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Shiroi Boshi (Ready)


Blueblood

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Name: Shiroi Boshi

 

Sex: Female

 

Age: Adult Mare

 

Species: Unicorn

 

Eye colour: Gold, though her eyes are often hidden behind silver-lensed spectacles

 

Coat: Pastel rose

 

Mane/Tail: Must be seen to be believed.  Shiroi’s mane is a gravity-defying set of jade green spikes, each with the tip dyed red.  Rumor has it that the whole thing is maintained, not by gel, but by internal scaffolding.  Her tail, while not ridiculously styled, has the same two-toned dye job.

 

Physique:  Average in dimension, but definitely the body of one who works more with her brain than anything else.

Her typical attire consists of a high-collared dark blue vest with approximately one hundred pockets, the largest of which has her insignia of office sewn onto it.  Additionally, she is always wearing a set of glasses with opaque silver lenses, with runic symbols and wires attaching them to a small magitek device upon her back.  This same device is also connected to a glove on her right forehoof.  The overall impression is that Shiroi just stepped out of some convention cosplay, where her choice of outfit flummoxed the judges trying to guess her obscure reference.  

From time to time, though, one will actually see her carrying a plain, unmagical and untechnological katana.  She says that this is a security measure, just in case everything goes wrong and she needs to dismantle a piece of magitek in a hurry.

 
 
 
 
 
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Residence:  The Neighpon Imperial Capital of Kyoma

 

Occupation: The Gijutsu-Sha, Tech Mage of the Shogunate Court.  She  is responsible for overseeing the use of magitech, especially in regards to ethical concerns over new magitech developments, and advises the Shogun on which area of magitech to invest government capital into pursuing.  Shiroi’s primary emphasis is upon construct hacking/hijacking security, as she feels that it is an underestimated vulnerability.

 

Cutie Mark:  A gear wearing a white, wide-brimmed chapeu (The sort of hat you would see in Spy vs. Spy).  It indicates a special talent in “hacking” magitek devices to either disable or hijack them, alongside her conviction to use these powers for good, and not for evil.

 

Unique Traits:  The magitek equipment that she carries on her back is actually a cybernetic prototype connected to her magic, designed to enhance her special talent.  The connection to her spectacles enables her to visualize the inner workings of a magitek spell, and the connection to her hoof allows her to better channel her own energies, as well as to better manipulate the tools of her trade.

Her kata skills are… basic.  She can be reasonably certain of hurting her target more than herself, provided her target is not well-trained.  Any average samurai would humiliate her in a duel, which is why she restricts herself to fighting inanimate magitek constructs gone haywire.  Even then, the sword is a last resort.

 

History: Shiroi’s origin is almost as eccentric as her appearance.  She was actually the daughter of an immigrant unicorn who took a one-way ticket to Neighpon from Equestria once the first bits of the island chain’s popular culture began to be exported.  Normally this kind of geeky pilgrimage would have ended in disaster, especially as the Neighponese economy was a net exporter of labor, and thus not exactly welcoming to immigrants.  But, her father actually managed to pay his way, first by teaching Equestrian, and then working as a translator at a manga company.  Her mother was actually the office custodian, which is actually a more important and technical position than one might think; it basically involves supervising the little magitek robots who actually cleaned the floors.

 

Thus, the young filly got her technical interest from her mother’s side, while deriving her aesthetic interests from her father.  Both had a tendency to bring their work home from the office, and were proud enough of their hoofwork to show it off to the impressionable unicorn filly.  After a few years, though, it was clear that her own inclinations were more towards the technical than the artistic side.  The old, discarded robot and controller parts that her mother had to dispose of became her childhood toys, and her father would jokingly bet that once she got them working, she’d get her cutie mark alright.  He ended up being right, but not perhaps in the way one might expect…

 

It happened on her parent’s publishing company’s “Take your foal to work” day.  She had, of course, brought along her bag of ‘toys’ for the boring parts of the day.  Today, however, they were not just idle playthings, for she actually got the old controller to work!  Soon, the robot cleaners were going crazy, chasing managers all over the buildings, acting as riding seats for the other foals in the building, and generally making merry havoc.  Needless to say, the boss did not take such an event kindly.  He chose, however, to vent his spleen on Shiroi’s mother, publicly dressing her down and firing her in front of the whole office.

