You expressed interest pretty early on and you've been active in the thread, so for your case, I'm willing to extend time for you.
That way you don't have to throw your work away.
This is how Jarrin appears with his head, below the skull and neck area he's largely pretty human, he tends to wear clothing with hoods he's tailored himself to fit the augments, he isn't ashamed of them nor annoyed by staring, but some areas of his head can make other people uncomfortable to see. Not because many people in the city are bothered by such things, but because his surgery was as cheap as possible while still maintaining quality, thus parts of his head and neck can be...grotesque to look at.
For work purposes he wears clothing that leaves no skin exposed, he has found that a valuable intimidating factor can come from his appearance, and letting enemies or others wonder just how extensively modified he is.
History: Jarrin does Runner work for one reason, and one reason only.
Money
The reason for this is simple, while the surgery done to apply the cybernetics to his body that sustain his life work, and work well, they are still unsightly and he would like to return to a state of being that is more normal then what it is currently. At the age of eighteen while riding the underground public transport system, it was violently derailed by an accident.
Evidently an unknown group, possibly Runners, possibly criminals, terrorists, soldiers, or even black ops had an altercation with law enforcement, the train that Jarrin was riding was not a target or even part of either side's plans, but merely collateral damage. The details are hazy to say the least, at least the ones publicly released, but some sort of explosion went off and the result for passengers inside the train was as if as Jarrin described it "An angry giant picked up the series of cars and shook them about ferociously in a fit of insane rage."
That was all he remembered before he impacted a length of metal that narrowly missed impaling his brain, had this been the day and age of old 21st century Earth, he would have died for certain, or been completely unable to live anything resembling even a gross caricature of a normal life.
Thankfully, he lived in the here and now, where advanced biotech and cybernetics exist. While Jarrin nor his family were particularly wealthy, they were at least middle-class, and he had been working hard to store up money to go to a prestigious university. That plan was derailed as his parents and himself diverted savings towards the purchase of both the materials and the expertise needed to begin extensive cybernetic surgery on Jarrin to save his life.
The main purpose of the surgery was to restore normal(relatively speaking) sight, respiratory functions, and eating, and to repair any other damage done by the accident. Money was put towards the cheapest augments available, while still retaining quality, this was when they were informed that they could indeed do that, but such cybernetics look highly mechanical and dehumanizing.
Jarrin gave his consent that he was alright with this, he could get more money later, he needed what he had now. It was fortunate he made this decision as well, for if he'd gone for something better he may have completely depleted his own savings and potentially bankrupted his parents, who were very loving and wanted their son to live a normal life, willing to potentially lose everything for the sake of their son.
When it was done, he looked like something out of a science fiction poster or novel, his eyes clicked and whirred when they focused on something, his breathing was a series of hisses and mechanical noises and...eating was a difficult process. Overall Jarrin wasn't too upset by this though, as he was always a rather phlegmatic individual and calmly reasoned that this was a vast improvement over being dead or worse.
Looking at what money he had left, he realized it would take a long time to restore what he'd worked so hard to obtain, even worse the university he had wanted to go to had issues with discrimination against those with augments, so it was unlikely he would be able to go there even if he had the money.
Pondering his options, he in secret began to quietly devote himself to crime, nothing serious and Jarrin avoided hurting people who didn't deserve it if he could, he mainly did a lot of cybercrime, hacking that is to say, using what money he had left to gain an education in coding, programming, and...more illegal education, for learning how to hack security systems was not something taught by any university he knew of.
He would by any means necessary, earn enough money to obtain first better augments that would make him appear human once again. Then to obtain enough finances to go to a good university once again, and get the education he's always wanted, to where he can work and get the money he needs to live comfortably the rest of his life.
Psych Profile: In terms of psych profile, Jarrin doesn't really stand out much, despite his horrifying accident and the trauma that followed. His emotional and mental stability is still high and he does not suffer much depression or anger over his state of being, and copes with the potential issues that arise from his condition.
