Tea House Hostess/Shinto Priestess - Mystic Adept

Snow Flower has been in the clan since her youth, her parents were low level street thieves,
and she spent her time skipping school and running the streets entertaining herself in
various game parlors in Chiba. In her early teens she was sent to Seattle to serve in
a Tea House, and with her skills in games and with people she's quickly earned her
money for the clan and her parents retirement. For many years she's run the evening
shifts at the Golden Tiger Garden, a Tea House front for a yakuza gambling den. It's
an easy life, but lately she's grown in her powers through some ceremonial studies,
a fact which means she may need to leave the Tea House in service to the clan.

As someone who has studied to be a Shinto Priestess, it's a given that Snow Flower
knows something of the mystical arts, however, she keeps her the true extent of her
powers carefully hidden. Especially at work in the Tea House, where the knowledge
that the customer may be gambling against someone who can read minds and summon powers
from other worlds can lead to all sorts of problems. Accusations of unfairness must be
avoided. Of course, Snow Flower has no qualms of using her abilities to make all customers
feel happy and comfortable as they lose to the inevitable house percentages. She's quite
capable of generating an incredible level of tips for herself and her shift.

On a personal level, she doesn't think the gambling is real if she uses her powers to cheat.
On command, or to stop an especially hot customer streak, or if to stop other cheats, she
can exploit her powers in service of the clan quite well. Snow Flower is very scrupulous in
distinguishing between her personal gambling fun, and when she's doing it in service of the
clan.

Part of her training as a Hostess is to move gracefully, and as is traditional, she's chosen
a disguised art of protecting herself. It would alarm the customers unduly if they realized
that the supple woman in her traditional kimono and dancing fan was actually weilding a
razor sharp war fan and performing moves designed to cut open opponents vulnerable parts.
Adding the fact the war fan is a Shinto sanctified blade capable of inflicting wounds in
the mundane and spirit worlds would only make matters more uncomfortable for the customer.

Snow Flower prefers traditional gambling games that do not rely on modern computerized
mechanics, after all, who knows how they can be rigged. It's a lot tougher to rig cards
stones and dice. Or so the customers believe. However, for Snow Flower, she's noticed she
does disproportionately worse at any game that relies on modern technology.

As with her powers, Snow Flowers suffers from some discomforting allergies she takes extreme
pains to disguise. It's very shameful to have any kind of weakness, especially ones that
opponents could exploit.

Growing up, Discharge lived a pretty normal existence. The fact that he carried the dormant genes for magical talent, and the fact that those genes harbored an unfortunate aberration went completely unnoticed until he entered puberty. The onset of his Awakening triggered a SURGE mutation in nearby genes, and the young boy soon discovered that he could "feel" electricity in his nearby area. He also seemed to generate it, to some extent, as he soon developed an unfortunate record of electrical mishaps, power failures, and nasty shocks to his friends and family. He was taken to a number of experts, both medical and magical, which was how he and his parents discovered that he was, in fact, awakened. All attempts to help him control his new found abilities were met with failure, and the side effects were escalating quickly - magical attempts to suppress them did nothing. On a particularly bad day, the young boy shorted out power to an entire wing of one hospital, briefly.

Just when they began to feel that nobody would be able to help them, the family was approached by a small group of scientists who represented an institute which was studying the science and genetics behind magical abilities. After some initial tests, they offered to take guardianship of the boy, pay for his medical bills, and enter him into a program that they believed would help him learn to control his abilities. With no where left to turn, and medical bills already beyond what they could afford, his parents had little choice but to accept the offer.

The years Discharge spent at the Paranormal Science Institute where much like those of anyone entered into a private school. In addition, he was classified as a Psychokenetic - specifically a Electrokinetic - and was able to gain some control over his talent. He found he could generate electricity, focus it, and release it, as well as short out electrical devices and interfere with nearby wireless communications. The strangest manifestation of his ability was his ability to send himself into a controlled seizure-like state that was very similar to modern move-by-wire systems - allowing him to react quickly. His ability to sense electrical fields, improved, as well, allowing him to discern properties, and even some virtual information about electronic devices near him.

Progress was being made, and when the Institute recruited him to help in a number of "Special Operations" Discharge quickly agreed. His field-training provided a good opportunity for him to learn and gain hands-on experience with his abilities, but it also provided him with a number of life-or-death situations, and pushed him to tap into those abilities more often than he would in an educational setting. As his power grew, however, so did its side-effects.

