Extras characters

Appears from the start

A fifteen-year-old living in a Japanese city a few years after the cities were freed, in a place where reputation has replaced money: everyone carries a face rank, and the famous get the best of everything. Aya is ranked near the bottom of a city of a million people and is desperate to change that. She works as a kicker, hunting stories to broadcast to the city feeds, and her plan is to find one big enough to make her name.

Appears from the start

Aya's hovercam, a floating camera she has trained and treats as a companion rather than equipment. It follows her, films what she points it at, and hides itself when she needs it out of sight.

Appears from the start

Aya's older brother, an established kicker whose face rank is high enough to bring privileges to the whole household. Confident and a little dismissive of his sister's ambitions, he understands how the reputation economy actually works far better than she does.

First appears in chapter 3

Hiro's friend, a technician who works on hovercams and city systems and who helps Aya when she needs something technical done quietly.

First appears in chapter 4

The founder of Radical Honesty, a clique whose members have taken a brain surge that makes it impossible for them to lie. Open, cheerful and disarming, he is interested in Aya, which is awkward for someone whose work depends on not telling people what she is really doing.

First appears in chapter 12

The leader of the Sly Girls, a clique that treats fame as worthless and goes out of its way to leave no trace of what it does. Cool-headed and hard to impress, she sets the tests newcomers have to pass before the group will take them anywhere.

First appears in chapter 18

A gifted technician who could have almost any face rank she wanted and instead rides anonymously with the Sly Girls. She understands the city's machinery better than anyone else in the group.

First appears in chapter 20

One of the highest-ranked faces in the city, famous largely for being famous, whose attention is worth more than any argument. What she chooses to pay attention to moves the whole reputation economy.

First appears in chapter 30

The most famous person alive in the freed cities and the least interested in being famous: a Special from before the cities changed, who kept the body and senses Special Circumstances gave her and appointed herself a guardian of the wild. She arrives with her own crew when Aya's story spreads, and she treats a fifteen-year-old kicker's discovery as a possible threat to everyone.

First appears in chapter 32

One of Tally's Specials, sharp and impatient, with no time for the reputation economy or for anyone slowing down her investigation.