There are more of them out there than you might suspect. This guy isn’t crouching under a bridge, toothless and ineptly busking for quarters. He’s enslaved by substances, no doubt about it, but he’s keeping it together, for now. Depending on how high his position already is and how loyal his subordinates are, he might be able to keep at it indefinitely.
What’s his poison of choice? If it’s booze, he probably has a high tolerance, can shake off his threemartini (or sixpack) lunch buzz in time to get home safely, and he probably saves his whiskey blackouts for Saturday nights (and vice versa). A painkiller addiction might be tougher stuff, especially if he’s actually in constant pain from some other cause. Or he might be an intermittent binger—wrecks himself, quits, cleans up, spends three months sober, starts using again very intermittently, decides he can handle it now, gradually increases use until he’s fooling himself, ultimately loses control, wrecks himself and starts the whole cycle over until he crashes a car or finally ODs.
But when you meet him, he’s got it mostly under control. He’s functional. His perspective is still out in weeks and months, it hasn’t been crushed down to a desperate need to just navigate the next day, or hour. (Have patience buddy, it’ll get there!)
He’s not desperate to feed the beast yet. He’s desperate to keep the beast hidden from view.
HELPLESSNESS 5 Hard
ISOLATION 3 Hard
SELF 6 Hard
UNNATURAL 2 Hard
VIOLENCE 3 Hard
Wound Threshold: 50
I’m an Addict, of course I can find a source, communicate in slang, exert myself in brief and intense ways if there’s drugs at the end of it.
Substitutes for: Lie.
Feature: Substitutes for Secrecy.
Feature: Protects Self.