Film, video games, animation, and the networked globalization of images are the lingua franca of our time. These mediums, in particular film and gaming, don’t merely reflect back the world or point out our interaction, but directly model it. I am interested in the history of stories where the unseen forces of morality are at work. The PTSD factor embedded in culture has drawn me to the idea of the “hero” as an empathic ideal for people to aspire to. I am also interested in the illusion and delusional discussions that surround the complexities of the racial, sexual, religious, aging; old and young identities in culture. As a way of investigating these identities I created “Riakman”, an alter ego, designed under the influences of 1990’s anime, video games, and my father’s middle school drawings. By channeling “Riakman”, I find pathways through high art and popular culture. Through him I tell a story within my fictional planet “Runetech” about a way of being in the world. Exploring a narrative with an embedded nostalgia for the future is the illusion I use to contend with the disillusions that exist within culture.