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→ [ Full-size chibi ] ← _____________________________ _______________________________ → [ Full-size sketch ] ←
Name: Ayame "Aya" Murakami
Age: 25
Affiliation: Apex Industries
Role: Apex Industries Public Relations Personnel/Project EURYDICE Psion
History: Ayame was born to conservative, middle-class parents on the East Coast, and grew up speaking both English and Japanese; Mr. Murakami worked at a mineral refinery that was licensed to handle astratium, and both suspect that resulted in Ayame being born with BAE. Bright and observant, Ayame encountered problems early in life with teachers, who often didn't appreciate her observations, and other classmates, who thought she was a know-it-all. Ayame, being a quick study, soon learned what she should and shouldn't say, which graduated to knowing what people wanted to hear. When she was eight, her psionic abilities began to manifest, and she became known on the playground for 'reading minds.' Her teachers reported her behavior to the principal, and before Ayame knew it, people in suits were showing up on her doorstep. Her parents reluctantly granted permission for Ayame to receive "advanced education," and she began attending the Ridgecrest Institute, funded and operated by Apex Industries.
Ayame embraced her new life, fascinated by her potential; by the time she left for university with an Apex scholarship, she was already completing credits in psychology, ultimately graduating ahead of schedule with a dual major in Psychology and Sociology. After graduation, Ayame was contracted to Apex's psionic R&D branch, Project EURYDICE, as a 'personnel specialist.' Officially, Ayame interacts with investors, government reps, and clients. In practice, this often means functioning as party-planner, go-between, and 'security specialist,' weeding out moles and ensuring that EURYDICE remains secret and Apex remains profitable. Ayame is currently in the middle of a six-month 'tour' on Sanctus [see below], where she wines and dines VIPs and ferrets out, or engages in, corporate espionage. She has a nice paycheck, a great benefits package, an interesting job, and an apartment in the most exclusive place in the world; in her spare time, she conducts research into the causes and manifestations of AAE. Of course, this comes at a price, driving a wedge between Ayame and her parents, who know that Ayame is involved in something dubious but have no idea what's really going on. Things only grew chillier between them when Ayame's younger brother, Julius, also manifested AAE.
Personality: Ayame is, at heart, a workaholic; while her specific duties change, her interest in psionics never wavers. Dedicated to honing her powers, Ayame wants to know the causes behind AAE, to push its limits and see how people like her are shaped by and can shape society. She's something of a social scientist and weighs things intellectually instead of emotionally: Her intuition is backed up by logic or psionics and she doesn't trust "gut feelings" (or people who do). She's aware that Apex is morally gray at best but is desensitized to its unsavory aspects: She's spent more time as part of EURYDICE than she has outside of it and refuses to dwell. Ayame has a talent for doublethink and has convinced herself that she hasn't done anything really wrong: Everyone that's come out poorer after dealing with her brought it on themselves by trying to screw over Apex, and aren't exactly innocent to begin with. Beneath her charming, professional veneer Ayame is pretty cynical, with a wry and off-hand sense of humor; however, her exposure to the seedier elements of life has made her more protective of her family, though she's still too stubborn to mend fences with her parents. It does give her pause, as she's not sure that she wants her brother getting involved with EURYDICE's "fieldwork."
On a personal level, Ayame gets along with most people, but that's largely because she unconsciously adjusts her personality to interact better with theirs. She's comfortable with only a few and even they aren't privy to what Ayame's "additional duties" entail. Ayame is proud of her powers and her status and has a slight sense of superiority even before you factor in the superpowers, but she does have a strange sort of integrity and will honor the letter of any agreement or contract she makes. Ayame works well within a structured system and she doesn't like things that mess it up, which is why her apartment is s**c and span. Her apartment is an extension of herself, as is her car, her wardrobe, and her career: Stylish, classy, put-together. Ayame can keep a cool head, but loses it fast if she can't see any good options, assuming that if she can't think of a way out, one doesn't exist.
Relationships: Ayame remains estranged from her parents; she does occasionally call, though such conversations are usually stilted at best. She has a closer relationship with her younger brother, though Julius is in many ways Ayame's opposite: She has a tendency to lecture but is (secretly) fond of her little brother and does what she can to defray Julius' problems.
As for a love-life, Ayame likes to claim that she's too busy for one, but they just never work out: Ayame's busy enough that her social life is somewhat sparse, but there's usually time for a drink or coffee with Alexa Monroe, Ayame's best friend and part of the EURYDICE research division. Agent Connor Greene, one of the government reps, is a recurring thorn in Ayame's side: It's part of her job to deal with him and they've worked together before, but the operative remains skeptical about psionics and doesn't try to hide it. Since Agent Greene has extensive sub-dermal cyberware, Ayame suspects he's just trying to get under her skin, though that doesn't stop her from venting to Alexa about Agent Greene's "comic-book misconceptions."
Abilities: Though trained in hand-to-hand combat as well as basic marksmanship, Ayame is one of the most highly-skilled Telepaths to come out of EURYDICE; honing her finesse since childhood allows Ayame's mental probes to go undetected even by most psychics. Ayame uses a light touch, foregoing psionics if her social senses and psychological training would suffice; she's almost as good when reading people without her powers and is often given jobs where the use of psionics might set off nearby Sensors. If she needs to get aggressive Ayame can shut down a subject's higher functions, depriving the target of their senses or paralyzing them, or brute-force a target with mental feedback until they go catatonic or die of shock. If she's in a rush or otherwise inaccurate, Ayame might ruin a subject by accident. Something of a social chameleon, Ayame can blend easily into almost any scene and it's difficult to trip her up.
Notes: Ayame is named for the Japanese iris, an in-universe reference to her eye color as well as a meta-reference to the fact that she has eye-related superpowers. In addition to English and Japanese, Ayame is fluent in German and conversational in Russian since Apex Industries often does business with those countries. Her outfit, pictured above, is the Apex Industries uniform for upper-tier personnel; men have a high-collared jacket and trousers. Both sexes are supposed to wear flat-soled shoes, but Ayame can get away with heels due to her rank. Ayame also really likes fish, as in fish tanks: Ridgecrest had them all over the place since they were supposed to be "soothing and calming" to budding young psions, and Ayame does find them relaxing. She has several self-maintaining aquariums in her apartment, some rather unusual. Though partial to fresh citrus or herbal scents, Ayame makes a point of not wearing distinctive perfume or perfumed products (shampoo, lotion) while on assignment. Julius Murakami, 17, is Ayame's brother and something of a genius, but he'd rather play VR games all day; he has violet eyes and white hair and is a Metapsionic Enhancer [see below] at Ridgecrest. Alexa Monroe, while part of EURYDICE, is not a psion herself, and Connor Greene is more of an ally with whom one bickers than an actual antagonist. What branch of the government he's from is a mystery, but he has very high-end cyberware and his relationship with Ayame can range from (well-hidden) respect to a more-or-less friendly "rivalry" to (even more well-hidden) romantic interest.
Plot Ideas:
1. Ayame runs into an old classmate only to later find that he or she has gone rogue and is being pursued by EURYDICE. Alternately, Ayame hears about their status and is later contacted by the ex-classmate, who claims 'extenuating circumstances.'
2. The child of someone important is showing A-grade manifestations but the parent's connections means that EURYDICE can't be too high-handed. Ayame is assigned to convince the parent and/or child to send the kid in for training.
3. Something either set in the past or in flashback form about Ayame developing her psionics and how that affected her life, including her estrangement from her parents. And/or when Ayame realized her young brother was also "gifted."
4. The international community is showing support for Russia by doing charity-work in the DMZ and Ayame gets to be part of it. Her real purpose is to figure out how astratium with EURYDICE experimental radiation is being sold in the DMZ and make it stop before any negative side-effects become known. Since the US is in bed with Apex, she's given "protection" in the form of Agent Greene.
5. Julius has done something stupid, he's in hiding, and he could be in a lot of trouble. When he calls Big Sis for help, Ayame could be in a lot of trouble. What did Julius do? (Use his powers in the wrong place? Piss off a kingpin? Piss off a government?)
