Marshmallow's So you want to run the shadows guide to Chummer (ignore the"Chummer Legal Application Simplification" and "Build method" sections, they don't apply here)
Character Name: Santina “Tina” Baldino Street Handle: Youali “Ku-au” kuautli (Night hunting bird of prey) Metatype: Human Archetype: Adept Sniper (Prinary skills: Stealth, Perception, Longarms; Secondary skills: Undecided but will fit background and support team) (sheet)
Appearance: Plain woman with dark hair and fair complexation. Street clothes are fashionable and dark.
Character concept idea
Personality: Tina is a professional. Work and play do not mix. She follows a personal code of conduct, a mixture of her Mafia upbringing and Military school: Do not speak with authorities; Seek revenge for any harm delivered (The Omerta of La Costa Nostra); Will not lie cheat or steal, or tolerate anyone would, within the team (a personal version of the words on West Point's Honor Monument); Minimize any and all collateral damage, target only is always the preferred option. Fashion fan, loves to follow the latest trends.
“Nothing personal, its just biz chummer!” With the gun pointed to the back of the head of her mark.
Background:
Born into the Italian Mafia in New York
age 0-12 - Grew up around crime, very familiar with guns and violence
age 12-18 - Sent to Military Boarding school
age 18-22 - UCAS Military academy in West Point NY (Sniper training)
age 22-26 - Mercenary Tour of duty during Amazonian War (2072-74)
age 28 - Shadowrunning
Currently Squatting in an office park in Tacoma. Johnson’s run target was geeked before my plane hit the Seattle tarmack. Fixer has promised to find me some work, now that he has had me, and my gear, smuggled into the area.
RP Sample:
The firefight below was furious, the heat of the jungle oppressive. Tina lay still on the hill side, her gaze roaming over the fire zones, always returning to the windows and doors of the back of the building her squad members were directing the Amazonian troops to fall back toward. They only had about another hour before the Amazonia reinforcements were to close to stay clear of. There! Tina saw a face matching the one on her HUD look out a second story window. Click! Boom! No more head.
“Target neutralized. I’m moving to beta site. Meet you in the morning.” Slipping out from behind the cover of natural foliage, Tina disappears into the jungle letting her armor’s adaptive camouflage help her move unseen through the thick jungles.
The creek of the run-down door opening snapped Tina from her reverie. Ambushes are always similar, find a location to monitor for your mark and wait, patiently for the correct moment. There was only one person in the room down the hall, she had listened to each voice, knew how many were there and counted each as they left until the one she was after was the last one home. She knew that these stairs were the only place for the mark to easily go to the street. He would pass her soon.
Her stealth suit kept her blended into the dark shadows and in a moment later a grubby man stepped around the corner of the stairwell. “Ahem!” The man jumped and spun toward the deep shadows from where Tina spoke. “You have one chance to walk away from this alive. Tell me who has you checking out my flat? I know you have been through my building every day for the last three. So, answer my questions and we both walk away.” He feared someone else more than her, pity.
Exiting the building, Tina looked across the street to a shabby woman and her two kids. She nods once and walks away. The agreement was a simple one. She created a vacant flat. The woman and her kids now had a place to live and all they needed to do was keep her informed on anyone who was coming and going around where Tina had set up. Her Fixer better call soon. Hiding out in this dump was terrible, but not the worst place she had spent the night, not by a long shot and long shots were her stock and trade.
As she made her way back to her flat, she ran the latest Vashion Island seasonal fashion inventory on her AR Hud. There were a couple of dresses she would love to have, but first, she needed a run.
Last edited by acgreen; Mar 7th, 2021 at 10:56 PM.
Character Name: "Likeable, Lucky" Lucy
Street Handle:Ell Metatype: Human
Archetype: Face / Adept, focus on Blades & Sporting Rifles
Appearance: Ell, physically speaking is a 5'1relatively short Asian woman with thick, shaggy black hair highlighted at random with dark browns and solid white. Ell's round porcelain face is decorated by her dark brown eyes, snub nose, and her sharp-toothed grin.
Personality:
Ell is one of those people who radiate likeability, the way she makes everyone feel appreciated, how she naturally buddies up to those around her... It's an intentional act not to like her. There are the paranoid people who claim before running the Shadows, Ell was a behavioral psychologist and a mastermind in the art of hospitality, but given her ditziness and lack of intuition, these people are often passed off as paranoid.
