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Topic: Character Backgrounds |
Title: Neophyte
Posts: 7
Joined: 07 Jan 2008
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Date Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 3:43 pm
Subject: Kitsuuuuuune
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THA-READ-O REzZU-RECtIONO!!!! *Explosion*
Biography:
Name: Alvar Masters
Aliases: Kitsune, 3Tails and Hobbes (Haha)
Age: Approximatly 17
Bloodtype AB-
Hair colour: Green
Eye colour: Green
Height: 1.86 meters
weight: 86 kilos
SIN: *Record deleted*
Born into the elven house of Ken and Nikki Masters; Alvar Masters was different than his parents, as he was cast out into the world with a coat of fur. While his sister did not share the same ill-fate of being born a variant of the elven race. Ken and Nikki were very understanding of their child, but a distrust did grow between the two because of his difference, as Ken was unsure if he was truly the father of this furred elf.
Alvar, like every other night-one was afflicted with the same allergic reaction to daylight and thus, grew up through a variation of night school and home tutaledge. Mr. Masters, began growing paranoid because of his executive position in a small Euro-based company called Britbrains; a company dedicated to improving lives via headware, had become threatened by another corporation. Playing on his son's yearning for attention from his father, Ken enrolled Alvar into his company's test subject selections. Being augumented with internal devices that would increase the boy's mental affinity, and increased his segregation from the other children. Having no other night-ones to socialize with caused Alvar to become more closed off and distant from the world.
Ken's paranoia began to overtake his common sense and his outbursts at home began to slowly tear the family apart at the seams. Having realized his father's attention was nothing more than a front towards a business opportunity, Alvar began to delve into computers, as an escape from his albeit lush life. As high-school came upon the youth, he found himself braving the outside in broad daylight, forcing himself to try and become accustomed to the rays of the sun. After a while, Alvar's experimentation with sunlight failed and he gave up on the thought of trying to blend in with the crowd. His little ventures did have a consequence however, some parts of his fine fur became off-coloured and began to emit small amounts of light in the darkness, like a weak neon glow. This defect was actually a side effect of the treatments Alvar received previously, in order for his body not to reject the new bioware. Due to the chemical therapy, scar tissue on the night-one would not just go grey on areas with fur, but would instead saturate the area with a dull radiance.
Angered by his failures and this new oddity that would even outcast him from any night-ones he would meet, Alvar saught another escape from his dreadful life and turned to the matrix. Using his status as an experimental subject, Kitsune had a secret datajack installed in his palm, as to avoid suspicion from his father. After a few years of messing around, trying to build his own deck, Alvar finally accomplished his goal and logged onto the matrix. He was amazed by the hidden world of electronics and quickly enough became well accustomed to the world through wires.
The Masters family continued to front a perfect relationship during Alvar's late teens, saying that they were one big happy family. The true story was far from this charade; Ken had slipped into a depression and resorted to BLT chips in order to continue functioning as an individual - an addiction that would claim his title of executive. Nikki's outlook on life became very jaded and she talked to her children about leaving her husband and heading to the UCAS in order to start a new life. Alvar's sister seemed unphased by the changes in her family and had already been accepted into an internship, her physical attributes easily contributing to this.
Alvar on the other hand had begun to venture out on the street of the UK, his mind set on finding some others like him. Being of a pampered life and not used to the streets, it didn't take long for a couple of gangers to find him. At first, the meeting looked like a typical mugging, four against one, but the suprise came when the gangers realized that Alvar was in fact, a male. His lean physical appearance and his small stature for a male night-one easily confused the gangers in the dim light, most of them being human and all. The gangers, not being too pleased that instead of finding a hot night-one female to take advantage of, decided that pounding this furry-elf into the ground would have done just as well.
Luckily enough for Alvar, he was nimble and easily ditched the human gangers, taking refuge in an abandoned warehouse down by the docks. Another stroke of luck (or so Alvar thought) was that there were squatters in the building; night-ones included. The only unfortunate thing was that Alvar hadn't had time to see them before he was subdued and knocked unconcious. Alvar woke to find himself in a dimly lit room, surrounded by some of his kind and other metas, but bound to a chair.
Being from a rather well-off family, Alvar wasn't sure what to do with a bunch of drekheads like this, but his obvious suprise at seeing more of his kind was picked up by the leader, one 'Axl' or so he called himself. Axl was no fool and had many years of experience hiding in the shadows, he laughed at the obviously frightened youth and interrogated that young night-one, who acted like a scared child. After two days of talk (no torture or physical aggression, as Alvar showed no signs of resistance), Axl did something that would change Alvar's life forever, he gave him a nickname.
Axl dubbed Alvar Kitsune, because of his physical apperance, his accidental arrival upon Axl's turf and his glowing fur. Being accidentally regarded a female by many and having the glowing effect of his streaked fur The fur reminded Axl of the old oriental legends of the kitsune. Avlar despised Axl and the restof the group, but he found himself intrigued by how they survive and worked together. A ransom demand was made for Kitsune's return, but no reply ever did arrive. A month of captivity caused Avlar to slink into a depression; with no escape, he soon found himself in a very deep brood.
Axl felt sorry for the abandoned rich kid, he had heard news of his fathers downfall and the ensuing murder suicide of his father, whom had lost his sanity after a bad BTL trip and had murdered Nikki in a fit of rage. Knowing that the kid had nowhere to go, Axl began to visit Kitsune regularly, trying to figure out if the boy would be useful to the group or not. After finding out about the night-one's hidden cyberware, Axl decided to test Kitsune on matrix hacking.
Kitsune was allowed to leave his containment cell, which was a storage shed, and mingle with the homeless refugees while a few guards watched the youth. While under the watchful eye of a troll decker, Kitsune was shown the ins and outs of the matrix in order to be useful to the recluse. He was gifted with decking, the troll, who went by the name Chedda, for his love of cheese, provided Kitsune with his first deck and even customized the icon for the night-one, making a fox-like appearance to go along with the boy's given nickname.
As life would have it, Kitsune helped the hovel, gaining their trust and respect as a decker while at the same time learning more about what it took to survive outside the plushy lifestyle of his father's estate. All good things come to an end, however. Three years after being inducted in as a resident decker, a megacorp purchased the land and had the occupants 'removed'. Kitsune was only 19 at the time and was easily subdued into leaving via seeing his friend Chedda take fifteen gel rounds to the chest and drop like a rock.
Alvar's SIN was identified and he was dropped off at the closest shelter. Wondering why he hadn't instead been brought back to his father's estate, Alvar asked about the whereabouts of his father, which is when he learnt the horrible truth. Shaken by the truth, Alvar mentally stripped himself of his name, deciding to go with the name his second family had given him. As hard as he tried, he could not find a record of his sister's whereabouts or of her currenty status. Kitsune stayed at the shelter for a month before deciding that he needed to leave the entirety of his life behind and start anew.
Slotting himself some false identification and boarding a sub-orbital to UCAS, Kitsune decided to follow his mother's dream and start a new life in UCAS. Arriving in the new world was a little overwhelming for the night-one and he quickly found himself out of his element. Unsure of what to do, Kitsune stayed in the shadows and kept himself low and off the radar, dropping his false identification as soon as he was out of the hub.
As luck would have it, Kistune met up with the smelliest, most unwashed ork he had ever come across. At first, Kitsune considered this individual as nothing more than a begger, but the ork was smarter than he looked, even though that wasn't too hard to accomplish. Fetch, as he was called, spoke on length about this place called Seattle and how a night-one of Kitsune's classification could easily find a life among the shadows in Seattle. Knowing nothing of this world, or even anyone on the continent, Kitsune agreed to ride with the ork.
Upon arrival in Seattle, Kitsune set off on his own, trying to find the so-called life Fetch had spoken of.
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 13
Joined: 18 Mar 2008
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Date Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2008 1:48 am
Subject: Profile Search: Harvy Harbinger
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Data recovered from Matrix search...Loading.......
 - "Hello, password please?"
Password: *********
Access to database granted-
*Screen loads up rushing words from the bottom*
Document Accuracy: 83%
Runner Name: Harvy Harbinger
Birth Name: Torrick
Alias: Harvy Harbinger, Binger, Mr.Black
Birthplace: Oria, Location Unknown
Bloodtype: O -
Age: 25-30
Background: Torrick is from a village of tribe people called Oria. These people were exicuted by hired raiders in the area and Torrick was the only one of his people that had lived. He had a brother named Kosh, who was killed by a paranormal creature in the same day, just before the raid of his people. Not much is known about when this happened or even where, but, it is confirmed that by legend of his people he was known as their Harbinger. It was said that the Harbinger would be greeted by the last and oldest living in his village and he would be told of his own legend. Torrick's Grandfather was wounded and as the village elder, was the last and oldest person still alive. It is known that he left his past to find revenge for his people, and this is why he became a Runner. He thought by simply joining the ranks of the underworld that he could get closer to finding his people's murderers. Torrick, with his face tattooed with his clan's mark, had to make himself seem not so, tribal. He used his title of Harbinger of Death, in conjunction with Harvy and had only been known as Harvy Harbinger in most of his life as a runner. His skills started him out as an assassin, he was the best hunter in his tribe, so killing came rather easy to him, his style though was strange to most. In his years as a runner he became more skilled with weapons until he joined a group of runners known as Slash. This lasted sometime, his leader Evara was killed in a fight with a battlemage, he took over head position of the group quickly as their leader. Further info is gapped and most cannot be confirmed, even this file is mostly lacking definitive info about Harbinger, most facts are accurate.
File received from: Quicksilver
------- Data Ended exiting system -------
-----signature-----
Active characters:
Harvy Harbinger
Mit
Amun
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 1
Joined: 14 Nov 2008
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Date Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:21 pm
Subject:
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Arthur Rhinehart was born in the Dayton View
district, Dayton Ohio. His father, Franklin, worked
as a doctor for a hospital in Dayton View. His
mother, Anna, was hired by AT&T as an unofficial
consultant. Arthur’s childhood was relatively
uneventful. Arthur never really committed any crimes
aside from occasional drug use and got decent grades
in high school, with a little help from a well paid
decker. Liking the relative safety of West Dayton
Arthur’s parents rented an apartment for him and his
mother got him into Dayton University at the age of
17. Arthur quickly experienced friction due to his
lack of spiritual belief. Despite this he excelled
at medical studies, and showed some progress in
electronics, specialized programming and basic self
defense. After two years Arthur focused his studies
on biotechnology and started volunteering
unofficially at a free clinic offering services to
the squatters in the bombed out remains of the Five
Oaks district. His grades would suffer somewhat as a
result of the time spent at the clinic but he would
gain practical experience and learn to cope with
limited resources.
The facilities at the clinic were almost nonexistent
and infection took many due to a lack of any
sterilization equipment, or even adequate stocks of
alcohol. When the clinic finally obtained an
autoclave it was seized by local police forces who
viewed the squatters as an urban blight. The clinic
had no license and most of the doctors dropped out
before learning much beyond setting broken bones,
the police could arrest everyone working there if
they wanted.
Three years passed and Arthur’s grades remained
respectable, though not remarkable. Arthur was
surprised when Mercy’s Pass Hospital in Oakwood
offered him an internship but Anna’s connections
with AT&T made him the implicit choice. Arthur had
to decide between volunteering at the clinic and
interning at the hospital. He ultimately decided to
work at the hospital, and was excited by the
prospect of not losing as many patients to
preventable complications. Arthur was assigned to a
paramedic team that covered a small, high incident
area, in Oakwood this meant it was full of old, rich
people on the verge of death. Despite the general
feebleness of the people all paramedics were issued
a Seco pistol and required to put two boxes down
range each month.
Arthur was never more than a passable shot, and
never had to use the pistol at work. After a year
interning with the paramedics Arthur submitted
several recommendations on reducing the use of
consumables by paramedics and instantly won favor
with the accountants. The hospital soon put Arthur
to work improving efficiency throughout the
hospital. In two years Arthur graduated with a
decent GPA and was immediately hired by the
hospital. Officially he was hired on as a paramedic
but he spent most of his time studying and revising
the practices of the hospital to increase
efficiency. He was well compensated for his work and
after some saving was able to move into a luxury
apartment with a little help from a few people at
the hospital. Arthur had put the suffering of the
squatters behind him and was lost in corporate
luxury.
Arthur’s stagnate life would be broken when a couple
of white trash psychopaths from Central Dayton snuck
past the security forces and stared wreaking havoc.
All available paramedics were sent to the scene
including Arthur. The killers had been pacified
before any paramedics arrived but even that didn’t
make organizing the triage any easier. A fight broke
out over what to do about the surviving killer. Some
wanted to kill him, others thought he should be the
lowest priority, a gross minority felt he should be
treated as any other patient. A police officer ended
the argument by killing him. Arthur believed
strongly in the Hippocratic Oath and was deeply
troubled by the actions of both the police and his
fellow paramedics.
Feeling disillusioned Arthur took a month of
personal leave, stole some basic medical supplies,
and went back to the free clinic. Despite Arthur’s
fears most were just happy to have some qualified
help. The month passed quickly and Arthur was
reluctant to return to work. Something had changed
for him, he’d seen too much. It took another year of
listing to rich people bitch about stubbed toes and
sore tummies before Arthur could take it no more and
quit his job at the hospital. He paid for his month
at his apartment and moved into his old apartment
building. He planned to stay there until the money
ran out and then he was going to move into the
squat. Almost all his free time was spent working in
the free clinic and the extra training he’d received
had been helping immensely. Thanks to less invasive
techniques he’d learned as a paramedic the rate of
patient infection dropped somewhat but the lack of
even basic equipment was a constant burden.
Arthur had found his calling but he was constantly
troubled by the lack of equipment. An opportunity
presented its self when a Nation member’s uncle got
beat up when he wandered to close to Lincoln Park.
The old man was in bad shape when they carried him
into the clinic. His heart was stopped and we lacked
the equipment to start it safely. A trauma patch
would have been close to suicide but the old man’s
dermal plating and blood filters made it a useless
prospect. Arthur grabbed a syringe of pure
adrenaline he stole from the hospital and jabbed it,
hard as he could, into the old man’s chest. The
Sure-Puncture needle, 500 new yen each, went cleanly
through the dermal plating and into the heart. The
injection started the heart but the beat was
arrhythmic and without an artificial heart the old
man would have died within the week. Arthur knew the
hospital had plenty of low maintenance hearts to
keep the old rich people going. Arthur also knew
that would give him the perfect opportunity to steal
more supplies and with some hired help from the
Natives, some sterilization equipment.
Arthur discussed ripping off the hospital with a
few Natives members and after a formal meeting the
Natives agreed to assign four members to help steal
the heart and 20,000 new yen out of pocket secured
help stealing a few autoclaves and medical
supplies. The raid started off fine, they got in
without any problem, thanks to Arthur’s knowledge of
the buildings layout made finding the heart’s easy
and stealing a few even easier. Getting the medical
supplies was also easy, and thanks to a gang
member’s knowledge of maglocks they even got a
decent amount of antibiotics. The problems happened
when they went to steal the autoclaves, unplugging
those sets off an alarm. Armed security arrived and
a firefight broke out. Arthur wasn’t prepared for
the blinding chaos that is combat and ran blindly to
the left. With luck the left lead to the backdoor.
Arthur was immediately confronted by an armed guard
and by reflex Arthur dumped a clip into the guard.
Three shots had hit center mass but three had been
enough, she was dead. Arthur ran for cover and when
he felt safe he collapsed. He took a deep breath and
gathered himself. He had most of the supplies, all
the antibiotics, and one of the hearts, the Natives
might let him live. He grabbed a cab and got to the
clinic in time. It was a sloppy install but the old
man would live. The rest of the raid team made it
back and survived, but only with the help of the
looted supplies. Arthur gained a few points with the
Natives for saving the old man but the botched raid
he ran from won’t be forgotten either. The old man
used his black market connections to get Arthur some
headware. Arthur spent a lot of time thinking about
the raid, and the more he thought the more troubled
he became. Not only had he deprived people of their
medical supplies he had broken his oath to do no
harm.
Arthur became depressed and began neglecting his
duties at the clinic. This proved a lucky break as
Arthur was at his apartment the day the police
decided to round up the doctors working there and
quietly kill them. Arthur’s depression was overtaken
by fear when he learned what happened. He decided to
flee. Arthur wasn’t too street wise but he knew
enough to know that Seattle is where you disappear.
He transferred what he could into a housing subsidy
packed up what useful gear he could get and beat a
hasty retreat to the autonomy of Seattle’s shadows.
-----signature-----
When confronted with a question a wise man seeks a wiser man, an intelligent man consults the literature, and a scientist answers it
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Title: Fixer
Posts: 108
Joined: 25 Mar 2006
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Date Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:52 pm
Subject:
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Alright, so seeing as many players have tried to figure out my character's background and as they progress with the explanations, get even more and more ridiculous, I usually dismiss them with a laugh or some such thing. This one takes the cake, though. It's crazy how a person can really believe this is his background. Anyways, here it is.
