MR. BRADY
Story: A former tenet of the Mandarin Apartments Tower, Mr. Brady apparently had an overactive libido, as well as an interesting taste in bed partners. Sarah K Ferrari shot him with a taser and then had him arrested. See What's A Nice Girl 2.
HSIEN-KO
Story: Hsien-ko used to be a wuxia running the streets of Hong Kong until she was killed in action. No one knows exactly what happened, other than it was extraordinarily messy. People often talk quite a bit about the way she died (which changes with each and every telling) and how great a wuxia she supposedly was. Some believe (and they may be right), that Hsien-ko never existed and she's an "urban legend" of sorts.
Description: Hsien-ko was supposed to be of average height, with short black hair and an athletic figure. Other than that, the details tend to change frequently.
JAM CLOUDBERRY
Story: With a name like "Jam Cloudberry" you know it has to be fake, but no one really cares. Jam runs a restaurant named "Jam's", a loud and boisterous place with some of the best food in all of Hong Kong. Jam is the head cook, and oversees her staff with a sharp and critical eye (She also makes sure to teach her cooks the "right" way to make food, which means "her way."). On the other hand, her reputation is well-deserved, and Jam's is usually crammed with customers. Of course, this means the place is useless for deal brokering or planning sessions, but no one really cares.
Jam herself is an extreme fitness buff, and if she isn't cooking (or developing new recipes) she often exercising and/or practicing her martial arts (Pakua). Although not exceedingly strong, she is quite quick and very agile, leading some to speculate she used to be a solo operative some time in the past. Rumor has her being a genetic upgrade, heavily wired, or even a full-conversion cyborg. Wiser heads simply say she's a good cook who likes to keep in shape.
Description: Jam stands 5'4" tall, with long brown hair she ties up into a loop and keeps secured at the top of her head with a wide gold band. If allowed to hang free, her hair would fall past her waist. She has brown eyes, fair skin, and a very athletic (and very attractive) physique.
Jam typically wears snug-fitting cheong-sangs in red silk with black trim. Typically, the dress falls to about the top of her thighs and is cut high over the hip. Under this she will wear a second skirt,usually white with red trim and about the same length as the red dress (but it will cover her hips, while the red dress doesn't). On her arms she wears wide "sleeves" of red silk with black trim. These sleeves are held on by straps at her upper biceps. On her feet Jam wears high-heeled red boots with black trim. A second variation of this dress is much longer, falling past her knees, and has sleeves that hang down past her waist. This latter outfit is usually used for formal dinners and the like.
JOHN LEE
Story: Tenant of Mandarin Towers who died of a drug overdose and then was partially eaten by his collection of pet monitor lizards.
LING LING LI
Story: Ling Ling Li works in the city of Hong Kong as a fixer, buying and selling goods and information to anyone with money. Although not as well-known (or well-connected) as Nabiki Tendo, she is still quite successful. Ling Ling prefers to stay in Hong Kong, and does all of her business along the Pacific Rim.
Originally born in Hong Kong, Ling Ling's parents left the city in 1997, right before the Communist takeover. Ling Ling then grew up in Sydney, eventually returning to the home of her birth sometime around 2020. Working with contacts gained from her parents, she was able to enter into business for herself, initially with the importing and exporting of various goods, and eventually graduating into her present occupation.
Ling Ling's full-time companion, bodyguard, and lover is Marta Nys (sister of the infamous Shion Nys). They recently have entered into a civil union, and are now married in the eyes of the law.
Description: Ling Ling is fairly tall, standing 5'8" and weighing 125 lbs. She has an athletic but well-endowed figure (a result she says of her genetic upgrade), with dark eyes and thick black hair that falls to her waist. Oddly enough, she wears glasses and is terribly nearsighted. At one point, one of her boyfriends talked her into getting her ears cosmetically altered, resulted in their long tapering, elf-like appearance. Ling Ling smokes virtually constantly and is almost never without her cigarettes. Finally, Ling Ling dresses in traditional Chinese clothing styles, preferring the trousers and jacket outfits usually worn by kung fu practitioners.
