Not everyone can say theyâve been to the Big Apple, but  [ Akio Turner ], a [ 33 ] year-old [ man ] has lived in [ Long Island City, Queens ] for [ 10 years ]. This is the city of dreams and [ he ] knows it, because he came to NYC to be a [ web designer ]. Well, that and as an [ accidental spouse ] to [ Lukas âLuciferâ Vale ]. Living in the city means he meets all kinds of people, but everyone always seems to think he looks like [ Sen Mitsuji ]. They even got away with free cab fare once because of it!
Brief Biography
If you havenât heard of him, maybe youâve seen his work. Itâs there, he promises, with a trademark little smirk on his lips. Akio Turnerâs code has been responsibility for some of the smoothest, sleekest digital experiences out there right now. And maybe itâs a little odd to lead with a career that truly seems like a job, but itâs important to him that everyone knows where heâs ended up which is successful. Which is innovative. Which is someone special.
Because a couple decades ago, he was just trying to make it through fucking high school.
Akioâs lithe form, delicate and beautiful, wasnât admired in his adolescence. It was ridiculed. He kept the bullying from his parents, instead just protecting himself with a new interest in gaming, in digital music producing, and web design. Of all of those isolative activities, it was in web design that he found talent. It was there that he found a way out.
Throwing himself into it in college, thriving with a new group of digital creators at NYU and in its surroundings, Akio found himself. Found people like himâon the outskirts, whether they were fellow Asian-Americans like he was, with his Japanese mother bestowing upon him a name he was proud of and a culture that matteredâor those who just found a haven in the digital arts for other reasons. And in the midst of that friend group, beautiful and talented and plugged the fuck in, he found the New York party scene. While he still remained a commuter student across the Hudson in Fort Lee--soaking up time especially with his mother, to whom heâs very close--he and his friends took the train into the city all through those years and continued when he moved to Queens after school.
Partyingâespecially in those exclusive, plush places that he wasnât quite supposed to beâfelt better than anything Akio had ever felt in those isolated days of his childhood and adolescence. He sought out the best parties he could find, hoarding away those memories and photos for rainy days, when he could fully revel in nights he couldnât forget or remember at all, either end of the spectrum. Those nights brought him freedom to explore himself, learning that the thrill of a connection wasnât in the gender of his partner, but in the feeling of desire, no matter who he was dancing with.
But all days like those have to come to an end, and so Akio put away his constant partying in favor of work more and more. Through his late twenties, he stayed on top of web design trends for his clientsâmainly corporate redesigns, as people finally woke up to the need to always have an updated website. He even created some trends on his own. It was long, and web design isnât exactly the biggest moneymaker, but with a few roommates and a few weekends here and there of letting loose, Akio found his way through his twenties.
He found his way the way he always did: a bit of a closeted nerd, though never closeted in any other way. He found fun in the midst of his work, as finicky and as detailed as web design and coding could be. He likes it, even if heâd like to put out a much cooler aura for himself than him hunching over a keyboard. He really, genuinely likes this stuff. But still sometimes, at the end of a hard week, he just wants to roll his shoulders back and feel beautiful, feel energetic, feel free again like he used to.Â
Now, in his early thirties, heâs caught between two worlds again. One, his dear motherâtruly, his dear mother, eccentric and fun as she isâis wondering when heâll find his person, given that the rest of his family was already married by 30. Heâs able to wave her off well enough; Akio hasnât been lonely in the slightest, and heâs busy anyway. His work fits into this neat little box, too, giving him confidence in his skills and readiness to push himself further, always. The second, though, is an ache. An ache for his former life, when he worked hard still but played even harder, when he trusted just a bit more, even when it really hurt. He misses the thrill of that, and wonders if itâs gone foreverâŚor maybe heâs just finally hitting his quarter-life crisis.
Whoâs to say?
Character Traits
+++ Ambitious: All those days and nights hiding in his bedroom helped him to be attuned to design software in the same way that his bullies learned the rhythm of a soccer ball between their feet or the feel of a football in their hands. The difference is that those bullies are working boring office jobs back in that same suburb and Akio took those hours alone and turned them into code, into features, into digital innovation. And he isnât stopping. His dream is his own design firm, where younger designers can gather instead of competing with one another for gigs or underpaid in-house support.
+++ Grounded: Look, identity crises are for some but theyâre not for Akio. Heâs done his time in therapy and heâs still in it. Sure, heâs got a story. Sure, heâs got baggage. But at the end of the day, heâs exactly who he is: an ambitious queer man in New York City, one that will correct the pronunciation of his name if someone stumbles over it.
+++ Adventurous: Akio loves to have fun. Thereâs very little way to understate this. He loves meeting new people with new perspectives, drawing a lot of creative inspiration from sleek, private underground clubs of New York, in particular. While his regular partying days are behind him as he rises in his thirties, he loves an exclusive party as much as he did in his college days. A well-timed adventure (read: far away from deadlines) is irresistible.Â
--- Distrustful: Fool him once, thatâs just a fun Friday night. Fool him twiceâŚright. Right, thatâs on Akio. And heâs not one to give second chances. Or many first chances, for that matter. While he likes to have fun, he prefers to do so from the safety of his most trusted relationships. He isnât quick to forgiveness, and itâs gotten him into some nasty conflicts before, so heâd rather just keep people at armâs length when he can.Â
--- Self-indulgent: Akio can bring the statement âI deserve thisâ to an artform. Because hereâs the secret: with Akioâs strict boundaries around who he lets into his life, letting those boundaries slide can feel better than any hit, any warm bloom in his chest after a shot, every grasp of fingertips into his skin. Letting those boundaries go can feel like liberation, when he lets himself really do. Akio is always looking for the next moment that he can really indulge, really enjoy the pleasures of the world, even if it means dealing with a killer hangover Monday morning.Â
--- Stubborn: His mother used to always point to dogs who pulled on their leashes, refusing to walk any further and say, âThatâs you!â He hated it. And only because itâs true. Akio wonât do anything that he doesnât want to do. Heâs the guy who makes restaurant decisions, and catch him rolling his eyes later if another person insists they go somewhere else, for example. He likes what he likes, and doesnât like what he doesnât like. And thatâs that.Â
Wanted connections:
Roommate: They share a two-bedroom in Long Island City. How they share it is up for debate!
Friends from college: Anyone within three years, older or younger, would probably fit this, but Iâm flexible! These could be roommates, fellow party-goers, study buddies, fuck buddies, anything. We can plot out any level!
An ex: Someone Akio trusted, someone he may be really stubborn to forgive (even if they did nothing wrong, seriously, heâs justâŚkinda a bitch. I love him, but itâs true)