Elanor 'The Laughing Fox' Reaper
Ex-daughter of wealthy corporate execs and former leader of The Rust Scopions turned information broker and mercenary, suitable for sci-fi/cyberpunk games
Appearance
A red haired, slender woman of almost feline grace with sparking silver eyes and golden fox earrings, she is often seen wearing a near thread bare black silk blouse, faded denim skirt and combat boots, mostly hidden under a armored Ruthenium polymer poncho, it's variable camouflage usually set to a dark pattern that matches the over all background of the environment she's in.
She also wears a faux eye patch over her right eye when operating in low light environments, it's thermal imaging keeping her aware of most dangers before they are noticed by less enhanced individuals.
Personal Timeline:
Elanor Reaper a.k.a The Laughing Fox
Age 0-1 months: Inception
James and Angela Reacher, affluent corporate executives with controlling interest In Lost Horizons Salvage and Mining corporation celebrated their marriage anniversary by conceiving a child, as much a beloved daughter as a symbol of their family lineage and maintaining the status-quo of upper societies expectations.
Age 1-9 months: Enhancement
Sparing no expense to ensure their daughter fit flawlessly into high society, James and Angle arranged for their as yet unborn child to undergo extensive gene therapy, choosing the wildly popular 'Exceptional Executive Excellence package' (Known as 'The Triple E Package' in augment circles.)
The gene therapy not only guaranteed their daughter would be free from latent hereditary maladies and of ideal physical appearance, (complete with dermal enhancements to ensure scar free healing from injuries) but also would be gifted with tailored pheromones and a personality slant towards leadership with a head for numbers.
On the physical side of things the triple E package instilled in its recipient a natural grace and agility, allowing the benefactor to excel on both the dance floor and any athletic endeavors they may wish to undertake in their spare time, bone density improvements rendering those pesky broken bones from contact sports a thing of the past.
Enhanced eye hand coordination and memory improvements rounded out the gene package, compete with a promise of academic and social excellence backed by a money back warranty, (that was wrapped in enough legal jargon to make claiming the refund require a burden of proof few could ever hope to provide. )
Age Birth-16: Discovery
The supposedly perfect child, Eleanor exceeded her parents initial expectations, earning high marks in her early school years, but also exhibiting an unwanted tendency for mischief and an unsettling disregard for rules and regulations as she entered puberty.
After being nearly expelled for hacking the schools holo displays and replacing the virtual intelligence tutors images and voice patterns with those from an online porno directory, her parents were both appalled and baffled. Her only response when questioned by the schools disciplinary board was she did it just to see if she could, the consequences for the actions something she gave only a passing thought to, seduced by the allure of pushing her budding computer skills to the limit.
Age 16: Fall From Grace
Not long after this her parents left the star system, her fathers continual rise to power in the corporate board room coming with it a luxurious new pent house on the paradise world of Carmine VII, only a short two month journey though the layers of hyperspace on board their space yacht Star Robin.
It was during this journey that her life was forever changed.
Some say it was an inside job made possible by a dissatisfied servant or underpaid security officer, others claim sabotage by a planet side mechanic during the space yachts recent overhaul.
The end result was the same, in the gulf of darkness between star systems the yachts hyper drive went through a sudden controlled shut down, followed not long after by the emergency ejection of the ships reactor core and a decidedly hostile A.I presence within it's secondary computer system that hindered attempts at a quick repair and blocked activation of the ships emergency beacon.
Only a few hours after exiting hyperspace the Star Robin was boarded by a slave vessel laying in wait, her parents dressing her in a servants daughters clothing and passing her off as one of the paid entourage in the hopes of keeping the pirates from using her as leverage or ransom.
The ruse worked well, the boarding brigands tossing her in the slave pens alongside the ships other commoner crews, her parents rumored to have been sold off to competing corporate interest and interrogated for executive secrets before being summarily jettisoned into space.
Her life aboard the slave ship was surprisingly short lived, their next stop at a shadow port seeing her purchased by then pirate captain Shawn 'The Shadow' Esquire, leader of the Rust Scorpions, a small time band group laying claim to a swath of land on the mostly desert planet of Sindar.
