Steve Chang

Concept: Security Services Entrepreneur 

AKA: Known to family and friends by a myriad of nicknames. Most commonly “Steve-O” and “Steverino”.

Desc: Average height, well built and muscular. Short black hair and a pleasant smile. He’s got great teeth. (He’s a little vain about it.) One Tat from his days in Army Ranger school. 

History: Steve grew up here. He doesn’t know a lick of Chinese, except for some stuff his grandpa used to say when he was pissed.  He does live up to the Asian stereotype of being a martial artist. But his preferred art form is Brazilian jiu-jitsu and he never got into it until he was in the army.

      Steve was a pretty smart kid, if not the best student. Most of his interests were a bit more visceral. There was some talk that he might get a football scholarship. He can still run like the motherfucking wind. But those hopes never seemed to materialize. Like most kids that live in a middle-class situation, He was kind of banking on that scholarship. But rather than trash his college career, He elected to enlist and get himself the G.I. bill.

The good news is, Steve is a hell of a good soldier eventually going on to Ranger School. The bad news is that because of when he went in, He ended up seeing action in Iraq and Afghanistan and ended up being stop-lossed, which delayed his college some.  Steve came home, got his G.I. bill and went to school.

It was weird being home. It was weird being in school again after having been in the war. But Steve knew how to stick to the plan. He got himself an MBA and left school determined to get himself a great job.

You’d think that a fella who has all manner of military training, an MBA, and can speak Iraqi would be able to find a decent gig. But the country was still climbing out of an economic downturn and jobs weren’t exactly thick on the ground.

Steve was drinking with some of his old army buddies when he hit on a basic idea.  “Boys, I think it fairly fucking clear to me that in this economy, being dependent on some rich fucker for a paycheck is dumber than a bag of hammers. We should go into business for ourselves.”

   And you have to know, that was the best thing the boys had heard all night. And in the morning, after drinking about a gallon of water, Steve realized that it was still probably a good idea.

   Steve organized something that he knew would be the one thing that his army buddies could do. He created a security company. At first, he went round and round about what to call it before finally settling on "Gate One"  At first, it was fairly easy. Lots of places need some dude to come around and simply keep an eye on the place, and many times, the uniform did a lot of the work. All you’d need would be the ability to read and a pulse. All of Steve’s buddies had that and a few skills besides. Steve even set it up so that the guys who worked for him had profit sharing. So as the business grew, it got good for everyone.

    And that probably would have been a good, if small, kind of dream.  But as Steve thought about it more and more, he realized that his guys were being underutilized.  So he started seeing about expanding the business.  He got into armored car transport and acquiring the certification for same. And he’s been working on taking certain of his employees that have shown a willingness or an aptitude for it and giving them more specialized training for second tier security work.  He’s even got a small group of guys who have certifications and training to be personal bodyguards. That’s where the real money is. Steve, as I say, has never been the best student, but he’s done serious work to read up on and stay on top of advancements in the security field.

   Steve tends to wear a suit more often these days. and his spiky black has a few gray ones in there now. But frankly, he’s never happier when he’s got on his regular uniform and is training the new hires. He’s a good guy to work for and he’s got a smile for everyone.

Attitude: “Okay. So in a hospital situation, the bulk of your work will be to escort nurses and lady doctors to their cars. Do your clock rounds and certain other bits of business as dictated by your post commander. However, a small amount of your work will be restraining patients and/or members of their family. And I don’t think I have to tell you that that restraint should be designed not to cause additional damages. So today we’re going to learn about joint locks...”

Skills: Physically, Steve is still a specimen. Maybe not as fast as he used to be, but still pretty fast. he works out regularly and runs every single morning, rain or shine.  He’ll have dots of Fleet of Foot and he’ll have martial arts dots and stuff like brawling dodge and disarm. He may even have dots of Parkour. He’s not super strong, but he makes up for it with speed and decent tactics.

