lingeringlegacy | Application for edensphere

CHARACTER INFO

CHARACTER NAME: Anew Returner
SERIES: Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (anime + bits from novel, drama CD & Yun Kouga's manga)

PERSONALITY:
Our first impression of Anew is a polite, soft-spoken and slightly shy woman. As she begins working, her serious, dutiful side shows, with a dash of observant as she throws occasional commentary on enemy tactics and ponders (ironically) why the enemy kept on locating them. She speaks mainly of facts. Beneath this professional attitude, she harbours insecurity about being unable to remember her past and loneliness from being the newbie in a tight-knit crew.

From her relationship with Lyle, we see Anew's more private side. She can be affectionate and a bit of a romantic, paying attention to little things like how Lyle's feelings seem to flow from his fingertips and alleviate her worries. Public display of affection is not her thing though, which might explain the crew not knowing she and Lyle were together until one day, before sortieing, Lyle professed his love for her over the common channel. She got flustered and couldn't respond with anything other than "OK, just launch already!". But that's still less drastic than punching Lyle by reflex because Soma, a (sort of) crewmember walked in on them almost kissing.

The moment Anew's memories are unlocked, her personality shifts. She's still serious, still dutiful (just not to Ptolemy crew anymore), but gone is the sweet disposition, replaced by someone who doesn't hesitate to shoot her crewmember, hold them hostage and hurl condescending taunts at them. Even then, her period of living as human affected her more than she would admit. More apparent in her reaction to Lyle during the hostage situation, but may also explain her precision with Lasse--no vital spots are hit despite Anew shooting from point blank. Still, mission is her priority. Her thoughts and feelings must take back seat. She tells herself that she only felt what she felt because of fabricated situations. But this resolution was eventually proven weak, because when confronted, the weight of Ribbons' direction falls apart in face of what she experienced and formed on her own.

A common thread in Anew's personality seem to relate to her origins as Innovade designed to gather information. She tends not to make judgement or decision before acquiring sufficient data. It's relevant to her work, like when observing abnormal medical condition of Setsuna's wound. It may be the reason Lyle, who's very touchy about being compared to his brother, can open up to her. After awakening, like the typical Innovade she defaults to relying on Veda. As in the hostage situation, she can be indecisive in the presence of conflicting information; definitely not a leader type.

TIMELINE: End of season 2 episode 20 (post-death)

BACKGROUND:
Celestial Being is (CB) a secret organisation developed over the course of 200 years with the ultimate goal of guiding humanity to space. They influenced Earth geopolitics and technological progress from within shadows before publicising their existence in 2307 AD. As the first stage of their plan, CB declared armed intervention against any country or group that incites war. This seemingly farfetched agenda was enabled by their possession of technology far exceeding that of any Earth nation.

Among CB's advanced technology is the creation of Innovades, artificially-grown humanoid bioterminal of the quantum computer Veda. Originally, Innovades were meant for integration into society to improve Veda's understanding of humanity. This was to facilitate the next step of human evolution into Innovators. However, after years of scheming, the oldest Innovade Ribbons Almark took over Veda and claimed that his kind is the real Innovators, meant to rule and guide humanity. This rebellion resulted in a power split within CB: Ribbons with Veda vs. crew of the mothership Ptolemaios with the humanoid giant robots Gundams and their semi-perpetual power-source GN Drives. Ribbons amassed power and practically ruled the Earth Sphere Federation (ESF). The Ptolemaios crew were defeated and scattered for 4 years before regrouping and restarting operations.

Anew Returner was an Innovade sent by Ribbons to act as sleeper agent in the Ptolemaios. To avoid detection, her memory of being an Innovade had been blocked. She was introduced to the group by Wang Liu Mei, a CB benefactor secretly playing both sides. With Anew unconsciously using her quantum brainwaves as tracking system, ESF's special force A-LAWS repeatedly launch attacks on the Ptolemaios. The crew managed to scrape through mainly due to the Gundams having technological edge over ESF's mobile suits.

In the midst of battles, Anew grew closer to Lockon Stratos, a Gundam pilot and fellow new recruit. Lockon--or Lyle, his real name--had issues of disconnect mostly due to his inferiority complex towards his late twin brother, the previous Lockon, who was very dear to the old crew. He found himself comfortable with Anew, who never knew his brother. Anew, feeling lonely as the latest addition to a tight-knit crew, appreciated Lyle's attention. Not long after the Break Pillar incident in which A-LAWS' Memento Mori laser struck the African orbital elevator (Anew had been impressed when fighters of all sides temporarily cooperated to minimize destruction), the two "outsiders" became romantically involved.

In the next four months, Anew spent time treating and monitoring the injury of another Gundam pilot, Setsuna, caused by gunshot infused with GN Tau particles. She noticed how the cell degeneration normally suffered by patients of similar affliction progressed much slower in him, but couldn't determine the cause. Also during that period, her relationship with Lyle grew more intimate. She was the only one he confided to about his past and inferiority complex towards his twin brother. With memory blocked, she couldn't reciprocate with her own story of the past, even getting a headache when she tried remembering. Lyle assured her didn't mind, deciding that the present her was what's important.

