Sveta Karelia

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Sveta Karelia</default></title>

<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>

<label>Status</label><format>

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<label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox> Sveta is a Case 53 that has been through incredible hardship, eventually she found her way to a therapy group.

Personality

When first released onto earth bet Sveta was sleep deprived and almsot starving.<ref name="29.7e2"/>

Sveta is very shy and kind, her inability to control her power distressed her greatly. She values the friends that she can make.

She is driven by the large amount of guilt she has for those she inadvertently killed.<ref name="TenE1c1">Sveta was sorry even as she killed 100+ people. Yamada didn’t instill that. - Comment by Wildbow in Teneral e.1</ref><ref name="18.z e722">Sveta clutched the pole harder. “I understand. Was she… was she a bad guy? Like me?”

“Do you think you were a ‘bad guy’?”

“I killed people. Yes.”

“It wasn’t you. It was your power.”

“I still killed people.” - Excerpt from Interlude 18 (Donation Bonus 3)</ref>She was desperate for laughs when she was in the asylum and eventually found an outlet through the internet.<ref name="P8 e1"/> She confessed that she would rather have died then have gotten her powers.<ref name="29.7e2">“I’m not playing,” Sveta said, and the anger was gone, just as fast as it had appeared. “I’m- I’m telling you that if you’d asked, at any point along the way, I’d probably have told you I’d rather be dead. I’d rather be dead than live this new life you gave me, where I spent years killing people by accident, unable to sleep, killing stray animals for food because my body decides when I eat, not my mind…” - Excerpt from Venom 29.7</ref>

In the years since Golden Morning she has opened up emotionally.

Greg Veder

Sveta tried to become friends with him online.<ref name="I19c2">The Sandman:Odd, because once I saw the tags I thought GstringGirl was Sveta (aka Garotte).
Given that “wrapped around a pole” is basically the equivalent of a chair for her and that her “body” is more-or-less made up of fleshy wires, her username is sort of a joke about her condition.
And it also explains why she’s not wiling to send any photographs.
wildbow:Dingdingding. -

Comment by Wildbow in Interlude 19.y</ref> Their relationship had a falling out when Greg got spooked out by her unfortunate nickname and her unwillingness to send him pictures.

Victoria

Her first 'real' friend that she was able to talk to and interact with. The girl's forcefield was resistant to Sveta's tentacles. Sveta felt vary guilty about leaving Her behind when she went to the Irregulars.

Weld

Weld was Sveta's idol and role model. Eventually they met at the advice of Jessica Yamada; they got along well and agreed on many matters together.<ref name="27.5e3"/<ref name="23.4 e1"/>> They became partners, with Weld carrying Sveta around.

They eventually started a relationship together.

The Irregulars

Got along with Weld and shared information about her personal experience with other members of the team.

After Gold Morning she, as a Weld supporter, is heavily shunned by surviving Irregulars. Although she is still willing to provide support for fellow monstrous parahumans.

Appearance

<tabber>Deviant Form= Sveta is little more than a very pale face with long, thin, coiling tendrils streaming around it like hair.<ref name="18.z e1">Like a dozen frog’s tongues, tendrils snapped across the length of the room to the ‘bed’, encircling it. In another second, as though each tendril were elastic bands stretched to their limits, Sveta had shifted there, her tendrils gripping the post as she hung from it. Jessica was free.

Sveta was little more than a very pale face with thin tendrils streaming around it like hair. Small organs dangled from the largest of the tendrils that extended from the back of her face. A small symbol marked the girl’s cheekbone: a stylized ‘c’, in black.

It took Sveta a second before she relaxed enough to let the tendrils uncoil from the post. The tendrils settled in the air, in a rough facsimile of where a person’s limbs might be. She’d positioned herself so that the organs could rest on the ‘shelves’ on the post.

“I’m sorry,” Sveta said, eyes downcast.

