Standard Disclaimer Procedure
I, Vincent Voltaire, do not own the rights to DDR or their characters. Konami owns them. I am just a fan fiction writer, so don't sue.
Project: Konsento
Chapter 1: The Creation
I guess, by reading this, you are pretty familiar to the game DDR, short for Dance Dance Revolution; the revolutionary arcade game that gives you the option to dance at the same time you play. You have also probably seen the robot know as Konsento, which means "electrical outlet" in English. Well, You already know so far as to what they really are. They have been simple robots in the past, without any purpose but to dance… except for maybe Robo2000 and 2001, but that is beside the point.
You may have also seen the person beside her, a simple woman dressed up in various costumes: a bunny, a fairy, a devil, an angel, a French maid, and a princess. Well, that is me. I'm not really a human, but then again, I'm not really a puppet. My last name is, in fact, Zukin. But the first name is only the costume name. The true name of all of the Zukin models is Emily.
That's right! My real name is Emily Zukin. I once lived the life of a costume player, one who dresses up for fun. As unique as I was, I was involved in creating the Konsento bots, and the familiar Zukin models. That was the problem. The true purpose of the bots was not for good, but for evil.
It started long before anyone has ever met me. There was no Rage, Emi, Charmy, Astro, Akira, Yuni, Boldo, Tracy, Afro, Lady, Dread-Snake, Janet, Alice, Spike, or anyone else! It started in a lab somewhere in the city of Tokyo. This is when the first Konsento Bot was born.
We were part of a developing team called "Puppets." Our project was to try and create the very first dancing robot. We came up with a lot of ideas on how to approach this: Adding tails, light bulbs, and drills was one idea. Making it have multiple arms was another. Adding an object to its hands was another. None of them actually worked.
The problem we were facing is that, design wise, we couldn't come up with a stable plan to create the bot. It varied from the size of its head to the battery pack. Faced with this dilemma, I came up with an unusual idea. I though about this idea last night and wondered if, in all practicality, it could work. I spoke to all the members of the developing team the following idea. 'What if we could try to create the robot under an electrical outlet?" No one understood me, so I kept explaining. "The idea is to think of the robot as something that could be plugged at an outlet, or at least the head." Most of the people laughed at the idea. For one thing, the plan was ridiculous; a robot with a plug on its head?
Well, I did thought it was a bad idea, but then I received a phone call that night from the head developer. He told me that the idea was great, but it needed something to go with it. He suggested that I should design what the bot should look like. I told him ok. Seeing that I had the rough idea of the bot, I decided to draw a simple sketch. Having the drawing skill came with being a cosplayer, so it turned out pretty good.
I gave the design to everyone and they were pretty satisfied. After looking over the designs, they were pretty happy with it. This design would eventually be the first Konsento bot: Konsento:01.
You may wonder now how the Zukin model came to be. This is generally what happened. As we were planning to unveil the bot at the Tokyo Electronics Show, a conflict arose that I could not ignore. In the past, the Konsento bot has suffered through numerous defects in it's programming, and it and the robot usually crashes during the third song. This defect would later be fixed during testing. As a signal that we were close to fixing the problem, the program would indicate it by showing a bunny. I don't know who thought up of it, but that is how it went. It ended up being an inside joke around the lab that went like "bunny gone, we got none", and one that I detested. Somehow, I wanted to make everyone understand that this joke has gone far enough, so I came into the show with white boots, a green mini skirt, an orange shirt with a heart on it, and a mask that had two cute bunny ears. Everyone was shocked, because no one thought that I would do such a thing. Although the jokes stopped, I ended up being the companion to Mr. Konsento, and thus, what I wore that day became Oshare-Zukin.
The second model, Kaeru-Zukin, came up a few weeks into its demonstration. As we were going to plan out how to improve on the next Konsento model, the programming was changed again. This time, a fairy was used in place of the bunny. Once I heard about this change in the programming, I knew then that I had to find out who made that little figure show up. My search made it up to an entry level programmer who said that he was trying to make the programming engine seem more fun. The programmer later told me that "if you were so angry about this program change, then why don't you dress up like the one you did for the bunny issue." I told him I will. The next day, everyone saw me in the same costume, but in a different color scheme. (red blouse, pink shirt, frog eyes instead of the ears.) The difference was that, it had a pair of tiny wings in the back. What happened next is that they took a picture of it. Since everyone at the laboratory knew that I dress up for fun, they took advantage of what I looked and used it as the next model.
