and he had never been this angry before in his life.

Marcus' father kept a revolver under the counter in case there was trouble and in his absence, Marcus had decided to take over the store. So when those gangsters came walking in again, Marcus helped them to a face full of lead. Probably not the smartest move, considering his father died that night of "Multiple organ failure". The quickness of all these events was too much for Marcus' mother, who fell ill. Marcus immediately had her moved to a hospital across town. His mother falling ill was the last straw. He locked up the shop that night and took his father's revolver and a shotgun to set things right. It was a bloody night to say in the least. After his rampage, Marcus told his mother that he would be leaving Denver after his father's funeral. To find himself. She understood.

He's been running in the shadows ever since.

Misc Notes: N/A

[DJAtomika]

Name: Abigail "Gale" Sykes
Metatype: Orc
Ethnicity: African-American
Age: 33
Class: Decker
Appearance: Standing six feet five inches tall and weighing a hefty two hundred and sixty pounds, Gail is a very, very big gal that you wouldn't expect to be a decent decker. Her shoulders are broad, and small, twin tusks jut out from her mouth; not prominent enough to make goring people to death a thing, but enough to let you know that yes she's definitely an orc. Along with the tusks, her ears are also pointed, slightly longer than normal, and are pierced; her left ear has two plain silver rings, and her right has a single stud. Her hair is shoulder length, curly and poofy, enough to also hide her datajack that's underneath her right ear. Her usual garb is a gunmetal grey turtleneck jacket over a plain white t-shirt emblazoned with the word "Caution" in bright yellow letters, slightly shredded slim cut jeans and black sneakers. She always carries around a slim black messenger bag and prefers wearing a flat cap. She has a few string bracelets on her right wrist of differing colours and designs and often wears full fingered black gloves on her hands.
Cyberware: Datajack; just beneath her right ear.
Magical/Physad abilities: -
Equipment:

• Ceska Black Scorpion pistol
• Comlink
• Sim-module
• Brass knuckles
• Messenger bag; contains casette player, earphones, a pen, a notepad and some packets of tissue paper.

Biography:

Growing up in the Barrens was a tough life; you either joined a gang, stayed out of everyone's way, or died. The only miracles that occured were true miracles, when someone was clean enough to pass through customs dividing the Barrens from the outside world. Abigail had heard of such stories, growing up in a dumpy neighbourhood on the outskirts of that godforsaken place, but most of her life she'd grown up with and lived around the massive wall that divided her and her family from an outside world that she'd only heard stories of.

Her family were mixed with bad people, obviously. Her father, though trying to life clean to raise his kids, had once run with the Kings Gate Boys, and his three sons had followed in his footsteps, much to his disdain. She was the only one not affected as much by the gang warfare and strife that affected her neighbourhood, and instead maintained a healthy curiosity and interest in learning that her parents praised her for. Over time, as she grew up, schooled, became an adult and found a job teaching in her former school, her life began to slowly turn better, though her family was not as lucky. Within the first five years of her three elder brothers joining the Kings Gate Boys, one of them was missing, one in a coma, and one dead from the spats of gang violence that erupted outside their neighbourhood. Abigail's mother didn't take it too well, and soon she began seeking a way out for the family she had left while Abigail herself continued with her job, teaching kids and taking care of them.

Then, one day, her mother approached her with an out: with money she'd saved painstakingly over the years, she had given Abigail a chance to exit the Barrens and leave her horribile life behind. The money she'd saved provided her daughter with safe passage out of the Barrens and towards Seattle, where a family friend took her in. It was then that Abigail took up the finer technological things in life, and immediately got acquainted with the wonder that was the Matrix.

However, through her time spent in the Matrix, she slowly began to fall for the same vices that had once gripped her father and brothers. Given an opportunity to secure some private and confidential data for a Mr. Johnson, she took to it with gusto, and soon she built a reputation for herself as an amateur decker that knew what to do and what not do. The shadows embraced her right after, and she has never left since.

Misc Notes: Gale loves her old music, and will go out of her way to obtain copies of old music (mostly old timey jazz and swing music) if she can.

