#ysira

Eva:

1. Eva was custom-bred to be a Tactician, and her upbringing and education were carefully monitored and controlled. Tacticians are like chessmasters on the battlefield, directing the warriors they’re bound to, both to fulfill their mission objective and keep both of them safe. Eva proved devastatingly adroit, forging new tactics and maneuvers, and every single mission she went on was an uncontested success. Because of this, she’s the single most valuable Tactician currently living, and her political party’s seat keeps a careful and jealous lead on her, ensuring that she’s not subjected to any propaganda that may sway her loyalty.

2. The first warrior she was bound to was killed in action in the only mission on her record that’s marked as “failed”. He cut their communications link during a dispute where they didn’t see eye-to-eye on ethical approaches, and she was unable to warn him of a waiting ambush. She was immediately removed from active duty and placed into a recovery program, ushered out of the public eye both to stifle the scandal and to give her the privacy she’d need to recover.

3. Roughly a decade after her first partner’s death, Eva is cleared by both her psychiatrist and the office of the seat to return to active duty. At that point, her name is re-entered into the pool for finding a good match for a partner.

4. Tacticians and Warriors are paired teams, and they’re bred to be paired up--a solo Tactician or Warrior will not realize their full potential alone, and after some time passes (well into adulthood), the loneliness will catch up with them.

5. Eva’s much older than the match that’s made for her--Uze-- and the fact that she was previously paired makes the seat much more intent on sealing the bond between the two of them. On top of that, Uze was a loose cannon, though a skilled and valuable combat veteran, and they needed to pair him with a Tactician that could handle him, both on and off the field. The fear was that his bravado and recklessness would get him killed in combat.

6. Eva proves a more than adept handler, much to Uze’s chagrin.

7. Uze’s reticence with cooperating with her blows Eva’s mind, because she sees what he is and knows what, if he’d just work with her, they could be. She is treated as equal parts veteran and rookie by him, and she, in turn, oscillates between regarding him as an experienced combatant and a fresh recruit, depending on his mood. Them coming to terms with one another hinges largely on their willingness to drop this childish game.

8. Eva is the only android currently living that’s earned three cardinal colors: the deep, saturated royal blue of a mentor-level Tactician, combined with the gold trim of combat elite and the crisp white of political service. She wears it with pride--it’s a hard-earned rank--but she sticks out in a crowd, particularly with the way her red-violet hair strikes against all that blue and gold.

Ysira:

1. Ysira is one of only eight confirmed Architects in her race’s population, the title bestowed to those that are capable of creating new life. Sentients are a sort of life form composed of inorganic nanobots, but most are sterile, unable to create new life, as attempting to “break off” nanobots to create new life is futile unless you can both scrub them of coding and create a new code matrix for a new individual--only Architects and Composers can scrub nanites, and Architects alone can create new matrices.

2. While Ysira and other Sentients would grant her a feminine pronoun when speaking of her in other languages, all Sentients are in fact single-gendered, at least mentally speaking. Ysira’s body is markedly more feminine because their creators’ women were the ones that bore young, and so it seemed right to the Sentients that Architects should take a similarly fertile form, if only as a physical signifier of their status.

3. Sentients are terrifyingly technologically advanced, to the point where a good chunk of what they can do is objectively impossible or at best, magical. As such, other denizens of the galaxy tend to avoid the Sentients, which is just as well to them--they’re exceedingly private and not particularly inclined to share their knowledge or perspective.

4. After rescuing her from an ambush, Ysira is the first major, prolonged contact humans or Kenati make with Sentients, but she’s completely incapable of speaking or understanding Kenati or any human tongue. She begins to comprehend words and phrases days before she lets on, instead taking her time to chirr and warble contentedly at Engel, who’s been assigned to keep an eye on her, and learn as much as she can about the ship she’s on and its tech while they still think her incapable.

5. By human terms, Ysira has no boundaries. If she sees something interesting, she picks it up and inspects it. If she sees something she likes, she takes it. Engel spends a decent amount of time teaching her “No” and “Put that back”. Another point of fascination for her is buttons, oddly enough, and she enjoys inspecting the buttons on Engel’s shirt and unfastening them. He eventually gives her one of his shirts to wear over her clothes and play with on her own. (This has the added bonus of keeping her from stripping him…or herself.)

6. Ysira perceives Engel’s transformation after several days aboard the kenati vessel, and despite the fact that she was injured in the ambush--her nanites repaired enough to give the outward illusion of wellness and capability-- she diverts some of her resources and energy to stabilizing him and ensuring it continues in a way that doesn’t damage him or his mind. Reversing the process is out of her power, but the least she can do is ensure the transition is as comfortable as possible. So comfortable he barely even notices the change.

7. She keeps it inside, but her entire situation on the kenati ship under human and kenati custody is terrifying to her, especially for the first week or so. Her health steadily declines, hastened by the stress of her entire ordeal and the grief she’s working through--her entire colony was lost. Stabilizing Engel further drains her, to the point where when another Sentient colony pinpoints her distress call and comes to collect her, she’s completely bedridden.