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[diamondhack]

PLAYER INFO.
✖ Handle: Lina
✖ Contact: lightcycle ; vagabondwoof @ aim
✖ Are You Over 16: Y
✖ Other Characters Played in Consignment: N/A

CHARACTER INFO.
✖ Character Name: Devan, Isha
✖ Genre: Couture Cyberpunk (think of Swedish House Mafia's video for Greyhound)

✖ Character Appearance: This is Isha. She stands at 5'10".
✖ Character Age: 28
✖ Pick A Number: 99 ; 673

✖ World Setting:
Isha's world takes place in a cyberpunk future of our Earth, where high fashion, mechanics and engineering live and breathe as one. Form is function, function is form. Specifically, it's the year 2176. Prosthetics, while available, are still not easy to come by; having a prosthetic is akin to an art form. Designers create custom pieces for their clients, representing a power and luxury not many can afford. The gap between the rich and the poor has become much wider over the years with the evolution of technology, and some wonder how in only one city there is a luxury high rise on one street and a complete overturned disaster on the next street.

In this world there are mechanical animals that are bought for protection and showmanship. The animals are, many times, built and designed around a family. For example, the Royal Family in England would own mechanical lions to symbolize their power, while by the same token the President of the United States would own a mechanical eagle. Many owners of major corporations and businesses also have their own mechanical animals, but those who are not officially involved in politics are careful to choose an animal that doesn't match or contest the symbolism of whoever is in power. This could very well spell disaster as it could be seen as openly ignoring or challenging authority.

Some few mechanical animals, though, are part of underground fights. These mechanical beasts are highly customized in the same fashion cars are repaired, restored and fitted for racing. They are retrofitted with new software so a human can remotely control the animal solely for battle. Using highly sophisticated battle suits equipped with motion-sensing armor and visors that provide remote viewing, people go head-to-head in brutal matches for major bets. It's not uncommon for a mechanical operator (someone who operates the animal) to sustain athletic-degree injuries or suffer from muscle disorders due to the sort of activity involved in operating the animal.

HUDs (Head Unit Displays) are common here with varying degrees of software programming and hardware power that determines the MSRP of a final product. These HUDs are available in a wide variety of products, from sunglasses to bracelets (while technically not a HUD, the function is still the same and everyone puts them into the same category) and beyond Some are even built into contact lenses for superior stealth. Students have access to HUDs in certain schools, but these are far cheaper than, say, the HUDs available to the CEO of a major company or a Prime Minister. With this comes a very technologically-centered black market around the world that solely focuses on rebuilding products to fit HUD software and hardware and selling original, highly-customized pieces that don't need to be officially registered online to receive updates. Many times these pieces are connected to a shadowy corner of the Internet and those who choose to buy into black market HUDs must know the dangers that come with these purchases: it can always come back to haunt them.

Holograms are a part of daily life as well, not only for entertainment purposes, but for security purposes. Homes are built with alarm systems that can only be deactivated with a hologram key that has very specific and potentially ever-changing coding. But with this comes a new breed of criminal hacker, the kind that can not only code, but can recreate this intrinsically sophisticated software, hologram security keys and cards, and implant viruses into wearable pieces, including prosthetics that can be engineered to have wireless signals and other forms of technology, such as mechanical animals. Many times hackers are not prosthetically enhanced, making them even more difficult to follow and track. The hackers of this world are often times other sorts of criminals, such as drug lords, thieves, data miners, and so on.

✖ Character History:
Isha Devan was born to Indian parents on the outskirts of London, England.

That would be the least exciting part of this story, but it has to begin somewhere, doesn't it?

She was a happy child, living in the lower middle-class with her parents as an only child. They never made much money, but what Isha does remember of that life was all fond memories of a small flat and the rolling smells of traditional Indian food.

That idyllic life tragically ended for her at the tender age of 6, when both of her parents were killed in an automotive crash. Orphaned and with no family in the country, she was sent off to an orphanage, living with almost too many other orphan children in an overcrowded multi-story building. That was the trouble with technology: the dangers made orphans of children too fast.