“I’m fine. I understand,” Jessica soothed. She shifted position, and one tendril snapped out to catch her leg, gripping her around the knee, squeezing and twisting with a strength that could have torn every ligament in her knee and wrenched Jessica’s calf from her upper leg. Sveta flinched, closed her eyes for a second, and the tendril moved back to the post. The suit had held. No damage done. - Excerpt from Interlude 18 (Donation Bonus 3)</ref> Small organs dangle from the largest of the tendrils that extends from the back of her face while a small "C" is tattooed on her cheekbone.<ref name="18.z" /><ref name="27.5e2">He began undoing the little clasps of metal that bound Garotte against his body. She unfurled, reached out to railings, to edges of metal.

Where the tendrils surrounded the railing, a barrier that might have stopped a speeding car, the metal bent, crushed tight.

The tendrils continued to find their way to things to grip. There were more of them than I’d thought.

One tendril seized my claw, faster than I could react. Just as fast, it pulled back, found something else to hold.

She and Weld both stopped.

I watched as she closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and then exhaled.

Weld released her organs, hidden in a space in his broad back, and she was free of him. She collected herself around the railing, her eyes closed, drawing in deep breaths and then exhaling slowly. Slowly, the tendrils released, and she stretched out to her full length.

She looked like a fish underwater, a lionfish or jellyfish with dramatic, crazy fins or fronds. Where they weren’t bound to her surroundings, the fronds fell in line with one another, moved with their own rhythm, a mind of their own, that searched the surroundings. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref> She speaks with a soft Russian accent.<ref>The tendril-girl spoke, her voice harboring a soft Russian accent. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref> The rest are large |-|Prosthetic= Used an advanced full body prostetic that she manipulated with her tentacles. She's used her artistic skill to paint it and add her flair to it. Further she has started wearing a black wig.<ref name="II2.5 e3"> - Excerpt from Flare 2.5</ref></tabber>

Abilities and Powers

Deviant Form

Instinct

Sveta is incapable of fully controlling the strength of her tendrils which leads her to instinctively crush any stressor with them.<ref name="I19c1">The latter. It’s like her entire fight or flight system was overhauled so the response to any stressor is ‘strangle it’. - Comment by Wildbow in Interlude 19.y</ref> This also means her power is reactive to any threat against her no matter the source.<ref name="29.7c2">She can’t kill herself, or she would have, it’s obvious enough. Her body would react and destroy external threats, even ones she’s trying to leverage against herself. - Comment by WildBow on Venom 29.7</ref> Her powers' behavior may stem from Sveta having little connection with her Shard,<ref name="SB3">Some people have very little connection to their shards. Look at Leet - his shard actively sabotages him. Look at Echidna, or Sveta. You end up with disconnects, and stuff starts to stand out as the shard's behavior becomes more distinct, either in 'episodes' or a pattern of the power not cooperating. - Worm Web Serial Discussion III : After the End (Wildbow, SpaceBattles.com, 2014-01-15)</ref> and it functions largely independent of her.

This makes computer use hard but not impossible with the right equipment,<ref name="RPG1">Very rugged design, kind of like Weld has his super reinforced chair.

Of course, she's not the only patient who needs a rugged computer, ergo her 'sister' needing to use it.

Drawback being that if you have a computer built for someone with a degree of super strength they can't wholly control, and worked so that the keys can be both pushed & pulled (with screws in each key for the tentacle girl to grip), sensitivity becomes a secondary consideration. - Post by Wildbow on RPG.net</ref> further she is able to use her appendages for drawing and painting, showcasing a talent for the arts.<ref name="29.7e1">“I remember, you know,” Sveta said. “I dream of home. I was a fisherman’s daughter. There were these beautiful little huts with flat roofs, orange clay brick against gray mountains, with green-blue grass and ocean. It was cramped, and I had to share space with my family, my siblings… but I was okay with it. There weren’t any boys my age to marry, and I didn’t want to move to another town to look for a husband, so I just stayed by myself. I’d draw, and there was a peace in it. I still like to draw, I find it helps me relax… but it’s hard because my tendrils break the brushes and pencils. And then I don’t feel relaxed anymore.” - Excerpt from Venom 29.7</ref>

