Characters

Players on the Street

Lester "Slick" Murphy is a gambler not just by trade but in his nature. He is always after the extra edge his ... ablity helps with this. This has lead to trouble before however, specifically with a local mob boss: Salvatore Riina who fined Slick 500,000$ for cheating at the "executive game" Slick has been paying back by being a player for the mob and keeping the games in hand, an arrangement benificial to all involved (in 2 years Slick's debt has withered to 100,000$)

Eric Fairwell was a Computer Science student at UCSD, getting by on financial aid until he had some bad luck. His parents died in a train crash. Eric had to drop out of school to work through the emotional trauma. Financial Aid debts piled up, and Eric couldn't find a job. He opted for a two-year English teaching position in Japan, to escape from his debts, and to clear his head.

A Ninjitsu academy proved to be an excellent choice for head clearing, combining zen with martial training. Not Eric's idea originally, a teaching colleague of his introduced him to the Academy. Unbeknown to the inductees, the black belts at the Academy were all Mages.

Darrel Harrison is a 27 year old up and coming photo/journalist. After taking a break from college and backpacking throughout Europe he has taken many jobs as a free lance photographer and writer and traveled abroad taking photos. His father passed away in a motorcycle accident when he was a child. Darrel was with him but was thrown from the motorcycle and was knocked unconscious. He remembers nothing of the incident. Since Darrel was 16 his mother moved to New York and began seeking help for depression and substance abuse. Darrel went to live with his aunt for a few years before moving out and eventually going to college.

Joey was born a heroin baby by a useless junkie mother. Having been taken away by child protective services she grew up hopping from shelters and foster homes. She wound up dropping out of school at 14 and joining with a band of punkers. Pregnant at 15½ by a 19 year-old she cared deeply for, it was this band of “friends” who pulled some strings and collected enough money to pay for the girl’s abortion. The drugs they administered during the procedure put Joey in a place she’d never been before. A hallucinatory sleep-like stasis that, when she awoke, she knew she wanted to experience again.

After talking it over with her band of friends that same 19 year-old she still considered herself with offered the suggestion of getting a hold of some heroin and seeing if the effect was the same. Upon putting a test to the experiment, Joey found it did indeed work, and she quickly became addicted.

Over time, Joey continued to experience those awkward visions when under the effects of the heroin (or any other opiate drug). She took them in stride as “hallucinations” though the more she practiced, the more she came to realize that maybe that wasn’t exactly the case... Even more she began to think something was wrong when one night she and her boyfriend got high, became sensual, and she swore when she touched him she could see things... Things people weren’t meant to see. What could be, what might be, brief glimpses of a possible future. She could also feel his emotions writhing inside of her and it was like a second wave, a second high; and over time, she sought these feelings out as often as she could.

Arthur Tuskadeli's has always been gifted at fixing things. He was the kind of kid who would take apart the toaster just to see how it works. The difference between Arthur and other curious kids was that arthur would put it back together (usually with improvements.) As Arthur got older he got involved with a gang. This particular gang used to do small jobs for the mafia. This got the attention of Arthurs uncle. He kept an eye on Arthur and had plans to groom him into becoming a made man like himself.

One day arthur got into a fight with a truck driver while attempting to jack his shipment. Usually the truck drivers would just walk away.This one didn't. The truck driver started beating the crap out of Arthur. While on the ground Arthur instinctivley mustered his will and threw the driver back against the truck. The only problem was he didn't use his physical strength to do it. He willed it and it happened. The truck driver survived but was hospitalized. Arthur ran. To his knowledge no one knows it was him.

This caused Arthur to evaluate his life. He began trying to recreate what happened to the truck driver. After practice he found that he could will something like that to happen. After that he spent weeks reading everything he could find. Soon he bagan honing his skills and the autowork he had done in the past with the help of magic began to be something he did on purpose.

Leaving the gang didn't prove easy. He had enough respect that he didn't get too much trouble until his uncle found out. Thats when Arthur crafted his crowbar...

Nathan Dross was a friendly child with a natural curiosity. His parents died when he was in his early teens, and only thanks to a trust fund was he able to go to college. He withdrew into himself, and studied the body, fascinated with the mortality of all things, but also in their beauty and diversity.   Through hard work he managed to become a surgeon early and got a position at a local hospital. In his spare time, he took classes and studied other animals and planned to become a veterinary surgeon as well.

Fate took him away from the practice though, as one night as he was walking home from a particularly long shift he was struck by a hit and run. The impact was severe and were it not for sheer luck he would have died. Broken legged and bleeding from a severe gash to the throat and barely conscious, he was pulled to the safety of an abandoned building by a stray dog. He was slowly nursed back to health by the creature, slipping in and out of consciousness the whole time. He spent several days under the watchful eye of the dog and when he was finally able to leave the building (several days later) it followed him. Shocked and confused at the turn of events, he took it as a sign and became a vagrant, the dog (who he came to call Angel) his constant companion. He spent about two years on the streets, until at a soup kitchen he met a kindly old veteran, and through the friendship he formed with him, he decided it was time to return to "the world". He now works as a janitor at a local hospital and has been trying to figure out where next life will take him.

Everyone Else

Marla Singer is a woman Slick met late one night downtown where she was working as a cabbie. Slick had never seen a cabbie wearing an old bridesmaids dress and smoking like a chimney, it was love at first sight. They have been together for about 2 years.

Salvatore Riina is a local mob boss in Chicago. No one really knows what to make of him as some describe him with a heart of gold while others would say he is the devil himself. Riina manages to always stay ahead of the FBI and is considered one the most powerful men in Chicago.

Cecilia Dranes is Darrel’s closest relative. She is his father’s sister and very wealthy. She is a widow. Cecilia’s husband Carter was alive when Darrel lived with her but he was always traveling and not around much. Carter died of a heart attack when Darrel was finishing up college. Currently she is a curator at the local museum but Darrel believes this is just a convenient title for her to hold as he doesn’t believe she really has too many responsibilities to tie her down.