Astrid Loupan

Age

32

Job

Logistics Management

Height

5' 8"

Weight

145lbs

Pronouns

She/Her

Player

Archy

Overview

The leader of The Pack, she’s an expert at organization, management, and has worked her way climbing the corporate ladder one rung at a time. She doesn’t believe in the cruel side of the Corporatist system, but she does like the sense of order, process, and efficiency. Her work funds her family, so it works out in the end.

Appearance

The best description of Astrid is “well put together.” This poor woman is always in charge and always prepared. She dresses nicely up because appearances matter. To her, it’s signalling to those around her that she is the professional and the one in charge. There’s nothing casual about her. Those who watch her can also see the tension. She is always on-duty. Every minute of every day she’s ready to spring into action.

Genetic Mods

Survival Mods

Astrid has not opted for the canine features of her family, but she has opted for some tweaks to her senses and muscles. This has somewhat backfired. She is more sensitive than the other canines and humans - sensory overload is an issue for her.

Tech Mods

Neural-Port

There are those who opt to have Big Brother wired directly into their brain and those who opt to keep him at arm’s length. Astrid has a pair of neural interface ports with robust security. Typically one of these is used for a hard-wired connection to a computer system and the other hosts a plugin wireless link (which she removes when not in use).

Pack-Com Unit

The members of the pack have a comms system embedded in them. It is secure, encrypted, and built by the New Athens engineers custom. That is, it doesn’t have the backdoors of corporate systems. Each node is a data-unit capable of net and voice comms. It can give a convincing illusion of telepathy.

History

Astrid’s success came from a harsh upbringing. Her parents were demanding. She could never be less than her very best. They wanted her to rise up and become New Athens’ first system-wide CEO. Nothing was ever good enough. An A+ was a slap in the face. If she didn’t get extra credit on every assignment, she was a failure. There were no shades of gray. Her work was either a failure or just barely acceptable.

Work. Hard work. Every day hard work. Astrid developed systems, optimizations, memorizations. Where her peers cheated with drugs or implants, she did it the hard way. Her mind was sharp as a whip. School. Work. Study. Nap. Sleep was a luxury and she learned to survive on next to no sleep. The job was essential, her parents couldn’t afford her as it was. School was unmissable. There was no room for anything to ever fall out of alignment. The work brought her savings, scholarships, and most importantly, a way out.

The Escape

The notion of fleeing her parents had never occured to Astrid. She was being a good daughter, a dutiful daughter. She would rise, work, and achieve. It was what her parents wanted. It was her job. She had to succeed and then she’d take care of them and they’d all have the assets they needed to take a breath. That was the plan, anyway.

One night in college derailed that whole thing.

Astrid met a girl.

She was the opposite in every way: carefree, smiling, and happy. It felt like a slap in the face to see someone so relaxed. She was a wolf-girl out at a bar, dancing and smiling. She was so vibrant and different. You couldn’t miss her. They talked and their lives couldn’t even be said to have taken place in the same world. It made Astrid realize what her parents had never provided - even while they claimed she owed them for everything.

A few nights later and there came the straw that broke the camel’s back: Astrid had a brother coming. Her parents were cutting nearly all her support to take care of the brother. He’d been planned and now he was almost here. In fact, they needed her to send money home. She would need to work longer hours to make up the shortfall.

It was almost bearable. Almost liveable.

The wolfgirl showed Astrid her parents’ social posts. That’s an expensive car. Expensive vacation. All her life Astrid’s nose had been to the grindstone. Accepting her parents words. It never occurred to her: they had money to spare. She didn’t have to work her fingers to the bone, buy her own lunches, any of that.

She was old enough. She cut them off.

Corporate Success & Founding the Pack

All those long years of hard work paid off. Astrid had multiple degrees and was immediately flagged for higher positions in the corporate structure. She climbed, gamed the system, and achieved success. Success that felt lonely. What did she have? Credits, a house, and an office. A stack of jobs to do. No one to smile with.

She’d kept in contact with the wolf girl. There were others. Others like her, others who needed help, others suffering and struggling. They were from bad homes like her own, just bad in other ways. It hadn’t been planned, but they grew into a tiny little organization.

It started with a house and guests over. It spread to neighboring homes. In time, they weren’t just neighbors. The group coalesced around a canine theme and The Pack was formed. They were registered as an Entity in the system. Astrid nudged, manipulated, and gamed deals so they would have jobs, safety, and stability.

Over time, they have dipped into the shadier aspects of life too. There’s connections to corporatists, pirates, and the workers. Many point out that it’s strange for Astrid to be their leader. She seems smaller than most, but her own augmentation makes sure she keeps up. They chose her to lead and that’s enough.

Affiliation(s)

Crewed Ship

None.