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You are a member of Earth's underclass, a reviled, and dispossessed minority. They are the outcasts, who have been left behind by humanity's progress. In Brazil, the underclass is mostly of black African descent, but there are substantial populations from other places: east Asians, north American natives, European Gypsies, and others. Paradoxically, the underclasses are known for their free-thinking intellectualism, free-wheeling counterculture, and occasional mysticism. They reject Earth's rigid social hierarchy.
You have not set foot on Earth for over a dozen years, yet you still resent the arrogant attitude of most Earth people. The discoveries you have made are famous across human space, yet to a typical Earther you are "just a geek". Earth people consider programming to be an unsavoury occupation.
Much as you despise Earth's society, you share the typical Earther's respect for its achievements. The Virtuality was a tremendous achievement - immortality, and near limitless luxury for all. The espers terrify you: they have slaughtered hundreds of billions, and threaten to cast all of humanity into a terrible dark age.
STR: 6 BLUNT
DEX: 8 OOO
END: 6 GRAZE: OOO < > OOOOO :SERIOUS
INT: 13 +2 OOO
EDU: 15 +3 SHARP
SOC: 5 -1
UPP: 686DF5 Age: 39 $ 400,000 Rank: 4 (Petty Officer, 3rd class)
Admin-1 Athletics-0 Computers-5 Drive-1
Engineer-1 Flyer-0 Gun Combat-0 Melee (unarmed)-0
Physical Science-0 Recon-0 Stealth-0 Streetwise-0
Survival-0 Tactics (Naval)-1 Trade-2 Vacc Suit-1
Rivals: Bellen Zhang, Next Step leader, university friend
Enemies: Gentlefem Anabela Rodrigues, Brazilian politician
Network-1
Languages spoken: English, PortugueseHomeworld: Earth
Background skills: Computers-0, Streetwise-0, Engineer-0, Physical Science-0
Born on Earth in 2681 CE, to underclass parents. You are a citizen of Brazil. Father was a computer programmer, your mother left for the colonies when you were very young. Extremely well educated at an informal underclass homeschool cooperative. As a child, you were kept out of sight of your betters. By the age of 18, you had never talked to a commoner in your life, and you've never even seen a favoured in the flesh.
Athletics-0, Melee (unarmed)-0, Recon-0, Stealth-0, Streetwise-0, Survival-0, +1 dex, -1 end
Your application to Earth's famous Virtual University of Software Engineering is rejected, so you decide to get away from Earth, and travel. All of your savings buy you passage aboard a packet to Esperanza. Dismayed by the fraught political situation there, you convince a Free Trader captain to carry you further out, on a working passage. You visit all of the Corridor worlds, including a years' stay in a commune on Cassiopeia. Finally you take passage to Gateway, where you meet your first aliens: xa are common there, and you see fteirle and other, stranger beings. But you are most taken with the Weggers - these humans' nomadic lifestyle inspires you.
Unfortunately, you are exposed to a virulent, drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. Unable to pay for proper medical care, you work hard for months, despite your illness, to pay for a passage back to Earth in cold-sleep. Once back home, Earth's universal welfare system cures you within a week, although you never recover your full strength.
Computers-1, Engineer-0, +1 edu, Computers, Engineer, +2 edu, Ally: Bellen Zhang, fellow student, Enemy: Gentlefem Anabela Rodrigues, Brazilian politician
After recovering from TB, you reapply to the Virtual University of Software Engineering. This time you are accepted. You excel at your studies, graduate with honours, and become an expert computer programmer and electronics engineer.
You are prominent in student politics. You organise demonstrations and campaigns denouncing Earth's entrenched class system. Your best friend and collaborator is Bellen Zhang, a fellow student. Your campaigning causes severe political embarassment to Gentlefem Anabela Rodrigues, a rising star in Brazil's government. In revenge, she is determined to make life difficult for both you and your family.
Flyer-0, Computers, Trade, Admin-1, Drive
Hounded by Gentlefem Rodrigues, you decide to leave Earth once more. Your excellent qualifications enable you to join Serendipity Inc.'s prestigious Software Manufactury, on Titan. You throw yourself into the interesting work. You take an apartment in Kraken, a famous cultural hub. You develop a wide circle of intellectual friends.
Serendipity expects all of its employees to learn about the Universal Spirituality. You have never been interested in religion, but you find the veneration of Entropy does resonate with you somewhat.
A disastrous fire destroys your current project. Forced to start from scratch, you are suddenly struck by a startling insight. The resulting quantum-computing algorithm is famous amongst practitioners, and now bears your name. You also learn to back up your work.
Computers, +2 soc, Trade, Network, Rival: Bellen Zhang, Next Step leader
The Emergency on Earth causes your cosy intellectual world to come crashing down. Brazil is one of the first nations to fall under the sway of the Next Step esper radicals. Your friend Bellen Zhang becomes a prominent Next Step leader. She tries to recruit you to her cause, but your experiences on Esperanza make you reluctant to join her. You become estranged.
Only a few weeks later, you learn that your father has been "disappeared" by the new regime. You appeal to Zhang for help, but she turns her back on you.
Subsequently, you are surprised to discover that your father was secretly quite wealthy. You are contacted by Anthony Randall, an upload who claims to have been a friend of your father's. He passes on a substantial inheritance to you. Sadly, the money doesn't really compensate for the loss of your last living relative.
Gun Combat-0, Vacc Suit-1, Tactics (Naval), Computers, +1 end, +1 edu, +1 int
As the crisis on Earth continues to deepen, your employer decides to transfer you to the safety of Procyon. You are drafted into the Seredipity Space Navy (Engineering branch) as a petty officer. When Earth falls you are serving aboard the battleship SSN Siddhartha. You participate in the evacuation of Europe, and are promoted twice.
You are now based at a classified Serendipity Inc. research installation, in the Farshore region of Procyon.