Trey

Thirteen, or Trey, as most know him, is a criminal networker within the Nisoran underworld in Galendra. He has a flippant attitude about most things, and uses his network to find other people to do work he doesn't want to. His connections and hookups only know the performance he puts on, as he always keeps himself emotionally distant from others.
Or at least, he used to.

History

Test Subject

Content Warning: Mention of child abuse
Hover to reveal & read

In an underground compound on the sunny side of Xeros, the Emerald Legion performed excruciating experiments to induce psionics in non-psionic children. As one of these kids, Trey was known as Thirteen, based on the test subject number tattooed across his chest. Over games of cards with made-up rules, often played well past lights-out, he'd tell the others how they're going to escape one day. He was particularly close with Twelve, and they'd make promises of all the things they'd do when they'd finally won their freedom.

When he was around 15 years of age, Thirteen got incredibly lucky. The Legion ghosttalker that monitored his every action broke in a subtle way that let him hide his growing precognitive abilities. The first success in their experiment, and the Legionnaires didn't know. He had an opportunity to escape, but only if he went alone and told no one. Late one night, he stole a Legion ship and managed to reach safety before crashing. He left the wreckage behind just as he had his friends, and soon after, found a way to leave the planet.

Informant

Icon for Nisora

As much as he intended to go back for the others, he couldn't face the Legion compound again. He took the name Trey and concealed the tattooed 13 behind a new one of the king and queen of hearts. For years, he took odd and often extra-legal jobs as he planet hopped, eventually settling in Nisora's largest city in his early 20s. There, he found a use for both his precognitive talents and his sharp tongue as a criminal networker — the guy who always seemed to know a guy. His psionics and his past were close-kept secrets no one could know about.
He took control of his body in ways he couldn't before. Line art tattoos of cards, dice, roulette projectors, and other trappings of the standard holocasino cover his brown skin from the neck down. Many of them glow a kaleidescope of colors under a black light. His black, curly hair (often kept in a bun) has red and gold streaks. He affects a thick Xerosian accent he never developed at the Compound, and always makes sure his clothes are well-tailored.
Over years of developing his reputation, he became an informant to gang members, reporters, and middle-managers alike. An abandoned chemical manufactory, nicknamed the Underground, served as his base of operations and living space. To avoid formally affiliating with any particular group, he built careful networks of contacts and lies. No one could know the real him. Remaining neutral was dangerous balancing act, but one he enjoyed performing.

The Gal Pals

Neutrality Shattered

In December 3227, investigative reporter Jorie Grey contacted Trey for help investigating the mysterious Research Base orbiting Nisora. What he thought would be an easy job became anything but, as they met Bry: an alien consciousness downloaded into a VI shell. And the Perimeter Agency was after him.

Gal Pals logo by Rin Garnett

Trey let Bry stay at the Underground with him, but at the time, he didn't care what happened to him or the others. He cared about his position within Galendra, and Perimeter upset the balance he'd worked to create. Galendran factions were always at each other's throats, and over the next few months, they escalated nearly to war. He could no longer remain neutral, and under the name the Gal Pals, he worked with the others and took actions that made him enemy to those that once held him in high esteem.

Personal Mission

Icon for Xeros

Escaping to Xeros was the last thing Trey wanted to do, but with Jorie's mother deathly ill and the Gal Pals needing to lay low, it was their best option. Promising Legion equipment in exchange, he made a deal with some pirates to get the Gal Pals around Perimeter's surveillance and to Xeros undetected. The closer they got to the night planet, the more agitated he became. It was all he could do to keep his thoughts from Jorie's telepathy, but Bry had become perhaps too close. He at least knew better than to confront Trey directly.
To get Jorie's mother the medicine she needed, they had to go to the Compound. Trey found a way to contact them, and used himself as bait to gain everyone entry to the secret location. Twelve was their chauffeur. Thirteen's escape led to increased security, and she was the only survivor of their old group. She now worked to improve the lives of the next batch of kids under a new facility head. Who was, Twelve claimed, also Trey's biological father.

The exchange didn't go as planned. The Gal Pals and Twelve were captured and only Trey escaped with the medicine. He could have left them to their fates, just as he had as Thirteen. But he didn't. He gathered every ally he could from pirates to family and even Norah Everdin, and returned to the Compound to make good on promises made twenty years ago.

"I'd planned to blow this whole place up, but now that I'm here... I think you need it more than I do."

