Phototaxis

Phototaxis

Burnout Beastcaller
The Hunted, Hunting
Not All Mothers Love Their Children
Discord	@suitguy9831
Reddit	[1]
Metatype	Troll (Giant)
Street Cred	0
Notoriety	1
Public Awareness	0
CDP	88
D.O.B.	March 4th, 2054
Age	31
Folder	https://tinyurl.com/hyzbrdxv
Priority	Metatype - A Attributes - B Magic/Resonance - D Skills - E Resources - C
#Max IGs/Ascension	9

Character Information

Summary

Phototaxis - movement of an organism in response to sensing light. A moth to a flame, seeking something that will only cause pain. Isabel Montagne has taken a handle that fits her more than she has perhaps realized.

The runner using this handle is a woman of imposing presence who nonetheless assures that she poses no real threat. She is highly knowledgeable of magical phenomena, and is adept at calling suspiciously insectoid spirits to her side. She is also catty, possibly heartless, and doesn't take criticism well.

Regardless, her intelligence and utility seem to be worth the team's discomfort.

Goals

- Hunt down and kill Ada Mathers.

- Return to the site of West Gomorrah and see what has become of where she once called home.

- Find a way to bring the Invae under her will without losing herself to them.

- Die in such a manner that nobody will ever forget her again.

Background

Isabel Montagne was born in Detroit on March 4th, 2054, 30 years ago. Though, despite being in one of the better economic brackets, she suffered from an incurable case of "her parents were racist and wanted to ignore that their kid is a trog". At least she had the common decency to take after her father's Nordic ancestry.

Then, the comet passed, and everything changed. Her, most of all.

Ares Macrotechnology has a vested interest in Vhortas and the spirits which call it home. A changeling displaying insectoid traits isn't especially notable, but when it starts summoning spirits with a strong resemblance to Invae, that's when you feed the parents some line about qualifying for an internal project and give them a luxurious stipend to never speak of this child that they already tried to ignore as much as possible.

From the age of 12, Isabel would spend the next sixteen years embedded in West Gomorrah, a Midwest blacksite operating as part of Project: Pyro. These years, she spent under the care of one Ada Mathers, a senior researcher who was effectively her surrogate mother. Initially, she was led to believe she was to help research the bugs and find a way to control them. And, well... that's not inaccurate, it just left out the part where she'd eventually get strapped to a table.

It’s hard to count how many times Isabel was taken apart and put back together, just to see if they could glean anything new from one of their star specimens. Each time she woke, she could feel that something was different. Sometimes, parts were taken out, sometimes new ones put in. Probing variables to find a response. The process left her with a fear of the surgeon's knife and a network of scar tissue buildup that has possibly permanently impaired her ability to move.

Isabel grew cynical once she realized and internalized that nobody actually cared for her here. Despite Mrs. Mathers' words, Isabel suspected she was just doing this to keep her obedient. Once again, the woman felt she was denied of anything substantial. So, she schemed. Isabel knew she could not escape on her own, given her difficulties with mobility. Even when she was deployed to help quell smaller hives for practice, she was kept in the van, the driver's gun trained on her to ensure compliance.

An opportunity came when by some stroke of fate, poor tactics, or plain bad luck, a beetle soldier slipped past the main force of Pyro agents and Isabel's spirits during a routine nest clear out west. The driver was distracted by comms and keeping an eye on the (admittedly quite dangerous) giant in the back seat, and didn't quite catch the looming thing outside until it ripped the hinges off the door and pulled said driver apart. Isabel smirked, knowing fortune favored her this day, and recalled her chained beasts to dispatch the soldier, leaving the remainder of the team inside to their fates. After that, she simply walked away, vanishing into thin air as far as her corp was concerned.

Ares, naturally, did not take kindly to this, and has spent the past year and a half chasing her wherever she appeared for more than a few months, hoping to eliminate the one who got away. But… Isabel is not a fool, and she knows to keep moving. Thus, we bring her to Seattle, hiding somewhere more permanent over the winter, down in ash-choked Puyallup. And… well. Everyone has to make money somehow, right?

Isabel still holds the ideals she held when she joined the project, even after the perceived betrayals. She’s seen the organization among an invae hive, and envisions a world where metahumanity will never have to work again once we figure out how to trap invae within artificially-grown shells. Until her dreams can be realized, however, she will have to be content just taking potshots at the corporation she blames for a decade of pain.

Narrative Significant Qualities

Positive

• College Education: Phototaxis is extremely well-read. Her specialization as a component of Project Pyro means her knowledge base is primarily related to invae, but frankly, ask her anything and she might know.
• Spirit Whisperer: For reasons still unknown to her, spirits seem rather eager to get close to her, even with her tendency towards callousness regarding them. It's an unnerving reoccurence, and at some point, she'll need to figure out why this is so.

Negative

• Addiction (Bliss): Isabel frequently turns to the substance in an attempt to escape the reality bent on ruining her.
• PSC Vindictive: She's on a hair trigger, frankly. Best not to antagonize, lest some poor fool discover the value of caution.
• Changeling: Phototaxis SURGEd into an insectoid form, which nets her a constant stream of suspicion (with everyone considering her Hostile at first meeting). Plus, obviously, the issues that innately come from being a cold-blooded, nocturnal, faintly glowing weirdo.
• Phobia (Tomophobia): Phototaxis has a near-crippling reaction to medical equipment and the thought of a surgical procedure.
• Prejudiced (Ares Macrotechnology): Phototaxis holds a lingering resentment for everyone associated with the company that betrayed her. She’s aware that most had nothing to do with what happened to her, but the red, white & blue spartan still evokes hateful memories.
• The Goat: Her appearance makes it easy to distrust her at first. Frankly, people should listen to their gut on this one.