Not three months later did she sneak out of the confines of the orphanage and escaped into the city of London. The city lights dazzled her, and the way of life was unimaginably colorful and surreal compared to the muted and drab colors of the orphanage. She knew she wanted to live here, but she just couldn't put it into words at her young age. She settled into some beat-up slum of an alley and began a harsh, cruel survival. Luckily, she was found by a pair of older boys, Jeramie, aged 15, and Finn, aged 18, and was taken in. Soon, she became a part of their money-pinching and thieving gang, which she now remembers as a brotherhood of sorts. Isha was taught the fine, slippery art of pickpocketing, using subtle sleights of hand and quick slashing maneuvers with small knives to steal keys, credit cards and more. This went on for about a year when the cops found their little gang and took them away. While Isha was 7 and thus far too young to really be implicated for extensive criminal charges like her brothers, Jeramie was sent to juvenile detention while Finn was sent to jail. Neither served over two years for model behavior, as she later found out. Isha, at this time, was sent back to the orphanage, with constant surveillance hovering over her. Far too clever and far too smart for her age, she remained a calm child with an aim to escape again, except her life in this orphanage went smoother and was happier. The facilities were better and she was given a sort of attention and small snippets of education. About six months later she was adopted by an older British gentleman, one with a kind smile and wrinkled eyes. That was the only part of him that gave his age away. His name was Benjamin Gelson, a widower who had no child but wanted one.

The curious case of Benjamin, however, was not the adoption of Isha and allowing her to keep her paternal last name; it lied in the fact that her father was a hacker, a thief, and an undercover cop. The latter was secondary to his life, as he preferred to be a hacker and a thief. He'd read Isha's file, and decided that not only would he adopt a daughter, he would create a prodigy out of her. Months and months of hassling with the adoption agency and providing extensive proof and paperwork that he could, in fact, adopt her and lived a stable life finally allowed him to adopt the child.

Naturally, Isha was wary of the man initially, but it didn't stop her from being curious. Slowly, he brought her into his world, taking her out and generally spoiling her silly. She grew to love his things at first. As time passed, Isha grew to love him like a father, too. Her birth father had constantly been out of the house, working constantly to be able to pay the bills for the family, so for her to be able to accept Benjamin as her father wasn't so difficult. She struggled more without having a mother, but Benjamin was kind enough to give her reminders of her home, such as playing Indian films and cooking Indian food. Not once did he stifle her culture; in fact, as he allowed her to research extensively on the history of India and let her participate in events and religious traditions as she felt like. Once she became old enough to be sassier and more open with him, she'd openly tease him about finding a girlfriend or a wife, and she still does now.

Benjamin put her into one of the best schools and began to teach her the art of hacking and the art of thieving. Benjamin taught Isha how to distinguish between an authentic and a copy of really anything, from a painting to a jewel. He showed her how to wirelessly tap into a machine, and how to disrupt the feed on a hologram. In short, Benjamin taught her how to be a master and how to surpass him. He instilled in her a passion to learn and a passion to compete and to win. There was nothing better for Isha than to make him proud and to be able to help him figure out the problems he couldn't solve alone. It wasn't uncommon for the two of them to spend hours on end cracking codes and dismantling databases.

Unfortunately, Benjamin went far too deep in his undercover life. He stole obsessively all kinds of things, and yet in his thieving he showered Isha with lavish gifts and fancy technology. Benjamin was arrested when Isha was 16, and because she was of consent, it was allowed for her to live on her own, as long as she continued to check in with a supervisor. There were perks to being taught how to charm and how to lie, after all: she claimed that she knew nothing of his second life. She convinced the police to allow her to keep some of the money to attend the rest of her schooling and eventually college. Isha majored in computer science and engineering, which gave her the real edge of learning the technical side of computing and programming so she could adapt and make up new hacks and codes.

Isha staked out on her own now, taking on the name Mythos online to hide her identity. She became a bolder, more cunning thief than her father, and she wrote to him all about her exploits. In code, of course. A part of her knew that he would never leave behind his life of thieving, so she felt comfortable telling him everything without worrying that he would snitch. Benjamin was too kind and loving, as well as too proud of his protegee. In return, he provided her the names various people she could trust. Among them were fellow hackers, thieves, programmers, designers and engineers in the elusive black market world of technology. One man in particular named Jerome owed her father a favor, so she cashed in and had her sunglasses and her bracelet custom-designed to suit her needs. Her sunglasses could read the world around her, while her bracelet could help her break into things. It was a perfect set-up, and she always aided Jerome. It was only fair, after all.

During the time she began to build her reputation, she became increasingly curious about her lost brothers and what had become of them. Would they even recognize her? Were they even alive? By this time, the faces in her memory had become blurred, so she took it upon herself to find them, somehow, or at least know of their status. Around the age of 18 she found Jeramie, now 25, living with his girlfriend in a small flat in London. Every Thursday afternoon, they'd decided to have a coffee and catch up, talk about nothing and everything. Jeramie loved her stories and her exploits, so she made sure to give every detail, maybe even exaggerating a few. Yet she made sure that she kept her online identity a secret, because even if he knew stories, she was well-aware that her hacker life and her real life were very independent. She couldn't make herself tell him, anyway, because she felt it would drag him into a mess that would be unnecessary to a life he'd worked hard to make. As for Finn, he fell off the grid. Jeramie confessed he hadn't heard anything of him since he left juvenile detention, and any lead Isha found died out, which she found curious considering her proficiency at being potentially a very good stalker. She would return later to Jeramie to try and recruit him into INTERPOL and Mythos, but he declined, stating that his girlfriend would likely not be pleased with his life choices.