To safely interact with her a normal human needs to essentially enter a walking tank,<ref name="18.z e6543">“-But I have to go over them anyways. There are regulations, Jessica, as you well know. You’ll be wearing a type-C reinforced protective suit. The suits include both an inner and outer layer, the inner layer-”

“Has a button in the palm. I can withdraw my fingers from the outer glove and press the button. At random intervals, you’ll buzz me surreptitiously…”

“And we expect you to press the button to verify that you’re okay. You can press it twice in the event of an emergency.”
[...]
“It’s what we have for the time being. If you don’t verify your own safety or if you signal an emergency, we’ll employ containment foam through the sprinkler system.”

Jessica pulled on the protective inner-suit. The suit fit close to her body, smelled faintly of someone else's sweat, and consisted of a stretching mesh covered in fine chain link. The entire thing was reinforced by a grid of metal bars, complete with oiled hinges at each joint, so she had a near-full range of motion. Zipping it up, it went straight up her neck, the bars running vertically down her throat. She couldn't look down without getting jabbed in the soft flesh beneath her jaw.

It made it harder to get the outer suit on. The entire thing was one piece, like footie-pyjamas, and the fabric was heavy, with alternating layers of insulated fabric and more chain mesh.
[...]
Now that she had a better grasp of what her patients were capable of, it was easier to hope the people designing the safeguards were doing everything they needed to. It was better than researching it and knowing they weren't.

The heavy fabric exterior suit fit her like hazardous materials gear, bulky, broad, leaving a great deal of empty space between her body and the fabric. Protective airbags of more reinforced cloth inflated to fill that space - Excerpt from Interlude 18 (Donation Bonus 3)</ref>

one that needs regular maintenance between visits. She is even able to effect Weld thanks to her strength.

Durability

Her tentacles have notable durability,<ref name="27.5e1"/> stated to be one of the reasons she was captured instead of killed when she was first found by the outside authorities.<ref name="29.6">Imp turned the sphere.

“Finally. Fresh air,” the girl inside said. She had a quiet voice. More the type of voice I’d connect to a shy librarian at a party or a sheltered preacher’s daughter in the company of boys.

“Sveta?” I asked. “We met on the oil rig.”

“She also goes by Garotte,” Satyr said. “The only reason the PRT didn’t put her down was because she’s rather hard to kill. She has quite the impressive body count.”

“Don’t say that.”

“She was part of the original invading party,” Satyr went on, ignoring her. “They attacked the Doctor, setting this whole mess in motion.”

“I could hear everything you guys were saying,” the girl said. It was only when she said the longer word ‘everything’ that I noticed the rasp to her voice. It would be part of the reason for her being quiet. - Excerpt from Venom 29.6</ref>

Strength

A single tendril can easily rip a limb off of someone,<ref name="18.z e95343">"I'm fine. I understand," Jessica soothed. She shifted position, and one tendril snapped out to catch her leg, gripping her around the knee, squeezing and twisting with a strength that could have torn every ligament in her knee and wrenched Jessica's calf from her upper leg. Sveta flinched, closed her eyes for a second, and the tendril moved back to the post. The suit had held. No damage done. - Excerpt from Interlude 18 (Donation Bonus 3)</ref> several at once possess enough strength to bend steel bars and demolish concrete barriers.

Prosthesis

In her full body Prosthesis (see above) she retains her durability, but is restrained somewhat by the confines of the humanoid body. She moves somewhat clumsily.

She can unlatch her joints, allowing her to extend her limbs a considerable distance and use them as grappling hooks.