Ell likes to consider everybody at Runner bars as her friends - even the ones who don't quite agree with this belief - and she treats them like such, always eager to put a smile on someone's face or lighten up the atmosphere. On a surface level, she doesn't seem to understand the concept of 'negative' emotions. Or Personal space. Or privacy.
Background:
In the Shadows, it's only to be expected that people may pop up out of nowhere, that someone could just walk into the local Runner dive and nobody knows who they were or where they came from, often times these wild cards accepted a job and made a name for themselves. Ell... Was different. Nobody in the Shadows knew who Ell was, where she had come from, why or even how she managed to paint the druglord Butch Crater's home with... Well, himself. The wetwork team of runners who first came across Ell told tales of how she'd just walked out of the apartment wearing the viscera of the (now deceased) drug lord and started talking to them. Just like that, as if nothing had happened and as if she wasn't standing stark naked talking to them all friendly-like. Stranger, yet she didn't even take the reward money. There were no weapons found at the scene, a few bullet holes scattered randomly around the apartment and worse yet, someone had stolen his prized Tibetan Mastiff.
Ell had vanished just as quick as she had appeared, a year went by and there were rumors running around the gangs of a banshee or some other nondescript she-beast who ripped apart the criminal underworld in a furious femme fatale fury... Though so far she only had a body count of one.
Ell had come back to the Shadows community, armed with a Katana and an M1 Garand she had acquired from... Somewhere. As tacky as the Katana was, Ell seemed quite protective over the blade and especially protective over the red object tightly tied around its hilt.
RP Sample:
It was raining pretty hard that evening as Ell was sat at the large bay window of her apartment, the street she lived on was buried beneath multiple streets, so it was a hard place to find, it helped that the whole place still had its security systems from the previous owner set up, so nobody really bothered her. It wasn't like she got many visitors anyways. In her reflection Ell could see the large mattress she had just tossed in the middle of the floor, pillows, and sheets covering it. Ell was odd to a lot of people, even among the runners of the Shadows, she was an oddball. A mattress in the middle of her living room and not a bedframe insight in the apartment, which many would call 'cramped', but she liked to call it 'cozy'.
There was incense burning on the kitchen counter, filling the apartment with an earthy aroma. Ell liked the earthiness, the smell made her mind wander to the temples of old, lined with incense high up in a place of seclusion. Ell's apartment was quite like that in its own, cozy little way. Ell stood up from where she was sat, looking over to her pile of clothes. Oh right, I'm naked. the woman thought to herself, rather bemused at her own forgetfulness, stepping into her trousers and buttoning up her shirt... Was there anything else? she thought to herself as thunder boomed out over on the horizon. The dark-haired woman playfully tip-toed her way across the apartment to grab her jacket and slide it on, checking the pockets. Ah, I'll need to buy more of those fancy cigars, Comet down at th- The time! Ell pondered once more, startling herself when she spied the time on her commlink. Thunder roared once more.
Ell grabbed her Katana and pulled on the sling, keeping it hidden to the best of her ability beneath the large jacket. The door locked behind her and Ell began to run down the street and out into the cul-de-sac-like circle of similar apartments. Ell's feet carried her as fast as they could, the rain battering against her face as she skidded around a corner and stopped to catch her breath... Then she saw her. The Siamese Cat stared at Ell as she stood there panting and huffing, Ell glaring back. There was something primal in the pure hatred between the two, like Cat and Dog, they never got along, 'Mr.' Tibbles always inconveniencing Ell by stealing her washing or commlink and her by accidentally letting dogs out to chase them. There was a meow from the Siamese cat and Ell flashed it a vulgar hand gesture before it trotted off to do whatever it was that entity of undiluted evil did. Ell still had to tell the owners that 'Mr' Tibbles was, in fact, a girl but 'Mr' Tibbles owner was rather advanced into the elderly years.