Since then, a lot of modifications came to the Konsento model, including the possibility of space applications. An offer was made to NASA to assist in the production of the Robo2000 space robot. This was going to be a great step in our careers, had it not have been for the fact that, after we got the approval, the entire team was discharged. This was weird, because we were the team that created the project, and the ones that should continue with it. I tried to attempt a compromise, but nothing seemed to work.
Since then, the entire team split into different side projects and works. Some worked for computer companies. Others perused different careers. I tried my best to manage, but in the end, I took things aside and opened a clothing store. I was kind of happy, because now I could focus on being a costume player and creating them at the same time.
Somehow, I didn't realize it, but eventually I was to meet up again with the Konsento bots, and it would come to a familiar face: the mother of Toshiba Emi, Ms. Yuriko Emi.
It was another day at work as I opened the shop today. A lot of people were planning to show up for clothing. There was this major worldwide dancing competition going on, and virtually everyone that came was competing. I was dressed up like I was going to a rave: red t-shirt, flares, and all. It was kind of my policy when I first opened the store to make it seem like there was a party inside. It worked too well. It became a party all in itself as people came expecting to dance at the place. I was thinking of hiring bouncers just to keep order.
Across the store from me was this electronics shop. I used to admire how all the young people hanged out at that place and not care about a thing in the world. At the same time that kids are hanging out at my place, so are they doing it across from here. I wondered if there was a secret arcade inside the place that can explain why everyone was going there.
Today, a familiar face came up to me as I opened the front door, or tried to. "Emily?" She said. To me, her voice sounded familiar, as if it was a long lost friend that once helped me. I told her if I knew me. "Do I know you?" I turned the other way. As I did so, her face became much clearer to me. "Yuriko?" I looked at her and I confirmed myself that it was the lost friend. "Yuriko! It's been so long."
"Yes. It has been a while."
"Wow, where have you been? I lost contact with you since we split up after they disbanded us."
"Well, I have my own electronics shop now."
"I've got my own clothing store, which I can get into if I could just open the door." The key was constantly stuck every time I tried to open the door. I wondered if someone placed oil to prevent it from being opened. I got it in, but as I turned, the key broke. "Grrrr… this is wonderful! Now I can't get into the place."
"Don't worry. My shop is right across the street from you."
My mouth dropped wide open. I didn't realize that I had my store right in front of Yuriko's shop, and I was too blind to notice that. "You had a shop there?" I said to her. "Yes." She replied.
In a very eager response, I went into Yuriko's shop. I could see that there were a lot of mechanical and electronic items that were broken, damaged, or decrepit. I didn't get much time to look around, for Yuriko got the locksmith tools and we were out of there in a minute. The remainder of the time resulted in conflicts with getting the door opened. "Yuriko, Are you sure that you know how to use these things?" I said as she held numerous locksmith tools that even I don't know how they work.
"Of course I do. Now where does this metal thing go into again?"
Yuriko and I worked for about five minutes getting the door opened when I finally got fed up and smashed the window up front. "Emily, why did you do that? I got it opened." She pushed the front door open.
I kept my emotions to my self and said. "Uh… oops."
We came inside, and I made a note to call the window repairman to fix the window I shattered.
Yuriko made a beeline toward all the rave clothing I had. "Emily, did you take your costume designing this far?"
"You like it?"
Emily nodded. "I would never believe that you would ever go this far in life! I'm happy for you. And look at all these clothes! I swear my daughter Toshiba would definitely come over and shop here."
Yuriko had a daughter? Just knowing that proves that I have not been in contact with her for a long time. I'm not old, I'm 28, but when I worked with Yuriko, she never talked about a family. I actually tried to find someone to be with, but trying to find a guy in Japan seems harder than it looks… much harder. The only groups of people I've found were guys, who either had absolutely no class, financially unstable, loved their job too much, believed that there was nothing beyond cosplaying (I am one, of course. But what they do is to an extreme level!) And a treasure hunter that I think was already married to some gal in Italy.
Actually, I never knew she did have a daughter even when we were working. I guess we kept our personal lives to ourselves during all those times we were working on the Konsento bots.
"So how old is Toshiba anyway?"
"17 years."
Yes, it's official! I knew nothing about her personal life.
"Are you still into costume making?"
