Artificial [Character Profiles & Terminology]
Welcome to the city of lights, bright neon and blinking polychromes, a city of people, bleary eyed adults with too much anxiety and ambitions thrown away, fanciful teenagers with big dreams and holes in their pockets; welcome to Tokyo, Japan. It is currently year 67 of the Retsujidai, the Split Period, the current Prime Minister is Chiinen Kou, and the economy has taken its worst plunge since the depression during Heisei Year 20 through 24, the rich keep on getting richer, the poor have absolutely nowhere to turn to.
This dystopian façade, however, it’s all but what it seems to be.
The Internet is a shallow and unreliable electronic repository of dirty pictures, inaccurate rumors, bad spelling and worse grammar, inhabited largely by people with no demonstrable social skills.
- Author Unknown
Arioka Daiki
Known on the Net as ‘Takashi’, Daiki leads a glamorous life…on the Net. His alias is well known to any hacker (or, anyone, really) who has access to a maikon, however, since what he’s doing is illegal, all the people who worship him on the Net don’t know his real name. Living in a cramped tenement with his stepbrother Ryuutaro, they barely scrape by doing (read: by making Ryuutaro do) odd jobs.
He’s cautious, almost paranoid even, and more often than not locks himself in his own room. Daiki needs about 17 hours of sleep a day to function correctly, and has extremely low blood pressure if disturbed. He also has a height complex, and won’t hesitate to inflict pain on you if you bring that fact up. To sum it up nicely, Daiki is a person with zero social skills but makes it huge on the Net, where you can remain anonymous.
Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish not to know, but to talk. We would not take a sea voyage for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever telling.
- Blaise Pascal
Morimoto (Arioka) Ryuutaro
The younger one of the two brothers. Ryuutaro’s mother married Daiki’s father when he was still a young child, and after their parents had died, the brothers have been together ever since. For some strange reason, Daiki refuses to let Ryuutaro touch anything tech related, always sending the young boy on some (rather stupid and useless in his opinion) errand like ‘Get me my milk’. This only strengthens his desire to learn about whatever Daiki does when he holes himself up with the maikon.
He’s constantly curious, and likes to ask questions, usually questions about the amnesic period after their parent’s deaths, however, Daiki refuses to give answers to that. Skilled in hand to hand combat, partly because his older brother is pathetic when it comes to fighting off people who try to break into the apartment and slit their throats in their sleep.
Solitude is painful when one is young.
- Albert Einstein
Inoo Kei
The president of the successful maikon provider company Pandora, Inoo is a stoic, quiet man-or boy, considering his age. Barely even reaching the age of sixteen when Pandora was thrust upon him immediately after his father’s death, he is qualified to be youngest and one of the most powerful people in the world.
There’s a lot of gossip floating about this eighteen year old president, why they allowed him to take over the company, if he’s capable (even though so far he is) and whether or not he’s just a pawn for the higher ups, a figurehead. Regardless of all these rumors, Inoo himself is a mysterious person, and only a select few have ever seen him in person.
With but few exceptions, it is always the underdog who wins through sheer willpower.
- Johnny Weissmuller
Okamoto Keito
Keito is, not to be rude, a complete lowlife, the lowest of the low. One of the numerous children abandoned at labor orphanages since birth, he arrived to Tokyo trying to make a life for himself…to end up falling into the lives of the Arioka brothers. Literally. Crashing through the roof he was sleeping in, he ended up landing on Daiki when the hacker was suffering from three days lack of sleep in a hacking spree. Needless to say, he was yelled at.
This close to chasing him out of the room, Daiki soon discovered that Keito had a knack for sweeping and decoding, despite never even seeing a maikon up close before. Surprised, the older Arioka decided to allow the boy to stay (despite Ryuutaro’s protests of, “How are we going to feed him, stupid?”) and took him as an apprentice.
I hate that word, mature, but I guess I am growing up.
- Sheryl Crow
Chiinen Yuuri
The only son of the current Prime Minister, he is a sheltered boy, growing up in barred walls and around the wealthy. He has never known hunger nor poverty as most of the country has, and this naïveté makes him vulnerable emotionally. Physically, however, it is an entirely different question. Training with the masters since he was a child, he’s completely comfortable with dismembering you using only a chopstick and his hands. Going through a rebellious phase, he’s been attempting to break out of the house since forever, but always managed to get caught by the security system before he reached the front door.
Too young for his age and too old, Chiinen longs for the freedom he can’t have, knowing he should, but is completely blind to exactly what dangers lay beyond the pristine white gates he called home.
Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own.
- Mother Teresa
Takaki Yuya
Déprimisme is where this host calls home. He is quite the charmer, for women and men alike, and if you can afford him, it’s said to be bliss. Of course, only a selected few can. The pay is good, so Takaki has never had to lift a finger to do things himself. This host job allows him to force repressed memories to the back of his head, memories he had not wanted to acknowledge since it happened. Generally flirty and thinking with his stomach rather his head, Takaki is impulsive, never thinking things over before he performs it.
Apparently, he and Yabu are old acquaintances. It has something to do with his past, but Yabu refuses to say more than they grew up together, and seeing that Yabu was the heir of a Yakuza clan…this must not be good.
You have a lot of people on the run and really don't have time to sit down and eat a balanced meal.
- Bo Jackson
Yaotome Hikaru
You know him, everyone does. That goofy guy who delivers you your ramen at some ungodly hour of the night when you really need that food, the guy who’s all smiles even though life just plain sucks, that one guy you talk to even though you know that this chitchat will be forgotten the day after. Hikaru works part-time at Yabu’s ramen shop and lives upstairs,
Despite his appearance as somewhat old fashioned and Shintaku-esque, Hikaru is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to all things tech related, he can tell you mundane things such as tracking feeds and the act of sweeping, to impressive things like making a maikon out of a broke television and a toaster oven. As they say, never judge a book by its cover.