Quite phlegmatic, stoic and calm. These emotional traits make Jarrin quite good at his job as he rarely loses his cool or gets emotionally imbalanced, this makes him more capable of thinking rationally and logically. This isn't to say that Jarrin doesn't have emotions and doesn't feel them quite often, he is simply better at controlling them then other people are.
This also means that while Jarrin isn't a particularly malevolent individual nor much of a jerkass, if it is a logical thing he may still act out deeds that could be considered morally questionable if he feels the situation calls for it, while he very much would rather not do such things and indeed tries to avoid taking jobs that might mean he has to, he is not adverse to it if necessity calls for it.
Modus Operandi: Jarrin is primarily a hacker, a cyberwarfare expert, if you need the electronic defenses of security systems and AI's defeated and bypassed, he is the one you turn to for the job. Electronics, mechanics, cyberware, AI systems, he is quite knowledgeable about those fields. Not a master or prodigy by any means, he is nonetheless good enough that many clients turn to him when you require someone capable of defeating said systems without blatant brute force.
It is in such areas far better to be subtle then obvious, and thus Jarrin has gotten a lot of experience in bypassing such things without being detected or even necessarily leaving behind a trace that he was there.
This isn't to say that Jarrin isn't capable of other talents, while he isn't as adept at fighting as other Runner's might be, he makes up with this by learning to be stealthy and subtle, to get to and from places without being seen.
Equipment
When confronted with enemies or security systems that are heavily armored or mechanized that Jarrin cannot avoid or bypass, he has this little beauty. While small, the Zeus Class Fusion Pistol has a miniaturized fusion reactor that produces the kilowatts of power necessary for it to fire the bolts of energy this small but powerful sidearm emits. These energy blasts are designed specifically to short circuit electronics and machinery, and often to cause them to catastrophically overload.
Powered Armors, robots, and other similar pieces of technology are highly vulnerable to this, unless they are top of the line produced and are hardened against such tech, this is Jarrin's go to when backed into a corner.
Despite being meant primarily against tech, the pistol is also more then capable of causing severe trauma to organic targets as well, but that is not it's purpose and Jarrin typically does not use it for that.
Jarrin's weapon of primary usage throughout any mission he runs, the Viper is compact, easy to handle and wield, quick to reload, silent, and capable of both single-fire and fully automatic. A machine pistol that is capable of both subtle, stealthy work and full out firefights if need be, using .45 ACP caliber rounds fired at high penetration speeds to allow the pistol to have firepower while still remaining compact.
For the Runner of discretion...
The advanced tech in the silencer Jarrin attaches(not shown above) is capable of neutralizing sound to a degree that while not completely silent, is quiet enough that he can dispatch enemies without alerting an entire area to Jarrin's presence. When in trouble that cannot be avoided he detaches it, as the silencer reduces muzzle velocity.
Carbon-Fiber Knives: Kept hidden on various parts of Jarrin's mission gear are knives made of a carbon fiber, allowing them to pierce even some metals, some of them are meant for throwing, and some for hand to hand combat. Not how Jarrin prefers to fight, but if it comes down to it, having them is better then only having bare hands.
Augmentations: Obviously Jarrin has the cybernetics that more or less are his face now, they take up the functions of sight, breathing, and eating. One advantage they have is he has extremely high levels of visual acuity, he can't see at huge distances, but he can see sharply and clearly at normal human viewing sights, and around twenty feet further then that.
He does not see a need to be able to see very long distances, and instead upgraded the mechanical eyes to allow him to see clearly at normal ranges, and to allow him to track the movements of things that normal human eyes cannot.
For breathing, he has a variety of tubes that move from his facial plating down into his chest, some of them are redundant backups in case the primary systems are damaged, he has at least three redundancies in case of this, fully aware that otherwise a stray bullet could end his career early, he also carries a couple spares in case all his redundancies are damaged, so that if need be one of his fellow Runners he is allied with could do emergency repairs to save his life.
The tubes themselves are made of a dense, highly durable material.
Because the cybernetics installed to save his life had to be interfaced with his brain, he has added on an additional augment to the ones already in place that allow him to process what he reads faster then he could otherwise, nothing major.
