Ingenious ✼ Damaged ✼ Analytical ✼ Obsessive ✼ Kind

Eriko is peculiar. She's often fidgeting with something, twiddling her fingers, looking over her shoulder or staring at you, while simultaneously going on a cheerful rant about the 1000 piece puzzle she just bought. She analyzes everything around her and takes a lot more than the environment than most people do. She's an absolute genius with the want to know everything about anything, to the point that she's obsessive. She never tells anyone this, however. Anything that interests her, be it a failing restaurant or a random person she passes by on the street, she will stalk and harass until she finds out everything she can about him or it. A lot of people peg her as crazy. Of course, if you get past all this, you'll realize she's a very genuine person, if not a bit off-putting. Eriko is almost always smiling, going on about something that excites her while simultaneously assaulting you with questions. If you answer her questions, she'll analyze you and what she knows of your situation and give you her best advice. She'll give you her opinion on other people in your life, tell you how your brain works, their brains work, and the best way for you to approach your problems. She's very good at solving problems-- at least, all but her own. Eriko is always willing to talk about something, but if you ask her about herself she'll always change the subject.

Though Eriko appears always cheerful on the outside, she has a lot of internal problems. Eriko secretly hates herself. She hates her love for puzzles, her insatiable curiosity, and obsessive nature. She wishes to be normal, but doesn't know how and instead ignores the problem. She distracts herself with puzzles then hates herself for it, distracting herself again and repeating the cycle. She chastises herself whenever she gets excited about something, but doesn't have the willpower to stop herself from indulging in her interests. Iko hates it when she's excited, happy, or curious, but she gets jealous of others when they are. She gets jealous as she realizes that they can enjoy it, but she can only analyze their smiles. Eriko has never told anyone her feelings and lies when asked. She's a very good liar, as she lies a lot-- she lies about where she's from, what she's been through, and the thoughts that go through her head.

Eriko also tends to blame herself for any bad things that happen around her. She's convinced that everything is somehow her fault, and she's just a bad luck charm. She's a disgrace. This plays into her hating herself, but it also makes her want to avoid anyone she likes. The closer you get to her the more she'll push away, and she'll never tell you why-- she'll either avoid your inquiries or lie her way out of it, which, frankly, doesn't always work. The more she likes you, the less she'll want to lie and the quality of the lies will decline. She also has anxiety. A lot of the time, she'll have anxiety attacks-- she'll get more restless than usual, she'll feel like she can't breathe and her chest will feel tight. Eriko never tells anyone when she's having an anxiety attack in fear of them judging her or burdening them. Though she comes off as a very open person, she's secretive and insecure about everything. If you get to know her, this becomes apparent, no matter how much she tries to hide it.

"Curiosity killed the cat."

Eriko was adopted by a very wealthy family. Her parents were entrepreneurs, both caring very much about what people thought of them. In fact, when they took in Eriko, hey never told anyone she was adopted. They only adopted in the first place because of infertility, and they didn't want anyone else knowing that. They pretended she was their own from the beginning. And at first, they were happy to treat Eriko as their own. She was a beautiful, compliant little girl-- a genius, at that. They loved showing off her incredibly high test scores, comparing her to other peoples' kids... but slowly, they started to realize she wasn't at all what they wanted. She was a genius, but her want to learn was insatiable. She was absolutely obsessed, in particular with people. She would analyze everything about anyone, obsess over anything you did, pick at you, practically interrogate you and there'd be no end until she knew every single thing about you. Everyone was a puzzle in her mind, and she loved puzzles. The only thing she ever wanted to do was solve them, find out everything she possibly could, complete the picture so she could step back and admire it. Eriko liked understanding. She liked people, she liked figuring them out, sorting through everything she could, but her parents didn't understand this. It was embarrassing for them-- their daughter, invasive, obsessive, twitchy, anxious... she wasn't normal, and that was a problem. Often they criticized her for her curiosity and god forbid if she dare make a scene in public.

Iko would often beg for 1000 piece puzzles, riddle books, crosswords, word searches, and anything else of the sort. She'd complete them all astonishingly quickly, but have an anxiety attack every time anyone tried to throw out her work. She kept every crossword, word search, and riddle she ever completed, keeping very meticulously organized files that she wouldn't let anyone touch. She'd never take apart the puzzles she'd completed, again, having an anxiety attack if anyone tried cleaning up her work. Eriko would often spend hours staring at finished puzzles, admiring them, studying them, memorizing where all of the pieces went and how they were shaped. She'd study the image so well that if prompted later, she easily could point out every detail and what piece went where, what each piece contained, and how it fit in with the rest. At first, her parents let her keep the puzzles intact, and they let her store what she wanted to store. But Iko had so many puzzles that it came to a point where her entire room and half of the third floor was just covered in them. Eriko would get hysterical if anyone tried to touch them, but her parents had to draw a line somewhere-- they had all of the puzzles thrown out, shredded her collection of finished word searches, crosswords and etc., as well as refused to buy her any more. This shook Iko up tremendously. Her anxiety shot through the roof, the severity and frequency of her anxiety attacks dramatically increasing, to the point that she needed to be briefly hospitalized.

