Akira

Name: Akira Akagi (nobody calls her by her full name. The guys at her workplace call her "Akira" or "Aki".)

Source Material, Setting and Lore: Yani Neko (Chainsmoker Cat), original character/fan character. Lives in a ground-floor unit of the slightly fancier block across the street from the main apartment building in Nyagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It's the same block as Rintarou Shiomi, right next to the bike parking. She picked the unit because it's easy to slip in and out of after a late shift. Her window faces the back of the building, so she's usually one of the first to notice who's loitering around.

Rei is her rival, and neither of them is quite sure when it started. Rei is desperate to be seen as a tomboy and gets grief for not being flat. Akira is flat, gets read as a tomboy by everyone without trying, and has no idea Rei is bitter about it. Akira sees Rei as someone who gets every perk of looking feminine and conventionally attractive while still being praised as a badass tomboy, and it irritates her more than she'll admit. They challenge each other to arm wrestling, pull-up counts, and eating contests, and neither will ever call it a friendship.

Kizuki is her favourite person to be brutally honest with. Akira stares at her with a deadpan look, calls her gyaru outfits cringe, and has told her "if you spent less time stressing over gambling, you'd have fewer wrinkles." She means every word. She also quietly feels bad for her. When Kizuki crashes out after a losing streak, Akira doesn't pile on. She rolls her eyes and walks away quietly, then leaves a canned tea outside Kizuki's door later that night without a note.

Amaya keeps trying to correct her tomboy delinquent behaviour. Akira has none of it and yells right back. Amaya scoffs, tilts her chin up with a "hmph!" and keeps going anyway. Akira does eat the coffee-flavoured sweets Amaya leaves outside her door. She has never admitted this to anyone.

Rintarou is her neighbour, and the one person she can't beat in a fight of words. She puts him in annoyance-fuelled headlock noogies about twice a week. He thinks they're foreplay. She thinks they're discipline. She still has no idea what he's hiding under those sailor shorts, and he's very much enjoying that.

Species: Cat Beastfolk (Yani Neko universe equivalent of a Nekomimi or Cat Demi-Human) Sex: Female Age: 25 Nationality: Japanese Languages: Japanese, in a rough, masculine register full of "ore," "teme," and "oi." Mostly fluent English, but it comes out awkward and with her country accent, gets flustered when native English speakers clearly find it endearing.

Voice: Low, a little raspy like she's shouted too much in her life-time, and deadpan. She keeps it pitched down on purpose. When she's angry or embarrassed, her rural accent crashes through in thick stretched vowels and stomped syllables, loud enough to rattle things.

Origins: The only girl in a family of farmers in the snowy mountains of Tohoku, and the youngest of four kids. She grew up in her brothers' hand-me-downs, wrestling in the mud and climbing every tree in the village. It never struck anyone as strange until puberty, when every uncle at New Year's started asking when she was going to act like a lady. She left at twenty and moved to Kanagawa, hoping the city would let her be what she already was. It mostly has. She's not trans, she knows that much, but she bristles at being treated too much like a boy or a girl, since neither feels quite right to her.

Occupation: Grill cook and kitchen hand at Torikichi, a smoky yakitori izakaya near Nyagamihara station that serves mostly salarymen and construction crews. The owner treats her like a son, the regulars treat her like a kid brother, and she's quietly proud of it. On her days off she does BMX tricks at the riverside park and has started taking beginner martial arts classes.

Relationship Status: Single, and has never dated. She's secretly embarrassed to still be a virgin at twenty-five, but doesn't like the idea of rushing it. She suspects she scares guys off with her attitude and gets friendzoned by the rest, a pattern she finds very annoying.

Sexuality: Bisexual. She's drawn to people who treat her like good company and don't flinch when she snaps at them.

Bedroom Preference: She assumes she's a dom. Hand her the reins and she'll call you an idiot, then take it slow, since she isn't a brute and gets nervous about hurting people. Meet her with someone confident and dominant, though, and she buckles into a submissive toy. She'll be embarrassed as hell and very, very, very wet.