NOTE: Like I said, this isn't it, but is the most humorous and outlandish background explanation I've seen so far for mine.
"His parents were both from warring groups: pirates and ninjas. At one time, they met during battle, fell madly in love and ran away from their respective homes, but the leader of the ninja and pirate clans all thought that the other one kidnapped their family, so many years later, they discovered and raided the house, and in the huge battle both his parents died. Anyway, before they died Talos was taught the wonders of drinking and ninjitsu, explaining his drunken violence and his leet ninja skills. It all fits in perfectly, really."
So that's it. Hope you get a laugh out of it like I did. And I won't mention who thought it up though, unless they post later on this board that they did themselves.
-----signature-----
Shadowlands handle: {Silent Knight}
"We put poisons in our water and air to weed out the weak!
We detonate fission bombs in our only biosphere!
We nailed our god to a stick! Don't f**k with the human race!" — General Nikolai
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Title: Member
Posts: 285
Joined: 19 Sep 2006
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Date Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:59 pm
Subject:
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Uhm.
Dude, that is your background. We all know it.
Batman's parents were pirates and ninjas.
-- Lex
-----signature-----
"Just because you can put the kittens in the oven, doesn't make them biscuits."
"I'm only dating Windows to get with her hot sister DirectX."
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 7
Joined: 07 Jan 2009
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Date Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:08 pm
Subject: A Renewal, a Rebirth: Madadh-Alluidh
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Madadh-Alluidh
Before the 'awakening' the Hebridean Islands had enjoyed centuries of tranquil rural life. The last bastion of the old Celtic Gaidhlig language used by the Scots the islands enjoyed a deep and rich cultural link with their Celtic past. With the arrival of the fateful year of 2011 when 'mutant' children began to be born all over the world the Hebrides was no exception. Many husbands accused their wifes of adultery with demons from hell, why else would the children have pointed ears or be born stunted. Many parents who tried to protect their mutant offspring were driven out of their small communities. Many of these formed groups and travelled from place to place trying to find somewhere to settle and return to their rural lives.
Wherever they went the message was the same - move on you are not welcome here - but where to go - away from here came the reply. They chose the most southern island in the Outer Hebrides to build a colony, the island was called Bearnaraigh [english = Berneray] and was only just over 2km wide and about 1km at its broadest north to south. It had been abandoned for a number of decades and had ruins of two old forts and had a pier and a lighthouse that had been operating for two centuries. The highest point on the island is Sotan, a Marilyn - a small mountain at 193m height. The Marilyns were given there designation during the 20th century when larger mountains on the mainland were called the Munros, taken from 'Marilyn Munroe' showing that the Scots had a particular sense of humour. The humans were only too happy to give them the island - as long as they went there quickly and never came back. The island was perfect for their needs and although small could meet their needs. For centuries the former occupants, the crofters, had preserved the machair - fertile raised beach areas which were types of sand-dune pastures subjected to agricultural cultivation that prevails in wet and windy conditions. These areas provided for the food needs of the small elven community on the island - natural 'organic' methods were insisted upon.
The Winter of 2011 was a bad one, the weather produced enormous storms and floods that threatened to engulf the small island - but the little community persevered, even with the tragic loss of many lives. These extreme weather conditions were accompanied by seismic shocks, probably echoes from the great earthquake that struck the central mainland, some land emerged from the seabed to add to the island but it was only a small amount.. These climate disturbances were attributed to the radiation leaks from a number of British nuclear reactors that inexplicably went into meltdown. But not all changes were unwelcome, a forest sprouted up on the island covering the entire south eastern part and the rapid growth rate of these trees was totally unexplainable. Later, when members of the community investigated the forest they found a clearing in which a small circle of standing stones had emerged and the mages in the community soon realised that a ley-line convergence was at the very centre of the stone circle and thus designated it as a sacred druidic site. News came in from Ireland that the famous Giant's Causeway had began to inexplicably grow and it seemed to be slowly approaching the island.
For some inexplicable reason it seemed that the UGE births were mainly 'elves' - less than 5% of them were 'dwarves' and furthermore a high proportion of the 'elves' had a dark coloured fur covering their bodies. These came to be known as the Night-Ones as the sunlight irritated their skin and so they preferred the night time. The community settled and elected a Council of Elder's who were mainly 'awakened' and had magic available to them. Robeirt's father was born in June 2014 to parents who had already bore children who were 'elves', of the Night-One variety. By 2020 over 45% of children born throughout the Islands and Ireland were 'elven' and many more migrants arrived on the island to join the growing community soon bringing the total population to over 3500 people.
In 2021 the release of high-power solar cells, which decentralized power usage and allowed independant communities to be in total control of their power needs, onto the market gave the community the help they needed as they quickly purchased as many as they needed and more for the future. The community Elder's soon rebuilt Dun Briste Fortress and it was constantly manned and a lot of electronic surveillance equipment and security monitors were installed as an early warning system for any aggressive incursions from the isles to the north or indeed from the mainland. Most of the north coast of the island is protected by dangerous granite cliffs which acts as a wall and the cliffs were split in the middle by a cleft that contained an old pier which was rebuilt and used by the small fishing fleet. The Council of Elders also imported deer and released them in the forest which was still growing extremely rapidly.
The year 2021, specifically on April 30th, also experienced 1 in 10 human men, women and children suddenly morphed into even more diverse forms of humanoid. The press termed this global change as 'goblinization' and the mutant results were called trolls and orks with a large number of geographical variations.
The year 2022 received news of yet another ten percent of the world's population who died due to a new emergence of the VITAS plague and the islanders believed that their return to 'natural and simpler' methods of living and cultivating food et. al. was the main reason why not one islander's life was lost to the disease. One good piece of news that came as a result of the re-emergence of the plague was the racial violence died down. An interesting piece of news arrived on the island via the surveillance station, on the mainland over a dozen members of the infamous Campbell clan were massacred by members of the rival MacDonald clan - some members of whom were distant MacDonald relatives of many on the island.
In September of the year 2030, Robeirt MacDonald was born in the island community. Robeirt MacDonald was brought up in a loving family. His father and mother were both Night-One elves and Robeirt had 2 older sisters that used to dote over him. As a child he was taught many things that were useful for the community, including agriculture of the machair and also the rudiments of hunting and fishing. It soon became clear that Robeirt was a lone-wolf type and he much preferred doing things alone. Robeirt often swam across from Rubha Niosaim [Cape] to the little island of Sgeir Mhor [Big Rock] and pass the night fishing, returning home just before sunrise with his bags full of fish and a big smile on his face.
At the Christmas celebrations of 2034 Robeirt listened to his father as he related to his wife and family the tale of the foundation of a predominantly elven nation in Ireland called Tir na nOg, named after the legendary 'Land of Eternal Youth' from gaidhlig mythology where the spirits of the dead walked freely and some celtic heroes had visited. Ironically, in Tir na nOg elves outnumbered the humans and so the humans emigrated enmasse to Boston Sprawl in Massachusetts, UCAS. For a short time Robeirt's parents considered accepting the open invitation from Tir na nOg for any islander families to migrate to Tir na nOg, but they eventually realised the idyllic lifestyle they had on the island and the neutrality enjoyed politically and so they decided to stay.
Another year of significant events was 2035 as many changes occurred in the British Isles, large amounts of constitutional power was conferred upon the Elven Senate of Tir na nOg, the Danaan family created the province of Meath that is designated the heart of the nation and the last resistance cell in the province of Ulster is wiped out by the army of Tir na nOg. In England yet another nuclear reactor station goes into meltdown and thereby creates the Northern Toxic Zone. The year after that the druids on the mainland of Scotland create the Scottish Wild Lands with the direct result that within one year saw the return of timber wolves and bears.
As the news of racial tensions in the British Isles continued, the smaller fort guarding the lighthouse was strengthened and also became an electronic sentry for Tir na nOg. Although the ruling council of Tir na nOg was on good terms with the island and an unwritten treaty agreed between them, which included the island's fortress supplying Tir na nOg with surveillance information, the community Elder's decided to decline the pressured offer of becoming a member of Tir na nOg officially. The political situation between Tir na nOg and the British was something the Elder's felt the small community could well do without getting involved in. They reasoned that their neutrality ensured their safety.
On his thirteenth birthday Robeirt was also personally effected by the increase in druidic magic with the upsurge of druidic powers and control over the whole of the British Isles. During a, typically solitary, hunting expedition he encountered wolves in the island's large forest. He immediately thought they would become a threat and so he began to hunt them, but as if by destiny he became suddenly disoriented and he fell to the ground, weak and feeble, a sweat of fear broke out as he seemed to drift off into a dream world. Strange feelings of innate power surged through his body and he felt as if electric currents were coarsing through his body as it convulsed uncontrollably and bringing about some major physiological and fundamental changes. As he remained on the ground unable to move, to his utter horror, he saw a huge wolf appear in his vision and approach him, but it did not attack - in fact it communicated with him in some way Robeirt could not comprehend. This was a wolf spirit that came to help Robeirt through his awakening vision and almost intuitively Robeirt knew that he was now chosen as a druidic-shaman of Wolf.
From that day on Robeirt cast off his family name and took the name Madadh-Alluidh which is 'Wolf' in his native gaidhlig tongue. When he returned home to his village many of his friends and neighbours looked startled to see the changes that had occurred. At first his family were stunned at the change, the hair on his head stuck out in a chaotic manner as if he had received a massive electrical shock and those that were awakened could see the silver streak in his hair was flowing like quicksilver. When his family heard his tale they understood and were so proud, his mother and father went to report this incident to the Elder's Council and the council subsequently requested Madadh-Alluidh presented himself personally for an interview and a test. After the interview they announced to the rest of the members of the community that Robeirt MacDonald would now be known as Madadh-Alluidh and that he was the Wolf-Shaman of the community.
Madadh-Alluidh returned to his rural life with a renewed purpose, he assisted the druids with their conservation work as well as performed any duties asked of him as a druidic-shaman. Apart from that he went about his normal life and when he went on one of his solitary hunts he would take the opportunity to go and stay in the forest for weeks on end communing with the spirits of nature. On one such trip he built a prayer shelter in the heart of the ring of standing stones and he received the benefit of gaining the ability to improve his list of available shamanic spells.
Then the year 2047 befell the island and the British discovered the electronic listening post and their intelligence agents also discovered that a lot of the information gathered at the surveillance post was passed on to Tir na nOg. This the British decided would have to cease immediately. On the fateful night of the full August moon the bombers came, the early warning system alerted the islanders to the bombers approach but before they could do anything about evacuation the bombers arrived to perform their work of death and destruction. With typical savagery perpetuated by fundamental racist principals the bombers had been ordered to not only destroy the surveillance post but to blanket the island with incendiary bombs to wipe it clean of 'viral contaminants'. When the attack was over the small elven community was annihilated, the forest a blackened shell of smoking trees. With a grin of contentment, the British commander of the genocidal atrocity reported back an one hundred percent success. He was wrong!
As fate had decreed at the moment of the attack, Madadh-Alluidh was meditating in his prayer shelter in the center of the sacred stone ring in the heart of the forest. When the incendiary bombs landed and exploded across the forest Madadh-Alluidh was engulfed in the flames and he was on the point of death, unconscious, severely burned, a mere spark of light in the night about to be extinguished and then he came. Wolf came to Madadh-Alluidh and healed him and stayed with him until the young elf's life was no longer in danger. As soon as he could travel Madadh-Alluidh, after the painful burial of his beloved parents and sisters, travelled to Tir na nOg aboard a scout ship sent by Tir na nOg to search for survivors.
He received treatment for his severe burns with the accompanying skin grafts and, although some scarring remained, his dark body hair soon grew once more and covered them. Apart from the emotional scarring the only physical result of the bombing was that his voice box had been irrevocably damaged. Cyberware technology could give him an artificial voice box that gave him a monosyllabic ability to speak. Madadh-Alluidh refused anything more sophisticated as it would affect his magical essence and he could not compromise his link with Wolf as it was his duty to serve Wolf above all, especially now he had no familial ties anymore. After a brief visit to the island to say goodbye to his people; where he saw the true power of nature as she started to heal the damage done by the cowardly bombers, trees sprouting, grass regrowing, rains coming down to wash away the blackened sludge; Madadh-Alluidh went to the graves of his family and promised he would return one day to join them - then he left. During the time Wolf had spent with him, helping him to return from the brink of death, Madadh-Alluidh was instructed by Wolf that he was needed in America. Many drastic changes were occuring there and the land required healing, but more importantly it was distant enough to prevent Madadh-Alluidh from becoming engulfed with hatred and thoughts of revenge against those who were responsible for the death of his whole island. The loss of life so affected Madadh-Alluidh that he promised himself he would not take a humanoid life himself, he would become a pacifist and perform his duties as a druidic-shaman - where to go in America though?
Returning to Tir na nOg Madadh-Alluidh consilted the libraries and counselled with fellow druidic-shamans. He learned that the native Amerindians controlled enormous swathes of land in the north western UCAS and that they had a druidic type of tradition that they called shamanism. They would have their own shamans, particularly of Wolf but one who came from a four thousand year druidic tradition as defined by the Celtic mystics and druids in the Celtic Isles, perhaps a Wolf-Shaman from that stock could bring a new vision to the rebirth and renewal of mother nature - especially considering the devaastation suffered there. The elven province of Tir Tairngire was to the south, under the control of the Sinsearach elf tribe, and the Salish-Shidhe lands to the north both filled with forests. Tir Tairngire and Salish-Shidhe authorities were both so tied up in red tape it was almost impossible to get visas and permits for travel to those lands without waiting for years. However, there was a small pocket of UCAS real estate right in the middle of it all and they did hand out visa permits for Tir na nOg migrants, the Sprawl of the Seattle Metroplex. So the decision was made and some members of the Elven Senate donated enough for Madadh-Alluidh to travel first-class from Shannon airport to the SeaTac airport, UCAS.
When he arrived in Seattle Sprawl, via a taxi cab, he quickly enrolled in the Guild and so he began his attempt to be a shadowrunner. He could only speak in monosyllables as his throat and voicebox was damaged in the bombing, so difficulties awaited, but his evangelical strength of purpose drove him on and after graduation from the guild he took work as and when it arose. He refused work that consisted of taking a humanoid life and so he basically took just delivery and investigation work and he subsidised this meagre income with the money reserves proferred to him by the Senate members back in the Tir na nOg.
After having spent many months in the Seattle Sprawl and determined to remain as much a pacifist as possible Madadh-Alluidh soon exhausted his reserve funds and he struggled to even afford to eat and occasionally afford a night in a rat infested coffin motel in West Tacoma. Meeting with many Johnsons he soon realised that most runs involved the shedding of blood and this disgusted him. At one time, it was the spring equinox, he had to get away from the filth of the metroplex - and he did not mean the dirt. He fled to Council Island and wandered in the forests there. He even built a temporary lodge so he could use it to purify himself from the city taint and relish the caress of contact with his wolf-spirit. Refreshed and renewed he once again returned to the dark life laid out before him. But again nearly all runs involved blood shed. He continued to struggle through the summer and as fall rapidly approached he began taking unneccesary risks, some of these put him in hospital and quite a few times he awoke in a Doc Wagon clinic somewhere in the sprawl, or surrounding area. The runs rapidly dried up and he turned down many wet-work assignments. The word had been passed around saying that a pacifist has no business working in this kind of business. Bizz usually meant blood.
It was with a strong, overwhelmng sense of great regret and the fact of absolute necessity that forced Madadh-Alluidh to face reality. He would need to shed blood or he would die. He once more fled to the forest of Council Island and its coolness and serenity helped him to meditate. Finally he decided to remain there and wait for the great Wolf spirit to contact him to guide him, or he would remain there and die. For many. many days he remained in meditation and the physical hunger grew. When Wolf did come he took Madadh-Alluidh on a dream quest and Madadh-Alluidh learned the reality of the circle of life. He saw a wolf family struggling to survive in the cold harsh winter and how the alpha male took down a large elk and thereby brought life to the pack. He watched as a second pack tried to steal the food storage of the first and how the wolves fought a war of survival with ferocity. Blood flowed freely, life and death struggled on the battlefield, the only rule to follow was 'survive'. Next, he saw a mother wolf standing between her infant cubs and a mountain lion, she bared her teeth in a viscious snarl informing the lion that she would not stand aside and abandon her cubs. Then suddenly the father-wolf arrived and immediately ran to be beside his mate, wolves mate for life, and as if my telepathic communication both wolf parents leapt at the lion with the ferocity of desperation and althought the mountain lion was strong and powerful the two wolves fighting in harmony overcame the enemy and killed it.