6. A crime takes place but the only witness isn't talking (or can't). The government borrows Ayame to see if she can get something anyway. This could be a journey-through-the-mind thing or it could lead to clues that require tracking it down in the real world; either way, Agent Greene probably gets involved.
Quote: "I'm sorry, but mental privacy is a courtesy, not a right. Your contract with us explicitly disallows dealing with outside interests and I'm afraid the Jade-Colored Dawn definitely qualifies. I'd recommend you resist the urge to do what you're thinking about doing or this is going to get much more painful for you, much sooner than it has to."
Theme Song 1: Kasumi, Sascha Dikiciyan
Theme Song 2: DP PartyCrashers, Kevin Manthei
Theme Song 3: Blade Runner Blues, Vangelis [world theme]
Theme Song 4: The Illusive Man, Jack Wall [Apex/EURYDICE theme]
Setting History
In 2015, a blue 'star' appears and is quickly determined to be a comet. Its trajectory will bring it dangerously close to Earth and nations pool their resources to 'nudge' the comet away through surface detonations. The explosives prove stronger than expected and the asteroid shatters, raining fragments down on Earth in a burst of blue light. This forces the governments of the world to disclose the project, creating a brief period of unrest, but the fragments contain a previously-unknown metal, dubbed astratium, which has incredible applications.
A decade or so after the 'Blue Flash,' one child in every 500,000 is born with oddly-colored eyes. Of these, a few display powers that science cannot explain. So-called 'psychic cults' begin to form and the governments of the world move to inhibit them, suppressing knowledge of such children and denying anything more than unusual pigmentation. The Children of the Blue Star movement joins cryptids and UFOs as rumor and fringe theory.
The year is 2075 and economies rise and fall by astratium. In these days of expanding corporations and advancing technology oddly-colored eyes, while still uncommon, are barely a novelty. Of course, there are exceptions: In the halls of power, in isolated facilities and in cities around the world are those with powers that science has yet to explain, though governments and private organizations have poured time and money into its research. Most of these second-generation 'star children' are in the service of those organizations, willingly or otherwise; others remain apart, doing their best to blend in with the masses and avoid detection.
World Information
The global economy is stable, with the wealthiest countries being those who benefited from astratium harvesting. The US, Canada and many South American nations continue to hold a monopoly despite ongoing international disputes. Latin America experienced an economic and technological boom, though it continues to struggle with increasingly-powerful cartels and economic disparity.
Historically-impoverished nations partake eagerly in the astratium trade, creating a flourishing black market accompanied by an influx in crime. Conflict flares as they compete for resources and contracts and the UN Security Council has to stamp out the fires, leading to increased militarization and a semi-permanent UN presence in some areas. The astratium market is strictly regulated but that doesn't mean much if you have the money or the connections to get around it.
Most of the last 50+ years of progress has been in streamlining, maximizing, and miniaturizing. In example:
- Most smartphones lack screens, projecting their displays on glasses with receptive lenses or, at the higher end, contacts.
- HUDs and augmented reality are common; virtual reality hasn't achieved Matrix-levels of immersion, but most decent home computers allow for non-tactile virtual reality.
- Japan has more virtual celebrities than flesh-and-blood ones.
- Medical advances have drastically improved the quality and affordability of prosthetic limbs, though just-like-the-real thing products remain top-of-the-line.
- Soldiers, police officers and emergency personnel make greater use of drones and specialized equipment, from support automatons to vastly improved surgical tools. Personal defense, and some weapons, benefit from astratium alloy.
- Cars are electric, as improved storage methods and cleaner power made the model viable, and many recent models are self-driving; while most such cars can still be driven manually, many people don't know how to drive even "classic" cars.
- Cybernetic augmentation is available and minor cyberware, like optical enhancements, is common. The availability of strength- and agility-boosting cyberware necessitated new rulings for athletes and athletic events.
