Difference between revisions of "Cricket"

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{{CategoryTemplate}} <!-- This entire line is safe to delete. In fact, please do. -->
{{Infobox
{{Infobox
|YourWikiUsername =Discogoblin  
|YourWikiUsername =Discogoblin  
|title = {{PAGENAME}} <!-- Do not change this!!! It is supposed to say PAGENAME, the wiki will automatically replace this. -->
|title = {{PAGENAME}} <!-- Do not change this!!! It is supposed to say PAGENAME, the wiki will automatically replace this. -->
|image= [[File:Placeholder.png|200px]] <!-- You can change the filename to whatever you like, and upload a picture of your character to be displayed on the wiki. -->
|image= [[File:Cricket_Redesign.jpg]] <!-- You can change the filename to whatever you like, and upload a picture of your character to be displayed on the wiki. -->
|header1= Technomancer, Data Thief, and Aspiring Revolutionary
|header1= Technomancer, Data Thief, and Wannabe Revolutionary
|header2= "There's a special kind of thrill to learning things you aren't supposed to know. Disarming data bombs, dodging IC, feeling the adrenaline spike as you brush with death for a couple lines of code... Nothing makes me feel more alive."
|header2= "Winning comes first. Keeping your brain in tact is just a bonus."
|header3=  
|header3=  
|header4=
|header4=
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|data9 = 0
|data9 = 0
|label10 = Public Awareness
|label10 = Public Awareness
|data10= 0
|data10= 4
|label11 = Titles and Awards
|label11 = Titles and Awards
|data11 =  
|data11 =  
|label12 = CDP  
|label12 = CDP  
|data12 = {{CDP|  
|data12 = {{CDP|  
|Expenses=0
|Expenses=87
|Bonuses=0
|Bonuses=50
|}} <!-- The above will automatically add +2 CDP for each AAR your character is tagged in. You can note expenses and any bonus CDP you gain above to adjust your current CDP total. -->
|}} <!-- The above will automatically add +2 CDP for each AAR your character is tagged in. You can note expenses and any bonus CDP you gain above to adjust your current CDP total. -->
|label13 = D.O.B.
|label13 = D.O.B.
|data13 = October 12, 2060
|data13 = October 12, 2062
|label14 = Age
|label14 = Age
|data14 = {{Age| <!-- Leave this line alone, enter the month, day, and year of birth below in numeric format. Yes, a second time. I know. -->
|data14 = {{Age| <!-- Leave this line alone, enter the month, day, and year of birth below in numeric format. Yes, a second time. I know. -->
|Month= 10
|Month= 10
|Day= 12
|Day= 12
|Year= 2060
|Year= 2062
|}} <!-- The above will automatically update your character's age on their birthday! Just enter their month, day, and year of birth in numeric format. -->
|}} <!-- The above will automatically update your character's age on their birthday! Just enter their month, day, and year of birth in numeric format. -->
|label15 = Folder
|label15 = Folder
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===Summary===
===Summary===
Cricket is a gangly, permanently-disheveled Oni with a passion for making trouble on the Matrix. A talented technomancer specializing in data theft, she runs the shadows to build contacts and gather resources. She considers the Matrix her home, and is determined to free it from megacorp control. It's a suicidal pipe dream, but she thinks that if something ain't worth dying for, it ain't worth living for either. She'll succeed whatever the cost, or at least raise hell trying.    
Cricket is an out of shape, permanently-disheveled Oni with oversized glasses and roughly cut silver hair. An anarchist vandal and resident technomancer of the Hellraisers, she runs the shadows to build contacts and gather resources in order to free the Matrix from corporate control. Well known among her coworkers as "that idiot" and a "mouthy little leet-speak shit".    


===Goals===
===Goals===


*Break the corporate stranglehold on the Matrix
*Break the corporate stranglehold on the Matrix
**Liberate any data that the corps want to keep hidden
**Liberate every bit of incriminating data she can find
**Build a group of likeminded technos and deckers
**Build a tribe of likeminded technomancers
**Find more ways for everyday people to bypass GOD's rules
**Give GOD the bloodiest nose it's ever gotten
**Create a single, unified grid free of private property
**Create a single, unified grid free of private property
*Move into an apartment with fewer Devil Rats
*Set up a wired host in the Iceberg hotel, and stuff it with murderous IC
*Learn how to 3D model
*Beat Vip3r in cybercombat
*Get platinum ranked in Ultimate Brawl IV
*Get platinum ranked in Ultimate Blood Brawl IV


==Background==
==Background==




For as long as Cricket can remember, she's felt out of place in the world. Everything in meatspace felt wrong; somehow both painfully slow and utterly overwhelming. Growing up in the misery of the Barrens didn't help, and neither did her family. Her parents were creatures of pent-up frustrations, with a tendency to take them out on their child. They were less than understanding of their child's condition, and would constantly belittle her for her tendencies. Their efforts to "fix" her often devolved into outright abuse, and Cricket spent most of her early life was spent convinced that she was some kind of mistake. Once her powers awakened, though, she discovered a world where things finally felt ''right.''
For as long as Cricket can remember, she's felt out of place in the world. Everything the meat has always been wrong; both mind-numbingly slow and painfully overwhelming. She spent her early life in a haze of depression and boredom, her body an oversized prison and her mind prone to severe mood swings. To others she came off as distant and uninterested, occasionally volatile. To herself, she came off as a piece of shit. Growing up in the misery of the Barrens didn't help, and the pent up frustrations of her parents only made it worse. They found their child's condition infuriating. It was incompatible with the person they were trying to raise, and they would break their child's habits by any means necessary. She was kept isolated and strictly controlled, belittled for any perceived failure to meet expectations. The threat of a beating was used to keep her in line, a threat that her father often followed through on. By the time she was fourteen, Cricket firmly believed that her life had no worth. Then, she emerged.  


