CHARACTER Benedict "Benny Bucks" Cross

[Benedict Cross]

BENEDICT ARGYLE CROSS

Name: Benedict Argyle Cross
Alias/Handle: Benny Bucks ("Don't fucking call me that.")
Age: 36
Ethnicity: English-Irish
Birthplace: London, The United Kingdom
Appearance: Benedict Argyle Cross is what one would call unremarkable. Still paranoid about Zetatech or the Tyger Claws recognising him, he deliberately maintains a plain appearance. Which is aided by how average he looks considering he spent close to a year as a Dogtown refugee. But he's certainly be aided by his average 5'11 height and 62kg weight. Unlike his contempories, he prefers to be clean shaven. Deliberately juxtaposing himself with his Mongrel cohorts. In terms of apparel, in Dogtown he likes to be extravagent. Wearing suits and jackets. But when in Night City, dons a hood and combat vest. Preferring the anonymity of a mercenary.

Background:

Family Ranking: Corpo Management.
Parents: Both alive. They now tend to a garden in the Lake District.
Childhood Environment: In a decaying, once upmarket neighbourhood.

Personality:

Benedict craves power and survival more than anything. Having spent years stuck as a corpo administrator as well as descending from British corpo legends, he now seeks to forge a path equally as legendary. But survival also makes up part of it. Benedict knows he's made enemies. And wishes nothing more than to outlast them. He maintains an air of culture deliberately around himself. Mainly to show off, and give off the demeanour of superiority. But when prodded, a deep seated insecurity bleeds through.

Friends:

• LT Dalton "The Mongrel" Pierce: Not so much a friend, as a boss. Lieutenant Pierce is one of the original officers whom with Colonel Kurt Hansen, broke with Militech and founded Dogtown. Pierce, while not as brutal as Hansen or many of his peers, is nevertheless a ruthless tyrant and a brute. One whose own personality defects sees him as less of a businessman the good Colonel once was. Lieutenant Pierce sees Bennedict as little more than a tool to further his agenda. Using his ability as a fixer to gain an edge on his competition in trying to control Dogtown. But the relationship is reciprocal. Single minded in focus, Dalton sees himself as Dogtowns next Alpha. And will kill anyone to get there.
• The Mongrels: Tracing their origin 3rd Platoon of Kurt Hansen's invasion force they now bear the nickname of their CO, Lieutenant Dalton Pierce. The Mongrels are one of the many gangs which make up Barghest, and are the set Benedict fell in with. The core of the Mongrels are Midnight Storm era vets with a few blow-ins like Benedict making their way in. Typically supplementing the broader group with specialist skills and knowledge. Having established himself as the group's negotiator and defacto Fixer, the Mongrels now listen to him and in some cases follow orders. Although some balk at the notion of this weaselly, physically inferior lawyer holding the reigns.
• Corporal Badrick Twigg: Talbot's preferred choice of enforcer. Twigg is about as close as Benedict has for a partner in crime. Despite the hostility in earlier interactions, having had Twigg threaten him they have forged a mutual respect. With Cross taking Twigg with him on operations and using the veteran as his personal huscle. While Benedict is oftentimes the calm and reasonable face, Twigg is the unhinged madman willing to off a choom on a whim. Having worked together for over five years, Twigg is probably the closest Benedict has to a true choom in Dogtown.
• Astrid Bernadotte-Frazer: The socialite of minor nobility, whom Benedict became "acquainted" with at uni. They spent some nights awake, picking each others brains. And engaging in Bohemian debauchery. He considers her to be the one who got away.
• "Isla Gray": A joytoy Benedict enjoyed the company of before his exile in Dogtown. She was a favourite and he often ponders tracking her down.

Enemies:

• Zetatech: The former employer. Benedict fled from the company after it came out that he had been selling company secrets to the Tyger Claws to resolve his gambling debts. Although he escaped through the shear incompetence of a fellow employee, he lives with a head on a swivel.
• Mr Hands: Benedict sees Dogtown's premier fixer as a threat to the Mongrels power and professional competition. Benedict wants to do nothing more than to supplant the old man and become Dogtown's only Fixer.
• Hideki "Sixman" Nakumura: The Tyger Claw who fucked him. While Benedict understands that it's natural to exploit the weaknesses of those beneath him, he also knows it's not fun to be exploited. And ergo, seeks to crush this worm if he ever finds the opportunity.