[Bladewolf]

Name: Erica Teravella
Metatype: Dwarf
Ethnicity: Italian
Age: 27
Class: Rigger
Appearance: Just over a meter tall with light tan skin, roundish figure, and shoulder-length frayed hair dyed in mismatched silver and purple color with matching thick eyebrows. Her standard garb tends to be thick dark-brown boots with tight black slacks with an leather pleated skirt. An undershirt that changes in color depending on her mood is coupled with a sleeveless vest-jacket with a myriad of pockets and loops. Her eyes are a dull hazel, but are rarely seen clearly due to her constantly wearing thick dark purple goggles.
Cyberware: Control Rig, Datajack (Back of the neck)
Magical/Physad abilities: -
Equipment:
- A survival knife with silver-colored handle.
- Hammerli 620S with diagonal purple stripes.
- Commlink
- Goggles (Wireless)
- Sim-module
Biography:
Raised from birth in Cambridge, Massachusetts by her mother Emilia after her father, who she was never told the name of out of spite, left after seeing that she was born a dwarf. Her mother was neither gifted or well off, living day to day on what wages she earned from small jobs and other work. In her memory it was a content upbringing with basic education and daily needs all met by her wonderful mother. At an early age there wasn't much discrimination due to her being a dwarf, at least not among her peers, but as she grew up that changed very quickly.

After the age of ten she started displaying a natural gift with technology. Not supernaturally, but merely with interfacing and utilizing it. Her mother, noticing this, changed her education to suit her needs, despite the increased costs, increasing the workload on her further to the family's distress. This encouraged Erica to learn and rise quickly, aiming to join up with major corporation at any of its subsidiaries and earn enough to take over for her mother. Many times she offered to get a job or earn her own keep, but her mother denied it and wanted her to focus on learning and growing. Eventually this daily life of hard work on both their parts ended with graduation and gaining an entry level job at Novatech.

However, years of overworking took a toll on Emilia and a week after Erica's employment she collapsed. The doctors told her it was stress, both physical and mental, and eventually caused her to shutdown putting her mother into a deep coma. With little to her name and in need for money Erica began to try to climb the corporate ladder while paying off the continues medical bills that came with supporting her comatose parent. Her technological skills improved, as did her knowledge and overall aptitude. The work was hard, to the point where she realized how difficult her mother must have been working to cause her condition, and the rewards very little. It was seeming like a pointless endeavor of her youth, trying to climb positions so quickly, yet gaining an inch for every mile of work she put in.

Then the Crash happened again. The world was in a fritz, and somewhere along the lines Erica fell through the cracks. Her job was lost with all the progress, albeit little as it was, that she made. With a small modicum of funds for herself to function with still supporting her mother she made a decision. Getting nowhere in the typical life, both in position and income, she decided to risk it. All or nothing. When she fell through the cracks into the darkness, she decided to stay there.

With the knowledge and skills she developed she went to running in the shadows, starting small time as a decker. Quickly she learned that when running it was quickly risk versus reward. Knowing hard work and risk, she wanted to dive in to difficult and dangerous missions, look for work greatly rewarding, but knew she wasn't up to the task. Her gear was underwhelming, and contacts nonexistent. Working small where she thought she was at quickly grew into yet another daily routine, stuck in the rut of zero progress. It was a pattern she wasn't happy with, but didn't know how to escape.

It wasn't until a certain gig where she ran with a charismatic rigger, a simple smuggling run, that she was tempted toward that path. Perhaps it was the way the rigger described the sensation of diving fully into a vehicle, or the smile on his face that just appealed to her in some way, but it was soon after she saved up the money to get a control rig. Truth be told, after her first use, she never had a thought of regret since.

Erica's career took her to several major cities, yet always her home would be in Cambridge, where her mother lay in a hospital with a peaceful expression on her face. Wherever there's a job at, where there's money to make, she'll go because she has a reason. A light she lives for in the shadows. To pay back the one who gave her everything.

Misc Notes: