TL:DR - its a long post, feel free to skip if you're not interested in a bit of a read
So I went a little crazy today at work using Chummer to flesh-out my character in our SR campaign (there has to be at least some irony in using chummer within corporate America), and I wanted people's opinions on the background.
I admit it's a little unusual, but I intend to play it well, and use the unusual bits to give the GM adventure hooks.
Vital info:
Role - Face/B&E, and a VERY bad person
Qualities
Adept
Class III Elf female changeling: Fangs, Glamour, Nasty vibe, Natural Venom
Negative Qualities
Day job (20hrs/wk)
Distinctive Style
Evil Twin
Neoteny
SINner Criminal
Unusual Hair (Horizontal black-and-white stripes, unable to hold dyes or bleach)
Here's how I opted to flesh out her background:
Ayako "Zebra" Fuujie -
Born 11 March, 2046 to Kumiko (mother) and Hidetaro (father) Fuujie at Taguig hospital on Puerto Princesca in the Phillipenes. Hidetaro was a mid-level human resources data entry clerk for an offshot of Shiawase in Manilla, Kumiko was an immigration director on Yomi Island (see Yomi Island Decree, Corporate Enclaves, P96), where she processed Japanese metahumans for indefinite detainment, and prisoners for incarceration at Shiawase's prison, Meifumado.
Ayako was born with a left-clubbed foot, and was obviously metahuman (Elf), but her mother's priveleged position within the Yomi Island administration afforded access to alter her daughter's birth records without the truth being discovered. Her foot was treated through moderate exercise therapy and ceased to be a concern within a few months.
2047
Hidetaro promoted to Human Resources Director of his branch as reward for referring an upper-level executive father of a newborn metahuman baby girl to his wife, who repeats the process for this child. The child is named Mitsuko Hayabusa - another elf, also born with the same left-clubbed foot, and also completely treated through therapy.
Questions arise as to why the girls seem so similar - to the point they are often later confused as identical twins - but answers are not forthcoming. Both couples decide it is best to be satisfied their daughters are still safe and in their custody, and the matter is never fully investigated.
Kumiko quits Yomi Island detention center out of fear that the temptation to abuse her position to shelter newborn metahumans will become an uncontrollable urge which will land her in prison. She becomes a full-time stay-at-home mother and influential metahuman charity activist, while still taking great pains to hide her daughter's condition.
2048-2060
Ayako and Mitsuko are home-schooled together by expensive tutors, hired by Mitsuko's father. Their metahuman identities remain undiscovered. Each girl is taught the importance of passing for normal in public, and is taught how to use wigs and thick glasses to disguise their metahuman features. Neither has any exposure to metahumans outside each other, or popular media.
Kumiko continues to be a peaceful mediator and advocate for metahuman freedom.
2061 - Year of the Comet
Ayako and Mitsuko both undergo massive, rapid changes as Halley's Comet passes by - Identically the same changes, in fact. Both girls' hair thickens and turn a horizontal, Zebra-striped pattern, both girls sprout adder-like fangs which deploy and retract behind their incisors. The changes are agonizing and the tortured screams draw unwanted attention from neighbors and local authorities, but again each family is able to use its influence to avoid serious scrutiny. Rumors begin to circulate as the families hire a litany of confidential metahuman specialists to pay home-visits to the girls.
The fangs are discovered by investigators to inject a potent paralytic neurotoxin, and both sets of parents seriously discuss having them removed. Kumiko convinces everyone to let their daughters be as they are.
The girls, naturally, become quite close during their shared ordeal.
February 2062:
Yomi Island Decree rescinded, Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon (or HUK) liberate Yomi Island and begin retributive attacks against the Japanese Imperial Authority,Yomi Island workers, and Shiawase facilities.
1 March 2062:
Ayako's mother, long-time metahuman advocate and great donor to metahuman charities, is mistaken for a Japanese official and gunned down by HUK fighters - Ayako witnessed live via commlink, and is psychologically scarred by the event. Her father is killed the same day in a separate HUK action. Whether this is coincidence is an open question.
Japanese forces retain control of Ayako's gated community on Puerto Princesca, partially through the help of security forces sent by Mitsuko's father. Mitsuko and Ayako remain safe while Japanese Imperial Authority forces stabilize select parts of the Phillipine Islands for Japanese nationals.
Mid - March 2062:
Ayako unofficially adopted by Mitsuko's family, and begins living in their home. The death of Ayako's parents is a taboo issue to discuss, and her relationship with her best freind, Mitsuko, becomes strained.
Early April, 2062:
Ayako and Mitsuko have a major falling out over Ayako's newfound hatred for Japanese metahumans. Ayako runs away from the Hayabusa home, intending to make for mainland Japan, away from metahumans. Before making it to the passenger barges, she is captured by HUK forces and detained, mistaken for an escaped metahuman revolutionary. The HUK forces think they've liberated her from the JIA, and make overtures to take her into the fold. Seeing an opportunity to enact revenge on her captors, she aids the revolution, waiting for her chance to strike back.
April - December 2062:
Ayako learns how to tap into her adept heritage via contact with several HUK fighters, who have taken quite a liking to her. The liking is not mutual, but her real purpose is still not discovered. She also gains rudimentary training in B&E and her strength as an interrigator is recognized, for which she is groomed. She is utilized by the group to glean information from captured Shiawase and JIA forces.
Ayako is able to use her heightened interpersonal skills and growing trusted status within the HUK organization to gradually and deliberately gain priveleged access to explosive material, food, and electronics supply dumps the revolutionaries rely upon.