Cricket immersed herself in the Matrix, marveling at a place where it felt like she actually belonged. Her parents didn't take her awakening well, but she didn't care anymore. She had a real home. By the time they tossed her out, she was good enough to start plying her trade for the many small time gangs of the Barrens. None of them lasted too long, but the talents of a technomancer are always in high demand. She spent a couple of years polishing her skills and hopping from gang to gang, but she quickly grew tired of the lifestyle. She hated gang politics and thought that, quite frankly, most of the people she worked with were assholes. She didn't want to just eke out a living doing petty crimes, she wanted to work towards something greater. It didn't take long for her to find her cause.
With no one to guide her through it, Cricket's emergence did not go smoothly. In fact, it ended up bricking half of the apartment's electronics. But none of that mattered when the girl who had never even had trodes took her first jump into the matrix. She was thrust into a world where things finally felt ''right'', and given a living persona that could be everything that her body wasn't. She delved into the net under the shadow of the corporate hosts, basking in its joys and searching for an explanation as to what she was. Unfortunately, as a newly emerged techno and a complete matrix novice, her romping was about as subtle as an airhorn. After a few weeks of searching and trespassing, the local demiGOD gave her the full technomancer treatment. They came down on her like a boot upon a bug, causing a first time dumpshock that nearly killed her.  


Just as Cricket discovered the wonders of the Matrix, she also witnessed its injustices. She saw how the Matrix was divided up like a piece of real estate, throttled by GOD and their Megacorp masters. She's seen her fellow technomancers get fried and arrested, even killed, just because the powers-that-be saw them as a threat to their margins. The idea of Megacorps bringing their "meatspace shit" into Cricket's paradise made her livid, and soon she decided to start doing something about it. Her acts of resistance started small; illegally hopping grids, vandalizing small-time hosts, leaving a few gremlins here and there; but by the time she was ducking IC and bricking corporate servers she was a full-on aspiring anarchist. Shadowrunning was a natural career choice, both to pay rent and to further her goals. She alone isn't enough to hit the megacorps where it really hurts; she needs contacts, resources, and reputation if she hopes to do any real damage. She knows how quickly idealism can get you killed, but she's more than willing to risk it.  
Cricket had learned a lot in her weeks of searching, and even her bio-feedback ridden brain could recognize that she had just been caught doing something illegal. She was terrified, more so of her parents than the police, and decided that she had to leave. She staggered out of her room, delirious with pain. Blood welled in her eyes and gushed out of her nose, dripping down onto her shirt as she stumbled into the kitchen. The last conversation that she ever had with her parents was lost in a haze of brain damage; all she can remember is that she puked. Fifteen minutes later, collapsed in an alley with only the vomit-stained clothes on her back, she watched the three KE cruisers pull up to her building. Just like that, she was homeless.    


It's honestly a miracle that Cricket lived more than a few days; she had no survival skills, and she could barley even stand on her own. She begged, stole, and scrounged from dumpsters to keep herself just short of starvation, jumping into the matrix at every opportunity. It was a coping mechanism, a way to escape from the gutters she had found herself in. Exploring it was the only thing that kept her going for the first few months. Hacking comes naturally to one whose very existence on the net is illegal, and after about four months Cricket was good enough to be recruited by a band of small-time gangers. She scrubbed the trackers on their stolen gear, and they gave her a place to sleep. It was slightly better than nothing.     
The next four years of her life were spent hopping from crew to crew. None of her gigs ever lasted for more than a few months, and usually ended with the majority of her comrades getting killed. Luckily for Cricket, the skills of a technomancer are always in demand; when her crew got wiped out, she'd just go work for the ones who killed them. Shockingly, she was never particularly close with her gangmates. Cricket's time on the streets had given her the personality of a devil rat, and even the ones who weren't hostile viewed her as weird and abrasive. With the exception of Millipede, a dwarven decker she met as the pair faked a gunfight for their respective crews, the few friends that she made either died or fell out of touch.
It was during this period of her life that she developed her radical tendencies. The constant fear of life in the Barrens festered into anger as she aged, anger at the corporations who profited from the slum. Even the matrix, her paradise and the only place that she could feel good about herself, was being throttled under the heel of capital. She needed someone to blame, and more importantly, someone to get back at. Theft and vandalism became stress outlets, and as her skills grew she pursued them with an almost suicidal zeal.
Her exploits eventually drew the attention of [[Priest]], a Neo-Anarchist activist who ran a congregation in the Barrens. The two had known each other for some time already, with Cricket having been a regular at the church's homeless shelter. Once Cricket's skills had really started to develop, Priest extended her an offer to work as a shadowrunner. Cricket accepted halfway through Priest's speech about how dangerous it was. With nothing to her name but a mediocre brain deck, Cricket was determined to prove herself to the world. It's amazing that she survived her first run


