Hestia "Tia" Richter Body: 6 Mind: 7 Soul: 5 HP: 55 EP: 60 Base Combat Value: 6 - ACV +1 while using a handgun - DCV +1 against ranged attacks (personal) Available Base CP = 275 Total Spent CP = 291 (180 stat, 47 skill, 64 attribute) Total Returned CP = 16 (+11 defect, +5 Background) Character Points = 275 (0 unspent) Since it will come up -- * Computer Scanning, Mind Control are "technological" * Attune Silicon Plus is half 24 power, half technological * Illusion is a 24 power * Special Movement: Balance and Heightened Awareness are genetic (spliced) Attribute Level Cost Notes ----------------------------------------------------- Attune Silicon Plus 3 5 Activation 2 (-2), Intense Concentration (-4), Detectable: Light "lines" on arms (-1) Combat Technique 1 2 Precise Aim Computer Scanning 3 3 Attuned systems only (50% cost), Activation 1 (-1), Slight Concentration (-2) Features 1 1 Appearance (Beauty) Heightened Awareness 1 2 Item -- 11 Sneaking/EVA Suit (see below) Item -- 12 X-Buster (see below) Illusion 3 13 Extra Senses: Sound/Touch/Smell (+3), Two Illusions (+1), Duration: 1hr (+2), Targets: 5 people (+2), Detectable: Psychic (-1) Mind Control 1 7 Attuned systems only (4/lv), Duration: 10m (+1), Range: 100m (+2) Ranged Attack 1 3 Handguns Ranged Defense 1 3 Personal Special Movement 1 2 Balance Sneaking/EVA Suit Level Cost Notes ----------------------------------------------------- Armor 2 4 Force Field 2 4 Offensive (+1), Deplete: 1 EP/1 min active (-3) Features 1 1 Radio Special Defense 7 14 Cold [2], No Air [2], Low Pressure [2], Radiation [1] -> Tia's basic all-purpose wear has threads of Silicon Plus running through it (they look like patterns of purple thread). This provides a basic amount of armor, and the suit can channel latent psychic energy into a skintight field that provides hazardous environment protection like an EVA. The HEV field must be turned on and off manually. For low-oxygen environments there is a companion mask for breathing that covers the lower half of the face (like a ninja's mask). X-Buster Level Cost Notes ----------------------------------------------------- Weapon: Basic Shot 4 14 Accurate 2 (+2), Penetrating 2 (+2), Range 2/100m (+2) Weapon: Psi-Burst Bullet 6 6 Linked: Basic Shot (+1) Power Variation 1 6 One attribute only (Cost 50%), Duration 1: 1 round between changes (+2), Activation 1 (-1) Restriction: Attunement -- +2 If not Attuned, only Basic Shot usable -> Tia's sidearm. It looks like a typical, sleek semiautomatic handgun. The chamber is fitted with a Silicon Plus charging mechanism that can imbue a normal bullet with certain additional properties. Skill Level Cost Specialty --------------------------------------------------------- Acrobatics 1 2 Jumps Burglary 3 3 Breaking and Entering Climbing 2 2 Walls Computers 3 9 Intrusion/Security Disguise 1 1 Costume Electronics 3 6 Security Languages 1 1 Sleythin Mechanics 3 6 Traps Physical Sciences 1 3 Physics Police Sciences 1 2 Forensics Piloting 2 4 Medium Spacecraft Sleight of Hand 2 2 Pickpocket Stealth 3 6 Concealment Defect CP Returned ------------------------------------------------------------------- Easily Distracted (Thrillseeker) -2 Less Capable (Body: Strength) -1 Nemesis (TC scientists) -2 Skeleton in the Closet (Criminal) -2 Skeleton in the Closet (Test subject/False ID) -4 Physical appearance: A surprisingly pretty girl, Hestia stands at around 5'7" and keeps herself in good shape. She has favorable features that are complemented by her tendency to smile. Her eyes are a clear sky blue color and they complement her dark hazel-brown hair, which she pulls back into a ring braid around the back of her head, secured with a butterfly-shaped clasp with shimmery purple-blue wings; her bangs are combed to the side and hang down just in front of her ears. Her dress is improbable, but clearly designed to show off her physique to max effect. She wears a violet lace camisole, with a second black cotton one over it, leaving her midriff bare. A short violet skirt the same color as the camisole stops just above the knee, slit up the left side for ease of movement. Sheer garter-topped leggings are worn under the skirt, and a pair of low-heeled black flats to round everything out. Background: "Hestia Richter" is not this woman's true name; in fact, it's not entirely sure what her true name is, since she was born in Twilight City to a mother who didn't want her and a world that didn't care about her. Her life changed forever when she was taken in by the Thudniks, one of the dominant gangs in the ruined city, and she grew up as little more than a servant of all kinds to them. The Thudnik in charge of her had a bit of a cat fetish, and as she neared her 10th birthday he arranged to splice in a bit of cat genetics... enough for her to gain a tail and a pair of ears, with the promise of more as she grew up and became more useful to the gang. Unfortunately, it also revealed that the girl had SCA; though her powers had yet to manifest, she had the genetic markers for psychic powers, perhaps telepathy or telekinesis. Normally this wouldn't be a huge issue, but the Thudniks had been funding a small group of blacktech researchers in the city, called the Cyphers, that had been requesting test subjects for their work... young children with psychic potential. Thus the girl was handed over to the Cyphers. Their goal was to create a combination thief, combatant, and computer intrusion specialist. The Cyphers had recently come into possession of a relatively large amount of Silicon Plus, stolen at great cost once they learned of the material's energy transferrance properties. The theory went that if a psychic with a shard of Silicon Plus implanted properly in his/her central nervous system could use their powers through other pieces of Silicon Plus, s/he would be able to read and control computers that used SP in their memory and construction. The process wasn't perfected; in fact, for most test subjects it was invariably fatal within five years. The first step was a combination of psychological conditioning and training in mundane skills; a knowledge of actual computers and intrusion being a necessary strata on which everything else is built. The conditioning dulled the senses and created a more docile personality, making the subject more pliable; the skill training created a mundane expert. After the first few years, the girl's progress was extraordinary; perhaps because she had spent her early life as a servant without a real home, used and treated like a