Day Life: Most of Jarrin's time off of doing jobs as a Runner are spent keeping the rest of his organic body healthy, maintaining his house, and doing his secondary job as a programmer. He works doing the coding necessary to program the very security systems he often cracks while working as a Runner, this irony is not lost on him in the slightest and is part of why he does it. Having an active hand in doing the very programming for some of the security programs out there gives Jarrin extra money, and an edge at hacking.
When he is not doing any of that, which he views as work, he relaxes and enjoys himself reading, because of his visual acuity and minor augments he can read very quickly, and since he has a good memory is able to absorb a great deal of information this way, while he could simply get an augment allowing him to digitally just download such information straight to his brain, he prefers the tactile sensation of turning pages.
There isn't much he doesn't read, be it simple fiction for kicks, or non-fiction for both kicks, and learning more about the world around him, he is a voracious reader. This also serves the dual purpose of keeping him informed on the latest forms of technology and programming, Jarrin is constantly reading books, and information online to keep himself up to date on these things.
His other hobby is of mechanical and electronic engineering. At his home is a garage devoted to numerous devices, projects, and thinks he tinkers with to keep his abilities to actually do such things in the field sharp, and he genuinely enjoys it.
Runner Status: Active
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Ha! I surprised myself, I didn't think I could come up with anything on short notice and I did!
People often surprise themselves when they actually try.
Good job. Source Code seems like an interesting guy, I like that made him a very Zen guy, despite (or maybe because of) his state of being
this thread seems really intresting but I have one question. I'm more comfortable making younger characters. Don't worry I don't make little kids all my characters are like 15-17. Is that okay?
this thread seems really intresting but I have one question. I'm more comfortable making younger characters. Don't worry I don't make little kids all my characters are like 15-17. Is that okay?
A teenage character might be interesting in that sort of absurd way we seem to be going.
I'd have to see the character sheet to really decide. You don't have all that much time but if you can bang one out fast, you might be able to get picked.
To get a pretty basic idea of the setting, I'd advise you to read the entry post.
If you've already done that (and I hope you have) I can provide more info here in a sec.
I should say though, a lot of the history and specific locations have been left intentionally vague so that players don't feel the need to conform to a map when writing their characters.
However, I was going to make a bit of a lore page explaining more, though I held off because I didn't want to expend a lot of effort on that unless the RP showed significant interest. Which it has now, so I'll probably be giving out more information in a bit. I'll place it into the first post of the thread and let everyone know when it's done.
To get a pretty basic idea of the setting, I'd advise you to read the entry post.
If you've already done that (and I hope you have) I can provide more info here in a sec.
I should say though, a lot of the history and specific locations have been left intentionally vague so that players don't feel the need to conform to a map when writing their characters.
However, I was going to make a bit of a lore page explaining more, though I held off because I didn't want to expend a lot of effort on that unless the RP showed significant interest. Which it has now, so I'll probably be giving out more information in a bit. I'll place it into the first post of the thread and let everyone know when it's done.
I feel like I need to bring it up, because there are some far-reaching implications. But, miniaturized fusion reactors and energy weapons being commonplace items would change things quite a bit, as far as overall technology goes.
I feel like I need to bring it up, because there are some far-reaching implications. But, miniaturized fusion reactors and energy weapons being commonplace items would change things quite a bit, as far as overall technology goes.
R-9 kind of has a point though.
A fusion reactor that fits in your pocket is still and absurd amount of power. And it would change things in the setting if these exist and are up for grabs for just money. Three years worth of pay for something like that would still be a ridiculous undersell. Three decades worth of pay, and we're maaaaybe somewhere in the ball park.
If you really think about the idea of nuclear energy being portable, it changes everything. I'm not an expert, but even I know that if I could fit a reactor in my jacket, I'd never need to charge any device I own ever again nor would I ever need to pay a power bill ever again. Either that or I'd die of radiation poisoning or something...
A simple alternative to keep the functionality of the weapon mostly the same would be to make it powered by things like battery charges. Think taser cartridges, but firing a small EMP burst in a directed angle.
