Bork Lazer

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

Applications are now over. I will review all current applications and post the roster list sometime soon. If your name is on the roster list, please post your CS into the CS tab.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

Zhang San

//YOUR SELF

Name: Xui Lin "Marcus" Yao

Age: 87

Gender: Male

Affiliation: Former officer of the New Malaccan Authority, the official state sanctioned police force of New Malacca. Currently retired as a Char Kway Teow street hawker in the Canton Canal, albeit with some connections to some unsavory groups.

Appearance: More metal than man, Marcus is a curmudgeonly and ancient octogenarian who looks the part unlike most of his other contemporaries who've used gene editing and telomeric enhancement sessions to stave off the inexorable tide of time. He is distinct in a city where the old are rare and the young are plenty.

From an up close glance, it's easy to see that Marcus is indeed old. Liver spots dot his wrinkled face with sagging cheeks pulling away at his sun-tanned skin. His bloodshot eyes are speckled with dots with jagged grey scleroses and a minor twitch in his left. Most of his lower right jaw and right face has been haphazardly replaced by cybernetic counterparts that look as if they were bolted on to his skin. The rest of his body hasn't been spared either with ceramic plates and circuitry having been welded into him randomly with no pattern. In spite of this, Marcus looks spry as ever and possesses a stout, strong build for a man of his age.

In the public, Marcus favors a simplistic poly-ester singlet, an apron and moth-eaten sandals that give him a grandfatherly look. In his more private affairs, Marcus wears a beanie along with a long-sleeved dark business trench coat and grey slacks.

//YOUR SOUL

PERSONAL GOAL: Marcus is primarily concerned with the economic wellbeing, safety and happiness of his family in New Malacca, no matter the cost to himself or others outside his family. He has no illusions about the illicit activities that he participates in and makes no excuses for himself. However, this is at odds with his code of honour and decency which has been tempered and tested over many decades.

LIKES:

- Curry Laksa
- Naps
- Cooking
- Professionalism
- Hanging out with his grandchildren
- Mahjong

DISLIKES:

- Durian
- Zaibatsus, mega-corporations, anything corporate really.
- Arrogance
- Collateral damage
- Unnecessary cruelty
- AR/VR addicts
- Threatening his loved ones

REPUTE: Marcus has two reputations to uphold: one as a kindly, old grandpa who makes an honest living on the Canton Canal and another as a no nonsense cleaner and investigator who will do any job for the right price.

In the public’s eye, Marcus is one of the foundations of the daily lunch rush at the Canton Canal with numerous workers and corpos scrambling to get a plate of Char Kuey Teow from his stall.

In the eye of the criminal underworld and his clients, Zhang San is an efficient and reliable problem fixer that may stick to old habits and traditions but always gets the job done.

HEEL: Marcus harbors extreme love for his grandchildren and will sacrifice anything to provide for them. Family is the most important thing in Marcus’s mind and he will not settle for anything lesser other than the outcome that benefits his family the most. Threatening his immediate family is a good way to convince him to work for you up until he decides to put a bullet in your head.

CODE: Marcus is morally flexible and possesses a sense of understated compassion and honor that’s downright endangered within New Malacca. He’ll help those he feels that are in need. He’ll spare people even though they were witnesses. It’s a miracle that Marcus has managed to survive this long in New Malacca. Perhaps, it’s his way of making amends or to fulfill some twisted sense of redemption. Over the years, his compassion has evolved from a rarity to a nuisance that bites him in the back. The next person that he spares might shoot him in the back after all.

QUIRKS:Marcus is oddly fond of whistling dainty tunes in public to amuse himself. During long stakeout operations or when on the job, Marcus can always be found sipping from a hot thermos full of ginseng tea to pass the time.

//YOUR PAST

Part of the first wave of migrants that came to New Malacca, Xui Lin was part of a Taiwanese family that had come to New Malacca to escape the job insecurity and wage cuts that had befell Taiwan’s economy. Xui Lin worked in his father's syncrete paving business for most of his childhood and fled away from his nest to join the New Malaccan Authority, , a group of PMCs that had been given official jurisdiction to enforce the law in New Malacca. Xui Lin adopted the name of Marcus and began working as a officer, moving his way up to Lieutenant.

