Ze rough draft and tl;dr background version--more to come:<br/><br/><strong>Street Names:</strong>The Conductor, DG, Captain<br/><strong>Given Name:</strong>Desiree Grant<br/><strong>Metatype:</strong>Human (Metagenic/Changeling)<br/><strong>Height:</strong>5'7"<br/><strong>Weight:</strong>105 lbs.<br/><strong>Age:</strong>25<br/><br/><strong>Description:</strong>There's something about DG that people seem to pick up on a subconscious level without ever being properly aware of it, a strange sense that she belongs with her background or social setting in spite of any circumstances.  This is caused by an extreme level of genetic and superficial "familiarity"--in essence, her genotype and phenotype are at the absolute axis between possible metahuman extremes, giving her just enough "in common" with any individual or ethnic group to make them see her in terms of what they<em>want</em>her to be, rather than what she is.<br/><br/>This is fortunate, as a more objective study would easily reveal that she does not have a conventional ethnicity or conform to any standard set of familial traits.  As her inhuman roommate once described her, she is "essentially what you would get if you mixed every metahuman on Earth until they reached genetic equilibrium": her skin is just the right hue to easily be mistaken for a tanned Caucasian, light-skinned African, or any sort of Arab or Hispanic imaginable; her facial features resemble a 'morphism' of cross-cultural traits more than anything else, so average and symmetrical that they actually seem slightly conspicuous; her body type is of moderate height and proportions, well-rounded without any distinct features.  The most striking feature, perhaps, is her hair: rather than conforming to any known phenotype, it's naturally a very dark lavender that looks much to even to be dyed.<br/><br/>This can couple quite strangely with her attitude and behavior, however.  Although she may be a "genetic everyman", the way she was raised has caused her to approach the world from a fundamentally different viewpoint.  A childhood spent in Matrix-immersion keeps her from making assumptions based on prior experience--she is rarely surprised or incredulous, extremely adaptive to new environments and information, and capable of "thinking outside the box" in truly profound ways--but also keeps her from having fully internalized many cultural norms.  As an example, she doesn't really understand gender roles or restrictions on "appropriate" gender behavior; though she's often accused of being a tomboy, she does not have an image of herself as such and can just as easily slip back into extremely feminine behavior.  It's probably less accurate to say she's gender-neutral, and more accurate to say she's gender-"fluid"--she doesn't see anything wrong with acting more or less like a man or a woman when the circumstances dictate.<br/><br/><strong>Attributes:</strong><br/>Body 3<br/>Strength 2<br/>Agility 3<br/>Reaction 3<br/>Charisma 3<br/>Intuition 5<br/>Logic 5<br/>Willpower 3<br/><br/>Initiative 8 (1)<br/>Edge 2<br/>Essence 4.6<br/><br/><strong>Active Skills:</strong><br/>Cracking Group 4 (40 BP)<br/>Influence Group 2 (20 BP)<br/>Athletics Group 2 (20 BP)<br/>Electronics Group 2 (20 BP)<br/>Perception 5 (20 BP)<br/>*Visual (2 BP)<br/>Infiltration 3 (12 BP)<br/>Automatics 5 (20 BP)<br/>*Assault Rifles (2 BP)<br/><br/><strong>Knowledge Skills:</strong><br/>Professional: Military 4<br/>Academic: Psychology 4<br/>Academic: Physics 4<br/>Academic: Computer Science 3<br/>Street: UCAS Politics 3<br/>Street: Hacker Havesn 3<br/>Interests: Classical Music 3<br/><br/><strong>Language Skills:</strong><br/>English (N)<br/>Japanese 3<br/>Spanish 3<br/><br/><strong>Qualities (Positive):</strong><br/>Changeling, Class I 5 BP<br/>Type O System 30 BP<br/><br/><strong>Qualities (Negative):</strong><br/>Vendetta 5 BP<br/>Enemy, Connection 6/Incidence 4 10 BP<br/>Wanted 10 BP<br/>Weak Immune System 5 BP<br/><br/><strong>Metagenic Qualities (Positive):</strong><br/>Biocompatability (Bioware) 10 BP<br/><br/><strong>Metagenic Qualities (Negative):</strong><br/>Unusual Hair 5 BP<br/><br/><strong>Equipment:</strong><br/>Cyber-Commlink, Alphaware (2,000/0.16)<br/>Fairlight Caliban (8,000) 6/5<br/>*Modified Response (6) (8,000)<br/>*Simsense Accelerator (15,000)<br/>*Customized Interface (250)<br/>*Hardening 6 (250)<br/>-System 6 (3,000)<br/>-Firewall 6 (3,000)<br/>-Sim Module (Hot-Rigged) (350)<br/>Programs<br/>-Analyze 6 (600)<br/>-Browse 6 (600)<br/>-Command 6 (600)<br/>-Edit 6 (600)<br/>-Encrypt 6 (600)<br/>-Reality Filter 6 (600)<br/>-Scan 6 (600)<br/>-Armor 6 (6,000)<br/>-Attack 6 (6,000)<br/>*Armor Piercing 3 (2,250)<br/>*Targeting (750)<br/>-Biofeedback Filter 6 (6,000)<br/>-Decrypt 6 (6,000)<br/>-Defuse 6 (6,000)<br/>-ECCM 6 (6,000)<br/>-Exploit 6 (6,000)<br/>-Medic 3 (1,500)<br/>-Sniffer 6 (6,000)<br/>-Spoof 6 (6,000)<br/>-Stealth 6 (6,000)<br/>-Track 3 (1,500)<br/>-TacSoft Rating 