==Narrative Significant Qualities==
==Narrative Significant Qualities==
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'''''Fish in Water''''' ''(One With the Matrix II, Hi-Rez)'': Cricket isn't just acclimated to the Matrix, she's built for it. Her living persona feels like more of a home than her actual body.
'''''Fish in Water''''' ''(One With the Matrix II, Hi-Rez)'': Cricket isn't just acclimated to the Matrix, she's built for it. Her living persona feels like more of a home than her actual body.
'''''Budding Technoshaman''''' ''(Resonant Stream: Technoshaman)'': Cricket prefers to work alone, which makes her affinity for sprites both confusing and frustrating. She's made progress in harnessing her strengths, even if she still can't figure out what those damn things are thinking.
'''''Cybercrime Apprentice''''' ''(Sensei: Cybercombat [Sp4rks], Common Sense)'': Cricket has started learning from Sp4rks after getting destroyed by him in a matrix duel. The experience has given her a much clearer picture of her limits, and she'll occasionally think twice before doing something stupid. Occasionally.


===Negative===
===Negative===
'''''Rebel With a Cause''' (Data Liberator, Driven)'': For better or worse (usually worse), Cricket is dedicated. She's willing to take any risks if it means furthering her cause.  
'''''Rebel With a Cause''' (Data Liberator, Curiosity Killed the Cat)'': For better or worse (usually worse), Cricket is dedicated. She's willing to take any risks if it means furthering her cause. She's also just really, really curious. 


'''''Not Built For Meatspace''' (Disheveled, Reduced Sense [Eyesight])'': Cricket doesn't care much about her appearance, and it shows. Her clothes are shabby, her tusks are crooked, she has permanent bedhead, and her oversized glasses make her eyes look like a bug's (hence the name).  
'''''Not Built For Meatspace''' (Disheveled, Reduced Sense [Eyesight])'': Cricket doesn't care about her appearance, and it shows. Her clothes are shabby, her tusks are crooked, she has permanent bedhead, and her oversized glasses make her eyes look like a bug's.


'''''PTSD''''' ''(Flashbacks I)'': Cricket's upbringing left her with lasting trauma, which mainly manifests as an aversion to touch. Most physical contact makes her uncomfortable, and being grabbed suddenly is likely to trigger a panic attack. She's working to get past it, but it's a long and difficult process.
'''''Striking Skin Pigmentation:''''' Cricket's appearance would be remarkably forgettable, if it weren't for the fact that her skin is bright red.
 
==Run History==


'''''Striking Skin Pigmentation:''''' Cricket would have a remarkably forgettable appearance, if it weren't for the fact that her skin is bright red.   


==Run History==
{{RunHistory}}
{{RunHistory}}
<!-- You do not need to edit this section. The above stuff will auto-generate a list of runs based on AARs. -->
<!-- You do not need to edit this section. The above stuff will auto-generate a list of runs based on AARs. -->
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===Contacts===
===Contacts===
'''Millipede''': A dwarven shadow decker, Millipede is one of Cricket's very few actual friends. The pair met in the Barrens, fighting on opposite sides of a turf war. They reached a cybercombat stalemate (neither of them were very good), and their battle soon devolved into wildly spraying at each other with machine pistols. They emptied their magazines without hitting a single shot, and decided to just start pretending to hack each other. They've been friends ever since.
Despite their similar upbringings, Millipede is significantly better adjusted than Cricket. He shares his friend's politics, but doesn't pursue them with the same suicidal zeal. Although he'd never admit it, he's worried about her. For Cricket's part, she shows Millipede about as much affection as she's capable of. He's a sort of anchor in her life, and the only person she's willing to fully trust.
'''Priest''': Cricket owes Priest a great debt; when she was first tossed out on the street, it was the charity from Priest's congregation that kept her alive. Over time their relationship deepened; She would provide info and communications for Priest's protests, and he would provide a place to go if all else failed. Once she came of age, Priest facilitated her entrance into the Haven.
That being said, the two get along like fire and high explosives. Priest thinks of Cricket as a wayward child, walking the right path for the wrong reasons. Cricket thinks of Priest as a raving, bullet-addled lunatic. The two bicker constantly over the minute differences in their politics, especially when it comes to the subject of drugs. Priest is a die-hard prohibitionist, whereas Cricket pops Psyche pills like they're candy. Despite the tensions, Cricket believes that she owes Priest her life. She'd never let him know, but she would go through hell if it meant helping him.