The lone woman stood outside the school watching as teens spilled out from the building... There was a particular duo she was looking for - Two dryad girls. I can't believe their mother gets paid so much... I don't think even I could pay to get someone through a place like this. Then again, I'm not rich, am I? she pondered to herself, sitting patiently across the street. When Ell had first started this gig she'd gotten odd looks from passers-by and a few people had even tried to talk her down from relinquishing the katana, but they'd learned quickly not to try. All Ell had to do was to keep an eye on the young girls and make sure nothing unexpected happened, no drug-deals, no gangers, no muggings, or anything like that. Simple enough for an alright pay. "Lucky Likeable Lucy" as the Runners dubbed her, started the route across the street like she always did, the girls had started to notice her over the past year but they'd never questioned it. From the looks of you it could always just be a case of overlapping schedule. she thought to herself, padding along the street ahead of the twins, plus it's not like she was paid to be discreet. Ell was here to keep the kids safe, not be a shroud of dark, vigilante justice.
Ell slipped through the streets, people parted ways for her as she strolled past them with bold determination to see her job through... There was a shortcut the twins always took that she hated them taking, it was a seedy alleyway that almost always had BTL addicts or junkies lingering around it, sometimes even ones desperate enough to try a mugging.
Ugh, this one stinks... Ell thought to herself as she casually slipped into the shade and cover of adjoining buildings high above. Ell
unsheathed the katana quietly and brought the edge of the blade to the twitching, armed man's neck.
"Didn't we do this last week?"
"Oh cammon lady, I need my fix, it's not like I'm gonna hurt anybody, just give'em a little scare, thassall." the whiny, gaunt man protested, stepping impatiently as his breathe became short and ragged.
"Well listen chummer, we all do what we have to just to get by, but I warned you last time."
"Frag off, what're you gonna do anyways? I bets that sword isn't even real, look, you can tell it's plasti-" the would-be mugger's sentence was cut off as the katana's blade began to drip with a clothes-sizzling liquid, then pressed against his neck, the mugger pushing away as the acid started to eat at his neck and clothes before sizzling off back into ambient mana; The skeletal man was about to take aim before Ell ran him through, taking the gun out of his hand and sliding him down into a dark corner, curling the bleeding mugger up and making a Shh sound as she sank back into the shadows opposite the alleyway.
The twins noted the lack of their usual parallel traveler as they walked by, paying no heed to the groaning, incoherently babbling addict in the shade, there was always one. Ell waited for the twins to make it through the alleyway before she resumed following them. I wonder why Comet likes those expensive cigars so much? I never see him smoking them... His team normally smokes them the minute I pass them one, but him? He just pockets it and lea- Oh Drek, red light. Ell pondered to herself, coming to a sudden halt when the street lights switched to a red.
"Careful, red light." one of the Twins joked towards Ell, who was rather embarrassed to get caught out so deep in thought. It was like this every weekday. The typical humdrum routine and path, the runs were when life got exciting - all the new people she got to meet, all the new sights and experiences you wouldn't get by just... Following the la- Greenlight! Ell continued to follow the twins across the road, waiting a few seconds to let the gap build once more.
A handful of uneventful minutes passed by until the twins were safely back home. Ell waited - as the usual deal went - for twenty minutes, then stepped up to the front door as Dryad woman opened the door with a duffel bag in her hand.
"Here's your stuff, Ell, bathroom's open if you want to use it. I put the cigars in there too, though I wish you wouldn't hang around those kinds of people." Sofia Rozanov said as Ell took it and gave Sofia an acknowledging nod, quietly making her way down the hall and into the bathroom, gently pushing the door shut with her foot. Ell
began to clean herself up and pulled the AR-enhanced cigar packet out of the duffel bag and looked it over before stuffing it into the inside pocket of her jacket.
As Ell stepped out from the bathroom Sofia handed her a credstick. "Thanks, I need that. Also, those kind of people are my friends."
"Everyone is your friend, Ell. That's the problem."
"That's because, simply put, I'm too cute to dislike."
"I don't know why you won't just come work with us at The Garter."
"Because to the big bad Sidney Slick, I'm one of those people, Sofia, besides what would I tell Talky-Tom?"
"Talky-Tom is one of the least useful fixers in Seattle, Ell."
"He's never done wrong by me."
"That's because you only ever do small-time gigs."
"If I went off to Spain to geek some suit and tie type, who would watch over the Twins?"
"Taxis exist, you know."
"They do? Here I thought they were giant corporate bumblebees."
Sofia stared at Ell for a solid minute before sighing and motioning towards the front door.
"Let me know if you can't do the job next week."
The Dive was basically the Runner version of a microbar, a handful of tables and a door down a shady street, just how Ell liked it. The slot on the door came open as a Dwarf peered outside and looked down at the beaming Ell.
