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Igider Abrika "In the desert, one forgets everything and remembers nothing." Berber saying Even the people of the desert don't live in the desert of our imagination, filled with towering dunes and endless salt flats. The people of the desert live on the edges, in the cracks, behind the outcrops; anywhere some quirk of geology and fate allows drips and drabs of soil and water to accumulate. Long ago, the Sahara was not so fierce a place, with enough rain for grass and even trees. But that Sahara is gone now, vanished into ancient tales and the field notebooks of archaeologists. For the past few thousand years, the story of the Sahara is a tale of diminishment. The desert grows, the edges shift, the cracks fill in, the outcrops tumble, the people argue and move and fight and die. Every now and then, humanity gives nature a push in a certain direction. In 2004, the 10 Second War accelerated the desolation of the Sahara by a few thousand years in one intense rolling blast of nuclear fire. Millions died quickly, and millions more in the following months. A mass exodus away from the radioactive areas resulted in overflowing refugee camps and a breakdown in many of the rigid Berber social customs. From the perspective of Igider Abrika, this led to at least one good thing coming out of the 10 Second War. His parents met at the refugee camp at Djerba Ajim, a former tourist and fishing town abandoned by its residents in the face of fallout fears. They fell in love, and when his mother became pregnant inconveniently early in the courtship, the couple made the foolhardy decision to leave the island on which the refugee camp was (conveniently, from the Tunisian perspective) isolated and return to the desert, instead of making the more popular flight toward the riches of Europe. The Abrika's first child, a boy, was born in 2008. Life in the interior was not easy, but the couple was stubborn and lucky and managed to accumulate a string of camels and enough contacts to make a living as nomadic traders. A series of miscarriages followed the first birth, and by the time Igider was born in 2018, his parents had begun to believe that radiation damage had made the likelihood of further children nil. Because his mother had lost so many babies before Igider, his parents were more willing to overlook his somewhat strange features than many other parents of UGE babies. By the time he was older and his elven nature was clear, his family was happy to accept the fact of his existence. As he grew, Igider had a variety of roles in the family business, but where he excelled the most was in scouting and guarding the camp at night, areas where his keen senses and ability to move unnoticed were most valuable. As his parents aged and retired from the family business, Igider moved on to other professions, with time spent as a poacher, smuggler, revolutionary, counter-revolutionary, bandit, border guard, park ranger, assassin, hunting guide, etc. Even in a single human lifetime in the Sahara, one sees marvels and experiences massive change and Igider has already lived one human lifetime and is just reaching his prime. During one of his times of employment by the Tunisian government as a border guard, Igider came to realize that some of his skills and abilities were not just superior, but superior in strange ways that implied some kind of magical influence. The tipping point, of course, was when he compared his ability to fool the ground-vibration sensors installed along the border with his peers. Even the most skilled among them, and there were several who had spent time in the smuggling profession alongside Igider before "retiring" to government service, found it impossible to duplicate the elf's ability to run at full speed without setting off the sensors. After much discussion, his friends at last convinced Igider that he was good enough and unique enough to play in the big leagues of the megacorps instead of wasting his time in a little hut with a gate in the middle of nowhere tracking down smugglers to shake down for bribes. Igider made his way to Tamanrassat, where he slowly built up a reputation as a local who could get useful things done and learned more about the nature of his magical talents. A few years ago, he managed to arrange an exclusive retainer contract with Ares, and his record of reliability and success since then has been good. A few days ago, the Ares team got word that one of the infiltrators recruited by HR for this season had been lost on an operation