Lifepath / Role:

Fixer

Skills:

• Negotiation: A previous career working as a professional litigator for Zetatech has given Bennedict an edge in regard to business negotiation. He can draw up contracts on the fly, and often gish gallops in order to dupe gonks into contracts of dubious worth. Nevertheless, he once was negotiating multi million eddie contracts, and that dog hasn't left him.
• Forgery: Benedict has seen enough corpo paperwork to know what is meant to understand what should be on it. And uses that fact to give those he contracts out for work a leg up. Obliging fake papers and credentials to help them along in whatever job he has sent them on.
• Gunslinger: Unlike his Mongrel contemporaries, Benedict much prefers the use of pistols. Although not an adept solo, he's good enough he can certainly be considered a quantity in any firefight.

Language(s):

• English
• Japanese
• Russian
• Serbian
• Legalese

Cyberware:

• Neural Link
• Enhanced Liver (A Christmas gift from Lt Pierce)
• Cortex Processor

Empathy:

7

Humanity:

65 ((7x10) - 5 Cyberware)

Gear & Style:

• Weapon of Choice: A Tamayura Pistol, modified with an RC-7 Yokai Muzzle Brake.
• Apparel: While in Dogtown and feeling safe, Benedict tends to conduct business with a suit and tie. In order to make potential clients and contractors understand that even he is safe in the combat zone. Some lowkey psychological warfare. But when out in Night City, he prefers to be hooded. Wearing a Barghest issue combat vest over his suit. Just to ensure if Zetatech or the Tyger Claws come after him, he is more than ready for them.

History:

Benedict Argyle Cross was born of the London Cross'. A family who at one point were among the United Kingdom's richest. However the family achieved such prestige through corporate espionage, hostile takeovers and other unpleasant skulduggery. After Benedict's great grandfather one Sir Antony Byron Cross was assassinated by a man he'd cheated out of everything, the family's fortunes turned. Political instability, and rising London sea level saw the family's assets in art and property depreciate overnight. In fact, Bennedicts father was the first of the Cross' to get quote "A real fucking job" in four generation.

Barnabus Cross met Aoifie Dougall working at Petrochem's London bureau. Barnabus was a project manager, and Aoifie a public relations officer. They eloped shortly after meeting and within four years had three children. Mathilda, Benedict and Isobel. Despite London's fall in grace, the Cross family lived in a secure Petrochem suburb. Due to their status, both parents worked long hours, but were doting and attentive to their children's needs. Mathilda was the athlete, groomed to be a future soccer superstar. Isobel ever the precocious youngster was enrolled in extracurricular acting classes. While Benedict devoured tomes of history and enjoyed puzzles.

The Cross' schooling was upper middle class. They were sent to a Petrochem run academy in Sussex where they enjoyed good grades. Benedict was shy, awkward and nerdy. But had friends, but he was certainly an outsider. When it came time to graduate the Cross parents presented a gift. They had wisely saved all of their bonuses for the last eighteen years, and with accumulated interest, were able to afford entry into some of England's finest institutions. Mathilda was sent to Chelsea-Militech to train professionally as a footballer. Isobel to MetFilm to learn acting. And most expensively, Benedict to Oxford Law School. The first Cross in 80 years to attend.

The social environment at Oxford's law school was toxic to say the least. The classism Benedict experienced was palpable. The Cross name held weight. But only in the sense of "Oh, I remember, your great granddad! Wasn't he gunned down on the trading floor of the London Stock Exchange?" He was considered an interloper. Lower class. And in an attempt to fit in he compensated. Benedict rebelled. He gambled. Chased skirt. And most of all drank. While he would never be good enough for some. There was a set who enjoyed the boorish antics enough to be friendly.

When all was said and done, with middling grades he graduated. But grades didn't matter. The pedigree of the institution he had attended did. And Zetatech wanted that. First posting Benedict to its Brussels patent department to dip his toes in. But also to ensure the company had an army of litigators protecting their newly developed line of neural cyber ware. Codenamed Project Gray. While Benedict's work was supplementary to the greater workload of bio engineers and neural scientists, it was instrumental in aiding his understanding of the corpo politics and procedure in practice.

Benedict's world was up turned upside down when his new assignment was dispatched to him. Zetatech wanted Benedict among other lawyers dispatched to NorCal. The corporation wanted a team of legal eagles at the ready as it expanded further in Night City wanted that. Benedict was plucked from his cozy Brussels cubicle and sent to Night City. Specifically to work in Zetatech's acquisitions and compliance division. Benedict wasn't so much litigating in a court room, as much as approving requisitions and ensuring the company didn't in as many words get "fucked" as it built assets in Pacifica and expanded office precincts Downtown.

