Lichtenberg

Lichtenberg

Ronin Without Remorse
NOT the German Borough
Just a Guy Who Really Likes Killing People
Discord	sleevey.
Reddit	[1]
Metatype	Human
Street Cred	0
Notoriety	0
Public Awareness	0
CDP	8
D.O.B.	09/06/2062
Age	22
Folder	[2]
Priority	Metatype - C Attributes - C Magic/Resonance - E Skills - C Resources - A
#Max IGs/Ascension	0

Character Information

FOREWARNING

This character is a BAD PERSON who doesn't typically stoop to such lows as 'using non-lethal methods'. He is motivated by money and the chance to hurt people and has no illusions about his own morality in doing such things. As such, this often leads to a darker tone that GMs should be aware of before picking him. That said, he isn't an idiot and won't throw the job or his life away to go stab a puppy and he does know how to work with a team.

Summary

Cutters enforcer and 'passion project' with a penchant for undue violence, Lichtenberg is essentially a serial killer with extra steps. Motivated by the prospect of 'climbing the world's unseen ladder', he lacks empathy, loyalty and common sense. Fully dedicated to growing stronger, killing people and making some cash while doing it.

Goals

Climb up the ranks of the cutters (or whatever organization will pay him money to kill and maim people)

Grow Stronger, Faster and Luckier

Go Out in a Blaze of Violence

Kill Whatever Latest Project the Good Doctor Albrecht Has Been Working On

Have Fun :>

Background

CW for violence and mild gore

You see, most people who wind up the shadows, running around with a sword and more metal than sense have some sort of sad reason they got there. Some tragic night, some explosive that robbed them of their flesh, some deep rooted ideation within their skull that makes them a savior or a sinner or a Saint.

Maybe Axl Heart had that. Maybe he was just always the sort of kid that pulled the legs off spiders for fun.

Born as a bastard in the literal sense to an Ares exec that didn't want the scandal, Axl was taken care of by his mother, Delilah, an adult entertainer, for as long as she could before eventually, she ran out of funds and sent him off to a homeless shelter and orphanage. It was an awful choice, but it was one she had to make and eventually, she chose the path that hopefully would allow Axl to have the best chance for comfort in a cruel world.

In the Redmond Barrens, there is a common pipeline from orphanage to ne'er-do-well street rat. Axl thrived there. He was wild and scary and ambitious and good with a knife. Real good with a knife. He killed someone for the first time with one, squabbling over the trash behind a stuffer shack. He remembers watching the man bleed out, the realization on his face that his life was ending, shifting slowly through the stages of grief. It fascinated him. The power a few inches of steel could give him over his fellow metahuman.

This was the crucible with which Axl was forged. He pushed the other street rats into line, made a little crew, a few 'friends', if you can call them that, including an orange-eyed urchin. Friends of convenience with which to survive the harsh streets. Survive they did. Tagging walls, hustling people for cash, throwing rocks into traffic and generally making a nuisance out of themselves. Here and there, in the shadows, Axl would again exercise the will to power that a blade allowed him.

When he was around 15, Axl decided to move onto greater things, higher ambitions in life. A gangly, scraggly teenager marched up to a Cutters lieutenant and asked, flatly to join. The kind-hearted lieutenant told the kid off, not keen on the idea of bringing on child soldiers. However, one of the various toughs decided to make light of the situation, jokingly telling the dead eyed kid he might properly join if he brought back a few Ancients ears. It was a single sentence, a few words long. An off-color joke from a drunk Cutters street tough. It would change the course of Axl's life forever.

He did exactly that. It took time and effort. It wasn't as if he could simply ambush the chromed up gangers in alleyway with a shank. No, he was careful. Methodical. First he found a few ancients that lived on the outskirts of Tarislar, close enough where he could flee the district the same night. He wrapped himself in rags and found a route he could in and out without being bothered. Next, he watched them, stalked them. Found out when they had people over, when they slept and when they drugged themselves into a stupor. It was on one of these such nights, when the two elves returned from one score or enough and decided to partake in bliss that he did strike. He scaled the fire escape. He picked the lock on the window. He crawled inside and he slit both of their throats. Once that was done, he sawed off their ears, along with enough Ancients-tattooed skin to provide sufficient proof. With his grisly package in hand, he left the scene.

The lieutenant was taken aback when Axl returned. More out of concern for the kid than anything else, he decided to make good on the promise. Who knows what the ancients would do to the kid if they found him, right? That was how Lichtenberg joined the Cutters. He shook Pappy's hand, smiling and white and still very much covered in blood.