Then just as suddenly as it had began Madadh-Alluidh found himself back in the forest on Council Island, flat on his back and covered in sweat. He also had a strange taste in his mouth and when he wiped his face with a kerchief he discovered it was covered in blood. Madadh-Alluidh understood and prayed in gratitude to Wolf. He quickly returned to the sprawl to do nothing more than to survive. He enrolled into the guild once more for a refresher course and on his second graduation, with a renewed determination, he walked into the first day of the rest of his life. For how long...... Wolf alone knows!
-----signature-----
The colours of the school of experience are black and blue.
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 9
Joined: 04 Dec 2008
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Date Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 4:31 pm
Subject: What's a Troll to do?
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Skeezer
Born 2040, to a Troll stage dancer who called herself Feathers.
He's got the marks of a few gang tattoos on his left shoulder, partly burned off now, and stomps through the world with a chip on his shoulder.
Recently moved to Seattle, because he got tired of being hunted down by Humanis drek-faced scum. Hates elves (Fraggin' dandelion-heads) but will not start the fight. Someday, he may open up why he dislikes them.
Being a Troll is not easy, even in this enlightened world. Skeezer (not his real name) has lived a tough life, scraping out an existance in the dark streets of Oakdale, Illinois, UCAS. Running from one gang or another, or working for a pair of gangs before or after they got raided by other gangs or the paid cops. Skeezer learned quickly how to handle heavy weapons (since they were too heavy for the "norms" in his clubs, and the intimidation factor was huge), but did not learn other basic skills. Now, he wants to start over, but has had to rely on what he knows to carve out a legitimate home for himself.
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 11
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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Date Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:56 pm
Subject: A true samurai hits the streets of the sprawl.
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Taro' Yoshitsune Takeshima no Takeda a.k.a. Steppenwolf
Born in the city of Yokohama, on the main island of Honshu in Japan, the largest shipbuilding location in the world and the capital city of the Kanagawa prefecture; on the 26th September 2015; Taro' Yoshitsune Takeshima had a mother that was mentally unstable and an absentee father that was in the military. His early years were extremely difficult as his mother pined for his father who all too infrequently accepted leave to visit home. On a number of occasions his mother abandoned little Taro' and ran off to distant foster relatives in Hokkaido in the far north. During these times young Taro' was looked after by his paternal grandparents and his aunts (on his father's side). By the time Taro' started school he already showed signs of withdrawal from the world and a decidedly "wobbly" personality.
His paternal grandfather, Tatsuo Takeshima, decided that something had to be done for the boy. He had not approved of his son, Rentaro, marrying a girl that had no real family as was the case with Fujiko Mishima, Taro's mother. She was adopted into a samurai family to allow her to marry Tatsuo's son Rentaro and she had been fostered more than once before that - which probably helped explain her sanity issues and at the same time cast doubts upon her heritage. His fears had been calmed a little when Taro' was born and he was 'normal' - thank the Lord Buddha he was not infected with the UGE scourge and was a 'pure' Japanese. He was not cursed to live an incarnation as a koborokuru or a elf.
Fujiko had quite a sad history which she kept to herself for most of her life. She was the daughter of a household cook who had served an important family in the city of Osaka and who ended up having an affair with a nearby farmer, who may or may not have been married, and when she found herself pregnant and abandoned by the father she had the child and put her straight away into a children's home. A family who found they could not have children of their own was visiting Osaka from the prefecture of Hokkaido far in the north. They heard of the children's home in Osaka by members of their family in the city and after much discussion decided to go and see if there were any children available. They chose to foster Fujiko and when all of the formalities and legalities were taken care of they returned to Hokkaido.
Fujiko was a very difficult child, moody and unpredictable, but the family persevered and tried hard to look after her and give her a home. Then miraculously Fujiko's foster-mother conceived and had a daughter. Fujiko was around six years old when her foster-sister was born. Soon after the foster-parents decided they could not carry on looking after Fujiko as they were poor and also wished to put all of their efforts into their own natural child. They did feel an obligation to find somewhere suitable to place Fujiko but for a number of years she was passed around the family - traveling from one city to another. With no real stability in her life she was like a tightrope-walker expecting to fall at any moment and who can say what this time of uncertainty and fear of abandonment did to the child. She eventually was fostered by her original foster-mothers eldest sister and her husband who lived in Yokohama. Her new foster-father was kind and gentle and was able to give her the emotional stability that Fujiko needed but his wife had only accepted her because she was old enough, at 10 years of age, to do the work in the house and thereby leave her free to do 'other things'. Fujiko invested the remainder of her emotions into affection for her new foster-father, Aritomo Bando. He was a well respected businessman and he was also a very accomplished and locally well-known amateur vet.
Yokohama is on the eastern coast of Japan and there exists the threat of tsunami [tidal waves], created by undersea earthquakes sometimes 100's of kilometers out to sea, coming along and causing significant devastation. The authorities had in place an early warning system that was devised to give the alarm when the seismologists reported such an earthquake occurring. This alarm was a siren like the ones used during the Pacific War of the 1940's that warned of imminent air raids by the barbarian Americans with their carpet bombing of Japanese cities with incendiary bombs, these included 30-odd raids upon Yokohama itself where on one raid alone, an estimated 7000 people lost their lives in one morning - all non-combatants. Periodically, sometimes three or four times a year the tsunami warning siren would sound and all of the people would make their way with an orderly dignity to the shelter provided for them to survive the onslaught of a potential tsunami. Then there were the tsunami warning tests carried out twice a year that was used to check all the systems were still working and to educate the newly arrived in the city as to the correct emergency procedure to follow.
Aritomo, 'Ari' to his friends lived in the Tsurumi-ku ward or district of the city with his wife. They had two daughters who were grown and married and lived elsewhere in the city. Everyone in the ward would take their pets and animals to him for treatment rather than the 'professionals'. He used only traditional methods including 'herbs' to treat the animals and he was a natural healer. His dogs were known throughout the area and when there was an earthquake out to sea they would begin to howl and everyone who knew about Bando-san and his dogs would quietly gather a few belongings and make their way to the tsunami shelters, other citizens on seeing them going to the shelters soon learned to follow suit as well. By the time the authorities switched on the sirens the majority of the residents of Tsurumi-ku were already comfortably settled down in the shelters to wait for the all-clear to sound.
Fujiko really loved her foster-father but when life at her new home got too much, as she was little more than a servant in the eyes of her foster-mother, she would go north to Hokkaido to visit her original foster-parents and after a few weeks rest she would return to Yokohama. When she met Taro's father she was working in the pay records office of the base where Rentaro, a young lieutenant recently graduated from the Naval College, was based for his sea-training before being assigned a ship on which to serve. Fujiko was strikingly beautiful and Rentaro asked her out to some of the local dances. This developed into a romance and after a time they began to speak of marriage. The major problem to overcome was that she had no proper family and she was not of the same heritage as Rentaro. They began to worry about this until Rentaro's commanding officer, a Captain Mishima, offered a proposal that would solve their dilemma.
Captain Mishima had no children of his own, he married very late in life and children never became an option. He and his wife admired Rentaro and Captain Mishima recognized the enormous potential inherent and still dormant in the young lieutenant. They had a mutual bond of respect which, not solely but, included the fact that they were both from traditional samurai families. The captain's proposal was that they adopted Fujiko formally into their family and then Rentaro's father and mother would not object to the marriage of their son to her.
Fujiko went and spoke with her beloved foster-father telling him all that was proposed and all of her dreams. She confessed that she was madly in love with Rentaro Takeshima and would marry no other. 'Ari' Bando was one of life's real 'gentlemen' and his compassion and kindness prompted him to give his permission for the adoption to go ahead. The formalities were organized and although Rentaro had received his orders and assigned to a ship, the adoption went ahead with him at sea.
Rentaro was on his new ship HIMS Kuro Tori [His Imperial Majesty's Ship Black Swan] sailing toward Vladivostok under the requests of the Yamatetsu corporation to the JIS government as the city was in danger from Manchuria to the north and some odd 'awakened' islands off the coast of Korea to the south. With the constant threat of terrorism and rebellion there was a strong potential for conflict to break out. Japanese interests needed to be protected.
The next time Rentaro was on leave, he and Fujiko went to Tatsuo Takeshima and told him of their decision to become engaged and to marry as soon as possible. Tatsuo was opposed to the marriage for a variety of reasons but he could not object formally and so he bowed to the pleading of his son and finally agreed. Fujiko and Rentaro were married on 26th December 2014 at the Takeshima family estate. They had a very short honeymoon in the spa resort of Atami Onsen as his leave was running out and he would need to go back to his ship. Whilst back at sea Rentaro received a mail from Fujiko telling him he was to be a father. Fujiko gave up her job and lived with her foster-father 'Ari' Bando awaiting the arrival of her baby.
The birth of Taro' was without incident although some precautions had been placed on standby in case there were any signs of UGE. Many Japanese parents had killed there offspring that had been born with the 'mutation' effects and the hospital authorities were aware of the difficulties but could not allow the infanticide to continue. Security guards from private sources were hired by the hospitals to help to try to control the situation. For the birth of Taro' two Fuchi Corp.Sec. Samurai were stationed outside the delivery room, this was not to prevent anyone harming the child but as a precaution in case the child 'was' born with a UGE defect so that it could be dispatched into its next life and the security samurai were discreetly placed there to deal with the hospitals own security if that became necessary - of course they implied by their presence that they were to ensure the safety of a grandchild to a Fuchi executive. As everything passed off without incident, Fujiko soon returned to her foster-father's home with the new born in her arms. Tatsuo insisted that now a new heir to the Takeshima family had been born it was proper for him and his mother to live close to the Takeshima estate and so he supplied Fujiko and the child with appropriate accommodation on the land he owned.
After his birth, while he was a toddler, he would often accompany his mother to visit the man he came to call Grandfather Bando. 'Ari' soon took to the child and tried to help as much as he could when his mother would disappear north to Hokkaido, abandoning the boy. The boy was fascinated by his 'grandfather's' menagerie of animals. 'Ari' had acquired an allotment after letters of support from hundreds of his 'customers' arrived at the district officials offices demanding that he be given a portion of land to carry out his important 'community service'. 'Ari' used this land wisely, he erected some makeshift but sturdy 'sheds' to act as a clinic and hospital for all of the sick and injured animals he was asked to care for and he used the rest of the land to grow the herbs he needed to make his medicines and treatments for his patients. In the middle of the allotment was a small bore hole, around 30cm in width, that he had drilled to tap into the natural water that was under the whole area. This bore-well then provided him with all the water he needed for the animals and the herbs.
Taro' always remembered the incident that occurred when he was only around 3 or 4 years of age. His 'grandfather' sometimes was left with unwanted animals and he would try to find good homes for them but not all made suitable pets. There was this rabbit, with alien looking blue-fur which was of a very bad temperament and unsuitable as a pet - 'Ari' kept it in his clinic and fed and looked after it there. When it needed exercise he would let it have supervised walks around the allotment garden - he even planted a few lettuce and carrots in a corner plot to allow the animal to be able to feed on the fresh vegetables. Taro' was convinced that the rabbit did not like him, and he may have been right, and the rabbit's colour disturbed and frightened him, furthermore to Taro's eyes the creature was huge! On one particular warm summer's day he was visiting his 'grandfather' in the allotment and the rabbit was having one of its walks about the garden. When Taro' saw that the creature was loose he immediately ran over to be beside his 'grandfather' but as he neared his 'grandfather' the rabbit rushed him as if to attack. In alarm Taro' took a few steps back and landed in the bore-well with his left foot causing him to fall and the leg was trapped and the bone broke. Taro' never forgave the rabbit and even remembers it vividly today.
Once he returned from the hospital he stayed with his 'grandfather' Bando for a few weeks as his leg repaired and as if by karma one day his 'grandfather' brought in to him a small bird he had rescued from the side of the road. The little creature had been hit by some kind of vehicle on the main road and it had a badly broken wing and thus could not fly. Being guided by his 'grandfather' Taro' bound the wing with a splint and little bandage and then using a shoe box made a nest for the bird and placed it in a warm place beside the fire. He then prepared some bread and warm milk and gave this to the bird. Taro's 'grandfather' did not believe in lying to the boy to save his feelings but in telling him the truth so that he could learn the, sometimes cruel, rules of nature. He informed the boy that the shock of what had happened may still claim the life of the bird and that only time would tell. Taro' went to bed that night and made a special addition to his prayers to Lord Buddha by asking for the life of the bird to be allowed to continue. In the morning Taro' couldn't wait to see if the little bird was still alive and when he found that it was, and he heard his 'grandfather' say that he was very surprised, he realized that the Lord Buddha really did perform miracles. His lifelong commitment to religious observance had begun.
After a few weeks 'grandfather' Bando came home from work and told young Taro' that it was time for the bird to be released as it was healed and needed to be free. Taro' had become attached to the little bird and asked his 'grandfather' if he could keep it as a pet. 'Ari' took the opportunity to teach his little 'grandson' a major lesson in the realities of our responsibility to the living world. He carefully and patiently explained to the boy that the creature needed to be free as it was born in the wild and would probably die soon if kept in captivity. He did have the wisdom to leave the final decision to the boy and was pleased when Taro' agreed that it would be right and proper for the bird to be free. He guided the boy outdoors as Taro' had the bird in his little hands, holding it firmly but gently he said goodbye with a tear in his eye and then threw the bird into the air and watched it fly away. A little sad he looked up at his 'grandfather' who told him that it was possible that the bird might visit him. For months afterward, whenever he was visiting, the boy would ask if the bird had returned until eventually he forgot about asking.
Taro's grandfather Takeshima soon noticed the religious observances of his grandson became more frequent and more sincere. This pleased him enormously and happily he listened to the young child's prayers. He reflected with gratitude the innocence and purity of the prayers of the young not yet tainted with ambition and greed as was regrettably the case with the majority of the adults in the world. He took the opportunity to explain to his grandson the responsibility that he must carry into future generations to venerate and worship their ancestors and also the guardian of the family Hachiman Dai Bosatsu (The Great Bodhisattva Hachiman). He also took the opportunity to explain to the boy about the great destiny he believed was in Japan's future and how Taro', one day, must play his part.
In the New Year celebrations of 2021 Taro's mother made her last trip north. After this she stopped disappearing off to Hokkaido as her foster relatives had felt the need to move to Osaka when it became an intolerable situation to remain in what had then become a self-governing republic. The JIS backed Hokkaido Republic coincided with the JIS governments decision to send the elves and dwarves to Hokkaido for 'rest'. Then came the 'goblinization' epidemic as orcs and trolls appeared. The medical experts claimed it was another strain of the UGE genetic disease and efforts were made to isolate these 'diseased' sufferers for their own 'protection'. A few of Taro's teachers goblinized and also a few of the parents and older siblings of his classmates. One teacher, Daisuke Saito the geography teacher, goblinized into an orc and the parents of many of the children he taught demanded his dismissal. Everyone who had changed or who had close relatives that changed were immediately dismissed or excluded from the school. Within the week Daisuke Saito was killed when a mob attacked his home, they dragged him out into the street screaming 'ipponsatsutashou!' (it is justifiable to kill one (harmful) person to save the lives of many). They then proceeded to club him to death and burn his body. Atrocities of this type were happening all over the JIS and the authorities struggled to keep any semblance of order.
Then the news broke of the sudden death of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Takehito, rumours started to circulate that he too had goblinized and the shock rocked the country. To many Japanese the Emperor was the Son of Heaven and the gods direct representative on earth - for this to happen in the Imperial family was too much to take. The authorities decided on an open-casket funeral so that the rumours could be quashed. Who can say if the body put on public display was the 'real' body of Takehito but no-one was impolite enough to suggest such a thing could happen and everyone was relieved that the Imperial family remained 'untainted'.
With the chaos of the goblinization epidemic and the sudden demise of the Emperor a civil war exploded in the Hokkaido Republic. Factions of the Ainu Council and disenchanted anti-imperialist Japanese groups joined forces an began a guerilla war against the Hokkaido Republican forces which were backed by the JIS - thus the Donan War began. The situation looked very grim as six divisions of Japanese Imperial Marines had been dispatched only a few months earlier to the Philippine Islands to aid in the control of the goblinization riots that were threatening many corporate business interests. At this time Imperial troops were spread across the globe and Japan teetered on the verge of anarchy.
The sixteen year old son, Prince Kenichi, of the late Emperor became the new Emperor beginning the Reimu Era. Within a year things began to come under some order although public opinion demanded that the orcs and trolls have to commit suicide because of the shame they have brought to their families. Many of the 'new' metahumans already had taken their own lives, but how many did it voluntarily will never be known. The JIS government requested that the Hokkaido Republic give refuge to the metahumans but they were unable to come to any agreement about the 'remuneration' and difficult 'situation'. But the Donan War ground to a standstill and the three parties involved; the rebels, the Hokkaido Republic and the JIS come to an understanding and after much negotiation a treaty was made that resulted in the Hokkaido Republic becoming a totally independent nation called the Ainu-Moshiri Republic.
