Yuliana Kafim

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Yuliana Kafim
Yulitentacles2.png
IC Information
Full Name: Yuliana Kafim, née Dispersal
AKA: Yuliana Dispersal (military name); Yuliana Darminichna Dian (birthname); Minovsky's Woman (military callsign); Verdiska (Celestial Being callsign)
Gender: Female (She/Her)
Species: Cyber-Newtype (Alien Hybrid)
Age (Birthdate): 30 (July 28th)
Hair Colour: Teal
Eye Colour: Green
Height 5'5" (167cm)
Job: The Key and the Gate
Homeland: Indonesia
Awakening: 0
Primary Unit: Da Xukong 0
BGM:
OOC Information
Origin: Original
Factions: Celestial Being, The Silent Calling
Player: User:Cute Kitty L

Yuliana Kafim was once Captain Yuliana Dispersal, a veteran REA special operative and mechanic leading the Nega Force. She secretly endured horrifying anti-Newtype experiments... until a publicised raid destroyed her laboratory, facilitating her defection. But the Awakened always knew something was wrong -- because Yuliana's strange aura disrupts their psychic abilities and plunges them into isolated silence. She is a manipulative and fickle authoritarian, intensely anti-Spacenoid, a dangerous saboteur experienced with infiltration and assassination. Her instability undercuts any attempts at mentorship or kindness... and it makes her a recklessly skilled pilot. Despite this negativity, Yuliana is protective of 'normal people', and she wishes to aid humanity. She has a vision of peace and absolute equality for the world. (An equality which brings those Newtypes Yuliana hates and envies down to physical reality.) This led her to become a double agent for Celestial Being, even as she enforced the REA's will... and once Elisa Kafim convinced her to split her loyalties, she claimed all Yuliana's fierce devotion for herself. Now married to Elisa, the madness which gripped Yuliana after her strange Awakening is everyone's problem. Yuliana communes with an eldritch realm: the Void. Its terrific powers have warped her body and her mind, and Yuliana is the gate which leads to that lacuna of existence, both its lock and turning key. Elisa will open the way...

Background

Once upon a time, a young woman set out into the world holding hope and love in her hands, to grasp a better future for humanity. But the world was blind, to her and to each other, and she reached out to inherit nothing at all.

Minovsky's Woman's service record officially began around 0087, though she didn't see active combat until the Mycenae Empire tried to encroach her homeland. For nine years, she was a unique asset of the REA Forces: an anti-Newtype operative capable of suppressing the emotional connection enjoyed by humanity's next step. She offered her special forces assistance to several operations, focusing on anti-Zeon activities and protection of the REA's interests. Some of these operations were more classified than others.

Early in 0097, Minovsky's Woman was designated as an enemy of the state following her involvement in reality-shattering crimes at the JOSH-A Crater, and a warrant was extended for her arrest. Following her capture at the hands of G-Hound and the back-channel deals which led to her transfer back to the REA, the Institute for Continuing Study escalated their plans for her to their final stage. In the process of creating a host for the alien cells they'd implanted, they would have destroyed her. Thanks to the combined efforts of Celestial Being, the Shuffle Alliance, G-Hound, and her wife Elisa Kafim, Yuliana and the other subjects of the Institute were freed.

The Federation maintains several outstanding warrants for Yuliana's arrest. The REA has frozen her accounts and repossessed the dwelling assigned to her, but thanks to Elisa, Yuliana is currently safe and provided for within the Silent Castle on the northernmost remaining point of land: Kaffeklubben Island.

On top of being a fugitive, it seems that Yuliana has begun a strange, religious form of outreach.

She remains interested in politics.

Timeline

2153: Cypripedioidea finds herself in the foreign world of Earth, landing in the town of Bagansiapiapi, caught in brutal conflict between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. There she finds Siti Dian, and grants her the power to unite her town and negotiate favourable terms of surrender. Cypripedioidea is ultimately driven from the village when Siti's husband, Ram Dian, discovers that a demon is consorting with his wife.

...

0064: Sashenka Morozov, a diplomat with the REA, marries the then-Major Tri Darma Dian. She has a terrible time adjusting to tropical seasons after living through Zaftran winters all her life, but it's a happy marriage, all in all.

0067: Yuliana Dian is born. After heavy discussions about the direction the colonies are going, the Dians elect not to have any other children.

0076: The Peace Mediation Organization, Sashenka's workplace, is disbanded after the REA's foul play is unveiled; she retires and occupies herself as a full-time mother to Yuliana, ending a period of after-school playgroups and babysitters. Over the years, she gives Yuliana a personal education in the REA's particular methods of diplomacy.

