Difference between revisions of "Neznayka"
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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
Zhizn Volkovi’s life is not a story easily told without first telling the story of her father, Pyotr Volkovi. Pyotr was a Sovetnik for the White Vory in the UCAS (Near Athabaska). The organizatsi’s typical gambling and protection rackets simply were not paying enough. The previous Sovetnik was replaced by Pyotr’s knife in his back and when Pyotr took charge, his excellent guidance led the organizatsi into an age of prosperity. He pulled them into the smuggling trade and the organization profited greatly. The area outside of Athabaska didn’t have much but it did have wilderness and paracritters in spades and this was the resource that Pyotr would sink his ragged teeth into. Through connections with poachers in the greater area, they soon began to corner the market on pelts and living critters smuggled from that side of the continent. In order to keep up appearances and to launder this money, Pyotr opened a circus for the rich and powerful to enjoy. It proved a crucial staging ground to pull over key members of the audience into the Vory’s fold through bribes, blackmail or threats. It was here that Pyotr made his first mistake. | |||
Zhizn was not born out of love, her mother was no one of importance to Pyotr, cast aside like an empty gun. However, in the child he spied opportunity. She was a dryad, an eye catching trinket to be sure but more importantly, she carried his blood. Such a brilliant spark would never be wasted so, he let the child steep in the gene vats, ripping a more perfect smile from her very genetic code. Once she was old enough to walk, he began to teach her the business. Both sides of the trade. | |||
Pyotr was not a kind teacher. When the young Zhizn failed to grasp a particular concept (as she often did regarding the finances) or failed to keep an animal in line, he would lock her in the cages with the rest of the critters and leave her there for the night. She would cry herself to sleep on a concrete floor, wrapped in straw and the clutches of steel bars and she taught herself to hate her father. | |||
She did learn a thing or two, enough to fake her way through it. How to make people turn their eyes towards what you want them to. How to teach an animal to march willingly into a cage (she hated almost more than she hated her father). How to lie and cheat and steal and kill. However, for every cruel lesson imparted onto her by Pyotr, she had the wisdom of her only friend. A blind old woman named Katarina. She worked with the animals and taught Zhizn everything she knew about the creatures, taught Zhizn to look at the world through their eyes too. | |||
During this time, the Vory shipped in two horned bears. One named Mishka and one named Alexei. Horned bears, being awakened creatures capable of sensing the truth beneath metahuman skin, sensed Zhizn's troubles but also her kindness. Soon enough, the three became inseparable as only prisoners can be. They looked after one another in those cold cells, Zhizn shielding the bears from the whips of the circus workers and the bears seeming to listen to her as she told them about her father. It went on for a time, her father’s fire tempered by the kindness of Katarina and the friendship of the two bears. | |||
Like many terrible terrible things, the shattering of Zhizn’s life began with something wonderful. Mishka was pregnant with a litter of cubs! It was the cause of much rejoicing, paracritters breeding in captivity is a rarity of all rarities. Soon enough, the litter was delivered safely and 4 cubs joined the outside world, blindly clinging to their mother. That was when her father went too far. | |||
Pyotr Volkovi announced that once the pups grew a little older, Mishka would be killed and her pelt sold while Alexei would be sent to an Aztlan fighting ring. It was that final, ultimate cruelty that inspired Zhizn to free her friends. She convinced a guard to loan her his commlink and leaked the location of the smuggling ring, as well as the full details of the paracritters kept there and their ultimate fates. She was sloppy, the leak was caught quickly by Vory techies but it was also caught by someone else. TerraFirst! | |||
Zhizn doesn’t remember that night particularly well, most of the details later were filled in by Chloe Green after the fact. She remembers fire and noise. She remembers footsteps and gunshots. She remembers seeing Alexei shielding her, remembers the sound of round after round sinking into his hide until he went still. She remembers Mishka tearing a man in half in front of her. Then … nothing. | |||
Chloe told her after the fact that the rescue operation had been caught early in their rescue attempt. Their breaching explosives went off early and Zhizn was caught in the blast. By the time the team had recovered from the blast and moved in, Alexei was dead. They barely managed to secure Mishka and Zhizn before leaving. No sign of the cubs. | |||
They fixed her after the explosion, giving her strong steel where flesh once was. Made her better. She paid them off with work, putting her skill with a crossbow to work. They were kind to her, letting her go after only 3 years of running ops for them. She left following a rumor from General Hodge, that Piotr had reestablished himself near Seattle. Whatever the case, she has finally been cut free. Will the streets of Seattle offer the freedom she craves? Or will she merely fall into a greater cage than she could ever have known? | |||
== Narrative Significant Qualities == | == Narrative Significant Qualities == | ||
Revision as of 06:37, 5 December 2023
 | |
| Face, Animal Wrangler, Scrapper | |
|---|---|
| Breath free now, child of steel and sapling | |
| Discord | sleevey. |
| [1] | |
| Metatype | Elf (Dryad) |
| Street Cred | 0 |
| Notoriety | 1 |
| Public Awareness | 0 |
| CDP | 36 |
| D.O.B. | 3/6/2062 |
| Age | 23 |
| Folder | [2] |
| Priority | Metatype - D Attributes - C Magic/Resonance - E Skills - B Resources - A |
| #Max IGs/Ascension | 0 |
Character Information
Summary
The daughter of a Vory Sovetnik who was brought up as an asset in the paracritter smuggling business. After a breakout from TerraFirst and a few years of work for them in exchange for the cyberware that saved her life, she is ready to take on the sprawl of Seattle and tie up some loose ends. Plus, it turns out the whole running thing is a good bit of fun!
