tentative Ryslig app (wip)

[honededge]

OOC INFORMATION
Name: Azazel
Contact: azazelbunny
Are You Over 18?: Yes!
Other Characters: None!

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Jay "Talon" Kingston
Age: 28
World Information: If you're canon familiar, Talon comes from the Shadowrun universe. If you aren't: Talon comes from a technologically advanced world that experienced a magical "awakening" that brought back ancient magic and races that were long considered to be things of fantasy. He was born and raised (for what measure of "Raised" he was) in Seattle, a metroplex run by generally corrupt corporations which suffers from a serious class divide.

Shadowrun largely focuses on the lives of Shadowrunners - criminal mercenary operatives who work against the "system", be it government or corporation or private wealthy influences. These people are off the grid and actually legally barred from holding a job in most cases, as they often are either without a SIN (system identification number) or have forcibly removed their names from every digital record it was ever written in - which is effectively the same thing. Those without a SIN cannot be employed by any legal business and are considered societal throwaways. People hire Shadowrunners independently, usually when they need something done that is not strictly legal or morally sound.

Shadowrunners can usually be categorized into "classes" based on their skills and roles in their teams. One of these roles is that of the Shaman, an individual who has been contacted by a "Totem" (which may be a minor deity or a powerful spirit or both or neither, it isn't clear in game or in external sources) and granted magical powers according to that Totem's sphere of influence. They differ from Mages in that they don't manipulate magic to their will, rather they alter ambient magic passively and actively through their Totem's blessings.

Character Information: After being orphaned by a ghoul attack at the age of 12, Jay rallied against the odds to survive in the Seattle slum he was born in as "Talon". Notorious for fiercely defending his burned out shell of a home with traps, brutal improvised weaponry, and straight dirty fighting. Talon survived very hand to mouth and earned a reputation for leaving his attackers crippled or badly damaged - but rarely dead. A Barrens restoration project called the Harmony Project eventually "rescued" him, at the time a feral little 17 year old gremlin, and offered him safety and security. The project cleaned him up quite literally, finding him a small apartment and steady employment and took the time to try and teach him that he didn't have to kill or be killed anymore.

He was given a job with a private security firm called Knight Errant in the hopes of putting his violent tendencies to use in a positive way. Knight Errant put him through rigorous training to clean him up and hone his skills to a fine edge that they could use. He never outgrew his brutality, improvisation skills, or dirty fighting tactics. Since he was mainly being pitted against Shadowrunners as a private security guard, this specific set of skills actually carried him to the upper ranks of his team. Unpredictable tactics to combat unpredictable foes.

Talon developed a deep sense of responsibility for his fellow teammates and became a sort of guardian angel to them. If they were pinned down, there he was, offering covering fire or picking off the biggest threats. If they were wounded, there he was, offering first aid or cover for someone else with a medkit. His team was particularly close knit and functioned so well together that they were often personally requested by wealthier clients. Talon's specific specialty was in long-range combat - snipers and other rifle-type weaponry - with a lesser focus on field medicine. He fell out of practice with trap making and melee weapon usage, but will always have those skills "under his belt".

Around the age of 21, Talon officially transitioned from using female pronouns to male, embracing a new gender identity. He'd been toying with the idea for a long time, but wanted to feel fully accepted by his unit before making any major changes. His unit was open and accepting of the changes and did their best to accommodate him. Their acceptance only strengthened Talon's sense of responsibility over them, resulting in him believing himself to be a sort of "papa bear" to the team. An ironic term, given that he began to dream of the Bear Totem around this same time. The Bear Totem accepted Talon into His life, drawn in by Talon's drive to protect and care for others. Talon began training his magical abilities on top of his combat skills, developing a particular knack for healing from a distance.

Unfortunately, Talon found himself rather alone again after a team of shadowrunners set off incendiary charges on the floor his team was stationed don during a run gone wrong. Talon only survived by using Bear's gifts to heal himself, the rest of his team was wiped out by the attack. The fact that everything that had stabilized him could be taken away by one button press messed him up pretty bad on its own, that's to say nothing of the screams, the pain, and the crushing sense of failure to protect his "family". Talon was discharged from Knight Errant due to his growing sense of paranoia, PTSD, and general inability to gel with any other team.

Talon took his grief and turned it into the drive to try and help others. He used his healing skills and first aid knowledge to volunteer at various shelters, hoping to both repay some of the kindness the Harmony Project had showed him and to get his name out there to the security companies that guarded the shelters. That's when he met Bullseye.

