Post by Monster on Feb 21, 2010 19:49:06 GMT -5
Canon Character Application
My name is Monster and I am old enough. I want to join this site because the setting interests me and seems like a good challenge. I have been roleplaying for about a year and my post length is somewhat irregular, but I assure you that they won’t be too short. Here is my application:
Character name: Belarus (Natalia Arlovskaya)
Age: Appears nineteen. Her actual age is difficult to pinpoint.
Appearance: Belarus stands on light feet at a mediocre 5’6, but she makes up for it with a very intimidating aura; she’s difficult to not notice despite her average height. Her presence is sharp and demanding… overwhelming, even. She walks quickly, with precise, near-measured steps. She seems to carry her emotions in her sleeve since her face is often stoic and unamused. Belarus also has a special glare reserved for anybody gutsy enough to approach her.
Her eyes are half-lidded and a deep-set, plum purple, occasionally seen with slight dark bags underneath. Wispy silver hair (adorned with a white or black ribbon) parts down the middle, reaching down just past her shoulder blades. Belarus’s skin, though sometimes sallow, is clear and of a somewhat pinkish color.
Stocky shoulders lead to a defined collarbone and long neck. Belarus is thin and lanky – paired with her pointed face, she tends to look very harsh. Her breasts, however, still manage to be of a decent size, though definitely nowhere near the size of her sister’s.
Belarus travels lightly. She’s often seen with multiple sheaths (containing all sorts of knives – and one containing a sword, placed at her hip) attached to the belt across her waist. An olive green trench coat stretches down just past her knees, where they cover the very tops of her boots, black and without heels for ease of movement. The cuffs of the sleeves and the collar, crisp and pressed down, are also black. The coat has multiple pockets for convenience.
She’s pretty in the correct light, but in the dark? She looks like a monster if you catch her expression at a certain moment.
Personality: As her aura would imply… she’s intimidating and cruel. Her speech is rare, slightly mangled grammatically, and often mumbled (when not shrieked) and peppered with lots of mid-sentence pauses. She generally keeps to herself; to those who don’t know better and/or who can’t read the atmosphere, she could appear to be shy, but that’s not the case – her silence is a sign that she has no interest in the conversation. Belarus has no patience for small talk or any sort of dillydallying, verbal or not. She’s blunt and cares little for other people’s feelings.
When provoked, though? She jumps from zero to screaming bitch in a matter of seconds – though under certain circumstances she does this even when unprovoked. Belarus is also not hesitant to bring out a knife (or, if you really make her angry, her sword) or start chanting a
Belarus has something of an obsession with this concept of “truth” that tends to bounce around in her head, which has led to her becoming distrustful, bitter, and even paranoid. When meeting new people (the few whom she doesn’t scare off and the even fewer whom she doesn’t find annoying), she seems to interrogate them—
“Clueless stranger is being here for what?”
“Mm, and name of clueless stranger is…?”
“Are person of travel? Coming where from.”
“Sword of clueless stranger being from blacksmith? Is puny. Should get refund. Will get refund?”
“Clueless stranger familiar with magic, da? Can tell. Eyes of magic user, mm. Was learning magic where? Who taught.”
“Are having sister? …Nyet? Is shame. Would attend wedding of clueless stranger and sister of clueless stranger. Having aunt? …Niece? Female cousin?”
…She doesn’t tend to use pronouns or names; partially because of her accent, but it’s also a strange, roundabout way of distancing herself from other people. She generally only uses the names of her siblings. Otherwise, she refers to people with epithets that tend to change depending on how the person is behaving. (…See sample post for example.)
Belarus is also very interested in the pursuit of magic – black magic, mostly - and she takes interest in the occult in general. She has some magical capability, but it’s very slight and nowhere near enough to satisfy her.
Her memory is excellent, also as something of a result of her obsession with “truth.” She’s developed a love for storytelling (…well, stories. Her story delivery is kind of… difficult with her way of speaking, but she tries) and will sometimes break into a story – usually of an odd event that happened within the week, but she’s fond of older ones – if prompted to. Or if she’s reminded of it, really. Belarus being otherwise quiet, these sudden outbreaks of storytelling tend to surprise people.
What tends to surprise people more, though, is how affectionate she is with people she does grow to care about – namely, her people. She also seems to have a soft spot for children.
Occupation: With her agility, quick thinking, and skill with daggers, she’s more of a rogue than anything. But she’s a wanna-be sorcerer as well… albeit a very mediocre sorcerer. And her skill with a sword is enthusiastic, but also mediocre – too much aggression, too many blind and careless thrusts, not enough focus on defense.
…Belarus is still scary as all hell, though. This helps quite a bit in combat
Strengths: She has a stubborn nature and fierce will power – ergo, killing her? Not an easy task. You could lop off one of her limbs and, after a brief pause (more from disbelief than anything), she’d likely get up, smirk, and come limping after you with sword in hand.
Her intuition (read: gut instinct) is strong; it aids her in battle when she’s otherwise too preoccupied with rage to think properly. She thinks more with her gut than with her head.