"Oh, it's you." the gruff voice said before the slot was shut again and the door opened, the Dwarf stepping down from the stool and folding his arms as he looked up at Ell. "You never go to any of the bigger Runner bars, do you?"
"If I did, who would supply you with these?" asked Ell as she produced the cigars and handed them to the dwarf. Technically you were supposed to get in with Nuyen, but when you sussed out someone's vice, it's all the same. The Dwarf shook his head with a laugh and tapped them against the tips of his fingers. "Alright, come on in. Pheonix isn't in today, she's off due to family obligations, so Skipper is serving drinks today."
"Is my usual seat taken?"
"You know it's raining out there, right?"
"When has that ever stopped me?"
With that exchange done and over with, Ell found herself sitting on the rooftop of the microbar, beneath a metal sheet, the rain loudly battering against it as Ell sat back with a smile and a sip of her water... Then her commlink began to flash as a message came through.
Sender: Talky-Tom Recipient: LLL Message: Hoi chummer. I got a Johnson on satellite link, needs some help in the Barrens. Interested? Doesn’t sound like easy work, but it doesn’t pay like it either.
Sender: LLL Recipient: Talky-Tom Message: Send me the details!
Questionnaire: These questions are only here to serve as a guideline when writing your application. While not required to be answered directly, the more of these your application answers the better your chances.
What is your character's primary motivation? What are their hopes and dreams?
How do they act around their parents? Friends? Boss?
How does your character act under stress?
What is your character's weakness, their kryptonite?
What will your character die for?
What is your character's biggest hypocrisy?
What conflicts does your character have in their life?
Last edited by Marshmallow; Mar 7th, 2021 at 02:06 PM.
Appearance: Shinobi is an average looking human. At 5'11" and 194 lbs with his reddish brown hair and brown eyes he does not really stand out in a crowd. He generally wears a black body suit, which is actually a chameleon suit, with a black trench coat to help hide his weapons. During missions he also wears a helmet which completely hides his facial features.
Personality: Shinobi tends to be calm and quiet most of the time, trying not to attract attention. He prefers to listen and learn things and then when he has something of worth to say then he says it. He dislikes killing, unless it is necessary, or that is the job. But normally he prefers to stun and knock out people if he can't just sneak past them.
Background: Jason Stratton was born in Essen, in the Allied States of Germany. He had the normal life of one born in the Saeder-Krupp Corp. His parents were high up in the corporation and he was trained to be one of the corporations elite black-ops members. He was doing very well and life was good until the one day that his group failed to take out their target and acquire the stolen property they had been sent after. It was not their fault, the intel they had was bad and there was way more protection they they were ready for. Only half the twelve man team did not make it back alive. Lowfyr, the ancient dragon that owns and runs Saeder-Krupp, was furious and as rumors hinted at he took his anger out on the remaining members of the strike team, killing them all. Or at least it thought it killed them all.
Jason has no idea how he survived, but he knew he was dead if the dragon found out. So he abandoned everything and everyone he knew and fled to the states. He has been doing odd jobs here and there and now finds himself in Seatle. He tries to keep a low profile, but did manage to get a fake SIN so he could try to maintain something close to the life he had. His hope is to stay hidden from Saeder-Krupp until he can raise enough money to get his face and fingerprints altered and get him a new identity that Lowfyr will never be able to find him.
Two weeks ago, downtown Detroit:
Shinobi walked into the bar and walked to the back giving the bar tender a nod. He moved through the door at the back and into the back room where the rest of his group is waiting. He had waited outside watching until all the others had entered and making sure no one was following them before entering.
He looks around and nods to the others. It's clear.
He moves over to a corner and leans against the wall and then turns his attention to Dante, their fixer for this job. As far as jobs go this one went amazingly well. They got in quietly, found the target and got it out without setting off any alarms or encountering any security patrols. Now they were here waiting for their payment from Mr. Johnson.
Speaking of the devil, he just walked in. He walks up to Dante and takes the package offered to him. He opens it and checks the contents, then gives a nod and a big smile.
Mr. Johnson: Excellent. We are most pleased with your work. Although I do regret to inform you that the previous owner has discovered the loss and he is very upset. And it appears he has friends in high places and they are all out looking for you all. I would recommend that you lay low for a while. There is no telling what means they will use to find you. Most likely magic will be involved. We thank you and wish you the best of luck.