4 (12,000)<br/><br/>Datajack, Alphaware (2,000/0.08)<br/><br/>Cybereyes Basic System, Rating 3, Alphaware (2,000/0.32)<br/>*Eye Recording Unit (*/*)<br/>*Image Link (*/*)<br/>*Eye Light System (1,500/1.6C)<br/>*Flare Compensation (1,500/0.8C)<br/>*Low-Light Vision (2,000/1.6C)<br/>*Smartlink (2,000/2.4C)<br/>*Thermographic Vision (2,000/3.2C)<br/>*Vision Enhancement 3 (9,000/2.4C)<br/>-Vision Magnification, Alphaware (2,000/0.08)<br/><br/>Cyberears, Rating 2, Alphaware (1,500/0.24)<br/>*Ear Recording Unit (*/*)<br/>*Sound Link (*/*)<br/>*Audio Enhancement 3 (9,000/2.4C)<br/>*Damper (1,500/0.8C)<br/>*Increased Sensitivity (2,000/0.8C)<br/>*Select Sound Filter 3 (6,000/2.4C)<br/>*Spatial Recognizer (1,500/1.6C)<br/><br/>Radar Sensor, Rating 4, Alphaware (24,000/0.24)<br/><br/>Orientation System, Alphaware (2,500/0.16)<br/><br/>Echolocation, Deltaware (15,000/0.04)<br/><br/>Enhanced Pheremone Receptors, Rating 3, Deltaware (15,000/0.04)<br/><br/>Vocal Range Enhancer, Deltware (12,000/0.04)<br/><br/>Biomonitor (300)<br/><br/>Ares Alpha AR (1,700)<br/>-Integral Smartgun Link (*/*)<br/>-Integral Underbarrel Grenade Launcher (*/*)<br/>-Integral Chamber Design, RC2 (*/*)<br/>*Personalized Grip Modification (100/1S)<br/>*Auto-Adjusting Weight Modification (150/4S)<br/>*Foregrip Modification (50/1S)<br/>*Gas Vent 3 (400)<br/>*Shock Pad (50)<br/>EX-Explosive Rounds, 2 Clips/84 Rounds (840)<br/>Regular Ammo, 2 Clips/84 Rounds (168)<br/>Stick-n-Shock Rounds, 2 Clips/84 Rounds (336)<br/><br/>FN 5-7C Machine Pistol (600)<br/>-Integral Efficient Design, RC1 (*/*)<br/>-Concealable Holster (75)<br/>-Smartgun Link, Internal (600)<br/>*Ceramic/Plasteel Components Lv2 Modification (1,800/1S)<br/>*Sound Suppressor Modification (600/3S)<br/>*Barrel Reduction Modification (20/3S)<br/>Hi-C Plastic Rounds, 3 Clips/60 Rounds (450)<br/><br/>Steampunk Line Corset (600)<br/>Form-Fitting Armor Full-Body Suit (1,600)<br/>SecureTech PPP System<br/>-Forearm Guards (200)<br/>-Shin Guards (150)<br/><br/><strong>Lifestyle Qualities:</strong><br/>Middle Lifestyle (16), 1 Month (4,950)<br/>-Comfort High (4)<br/>-Entertainment Luxury (6)<br/>-Necessities High (4)<br/>-Neighborhood Middle (3)<br/>-Security Middle (3)<br/>*Perfect Roommate (2)<br/>*AI in Residence (-3)<br/>*Ambusher's Delight (-3)<br/><br/><strong>Lifestyle Notes:</strong><br/>DG lives in a residence in Fort Lewis that was previously assigned to a Special Forces Colonel she knew during her time in the service.  The Colonel went into a deep-cover assignment in Africa; DG is one of the only ones who knows he died there.  To maintain his cover, he (officially) is still living and working in Fort Lewis and his residence remains assigned; DG hacks the credentials to use it and to prevent news of his death from coming out.  The condo is a suite at the top of a small tower, comfortably-appointed and well-maintained.<br/><br/>Her roommate, SN-D (or Cindy, as DG calls her) is a "free" cyborg that she discovered while trying to dig up information on the Zero Project.  SN-D appears to be from an alternate line of experimentation trying to implant "locked-in" children's brains into cyborg, rather than biological, bodies; as far as DG has been able to figure out, she was created from a clonal brain and is still relatively child-like in development.  Because she was a medical prototype and not a service cyborg, SN-D's anthro-frame is designed more to be "lifelike" and less for combat capabilities.  As a roommate, SN-D is extremely low-maintenance (aside from the weekly program-maintenance DG has to perform to keep her sane) and unobtrusive, with very few needs; unfortunately, she is also limited in her ability to draw a paycheck, and can only pay 25% of the rent.<br/><br/>SN-D also seems to have attracted the attention of an AI, which "haunts" the apartment's computer systems.  The AI appears to be either relatively primitive or to have an extremely non-human thought process, as it is either incapable of productive communication or merely uninterested.  Thus far, DG has made no attempts to remove the AI--due to her background, and SN-D's presence, she doesn't feel entirely within her rights to do so--and any attempts to "work with" it have failed due to a lack of feedback.  The AI takes command of cameras and other apartment sensors seemingly at random, sifts through public e-mails on node accounts, and loves to change the trid channel.  As of yet, even DG has been unable to find a pattern or reasoning behind its actions, though it<em>does</em>seem to do everything it does deliberately and with purpose, rather than just causing random mischief.<br/><br/>The apartment floorplan is completely open.  The apartment as a whole is ring-shaped, forming to the dome at the apex of the building, and the only divisions between the "rooms" are the arched "spokes" going toward the central hub where the elevator is.  