31 December, 2062:
While the HUK fighters are distracted preparing for the evening's New-Year's celebration, Ayako releases several detained Japanese soldiers, whom she's convinced she can help to escape, provided they assist her with her revenge by lending her their expertise with explosives.
These soldiers help her in depositing disguised explosive and combustible material throughout HUK civilian encampments. The day is spent ferrying kegs of sake, and kegs of c-4 and petroleum jelly disguised as sake to many various nonmilitary HUK encampments throughought the Phillipine Islands. No one questions Ayako or her "assistants", as she is a trusted face within the HUK community.
1 January, 2063
3:00 AM - She and her assistants escape using the supply speedboat to Japanese-controlled territory, and are detained for questioning by authorities, where she begins to tell her story. Her identity as a changeling is discovered and noted in Japanese Imperial records.
5:00 AM - several dozen explosions rock HUK civilian encampments throughout the Phillipine Islands. More than 200 die immediately - mostly the elderly, children, and women. Some 900 others die while undergoing treatment for third-degree burns and severe trauma. Nearly 3,000 are critically injured and survive, but many are permanently disfigured or paralyzed. Ayako is questioned by JLA intelligence shortly thereafter, where she admits responsibility, and denies any remorse for her actions.
2 January, 2063 -
The Japanese government disavows involvement in the terror attack, and denies the claims that agents within the Japanese Imperial Self-Defense Force participated in it.
2063
Ayako continues to be detained in a maximum-security penitentary in Nagaoka, on mainland Japan. Her involvement in the attack is not made public, although due consideration to the advantages of rightly declaring a metahuman perpatrator was given. In the end, authorities thought it best to take the opportunity to mend broken fences with the now more receptive metahuman community.
Although her unwitting interference greatly aided the Japanese government's position in negotiating an amicable cease-fire with the HUK, officials determine she is too loose a cannon to allow back into mainstream Japanese society, and make moves to secretly bring her up on war crimes charges. Most of the rest of the year is spent on secret hearings and arraignments. Use of the death penalty is strongly considered.
2064
Ayako, thanks once again to her almost supernatural ability to negotiate, represents herself at the secret hearings. She convinces authorities that a security leak could erupt into a media spectacle, if it became known that an eighteen year-old metahuman girl was executed or imprisoned for life for crimes she committed when she was underage. She convinces her captors that no matter how strong the JIA case, metahumans will not believe another metahuman was responsible, and the backlash to the Japanese government will be irreparable.
Authorities see her logic, and rule she is to be permanently and irrevocably exiled from Japanese Imperial territory. A vague 'war crimes' notation and classification code is transcribed on her SIN. She is transported to Argentina under lock-and-key, where she is unceremoniously released without residence, money, or support.
Whether the Japanese Imperial Authority retains some official record of the truth of her involvement with the HUK is unknown.
Ayako quickly finds Japanese expatriates within Argentina sympathetic to metahumans, and they find her part-time work at a law office. She saves money for a fake SIN which will allow her entry to the former United States, and studies english.
2065
the 19-year old Ayako settles in Seattle, using her fake SIN to find work at a local Gap-Fitch-Sachs and Buckle retail store, and quickly finds a boyfreind who lets her move in until she is able to afford a place of her own. People begin to notice how unnaturally youthful-looking she is, to the point of being very underdeveloped.
2070
Ayako's neoteny is diagnosed when her co-workers urge her to find out why it is she hasn't aged, and her fake SIN is discovered at the clinic when billing for the visit is being processed. The SIN is nullified and reported fake, although she convinces the physician's secretary to let her leave before Lone Star arrives. Her true identity is not discovered, although her unique genome may still be on record.
Ayako hits the streets to find a good SIN crafter, and is referred to Ibrahim Pearlmutter (contact), who agrees to give her a new fake SIN despite the fact she is now unemployed and without a means of payment - but only if she agrees to work it off in his service.
Ayako begins her first, tentative forays into Shadowrunning - two light jobs where she is only the face. The jobs are a success, and she spends the rest of the year living off her take. Ayako's new SIN says she's a high-school student so as to avoid drawing attention to her Neoteny, and she uses the spare time to attend high-school, to give it some fake credibility.
2071
Ayako convinces her old boss at Gap-Fitch-Sachs and Buckle to re-hire her under the new name. He is aware of her illegality, but turns a blind eye, because she's been such an effective salesperson. Her co-workers remain in the dark about the real circumstances of her hiring - she convinces them she's had a legal name change to protect her from an abusive stalker ex-boyfreind.
2073
Ayako's new fake SIN is uncovered when she leaves her commlink on the bus, found by a Yakuza thug. Yakuza lean on her, realizing her vulnerability. Ayako is forced again to Ibrahim to do a couple of Shadowruns to pay off the blackmail debt. Tthe thugs don't back down, even after receiving payment.
Ayako puts out feelers to find a new place to stay where these members won't find her - Ibrahim asks her to move in with him, she agrees. They become romantically involved.
She convinces Ibrahim to conect her with some Shadowrunners who don't mind wetwork. She and two others brutally eliminate the few thugs who have knowledge of the protection scam involving her. Her new SIN remains illegal, but usable.
That's about it. Our GM does demand a somewhat detailed character background, but I wondered if anyone who's a GM would want to weigh in on any inconsistencies or things that would annoy you about dealing with a character like this.
Muchas gracias!