With that he hands a cred stick to Dante who checks it, nods that the payment is all there and Mr Johnson leaves.
Dante takes the cred stick and transfers the money onto several other sticks and tosses them to the group.
Dante: He is right. You guys need to disappear for a while. If you wish I have some contacts in other cities. I can hook you up and get you there.
A couple of the others took Dante up on his offer. Shinobi waits till the others have left and then approached him. He did not want the others knowing where he went just in case.
Shinobi: I could use a new location.
Dante: Okay, lets see... Yes, this one will work. I got a buddy named Dvanar, a dwarf in Seattle. He is a fixer too. I can sent him a note about you and give you his info and you can link up with him when you get there.
Shinobi thinks about it for a second and then nods.
Shinobi: Sounds good.
He waits while Dante contacts Dvanar and sets things up. Once he gets the info he leaves and goes home. He packs his stuff and heads to the small airport Dante told him about. After a long flight he finds himself in Seattle. He makes contact with Dvanar and gets his help finding a place to live. And now he is waiting for Dvanar to contact him with a run.
__________________
Taken the oath of Sangus!
Last edited by Draidden; Mar 9th, 2021 at 03:29 PM.
Full Name: Bridget Dufresne Handle: "Boom Boom" Laverne Metatype: Human Archetype: Heavy Weapons/Demolitions/Technical
Physical description: Laverne is a middle-aged woman, stocky yet still agile. Her hair is short and dyed blond, while her face carries the marks of an accident from years past, both scars and cyberware. Personality: Laverne is an expert in multiple fields of science and engineering, and expects to be treated as such. However she relies more on snap decisions and judgment calls than careful consideration, although her keen mind and experience mean she's usually right. She's a thrill-seeker at heart, and gets grouchy when she ends up in a support role.
Backstory: Laverne started out as a wageslave engineer, working demolitions on construction sites. She made a few contacts in the shadow community over the years, by skimming supplies from Saeder-Krupp via forged paperwork, but played it smart enough to keep from getting drawn in too far.
After almost 20 years working with S-K, her superiors pushed her to do a job she considered unsafe, and the resulting explosion left her with extensive injuries. The corp bosses paid for bargain-basement medical treatment and second-hand cyberware replacements for her eyes, then promptly fired her and scrubbed the record of her safety concerns, blaming her for the accident. With her corporate SIN burned, she turned to the contacts she had made, and chose to ply her trade in the shadows.
RP sample:
It was a slow, drizzly morning, and the rain always made Laverne feel a little claustrophobic. She needed to get out of the house and get to work, even ignoring the ever-declining balance of her finances. She dialed up her fixer, a little snot-nosed elf kid half her age. "Hey Juice, it's Laverne. Haven't heard from you in a long time. Things are looking a little lean over here, you know? When are you going to throw another job my way?"
Look, Boom, you have kind of a specialized skill set. Not everybody needs or wants explosives on a job.
Laverne raked her fingers through her hair in frustration, feeling the scars on her scalp. "Sure, nobody plans for that. But I haven't seen an exfil that couldn't have been helped with a well-placed grenade or two. Besides, I do have other talents. Hell, I've got two Masters degrees and a half-dozen professional certifications; at least, I did in a former life. Come on, you gotta have something for me."
I mean, yeah, you've got skills omae, but can I be honest? Some of the runners who worked with you think you're a little... trigger happy. A hammer in search of a nail, you get me? You want work, I gotta know you can do subtle.
Who did this kid think he was? Sure she liked explosions, but she had self-control. "Subtle? Sure I can do subtle. I don't even have to go out in the field; I can forge documents, modify weapons, do lab work, anything. Don't you remember that job in Redmond where I identified that new street drug, and helped trace it back to the dealer?"
Yeah, and I remember you brought down an apartment building in the process.
Oh yeah. She'd forgotten that part. "OK, OK, but it was condemned. Neighborhood looked a hell of a lot better afterward."
Alright, alright, I'll shake some trees and see if anybody's interested. See you later, chummer.
Questionnaire:
*What is your character's primary motivation? What are their hopes and dreams?
Laverne runs because her SIN was burned and she doesn't have any other options. But now that she's had a taste of the lifestyle, she wouldn't go back if she could. She doesn't have long-term goals; she jokes that she's going to die young in a blaze of glory, so why make plans?
*How do they act around their parents? Friends? Boss?
