::As he gets comfortable, moving a wire here and readjusting a icon there, a slightly overweight, farmer tanned human male blips in and out a couple times as he plays with the buttons just to see what they do then. His eventually focus directly at you and with the exuberance of a first time You-Tuber from way back in 2010 he gives what he thinks is his least newb-esque greeting::
WHAT'S UP RUNNERS!!! Just jacked in and trying to get used to this whole VR thing ... it's wicked cool, if you haven't done it before, you should!
..... achem enough of that...
Hey all, I recently started with a ShadowRun team found these forums as I was trying to find some clarity and understanding about the game, environment and what not. As an introduction I figured I'd share my characters back story and build.
:Back Story:
Initially, Merl had wanted nothing to do with the ugly, overgrown, overly stupid, Minotaur. Night after night, he would notice the young Minotaur just sitting on the corner across the street staring at nothing. Merl had thought about calling the police, but as the days wore on, he found that he didn't really care about a dumb, simple Minotaur that had nowhere better to be.
One morning, after a grueling night, he left the club and crossed the street. He had to stop for a moment, something tugged at him as though there was something he wasn't remembering... or noticing... or something was missing. Just then a call came in and he didn't give it another thought. The next night was both profitable and quiet! Merl was especially glad that it had been quiet. Freddy, one of his Front Door bouncers, had somehow gotten himself killed the night before. When he finally got home and turned on the news, he learned that there had been some kind of gang violence the night before. "That probably explained what happened to Freddy", Merl had thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.
Merl needed to figure out what to do about his bouncers. He could shuffle some of the men around to cover the front door, but he was still one bouncer short for his coverage strategy. It was then that he thought about the idiot Minotaur sitting out on the street corner. That night he left looking for the Minotaur. He was certain the beast redefined the idea of idiot, but just maybe he was big enough that it wouldn't matter. Merl was surprised to realize that the Minotaur wasn't there. As he stood there confused in the middle of the street, a thought struck him. The night that Freddy had gotten killed... the Minotaur hadn't been there then either. As Merl realized that the Minotaur hadn't been there since, he shrugged his shoulders and decided to put a help wanted ad in the paper for a new bouncer. The Minotaur might've been a good bouncer too...
About a week later, Merl had had no luck with finding a replacement bouncer. Frustrated by how ridiculously hard it was to find some lunk-head to stand by a door, he went outside for a breather. As soon as Merl opened the door, he saw that the Minotaur was sitting there, again staring off at nothing. Something was different this time. The Minotaur was looking bad, which normally isn’t anything special, Minotaurs start at ugly. Merl realized as he continued to study the Minotaur, he looked like he really was in rough shape. Merl, not being sure how to start a conversation with an idiot Minotaur said, "What'a you doing? What'a you staring at?"
“Preettyy lauugghts…” the Minotaur said as he started to raise his hand, pointing, but then grimaced and dropped his hand back to his lap. Fresh blood began running down the Minotaur’s arm. His breathing came in long labored pulls. Almost as though he were moving in slow motion, the Minotaur swayed and then fell backward.
With the help of a couple of his bouncers, they were able to get the Minotaur inside. There was a paramed who happened to be in the club as they dragged the Minotaur in. The paramed assured Merl that, while the Minotaur had lost a lot of blood, with some rest it would recuperate fine. While stitching up the gash on the inside of the Minotaur’s arm, the paramed explained that he had seen the Minotaur before. The night that Freddy had been killed, the paramed was on duty and had been dispatched to the scene of what first looked to have been a pretty big brawl. The paramed and his partner had been the ones who tried to stabilize Freddy. He had been horribly beaten and stabbed many, many times. There was Freddy, and about 15 go-gangers (maybe an entire “gang”) who had been soundly been pounded. Only two of the gangers were not dead when the parameds arrived. DNA drones had identified all fifteen of the gangers and Freddy, but had found a substantial amount of material (blood) whose identity could not be identified. One of the gangers didn’t live long enough to provide any useful information. The other, was in severe shock and could repeat one phrase when any question was asked, “… a beast, b-b-buh I cut em!” The paramed chuckled in surprised when one of his DNA drones matched the Minotaur’s DNA with blood sampled from the scene a few nights back.