The entire outer wall is glass, though it is "smart" glass that can be adjusted for opacity or set to display images (for example, a soothing beach panorama).  This gives the apartment superb acoustics, though it also makes it pretty much impossible to defend, since the best cover anyone could find inside is a designer couch or kitchen counter.<br/><br/><strong>Background:</strong><br/>Desiree Grant was born with a variant of Lou Gerhig's disease that rode on a meta-active gene, making it incurable with the poor comprehension of metagenics in the post-Awakened world.  The disease systematically destroyed the nerve cells in her spinal cord, progressing to the point where her brain was entirely "shut-in" by the age of three.<br/><br/>The Second Life Foundation, a charity-funded medical research group, took Desiree in after she became fully paralyzed, adding her to a stable of other children in similar conditions.  The Foundation performed two functions: first, they maintained a full-immersion virtual environment for such children to improve their quality of life.  Second, they researched experimental ways to free them from their paralyzed state.  The Foundation originally formed for the purpose of perfecting the elusive full-cyborg conversion, but quickly began to pursue other lines of research when--like most early cybernetic research groups--they found the metahuman body seemingly incapable of surviving the "implant shock" of having that much flesh replaced by cybernetic systems.<br/><br/>Their biggest breakthroughs came in the 2050's, when a mysterious benefactor provided them with an enormous influx of funding and research.  The Foundation believed that these boons came from a Yamatetsu corporate big-wig whose son had become shut-in due to neural damage inflicted by the release of an experimental "attack" nanite in a crowded mall by terrorists.  None of the research leads ever discovered the truth: their benefactor was none other than the emergent AI Deus, who provided them with "miracle breakthroughs" in the field and seemingly limitless funds not in hopes of helping paralyzed children, but rather to develop a means for successfully "writing" thought processes onto human bodies outside the Arcology.<br/><br/>They were successful, however.  The Foundation found effective, if limited, means of digital-biological exchange.  This was merely a stepping stone for their purposes--they still had to find a way to get the child's brain to 'accept' a new host body in the form of a clone or drone as well as transferring this "mental snapshot" of their consciousness into it--but it was all the rogue AI needed.  Just as they were on the eve of completing their research, the funding and data from their mysterious benefactor dried up, leaving the project half-complete.<br/><br/>The end they had stumbled upon was what they called the Zeroes: perfect, complete Type-O clonal bodies made possible by advances in metagenic research based on resequencing metagenes that expressed during SURGE previously believed to be "junk" or vestigial DNA.  Traditionally, Type-O clonal tissue was used to create replacements and grafts a user's body would accept; these perfect Zeroes were the opposite, bodies designed not to reject a "foreign" brain and to be capable of cultivating the necessary neural connections to make it become functional.<br/><br/>Desiree, initially, had no interest in becoming one a Zero.  Having grown up in her own personal Matrix-based "Garden of Eden", she had little concept of the outside world and even less interest, preferring to stay with her friends.  When one of the other young boys in the program--and her closest friend--accepted a Zero body and accepted a job with the UCAS government to pay off his massive medical debts, she became interested.  Not long after, the Arcology situation shed light on the Foundation and their mystery funding, causing the government to step in and shut down the program.  This time when they made the offer to transfer her consciousness into a Zero body, Desiree reluctantly agreed.<br/><br/>The UCAS military, as it turned out, was interested less in the biological potential of the Zeroes and more in the prodigal analytical skills they had developed during their "youth" as permanent denizens of cyberspace.  They were exceptional cyphers, analysts, and problem-solvers, and most of them had a phenomenal understanding of the Matrix.  They were, perhaps, better-equipped than almost anyone else to accept and incorporate the massive changes that came about with the advent of the Wireless World.<br/><br/>Though they wanted her primarily as a hacker, Desiree chose the field.  Throughout her formative she had loved strategy games, from Chess to massively complicated VR simulations, and she saw no particular difference between the "real thing" and the games of her youth.  As it turned out, her talents were not wasted in that capacity.  