LUCIEN
Story: Just who is Lucien? Just the Rim's hottest rock act, that's who. He's been tearing it up ever since he first hit the big time around 2030, and doesn't seem intent on stopping any time soon. He plays loud and proud and is fully intent to bringing the magic of his music the the masses. This tends to drive his corporate handlers nuts, as Lucien hands out free tickets, backstage passes, free CDs, and even impromptu concerts like a frenzied Santa Claus. On the other hand, they can't complain too much—his popularity grows with each new publicity stunt, and hey, he really can play!
Rumored to be a major "playah," with more girlfriends than any man has the right to claim (rumor even has Lucien spending extended weekends with Rinn-Fa—for free!), Lucien simply shakes his head and smile. In truth he has the hots for Billie Cho, a Cantopop superstar who's popularity rivals his own. The pair's stormy relationship is the stuff of tabloid legend, and their antics provide constant fuel for the rumor-mongering grist mill.
Description: Lu Shen (better known these days as "Lucien") is your typical high-profile rock star. He's lean and long haired, often in need of a shave, and usually wears sunglasses to hide his bloodshot eyes. He dresses in a lot of synthleather, and enjoys red and black combinations. His guitar work is so-so, but his enthusiasm and voice help a lot.
MANDARIN TOWERS APARTMENTS SYNTHETICS
Story: Chandra, Nick, Ping, Ryosuke are four domestic synthetics who assist Sarah in running the apartment tower. They deal mainly with the customers, leaving the 24 domestic cyberdroids to handle the grunt work.
Description: Sarah never describes these four, beyond calling them "happy little zombies." One presumes they are of average height and builds, with the typical physically fit look of all synthetics.
MARTA NYS
Story: The younger sister to Shion Nys, Marta shared her sister's early years on the streets of the Chicago Metroplex. This hard life at such an early age (Marta was only 13 when her father died), greatly influenced Marta's world view, reinforcing her beliefs that money and power were the only two things that mattered in the world. Not possessing even a trace of her sister's awesome psychokinetic abilities, Marta opted for a more direct approach, augmenting her physical abilities with an impressive array of cybernetic implants. Having achieved her goal of power in the form of cutting edge cyberware, Marta then set about to amass as much money as she could. Operating as a corporate mercenary and free-lance street samurai, Marta soon found her talents and skills to be in high demand, and that prospective clients were more than willing to pay handsomely to hire her.
Two years ago, Marta met Ling Ling Li on a bodyguard job in San Francisco. She fell in love almost instantly, and eventually seduced Ling Ling into her bed. Shortly afterwards, Marta moved to Hong Kong, joining Ling Ling as her full-time bodyguard and lover. Recently the two have entered into a civil union, and are now, for all intents and purposes, married.
Description: Marta is, in some ways, her sister's physical opposite. Extremely attractive, she is on the short side, standing a little over 5'5", dark eyed, with straight black hair that is worn to her waist. Marta's slight, well-defined, athletic build is deceiving, as her reinforced steel-laced skeleton and cybernetic implants give her a weight in excess of 160 pounds.
RINN-FA
Story: Rinn-Fa is a well-known feature of the Hong Kong underworld, seeing as she runs one of the most exclusive independent gambling casinos in town. Called "Lu Ch'ian" (Path to Money), it has the usual collection of slot machines, roulette wheels, craps tables, and so on, as well as connections to assorted sports betting (horse racing, car racing, Lace & Steel fights, and so on), and traditional Asian gambling games (such as the mahjongg parlor). Rinn-Fa employs a good dozen or so croupiers to run the tables, and has another dozen synthetics (6 male, 6 female) as wait staff. The croupiers are all fairly good looking, while the synthetics have the typical "human perfection" look to them. The female synthetics are all cat-eared and tailed and dress in fairly brief cheong-sangs, while the males wear trousers and open vests. Both can be taken upstairs for a price (as can Rinn-Fa, if you can afford her). Lu Ch'ian is popular with the Triads (naturally) and other gangsters, and has numerous private side rooms rentable by the hour (as are the bedrooms).