He spent the next few years as a low-level cutters mook, mainly scouting and stabbing. It was drek work but they gave a place to sleep and they fed him and paid him for hurting people. When he was 18, he caught the eye of an enterprising doctor that come to work for the cutters, recently evicted from polite and corporate society for grievous breeches of ethics. The good doctor Albrecht spied a perfect canvas for his passion project and Axl, dubbed Lichtenberg by the good doctor, was more than happy to oblige. Over the next several years, he underwent more augmentations and surgery than anyone should. He went into each with a smile, knowing he grew more complete with every one. Every synthetic muscle, lung, limb and organ make him built that much better. He should have been the perfect specimen but still ... the doctor was not satisfied. He was lacking something invisible, something that made it impossible for the doctor to even look at him. Eventually, the doctor left, moving onto other work and leaving his passion project behind.

Lichtenberg worked as an enforcer for a few months but without the constant improvement of surgeries from the good doctor, he felt himself stagnating. Seeing this and fearing he might go rogue, Pappy decided to link him into the Shadowhaven network. For now, he stands in both worlds. Street and shadows. How much longer before his ambition leads him into the burning glare of the light?

Narrative Significant Qualities

Positive

Tin Man (Biocomp: cyber, cyber singularity seeker): Lichtenberg is mostly metal, the only part of him untouched is his pretty face, a face ruined by its obvious glee in violence and plain disinterest in anything else. He adores his ware, adores every step that brings him beyond metahuman, that makes him a sharper blade and what's left of his flesh loves his ware back in turn.

Sanctioned Serial Killer (Made Man: Cutters): Axl spent most of his street rat childhood working for the cutters. They improved him and made him better, a process he wholeheartedly embraced. His loyalty to them is largely superficial, if he thought a corporation would take him under their wing and provide similar pay and similar freedom, he would sign up. For now, however, he has fully embraced the cutters life.

Good at Violence (Shoot First, Don't Ask): He's gotten fast from all the murder he does

Negative

White as Snow (Albino): He's pale. His unfortunately still fleshy eyes are vulnerable to glare. His skin is the color of paper and his hair is a silver so often tinged with red. Beware the white rabbit, Alice.

Built Better (Superhuman Psychosis, Sadistic, Latest and Greatest): Lichtenberg has grown beyond petty conceits such as 'morality' and 'basic human empathy'. He likes hurting and killing people. He doesn't like people having power over him. If he's wronged, he will make that wrong right. If he is challenged, he will follow through on that challenge with glee. He is not a nice person.

Luckiest Rat in the Pile (Compulsive II: Gambler): Metahumans are only really interesting to Lichtenberg as fodder for his blade. Trids are uninspired, books are uninteresting, magic is a joke and technology is only useful for making him better at dividing people into their component parts. The man craves a challenge and what purer challenge than games of chance? Gambling is a weakness of his, a place where nothing tangible matters beyond pure luck, pure odds. He would like to conquer that place.

Run History

Name	GM	Metaplot	Date of Run
Duerme y Pasa a Mejor Vida	jit		8 March 2085
Clever run title about cars	Dawnfire	KAPTAIN KILLDOZER's Revenge	5 March 2085
Race To The War	Asmodeus	Meatgrinder	20 February 2085
Mostly Armless	jit		18 February 2085

Affiliations

Contacts

Contact	Connection	Loyalty	Archetype	Profession	Aspects	Chips
Pappy	4	3	Fixer	Street Security Professional	Money makes the wheels turn, Cutters Man from Cutters Town, Not an Alcoholic, an Aficionado, Doctors hate him, Arms Dealers LOVE him, Old Man	Even

Organizations

Contact	Position	Connection	Faction Rep	Archetype	Health	Location
Cutters	Enforcer	3	5	Gang	Maintaining	Seattle

Enemies

The Ancients - Despite mechanically (currently) having no negative rep with the ancients, the Ancients and the cutters are constantly at each others throats and his own entrance to the gang was marked with the blood of several members of the gang. They don't get along.

In Character Information

Symbols and Signatures

Playing cards. Fractal patterns.