When Ribbons deemed it time to strip off the Ptolemaios' combat advantage, he sent Anew's genetic twin Revive Revival to get captured on purpose. On board the ship, Revive unlocked Anew's repressed memory via quantum brainwave link. Now, she remembered not only her identity and mission, but also sense of superiority over humans that Ribbons had taught his "Innovators". With a cold expression on her face, Anew shot her copilot, Lasse, and took a teenage bridge operator, Mileina, as hostage so that she and Revive could take 00-Gundam and 0-Raiser. However, although Anew still managed to incapacitate the ship's system with virus and take the important Twin Drive System data, the Gundamjacking mission failed thanks to cooperation between Lyle and Setsuna. Lyle pretended to defect in order to be with Anew, and when Setsuna shot right past him, Anew got distracted long enough for Lyle to pry the hostage off her grip. This shows that even in awakened state, Anew retained all her memories in the crew and feelings for Lyle. Revive (who is sexless) blamed the failure on Anew being created female. Later Lyle, despite deceiving her to free the hostage, couldn't bear to shoot the small shuttle she and Revive escaped in. With no one around to hear her, Anew looked behind in the direction of Lyle's unmoving Gundam, muttering, "I really loved you."

Before long, perhaps only several hours later, Anew returned as one of the mobile suit pilots in a group launching offense on the Ptolemaios. Despite not being a combat specialist, she was sent for the specific role of distracting Lyle out of his formation post, clearing the path for Revive and another Innovade, Hiling Care, to attack the ship and capture the 00-Raiser. As she and Lyle fought, he tried to convince her to get back to him and the Ptolemaios, but she insisted that they, human and Innovator, are different and not meant to be together. It didn't faze Lyle, and eventually he called on her flimsy resolution, when she couldn't say in earnest that everything they felt was fake. At that time, he had also cornered her mobile suit with his Gundam's Shield Bits. Rather than landing the finishing blow, he threw down his weapons and extended his Gundam's hand towards her broken cockpit, asking her to return. She was touched by the lengths he went through and couldn't keep up the facade anymore: she loved him and wanted to be with him. So she got up and ready to leave her cockpit.

What she didn't know was that Ribbons had prepared a failsafe measure. Through Veda he was able to assume control of her mind and body, using the moment Lyle lowered his guard to use the last of her weapons to thrash Lyle's Gundam while lecturing him on the superiority of Innovators and about to stab it with a heat sword. Lyle would have died if not for Setsuna, who arrived with only enough time to shoot Anew's mobile suit right in the biggest target: the torso, where her cockpit was. Whether it's due to the GN particles from Setsuna's Gundam or because she was dying, Ribbons' link to Anew was cut and she was once again in control of her mind. However, it was only long enough to share a last moment with Lyle among the TransAm Raiser particles that linked Anew and Lyle's consciousness together, the highest level of understanding. She conveyed to him that she was grateful being an Innovator, knowing she might not have met him otherwise, when it was what she thought made life worth living. He assured her that they had understood each other. Leaving Lyle with the impression of a smile, she closed her eyes for the last time. The last encounter happened in particle space, whereas in real-time merely lasted a few seconds, enough for Anew to shove Lyle's Cherudim Gundam away from her Gaddess to prevent it getting caught in the explosion that took her life.

ABILITIES:
Joining the crew of Ptolemaios to fill not one, but two vacant positions (ship pilot & medic), Anew possesses various skills, conveniently summarized during her canon introduction scene:

Mobile suit engineering - Helped in developing support units for Gundams.
Piloting - Spaceships, shuttlecrafts and mobile suits. Anew is an Information-type Innovade so her combat piloting skill is likely lower than Combat-types such as Tieria.
Regenerative medicine - Medical technology in Gundam 00 is at the level where in most cases, lost limbs and damaged organs can be fully regrown. Anew was never shown performing to the full extent of technology, but as medic of the Ptolemy she has been shown treating injuries and monitoring crew health condition.
Astrophysics - This expertise is mentioned, but never showcased in canon.
Cooking - This expertise is mentioned, but never showcased in canon.

A caveat to this diverse knowledge is that she didn't gain them through learning, but had them implanted through Veda. In the absence of Veda connection, Innovades are considerably handicapped, analogous to one who relies on data from the internet getting forcibly disconnected and must make do with whatever stored offline.

As an Innovade, her body doesn't age. Her strength and reflexes are superior to most humans'. The gap isn't huge, so outcome of fights would depend on the skill and strength of her opponent, but she would surprise those who underestimate her based on physical appearance. She also has an ability called quantum brainwave. Think of it as a hax version of normal brainwave. It can be used to interface with Veda, locate and communicate telepathically with other QBW users, or control machinery specially designed to react to QBW. QBW users in several occasions have employed some kind of short-range precognition (sensing enemy attack).