His electrical "mishaps" were more common, and the currents generated and conducted through Discharge's body, had taken their tole on his nervous system and neurological pathways in a similar manner to the way move-by-wire users develop TLE-x. A regimen of AEXD kept the symptoms at bay for a few years, but it has lost its effectiveness as the degenerative condition progressed. Now, when he is stressed or angry, Discharge occasionally looses control of his powers and is overcome with seizures as his body channels the electrical energy away. The doctors informed him that genetic therapy or invasive brain surgery could help, but both are very expensive options, and the symptoms would be likely to return as long as he remained Awakened. Normally, the option of undergoing an invasive essence-reducing procedure could remove the psionic ability, entirely, preventing the symptoms from returning - but his power was "Class Six" meaning they could dampen it, but not remove it without killing him.

Discharge continues to work for the Institute, but he is now seen as a liability rather than an asset. He rarely sees field-work, because, at any moment, he might "short-out" and become a danger to himself, or his team. The Institute has also pulled his medical benefits after attempts to both treat him, genetically, and operate on his brain, directly, proved to only temporarily alleviate the problem. Further operations are possible, and may have better luck, but Discharge will have to find the funds to finance them, himself. Essentially, he maintains contact with the organization, but has had to supplement his income by looking for work in more traditional Shadow circles - offering to put his abilities to use as a "Combat Mage" - and hoping to maintain control when it counts.

1. Tes' parents were Cascade Ork smugglers. Tes was raised in a fairly
traditional tribal group, and still retains a healthy respect for shamanic
magicians (and a quiet suspicion of other magicians) and a deep knowledge of
illegal routes through the Cascades. The culture shock of being a Yakuza
bondservant has left most of Tes' ideology pretty murky.

2. Tes' parents would be shocked to see Tes: they think he's dead. When Tes was
running some contraband for the Yaks, a makeshift bridge collapsed under him,
dropping both cargo and smuggler 20m into a freezing mountain river. Tes lost
his arm and the goods, earning him the wrath of the Yakuza.

3. The day of the Crash 2.0, Tes was running arms through the freezing heights
of the Cascades. It had been a long run: the weapons had been consigned to him
just inside Cal Free territory south of the Tir, and they'd run them right out
to the Rockies and up north to avoid the elf & UCAS patrols. It being November,
the mountains were cold and dangerous.
They'd been out for weeks, and in the rush to get things moving, most of the
hype around the IPO had passed them by. Blithely unaware of events moving
around them, Tes and his team were scouting for a place to camp for the day when
all their comms went dark. No satellite feeds, no GPS data, nothing. They had
the map data stored locally on their vehicles and personal electronics. They
had come to depend almost entirely on electronic navigation aids, and without
those, they were lost in the mountains for weeks. Tes is still missing a toe
and bits of his ears from frostbite.

4. Tes was born to crime, if not shadowrunning specifically, being raised in the
well-worn tradition of Cascade smuggling. When Tes lost that Yakuza shipment,
the Yaks took him in payment, stitching a new arm and other stuff into him, and
keeping him as a pet bodyguard. They covered every inch of his body below the
neck in irezumi tattoos, with the difference that the tattoos depict scenes of
cowardice or humiliation, to permanently stamp him as someone who, through
ineptitude, owes his life to the Yakuza. During the surgery, Yakuza psych
conditioning sims played constantly in his brain, conditioning him to Yakuza
loyalty.
Soon this changed: Tes was part of a group of Yak thugs escorting a Seattle
oyabun to a meeting when the group got ambushed by some Vory heavies. Things
went very bad; when the Yakuza backup finally arrived, they found blood
everywhere, on the walls & in the gutters. They also found Tes and the oyabun
were the only ones left alive. The oyabun looked at Tes, told him his debt was
paid, and they left him there.
Abandoned by the Yakuza, Tes turned naturally to the shadows, looking for a way
to keep a roof over his head and something to keep his mind on while he figures
out where he fits in the world.