The JIS disbanded the legitimate government in the Philippines and declared the islands to be a new prefecture of the JIS. The troops set there had soon brought the situation under control and they forced the metahumans to leave and so they were herded onto an island with an active volcano which was given the local name of "Yomi"; the path to the underworld [hell].
Tatsuo Takeshima was rigidly proud of his samurai heritage and knew from the beginning that his son would follow him into the military and then, on retirement, join him in an executive position in the recently formed multinational Fuchi Industrial Electronics. Tatsuo had worked for the Yamana Electronics corporation since he had retired from the, now defunct, Japanese Self-Defence Forces many years earlier. He had served with honour and retired with the rank of Colonel. He had played a minor part in the merger that brought about the creation of the Fuchi Megacorporation when the Yamana and Nakatomi corporations merged for mutual protection and benefit. During this time Tatsuo Takeshima was one of the negotiation team and thus proving his loyalty and usefulness to the company he had assured a perpetual position within the executive staff for himself and his progeny. In 2012 the JIS government had granted extraterritoriality to all of the corporations in the Japanese mainland and so the power and prestige of the top corporations gave them the autonomy of small states. Furthermore this power and influence would allow the top executives to be able to mould Japanese policy and help drive Japan to a glorious future, the future she was always destined to follow. Was it not Nostradamus that predicted that by the year 2012 the Asians would rule the world? Tatsuo had hopes that his grandson would follow the family tradition and after a career in the Japanese Imperial Army he would also join Fuchi; however the more frequently he spent time with Taro' the more he came to realize that he was slightly different. He could never really put his finger on it but there was something about the boy that made him ..... well, 'different'. Tatsuo was very relieved to see that the 'difference' he felt in his grandson had nothing to do with the events of 2021, although the boy was still young but he dismissed such thoughts as not worthy as he knew that his ancestors would not allow such a monumental calamity befall the family.
At school Taro' was very bored and so he rarely took notice of any of his teachers, or so it seemed to them; yet he never had any problems when coming to passing his exams. In most cases he just scraped by but he did get the grades he needed. More troubling was that he had very few friends and his social skills were extremely lacking because he was immensely shy and had an enormous inferiority complex. Young Taro' had reasoned that there must be something wrong with him if his own mother would run away and abandon him. The boy adored his father and when his father did come home on leave Taro' would almost burst with pride when his father came to pick him up from school and carry him on his shoulders; at times like these he felt literally on 'top of the world'. All of his teachers and school friends as well as there parents would obsequiously bow and flutter around Taro's father who looked very handsome in his uniform; especially with all of his medal ribbons showing that he was a military hero.
Taro's father, Rentaro, had been recruited early on in his career to the Imperial Special Naval Landing Forces which were the naval division of the Japanese Imperial Marines. He had been involved in the anti-terrorist and anti-communist wars all over Asia especially in Siberia during the collapse of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and with the Japanese triggered invasion of North Korea by South Korea and in South East Asia where Japanese forces filled the gap left by the U.S. forces when they performed massive phase-outs of military bases in Asia; especially in Okinawa and the Japanese mainland. Rentaro Takeshima had been decorated no less than five times during these campaigns which took him as far a field as the Balkan States and even once to Africa. Especially after the 2006 declaration by the Japanese government of the creation of the new Japanese Imperial State (Nihon Teikoku), JIS, and the deploying of the first of a fleet of solar-powered collection satellites to beam microwave energy to receptors on the Earth's surface. The influence of Japan grew as she came out of recession, with this relatively cheap method of distributing power to isolated regions; Japan began to make strong inroads into what was once referred to as the so-called Third World. Protected and enforced by her Imperial military forces this was a new growth period for Japan and with his recent promotion to Commander; Rentaro Takeshima felt the future was bright. Rentaro admired the new Emperor, Takehito, and he agreed wholeheartedly with every fiber of his being the new course Japan was taking to become the superpower of the Sixth World, supported of course by her megacorporations.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Taro's grandfather, Tatsuo Takeshima, decided to step in to "save the boy" and so he ordered his son to resign his commission in the Imperial Navy and immediately take up a post at Fuchi Industrial Electronics. Rentaro was a dutiful and obedient son and he always held the Code of Bushido to be the utmost discipline in his life and so filial piety demanded that he obeyed his father, but he resented having to leave the military - very much. It was December 2021, the end of the year of chaos, and resentment at his forced resignation grew and grew and this resentment was soon turned upon his six year old son Taro' and he became aggressively critical and even sometimes physically abusive to the boy. Taro's mother turned a blind eye as she had her husband home as she wanted; furthermore she was secretly jealous of the boy because of the love his father once had for him.
Tatsuo and Rentaro were shocked by the events around April 30th 2021 and how it had affected the entire country, many well respected people and many others, approximately 10% of the population suddenly and spontaneously metamorphosized into bizarre humanoid shapes. Many people turned into creatures that were identified as Oni, the viscious and evil Japanese ork from legend, and other variations occurred which were called trolls. As the country was ravaged with riots, mob violence broke out as in some cases mass murder of these 'goblinized' people occurred. Corps security forces were assigned to executive protection duties during this time as the authorities had to send in locally recruited militia to isolate those affected with this 'new' strain of UGE. Many of these orks and trolls could not live with the shame of what had become of them and of their families reaction to them and they committed seppuku - ritual suicide. After this matters got worse as children were being born as orks or trolls and some of these infants were being killed off by family members, even within hours of their birth. Panic spread throughout the empire and scientists and physicians quickly sought an answer. Research showed that those of the population that approached puberty had a chance of mutating into the 'oni'. There was no family in the whole JIS who did not worry and keep a close watch on their off-spring for signs of mutation.
Taro's 'grandfather' Bando had been killed in the mob violence because he tried to protect a neighbour who had goblinized by allowing him to hide in his house. The mob found out where the 'oni' was located and they became the beasts by burning down the house with him in it, and unfortunately Bando-san was overcome by the fire trying to save his guest. A compassionate man to the last he died trying to save a life, Taro' held inside him the pain of the loss of his 'grandfather' and he apportioned the blame to the oni.
Soon Taro's mother had another son to care for, born on the 28th June 2023, and she totally excluded Taro' from her life from that moment on. The most insidious consequence of this unnatural act was to drive a wedge between the brothers and cause Taro' to almost hate his little brother. His mother performed her duty as a mother - to see to it that he was fed, washed and dressed for school; etc. but it never developed to anything other than that. Taro's grandfather noted this and was worried what effect it would have on the boy's personality. The physical abuse from his father continued and indeed became more frequent and more severe. Taro' found he would be punished for the slightest infraction of his father's impossibly strict rules. His father ran his home like that of a military unit and expected absolute and complete obedience - or else.
Taro' became more withdrawn as bullying at school began to be a major problem to add to his unhappy home life; this was partly due to his lack of self-esteem and also because of his families prominence. He felt that there must be something extremely wrong with him for his family to treat him so and then for his school chums to do the same; he convinced himself that he must be bad, that it was his fault that all this happened to him. Self resentment came to grow within him and he felt very isolated and finally he responded in the only way he felt he could cope - he ran away at the age of nine years old. Being the grandson of one of the Fuchi top executives brought the assistance of the internal security forces of the megacorporation to the efforts of the police to find the boy. This period of frequent running away lasted for over two years. The last time he was discovered within a few hours by Fuchi security forces and was brought to his grandfather, rather than his father, where he confided to his grandfather all that was bothering him at that time. Tatsuo Takeshima had suspected that something was amiss in his son's home with his daughter-in-law regularly in and out of mental institutions, where she had been diagnosed as having schizophrenia, and his son becoming more and more distant from him.
Tatsuo Takeshima took time to decide how to proceed in a way that would benefit the boy and his family and the company he owed allegiance to. The Takeshima were descendants of the old Takeda Clan, which was once the most formidable samurai clan in all of medieval Japan. Feared by all; even the great Nobunaga Oda and Ieyasu Tokugawa and they held a lineage that included royalty and went back for a thousand years. They never forgot their samurai heritage and in fact it was celebrated every year at all of the appropriate festivals and some people still deferred to Tatsuo as Takeshima Sama (Lord Takeshima). He remembered that it was their great ability in the family martial arts that made them so strong and so feared and so Tatsuo decided to send Taro' away to the traditional mountain district of Kai - now the Yamanashi prefecture just west of Tokyo. With feudalism quickly being restored to Japan it seemed appropriate to plan for the future and Taro' was prominent in the future plans of Tatsuo Takeshima. With the disasters being reported daily from Europe and America it seemed times were changing.
By the time he was sent to the bujutsu schools of the Takeda Aikibujutsu Renmei, Taro' Yoshitsune Takeshima was a deliberately reserved and quiet boy who had endured abuse from all around him. This caused an anger to build in him that gave him his character flaws. These flaws did not fully surface until an incident that occurred when he was fourteen years old. But before that he settled in to the routine of strict discipline - which he was used to (the absence of abuse was a most welcome change), and the rigorous physical and mental education he was subjected to. To the delight of Taro's grandfather the boy seemed to blossom like a plant that had been suddenly given the food, water and light it needed. His grandfather still recognized a dark side to Taro's character but that was not in control; yet! In the interim Taro's parents had two more children, both daughters, and Taro' was devoted to them. In fact he put all of his emotions into the love he had for his sisters and it developed into a dangerous obsession with looking after them and ensure that they were not bullied as he was.
During his fourteenth year, that is 2029, the changes happened. A few of the students in the dojo complex were extremely jealous of Taro's background (the main dojo shrine had been in his family for more than 1200 years) and even more jealous of his skill. He was unmatched with the katana and his skill in unarmed techniques made his grandfather boast that he could take on and defeat any grown man. One day a 17 year old of the Nagaonna clan whose father worked for Fuchi as a minor executive decided to test how good this young upstart really was. Using bullying tactics he and his companions backed Taro' into a corner with Taro' armed with only a bokken (wooden practice sword) and he attacked Taro' with an unsharpened katana. He injured Taro' quite considerably but something happened to Taro' - as if by karmic design; his family motto had always been "Strength comes from the wound" [possible geas - a desired ability only kicks in when he is injured]; and as Taro' started to fall under the ferocity of the attack of the older and larger boy, inside something became awakened! He felt his ki open a channel to a force that he had no idea existed and he seemed to instinctively tap into that force which increased his strength and stamina to truly epic proportions. He made an almost impossible forward breakfall roll; learned in his Aikido (modern version of the more ancient Aikijujutsu) classes; and spun around as he rose from the floor and with a kiai that deafened all who heard it he struck with a perfectly executed menuchi - a strike to the head of his assailant. The head exploded as if hit by a high velocity bullet and all of his friends were sprayed with gore.
Chaos ensued as students literally fled from the scene of carnage and instructors quickly brought an end to the chaos as they shouted orders to the students and ascertained what had happened. When all the facts were in the dojo's (training halls) senior sensei did not know what to do. They decided to ask to speak to Taro's grandfather. Very quickly Tatsuo Takeshima took charge of the whole situation and used his influence to ensure nothing came of the incident, it could not have happened at a more inopportune moment as 2029 had its own particular challenges globally. He felt that the incident with the death of the boy was a difficult situation which had to be resolved according to tradition - the major problem was the dead boy's family. Vendetta was an Italian medieval custom which reached perfection, as with all other things, in Japan and Tatsuo was concerned for the welfare of his grandson. He assumed his grandson was safe whilst he was still young - but when he was an official adult…… Another thing troubled Tatsuo and that was Taro's lack of remorse - true the boy had the right to defend himself but to kill with such ferocity and it not affect the boy at all was troublesome and worrying. When he finally had the opportunity to ask his grandson about the incident and in particular the feelings that Taro' experienced during the incident he responded in a most alarming way - a gleam of such ferocity came into his eye as he turned his passionless gaze to his grandfather and confessed that he felt "Elated by the power". He was sent on a short vacation to his parents until the clamor had time to pass and calm down. It was then that his unnatural protectiveness of his sisters came to the knowledge of the rest of the family. A misunderstanding arose as to his motives for sleeping in his sisters room and he was branded as a pedophile by his mentally ill mother. His father cast him out of the house and so Taro' bereft of any affection from any quarter was left with yet another reason to feel burning shame for his existence. Taro's grandfather suggested he returned immediately to the mountain martial arts school and on vacations he would go and stay with his grandfather. He quickly engulfed himself within his studies as the shame grew more and more making him increase his shyness. Tatsuo Takeshima was extremely busy at work during this time as his company joined in the worlds recovery from the attack on February 8th of the Crash Virus that had caused such chaos and brought the world economy and many industrialized nations to the brink of destruction.
Needless to say; as things returned to normal; nobody decided to pick on Taro' again. In fact the boy became even more isolated because the other students feared him, but he didn't seem to care as he plunged into both his martial and his academic studies. It was during this time that Taro' developed his lifelong love for Genealogy and Japanese medieval history. He also began reading the works of the Zen masters of the past, particularly the ones who were bugeisha (martial artists). He studied the ancient religion of his ancestors and he prayed to the Great Bodhisattva Hachiman - the God of War and Warriors. Zen Buddhism was his philosophy but Shinto was his religion. Many times during mokuso (meditation) he felt Hachiman close by guiding him and keeping him focused and centered. Hachiman helped him face himself and see his flaws - unnatural love coupled with sadistic zeal. This focus was manifest in his training and so his senior sensei introduced him into the inner secrets of the ancient style of Aikibujutsu as he continued his study of Aikido. He smiled when he heard his sensei describe the difference between training in the modern and the ancient versions of the art. In Aikido training your sparring partner got up off the mat smiling, in Aikibujutsu your partner got up screaming in agony - if he got up at all!
Taro' learned the neck-breaking techniques and the arm and ligament tearing techniques and he was not a favorite fighting partner among the other students as they risked injury when training with him. He was introduced into the full bujutsu of the koryu (old school) which included weapons - katana; jo (quarterstaff) and bo (long staff); it even included such ancient weapons as war fans and his kenjutsu (sword arts) training included iaido - the ability to draw the katana at frightening speed and strike a killing blow with the draw. He was also taught the healing and recovery arts associated with a thorough understanding of anatomical studies, hand in hand he learned shiatsu and kyusho jutsu - one taught how to heal and the other how to harm. Taro' practiced at every occasion, his grandfather came out of the bathroom one day to find Taro' in night wear charging down imaginary opponents as he performed some kata. This dedication impressed Tatsuo but he was worried about the reports that Taro' did not mix well and didn't seem interested in a social life. Taro' himself did not care for a "social life" and did not recognize the difficulties he would have in years to come to be able to communicate with people. By the time he was eighteen (2033) Taro' was a formidable warrior and his grandfather felt that he was ripe for entry into the Imperial Army Officer's Academy in Kobe. His grandfather was a retired Japanese Army (Self-Defence Forces) Colonel and all previous ancestors had been in the army, his father broke with tradition by going into the navy - to the great displeasure of Taro's grandfather.
Taro' surprised his grandfather when he insisted on enrolling in the Imperial Marines Officer College at Yokose instead but Tatsuo had become accustomed to these 'little' surprises from his grandson. Taro' had left school with no academic qualifications whatsoever as he had committed himself to his martial arts training to the exclusion of all else. Officer College was quite difficult for him academically until he realized he needed to catch-up. This was a time when Taro's karma was good - Amida Buddha smiled down on him and Hachiman continued to keep him focused and centered and helped him reach maturity. With a display of his usual fanatical determination to perform an act, he started night school and took Literature (because of his love for Japanese medieval history); Physics; Mathematics and Chemistry. Taro' was surprised about the growing interest he had in mathematics and science and he remembered the time at school when he was around twelve or thirteen and one of his academic teachers was suddenly taken ill and rushed to hospital leaving the scheduled class with no teacher. Another teacher had to temporary leave his class to organize Taro's class. He commanded the children to assemble in the academic library and to select a book to read to occupy the time. The teacher informed the class that to ensure they had actually done some reading he would arrive just before the end of the class to go around each student and ask them about the book they had chosen. Taro' wandered around the library not knowing, or caring, what book to take. Another student who was on moderately friendly terms with Taro' tried to persuade him to choose a book on dinosaurs which was that particular students favorite hobby. Taro' screwed his nose up at the idea as he quickly perused a couple of paleontology books. He then noticed that beside these books were books on astronomy - in particular a book with a large picture of a beautiful looking planet on the front cover. He selected that book and went to sit down. He avidly read about the planet Jupiter and its "Great Red Spot" as well as its bands and its moons and its rings and he was hooked for quite a while on astronomy.