Since she was un-personed by Saeder-Krupp, she lost contact with all her old friends and business acquaintances inside. Even her parents are tough to get in touch with, but at least they stopped pestering her about grandchildren.
*How does your character act under stress?
Laverne does best under pressure. She's nervous and fidgety when she's not part of the action, but the adrenaline sharpens her mind.
*What is your character's weakness, their kryptonite?
Laverne will always go for the plan where she gets to blow something up.
*What will your character die for?
Laverne will probably die when her ego finally outstrips her intellect.
*What is your character's biggest hypocrisy?
Laverne claims she runs out of necessity, but really she could be making better money working the black market full-time. She just likes the excitement.
*What conflicts does your character have in their life?
Laverne has a grudge against Saeder-Krupp for tossing her into the shadows. She'll always jump at the chance to run against them.
Last edited by RainyDayNinja; Mar 5th, 2021 at 08:25 PM.
Birth Name: Emily Luque Archetype: Technomancer (Technoshaman) Race: Elf Character Concept: A 'nice' shadowrunner, very conditionally Intended role: Support and the occasional matrix super power
Favorite Item: Her Colt M23, even though she's not good with it Least Favorite Food: Spaghetti - the noodles are bland and are weird to eat Least Favorite Spaghetti: Spaghetti code Favorite Hobbies: Writing software, in whatever form it might be Least Favorite Sensation: Decompiling a sprite Favorite Kind of Run: One that she's prepared for, but still needs to keep on her toes Least Favorite Kind of Person: Technomancer hunters
Paragon: The Guardian, Intrusion Countermeasure
Appearance and Personality: Tall, slim, and always online, meatspace-COBOLd is a young Hispanic elf who likes to think of herself as a cute librarian type. Her black, long hair is kept in a low ponytail or bun that goes well with the dark, long-sleeve shirts and khaki pants she typically wears. Perhaps most unusually for her recent line of work, COBOLd doesn't wear any obvious technology, with her only piece of real hardware being a dirt-cheap Meta Link that she got from a Stuffer Shack, which she wears on a necklace underneath her shirt and almost always keeps it offline.
In the matrix, the slight and unassuming elf is replaced by a very large and vibrantly indigo lizard-person that would put a drake to shame in size and ferocious appearance, clad in leather and wood. Here she is the real COBOLd, who can even occasionally be seen toting around an adorable little bipedal, wingless dragonling of some vibrant color or another. Any that would disparage COBOLd's kobolds would be in for a nasty surprise when she gets to work though, bringing forth a veritable army of her dragon-sprites to swarm over her enemies and allies alike, ripping the former to shreds while optimizing the latter to run at never-before heights.
Not that COBOLd enjoys unleashing her little minions - as monstrous as her matrix appearance might be, COBOLd is actually quite sweet and has a particular soft spot for fellow denizens of the matrix, be they technomancers, sprites, AI, or even the lowly IC. When given the opportunity, she'll even go out of her way to lend aid to those that she deems her people - a personal calling that she throws herself at, and that has gotten her into trouble before.
Of recent interest are technocritters, as well as how awakened critters and beings intersect with technology. While the latter is more alien to her and both are relatively rare, she finds herself fascinated by those who she can only relate to through the aspect of herself that most distances her from bog-standard metahumanity. COBOLd isn't sure sure what to make of all of it yet, nor where that path is heading, but she feels she needs to find out.
Background: Ares moving its headquarters to Atlanta was big news, but not too surprising to COBOLd when the announcement was made. Sure, it was her hometown and it growing into the hub of North America felt kinda good, but it was not because of nostalgia she felt that way. She did not really have a fantastic childhood, even if it wasn't bad - raised Catholic, with a few more siblings than her parents could feed comfortably, they all got by but COBOLd, then Emily, fell through the cracks a little bit. Her Emergence went unnoticed by her family, and she never felt the need to fix that, instead finding a new world where not only did she not slip through the cracks so easily, but she could help others, in small ways. And the live, rapidly growing matrix of Atlanta was a large part of that.
Doctoring the files to fake getting a juicy scholarship to some boarding school was easy with her reptilian, virtual friends and got her leeway to melt into the shadows completely, where she took to things like a fish to water. An odd fish though - for all her working and the friends she made, COBOLd never got good with a gun, never got the implants that others used, as cool as they were. Instead, she ripped up the matrix something fierce, all while being as inconspicuous as possible in meat space. Breaking the law, sure, but helping people that needed help. People like her, technos or awakened or just folks down on their luck sometimes. Folks that needed a bit of assistance, by far the best jobs to take.
