Desperado

Desperado

Combat Support/Rigger
Don't make me draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy...
Just put a tourniquet on it.
Vroom vroom, partner.
Discord	@spacegoatninja#4535
Reddit	u/StalwartAlly
Metatype	Human
Street Cred	0
Notoriety	1 (Incompetence in Acting)
Public Awareness	0
Titles and Awards	N/A
CDP	0
D.O.B.	September 11, 2041
Age	44
Folder	[1]
Priority	Metatype - E Attributes - B Magic/Resonance - E Skills - B Resources - A

Character Information

Summary

Joel McClane, AKA "Desperado" or "Des" is a former farm boy from Texas, a veteran, a recovered alochol, a convicted felon, a bad husband and father, a fearless combat medic, and a wizard with a with anything with a pilot program... and he has a mean right hook. He lives under the alias Jack Jameson while working odd (and often illegal) jobs with his old friend Medaron while trying to put the fractured pieces of his life back together.

Goals

○ Build connections: After being disgraced and sent to prison, most of the people in his life have cut all ties with him. Now, Des must establish a new life for himself.

○ Get his edge back: Years of alcoholism and prison have really dulled his former edge. As part of his goal to turn his life around, he wants to get back to what he sees (right or wrong) as his former glory.

○ Get joint custody of his children: When he was sent to prison, Joel's wife Dawn divorced him and took their children back to Texas. He hopes to eventually save enough money, and get a stable enough life, that he can hire a lawyer and get joint custody of the kids.

○ Make amends: Des knows he can never truly make amends for the lives his actions took, but he still feels great remorse for them and hopes, in some way, that he can eventually balance the karmic scales.

o Amass (or become) an army: ...of drones, that is. More than that, though, Des would like to accumulate all of the tools and skills necessary to provide whatever support a given mission requires.

Background

Joel Malcolm McClane was born on September 11, 2041. He was raised on one of the few remaining independent ranches in southwest Texas. His father was an alcoholic veteran, and his mother was a pearl-clutching churchgoer. His early life was one of hard labor and lessons about the dangers of Aztlan and the AgriCorps that encroached his family's land on all sides, though he did at least learn to ride a horse--a rare skill in the late 21st century.

During his teens, Joel discovered he had a talent and love for boxing as well as his auto shop classes at school. His talents in those areas, along with his higher-than-average test scores, opened up many opportunities for him in higher education and fast track corporate training programs. Much to his parents' dismay, however, he elected to enlist in the CAS military in 2059. Years of anti-Aztlan propaganda and general patriotism of his friends and family led him down a path that would shape the rest of his life.

After long, intensive training, Joel became and Combat Rescue Technician, or CRT. CRTs are the military equivalent of corporations like DocWagon, performing combat search and rescue with specialized training in weapons, drones, vehicles, and battlefield trauma care. In Joel's case, he found himself embedded in a special operations team that was deployed to the Yucatan in 2062 to support a growing insurgency there against the Aztlan government.

His first deployment to the Yucatan was for 6 months. When he returned, he married his high school sweetheart, Dawn Davis. They spent 6 wonderful months together before he and his team were sent back to the Yucatan, where they would remain, running near-constant combat missions, until the treaty between the Yucatan and Aztlan was signed in 2064. During one joint operation where his team cooperated with a team of Ghosts from Tir Tairngire, Joel rescued an elven special operator named Cian Crowe who was gravely wounded. The pair became unlikely friends and kept in touch over the years.

To say he saw some shit during his time there would be an understatement. He was never the same again. Sleepless nights and angry outbursts hounded him day and night. Soon, he was treating his condition with alcohol rather than seeking professional help. His marriage suffered, but despite that, their first child, Billy, was born in 2065.

Soon after (and due in no small part to two DUI convictions and a bar room fight), his alcohol problem became too much for his military service to bare. He was discharged in 2066.

With a wife and young child to consider, Joel immediately started seeking employment with Texan corporations that could use his skills and would give him a chance despite his alcohol issues. Lone Star was happy to take him. He served in Austin for a few months without issue, but world events conspired against him. In 2067, the KSAF studio in Seattle was bombed. Lone Star, hoping to reassure the public and show they would not allow lawlessness (pfft!) to reign in one of their cities, transferred a number of officers from around the world to put extra "boots on the ground" in Seattle. Joel and his family were one of the lucky chosen. Dawn absolutely did not want to go. Their marriage barely survived the move.

The void in his marriage continued to grow, but their youngest child Cassie was born in 2072.

A drone patrol officer and later a drone operator for SWAT, Joel's Lone Star career in Seattle was never boring. His alcoholism occasionally reared its ugly head, but despite numerous reprimands he managed to maintain his job until Lone Star lost its contract to Knight Errant in 2076. He was offered a lower paying position in Knight Errant during the transition, but instead moved to work with DocWagon.

It was one of the worst decisions he ever made.

Just a few months into the job, Joel reported to duty completely intoxicated. When a call came in for a Platinum contract holder with cardiac distress, Joel made his way out with his team. Joel was driving, and disaster struck. Instead of smooth landing beside the patient's location, the entire team crashed and burned. When it was all over, the patient and two of his teammates were dead--and Joel was in handcuffs.

Dawn divorced him and took the kids back to Texas before his trial was even complete. They haven't spoken since except through lawyers.