The Minotaur slept for three days, a week later he accepted Merl’s offer to work for him. Merl learned that the Minotaur’s name was Gork. When Gork was able to, he told Merl about that night with Freddy. Freddy had already taken out four of the gangers when Gork got there. In the next few moments they had killed another five of them. The remaining four turned to flee and Freddy was ready to pursue. Gork, seeing that Freddy was hurt badly, kept him from chasing the gangers. Gork had just begun searching the bodies for anything he could use to help Freddy when the four who had run away came back. They came around a corner on the opposite end of the block and surrounded Freddy. If Gork had had a minute to work on it, he would have realized that they had only ran away to circle around to the other end of the block. In his search he had wandered too far from Freddy to stop them from tearing into him. Gork released himself to the rage that burned inside, as Freddy fell to the ground.
Three of the men’s pants darkened around their crotch, as the tips of two horns suddenly sprouted from the belly of the man standing in front of them. Gork grabbed a man with each hand and the bodies of three men simultaneously smashed in on the last. Continuing his charge, Gork used his momentum to bulldoze all four men through the side of a building. The impact as he hit the building stole his rage and left him dazed. Now laying in a scrambled bloody mass of disfigured bodies and bricks, the four men knew nothing more. Hearing the sirens, Gork ran from the area, afraid that Lone Star would just blame him.
Gork spent a week hiding, scraping by as best he could. He had no clue how bad off he was. Delirious and weak, he wandered aimlessly and stumbled to that street corner across from Merl’s club, and the lights in the club’s sign.
That was 12 years ago. Since then, the relationship has developed into a friendship. Gork quickly moved from being “trash can guard” to working the front door, even taking on the responsibility of being Head bouncer. The first few years were little more than Gork simply proving himself to be reliable and effective. Most people were immediately cooperative whenever Gork arrived to “mediate”. Typically, only those who had drunk past their senses or were cranked up on some drug had the chance to “mediate” with Gork. Elaria (one of the dancers at the club and a good friend of Gork’s) once explained Gork’s method of mediation as a one sided conversation with only 4 words… “SMACK, SMACK, See ya!”
Merl always marveled at the Minotaur’s strength. Gork was extremely stout, and no one would ever debate it. But, during the first few years there had been a couple times when Gork had done the unimaginable. For example, Merl landed in a turf war when he signed the lease for his club. According to the owner of Alchey’s, Merl had invited war when he invited people to visit his club. Things climaxed when that owner had hired a group of thugs to destroy “The Ant’s Shadow”. They had blocked the front doors with a Bulldog Step-Van. Gork pulled the front doors off their hinges (since they couldn’t swing out). He crouched and grabbed the bottom of the side of the van. In one movement, he straightened his legs and back, and pushed out with his hands. All four wheels came off the ground and then the van landed on its side about 4 feet from where it started. Gork lowered his head and, bulldozed the van to the other side of the street.
Shortly after that, Merl had called a friend to see if he might be able to learn a bit more about his Minotaur friend. Darce Redimaker was a disenfranchised scientist who worked for Evo Corp. After assessing Gork’s abilities, Darce explained that Gork was what they called a “Physical Adept”. He went on to let Merl know how fortunate Gork was that Merl had taken him in. Evo had an ongoing research project involving metatypes, especially the rarer ones. If it hadn’t been for Merl being a good friend, Darce would have been compelled to have Gork snatched up for corporate scientific purposes.