0079: The One Year War sees a colony dropped on Sydney; Ambon, a city-island of Indonesia and the Dian's family home, sees terrible flooding as the impact spreads out across the ocean. Sashenka ensures that the twelve-year-old Yuliana holds fast to the wreckage until the military is able to mobilise to save them. Yuliana resolves never to feel so helpless again -- using the might of mobile suits, which didn't seem to care about the water in the slightest.

0080: The Dians settle in Makassar. Yuliana grows enamoured with the Gundam Fight, and the idea that one person could change the flow of history. Yuliana enters high school, and even manages to make a few friends, despite having moved from another island.

0081: Second Impact occurs; Yuliana's new home is permanently buried under water. So are many of the people she met in Makassar. After much hardship, the Dians manage to use their clout to escape Indonesia and go to live in Zaftra. Yuliana learns that her grandparents were killed in the One Year War. Rather than rejoin school for a third time, she takes an apprenticeship with a local wanzer mechanic, and studies engineering.

0084: Yuliana watches the second Gundam Fight with a greater sense of cynicism and patriotism.

0085: Yuliana turns 18, and with her father's blessing, goes with him to register for the military. She scores highly in basic training, and is recruited for a particular cyber-newtype project. Her consent is maintained throughout the process. The project begins under the cover of the Titans' blackout, which serves to obscure its details for years to come.

0085: everything breaks.

0085:

0085:

0085: SHE IS COMING

0086: Yuliana Dispersal's rehabilitation after her violent response to her experiments continues at pace. She is the sole survivor.

0087: Yuliana enters service as a mechanic, rather than a pilot; she maintains a low profile through the end of the Gryps Conflict, helping prepare the REA's contribution to the third Gundam Fight.

0088: Seeing her superiors' inaction as an oversight, Yuliana strikes out against the Mycenae Empire, and proves her capacity as a pilot.

0089: Deployed as a weapon during intra-Federation conflict, Yuliana demonstrates that her capacity to nullify empathic connection is an asset on the battlefield, and earns a place on the REA's Special Forces as an officer cadet. Her inexperience coupled with the poor safety standards of REA wanzers causes her face to be terribly injured, but thanks to the work of doctor Hsieh Baihe, there's little permanent damage.

0091: Yuliana makes an internal name for herself as a saboteur and disruptor; no longer acting alone, she is assigned to a black ops team with the purpose of causing deniable trouble in neighbouring nations. She is promoted to lieutenant in the process.

0092: Despite now having the power to fight, Yuliana has nothing to do with the fourth Gundam Fight. She uses the attention the world is paying to it to place pressure on the newly-formed Helmajistan as a visiting dignitary -- after having contributed to the proxy wars which destabilised it in the first place.

0093: Yuliana grants mercy to Helmajistan after her superiors direct her to contribute to Earth's defence against the Devil Gundam, instead. She proceeds to make showings at several key problem areas, fighting against Char Aznable's Neo Zeon and participating in Axis Shock. These heroic efforts go a long way towards sanitising her image as an ace of the REA; they also keep her too busy to cause clandestine problems for a while. It doesn't last, and after Axis Shock, Yuliana contributes to the unrest of several areas.

0094: After her official and unofficial efforts, the REA promotes Yuliana from lieutenant to captain, and grants her a unit of her own: the Nega Force. Wen Yuan and Parminder Chaudhri join her; the third member, a cyber-newtype named Alexsey Melnik, enters medical retirement almost a year after he receives his posting.

0095: Doctor Baihe disappears, to Yuliana's distress. She is further distracted from her official Federation mercy missions and unofficial terrors by the Bloody Valentine Conflict, which occupies a great deal of her attention as she fights ZAFT in their forward Asian bases. Her efforts in this war continue, even as she splits her attention between several other issues. Another cyber-newtype, Brassy Cachet, lasts eight months in the Nega Force before requiring a medical discharge. Towards the end of the year, Elisa Kafim makes contact with Yuliana in secret, and invites her to explore the fascinating new tale of Celestial Being. Despite her actions having resulted in plenty of strife, Yuliana is convinced that Celestial Being understands her desire to bring equality to the world, and agrees to help them.

