Adek's earliest appearance Concept sketch, (c) IB

Adekoashima / Adek

Development: High development

Created: Early 1997 (?)

Site: The Keep

Profile

Icon

Status: Retired

Type: Playable

Character tree [?]

Direct branches: Banton, Chauncey

Indirect branches: PanTu

Character summary

Adek was my first character in the Keep, and after spending week upon week of lurking about without making any real breakthrough into the existing groups, and noticing the incredibly cliquish nature which is unavoidable in such places, I decided that there must be some way to make an appearance and possibly shake the world up a bit. And I had the perfect character to do it.

* History

The Keep was, in those days, an open chat which did not require you to register a character. You merely logged in with the desired username and, once your session ended, anyone else could sign in with that name. This system worked for a budding little chat community, and gave me an idea for a method of 'shaking things up', as will be explained a bit later on. I do not deny that there are certainly some ethical issues with how I approached this. I feel guilty, in fact, to this day about some of the smaller details, such as not fully informing other players before these attempts were carried out. And I do not mean to imply that, because I was fairly young, it was justified-- but I do like to think I have at least learned some things since then. If you are reading this, then, it is an apology. Cherish it.

Adek first came to the Keep with every intent to dominate it by use of what were, without mincing words, terrorist strategies. He was always a fairly quiet man and, particularly in his younger years, hid underneath that quiet exterior a deep disdain for virtually everyone around him. There was no doubt that he was intelligent, and in a way the approach parents and acquaintances took to parading him about for it only deepened his hatred for the world.

What he enjoyed most throughout his early life was learning and general solitude. It would not be difficult to label him a genius, and he particularly excelled in fields involving science. He developed a keen interest in bioengineering, and focused his efforts in that direction with overwhelming success.

The discovery of the Keep was an accidental one, and to be entirely honest I am still not sure how I prefer it as having occurred. Regardless, he found his way there while still preserving a connection with his 'home world', which might be considered the world we live in today, though perhaps a decade or so into the future. The Keep was a wild new frontier in which he could test his abilities on beings which he had no doubt that he would disdain just as much of those at home.

Adek above the West Tower of The Keep Concept sketch, (c) IB

The transition was made surprisingly smoothly. He set up base in the Keep, completely abandoning the 'real world', and disappeared without leaving so much as a note. In some ways, that itself heightened his sense of pride; he didn't need parents or acquaintances to know of all of the amazing advances he was making to feel justified in them, and not having them there to tell, even if he had wanted, made him all the more certain in this hidden 'strength'.

Once well-established but clearly behind-the-scenes, Adek began taking notes. I took notes in the same manner, cataloguing characters, their acquaintances, friends, and more esoteric things such as font color, diction, behavior, and so on. He had the audacity to scrutinize and scribble down notes on the citizens in full view, looking really quite suspicious, and to be honest with some intent at attracting attention. I have often wondered, in some way, this was some small attempt to give warning of what might come later on. I'm certain that if anyone were to have directly approached him and demanded to know what he was doing, operations would have ceased immediately. This, however, did not happen. He was a convenient newcomer, unknown and unimportant, and it only gave him better incentive to carry on.

Adek singled out those who annoyed him the most, and a pattern seemed to emerge, though he wasn't entirely aware of it. Despite attempts to make targets random, he had a tendency to pick out those who seemed to be happiest, and particularly those who seemed to have a close, usually abundant, circle of friends. Once decisions were made he got to work, and over the period of perhaps a month (in real time) he had completed preparations and moved into the operative phase.

To keep things simple, he created bombs. Bombs created in the likeness of certain characters which could easily approach and infiltrate a group of friends before being remotely detonated. Some of these bombs did have living components, as by this time he was more than slightly proficient in modifying living tissue. They were usually very simple creatures, such as Kupo, a small moogle, or a cat. I realize the use of these biological weapons sounds far fetched, but considering some of the other things in existence in the Keep I felt it was plausible enough to at least carry out.

My memory fails me to some degree, but I can clearly remember at least three attacks, with a likely fourth. I at least had the sense to not bother arguing about the results of the explosions; in reality I think by that time I was certain there would be no long-lasting effects, and possibly no effects at all. Regardless, it was something Adek had set out to do, and I was certainly not about to stop him.

All of these were player-characters that previously existed. I merely borrowed (or stole) the name for a short period of time when they were not actively playing, and used them for my purposes. On the OOC side of things, I would log in as a character, use the correct text color, typing habits, and etc. to roleplay with a group for usually more than ten lines or so before 'exploding' the character. It was only after the first two that I developed the presence of mind to at least inform the players of the present characters of what was about to happen. Thankfully the first two bombs were used on the highly powerful characters of players who were less-than-responseful anyway. It is true that there may be some correlation.

Regardless, the bombs actually did have some effect. Adek was entirely thrilled and made a point of being present and within view at each of these events, but was never noticed, commented on, or even suspected it seemed. Although he had enjoyed this in his first foray into the keep, as the anonymity furthered his purposes, the fact that no one seemed intelligent or perceptive enough to connect the dots began to wear on him and slowly aggrivate him to an extreme degree. It was almost as if, in fact, a purposeful attempt was made at ignoring him. Bombings continued no longer as a social experiment, but with an increasing motivation based on spite. If they wouldn't notice him, he would make them notice.