Weaknesses: Impulsive. Completely irrational if you get her angry enough, and her violent tendencies and paranoia land her into a lot of trouble. Her rage makes her careless in battle and, of course, that gut instinct mentioned above isn’t always correct…
Her lack of proper melee or magical finesse is an obvious weakness, too. Her intimidation and will power is all that tends to keep her alive, especially since she’s hesitant to use the technology that everyone’s using nowadays since she believes that it’s unnecessary and extravagant
Oh, and her… “intense affection” for her brother tends to deter most people. Including her brother, unfortunately.
Backstory: Though Belarus has little recollection of it – just fleeting memories that reel through the back of her head in a black and white slideshow – she was around at the time of Kievan Rus’. Very young, yes, and barely able to speak, but she was there. And gradually growing an emotional attachment to her brother…
Just before the eleventh century, magic was introduced along with Christianity. Initially, young Belarus (then insisting that she be called “Polotsk”) was enthralled with these new concepts - prayers that sounded like bells, all of that singing and lightness and certainty, that faith that poured from chanted words. It was thrilling. She was too young to learn it or comprehend it, but these memories may well have fueled her later obsession with magic.
A sudden, stubborn impulse burned at her young mind before the twelfth century. The impulse to free herself – she remembers yelling, lots of yelling, she was always yelling; something about being able to take care of herself (though she was so young, so small) – tugged at her chest.
Shortly after the collapse of Kievan Rus’, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania took her as well as her sister under his care. Needless to say, Belarus didn’t much care for him back then, either.
Here, her memory becomes fuzzy again – there was fighting and Poland and the Lublin Union, and she slowly felt her tongue tingle as the Ruthenian language developed. But she was forced to learn and speak
She was annexed by the Russian Empire upon the partitioning of Poland in 1795. After some nasty run-ins with France (in 1812), she was suddenly forbidden to speak the Polish she had learned only two centuries ago, and soon books were being written in an early form of Belarusian – though these books (and the developing language) were quickly prohibited in public schools by Nicolas I, who also refused to call her Belarusia; he instead opted for “North-Western Territory.” He also forced the use of the Cyrillic alphabet following a failed revolt in 1863.
German administration in the twentieth century inadvertently helped Belarusian culture to flourish. Come 1919, however, and the Soviet Socialist Republic of Byelorussia was formed and broken apart within a month’s time, separated into the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the thoroughly awkward Lithuanian-Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The latter dissolved that August due to Polish forces.
June of 1941, upon German invasion of the Soviet Union, roughly 20% of the Belarusian population was evacuated and Belarus was in terrible condition during the occupation until August. By the end of World War 2, Belarus’s population was down by a quarter.
Her independence from the Soviet Union fell on December 25th, 1991, and her story continues from there.
Sample Post: The grayness that hangs over the village brought about flashbacks to Navapolatsk. All things considered, though, Belarus doesn’t think she’s in
Her eyes shut. She smells foreign food calling to her from a nearby pub and skulks in like an unwanted visitor, outlining her plan in her head; she’ll demand (vile) food and (equally vile) beer, throw some money at them, and leave immediately with her pride at her feet.
Until a young boy crashes into her. Belarus’s hands are wrapped around the thin neck within seconds as she stares into teary violet eyes. His shriek seems to cut short upon unpainted nails digging into his flesh – ah. Here’s a familiar scene. The younger brother of the Lithuanian bastard, she thinks, but she’ll be damned if she shows any mercy just because she recognizes him.
“…Small shaking idiot? Should be watching where is going if wanting fingers intact, mm,” she says. Her target is locked; the gapes, gasps, and stares from the people in the pub are lost on her. The drunken chatter and clanking of glasses comes to a halt, but this goes just as unnoticed.
Belarus feels Latvia give a shaky, careful nod, hears him whimper under his fear. Her deadpan gaze drills into the boy’s eyes as though expecting something, but she finds nothing but tears and purple and the unspoken words his irises seem to whisper – I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorry – telepathy of the most
Scoffing, she releases her grip on his neck… only to grab him by the shoulders before he backs away into the crowd.
“Should be more respectful. Small ungrateful idiot is being rude--” Suddenly she finds it difficult to keep her hands steady on his heaving shoulders. She responds by holding tighter – she feels the curves of his shoulders clearly through thick fabric. “Nyet, cease trembling at once… will not do, puny spineless Baltic.”
She isn’t satisfied until thanks and apologies pour through his mouth, though she can hardly separate them from his crying. Unfiltered words – how strange. Strange stuttering idiot…
And she releases him. Hesitantly. This is enough for Latvia, it seems, since he skitters off without another word.
Belarus turns on her heel and shoots a glare throughout the crowd that sends the room into a panic. Navapolatsk thoughts still flood her brain. The panic around her barely registers. Her coat flutters behind her as she leaves, and, for a moment, her face softens in something akin to sadness—
Before quickly disappearing again. She storms out of the pub, out of the village, into the bitter wind, into the charcoal evening. Her hunger forgotten.
---
Aaaand Belarus is love! A twisted, questionable love (in the case of the character), but love nonetheless. ♥ And I apologize for the irregular quality of the backstory and RP sample. I started to get a bit lazy, ahha... though I definitely don't mind adding more to it if necessary. I hope this profile is sufficient and I'm sorry if I've done anything incorrectly.