The judge was lenient with him all things considered. He was sentenced to four years in prison for negligent manslaughter and required to attend mandatory counseling for alcohol abuse and PTSD. Prison was hard and lonely. He got in his fair share of fights during his early days, but his talent in boxing quickly earned him a reputation of someone you shouldn't mess with. Having made enemies of some of the gangs inside (notably the First Nation and the Troll Killers), Joel joined the Blood Mountain Boys for protection. Since leaving prison, he has not been in contact with anyone in the gang.

Ironically, prison was one of the best things that ever happened to him. The mandatory conditioning as part of his therapy and counseling helped him completely kick the habit. He knows with his family history it would be easy to succumb to the devil in the bottle again, but so far, he has done well.

Since being released, he took the street name "Desperado" and has started doing odd jobs and the occasional underground boxing match to make enough nuyen to make ends meet. He reconnected with his old friend Cian Crowe who had likewise left military service and now found himself in Seattle as well. They share a small apartment in Renton out of necessity where Joel lives under the alias Jack Jameson. He hopes to save enough money to eventually hire a good lawyer and get joint custody of his kids back.

Narrative Significant Qualities

Positive

○ Biocompatibility (Cyberware): Even after all the abuse he put his body through, he still recovers faster and most, and his body accepts modification easier than medical science suggests he should..

○ Perfect Time: Years of boxing (and dance to work on his foot-work, though he'd never admit it), combined with long hours working with machines and computers, have given him an almost unnatural sense of timing and rhythm.

○ Common Sense: "Mama said common sense ain't all that common, but she didn't raise no fool."

○ High Pain Tolerance: Desperado is just one tough son of a bitch. You punch him in the face and he just gets right back up.

○ Will to Live: See High Pain Tolerance, above.

○ Gifted Healer (Stabilization): CAS military training, DocWagon training, and just natural talent make Des good at saving lives and patching up bullet holes. He may have even reattached a finger or two in his day.

Negative

○ Big Regret: Desperado was sent to prison for four years for negligent homicide--a drunken day at work for DocWagon cost the lives of a patient and two of his team members. There's not a day that goes by where he doesn't regret it. He lost patients in combat (many times in fact), but this was very different...

○ Family Curse: Alcoholism runs in his family. You might even say its a family tradition. Des has battled his own demons with it, but has thankfully been clean and sober for almost 5 years now.

○ No Man Left Behind: As a soldier and a combat medic, Desperado has a loyalty to his brothers in arms. He will never leave a comrade behind if he can help it, even if it means putting himself in harm's way.

○ SINner (Criminal): Joel Malcolm McClane is a convicted felon in the UCAS for negligent manslaughter.

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
Overwatch	4	1	Fixer	DocWagon Dispatcher	Dispatchers' Union, DocWagon, Superhero Fan, Wanna-be Sidekick, Awakened	Even
Greasy Eddie	2	1	Custom(G,A,K,N)	Mechanic	Look pal, this ain't my stuff, Mechanic, "Gimme 24 hours", Everett celebrity, King of the grill	Even

Organizations

• (Former) CAS Military, Combat Rescue Technician
• (Former) Lone Star Officer
• (Former) DocWagon EMT
• (Former) Blood Mountain Boys

Allies

Medaron
During one joint operation where his team cooperated with a team of Ghosts from Tir Tairngire, Desperado rescued an elven special operator named Cian Crowe (AKA Medaron) who was gravely wounded. The pair became unlikely friends and kept in touch over the years.

In Character Information

Symbols and Signatures

None other than those described below in Appearance.

Matrix Search Table

Threshold	Result
1
3
6

Shadow Community Table

Threshold	Result
1
3
5

SINs

▶ Joel Malcolm McClane (CAS citizen/veteran/felon) - National CAS SIN/Criminal SIN - Active
○ No active licenses
▶ Jack Jameson "Desperado" (EMT/Rigger)- Fake [R4] UCAS SIN - Active
○ Drone License [R4]
○ Firearms License [R4]
○ Restricted Augmentations License [R4]
○ Drivers License [R4]

Appearance

Clothing

Joel is a ruggedly handsome man, though his face is weathered and lined from a hard life and a years of aclohol abuse. His hair and short beard, once brown with hints of red when the sun hit it just right, is now streaked with gray. Multiple small scars cover his face, hands, and forearms from years of hard work and getting punched in the face in boxing matches. There is a burn scar on his left forearm, and three bullet scars on his body he sustained in combat and service as a Lone Star officer (one on his right thigh, one on his right shoulder, and one on the left side of his chest). He has a few tattoos: the crest of his military unit on his upper left arm, a cartoon donkey with the words TEX-ASS written under it on his upper right arm, a tribal tattoo that was common among the Blood Mountain Boys on his right forearm, a bible verse his mother used to quote to him as a child from the Book of Matthew about not worrying about tomorrow on his left forearm, "FUCK YALL" on his knuckles (one letter per knuckle), a tiny camel on his left big toe, and a cross tattooed over the bullet wound on his chest that he barely survived.

He's spent enough time out of Texas that his southern accent has mostly faded, but it comes back in force when he's drunk or pissed the hell off.

He frequently has bruises or bandages on his face from his most recent fight and grease under his fingernails that he can never quite get ride of. Unless he has reason to wear something else, he can be spotted in a brown leather duster and a old, weathered black stetson hat (is that real leather?) and occasionally chews on an unlit cigar (which, he will light, when there's something to celebrate!).

Matrix Persona

Desperado occasionally changes his Matrix person to that of an old comic book character that he is reading about at the time. Currently his appearance looks like War Machine from Marvel Comics in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.