Noise

Ji "Noise" Reilly
Vital statistics
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Age/age range	Unknown
Physical attributes
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown
Modification Type	G-mod
Affiliation
Affiliation	Anarch
Position	Runner

^{“The big get bigger. The rich get richer. And me and my toys just burn it all down.” - Noise}

Ji "Noise" Reilly is a G-mod Runner in the Anarch faction. He is described as a "hacker extraordinaire".

He sports multicolored hair (unknown if this is dye or a result of his gene modifications), multiple piercings, and facial and full-body tattoos. His outfits tend to comprise typical Anarch items such as leather jackets, torn shirts, and various other items covered in studs, chains, and pins.

Background

Noise was genetically modified before birth, a result of his middle class parents' wish that he have a better chance at a brighter future. He was born in Heinlein but educated in New Angeles.

Initially, Reilly was on track for a successful career with Jinteki, working for their AI division. Instead, he turned to a life of cybercrime for reasons known only to him, but his capricious nature may have something to do with it.

Lifestyle

Noise regularly works for Armitage Software, and his abilities are so valuable to them they paid for an expensive lawyer from Monroe and Associates to defend him after he was suspected for the infamous murder at Midway Station.

He enjoys unleashing viruses of his own design on corporate servers, and rumours suggest he was behind a virus that completely destroyed weeks of police records. Even before being a suspect in two major crimes, Noise's exploits had made him well-known to the police, though they have never charged him with anything. Noise is also a minor celebrity among hackers, runners and the New Angeles underclass.

As a Runner, he has a talent for wreaking havoc in corporate R&D servers with his custom-made viruses. Noise uses 'zombie hordes' as DDoS attacks, and his signature console, Turntable, is shaped like a pair of headphones. He has a slightly condescending attitude towards scrubbers, although he claims some of them are his best friends.

When he's not running or spending time at Wyldside, he's hard at work making money by hacking into university servers and approving research grants for himself.

Appearances

• Android: The Board Game
• Android: Mainframe
• Android: Netrunner
  • Core set, card 1, "Noise"
• Strange Flesh

Short Story

(transcribed from the core rulebook)

"I guess I'm just the classic example of the man who had every advantage going tragically wrong." Reilly grinned a cocksure, infuriating grin that made him look ten years younger on his already young-looking face.

"You did," said Brady, flicking through the file that hung in the air between them. "Ji Reilly. Says here you're a g-mod from birth. Mommy and daddy must have loved you very much to tinker with your brain like that."

"Oh, sure," said Reilly. "They loved me so much they planned everything out. You know I was born on Heinlein, but I went to school downstalk. Mommy and daddy lived on the moon, but there I was, living in an arcology in New Angeles. I could look out the window at might and wave at my mom and dad."

"Don't sell me that line of bull."

"It's all there in the file, Detective." Reilly flicked one long-fingered hand at the shimmering virt display. "All planned out. Internship with Jinteki's AI research division. Management position by 25. VP by 30."

"You were not a Jinteki VP!"

"Oh, hell no, can you imagine?" He laughed, a short, sharp bark of a laugh. "That company would never survive me." And then the grin again. "Still might not."

"So you had every goddan advantage a boy could dream of," sneered Brady. "And yet, here you are." Reilly shrugged, doing his best to look innocent. The cuffs spoiled both effects. "So why the life of crime, Reilly?"

"Why the life of crime." Reilly wrapped his mouth around each word, tasting them, weighing the ideas contained within. "Why not?"

Brady sneered, dropping his PAD to the cold steel of the table. "I know why. You get plenty rich off these little capers."

"There's what you know, and what you think you know, Detective. And there's two things you should know before we go any further."

"Yeah?"

"The first thing is that arresting me over and over does not mean that I'm a criminal. Not until you can find a charge that'll stick."

"You're no good, Reilly. The techs are gonna find that stolen data on one of your datacores, somewhere. You won't be a top-flight runner anymore; they're gonna pull the cyberware out of your head and if you so much as touch a PAD they'll break your fingers. You'll just be Ji Reilly. Nobody."

"That's the other thing, Detective." He stood, resting his hands on the table. All the flippant gestures, all the mocking smiles were gone. His eyes blazed like foxfire. "My name is Noise."

Brady held his gaze until his PAD chirped. He frowned and glanced own at it. The device tracked his eye line and the virt display bloomed to life. Orders.

"So," said Noise. "I guess I'll be going now?" He offered his cuffs and grinned. Brady scowled.

Quotes

"Watch this. It'll be funny."

"You ever get that feeling like you're shark food? Pay attention to that feeling."

"Just because you keep arresting me doesn't mean I'm a criminal."

“They say the rig makes the runner, but I don’t buy it. Still, when it’s my brain on the line, I’d much rather have a top-of-the-line Armitage CPU than some piece of junk that only processes at 87 zetas.”

"Bioroid intrusion isn't impossible, despite the bluster of Haas-Bioroid. But it is dangerous."

"Best place to go when you want to get your mind out of the gutter and take it inside."

"It can make a real fine roller coaster, provided you're properly stimmed up." 

"First, you get a horde of zombies. Then you do whatever you want, ‘cuz you have a horde of zombies."

Sources

• Android: The Board Game
• Android: Mainframe
• Android: Netrunner
• Strange Flesh