I was born to a poor family and ever since I was little I have been a thief. I
grew up in Redmond. My dad was a bodyguard for some metal band (Chrome Knights
I think.) We moved around a lot so I didn’t make many friends. I also didn’t
attend school. Every one said I had a lot of potential, and I should do something
with my life. Oh how right they were.
When I turned 12 I was wandering around one of the clubs the Knights were playing
at when a runner (he looked like one, moved like one, and talked like one) talked
to me for a while. His name was Style. After the show he talked with my dad, seems
they knew each other from someplace.
My dad sat me down the next day to tell me Style saw a lot of arcane talent. I
had to make a decision, training or back to a normal life. I had seen the trids
with mages and shamans’ throwing spells that cause mass destruction, and
cutting deals with powerful spirits in the nether realms of the universe.
Of course all that drek on the trid was nothing more than that drek to appease
the masses. First he had me do a Native American spirit journey to find out if
there was a totem that would sponsor my magical ability, or if I would learn the
formulas and diagrams. In my spirit quest a murder of what I thought were crows
surrounded me pulling at my clothing and forcing me to my knees. Then they formed
a circle around me and I looked around, I noticed an old man coming from the forest,
he had a jet black cloak and a worn staff with feathers all over it. He walked
over to me, I realized the birds weren’t crows, they were ravens. They parted
the circle for the old man complaining as he walked into the circle. He looked
me up and down and said, “Get up will ya? You’re gonna give an old
man like me a crink in my neck!” Standing there naked in front of the old
man a very weird thing the ravens seemed to be watching my every move also. The
old man walked over to me and looked me over opened my mouth looked inside, and
stepped backed away waving his hand in front of his face. The ravens laughed (can
they do that?) but quickly they quieted them selves. He then said, “I like
you hopefully you can pass the oral exam. He then proceeded to ask a lot of questions,
stuff like, where were you born, what would you use your powers for (I don’t
know obviously satisfied him) and other questions about my beliefs. At the end
he caught me off guard he asked, “If I told you you had a hot body would
you hold it against me?” I just stood there trying to figure out some answer,
after being asked questions like if a old woman you knew to be gentle and kind
and a snotty corp kid were stuck in the path of a speeding bus and you can only
save one of them who would you save and why? This one totally caught me off guard,
it was like throwing a monkey wrench into a turbine. He broke out laughing so
hard he was coughing. He said, “Just testing ya. Well guys what do you think?”
The flock of ravens started cackling and flying around in a maelstrom of black
feathers and razor sharp talons. The old man backed out of the circle and the
ravens started diving at me, I how ever was mesmerized by the tempest and didn’t
have time to try to dodge them. They went through me. I woke up in a cold sweat
and Style said, “Guess what, you’re a raven shaman.”
Once I developed my talents enough to choose my spells Style offered an interesting
opinion, instead of focusing on the kill everything slaughterhouse I was originally
thinking about he suggested it would be more effective if I got spells to bypass
the killing, and trained with a powerful gun to make up for the lack of burn spells.
I liked his idea a lot, he himself used more kill spells than any thing else.
I learned several spells and started to do runs. The first run I did gave me some
nice pay data. I found a V.P.’s pocket secretary which had some nice bloody
secrets hidden in it. I gave him an offer he really couldn’t refuse. I noticed
that the all muscle heads I knew moved lightning quick. I found out the things
that did it. My choices were; Boosted reflexes, wired reflexes, or a synaptic
adapter. The synaptic adapter was the least invasive so I prayed to raven to let
me have it without losing magical ability, my wish was granted as long as I stayed
in my home of Seattle.
People heard about my work with black mail and secret extraction. A lot of people
in the info business started hanging with me. This is how I met my friends Keeper
and Rattler. We became close fairly quickly, we were all shamans of different
totems, but the little raven in the back of my head didn’t disagree with
my choice in company. I also met shark a fixer who sees some kind of potential
in me. When I black mailed the exec (He was from the Ares small arms division,
but I hear Ares took the bill with very few repercussions for the exec) I also
used some money to hoard spell formulas, my talismonger Maggie soon knew me by
name.
I have lost contact with Style. Last I heard he had some biz out in Bangladesh,
hopefully he’ll give me a call I feel bad about not keeping in contact with
him
The next run I did I really scored it was a datasteal from Ares small arms. The
run went well, but I got something a little extra. I got a prototype assault rifle.
The security head was the same one from the last time I was there. After the run
he put a small bounty on my head. Luckily no one seems to want to collect.