That still made enemies though, still stepped on toes, and maybe bigger than that, COBOLd started to feel like maybe her help was starting to make some diminishing returns. Bigger players were coming out to help protect the city, both vocally and in the shadows, and compared to the godlike might of Atlanta herself (awe-inspiring to see in person) or the political resources and community support that DocWagon HQ wielded, the technoshaman eventually decided it was a better idea to take her show on the road - to help people where there were fewer helpers like her, anyway, so she set off west, cruising through the CAS and then further, meeting new folks and seeing what there was to see. And, in part, falling in with an odd crowd and making their occasional mark on the matrix, as needed.
Trains were always a certain kind of fun, even if they weren't a nice train. It turned out that the train running from California up to Seattle was quite nice and included complimentary snacks and drinks, which made it darn near lavish for COBOLd! Not uncomfortably so, though, helped by the fact that she was here legally. All on the up and up. Paid actual nuyen.
Which, as the thought crossed her mind and she awkwardly flipped between the different displays that the train gave its passengers, she had to admit was a weird feeling. She was talented at her job, but she had money problems. Always had money problems. Heck, she wasn't even the one that had paid for this ticket, or the place she would be crashing at - those were just favors she had cashed in on. Called in for cheap.
It has COBOLd grinding her teeth, and she was quite glad she'd masked up her persona as something bland. She had a date in a few days and while she knew that they didn't have to do anything expensive, there was only so many times that they could duck into the Ares Matrix Arena host and have fun tearing opponents apart! Probably, anyway. Maybe... maybe dip into a particularly nice gala? That could be fun, but would need money. And for all her bravery at facing down feral protosapients or disabling guns mid-firefight, it took time to build up the courage to slip fully into VR and start the call.
F1d-0 picked up near-immediately though, as he always did, his fierce Anubis-reminiscent persona similar to her own normal one in that it contrasted with his meatspace body. He hated being pet in either form, amusingly, but COBOLd only ever went that far online. "Mister Fido, I was wondering how much goodwill you still might have for me over the Denver deal?" COBOLd asked sweetly, the throaty, hissing voice echoing out from her mind with a pleading, bashful smile. "And hoping that it might be just enough to point me in the direction of a job once I get to the place?"
"Oh for-" came the start to an exasperated curse, but it eased away into a deflated groan that stretched long as COBOLd's smile grew. F1d-0 was good people, even if he pretended to be beleaguered with anything she asked of him, and they'd worked together for a while now, even if F1d-0 was taking a back seat, 'letting his paws rest' for a while, as he said. Which just meant he was shifting focus to pointing people where they needed to be, scrounging up money, and moving stuff that needed moving - three talents she could use or was using! "Fine. You know what? Fine. But this is the last time. The last last time. Ya hear? No more drek-stirring from you over... all of that. Capisce?" he prompted, gruffly.
COBOLd had to stifle a laugh - the free time had also seen F1d-0 getting into old trids and some language learning tools, which had crossed over into some amusing directions. "Yes sir," she said seriously, but the smile was still there. She felt her body rock slightly, back on the train, and a glance over at the panels showed the train taking a fairly sharp turn, half way to the destination. Soon to cross a bridge, but her eyes came back. "And unrelated, once I get paid, I'll be in the market for two virtual dinner tickets. Fancy, probably a throwback kind of thing. Maybe UV hosted. Just keep an eye out please. With a finder's fee, of course."
Now it was the technomancer's turn to get laughed at, which always felt a little weird. She did not think of dogs as laughing much. But COBOLd did not protest the humor he found in her request. "Yeah, of course. Dancha is still too good for you, but I'll find something for you two. Nice and date-like." Which had COBOLd rolling her virtual eyes but smiling wide as she moved to end the call. What did F1d-0 know about romance, pshhh. His ribbing was a nice little bit of friendliness though, and as COBOLd sank back into her body and then sank further into the cushioned seat of the train, she relaxed a little more. Get to Seattle, unpack her stuff that had been sent ahead, get a nice and easy job to help some folks and pick up a little scratch, and then a date in a week or so. Easy living, it felt! What could go wrong?