History

Background

Sveta was a fisherman's daughter living in a small village with her family, probably on an alternate Earth.<ref name="29.7e1" /> She was taken in the middle of a storm while delirious by several other 'monstrous' capes, and given a Cauldron formula.<ref name="29.7">Venom 29.7</ref> Following her release from Cauldron's custody, in an area that was not America,<ref name="29.7c1">She wasn’t based in America at the outset, so the PRT had no involvement for some time. - Comment by WildBow on Venom 29.7</ref> she accidentally killed well over hundred people<ref name="29.6"/> over the course of several years.<ref name="29.7e2" />

Given her accent, it's likely that she spent some time in Russia, either before or after her transformation.

Eventually, she was captured and placed in a Parahuman Asylum.

After a point when she was in the asylum she gained computer privileges, though she had to share with someone else. She eventually found Parahumans Online and choose the username GstringGirl, for a laugh.<ref name="I19c2"/><ref name="P8 e1">Whippersnap: I saw you in the casey thread. you had your name changed but you did a bad job of covering up the change.

Space_Squid: I didn’t cover it up. The old name was a lark at a time I needed to laugh but I’m done with it. Its embarrassing now - Excerpt form Glow-worm P.8</ref>

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

Dr. Yamada visited Sveta in june 16th as part of her regular rounds. The Case 53 girl was waiting above the doorway to her special containment room when Dr. Yamada arrived for their session. Her tendrils wrapped around Dr. Yamada's suit and then constricted before Sveta apologized. Dr. Yamada told her to focus on her relaxation exercises, but Sveta said that it was just making it worse. An airbag gave way and Sveta apologized again before saying that they should've talked through the mirrors and that she didn't want Dr. Yamada to die. Dr. Yamada told her that the point of the sessions was to socialize her before hushing her and telling her to focus on her relaxation exercises.<ref name="18.z e1"> Thursday, June 16th, 2011, 22:11
[...] -

Excerpt from Interlude 18 (Donation Bonus 3)</ref>

Eventually, Sveta was able to uncoil from Dr. Yamada's suit and move herself over to her 'bed' while settling her organs on a shelf on the post. She apologized again, but Dr. Yamada said she understood. Sveta asked about the patient that Dr. Yamada had seen, only for Dr. Yamada to remind her that she couldn't talk to others about her patients. Sveta said she understood before asking if the patient was a bad guy like she had been - saying that she had killed people before. Dr. Yamada told her that it was her power that had killed them and that they would talk about it in their session before telling her that a doctor might be able to tell her about the new patient through the intercom.

Dr. Yamada asked if she had been keeping her journal and Sveta grabbed it. The doctor asked if she could look at it and Sveta allowed her to. Dr. Yamada then asked her what had her so agitated before Sveta asked her why she wasn't scared of her. Dr. Yamada told her that she had no reason to be.<ref name="18.z">Interlude 18 (Donation Bonus 3)</ref>

Yamade informed Sveta of the larger plan behind her treatment. And told her that there was a new patient at the asylum. They were eventually introduced and became fast friends.

Post-Echidna

Distraught over her idol leaving the Protectorate, Sveta rapidly lost progress in her treatment.<ref name="23.4 e1">“It’s a matter of professional courtesy,” she said, more like she was talking to herself than to me. She was still getting herself sorted out, her raincoat hung up, rain boots replaced with slippers she’d been holding beneath the coat. “Being prompt, it indicates that I respect and value your time. You can’t confide in me if I don’t respect you.”

Respect me?

I looked down at the floor for a moment. She was looking at me when I raised my eyes to her. “With all sincerity, it was due to forces entirely out of my control, with complications at every turn.”

“Bureaucracy,” I said.

“You’re not wrong,” she said, “But it was something else. A patient of mine, institutionalized, she’s reacted badly to certain events in the last month. Someone she idolized left the Wards, and-”

I could see her stop, composing herself, the stress and preoccupied attitude melting away.

“-And this isn’t about that. This session is about you.”- Excerpt from Drone 23.4</ref> She was paid a visit and accepted an invitation to the Irregulars.<ref name="27.5e3">“Sveta idolizes me. She sees me as a hero, a spokesperson for our kind. Her therapist asked me to come visit, because she heard about what happened in the Echidna attack, what Cauldron was doing. All of her progress, gone. So her therapist wanted her hero to show up. Give her guidance, support. It worked.”

