Mimicry

A sharp, antiseptic smell hits you, and you jolt awake—except you can’t. You feel like your whole body is paralyzed, a bystander to your own body.

Your fingers feel heavy, like a weight in your palm instead of the agility you would expect from the jointed fingers extending from it. And maybe you're hallucinating, but—you think you see sparks coming from the tip of your index finger, something suspiciously metallic poking out of what was supposed to be just a fingernail.

Before you can think about it any longer, you wake.

You are a regular office clerk for Orenic, a company that specializes in biotech and medicine. You’re just one of the workers that do trivial jobs—copying papers, doing data, typing forms, and so on. While it might sound tiring, the surprisingly good pay and perks of working under one of the most important corporations in the country keeps the monotonous routine bearable. 

However, one night after a day the same as any other, you wake up on a cold, metal table. You discover that you aren’t human (surprise!); you’re actually one of the prototypes of an android that Orenic has created. You’re considered to be one of the closest ones they’ve got to “perfection”—which in this case, they mean “acting human.” 

Problem is, any form of technology more advanced than the internet was banned by the world a couple centuries ago. Robots? Nope. Artificial Intelligence? Nope. Those military prototypes that look and behave like dogs? Absolutely not. Even Siri and Alexa? Not a chance. 

So why would a successful, megamillionaire company like Orenic risk making you?

Your existence now illegal, and your life a lie, can you untangle yourself from Orenic’s schemes and (hopefully) regain your sense of identity?

Set in a vintage dystopian society, Mimicry explores the repeating cycle of corporate corruption and what it means to be human.

Masterpost // Characters // Demo TBA

Hey, this is a dev log/status post.

First off, I'm so sorry to have gone inactive for so long; school's been more time-consuming than I thought it would be. As you have already guessed, I'm going on a hiatus, but officially this time.

I'm so thankful for all of you who continue to find this blog and have interest in it! As of now, I just don't have the time required to work on this project regularly. But I promise I'll come back (hopefully with a demo) in the later times. (at least ~6 months)

Again, thanks for being interested, and waiting patiently. I'll try to post snippets and one-shots from time to time.

I imagine that Orenic just """accidentally""" provided an outdated computer in the desk at MC works at, which conveniently was specially coded by one of the people working on the Mimicry project to display nothing related to A.I. or robots, whatsoever, therefore MC doesn't deal with "I am not a robot" checks. (but when they glanced over at Ellie's desk once they saw them click the little checkbox and decided that it was Ellie's device that was weird, not theirs, because obviously why would any website ask if they weren't a robot, of course they're not,,, ,,, ,,,,,?)

And remember that the whole thing Orenic wants is for MC to be able to prove they're human-like, so ... they would want MC to be "evolved" enough to check that little square.

omg anon.... .... im in love with you

Thank you so much for feeling that way!! The fact that the demo's not even out but you took the time to send me this message is just so <3

And I agree! As much as I love tropes (and I really do), I didn't wanna get stuck writing a character that I've read about over and over (not that there's anything wrong with traditional archetypes in certain tropes!!), because I was afraid I would accidentally be copying some other writer's design, or just get really unmotivated to write said character because of how repeated it seems. So I like to mix and match sometimes, if it makes sense, of different traits and tropes!

And this isn't to say that Ellie is cold and harsh, of course, they definitely are more friendly and open than closed off; but I wanted to make them three-dimensional, and for me that means giving (reasonable) contradictions within a character.

I'm prefacing by saying that in the world of Mimicry, discrimination based on identity (such as skin color, gender, sexuality, heritage) is like 99% eliminated, thus the utopian part of the genre (aka: straight is not the default). None of the characters have to worry about injustices in equality (but corporatism and corrupt government are there because that's the dystopia xoxo).

Ellie knew they weren't straight because it didn't make sense to them that only one portion of the population was meant to love and be loved by them.

Tarali is demisexual, if she were to put a label, and she was always attracted to people who respected her boundaries, no matter their gender.

Haesoo just found attractive people attractive; he's the type of person to gain interest in someone if he thinks they have interest in him bc then he won't fail, right ??

Angel is first an android, so that changes things a little. Their creator didn't really think about coding romantic values when she made Angel, so they were kinda just left to figure it out themselves. They didn't really think about it at first, but over time it mattered to Angel that they were free to choose whoever to love, and they went with it.

