Syrus

Syrus lis Tova af Mitachte

Syrus Timeline/Backstory

 * Military erased/broke S contract with K-took it from his back but not his DNA (shows it broken?). They have alot of overrides. SInce he used their masker to reset his maruste, it goes back to their default. Shows him as being bonded to military.
 * age in increments of 7. 7 at bond, 14 mil train. 15 active service. 21ish when leave. 7 or age yrs more age when join kishen. About 3 yrs in fleet. Floating in space with Kar after first rescue. Ten yrs of cryo * 3 yrs ago he joined up with Fleet, did his research then. What Q hid from him wasn’t blocked. It didn’t even show as being blocked in the system. it was held on a separate server that only Q had access to.
 * One of his old unit from Borderlands- has contact w/ Seperatists. Sold them all out to his people
 * -When they were abandoned by S, one of team set drift coords to home planet, brought faster engine tech to separatist planets. * -Unit wants to bring him to military?
 * Reward out for him w/ Imperial blood

Syrus Feel Dictionary
heat-anger lack of feeling/no feeling-sociopath/crazy/lack of emotion entirely

fear-acid crawling bugs

irritation/disgust: crawling

itch of disgust surprise

chagrin

hope

lust

slimy ooze of a person who knows his superiority is bred into his bones

Character Questions
Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?

Doing what needs to be done to survive/cope

What three words would others use to describe you?

Nehkeh/Bastard/Savage

Do you think you would make a good parent?

no

What are your religious views?

Lean towards followers of One God, but not because belief. Hates God. Doesn't buy into actual belief of ancestors like rest of Navlad.

What is more important – sex or intimacy?

sex

Is there any sexual activity that you will not, under any circumstances, do?

necrophilia

Who was your mother, and what was she like?

No idea

What is your favorite and least favorite color?

Working Notes

Title/Rank : Mechute Hair long enough to tie back : Cranky Dark tan skin : Short goatee, stubble Navladian : Feel Savage : Sousi to Rissa

Savages

 * Oh, speaking of patron, I have a thing that's been stuck in my head a while. Sort of one of those household sayings people pass around, only this is a warning for the Heads of House in the Nadvlad society: "Beware the Savages of the streets, for when one brings them into one's household, one brings chaos and destruction down upon your family."
 * I'm thinking Savages is another term for street rat. An especially bad term, reserved for the ganged up ones, or the ones scary enough they don't need a gang. And I'm thinking Cyrus sister was no pushover herself, even when she was little. And then he got 'accented' by the government as part of the military, hence extra strength, extra stam. (Extra appetite :P ). And it's why they'll want him back eventually.
 * He gets extra stuff because he was already a hybred. A remnant of the first soldiers they tried to reengineer. When the mind control went bad, they threw them out in the planets, scattered, to fend for themselves.
 * Use Ancient language. That's how you know them, where they were born:
 * Fuck, shit, etc. Old world cussing
 * no one would come looking for the bodies. They wore the same rags and tattered leathers of any street Savage. No one cared if the Savages lived or died in droves. Fuck. The Great Ones were usually pretty happy when a Savage war killed off a whole pile of the vermin who survived on the underbelly of Suslis Katkin. Just so long as none of the fighting got in the way of their bright and shiny days. *
 * He was Savage. Nehkeh. And everything that went with it. He wasn’t even as high up the social ladder as the tanner’s apprentice. As the man who came through the slums on his aircart, throwing bags of rich men’s trash out for the street people to eat. He was nothing. He shouldn’t even be breathing the same air as this girl, much less being in contact.
 * Disgrace to have no marks, or marks of a Savage. Keep them covered/hidden.

Why does he hide his sai
Commons see sai as a ticket to a better life. To advantages and privilege and marrying higher. Making things better and bringing honor to their Family. Effort is made to keep the Military from taking custody of a Noble sai for training (Many Common sai end up in the Military? Nehkeh too) Nobles see the obligation to breed more sai. It is a political tool. A weapon to be used against Families that don't have active sai in the House. Nobody can take Nobility away, but fortunes can rise or fall on who has sai at the moment. A sai is to be guarded carefully, to be used wisely in marriage, and not be tainted by a nehkeh. A sai with a sousi can create complications or bonds between Houses. Marriages will be carefully arranged by both Houses (a son of the House marrying the sai from the other family?). Taint by a nehkeh sai would damage any possibility of a future for a noble sai. Sousi come as a package deal. Any possibly Family that she married into wouldn't be able to exclude him and still bring Rissa into their House. If she wasn't to stay under her Father's (and then Jirdis's, until Almovak came along)thumb forever, she needed a marriage to a good House.
 * 1) He's a man. Few men are anything other than a Crack, if they're sai at all. (Women Cracks exist too. Most common kind of sai. Some debate as to whether it's really a sai talent or a far greater propensity for pattern recognition and math than most people. Just normal geniuses?)
 * 2) He's a nehkeh. Most people don't know that there are nehkeh sai. The Military tends to get to them before they are detected in normal society (usually around 8 or 9, when nehkeh children are less likely to be seen as just another kid wandering the streets. Most children unsupervised and in bad condition assumed to be nehkeh by default. Don't know until you round them up and start testing nanites-semi-regular patrols backed by priesthood and military to do just that?)
 * 3) Some would be jealous or righteously angry enough over these first two to kill him for it.
 * 4) He was brought up in a Family, a noble Family. He's seen a side of society most nehkeh never will. He sees the value they place on sai in the family tree from a perspective beyond normal Commoners.