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” I asked. I saw Eidolon open fire, not a dramatic attack, but a subtle one, a series of darts that left dark streaks in the air. My entire body tensed, as if I could jump into the fight. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref>

Gold Morning

Sveta was with the Irregulars when they were deployed to the oil rig. Was heavily damaged by Scion while shielding her team. Was still intact afterward but still injured.<ref name="27.5e1">Scion erupted with golden light. It wasn’t the sort of attack one dodged. Instantaneous, hitting everything in every direction.

My skin began to blister, the golden light searing through it, appearing in the ridges between spots where flesh was simply being eaten away.

I scrambled for cover
[...]
The light faded. I checked, then climbed back over the edge.

Weld and his people had taken cover. Sanguine was covering injuries with scabs, but the damage was bad. The tendril girl’s tentacles were worn so thin they were barely there. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref>

She later took part in the mission to Cauldron's headquarters. During the mission, the container the Irregulars stored her in cracked, forcing Sveta to choose a target to attack. Sveta attempted to focus her tentacles on Scion, but was unable to maintain focus solely on him and inadvertently killed Doctor Mother.<ref name="29.7 e9">Sveta's tendrils continued to extend, stretching out.

Each one chose the Doctor as the mark.

"Had to pick someone," Sveta whispered. "Couldn't focus on him alone. I'm sorry, but you're the best choice."

The tendrlis found points closer to the Doctor's midsection, crushing.

The Doctor's screams became strangled.

Sveta coiled around the Doctor, burying the woman beneath overlapping tendrils, until there was a cocoon and a girl's face, curled up on the stairs. Blood pooled beneath them. - Excerpt from Venom 29.7</ref>

Helped halt Scion from destroying Taylor's group and bought them time to escape. Sveta herself was able to escape later.<ref name="29.9 e1">I focused on my bugs. Searching the area. I didn’t have many, but two bugs floating a foot apart could fly at chest level and run into most people standing in a corridor.

A cluster of bugs died, wiped out by lashing tendrils.

Sveta made it. - Excerpt from Venom 29.9</ref>

Glow-worm

Two years after surviving Gold Morning, Sveta took a five-day trip with Weld to discover her homeland. While it ultimately failed she did have a very nice vacation.<ref name="GW8">Glow-worm P.8</ref>

Trivia

• Sveta is likely not her birth name, though it may be close to it. By her own admission she choose it after being released,<ref name="29.7 e200">“I want my name, Doctor,” Sveta said. She wasn’t running, so her voice was level, free of panting or anything of the sort. “Not even my old name, from before you wiped my memory. Tell me the name you gave me, after you sent me to the fourth floor. Because you do that for the ones you think are worth studying, right? Or tell me the name I took after you released me into the wild, as some kind of smokescreen for Scion. It starts with ‘S’, if that helps.” - Excerpt from Venom 29.7</ref> possibly under the influence of Dr. Yamada.<ref name="18.z e5">Weld closed the door and settled in the reinforced chair she’d brought into her office in anticipation of the appointment.
  
  “Have you picked a name?” she asked.
  
  He chuckled lightly. “I’m Weld. That’s it for now.”
  
  [...]
  
  He was at the door when she called after him, “and Weld, I want you to pick a proper name!” - Excerpt from Interlude 18 (Donation Bonus 3)</ref><ref name="Cast1">Garotte – Inmate at the Parahuman Asylum, a living mass of tentacles with a lethal fight-or-flight reflex. Also goes by Sveta. - Cast (spoiler free)</ref>

Fanart Gallery

<tabber>Garotte=

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  Garotte by DerTodesbote on DeviantArt.
• Magical Girl Sveta by Abyranss on Spacebattles.
  Magical Girl Sveta by Abyranss on Spacebattles.
• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  Image by Pabel and Nine.

|-|Ward=

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing
  Sveta by Lonsheep.

</tabber>

References

<references/>