Arcade Tisserand

Slightly thinner than he should be, perpetually sleep-deprived, and likely composed of more coffee than water.

Their hair that, after repeated bleaching, has become a distinctive silver color is their most recognizable feature. He also has hand tattoos that appear as representations of wires along the bones on the backs of his hands. The ink fades to a lighter color and then disappears just past the wrists.

A greater understanding of the Unreal plane than any other individual in the world and the ability to decode secret messages almost as quickly as he codes.

They are typically clad in a large shirt (always either stained with coffee or slightly burned from an electrical problem) over a hoodie. The hoodie is necessary to hide his hair, and gloves are typical for a disguise as well. He does have a particular lack of tolerance for socks, and always removes them when working to focus better.

Born to a single father in the 11th Arrondissement. They grew up in a small apartment with this father (Theo Tisserand), an uncle, and no siblings. His father was an artist, both a digital and physical painter who loved his craft until his eventual death. Theo fell while painting a mural on a high-up wall and broke his spine, dying instantly from the injury. The mural is forever unfinished in the real world, a beautiful picture of the Alps, laden with evergreens and snow. In the Unreal, a holographic projection completes the image. Since his father's passing when Arcade was seventeen, they have never seen reality as the most important part of the world. Arcade now sees the inner world, the images of the mind, as the world that truly matters.

He is generally rather detached from their own gender identity. He views himself as a non-woman and not much more.

Arcade attended a typical Parisian elementary school. Though he, his father, and his uncle often struggled to pay the rent and pay for quality clothing, in France education is almost exclusively paid for by the government. Arcade wasn't a great student, not caring much about grades until they reached high school.

Their collège (middle school) was quite a different experience from elementary school. A deep care for other people and for the natural world was instilled in Arcade from a young age by his father, who loved nature more than anything. The sudden change in how he and other children were treated by peers made Arcade begin questioning whether he could trust those around him, and whether humans had any inherent goodness. The experience of attending a public collège did have an effect on what his values eventually developed into.

Le lycée (high school) was a much smoother experience. Arcade discovered a love for coding, and an interest in virtual reality. The holographic projector - which they constructed while sitting in their bed in their family's cheap apartment - won prizes. One of the competition prizes Arcade's invention won allowed him to get a summer internship with Société de le Monde Numérique (or S.M.N.), a leading company in virtual reality technology.

Arcade graduated from his lycée a year early, at 16, and planned to spend the next year working for S.M.N. before going to university. However, partway through that year, Arcade quit his job due to his father's death. At the same time, Arcade ended his formal education: he gave up on university in favor of throwing himself into his inventions.

At 16 Arcade held a job as an assistant at S.M.N., one of the most successful companies in the virtual reality field. He quit at 17 when his father died. He now holds no official job, as they are not keen to make their presence in Paris known to the current government. They do now make food in the kitchen of a small falafel restaurant in exchange for meals and lodging, but he disguises himself at all times.

The first thing that felt like a true accomplishment to Arcade was when he made his first tiny, unsophisticated projector device. He could shine it on walls to make it look like his father's paintings were there, and though his father reminded him that it was more important to live in the real world rather than through a screen, Arcade still felt that his father liked it. That was quite an accomplishment in his eyes.

His first achievement acknowledged by people outside his family was the creation of a device that could project actual holographic images, not just 2D pictures. As a high school student it won him awards and prizes, including an internship with the prestigious Société de le Monde Numérique.

He had many achievements in the years after, but his creation at the age of 19 dwarfed every other part of his life by comparison. After disappearing into his father's former art studio (now Arcade's inventing workshop), Arcade's obsession with alternate realities grew. He read philosophical texts about the speculated existence of other dimensions, and books on theoretical physics. At the same time, he immersed himself in research of virtual reality that one could actually live in, no headset needed. What he needed for that was the holographic technology he had already been developing prior to his father's death.

Nearly two years after their father's death, Arcade finished the first 'location' within the Unreal. A digital copy of their workshop, projected not over the real version, but instead a separate dimension the mind was capable of entering independent from the body. The device needed to see it was only a clunky prototype, but still functional. It was at that time a large metal bracelet (most now wear similar devices as rings), and its purpose was to deliver a specific frequency of shock to the wearer that would render their body unconscious and transport their mind to the Unreal.

