Growing up, Demetrius was always small (for an ork) and weak (for an ork), earning the weedy boy no end of teasing as he grew up. He was young when the bomb dropped and Chicago changed, but he remembers the chaos of the day well, everyone running everywhere and his worst nightmare buzzing down from the sky to snatch people away. The children of the neighborhood banded together as they lost their parents to these and to people taking advantage of the panic to let loose their vices, snatch up what they’d always coveted, and release repressed (or not so) bigotry upon their neighbors. Thus was the Southside Devil’s Playground born.
Demetrius went by his initials for a long time, until the jokes started up about what exactly “DP” could mean. Of course, the jokes started just as puberty infected everything with an awkwardness that teamed up with the teasing to silence the young Demetrius. A fellow gangmember by the name of 4-Deer saw what was happening, and pity struck a developing heart. The human Aztlaner quickly began to tell everyone that “DP” stood for “Drainpipe”, which had its own awkward interpretations. Those were easier to handle, however, even if Demetrius got squirrely when asked how he got the name.
Until he was 15, however. A rumble with a neighboring gang got interrupted as a swarm of wasp fleshforms swarmed out from the apartment building at whose feet the gangs killed each other. Everyone scattered like, well, like humans in Chicago. Demetrius stumbled just a wee bit too fast into an alley, slick with what he hoped was rainwater, and bumped into an unexpected overturned dumpster. Spinning on the vertical axis, he fell to the ground with a grunt that left him breathless. As his eyes focused and the disorientation cleared, he saw something gleaming in, well, in a drainpipe across the way from him. It was, amazingly, a pair of high-end cybereyes cupped in the bowl of equally fancy cyberears. Even without expertise in the buying and selling of such things, Demetrius could tell that the obviously used and strangely clean cyberware was worth more than he’d dreamed of seeing in one place.
The loud buzzing of wings echoed down the alley from the street, prompting Demetrius to scramble up, grab the conveniently hand-sized treasure, and run. Agreeing to work off the cost of the surgery, Drainpipe managed to find a body ripper willing to install his find. In the years since, he has served his fellows primarily as a lookout and a gatherer of information. A year or two back, he took up in the bunraku trap house operated by the Playground. An easy division of labor developed, with Raul negotiating the sale with the johns and Neal keeping the product (the sex workers) in good condition while Drainpipe haunts the hallway. If he hears a scene gone wrong, a john trying to break one of the bunraku, he raises the alarm and bursts in. If any of the girls get hired for a job outside of the house, Drainpipe is usually the one to follow and watch and make sure the bunraku returns to the house.
The fallen popera star Pera Veneziano washed ashore at the trap house a while back, abandoned by the current of her BTL addiction. At first, Drainpipe struggled to keep his cool, faced with a (minor) celebrity in his life, and moreover, one in his (well, the Playground’s) control. The starstruck feeling quickly faded. It took Drainpipe some time to realize what the residue left in its wake was, but figure it out he did. It was love. He’d somehow begun to fall in love with the zaftig elf, without ever having realized.
Pera, of course, sees through the boy’s facade, but she hasn’t said anything yet. Demetrius, at least, understands the dangers his heart presents, the lines he would be crossing if he did anything it wants him to do.
Appearance: As always, I have few to no visual arts skills >.< So here's three pictures that, if combined, can give you an idea of what he looks like:
Priorities (street-level rules):
A ~ Resources (75,000 nuyen)
B ~ Attributes (20)
C ~ Metatype (Ork/0)
D ~ Skills (22/0)
E ~ Magic (--)
BOD 5 AGI 3 REA 5 STR 5
CHA 3 INT 6 LOG 3 WIL 3
ESS 4.75 MAG 0 EDG 1 INIT 11+1D6
Mental Limit 5 Physical Limit 7 Social Limit 5
Physical Boxes 10 Stun Boxes 9 Overflow Boxes 5
Active Skills: Blades 2, Con 1, Cybertechnology 1, Etiquette (Street) 1 (+2), Intimidation 2, Perception 4, Pistols 2, Palming 2, Running 2, Sneaking 2, Unarmed Combat 3
Knowledge Skills: Business 2, Seattle Street Gangs (Southside Devil’s Playground) 5 (+2), Sprawl Life 4, Street BTLs 3
Languages: English (City Speak) N, Or’zet 3
Qualities: Asthma (8 pt., negative), Distinctive Style (gang tattoos, 5 pt., negative), Quick Healer (3 pt., positive), Restricted Gear (10 pt. positive)
Cyberware: Used cybereyes 4 with flare compensation, low-light vision, microscopic lenses, smartlink, thermographic vision, vision enhancement 3, vision magnification; used cyberears 4 with audio analyzer, audio enhancement 3, increased spectrum, select sound filter 3, spatial recognizer, translate-ear 3
Weapons: Colt America L36 with concealed holster, 2 spare clips, 110 rounds of regular ammo; knife; Ruger Super Warhawk with 2 speed loaders, 60 rounds regular ammo; Streetline Special with concealed holster, 30 rounds regular ammo
Personal Protective Equipment: Armored jacket with nonconductivity 6; respirator 1 (50 nY=83,510)
Electronics: Renraku Sensei commlink; medkit 3
Contracts and Such: 2 months Low Lifestyle
Other Gear: 10 plastic restraints; cybertechnology kit
Contacts: Diatomaceous, a fixer (Connection 3/Loyalty 1); 4-Deer, a fellow member of the Southside Devil's Playground (Connection 2/Loyalty 3)