A shadowrunner, badly wounded and taking shelter under the guise of a refugee from the Barrens, Bullseye was assigned to Talon as a patient. Although he knew of her occupation, having fought her in the distant past, and even though he hated her with every ounce of his being for it, he was forbidden by Bear to turn down someone in need of healing. Fearing he might lose his magic altogether if he didn't treat her, her gave in and tended to her wounds. Over the month that he spent repairing her badly damaged body, Talon got to know Bullseye pretty well. She was chatty and very easy to get along with. Despite himself, Talon began to feel conflicted about hating her. She only took theft jobs, had a rule against killing on the job, and was genuinely a pretty nice person. Circumstances had just never favored her and she fell into the shadowrunning life because there was nowhere else to fall.

She asked Talon to join her on a job, just once, and promised that she could get him into another security force if he came along. Between a desperate need to have someone, something, to protect and live for and a growing soft spot for this cheery little elf, Talon agreed on the condition that nobody was to be killed. Period. No security, no civilians, nobody. Bullseye made a promise she couldn't keep and Talon accompanied her and her team on what should have been an easy data theft job. They handed him a sniper rifle and some old gear and off they went.

Predictably everything went horribly. The short story is that some people wound up dead, some alarms were triggered, and Talon suddenly found himself on the run from Ares Macrotechnology, one of the largest corporations and producers of weapons in the world. He had to burn his SIN, leaving him with two options: Go back to being a homeless criminal or become a shadowrunner. It wasn't an easy decision, but he didn't have time to really think about it.

He began working freelance out of various Seattle districts, cutting ties with Bullseye out of spite (and regret). SINless and jaded, he took any job that would keep him afloat, usually operating as team healer or sniper support. Sometimes a little mix of the two.

Personality: Talon is ruled primarily by fear, anger, and his past. Even as a child he was anxious, and his issues with ghouls, Knight Errant, and Shadowrunners have only exacerbated those problems and grown them into full-fledged paranoia. Talon is constantly afraid his past will catch up with him and that the Shadowrunners who killed his Knight Errant team will track him down to finish the job, even though he knows they have no real motive to. He is constantly afraid his present circumstances will collapse on him, especially if things are going smoothly. Much of his fears rely on him being attached to someone, a "personal charge" if you will, and without the motivation to protect someone, he is less afraid and more angry than anything else.

Anger manifests in Talon in short but extreme bursts. He often has no control over his initial reaction to something and will probably act on his first impulse, which is usually saying something he regrets. Consequences are something he worries about a split second later. He holds long grudges against those who wrong the people he cares for - anyone caught up in that particular web of emotions is a target for life. Against these targets, Talon is not afraid to revert to a younger state of mind and fight dirty, set traps, or use his surroundings to his advantage in a physical fight. If the fight is verbal, he employs many of the same tactics in that he will latch onto what bothers the person the most and play on their fears, anger, and insecurities. He rarely instigates any kind of conflict without being prompted in some fashion, although prompting him doesn't take a whole hell of a lot.

Talon struggles with feeling guilty over those he couldn't protect. Partially because his Totem requires it and partially to ease this guilt, Talon seeks out those who are down on their luck and tries to lift them up. It is most certainly not out of altruism and is 100% a selfish action on his part. He often picks up more people than he can handle and inevitably someone either dies, falls back into bad habits, or starts an argument with him that they can't finish. These shallow connections are fleeting and explosive in the way they end, but those he maintains long relationships with are treated to a very different side of him.

If you are under Talon's protection, you are never without a vengeful guardian angel. Whether his support comes in the form of a sniper's nest by your house or a person who will listen to you and give you their brutally honest opinion in return, Talon will drop almost everything to provide you with what you need if he can. Even if he can't, he'll try anyway. Very few people hold this kind of honor.

Other facets of his personality include a tendency to be more honest the closer he is to someone, a severe fear of open flames, and a habit of biting off more than he can chew. At times, he can seem contradictory because everything is circumstantial to him - he is both willing to lie to strangers and unwilling to lie to friends, for example. In most cases of extreme pressure or duress, Talon responds efficiently and deals with the emotional aspect of the situation later, in private. In cases of pressure or duress in which he has perceived himself as a failure or has definitively lost someone in his charge, his response is more of a blind rage that doesn't end until someone is incapacitated. He prioritizes fleeing and taking revenge later over trying to salvage a situation that has gone wrong.

5-10 Key Character Traits: Contradictory, Spiteful, Protective, Vengeful, Easily angered, Prideful, Stubborn.
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, EITHER, or opt for 100% RANDOMIZATION? Fits, please!
Opt-Outs: None!

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