5. Tes has a fondness for old paper maps and well-crafted blades. He lives in
an old shipping container south of the 'plex, on the northern edge of
Pullyallup. It's rusty and ugly, but it has a lock and usually-functional
sewage and power. The inside is sort of Urban Samurai: Tes' Yakuza conditioning
coming out. The floor is covered in mats made from poorly-woven plastic slats;
they sort of look like tatami if you look at them squinty. One short end is
devoted to business: reinforced ammo containers covered in ratty black cloth and
a gun rack. There's a rolled up futon and a pillow on one long side, serving as
a couch by day and bed by night. Tes can't afford much decoration, just some
crude attempts at calligraphy stuck up on the metal walls with tape. There are
also some cheap shelves here and there on the walls, often sporting rolled-up
maps of the Cascades or the Rockies, that Tes likes to look over from time to
time to remind him of home, or even to help him plan a run. Since the Crash,
He's never gone out into the wilderness without some dead-tree maps. Just
inside the door is carved wooden totem: the patron spirit of his tribe in the
Cascades. It's usually got incense burning on it when Tes is at home, which
isn't all that often. Last but not least, there's a micro fridge (resuced from
a junkyard and repaired by a rigger friend) shared by krill packets and cheap
hooch.

6. Tes is having a tough time with ideology: he was raised in a shamanic tribe
that made its living smuggling who knows what through the Cascade mountains;
then rescued and indoctrinated by the Yakuza. He's hardly bushido, the
smuggling genes run too deep for that, but some of the warrior code (and
syndicate conditioning) come out from time to time. Tes would rather kill
someone in a fair fight, but would refuse to pay parking tickets even if he had
a valid SIN. The shamanism is still there: he still pays obesiance to the totem
by his door, and he's a bit suspicious of hermetic mages.

7. Since Tes was set loose by the Yakuza, he's proved pretty incapable of
putting his life in any kind of context. While working for the Yakuza, he came
to define his life by other people, and now that they've left him on his own,
he's lost a large part of his sense of self.

8. Renraku has very close ties with the Yakuza, so Tes has had more personal
contact with that corp than any other. He was trained to respect and obey the
Yakuza, and some of that has rubbed of on the megacorp.

9. Tes has come to depend on two people in the shadows. First, Doc Yama, the
Yakuza clinician who gave him a new arm and patched him up when the Yakuza's
enemies put holes in him. The two hit it off pretty well, and they keep in
contact even though Tes is no longer officially Yakuza. Yama has a small side
venture: a non-syndicate shadow clinic that specializes in cyberware installs &
upgrades. Tes is a frequent customer.
Outside the sprawl, Tes is still close to Diane Waters, a coyote who specializes
in the Cascades. Tes and Diane did a lot of runs together, and they stayed in
contact even after Tes took up with the syndicate. Since he's fallen into the
shadows, Diane has helped Tes get established as a runner, acting as a sort of
fixer-lite.

10. Sunday mornings are usually slept through (or rather, slept off). Tes isn't
a morning person, especially given his weakness for sake. After oozing his way
back to consciousness, the day usually starts with some krill and booze for
breakfast.
After that, it's time to strip & clean the Alpha & recharge the vibro knife.
Once the equipment's taken care of, a little meditation (trying to ignore the
hangover), and perhaps another inept attempt at calligraphy. By this time, if
no jobs have come in, it's off to the local dive bar to try and seek some
answers at the bottom of a whisky bottle.

11. Some of Tes' skills come from his days as a smuggler. He learned to ride
bikes and shoot a gun early on, since his parents were often moving uncustomed
goods from place to place. Growing up in the Cascades, he learned a lot about
finding his way around outside, and isn't easily lost, even in cities. Many of
his other skills, especially with blades, came from the time he spent "working"
for the Yakuza.

12. Short answer: not really. Tes will do whatever, up to and including wetwork
or organlegging. If he has a scruple, it's that he'd much rather kill someone
standing up, armed and facing him.

13. N/A

14. Tes didn't choose any of his 'ware: his tribe wasn't fond of body
modification, and they were too poor to afford much anyway. The Yakuza put all
his gear in him, and all they asked was that he work for them without pay for as
long as they deemed fit. He's come to appreciate the gear, but its a constant
reminder of his huge mistake.

15. The phrase "law-abiding" grates on Tes' nerves: anyone who would rather pay
up than try and evade the law has no balls, in Tes' opinion. Regardless of
social or economic standing, Tes feels like real people should have a touch of
the anarchist, and sees cooperating with legal authority as caving in.

16. That incident years ago on the bridge still haunts Tes' dreams, largely
because the Yakuza used that guilt as leverage for their psych conditioning.
Since then, he's had deep fears about failing those who rely on him.

17. The only outward show of Tes' shamanistic upbringing is the wooden totem in
the container he calls home. It's precious to him, but also something of a
torment, because he feels like he can never really go home again. He keeps very
good care of it - he's rarely seen actually praying or worshipping, but he keeps
the incense burning and the space around it clean.