<!-- Do not remove the below text. It's super important for the contact table. -->
<!-- Do not remove the below text. It's super important for the contact table. -->
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{{HasContact|
{{HasContact|
|Name= Priest
|Name= Priest
|Loyalty= 3
|Loyalty= 4
|Chips=Even
|}}
 
{{HasContact|
|Name=Saul Goodman
|Loyalty=2
|Chips=Even
|}}
 
{{HasContact|
|Name=News Van Dan
|Loyalty=4
|Chips=Even
|}}
 
{{HasContact|
|Name=Gord "Twitch" Rodney
|Loyalty=4
|Chips=Even
|Chips=Even
|}}
|}}


{{HasContact|
{{HasContact|
|Name=
|Name=Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy
|Loyalty=
|Loyalty=2
|Chips=Even
|Chips=Even
|}}
|}}


{{HasContact|
|Name=Teldragon
|Loyalty=1
|Chips=Even
|}}


{{HasContact|
|Name=Handraniel
|Loyalty=1
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Repo Man
|Loyalty=4
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Doctor O+
|Loyalty=1
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Kyoko "Wholesale" Nakajima
|Loyalty=3
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Zenny
|Loyalty=4
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=The Movers
|Loyalty=1
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Jet Set
|Loyalty=2
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Jesse Pop
|Loyalty=3
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Pump King Jack
|Loyalty=1
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Treasa ke'Vedryn
|Loyalty=2
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Amrei Veidt
|Loyalty=3
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Lylah Wilder
|Loyalty=3
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Wusan
|Loyalty=2
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=F1ZZ
|Loyalty=3
|Chips=Even
|}}
{{HasContact|
|Name=Chitin
|Loyalty=2
|Chips=Even
|}}




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===Organizations===
===Organizations===
<!-- See: Template:GroupContactTable for the group contact template. -->


===Allies===
===Allies===
Her roommate Millipede, and anyone else fightin' the good fight.
 
{{GroupContactTable|
 
{{GroupContact|
|Group=Hellraisers
|Position=Matrix Specialist
|RepBonus=0
|RepExpense=0
|DateJoined=2082-05-18
|}}
 
{{GroupContact|
|Group=Rise Up
|Position=Member
|RepBonus=0
|RepExpense=0
|DateJoined=2082-08-14
|}}
 
{{GroupContact|
|Group=The Walking People
|Position=Initiate 
|RepBonus=0
|RepExpense=0
|DateJoined=2082-07-16
|}}
 
}}
Blue Crab Gang: +2 Rep
 
The Ancients: +2 Rep


===Enemies===
===Enemies===
Just about everyone associated with the corps
GOD, the corps, GOD, the government, anyone who tries to talk to her in meatspace, GOD.


=In Character Information=
=In Character Information=
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==Matrix Search Table==
==Matrix Search Table==
{{SearchTable||LowResult=Scattered reports of a hacker in Redmond's gang scene going by the name. No concrete details. The Sixth World Encyclopedia defines crickets as Orthopean insects distantly related to grasshoppers.
{{SearchTable||LowResult=Scattered reports of a petty hacker going by the name. No concrete details. The Sixth World Encyclopedia defines crickets as Orthopean insects distantly related to grasshoppers.
|MidResult=The hacker is a technomancer, and doesn't seem to have any particular gang allegiances. Most crickets are a part of the Grylloidea superfamily. The largest members of the family are the bull crickets, which can be up to 5cm long.
|MidResult=The hacker is a frequent poster on Neo-Anarchist forums. They've bragged several times about committing data theft and corporate vandalism.
|HighResult=There is a frequent user by the name of "Cricket" in several Neo-Anarchist forums. They've taken credit for a few acts of data theft and corporate vandalism. In certain countries in Asia and Europe, crickets are sometimes kept to fight for entertainment.
|HighResult=On one such forum, the hacker claimed that they're a technomancer during a debate over a fighting game's netcoding. This claim was immediately challenged as a lie, to which the hacker apparently responded by dataspiking their opponent.
}}
}}
==Shadow Community Table==
==Shadow Community Table==
{{SearchTable|
{{SearchTable|
|LowThreshold=1
|LowThreshold=1
|LowResult=Not a whole lot of details. If they're not new to the scene, then they've been keeping a low profile.
|LowResult=Some sort of hacker that operates in Seattle. Doesn't seem like they have a particularly notable reputation.
|MidThreshold=3
|MidThreshold=3
|MidResult=Some sort of hacker that operates in Seattle. Doesn't seem like they have a particularly notable reputation.
|MidResult=They're new to the shadowrunning scene, but have been operating as a small-time ganger in Redmond for a while. Apparently they're also an Oni.
|HighThreshold=5
|HighThreshold=5
|HighResult=They're a new shadowrunner, but they've been doing shadowrunner-adjacent work as a technomancer for a while. They're based in Redmond.
|HighResult=Known as "bug eyes" and "kind of an asshole" by many of her former gangmates. Left the gang scene to pursue more political interests.
}}
}}


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'''Jessie Elwood''' (UCAS) (R4 Fake)
'''Jessie Elwood''' (UCAS) (R4 Fake)


An Oni of a similar build and skin tone, but with a noticeably neater appearance. Works low level IT for small businesses in Renton.  
An Oni of a similar build and skin tone, but with a noticeably neater appearance. Works low level IT for small businesses in Renton.