Rinn-Fa herself plays at being a sort of Pulp-era "dragon lady." She dresses provocatively, acts more seductive than inscrutable, always seems to know more than you do, and has a legendary appetite for physical gratification (usually sated by one or two of her synthetics). She deals equally with Triad gangsters, the Yakuza, various Hong Kong fixers (including Ling Ling), solo operatives, and corporate executives. Probably the only reason why no one's killed her and taken over her place is the fact she deals information so freely to anyone and everyone, and everyone knows it.
Description: Standing 5'7", Rinn-Fa bring new meaning to the term "well-endowed." Her bust-line seems to be a result of an overgenerous genetic upgrade and/or surgery. At any rate, she uses her figure to good effect, with strategically-laced cutouts in her clothing designed to display her full breasts to maximum effectiveness.
Keeping with her persona of a 21st Century "dragon lady," Rinn-Fa wears traditional cheong-sangs, usually tailored to fit as snugly as possible, over formfitting silk bodysuits. She keeps her blue-black hair trimmed short, and often has a cigarette in a long holder loosely held in one hand.
SARAH K. FERRARI
Story: Sarah blue-skinned, blue-haired, blue-eyed synthetic human. She manages the Mandarin Apartments tower in Hong Kong. As she is a virtual one-of-a-kind individual, life in Hong Kong has made her very, very cynical and sarcastic. This might be a defense mechanism on her part for dealing with most people.
Description: Sarah describes herself thusly: "I stand five feet eight inches, and weigh a healthy one hundred forty pounds, with a fit and trim figure that is pretty much the de facto standard for domestic-use synthetics. Actually, I'm a little on the athletic side, which is a benefit in my line of work. Anyway, unlike certain feline-themed synthetics, I not top-heavy, although I'm not flat-chested either. ... My skin, which is blemish-free, although not scar-free, is a pale blue color, although some areas, such as my nipples, lips, and tongue, are darker. My hair, which is straight and cut clean at the shoulders, is a deep blue shade, although when it gets wet it turns virtually black. My head is, in fact, the only place I have any body hair, which makes me wonder about my designers. My eyes are a pale ice blue, my teeth a white (and straight), and my ears are where everyone other human has theirs, and not on top of my head like some stupid cat."
SONNY "PACKMAN" PAK
Story: Sonny's been a fixture of Hong Kong for the last 20 years or so. In that time he's built himself up to be the man to go to when you need a gun. Any gun. If it has a trigger (or even if it doesn't) odds are he can acquire it for you. Even the fixers go to him from time to time in order to purchase his wares, and a good Hong Kong fixer can normally get anything.
Sonny cruises around Hong Kong in a heavily customized hydrogen fuel-cell mini-van, the back packed with enough ordnance to start a small war. A tempting target to be sure, but most Triad gangbangers know better than try and whack the best arms dealer in the city-state. And the idiot who does will probably receive a very noisy and messy visit from Andy Lau... gratis.
Description: A Korean by birth, the "Pakman" stands about 5'9" with an average build. He favors simple suits, often years out of date, cheap sunglasses, and a battered carryall bag to hold samples in. Don't let the "cheap" look fool you though, he's loaded with more than just firepower.
SUSAN WEI
Story: The term "freelance sysadmin" isn't one you see on most resumes, which is why Susan (also known as "Suckerpunch Suzy") is able to find so much work up and down the Rim. Basically she'd a netrunner, but one who tends to fix systems up, rather than burn them down. People bring her in to advise on building their systems, how to keep intruders out, recommendations on hardware and software, and even ask her to run the things. So instead of playing with the big boys, Suzy hangs with the smalltimers, keeping the little guys up and running and their data safe and secure. Mostly.
Suzy attributes her choice of occupation to her utter love of the HK night life. She is, as they say, a heavy duty "party grrrl" and loves to dance the night away. Of course, this means she sleeps most of the next day away as well, a habit that doesn't go over well with the average corporate schedule of events.
Description: Suzy looks pretty much like your average Chinese office lady. Short, slender, pretty, with short black hair, dark eyes, and multiple datajacks. Although she's not a bad shot with a gun, she's more likely to deck the person bothering her.
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