In the world of Glass Shadows, where almost every device is computerized and interconnected by the Datasea, it’s always smart to be on the right side of a good hacker. If you need information about anyone, or even information about a deep black Megacorporate project, you turn to a hacker and hope they are friendly. Red is our friendly.

Born into a life of luxury, Red is the daughter of a highly-placed executive with Gene-N. In her late teens, her father gave her a “gift” and arranged for her to become a Chimera, genetically spliced with fox DNA. She still has not forgiven him.

Agenda
Faction: Unjacker (Intuition)
Motivation: Get back at her father’s corporation 3
Interest: Making money 3
Interest: Programming 3
Vice: Playing Chicken with Killer Countermeasures 5
Culture: Corporate (Contact, Education)

Loathing what her father’s improvements on her body, Red buried herself in the Datasea. How could she not fall in love with a place where she could be anything? Of course, being anything was not enough.  In the Datasea, Red wanted all the limits removed.

Cheap scripts let any pup pretend to be a hacker. Yeah, that may be where she started but so did a lot of the vets. It was not long before Red found a talent for restructuring code and doing real dives though unidentified backdoors. It did not matter how hardened the host was, the nastier the site the less Red could resist the challenge. What she did not expect, and has learned to embrace, is that the forced fox splice has juiced her reflexes, letting her react just that split second faster.

“Thanks dad, who do you bank with again?”

Red is a corporate kid with daddy issues, her Faction and Culture represent this. Red fell in with the Unjackers after she fell out with her father, but she still maintains some contacts inside the company.

Archetype: Hacker
Package: Net-Worker
Load Out: Software

Hacker
History 2
Strength 1
Dexterity 3
Constitution 4
Sense 8
Fortune 5
Wisdom 6
Intelligence 9
Mental 10
Expression 7

Skills: Background (Hacker, Programmer, ARCist, or Security Consultant) 7, Computer Operations 5, Data Mining 5, Datasea Diving 5, Concentration 3, Pick Four: (Analyze, Battery, Firearms, Intuition, Art: Digital, Science: Electronics, Maintenance: Electronics, Education, Study: Select, or Melee) 3

Red picks the following skills:
Background (Hacker) 7
Computer Operations 5
Data Mining 5
Datasea Diving 5
Concentration 3
Analyze 3
Firearms 3
Battery 3
Maintenance: Electronics 3

Red is concentrated on the skills needed to access, use, and control hosts on the Datasea. However, shitting on daddy, or more importantly Gene-N, means she had to be ready in the meat world as well.  Hardly stupid, Red will avoid them if possible. She knows that it is inevitable that she will piss someone off, though, so she is competent when it comes to a fight.

Boons:
Free Communications
Thought Reader
Pick Five: (Angel Communicator, Better Gear (Can be taken multiple times), Cyber Augmentation, Cyberbrain, Genegineered Body, Hive Mind, Implant Thought, Link, Passive Reader, Playback, Pluck The Secret, Root Control Angel, Truth Finder, The Human Mind 2.0, Wealth)

The Net-Worker package is all about communications and control, and Red drives her selections right for the Root Control Angel boon. With that under her belt, she has the potential to work a target like a puppet if necessary, taking over their Angel and controlling their every action.

Software Loadout:
Base Loadout: Costs PV 10
Poor Attack Utility (PV 3)
Poor Barrier Utility (PV 3)
Poor Bypass Utility (PV 2)
Poor Proxy Route Utility (PV 2)
Chain Shirt (PV 0)
Dagger or Throwing Knives (PV 0)
Data Thread (PV 0)

The basic Software Loadout provides Red with the tools of her trade and some basic protection. She will definitely spend some extra PV to get a better weapon.

Red is an invaluable asset to her team. She can open doors that Percy’s lock picking skills cannot. She can also take control of camera systems, security, and even people if necessary. Not to mention turning Mongo the super-goon into their best friend, whether he likes it or not.

For our second Handler, we explore a character motivated not by political aspirations, or even greed, but actual capitalism. The idea that an open economy means everyone profits and those with savvy profit even more.

