Yiska Keme
Born as Achak Cha'tima to AmerIndian parents in the south side of Pueblo, Colorado. Throughout his younger years, Achak took computer science courses at Central High and studied hard to get a job with the software company his dad worked for. In his free time Achak played a
vast amount of matrix games. These games are what started him on hacking. In order to best the other players, Achak would sometimes find holes in the game code that would allow him to give his character more life, extra weapons, or more money.
As he left high school and attended the University of Pueblo his curiosity only grew stronger. That is, until the crash. Achak was trapped inside the Matrix for almost 2 weeks during the crash. His roomate had been away on a camping trip at Lake Minnequa and returned to the dorm room to find Achak jacked in, but unconscious on the floor in a puddle of various bodily fluids.
The doctors were taken completely by surprise when Achak suddenly awoke from his coma one day. Not having food or water for the 11 days he was trapped in the Matrix should surely have been the end of him. Achak told the doctors that someone else inside the Matrix had been feeding him and that had somehow nourished his body. Of course no one would believe this story and simply chalked his survival up to luck, or possibly even divine intervention.
Over the course of the next couple of weeks Achak noticed that something wasn't quite the same as before the crash. He would occasionally hear things that people around him didn't seem to notice... whispers that weren't actually there. The whispers started off rather quiet, but with each day they grew increasingly louder and lasted longer. To deal with the pain of the whispers, Achak turned to Rx painkillers he'd gotten from his roomate's novacoke dealer.
Not being able to deal with the whispers any longer Achak secluded himself in his room and attempted to make sense of what was happening to him. As he sat and meditated about his situation as his parents had taught him, he could vaguely make out what the whispers were saying. It seemed as though they were giving him instructions. Not entirely sure if he wanted to know where the instructions would take him, Achak jumped into HotSIM VR as instructed and followed the directions of the whispers.
He was being taken through so many different nodes that he soon lost his way and simply followed the directions blindly. He was cruising along at blinding speeds until the directions led him straight into a node he'd never DREAMED could exist. The node was decorated as a meadow, but through the middle of the node was a jagged "rip" and through this "rip" Achak could see what could only be one of the fabled Essence Realms.
The whispers beckoned him toward the rip, but having heard the stories of what those places could do to a man, he dared not go near the rift. It was then that Achak met Kavo. Kavo is a free sprite that lives in the Matrix. He is extremely curious about the users he meets that are able to sever their connection to the Matrix, and he seemed to have taken a particular interest in Achak but would not say why.
Over the next couple of days Achak would meet Kavo on the 'trix and they'd chat about different aspects of each other's worlds. About 3 weeks after meeting Kavo, Achak was chatting with him when Kavo pointed out that Achak's comm hadn't been charged in days and must be running low. Not wanting to get cut off, Achak left HotSIM to check his battery level and to plug his comm in to charge while he chatted. To his surprise, his commlink battery was dead when he exited the node. That couldn't be possible as he could still see messages from Kavo popping up on his AR overlay... The biggest smile Achak had ever seen began to form on Kavo's face as the realization set in... Kavo took particular interest in Achak because the crash had done something to him... something that most people regarded only as myths and fairytales... Achak had Emerged as a technomancer.
Kavo revealed that he'd met Achak during the time in which he was trapped in the Matrix, but Achak hadn't remembered him when he came to in the hospital. However, Achak had been online almost the entire time he lay unconscious in the hospital bed. This is what had drawn Kavo to him... How could a normal person exist in both worls at once without a commlink?
Kavo slowly introduce Achak to people just like him, and it was from them that Kavo learned most of the things he needed to know as a technomancer. After having spoken to many different technomancers and hearing almost any theory that could possibly exist about where these "powers" had come from, Achak decided that the stream that made the most sense to him was that if the Technoshaman.
In the quest for the right stream for him, Achak also discovered that there were living beings deep in the 'trix. The Paragon he was drawn toward was that of the Black Hat. The black hat represented everything he'd wanted to accomplish in his old life (coding, hacking, etc.) and it just seemed to make sense.
Through his following of the Technoshaman stream and his search for way to please his Paragon, Achak met up with a group of people calling themselves KivaNet. Immediately recognizing one of his classmates from UP, Achak greeted him by name and sent an invite for a private chat. His former classmate was none too please about his real name being used, and explained to Achak that his parents had died in the crash and he had turned to the shadows to make enough money to support his younger sister. In doing so, he had made up an entire fake identity to ensure that his activities would not be traced back to his sister.