*Driver's License (R4 Fake)
*Driver's License (R4 Fake)
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===Physical===
===Physical===
Cricket is a tall, gangly Oni with cherry red skin and dull green eyes. Her grey hair hangs like kelp down to her permanently-slumped shoulders. Her horns are stubby, her ears are droopy, and her tusks are slightly crooked. She's charming though, in her own way,  
Cricket is a tall, gangly Oni with cherry red skin and dull green eyes. Her grey hair hangs like kelp down to her permanently-slumped shoulders. Her horns are stubby, her ears are droopy, and her tusks are slightly crooked. When not in the Matrix, she's surrounded by an oppressively neurotic aura. She's constantly twitching and tapping her fingers, much to the annoyance of anyone sitting nearby. 


===Clothing===
===Clothing===
Cricket's typical outfit consists of bootleg track pants, ratty tank tops, VERY worn athletic shoes, and her big round glasses. The nicest thing she owns is her armored jacket. It's black and has rainbow ants drawn across the back.  
Cricket's typical outfit consists of bootleg track pants, ratty tank tops, VERY worn athletic shoes, and her big round glasses. She has not bought new clothes in about a year and a half. The nicest thing she owns is her armored jacket. It's black and has rainbow ants drawn across the back.  


===Matrix Persona===
===Matrix Persona===
Cricket's Matrix Persona is a short humanoid cricket wearing a 70's style suit that changes color with her mood.
Cricket's Matrix Persona is a tiny humanoid cricket, at the bottom end of the persona size limits. It wears a black suit jacket over a pink tank top, with a small gold chain around it's neck.  


==Media Mentions==
==Media Mentions==

Latest revision as of 03:59, 11 October 2021

Cricket
Cricket Redesign.jpg
Technomancer, Data Thief, and Wannabe Revolutionary
"Winning comes first. Keeping your brain in tact is just a bonus."
Discord@disco goblin#9660
Reddithttps://www.reddit.com/user/Discowhor
Street Cred0
Notoriety0
Public Awareness4
CDP33
D.O.B.October 12, 2062
Age23
Folder[1]
PriorityMetatype - C (Oni)
Attributes - D
Magic/Resonance - A
Skills - B
Resources - E


Character Information

Summary

Cricket is an out of shape, permanently-disheveled Oni with oversized glasses and roughly cut silver hair. An anarchist vandal and resident technomancer of the Hellraisers, she runs the shadows to build contacts and gather resources in order to free the Matrix from corporate control. Well known among her coworkers as "that idiot" and a "mouthy little leet-speak shit".

Goals

  • Break the corporate stranglehold on the Matrix
    • Liberate every bit of incriminating data she can find
    • Build a tribe of likeminded technomancers
    • Give GOD the bloodiest nose it's ever gotten
    • Create a single, unified grid free of private property
  • Set up a wired host in the Iceberg hotel, and stuff it with murderous IC
  • Beat Vip3r in cybercombat
  • Get platinum ranked in Ultimate Blood Brawl IV

Background

For as long as Cricket can remember, she's felt out of place in the world. Everything the meat has always been wrong; both mind-numbingly slow and painfully overwhelming. She spent her early life in a haze of depression and boredom, her body an oversized prison and her mind prone to severe mood swings. To others she came off as distant and uninterested, occasionally volatile. To herself, she came off as a piece of shit. Growing up in the misery of the Barrens didn't help, and the pent up frustrations of her parents only made it worse. They found their child's condition infuriating. It was incompatible with the person they were trying to raise, and they would break their child's habits by any means necessary. She was kept isolated and strictly controlled, belittled for any perceived failure to meet expectations. The threat of a beating was used to keep her in line, a threat that her father often followed through on. By the time she was fourteen, Cricket firmly believed that her life had no worth. Then, she emerged.

With no one to guide her through it, Cricket's emergence did not go smoothly. In fact, it ended up bricking half of the apartment's electronics. But none of that mattered when the girl who had never even had trodes took her first jump into the matrix. She was thrust into a world where things finally felt right, and given a living persona that could be everything that her body wasn't. She delved into the net under the shadow of the corporate hosts, basking in its joys and searching for an explanation as to what she was. Unfortunately, as a newly emerged techno and a complete matrix novice, her romping was about as subtle as an airhorn. After a few weeks of searching and trespassing, the local demiGOD gave her the full technomancer treatment. They came down on her like a boot upon a bug, causing a first time dumpshock that nearly killed her.

Cricket had learned a lot in her weeks of searching, and even her bio-feedback ridden brain could recognize that she had just been caught doing something illegal. She was terrified, more so of her parents than the police, and decided that she had to leave. She staggered out of her room, delirious with pain. Blood welled in her eyes and gushed out of her nose, dripping down onto her shirt as she stumbled into the kitchen. The last conversation that she ever had with her parents was lost in a haze of brain damage; all she can remember is that she puked. Fifteen minutes later, collapsed in an alley with only the vomit-stained clothes on her back, she watched the three KE cruisers pull up to her building. Just like that, she was homeless.

It's honestly a miracle that Cricket lived more than a few days; she had no survival skills, and she could barley even stand on her own. She begged, stole, and scrounged from dumpsters to keep herself just short of starvation, jumping into the matrix at every opportunity. It was a coping mechanism, a way to escape from the gutters she had found herself in. Exploring it was the only thing that kept her going for the first few months. Hacking comes naturally to one whose very existence on the net is illegal, and after about four months Cricket was good enough to be recruited by a band of small-time gangers. She scrubbed the trackers on their stolen gear, and they gave her a place to sleep. It was slightly better than nothing.

