CHARACTERS

About:

Yura comes from a poor family. His mother, Lilya, is a prostitute and both him and his half-sister have a detached relationship with her and between each other.

Yura spends most of his time partying and indulging in life’s not-so-wholesome pleasures. While being rather smart, he doesn’t see much point in studying, since his family can’t afford to pay for higher education.

Yura doesn’t like his mother being a sex worker, so he tries to make some part-time earnings by working as Sanya’s math tutor. He is also doing training to later on become a stalker, since as risky as that profession is, it pays extremely well.

About:

Sanya is a daughter of a renowned stalker, who died when she was still a child. Because of the Zone’s influence she was born with albinism and, while that mutation is a mild one, her obviously “abnormal” appearance combined with society’s negative opinion on stalkers could easily result in mistreatment. That led to her brother becoming very overprotective of her, which made their relationship rather strained.

After Yura was taken into training by Sergei and simultaneously began working part-time as Sanya’s tutor, she became fascinated with the boy’s lifestyle, which basically embodied everything her brother forbade her from doing. Through Yura's bad influence and her own desire to rebel against her big bro, Sanya gradually became a frequent figure at those underground parties. She can often be seen together with Yura as well as a group of a few other no-good kids.

About:

Katya is a mutant who escaped from the research facility near the Zone.

Her body begins growing extensive amounts of tissue when she’s under a lot of stress. It’s painful and she can only somewhat control the movements of the flesh, so she tries to avoid exploding into a mass of meat as much as possible.

The marks on KT’s arms and body are hardened scars. Since all the extra flesh she grows has to be removed manually (which is one of the reasons why she avoids using her powers), the wounds take some time to “heal”. During that period she has to wear bandages. When her arms (or whatever other body parts the tissue exploded out of) are back to normal, they aren’t sensitive at all.

Due to having to almost constantly keep her emotions in check, KT has a much higher stress ceiling than most people, as well as an inherently high emotional intelligence. She is very optimistic about experiencing the world outside and meeting new friends!

About:

After the death of their father Sergei had to raise Sanya himself. Throughout his late teens and early twenties he worked as a stalker, but had to stop after a particularly bad mission left him contemplating how if he were to die his sister would stay all alone. Now works from home parallel to homeschooling Sanya and training Yura. While he earns plenty of money, he saves up a lot in order to pay for his sister's future university education.

Sergei reluctantly agreed to take Yura into training because of his inherent talent. He let the boy tutor Sanya for a while, but after figuring out most of their lessons consisted of chatting about unrelated stuff he put an end to this practice. While Sergei really frowns upon Yura and Sanya hanging out, at this point he can't do much about it.

In a romantic relationship with Olya.

About:

Not much is known about her. Olya works a day job at an office and lives alone. She sometimes gives Yura a lift and delivers some additional “study materials” from Sergei, whom she’s in a relationship with.

While it may often seem like she simply tolerates Anya’s persistent company, she actually enjoys having the girl around and doesn’t mind her coming over every now and then.

About:

Being born into a poor family, Anya feels like she has very little opportunities to get ahead in life. However, she refuses to accept that notion and wants to go against society’s pressure (though her ideas of what that pressure is and how to fight it are very vague). She hates her brother’s passive, hedonistic attitude towards life and doesn’t talk to her mother all that much.

Anya met Olya through Yura and gradually developed a rather close relationship with her. The girl regularly “runs away from home”, though everyone knows she just goes to hang out at Olya’s place for a few days before inevitably coming back.

About:

Dmitry is a mutant on the run.

His power is telekinesis. He can pick up practically anything, though the more heavy the object the more effort he has to exert. Moving objects out of his line of sight is possible, but he needs to know their location prior to picking them up; the radius of that ability is about 15 meters.

Not just going overboard, but simply regularly using his powers causes severe headaches, dizziness, losing consciousness, etc. One other setback is that he has trouble manipulating held objects (since a person holding it exerts a certain amount of both mental and physical effort) directly, so if Dmitry himself is physically held down, he may find it hard to break free.

Not very social.

About:

Dr Temnova is dedicated to her job as one of facility's top researchers. She handles the most valuable subjects - that is, tier 01 mutants. DT001-319 in particular is her most promising project.

Temnova has a near-romantic fondness for the Zone. It is her life's goal to honour and study Her endless might.

About:

A teacher from Yura and Anya's school, who also happens to be a stalker. Behind his smile and intelligent demeanor is a rather mean spirit.

Doesn't have a good track record with women, having abandoned his long-term girlfriend after she got pregnant with a potentially mutated child. Has a resentment for Olya, who survived the incident his little brother didn't.

Nikita has played a major role in helping Sergei raise Sanya after his father's death. He is also largely responsible for Yura joining the business.

About:

A calm and somewhat ditzy man. Helped raise the Kazarin children alongside his brother.

Slightly asocial, Kolya always felt closer to nature than he did to people. The Zone was the only place that felt like home.

Perished in the Grinder incident 6 years ago.

About:

Nadya is a kind, empathetic, anxious woman. She does not come from a loving family, and tries to be gentle and understanding with all the children she teaches.

Very unsure of herself, she admires people who can act with no regard for other's opinions. After meeting Nikita, Nadya grew to base her entire self-worth on their relationship.

Her fate after the breakup is unknown.

About:

The youngest member of Yura and Sanya's friend group - and he hates that. He also hates his first name. He hates a lot of things in general.

Tsar lives at an orphanage with his bandmate Arthur. He's a sensitive and creative kid whose band even gets occasional gigs at the local club.

About:

A gloomy young man that's as unapproachable as they get. Doesn't talk much unless Yura irritates him enough to push a dialogue.

Has a soft spot for Tsar, who he's been shielding from the worst parts of living in a low-budget orphanage. Works hard to not end up like most other people that grew up in that place.

Dislikes you specifically.

About:

Yana is sharp, affectionate, and pushy. If she believes something is right for you, she will do everything in her power to ensure it happens.

Being a daughter of very successful parents, Yana has a lot of expectations on her. In particular, she is always compared to her high-achieving older sister both at home and at uni, which leads to Yana drowning out her stress with mindless partying.

Ivan doesn't expect anything of her, and she loves him for that.

About:

Ivan is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he sure knows how to have fun.

After a criminal past, a religious awakening, and 6 months at a young offenders institution, he has become an upstanding citizen that only occasionally causes bar fights. He cares about his friends a lot, and to this day feels guilt for what he's done to Arthur.

He still can't believe how lucky he got with Yana.

About:

Lilya is an apathetic and jaded woman. She has a distant relationship with her children, where fights and open displays of affection are equally rare.

Her first love turned out to be involved with some dubious characters. When he skipped town, all of his criminal dues got passed on to Lilya.

17 years later, she is still working off the debt left by Yura's father.