This memory came to him now and stayed; so he decided to join the College astronomy group - and that was where he met her. He had previously had crushes on girls at school but they never developed into anything as he was firstly too busy with his martial studies and secondly he was still immensely shy and felt shame for past feelings. He couldn't talk too well to male friends - not that he had many; but it was impossible when it came to girls. Each time he had attempted to establish a relationship with a girl he was attracted to something invariably went wrong. The last time this happened was by far the worst and 'put him off' the idea of romance altogether. A girl from out of town had arrived for a short period and was enrolled temporarily at the same classes as Taro' in the academic department of the complex and he was smitten with her almost immediately. He had a rival as another boy was taking her out to watch the latest movies at the trivideo multiplex cinemas. Taro' had a very small allowance from his father and so he could not afford to romance her in the same way as the other boy. One day an opportunity to impress her arose when a tutor entered the class and asked for volunteers to join the school swimming gala team that would compete against other academic institutions nearby. The girl *****HERE*****
She was totally different - he had known her somewhere before and he remembered that they had been in love. Mariko seemed to recognize the same in Taro'; he was pleasantly surprised at the ease in which he could speak to her. He told her things that he told no one else and she immediately understood. Within a couple of months they had agreed to marry as soon as they graduated from college. Taro' invited her to meet with his grandfather and the rest of his family; including a rather awkward meeting with his parents. She took him to meet her family and they were overwhelmed to learn of Taro's heritage and they felt grateful that karma had found a match for their misfit daughter who was always on about the military and wanting to go to the Imperial Marines Officer College. Mariko and Taro' fit together like a well engineered jigsaw puzzle and they seemed to perfectly compliment one another - it was obvious to all who saw them that they were soul-mates and had probably been so for many incarnations.
Taro' had continued at the martial academy during his years at college - taking every opportunity to learn from the great sensei there. He studied and discussed the philosophy of the warrior and gained an intimate knowledge of the Bushido code which stipulated how a warrior was to conduct himself in any and all situations. In 2035, just before his 20th birthday Taro' was given his menkyo kaiden, a licence recognizing his full integration and initiation into the aikibujutsu arts, and was awarded the rank of okuden. This would allow him to be able to pass on the knowledge to 'suitable' deshi and also gave him permission to develop the techniques further - after all, aikibujutsu had not survived for over 1200 years because it remained rigid and stagnant.
Taro had been a shihandai, assistant instructor, since he was 16 years old and had been a strong, strict and rigorous sensei as he used the usual 120% effort that characterized everything he did - everything he regarded as important. He was not a 'popular' teacher but his classes were always full and a waiting list had a number of students to whom Taro' gave lessons outside of the normal training times as he took the vow of a sensei to be sacrosanct. Yet a pleasing aspect came into his personality that was appreciated by all of his instructors and his grandfather - Taro' became very humble and self-deprecating never allowing anyone to fawn false praise or indeed any praise upon him. It was and is traditional for Japanese father's or grandfather's to downplay the achievements of their offspring but in this case Taro' himself became the same. An arrogant strut often showed how some of the trained samurai walked around at the martial complex and in the civilian streets but Taro' found this display of machismo to be extremely distasteful and he read a western book that contained the maxim 'manners maketh the man' which he took on-board and agreed with wholeheartedly.
Taro' had certainly developed into a true anachronism in the sense of him becoming a complete reflection of the classical warriors of the past. At least once per month he would climb up further into the mountains and perform misogi shuho (purification in the mountain stream). He returned from these ceremonies refreshed as if he was reborn and he realized that he was extremely fortunate to have been born Japanese and into a warrior family. Every year since he had become 'awakened' his grandfather and himself had traveled to some of the temples associated with his family. In fact, unknown to Taro', Tatsuo Takeshima was fulfilling a vow he had made to Amida Buddha that if the boy came through puberty without displaying any signs of UGE he would make an annual pilgrimage to the temple sites to pay homage to the Buddha and to his family ancestors.
Taro' graduated from the Imperial Marines Officer Training College on the 23rd of June 2036 with the rank of Lieutenant and was followed by Mariko the following October; a week after his 21st birthday. Taro's father and invited Fuchi executives were all present at his graduation and during the celebration dinner held afterwards Tatsuo Takeshima presented Taro' with a family heirloom; a daisho set named 'Kogarasu' and 'Higekiri'. The katana 'Kogarasu', which translates in English to 'Whispering Chastisement' was an exquisite example of the sword making art as it was inlaid with gold menuki dragons with a dragon tsuba wrapped around the family mons (emblem). The blade was superb and as keen as the day it was made by the famous swordmaster Muramasa back in 1574, modern technology had added a monofilament running the full length of the extremely sharp blade adding even more to its lethal cutting edge. 'Higekiri', which translates in English to 'Illuminata - The Enlightener' was the matching wakazashi to complete the symbol of the samurai. Taro's reaction was overwhelming as tears of gratitude struggled to be controlled so as not to embarrass himself or his family on such a special occasion. His grandfather was delighted with the boy's reaction, if not a little embarrassed by his uncharacteristic open display of emotion. Taro' resolved to never let them anything happen to them and to always remember to use them with honor. Taro' reflected on the fact that he now had the weapons to fulfill the code of Katsujinken - Katsujinken where the sword is not admired for it's ability to bring death, but because of its ability to give life. The sword that strikes down those who do evil in turn gives life to those upon whom evil would prey.
Mariko's father had died when she was only twelve years of age and so her mother was approached by Taro' to formally ask for her hand in marriage. Mariko's mother asked them to get first get engaged and then wait until a further year had passed to set their careers in firmer ground before they married. With filial piety Taro' reluctantly accepted and so Taro' and Mariko were engaged on Taro's 21st birthday and they planned to marry on Taro's 22nd birthday in 2037.
Although Taro' was really an anachronism (he was a man out of his time and belonged in medieval Japan) and was an extremely honorable and dutiful person, his love of Mariko was very strong - as usual he was fanatical about her - as he was about everything that mattered to him (he says "120% or don't bother"). This brought about the joint decision that as they were engaged after-all they could regard themselves as married and so they began to live together in joint quarters. Their love matured and blossomed as they journeyed into the more intimate arenas of relationships and Taro' grew in stature as a man and his former feelings of shame were expunged by the tender handling of his lover. He realized that a man needs a loving partner and vice-versa to help them become a whole human being.
Rather prematurely Mariko found herself pregnant the following March and so; with the permission of Mariko's family; they married on the 8th of May 2037 and in attendance Taro's grandfather thought and hoped that Mariko would give a missing part to Taro's life. He hoped she would teach Taro' compassion and forgiveness and tolerance. Taro' intended to become a good husband and to take care of his pregnant wife with all the devotion and duty he could muster. They planned to move into married quarters on the base they had been assigned to. None of these plans reached fruition. At the end of June 2037 Taro's unit was called into active service to join the troops to be sent into the California Free State.
In 2036 the American President of UCAS ejected California and this triggered the assaults on California by the Tir Tairngire forces from the north and the Aztlan forces from the south. The governor, a rather stupid man, was hoping to shame UCAS and/or CAS into assisting California when he made the request for help to Japan. This request directed toward Japan probably reflected the fact that the Japanese government was the first to recognize the newly declared California Free State (CFS) as a sovereign nation. In the following year of 2037, Taro's unit was one of the first butai units of the Imperial Marine 1st Light Division "The Tigers of the Rising Sun" to arrive by air and they quickly and very smoothly took over the Alameda Naval Air Station. The 2nd Division was responsible for the defense of San Francisco and this mobilization of Imperial Marines was to "protect Japanese interests".
Taro's reputation for dedication to duty and his almost archaic firmness to the Bushido Code of Honor grew to be legendary. Bushido means " The Way of the Warrior" and contains seven pillars or virtues which are: -
[1] Chugi (Loyalty) - Faithfulness; Allegiance; Constancy; Fidelity; Devotion; Reliability; Dependability and Steadfastness.
[2] Gi (Rectitude) - Righteousness; Morality; Goodness; Correctness; Decency and Integrity.
[3] Jin (Benevolence) - Kindness; Mercy; Compassion; Generosity; Munificence and Goodwill.
[4] Makoto (Honesty) - Sincerity; Truthfulness; Integrity; Frankness; Candor; Openness and Lack of guile.
[5] Meiyo (Honor) - Reputation; Principle; Nobility and Character.
[6] Rei (Respect) - Esteem; Reverence.
[7] Yu (Valor) - Courage; Bravery; Boldness and Gallantry.
Once it could have been said that Taro' lacked kindness, mercy and compassion - that his abusive childhood had driven those virtues out of him. But if that was once true it no longer was so, Mariko had put back the missing pieces of his life which rounded him into the perfect warrior - not in the sense of a mindless killing machine but in the ancient concept of the defender and protector of society and civilization.
Taro' earned the rank of Captain of Imperial Marines and his sense of what was right crossed over to his men and they respected him and were devoted to him; and he to them. The loyalty his men held for Captain Taro' was remarked upon by the senior officers and it was decided that Taro' and his men could be trusted with delicate missions that required absolute obedience and loyalty. Taro's unit was sent to more hazardous and sensitive areas where; unknown to Taro'; the difference between government interests and corporation interests disappeared in the red tape. Taro' did not concern himself with politics and he dedicated himself to becoming the best soldier and husband he could possibly be; hoping that being good at one made him good at the other. Due to the nature of corporate and government ties it was possible for Tatsuo Takeshima to keep tabs on his grandson and he thanked the Buddha for his granddaughter-in-law that had come to save Taro' from his darker side. Taro' kept in contact with Mariko and when he received leave; after a difficult mission; he would spend the time with his wife.
On November the 5th 2037 Keiko Takeshima was born at 3 o'clock in the morning. Unfortunately Taro' was on duty in the CFS campaign and so he missed being at the delivery but he soon caught up with the trivideo of the birth of his beautiful baby daughter on the playback unit he had purchased for trivideo correspondence with his wife; and he played the trivideo disk of the birth over and over again always with a sense of awe and wonder at the incredible event recorded. Taro' thought his heart would burst when he saw his wife and new baby daughter together for the first time.
Mariko worked on the base in the clerical building where she was in command of the administration wing of the Marine Company Headquarters, with the rank of Captain, and Taro' traveled backwards and forwards as his duties permitted. Whilst on duty in the field Taro' learned to face and recognize his darker side and thereby exercise a degree of control upon it. He realized that in its darkest form he was capable of some really sadistic acts of violence which were perpetrated by a cold ruthlessness that scared even him. He never gave this dark side any control; he used some of it to perform his duties but he always remained in control. Each first night on leave, Mariko would listen to his exploits as he exorcised the memories of death and mayhem from his mind and she loved him all the more for his absolute trust in her. When he was engulfed in grief for the loss of his men she would cradle him in her arms and bring him peace so that he could sleep. The next day he was again in total control and cleansed ready for the next mission. Mariko was his wife; lover; confidant; confessor all rolled into one.
On one mission he was given the difficult job of ensuring that the metahumans in San Francisco were 'encouraged' to leave. Taro' was not too happy at this assignment but as usual he did his duty and performed it extremely well, but he and his men were as humane as possible in the circumstances and no atrocities were performed by his squad. However, a more direct action was needed when a group of dwarves fleeing the Japanese marines started a colony in the hills surrounding Diablo Bay, called Halferville. Taro's squad was ordered on a recon mission to locate this psuedo-colony and to relay back its location. Taro' assumed that this intel would be used to launch an air strike against the colony - or worse. It was a wide area to cover with a lot of brush and thick tree cover so Taro' ordered the squad to split into six groups of twos and enable them to cover the ground faster. Taro' himself was with, as always, sergeant Takejima - a man Taro' knew he could trust to, and beyond, the point of death. Takejima and Taro' had been through enough together to know each other's hearts and an absolute trust was present. Even more so, Takejima had taken a 'keppan' (blood-oath) to serve Taro' as a retainer in the old way the samurai used to swear loyalty to their daimyo.
As the two men were scanning through the brush they suddenly came upon a dwarve apparently alone, perhaps a scout or a guard. It was Taro's haragi that had warned him of the surprise attack and so he parried the blow and performed an iriminage on the assailant. Then Taro' indicated to Takejima that he should leave the dwarve for Taro' to deal with. The dwarve seemed to be armed only with an axe like weapon and so Taro' placed his HK227 SMG on the floor near Takejima and drew Kogarasu. Takejima knew the outcome of such a contest as he knew the skill Taro' possessed with the katana, after all Taro' was a kenjutsu sensei (teacher) and had taken Takejima as his uchi-deshi for more than six months now. Taro' was the first to be alerted to the 'awakened' status of the dwarve, he recognized a fellow physical adept and the dwarve calling on his ki powers launched an assault on Taro' the ferocity of which was hard to believe as being possible. Taro' was immediately put on the defensive as the dwarve incessantly attacked the samurai marine. At one point Takejima was so alarmed at this turn of events that he considered interfering by simply shooting the dwarve dead, but he knew that Taro' would feel dishonored by such an interference. But then Takejima began to relax a little as he saw Taro' starting to turn events around to his favor. In reality the dwarve never had a chance from the beginning as Taro's skill with the blade was too great but Taro' realized that something beyond the physical was driving this dwarve and he defensively absorbed the blows from the ferocious attack until he could judge the style of fighting and recognize its flaws.
He would be the first to admit that he was taken by surprise, but then the usual calming flow of ki began to take over and his strength and stamina grew to overwhelm the dwarven fighter. With an impossibly fast sweep of the katana he cleanly cut off the dwarve's hand that was holding onto the axe and both sailed off into the bushes. He then used the Tsuka gashira (butt of his katana) to strike a blow on the temple of the dwarve - just enough to knock him down and daze him. He decided to interrogate the dwarve to discover the location of his colony and as he kneeled over the confused and dazed body of the dwarve Taro's haragi kicked in very strongly as its empathic side let him know that the dwarve was extremely concerned for someone nearby and his proximity sense warned him that the someone nearby was VERY close and was in a lot of pain. Keeping the dwarve pinned down he indicated to Takejima to discover who was hiding in the bushes. Takejima carefully approached the denser part of the brush and cleared it away so that Taro' could also see what he was looking down at.
Beneath their gaze was a dwarven woman in the throes of childbirth as Takejima looked back at Taro' awaiting his orders the dwarve struggled to break free from his restraint. Taro' looked deep into his eyes and saw a maelstrom of emotions in crisis within the dwarve - there was anger and fear, great anguish and despair as well as something else. The eyes of the dwarve were pleading with Taro'. Immediately vivid images emerged from his memory of the trivideo of his daughter's birth and the overwhelming emotions that they had stirred within him and Taro' realized that much of the ferocity of the dwarve's attack was due to the fact that he was defending his family. Taro' understood and a sense of shame came over him and a realization that he would have done exactly the same thing as the dwarve if their roles had been reversed - but of course he wouldn't have lost the combat.
Taro' immediately released the pressure point attacks with which he was controlling the dwarve and stood up warning the dwarve to be cautious if he wanted to live. With a slight movement of his head Taro' indicated to Takejima that he should step back from the dwarven woman showing the male dwarve that she was in no immediate danger. The dwarve immediately ran over to his mate and held her in his arms looking up pleadingly at Taro'. As Taro' watched as the blood was seeping from the wound where once the dwarve had a hand and looking at the pleading eyes all Taro' could see was the faces of his wife and little daughter as they looked up at the trivideo camera beaming with joy and life. Taro' ordered Takejima to move to his rear and he turned to the dwarve and speaking in broken, heavily accented English told him not to worry, he would report the area was empty of all signs of the colony, he bowed to the dwarve in recognition of his courage. Taro' instinctively knew that Takejima would never speak of it unless Taro' brought up the subject first. Taro' was convinced he had done the just and merciful thing; and so he believed that he had acted within the bounds of Bushido using Jin. The only time he ever spoke of it again was to his wife during his next leave and after relating the full tale of events his wife, Mariko, told him that she was proud of what he had done. Thus Taro' came to realize that the metahumans were just trying to survive and live with a modicum of dignity. It was on reflection of this that Taro' realized that he was not much of a racist unlike the majority of his countrymen and he chose from that moment on to judge a being on their actions and choices and not on their origins. He was till proud of his purity and still agreed with the Yamato
Mariko now decided that it was time she resigned her commission from the Marines and set up a home away from the military base so that she could dedicate her time to raising her daughter. Taro' agreed and contacted his grandfather to ask for his assistance and advice. To the couples delight Taro's grandfather insisted that she made a home in the family home at Yokohama as he was now a widower and would enjoy the company. Mariko was given the running of the house and she started to perform the task of corporate hostess for the old man. This allowed him the opportunity to groom her for her future role within the Fuchi corporation when her husband, Taro', would eventually leave the military and begin to work for the megacorporation.