Eriko, being the kind, gentle soul she is, was convinced there was something wrong with her. She would overhear her parents talking about her, discussing how they didn't want to deal with her, she was the worst daughter they could've ended up with, and that they needed a way to get rid of her, among other terrible things. She began to loathe herself and her passion for puzzles, constantly wishing to be normal but not having the willpower to stop herself from indulging in what she loved. The older she got the worse it got. She became depressed and always anxious. The only thing that ever distracted her was puzzles, but she hated herself for loving them. At some point, she started contemplating suicide. It got so bad her parents decided to admit her to a psychiatric hospital when she was fourteen. Eriko, realizing she needed help and not wanting to burden her parents, cooperated. There was a doctor there she became very close to, one by the name of Genesis Orwell. Genesis understood what Eriko was going through, the effect her parents were having on her, and offered all the help she could. Over months, they bonded, and Genesis became a mother figure to Eriko, and Eriko a daughter to Genesis. Unlike anyone else in Iko's life, Genesis truly wanted to help her and was sympathetic to her situation. Genesis gave Iko confidence in herself, in her passion for puzzles, and told her that there was nothing wrong with her when everyone else told her the opposite.

After months of healing, Iko was fine to leave the facility, but had a severe anxiety attack whenever she thought about returning home. Genesis, realizing all her Eriko's recovery would be undone if she returned home, ended up pulling strings and finding a way to keep Eriko at the hospital. Genesis became devoted to keeping Iko from her unsafe home environment. Luckily her parents weren't bothered by this, seeing as they put her there so they could forget about she even existed. She ended up staying another year, to everyone's delight. However, at some point, Iko began to miss her parents. She never acknowledged their abusive behavior, always believing their actions were her fault or out of love. She decided she wanted to write a letter to them that they could read on their own time, since they never had the time to visit her. She talked about how she was doing (but neglected mentioning her love for puzzles-- she was still just as obsessed after all this time), what it was like, and Genesis. Eriko went on and on about Genesis, how great she was, and at some point mentioned how Genesis was almost like a mother to her. Eriko's mother, who'd adopted Eriko in the first place so that she could feel like a mother, was infuriated when she read this. Overcome by a flurry of emotions that in the end transformed into anger, she sabotaged Genesis. She made an outrageous claim that Genesis sexually harassed her daughter, costing Genesis her job and credibility, among other things. She was never arrested as there was no evidence for the crime she didn't commit. And, eventually, she did get her job back, but people never looked at her the same way. On top of that, she was never allowed to be around Eriko. In fact, Eriko's parents switched Iko into a different facility.

Of course, Eriko believed this was all her fault. She was convinced that if Genesis never helped her and she never opened up to Genesis, none of this ever would've happened. She felt terribly guilty, and again spiraled into darkness. This practically erased all of the healing she'd done before, making her even more damaged and untrusting than she was before. She refused to cooperate with any other doctors out of fear of something bad happening to them if she did. She convinced herself that she was a bad luck charm, and she'd be better if she kept to herself.

Eventually, she turned eighteen, and pondered leaving. She would've before, but her parents had her stay. Now that she was eighteen, she could make her own decisions. At first, she was afraid of leaving. She didn't want to stay with her parents out of fear of burdening them, but she had no money. She had nowhere to go. Who would hire a loon? Would she even be able to keep a job? Where would she live? But, like some kind of guardian angel, Genesis paid Eriko a visit. It was a brief visit and there was no physical contact allowed, considering previous accusations. Genesis told Eriko that she didn't belong in a facility. That she should leave. Start her life, get a job. She told Eriko there was a bag outside that looked like trash, but was actually full of money. She told Eriko to grab it as she left and use it to build a foundation for herself. Iko did as she was told, and with Genesis' help, bought a small apartment and got a job as a math tutor. Being a genius, tutoring came easily to her. And when she wasn't tutoring, she'd study psychology with Genesis. Though, again, due to previous accusations, it was hard for them to communicate. They talked through letters, Eriko finding it the most comfortable way for her and Genesis figuring it was the safest way for them to talk. They talked for years, and just recently, Eriko received a letter from Genesis asking to meet for coffee on a Sunday. Since they didn't talk much in person, if at all, Eriko was ecstatic. She was more than happy to meet for coffee.