Alec

Laid back and carefree, Alec (アレク, Areku) was Riki’s partner while they both worked as Black Market couriers for Katze. He had been working there for a while and was well versed in the ins and outs of Black Market trading before Katze assigned the newcomer from the Slums to be his new partner which left Alec at a bit of a loss.

Unlike many of the other couriers, he didn’t look down on Riki because of his origins. If anything, as a Karinese, Alec felt himself a bit of an outcast as well. It was the fact that he was being assigned an inexperienced 16 year old kid that annoyed him initially, but Katze, after reassuring him that Riki isn’t someone who will need babysitting, stood by his decision.

Eventually, Alec, like other Athos couriers to which they both belonged, understood what Katze meant. Despite his youth, Riki’s drive and will to learn were unquestionable, as well as his fighting skills which cut short any attempts to bully him. Alec did however note that their personalities were so at odds that they cancelled each-other out most of the time, but when things got bad, all their worst aspects more than doubled.

In time however, things seemed to fall into place, and he ended up carrying out his job as a sort of counterweight to Riki’s fiery nature quite well.

## Appearance & Characteristics

Alec came from the planet Karin and as such sports the trademark Karinese scarlet eyes with vertical irises. He had unruly, auburn hair that looked like a lion's mane.

> Red eyes, like a pair of jewels inlaid with condensed drops of crimson blood.
>
>

Because of this, to avoid trouble and strange looks, he always wore a pair of clouded sunglasses when in public that obscured his eyes.

With their empathic/telepathic abilities capable of peering into someone else’s mind, the Karinese were renowned as a race of healers. But because of this, others feared that if touched by one of them, their thoughts and intentions would be revealed. This fear had given rise to urban folklore such as that the red eyes of the Karinese are harbingers of bad fortune and that just by looking at you, a Karinese can drain your life energy and leave you dead. Despite this prejudice, Alec refused to isolate himself from the society.

However, compared to other Karinese, Alec’s empathic abilities were out of the ordinary. They didn’t focus on organics, but were instead most effective on machines, more specifically, on artificial intelligence. It was for this reason that Alec’s cargo ship piloting skills and hacking talent were unparalleled in the Black Market. This made his incident with Riki all the more baffling. Somehow, without trying, an empath with no special affinity for human emotions ended up “reading” Riki to the point where he got sucked into his memories.

Being Karinese also means that he has a keen sense of smell, superior to those of humans.

## Interpersonal Relationships

### Relationship with Riki

Riki described him as an easy-come, easy-go partner who took him under his wing and shared the wisdom of the Black Market. On the flipside, he seemed to use Riki for the odd jobs and preliminary work to lighten his load, so Alec himself could focus on more important jobs, like procuring the resources for the consignments. Nevertheless, he seemed to genuinely take care of Riki and was known to take him out for drinks after a job well done.

Alec had initial reservations when paired up with Riki. He likened Riki to a hand grenade and the veritable eye of the hurricane and faced derision from other couriers for having to babysit a slum mongrel. But at the same time, he knew that none of those guys would dare to partner up with him so he stuck it out. Eventually, through his perseverance and strength of spirit, Riki had proven himself to the Market and Alec developed respect for him. He admired Riki’s nonnegotiable pride and stubbornness born out of prejudice and discrimination he had been subjected to and saw a resemblance between him and Katze in their strong sense of self. He also seemed to enjoy the role of Riki’s tutor, and even made him a memory chip capable of hacking various machines.

Riki’s only real gripe with Alec was the fact that his partner would always wear obscuring sunglasses when they were together, which made him feel uneasy. However after confronting Alec about it and getting a chance to look into his Karinese eyes, he dropped the issue. The incident left both of them shaken as Riki found Alec’s eyes strangely unnerving, even without the prior prejudice most have about his species. Looking into his eyes brought up an involuntary memory of sitting by his childhood friend Ghil’s deathbed. On the other hand, Alec caught an equally involuntary glimpse of this memory though his empathic abilities that unexpectedly got triggered when they looked each other in the eyes. At the time, neither could understand exactly what happened and why.

Another thing Alec couldn’t explain were some of the feelings Riki stirred in him. He quickly decided to put reigns on those “base impulses” as he called them and ignore them altogether, but the fact that Riki had this effect on him (and on others, he noticed) was unnerving as he had never experienced something like that before.

### Relationship with Katze

Since Katze was his direct boss, it can’t be said that Alec and him were close, but nevertheless, they could speak freely to each other. Alec didn’t hesitate to voice his objections to having been assigned a teenager for a partner, but equally, Katze dismissed those objections firmly but with reassurance.

Alec viewed Katze with respect and held no prejudice against him for hailing from the Slums. If anything, much like with Riki, he empathised with someone who, like himself, has faced mindless prejudice. Even though he didn’t know much more about Katze’s origin, he acknowledged that anyone with the starting point in the Slums who ended up as the boss of the Black Market had come to this position through no small amount of dedication, effort and personal quality.

Alec noted a resemblance between Katze and Riki that went beyond their roots and for a while considered that perhaps Katze had hand-picked Riki to groom him to serve as his eventual right-hand man. Those thoughts were eventually dispelled, but Katze’s true intentions remained unknown to him.

## Random Facts

Alec was the one who told Riki about the Aurora Coin (V2, p126)

It is uncertain what happened to him, but Katze’s reaction seemed to indicate something potentially ominous. (V3, p127)

## Quotes

“Maybe a picture’s worth a thousand words, but looking ain’t doing. It all comes down to experience.” V2, p97

“Whatever will be, will be.” V2, p131

“A computer is worse than a woman – if you try a strong frontal attack, you’ll get slapped. If you’re a gentleman and go from the side, you’ll get what you want soon enough.” V3, p127

“Access codes are like lover’s words. Use the same over and over and they’ll tire of you. They’ll always know when you’re coming and where to find you. The best course is to randomly choose a new code on a regular basis. In a rush or panic, there are always bound to be screw-ups. So the thing you want to keep in mind is, no matter when, no matter how big of a pain it is, always make sure the security gets top priority.” V5, p89