Tihkoosue

**Alias:** Tihkoosue Megedagik (Algonquin: "He who is short yet kills many")

**Metatype:** Dwarf

**Born:** 2033

**Specialty:** Rigger

**Background:** Justin Passant was a proud nationalist from the Republic of Quebec. He worked for years as a highly-regarded wage-slave engineer at Ares Macrotechnology in Quebec City, but a series of layoffs shut down his entire department without reassignment. Down on his luck, he freelanced his skills as a rigger, until the shadows took him. During the following years, he went under the alias Jay Pass, going through the highs and lows of being a shadowrunner, competing in an increasingly aggressive market saturated with highly trained people who, like him, turned to the streets as an alternative for the lack of employment.

*"You are the sum of your experiences."*
–Tihkoosue

Eventually fed up from spending weeks in the gutter, he left his beloved home town for the Montreal Metroplex, building new street cred as an efficient, although brutal, shadowrunner. He ruthlessly painted his success with the blood of those he considered to be liabilities, having a hard time forging partnerships. He ran with a specific crew for a while until faced with the choice between fulfilling his contract and keeping a crewmate alive: he chose the contract. Now void of allies, all went downhill from there. Jay Pass was eventually set up, putting him on public display for his crimes and making him a prime Lone Star target. He fled in his car, leaving behind him his equipment, his stash, his identity, and the only place he cared about.

*"Home is where you build it."*
–Tihkoosue

He spent the following two years in exile, nameless, finding refuge in the Salish-Sidhe, Sioux, and Algonquin-Maniou territories. His hosts dubbed him Tihkoosue Megedagik, which he registred as a legal SIN in the Algonquin-Maniou Council. Among them, he learned new languages, new philosophies, and new beliefs. He found balance with local shamans, but unfortunately his cyberlimbs and engineer's mind couldn't relate to any of the popular totems. So, he chose to honor a totem of his own: Beaver (whom he calls by his Algonquin: "Amik"), the only animal which, like him, builds and alters the world around him to better fit his needs. Satisfied, Tihkoosue rode west, eventually making his way to the U.C.A.S. City-State of Seattle...

## Words of Wisdom

*"Amik would surely agree that one cannot build a better world without first building upon himself."* As Tihkoosue thinks back on his contracts, he notes the important lessons he learned.

1. **Hallowed Be Thy Name:** *"The more the world changes, the more it remains the **same**."*
2. **The Cleaning Crew:** *"Never trust a job **not** to glitch."*
3. **Demolition Men:** *"Always check **every** corner, no manner how much in a hurry you may be."*
4. **Let The Games Begin:** *"Shooting first and asking questions later is a **terrible** idea."*
5. **Homo Sapiens Robustus Subterranean Scurry:** *"Choose your alliances **wisely**, some aren't worth your loyalty."*
6. **Don't Say It...:** *"An employer always has **ulterior** motives."*
7. **A Night Out Downtown:** *"You spend 90% of a run **planning** the following 10%."*

## Penance

Since arriving in Seattle, Tihkoosue has found penance in, well, Penance: a run-down neighborhood of Redmond Barrens. From within the local sprawl, he knew he could strive without being judged, and build among people who can still appreciate the simple things in life. He took it upon himself to befriend the homeless inhabitants of Penance, extending a wing of protection above them, and give each of them a chance at dignity. This new purpose gave him something to focus on, and allowed him to keep his alcoholism in check.

*"Jander not with the sprawl."*
–Tihkoosue

Tihkoosue started his initiative by setting up a deal with Marty, a food truck proprietor who passed by Penance every once-in-a-while. Agreeing on a monthly fee, Marty would now drive to Penance on a daily basis and give a basic meal of nutrisoy to the poor and homeless. Some months after, he met with a doctor, Doc Brown, who was looking to move. Tihkoosue agreed to offer his protection, deal with his previous landlord, and settled him in a central location of Penance with as much accomodation as he could muster. Later, he accepted to assist an injured dragon (with hopes of having the wizworm leave as soon as possible), events which forced Ares Industries to supply an entire construction crew to fix up the buildings and streets of Penance back into a usable state.

*"In this day and age, there is no
greater gift than that of a hand."*
–Tihkoosue

**Penance Community Center:** To create a strong sense of solidarity and community, and in the spirits and teachings of Beaver regarding team work and family, Tihkoosue founded the Penance Community Center. The establishment assists and supports the down-on-their-luck inhabitants of Penance. The main floor has of couches, trids and pool tables and is the gathering place of training classes hosted by and for the inhabitants of Penance. The second story is a large dormitory with 20 beds, as well as men and women bathrooms. Hidden in the secret basement, however, is where Tihkoosue settled the Outsider Headquarters where him, his partners Kikkawa and Cornelia, and whoever else they need to work with, can meet in a secured environment. It is also from there that he control his squadrons of drones that patrol and protect Penance.

**Memorial Park:** To make people's life more bearable by knowing they will not be forgotten in death, Memorial Park was established as both a cemetary and a place for people to gather in peace and quiet. Whenever someone who lived in Penance dies, a tree in planted in memorial Park (above where his or her body is burried, assuming the body was recovered). Each tree is identified with the name of the person it represents as a testimony to life from death, and that one's action in life will be remembered by his peers well beyond.

## Adversaries

**The Brain Eaters:** For the sole purpose of getting to him, a local gang known as the Brain Eaters kidnapped ten people from Penance. Their goal: force Tihkoosue and his companions into a treasure hunt in the Redmond Barren sewers where he had to find the captives before multiple bombs blew up, all for the mere enjoyment of watching him struggle. The Brain Eaters shot at point blank some of the hostages, disguised others as gang members to be killed by the shadowrunners, and caused another one to get infected by HMHVV. Tihkoosue never forgave the go-go-gos, vowing to geek them to the very last one.

 **Ares Industries:** Formerly known as Ares Macrotechnologies. Business got Tihkoosue involved with a competing corporation called Emerging Futures, prompting a representative of Ares Industries to dig out Tihkoosue's past file and identify him as Justin Passant. Tihkoosue doesn't know the extent of compromising information they may have on his old SIN, or whether they made the links to the crimes he committed in the Montreal Metroplex under the name of Jay Pass. The one thing Tihkoosue knows is that having a dragon force Ares Industries into accomplishing free infrastructure work in Penance is unlikely to have helped the relationship he has with his former employer.

 **Himself:** Upon first setting a foot in the shadows, Jay Pass unleashed a bloody, malevolent and sadistic side of him he never knew he had. He reveled in the murderous path he carved for himself, acting rash and brashly, killing any opposition with no forethought or regard for their innocence. And at the end of another gory day, he would drown it all away in alcohol. Tihkoosue knows that dropping the name Jay Pass did not erase this side of him, and requires constant work to better himself and avoid falling back to his violent nature.

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