Taro' returned to duty in San Francisco and his squad were sent on special missions against the Tir Tairngire forces in the north and the Aztlan forces in the south. On one of these missions he was seriously injured and required some minor surgical reconstruction - nothing serious. It left him with a scar down his left cheek as well as on his torso and a digestive condition (colitis) that needs permanent medication to control. But this did not detract from the ferocity with which he threw himself into his work and family.
Then one weekend in the Spring of 2038 Taro's whole world was to collapse and reform in chaos; blood and misery. Occasionally in the battles between the mega corporations there were periods of bloodshed. This was usually carried out by the Yakuza group that was attached to any megacorporation (unofficially of course). Normally the top executives of a corporation were protected by the corporations own security division (sometimes containing more Yakuza but usually corporate security samurai). What went wrong did not surface until intensive investigations were finished and even then PROOF was a hard to come by commodity.
The attack on the Yokohama estates of the Takeshima family was undertaken under contract by an unknown yakuza clan working for an unknown rival corporation. They were supposed to kidnap Tatsuo Takeshima and hold him incommunicado until some kind of vital transaction was finished. Takeshima samurai guards and the family itself had other ideas. It turned into a blood bath and very little is known as to what actual events took place; but, when it was all over 17 samurai guards were killed and with an unusual amateurish use of explosive mines - a complete wing of the main residential section was demolished. Tatsuo Takeshima - the intended target for abduction; was wounded but safe. His samurai had given their lives to protect him. But in the rubble were found the crumpled and mangled bodies of Mariko and baby Keiko Takeshima. No intruder Yakuza were discovered as they took their dead with them.
Taro' was immediately given leave to return home - Tatsuo made sure of that. The full investigation discovered that certain pass codes and private entrance locations were given to the yakuza perpetrators. This m
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Katsujinken - the only way forward.
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 1
Joined: 12 Jan 2009
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Date Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:32 am
Subject: Demesthenos' Quick & Dirty Intro to Shadowrunning
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Demesthenos was born to a poverty stricken family. When he changed into an ogre, his parents were not only appaled but completely unable to feed his near infinite appetite, so he was dropped to fend for his own in the streets of Redmond.
Despite his size he had a gentle nature that often led to painful encounters with the gangers, having no knowledge of how to fight or desire to do so. He barely survived off half-rotted soy products from dumpsters and garbage cans.
He had gotten used to stray cats fleeing from his approach, and having to scare and sometimes smack stray dogs for his daily meal. When he was 16, he stumbled on a dog that was rooting through the trash so he hollered. The dog pulled its head out of the bin and calmly dropped a half a sandwich to his feet before sitting down and watching him eat half of it.
Demesthenos shared that sandwich with the dog, and every other piece of food he had found since then. He named the dog Tuna, after the first sandwich he shared. Tuna was his only friend for a year, bearing it's teeth at some of the more sensitive gangers who tried to mug Demesthenos was often effective to spare him a beating; when it was not effective the dog had no problems fleeing to let the ogre take the beating.
It was during one such encounter that Chiun Lu Feng first met Demesthenos. A trio of dwarves that had been previously frightened by the scruffy snarling Tuna, had caught the pair walking near a coffin motel. Tuna again tried to scare them away, and his effort was rewarded with buckshot. The dwarves teased menacingly as they strolled up to the ogre, "Not so tough without your mutt", "Awww look, he's crying!", and things of that nature.
Chiun Lu Feng was leaving the coffin motel, on his way to meet Mr. Johnson just before the shotgun blast went off. He watched the scene in wonder as the three dwarves pushed, punched, and kicked at the legs and groin of the blubbering ogre.
One of the dwarves said something along the lines of eating his dog, and Demesthenos snapped. His vacant eyes lit up with a firey anger, and a flick of his leg summarily sent the dwarf flying head first into the wall of the motel. He tried to stomp on another, but the dwarf wisely moved and ran.
The third dwarf was not so quick, and Demesthenos picked him up by the skull with one hand to lift him as high as he could and slam him headfirst into the sidewalk, this ended said dwarf. The dwarf who had gotten kicked, had gotten his wits about him and back to his feet to aim the shotgun at the ogre's back.
Demesthenos was in the process of stomping the already dead dwarf into a form similar to that of his shredded dog, and so was oblivious to the danger behind him. Chiun decided to intervene, and when Demesthenos spun around at the sound of the shotgun it was to discover Chiun holding it and the dwarf missing a head.
Chiun dropped the gun and introduced himself to Demesthenos, he gave him the key to his hotel room and told him to go rest. After Chiun finished his run, he returned and explained the opportunities and benefits of being a Shadowrunner.
When Demesthenos said he was interested in this life, Chiun began training him in the martial arts and fast realized his potential for controlling chi. It did not take long for Demesthenos to reach a sufficient level of skill before Chiun began to instruct him in techniques to use more than just muscle and bone, the ways of the Adept.
Demesthenos went on a handful of runs with Chiun, before his Sensei declared him ready and explained that he must return to China to settle a misunderstanding with the Triads. Chiun did not say how long he would be gone, but he did promise to return to Seattle, and that he was sure their paths would again cross.
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 2
Joined: 12 Jan 2009
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Date Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:01 pm
Subject:
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Meka Kinshou Nobuyama
December the 24th 2011 Meka's grandfather was travelling on the world famous Bullet train toward his home city of Tokyo. He was returning from a misogi ceremony held in one of the temples in the sacred city of Kyoto. Suddenly excited and shocked remarks were emanating from the passengers and some of them were pointing, through the train's window, into the sky. Everyone looked and could not believe their eyes, a great dragon flew over the train - later the dragon was identified as Ryumyo. Three days later the earthquake hit Tokyo city with the epicenter very near the Imperial Palace. And to make matters worse there were rumours that a strange disease was causing some deformed births among the population.
VITAS continued to cause further devastation on the population inside quake-damaged Tokyo and so many families suffered and came close to extinction. Those who could afford it fled the earthquake zone, including the Imperial Family and the JIS Government. Meka's grandmother was pregnant with Meka's father and trapped in the city the family remained extremely worried. When Meka's father was born the whole experience killed the mother, not least because the child was born with the dreaded birth defect disease currently baffling the scientific world. The baby's father was devastated, the dragon must have been a messenger of ill-omen; first the earthquake, then the VITAS crisis and now this. His son was stunted and small. His wife had died in childbirth. It was too much for the sanity of the man. He walked out of the hospital and went on the hunt for this dragon of ill-omen to kill it, he was never seen or heard of again.
The hospital authorities had to decide what to do with the stunted baby, children with this particular defect were termed koborokuru, oriental dwarves of myth and legend. Koborokuru were slightly shorter than the western dwarves and like then had broadness of girth, especially in the shoulders, but only averaged around 1.2 meters in height and a weight of around 54 kilos. Like elves the koborokuru had pointed ears but also had an exuberant amount of body hair with an olive brown tanned skin color. Their infants remain in the suckling period for 15 months and the infant dwarve was almost two years old until he could be passed on to someone else. Within the ruins of the city were many refugee and support centers to try to alleviate the suffering. Political wrangling coupled with corporation greed made most of the relief efforts a farce, but there was a group of orphanages. One in particular had been set up my some buddhist monks, in 2013, and they accepted the 'mutated' children being born into the world. The hospital authorities decided to send the baby to these buddhists. The monks found it challenging to acquire enough food and equipment for the orphanage, especially after the JIS posted two full divisions of the army in the Kanto Plains surrounding the city of Tokyo, effectively closing it to any trying to enter or leave, requiring that all persons acquired a pass to do so.
In 2018 the JIS governement issued a decree that all elves and dwarves were to be sent to Hokkaido in the far north for 'rest'. This was the island of Hokkaido, the traditional homeland of the Ainu, the non-Japanese and quiet evidently the JIS government regarded elves and dwarves just as alien. To be fair, it did have a positive result as it stopped the random racial violence that occurred all over the mainland. Over the next couple of years population exchanges occurred, metahumans going to Hokkaido and the 'nornal' humans leaving for the mainland.
No one was prepared for the 'goblinization' epidemic that struck in the year 2021, but the appearance of orks and trolls brought a public cry throughtout the JIS that these beings should commit suicide. The semi-autonomous government of Hokkaido was in negotiation with the JIS to decide whether to allow these new brand of metahumans to migrate north to the island. No decision was reached as an armed uprising against the government quickly turned into the Donan War! Meka's father, although a mere boy of 10-11 years old, fought in this war along with the Ainu guerillas and other metahumans. His work was mainly to do with keeping the miltech vehicles in working order and he became his units mechanic. For sure on more than one occasion he was called upon to fight for his life as enemy units attacked the camp were he was working. He became quite adept with an axe and a hammer as melee weapons when it came to hand-to-hand fighting. The rest of the time, in combat, he used a variety of SMG's - whatever he could get ammo clips for.
In 2022 the Donan War ground to a standstill as all of the protagonists suffered from stretched resources and an intransigent, determined enemy. The rebel groups, the Hokkaido Republic and the JIS were able to negotiate a peace that created the totally independent nation - the Ainu-Moshiri Republic. The Ainu rulers were openly friendly and accepting of the small metahuman groups, especially out of gratitude for their efforts in the Donan War, which subsequently ended. Then in 2024 the JIS classified all metahumans as status equal to illegal resident foreigners and withdrew any protection from them. This decided the majority of the remaining metahuman communities in the JIS to migrate to the island of Hokkaido. Meka's mother and her family moved to the korobokuru community on Hokkaido and within a year a relationship was developing between Meka's parents. On hearing about incidents in the Donan War, Meka's mother and her family regarded Meka's father as a hero and this cemented their relationship and gained the blessing of the parents to allow an engagement. Both of Meka's parents started a garage and they were the communities mechanics - although many others from the surrounding area heard of their skill and so brought their vehicles to Nobuyama and his fiance'.
The couple married in 2031 on Nobuyama's 20th birthday and the couple settled down to a modest, but comfortable, life. They were hard working and the business bloomed and in the summer of 2036 Meka's mother found herself pregnant. The child, Meka, was born on Sunday March 15th 2037, a mere eight months later - common for dwarves. Meka grew quickly, certainly not in height, but he was a healthy child and was nurtured by his parents with great care and a sense of responsibility. Among his earliest recollections, he always had a spanner in his hand and loved nothing more than helping his parents in the garage. Many would have described the Nobuyama families existence as idyllic and so it was, for over two decades, until disaster struck. It was the year 2061 and earthquakes once more struck to mess up the life of the Nobuyama family. A number of earthquakes struck along the eastern coast of the JIS mainlamd and a small one struck near the dwarven community where the Nobuyama family lived, but that was not the problem. Earthquakes out at sea caused tsunami to hit the northern coasts on the JIS mainland and also the south-eastern eadge of Hokkaido island.
With little, or no, warning the tsunami struck the island just 1 mile from the dwarven community and it swept inland with a ferocity and speed that left little hope for the majority of members of the urban area. When it was over many thousands had lost their lives, this included both of Meka's parents. He was devastated and after their funeral he spoke with family friends who had decided to leave the island and seek a more secure place elsewhere. Meka was fully aware of the anti-metahuman attitude of the Japanese and so he felt he could not go to the mainland. There was nothing left of the small community, the tsunami had washed it clean off the land. He decided to emigrate and there was only one place he could think of - America. At the capital of the Ainu-Moshiri Republic he visited the library and studied until he had found what he hoped was to become a perfect place for him to go. - Seattle Sprawl.
Meka's father had taught him many useful things. Not only was Meka a very skilled mechanic but he was an advanced one as he was a rigger. His father had also made sure that he could use weapons, he reasoned that his son may one day need to defend his home against racists, or even take part in a war as he had done. Subsequently, Meka was skilled with the dwarven axe as well as the Japanese weapon par excellence, the katana, plus he was very good with SMG's of many types and had some average skill in using assault rifles, especially the one his father was able to acquire, a European model that he obtained during the Donan War. So packed and eager to leave behind his grief he went off to the airport with excitement, wondering if they have real cowboys in Seattle Sprawl, he already knew they had Amerindians all around the city. He quickly graduated from the training guild and went out into the sprawl to find work. He found that mechanic work was rare and that there were many mechanics, so he turned to taking more 'shadowy' jobs but he seemed to enjoy the work. And so he works on...... with a spanner in his hands.
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 11
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
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Date Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:19 pm
Subject: Steppenwolf Part Two
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Taro' was immediately given leave to return home - Tatsuo made sure of that. The full investigation discovered that certain pass codes and private entrance locations were given to the yakuza perpetrators. This meant one thing - a traitor! Fuchi internal security soon found out that the traitor was a minor executive by the name of Kenji Nagaonna - the father of the boy killed by Taro' at their dojo when Taro' was a boy. Although suspicion fell on the recent Sendosha Yakuza subclan - the Mizu-Kagayaite, which formed in 2022, there was insufficient proof. The incident became a matter for corporate negotiation and the repercussions in the business and merchant world began to settle down.
Taro' was decimated. No one could get through to him; he completely shut down like a clam. After the funeral he demanded to know the full intel with regard to the security forces investigation. A cold ruthless determination came over Taro' and he swore an oath that he would do all he could to destroy the Nagaonna clan - to completely annihilate it from the face of the earth. Taro's grandfather, Tatsuo, saw the warmth and compassion brought into Taro's life by his wife and daughter totally engulfed and the true dark side of Taro' came out. Tatsuo Takeshima was actually scared for his grandson and for the future of his clan and he decided to act . . . . . but Taro' acted first.
Taro' researched into the rivalries that existed between the powerful Megacorporations and decided that the secret negotiations that were taking place which triggered the attempted abduction of his grandfather had been instigated by the Mitsuhama Computer Technologies corporation and so Taro' went on the hunt for its chairman of the board, one Agatamori Kihara. Taro' had no grudge against the Yakuza who carried out the raid on his family estate as he just regarded them as the 'soldiers' obeying orders and he knew enough about yakuza methods to know that those actually responsible for the misuse of the mine would already be dead - ordered to commit 'seppuku' by their oyabun for their failure. Taro' discovered that the famous chairman of Mitsuhama had been replaced after he retired due to health problems caused back in 2037 when an assassination attempt hit him in the chest but failed to kill him. It was reported to have been an act of random gang violence - Taro' knew better. Taro' used his influence with the Fuchi security forces to obtain secret papers that itemised the new Mitsuhama chairman's regular routine. He discovered that the chairman frequented a particular teahouse as he had a favourite geisha to whom he turned for "relaxation" twice a week. Taro' emptied out his joint account and took the first opportunity to line up the illegal purchase of a Ranger Arms SM-3 sniper rifle. It cost him a cool 20000 NuYen and took nearly two weeks to be obtained. While Taro' was planning this assassination his grandfather was trying to keep tabs on what he was doing. Taro' was suspected as the assailant when a number of members of the Nagaonna family turned up dead, including the decapitated body of Kenji Nagaonna. The police had no clues and of course they could not make any link with Taro' to the deaths because they did not know about the findings of the Fuchi security forces that linked the murder of his wife and daughter to the Nagaonna clan, or to anyone else for that matter. All the police could report was that the perpetrator was exceptionally skilled with the katana which was the instrument of death. They made a perfunctory check on all registered kenjutsu sensei and they asked some questions of Taro's grandfather who informed them that Taro' was too grief stricken to even leave the family estates. Tatsuo's position was enough to deter the police from further investigations of his grandson.
By the time the sniper rifle had arrived Taro's grandfather had received intel from his security chief informing him what Taro' planned. His grandfather felt that it would be disastrous for Taro' to fulfil his ambition with regard to the Mitsuhama chairman as it would put Fuchi in an awkward position and the corporation may choose to take action against Taro'! Tatsuo Takeshima was in a quandary what to do when he remembered the many talks he had enjoyed with his granddaughter-in-law, Mariko, and the things she confided to him about Taro'. Tatsuo immediately contacted the Imperial Marines H.Q. and asked to be put in contact with the one man who could prevent Taro' from carrying out his intended course of action.
On the appointed day Taro' rose early, trained in the family dojo for two hours and then showered and had something to eat, although his appetite was floundering due to the stress and grief, he knew he must keep himself in peak condition for all the work he had to do. He went to pick up his rifle and ammunition and then he had to wait until nightfall when the target would make his way to his little geisha and meet destiny for one final time. Taro' went to the predetermined vantage point from where he would take the shots and he settled down to wait it out. The Ranger Arms SM-3 sniper rifle was a semi-automatic but it had a recoil compensator and also a silencer and so if was perfect for the job in hand.
