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Character description for Blacklist, a new decker character I'm creating

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penllawen

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« on: <08-25-19/1237:48> »
image reference: http://dailypop.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/shadowrun_bradstreet.jpeg

To meet Blacklist is to meet a walking cliche. She's a gang-girl made good, someone who made it out of the slums of London and into the... well, not exactly a glittering tower in downtown Seattle, yet, but at least she can afford four walls and three squares a day now. And there's a sturdy door she can shut on the world.

Her attitude is cocky, arrogant, better-than-you. Give her a chance and she'll tell you about the Matrix gangs she used to run with in the Big Smoke, the ones that she left behind as her skills grew and she moved from graffiti-bombing AR sigils to ripping off organised crime to moving to Seattle to make her living as a shadowrunner.

This is all lies.

What she won't tell you is the truth. How she was born a Sony SINner, here in Seattle, her parents both working for the Cybersystems division; her real name is Kamei Kazashi. How she's only ever been to London a few times on vacation. How she was a spoiled only child, with a talent for the Matrix that meant she never had to work hard or learn any discipline and how, to her mother's disappointment, she ended up training as a mere corporate spider instead of a more illustrious career path that would have required more effort from her.

Some pivotal moments in Kamei's life:

Six years ago [she was 16]: her father died in a car wreck. Kamei was devastated; she was much closer to her warm and loving father than her cold, domineering mother. Despite qualifying for extensive psychotherapy from Sony MedCare, she never really processes these feelings.

<<Open question: was the wreck just an accident...?>>

Three years ago [she was 19]: following extensive Sony CareerTrack(TM) testing, she is placed in training to become a corporate Matrix spider, due to combination of her natural aptitute for the Matrix and natural dislike of the hard work she would have needed to be slotted into a more prestigious career path. Her mother is not happy and grows even more distant. Backed by her own salary, Kamei's rebellious streak can express itself in the form of partying outside Sony corporate confines. Her mother's embarrassment grows.

One year ago [she was 21]: in a dive bar in a dodgy neighbourhood, she meets Waters. He's older than her, but handsome, and interesting. They chat. He finds out she's a spider, asks what that's like.

They meet again, and again.

Waters asks for Kamei's help. His brother-in-law works for Sony Cybersystems, a few floors away from Kamei. He's a nasty piece of work. He needs to get into the building to deliver a warning message to him.

Kamei helps Waters. She clones a keycard for him and tells him security patrol routes and times.

Of course, when Waters and his team steal some valuable paydata while inside the building and disappear into the night, all hell breaks loose. Sony CorpSec quickly follow the tracks back to Kamei and tell her she's in trouble. In deference to her mother's rank, they place her under house arrest while they complete their investigations.

<<Open question: what happened to Waters and the paydata?>>

<<Open question: did her mother cut her loose, or did she fight a losing battle to protect her?>>

Scared, out of options, Kamei ran. In retaliation, Sony burned her SIN and cut her off from the only society she'd ever known. Her only asset was a prototype of next year's Sony mid-range cyberdeck, stolen on her way out the door.

Eight months ago: Kamei's first months outside the corp were tough. With no street smarts, no contacts, and only theoretical knowledge of what it was like to work the other side of the street, she almost starved to death, and was a victim of numerous street crimes while she drifted from squat to squat. Eventually, hanging out in hacker bars, trying not to look desperate, she managed to get hired for a small job. Her still-cutting-edge stolen deck gave her enough leeway that she pulled it off despite inexperience. It led to another small job. Her reputation grew, slowly.

Now she's just about treading water. Her deck is merely average now, no longer giving her the leg-up, but her skills have improved. She's finally learning some discipline, a work ethic, and a hustle. She has some contacts and a little rep and -- just about -- some steady work. But she's a long way from coming to terms from what happened to her.

So when you look at her and see a cliche -- cocky attitude, chunky boots, ripped black jeans, armoured jacket, hair shaved on the sides but long and neon-pink on top -- remember it's a fake, a facade. Underneath, she's lonely and scared and out of her depth. She's trying to adjust to her new reality, outside the corp's all-encompassing embrace. She's seen the bad sides of the corps, now, from the underside of the street. She understands that she grew up in a gilded cage who's bars she can only see in hindsight. But what keeps her awake at night is --- if the corp offered her her SIN back tomorrow, would she take it?