Isha had been caught multiple times by the cops, and then by INTERPOL. Her constant run-ins with INTERPOL led her to have a sort of acquaintance with Kadin Bagshaw, the head of some hacking department that she could never get the name of properly. They could never charge her with the crime because all evidence would either be wiped out or circumstantial, thus Isha would be let go and she'd continue on with her life, amassing more and more expensive things and living in a luxury high-rise.

In mid-May of 2175, a strange series of murders began to crop up across Europe. The oddest part of this was that nearly every single aspect matched Isha's style of hacking and thieving. Once again, she was brought to INTERPOL and questioned by Kadin. Isha spat back that she would never murder, and besides, if they had bothered to look close enough, they'd know that some small piece of code was wrong. In this, she accidentally admitted to being a thief and a hacker, but instead of being arrested, Kadin recruited her: INTERPOL would need someone of her caliber to be able to catch and stop the copycat before it got worse. With her help, the pair recruited three more members to the crew over the span of a year, bringing them to a total of five including herself and Kadin: Lukas Six, a former online freedom fighter being unjustly pinned with acts of terrorism; Zoya Lubarsky, a former security programmer fired from her job for uncovering a giant scam occurring in her company; and Landon St John, an all-too-smart kid who simply enjoys hacking and uncovering security flaws. Their team was now collectively dubbed Mythos, using Isha's existing identity to protect the others and to make the thief seem even more untouchable and legendary. Isha is taken just about 3 weeks after the official formation of the team, in the year 2176.

✖ Character Personality:
Charming and easy-going, Isha can make friends out of nearly anyone anywhere at any time. Her way with easy smiles and ability to say just the right thing at just the right time not only earns the trust of those around her, but gets her into all the right places. Flattery is only a part of her thieving game, as she uses it to get close to her more peculiar, more interesting targets. Basically, Isha is a master bullshitter and she knows she can get away with it.

Even in a threatening situation, Isha will madly attempt to charm her way out of it. Isha takes far easier to flight than to fight, as she values her life and all of the things she has very highly. It would take a very, very special circumstance of a very extenuating nature to sacrifice herself and give up everything. In her mind, there is always a way out and there is always a way to perhaps not win, but at least survive with a good draw.

In this sense, she is practical, though prone to making questionable decisions based on what she believes would ensure survival. Some of this is in part due to her early thieving life, though a majority is simply based on the fact that losing is not an option. Whether through manipulation or simply having to grit her teeth and get it done, she'll do anything and everything to get her way. She would much rather stay alive to be able to enjoy everything she's been able to steal than to find herself dead in a ditch. No, she has too much riding on herself to allow anyone to simply up and kill her. Isha has a need to prove that no one and nothing can stop her, and no one can take what is hers now, not even her own life.

Being a former pickpocket to buy food while living on the streets has taught her the importance of living and enjoying the world around you. Her aim to becoming a bigger and better thief was solely to be able to have all the nice things, to claw her way out of the life that she saw as boring and become a part of that dream world that she fawned over. Because of this, she loves her lavish lifestyle and all kinds of expensive luxuries that she flaunts constantly. She made her way into the lifestyle that she wanted, and now she wants the world to see it, too. Never limit yourself, that's her way of life. If you can reach for higher, for better, then aim for it and never give up. Her gravitation towards nice, shiny things marks her as a bit of a vain woman, one who never settles for second-rate because she knows she can get the best whether by her own virtue and skills or through manipulation and charm.

Isha is a proud woman. She's keenly aware of her own value as a master hacker and thief and is most definitely not afraid to flaunt her skills. Knowing the value of her own skills makes her a bit of a wildcard, as she will definitely throw in anyone's face that she can do what most others can't do. This, in combination with her willingness to survive and win, can make her a pain in the ass to those that try to blackmail or threaten her with losing her life. No, she might not be the strongest, but she is the smartest. Isha, put simply, is cunning. In no way is she above proving her value to even her own enemies. Not to say that she will run and tell those who oppose her what she can do, she's smarter than that: she never plays all of her cards all at once. That only leaves an opening for cheap tricks and being undermined, and Isha would rather be the dealer with the highest card than a card player merely bluffing.