possession. However, she was particularly smart, and also turned to learning skills relatively fast. Her 13th birthday began the next phase of her training: working with silicon plus. She received a 'toy': an attuned SP crystal on a necklace. The general idea was to treat the crystal as an extension of her body; she was never allowed to remove it and frequently asked to grip it in her hand and focus, nothing more. Surprisingly, and unlike every previous test subject, those focusing exercises often resulted in detectable energy spikes in the crystal; in practice, she was subconsciously filling it with, for lack of a better term, "psychic energy"... the energy form responsible for mental powers and produced by the human brain to control them. Over two years, she learned to do this with less and less effort, until it was second nature to make the crystal 'glow' with a thought and a grip. Age 15 was the 'dangerous' part: the part where other test subjects almost invariably died. Again, on her birthday, she was given a 'present', but one quite against her will. Put under, she underwent a relatively different cybersurgery: the process was similar to the installation of a head computer, but rather than cyber, she was implanted with a specially attuned Silicon Plus shard linked to her central nervous system. The surgery was the cutoff point: nobody yet had survived the procedure. The girl, against all probability, did. It may be that she had the perfect combination of factors or was just lucky. Either way, she survived. The next two years were hard; she had to re-learn a number of things, including how to focus on the shard in her mind rather than the shard in her hand. She was taught by a young scientist the Cyphers had 'bought' from Dunno, Ryan Howe, and the girl actually began to form a strong friendship with him. Though a bit cold and distant thanks to the mental conditioning, Howe increasingly saw her as a victim rather than a test subject, and over time began to have doubts about the project he had accepted a rather large retainer to participate in. In short, seeing the actual product before him, as a living being, was having an effect. [PLEASE NOTE: The science in this next bit is handwave-y, because I'm not 100% sure on it, but the gist should come through regardless] By the time the girl was 18, Ryan's resolve had wavered too far. On the eve of the day she would be 'presented' to the Thudniks for their use (and Cypher's ridiculous paycheck), he enacted a highly daring plan that had been two years in formulation. Studying the storage properties of Silicon Plus for data, in combination with the girl's developed ability to link to computer systems, Ryan effectively "created" a personality and partial memories based on a somewhat idealized version of the girl that he'd come to have... the exact opposite of her robotic test subject personality. She would have a highly selective amnestia: skills would remain, and recent memories, but beyond that nothing... not even recollections of her life as a Thudnik. Knocking her out with a tranquilizer, Howe 'uploaded' the new personality directly into the Silicon Plus shard in the girl's brain, where it would spread like a virus into her own newly-wiped memories; in short, she was 'mindwiped' of everything but the skills she had learned and the use of her powers, those being tools Howe believed she would need in the 'real world.' A combination of bribes and clever lies about a final field test managed to get Ryan and a docile test subject -- given the name Hestia Richter -- out of Twilight City... an improbable feat, to be sure. Hestia was left with a newly-created ID, the last of Ryan's retainer, and a print-locked briefcase containing the unique weapon that had been created for her special use: a gun with an SP+ based mechanism that could charge bullets with psychic energy. Despite his heartache in doing so, Ryan left the girl in an apartment in Red New York and then left to throw off pursuit. His fate is unknown... but given the resources of the Thudniks, probably grim if they got to him before the events of ATC2. Hestia, meanwhile, awoke to a splitting headache and the sudden realization that she couldn't remember *anything*. Accessing the memory portion of her brain tripped the 'virus' and everything came flooding back, with a vengeance; the 'command' that did this even had a self-deleting function so that the tampering would never be evident. With only a name, a Red Swiss credit account, and surprising skill with computers, technology, and stealth, it was many weeks before she did anything but eat, take walks, and try to figure out what to do with herself. A job, somehow, felt important, so she tried to get one, and indeed for a while was able to hold a position with the RNYC municipal authority as a computer security troubleshooter. The work bored her, however, and she soon considered leaving. What caught her eye next, however, was a TVNet broadcast of a priceless gemstone collection from Earth, including a large amethyst, at a local gallery. Two days later, that amethyst was hers. It was an indescribable rush, and indeed the next day she walked into work with renewed vigor. Thus the chain began. By day, she was a simple computer engineer in a dead end job... but very rarely, by night, she was an exceptionally curious thief. The actual possessing of the item was nothing special; in fact, just as many times as she took something and kept it, the girl would return it two days later. The important thing was the thrill of the moment. And not just physical theft; computer crime was equally fun. She soon left her job with RNYC and took up as a freelance computer security consultant... someone very good at her job. And of course, she was always smart enough never to steal from someone who was paying her fee. It may be that a ship of chain jumpers, out in the wild parts of space, may have particular need of a fast-fingered, quick-witted person like Hestia... as long as they don't ask too many questions. Random things of note: - Is Ryan Howe sitll alive?! WHO KNOWS? - It's not clear what the 24 power the girl would have developed was; the implanting of the shard 'stunted' it, but it may be that she could work around that in the future (i.e. CP expenditure after plot point) - Hestia will instinctively avoid Twilight City at all costs. - She probably should have Wealth, but it's so damned expensive. - Blatantly designed after Velvet from Odin Sphere and then blatantly redesigned after Venus from Metal Gear Acid 2.