With his help Achak began the transformation into Yiska Keme. His classmate taught him that discretion in the meat is key to survival as a technomancer. Although not from the same stream as Yiska, this new friend was proving to be a valuable source of information. After some time his friend offered to sponsor him into KivaNet and Yiska has since been a member of the guild.
After a year or two Yiska was asked to help a couple of the recruits who has joined around the same time as him to perform something called a Submersion. Not knowing exactly what this submersion entailed, Yiska immediately agreed. KivaNet had helped him so much, now this was his chance to give back. The task chosen for this group of recruits was called a "Resonance Realm Search." Thinking this meant he simply had to locate a resonance realm, Yiska was excited as he'd done that before he'd even known he was a technomancer.
Yiska was taken by surprise when he and the others of his group were led directly to the entrance of a resonance realm. They were then told they must enter the realm, pass the event horizon, and use the resources of the resonance realm to discover the true name of the leader of KivaNet, and to also learn the ancient skill of resonance mesh in order to be more connected to the guild. To describe the event horizon to someone who has never experienced it is utterly impossible. The best description found so far is that of a wall which cannot be passed until all aspects of a technomancer's life have been inspected for faults and flaws. If passing through as a group, every member of the group is privy to all of the information... This means the group will know EVERYTHING you've ever done, and have access to every single one of your memories. Being that vulernable creates a bond between the technomancers who experience this event horizon together.
Anyway, the group eventually found the name and learned the echo they'd come to learn. After what could only have been weeks inside of the realm, the group came back to reality successful! Surprised to see that they had not been hooked to IVs in order to keep them hydrated, the group was informed that they'd only been gone 35 minutes, and that time often passes differently in resonance realms than in the real world.
KivaNet welcomed the recruits into the core of the guild, and revealed to them that the guild actually controls access to a rather powerful resonance well that they were now entitled to use should they have great need.
Not much had happened since his submersion, but Yiska was eager for something big to come his way so that he, along with the help of his guild, could tackle it!
http://www.stubbspks.com/sr4/Yiska.htmlStuff to note:
Stream - Technoshaman
* Resist fading with: Charisma + Resonance
* Sprites: Crack, Data, Machine, Paladin, and Sleuth
Paragon - The Black Hat
* The Black Hat is the personifed essence of the hacker, who works to exploit computer systems out of a certain self-serving motivation. While some are just data thieves who steal and sell data for personal gain and monetary interest, there are also those who intrude on nodes just out of fun, curiosity, or personal fame among the community of hackers.
* Advantages: +2 dice to Exploit Tests, +1 die for Crack or
Fault Sprites (player must choose one)
* Disadvantage: Black Hat technomancers have extreme difculty restraining themselves from hacking into a node that is interesting in any way. Te technomancer must succeed in a Willpower + Charisma (3) Test to avoid hacking such a system when the op-portunity arises.
Guild - KivaNet
* Purpose: Te KivaNet advocates the integration of technomancers into tribal society and has dedicated itself to act as a platform for open exchange and communication between technomancers and normal Matrix users via the Matrix.
* Members: 130 (~10 technomancers, mainly technoshamans)
* Strictures: Attendance, Belief, Limited Membership (NAN citizens), Service
* Resources/Dues: Luxury, no dues (fully sponsored). The network possesses a plethora of nodes and has access to a resonance well (Rating 5) that is deeply entrenched and safeguarded in the Kiva network.
* Patron: Pueblo Corporate Council
* Description and Customs: Created by the Pueblo Corporate Council on the advice of various shamanic interests in the autumn of 2070, the KivaNet is a network of virtual nodes called “kivas” holy places) that work toward a common goal, the acceptance of technomancers within global society. Supported by the PCC, the KivaNet works to establish communication among technomancers and between the tribal communities of the PCC (and those of the NAN who want to participate). While the KivaNet is open to non-technomancers, it has a core group of, mostly, technoshamans, who take care of the kiva nodes, teach newly Emerged technomancers, and moderate or participate in open forums or discussion groups to educate the public. Most technoshamans follow some sort of paragon and are interested in understanding and communication with the entities and ideas they are aligned with, using the network’s resonance well as gateways to the resonance realms to commune with their paragon or explore diferent resonance realms.
Codeslinger - Exploit
Addiction, moderate - Painkillers
Allerg unc/mild - Dog fur
