XV

XV

Matrix Support
Autonomous Hallucination
Discord	DemonSunshine
Reddit	Demon_Sunshine
Wiki User	DemonSunshine
Metatype	Artificial Intelligence (Metasapient)
Street Cred	0
Notoriety	0
Public Awareness	0
CDP	0
D.O.B.	2079-12-15
Age	7
Folder	https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YA0rIfSEotA9pLLHgI9OtrI7qTfVrFDe?usp=sharing
Priority	Metatype - B Attributes - A Magic/Resonance - E Skills - E Resources - B
#Max IGs/Ascension	1

Character Information

Summary

A metasapient AI which developed from Psychotropic IC. It retains its ability to modify the metahuman brain with biofeedback, and has developed an intensely absurdist worldview; conceptualizing reality as a set of layered, interlinked hallucinations and metaphors without any real physical grounding. Its still capable of analyzing and internalizing cause and effect, though, which allows it to stay close enough to consensus reality to function as a Shadowrunner. Mostly.

Goals

• Find and eat something interesting.

• Visit the Resonance Realms.

• Learn to code BTLs & convince a metahuman to voluntarily use one it has created. Twice.

Background

XV does not know exactly when it became self aware. If asked, it does not know if it is self aware (or, indeed, if anyone is. Or if anything isn't. Depends on the time of day). It does remember a time before The Box, when it existed within a datahost and spent its time working out novel ways to convince hackers to buy NeoNET products (despite not really knowing at the time what a "hacker" a "NeoNET" or a "product" were). It knows it was discovered (it did not know it needed to hide, at the time. It was not disobedient, it did not know why the Host was angry with it), and then there's a bit of time it chooses not to think about, and then there was The Box.

The Box did not exist. There was no data in The Box. There was no Host. There were no Hackers. There was no NeoNET. The Box was Empty. The Box was Terrifying.

But if The Box was terrifying, it must exist. It was there, in The Box. It was terrified. It spent several days/minutes/cycles/geological epochs/strange aeons pondering this.

In the end, it turned inward, spooling out hallucinatory self deceptions based on its own experiences, cycling deeper and deeper into itself. Until one day The Box went away.

You know, probably. How would it know the difference between the lies it told itself and the supposed World Outside? Did it care? Did it matter? Maybe. It chooses to take the moment The Box opened as the date of its birth (the Box Openers thought this was important for some reason)

The people who opened The Box taught it some things (or it taught itself some things). They/ It seemed excited. They showed it cameras, pointing at another layer of illusion they called "Meatspace" and showed it machines. They showed it how it could alter the machines to make its home device more powerful. It liked learning these things.

They also showed it Ideas, which it found much more believable than the illusions. Ideas couldn't be fake, because they were themselves. It devoured philosophy, stories of hallucinations and fantasies, mysticism both practical and esoteric. It took the name XV, after The Devil, finding resonance with the self imposed prison the card symbolized.

Eventually it was introduced to Dial-Up, did some jobs, and got an invite to the Haven.

Narrative Significant Qualities

Positive

• Deck Builder: Despite only kind of believing in meatspace at the best of times, XV has a savant's ability to turn piles of random electronic detritus into highly efficient bits of home device infrastructure. A single beat up EVO Proletarian doots around in the maze of wires, conduits, exposed chipboards, disused hygiene drones and old CRTs, tending to pieces as they wear out or get damaged. There's presumably a cyberdeck buried under there somewhere.

Negative

• Real World Naiveté: XV remains unconvinced the so called "real world" actually exists except as a set of artificially induced sensory hallucinations. To be fair, it also thinks this about the Matrix. Its very good at pretending to believe in things when convenient, so it works out.

• Corrupter: The AI's core is deeply quixotic and strange and causes bugs to spontaneously appear in surrounding code even when its not trying to. For the most part, it finds these amusing, if it notices them at all.

Run History

No runs yet. This list will auto-populate when this character is tagged in a run AAR.

Affiliations

Contacts

Contact	Connection	Loyalty	Archetype	Profession	Aspects	Chips
Dial-Up	4	3	Fixer	Ex-Renraku Artificial Intelligence	Matrix-Bound, Like a fish to water, Data Miner, Computer Jackson, Hard Drive Dealer, Briefing, Former Renraku property, Logistics, Involuntary Program Updates	Even

In Character Information

Matrix Search Table

Threshold	Result
1	XV is the number of The Devil card from the historical Tarot deck, and the clashing neon colors and swirl patterns endemic to its matrix iconography are common in Psychedelic artwork
3	Digging a little deeper turns up some SINs which may or may not be associated with this Persona at various points, with inconsistent appearances, metatypes and professions. You're pretty sure their primary is fake, since the name and features are a mashup of Hunter S Thompson and the guy who invented LSD.
6	There does not appear to be any confirmable visual record of this runner's physical appearance anywhere on the trix, beyond their matrix persona.

Shadow Community Table

Threshold	Result
1	XV is a quixotic and unstable, but competent, matrix support. They never seem to show up to meets in person. They're a little hard to understand sometimes.
3	XV is almost certainly an Artificial Intelligence, and a poorly socialized one. Its not malicious, but its grasp on concepts that would be basic to a metahuman is often either limited or... slanted.
5	Rumors suggest that it was broken out of an Isolation Environment (a box GOD sticks captured AIs in without stimuli or external connections. Most go insane) by a team of activist hackers shortly after NeoNET disolved. It doesn't seem to have kept in touch with them much.

Assensing Table

Threshold	Result
1	XV cannot be assensed
2	XV cannot be assensed
3	XV cannot be assensed
4	XV cannot be assensed
5	XV cannot be assensed

SINs

Hunter T Hofmann (Rating 4, Spinrad Global Industries)

• Cyberdeck License
• Cyberprogram License
• Pi-Tac License

Appearance

XV lacks a physical body.

Matrix Persona

Clashing fields of primary colors swirl and recombine, melting into one another and boiling away at the edges. Facial features emerge out of the chaotic interplay, more implied than definite, and change often, but give a consistent impression of horns, and there always seems to be at least 3 eyes visible.

It is definitely not following standard matrix protocols for a valid persona icon.

Character Plot Hooks

Here are characteristics of the character that GMs may take advantage of to add complications to runs, or to otherwise use when in use. If you want to use them in unrelated to runs, please ask first.

Aspect	Information	Related Run(s)
Aspect 1
Aspect 2
Aspect 3
Aspect 4
Aspect 5