Horrified at what she had done, the young foal was stung into a reply, “Well, if you didn’t want this to happen, why didn’t you spend the money to secure the ‘bots?”  That had been a common complaint of her mother when she came home, and the whole office knew that their boss was a skinflint.  Reading the temperature of the room, the boss knew that he would face an employee revolt if he went through with his threat, and so decided to take the proverbial egg to the face.  After all, this incident did prove that such money needed to be spent.  And it was then that Shiroi got her cutie mark, showing a special talent in ‘hacking’ magitek.  The fact that she had come so close to ruining her mother’s career made the filly resolve to use her abilities for good, rather than evil, or even just for fun, which would seriously affect her demeanor down the road.

 

With her special talent now discovered, it wasn’t long before Shiroi was transitioned from her general education to a specific set of courses dedicated to the theory and practice of magitek.  These were actually quite popular, as it was a growth industry in Neighpon, one which could reasonably ensure a job in the Empire, or outside of it, as the wonders of magitek were either ubiquitous, or rare and in high demand.  Given all this, Shiroi should have been elated, but the more she learned, the more somber she seemed to become.  It wasn’t that her talent was being stifled; quite the opposite in fact.  She was always able to practice it.  Hacking was easy.  Since it seemed that so few others had the talent, or drive to do so on any large scale, little investment was usually put into security.  It was the issue with the manga company’s manager, only at an Empire-wide scale.   This had to change, she was convinced, if Neighpon was to survive as a great power.  

 

This drive led her to seek a career in public service, and there was always room for someone to maintain civic magitek structures.  Shiroi probably would have led a serious career at the municipal level, engaging in demonstration hacks from time to time to keep the council sweet in the budget for her department, were it not for a spectacular coincidence arising from one such demonstration.

 

It was during one of the golem fights in the arena.  Like most other Nieghponese urbanites, Shiroi followed the circuit, even engaging in a few amateur team matches from time to time.  One day, however, she discovered an exploit in the main operating control system that would allow for outside hacking of the combatants, and given that these were giant destructive battle-machines, that was not a good thing.  So, she staged a demonstration during a match.  The audience was treated to the sight of two fighting golems suddenly stopping, dancing a pas de deux from the Swan Lake ballet (played over the also-hacked speakers), before stopping to loom menacingly over the ringside box seats.

 

Inside one of those seats was Rakuen Ryoichi himself.  Normally, this would mean that the pony responsible for publicly endangering him would be banished and put in a dungeon on the island to which was banished, but the Shogun-to-be was more magnanimous than that.  Also, wise enough to take her point seriously, calling publicly for a pause in the fights until this exploit risk could be resolved.  He remembered Shiroi, too, when it came time to fill his cabinet of advisors.  Now, the serious-minded but eccentrically-dressed hacker is the official Gijustsu-sha, to the somewhat mixed reaction of the rest of the court...

 

Character Personality:  If there ever was a mare consumed by her work, Shiroi is one.  Part of that comes from her parents, part of that from the culture in general, and part of it from her own personal convictions.  She often feels that she’s the only pony taking magitek security seriously, which drives her to spend many a late night over a workbench, desk, or what-have-you.  Even what free time she usually allows herself is dedicated to some form of useful work, whether it be formulating another demonstration or security-testing hack, or practicing her rudimentary katana skills.

 

Politically, she’s probably the most conservative tech mage that the Shogunate court has ever appointed.  She’s much more focused on preserving and securing what Neighpon already has, rather than driving innovation towards the new and untested.  Her view of the wider sociopolitical world is informed by this; she sees the Empire as a complex system, sustained by delicate connections of trade and colonization, themselves vulnerable to social ‘hacking.’  For this reason, she tends to treat the intentions of outsiders with caution, if not suspicion.  Even if they mean no harm, that doesn’t mean that they won’t inflict it.  For this reason, she’s actually quite sympathetic towards the traditionalists, and patient with their magitek illiteracy.  After all, the resource network sustaining this kind of economy might fall apart, and then they would have to rely upon the old ways.  Unable to banish such nightmares, Shiroi has decided to secure her options, opening a new chapter of her education...

 

Character Summary:  A public servant who is as serious as her appearance is outlandish.  Skilled in magitek, but not optimistic about its ultimate development.

 
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