Yabu Kota
Owner of the only affordable ramen restaurant in Tokyo, Yabu was once the heir to a Yakuza clan, but abandoned it due to the pressures of keeping the whole clan afloat and opting for a much simpler life. Of course, the current leader of the clan (a half-brother of his) is still pissed at him for running off with money to start the ramen business, but there was nothing he could do about it since the previous leader-bless his soul-allowed his oldest son to start his own thing.
Generally the kind man Daiki and Ryuutaro go to for advice, there are moments the old Yakuza heir comes out and scares the living hell out of whoever sees it, and moments where his protective mode is on full power and it suffocates whoever is receiving such overprotectiveness.
Nakajima Yuuto
A frequent (or permanent, whichever you prefer, since he practically lives in the shop) customer of Yabu’s ramen shop, Yuuto can almost always be found occupying the only window seat of the shop, hunched over his own maikon while keeping an eye on Hotaru. There is only one word for Yuuto: stupid beyond measure. Okay, that was three words, but who cares?
He’s not the brightest crayon in the box, quite possibly one of the dimmest, but he makes it up by being fiercely loyal and observational (taking care of a sister who falls asleep anywhere, anytime, requires such vigilance lest she collapse on sharp, pointy objects). Besides, hasn’t Hikaru taught you anything? The stupid looking one isn’t necessarily stupid.
I’m still chasing girls. I don't remember what for, but I’m still chasing them.
- Joe E. Lewis
Takauji Sumire
Often mistaken for either A) Yabu’s wife (always the first assumption since Hikaru addresses Sumire as Papa-san and Yabu Mama-san, and not necessarily untrue if you think about it), B) a cat lady, or C) older sister of Yabu/Hikaru/Yuuto/Daiki/Ryuutaro/the list drags on, Sumire is in fact a top of the line Cherry, skilled in various crafts and trades, and while robotic in nature, is quite human. Generally quiet and subdued, the calm when Yabu’s having one of his “Why are you so skinny?! Do you get enough to eat?!” fits, she can also have her own anger issues, mainly towards Hikaru and his tendency to leave things all over the floor that she has to pick up.
Quite the sharp tongue when she wants to be, and although Yamato Nadeshiko-esque, she is capable of looking intimidating and making grown men wet their pants. She has a fondness for cats despite how much Hikaru hates them.
Tominaga Fuyune
Quite literally the girl next door, Fuyune has been around since as long as Daiki and Ryuutaro could remember, occasionally stopping by to make sure they’re breathing. Although she has always been on the other side of the wall, this girl is a complete mystery to the two brothers. A Shintaku, you can see her walking around in yukatas and vintage manga tucked her under right arm.
Coming and going as she pleases, sometimes they go for weeks without hearing a word, other times she makes herself right at home in the tiny, cramped apartment, nothing is certain with Fuyune. She takes particular interest in what Daiki has to do, and oftentimes bugs him to find out. Despite her efforts he, being paranoid as he is, hasn’t told her a word and she’s constantly frustrated over the fact.
Sakata Rin
Inoo’s secretary/bodyguard and right-hand man, Rin is somewhat of the tomboy sort, and inexcusably blunt. Taking the place of Inoo in any form of public meetings, you can say that the person closest to Inoo would be Rin, She is somewhat sadistic, but loyal and has remained so throughout the years, someone he puts his complete trust in. Of course, if you’ve learned anything, it might just not be the case here.
Nakajima Hotaru
An expert grey hat hacker, Yuuto’s narcoleptic ‘little sister’, and most importantly (shockingly?) a Cherry, Hotaru is so far the only one who has been able to outsmart Daiki in every aspect, managing to find a flaw in and destroy one of his hacks without so much as batting an eyelid. He sees her as an enemy, but she could care less, much opting for sleeping on Yuuto’s arm than to care for what Daiki has to say.
Aria
A delicate looking girl, Aria is anything but that. She’s spiteful and a critic, harsh with her words. Half of the hosts in Déprimisme fear this four foot ten manager, the other half are used to this sort of abuse every single day. She is someone prideful and someone you never want to mess with.
Ryoko
A popular net idol, she’s pretty and the object of your typical teenage boy’s desires, but her personal life is completely obscure and unknown to the world. It is said that a few guys actually tracked her down one time…they were never seen nor heard from again.
Terminology:
Cherry: A line of realistic gynoids, usually bought to double as workers and computers, but can be used for companionship.
Gossamer: Plastic surgery addicts. Termed as such because the most popular form of plastic surgery is that of ‘elvish/fairy-like’ features, delicate like spiderwebs.
Maikon [マイコン]: Micro Computer
Meruhorriku [メールホリック]: Taken from the English word ‘mail’ and suffice ‘-holic’. Used to describe people, a majority of them girls ages 10-21, addicted to feeds.
Shintaku [新たく]: Shortened version of ‘Shin Otaku’, meaning ‘New Otaku’, people who are fascinated/obsessed with all things pre-Tech Boom, usually manga and anime, but sometimes also the old customs like tea ceremonies, ikebana, etcetera.
Sweeping: The act of cleaning all and any traces of ever being to a place in terms of computer hacking. Daiki does it on a daily basis due to not wanting to be caught for his absurdly complicated hacking.
Footnotes:
This will be intertwining with the timeline of another fanfiction I am working on, Then Fell the Angels, however, the two will not be directly connected to each other save for a few details and, well, Ryosuke Ryoko, lol.
disclaimer: this is purely fictional. any coincidences with things in real life, dead or alive, coincidental or not, are for fictional purposes only.
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