He had run out of explosive devices, however, and characters to base these devices off of. In his return to data-collecting he had the life-altering experience of running into a woman who not only paid attention to him, but seemed interested in what he was doing. It was an auspicious coincidence that she, also, seemed incapable of drawing his over-abundant ire.

Harli, as the woman was called, brought him face-to-face with what he had been doing in the previous months and what he fully intended, until then, to continue doing. I admit I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but she struck a peculiar chord with him. It is no secret that he came to love her, perhaps more deeply than is healthy, but given that he had never before felt even a mild affection for anyone I think that is quite understandable.

If you truly desire any further reading on the topic, I point you to the 'Confession' below. It should sufficiently summarize both what happened and Adek's thoughts on the matter. Although there is more backstory, I will postpone writing it until the rest of this wiki is sufficiently fleshed out.

Moor and Twisted Hills under the overturned moon Concept sketch, (c) IB

Adek's haunt, home, and lab was located in the Twisted Hills (right).

After the bombing incidents and his confession, Adek began to lay low and, oddly began to feel a more and more intense guilt over his behaviour. His love of Harli put him in an unknowingly dangerous situation which showed its true potential when he found out Harli was in love with and seeing someone else-- Tenchi. Yes, that Tenchi. The character went by Tenchi Murasaki, if I remember correctly, and had a daughter named Tammi, obviously not being completely the same character as from the Tenchi Muyo! series. Adek had, actually, made an attempt on the man's life earlier that was clearly not successful.

Regardless, the blow was a huge one to Adek, and was enough to actually bring him to kill himself. He threw himself off of the West Tower of The Keep, a frequent haunt, and I am yet again embarrassed to say that he was not dead for long. I don't remember the mechanics of his being brought back, but a group of vague friends made some attempt at resurrecting him. He is to this day one of the only characters (the other being Reische) that I have ever allowed to be resurrected. As his player I wish I had never allowed it, to an extent, but Adek's story was clearly not done.

Somewhat stabilized after his death-experience, Adek realized he needed to make some sort of change. He began speaking to Tenchi's daughter, Tammi, and working on the construction of Banton as a way of trying to exorcise his demons. It was somewhat successful (see Banton's profile page) and, along with the support of Tammi, who Adek eventually married, he became at least able to sustain a semi-normal, stable life.

The marriage was conducted out of love but also some sense of obligation and need. He entered a state of something like contentedness, but he seemed more lifeless as well. As before very little interested him, but he was far too burnt out on strong emotions to be able to display them even in dire circumstances. He could express with words his emotions but they did not often seem to have a true physical effect on his countenance. He made a point of seeing and meeting friends and actively working for 'good' causes (such as the protection of The Keep during a multi-player raid) but, in reality, held little interest in it. A bit of Adek died, it seems, when he gave himself in to marriage, concurrent with Banton's creation.

Sidenotes

The name 'Adekoashima' was a mild jab at all of the Japanese names which were becoming more and more popular at the time, despite the general public's lack of understanding as to what they meant. A common theme is my little, personal attempts to mock what is en vogue while also conforming to it.

'Adekoashima' is a random collection of Japanese syllables, smashed together at abandon. I decided to attempt to find meaning in it and, after a few hours with a dictionary, managed to come up with meaning derived from brutally mauling two Japanese words and sticking them together. That, however, I shall refrain from telling you.

Character similarities

Banton - Adek and Banton are remarkably similar in many ways, although this may largely be due to the fact that Adek instilled both his personality (with the worst traits intensified) and his entire memory into the biogenetically engineered body of Banton. They are one in the same, save for some slight physical modifications (see Banton's profile). After the creation of Banton, however, the similarities drift very far apart. While Adek makes some important realizations shortly afterwards, Banton goes on to live for quite a few years longer before slowly beginning to do the same.

Chauncey - Despite sharing some very strong character traits, Chauncey and Adek are very dissimilar in terms of history and motivation. Recommended reading: Chauncey's profile page.

Pan Tu - Pan Tu is more or less a younger Adek, though in truth some of his personality modifications render him much more similar to Banton. A sense of superiority follows him just as it did with Adek, but his motivation tends to be a more restless nature and unease with himself as opposed to a strong, burning hatred of those around him.

Character information

Sex: Male

Age: 25

Race: Human

Alignment: Chaotic good

Occupation: Scientist, provider.

Relationships:

Mother: Unnamed, alive and well in another dimension.

Father: Unnamed, alive and well in another dimension.

Siblings: None.

Significant others: Harli (first love, friend), Clemmie (old enemy, now friend), Hassan (friend), Tammi Murasaki (wife).

Logs

All characters in these logs are the property of their respective owners. Logs appear in their original form with minimal editing in order to create a readable format.

• Adek's Confession (forum post)