18. As a child, the only future Tes could see was running contraband through the
mountains, and that seemed like the best thing he could possibly do. When he
came of age, he started taking on his own contracts, and did very well for
himself until his big mistake - and then his life changed. From then on, mostly
his goals were to serve the Yakuza well and faithfully, but now they've
abandoned him, so his goals have become more short-term and practical, while he
tries to figure out where he fits in.

19. Tes is an average-looking Ork, except for the fantastic irezumi tattoos
covering his face and upper torso. The tattoos were done during his cybersurgery
before his indenture with the Yakuza. They were intended as an ironic take on
the traditional irezumi themes, reflecting Tes' failure as a smuggler and his
enslavement to the Yakuza. Pictures of demons being tortured or burned replace
those of dragons, valiant warriors or naked women. Tes has learned to wear the
images with honor, however, and (when not in combat) often wears an open jacket
to expose the artwork. Other than that, his appearance is neat and trim; he
could almost pass for a salaryman, except for the irezumi. His ears are
somewhat truncated, and he's missing the third toe on his left foot: frostbite
from his extended stay in the Rockies during the Crash.

20. Tes' real name is Tes Cataract, single-syllable first names and nature-based
surnames being popular among his birth tribe. The first time Tes was running
contraband on his own, he hired a hacker to help with Matrix security on the
way. The hacker turned out to have a thing for higher-dimensional geometry, and
started calling Tes "Tesseract."

Thats not his real name.Jasper's real name hasn't been used in 20 years. when he was doin top secret wetworks for the CAS (the Confederation of American States military) , his code name was Maintenance-12. After losing the taste for it, he went AWOL and skipped out to Seattle to get as far away from the CAS as he could. He's had to start over at 45 with nothing, He's gotten some work in the shadows and is quietly building back his collection of toys. He affectionately names most of his vehicles and drones. He's a rough, yet likable southerner who is short enough to be mistaken for a Dwarf. But he's killed many a special forces team that has underestimated him.

Alias:Jasper E. Lee
human
4'10" 160lbs
black and grey hair, brown eyes

attributes:
bod:3
Agi: 3
Rea:4
Str:2

Cha:2
Int:3
log:4
wil:3

Edge:2

Neg qualities:
Mild alchoholic +5
Criminal SIN(AWOL from CAS Army) +10

Skills:

Pistols(Revolvers) 4(6)
Gunnery 5
Mechanic SG 2
Pilot ground craft 5
Pilot aircraft 3
Cracking SG 3
Computer SG 3
First Aid 3
Dodge 2
Perception 2
Etiquette 2
Armorer 1
Shadowing(tailing) 2(4)
Tracking 1

Knowledge:

Engineering 3
Military(CAS) 3(5)
security design 2
security companies 1
sports 1

Cyberware:

Vehicle control Rig
Datajack
Sim module (hot)

Contacts:

Slim (runs a chop shop) loyalty3/connection2
Miss Johnson Loyalty2/connection3

Gear:

Low Lifestyle/ puyallup barrens

Industrial jumpsuit 5/4 (+2 fire/chem)
Vitals protector +1/+1
Shin guards +0/+1

Ruger super warhawk (standard)
2 quick draw holsters
Custom Comlink- firewall 6, Response 5, system 5,signal 5

programs:
Encrypt 5, scan 5, sniffer 5, analyze 5, decrypt 3, ECCM 5, command 5, Edit 5, attack 3, track 3, databomb 3
Exploit 5, spoof 3, Black hammer 3, stealth 5 , "J.D."(Agent) 3

Glasses(img link, smart link, vision enhancement 3, img mag)
earbuds(hearing enhancement 3)
Micro trancever

Fake sin 6
fake liscense(Ruger) 6
Tag eraser
Medkit 6
Hardware toolkit
Hardware shop
auto shop
Armorer shop

"Charlene"(GMC step van)
Armor 16, Chameleon Paint, sm. drone landing rack,ECM 5,Rigger adapted,Clearsight 4, 2 gun ports(left&rear)
Radio signal scanner 6, Motion sensor,laser mic 6, directional mic, Smuggling compartment

"Rosie"(Nissan roto)
Weapon mount(normal,flexible,remote)Ingram White Knight
Targeting 4, Camera neutralizer 6

"Shelly"(Tata Hotspur)
Rigger addapted, maneuver 4

"Bud" (doberman)
Chameleon paint, gecko tips, Ingram smart gun (neurostun capsules)
covert-ops 4

"Harry" (Ruger super warhawk)
Pilot program 2, targeting 4 , Limping propulsion, smartgun