Caz & The Bag

Original concepts, imagery, and written content © Rohil Aniruth & Thribing Games, 2023-2026. All rights reserved.

Illustrations by Tineyy Arts, property of Rohil Aniruth & Thribing Games.

“Guess I’m On My Desi Heather Mason Arc…”

First Things First…

My process started out with an in-depth series of interviews with immigrants of every status, including international students, H1-B and O-1 visa holders, and even several immigration lawyers.

The goal was to sync up on the collective feelings and identify the diverging paths of our community.

Importantly, chatting with movement organizers and studying protests around the world, history, and archived resistant art was critical in understanding what meaningful activation is and what is performative i.e. simply borrowing the aesthetics of protest.

I didn’t want this story to singularly represent me or feel monolithic or cartoonish in its political representation, while also maintaining a very clear anti-fascist stance and keeping the politics of the protagonists aligned with my own as the creator.

The “Bag” Origins:

And fuck it, what if you are just a 19-year-old exploring your youth and have a little bit of mushrooms on you, or try to finesse a couple beers with the boys? Whether you’re holding anything or not, you’re always thinking about the all-seeing eye. At parties. At protests. Which stations to use. Which apps. Deleting convos. “Problematic” jokes.

Real “cancellation” in the US is deportation.

From the above conversations came the concept for Caz’s backpack, SAIKO BOSU. All those feelings of assumed criminality at airport interrogations and violating bag searches, expressed through body horror, manifested as a demonic backpack that would not unlatch from your shoulders. Above is the practical FX puppet we made as an early test, gauging if people connected to this metaphor through a horror short, and then finding the ideal balance of terrifying creature and odd-couple comedy, i.e., does SAIKO work better as a non-stop yapper edging on the chaos, or as a more sinister, sparse voice implanting dread in Caz’s head?

Concept sketches by Zenakudreamer, property of Rohil Aniruth & Thribing Games.

The Core Cast: Shadiya Caz Sharif, Varuk Matyana, Chelios Damn, Anjam Patel

Our lead protagonist is Caz, a 20-year-old Communications Design major at The Nu-Nu School. She’s an international student from Karachi, Pakistan. She had a mostly traditional upbringing in Pakistan but has always identified more strongly with her diaspora, a connective tissue that formed during her time living with her late “Big Sis” in Durban, South Africa.

Caz has a deep trauma tied to Karachi that is revealed as the story progresses. She moved to New York when she turned eighteen and is wholly independent. She busts her ass doing “freelance everything” but is trying to land a Creative Director role at a popular fashion brand. Caz is on her Desi Heather Mason shit. While street smart, she’s headstrong and quick to frustrate and isolate, often getting herself into trouble during situations where she should’ve been more strategic.

Her peers often characterize her as tremendously brave, but a little too reckless in how she participates in protests, given her lack of citizenship. In reality, Caz has a megaton of anxiety and stress around potentially being forced to leave the country, be it a rejected visa application or deportation. A lot of her decisions in career, schooling, and social life come from a place of fear and desperation to stay in the country, while being haunted by the underlying triggers of her core trauma.

Varuk is a 24-year-old component-level technician who gained a small following as a Right to Repair advocate online. He’s a serial business owner, a Bronx local biz-dev legend, born to a Hispanic mother and a South African immigrant father.

Varuk is the co-owner of Mama’s Board, a laptop repair shop and cafe on the LES. Initially home to wealthy NYU wannabe flâneurs and an assortment of geeks looking to customize their tech, the spot becomes a makeshift HQ for the core cast once the horror elements of the story kick off. Varuk is the only one in the crew who already has an interest in obscure or neo “monastic orders” and their rituals (the contemporary occult). He occasionally hangs out with a man who claims to be an exorcist and practices craft potion-making.

Anjam is a 23-year-old Integrated Design major and Food Studies minor at The Nu-Nu School. Like Caz, he’s an international student with a richly melded background of family in Hong Kong and New Delhi. While neither of his folks practice their given religions, Anjam prays every day and tries to bring back a sense of tradition, primarily the celebratory ones, into his family.

He’s a rich kid known to spend his family’s wealth on his homies’ rent, tuition, and dumb art projects. He does this from a place of genuine love, but also suffers from intense imposter syndrome and a self-imposed guilt about his financially smoother ride in Manhattan. His besties, Caz, Chelsea, and later Varuk, are all condemned to insanity-mode hustling just to afford the basics.

Chelios is a 20-something-year-old musician and artist from, maybe, Los Angeles? She dropped out of her Fine Arts program at Prattatata. Her parents have been clown school principals, Jeet Kune Do instructors, imprisoned whistleblowers, cartel drug lords…

She’s a bit of an unreliable narrator— our hyperbolic queen. Chelios is fiercely loyal to her friends, but maintains a great deal of mystery around her, an at-times ephemeral presence. She never seems to have a consistent crib, is sometimes rolling in dough, and other times flat-out broke. Her main goal is to drop an iconic album that connects with people on a Frank Ocean level, a “forever album.” She fears her friend group being forcibly disbanded and distanced if Caz and Anjam can’t get work visas or green cards.

Chelios has mentioned wanting become famous and go pro in boxing solely to “celebrity box the shit out of Jared Leto.”

The Homies: The Exorcist, Souichiro Fike, Banger G

Mr. Brooks, the exorcist, is a pseudo-mentor to Varuk. He is a former weapons inventor turned supernatural investigator and recluse. He attempts to help Caz understand the nature of her demon backpack, SAIKO, and helps the crew evade several threats.

Mr. Brooks is not the super clued-up wise man of the group. He’s operating based on at least 60% batshit theories and delulu narratives.

Souichiro and Banger G are newer friends Caz meets during some protest scenes, each providing either combat or reconnaissance support.

Souichiro’s photos have gone viral, against his best interests. The internet frequently thirsts over him as their “resistance king.” What the general public does not know is that he is actually quite a klutz.

Banger G is a musician, hacktivist, and DIY acoustics engineer. They are considered socially awkward mostly due to their intensely passionate speaking style.

The Homies: Bagheera Baby, Rasuk, Amara Gaston

One of the crew’s key intel resources in the “Surveillance Wars” is a network of bodega and deli cats.

Bagheera Baby is the resident kitty at Yeti Deli in Chinatown. They are the loyal confidante of Daido, a half-Japanese, half-Arab designer who was forcibly deported after overstaying her voided H1-B visa following an unfair firing. Bagheera Baby and Daido still video call. Caz and the crew befriend Bagheera Baby and stop by the Yeti Deli to grab tasty chows and Bagheera’s latest “goss” that might help them strategize their movements around the city.

Rasuk and Amara are fellow protesters who help Caz and the crew disarm enemies prior to Caz’s backpack going demon-time.