Hana Electrics

Some companies have a difficult time adapting to new markets, and in the aftermath of the Talinz war, Hana Electrics was one. A primary military contractor during the war, Japan’s neutrality turned the country into an island bastion against a ravaged world. Hana used the safe haven as an excuse to sell arms to both sides.

In the wake of the Baku Treaty, the company collapsed in on itself. Their massive expansion required governments that were willing to pay billions out in defence contracts, and with demand severed overnight, it was unsustainable. Hana was never part of the conclave that founded the Talinz fighting league, and whilst they stabilised around a small collection of factories in and around Sendai and Yamagata, they looked set to forever be minor players, a footnote in history.

Frequent poor business decisions plagued the company for the following years. It seemed as if misfortune followed the board of directors, for every time they committed to a project, diversified into a new market or embarked on new research, the market would fall though, the project would break down, and research labs would suffer some catastrophe or another. It made those in charge of the company quite rightly rather paranoid.

When Wakahisa Hikari took over the company from her father, she made it very clear what she thought was wrong. They had tried to follow market trends, and only caught on when the bubbles burst. To succeed, they would need to forge new ground. To start, they would begin to manufacture domestic servants. Talinz with the sole purpose of serving a home. Completely loyal and perfectly designed to cook, clean, remember important family dates and take children to school. Hana would become a family company. A name you could trust. The genius was really in the price, though. Cheap enough to be considered affordable by the middle class, expensive enough that a family would want to show it off to their neighbours. Butlers and maids for a new generation, the perfect status symbol.

At the same time, to pad sales, they would sell unassembled Talinz frames. Japan especially was nurturing a growing Talinz fandom. Distribute frames to schools at cheap prices to teach children electrical engineering, and advertise the robustness and reliability of Hana products at the same time. Distribute parts to the electrical shops in Akihabara and elsewhere for adult fanatics that wanted to take apart and rebuild their own units from scratch, rather than merely fit more modular parts to their frames. Considering the money saved in labour due to the lack of assembly, profits skyrocketed.

It wasn’t long, too, before publishers and producers began to approach Hana Electrics. A recent trend had begun to emerge amongst the general public. Individuals were writing personality files for Talinz with the aim of making them behave like fictional characters they were particularly invested in. For publishers and producers, this usage of their copyrighted material was, they viewed, a lost attempt to monetise. Hana leapt on the offer and began to accept contracts to license and manufacture frames with parts specifically designed for the appearance and behaviour of popular figures from television and literature. Research budgets were diverted towards making frames that looked as realistic as possible. Skin-like polymers were patented by the company that blurred the line between robot and human.

This gave them another idea. Approaching diplomats and dignitaries at first, and never openly, Han Electrics gave them an option. When such important political figures were so frequently at risk, why not build an imposter that they could pilot remotely? The Kagemusha series was born.

By the time Wakahisa Hikari retired two years ago, passing the company to her daughter Wakahisa Jun, she had turned two factories in the north of Japan into one of the most profitable institutions on the planet.

Wakahisa Jun, the current CEO of Hana Electrics is notable for one thing only, currently. Her legion of 102 Kagemusha. It has been suggested, perhaps, that nobody has truly seen her face at all, and there are certainly no documented pictures of her past a family holiday at the age of 8 that could ever be confirmed as Jun. If Jun does exist, however, the only legacy that she is likely to pass on is one of consolidating her mother’s power. Few people know what Wakahisa Jun can do, or, indeed, if she is even still a person…

In the stat blocks below, I have given one for Jun, and one for Jun’s Kagemusha. If you want that in your game, Jun prime is a Talinz frame herself, or maybe she never shows her face for another reason, that is awesome. Tell me more about it!

        

Wakahisa Jun, CEO of Hana Electrics
High Concept: Stone-faced, distant delegator
Aspect: I must step out of my mother’s shadow
Skills: Great (+4) Insightful, Good (+3) Intimidation, Fair (+2) Willpower, Average (+1) Popular culture
Stunts: Best for the job: Whenever you make an Insightful check to ascertain somebody’s capabilities, you gain a +2 to the roll, and automatically learn one of their most proficient skills.

Wakahisa Jun, Talinz replicant (The / designates the differences between model specifics. They tend to be equipped for purpose)
High concept: Flawless Kagemusha
Aspects: No sense of self
Skills: Great (+4) Willpower, Good(+3) Notice/Fight, Fair(+2) Notice/Fight, Average (+1) Endurance
Stunts: Only the mistress matters: Attempts to coerce the Jun replicant series to act in a way that would be injurious to Wakahisa Jun’s reputation or existence are unthinkable to them. If such coercion is attempted, even if the replicant’s own existence is threatened, they gain a +2 bonus to any Willpower rolls.