Over 30 years of faithful service came to an end one fateful Wednesday. During a patrol, a IED blew up in Marcus’s face when he opened up the back of a suspicious looking jet ski. Waking up in a hospital later, Marcus’s body was completely ravaged with most of his internal organs being perforated not to mention the fact that all but one of his limbs were completely mangled. His health insurance wasn't enough to cover the staggering cost of the implants. Appeals to his healthcare providers failed. Pensions couldn't cover the cost. He was expected to be another body in the pile that had built up New Malacca to its heights.

Therefore, Marcus eventually resorted to criminal means to settle his debts. His talents accrued from twenty years in the New Malaccan Authority served him well in the criminal underworld and thus the trademark of Zhang San was born, an alias for Marcus to use to shield him from any potential blow-back that he might suffer. For the last two decades, Marcus has been accumulating a trust fund for both of his grandchildren to receive when he finally passes away along with staving off the worse of his chronic illnesses caused by the degradation of his cybernetics.

//YOUR PERSON

ATTRIBUTES:

Getting Down and Dirty: Marcus is a skilled marksman and knows how to handle himself in a shootout as well as in close quarters brawl. Due to his advanced age, he usually relies on more dirty tricks to gain an upper hand on the more youthful.

A Hunch: Marcus is a skilled investigator, partly thanks to his training within the New Malaccan Authority and the fact that no one expects an old grandpa to be capable of such things like noting down the different shift times of a parking booth.

Do It By The Books: Being part of a law enforcement PMC doesn’t just teach you to shoot things first and ask questions later. Marcus possesses a wide encyclopedic breadth of knowledge about rules, procedures and the inner general workings of modern law enforcement within New Malacca along with a decades worth of knowledge on how to conduct criminal operations.

BODY MODS:

Haoyang 2040 Full-Body Enhancement Package - Haoyang 2040 Full-Body Enhancement Package - More for life support rather than functionality, this ancient suite of cybernetic augmentations, ranging from limb replacements, pacemakers, inbuilt artificial myofibers and respiratory assistors, is what has kept Marcus alive all these years. Marcus’s enhancements allow him to hit faster, move faster and take more physical punishment than a man of his age could without suffering severe damage. A disadvantage of these ageing augs is that Marcus is required to consume a heavy amount of immunosuppressant drugs in order to ensure that his elderly body does not reject his augmentations.

EQUIPMENT:
Gao-Zhong Dragoon HA-12: Sometimes, actions speak louder than words, or in this case, getting your head blown off will. Once the standard issue sidearm of the New Malaccan Authority, the Dragoon has been phased out in lieu of more cheaper models of firearms. The Dragoon is a semi-automatic heavy pistol chambered to fire a custom modified 12mm teflon-coated gyrojet round capable of penetrating through most modern subdermal body armor. Marcus's model comes with an integrated silence to reduce the deafening noise it makes to manageable levels.

Monofilament Garrotte: When you need to strangle a fool stealthily, except no substitute but this 10 inch long boron-carbon hybrid nanotube garotte.

Disposable Burnerphones: The old school method of ensuring that someone doesn't trace you. Marcus has a pack of these to ensure that whatever call he makes will be private. Permanently private.

HongYang Vacuum Thermos: Able to keep any substance at room temperature for more than 24 hours thanks to its patented hydraulic seal vacuum tech coupled with a biometric security system. Marcus mostly uses it to store his favorite ginseng soups.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

You know, what, fuck it, sheets are due by the 3rd of September, 11:00 PM GMT -5 Eastern Time.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

@Bork Lazer I'm interested in joining and I have a lengthy homebrew black market organization my character is affiliated with. Can I PM you my character sheet to run my idea by you?

@silvermist1116

Be my guest.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

@Bork Lazer If we have more than 6 sheets are you gonna have to bump some people off?

@BingTheWing

Yes, if we have more than 6 sheets, I will have to boot some people off.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

So, based on the rate that these sheets are coming in along with the fact that there appears to be sizable interest, I have decided that the final date for posting character sheets will be the 2nd of September, GMT-5, Eastern Time.