Matrix Search Table

Threshold	Result
1	The name of an old-world German Borough.
3	The 'Lichtenberg Effect' is the name given to the series of fractal patterns left behind after a lightning strike.
6	Some files regarding a patient profile, dubbed 'Lichtenberg' with no name given. Seems to be detailing extensive cyberware. Footage of a silver haired individual with similarly matching augs, covered in blood and grinning up at a security camera as he walks by. The camera falls off the ceiling, all the way to the ground. Its lens cracks, before it fizzles out to static interspersed by fractal patterns.

Shadow Community Table

Threshold	Result
1	"Lick ten birds? What?"
3	"Oh yeah, yeah. Chromed up bastard with a sword. Pale, real spooky lookin' guy."
5	"Okay, you didn't hear it from me but ... you REALLY didn't hear it from me, okay? Heard he moves with the cutters. I know right, real funny. Sword psycho with the cutters, laugh it up. You owe me a fraggin' drink."

Assensing Table

Threshold	Result
1	His aura is subdued, quashed by so many cybernetic implants but even in its present state it is blindingly bright. It looks like lightning, roiling beneath his skin. Sounds like the crash of thunder. It's difficult to apply such bodily conceits of 'health' to one with such extensive augmentations. The one thing you do know, is that he's probably bored, eager to strike. He is mundane.
2	His entire body is filled with cybernetics but you could find that out by looking at him. I worry for you if you recognize his aura.
3	His essence his incredibly low, likely lower than yours if you are even capable of observing the astral. You wonder whether such a gift is a blessing or a curse. He is in remarkably good health but shows the tell-tale signs of a repeated stimulants user. They are harder to spot, owing to his largely synthetic body.
4	There's not much flesh left. Essence is .08. The lightning patterns have smaller patterns that branch off from them. It doesn't end.
5	Modification at the very genetic level. Some subtle addictions to crueler things. Like the fractal patterns of the lightning, there is no end to them.

SINs

Johnny Greenpath (Rating 4 Fake, UCAS): Driver's, Weapons, Restricted Cyberware

Appearance

Lichtenberg has a pretty face. Delicate, feminine features. Long, silver hair. Soft red eyes. Below the very top of the neck and jaw, however, his body becomes a sleek, steel thing. The cybernetics look a great deal like synthetic muscles, all chorded and long steel. He isn't tall, standing at only 5'7", including the chrome bootheels attached to his cyberleg. When he isn't fighting, he moves like a snake or a cat, slow and methodical. However, when he is fighting ... truly fighting, he moves like lightning.

Clothing

Lichtenberg has undergone extensive Full-Body Replacement. Aside from a few armor plates and an armored long coat, he generally finds it most comfortable and inoffensive to conduct his business without conventional clothing. He lacks genitalia, being entirely synthetic and borg-like below the neck.

Matrix Persona

He has made no modifications to the default MCT Blue Defender persona. It's a blue knight.

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	A Blade for the Cutters	Lichtenberg is a soldier for the cutters. A leg-breaker, an assassin, a tough, he does pretty much whatever gigs they want him to, so long as they're interesting. They are the people pointing him in the right direction and he gladly will charge ahead and spill blood for them.
Aspect 2	A Man with Many Enemies	Having killed so many people over the years, Lichtenberg has his fair slew of enemies. Friends or family or coworkers of the murdered individuals in question. Detectives tracking down a mad killer. Gangs that would exist in opposition to the Cutters hold on Seattle. Many of these individuals probably want the man dead. What a shame! One of these enemies is Billy Billions, a nova rich thrill killer who was blinded and 'killed' mid-race by the razorboy. After being rebuilt as a powerful cybersamurai, Billy is out for revenge!
Aspect 3	Eyes out for the Good Doctor	As an abandoned passion project by one promising Doctor Albrecht, Lichtenberg is a little jealous of whatever projects the doctor has moved onto. As such, he would like to track down this doctor and kill his newest project, in order to prove his superiority. Maybe kill the doctor as well. Who knows!
Aspect 4	Compulsive Gambler	Lichtenberg is a compulsive gambler. He loves playing the odds, enjoys winning a coin flip more than anything else. It's this space where nothing tangible matter besides chance. In the event that someone cheats, then that possibility hanging over their heads is just as fascinating. Just don't get caught!
Aspect 5	Mess Me Up Boss!	I am completely fine with long term consequences for my characters, as long as it doesn't feel unannounced or forced. Long term changes to a character make more opportunities for interesting roleplay, and so don't be afraid to give them out if they are deserved! This character is designed to be tossed headfirst into the meatgrinder. I don't mind if bad things happen to him!