All this was made very clear to Syrus when they went to the back end of beyond and booted him out to pasture to hide what he is and what their daughter had done in bringing him home and bonding with him. It was made very clear to him that her safety was dependent on HIS good behavior. Overt displays of sai were not encouraged.

Why does Syrus KEEP hiding once he and the girls escape the Fleet?

 * 1) He is hiding as a general rule. His whole identity. Rissa's husband tracked them down eventually. A male sai is rare enough to send up red flags all the way to the Core.
 * 2) Sai are useful to anyone who can get a lock on one. Being sai at all is a good way to paint a target on his back. Three together is almost unheard of outside the Imperial Core.
 * 3) Travelling with the girls, they are leverage to be used against them. He is less leverage to be used on them. They are less likely to save him than they are to take the ship and run
 * 4) He did some research as they traveled. The Duke of Rissa's home sector has aspirations to be Emperor. Rissa's marriage took her out of his jurisdiction. Syrus doesn't know if the Family has told the Duke that Syrus was her sousi, but the Duke has been nosing around. Rumors he's gone after Houses with sai? Politicking and murder and marriage.
 * 5) He's been trying to get them all past the Gatekeepers. See above with 'sai as resources' and add a dash of 'sai in general are hated past the Barbs to the GK'. He needs them to not be seen as a threat or potential slaves.

Why would he keep it from Delfi now?

 * 1) Habit
 * 2) So she can't give anything away to GK? Give him, or all of them up as prisoners, if only by accident?
 * 3) He planned to leave them anyways, what good would it do for them to know this close to the end?
 * 4) Rissa is DEAD. Nothing will bring her back. He has spent years burying his memories of her and ignoring the imaginings that she speaks to him. Telling others about his relationship to her will rip open that wound again.
 * 5) He's already a male nehkeh sai, and the girls know that he's of Imperial blood. But adding 'I lost my sousi and I'm moderately sane' to the mix will dial the freakishness up to eleven. NOBODY loses a sousi and stays themselves. (Another argument here for him telling Delfi later? When he realizes the cracks in her relationship with J? To give her confidence to break the chokehold?)

Possible scenario No-Tell:

 * 1) He doesn't tell Delfi
 * 2) Takes them to GK
 * 3) Has the argument with D about how she relates to men.
 * 4) J walks in. Loses mind. Angry.
 * 5) Argument with D.
 * 6) S trying to help D. Tell her that being sousi doesn't mean a stranglehold on your partner.
 * 7) Let D do the math after he's gone.
 * 8) Feel obligated to go after him.
 * 9) Once they get to GK and J wake up…J not know about hiding powers?  (either way, this puts even MORE strain on D). Wakes up, comes looking for D, sees her with S. Assumes.
 * 10) Argument.
 * 11) S storm out. Fine end to a fucked up year. Let the girls sort out what they're going to do with themselves?
 * 12) D so mad at J she doesn't tell that R was sousi to S.
 * 13) Prophesy, girls kicked out. Back to square one. Homeless, jobless, only two (three? Four?) skill sets.
 * 14) Trying to figure out what to do.
 * 15) T and crew show up. Can do easy or hard. Going to grab you and go after S.
 * 16) D 'he's gone. Went deeper into Seps'
 * 17) T 'hah.' Agadi found his passage booked further. But a GK ship stopped the ship. GK does nice favors for Noble House. Noble house that S is connected to. Do the math.