- The biotech field underwent rapid growth following astratium's use in metalloproteins, though wetware - from custom organs to glandular implants - is expensive and restricted. Many are petitioning for crackdowns on biotech smuggling after illegally-redistributed adrenal glands resulted in kidney failure for hundreds of buyers.
Notable Locales
In the United States suburbs continue to shrink and low-income neighborhoods are demolished, which lessens street-level crime but results in increasing numbers of displaced citizens. In response, cities created 'protected urban spaces,' untouched by modern development, which are often at the heart of the new turf wars. Most major cities aren't too unfamiliar and smaller towns haven't changed much except that everyone's got Wi-Fi. Cities tend to be divided by class, with uptown geared towards the business and upper class, ground-level for the average citizen and lower-income areas overshadowed by skyscrapers or industrial sectors. Serving as a buffer between the PUS (an acronym not lost on its inhabitants, particularly in areas that are becoming the new ghettos) are the entertainment districts, from the exclusive to the seedy. Most people are fairly content but there is some unrest, particularly among the underclass, and some criticize the government's close ties with Apex Industries, a pharmaceutical company whose funding played a large part in getting the current President elected. Unbeknown to most, Apex Industries has been conducting research into astratium exposure with its EURYDICE division.
Most of Asia has hurtled towards the future: Urban landscapes have expanded, recreating city-centers like Tokyo and Shanghai and relegating much of their population to ever-growing, increasingly-cramped apartment complexes. China in particular forcibly evicts those who refuse to move, arresting those who resist. Such malcontents, usually BAE or AAE, disappear into the penal system for further study. China, perhaps more than any other nation, has integrated into the megacorps; being China, its leading megacorp belongs to the government. Involved in morally-questionable experiments, the formalized conventions of its upper echelons keep the wheels spinning, though violence is common at its lower levels.
After several decades of expansion (and mounting accusations of mismanagement), Russia saw increasingly violent conflicts along its southern borders which erupted into war in 2064. What followed was a decade of back-and-forth between gunrunners, revolutionaries, the federal military, and outsiders with interests of their own. The UN intervened, maintaining a presence along the Ukrainian border and the Black and Caspian Seas in what's now the Russian DMZ; further inland, half-finished buildings litter the landscape as astratium-fueled construction was abandoned by the encroaching violence. Life is substantially better in central Russia as the economy is doing well and it's possible to live comfortably, particularly if you're with either the government or the local kingpins. Indeed, the black market is flourishing: Russia, particularly the no-man's-land along the DMZ, is infamous for its trade in arms, illegal cyberware, stolen tech and hired guns.
A man-made island in the Atlantic, Sanctus houses the headquarters for many of the world's corporations. As well-equipped as any city, Sanctus is meticulously clean and well-policed with highly-trained security forces. The island is largely done in a clean, ultra-modern style and the Apex Industries HQ exemplifies that aesthetic. Apex maintains a secure lab here and while there are strict rules on what can and cannot be done within Sanctus' boundaries there are ways to circumvent it. Sanctus has quite a few bars and clubs, including some very exclusive parties where deals are made and illicit entertainments are enjoyed.
Astratium Exposure & Psionics
Prolonged in uetero exposure to unrefined astratium has a 1 in 500,000 chance of resulting in astratium exposure; half will only have unusually-colored eyes, displaying Benign Astratium Exposure (BAE), while those who develop psionics have Active Astratium Exposure (AAE). Some believe that there's a genetic component, but - like the theory that powers are linked to eye-color - the current pool of samples is too small to judge.
Eye colors can be variations on standards, such as robin's-egg blue or unusually vivid green, to unnatural shades like violet, orange, yellow, and red. Rarely, black or white eyes occur, giving the impression of solid black pupils or of blindness, and are usually accompanied by light-sensitivity. About half have a secondary tint to their hair, such as a very dark purple or blue tinge to black hair, an extra vividness to red or blond, or even a metallic undertone. (No-one is being born with pink or green hair.) This is more common with AAE than BAE.