0096: A third cyber-newtype, Cascade Wattana, is assigned to Yuliana's unit. Secretly, Yuliana begins fighting for Celestial Being under the name of 'Verdiska'. Even more secretly, she enters a pact with Elisa which could stand to threaten both Celestial Being and the REA's interests; completely coincidentally, a chain of fast-food restaurants, Burger Fiend, begin to pop up. Doctor Baihe resurfaces as 'Athrusa', wanted by both Celestial Being and the REA; caught between loyalties, Yuliana pursues her on behalf of both parties, finally betraying her to Celestial Being. With Elisa's help, she subjugates Alma Stirner to their will. Yuliana escalates her aggression towards the Ra Mari, cruelly targeting Rena Lancaster. Elisa proposes to Yuliana in July, and marries her four months later; Lilith Aiden attacks their wedding in a desperate attempt to save her girlfriend, Alma, from Yuliana's grasp. Late in the year she assaults Denver Colony, only to unveil correspondence from the head scientist of the Institute which reveals their true feelings about her.

0097: Full of resentment, Yuliana sabotages both the Federation and physical reality -- and her efforts towards the former are cut off by consequences of the latter, as Sophia Castellan captures her. She is held in G-Hound's custody until the REA negotiates her return... and makes ready to awaken the alien cells inside her, so they can properly clone her abilities. That this will kill her is not their concern, but the Shuffles, Celestial Being, and G-Hound find themselves strange bedfellows as they all raid the Institute to raze it to the ground and rescue her. Unfortunately, Yuliana's cells are matured, regardless, but Elisa's antidote ensures that it doesn't destroy her consciousness. Now changed into a monstrous form, Yuliana disappears for a month before she reappears to assault the Phenex in a strange Void-powered scorpion wanzer.

Resources

The Silent Castle: Yuliana's home is her castle, because it's literally a castle. Located on the island closest to the North Pole, Kaffeklubben Island, the Silent Castle is a functioning community unto itself; one could live their whole lives, here, without incident. Ever since she complained to her wife, all the obvious servants are even paid to work there instead of being brainwashed into it!

Nega-Newtype: Yuliana is a ravenous void from which no love or hope or sparklespace escapes. (See below.)

Fully-Realised Hybrid: Yuliana has been physically warped by her connection to The Void. She has a frill of tentacles which she's able to hide behind her ears, and a pair of tentacles from her spine which resemble snakes. Her eyes, like some powerful Newtypes, have lost their pupils. Her body temperature is also cooler than the norm; she now has to take medication to keep her core temperature warm enough.

Green Fold Facilitator: Yuliana is able to handle Green Fold Quartz without being harmed -- though it does make her markedly more mad. She's also the mechanism by which Green Fold becomes suffused with the Void.

"Verdiska": The disguise Yuliana established while she was still supposedly an REA officer, for use when she's operating under Celestial Being's banner. She used ranged mass production units in order to maintain deniability by keeping her foes at arm's length.

Mechanical Skill: Yuliana's education is in mechanics, with a focus on wanzers; while she isn't at the genius level of some engineers, she's a normally talented mechanic. The improvements to her Tiandong were almost all her personal effort, and she continues making improvements to their personal stock of machines to this day.

Sokrovishche: Or Sokrova, to his friends. He may be Elisa's familiar, but he's Yuliana's therapy cat! He's a uniquely green and black Bengal tiger, touched by the Void; his gifts grant him tameness and the capacity to comprehend (though not speak) human language. He is the inspiration which the Protivisny are based on, but no tigers were harmed in the making of those kaiju. Indeed, Yuliana cares deeply about their beloved pet not coming to harm, which is why the only people who tend to meet Sokrova are their allies -- or at least people willing to be respectful guests in the Castle.

The Nega Force remnants: While Cascade defected and Pham was destroyed, Yuliana still commands the loyalty of the sniping assassin, Wendy Yuan, and the intelligence operative, Parminder Chaudhri.

The Protivisny: Strangely feline dragon kaiju, about the size of tigers; the tentacles at their whiskers allow them to operate most Mobile Suits functionally. Yuliana utilises her Protivisny troops when they need disposable numbers in their missions, because good help is hard to find.

The Silent Calling: Yuliana is the leader of a growing new religious movement largely based in non-Federation states on Earth. She does charity work!

Da Xukong 0

attack while the tail's up!

Threshold Queen EMPTEAR

As seen from the front.
As seen from behind.

Emptear is sixty metres high, and she imposes on the world, where she steps. Her arms are black to the elbows with hexagonal Voidframe, matching the knee-high stockings at her feet, ending in sharp heels. Her black skirt is just as spiked, and there is a great, toothed maw in the centre of her chest, teeth consumed by the blackness of the Void. Behind her spiked pauldrons, two serpents formed from that same darkness erupt from her back. They must weave around the dancer's cloth held between her elbows, dangling behind her. Her face is a mask always grinning, her crown a spiked crest, four eyes gleaming. Something like grey steel marks her structure, beneath the Voidframe, connecting her parts together; the tips of her spikes and her claws are a bright, hazardous green. She has no weapons plain to hand; she holds her scarf, instead.