I hope that this date will allow everyone a healthy amount of time to finish up their character sheets and brush up on any mistakes they may have made.

Bork Lazer's Storage Bunker

Zhang San

//YOUR SELF

Name: Xui Lin "Marcus" Yao

Age: 87

Gender: Male

Affiliation: Former officer of the New Malaccan Authority, the official state sanctioned police force of New Malacca. Currently retired as a Char Kway Teow street hawker in the Canton Canal, albeit with some connections to some unsavory groups.

Appearance: More metal than man, Marcus is a curmudgeonly and ancient octogenarian who looks the part unlike most of his other contemporaries who've used gene editing and telomeric enhancement sessions to stave off the inexorable tide of time. He is distinct in a city where the old are rare and the young are plenty.

From an up close glance, it's easy to see that Marcus is indeed old. Liver spots dot his wrinkled face with sagging cheeks pulling away at his sun-tanned skin. His bloodshot eyes are speckled with dots with jagged grey scleroses and a minor twitch in his left. Most of his lower right jaw and right face has been haphazardly replaced by cybernetic counterparts that look as if they were bolted on to his skin. The rest of his body hasn't been spared either with ceramic plates and circuitry having been welded into him randomly with no pattern. In spite of this, Marcus looks spry as ever and possesses a stout, strong build for a man of his age.

In the public, Marcus favors a simplistic poly-ester singlet, an apron and moth-eaten sandals that give him a grandfatherly look. In his more private affairs, Marcus wears a beanie along with a long-sleeved dark business trench coat and grey slacks.

//YOUR SOUL

PERSONAL GOAL: Marcus is primarily concerned with the economic wellbeing, safety and happiness of his family in New Malacca, no matter the cost to himself or others outside his family. He has no illusions about the illicit activities that he participates in and makes no excuses for himself. However, this is at odds with his code of honour and decency which has been tempered and tested over many decades.

LIKES:

- Curry Laksa
- Naps
- Cooking
- Professionalism
- Hanging out with his grandchildren
- Mahjong

DISLIKES:

- Durian
- Zaibatsus, mega-corporations, anything corporate really.
- Arrogance
- Collateral damage
- Unnecessary cruelty
- AR/VR addicts
- Threatening his loved ones

REPUTE: Marcus has two reputations to uphold: one as a kindly, old grandpa who makes an honest living on the Canton Canal and another as a no nonsense cleaner and investigator who will do any job for the right price.

In the public’s eye, Marcus is one of the foundations of the daily lunch rush at the Canton Canal with numerous workers and corpos scrambling to get a plate of Char Kuey Teow from his stall.

In the eye of the criminal underworld and his clients, Zhang San is an efficient and reliable problem fixer that may stick to old habits and traditions but always gets the job done.

HEEL: Marcus harbors extreme love for his grandchildren and will sacrifice anything to provide for them. Family is the most important thing in Marcus’s mind and he will not settle for anything lesser other than the outcome that benefits his family the most. Threatening his immediate family is a good way to convince him to work for you up until he decides to put a bullet in your head.

CODE: Marcus is morally flexible and possesses a sense of understated compassion and honor that’s downright endangered within New Malacca. He’ll help those he feels that are in need. He’ll spare people even though they were witnesses. It’s a miracle that Marcus has managed to survive this long in New Malacca. Perhaps, it’s his way of making amends or to fulfill some twisted sense of redemption. Over the years, his compassion has evolved from a rarity to a nuisance that bites him in the back. The next person that he spares might shoot him in the back after all.

QUIRKS:Marcus is oddly fond of whistling dainty tunes in public to amuse himself. During long stakeout operations or when on the job, Marcus can always be found sipping from a hot thermos full of ginseng tea to pass the time.

//YOUR PAST

Part of the first wave of migrants that came to New Malacca, Xui Lin was part of a Taiwanese family that had come to New Malacca to escape the job insecurity and wage cuts that had befell Taiwan’s economy. Xui Lin worked in his father's syncrete paving business for most of his childhood and fled away from his nest to join the New Malaccan Authority, , a group of PMCs that had been given official jurisdiction to enforce the law in New Malacca. Xui Lin adopted the name of Marcus and began working as a officer, moving his way up to Lieutenant.