The next four years of her life were spent hopping from crew to crew. None of her gigs ever lasted for more than a few months, and usually ended with the majority of her comrades getting killed. Luckily for Cricket, the skills of a technomancer are always in demand; when her crew got wiped out, she'd just go work for the ones who killed them. Shockingly, she was never particularly close with her gangmates. Cricket's time on the streets had given her the personality of a devil rat, and even the ones who weren't hostile viewed her as weird and abrasive. With the exception of Millipede, a dwarven decker she met as the pair faked a gunfight for their respective crews, the few friends that she made either died or fell out of touch.

It was during this period of her life that she developed her radical tendencies. The constant fear of life in the Barrens festered into anger as she aged, anger at the corporations who profited from the slum. Even the matrix, her paradise and the only place that she could feel good about herself, was being throttled under the heel of capital. She needed someone to blame, and more importantly, someone to get back at. Theft and vandalism became stress outlets, and as her skills grew she pursued them with an almost suicidal zeal.

Her exploits eventually drew the attention of Priest, a Neo-Anarchist activist who ran a congregation in the Barrens. The two had known each other for some time already, with Cricket having been a regular at the church's homeless shelter. Once Cricket's skills had really started to develop, Priest extended her an offer to work as a shadowrunner. Cricket accepted halfway through Priest's speech about how dangerous it was. With nothing to her name but a mediocre brain deck, Cricket was determined to prove herself to the world. It's amazing that she survived her first run

Narrative Significant Qualities

Positive

Matrix Scrapper (Hair Trigger, Instinctive Hack, Better on the Net [Sleaze]): What Cricket lacks in formal education, she makes up for in instincts. Her skills have saved her from death before, and she's confident that they can do it again.

Fish in Water (One With the Matrix II, Hi-Rez): Cricket isn't just acclimated to the Matrix, she's built for it. Her living persona feels like more of a home than her actual body.

Budding Technoshaman (Resonant Stream: Technoshaman): Cricket prefers to work alone, which makes her affinity for sprites both confusing and frustrating. She's made progress in harnessing her strengths, even if she still can't figure out what those damn things are thinking.

Cybercrime Apprentice (Sensei: Cybercombat [Sp4rks], Common Sense): Cricket has started learning from Sp4rks after getting destroyed by him in a matrix duel. The experience has given her a much clearer picture of her limits, and she'll occasionally think twice before doing something stupid. Occasionally.

Negative

Rebel With a Cause (Data Liberator, Curiosity Killed the Cat): For better or worse (usually worse), Cricket is dedicated. She's willing to take any risks if it means furthering her cause. She's also just really, really curious.

Not Built For Meatspace (Disheveled, Reduced Sense [Eyesight]): Cricket doesn't care about her appearance, and it shows. Her clothes are shabby, her tusks are crooked, she has permanent bedhead, and her oversized glasses make her eyes look like a bug's.

Striking Skin Pigmentation: Cricket's appearance would be remarkably forgettable, if it weren't for the fact that her skin is bright red.

Run History

NameGMMetaplotThreatDate of Run
Lost in the SauceSarcarianMedium7 October 2082
We Like To Party, We Like We Like To PartySleeveyHigh3 October 2082
Full Fathom FiveSarcarianTwo Steps AheadSemi-Prime31 August 2082
Cause and EffectArchtmagBy Royal DecreeSemi-Prime28 August 2082
The FBI Is Totally FineAuroraSemi-Prime21 August 2082
Things Man Was Not Meant to Know (In the Biblical Sense)AuroraHigh16 August 2082
Arms to the PeopleArchtmagHigh14 August 2082
Snitches Get... Well, You Know the RestSarcarianShadowHaven ShutdownHigh12 August 2082
Trust the ProcessAuroraMedium12 August 2082
Seeds of ResistanceAsmodeusMedium31 July 2082
Among The StarsAurora30 July 2082
Spy GamesArchtmagBy Royal DecreeHigh25 July 2082
O Brother Where Sprite ThoughPatGriffinMedium18 July 2082
CorpSec EliteArchtmagMedium11 July 2082
Escape From TomorrowlandSarcarianHigh7 July 2082
KRIMINAL PastriesAuroraBaker WarsHigh5 July 2082
KRIMINAL GiftsAuroraHigh4 July 2082
Bayou BonanzaPatGriffinDead Gods StirHigh2 July 2082
Squid and AnchoviesPatGriffin30 June 2082
But Why Is All The Hurlg Gone?AsmodeusHigh23 June 2082
The Sword and the StonedCutierThanThouMedium16 June 2082
K-10 Use in My Fight Club!?PatGriffinDead Gods StirMedium13 June 2082
The Cricket and The AngelPatGriffinLow10 June 2082
Raising HellOrionsRequiemHigh8 June 2082
House Of PainAsmodeusTemple in the ShadowsMedium8 June 2082
A Box Within A BoxScrantonI Make Things HappenMedium5 June 2082
Bodies Down the RiverasPatGriffinMedium5 June 2082
Caravan TrainSleeveyLa Famille Du PeintreMedium3 June 2082
Murder at the TheatrePatGriffinShadowHaven ShutdownMedium1 June 2082
Scared Straight: Lone Star EditionPatGriffinMilk18 May 2082
To the Head of the MatterAuroraMedium15 May 2082
FAB CheeseAuroraBaker WarsHigh14 May 2082
UnhospitalizedOnebiThe Crow of SeattleMedium13 May 2082
Free Shipping and DeliveryKhaasLow8 May 2082
Stuffer Shack 3AMDraknic30 April 2082