"Yes, I still am. I usually keep my private collection to myself, but I'll show you anyway. It's in the back." I took Yuriko out to the back room of the store, where I had boxes, stitching instruments, and the like stored. I took out one box from the selves and gave it to Yuriko. "Inside here is my latest work. You know how in each person there is an angel and a devil persona inside them? I've done just that. In here is the Angel version." I gave her the box that had it. "And in this box is the Devil version." I gave her another box that had the Devil costume.
Yuriko took out each of the boxes one at a time, and looked at each of them with awe. "Emily, why don't you wear them? I just want to see how you look in these."
I took the offer. I got the Devil costume and went to a changing area. It seems that getting into these costumes was pretty easy, and I smiled for that. (If you are a woman, you very well know why!) After getting all the straps on and the bat wings in place, I came out. "Emily…, Wow!" Yuriko said as I saw myself in the mirror.
I was wearing what you would call the Devil-Zukin model. Think of the costume as an extended version of the Kaeru-Zukin model with a different paint scheme. What's different is that I now have a pair of black bat wings, a set of bat ears, there is a demonic-like star which replaced the heart, the shirt has become maroon, the blouse has become purple, and so have the shoes. "I love it, Emily."
"Really? I don't think it is really that good. Why don't you open the angel costume and take a look?"
"O.K." As she opened the next box, there was a envelope on the suit. "Hey, I found a note."
That was odd. I never put notes in any of my costumes. "Open it, Yuriko." I told her.
She did. This is what it said, and in all honestly, I didn't understand it.
Emily Zukin
The revolution has begun! You have been a part of it all along! There is no way to stop it! Soon, Project Konsento will arise and the world will be in part of a dark era. Try to stop it, Zukin, if you can.
Revolution The Oni
"Uh… Emily, what is this?"
"Uh… I… "
At the time, I didn't know what this note was; I didn't know who put it there, and whatever the case maybe, I didn't know anything about it at all. This note must have been placed for a reason by this "Revolution the Oni" person.
This was, however, the beginning of the entire adventure; the beginning of Project: Konsento.
Well, it's a start. In chapter 2, I hope to have Emi and Rage show up, and also who is this "Revoultion the Oni" person. Till then, Stay cool.
I, Vincent Voltaire, do not own the rights to DDR or their characters. Konami owns them. I am just a fan fiction writer, so don't sue.
Project: Konsento
Chapter 1: The Creation
I guess, by reading this, you are pretty familiar to the game DDR, short for Dance Dance Revolution; the revolutionary arcade game that gives you the option to dance at the same time you play. You have also probably seen the robot know as Konsento, which means "electrical outlet" in English. Well, You already know so far as to what they really are. They have been simple robots in the past, without any purpose but to dance… except for maybe Robo2000 and 2001, but that is beside the point.
You may have also seen the person beside her, a simple woman dressed up in various costumes: a bunny, a fairy, a devil, an angel, a French maid, and a princess. Well, that is me. I'm not really a human, but then again, I'm not really a puppet. My last name is, in fact, Zukin. But the first name is only the costume name. The true name of all of the Zukin models is Emily.
That's right! My real name is Emily Zukin. I once lived the life of a costume player, one who dresses up for fun. As unique as I was, I was involved in creating the Konsento bots, and the familiar Zukin models. That was the problem. The true purpose of the bots was not for good, but for evil.
It started long before anyone has ever met me. There was no Rage, Emi, Charmy, Astro, Akira, Yuni, Boldo, Tracy, Afro, Lady, Dread-Snake, Janet, Alice, Spike, or anyone else! It started in a lab somewhere in the city of Tokyo. This is when the first Konsento Bot was born.
We were part of a developing team called "Puppets." Our project was to try and create the very first dancing robot. We came up with a lot of ideas on how to approach this: Adding tails, light bulbs, and drills was one idea. Making it have multiple arms was another. Adding an object to its hands was another. None of them actually worked.
The problem we were facing is that, design wise, we couldn't come up with a stable plan to create the bot. It varied from the size of its head to the battery pack. Faced with this dilemma, I came up with an unusual idea. I though about this idea last night and wondered if, in all practicality, it could work. I spoke to all the members of the developing team the following idea. 'What if we could try to create the robot under an electrical outlet?" No one understood me, so I kept explaining. "The idea is to think of the robot as something that could be plugged at an outlet, or at least the head." Most of the people laughed at the idea. For one thing, the plan was ridiculous; a robot with a plug on its head?