shortly before he was supposed to fly out to Tunisia. They decided to give the local a chance, figuring it would make HR happy to avoid all the recruiting costs and it never hurt to have HR owe you a favor. Plus, who knows? The elf might survive. "Hope is the last thing to die." Berber saying pre:A: 24 Attributes B: 36/5 Skills C: Adept 4 Magic (2 Active) C: Elf (3) E: Resources 6k BOD: 3 AGI: 5 REA: 4 (7) STR: 4 WIL: 2 LOG: 2 INT: 4 CHA: 3 EDG: 2 MAG: 6 ESS: 6 INI: 8 (11) + 1d6 (+ 3d6) LIMITS: M4 | P6 | S5 BOXES: P10, S9, OF3 Negative Qualities: Allergy (Mild, Seawater (Common)) (10 karma) Karma(0/25 Remaining): Initiate Grade 2 (29) 12k nuyen (6) Skills: 36+2/5 Combat Active Firearms group 4 Heavy Weapons 1 Blades 5 (Knives) Physical Active Disguise 2 (Camouflage) Free Fall 1 Gymnastics 1 Perception 6 Running 3 Sneaking 6 Survival 2 (Desert) Tracking 2 Social Skills Influence group 1 Magical Skills Astral Combat 1 Assensing 2 Technical Skills First Aid 1 Navigation 2 Knowledges: Tuareg Berber N Arabic 4 English 3 Natural history 4 (North Africa) Initiate Grade: 2 Adept Powers: Astral perception (1.00 pp) Combat sense 1 (0.50 pp) Enhanced perception 1 (0.50 pp) Improved reflexes 3 (3.50 pp) Traceless walk (1.00 pp) Spell resistance 2 (1.00 pp) Wall running (0.50 pp) Contacts: (9 free) Tabat Abrika (Con: 1 Loyalty: 5) - Igider's human brother, now reaching middle age. Drives a bus on the airport-Tamanrassat route Ikram the Bookie (Con: 2 Loyalty: 1) - One of several bookies active in Tamanrassat, he takes bets on the action from the residents (both permanent and temporary) Weapons and Armor (9473 nuyen) Ares Light Fire 75 = 1125 Hidden arm slide = 350 Ares Chameleon suit = 1530 Ares Alpha (w/ Suppresser and Airburst Link) = 3375 Ares combat knife = 270 Ares full body armor + helmet (w/ trodes) = 2313 Survival knife = 100 2x regular ammo for two guns = 80 1x stick'n'shock ammo for two guns = 160 1x gel rounds for two guns = 50 1x APDS for pistol = 120 Other Gear (8525 nuyen): Goggles R:4 (w/ Smartlink, Image Link, Thermographic, Flare compensation) = 2975 Binoculars R:3 (w/ Vision enhancement 3) = 1650 Ear buds R:3 (w/ Audio enhancement 3) = 1650 Renraku sensei commlink R: 3 = 1000 Subvocal mic = 50 Satellite uplink = 500 Survival kit = 200 Rapelling gloves = 50 Gecko tape gloves = 250 Gas mask = 200 Remaining resources: 2 (+ 5d6*500)? nuyen Bouquet fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Mar 24, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 02:53
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 12:54 |
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Angie Ankh posted:
The elf listens carefully to the questions, his wide eyes tightening briefly at the interviewer's final statement. He transforms his expression into a broad grin, exposing a set of shockingly imperfect teeth for an elf. "Surely you do not say that the djellaba and burnous," he gestures to his robe and cloak, "clothes that has been perfected over the centuries for the desert, is rags?" He waves a hand to forestall Angie's comment. "No, no, it is true I did not grow up in the wet lands, with a, how do you say, with a silver spoon in my hands and computers in my everything." "But, here is the truth, Miss Ankh." He leans forward, eyes locked on Angie's. "Do you know what the wetlanders do, when they is needing to train a soldier for the desert for something im-por-tant?" He pronounces the last word very carefully, each syllable distinct, then leans back once more. "The sims and chips, they is easy, they is cheap. When it matters a lot, when expensive is not the matter, they is sending their soldiers to the desert with just a knife and telling him, 'If you is still alive in two weeks, you pass the class.'" He laughs hard, slapping his thigh. "It is fifty years that I is living with her, the desert, with just a knife," he pats his chest, setting something swaying beneath his robe. "Somebody in Ares is wise, and he is asking, 'Why is we flying all these fancy white people soldiers to the desert for training and half of them die, when there is alive warriors there already?'" Igider leans forward again, expression fierce and words intense. "This wise man, him I will make proud!" More bio on the way in a bit, just hadn't managed to get back to it yet.
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Mar 23, 2014 00:40
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Bio finished.
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Mar 24, 2014 07:14
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