As seen when unpowered.

Within the onyx heart in Emptear's chest, Yuliana mirrors her movements exactly -- or, rather, Emptear mirrors /hers./ There are bracelets at her wrists and around the necks of her tentacles, anklets at her feet, a tiara across her brow; each holds a Green Fold crystal, and each resonates, carrying Yuliana's movements to the machine. Solid shadows are the magical method by which Emptear's cockpit provides feedback to its pilot. She can't see those shadows, though, because her eyes are hidden behind an emerald blindfold; Yuliana sees only what Emptear sees, in order to protect her mind from the madness of occupying two spaces at once.

Emptear's heart-cockpit is protected from the rest of the world by the fact that when Emptear gets set, her initialisation sharply amplifies the cracks in realities which surround Yuliana. This amplification serves to flood the cockpit area -- and the whole of Emptear's chest -- with the black Void which forms her snakes and powers many of her attacks. This creates a 'moat' of unreality around her, separating and protecting her from this world. Attempts to damage the chest (and, therefore, Yuliana's cockpit) instead go to another realm entirely: attacking Emptear's centre means sending attacks into the Void.

Personality

Yuliana is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. In Byronic style, she is excessively flawed -- petty, jealous, manipulative, and cruel -- but with prosocial core beliefs which humanise her. Ultimately, she's a tragic villain, failed by society and now failing society in turn.

Most fundamentally to the Byronic archetype, though, is Yuliana's /loneliness./ She has been trapped in a psychic bell jar ever since her forceful Awakening, unable to reach the hearts of others, but constantly aware that there's something she's missing. She is isolated inside herself. Even before her experiments, going through the floods caused by the colony drop on Sydney followed by Second Impact left Yuliana with a crushing sense of solitude; when this was underlined by the medical torture she underwent, she became totally disconnected from her fellow man. For many years, she believed that the world was fake and other people weren't even /real,/ just characters in a story she was passively reading. While Kaworu Nagisa's strange powers were able to convince her of the interiority of other people, she still struggles with superficiality in her relationships, with a constant sensation that she's unable to reach others -- and they can't understand her, either.

It's this isolation which drives her jealousy and constant sense of bitterness for what she's /missing./ She's decided that the whole world must be dragged down to her level, because she knows that she can never have what Newtypes have... even though she should have been a powerful Newtype herself. Denied connection, she hates the very concept of that possibility -- in her eyes, the only way forward for humanity is one in which they are singularly united, with no one person possessing psychic gifts denied another. (If she can't have it, no one can.) She used to hold naked contempt for all Newtypes, but as she's developed, she has has decided that 'Newtypism' is an affliction plaguing humanity -- an unfortunate curse which the Newtype naturally can't help, and needs to be freed from. This paternalistic view of Awakening may or may not be any better than plain hatred, but Yuliana certainly believes that she's doing 'better' by them, now.

Yuliana's jealousy, though, covers an uglier emotion: she believes that if the whole world were to ascend to Newtypehood, like her old friend Rita Bernal preaches, they would willingly and gleefully leave her behind. She both fears and expects abandonment after living through eleven years of torture at the hands of the REA, vacillating between desperate attempts to avoid being left behind and embracing the inevitability of it all. She has been taught that she is exceptional, and the unfortunate truth of being an exception is that she is also an exception to the happiness most men can expect.

Even so, she's protective of the happiness of normal people. She cares about the fate of civilians, particularly those forgotten by the wealthy and the lucky, and she has always tried to be generous and considerate to them. (She's always tipped well.) Despite her savage occupations, she wants to improve their situations -- a drive which both led her to Celestial Being, and to later begin The Silent Calling. Yuliana was led to believe, watching the Gundam Fight uncritically at a young age, that one person could change the fate of the world; so too, now, does she believe that she alone can save the world. She believes, and is led to believe, that bringing The Void to this world will heal it of its ills.

These beliefs are supported by her loving wife, Elisa Kafim. Elisa was the first person to rescue Yuliana, when she was lost to the REA, and so Yuliana's devotion to her is absolute. But Elisa has always had interests in the Woman in the Void who haunts Yuliana, and she constantly presses Yuliana to continue their great work to bring the Void to this world. Their relationship is controlling and manipulative, with Elisa gaslighting and coercing Yuliana to the ends she desires -- but this abuse is complicated by the genuine love and affection they share with each other. So, too, is it complicated by Yuliana's incapability of asking for help or even reporting anything is wrong, too used to indoctrination and double-think.