Affiliations

Contacts

Millipede: A dwarven shadow decker, Millipede is one of Cricket's very few actual friends. The pair met in the Barrens, fighting on opposite sides of a turf war. They reached a cybercombat stalemate (neither of them were very good), and their battle soon devolved into wildly spraying at each other with machine pistols. They emptied their magazines without hitting a single shot, and decided to just start pretending to hack each other. They've been friends ever since.

Despite their similar upbringings, Millipede is significantly better adjusted than Cricket. He shares his friend's politics, but doesn't pursue them with the same suicidal zeal. Although he'd never admit it, he's worried about her. For Cricket's part, she shows Millipede about as much affection as she's capable of. He's a sort of anchor in her life, and the only person she's willing to fully trust.


Priest: Cricket owes Priest a great debt; when she was first tossed out on the street, it was the charity from Priest's congregation that kept her alive. Over time their relationship deepened; She would provide info and communications for Priest's protests, and he would provide a place to go if all else failed. Once she came of age, Priest facilitated her entrance into the Haven.

That being said, the two get along like fire and high explosives. Priest thinks of Cricket as a wayward child, walking the right path for the wrong reasons. Cricket thinks of Priest as a raving, bullet-addled lunatic. The two bicker constantly over the minute differences in their politics, especially when it comes to the subject of drugs. Priest is a die-hard prohibitionist, whereas Cricket pops Psyche pills like they're candy. Despite the tensions, Cricket believes that she owes Priest her life. She'd never let him know, but she would go through hell if it meant helping him.

Contact Connection Loyalty Archetype Profession Aspects Chips
Millipede 2 5 Legwork Decker Selective, Shadow Decker, Anarchist, Barrens Rat, Vandal Even
Priest 3 4 Fixer Activist Fixer Temperance is a Virture, All are Welcome in the House of the Lord, Show no Fear, Soldiers of God!, Bring me your Huddled Masses, Know Thine Enemy, Preserve the Peace Even
Saul Goodman 5 2 Custom(A,N,K,G) Baker Iron Chef, Pastry Chef, Bread Baker, Artisanal Ingrediants, World-Famous Baked Goods, Improved Ability: Artisan (Baking) Even
News Van Dan 3 4 Legwork Guerilla Reporter (Infobroker) Infobroker, Conspiracy Theorist, Drone Operator, Hacktivist Even
Gord "Twitch" Rodney 1 4 Custom(A,G,K,N) DIY Survivalist and Obnoxious Attic Gremlin Abrasive Doesn't Begin To Cover It, Cruel And Unusual, One Errant Twitch, The Closest Thing To A Civil Engineer That Lives In Hell's Kitchen Even
Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy 2 2 Custom(A,G,N,K) Ganger / Tough Guy Not the Brightest Bulb, Firesaw, Fraggin' Handsome, People Pleaser, WAIT I'm a runner too! Even
Teldragon 6 1 Custom(K,N,A,G) Guiding Spirit Diviner, Infobroker, Personal Domain, Spirit Lord, Great Form Guidance, Frogs in all the Right Places, I Know a Camera When I See One Even
Handraniel 3 1 Fixer Technomancer Gatekeeper Free Sprites are Friends not Foes, Resonance Web, Matrix Networking, Knowing an AI or two Even
Repo Man 1 4 Custom(A,K,N,G) Lonely Phantom Underground Guide, Scythe Mentor, Chained Haunt, Psychometrist Even
Doctor O+ 4 1 Custom(G,A,N,K) Street Doc/Organlegger Medical, Illegal, Organlegger, Ghoul Organlegger, Armorer, Ware, Rarities Even
Kyoko "Wholesale" Nakajima 1 3 Custom(K,G,N,A) Totally A Professional Thief "Booooriiiing", Rooting For The Villain, Where Does She Hear All This?, Rogue's Gallery Even
Zenny 3 4 Custom(A,G,K,N) Hippie Techno and Hellraisers Cyberdoc In the Shop, Voiding the Warranty, One of Those Idiots, Chrome Artisan, I Got a Hookup, Man, Secondhand Soul, Who's Scott Green?, The Cyberest of Adepts, Trip Sitter, You Don't Need a License to Heal, Man Even
The Movers 2 1 Service Movers Please Sign on The Dotted Line, They Moves Things, That's What They Do, I'll Check Our Logs, They Seem To Blur, Prefered Customers Even
Jet Set 6 2 Custom(A,G,K,N) C-5 Galaxy Owner/Operator Time/Distance, Island Hopper, SAR Squad, JP-5 for Blood, Mister Missile, Aircraft Sensei, Fulton Extraction???, Care Package Inbound, Heavy Lift💪 Even
Jesse Pop 6 3 Fixer Trid Pirate Trid Pirate, Hacktivist, Fence, Networker, NEEEEEEERRRRRRRD, Electronics, Enormous Trove of Pirated Trideo Even
Pump King Jack 5 1 Legwork Halloween Spirit Herald of Halloween, Extraplanar, Spirit Savvy, Hella Halloweeners, Goodnatured Guide, Formula One, Ritualist Even
Treasa ke'Vedryn 7 2 Custom(K,N,G,A)
Fae Agent
 Ageless Apathy, Gifts of the Fae, Magical Mastery, Metaplanar Guide, Seelie Expert, Embedded Agents, Magical Acquisitions, Court of Vipers, Matrix Resources, Patron of the Arts, Scarlet Painter, Capricious Nature, A Whisper to the Soul, Hollow Shells Even
Amrei Veidt 6 3 Generalist S-K Prime Operative Actually a Spy, Deck Jockey, Delta Clinic Access, Former Shadowrunner, Information Broker, One Step Ahead, Prime Datahaven Membership, Saeder-Krupp Employee, Fresh off the Assembly Line Even
Lylah Wilder 3 3 Networking Activist Anarchist Friends, Anarcho-Communist, Anti-Corporate Interests, Equal AND Equitable Even
Wusan 5 2 Service Overlord of the Seas Ocean Bound, Master of the Sea, Purifier, Trick or Treat, Caller of Tides, Ocean Awareness, Sense of Humor, Spirit Bound, Sense of Duty, Sense of Honor Even
F1ZZ 5 3 Custom(K,N,A,G) The Walking Peoples' Favorite Bartender Sit Down, Have a Drink, Exclusive Access, Reverberant, Firsthand Experience, Resonant Diplomat, I Want to Believe, It Takes All Kinds, Don't Give Up the Fight, Who's Who, Master Drink Slinger Even
Chitin 4 2 Legwork Cyberscreamers Guide Off The Grid, AI Associate, Xenophile, Foundation Fixer, Dissonant Druid, Prime Datahaven Membership, Sprite Savvy, Morphinae, Diagnostics Sprites Even


