General

Rose tends to stand straight; legacy of growing up in a military household and doesn’t have a whole lot of social graces. People have been known to say she’s a little bit of a cold fish behind her back. She dresses fairly casually but, although she is loath to give up her creature comforts, has started to realize that dressing up doesn’t have to be stuffy and staid. Half Chinese and half Caucasian, she’s been told she’s more cute than beautiful, but she can make heads turn if she really goes all out. She got most of her coloring from her dad with her medium length auburn hair, worn in a poly tail while working, down when not, and hazel eyes and fair skin that make the hair tend to look reddish in certain light. The actual features of her face come from her mom, at least if the pictures and to be believed. She doesn’t wear much makeup, especially when on the job, but she can glam it up if she has to when it’s time to be upwardly mobile.

Rose is somewhat of a tomboy having been raised by a single father. She tends to stand straight, legacy of growing up in a military household, and doesn’t have a whole lot of social graces. People have even been known to say she’s a little bit of a cold fish behind her back. She dresses fairly casually but, although she is loath to give up her creature comforts, has started to realize that dressing up doesn’t have to be stuffy and staid and sometimes it’s required in order to achieve her goals. Half Chinese and half Caucasian, she’s been told she’s more cute than beautiful, but she can make heads turn if she really goes all out. She got most of her coloring from her dad with her medium length auburn hair, worn in a pony tail while working, down when not, and hazel eyes and fair skin that make the hair tend to look reddish in certain light. The actual features of her face come from her mom. She doesn’t wear much makeup, especially when on the job, but she can glam it up if she has to when it’s time to be upwardly mobile.

History

Originally from Seattle, Rose has never left it. She was raised in Everett and had the dubious pleasure of watching it fall down as she grew up. Born in 2052, the Crash was the turning point of her young life. That’s when everything started to go downhill. First, her mother, Lanfen, disappeared; her father blamed AIPS, but Rose doesn’t really know. Then, her father, Martin Leah, was discharged from the army on disability. Firmly entrenched in the middle class as a child, they were now forced to transition to progressively poorer neighborhoods as his health deteriorated and he was unable to find as much work. There was the disability discharge from the army. Then getting let go from a desk job at the Star. Finally, even the local garage couldn’t afford to pay him to just show up anymore.

Rose had few friends growing up as whenever she wasn’t in school she would be helping her dad, either at the mechanic job, or with his projects at the house. Speaking of projects, that was the one other constant in her life, the cars that her dad would fix up and sell to make money on the side. No matter where they were currently living, there was always a garage, and in the garage was always a car in various states of disrepair. A lack of siblings or a strong female presence in her life led to her being a tomboy, unsurprisingly, so some of her fondest memories are of working with her dad on one of the cars all weekend.

After high school was finished, she finally “left home” to attend UW. Of course, UW being in the center of the city meant that home was only a short drive away, so she still spent much of her time with her father, which didn’t do great things for her college social life. Four years spent getting an engineering degree seemed to blur together. She enjoyed the classes and the learning but didn’t feel like she fit in with the rest of the students. Time with her dad was similarly mixed as he’d now been out of work for much too long and money was getting tight after paying for her classes. He insisted that she finish her degree though, and that seemed to be what he was waiting for as he passed shortly after she graduated.

It was at the reading of the will that her life took an odd turn. Turns out her dad had some assets lost in the Crash recently restored to him and that he had apparently decided to save for her as he wasn’t well enough to enjoy them. Suddenly flush with wealth, Rose used it to try and mask the sorrow from Martin’s absence. Months of high class living. Nights at clubs where, even if she didn’t fit in, she could still pretend. Eventually she settled down some and settled into a new home in the smallest house in a decent Bellevue neighborhood and started to come out of her mourning. Reminded of the happy times growing up by the similarities of her current house to their old place in Everett, she redirected her energies towards reliving her memories. Remodeling her house to expand the garage, she purchased a wrecked Americar and went to work fixing it up right.

After all this, though, money was starting to get tight again and Rose didn’t have any income coming in, but there was no way she was going to give up this house. Not this time. Lots of hustle finally turned up some part time work, but that wasn’t even close to being enough. That was when she thought about the trids she’d seen about Shadowrunners and thought that might be a way for her to get enough money. Everyone in those shows were always needing rides and getaway cars, and that was certainly something she could provide. But why just supply the good when you can also charge for the service? So she took the remainder of her money, set up some alternate identities with the help of one of her few friends from the Everett days who was also dipping her toes into the shadows, and bet the rest on some used cyberware (she didn’t ask why Guowei had a complete “rigger starter kit” available, she tried not to think about it) and some more rolling stock.

Although now physically prepared for the job, mentally she still had a ways to go. Despite getting to practice with firearms as a youth with her dad, killing isn’t something she’s ever had to do. The trids always glamorize it, but the nightly news tells an entirely different story. She’s not sure what she’ll do if faced with that situation, but hopefully she can just avoid it, right? She’s young.

Regardless, it might be a moot point as getting started in the shadows isn’t turning out to be as easy as it would seem. With no contacts and no name, no one seemed to be interested in hiring her outside of some odd jobs doing modifications on vehicles and firearms, typically for individuals with an inordinate number of tattoos. Time was running out and she was forced to seek alternate funding. Guowei was able to help her out again and she was able to secure some additional money to hopefully tide her over, but desperation is starting to set in…