    Socially, he’s a friendly sort and people tend to like him. he’s also decent looking. And he doesn’t rattle easily. But the main trouble he has in his life is that he has zero chill with the ladies and he tends to gravitate to the most neurotic woman in the room.  This is not to say that he hasn’t had relationships. But they do tend to flame out rather spectacularly. Eventually, his positive nature reasserts itself, but it seems to take longer and longer these days.

   Intellectually, Steve thinks pretty fast, He can stick to a plan and this is what has enabled him to get through all the schooling. He’s got some academics and some investigation dots (A spec in Business, natch)  His mother still gives him shit about this stuff even though he’s grown ass man and owns a successful business. His little sister is a neurosurgeon. It makes holiday meals a bit tense.  If you’re using merits like Professional training, Steve is likely to have some in “Soldier”

Gear: iPhone for nearly every bit of his actual computational needs, and he’s got an Alienware for games and storage.

Has a right armpit holster for his Glock 17, and another holster under his left for a snap baton. Carries a tough military style velcroed wallet. Has one of those key organizer things that looks like a swiss army knife. Also, carries a swiss army knife. If he’s got a suit on or if he’s in the field, he is likely to be wearing concealed armor.  The toolbox of his pick-up truck is a combination armory and medical trauma surgery He’s got maybe 1 dot of medicine but he can’t stop buying this stuff. He’s also bad about impulse purchases of office supplies.

Home: Steve owns his own home. it’s a nice place. Very upper middle class if not necessarily palatial.  He’s got extra space so whenever the parents visit, they stay with him.  Also, his sister Cathy occasionally crashes here if she’s had a very long day and can’t take the drive home. 

Circle: Steve is a decent guy to work for and likable. he’s read that men in their 30’s tend to lose some of their social circle and Steve fights this tendency tooth and nail. He stays in touch with Facebook and Twitter with most of his employees and old army friends.  He’s got good contacts with people he’s done work for and they tend to pass new customers along.  He’s even gone to the lengths of making an effort to get to know his neighbors and he hosts a cookout once a year in the spring.

Story Uses:

“Sir. I’m going to have to ask you to turn around very slowly and keep your hands where I can see them.”

Steve and his workforce may stand between you and your prey someday. I want to make you aware, that Steve is NOT some kind of slam-dunk pushover.  He’s smart and he knows what he’s doing and if things go sideways, he is NOT going to lose his cool. He may still go down, but you will know you have been in a fight.

“Sir. We’re going to have to initiate ex-fill. Like...Right now.”

On the other hand, it’s also possible that you may be in the position of having Steve keep you alive. If that’s the case, there really aren’t many who are better at it in the region. 

Connections:

* Has worked for Blaise Newkirk at least a couple of times. Blaise is impressed with the service that his clients have received and would recommend him again. Blaise sees Steve as the sort of person who might take offense at some of the things that Blaise does as a matter of course in his workday. So while their relationship is cordial, it's also sort of distant.

* Went to college with Detective Dana Crowley. He's still a little hung up on her. She likes him and all...but she doesn't LIKE like him. Ya know?

* Has done work for Alex Mahoney. Alex is one of those clients, where the money is good, but Steve just does not like him. It helps that Steve never listens to his radio show. Steve's a little conservative, but that guy is a nut.

* He is a bit obsessed with Marta Reyes. He saw her play live at an event he was doing work for and she simply knocked him out of his socks. Every chance he can get, he'll go see her play.

* Has worked personal protection for Meredith Shaw. At first, he was very attracted to the woman, but then something about vibe was off. Normally, he doesn't listen. This time though...

* over the course of many years, Holmes, Gillis, Baker, Savage, North, and Dean has kicked Gate One a lot of business. Steve considers Allejandro Dean to be a decent guy. They've even been out drinking together. Allejandro came very close to spilling the beans about the internal workings of his firm. Still might.

* For non-essential security tasks, The Vermillion House will sub-contract out. The money is good, but Steve can't help notice that the in-house staff guys are hard, cold, and usually total pricks to him and his boys.