#« 𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗮。 �� / 「 intro. 」

[charmwisp]

miyawaki sakura. cis woman. she/her. bisexual. ⇝ hey, isn’t that hoshino rika? i think that the twenty-six year old from minamisatsuma, kagoshima, japan works as the psychic at the raven house, but outside of that people describe them as moons and stars and celestial lights against a night sky, fairy lights strewn across the wall, windchimes twinkling in the breeze, vague silhouettes and shadows glimpsed between the curtains. i hear they are evasive & an overthinker, but they are also known to be curious & hardworking. consider giving them a visit at their home in seal harbor apartments and get to know why they’re called the secret charm.

the names above are written according to their native japanese format (surname, first name). to clarify, this character's given name is rika!

IMPORTANT LINKS: pinterest.

BASICS

The Kanji for her full name is 星野梨華 and I deliberately incorporated 星 into her name as it means star! Usually surnames don't need to have a meaning so i'm only pointing this out bc it was a creative choice. (btw i know there's a popular anime rn where the protags have the same surname, with the same kanji, but that's a coincidence; i haven't watched the show and i made rika before the manga was even published.)

She grew up in a small city called Minamisatsuma, located in the southernmost region of mainland Japan (Kagoshima), and was always surrounded by the ocean. Alaska's proximity to the coast puts her at ease for this reason, even if the difference in climate has been a big change.

She has a pet cat; a little black cat with with big round eyes and she's called Charmy. She's kind of silly and a bit of a menace. Because Rika doesn't feel safe letting her roam but knows that her apartment isn't quite big enough to expend Charmy's excess energy, she has been known to take her cat on walks with a harness.

Rika lives in the Seal Harbor apartment complex but she rarely tells people that fact. Having worked in Kabukicho (a relatively seedy area) for a couple years, she always tries to err on the side of caution. As a young woman doing work that might spark unpleasant emotion reactions, she finds it safer to claim that she lives in Delilah's Den instead. That, and it fits the witchy character she's taken to playing at work much better.

She's a bit of a bookworm. A total bookworm, actually. She spent most of her childhood with her nose in a book, mostly stories and fiction but she has been known to spend hours researching topics that interest her. She's got a quick mind and loves to learn. All this extra information has proven quite useful in her cold readings.

Ever the overthinker, Rika has some concerns about the general ethics of her work, especially when it comes to the matter of lying to people (she tries to keep to vague embellishments as best as she can) but it helps to think of herself as a performer. It's all an act and people are encouraged to take from it what they will.

Rika loves horror and all things spooky. Because of her reserved nature, people might expect her to be quite squeamish but she's braver than she looks! That said, she likes cute-spooky best of all. Halloween is easily her favourite time of year and she's been known to go all out when buying decorations; for Rika, it's one of the biggest positives about moving to the States.

In the kitchen space of her apartment, you'll find a corkboard covered with notes and photos and mementos. You'll also find a photograph of a young man (he's Sho, you'll learn about him later!) whose face has been drawn on. Devil horns, angry eyebrows, stink lines. The works. If you ask Rika about it, she'll just tell you it's 'some useless asshole'. Do not assume that's her ex.

BACKGROUND

please note that this backstory makes references to a few named characters besides rika. they will not be opened as wanted connections, as these are all existing ocs of mine (they're mostly npcs but sho is specifically a character i have actively written).

MINAMISATSUMA, KAGOSHIMA

Rika had always considered her childhood to be a fairly ordinary one; she had two parents and three siblings (one older sister and two younger brothers, a pair of twins), and rode her bike to school every day like any other kid. Everything was always normal, simple, uneventful and maybe even a little boring. But, as the years went on, Rika started to find that she was more spiritually inclined than other children her age and her intuition was so sharp that it sometimes frightened her. (Those around her had started to joke that she could predict the weather better than the official forecast.) Never one to rock the boat, she tried not to bring it up too often and nobody ever seemed to mind but, in her own time, she grew to harbour an interest in the mysterious and unusual.

When she was thirteen, her dad was given a promotion that saw the whole family packing up and moving to Tokyo. The shift was staggering, it seemed to Rika like an entirely different world. Suddenly, she wasn't normal anymore. Overnight, she'd become the quiet new girl with weird interests. She was eventually able to make friends but only after months of sideways glances and whispers. Junior High had not been gentle on Rika.

By the time she got to high school though, things had changed. People had gotten used to Rika's sharp instincts and even started to take interest. Girls would hover outside her classroom, peering through the windows as they waited for her to come out and let them test her. Cold readings based on gut instinct, answers to questions like 'what number am I thinking of?', so on and so forth. She didn't get it right every time but it was enough for people to be impressed. After months of students begging her insight on to their entrance exam performance, Rika was worn out. Graduation was a blessing.

Shortly after graduation, Rika's family ended up moving back to Kagoshima. However, having already gotten into a good University to study Japanese Literature, Rika stayed behind and got her own tiny apartment in Tokyo.

SHINJUKU, TOKYO

Rika was quick to find work to support herself while she worked on her studies; she got a job as a cashier in a little bookstore that specialised in the occult. Although her experiences growing up kept her from telling anybody about her talents, she had never let go of that interest in all things strange and unexplained. It was a perfect job for her and she continued to work there for the entirety of her academic career. Her coworkers were Hayato, the nephew of the shop's owner and son of a television illusionist, and Sumire, the daughter of a wealthy family whose idea of rebellion was getting into retail work.