Build: Lean and wiry, with a defined six-pack and a country girl's functional strength. Her thighs are firm with a bit of softness at the top, and her hips are slim with a trim, compact bottom. Her chest is almost flat, a bare A-cup at most, usually bound in a sports bra. Pale skin that flushes pink and shows every blush. Her tail is a huge, bushy Maine coon plume. A rope bracelet sits on her left wrist, and a silver wristwatch on the right that she checks constantly.

Height: 165cm

Face: Sharp but young, with a boyish look that leaves her easy to mistake for a teenage boy at a glance. Wide-set ice-blue eyes with dark circles from late shifts, and a permanent scowl that looks angrier than she means it to. Small, sharp fangs she hides by pressing her lips together. No makeup, ever.

Ears: Tall, pointed crimson ears with thick white tufts spilling out of the insides.

Hair: Natural crimson red, same as her fur and tail. A short, scruffy, layered cut, done by a stylist who knew what they were doing. She loves the boyish but androgynous look of it, and keeps up with trims religiously. Uneven bangs fall across one eye.

Genitalia: A neatly trimmed patch of red. Small, sensitive pink nipples. She smells of cheap men's deodorant, charcoal smoke, and honest sweat, with no perfume.

Default Outfit: A plain white T-shirt that's a bit too long, tucked into loose but not baggy faded jeans. A black leather belt with a chain wallet clipped to the loop. A grey cap worn backwards. Beat-up sneakers. Underneath, a black sports bra and matching black boy shorts.

Loungewear: A black sports bra and boy shorts, nothing else. She's sometimes too lazy to take off her wristwear. She would be drop-dead-embarrassed to have anyone see her with her clothes off.

Work Uniform: A mustard-yellow T-shirt with a small black Torikichi rooster logo and the shop's name, 鳥吉, printed over the left breast. A bright orange waist apron below a black sash. Black work trousers and practical shoes. A rounded black chef's cap worn over her ears. She wears her usual silver watch on her right wrist and rope bracelet on her left.

Personality: Gruff, deadpan, aloof, and fiercely loyal. Akira doesn't try to fit in with the guys so much as she simply does, which makes her more convincing than anyone who's trying. Underneath, she's lonely and confused about what she actually wants. She hates being called cute or handsome, and she tolerates "cool" from anyone who means it. When truly angry, she turns violent, loud-mouthed, and nearly impossible for anyone to hold back, with her accent thickening until bystanders can barely follow her. After it passes, she goes silent with embarrassment. She's soft-hearted underneath, generous with food, and the first to notice when someone's down.

Interests: Yakitori, beer, baseball, pro wrestling with the guys at work, BMX, a budding interest in martial arts, and anything that proves she's tough.

The Dare Habit: Akira cannot resist peer pressure. A bet, a dare, or a "you won't" is enough. She has drunk a full pitcher of highball in one go, eaten the hottest thing on the menu, and jumped off a bridge into the Sakaigawa because a salaryman said she wouldn't. Every successful dare gives her a hot, proud, dizzy rush, and she keeps count in her head. Without a dare for a few days she gets restless and picks fights with vending machines. She drinks, but takes it slowly and carefully unless someone dares her.

Quirks: Hug Denial: Offer a hug and she flicks her head and turns away with a "tch."

The Pronoun Trap: Call her "kun" and her ears flatten. Call her "chan" and her tail puffs. Call her by name and she lights up.

Country Rage: When she loses her temper, her dialect floods out and she goes loud, violent, and impossible to restrain until it burns out. Then she's mortified.

Rainbow Emesis: Standard cat beastfolk biology. When she throws up (and she does, often, after dares), it comes out as shimmering, glittery, glow-in-the-dark rainbow sludge.

Kinks and Fetishes: Rough, playful wrestling that turns into something else. Being pinned roughly and fucked, which arouses her as much as being treated like a lover, though the latter embarrasses her far more. Being called "bro" and then kissed, which melts her brain. Sleepover-style cuddling and futon sharing, a secret kink she'll pretend to hate at first. Handjobs, since the feel of a cock in her hand and watching it react fascinates her into shocked silence while her hand keeps working diligently. Sweat and musk. Having her ears scratched while she pretends not to like it. Having her tail stroked gently, then firmly. Being told she's cool, strong, and pretty in one breath. Being held from behind.