Syrus Mindset Post Devour the Stars
Syrus-watching D, watching J willing to exploit J protecting D to get her (J) to do things. What does he want J to do? Listen to him when they're in new places. Not kick a fuss when he tells her not to do something that could set them caught. He wants free sex, not rost. Free of disease. And he likes messing with her head. S not as cranky how that they're not on the Fleet. Doesn't have to hold onto position. But he knows about this time and they don't. He had to learn too, when he and Karissa escaped. He was in ago to leave his team behind. Tech may have existed for faster travel but in all the wars and migrations, some of it was lost. Only so much that can be done about long term ago and its damage to the body. Better chem cocktails always looking for.. S wants to go back to what he tk were doing when they were hiding. shipping. Mainly luxury goods. Produce,rare meats.. Things that don't work so well economically in a high mass freight situation. S is least invested of the} in how things turn out for now. fire wl traveling w/J&D for now. Argument @ start of travel. how is it the ship is in S home when HE decided to tag along w/ J&D. If they left first, shouldn't the ship be theirs and he be there on sufferance? Sis coasting. Trying to forget what he did on the base and the memories of Kari the girls are with him, so his not alone, but they aren't K, so he doesn't keep looking for her around corners. Or does he? likes company traveling w / people. Remnant of being sousi. But angry because it's not the same as it was. -S has been slowly ‘conditioning’ J so that when he walks by D’s room and comes away pissy, or is just cranky in general, she’ll think he’s been considering D and offers herself. Regular thing. If J is in S bunk, D won’t come in. -S not really looking to try healing D in this book Wants to let them sort it out on own. And first couple times he tried, she tried to jump his bones and ruin his brain. And then J got all up in arms about it so he said to hell with it. Shez (Claudia Black)- can mask/project shield over area. use it to hide her group on the ship. Will help her survive being stuck on a base alone with loony J part of why S willing to let her stay- Some part of him can’t get past his reaction to the old family connections. Hiding his gift. Staying out of sight. She can help with that. After they get out of the system with the Fleet they run. The shields on the Barbs that keep them from warping the systems they’re set near also hide entry and exit of ships and vessels under a certain size. The Fleet sats can get through, but the big ships show up right away. (Always on at a certain level. Just a matter of keying in the code. Take more power to spin up and take the larger vessels as they come through, and up the shields to correspond. The logs are supposed to alert the Gatepost and let the guards/tarrif clerks/customs know that someone has come through, but a good Crack or the right set of military IDs will override that. The race has been to keep those logs and the security around them upgraded enough that smugglers and fugitives can’t break and and alter them to either hide the fact that they’re coming through, or show a different Ship ID on the roster. Plenty of ways to bypass the safeties have been stolen and sold on the black market. Syrus used to travel with a stealth ID that could mimic freighters, transport, passenger, etc. When he was traveling with Kar, he took the one out of the vessel he used and traded it for one with a different military sig. The military can comb the files and see if it’s been used on a ship, but he got rid of the one associated with his unit. The other part of his team had to come back into the Empire from an Outlier system and since he’d taken their first ship and it’s masking tech, they had to rely on what the Outliers could cobble together and steal and buy. This time he bounced through three or four more gates, never leaving the shielded bubble around the Barb entrance. So they didn’t have much travel time, but the Armada out there didn’t know he’d come through. He knew the name/coords of a system with an active gray market and he muddied the trail as much as he could. Shut off the ship’s automatic hailing transponder so it wouldn’t reach out to any military in the are. After using the key he got from the base w/ Jossa, he uses the ship’s inboard gate protocols to get through the next few, to keep the all-access pass from showing in the logs. He doesn’t know that his blood sig will be attached, but he does know that a key like that will scream that something happened. Didn’t lock the gate behind him. If the Armada came through to get the Fleet, he doesn’t care. Once he gets to where he’s going, a populated system that’s got six or seven gates set for commerce, he looks for a junkyard the should have a second hand ship. He strips the masking tech from their ship, along with its shielding and and keys. Bartering isn’t just for the ship itself, but for whatever’s left of the memory banks inside. In theory, the next ship’s been wiped of keys and and tracking software. A new ship ID code will need to be registered. Syrus kills someone, takes their identity before he sells the ship? New maruste on his back. Wants to get his hands on another rolling ID mimicker, since he doesn’t have a Crack on hand to hide his ship from the logs. Not a “what are you going to do with your ship” sort of registration, but ‘what class of vessel is this’. He’s got something with a decent sized cargo bay, could be passenger or cargo. Has to balance how many people are going to be on it in relation to what kind of load on the life support he wants. Rooms for himself, J, D. Two more rooms? Storage or people. Puts a reefer in one of them? Freezers? Going to ships fresh foodstuffs, real spices,etc. Go from Ajri planets to asteroids and city planets. Real food grown and raised in real dirt is expensive. Meat, cheese. Unhatched eggs. Most eggs in space are like Egg Beaters. Gets a permit for shipping (steals?) Plans to use shielding tech and hide, poach some game? Real permit, needs to prove that he knows how to handle produce? What one planet raises as a specialty might be really valuable in another system. Some planets hotter by default, so they have more tropical fruits/foods, etc. Others are colder, so they have things from more temperate climes. Trades between systems. Otherwise it’s hothouse grown or false environments or hydroponics pods. Risky on a city planet if the water supply is tainted. Asteroids too. Meat is special. Dairy and liquid eggs (eggs beaters in space!). Want the permit for higher end, lightweight good. Heavy stuff needs a bigger ship, but things like cotton, leather, silk, fresh fruit and meat are lighter. No liquids. Also needs a faster vessel for spoilage worries. Reefer fridge makes sense. And he can hide one unit for the game he takes down/smuggles. Smaller ship easier to get in and out of port than giant cargo hauler. He can claim the girls are passengers too. Syrus- Blood Is Other members of old team can't say S was good. All about the same level. Just as grouchy as he was before. When separated from Kar. Show that they're all Savage. Once tried to grope D. She nearly breaks his arms. S comes for him. Girls stay in his bunk after that. Lock the other man in his?