Unfortunately, Yuliana's terrors are complicated by that indoctrination and brainwashing. The REA controls all of its citizens, but its laboratory experiments most of all -- Yuliana spent many years stopping all thoughts of disloyalty, and wasn't even able to express to others that she was being hurt. While she's been deconditioned from the REA's mind control, she remains someone who is vulnerable to the tactics Elisa uses... and, secretly, she's the most vulnerable person alive to Elisa's own magical mind control. Elisa rarely uses her magic on her wife, though, and she doesn't /have/ to; her myriad conventional manipulation tricks work perfectly well.

Neither does Elisa have to manipulate Yuliana to be petty or cruel. She has her own mean streak, callous to the pain of others, and she gets fulfilment out of punishing those she deems worthy of suffering. While this malevolence was encouraged and taught by the REA, it remains true that Yuliana didn't struggle to learn their lessons -- she's become someone who would ruin Rena Lancaster's life just for the sin of accidentally offending her at a vulnerable moment. So, too, was she cruel enough to torment Alma Stirner, offering her to her wife for her grim experiments on how Yuliana's powers enhanced Elisa's own. But unlike Elisa, Yuliana's abuse tends to be impulsive and short-lived: she struggles to pay attention to her vendettas beyond her immediate gratification. This only makes her marriage more tragic, because Alma's example shows that Yuliana's impulsive cruelty can be extended out to horrific lengths with Elisa's patience and lack of concern for others.

She is also manipulative on her own rights, even as Elisa manipulates her. Her inability to connect with others has led her to be quite the actor -- and the REA taught her to pretend and bury her true emotions, instead of how to cope. She's a consummate liar, and unafraid to manipulate the truth... even if it's as simple as making herself look good in the telling. In fact, Yuliana has strong vulnerable narcissism traits, thirsting for the validation for others; she has only ever known how to meet her needs in a toxic and manipulative way, and so she tries to secure the kindness of others with a tight grasp and harsh implications. Because the REA assured her that she would die if she were found to be a failure, nothing is ever her fault, and she struggles to admit to any amount of wrongdoing (though she has frequently done wrong).

This inclination towards narcissism also informs the way she expresses her limited empathy -- she struggles to relate to anyone who hasn't shared her experiences. While she can feel for people whose situations she can understand, victims of disasters or laboratories or authoritarian states, she is far less sympathetic to people who aren't like her. (And this, in turn, informs her softer stance on Newtypes now compared to the beginning of the game: she was convinced that she was, effectively, a Cyber-Newtype, and so she couldn't other them as easily.) Yuliana isn't totally without empathy, but her capacity to understand another's suffering is curtailed by how much she can put herself in their shoes. There are some experiences which she can't imagine at all -- like those of Spacenoids, who she purely views as hostile due to the colony drop which affected her. Yuliana is very bigoted towards Spacenoids, and this is, in large part, because she doesn't understand them; this can be seen in the way that she makes /exceptions/ for /good Spacenoids/ who she can relate to.

For all this limited empathy, Yuliana is kind, in Yuliana's way, to children and to animals. She wishes to have children of her own, but the REA's experiments -- and the body horror she's gone through -- have left her barren. She fills her empty nest by mentoring the next generation... even in situations where those people don't agree with her methods, like Leina Ashta and Milly Ashford. While Yuliana can be harsh, particularly in her engineering mentorship of Shari Loom, she doesn't wish any malice on the youth she tries to take under her wing. (And, indeed, this mentorship is also an expression of her own life experience; she had her own mentor in the form of the woman who taught her about engineering, though she's since died.)

But Yuliana struggles to stay in one emotional state, even when she's feeling positively about someone. Emotionally labile and easily irritated, she deals with constant mood swings -- and all of her moods are particularly loud. She cries easily, laughs easily, and yells easily, and she struggles with the self-control or self-moderation which would stop her from throwing something across the room in her anger. (This risky emotional expression also speaks to her self-injurious tendencies, which she uses in a vain effort to self-regulate.) Her theatrical expression is fed into by the REA teaching her to act instead of cope; with no idea if she's reaching others at all, she acts out her emotions as loudly as possible in the hopes that someone will hear.

Relationships

Threshold Dwellers

Elisa Kafim (Elya): You are everything to me, zhenushka, and I am yours. I will see you reunited with Yourself.