Arcade was soon able to acquire digital records of all the buildings in Paris and, with the help of a complex wiring system throughout the city's sewers (which thankfully is not necessary to maintain - that would be a nightmare) as well as an AI designed to do what he had already done manually for his workshop, he finally added the rest of the city to the Unreal.

In truth, the dimension they projected holographic data onto was already there, a 'magical' plane of reality that humans could only mentally access after letting go of the real world. Arcade's inventions made it accessible to everyone, not only those who developed magical abilities after losing themselves.

The reason Arcade is now on the run from the world's government is because they disagreed with the way those in power wanted to use the Unreal. They care about human rights and freedoms more than anything: it's what their father taught them was right, and it's always rung truer than any other philosophy Arcade has come across. It is the people of the world who matter most, not the world itself. This is the basis of how Arcade views the world, and it has led him into hiding where he secretly still fights in every way he can to improve the lives of the world's population.

Clairine (she/her), the head chef of the falafel shop, is one of Arcade's closest friends. She is only 20 and already very talented and meticulous at what she does. She and Arcade rely on each other in the kitchen, which was the original basis for their bond. However, the rest of the staff quickly figured out in the four years since she was hired that she is very different out of the apron. She is practically incapable of talking to customers or strangers on the street - she freezes up whenever someone talks to her and can't get out more than a squeak in response - but when she's in the kitchen she is as bossy and assertive as can be. She orders around the ingredients just as much as her underlings, reminding the chickpeas constantly to be nice and fluffy. She and Arcade bonded over their shared love of food and she is the second most frequently appearing person in Arcade's ever-present sketchbook.

The person most often depicted in Arcade's doodles is Valér (she/they), the vice-boss (yes, that is her official title) of the falafel shop. She is the executive manager, financial manager, and a regular staff member all at once. The actual 'boss' of the shop is retired now (though Valér refuses to admit it and insists the others don't call her the boss), and Valér is her adopted child. Valér is incredibly dedicated to the shop and, though she can seem cold and intimidating, she works harder than anyone else. She, like most of the staff, is on the young side for the position they work, but they do it very well. Arcade thinks that after the years he can finally depict her grumpiness perfectly: after all, he first met her when she was only a baby.

The other staffmembers are also close friends, from the guy who stands up front and serves the food five days a week to the only person they have working delivery. Arcade is always grateful to have many friends and few enemies (if you exclude the entire government; it's not any specific person, so in his mind it doesn't count).

The only family Arcade has ever known are his father and his father's brother. Their father passed away years ago and soon after Arcade shut himself away to work on inventing, Arcade's uncle left the area in search of better prospects. He had no wish to abandon Arcade, but the young inventor had been far too occupied with virtual reality to pay any mind to those actually around them. The relationship faded away, and they now have no idea where their uncle is. They assume their uncle is unaware of their identity as 'inventor of the Unreal' and 'enemy of the state.'

Arcade has spent almost thirty years without befriending anyone outside the falafel shop, so they are rather out of practice when it comes to talking to strangers. Their skills at small talk are practically nonexistent and 'eccentric' is one of their main personality traits. He's more the type to randomly say something profound than comment on the weather. All in all, Arcade is more than a little socially inept, though those who know him well care deeply about him, social awkwardness and all.

Decades of hiding from the government have led Arcade to habitually avoid eye contact and hide his face in shadows when possible. It can be a bit annoying to those close to them, who can't read his facial expressions as a result. When Arcade is deep in thought, their hands often twitch as if wanting to type.

Whenever Arcade has a bit of free time, they will usually spend it coding some new hidden room or even just an interesting object that, once they are finished, will appear in the Unreal despite not being present in reality. Other than that, they enjoy sketching (especially drawing doodles of their colleagues at the little falafel shop (which is aptly named the "Le Petit Falafel"). His other favorite hobby is window shopping: he will walk - usually in the Unreal for fear of being caught in the real world - along streets in the shopping district and peer in at the items on display. He will often make lists of what he most desires from these excursions and presents them to his exasperated coworkers in hopes they will buy the items. Though he rarely ever gets what he puts on his lists, the most fun part for Arcade is looking through the shop windows.

Arcade's first language is French, and though he is mostly fluent in English he is quite out of practice in using it. He knows a small amount of German as well, but no other languages.