Organizations

Allies

Contact Position Connection Faction Rep Archetype Health Location
Hellraisers Matrix Specialist 1 31 Street Gang Maintaining Seattle, Puyallup, Hell's Kitchen
Rise Up Member 1 8 AnarchoCommunist Group Growing Seattle
The Walking People Initiate Group Contact Not Found. 14 Please Create Group using Template:Faction If you do not have any group contacts Remove this template entirely.

Blue Crab Gang: +2 Rep

The Ancients: +2 Rep

Enemies

GOD, the corps, GOD, the government, anyone who tries to talk to her in meatspace, GOD.

In Character Information

Symbols and Signatures

When Cricket wants to leave a calling card after stealing data, she'll make an empty copy of the file filled with bugs, which will swarm the first persona that opens it. She often delivers data in the form of little crickets.

Matrix Search Table

Threshold Result
1 Scattered reports of a petty hacker going by the name. No concrete details. The Sixth World Encyclopedia defines crickets as Orthopean insects distantly related to grasshoppers.
3 The hacker is a frequent poster on Neo-Anarchist forums. They've bragged several times about committing data theft and corporate vandalism.
6 On one such forum, the hacker claimed that they're a technomancer during a debate over a fighting game's netcoding. This claim was immediately challenged as a lie, to which the hacker apparently responded by dataspiking their opponent.

Shadow Community Table

Threshold Result
1 Some sort of hacker that operates in Seattle. Doesn't seem like they have a particularly notable reputation.
3 They're new to the shadowrunning scene, but have been operating as a small-time ganger in Redmond for a while. Apparently they're also an Oni.
5 Known as "bug eyes" and "kind of an asshole" by many of her former gangmates. Left the gang scene to pursue more political interests.


SINs

Jessie Elwood (UCAS) (R4 Fake)

An Oni of a similar build and skin tone, but with a noticeably neater appearance. Works low level IT for small businesses in Renton.

  • Driver's License (R4 Fake)
  • Firearms License (R4 Fake)

Appearance

Physical

Cricket is a tall, gangly Oni with cherry red skin and dull green eyes. Her grey hair hangs like kelp down to her permanently-slumped shoulders. Her horns are stubby, her ears are droopy, and her tusks are slightly crooked. When not in the Matrix, she's surrounded by an oppressively neurotic aura. She's constantly twitching and tapping her fingers, much to the annoyance of anyone sitting nearby.

Clothing

Cricket's typical outfit consists of bootleg track pants, ratty tank tops, VERY worn athletic shoes, and her big round glasses. She has not bought new clothes in about a year and a half. The nicest thing she owns is her armored jacket. It's black and has rainbow ants drawn across the back.

Matrix Persona

Cricket's Matrix Persona is a tiny humanoid cricket, at the bottom end of the persona size limits. It wears a black suit jacket over a pink tank top, with a small gold chain around it's neck.

Media Mentions

ShadowGrid Profile Comments

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