Orion is a survivor, though he doesn't always know what he's surviving for.
ALIGNMENT:
chaotic neutral
LOVES:
spicy food, hot meals instead of ration boxes, soju, paxite, old 2D films from earth, gadgets and technology, his ship, personal space, peace and quiet (a rarity in the city), doodling on his datapad, emotionless one-night stands
HATES:
feelings, first and foremost. shifting into hyperspace (it always makes him sick). paxite hangovers. stubborn bounties that require force. corpos on payroll (he's a
freelancer, thank you - no one owns him), dock inspectors, fascist government types and neo-warlords, low gravity environments, his home planet, soldiers and armies
GOALS:
To just keep flying, and keep running away from the things he'd rather not face. To make sure he never runs out of Paxite. To die quietly in his bunk
HABITS
Orion has been heavily abusing a synthetic drug called
Paxite for about fifteen years now. One of his commanders had given it to him as a green recruit, a common enough practice at the time. It artificially dampens the centers of the brain that control empathy and conscience and dulls just about every emotion a person can have. A useful ability for a soldier in a brutal interplanetary war, but with the side effects of being incredibly addictive. The original formulation was actually banned for being a little
too effective and notorious, but he has contacts with about two dozen smugglers for the real stuff. It comes in small black pills in a plastic dispenser.
Paxite feels like being dipped into a cool vat of water, submerged in soothing apathy. One can swallow the pill or chew it for faster onset, although the taste is highly bitter and unbearable for those unaccustomed to it. When it hits his blood stream, he suddenly feels blissfully detached. More like an object or an outside observer than a real human being. It gives him the ability to sleep dreamlessly and tamps down his trauma frayed nerves and allows him to do his work without hesitation. On Pax, he doesn't have to care about what happens to the border security guard he swindles or feel bad about knocking out obstacles.
The drug has a half life of about 12 hours in a normal user, but Orion's tolerance is so high he needs to re-up every few hours. Without it, he has a difficult time regulating his emotions. Since he's used it as a crutch for so long, he hasn't had to learn proper coping mechanisms.