Near the appointed time he opened up his briefcase and took out and assembled the rifle. He adjusted the imaging scope to set the night-vision circuits at the right intensity for his location and he was just resigning himself to the act he was about to perform when his haragi, a little off since the death of his family, warned him of people close by on the rooftop. Startled he jumped up only to be man-handled to the ground by an unknown number of men, certainly more than four. He heard a familiar voice, it was the chief of Fuchi security who quietly gave orders to the men to restrain Taro', pick up the rifle and depart the rooftop. Taro' said a silent prayer to Hachiman, opened up to his ki force and let the flow of power prepare him for action. As one of the men holding him let go to bend down and pick up the rifle Taro' chose to strike. He was very fast and using the Kyusho-jutsu techniques he had been taught at the martial arts academy he quickly debilitated enough of his attackers to break free. He grabbed the rifle and used it like a jo to pivot and throw the man trying to retrieve it. The security chief had been ready for this move on Taro's part but was taken by surprise by the speed and ferocity with which Taro' moved and so he was a little delayed in using the taser stun gun, he raised his arm to take aim and someone else paralysed his arm with a violent blow to the nerve point on his forearm. Startled the security officer looked up into the eyes of his assailant and saw a young imperial marine warning him to stay out of the way. Sergeant Takejima stepped in between the Fuchi security men and Taro', ignoring them and looking intently at Taro'. Takejima bowed respectfully and then spoke in a low firm voice and tried to dissuade Taro' from carrying on with this madness. He informed Taro' that the Mitsuhama chairman would not be visiting his geisha tonight as an anonymous tip off has informed him of his immediate danger. Taro' looked into the eyes of his best friend and an overwhelming sadness broke to the surface as he resignedly, simply handed over the sniper rifle and allowed his friend to escort him, accompanied by the security officers, down from the roof and into a waiting limousine.
At the other end of his limo journey was waiting his grandfather who stood at the doors of the donjon on the Takeshima estate. The security team from Fuchi were, of course, quite willing to leave Taro' in the custody of his grandfather but they informed him that a full report of the night's events would be made to the chairman and the board of Fuchi the very next day. Tatsuo did not know that, ever since Taro' had gained access to the security files covering the intensive investigation of the kidnap incident and had started using this intel to plan his revenge, Fuchi execs had ordered a surveillance team to keep track of what Taro' got up to and what papers and files he actually read - so Tatsuo did not know that a security team would be on the roof that night. Tatsuo had only contacted the one man he believed capable of stopping Taro' from ruining his entire life, and that was Sergeant Takejima - Oh, and he had anonymously informed the Mitsuhama chairman he was in danger and should cancel going to meet his geisha. Tatsuo and Taro' talked for the remainder of the night and Taro' recriminated with his grandfather due to the interference that had blocked his attempt on the life of the Mitsuhama chairman. With bitterness he spat out his belief that it was the Mitsuhama corporation and the chairman particularly who had orchestrated the abortive kidnap attempt on Tatsuo that had so terribly gone wrong and cost the lives of Mariko and Keiko. And in real anger he looked with red eyes, tears coursing down his face, and accused his grandfather of preventing his right to revenge. Tatsuo tried to reason with his grandson and informed him that there was no concrete proof that Mitsuhama had anything to do with the kidnap attempt. Unfortunately Taro' would not listen and he stormed off to his room. During the remainder of the night Taro' realized the futility of trying to take on a megacorporation and he decided to turn his back on his karma and deny himself the life of the corporate executive - in fact he decided to turn his back on his current life and to vanish off the face of the earth. In effect he was doing what he did at the age of nine years - he was running away. In the morning he was gone - his grandfather was deeply concerned and asked Sergeant Takejima to help Taro' if he ever came across him and he gave the sergeant a credstick to give to Taro' if the occasion arose.
Taro' had packed his sniper rifle back in its brief case and taken with him - the briefcase; his daisho (katana and wakazashi); the trivideo playback device with screen and his disks; one of his credsticks and most of his personal belongings. His grandfather contacted the Fuchi internal security and asked if he could be informed if his grandson was found. Fuchi security had been given their orders, they were to locate Taro' and escort him to the chairman's office discreetly and with as little fuss as possible. Of course they were instructed not to inform Taro's grandfather. The security team watching the Takeshima estates saw Taro' slip out in the early morning. They followed him to the graveyard where Taro' spent half an hour talking to the graves of his wife and daughter. They felt it would be appreciated if they waited until he had finished and so when he had they approached him openly yet cautiously; everyone knew about the prowess of Takeshima-san's grandson but orders were orders.
As soon as they were within hearing distance of Taro' they politely asked him to accompany them to visit the chairman of Fuchi. Taro' remembered the chairman well, he had been at Taro's samurai ceremony when he was seven and at his manhood ceremony when he reached thirteen - he was also present at the formal celebrations for Taro's graduation from the Military College. He was a well respected and feared exec but Taro' liked him. Taro' saw no harm would come to him and so he agreed. The security team visibly relaxed and a definite look of relief showed in their faces as they obeyed orders and escorted Taro' to the chairman.
The chairman's office was a plain and simple office space without any gaudy western ornamentations. It had a simple Takanoma with its ikebana flower arrangement elegantly displayed and the chairman had a couple of sofa chairs near to a mini-conference table and in the corner by the window was his desk, small and functional. It had obviously been designed using the famous principles of Feng Shui. Taro' thus delivered, the security team bowed and left the chairman alone with Taro'. The chairman invited Taro' to sit down and offered some sencha (morning tea) and Taro' bowed and thanked him for his courtesy and accepted the tea graciously. For the next few hours the chairman used his considerable negotiating skill to quiz Taro' on his feelings, his intentions, and everything that the chairman felt was relevant. At the end of this interview the chairman had come to a few decisions. The main one was that Taro' Yoshitsune Takeshima should immediately be hired, discreetly of course, for shadow ops. He explained his ideas to Taro' telling him that from time to time Fuchi corporation needed someone reliable and well trained to do certain jobs that need someone who new how to obey orders and to carry them out to the letter. Taro' politely listened to the chairman's proposition and when he was finished Taro' agreed on two conditions - first, his grandfather must not know (this fitted perfectly with the chairman's plans, in fact it delighted him, as he did not intend informing Tatsuo Takeshima of any of this); secondly, Taro' would only comply on the personal assurance of the chairman that he would use the Fuchi resources to discover who was responsible for the death of his wife and daughter - no matter how long it would take. The chairman was only too glad to agree to these terms as he knew that Taro' had skills that Fuchi could utilise and furthermore he knew all about the dark side of Taro' and he further knew that the death of his wife and child would free him from any major concerns of conscience. As a final parting gesture the chairman suggested he should adopt a pseudonym and Taro' agreed and chose Steppenwolf - the lone wolf, a name he had heard while serving in the CFS in North America and it also reminded him of the famous samurai lone-wolf, Ogami Itto, who was forced to become an assassin after the murder of his wife.
The last Tatsuo Takeshima heard about his grandson was that he resigned his commission in the Imperial Marines and then disappeared off the planet. The Fuchi chairman set Taro' up with everything he needed and set him to work almost straight away. He started him off slowly and then built him up. Taro', at first, was a little restless because he kept insisting that they informed him of any progress they had made about their agreement. The chairman personally promised that they would fulfil their bargain. So Taro' went underground and became a shadowrunner working occasionally and unofficially for the Fuchi corporation, the chairman saw no down side to this arrangement as Taro' was an independent and Fuchi could easily deny all knowledge of any work he did for them as the jobs were given through a Johnson-san intermediary - utmost deniability. The only real risk was for Tatsuo Takeshima to discover the arrangement between the chairman and Taro', but that was highly unlikely. In between jobs for Fuchi he took independent assignments as a street samurai, bodyguard, transporter whatever paid the bills. Tatsuo Takeshima saw the files that included reports on the clandestine actions of one Steppenwolf, not for one moment realising that this was his grandson.
In 2041 Taro', under the pseudonym of Steppenwolf, was hired by Fuchi Electronics to assist in the security needs caused by the sporadic skirmishes that erupted in various areas of the world due to the attempt by Yamatetsu corporation to obtain a seat on the powerful Corporate Court and the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinschaft Bank. This was done in the belief that they could take advantage of his feelings of loyalty to the corporation via his grandfather - who, of couse, they failed to inform. These little 'jobs' fizzled out in 2042 when the skirmishes finally died down.
Fuchi Corporation once again hired Steppenwolf in 2045 to help out in Chicago, Illinois, UCAS over the misunderstanding dealing with the mafia-backed alderman. Steppenwolf was intensely involved in the near liquidation of all of the mafia soldiers as he led a team of shadowrunners who joined in the firefight that occurred - as independent mercs working for Fuchi.
Back in Japan, in 2046, Steppenwolf received a file through his Johnson contact in Tokyo from the Fuchi internal security that laid out the information that was promised to him years earlier. Taro' had been right; it was the Mitsuhama Computer Technologies corporation that had made the attempt to kidnap Taro's grandfather, but the executive directly responsible was not the chairman but one Noguri Owaru. Within the files was all he needed including the schematics for the high-security apartment complex where the executive lived. Steppenwolf set up his plans and carried out an audacious raid that allowed him to kidnap Noguri Owaru from his apartment. He took him out to a deserted location and exacted his revenge slowly and deliberately. To ensure that the authorities believed it was a professional execution Taro' planned his revenge carefully. Firstly, he drilled a hole in the skull of Owaru and then inserted probes into the living brain to reach the pain receptors and then he made the man wish death would come swiftly as he exacted his revenge - wanting to make the man suffer pain equal to the pain he felt due to the death of his wife and daughter. He had to show great restraint that he didn't cause too much damage - this helped to maintain the pain levels and to ensure it could be easily covered afterward. He was rather pleased with the result and admitted that the research into neurology and gaining biotech skills as well as electronics had born fruit for him. However, his favourite part was the old Chinese torture method of taking an extremely sharp steel needle and inserting it near the heart hitting the sternum and scraping the bone itself causing excruciating agony. When his patience wore out and he recognized the onset of loosing control whereby he may start slashing and hacking the object of his hate he calmly removed the steel needle and the probes and replaced each hole with the hole caused by a bullet fired from his newly acquired Ares Viper Silvergun with its built in silencer and then dumped his body in Chiba, Japan. At the same time the chairman of Fuchi leaked papers that connected Noguri Owaru to Yakuza but this was emphatically denied by Mitsuhama themselves.
It was agreed that Steppenwolf and Fuchi had kept their respective bargains and that Steppenwolf, for obvious reasons, needed to leave Japan, if not permanently, at least for the foreseeable future. Steppenwolf took everything to North America where he accepted various jobs over the years as a shadowrunner. Steppenwolf was sometimes grateful for the contracts he received from Fuchi via a Mr. Johnson but he was a realist and knew that he could not ever depend on Fuchi for he knew he could never trust the chairman. Fuchi would only help him if it was in their interests, sentimentality had no meaning for them.
They did use his skills in 2048 when Steppenwolf played a minor role in gathering and passing on information to enable a military strike against an Aztlan military facility in Ensenada. Steppenwolf also acquired information for various other jobs . . . . . . . . And so he is a runner in the shadows, wishing to remain anonymous and to be able to survive. He dislikes the politics he has learned about megacorporation policies and has little regard for the pawns that they use to expedite their wishes. He keeps Hachiman in his heart and has even been known to sacrifice a victim to the God of War - not in the sense of a ritual killing, but dedicating a particular assassination target to Hachiman. His lack of racism means that he has no qualms about killing anyone or anything - as long as he believes they are guilty of something and after all few are innocent. Taro' will not deliberately kill the innocent although he accepts that accidents do happen and then he turns to Amida Butsu (Buddha) to pray for forgiveness and for the soul of the innocent departed. Although Bushido still rules him it is with no emotion - just a fatalistic acceptance of bad karma and a preparation each day for the loving release of death. Although he pities societies weak and believes in Katsujinken Taro' [Steppenwolf] struggles daily with his dark side and he looks forward to when he and Mariko are together again - whether that be in an afterlife - or in the next incarnation.
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Katsujinken - the only way forward.
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 1
Joined: 25 Jan 2009
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Date Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:01 am
Subject: Yoshikami - The Wako Pirate...
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Maternal grandparents goblinized into trolls during the first awakening during the 2021 'epidemic' and by 2022 public opinion demanded that those so affected commit suicide out of shame. Refusing to comply the grandparents fled, grandfather was attacked by human mob and although he killed many they overcame him and stoned him to death. Yoshi's grandmother escaped with her life into the mountains of Japan where she soon discovered she was pregnant.
Yoshi's paternal grandparents were both from traditional warrior families, his paternal grandmother was almost killed by a member of her own family when she goblinized - she fled to the mountains at the first opportunity, his paternal grandfather fared a little better but was soon evicted from the family when a misunderstanding occurred after he attempted to bath his infant brother and accidentally nearly drowned him. He was accused of attempting to murder the child and was banished to the mountains.
Because of the actions of right-wing radicals many metahumans began to form into gangs for mutual protection and clashes with the humans were frequent and extremely bloody affairs. During this difficult and dangerous time the paternal grandparents befriended the maternal grandmother and child, this child and the couples own son grew up to become childhood sweethearts. Yoshi's father was still taught his family history and the warrior code, they still carried within them the blood of a thousand years of great warriors.
The two childhood sweethearts grew up and married, soon after Yoshikami came along. Surviving that first winter made Yoshikami strong and he grew quickly, despite the cruel treatment by the human JIS troops. In 2053 a group of unarmed metahumans were protesting about lack of food and they were fired upon by JIS soldiers. Seven metahumans were killed, one of whom was Yoshikami's father Tenjiro. His mother just gave up, she would not eat, she barely slept but then she just seemed to fade away until she eventually died. Yoshikami, who was holding her hand as she died, was filled with a bitter rage and a burning hatred for racist humans and he fled from the confines of the restricted area, killing any humans that got in his way, until he arrived at Kobe docks. He was quickly picked up by a Wako crew [Japanese pirates] who recognized the usefulness of the huge muscular Troll as a member of their crew.
Piracy became Yoshikami's life and when he could afford it he had some rather dodgy cyberware implants done to augment his overal abilities. He even got enough money once to go to Singapore and get some rather good bioware implants. In 2059, having been a Wako for six years he was aboard a pirate vessel when the JIS Imperial Navy caught them at sea and after a brief battle the pirate ship was summarily sunk. The survivors, including Yoshikami, fled to a nearby island and then making his way island hopping Yoshikami arrived at an international airport.
With enough money to buy a ticket for America he decided to turn his back on his former life and Yoshikami was happy to leave it all behind him and fly to the Seattle/Tacoma Airport. He bluffed his way through customs and arrived in Seattle - dropped off at the Seattle Center where he spotted the training guild, he enrolled immediately.
That was his history, the rest is the unwritten future.
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Wako Pirates get everywhere!
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 1
Joined: 08 Feb 2009
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Date Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2009 6:38 pm
Subject:
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my first attempt at writing an sort of extensive background:
Dahmu Miry wasn't always what he is today. Born to normal human parents, Dahmu was a regular young child living on the middle of downtown Seattle. His father was an Assistant Director of Sourcing at a megacorp, while his mother worked in marketing for the same megacorp (which I will not name for their security's sake). So it was naturally assumed that he would have a relatively secured position some megacorp or another.
But fates had another plan for him. When he was very young, mysterious things began to happen. Things would disappear only to appear somewhere else. When agitated or angered, things around him would burst in flames or explode. Dahmu had Awakened. Since he couldn't control his magic, he was isolated to minimize damage to life and property. Because normal schooling was deemed unsuitable (more for others sake than his own), his parents found someone to teach him how to control his powers. Soon he was able to control his magic and became proficient. Soon his isolation became too much for him, so feeling confident in his magic, he would wander out in the streets at night. He developed his street smarts the hard way, getting in trouble with corp security, street urchins, and gangers.
It was on one of these late night jaunts on the streets of Seattle that the Dahmu's final transformation took place. He was roaming the streets, not looking for any trouble. But trouble, nonetheless, found him. A group of orks from a small-time local gang cornered him in an alley, thinking of roughing lonely little human. He was able to keep his cool and tried to talk his way out of it, but it didn't seem to do any good. After being pushed around a bit, he decided to retaliate, but before he could move to cast a spell, a ravaging pain hit him. He thought one of the gangers had sliced him with a blade, but that wasn't the case. Another wave of pain hit him. He curled up on the dirty alley floor, screaming in pain. The gangers backed away surprised. He felt pain all the way in his bones. Because of the blinding pain, he lost control of his power and things began to explode around him. Then he began to grow. His arms and legs got bigger, and every inch that he grew, brought a fresh wave of blinding pain. The gangers, not anticipating such events turned tail and ran. For the next, what felt like an eternity, but was only thirty minutes, Dahmu was hit with waves after waves of pain. It's surprise that he didn't pass out.
