Pycnidium
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Character Information
Summary
Pycnidium (she/they), or just 'Pyck', is a product of poverty and corporate exploitation. She is a Dryad Mystic Adept, one in a million, born to a poor human family. Her great cosmic fortune has only served to damn her. Pyck was largely outcast in her early years, and was picked up by Horizon in High School. She was held prisoner as a tool of corporate influence, and only found freedom through self taught magics, fueled by some long forged dissatisfaction.
Mechanical Summary: Socials 14-20 dice depending on modifiers. Mild summoning/binding talent, can conjure for combat if necessary. Generally poor skill spread. Emergency self defense in the form of Mob Mind spell, though not willing to use it carelessly. Decent dodge if full defending (~20-22dp), poor defenses otherwise.
Goals
- Accumulate power and experience for the express purpose of maintaining individuality. Pyck is terrified of being under someone else's ‘supervision’ ever again.
- Get petty revenge on her old Horizon handler for ruining her family’s opportunity to rise through the economic ranks.
- Provide for her family and community, but remain personally distant. Turning her over to the corporate soul-grinder at a young age is not a slight easily forgiven.
- Receive higher education, or at least complete a GED. Pyck feels rather insecure about her lack of general knowledge and competencies from a deprived and isolated life.
- Find some genuine (meta)human connection. Pyck is extremely lonely and isolated, but struggles to treat social interaction as anything more than a means to an end, and has trouble connecting with people.
- As a very long term goal: attempt a return to corporate life on her own terms. The potential money and security is hard to pass up, though perhaps a dream of corporate life which still allows self-actualization is naive.
Background
Born to a poor SINless family in Seattle, the Somare clan had always pursued their own safety with unchecked ambition. This was what allowed her father to secure fake SINs and licenses, to ensure the family would actually be employed. This was what drove her mother to ignore her talent as a writer to pull extra shifts at the foundry. This was what pushed Izabelle and her brothers to scrape at every oppurtunity, to lunge for every single 'yen. Their problems were a heavy load, and poverty and intermittent unemployement loomed constantly. It didn't help that Izabelle was born different. A type of Elf, apparently, born to a human family. She would later learn that for Dryads, this is actually relatively "common", on a grand scale anyway.
That truth didn't serve to comfort her. She quickly understood that she had a certain air about her, some kind of mystique or charm that others simply lacked. In simple situations, it was quite the boon, but over a long period in a poor neighborhood, it only served to create envy and resentment. Iza, like many kids in her neighborhood, lived the glamour life of a wageslaves' child, they attended minimally funded corporate aggrandizing school programs, they played in the street, and they looked for out of towners who might just forget to lock their cars.
As she grew, she worked odd jobs, her best outing a momentary appearance in a children's clothing advertisement. It wasn't until highschool that the complete burden of her birth was made apparent. During a schoolyard argument, the ambient mana would manifest itself in her first display of magical potential. After that, her school principal would 'recommend' her to a Horizon talent scout, one Richard Tremen. For the next four years, she would be auditioned for a variety of bit parts in various Horizon media, being background and one-line characters in factory-made coming of age content. An intern cultivated an E-list social media persona for her, and she was used as a brand ambassador and fake smiler for corporate functions and presentations. Her life was fake, and her lack of real human connection served to stunt her understanding of what normal socialization felt like, even as her appearance and presentation was professionally maximized. She was trained by a corporate negotiator in the physical arts, as they applied to her duties, but her true magical studies, she would need to carve out for herself.
With the help of some old family contacts, she was able to smuggle street mage materials into her five star prisons. Most reliably, Blanca Blanco assisted her with a variety of materials, and homemade magical manuals of street shammans of Seattle. She practiced and practiced until her eyes went bloodshot and her voice began to shake. Izabelle used her natural manipulative gifts to keep her practices hidden while she learned to speak with the spirits. Eventually, as part of her escape, she dipped a toe in darker magicks, knowing she may need the edge.
Recently, she has escaped her corporate handler, and given her relative uselessness to his grand media ambitions, she was blackballed and burned, leaving her to the streets. Now, she is attempting to find work, more than even arcane materials, food and shelter had to be considered. Through some careful presentation and gutsy deal-brokering, she was able to form her current shadow network, connecting with a pair of fixers, and a pillar of the local shaman community. As it stands, Izabelle is a new runner, donning a name which evokes something natural, but nevertheless is an omen of decay. Perhaps that says something about her mindset concerning her circumstances, or maybe, her life.
