So, I've been all over. I was born in Sydney -- You guys know where that is, right? -- to a mother from Japan and a father from Australia. Fun start, I know. We lived there for a long while, and I even made some non-matrix friends. Shocking, I know. Good times have to end at some point, though. My mom was convinced that that we had to go back to Japan, to the place of "our ancestors". Dad and I weren't interested, but we did know that Australia didn't have enough of us anymore. So, we left for the UK. England, if you want to be specific. Kensington, if you want to be precise. Dad worked for Shiawase, Mom for Novatech. We -- or rather, I -- didn't last long in London. They're still there, I'm not. Clearly. I mean, we did live there for somewhere around 8 or so years. Enough for my very clear accent to form. I got in with the wrong people, you could say. There was a gang that had lost their decker. Thanks to mom's position at Novatech, I had a low-level Erika deck. They were going to pay for my services. The rest, as they say, is history.
However, it wasn't all sunshine and roses with them. Obviously. Otherwise, I'd still be in greater London. Now, this gang had a rival gang. They also had a decker. This decker had a bomb rigged up to my bike. It didn't survive. I will always miss my dear little Sylvie. Anyways! That hacker stole my arm. In a manner of speaking. He blew it off. Fortunately, my friend who was with me knew a good cybersurgeon. That's how I got this nice piece of chrome here. A bit nicer than is standard, but no complaints from me. That's when I realized that I needed to cut and run. Sliced into the other gang's mainframe, stole a bunch of access keys, and left them behind as a gift for the next hacker. These people had a reputation for killing their deckers, so I left them a note. "I'm gone. Here are codes. Don't try to find me, you won't be able to. ~a3r0." I talked to my parents and explained why I had to leave. Got to say, they took their daughter having a chromed limb quite well. So, I took the first plane to anywhere. Surprisingly enough, that happened to be Tokyo.
The way I figure it, I had a fresh start. No SIN, no one knows who I am. Perfect for an enterprising shadowrunner such as myself. I found an access point in a cafe and started doing what I do best. I found a lot, enough to get me my own place. After I started my new place, I got a message from everyone's favorite racist, sexist, xenophobic crime syndicate: the Yakuza. The Kazuma Clan, to be precise. They wanted to hire me as an independent contractor. They were exceedingly clear in their message: I was working for them, but I would not be a member. They respected my ability, but they could never hire a foreign woman. I was fine with it, it was a paycheck. And so, the true myth of a3r0 was born. There were very few in Tokyo who knew me as Lily, far more knew me as a3r0. I worked with them for a long while, but again, it wasn't as good as I make it out to be. Rather, I'm not as good as I make me out to me. I cocked up a routine job, got hit hard with Scramble IC. I lost control of my deck and got dumped. Fortunately, I wasn't anywhere dangerous when I got dumped. There was another foreigner in the cafe that evening. An elf, I believe you've met. She took me back to her place and made sure I didn't bite my tongue off. Wonderful lady. She gave me the idea to start my own crew, to not be a hacker dog of the Yazuka, but to instead run the shadows, maybe even do some good. Now, being me, I was very intrigued by this idea. I started a crew with her that night. I'l tell you some stories about them later. But as it stands, we have a perfectly good one right here! So, that's me. No one special.