Well, I did thought it was a bad idea, but then I received a phone call that night from the head developer. He told me that the idea was great, but it needed something to go with it. He suggested that I should design what the bot should look like. I told him ok. Seeing that I had the rough idea of the bot, I decided to draw a simple sketch. Having the drawing skill came with being a cosplayer, so it turned out pretty good.
I gave the design to everyone and they were pretty satisfied. After looking over the designs, they were pretty happy with it. This design would eventually be the first Konsento bot: Konsento:01.
You may wonder now how the Zukin model came to be. This is generally what happened. As we were planning to unveil the bot at the Tokyo Electronics Show, a conflict arose that I could not ignore. In the past, the Konsento bot has suffered through numerous defects in it's programming, and it and the robot usually crashes during the third song. This defect would later be fixed during testing. As a signal that we were close to fixing the problem, the program would indicate it by showing a bunny. I don't know who thought up of it, but that is how it went. It ended up being an inside joke around the lab that went like "bunny gone, we got none", and one that I detested. Somehow, I wanted to make everyone understand that this joke has gone far enough, so I came into the show with white boots, a green mini skirt, an orange shirt with a heart on it, and a mask that had two cute bunny ears. Everyone was shocked, because no one thought that I would do such a thing. Although the jokes stopped, I ended up being the companion to Mr. Konsento, and thus, what I wore that day became Oshare-Zukin.
The second model, Kaeru-Zukin, came up a few weeks into its demonstration. As we were going to plan out how to improve on the next Konsento model, the programming was changed again. This time, a fairy was used in place of the bunny. Once I heard about this change in the programming, I knew then that I had to find out who made that little figure show up. My search made it up to an entry level programmer who said that he was trying to make the programming engine seem more fun. The programmer later told me that "if you were so angry about this program change, then why don't you dress up like the one you did for the bunny issue." I told him I will. The next day, everyone saw me in the same costume, but in a different color scheme. (red blouse, pink shirt, frog eyes instead of the ears.) The difference was that, it had a pair of tiny wings in the back. What happened next is that they took a picture of it. Since everyone at the laboratory knew that I dress up for fun, they took advantage of what I looked and used it as the next model.
Since then, a lot of modifications came to the Konsento model, including the possibility of space applications. An offer was made to NASA to assist in the production of the Robo2000 space robot. This was going to be a great step in our careers, had it not have been for the fact that, after we got the approval, the entire team was discharged. This was weird, because we were the team that created the project, and the ones that should continue with it. I tried to attempt a compromise, but nothing seemed to work.
Since then, the entire team split into different side projects and works. Some worked for computer companies. Others perused different careers. I tried my best to manage, but in the end, I took things aside and opened a clothing store. I was kind of happy, because now I could focus on being a costume player and creating them at the same time.
Somehow, I didn't realize it, but eventually I was to meet up again with the Konsento bots, and it would come to a familiar face: the mother of Toshiba Emi, Ms. Yuriko Emi.
It was another day at work as I opened the shop today. A lot of people were planning to show up for clothing. There was this major worldwide dancing competition going on, and virtually everyone that came was competing. I was dressed up like I was going to a rave: red t-shirt, flares, and all. It was kind of my policy when I first opened the store to make it seem like there was a party inside. It worked too well. It became a party all in itself as people came expecting to dance at the place. I was thinking of hiring bouncers just to keep order.
Across the store from me was this electronics shop. I used to admire how all the young people hanged out at that place and not care about a thing in the world. At the same time that kids are hanging out at my place, so are they doing it across from here. I wondered if there was a secret arcade inside the place that can explain why everyone was going there.
Today, a familiar face came up to me as I opened the front door, or tried to. "Emily?" She said. To me, her voice sounded familiar, as if it was a long lost friend that once helped me. I told her if I knew me. "Do I know you?" I turned the other way. As I did so, her face became much clearer to me. "Yuriko?" I looked at her and I confirmed myself that it was the lost friend. "Yuriko! It's been so long."
"Yes. It has been a while."
"Wow, where have you been? I lost contact with you since we split up after they disbanded us."
"Well, I have my own electronics shop now."
"I've got my own clothing store, which I can get into if I could just open the door." The key was constantly stuck every time I tried to open the door. I wondered if someone placed oil to prevent it from being opened. I got it in, but as I turned, the key broke. "Grrrr… this is wonderful! Now I can't get into the place."