The Other Elisa Kafim (Empress): I am so grateful You split Yourself in two for me. I just... wish You'd left some kindness for Yourself.

Mitsuba Greyvalley: My dear sister... return to us.

Rena Lancaster: I felt it, in the battle. You're different. Why you were blessed, I can't understand, but... I must learn more.

Shari Loom (Sharochka): I really hate you. You're of the age to run away. I do hope you find yourself, plemyannitsa.

The Nega Force

Major Vinh Pham: How could you do this to me!?

First Lieutenant Wendy Yuan (Lettu): Sometimes it's nice to talk to someone more... well, Wendy's pretty earthly, you know? Anyway, she's been real helpful with the Calling. Didn't expect her to take to it... she's treating it like another of our jobs, I think, but that's fine. She's pretty convincing. Guess she decided to adopt that Spacenoid's name fully, but nobody's perfect.

Second Lieutenant Parminder Chaudhri (Letda): lol. lmao

Officer Cadet Cascade Wattana (Canary): I haven't seen them lately. Good. I'm satisfied with them leaving my life.

Favoured Characters

Banagher Links (Nasya): You serve a purpose. See you serve it well. But what of this nonsense? Breaking time? We can't have it, Nasya.

Judau Ashta: You... tried to help me, when it hurt too much. Are you really like your sister, then?

Julia Ampere: Do take care of dear Milly, won't you?

Kaworu Nagisa: You -- saw me. You really saw me. It's horrible! ... don't go.

Milly Ashford: I'm pleased to assist you. I'd like to see what you can do.

Leina Ashta (Leyasha): I don't... understand. But... it's nice to think it could be like that, isn't it...?

Rita Bernal (Ritechka): I won't allow you to exist as you are. You keep causing me pain, but I can't stay away... it's mutual, isn't it? ... you've left, now... I guess it's for the best.

Sashenka Dian and Tri Darma Dian: I overhear my mother speaking with Elya, on occasion, even when I haven't rang them. I'm glad they're getting along.

Problems To Be Solved

Anita Rosetta: I am positively disgruntled. What did I ever do to her, anyway?!

Artemisia ka Britannia: I'd rather not be a fish in your barrel, all the same.

Asciel Colette: I'll give you some credit for considering Elya -- BUT STOP PITYING ME!

Koji Kabuto: Of course we're enemies, but I'm saddened by it all. Elya says the harsh light abjures our comforting darkness, but these people have scarred no transgressions upon the world.

Sayaka Yumi: At the end of the world, we met again. I wonder why it was her...? I... couldn't bring myself to tell her I was searching for the hope I lost.

Sousuke Sagara: Seemed like a good kid. Until he chopped all my legs off!

Michele Luio: I'm not on a last-name basis with many people, but for Luio, I'll make an exception. What kind of fool pretends to be a violator?

Shiho Hahnenfuss: Spacenoids. Ugh! This one wants me dead; good to know.

Sophia Mayhew Castellan: The reason I can't live peacefully in this world.

Useful Creatures

Alexis Kerib: Ah, so you won't be coming back for tea? Too bad. You should have accepted my offer when you had the chance.

Asuka Shikinami Langley: Well, at least one Evangelion pilot has my esteem.

Hayato Jin: I think we could see eye-to-eye on many things, darling!

Lina Lombardi: A tragically honest woman, but that can be handled, just the same.

Liu Mei Wang: The princess brought us such fetching flowers!

Nena Trinity: No hard feelings for that little roasting, mm?

Regina Everhart: You've saved my life on our missions. I'll not forget that, even if I can be a little distracted in our meetings.

Treize Khushrenada: I will not kill for you, but you were fair enough. I can respect that.

Morally Complex Villains

Jona Basta: You subverted Zoltan's destiny, did you? I... was going to see you. But it didn't work out. It's better this way, anyway.

Sayla Mass: Don't tell me I abjured help when no one helped me for so long. It's only after Elya made progress with me that you all--!!

Shelby Korts: You don't seem of a mind with Sophia. Strange.

Roux Louka: Are we going to have a problem?

Tieria Erde: I'll tolerate you so long as you remember what you're here for.

Ujico Issa: She's all right, for what she is. Perhaps we can save her?

Zoltan Akkanen: Ugh, this stupid idiot? I guess I'm fond of him, but he keeps pissing me off anyway.

The Villains of the Story

Alma Stirner (Rusalka): Say, where'd she go? I haven't seen her for ages.