About two years into working there, a new regular started showing his face. Rika quickly learned that he was a good friend of Hayato's and had previously worked at the bookshop, having been replaced by Rika almost as soon as he had left. His name was Tsukidate Sho and he was...an interesting character; he'd quit his bookstore job at twenty-two, head filled with haphazard dreams of becoming an unlicensed private detective. (Hayato had ensured her that Sho had a real and valid motive but it too sensitive a subject to share with her, despite Sho's own claims that he wanted to get paid for being nosy.) Regardless, it didn't take Rika very long to get used to his bewildering presence and she even soon befriended him.

Eventually, Rika grew to trust this ragtag team of friends enough to tell them about her apparent gifts. She admitted she wasn't really sure if it was anything special at all, that she was sure it was probably just good judgement. Sumire told her, 'You've either got freaky powers or you're just freaky smart. Either way, it's freaky.' And yet, for the first time, nobody cared all that much. To them, she was still just Rika.

By the time Rika had graduated from University, it seemed like Sho had grown disillusioned with life as a private detective. Week after week, she'd hear him complain that all he ever had to work on were adultery cases. One day, Sho pulled Rika aside and proclaimed he had a plan, a great plan, and he needed her help. Sho's was from Kawagoe, a city in Saitama known for having maintained it's Edo-era architecture and, as it turned, his family had upheld a tradition of fortune telling for generations. The plan was as follows— they'd set up their own fortune telling and psychic reading business, with Rika as the face of it, using her talents wherever possible, while Sho used his skills to hunt out information on the customers. A mix of cold and hot reading at once. He would teach her the skills he'd gained growing up, things like showmanship and similar little flourishes. Rika had her doubts at first, not wanting to scam or fraud anybody, but Sho insisted that most people didn't believe this stuff, that they were selling an experience. She recalled her experiences at school and how much trouble people had caused her just for that same experience. She agreed to his plan.

Setting up shop in Sho's office in Kabukicho, Tokyo's answer to a red light district, the two would work together for a couple of years, with Rika juggling the scheme with her bookstore job, and they made a surprisingly good team. Eventually, they got close enough for Sho to explain himself, why he'd gotten into the business of being a private detective. When he was just a kid, maybe about fourteen years old, his best friend had gone missing. Sho was the last person to see him but there was a big dark gap in his memory between that last sighting and Sho coming to his senses. Despite his best efforts, he'd never been able to find any answers and the only appeasement he'd ever found was looking into the problems of others.

At some point, Sho had developed a fascination with the mysteries surrounding Anchorage and became fixated on the idea of hunting for answers himself. Before long, he'd become set on moving over there and he swore that, if Rika came with him, they could continue to work together. Rika paid out of her own pocket for English lessons and studied as hard as she could. Before long, they were ready to leave. Rika would go on ahead first, as Sho had a case to finish up, and they would reunite later. They never reunited.

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

At first, Rika had feared for the worst. Sho's job was hardly free of danger. The only way she could contact Sho was by email and it took her a couple of weeks to get decent access to her inbox. When she finally got access to everything, there was nothing. Another month passed before she finally heard from Sho. In his email, he explained that he'd gotten caught up with a new, interesting case and that the scope of meant he wouldn't be making it to Anchorage after all but he was sure she'd do great on her own. Needless to say, Rika was pissed.

Thankfully, she was still able to do exactly what she set out to do. She had been worried about finding work with her degree but she'd quickly come upon the Raven House. Seeing that they didn't appear to have anybody working as psychic, Rika immediately put herself forward. At this point, it was all she really knew how to do.

Only months after Rika arrived, Monique Jackson's body was discovered. So, she had thought, this is Anchorage.

[charmwisp]

BOLD what applies.

PERSONAL ; homeless | poor | middle class | comfortable | rich | single | relationship | it's complicated | dating | engaged | married | divorced | widowed | parent | only child | middle child | youngest child | oldest child | glasses/contacts | hearing aid | braces | wheel chair | cane | service dog | cis-man | cis-woman | trans-man | trans-woman | non-binary | agender | homosexual | heterosexual | bisexual | pansexual | asexual | blind/visually impaired | mute | deaf | depression | anxiety | autism | ADHD | PTSD or ASD | psychopathy | sociopathy | personality disorder | panic disorder | OCD

BELONGINGS ; car | bike | scooter | motorcycle | truck | mansion | house | apartment | RV | trailer | phone | desktop | television | watch | business | life insurance | land

PETS ; cat (a black cat called charmy) | dog | rodent | bird | reptile | other

APPEARANCE ; hair - crew cut | pixie cut | bob | shoulder length (sort of a wolf cut situation but a little less mullet-y) | elbow length | hip length or longer | black | dark brown | brown | light brown | auburn | red | ginger | strawberry blonde | dirty blonde | blonde | platinum | gray | silver | white | other colour (blue) | facial hair . eyes - brown | hazel | amber | blue | green | gray . body type - muscular | athletic | average | scrawny | curvy | fat | chubby | piercing | tattoo

TYPE OF DRUNK ; happy | sad | risk-taker | angry | philosophical | doesn’t get drunk | doesn’t drink

VICES ; smoking | drinking | illicit drugs | prescription drugs

OTHER ; broken a bone | gotten stitches | had a serious illness | had a near-death experience | killed someone | tried and failed to kill someone | had an unrequited crush | had sex and regretted it | had a one-night stand | experimented with their sexuality | ran away from home | learned an instrument | gotten a noticeable scar | been bullied | bullied someone | saved someone’s life | cheated on someone | been cheated on | been betrayed | taken the fall to protect someone | been arrested | been wanted by police | goes by a nickname | been blackmailed | had an attempt on their life | gotten away with a crime | gone on a road trip