Rodion/Story

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"Wait!"

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Background

Coming from the District 25 Backstreets, Rodion witnessed a devastating level of poverty and inequality in her lifetime, with all the district inhabitants growing poorer the harder they worked, while pawnbrokers hogged all of their money: the neighborhood she came from had been wrung dry, with heirlooms weighed with whatever monetary value they had. Having seen this injustice, an individual named Sonya would begin to organize the group under the name of "Yurodiviye", beginning to deliver speeches and rallying people.

Even the thickest of people were moved by Sonya's words to begin helping the impoverished, but over time, Rodion could see the goal of the organization shift subtly, turning into a group that cared more about debating how to best change the streets and the Nest rather than actually helping those in need.

"His words filled me with this... confidence. That we could really change the world."

When confronted, Sonya would justify his inactions by saying that they needed to wait for the perfect moment, a statement that Rodion could not agree with. To Sonya, the deaths of his companions, no matter how young, seemed inconsequential and inevitable, but to Rodion this further proved the fact that the Yurodiviye had strived too far from their initial goal of helping those in need. This finally prompted Rodion to take matters into her own hands.

Fed up with seeing her people suffer in the harsh conditions of the village, Rodion knocked on the door of one of the tax collectors with an axe in hand. Deep down Rodion hoped for the tax collector to change her mind and offer any kind of aid to those who were suffering outside in harsh living conditions, yet Rodion was only met with mockery, and struck the tax collector down with her axe.

In the moment, Rodion was sure she had done the right thing, having managed to finally bring positive change to her neighborhood, who was eating well for the first time in their life, but she would later learn that the tax collector was a sibling of a member of the Middle, and that their status was the one thing that was giving her power. Since Rodion had killed one of their family members, the Syndicate then demonstrated what happened to those that dared to stand up to them, by murdering all of the residents of the village and piling their bodies up in the middle of the streets.

Following the events of that day, being burdened by guilt and the realization that she wasn't anything more than a foolish cottager, Rodion left the District.

Developments

After cutting ties with Yurodiviye, Rodion was eventually recruited by Limbus Company as Sinner #9. Rodion's easygoing personality allowed her to quickly fit in with most of the group, although during early missions she sometimes appears annoyed at the perspective of having to fight, suggesting in the years between her departure from Yurodivye and her recruitment into the LCB, she had not been involved in such intensive combat.

In February 984, the second mission for the Company took the LCB to Nest J, which Rodion was hinted to have visited before, where they would need to win a card game in order to obtain the Golden Bough. Rodion would soon learn that the Yurodiviye, on their work of wealth redistribution, had been working within the Nest. This caused Rodion to grow nervous for much of the mission, trying to avoid speaking about her past in J Corp., or thinking about her past in general.

The LCB continued their mission through one of the Nest's casinos, and upon reaching the top floor, Rodion told the others she had stolen a bit of wishpower, the luck-controlling substance created by J Corp.'s Singularity, and volunteered to play the card game, claiming she had never lost in a situation where money was involved. Much to Rodion's dismay, she then learned one of her opponents would be Sonya, in his role as leader of the Yurodiviye, but she still went on to win the game, and therefore the Golden Bough, despite having lied about her use of wishpower.

On their way to pick up the Bough from the casino's basement, Rodion met with Sonya again, in the ice cave that had formed all around the Bough. There, Rodion began to resonate with it, and the LCB crew started witnessing her memories of her past in District 25, from her work with the Yurodiviye to her murder of the pawnbroker, and the subsequent punishment that was carried out against the entire village. While Rodion was made to face her crime, Sonya offered her a way out: to join him again, and let him create the world anew, as if nothing ever happened. Rodion refused his offer, instead telling him she felt she could not bathe in such warmth just yet; Sonya would claim this refusal stemmed not out of genuine regret, but out of Rodion's wish to be special, and therefore needing an imperfect world to stand out in. The two separated, each heading in their own directions.

While Rodion is yet to meet Sonya again, during the group's mission in T Corp., nearly a year later, in late November 984, Rodion found out the Yurodiviye's sphere of influence had spread all the way to District 20.

"Well, it is said that all great detectives are flanked by great assistants."

Having volunteered as a detective to solve the case of the Time Ripper, Rodion interacted personally with some Yurodivy of District 20, learning from them of their organization's accomplishments since she left: while she assumed Sonya wouldn't be able to actually bring any change, she found that his words had reached all through the City, leading to the forming of Yurodiviye groups in many Districts, and to Sonya being praised by his followers as a Saint. This, together with her interaction with the Time Ripper, left Rodion incredibly discouraged, reflecting on her choice to leave, as well as that to not join Sonya again back in J Corp., worrying that she had wasted her time without effectively moving forward like Sonya had.

Despite Rodion's contributions to solving the case, with Hong Lu pointing out her relating to and understanding the Time Ripper had been essential to identifying him, Rodion remained disappointed with herself, claiming she had done nothing of consequence compared to the others. Following this, Rodion would attempt to return to her usual upbeat self, while still obviously carrying the weight of her unsolved worries.

Relations

Sonya

“ But I’m different. So, to make a better world— ”

“ Yepper, I think I ‘member hearing you say something like that while sat at a desk buried in books. ”

—Sonya and Rodion, showing their differences

Sonya and Rodion grew up in the same District, and shared their role as founding members of the Yurodiviye, led by Sonya. Rodion was inspired by Sonya's desire to help the poor and redistribute wealth, but grew increasingly frustrated at his lack of action, feeling as though fancy words were not going to actually help the starving people who only got poorer the harder they worked.

Sonya appears to know Rodion well, claiming to have been aware that her temper would eventually get the best of her and she would kill the tax collector, as well as carrying a strong belief that Rodion never wanted a perfect world without any problems, as she would be unable to feel special otherwise.

From their reunion it can be seen that the two do not hold any negative feelings towards each other, although Sonya is often dismissive of her and her feelings, musing that his efforts to keep Rodion away from money and gambling were futile. Similarly, Rodion voices her discontent with Sonya and his methods of letting his lackeys take from shopkeepers who were never rich in the first place, pointing out the hypocrisy of behaving like those very people he wanted to get rid of in the first place.

By the end of Canto II: The Unloving, Sonya asks Rodion to join him once again, that they can make the ideal world Sonya dreams of a reality, giving every person a right to pursue psychological and intellectual delights, with the help of the Golden Bough that resonated with Rodion. Sonya claims to want to give Rodion that world as a gift, and pretend nothing up until that point had happened at all. Rodion declines this offer.

After separating, despite claiming to believe in Sonya's abilities, Rodion still appears concerned about the events of the cave, possibly still worrying over her old friend.

Limbus Company

“ ‘Course we’re friends~ Precious friendship, forged in fire! Multiple fires, actually! ”

—Rodion, about the LCB

Yurodiviye

Originally joining the organization out of the desire to help out the poor, Rodion noticed that as more time went on the organization strived further and further away from their original goal, and instead of actually helping those in need, they became more focused on debates on how to implement that said change instead of actually going through with it. After watching one of the youngest members die from suffocation from consuming garbage due to starvation, and the prompt dismissal of Ivan's death as nothing but an inevitable loss in pursuit of progress, Rodya left, deciding to take matters into her own hands.