after time adrift among open stars

Maddox wasn't born in the NUSA. When his parents broke up, his nomad father dragged him across half the continent and rejoined the clan he originated from: a small group of Raffens operating out of Reno. Mind you that this wasn't out of love for his son - the breakup was a nasty one and Maddox was collateral.

Growing up around the clan wasn't easy - bruises, broken bones and stitches were almost always guaranteed -, but it got infinitely worse when Elias met another woman: a former doll turned ambitious corpo turned stone cold fixer with a tendency to act solely out of selfishness: Charlie Sterling.

With her help Elias finally began to see how Maddox could be useful to him and thus began years of abuse. By the end of it, there wasn't a drug that hadn't been trafficked through him, not a citizen of Reno who hadn't bent him over a table somewhere while Elias and Charlie pocketed the money, and not a Raffen job too dangerous to send him on during downtime.

It's on one of those jobs that Maddox met a man who introduced himself as 'Murdoc' and - seemingly out of the good of his heart - offered him refuge with the nomad clan he ran with: the Bakkers. That night Maddox made two decisions. He'd leave with the man and he'd never look back.

And for a while that worked out.

But he quickly learned that he couldn't just outrun his past and be done with it, not even with a family that had his back at his side. When the Bakkers merged with Snake Nation, he was left to fend for himself again - a journey that ended up with him meeting Jackie and starting over in Night City.

Navigating Night City, as it would turn out, meant that old wounds would be torn open once again, and that he was confronted with the fact that he'd never truly left Reno. He'd been carrying a piece of it with him ever since and without Jackie and Murdoc and the Relic now sitting snugly wedged in-between his brain's synapses, his life turned into a downright shitshow the likes he'd never anticipated.

Worse - old familiar faces are walking the streets of the city now. And he's long due for a reunion.

Maddox is a skilled netrunner and mechanic. Back with the wraiths he'd stash away scraps and spare computer parts for himself and tinker away at them whenever he got the chance to, distracting himself not only with drugs, but hours and hours of hooking up cables and digging through data streams.

Quick on his feet as well as with his tongue he prefers stealth approaches and charming his way through situations rather than a blunt force attempt at dealing with a sitch.

He's gets underestimated a lot: he's short, slender and lean and seems approachable and comfortable to be around, rather than dangerous. If there's laughter somewhere he's usually the cause and the center of it. Naturally he takes advantage of being underestimated frequently, striking when his enemies expect it the least.

Maddox is a good and loyal friend if you manage to get through his defenses. He gets attached easily but doesn't admit it to himself. The safer he feels the less uncomfortable he is with it - having only known abuse for most of his life anything else feels wrong. He'll have a room full of people feel protected, comfortable and safe while also easily being the loneliest and most vulnerable person in said room.

For the reasons mentioned above he's also prone to search out those who will truly hurt him. After Jackie's death, he ends up with the Maelstromers and Royce for a while.

Relationships with people who treat him well bloom slowly and are fragile, growing too close too fast often pushes him away. He's more likely to fall in love over being slapped across the face than he is when having a genuine heart to heart.

And lastly, he's chipped with unsuspecting chrome with enough RAM to wreak silent havoc in seconds as well as absolutely lethal with knives.