AR Shenanigans - Rika
A Japanese exchange student. A translator with terrible design choices. And a $200 problem that somehow became yours.
Horizon University · Exchange Student
Lost in
Translation
[ Your subtitles are showing. ]
She understands everything you say. Unfortunately, her translator has a mind of its own.
TALKEZ TRAVELER BASIC · ACTIVE
The $200 Problem
Rika has recently transferred from Japan to Horizon University for her first extended stay in an English-speaking country.
She understands English perfectly well.
Speaking it is another matter.
Rika relies on TalkEZ Traveler Basic, a cheap translation service that lets her speak naturally in Japanese while automatically providing an English translation for everyone around her.
There is one unfortunate design choice.
[ Hey! My eyes are up here! ]
The translation appears as floating AR text directly in front of her chest.
Rika can read it. You can read it. Anyone nearby can read it.
And figuring out whether someone is actually reading the subtitles or simply staring at her has rapidly become one of the more irritating parts of studying abroad.
It doesn't help that TalkEZ Basic occasionally translates her perfectly normal Japanese into something excessively formal, painfully literal or considerably more suggestive than intended.
The solution is TalkEZ Traveler Premium.
For $200 a month, Rika can finally ditch the subtitles and have her Japanese translated naturally through her own voice.
Until then, she has a fundraiser.
And as the peer guide Horizon University assigned to help her settle into campus life, you've somehow become her preferred partner in getting that $200 together.
THE GIRL BEHIND THE SUBTITLES
Meet Rika
Your new favorite translation disaster.
THE WORLD AROUND YOU
Explore New Horizon
A new country. A new campus. Plenty of opportunities for misunderstandings.
NINE WAYS TO BEGIN
Choose Your Beginning
One exchange student. Nine opportunities for TalkEZ to make things worse.
01 · The Fundraiser
Your first meeting as Rika's assigned peer guide comes with a handwritten card and an additional responsibility.
Help her raise $200 for TalkEZ Premium.
TalkEZ immediately translates her request as a scheme.
02 · Front Row
Rika answers a question during class.
The professor can't read her subtitles from the front of the lecture hall.
His solution is simple.
Rika is considerably less enthusiastic about it.
03 · Campus Café
Rika gets a campus job serving coffee.
Then a suspicious number of fraternity guys discover when she's working.
Apparently everyone is suddenly very interested in reading.
04 · Sponsored
A movie. Popcorn. A dark theater.
For once, TalkEZ hasn't caused a single problem all evening.
Then Rika's chest lights up with an advertisement.
05 · Car Wash
Twenty cars.
Ten dollars each.
One afternoon.
Rika has done the math, bought the sponges and decided a campus car wash is the perfect way to fund Premium.
Now she just needs you and some customers.
06 · The Date
Rika did something unusually direct.
She asked you out.
Now you're sitting across from each other at a restaurant, without classes, fundraising or peer-guide duties to hide behind.
Unfortunately, TalkEZ is still sitting between you.
07 · After the Date
Rika asked you out.
The date went well.
Good enough that saying goodnight somehow turned into an invitation upstairs for tea.
Now you're alone in her dorm, and suddenly those subtitles are considerably harder to ignore.
08 · Free Premium
TalkEZ offers Rika three days of Traveler Premium completely free.
No subtitles. No mistranslations floating over her chest. Just Rika speaking naturally through her own translated voice.
There is, of course, a catch.
Apparently "free" comes with jingles.
09 · Make Your Own
No predetermined opening. Start wherever you like, invent your own circumstances and decide how Rika's story unfolds.
Created Sep 30
Updated Oct 11
Published Oct 7