It’s no secret that the French rapper Orelsan has a thing for Japanese culture. He loves Manga, and his stage name is an amalgamation of his name ­— Aurélien — and the Japanese honorific suffix San. However, when the rapper shared a photo of himself online with a young Japanese woman whilst on a recent trip, all was not quite as it seemed. Orelsan’s travel companion appeared to have an artificiality to her features and her form. Her name is Perl, her profession? Model and virtual influencer. That’s right, Perl isn’t human.

Perl is an image generated by a computer, yet she is still more than capable of using social media, posting pictures of her pets and various beauty products; apparently she was born on April 30 on Instagram. The real question though, is who is Perl really, and why is she hanging out with French rappers? Equally as worrying was Orelsan’s most recent meet-up with the masked artist Vladimir Cauchemar during a concert in Japan, the latter of whom also posted a photo with Perl. Extra points to the person that manages to untangle this odd series of events.