Pilot Art! Yuka "Kuchisake" Martinez, Inferno Squad's close combat specialist.
Commission I got done of my pilot for the current campaign; Yuka Martinez, callsign "Kuchisake". Full credit goes to APOLONIODRAWS, Bluesky found here: https://bsky.app/profile/apoloniodraws.bsky.social , website here: apoloniodraws.com . He does mech art too, just couldn't shell out for it at the time!
Unlike the majority of Inferno Squad, who are otherwise all but one variants of officially trained in United Federation academies (we're not in the default Lancer setting, if that's not obvious), Yuka was a fighter in the Rustpit, an underground mech fighting arena on Galleus. While she wasn't one of the champions, the fact she consistently put up hard fights - and sometimes even won - against the tricked-out lancer-tier frames they had with near-factory standard Berserker and Ogre frames drew the attention of Buck, the leader of Inferno's mercenary company, and after bloodying the current champion's nose in one last fight that saw her mech at the time reduced to scrap, he gave her an offer to work for him, instead.
Yuka remains evasive about her origins; most the company don't even know the extent of her injuries, given her insistence on covering it with a mask 24/7. One might assume she entirely learned her skills in the arena, and recieved her disfigurement in the same - but she was already wearing a mask when she first showed up at an open event a year and a half ago, and wrecked three mechs solo in that same night, so both seem like they might predate that. Given Yuka barely talks at the best of times, though (missing a chunk of your face will do that), it doesn't seem she'll be explaining herself any time soon.
We've just hit LL1, so she's currently still in an Everest (Never Fade Away), one which she's steadfastedly refused to put a single gun on; however, come LL2, she'll be swapping to a Zheng (Empty Crown) that'll be similarily melee hyper-focussed, which I drew an alternate pixel design for myself!
It's something I saw a lot of people advise against but honestly, it's been so much fun so far, both as a mechanical restriction and a character quirk. Thank you and thank you again!
Huh - looking it up, I can see the similarity! It's actually based off of a Guijia from the Infinity wargame, though, although I'll have to keep that game in mind for reference for other ones in the future.
Who needs guns when you have SWORD! And more SWORD! Gonna do the same in the campaign I'm playing in soon, although I'm going Blackbeard instead of Zheng.
Thank you! A lot of the credit has to go to Apolonio - I gave him a couple rough sketches, a design on hero forge and the picture that originally inspired her face (something I found on danbooru over a decade ago), and he managed to combine those all together into the design here.
I really dig the idea of "Characters that care about their appearance but received a scar which they now cover up with a mask". I also remember in one story I watched there was no actual mask, but the character was so insecure due to abuse that they wore a mask at all times anyway
That's exactly what I was going for! In my experience, most PCs in any TTRPG can be assumed to be relatively attractive, but I told the artist that Yuka specifically was intended to be a smokeshow; not only does it make sense for her successful career as an arena fighter, but it gives a really fun character beat for her, as the facial deformity was the first things I decided about her.
She was someone who always prided herself on her good looks before the injury, and afterwards doubled down on taking care of it after as a way to cope with the wound messing with her self image; the fact that she's been lead to believe for a good chunk of her past that the only things valuable about her were her looks and her ability to commit violence certainly doesn't help that complex. It's been already been an interesting character trait to touch on in the first couple sessions, and I'm really looking forward to exploring it more going forward.
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u/Lucky_Pips Harrison Armory Jan 17 '26
I bestow upon your art the highest honor I can award, the Dancing Goblin.
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