Her pride fuels her competitive streak at times. Tell her it can't be done, she'll sit down, cross her legs, and prove to you that it can and will be done. Oddly enough, her pride as a thief also shines, so she doesn't quite shy away from admitting that she's a thief; rather, it's not something she'll bring up instantly until it's a relevant skill.

It's worth noting that she generally has some small form of respect for other people, at least outwardly. Not that if anyone questions her, she'll question them right back, of course, but Isha will at least listen before condemning. Now, if you're just completely idiotic and continually make very poor decisions, Isha will simply ignore you and will have absolutely zero respect for you. To those that she does trust and genuinely like, Isha will poke fun at them and will try to get on their nerves every so often. She believes there's no reason to be so high-strung and tense all the time. She would rather have a more relaxed environment because stress kills, didn't you know?

Cross Isha, though, and you will regret it. Anything dirty she can uncover, she will bring to the surface and slowly destroy your life. Isha can and will blackmail you if you push her too far. It would take a betrayal of immense proportions to bring out this vicious, conniving dark side, but she knows that it's a very valid threat she can make to strike fear.

✖ Character Skills:
Isha is a normal human, therefore she is not powered and, most importantly in her canon, not prosthetically enhanced. Instead, she has several skills:

• Hacking: Her abilities as a hacker allow her to access a wide variety of not only physical computers, but anything connected to a wireless network. This includes wearables, prosthetics with wireless connections, anything with a Bluetooth connection, disruption of live video data streams, disruption of audio playbacks, disruption of video holograms, and remote-controlled drones and machines.


• Thieving: This includes from small-time pickpocketing to breaking and entering, stealing physical items, stealing encrypted and unencrypted data due to her hacking skills, identity theft and bank account access to steal money.


• Acrobatic skills: Nothing so fancy as a professional gymnast, but she can do things such as handsprings, backflips, quick sprints, somersaults, climbing, and so on.


• Sneaking: Being a legendary thief means you are very, very sneaky. She can walk quietly, snap from place to place, find the most useful hiding areas and generally stick to the shadows if necessary.


• Combat: Isha's style of fight is mainly close range hand-to-hand combat, specializing in quick, light but highly pinpointed attacks that are mainly meant to disable and distract as opposed to causing real damage. She is also a skilled knife-fighter, but prefers to use her hands.

CHARACTER SAMPLES.
✖ First Person POV: One, two, three

✖ Third Person POV:
They held her in a metal chair, bound at the wrists to the chair's back. Only a pool of white light shone on her, while two mysterious men circled her. One held a black, heavy baton, the other held a particularly nasty-looking silver hand gun.

To Isha, it all felt very cinematic, in a sort of twisted, morose way. Perhaps it felt that way only because she never imagined this would happen to her, the legendary Mythos. She was a ghost in the cluster of data, a fleeting shadow behind a mansion. Yet, somehow, these men, one of a stocky build, the other of a lanky build, found her out.

Worse, they found her out while under INTERPOL's guaranteed protection. Now that was a pathetic irony.

"You stole from our boss," the lanky one said. "And our boss don't like it when his stuff goes missing."

Isha grinned. "You'll need to be more specific, darling, I steal lots of things."

She almost immediately regretted the comment when she was swiftly slapped across the face. Isha shook her head. That wasn't fun. The man brusquely grabbed her chin and forced her to face him, holding the gun at an upward angle. The cold barrel of the gun pressed into her cheek.

"We should just kill you now and get this over with, ey? What do you say?" he asked the giant man. He only grunted in agreement.

"No, wait," Isha began. She felt a knot grow in her throat. What in the world did she steal to cause such rampant pissiness? "I can do better than that, you know. I can find your boss something ten times more valuable than whatever I stole. Bigger. Better. Name it and I'm yours."

The skinny man glanced over to the burly man. Did it work? She certainly hoped so.

"So you want to clear your debt, eh? Work with us?"

Isha's eyes shifted, almost as if searching for an adequate answer. "Well, yes, that's what I hope it sounded like."

She expected another slap, but instead, she got a wild, unhinged grin. "Good. Our boss will love to hear all about it."

CHARACTER ITEMS.
✖ Pick a Team: Orange

✖ Mission Freebie: Her jailed adoptive father
✖ Personal Item or Weapon: Her leather thief's mask, embedded with he same technology as her sunglasses in the eye holes
✖ Character Inventory:

• Knife


• Blouse


• Jacket


• Leather pants


• Ridiculous shoes


• Sunglasses embedded with technology that includes, but not limited to, facial recognition, mapping and data storing. (No weaponized or hacking techniques)


• Bracelet in which the jewels conceal technology to mimic data for holographic keys. (Technology is basically useless here, though)


• Armor ring