Having learned of Gork’s potential, Merl started to invest more towards helping Gork realize his potential. It was hard to recruit someone to teach a Minotaur martial arts, but he eventually found an out of work street samurai who didn’t mind a challenge. As expected Gork excelled at anything athletic and struggled with anything that required too much thought. Merl was actually a little frightened the first time he witnessed Gork using what he’d been trained. A burly troll, Thundunk “The Troll” Hungrosmak, was a somewhat regular patron of “The Ant’s Shadow”. It was known that he was a bliss addict. Apparently, someone had mislabeled his most recent supply. After a raucous brawl, someone had identified the “bliss” as actually being bozoku(woad). Gork had held his own against the berserking troll, but the kick that finished the fight was what stunned everyone. Gork had Thundunk on the ground after a low spinning sweep. Then without pausing, Gork moved his right foot half a step forward. Then simultaneously pivoting on his right foot and at his hip, he sent his upper body downward and turned to the left. As his body went low, his left foot went high. As Gork straightened, he drove his heel heavily down on to the troll’s head. No one had ever imagined that they would see a 300kg, 8 foot tall Minotaur gracefully execute a spinning axe kick. Gork quietly went, sat down and took a big gulp of his beer. To their further surprise, groans from the floor announced that he hadn’t killed Thundunk, but it was a long time before Thundunk moved.
The bouncers of “The Ant’s Shadow” coalesced into a well-organized team. With Gork’s tutelage, their skill at bouncing had improved. They did better in the turf wars as well, having been able to spar and practice with Gork. Since they had had the chance to get to know Gork, most of the staff had been able to let go of their discomfort with the fact that Gork was a Minotaur. However, there were times when someone unfamiliar with the area and the club had decided to give it a try. The reactions to seeing Gork ranged from abject terror to fascination. Having a Minotaur in regular attendance had won the club some new regular’s, but at the same time had earned it some enemies. With a prevailing dislike, bordering on hatred, of the more exotic metatypes, Merl suggested that Gork try to keep a bit more of a low profile.
For the last 18 months Gork has been out of sight by staying in the security office with Terry Claugh. Terry monitors the security cameras at the club, scanning for trouble and the like. While Terry enjoys Gork’s company, having a Minotaur crammed in an already closet like room has been … well, like being stuffed in a closet with a hulking Minotaur.
It was two weeks ago when an uncommon patron entered and found a table in a quiet corner of “The Ant’s Shadow”. Yffumohn Icescream (Elaria’s stage name) sauntered languidly towards the table. The guy did not act as though she even existed. Maintaining her composure at the insult, she leaned over the table and whispered an invitation to know her erotic pleasures. He jerked suddenly with surprise and then nervously chuckled, “I am sorry, I’m sure you are very beautiful, but no. I was afraid that this would happen here… my apologies. My name is Spiro Gondelai…”
Elaria noticed that while he had turn to face her, he still did not see her, he seemed to be looking past her. He was blind!
“You can’t see?”
“My eyes do not work, never have.” He answered simply. “I am sorry to have made you uncomfortable, it’s the carpet…”, he began.
“The thickness of it?” she interrupted. “Since there’s no noise from someone walking across it, you didn’t hear me walk up.”
“Exactly”
With a jovial tone she teased, “Ahh, I thought you just didn’t find me attractive! Since you’re blind you see with your hands, hmmm?”
“Well, it’s not…” he stammered.
“Then I’ll let you … stare”, Elaria said the word slowly, trying to convey as much lurid meaning as possible. “ … all you like for free!” Out of habit she gave him a long, slow wink. When both of her eyes were shut, she remembered that he was blind. She giggled at herself as he grinned.
“You winked, didn’t you?”
“Yeah … I did… don’t guess you saw that, huh?”
“Nope! Didn’t see a thing.” He said while chuckling.
Feeling a little foolish, and having lost the moment, she plopped heavily into the chair across from him. Echoing him she said, “Yeah… not a thing.” She paused for a moment trying deciding how to continue, “Well Spiro, since I’ve completely bungled this, you can call me Yff…u…mohn. So can I get anything for you… a drink; something to eat; some company maybe? We have some private rooms, a large selection of sims … Hey! You can see what I look like. I’ve recorded a few sessions that I’m sure you’d enjoy! You can see just fine in VR right?” Maybe she could make a little something off of this still.
He laughed at the shameful pun, but replied, “Yes, I can, but that isn’t why I am here, though I may come back for some entertaining some other time.”