Run History

Name	GM	Metaplot	Threat	Date of Run
Anamnesis	Zerre	A Quest for Transcendence	Medium	28 October 2085
Sleeper Sleaze	Fangblade_		Medium	26 September 2085
CATastrophe	Eva		Low	20 August 2085
Hopefully Nonradioactive Reagents	Eva		High	17 August 2085
Birds with Clipped Wings	Discogoblin		Medium	13 August 2085
The Wolf and the Bear	Scranton		Deadly	20 June 2085
Catch Us Before We Fall	Fangblade_	Amhrain na Preachan	High	7 June 2085
To turn a tide	TidanShock		Extreme	14 April 2085
Osculum Infame	Fangblade_		High	11 March 2085
Move Ahead, Lay Down Dead, or Slip on By	Fangblade_	Sign of Zeta	High	8 November 2084
Noblesse Oblige	Fangblade_	The Light Before We Land	High	6 November 2084
Operation Opal	Zerre	And Love You Shall Find	High	23 October 2084

Affiliations

Former ties to Ares Macrotechnology, more specifically Project: Pyro. These bridges have long since been burned.

Contacts

Contact	Connection	Loyalty	Archetype	Profession	Aspects	Chips
Miss Onyx	4	3	Fixer(N,K,A,G)	Obsessed Arcanist Fixer	Study Partner, Arcana Informant, Infobroker, Trinketeer, Bar Crawl	Even
John Baptise	2	3	Service	Taxi Driver	Reliable, Voodoo, No Questions Asked	Even
Johan Liebert	6	1	Gear	Coroner	Sociopathic Tendancies, Prejudice: Mundane, Ritual Equipment, Morgue Supplies, Foci, Necromancy, Erased, Talismonger, Magical Forge, Forbidden Gear, Spirit Formulae	Even

Allies

Phototaxis doesn't usually stay in one place long enough to make allies.

Enemies

Ares Macrotechnology, from her point of view. Whether or not there's an actual task force out there hunting her down specifically isn't clear to her.

Vindictive Shit List

• Stacy, for dismissing her as a "tulpa wrangler", then calling her a "disgusting bug".
• Iron, for repeatedly calling her a witch, disparaging magic as a whole as a scourge, and generally being kind of a bigot.

In Character Information

Matrix Search Table

Threshold	Result
1	Aside from the literal definition of the word "phototaxis", nothing.
3	Searches querying "insect changelings Seattle" yield some pictures taken of a huge moth-like woman lurking around Puyallup.
6	The above seem to be congregated in Hell's Kitchen in the vicinity of a local bar/BBQ joint called The Ashen Chalice.

Shadow Community Table

Threshold	Result
1	No clue who this woman is.
3	The handle "Phototaxis" rings some bells... just some runner linked to ShadowHaven.
5	That handle belongs to a shaman that a few people are convinced is literally just a bug spirit hybrid form who's really good at Masking.

Assensing Table

Assensing tests against Phototaxis take a -1 penalty.

Threshold	Result
1	Subject is injured. Subject is Awakened. Subject’s aura has a peculiar intensity to it that makes it difficult to glean anything useful.
2	Cybernetic spinal implants present.
3	No astral signatures present.
4	Skeletal and neural bioware present. Essence 3.25, Magic 3.
5	Gene treatments present. Subject is not a technomancer.

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)
Entomologist	Phototaxis is fascinated by invae. She loves opportunities to study them and will happily make some very poor choices if it means she gets to study them more closely.
Arcane Anomaly	Her aura burns bright, and her spirits are unusually empowered. Also, they call her various worrying names like Hivemaster and Mother and keep trying to probe her for information about Project: PYRO and the lab she spent her formative years at. Surely nothing to worry about.
Whistleblower	Following her violent escapade from Ares custody, Phototaxis suspects her old employer wants her silenced lest she start leaking classified information. Whether there's actually a Firewatch squad hunting her down, she's not entirely sure, but she's elected to keep an eye out just in case.
Fort's Haunted	Phototaxis recently leased a derelict glassware factory and is in the process of turning it into a combination safe house, laboratory, and murder dungeon. Unfortunately, it's derelict because the place got half-buried in molten glass a decade and a half ago and still has about twenty-two vitrified corpses inside, and numerous spirits, some of them hostile, keep showing up and trying to get a piece of that lingering emotional energy.
Aspect 5

SINs

Maria Merian (R4 UCAS). Conjurer living in Hell’s Kitchen, master's degree in entomology. Nonetheless unemployed by choice after a crisis of conscience.

Appearance

Phototaxis appears to be a three meter tall woman covered in charcoal black chitin and an underlying alabaster white dermis. Her hair is long and just as pale as her skin, while her eyes are an unnatural pale green with black sclera. Each of her four arms are densely plated, which seems to provide her some difficulty moving. Finally, soft tufts of white hair-like structure grow from a number of places where her dermis shows. A faint silvery glow, like moonlight, seems to follow her everywhere, accompanied by a sickening scent like overripe fruit.

Clothing

Phototaxis is typically found in a long, bulky overcoat, the same shade of white as her dermis. It's possible she has more underneath it, but she seems to always wear it around.

Matrix Persona

She just uses a default Sony Emperor persona of an indistinct robed figure.