The town of Junkflea that forms one half of Lloyd Center is run by a group of influential traders and merchants known as the Cartel. They are sometimes referred to as the Van Graff Cartel on account of the eponymous family's dominant presence within the market, but the members of the cartel come from all walks of life.
At present there are seven individuals who make up the dysfunctional family that lords over Junkflea.
They consist of:
Masari Bonnefoy [Court Van Graff]
The self-styled "Merchant Queen of Cascadia", and the dominant force within Junkflea. She is a Nevada native who arrived in Portland in the late 2190s, and has spent the years since building a mercantile empire out of the town of Junkflea. She accomplishes this with a combination of shrewd economical cunning gained from a lifetime of caravan operation, and an underhanded style of commercial bargaining that she gained from a lifetime of shady caravan operation.
While not a Van Graff by birth, Bonnefoy is the spitting image of that family's ruthless business practices. She is the technical owner of Court Van Graff, the largest shop in Junkflea that deals in energy-based weaponry and all manner of high tech arms, but the day-to-day operations of the store are usually left to one of her underlings so that she may be free to do more important work.
She's always happy to make a deal, especially one that benefits her more than it does you. And with her endless network of connections and owed favors, she has a habit of manipulating circumstances to create and offer such deals just when you have no choice but to accept. She can always be trusted to follow the details of a deal to the letter, but not an inch beyond that. If she says you can sleep well at night knowing no harm to you then you most certainly can. And you should, because you'll need the rest. After all, she didn't say anything about what might happen come morning.
Hard Peter [Army Excess]
The Army Excess gunsmith known as Hard Peter is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve. He makes no effort to hide how little he fits in with the likes of the Locals who frequent his shop, and with a heavy accent that betrays his southern origins it wouldn't do him a lick of good to try. Like most people he can be summarized in a single word: Unbothered. He is aware that his presence rankles some of the other members of the cartel. He is aware that his business flies directly in the face of the Van Graffs and their own arms trade. He knows that every move he makes is watched for any hint of an excuse to throw him out into the snow. He knows that by simply existing he proves a threat to the unilateral power of Bonnefoy.
He simply doesn't care about any of those things.
Well, not really. Underneath the thick mustache and placid expression it's not uncommon to find the ghost of a smile played across the old man's lips whenever he manages to get under the skin of the people who despite him. He does it on purpose of course, as while he is nominally a passive observer of the forces at play in Portland he is still privy to just as much injustice and wrongdoing as any other member of the cartel. He just knows how to rebel in ways that frustrate and hinder without putting himself at risk.
One gets the idea from talking to the open book of a man while he can't or won't openly oppose the powers at be, he wouldn't be above throwing his lot in with somebody who he believes could pull it off.
Luca [Lost And Found]
Luca is perhaps the most out of place individual in all of Lloyd Center. She is dirty, she is eccentric, she openly wears the tattoos and the fetishes of her tribe despite the open distaste she receives from the Locals, and she has virtually no knowledge of commercial operation outside of trading one piece of questionably worthless trash for another.
And yet her store, Lost And Found, has been one of the most lucrative businesses in Junkflea for years. Much to the chagrin of some of the other members of the cartel. Whom Luca can only technically count herself among because of the influx her store creates and the ridiculously inflated tax levies she dutifully pays every week. Levies that are there, of course, simply as a hitherto unsuccessful attempt to push her out of business. She doesn't mind the treatment though, as long as she has junk to sift through and interesting stories to hear from likeminded scavengers Luca is happy. And as long as she is happy, Hard Peter is happy.
Indeed the grisly old man has taken a liking to the young Scav since her introduction into the cartel. She may be oblivious to it, but Peter has made an annoying habit (to the Van Graffs at least) of sticking his neck out in defense of her. He's gone so far as to quietly assist in paying her weekly taxes when he knows she can't make quota by convincing her to accept quadruple payment for a "mint condition" Grognak comic. Even Peter isn't sure why he bothers to go to bat for a clueless girl selling toasters and rolling pins. Maybe there is a bleeding heart somewhere deep down in that pit of old leather and dust. Or maybe he just likes keeping her around to piss off the Van Graffs.
Fast Freddy [Fast Freddy's]
The slick-back Greaser known as Fast Freddy is the newest addition to the cartel. He runs a mechanic shop out of the Lloyd Center parking garage, where he got his start illegally performing body work on vehicles brought in by merchants and traders. When he was caught and detained by the Van Graffs, something that has caused many a wastelander to piss their pants or talk themselves into an early grave, Freddy simply popped his collar and made an offer: He'll provide Bonnefoy with the mechanical know-how to operate and work on power armor, and he gets to become an official businessman.
The cartel leader accepted the bold proposition, and ever since Fast Freddy's impact on Junkflea has been a net positive. He and his boys got a cushy job working the cars of bigwigs and rich folk, the bigwigs and rich folk got a secure place to store their cars, and Bonnefoy began salvaging and outfitting her thugs with better gear.
How or where exactly Freddy obtained the priceless knowledge of working with power armor is anybody's guess. He isn't keen to tell, especially since that knowledge is now a Van Graff trade secret. He doesn't even utilize it himself, like all Greasers he seems perfectly content to work with more mundane mechanisms than servoes and hydraulic frames. After all, you can't exactly Go Fast or Look Good While Doing it in a big clunky suit of armor, can you?
