Sunday, October 20, 2013

293: Voice of One

ENTRY 293: Voice of One

"My beat is Aspis to Starwell, Nova York to Pallas...I find the news that doesn't make your Mesh feed, the stories below the fold, behind the paywall, and just plain off the grid. Hello, I am the Voice of One. I want your story."
- VoO, column 3866: "The Names and Addresses of that Shitheel Rapist Gang on Legba"

The Main Belt has its share of newsmedia. Bored editors and hyper little wordsmiths spin facts and events into a constant stream of infomush to keep the great crowd Audience fed and sedated. On the flipside are the so-called outlaw reporters - operating without major financial backing, insurance, and much in the way of credentials beyond their willingness to ask questions. Some of them wave guns around, others go "undercover" a little too convincingly for the local authority's tastes; most sell out and get out at some point. Somewhere near the front of the current crop is the vivacious, scar-faced bouncer known as Voice of One.

Specializing in "transhuman interest" stories, Voice of One has a reputation for picking up the small stories that the big media drops quickly, pursuing them relentlessly, and seeing that everything gets uncovered and the people in them get everything that's coming to them. Of course, she gets a piece of everything - from the advertising to the XP-of-the-week dramadocumentaries - that comes after, but she has to make a living somehow. She blows through habitats quickly, leaving bleeding bodies, broken lives, and bruised egos in her wake, often seeming unconcerned about the damage she does - like the time she did the expose on the Blue Ring in Legba, a sex trafficking ring that took turns resleeving into a series of underage morphs each week, while the child ego was out in a digital playground oblivious to what their meat bod was getting up to. That led to the expulsion (often by airlock) of all the adults and most of the kids bodies retained as evidence, leaving their egos as orphaned AGIs stuck in the Mesh.

COG
COO
INT
REF
SAV
SOM
WIL
MOX
15
17
15
13
15
16
15
-
INIT
SPD
LUC
TT
IR
DUR
WT
DR
5
1
30
6
60
40
8
60

Morph: Bouncer
Skills: Academics: Physics 30, Academics: Statistics 32, Art: Writing 50, Climbing 34, Free Fall 46, Interests: Rival Networks 45, Interests: Zero-G Sports 60, Interfacing 54, Intimidation (Blackmail) 45, Kinesics (Lying) 40, Language: Native English 90, Language: French 80, Language: Wu 80, Networking: Autonomists 44, Networking: Criminals 29, Networking: Media 66, Perception (Visual) 48, Profession: Reporter 53, Programming 54, Research 45, Unarmed Combat 30
Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Grip Pads, Oxygen Reserve, Prehensile Feet
Traits: Addiction (stimulants, moderate)

Using Voice of One

One of the nice thing about reporters is that they are some of the few individuals whose job is a justification for poking around in other people's business, especially when they're not wanted, and they have little to no requirement to report to or act under any authority. The Voice of One is such an enthusiastic (and occasionally violent) individual, and will happily pursue any lead if there's a credit or a noyo attached to it, and is more than willing to badger, harry, harass, heckle, bindle, blackmail, and extort the player characters for their help, assistance, or just for the fun of it. VoO's investigations are a good place to drop the seed for a new adventure, or she might hire the PCs (i.e. promise a cut of the eventual monies she might one day receive) to help her during an investigation, or she might turn up dead (again) on the PC's doorstep with a scrap of evidence on her and they'll have to figure out what she's gotten them into this time. Alternately, if the gamemaster prefers a more adversarial relationship, local authorities, private citizens, and hypercorps could hire the PCs to derail or halt her investigations - either by beating her to the punch, dropping false clues, causing small personal crises (she will never again discuss her second marriage, the resulting sex recording, or why she has a hallway on Legba named after her), etc.

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