Night City was alienating for Benedict however. Unlike Brussels where his family was a short trip away for a weekend, he was half way around the world. The young lawyer became increasingly misanthropic dealing with interpersonal rivalries. He was stuck in a windowless office most days, and spent his nights drinking himself silly in Japantown. But increasingly he turned to gambling to feel anything. And making use of the faculties of the Mox to feel anything human at all. It was in this position he made the acquaintance of one of Hideki "Sixman" Nakamura. A Tyger Claw heavy who ran the gambling den Benedict frequented.

After a string of gambling losses he became indebted to the house and by extension, Nakamura. Nakamura used this advantage to pressure Cross into passing along information to him. At first it was innocuous. Dates of conferences. Names of colleagues. Even stationary. But as Benedict's addiction grew worse, so did the requests. Files. Copies of documents. The works. It took sometime but he was found out by company surveillance. However this took years, helped by the corps of Night City having lost so much investment in the aftermath of Midnight Storm. But inevitably, Zetatech internal Security had him dead to rights and began circling for the kill. The only reason he wasn't black bagged at his office was stupidly, he was accidentally CC'd on an email to his superior. Benedict read this, and left for a coffee break. He never returned.

Now hideously in debt to a gangoon and with a corp on his tail, Benedict entered Dogtown in 2074. Dumping his company car in Santa Domingo, he managed to sneak into Kurt Hansen's personal fiefdom on the back of a truck carrying air conditioning units and slipped into the EBM Petrochem stadium. The next few months were a haze for him. He was safe. But for how long? Dogtown was a jungle. He had no way to contact his family. He was certain his employers and creditors were after him, just waiting for him to get sick of it and make a break. So initially, he drank. But as the drinking money ran out, he struggled to get by. Initially working as an ad hoc retail assistant for one of the stalls hawking off clothing. Then as an appraiser for scavenged goods. He took work wherever he could, sleeping rough and saving eddies till he could eak out a small retail space in the crowded stadium. That's when his first attempt at a legitimate living started.

Cross Legal was a desperate man sitting at a salavaged coffee table in a repurposed janitorial closet, offering to litigate on your behalf. It was dumb given Dogtown had no official legal code, let alone the fact it was a combat zone. But for a few months it worked out for Benedict. He officiated some marriages among Barghest personnel and even a few divorces. Mediated disputes between Scav packs. And even notarised some paperwork on behalf of local traders and scavengers. Now whether he could legally do that? Never asked. But he spoke with such eloquence that no one questioned it. That and the laundered business tie and suit helped.

For six months he was successful, until Gennedy Petrovic, a man he had ruled against in mediation beat Benedict and smashed his coffee table. Knowing he wasn't going to survive another encounter, Cross Legal shut its doors. And Benedict fled to his next option. Barghest. Training was brutal, and literally almost killed him. But he never gave in. That cockroach within him. The delusion he was meant for better kept him going. And he passed. With bare minimum scores. Again. As a man of letters, he consistently attractsd the ire of his fellow Barghest soldiers.

Upon being inducted into the neon green and black, Benedict was put on a security detail under Barghest veteran Sergeant Dalton "The Mongrel" Pierce. Pierce ran security at the border of Dogtown. Inspecting freight coming in and skimming it. Despite not being a particularly imposing specimen, Benedict ingratiated himself by being able to read up the manifests of cargo being hauled into Dogtown. Ascertain the validity and value of supposed corpo kit. And determine if it was valid or not. This in turn made his cohorts money, and stayed the clear disdain they held. Much to his chagrin they bestowed upon him the name "Benny Bucks".

With Kurt Hansen's untimely demise, Barghest began to splinter. While to an outsider there was little change to the pecking order, internally Barghest units began to coalesce around larger personalities. The Mongrel being one of them, and largely accompanied by a hardcore group of fellow Midnight Storm veterans began to differentiate themselves from Barghest proper. With Sergeant Dalton's leadership the group, now calling themselves "The Mongrels" took stewardship of the Longshore Stacks. And now size up the throne that is the Black Sapphire.

Knowing it'll take more than brute force to take its reigns Dalton has increasingly turned to unconventional means to gain contacts beyond what Barghest did in the past. Gun running, narcotics and smuggling are still part and parcel of what his Mongrels trade in. But so is pimping out his veterans as huscle to corps or cashed up gangoons. Lieutenant Pierce has turned to Benedict as his emissary. The former lawyer acting as the intermediary in these negotiations and now increasingly hiring mercs for wetwork to undermine other Barghest forces. With Dalton's ferocious demeanour business negotiations fall to Benedict who now acts as a defacto Fixer for the organisation.