— Trey, handing a detonator to Twelve

Putting Pieces Together

Trey returned to Nisora changed. More willing to see the Gal Pals as his friends, more accepting of his feelings toward Bry, and more willing to do what was needed next. He faced Perimeter's trial, and under Oath, shared information he'd previously planned to take to the grave. He burned bridges with factions that no longer served his interests, build new ones with other groups, and even faced certain death to get the information needed to save the city.

"I could go," Bry answered, "but I'd rather stay. As long as you have use for me?"
"Yes. Good. That... makes me... feel... ... ............ good."

— Trey has a struggle

But not without cost. His near-death experience damaged his psionics. Whatever recovery is possible will take time and effort. From a new secret location, he works to rebuild what was lost and create a new balance in the city, between factions new and old. One of his biggest concerns is the growing cult surrounding Jorie, and how she seems to be implanting memories in people to get them to follow her.
Whatever happens next, he won't face it alone. A fact he's still coming to terms with.

Player Character

Campaign 2: The Gal Pals

Timeline

3195	Estimated year of birth
3210	Escaped Xeros, took the name Trey
3217	Established as Nisoran criminal networker
3228	Created the Gal Pals

Demographics

Current location

Unknown secret base in Galendra, Nisora

Birthdate

July 7, 3195 (unofficial)

Home planet

Xeros

Aliases

Thirteen

Related Plots

• Mine Your Business

Abilities

Skills

Perform Sneak Connect
Trey has earned his place through careful manipulation. He knows who's involved in what at all times, and puts on the necessary act to get what he wants.

Cybernetics

Holoskin emitter Toxin injectors Ghosttalker Eelskin capacitor mesh
His cybernetics aid in subtle actions. Holographic disguises for infiltration, toxin injectors to incapacitate, eelskin to bypass electronic locks, and he partially repaired his Legion ghosttalker to secretly record, photograph, and communicate.

Psionics

Precognition
Hiding it behind hunches and luck, Trey uses precognition to know things he shouldn't and be in the right place at the right time. It's saved his life more times than he can count.

Assets

The Underground The Tower The Back Room ???
Trey keeps several operational bases, some as meeting areas while others remain hidden. His current living spaces are unknown to anyone except for him and Bry.

Trivia

A dagger and a heart conceal the number 13, and has become Trey's symbol.

Trey will try most anything once, including any new recreational drugs.

Surprisingly health-conscious, Trey is vegan and showers before and after daily runs.

Author Commentary

Mix and Match(making)

I expected Twelve to be his romantic interest initially, but Trey and Bry had immediate chemistry. Possibly helped by the facts that Trey's player is my fiance, and Twelve wasn't brought in until later.

Turntables

Nobody thought Trey would end the campaign in a healthy relationship and Jorie in a manipulative one.

Connections

People

Atticus de León
Though Trey considers Tic a friend, he also knows the veteran is highly susceptible to Jorie's manipulation.

Bry
It's likely to take years still before Trey is willing to admit how happy he is to have Bry with him.

Jorie Grey
Trey knows of Jorie's telepathic manipulations, and despite their history, sees her as a threat to his goals.

Skullder
The trust Trey had with the Cryptix leader is broken, but there's room for a new type of partnership going forward.

K-Ra
Trey will need to deal with K-Ra's anger at some point, but for now she's the most influencial Wyre Rat in Galendra.

Twelve
Trey's childhood friend is trying to start a life on Nisora, unaware of Trey pulling strings in the background to help.

Organizations

Gal Pals
Under Tic and Hester's leadership, Trey has filed the new Gal Pals as a fighting force, should one be needed.

Cryptix
Now under new leadership, Trey could use Cryptix as a stabilizing force while Galendra recovers.

Wyre Rats
Trey can use the Rats for their technical expertise, as well as a reminder of certain Nisoran ideals of independence.

Nisora United
Trey knows the Union will fail, but he needs to keep tabs on what they become afterward, and who will shape that.

Mother of the Stars
Jorie's cult grows, and Trey needs to be prepared for the possibility that she won't stop until she claims the city.

Trey stands between K-Ra and Skullder. Their violent intentions for each other hang thick in the air. He had to trick them into coming, knowing they'd never willingly meet to discuss a truce.
"I agree to your terms," Skullder says. He holds out a hand to shake on it, but the skull tattoo on his face turns his smile into a predator's warning.
K-Ra paces, curses bubbling from her throat. "Fine. But I won't touch him."
Trey holds out a hand to both of them, the intermediary of the peace treaty. It won't last forever, but it will let people focus on rebuilding instead of killing each other for now. And will give him some space to figure out what to do about Jorie.

— Back room negotiations after Perimeter's departure