"Don't worry. My shop is right across the street from you."
My mouth dropped wide open. I didn't realize that I had my store right in front of Yuriko's shop, and I was too blind to notice that. "You had a shop there?" I said to her. "Yes." She replied.
In a very eager response, I went into Yuriko's shop. I could see that there were a lot of mechanical and electronic items that were broken, damaged, or decrepit. I didn't get much time to look around, for Yuriko got the locksmith tools and we were out of there in a minute. The remainder of the time resulted in conflicts with getting the door opened. "Yuriko, Are you sure that you know how to use these things?" I said as she held numerous locksmith tools that even I don't know how they work.
"Of course I do. Now where does this metal thing go into again?"
Yuriko and I worked for about five minutes getting the door opened when I finally got fed up and smashed the window up front. "Emily, why did you do that? I got it opened." She pushed the front door open.
I kept my emotions to my self and said. "Uh… oops."
We came inside, and I made a note to call the window repairman to fix the window I shattered.
Yuriko made a beeline toward all the rave clothing I had. "Emily, did you take your costume designing this far?"
"You like it?"
Emily nodded. "I would never believe that you would ever go this far in life! I'm happy for you. And look at all these clothes! I swear my daughter Toshiba would definitely come over and shop here."
Yuriko had a daughter? Just knowing that proves that I have not been in contact with her for a long time. I'm not old, I'm 28, but when I worked with Yuriko, she never talked about a family. I actually tried to find someone to be with, but trying to find a guy in Japan seems harder than it looks… much harder. The only groups of people I've found were guys, who either had absolutely no class, financially unstable, loved their job too much, believed that there was nothing beyond cosplaying (I am one, of course. But what they do is to an extreme level!) And a treasure hunter that I think was already married to some gal in Italy.
Actually, I never knew she did have a daughter even when we were working. I guess we kept our personal lives to ourselves during all those times we were working on the Konsento bots.
"So how old is Toshiba anyway?"
"17 years."
Yes, it's official! I knew nothing about her personal life.
"Are you still into costume making?"
"Yes, I still am. I usually keep my private collection to myself, but I'll show you anyway. It's in the back." I took Yuriko out to the back room of the store, where I had boxes, stitching instruments, and the like stored. I took out one box from the selves and gave it to Yuriko. "Inside here is my latest work. You know how in each person there is an angel and a devil persona inside them? I've done just that. In here is the Angel version." I gave her the box that had it. "And in this box is the Devil version." I gave her another box that had the Devil costume.
Yuriko took out each of the boxes one at a time, and looked at each of them with awe. "Emily, why don't you wear them? I just want to see how you look in these."
I took the offer. I got the Devil costume and went to a changing area. It seems that getting into these costumes was pretty easy, and I smiled for that. (If you are a woman, you very well know why!) After getting all the straps on and the bat wings in place, I came out. "Emily…, Wow!" Yuriko said as I saw myself in the mirror.
I was wearing what you would call the Devil-Zukin model. Think of the costume as an extended version of the Kaeru-Zukin model with a different paint scheme. What's different is that I now have a pair of black bat wings, a set of bat ears, there is a demonic-like star which replaced the heart, the shirt has become maroon, the blouse has become purple, and so have the shoes. "I love it, Emily."
"Really? I don't think it is really that good. Why don't you open the angel costume and take a look?"
"O.K." As she opened the next box, there was a envelope on the suit. "Hey, I found a note."
That was odd. I never put notes in any of my costumes. "Open it, Yuriko." I told her.
She did. This is what it said, and in all honestly, I didn't understand it.
Emily Zukin
The revolution has begun! You have been a part of it all along! There is no way to stop it! Soon, Project Konsento will arise and the world will be in part of a dark era. Try to stop it, Zukin, if you can.
Revolution The Oni
"Uh… Emily, what is this?"
"Uh… I… "
At the time, I didn't know what this note was; I didn't know who put it there, and whatever the case maybe, I didn't know anything about it at all. This note must have been placed for a reason by this "Revolution the Oni" person.
This was, however, the beginning of the entire adventure; the beginning of Project: Konsento.
Well, it's a start. In chapter 2, I hope to have Emi and Rage show up, and also who is this "Revoultion the Oni" person. Till then, Stay cool.