While originally acquired for her beauty, and with intentions of seducing Elanor into being another of his willing concubines she quickly proved herself an invaluable asset as a data slicer and risk analyst, offering suggestions on how to better run his group of pirates using her corporate leadership classes and first hand experience with her parents boardroom maneuverings.
Age 17-20 : A Child Remade
Her early years among the Rust Scorpions was spent affirming her masters position as leader of the band, his own desires for romance discreetly rebuffed as she focused on increasing the profit margin of the admittedly small time pirate group and eagerly took any opportunity to learn the subtleties of combat.
She helped give the gang a new direction, expanding their operations from simple piracy to looting the abandoned alien ruins dotting the sandy planet they called home, a lucrative side business that quickly expanded to become the Scorpions main source of income, the minor detail of alien ruins being legally off limits for salvage and exploitation something her group, (and other bandit factions on the planet) considered to be of little consequence.
By the age of twenty she both earned her freedom from slavery and solidified her niche in conflicts to that of a sniper, wielding an older Sergei 778 Rail gun she affectionately nick named 'Jacobs Hammer' after the legendary rogue comet that obliterated Sing Station on the year of her birth.
It was during this time she changed her last name from Reacher to the more fitting Reaper, and acquired the nick name 'Laughing fox' for her snappy one liners and barking laugh.
Age 21: Ascendancy and Fall
It was shortly after her twentieth year she found herself unexpectedly the leader of the Rust Scorpions, after a hover bike race between Captain Esquire and the leader of The Scarred Trenks turned decidedly deadly.
Named his successor in the captains will, her command of the Rust Scorpions was a mere handful of months, a small cadre of longer standing members accusing her of using both data manipulation and sexual favors to secure her position as successor to the Shadow, with further allegations of foul play surrounding Shawn's fatal hover bike race following not long after.
After a failed assassination attempt and tip off of plans for her forced retirement party being prepared within the next week, she quietly departed one night minutes ahead of one of the planets many scouring sandstorms, her rifle, wrist comp, and the former leaders customized Ceres K hover bike the only physical possessions of worth she took from the Scorpions camp, the contents of their orbital cried accounts having been sliced and drained into her own during the hours prior to her departure.
Her current life is filled with pulling various jobs of data theft, sniper overwatch for shadier deals, and offering her skills as a neutral shadow broker between criminal parties who fail to find enough common ground to trade among themselves otherwise.
Rumors still circulate among shadow ports and run down dive bars that she lurks at back tables and trash strewed allies, a emperors ransom worth of credits at her disposal looking to here anyone that can assist her in reclaiming her rightful place as head of the Rust Scorpions and perhaps avenge the death of her parents along the way.
Special Equipment
Jacobs Hammer, a Sergei 778 Railgun the same age as her self. While considered yesterdays model by many it's high precision and long range armor penetration capability make it a main stay among mercenary units for neutralizing hard targets quickly.
A cutting edge wrist computer, loaded with the latest slicing programs and virtual agents she uses it to great effect not only for planning her next move but also for laying down a web of electronic chaff to keep authorities and rival pirates from tracking her down before she has time to relocate or prepare a suitable welcome.
A Ceres K hover bike, formerly the previous captains custom ride, the military class scout bike had been heavily modified with several aftermarket additions improving its acceleration and handling, enhancements she only added to with an electronics jamming suite and counter measure after she rebuilt the bike following its previous owners. unfortunate demise .
Roleplaying Notes
Charm and a warm smile will get you farther than a loaded gun most days, never underestimate the the edge a confident smile and knowing just a little too much about the person you're dealing with gives you. Failing that a railgun round from 7km away can solve more stubborn problems just as easily.
The world is digital, computers run just about everything, with a little electronic slicing that means you can be in control of not only information, but the machines in control of the civilized world, from traffic lights to auto nav subroutines, machines make loyal back up in a tight spot, and even a lowly coffee dispenser can make for a good distraction if overloaded at an opportune moment.