Butcher Pete [Gabba Ghoul's]
The friendly noseless face behind the grill at Portland's premiere wasteland eatery is a ghoul from Jersey who goes by Butcher Pete. Or so he claims, at least. To travel across the entire country is an unheard of task, and with the number of tall-tales Pete likes to spin while he's chopping that meat behind the counter, it's hard to tell where the truth actually lies. He certainly sounds the part.
Pete is a simple man with exotic tastes. Losing most of his skin, several of his fingers, and one of his arms (he says ol' righty there actually came from another poor sap he beat in a poker game in Cincinatti) hasn't dulled his spirits. He runs Gabba Ghoul's as a way to find and serve the tastiest bounties the wasteland has to offer, and is always willing to pay top dollar for something that he's never tasted before.
And if it's not good vittles you're after, Pete's skill with a butcher's knife is multipurposed: He's taken apart enough creatures in his time to be reasonably confident in his ability to put somebody back together. As such, Gabba Ghoul's meat room often doubles as a makeshift hospital for the TRULY desperate. Just make sure to remind him to wash his hands and you'll be alright.
Probably.
Gustav [Oregon Outfitters]
The well-dressed Local called Gustav is, despite his insistance to the contrary, a bit player in the grand scheme of the Junkflea Cartel. While yes, he does have a fair amount of pull on local politics, his word is seldom taken with much sincerity by the other members. Mostly because of his outwardly hostile attitude towards Scavs and mutants, especially the likes of fellow cartel members Luca and Butcher Pete, but primarily because his idea of his own role in the day-to-day business of Junkflea is annoyingly misinformed. At least it is according to Bonnefoy, who is ironically the only non-Local he feels any sort of kinship for.
Unsurprisingly the feeling is not mutual.
Bonnefoy keeps Gustav around despite the low amount of income he generates for the cartel. She largely does this because of his knack for accquiring illicit goods such as chems, which are an essential component of running an operation as big as Junkflea. Hired thugs need to be kept happy, and caps are rarely enough to maintain loyalty for long. There aren't many members of the Van Graff security force who aren't hooked on something that Gustav peddles, be that a chem or something else that the authorities turn a blind eye to.
Indeed, Gustav's business extends far beyond the walls of Lloyd Center and into corners of the criminal underbelly that even the Van Graffs do not tred. Allegations of deals with raiders, slavers, and worse have followed Gustav around wherever he goes. Some whisper that his percieved status as a comical buffoon is merely a smokescreen that he willingly perpetuates to cover up his darker dealings, but those who delve too deep or speakt to openly about such rumors have a habit of disappearing.
Gloria Nguyen [Bounty Office]
The blind crone of Junkflea is perhaps the most deceptive member of the cartel. An ancient woman of unknown origin and few words who does little but sit in a rocking chair and turn unseeing eyes to the comings and goings of Lloyd Center, very few would guess that the grandmotherly figure of Gloria Nguyen is one of the most dangerous people in Cascadia.
On the surface, she is the keeper of the Junkflea bounty board. Taking a life is as easy as breathing to most people these days, and doing it for payment is even easier. But murder needs direction for it to be useful, and so Gloria has served as the focal point for hits and grudges in Portland for decades. Jilted lovers, vengeful kin, adventuring hunters, and simple psychopaths all frequent the bounty board on one side of a transaction or another. All are fair game to any who would put up a public notice, so one would do well to avoid having their face put up.
Outside of being a dealer of death, Gloria's connections and the web of favors she sits upon extend far beyond that of even Bonnefoy herself. It's said that nearly every murder in Portland can be tied back in some way to Gloria Nguyen. She has dirt on everybody in the city and isn't afraid to pull the strings she commands when prompted to. Local legends say that her influence is beyond the mundane, such is the swiftness and thoroughness with which she seems capable of retaliating agaisnt those who break contracts or wrong her in some way. She always seems to have eyes everywhere at once, as if her blindness betrayed a supernatural sight in every corner of Cascadia.
Lenny
Finally and unofficially, the pseudo-eighth member of the Junkflea Cartel is a wizened scholar named Lenny. He is one of the robed data-addicts of the Infojunkies, and while not a member of the cartel in an official capacity is nevertheless an essential part of its operation. He has no shop, he brings no income, and he pays no taxes to Bonnefoy. What he deals in is the same as any of his kind: Information. Lenny's photographic memory makes him a natural repository for juicy knowledge. His pathological need to compile said juicy knowledge is both a blessing that has kept him alive and protected by those who make use of his services (namely the Van Graffs), but it is a curse that has kept him shackled to Junkflea for decades.
Originally Lenny came to Junkflea for a simple meal and a place to rest his head for one night. While he was there he did as he always does, found somebody who looked interesting and asked them to tell him something he didn't know in exchange for something they didn't know. He would do this, as he always did, until the time came to move on. This method of obtaining information on the go had taken Lenny and his ilk up and down the western seaboard, but he was unprepared for the sheer volume of information that filtered through Lloyd Center. Word spread of Lenny's presence quickly, and within hours there was a throng of people waiting to listen to the "wise man" speak. Lenny, habitially bound to document everything he learns, became inundated with information that he could not keep up with, and ended up staying longer than he initially meant to so that he may properly compile the information he was being given.
That was over thirty years ago.
Lenny has remained at Lloyd Center ever since, tirelessly writing and compiling and trading information with passersby. He has become as integral a part of Junkflea's identity as its name, so much so that when Bonnefoy and the Van Graffs moved in he was immediately recognized as an essential asset to the cartel. Information is power, afte rall. It is unlikely that Lenny will ever leave Junkflea, despite his continued insistance that he is very near to done with his task and should be leaving within the week.
Comments