Hugh Provost
Mr. Hugh Jacob Provost
Written by: Null Kit
It's a trend among politicians, CEOs, philanthropists and other influencial members of society to describe themselves as a 'self-made' person, someone who started with nothing and scratched their way to the top solely on their own talents and hard work, in an effort to make themselves more relatable to the public and give them a cruel glimmer of hope in one day making it to the top themselves. This is of course a lie most of the time, but one Elf in particular can rightfully claim to have started from nothing and to a reasonable extent mean it. I speak of course of the founder and CEO of Barghest Precision Machining, Hugh Provost. Having lost most of his life before Crash 2.0 and lost what was left after, Hugh was put in the precarious position of having to build a new life for himself without even having that which is most precious to a legitimate citizen, a SiN. Not only did he survive, but he thrived, and did so with the most pragmatic and cold methods possible. Even now, Mr. Provost likes to keep himself involved in the underworld dealings that got him to where he was today, albeit from a safer and publically-respectable distance, and on occasion you might find a Mr. Johnson contacting your employer on his behalf, to clear up any issues plaguing his beloved new corporation and life. As an employer of Shadowrunners, Hugh is polite and surpriisingly accomodating of failures and complications, but should he consider you a liability you will see exactly how ruthless and cold-blooded the man can be.Mental characteristics
Personal history
The archetypal company-man we know as Hugh Provost was originally a mechanical engineer by the name of Terrance David. Terrance worked under one of the Evo megacorporation's subsidiaries in Seattle, working on projects related to high-tensile mechanics when he was abducted by a Shadowrunning team, an extraction-job from an anonymous contractor to poach EVO's talent for their own ends.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on where you stand), the extraction happened to coincide with 2064's infamous Crash 2.0, a catastrophic failure of the Matrix that wiped out unfathomable amounts of data. Among such data lost was not just David's employment and SiN, but the records and plans of whatever corporation contracted the extration in the first place. Terrance had, for all intents and purposes, been extracted for something that no longer officially existed, and now Terrance himself no longer existed to a degree, leaving him stranded in a foreign city without any way of proving who he was or getting back home.
Perhaps feeling pity for the man, the team that had kidnapped him from his old job went out their way to secure him a rudimentary means of getting by, going so far as to exchange a portion of their earnings towards a fake SiN of reasonable quality under the name Hugh Provost, before they parted ways.
Strangely, Hugh still uses the exact same SiN from then except the anomalies have been corrected to match his new life perfectly. Either he made some friends in high places or never forgot the people who got him the SiN in the first place.
Money is on the latter, considering we know of at least one group sporting a lot of hardware produced by the company who also have contacts in the Global SiN Registry.Another consequence of Crash 2.0 was that there was suddenly a few places in Raleigh that no longer had any documentation of belonging to anyone. Capitalising on this, 'Hugh' dove in and through a mix of social-engineering, monetary incentive and the occasional outright threat, secured a small office and a manufacturing contract from one of the SK subsidiaries operating in Raleigh, and began playing to his academic strengths by using that contract to produce and sell a variety aftermarket parts for cyberware based on his mechanical-engineering concepts under the name Barghest Biotech. While some efforts were made by competitors - particularly those whose properties had been usurped by Hugh - to find evidence of his SiN's illegitimacy, the various employees and contractors sent to investigate were time and time again repelled by unknown persons of interest who had an interest in maintaining Provost's anonymity, even if it meant violence. Of course, we know that these were shadowrunners and contacts that got Provost his new identity in the first place, but at the time it was a legitimate mystery, and it drove the more conspiracy-minded of his competitors over the bend trying to figure it out. Ultimately, Hugh was able to come on top in spite of these complications, his secrets remaining hidden and his reputation as a self-made man one that commends respect and admiration, in lieu of scorn and suspicion.
Education
Much of Provost's documented education was lost in the Crash 2.0, and as such he remains hesitant to name any particular places of learning in case someone actually finds a link between him and Terrance David. We have it on good authority however, that the man posesses a reasonable degree of education and certification from Washington State University, in the fields of Chemical-Engineering and Materials Science.
Current Location
Year of Birth
2032
48 Years old
Birthplace
Seattle
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
Eyes
Green, Prosthetic
Hair
Black, slicked back
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Tanned
Height
6'2''
Weight
182 lbs
Aligned Organization
Comments