Eight York: I can't believe someone who once took my tooth ended up assisting me... disgusting! Ugh, and I ended up helping her, too... but it wasn't FOR her, you know. It was for the children. Then I saw her, in Goragon... how does that make sense?! She wasn't even there, was she?! What kind of monstrous ship would put newborn children on board?!

Li Yao: Oh, choke on your honour. You always rubbed me the wrong way! It took me too long to figure out why...

Lilith Aiden: You paid for what you did. Darken my doorstep no more.

Naoko Suzuki: She wishes for this scrap of a girl, and so I cannot simply slay her where she stands. But these people -- they make me so ANGRY...! I guess if I were a normal transgressor, she'd help me... ridiculous.

Ranka Lee: Oh, I REALLY hate you. Just you wait...

Rau Le Creuset: I told you that Newtypes would destroy us. I told you all!

Zurvan Zevarist: Ah, out from old country. How quaint. It's really tragic, the way engineers are being infiltrated by the sensitive just the same.

Jana Cektru: Alone? I will SHOW you alone, you HORRIBLE WRETCH!


THE VOID AND YOU: A HANDY GUIDE

Want to know how a nega-Newtype affects your character? Here's a handy briefing of standard effects based on Awakening tier. This is intended as a general guide for a unique powerset, and shouldn't be taken as gospel; if you want to have a different reaction, the world is full of infinite possibilities.

The Void typically leaks from Yuliana within melee range -- if you want a number, on foot it's about two metres out from her person, but that's not how the powers are cosmologically measured. Instead, this leakage is defined as consuming everything within her grasp: if she can lunge out and grab you, you're within her default field of negation. (For this reason, the field ISN'T two metres wide when she's in a wanzer -- it extends out, proportionally, to the wanzer's melee grasp. Likewise, when she's in the 60-metre Emptear, her grasping aura is larger still.) Yuliana is unable to 'turn off' or further restrict her powers at this melee range; this is the minimum amount of Void Bleed which always occurs around her, and, indeed, that constant exposure may explain why she's so much the way she is.

AWAKENING 0-1

Everything is normal! There is nothing weird about interacting with Yuliana and no sense that anything in particular is wrong, unless you have some other way of sensing psychic interference outside of your Awakening.

AWAKENING 2

Everything is more or less still normal, except that any connections to people close to your heart are suspiciously quiet around Yuliana. This is the level where things become a bit unsettling, but can still be passed off as not horrible pretty easily.

AWAKENING 3

The emotional tenor of the place goes dead silent in Yuliana's sphere of influence, and it's impossible to sense emotional information from people, too. This is the point where things become Clearly Kind Of Creepy. (Or relieving, if you don't like being an empath. That's valid!)

AWAKENING 4-5

The point at which being around Yuliana is like being blindfolded and deafened. At this point it is 100% plain what Yuliana is doing, because her psychic Minovsky interference shuts out an essential part of the existence of 4s and 5s. This can be a curse or a blessing, but it's extremely OBVIOUS, either way.

ADDENDUM: DUELING WITH MENTAL UNITS

No, Yuliana isn't going to brick your ride. Her powerset is ultimately an extremely isolating thing -- so while pilots engaged with melee with her won't be able to sense her intentions or try psychic communication, it's not something which will prevent them from acting on the world through their /own/ robot or its various accessories like Fin Funnels. If you want to play with the concept there may be some narrative difficulty in interfacing with highly Mental units, like operating through a layer of molasses, but ultimately: Yuliana's power stops people from reaching other's hearts, it doesn't stop them from being able to fight. If in doubt, think: what would be the most fun interpretation of these difficulties to bring to play? 'My robot doesn't work' will rarely be the most fun interpretation.

ADDENDUM: EXPANDING HORROR AURAS

Yuliana now has the ability to expand the melee range of her powerset to affect many people at range, with the raising of the frills behind her ears. This effect can be reversed if one forces -- or convinces Yuliana to -- lower them back down.