GAME INFO

EDENSPHERE NAME: Stellaris
BIRTHDAY LOG: Think of the giant squirrels. They think of you naked. Yes.
DREAM:
She was free-floating. There was neither up nor down. Everywhere she gazed was only deep space. Stars lit up across her range of vision. Interstellar cloud spread in the distant backdrop. She knew then: There are stars' cradles and graves.

She turned around; slowly, gently. A big, bright, blue-green orb came to her view, adorned by patches of white cloud. Thin tether surrounded the orb like a bracelet. She knew then: It was Earth.

Suddenly space around her started glowing. Or not—the glow instead came from millions of tiny, green, sparkling particles encircling her. She felt then: They were beautiful.

She floated forwards approaching the Earth, passing debris and asteroids, until she reached the tether ring. Now it was more than tether; it looked like a gigantic railroad. She advanced along them, going until a large object became visible: a building three- or four-storey high with metallic-grey walls, attached to the railroad like single-coached space train. Then in a blink of an eye, immense ray of light brushed at her right side, larger and brighter than anything else. In space there is no sound, but she thought she could felt the turbulence like a hairline away from her ear. She felt then: Danger.

An invisible force lead her to the left, going off that railroad track. Down, down, rapidly down the atmosphere, into thick clouds in the stratosphere. Her surroundings turned white. The white subsided, then she felt grass beneath her feet and gravity weighing her down. She gazed to the horizon, seeing pine trees and mountains with snowy tops and above them the sky, clear, vast and azure. It made her want to smile. She felt then: Space was home, but Earth too is beautiful.

Then a rumbling noise came from behind, so she turned around, and the view couldn't be any more different. Beneath her feet was now arid plains. She saw a tower in a distance, soaring to the sky as high as eye can see. The noise came from beams of light, red and green, flashing and criss-crossing, as numerous bright dots hovered around the tower like three green fireflies among a pack of red fireflies. She knew then: This is a battle.

The noise kept increasing in intensity and she watched the sky getting darker. She didn't realise when but her feet had left the ground, now floating in the sky, closer to the tower. The noise was deafening, shadows filled the warring skies in the form of thickening dust clouds. The shadows fell rapidly, hit the ground with impact. The three green fireflies dashed upwards and started shooting the shadows with pink beams. A relief she couldn't explain washed over her as the red fireflies followed suit, shooting the shadows before another reached Earth. She understood then: For now we are one.

The dust cloud cleared and the noise was no more. The blue sky turned pink and purple as the sun began to set, the tower and fighters disappeared. She was flying above rainforest canopy, and she felt comforting warmth running all over her body, like a lover's embrace. She felt then: Earth, too, is home.

She began floating upwards again, through the clouds and atmosphere until she was back in space, with the stars and moon and that same tether ring around the Earth. She still felt warm, as though embraced, as though loved, and she basked in that feeling. Then all the starlight abruptly go out, together with her beloved warmth.

Only darkness and cold.

And one star left shining, so she tried approaching it, before another star lit up at her other side, confusing her. Space did not wait for her to decide, but rather caught her by surprise as red and green beams of light started to flash in battle once more. She curled her body in fetal position. She did not want it to happen. In space there is no sound, but she could hear them this time, blasting through her airspace, colliding and exploding. She tried to focus at the two shining stars, and now she was able to feel a difference.

One of them emanated warmth—her beloved warmth of Earth at sunset. What am I thinking? It should've been obvious. She floated, now sure, towards that star. Everything would be alright, wouldn't it?

The darkness fell again, but now thicker than ever. She could not see anything, nor hear, not even her own screams.

Salvation came as a blinding light. It felt like a stellar explosion, colourful, radiant and energetic—supernova marks the death of a star.

"We understood each other, didn't we?", she asked the man she knew was there. Was he the source of warmth she sought with longing? She couldn't see him clearly, but she knew then: He was the one.

"Of course," he answered from among the white space, surrounded by pastel-coloured interstellar cloud, like inverted nebula.

"That's great," she said, smiling.

Closing her eyes, she understood then: Here is a star's cradle and grave.

JOURNAL SAMPLE:
[ A ~~wild~~ message in neat handwriting appears! ]

Good day, Edensphere!

I am a new [ A momentary pause here, as Stellaris suddenly feels that the string of common words is supposed to mean something else. She can't recall, so she continues. ] hatchling, welcomed earlier today by my kind greeter. My name, or to be exact the name I feel affined to, is Stellaris.

Hopefully we get along well and I can be of assistance to the community, although at the moment I don't remember all that I can do. It seems when I try and do tasks, some feel familiar, like when I tried cooking a light meal, or when I found myself recognising celestial objects in my dream. But I don't suppose guesswork astronomy is a very practical field here, or is it?

ASPIRATIONS:
Anew had a period of memory-wipe in canon, which lead to big changes in her life. Another memory wipe in a more relaxed setting might allow for more contemplation about the nature of personality and memory. I also want her subconscience as information-gathering type Innovade manifest into an urge to get involved in Edensphere's mysteries. Other than that, I'd like to have her chill, do everyday stuff she never experienced, make friends who are not necessarily co-workers and (this is very important!) wear pretty, non-uniform clothes.