Narratively Significant Qualities
Positive
- “Staggering Beauty, Venomous Conceit” (Good Looking and Knows It, Glamour, Too Pretty to Hit): Natural beauty and a number of years of conscious presentation. Body language, eye contact and the proper smile are weapons meant to disarm and distract.
- Mentor Spirit (Raven): A sly voice weaving manipulative and capricious notions into Pyck's subconscious. Dangerous if not kept under control.
- Common Sense: A reliable set of instincts, maybe the only thing really keeping her alive.
Other qualities: Focused Concentration 1
Negative
- “A Face to Haunt You” (Distinctive Style, GL&KI Downside): Horribly striking, Pyck has the look and demeanor of someone that you can’t help but think about. This is not necessarily romantic, some faces just burn themselves into our brains with their presence.
- Symbiosis: Natural Dryadic quality, requires her to find an area of nature to meaningfully inhabit. The severe health repercussions of a lifetime of ignoring this (& living in terrible pollution) are largely responsible for her sickliness (1 body).
- Addictions (Kamikaze / Mild, Psyche / Mild): Psyche as a crutch to easier study self taught magicks. Kamikaze as a way to mask her abject lack of experience in a fight.
- Corporate Pariah II (Horizon): Previously a dime-a-dozen idealized teen influencer with a bevy of forgettable appearances in Horizon advertising and media. Former handler was a manipulative man named Richard Tremen. Pyck has ill-conceived notions of a triumphant return to her corporate masters that would somehow not impede her freedoms. This also requires Records on File (Horzion).
- Poor Self Control (Thrill Seeker) & Did You Just Call Me Dumb?: A juvenile impulse to act out, live life for the first time, rebel. Luckily, in many cases, her overdeveloped self image instincts kick in and protect her from the worst social slights and poor decisions.
Other qualities: None
Run History
| Name | GM | Metaplot | Date of Run |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outlet Outrage! | TidanShock | 4 December 2083 |
Affiliations
Contacts
| Contact | Connection | Loyalty | Archetype | Profession | Aspects | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chloe Green | 2 | 1 | Fixer | Fixer | Activist, Environmentalist, Rich Brat | Even |
| Chainsaw Caterpillar | 5 | 2 | Fixer(G,N,K,A) | Fixer | Armored Activist, Save Our Soils, Big "Game" Hunter, Upgrade Complete, HUMINT Management, Cyber-Seeker | Even |
| Joseph Speaks-With-Rivers | 5 | 2 | Custom(G,A,K,N) | Talismonger | Enchanter, Urban Shaman, Talismonger, Talislegger, Teacher, Painted Horse Lodge | Even |
| Blanca Blanco | 2 | 5 | Custom(G,A,K,N) | Talismonger | Talismonger, Enchanter, Street Shaman | Even |
Organizations
Formerly: Horizon (Corporate Limited SINner)
Allies
Enemies
In Character Information
Symbols and Signatures
Matrix Search Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | A small number of petty thefts and low level scams can be found on public records which match the runner's description. She is, after all, hard to forget. |
| 3 | There is good information available which links the runner with one Richard Tremen, a Horizon talent agent. Though it seems, as of now, their ties are minimal or non-existent. |
| 6 | It is likely that the runner is actually a local Seattle highschool dropout, one Izabelle Fischer. Fischer was the middle child of a poor family of wage slaves, it is unclear whether this name is a well kept fake SIN, or her real name. Further investigation required. Fischer was flagged as awakened and processed into Horizons "Teen Dreem" marketing operation, and worked for the corporation for the last 4.5 years. The rest of the Fischer family was not employed alongside Izabelle. |
Shadow Community Table
| Threshold | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | This kid could be any elfy gutter punk or rebellious hipster on a Seattle street corner. |
| 3 | Pycnidium is a complete unknown, you've heard of a milk run or two she's done in service to Chloe Green's environmental activism, but nothing noteworthy. |
| 5 | She is potentially ex-corporate, though per her current appearance and habits, almost certainly burned. She has a longstanding relationship with Blanca Blanco. |
SINs
Rating 3: "Liara London"
- Mage License (Rating 3)
Former Corporate SIN (Horizon): "Izabelle Fischer"
- Marked as Awakened but not licensed as anything
Appearance
Clothing
Grubby armored jacket, slightly oversized, pulled around her shoulders. Stuffer Shack brand clothes underneath & drugstore makeup. Her social presence shines through, though doesn't quite compensate for a lack of fashionmable clothing.
Matrix Persona
Standard built-in persona, smooth and gray humanoid shape.