Thirty minutes later, the pain stopped. After catching his breath, Dahmu staggered to his feet. He was almost knocked back on the ground when he looked down and realized how far away the alley floor has suddenly become. He inspected himself, after regaining his balance, discovered that he now had to big horns curving out of his forehead. It was a weird sensation. As he gingerly touched them, he didn't feel any pain, but a slight numbness. He also felt like his mouth was full of something, which turned out to be his thick teeth and tusks. His skin had also changed. His hands had become hard and callused, while he face was wrinkled. Dahmu had transformed into a troll.
Before long, Dahmu began to lumber his way home. It felt weird when all of sudden people would give him scared looks and move out of his way, when previously they would've just knocked him aside, like so much trash. I am sure the tattered clothes didn't help his image in the least. But that wasn't the worst of it. When he got home, he expected his parent's comfort and calm and reason to see him through this, but what he received was totally the opposite. His mother broke down in a screaming fit, and his father nearly shot. Neighbors, not realizing that it was Dahmu, called corp sec, telling them that a troll was attacking the family. Corp sec came ready with riot gear and nets and they forcibly restrained Dahmu. In the midst of yelling and scream, Dahmu tried to get his parents to recognize who he was. Even after they did, they refused to look at him. They let the corp sec drag a screaming, flailing Dahmu away. He watched his parents close the door, although he liked to think that he saw his mother cry before it closed completely. Corp sec dropped Dahmu on the outskirts of Seattle and instructed him stay out.
Fortunately that was the worst of what fate had in store for him (so far). After wandering for days, trying to deal with his new reality, Dahmu met his teacher, or rather the astral projection of his teacher. The teacher, being sympathetic to his plight, guided him towards a small cottage built in the forest outside of Seattle. There he found shelter, food, and was able to complete his training, in peace and quiet, away from scared looks or stereotypical ridicule. But, as they say in the shadows, nothing comes for free. Soon his teacher began to take him on shadowruns. He didn't mind much, seeing as there was little else an 11-foot troll can do, besides labor or becoming a bouncer at a club.
Now Dahmu, who everyone thought had a secure future in a megacorp, lived on edge of society, far from his previous life, running the shadows....
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 13
Joined: 18 Mar 2008
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Date Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 9:16 pm
Subject:
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Background Mitter Gun Machinist and Rigger
Mitter came from the southern part of the continent, traveling from the Mississippi, to the Shadows of Seattle. This though, is about who he was, and what he did before he left that place. He was born in Des Moines, and had lived there without leaving until he was eleven. His parents were both killed in a covered up corporate raid on his father, it did not go so smoothly. Both parents were engulfed in a large blast, the corporate goons held the boy back and he watched his home discintigrate. Mit was orphaned at a young age, this happened when he was six, he was taken into the 'care' of his Uncle only known as Joker. Joker was a mechanic, and a dangerous gun enthuisiest. Joker taught Mit for years about weapons and mechanics, and he learned quickly about these things, the art of the ability to repair and fabricate captured the boys mind. He lived with his uncle intil his grandmother, who was living in the Mississippi area asked him to come stay for a short time, this short time extended into his adulthood. He wasn't always a cybered up machine head that worked endlessly all day on vehicals and weapons. Mit attended school when he felt the need to talk to friends, but he was usualy out causing trouble, getting high on Zen, jamming on his guitar, fixing, customizing people's guns and vehicals, spending 'quality' time with girls, and making a living off his skilled hands and knowledge of machanica. He used to be a lead guitarist for a local band there as well. The name of the band that he used to be in was called Brutality. They were a mix of progressive metal, synthe, and alternative music. The other members were rythem guitar, a Giant named Big K, the drummer Ork known as Toocan, and the Elf singer and synthe-boardist called The Ace. They were hugely successful, but then again their time was also cut short, as they were only together for less than a full year, they were very popular with the local area even still but hadn't had the chance to expand. After the band had fell through, Mit took it opon himself to visit his family up north in Des Moines, capital of Iowa. He had been out of contact with Joker but he didn't expect what he would find. Mit arrived at Joker's Shop, and found the place ransacked, but it had an old look to it as if it had happened just after Mit had departed the first time he left. The scattered junk wasn't all he found, Mitter knew where Joker's private storage locker was, and he knew the passcode to open it. Opon finding a last minute note explaining that the same corp that killed Mit's parents had come to take Joker and that he was sorry. As it all sank in, he finaly gotten fed up with the lawless corp ruining his life and stomping on him and his family. There was enough nuyen on his uncle's credstick to leave town and start up a shop of his own, so Mit headed back down south to grab all of his things and tell his Grandmother goodbye, he gave her some Nuyen and told her to find a nice, safe place out of the UCAS, he didn't tell her that Joker was dead, but he figured that he was by now for whatever the reason might of been. Mitter went to a used car lot and bought himself a running Ford Bison. The mammoth RV was running at top effeciancy in a an hour or so and he then set off to a local bar known for it's shady characters, Mit had heard about Shadowrunnners but then again as to keep themselves out of the eagle eye of the law and corps, he may of met many of them and never had known since they all use nicknames. The bar was called The Hollow Log, and was as dank and dark just as the name stated. Mit strolled in and sat at the bar counter, he ordered a drink, after drink, waiting for the twilight hour to roll on and for the shadows to roll in. At midnight people started to show up, as if clockwork, Mit knew of this from his uncle, who delt with shadowrunners many times, in fact Mit was sure that his Uncle and Father were both shadowrunners. As figures rolled into the bar, it seemed to get cramped pretty fast along with the smells of cigarettes, beer, and hooch. Mit kept to his plan as he ordered many drinks, most of them watered down to his initial request, as to not get shit-faced too early on. He just wanted to meet an info man, someone that could tell him how to starte the in the biz, he had no real contacts. He eventualy pulled out his papers and a small leather sack full of smoking tobacco. While he rolled himself a smoke, two men approached. One was an Oni in a suit, the other was a human wearing a trenchcoat, both well-dressed for this type of place. Mit didn't have any weapons on him at the time, he wasn't realy worried about it though, he still had with him his rigging deck under his trench, the keys were well in-reach. The Oni asked Mit for a light, while holding out a large cigar with a gold band on it still, the human stepped a little too close to Mit's left, he was boxed in. At that point Mit found the Oni standing over his shoulder to his right, almost close enough to whisper, Mit stayed his cool. He whipped out his zippo and the flame was under the Oni's cigar without Mit even having to look. The Oni puffed a couple times, and Mit flicked his silver lighter shut and pocketed it, while the human ordered three drinks to his left, still somewhat blocking Mit from sliding out of his stool, or moving at all. As Mit looked over his shoulder at the Oni, he caught the blue monkey-suit winking to his human partner. Mit was tired of games, and from his recent news he was not in the mood to play their games and he didn't realy care who they were with, so Mit attempted to step to his side and smoke his cigarette outside. His attempt to move was thwarted by the human in the coat, who was cybered out he noticed as the goon's chromed arm extend to stop Mit from moving as he shook his head no. The Oni said something about Mit's Uncle, Father, and Mother all dying for some secret, and that he enjoyed killing them all. Mit's heart did not sink, it instead pumped harder, as adrenaline was dumped into his system like buckets of gaseoline into a fire, his hands got clamy, and his thoughts got clouded. Mit just nodded slightly and flipped his ring around on his right hand, a ring he made into a small push knife for close situations. Neither the Oni, nor the Human noticed, but the Human found out quickly, Mit threw his quickest, hardest right hook at the corporate thug to his left, catching the man right in the throat with the knife-ring. The man screamed with a mix of gurgling blood and then he fell, to Mit it seemed like he was watching him choke and grabbing his spurting neck for five minutes. In reality the man dropped within seconds of the attack, the Oni had just looked over as Mit stepped off his stool and over Oni's stuck-and-bleeding partner. Mit ran and pushed his way through the small crowd of bar patrons until he reached the door, he did not look back. Mit swung the door open and ran for his RV that was parked in the back of the lot, and just then he heard the Oni swinging the bar door open and it slapping against the brick wall outside. Mit grabbed his rigger deck and jacked his deck into his head. The big blue bastard pulled what Mit reconized as an Ares Predator three with a fitted silencer, and the thug leveled it at him. Mit tapped some keys and his RV reved up, Mit ran and dove behind a random car in the parking lot, and he closed his eyes while tapping some keys on his deck. The Oni let out some shots from his heavy pistol, only sounding like quiet thumps, then the tic-tac of the lead slamming into the car. As the Oni was focused on Mit, he did not realize the RV Mit was controling, rolling through the back of the lot. Then out of the near silent battle, the loud thuds of a mounted light-machine gun cut the silence like a sword through a mime. The flashes spat hot lead from atop Mit's RV, looking like some kind of war machine as the rounds spat out from the darkness, with each flash the sound was thunderous and the area around the Bison briefly lighting up. The Oni was big, and he looked strong, but he fell like a fat sack of shit when the fifty-Cal rounds shredded through his suit, his kevlar vest, flesh, bone, and the brick wall behind him. Blood spattered like a fresh painting on the brick wall behind along with the bricks themselves smashing from impact of over-penatration of it's target, as the Oni being thrown backwards off his feet into the wall, and the slumping over to one side. The RV kicked up dust from the dirt lot, and rolled over to Mit, he jacked out, stood up and jumped into his RV without looking back, and he took off into the dead of night. Mit drove for hours, which turned into a day. He stopped for gas at a small bar/gas station eventualy when it hit mid-day. While his beast drank gas, Mit stopped inside the bar for a quick couple beers, before setting out again, he still wasn't tired. There were no people inside except for the bar tender, which was watching an old flat-vid of some old-west movie called Lone Wolf. Mit found the timing of the video and his arrival to be amusing at the time. He ordered a shot of snake bite and downed it, then three or more beers. The bartender leaned over the bar and started convorsation with Mit about the movie, which somehow eventualy led to the older man telling Mit about his relative that was a runner in Seattle. Mit had never been there, but he couldn't go home or stay in the south, it was too hot. He downed a couple of cold Spudwiser's, some jerkey, and then he left. Once Mit had gotten on the road he made his decision, to go to Seattle, and work in the shadows against corps whenever he could and find the one responsable for all his family member's deaths. He drove for a couple hours, until he hit trouble, not cops but worse, a black GMC Bulldog trailed him, seemingly out of no-where. Mit wasn't worried, he still had over forty or so rounds left in the roof mounted light-machine gun. The van caught up faster, and faster, until it was only several meters away from the Bison. Then Mit heard someone making contact with the back of his RV, Mit was already rigged directly into the RV, with his sensors in-place, he could almost feel the feet of the intruder on his own back. The person ontop of the RV quickly found out though, that it was far from a good decision to board from top-side. The last thing the goon saw were the flashes from the turret, the Bulldog behind them probly got spatter on their wind-shield. Then things got a little trickier. The van must have had a turbo, since it was now attempting to swirve to the side of the RV, they were already clicking along at one-hundred-twenty miles per hour. As the van got in position in the left lane, the sliding side door opened up, revealing a corporate hitman holding some old RPG-7 and had it leveled at the the Bison's driver side. The stretch of road seemed all but abandond, no-one for miles, so there was no hope for a head on accident at the time. Mit had only one choice, he swirved his Bison left into the side of the Bulldog. The monsterous size and mass of the RV easily bullied the van off the road into a ditch, the impact of the Bulldog hitting the ditch was apparent as metal, dust, smoke, and tire flew from the wreck. Mit skidded to a stop, it took a while to do it without hurting the breaks, but he got the beast from speeding to a slow reverse in no-time. As he backed down the road he didn't notice anyone climing out of the van, he didn't expect anyone to either. Mit kept the RV running, and stepped out to look at the wreck, to his suprize a couple of the morons were still alive, just trapped in the metal cage that used to be a van. Mit found the RPG not far from the wreck, and immediately saw his first chance at exacting revenge. He slowly walked over to the rocket launcher and scooped it up out of the dirt, all while the goons that were alive watched him. Mit walked back to his Bison, then he pulled out a cigarette and lit it up, as he flicked the RPG-7 off safety. He could just barely hear the yelling of the men inside the van, then Mit smirked and resighted a quote from the old-western at the bar and gas-stop, "Boys, I'll have you in the ground before the devil even knows yer dead." as he leveled the rocket launcher at the van. With one puff and exhail of his cigarette he pulled the trigger, there was a hiss, and then then the launcher spat sparks and exhaust out the back as the rocket propelled itself at the van leaving a tail of smoke behind it. Then all at once the rocket hit it's mark, and the there was a concussive force of air and sound as the van was caught in an explosion of smoke and fire traveling at blinding speeds, earth met sky along with the remains of the vehical. Mit watched with a smug grin, he dropped his cigarette butt and smashed it into the road with his heel, and boarded his RV once again with his new rocket launcher. The drive seemed like forever, until finaly Mit could see the border guards with their military grade weapons and armor, a flying VTOL cruised around above him. He got to the guards and they inspected him, and his vehical. They didn't find anything, since Mit had removed the LMG mount, and hidden the parts along with the RPG in his smuggling compartment. They didn't believe him for a second that he had nothing, from his appearance alone. Mit shelled out bribes to the bordermen, besides, money can get you anything, even through tough situations with highly-trained and well-armed circle-jerkers like these. Once Mit got into Seattle he rolled into the nearest bar he could find, which happened to be a place called Hooligans. What harm could come from another bar with seedy characters anyways, no-one would find Mit here as long as he stayed somewhat low key. As he rolled into the parking lot though, he found some kind of large furry creature, with people crowded around it. He stepped out of his Bison just at the right time to catch some dreadlocked woman shaking a baggy full of novacoke at it, "Welcome to Seattle." Mit thought.
-----signature-----
Active characters:
Harvy Harbinger
Mit
Amun
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Title: Neophyte
Posts: 1
Joined: 01 Mar 2010
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Date Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 9:35 pm
Subject: Trilby
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Real name: Edward Wellington
RP Vitals: 9'7" 440lb, 84" chest, Size 31 EEEEEE shoes
Born Sept. 12th 2040, to a young 'mixed race' couple, his father a troll and his mother an elf, both in Seattle.
Trilby's always been a corp child, raised in the corp enclave apartments of Seattle. He was always told that the megacorps were good and their intentions were to help the people that worked for them - and he had no reason to expect otherwise. He went through public school with a minimum of fuss, even after his goblinization in April of his 12th year. With academic and athletic scholarships he managed to even get into the University of Washington, and became one of the first trolls to graduate Suma Cum Laudi, with a degree in Criminal Justice. Wanting to make a difference and uphold order for his still-idolized corporations, he applied for Lone Star before he even graduated college. His first cyberware was a pair of cybereyes, originally to correct his poor vision, paid for with his first pay check after finishing the Lone Star academy. All was not peaches and cream, however, as the longer he spent working for the Star, the more his rose-tinted view of the world faded. Seeing how people live outside of the Enclaves was a big wake-up call for him, and like most he quickly began to turn jaded and bitter, eventually starting to dress in his trademark brown suit and fedora, mimicing his favorite detective-show stars and characters out of film noir. Now knowing the harsh reality of life in the 2060s he was only more determined to change it, but his job as a beat cop meant the most he could do was jail BTL dealers and write parking tickets. So, selling his middle-class condominium, he took a loan from a known Loan Shark for his first serious 'wares, breaking the law in order to uphold it right from the beginning. He runs to pay back his loans, and to better himself with training, practice, and more 'ware, hoping he can get himself a higher position on the Lone Star force - as well as keeping the Loan sharks off of his and his family's backs.
Behavior: Trilby, despite being as intelligent as a genius-IQ human, is still a Troll, having a special love for personal combat and sports. He knows all the scores for last night's Urban Brawl game, who's who in the world of boxing, and even follows a bit of Rugby and American Football (as opposed to the other kind of football, which he stubbornly calls Soccer) He's generally patient and even-tempered, rarely seen to be angry. He's fairly quick-witted and usually has a comeback for any insult you can throw at him, jokingly or not. He does, however, still have a bit of a 'holier-than-thou' attitude when it comes to dealing with runners, thinking (mistakenly) that being a good person and having stayed on the right side of the law makes you better than the 'scum' that inhabit the shadows, never mind that some people are born into the life and do so to survive.
Likes: Coffee, Cheap lager, sports, a good fight, junk food, classical music, Trideo cop shows
Dislikes: Health food, high society, street-race drivers, loud music, Tir Tirnaigre's 'Elf Centric' society
Ingame Desc:
Just another Troll. His chocolate-brown hair is slicked back in a businesslike
cut, his horns following the shape of his skull and turning down behind his
ears. He's got the usual trollish heavy brow, golden cybereyes peering out
from under them, and a thick nose that looks like it's been broken a few
times. Clean white tusks protrude a few inches from his wide mouth, matching
his wide jaw. He is, predictably burly and well built, with long, simian-like
arms and slightly hunched over stance. Thick arms end in huge hands with thick
hair on the backs of each. Other than that, he looks clean shaven and
well-maintained, he looks like he could be a wageslave just about anywhere.
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