B2 will get to discover in game, and MC will be there with them.

Ellie: none if they aren't too close with the nickname-giver. Once you get closer, you can definitely call them Ellie (encouraged by them). Romantic context: yes if both parties agree, but will not call you "my sunshine-sweetheart-lovebug-anything mushy in public. maaaaaybe like once when you're alone.)

Tarali: not too keen on them, she usually prefers her name. Romantic context: again, prefers her name bc it's pretty and she deserves to hear all the syllables okay

Haesoo: depends on how close you are with him; (however! his sister sometimes just calls him Soo), if pretty close in friendship then yeah, he'll be okay with whatever fun thing you come up with. Romantic context: yeah?; mostly more comfortable with the generic ones (babe/love), does prefer his name though

Angel: likes nicknames, will nickname you back. If approved, you can pronounce their name like the heavenly people with wings type of angel (english pronunciation). Romantic context: yes;

Ellie: clear, sure. I imagine their voice to be the kind of voice you hear and immediately think "woah, they should read an audio book." Articulates their words very well. All Ellies have an alto (?) voice range, not too high but not deep.

Tarali: deep, soft, staccato. soft, but not weak. Has a tendency to speak fast, but you can generally hear everything that Tarali says.

Haesoo: deep, kinda throaty in the sense that it's scratchy? He doesn't put much effort into speaking clearly, and the scratch is just like an aftermath of puberty that didn't exactly go away 100%.

Angel: light, clear. Like a breeze. A very pleasant voice to hear, sort of musical? not very well articulated, slurs words a little.

I think I'm oversharing because some of this will definitely be in game. but. in case it doesn't make it through I gotta satisfy the lore curiosities

I guess I'll put this under the cut for those of you who want to find it out in-game!

Hello all! First, I'm still getting through asks, and with school now being prioritized, I'm being really slow with everything, and I'm sorry if you were expecting more active content. I'm trying to work on the story some during the weekends, and currently I'm still working on the first chapter. Also, coding. Coding is a lot more daunting than I foolishly thought and I'm watching a lot of YouTube videos and tutorials. I'll get there someday.

(side note: like setting story variable,,, okay,, i can do that kinda but the way i keep messing up on doing the character customization part,,, im so sorry everyone the demo's a long way off)

If you submitted an ask, it's probably sitting in my drafts/inbox, I haven't forgotten!! I'm just so slow with them, I'm trying to get one every two days or so. They're really fueling me rn.

You'll actually get to see a majority of the character's reactions in-game! Tarali, Haesoo, Angel, and B2 all first meet the MC while the story is progressing. The only RO who already has an established relationship is Ellie.

sorry this took so long to answer anon I had to find the perfect reference images and I also got lost looking at pretty clothes

I will say that since most of them work in a corporate setting, a lot of the time they wear business casual/semi-formal clothes (and totally not because I'm a sucker for a good blazer/shirt/wide dress pants combo).

But casually, they would wear:

Okay so in the beginning of the story, MC doesn't know they're an android--and the scientists/engineers who were involved in the project made sure that MC wouldn't know, ever. So they thought of everything that a human would do, and did their best to install technologies that could replicate those functions. So, MC probably has artificial tear ducts for "crying" and so on.

I am planning on giving the player options to appear more human or more robotic as the story progresses, once I figure out how to code that.

3. They’re locked out in the rain. What do they do? 

Ellie: probably would have an umbrella ready tbh. big enough to share with one other person if needed. Tarali: she checks the weather enough to have umbrellas whenever it rains heavy, but sometimes she's too annoyed at having an extra weight in her bag, so she takes her chances. Tarali would probably have one of those thin rain coats though, and just deal with the rain. Haesoo: run if there aren't people around, or do a very brisk fast walk if people are around until he finds somewhere/something to cover the rain. doesn't like getting wet because it messes up his hair Angel: wouldn't mind it too much, but probably would walk to somewhere with a roof bc they're an older model and they don't wanna test the impermeability of their skin B2: doesn't go outside very often, and checks weather every morning, so they would also be ready. Hates to get their shoes wet.

the rest are under the cut :)