Barracuda
 | |
| Ganger Adept/Face | |
|---|---|
| Student of The Leviathan | |
| Discord | @Unsurprisingly, Explosions#6325 |
| MSmithVoices | |
| Metatype | Human |
| Street Cred | 0 |
| Notoriety | 3 |
| Public Awareness | 0 |
| Titles and Awards | 0 |
| CDP | 52 |
| D.O.B. | September 2nd, 2056 |
| Age | 28 |
| Folder | [1] |
| Priority | Metatype - E Attributes - A Magic/Resonance - C Skills - B Resources - D |
Character Information
Summary
After a (comparatively) long life in the Puyallup gang scene, bouncing around between a dozen different, short-lived groups, Barracuda has seen poor leadership get more than a few people killed, nearly including himself. But now, after a brief disappearance and a life-changing trip up the slopes of Mt. Rainier, he's back to carve out his own chunk of Seattle.
Goals
- Drum up enough cash through shadowrunning to finance his own gang
- Headhunt the best and brightest he can find in Puyallup
- Prove to the magic around him that he's worthy of controlling it
Background
Being born in Loveland is generally a pretty grim lot in life; between the rampant crime, gang violence, and the extreme risk of developing lung problems due to the steady snow of grey ash over the entire district, a lot of the younger generation don't exactly have the smoothest childhood. Barracuda wasn't one of the exceptions. At sixteen, he was kicked out of his parents' house entirely after participating in a string of violent muggings, and ever since, he's been a regular in Puyallup's upstart street gangs. He was a member of the Fifth Street Wreckers, the Headsmen, the Bloodshots... a dozen different small-name groups surviving on nothing but petty crime and a vague, aimless sense of ambition. Invariably, they either crumbled in about a year, or took on a mark large enough to remind them they were insignificant against better-trained organizations - usually in a particularly fatal fashion. All the while, the scrawny, scrappy adept in the ranks survived, time after time. While he was never exceptional beyond his status as an Awakened, he was impressively difficult to put down for good; whether it was bullets, stab wounds, or explosions that did the deed, Barracuda was left alive in the aftermath of what used to be his teammates, learning lessons from his failures that less sturdy sorts wouldn't survive to see.
Over time, he grew disillusioned with the small-timers around him. He came to understand one truth: Puyallup was where those young ambitions of infamy, glory, and big scores came to die. But unlike some, who might take that as a perfectly reasonable cue to move onto greener pastures, that same stubbornness that kept him alive filled him with spite. After a few months of operating as a lone criminal, he left town for the east, riding out towards Mt. Rainier to find something only he could see.
Barracuda had originally thought himself an adherent of Shark; after all, imagery of gnashing teeth and blood in the water suited a young, violent upstart pretty well. But the voice that called him up to the caldera definitely wasn't Shark - it rumbled like an earthquake, only growing louder and more fervent as he hiked up the treacherous slopes. When he reached the peak, he found a primordial being roiling in the lava below, speaking of what he could achieve if he were to satisfy his ambitions and calling itself the Leviathan. By the time he left, his face was burnt and the smell of smoke and sulphur had soaked into his clothes, but he felt empowered nonetheless.
Barracuda hasn't returned to Loveland since. However, reports that sound remarkably like the mohawked, leather-wearing ganger have cropped up from Puyallup City to Carbonado, making mention of some sort of magic that seems almost like that of the Infected - or Ghost forbid, blood mages. For the last few months, Barracuda has been carving out the foundation of what will become his empire, securing a squat in a remarkably intact hotel near the heat and danger of Hell's Kitchen - and driving out the former residents in the process. With the power the Leviathan helped him realize he had, and the ambition to thrive in Puyallup of all places, he intends to stake his claim and bring together a gang that can truly survive.
Narrative Significant Qualities
Positive
Drug Tolerant - After a life of recreational drug usage, Barracuda has discovered that he's got a remarkable talent for shaking off the crashes and withdrawals that might plague most other casual users. Nowadays, he doesn't tend to do too much of the soft stuff, but he does keep a personal supply of Kamikaze, just in case.
Mentor Spirit: Leviathan - Though his mentor spirit is Shark, mechanically speaking, his take on his mentor is colored by a view that life and survival is a form of violence, and that predation is necessary. The Leviathan doesn't make physical appearances outside of communing with Barracuda at active volcanic hotspots, but the twisting, tentacle-like tattoos along his arms have a red, unsettling glow to them on the Astral.
School of Hard Knocks - Barracuda grew up in Loveland, and it shows. While he's not the brightest muzzle flash in the firing line, he does have an uncanny ability to read the ebbs and flows of Seattle's gang scene, especially in Puyallup.
Negative
Bad Rep - Though he hasn't quite gotten to the point where his infamy precedes him among random passersby, Barracuda's ability (and eagerness) to use the Transmit Damage power has earned him a reputation as being a rumored blood mage or vampire. While his aura is a touch darker than most, neither claim is true; he's just particularly ruthless in a fight.
Ugly and Doesn't Care - While he's got a fair bit of charm, a life of combat and his more recent climb up Rainier has left him looking a bit too scarred up to be considered simply cool or badass. A large burn scar stretches from the left side of his neck to his cheek, and a number of nicks and scars mar what probably wasn't a beautiful face in the first place.
Run History
Affiliations
Contacts
| Contact | Connection | Loyalty | Archetype | Profession | Aspects | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agamemnon | 4 | 3 | Fixer(K,G,N,A) | Infected Crime Lord | Paranoid, Shut-In, Dark Magic Talislegger, Ear to the Ground, Infected Loremaster, Smuggling Network, Student of History, Wretched Hive | Even |
| Goalmaster | 3 | 2 | Custom(G, K, A, N) | Scrapper Knight of the Stanley Cup | One Rink To Rule Them All, The Dregs Of Society, Buy In Bulk, Breathing In The Chemicals, Excaliber, King Of The Rink | Even |
Organizations
Allies
Enemies
In Character Information
Symbols and Signatures
Barracuda's leather jacket has the symbol of his future gang stitched into the back: A flaming, stylized meteor.
Matrix Search Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | A barracuda is a large, carnivorous fish known for its intimidating looks. It's also the title of some pretty good classical music. |
| 3 | Out in the Puyallup Barrens, there are opaque mentions of a ganger going by the name Barracuda, though any actual information is rare. |
| 6 | More recently, there have been reports of an adept going by that name taking over a squat near Hell's Kitchen. While discussion is sparse, there are a few rumors from those that have seen him or heard of him that he's a practitioner of some seriously scary magic - at least, scary to the common observer. |
Shadow Community Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | There have been a handful of criminals going around under the name Barracuda in the past, though none of them really made it to the big time. |
| 3 | One particular adept using that name used to hang around Loveland, and managed to garner some minor respect in the gang community there - both because he was a long runner in the streets, and briefly, the frontman for a mediocre punk rock band that nonetheless played a few shows. |
| 5 | Barracuda is an adept out in Puyallup that has been taking a few drek jobs here and there, trying to strike it big through the whole 'criminal for hire' business. Reports on what he's like are mixed, but it seems like he's a pretty pleasant guy off the job, given he looks like he pressed his cheek against a belt sander. |
SINs
(Rating 3) Yorick Johansson
- (Rating 4) Adept License
- (Rating 4) Driver's License
- (Rating 4) Firearms License
- (Rating 4) Small Blades License
Appearance
Barracuda is a man of mixed, but primarily Polynesian descent. He appears to be in his late twenties or early thirties, though this assessment is a bit hampered by the fact that he near-constantly wears a custom-made, decorated respirator over the lower half of his face, as well as the large burn scar across the left side of his neck on up towards his cheek. He has a number of other, less prominent scars, as well, including one across his right brow and a handful across his arms. Also on his arms are a pair of half-sleeve tattoos, which from a distance appear to be relatively simple tribal designs. Upon closer inspection, the designs include more unsettling imagery: eyes, teeth, and tentacles.
Clothing
Barracuda is almost always seen in his respirator, a custom model further decorated with a design much like his tattoos. A jury-rigged old holo-projector has been installed along the upper edge, providing a clunky, but serviceable AR interface. For the rest of his usual outfit, he tends to wear a shirt of plasteel chainmail, as well as a sturdy leather jacket over it - though, anything that gets through one piece of armor is likely to get through the next as well. He oftens wears a pair of thick-soled workman's boots alongside jeans or a similarly sturdy pair of pants to complete his attire.
Matrix Persona
Barracuda's persona is unchanged from the default MCT-3500 stock persona: A plain, featureless figure.