Vitaderma

History of Vitaderma Corp. & Keri Vasani

Keri Vasani was a razhean man who grew up in a rotting apartment in Ossaco City, on Razhea Capita. His parents were abusive, often forcing Keri to go without food for several days at a time. Teachers at the school he attended noted bruises and scars across his body, but officials never did anything to help.

Keri ran away from home at twelve years old, surviving in the neon-lit streets of Ossaco City. He became fascinated with a wax statue of a coruscian woman planted in the middle of an alleyway he frequented.

Conqua by Hatwolf

As a homeless person on Razhea Capita, he was practically invisible. While this came with countless difficulties, a benefit he discovered was that pickpocketing became incredibly easy. Keri managed to swipe the wallets and purses off almost five hundred individuals, amassing nearly a million charms.

As a smart child he knew to save this money - he spent the bare minimum necessary for a small apartment, clean clothes, and fresh food, before purchasing a secondary apartment above the one he called home. He transformed this flat into a foundation to begin a business he had dreamed of, ever since he discovered the wax statue.

Keri was much smarter than everyone gave him credit for. He stole several robots from a nearby factory, hacking into its interface and programming them to work in tandem to manufacture a special lotion he had also designed.

In this scruffy apartment Vitaderma Corp. was born. Three months later, with over ten thousand bottles of lotion, cream, and other skincare products, Keri Vasani began promoting his new business online. He used artificial intelligence to forge fake videos of celebrities testing his products. The most popular of these videos was a deepfake version of Conqua, with over seventy million views and garnering twelve thousand paying customers.

Annual revenue from the first year hit seven million charms, an unprecedented amount for a business this young. Keri endorsed genuine celebrities to provide more legitimacy, encouraging thousands more paying customers ecstatic to try the lotions their idols were using.

As these celebrities continued to post on social media, testing out new lotions and creams, a few eagle-eyed fans noticed changes in their appearances. The skin around their necks were starting to sag, riddled with a seemingly waxy texture. People attending fan meet-ups even claimed these celebrities smelt vaguely of rotting despite being lathered in expensive Vitaderma lotions, intended to give off an irresistably delicious odour.

Around the same time one of these celebrities completely disappeared with no explanation. Atyha Thereoma was a twenty-year old coruscian actress, one of the biggest endorsees of Vitaderma at the time. While she rarely posted on social media, the few times she did were to share her love for these products. People began to notice the tell-tale sign of sagging in the neck, and just a week later, she disappeared. Reports of her absence flooded Razhea Capita and Venus, her two homes.

Two weeks later, a life-size wax figurine of Atyha was discovered at the Ossaco Wax Museum. During those two weeks over ninety major coruscian and razhean celebrities vanished with no trace, with wax figurines also making an appearance beside Atyha.

Concerns grew, and hundreds of reports forced law enforcement officials to carry out a serious investigation into the company. Just days of investigation into Keri's childhood, his previous fixations and behavioural issues, as well as connections between celebrity disappearances and Vitaderma products practically confirmed their biggest fears.

Keri was arrested on suspicion of hundreds, possibly thousands, of counts of first degree murder. A psychological evaluation confirmed these crimes and others the detectives were unaware of. Due to the severity of Keri's crimes, he was executed just five days after his trial. He was deemed psychologically unfit for both prison and reformation.

A post-execution investigation on Keri was then carried out. Ten notebooks were uncovered in his apartment, filled with scribbles and drawings of coruscian and razhean women, all drawn with a waxy texture. Cryptic messages were scribbled all around these drawings, which still haven't been decoded. Law enforcement intended to keep these notebooks out of the public eye, but news got out and fear and panic grew in the community.

Five years later, in the present day, fear still lingers around the cosmetic industry and Razhea Capita.