Lector Jones (Grace Moore)
Motivation: Restoration of a Free Economy 7
Faction: Unjacker 3
Occupation: Unknown/Arms Dealer(VP of development at “Gun Co”)
Interest: Supply Lines 3
Interest: Angel and Wing Technology 3
Vice: Paranoia, Grace stays off the grid as much as they can 5

Lector Jones is actually a complicated character. In the meat, he isn’t a he at all, but a woman by the name Grace Moore. Grace operates behind the scenes of a large arms manufacturer, using the Lector Jones persona, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality meetings to conduct business. Grace is an Unjacker, but she doesn’t follow the “pure” ideology of her faction. She’s not in it to free the masses from control, although, that would be nice. A system devoid of its controls is wild and unpredictable There is a lot of money to be made in unpredictable.

Grace knows that mass Unjacking will cause a huge uproar and wars will ripple around the world. That’s great news for anyone manufacturing or selling arms. While other companies, headed by Angel Traditionalists, are scrambling to survive, Lector/Grace will make huge profits and her company will gain market share. The way Grace sees it, it is a win/win; get people unplugged, let them start a war, reap the rewards.

While she supports the idea of revolution and arms distribution, it would be far too easy to see Grace Moore as part of the problem. To mitigate this and hide the fact that she’s a woman Grace has invented the Lector Jones persona.

So, when someone needs to supply rebel forces mustering in B-Ham or Loserville, the square-jawed icon of independence, Lector Jones, steps in. No one has ever met Jones on the meat. It is too dangerous; everyone knows he was involved in the Jaguar event down South and another dust up in Liberia. Too many big names to meet outside the Sea.

Of course, the reality is that Lector Mueller died by government hit squad, and Victor Jones bit it from a roadside bomb. But damn if those two didn’t look like twins. After a little Datasea magic, the perfect gun-runner was born. This lets Grace slip into the background, a simple facilitator for Jones’ genius.

Let me introduce our first Handler, Aloysius “The Wish” Lavie Suvue.  Because we are playing in a world of conspiracies, why not jump in to where so many theories are birthed; politics and religion? The modern world has a good number of examples of politics and religion overlapping, too often with terrifying consequences. However, Glass Shadows remains a strange reflection of our world so let us push this idea further.

Aloysius “The Wish” Lavie Suvue

Agenda

Motivation: Political Influence 3
Faction: Angel Traditionalist 3
Occupation: Cult Leader and Underground Tech Trafficker specializing in the third world
Interest: Relief and Aid 3
Interest: Politics 5
Vice: Twisting Religion 7

So, what do these things mean? Before explaining the numbers, lets learn a bit more about Wish.

The Wish is a cult leader. Why? Because the faithful do not ask questions. The members of the Wish’s cult have had their Angels edited. This is his digital blessing alters the perceptions of the faithful to match Wish’s reality. This ensures a loyal power-base, and allows the would be leader to augment his sermons with virtual constructs.

Wish’s Enlightened Order of Belt-fed Divinity moves with conflict. He sends out messengers to spread his gospel to refugees and the disenfranchised. They provide support and supply lines for weapons. More importantly, they provide Angels to those so poor even this basic technology was denied them. Of course, the Angels have been updated to the Enlightened vision.

By securing his power-base, the Wish opens the door to his real desire; political power. Each new cell of Belt-Fed Divinity is a doorway to legitimacy and forced acceptance by the politicos. Now that we know who the Wish, is let’s look at those numbers again.

Agenda

Motivation: Political Influence 3
Faction: Angel Traditionalist 3
Occupation: Cult Leader and Underground Tech Trafficker specializing in the third world
Interest: Relief and Aid 3
Interest: Politics 5
Vice: Twisting Religion 7

Wish wants to be on the inside. He knows that with enough political influence one is virtually immune to any form of prosecution. Each part of the Wish’s Agenda is designed to bring him closer to that goal. Wish is a Traditionalist became he knows Angel tech makes control of the masses easier. Subversion of religion helps to legitimize his cult, as does providing actual aid to those in need.

Knowing Wish’s background, we can guess that most of his ops will center around getting into, or out of, third world hell holes, like Wyoming, or Bosnia. In the field, operators may gain bonuses based on his agenda. This may be something like discrediting the local government, or a rebel force, advancing the Traditionalist agenda in general, or helping to root his cult wherever the operators might be.

Fun facts about the Wish: yeah, he’ll send hundreds to die, but then again, he may save thousands. Is his nut job religion really any weirder than any other?