> [!infobox|right] > ##### Queso Fresco > ![[queso fresco-Portrait.png]] > ##### **Basic Information** > | | | > | ---- | --- | --- | > | **Title(s):** | N/A | > | **Faction(s):** | N/A | > | **Home:** | [[Goudaria]] | [[Parmesan Prime]] > | **Species:** | Ysoki | > | **Occupation:** | Hot Dog Vendor | Part-Time Hitman > ##### **Dates** > | | | > | ---- | --- | --- | > | **Status:** | Alive | | > | **Born:** | ???? | AG | > | **Died:** | N/A | AG > | **Age:** | 39 | Years > ##### **Family** > | | | > | ---- | --- | --- | > | **Spouse:** | N/A | > | **Parent(s):** | Unknown | N/A | > | **Sibling(s):** | N/A | | > ##### **Class Info** > | | | > | ---- | --- | --- | > | **Alignment:** | ?? | ?? > | **Deity:** | [[Lao Shu Po]] | > | **Class 1:** | Operative | Sniper | > | **Class 2:** | ?? | ?? | > ##### **Appearance** > | | | > | ---- | --- | --- | > | **Hair:** | Brown | Bushy | > | **Skin:** | Tanned | | > | **Eyes:** | Blue | | > | **Height:** | 3' | 0" | > ##### **Extra Information** > | | | > | ---- | --- | --- | > | **Favorite Food(s):** | Hot Dogs | Various Cheeses | > | **Favorite Color:** | Orange | | > | **Interest(s):** | Painting | | > | **Fear(s):** | N/A | N/A | ###### ORIGIN Queso is a **Ysoki** (_ratfolk_) whose people originally came from the distant world of **[[Parmesan Prime]]**. Many decades ago, the Ysoki living there were forced to abandon their ancestral home after a catastrophe remembered as **[[The Ripening]]** occurred. According to refugee accounts, a powerful engineering guild tunneled far beneath the planet’s crust in search of an immense energy source rumored to lie deep underground. In their relentless pursuit, they delved too greedily and too deep, ultimately releasing a catastrophic cloud of toxic gases that surged through the planet’s vast tunnel networks. The poison spread with terrifying speed, and within days nearly all life on Parmesan Prime had been extinguished. Queso himself has never set foot on Parmesan Prime. He was born years after the catastrophe aboard one of the drifting refugee ships carrying the last remnants of the Ysoki population through space. Raised entirely among scavengers, traders, and survivors aboard the wandering vessel, Queso grew up hearing endless stories about the lost world his people once called home. At the age of nineteen, he finally bartered passage off the refugee ship and made his way to the sprawling **[[City of Machines]]**, where he has lived ever since. For years after arriving in the city, Queso survived the only way he felt someone small, clever, and expendable could in a place like that: he worked as a hitman, quietly building a reputation in the underworld while saving every credit he could. Over time the contracts added up, and eventually he managed to scrape together enough money to chase a far simpler dream. He opened a hot-dog stand on a busy street in the City of Machines, serving quick meals to factory workers, mechanics, and the endless flow of pedestrians moving through the metal corridors of the city. ###### CURRENTLY... Now at 39 years old, Queso runs the stand as his main livelihood, though he still takes the occasional contract when the money is right. His weapon of choice is a high-velocity rifle, carefully disassembled and hidden within a case mounted on the front of his hot-dog cart. Standing just three feet tall, Queso is a compact Ysoki with mostly brown fur and has a quick, practiced way of moving through crowded streets. He usually works his stand wearing a white apron tied over a worn jacket from his years spent on the Refugee ship. Perched on his head is a small paper hat, which is slightly crooked most days, while a pair of aviator sunglasses hide his blue eyes and give him a permanently unimpressed look as he grills. To most passersby he appears to be nothing more than a quirky street vendor serving up some of the best hot dogs in the City of Machines. What they do not realize is that the quiet rat behind the grill spent nearly twenty years building a reputation in the city’s underworld. These days he prefers the smell of grilled meat to gunpowder, though he still keeps his old rifle close for the rare occasions when someone is willing to pay enough to pull him back into his former line of work. One thing he takes more seriously than either profession, however, is hot dog etiquette. If you wanted to get on his bad side, putting ketchup on a hot dog is the ultimate and an unforgivable sin to him; a crime against both flavor and dignity... ###### BEFORE THE ANALOG CAFE... One of Queso’s few genuine friends in the City was a scientist known as **Tier-99-Professor**, though most simply called him *[[Tierny]]*. The two met years ago when the professor began occasionally stopping by Queso’s stand during his long walks through the industrial districts of **Aballon**. Tierny never actually ate the hot dogs himself, but he seemed fascinated by them nonetheless. Over time the two developed an odd but genuine friendship built on conversation, late-night visits to the stand, and Tierny’s endless curiosity about everything from food to the mechanics of refugee ships drifting through space...