Plot Hooks
Guns, guns, and more guns,
A gun shipment recently went missing, nova hot tech slated for use in the front lines of the latest dust up between the Fed com and their latest rivals. Both the quality and quantity of the weapons that have vanished off the manifest are reason enough on their own to draw bounty hunters and black market thugs to the system like Riktars to power conduits, but when evidence surfaces the system is also rumored to be the the staging grounds for the now extinct Morskoi empires special forces strike fleet the stage is set for a interstellar gold rush for the scum of the galaxy.
Laughing Fox claims to have hard intel on where both the shipment, and remnants of the strike fleet can be located, but needs a group to escort her in, and assist with the salvage before the system descends too far into anarchy.
There is also the as yet unasked question, what were the feds doing running a weapons shipment through a derelict system in the first place and how exactly did it go missing?
Once we put it together we'll figure out what it does, trust me
Laughing Fox has a piece of alien tech she found in the ruins not long after departing the Rust Scorpions, weird thing is by itself the device is little more than a guide beacon that seems to point to other parts, both on and off world.
Why was it scattered to the Stars and what this alien artifact can do once fully assembled are details she plans to work out on the way after she's hired a group of trustworthy spacers to help her track them down.
The nagging suspicion it has something to do with the extinction of the original inhabitants of Sindar and it's emergence as a desert like world is something she plans to keep to herself, for now.
Reclaiming a Legacy
it seems Laughing Fox was named as the sole inheritor of her fathers stocks and shares in Lost Horizons trading company, enough power and fortune to make her a wealthy patron to any group of space travelers that can help her reclaim her identity and inheritance while avoiding corporate hit squads and black market rivals that will do anything to prevent her rise to power.
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? Responses (9)
There's a nice 'larger than life' aspect to the character that truly shines through. This is the kind of character that needs some good artwork.
I would love to see a little more detail here, though. Some narrative would be nice, especially if it gave some solid examples of Elanor and her personality (bonus if it relates to her nickname). Maybe a few scenes outlining some of those key points of her life? Zoom in a little and give us a close look at the action. As it stands, she seems like a nicely detailed scaffold, but I don't get a real sense of the meat of her.
I do like the hints of the larger sci-fi setting and wouldn't mind seeing more subs about the various details you've peppered this sub with (the kind of thing I like that gives it a solid, rather than a generic, feel).
A pretty good first sub, by the way.
Part of my original intent was to leave the personality a blank slate to GM's could run with her in any direction they desired without feeling like she's incompatible with their campaign. (Also why I left out any mention of her romantic interests.)
So I'm not sure if detailing her personality and moral outlook would make her more or less useful?
She's the fox lady, shouldn't she have vulpine grace?
4.5/5 very nice npc, obviusly a beloved char of yours, very nice
I like the time-line approach from Inception on :) And by 16 a fall from grace already. This girl has had an eventful life.
I was also going to suggest a bit more on her personality and in-game dynamic but I see from your comment that you were going for a minimalist approach there.
Congrats on your first sub. Woo!!
As I was reading, I thought there should be more person in the person. Personality is what makes the difference between a character and a mook who dies without getting any lines. The setup is interesting for the most part, and you have provided plenty about what she is. But WHO is she? I still don't know.
Seeing your reply to MM's comment, I see it's a deliberate choice, and I respect the intent. I can't fault someone for having a different approach to design. However, I DO believe leaving her without a personality reduces her utility. This is all my opinion, and mileage may vary and such, but if I'm browsing the site instead of making my own NPC, I don't want to have to detail her personality. :)
In addition, I'd love to see a few plot hooks. How will she fit in my game?
If you read all the way to the end you'll find a section titled 'Plot Hooks' followed by, oddly enough, 3 plot hooks. ;)
I deserved that. :) I read all the way down and somehow missed those. I must have hit page down twice or something lame like that. :/ My bad.
This is a really good NPC. Lots of potential plots, and I thought there was just enough personality displayed.