Over 30 years of faithful service came to an end one fateful Wednesday. During a patrol, a IED blew up in Marcus’s face when he opened up the back of a suspicious looking jet ski. Waking up in a hospital later, Marcus’s body was completely ravaged with most of his internal organs being perforated not to mention the fact that all but one of his limbs were completely mangled. His health insurance wasn't enough to cover the staggering cost of the implants. Appeals to his healthcare providers failed. Pensions couldn't cover the cost. He was expected to be another body in the pile that had built up New Malacca to its heights.

Therefore, Marcus eventually resorted to criminal means to settle his debts. His talents accrued from twenty years in the New Malaccan Authority served him well in the criminal underworld and thus the trademark of Zhang San was born, an alias for Marcus to use to shield him from any potential blow-back that he might suffer. For the last two decades, Marcus has been accumulating a trust fund for both of his grandchildren to receive when he finally passes away along with staving off the worse of his chronic illnesses caused by the degradation of his cybernetics.

//YOUR PERSON

ATTRIBUTES:

Getting Down and Dirty: Marcus is a skilled marksman and knows how to handle himself in a shootout as well as in close quarters brawl. Due to his advanced age, he usually relies on more dirty tricks to gain an upper hand on the more youthful.

A Hunch: Marcus is a skilled investigator, partly thanks to his training within the New Malaccan Authority and the fact that no one expects an old grandpa to be capable of such things like noting down the different shift times of a parking booth.

Do It By The Books: Being part of a law enforcement PMC doesn’t just teach you to shoot things first and ask questions later. Marcus possesses a wide encyclopedic breadth of knowledge about rules, procedures and the inner general workings of modern law enforcement within New Malacca along with a decades worth of knowledge on how to conduct criminal operations.

BODY MODS:

Haoyang 2040 Full-Body Enhancement Package - Haoyang 2040 Full-Body Enhancement Package - More for life support rather than functionality, this ancient suite of cybernetic augmentations, ranging from limb replacements, pacemakers, inbuilt artificial myofibers and respiratory assistors, is what has kept Marcus alive all these years. Marcus’s enhancements allow him to hit faster, move faster and take more physical punishment than a man of his age could without suffering severe damage. A disadvantage of these ageing augs is that Marcus is required to consume a heavy amount of immunosuppressant drugs in order to ensure that his elderly body does not reject his augmentations.

EQUIPMENT:
Gao-Zhong Dragoon HA-12: Sometimes, actions speak louder than words, or in this case, getting your head blown off will. Once the standard issue sidearm of the New Malaccan Authority, the Dragoon has been phased out in lieu of more cheaper models of firearms. The Dragoon is a semi-automatic heavy pistol chambered to fire a custom modified 12mm teflon-coated gyrojet round capable of penetrating through most modern subdermal body armor. Marcus's model comes with an integrated silence to reduce the deafening noise it makes to manageable levels.

Monofilament Garrotte: When you need to strangle a fool stealthily, except no substitute but this 10 inch long boron-carbon hybrid nanotube garotte.

Disposable Burnerphones: The old school method of ensuring that someone doesn't trace you. Marcus has a pack of these to ensure that whatever call he makes will be private. Permanently private.

HongYang Vacuum Thermos: Able to keep any substance at room temperature for more than 24 hours thanks to its patented hydraulic seal vacuum tech coupled with a biometric security system. Marcus mostly uses it to store his favorite ginseng soups.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

@Shiva

Very slight, pedantic nitpick but could you change your energy-based weapons to something more ballistic in mind? The majority of the population still wields ballistic weapons with direct energy weapons being in the prototypical stage.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

How many hackers are we having? Our roles might overlap a lot...

@BingTheWing

You actually bring up a valid point. This roleplay does not have any predesignated roles that players fill. My message to everyone is not to focus on competing for a singular archetype and just focus on making your own character. My hope is that every character sheet posted will be distinct enough from one another.

On a side note, I've decided that the maximum number of players I will be accepting for this RP is approximately 6. The final due date for posting character sheets hasn't been decided as of yet.

Straits of Steel (A South East Asian Cyberpunk Thriller)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

PLAYER CAST