Trivia

  • Yuliana is an extremely talented polyglot. She grew up speaking Zaftran and Indonesian in the home, and she's used Mandarin, Japanese, and OCU English since she was a child. She's fluent in Arabic, Cantonese, Korean, and Hindi, having also picked them all up at a younger age. She's a competent conversationalist in Tamil, Uzbek, DHZ Standardised Sign Language, Britannian English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, and Swahili. She has a functional grasp of a frightfully large collection of other languages, particularly minor languages of the REA, and especially when she can use her stronger languages to build on them. (One distinct exception to this is Zentradi, which she's picked up recently for obvious reasons.) Her capacity to make connections between old and new languages -- spurred by acquiring so many words at such a young age -- means that even if she encounters a language she doesn't know, it's frighteningly easy for her to pick it up. It is legitimately hard to have a conversation which Yuliana cannot understand.
  • Yuliana struggles with paperwork and writing reports; she strongly prefers to relate things verbally due to undiagnosed dyslexia. For this reason, despite her polyglot talents, Yuliana frequently falls behind when writing in other languages.
  • Yuliana loves ancient movies, and particularly treasures remakes, re-imaginings, and alleged restorations of Soviet-era work. She also likes regular old movies, but tends to lose interest in the trends of modernity. She believes that the longer a film is, the better.
  • Yuliana's favourite food is gelato, but one of her favourite parts of globehopping is getting to experience the cuisines of the world. She has an adventurous palate, but she loosely keeps her meals halal due to her cultural upbringing. (She is entirely willing to ignore this proscription for a particularly tasty snack.)
  • Yuliana was a hijabi growing up, but she eventually abandoned her headscarves after adapting to Zaftran culture. She retains an affection for covering her neck with scarves and shawls, which is quite convenient now she has jewellery to hide.
  • Yuliana started dancing when she was young; she learned more worldwide styles after she found it opened social doors as an adult. She's also competent with playing a few types of metallophones thanks to participating in gamelan performances when she was a child.
  • Unlike her disdain for many people, Yuliana is an animal lover. She has a pet tiger! His name is Sokrovishche (Sokrova to his friends), he's very green, and the strange and terrible void power bestowed upon him is... the capacity to understand verbal commands.
  • Yuliana is also fond of children, and hopes to be a mother herself. She frequently... tries... to mentor the youth.
  • Yuliana was a diligent United Earth Sphere Alliance voter, back when she wasn't persona non grata in the Federation. (... her parents are staunch Blue Cosmos voters.)
  • Yuliana spent much of her childhood growing up in the provincial city of Ambon, and after a brief stint in the larger Makassar, moved to a rural area of Chukotka. Her regional childhood has left her with an affection for the care and keeping of people who choose to live outside the more populous cities, and the infrastructure they need to live.
  • As an early-model Cyber-Newtype, Yuliana depends on daily medications to keep herself running to a basic level of health and stability. The amount of medications she takes has been cut down significantly now she's left the REA and the pharmaceutical control they enforced on her -- which is better for her health, but does lead her to greater instability.
  • Yuliana was employed as an assassin by the REA because her targets had no way to sense her malicious intent in advance. This, as it happens, was much the same reason why she was sent to negotiate with certain dignitaries on behalf of her country.
  • Yuliana and her team still doompost as a free action, just as they did before. A surprising number of the posts positing that both sides are the same and no one should bother voting in local elections (but perhaps they should buy a gun) originally came from the desks of the Nega Force, when they were working for the REA. Much of that content was accelerationist, pessimistic, or fearful, intended to stir up unrest and unease in enemy nations. These days, they still use their sockpuppets to bring the Federation down in the court of public opinion... but the REA is as much in their targets as any other bloc, if not moreso. It's a petty revenge thing.


Soundtrack

[Mell - Red Fraction]
It's always been hell / From when I was born / They make me violate them / No matter who they are

[Nine Inch Nails - Only]
I just couldn't leave it alone, picking at this scab / It was a doorway trying to seal itself shut / But I climbed through

[Florence + The Machine - Cassandra]
Well, can you see me? / I cannot see you! / Everything I thought I knew has fallen out of view / In this blindness I'm condemned to

[Marinas Trench - Echoes of You]
I thrust my fist into the post / I still insist I see the ghosts / I can't stop myself falling now / Don't look down

[Fall Out Boy - The Last Of The Real Ones]
I was just an only child of the universe / And then I found you, and then I found you

[The Bravery - Bad Sun]
We are liars like the summer time / Like the spring, we are such fools / Like fall, we are false prophets / And like winter, we are cruel

[Pink Floyd - One Of My Turns]
Don't look so frightened, this is just a passing phase! / One of my bad days

[Icon for Hire - The Magic]
My seams are breaking / It's not as fun as it sounds / I've got a whole world inside me, begging to come out

[Florence + The Machine - My Love]
And when it came, it was stranger than I had ever imagined / No cracking open of Heaven / But quiеt and still / (All my friends are getting ill)

[How To Destroy Angels - The Space In Between]
Blinding light illuminates the scene / Try to fill the spaces in between

[Homestuck - Black Hole / Green Sun]
Instrumental

[The Black Mages - Kurayaminokumo]
Instrumental

[Deltarune - Until Next Time]
I'm with you in the dark...

Logs

Cutscenes

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