She quickly proved herself to be a capable field officer and, more importantly, a tactical genius capable of planning and carrying out missions most others wouldn't touch.  Twice she refused promotion to Major against massive protests from her superiors, citing her preference to remain in the field.  (Because it isn't any fun if you can't do it yourself, is it?)<br/><br/>Captain Grant was finally handed her first failure during a mission in the Philippines.  After recovering the target of their mission, her team became pinned down under fire from a sniper using an anti-tank rifle to shoot them through walls.  Grant quickly deduced that he had hacked a satellite and was using it to determine their positions, and formulated a plan, back-hacking through the satellite to determine his location, making her way toward it while feeding him false data to keep her pinned-down team members safe.<br/><br/>As she apprehended the sniper, however, she suddenly found her cybereyes shutdown.  The sniper escaped while an enemy hacker revealed his presence to her, spoofing an audio feed directly into her ears: the sniper was a distraction, only intended to make her uplink to the satellite and link her eyes to it while leaving her team behind.  A traitor on her team would deliver the package to the enemy hacker--and to erase the evidence, he had already called down a Thor Shot from the satellite to wipe the area clean, making sure that her "signature" from back-hacking the satellite was all over it.  To the government, it would look as if she and the traitor had defected and taken the mission's target with them, and the international incident caused by the Thor Shot would make it impossible for the UCAS to operate in the area to find out the truth.<br/><br/>Captain Grant did the only thing she could do: she ran.  Though she managed to bunker down before the Thor Shot fell and (barely) survived, she was powerless to stop her treacherous squad member from escaping with the target.  Never had she been so thoroughly and completely defeated and humiliated--or so completely alone.  The enemy assumed she was dead, while her higher command was quickly convinced she was a traitor.  Needless to say, she fled the Philippines as quickly as possible and went to ground as the UCAS issued a bounty for her capture.<br/><br/>Now referring to herself only by the initials DG (though those who know her often call her "Captain" or by her Matrix persona, The Conductor), she works the shadows to survive and in the hopes that she can pick up the trail of the soldier who betrayed her and--more importantly--the genius hacker who outsmarted her, the man who calls himself Descartes.<br/><br/><strong>Personality:</strong>DG is an extremely confident person, who tends to feel very little anxiety and even less apprehension.  This is, as much as anything, caused by the fact that she was "raised" in a simulated Matrix environment.  As a result, the sensory information she receives feels 'unreal' to her; she is capable of analyzing it in a completely rational and detached manner, with virtually no assumptions of prejudices.  This also keeps her from feeling uncomfortable in unusual situations or social circles; in the Matrix she was whoever she wanted to be whenever she wanted to be, and she just doesn't see any reason the real world should be any different.<br/><br/>DG also displays remarkable control over her emotions, again because she is not used to reacting to physical/biochemical cues so much as rationally analyzing information with her brain alone.  This keeps her from feeling strong attachments to people, places, or ideas; a fair accusation would be that she's a borderline-sociopath, in a sense, although she has a very strong sense of justice and "fair-play" resulting from the rigid rules that govern the interactions of things in the Matrix.  They're simply very different rules than those practiced by the rest of society.<br/><br/>As might be expected, she has a soft spot for children (in fact, she feels a bit lost in the adult world, having grown up outside of it) whose non-rigid thinking perhaps more closely resembles her own.  Despite her military experience, she does not feel the need for rigid discipline and doesn't stand on ceremony; if anything, she often fails to see the point in elaborate social rituals and traditional behaviors.  This can make her seem very rude and abrupt in certain situations, though she tends to adapt quickly due to her ability to rapidly and impartially analyze the reactions of others to her behavior.<br/><br/>Her favored method of Matrix-interpretation incorporates sound as much as visuals.  This relates directly to her analytical style: she is especially adept at finding patterns and "making sense" of data, much as a composer creates a logical sequence from the chaotic cacophony of dozens of different instruments all playing at the same time.  To her, there is no such thing as chaos--just some patterns that are harder to recognize than others.