Goals
Background
Zhizn Volkovi’s life is not a story easily told without first telling the story of her father, Pyotr Volkovi. Pyotr was a Sovetnik for the White Vory in the UCAS (Near Athabaska). The organizatsi’s typical gambling and protection rackets simply were not paying enough. The previous Sovetnik was replaced by Pyotr’s knife in his back and when Pyotr took charge, his excellent guidance led the organizatsi into an age of prosperity. He pulled them into the smuggling trade and the organization profited greatly. The area outside of Athabaska didn’t have much but it did have wilderness and paracritters in spades and this was the resource that Pyotr would sink his ragged teeth into. Through connections with poachers in the greater area, they soon began to corner the market on pelts and living critters smuggled from that side of the continent. In order to keep up appearances and to launder this money, Pyotr opened a circus for the rich and powerful to enjoy. It proved a crucial staging ground to pull over key members of the audience into the Vory’s fold through bribes, blackmail or threats. It was here that Pyotr made his first mistake.
Zhizn was not born out of love, her mother was no one of importance to Pyotr, cast aside like an empty gun. However, in the child he spied opportunity. She was a dryad, an eye catching trinket to be sure but more importantly, she carried his blood. Such a brilliant spark would never be wasted so, he let the child steep in the gene vats, ripping a more perfect smile from her very genetic code. Once she was old enough to walk, he began to teach her the business. Both sides of the trade.
Pyotr was not a kind teacher. When the young Zhizn failed to grasp a particular concept (as she often did regarding the finances) or failed to keep an animal in line, he would lock her in the cages with the rest of the critters and leave her there for the night. She would cry herself to sleep on a concrete floor, wrapped in straw and the clutches of steel bars and she taught herself to hate her father.
She did learn a thing or two, enough to fake her way through it. How to make people turn their eyes towards what you want them to. How to teach an animal to march willingly into a cage (she hated almost more than she hated her father). How to lie and cheat and steal and kill. However, for every cruel lesson imparted onto her by Pyotr, she had the wisdom of her only friend. A blind old woman named Katarina. She worked with the animals and taught Zhizn everything she knew about the creatures, taught Zhizn to look at the world through their eyes too.
During this time, the Vory shipped in two horned bears. One named Mishka and one named Alexei. Horned bears, being awakened creatures capable of sensing the truth beneath metahuman skin, sensed Zhizn's troubles but also her kindness. Soon enough, the three became inseparable as only prisoners can be. They looked after one another in those cold cells, Zhizn shielding the bears from the whips of the circus workers and the bears seeming to listen to her as she told them about her father. It went on for a time, her father’s fire tempered by the kindness of Katarina and the friendship of the two bears.
Like many terrible terrible things, the shattering of Zhizn’s life began with something wonderful. Mishka was pregnant with a litter of cubs! It was the cause of much rejoicing, paracritters breeding in captivity is a rarity of all rarities. Soon enough, the litter was delivered safely and 4 cubs joined the outside world, blindly clinging to their mother. That was when her father went too far.
Pyotr Volkovi announced that once the pups grew a little older, Mishka would be killed and her pelt sold while Alexei would be sent to an Aztlan fighting ring. It was that final, ultimate cruelty that inspired Zhizn to free her friends. She convinced a guard to loan her his commlink and leaked the location of the smuggling ring, as well as the full details of the paracritters kept there and their ultimate fates. She was sloppy, the leak was caught quickly by Vory techies but it was also caught by someone else. TerraFirst!
Zhizn doesn’t remember that night particularly well, most of the details later were filled in by Chloe Green after the fact. She remembers fire and noise. She remembers footsteps and gunshots. She remembers seeing Alexei shielding her, remembers the sound of round after round sinking into his hide until he went still. She remembers Mishka tearing a man in half in front of her. Then … nothing.
Chloe told her after the fact that the rescue operation had been caught early in their rescue attempt. Their breaching explosives went off early and Zhizn was caught in the blast. By the time the team had recovered from the blast and moved in, Alexei was dead. They barely managed to secure Mishka and Zhizn before leaving. No sign of the cubs.
They fixed her after the explosion, giving her strong steel where flesh once was. Made her better. She paid them off with work, putting her skill with a crossbow to work. They were kind to her, letting her go after only 3 years of running ops for them. She left following a rumor from General Hodge, that Piotr had reestablished himself near Seattle. Whatever the case, she has finally been cut free. Will the streets of Seattle offer the freedom she craves? Or will she merely fall into a greater cage than she could ever have known?
Narrative Significant Qualities
Positive
Negative
Run History
Affiliations
Contacts
| Contact | Connection | Loyalty | Archetype | Profession | Aspects | Chips |
|---|
Organizations
Allies
Enemies
In Character Information
Symbols and Signatures
Matrix Search Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
| 6 |
Shadow Community Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | |
| 3 | |
| 5 |
Assensing Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 |
SINs
Appearance
Clothing
Matrix Persona
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 |