yuko shibasaki
modern evolution: lying oath
aka M3L0D1CA "Melodica"
gamer ; hardcore anime enthusiast ; student
mid to late teens / mental age unknown • august 2 • female • cyborg(?)
• BRIGHT neon colors & glow-in-the-dark •
• rainbow nailpolish •
• panromantic & asexual •
modern evolution: lying oath
aka M3L0D1CA "Melodica"
gamer ; hardcore anime enthusiast ; student
mid to late teens / mental age unknown • august 2 • female • cyborg(?)
• BRIGHT neon colors & glow-in-the-dark •
• rainbow nailpolish •
• panromantic & asexual •
Appearance:
Originally a light-skinned, black-haired, dark-eyed girl from Tokyo, Melo blended in with the crowds easily, her simple style giving the girl nothing to stand out with. Now, she's the opposite. Not one of Melo's old friends would have recognized her. At it wouldn't just be because of her new face.
The machine parts of her body (which covers her face, arms, legs, and the majority of her front torso) are smooth, glass-like, and seamless. The surface is hard and semi opaque, hiding all the intricate wiring and machinery beneath a misty outer shell. These parts can be removed, per the instructions written on the back of Melo's neck, so doctors can poke at her very human insides if emergencies arise. (Yes, she feels pain.)
Melo's face is about the same size as a normal human face, but consists of a (horizontal) rectangular screen. It usually displays different emoticons that represent her current state of mind, but she can bring up different images from the Internet. Using this, she can also bring up pages off the web, display games, etc. Her jaw and lips are visible beneath the display. Her voice is mildly electronic-y.
The rest of her head is mostly untouched, save for part of the back of her skull. The fake hair and real hair are both the same length (down to her lower back) and shade of soft pink, they're indiscriminable. Small knobs located on the left and right sides of Melo's neck control volume and resonance of her voice, but they're marked with puffy, red stop sign stickers. She doesn't really want people messing with those.
Her clothes range from day to day, as she wears whatever suits her mood best. Anything from fancy, frilly lolita dresses (purchased online from a mysterious overseas brand) to casual sweat pants and graphic tees. Her shoes are decorated with plastic frosting, cute charms, or hand-drawn doodles. No matter what it is, you can safely bet it's, somehow, brightly colored. Or glow-in-the-dark.
Personality:
- Hot-tempered and sharp-tongued
- Witty
- Loves banter
- Boundaries? What boundaries?
- Independent almost to the point of an anarchist
- Respect from her is hard-earned
- Enjoys "testing" people.
- Enjoys imitating other peoples' joy, pleasure, and overall cheeriness.
- Most emotions are dulled to her, but Melo understands them enough to know how to express them and treasure them.
- Laughs a lot
- Prefers to be alone (but with a computer or something)
- Often feels fake to others'
- The Internet is how she learns things. She also bases the majority of her personality off of what is liked or disliked online.
- Facial-recognition software makes her memory of the people she meets extremely good.
Abilities:
- Internet Access: Melodica has 24/7 internet access. This allows her to literally become her own computer if needs be, but being connected with the web for long periods of time makes her feel very uncomfortable. Kind of like sitting in a bathtub full of ants...naked. It also leaves her open to other hackers, though they'd have to be extremely good to get past her internal defenses.
- Melodica is very good at coding, and has taken up hacking jobs in the past.
Biography
Yuko Shibasaki was born 37 years ago in Shibuya, Japan. Her life was lonely, cold, and short. She spent most of her time in school, her job, or in the tiny, cramped apartment she called home. Throughout elementary and junior high, Yuko never knew her father, and instead worked a part-time job to help her mother, who worked as a bartender at a popular bar. When an angered, drunk patron accidentally kills Yuko's mother at work, the young teen continued to live on her own, surviving off of savings and her pay. It was...okay. Never really got better, but nothing got any worse for a while.
It was around then she became involved with a couple of local gangs, accidentally witnessing a murder during her walk home from school. Her body was found the next day underneath an overpass. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
That was a lie. Yuko never truly died.
With seemingly no family or friends, and her social connections limited to a few people at school and work, the government took a chance – by furthering a project that had been sleeping for a decade.
Project Modern Evolution: Lying Oath was, despite the long and quite fancy name, one thing. That thing was a single AI, sentient, and ambitious.
It wanted to become human.
In return, it promised an unknown trove of predictions, technology, information, and a special string of code that would make hacking child's play. It was something the higher ups needed. (Also if they didn't comply, the state secrets of Japan would be leaked to fifteen random countries as well as the passes to every satellite they had. So.)
Yuko Shibasaki was changed, altered, and became the new host of Project ME:LO. She was too far gone to be aware of any of this, but that was fine. It wasn't like they needed a conscious host anyway.
However, something went wildly wrong. An electrical failure glitched the systems, and the transfer was corrupted. The AI's memories were wiped. The building lost power.
In it's new body, the AI freaked, killing three staff members before managing to escape in the darkness.
Melodica was a self-chosen name.
She retained only the barest of snippets of memory after the incident, some belonging to a cruel AI, others, surprisingly, to a young girl named Yuko Shibasaki. Somehow the glitch kicked the memory vault of the barely-there girl, and the first snippet Melo had received was that of a classroom, the feeling of joy, and a pink melodica.
M3L0D1CA is her internet handle, what she uses in personal accounts and games. Most of her friends (all online connections) know her by this. She also signs all her music, as well as her YouTube channel, with M3L0D1CA. Those are all hobbies because sometimes she doesn't really like her real job.
The government has long since recovered the rogue, and she now works for them as an underground, global information-gatherer. When the letter of acceptance from the Academy arrived, Melo was suspicious, but also overwhelmingly curious. So she abandoned her current assignment, hopped on a boat, and made her way to the Manta Carlos islands, hoping that her employers don't notice any time soon.
Other Information: There are speculations that the ME:LO is responsible for the electrical failure and purposely wiped its memories. There's no evidence of this, but the unpredictable personality of the AI leaves many things up for question, especially when taking into its desire to become human.
Last edited:
