[Bixir] Layla Nasser

Name: Layla Nasser
Age: Twenty-eight
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Alexandria, Egypt
Faction: AEUG
Rank: Chief Petty Officer
Appearance:


Layla is a fit young woman, standing roughly five feet and nine inches. Her skin is a desert-kissed tan, with medium-length black hair accentuated by (Egyptian) golden hair bands passed down from her mother. Her body is toned from a personal routine, seemingly unfazed by the regimen impressed upon her and the other Hellfighter mobile suit pilots. Most notably is a tattooed symbol of the Eye of Osiris directly underneath her right eye. Layla’s clothing style tends to come in the form of medium- to dark-blue tanktops and olive-green jackets (often with the sleeves pulled up), usually with them hanging open, and military-issue blue pants and ankle-high boots. These also happen to be the color scheme of her uniform, and to an extent, that of her mobile suit as well. A pair of aviators often hangs in Layla’s front jacket pocket for whenever she has need of them.

Personality: Though not exactly an ace, Layla often carries herself like one. She has a surefire confidence in herself and the cause of the AEUG, and isn’t afraid to let that be known among the more jaded and pessimistic members of her team. She’s rather amicable and easy to get along with, so long as her peers have an understanding of mutual respect and a sincere commitment to the fight. She won’t have much sympathy for half-assed jobs or laziness where the mission is concerned, though Layla’s just as liable to kick back when the scarce opportunity to do so arises. Layla enjoys a good time as much as the next person, though she’s also one of the first people that will crack down when things need to be taken seriously.

Layla is also rather modest, due mostly in part to her reputation as the daughter of Shara Nasser, the esteemed Federation industrialist, which she would in most circumstances rather others forget. Though she loves her mother very much, she worries for her safety with each passing day as she walks a fine line between supporting the AEUG under the table and avoiding notice from the Titans. At the same time, the last thing Layla wants is to be constantly compared to her mother, and longs to define herself in the new conflict that is brewing. She hopes that she can be both a faithful daughter and live out her own life as the soldier that she has decided to become.

As optimistic and free-spirited as Layla seems at most times, she holds a terrible grudge against the Titans and everything that they stand for, to an almost obsessive extent. A socially and politically charged young woman, Layla’s outlook has been greatly shaped by the role models in her family, and should things come to a head, she will not hesitate to make a statement, however forceful it may (in her mind) need to be. If there’s one poor quality that can be said of Layla, it’s that she’s a hopeless idealist, and is stubborn to the bitter end against their enemies and to what lengths they ought to go to defeat them… at any cost.

History:

The Nasser Corporation was a budding enterprise in the years leading up to what would eventually become known as the devastating One Year War. Founded by Khazir Nasser, the father of Shara and grandfather of Layla, the company focused on civilian security contracts, providing armaments and training to security firms throughout northern Africa, and had begun to expand across the globe. Though their mission statement insisted upon peace through equal distribution of arms, that argument was not so easily defended with hushed whispers of the likes of the Zabi Family and their talk of independence from the Federation. Khazir’s household that Layla grew up in with her mother was some parts rigid, such as following traditions and showing due respect for the Federation and its policies, and some parts frivolous, such as his rather lax parenting in allowing Layla to (mostly) do as she pleased so long as her grades did not slip and she was home by curfew. It was a comfortable enough life. Days after Khazir passed away, Degwin Sodo Zabi declared war on the Earth Federation as the self-proclaimed leader of the newly formed Principality of Zeon.

Life under Shara was markedly different from how Khazir had run the Nasser household. With wartime quickly upon them, Layla’s mother was much stricter on what Layla could do with her time, and more pertinently, the kind of careers that she could apply herself to with the Federation’s own survival before Zeon’s frightening mobile suits now so uncertain. Her time was now carefully routinized, now to be home-schooled by her mother on matters of business and diplomatics; heaven forbid Layla begin to think about joining the scrambling military garrisons across the Atlantic Ocean, where the real war on the Earth Sphere was seeming to break out. Though Layla unsurprisingly recoiled at the sudden amount of authority being exerted upon her life by her mother, her adolescent spirit did not give in to rebellious temptation. The bits of reports and visual coverage that came in from the front was more than enough to dissuade Layla of any naive proclivities of volunteering like so many youths her age were doing.

In the meantime, Layla assisted her mother with the still quite dangerous duties of managing the family business in wartime, which would in most cases be seen as a fortuitous opportunity. Unfortunately, all of the new elements that had been introduced with Zeon and their Zakus placed Nasser in an awkward position, particularly where most of their services paled before the military superiority of the enemy. Although a paltry sum of mobile suits had been mustered by the Federation, these were fully committed to the fight in North America, far outside the jurisdiction of where Shara’s company could offer assistance. Instead, supplementary support was offered by way of the occasional supply drop, as well as doing its part to suppress Zeon activity in North Africa, and, where it could be afforded, European operations as well. As much as Shara impressed her rules and overbearing nature upon her daughter, she never seemed to fail to involve her at the forefront of their own little war effort. This did not go unnoticed by Layla, and helped her realize how much her mother loved her, in an attempt to give her a semblance of not only what running the family business was like, but how important family itself was.

Of course, the work of Nasser paled in comparison to the campaign across the ocean. With each major victory snatched away from Zeon, the hopes of Layla and her mother grew, as did the morale of the Federation in the face of an at first insurmountable enemy. In turn, the Nasser Corporation had more leave to offer direct assistance to the war effort, and even become acquainted with Federation mobile suit technology. Though it would not be until long after this war had come to a close, Nasser would become one of the main developers in improving upon the new theater of war. By the time that the the defeat of the Principality of Zeon was made official, Layla found herself drawn to the appeal of a mobile suit pilot, much to her mother’s overwhelming fears. She had failed to keep her daughter from becoming a soldier after all.

Layla seemed to be a “late bloomer” with her juvenile tendencies, and quickly and aggressively clashed with her mother over her desire to leave the future of the company with her younger brother Malik to pursue the career of a mobile suit pilot. Shara adamantly rebuked her, having made it clear if not now, then throughout the One Year War and even before that it had always been intended for Layla to inherit the Corporation. And though Layla had in some part been aware of these things, she couldn’t allow herself to remain, in her view, on the sidelines of this conflict. She believed that she needed to do one better than the work that she had done with her mother - who had encouraged her to join her in doing, after all - and take the next step in directly joining the fight against the Zeon Remnants. These very heated, very personal clashes reached a boiling point where Shara finally relented, and bitterly told her daughter to live out her “foolish obsessions with death”, as she had come to calling them. Refuting that she had never needed her mother’s permission to take charge of her own life, Layla left on these harrowing, regretful terms.

Layla was not quite sure what to expect, though that quickly came to an end. The realities of the day-to-day duties of a fresh mobile suit pilot were uncompromising, and it wasn’t for a while that she was even allowed in a mobile suit to begin with. The many fantasies that Layla had fabricated about life with the Federation and their mobile suit pilots were soon proven to be just that, and fact was separated from fiction. Though it was by no means easy for Layla, even for one who had become accustomed to a strict physical and mental fitness regimen, she learned to adapt to this new life that she had chosen. Slotted into the reserves of the 232nd to fill absences, Layla had a hard time of fitting in with a group she was effectively the “new girl” filling in for a dear friend that wasn’t there anymore, and worse, the heiress-to-be of a high-profile corporation. To her relief, they were moderately welcoming, which she most certainly needed as they were thrust straight into confrontation with the infamous Delaz Fleet. Layla wouldn’t forget the depravity of the resurgent Zeon that she witnessed there firsthand, and what the Federation stood to lose. Even though they did succeed in their mission there, Earth was still devastated by the colony drop, and God knows how many wiped out by the blast. It instilled in Layla a sense of urgency that she was not expecting, and she realized how much she missed her mother, and her little brother, and how awful she had acted towards them when she had gone off to join this fight. These firsthand horrors made Layla realize that she was not a soldier. Not really. It was clear that all of this had been a completely reckless, childish thing to do. She could only hope that her mother would forgive her.

Layla was not sure what to expect as she left the rapidly declining 232nd for her home of Alexandria. Guilt and remorse dominated her thoughts as she made her way up to her mother’s office. Though Layla had been granted permission to see her, it didn’t waylay her daunting fear that she could not mend what she had caused. These concerns were proven to be delusions when her mother rose from her desk and embraced her, both of them nearly in tears. Though Layla apologized up and down for what she had said that night, her mother forgave her for it and more. What was important was that she was here again, safe and sound. Even better, her daughter had learned the lesson that she had tried to impart on her, all on her own. For the few years of scant peace that followed, Layla settled into life at Nasser again, reuniting with her little Malik as well, who was beginning to grow up into a fine young man, with aspirations for politics, surprisingly enough. Layla and her mother both worried for his safety with the rise of these “Titans”, though there was little they could do. Layla’s own act of independence had helped catalyze something in Malik, something that he made into something for himself, to do right by his family, and for the Federation as a whole. Wary as they all were of the Titans, Layla knew now more than ever that they would stand together, whatever form that may take in the days to come.

As the Titans became more aggressive and dominant with their ideologies throughout the Federation, the Nasser Corporation and those like them deepened their resentment towards what the Federation was seeming to tolerate, and perhaps even one day become. Layla’s mother began to speak as she had in the days leading to the One Year War, and Layla began to fear the worst, least of all for Malik. He had begun to accrue a sizable reputation, particularly among the military. The last thing Layla or her mother wanted was to lose anyone to this new domestic menace that they could save, never mind the fact that he was family. By this point in time, Shara had made key connections with figures who still held significant authority within the Federation that were sympathetic to resisting the Titans. She would make arrangements for Layla, Malik, and herself to seek asylum with these people, as soon as Malik finished his business helping conduct protests on Colony 30. But, as soon as the news began to roll in, those plans took a turn for the worst.

Layla struggled a terrible deal in the two years that followed, and her mother even more so. But the grieving wasn’t the hardest part. The fact that they needed to soldier on in spite of this tragedy, for themselves and for everyone else who suffered that day, and that they - though mostly Shara - would have to go through their life from now on as if nothing wrong had transpired that day. Shara continued to run Nasser, doing what she could to support the nascent Anti Earth Union Group to the best of her ability while skirting suspicion from the new Titan hegemony that had all but seized control of the Federation and its military. Layla threw herself into the life of a soldier again, knowing that the AEUG would need as many people as they could for the war that was about to start, whether they were heiresses or politicians. It’s what Malik, and everyone who died at Colony 30, would have wanted. To give hope for a brighter Earth for those who still have a life left to live.

Mobile Suit: MSA-005 Methuss

• 2x Arm Beam Guns
• 6x Beam Saber