Cause yeah, something like that existing would change a setting forever.
R-9 kind of has a point though.
A fusion reactor that fits in your pocket is still and absurd amount of power. And it would change things in the setting if these exist and are up for grabs for just money. Three years worth of pay for something like that would still be a ridiculous undersell. Three decades worth of pay, and we're maaaaybe somewhere in the ball park.
If you really think about the idea of nuclear energy being portable, it changes everything. I'm not an expert, but even I know that if I could fit a reactor in my jacket, I'd never need to charge any device I own ever again nor would I ever need to pay a power bill ever again. Either that or I'd die of radiation poisoning or something...
A simple alternative to keep the functionality of the weapon mostly the same would be to make it powered by things like battery charges. Think taser cartridges, but firing a small EMP burst in a directed angle.
Cause yeah, something like that existing would change a setting forever.
The issue was I don't really know how high or low tech the setting is, so it'd be a good idea to have an idea of a hard limit of how advanced the society is
History: As a child Kurai showed high level of intelligence,and a natural talent for hacking. At the age of 2 Kurai taught himself how to read, and at age of 5 he taught himself how to play the violin. Unlike most children he was also always much more emotional then other children. His high intelligence, and extremely emotional persona caused him to be bullied all his life, Kurai grew up without friends his age, since his mother had died in child birth, and his father was a runner, the only person he could count on was his wealthy aunt who took care of him, and taught him many things, such as, how to play soccer, how to cook, how to play card games, and how to defend himself.
When he was nine his father was killed during work. Since he never really got to spend time with his father, he thought his death wouldn't affect him at all, however during the funeral all Kurai could do was cry. Two years later Kurai's aunt was murdered by the same man that killed his father. Feeling as if he had nothing left to loose, and very much willing to avenge his family's death he ran away before he could be taken to a foster home and trained himself to become a runner, so that someday he could find the man and kill him. On his thirteenth birthday Kurai joined a group of runners, and now he works for them, determined to find the man that took everything from him... no matter what it takes.
Psych Profile: Unlike most people his age, Kurai can think with his heart, and his head, maybe because both are too big for his body. On the job the boy is very level headed, serious, and very mature for his age, when he's not on the job he acts like any stubborn and sarcastic teenager. However Kurai is very humble as he does not take credit for what he does and give all of it to anyone who helped him, this is because he believes that he doesn't deserve it. Often thinks that he is nothing more then a burden due to him being the youngest, and blames himself for any casualties. He is often reminded by his team that he shouldn't carry the weight of the world on his shoulder, and that no one is is perfect. He is also crazy loyal, he would easily choose the life of his teammates over his own life, and would rather go to hell then leave a comrade behind.
Mode of Operation: as previously mentioned he has a natural talent for hacking, and is highly intelligent. He also has three years of mixed martial arts training, knows his way around a lock, and can slip into any room undetected. He can easily deceive anyone due to his height, and the fact that he is much stronger then he looks.
Equipment: Kurai can't shoot, and has a pretty bad aim, however he is exceptional at close range combat which is why his weapon of choice is a combat knife.
Augmentations: none
Day Life: Kurai lives in the safe house (a/n if that's not okay then he can live with one of the other runners) so he spends most of his time there, he spends some time training for the job, but most of the time he spends his time on his hoobies. His hoobies include nerdy stuff like playing computer games, reading comics, and watching tv. He also enjoys card games, and playing soccer. He spends some of his time outside. Kurai doesn't go to school because he wants to be a runner all his life, because he thinks he has nothing left to loose.
I've fixed and edited my post so that the zeus pistol operates off of batteries instead of a reactor, it has around 10-15 shots before the battery is depleted, I've also edited it so that it has an 'overcharge' feature that can unleash a devastating blast, but has the possibility of frying the user instead(because it has a chance of exploding in your hand when doing this)
Information on some locations in the setting has been added to the first post.
The information is incomplete, and I will be adding other tabs like history and prominent characters and technology later.