Psionic abilities fall into one of four groups: Telepathy, Psychokinesis, ESP, and Metapsionics. Each category has several subtypes, and while it's possible for Telepaths, Psychokinetics, and ESPers to learn the skills of multiple subtypes - that, is, a Telekinetic could learn to use Elemental TK and/or Barrier Generation, depending on the psion's individual talent - Metapsions cannot expand beyond their initial skill-set.
Psions are prized because, while most cybernetic implants are easily detected, psychics are normal humans until they use their abilities. A few countries are suspected to field small teams of psionic operatives; the US has three, provided by Project EURYDICE, which Apex occasionally co-opts. Almost every government or megacorp with the ability to do so uses psions, and many criminal organizations would be interested in acquiring such 'employees.'
A handful of psychics exist that don't stem from astratium exposure; their powers are usually weaker, but they may have access to unusual variants. 'Natural' psychics are immune to Metapsionics, going undetected by Sensors and remaining unaffected by other Metapsionic abilities.
Psionic Abilities
Telepathy involves manipulating the minds of others.
- Empaths can sense the emotions of others. High-level Empaths can inject emotions into their targets, altering moods and opinions, but it must be done carefully or the consciousness will reject the new emotions.
- Advocates supposedly have mind-control, but it's really more like Persuasion; most minds will reject blatantly foreign thoughts. Weak minds, or especially strong Advocates, may actually result in targets being forced to obey.
- Scanners are mind-readers, with surface thoughts being the easiest to read and subconscious or buried thoughts or memories being more difficult. High-level Scanners can implant false memories, but it requires huge amounts of skill.
- Links communicate telepathically with others, doing away with language barriers when filtered through a trained Link. Links can form mental connections between others that allows them to communicate without the Link as a hub.
- Phantasms fool the senses, creating illusions that start as visual and may eventually become tactile. Phantasms can also alter the way that the mind perceives time and space.
Psychokinesis involves affecting the physical world with your mind.
- Telekinesis is the basic form, allowing you to move, pick up, or destroy things with your mind. Its use is clumsy at first, and precision tasks like typing, writing, or even picking up small objects requires practice.
- Elemental TK is Telekinesis used to control elements such as fire, water, and electricity. Elemental TK does not allow for creation, but it can gather and enhance: A Pyrokinetic can't create fire, but could turn a lighter into an inferno.
- Barrier Generation creates walls of psychic force which protect against physical attacks and prevent astral projections from passing through. Barriers can be made air- or water-tight, and Sensors can "see" them.
ESP involves psychically perceiving things beyond what you can physically sense.
- Clairvoyance is the ability to see beyond your physical body, both in terms of distance and in regards to things that happened in the past. Multiple Clairvoyants joined by a Link can boost each other's range.
- Clairaudience is the aural equivalent of Clairvoyance; the visions of a Clairvoyant lack sound, while a Clairaudient can hear conversations happening far away, or the echoes of a conversation that happened in the past.
- Psychometry allows for the retrieval of information from places or objects, usually in the form of conversations or scenes that occurred around the object, or thoughts that were prevalent in a person while they were in proximity to the object.
- Astral Projection is the creation of an invisible, intangible 'astral form' that can travel great distances and bypass most barriers. Astral forms can hear, see, etc as normal, but the physical body appears to be asleep or catatonic.
Metapsionics involves affecting or manipulating the abilities of other psions. It's also the rarest category of psion.
- Sensors function as living radar maps; every time a psion uses their abilities, a Sensor can pinpoint their location. If a Sensor gets close enough to 'tag' a psion, they can track the target as long as they're in range.
- Enhancers can boost the abilities of other psions within range. They also passively boost others' abilities, even unconsciously, and can wreck havoc by increasing the power of other psions beyond the point of control.
- Replicators can 'borrow' the abilities of other psions, though they're unable to duplicate the ability of other Metapsionics. Replicators can only 'store' a single ability at a time, and it will quickly fade should the target move out of range.
- Nulls counteract or suppress psionic abilities; with practice, they can "throw" the null, targeting specific individuals or groups instead of affecting the area around themselves.
 Il Corvo di Verona · Wed Apr 23, 2014 @ 05:17pm · 0 Comments |
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