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+--- Thread: Annika Mikhalka (/thread-265.html)
- Annika - 03-21-2014
Occupation:
Spy/Assassin for Hire. The previous corporation Annika worked for sold out and in turn most lost work. Those paid off books were essentially out of work. Therefore she is Unemployed, but works part time as a seamstress for a mom & pop store in her apartment building.
Personality:
In many ways, Annika personifies much of what her former self symbolized. Force, constraint and necessity. The aspects of Fate and Destiny, however, have been lost to the wheel although she does find herself pulled in certain directions that then place her in pivotal situations. Sometimes.
The default of her personality is Constraint. To pause, wait, listen; Annika is an old hat to constraint and it has become a dear friend. She does not often show excessive amounts of emotion, and when she does there always seems to be a hint of what she holds back. Even as a child, she spent less time playing with other children, but instead watching or interacting in a more limited capacity. One thing that seemed a theme was that loud was not often right, but the weight of words came from limiting opinion. She conversed plenty but when it comes to important subjects her words were rare but worth listening to.
Annika always felt a level of necessity for things. It was necessary for her to complete school, to follow up on an unknown receipt, to actually make friends, or acquaintances even if it isn't easy. She isn't necessarily stubborn so much as feels that need weighs heavier than desire. Relations are important to the the emotional state of being human, so there fore making friends is a necessity to that end. On the other hand, food is only a requirement for functioning and fueling the body. Extravagance and material wants are not something she indulges in as she doesn't feel the need for them. In many ways, kindness is a necessity of every day life even if her moral compass and goals are a little skewed.
However, her goals are a little more of a gray area. When driving towards meeting a goal, Annika is a Force to be reckoned with. Skilled in a variety of hand to hand skills and some weaponry, it is unwise to stand in her way. Not to mention her ability to collect and store information, she has a little black book of names and secrets she has collected over her lifetime that could cause problems to those that cross her. Annika is not one to forget, or forgive.
What she is working towards, even Annika isn't entirely sure. She dislikes power, but dislikes those that abuse power more. What she finds confusing is that an abuse of Power for the good of others to be a load of crock, yet selfishness seems fairly parallel in the damage it creates for others. Ultimately Annika searches for something to believe in, and has very few moral virtues as to how to achieve it.
Annika's hobbies include knitting, poetry, languages and her cat, Cat.
Appearance:
Standing at 5 feet and 6 inches, her most defining feature is her little flat nose that turns up at a perfect point. Small thinned lips of a soft rose, average cheekbones, and a thin but fit body Annika makes a striking pose when dressed in fame and flare. But then most anyone would, and Annika isn't one to dress up for an occasion unless necessary. Currently her hair is a natural blonde, but it has taken a variety of colors over her history and will likely change again as she needs it to. Hair is a rather versatile tool.
Often her roles in the past have had her infiltrating in business garb, and so she has a collection of basic and designer suits in both pant and skirt with matching jacket. Her more staple pieces are the white pant suit with a black and white print blouse or the black suit with a skirt and a solid colored top. She wears her hair in a variety of ways, but usually sticks to a single style for each job. Even at work Annika rarely wears jewelry.
In a more casual setting, she still has a similar business casual look, but instead of dress pants she wears dark jeans. While she owns a few skirts she tends not to wear them unless for work. Her hair is usually loose or pulled back into a messy ponytail. Annika has a medium length jacket to keep out the cold, and a off white knitted scarf made by her mother. The scarf is a treasured possession.
Power:
The discovery of her power was quite shocking to Annika. But its use as a tool gave it untold limitations and value. She has grown to use her power as a shield, manipulating air, water and spirit with relative ease. Her skill is rudimentary at best without a teacher, but she has been able to skillfully use illusions on herself to alter her appearance when she needs it, keep her tea warm, and keep herself dry during downpours. She's still working on the keeping herself warm in the winter without adding to her electric bill but Fire isn't exactly her most reliable element. Air conditioning, however, is now free.
Eventually she will have some control and talent with Compulsion, but as a starting character she is not nearly skilled enough, nor is aware of it as an ability.
History
Born in Samara, Russia, Annika is a mix of heritages. A Grandmother from England, a Great Grandfather from Ireland, and a Mother from Greece, somehow she has found a way to use it all to blend in to her surroundings. Annika never really stood out from others where she lived, even her blonde hair wasn’t really out of place among the children of her neighborhood and schools. Growing up with only her father, after a rather nasty divorce when Annika was merely three, she has never met her half siblings from her mother and has never felt a desire to look for a mother-like role in her life.
Annika was very close to her father. He was a shoemaker that did very well in his youth and had made it into a thriving business until the day he died when Annika was 15, and just graduating high school. Young and mature for her age, she found herself having to deal with banks and loans and corrupt people who took advantage of her youth and "bought" the business from her. What 15 year old had a use for a business that only involved men’s shoes? It did not help that only months after his death that she was greeted with a strange sickness. Ill enough to miss her own graduation, Annika agreed to the large settlement (not nearly large enough given the net worth of the company), and instead spent a month in the hospital quarantined. Fever raged, and heightened, and then broke. She was fine, free of whatever plagued her, and she returned to her home only to find it robbed of much of what her father and her built together. What else would happen to a house abandoned for a month?
While she missed out on her graduating ceremony, Annika still was able to complete her junior years of schooling years ahead of her age group. For the next two years, studied at one of the more prestigious colleges on scholarship, completing a degree in Social Science, minoring in international Law. (It seemed practical at the time.) on the cusp of turning 19 did she start on her Master degree and completed it within the year. By 21 she had earned her Masters, and an additional Degree in Law. What was fascinating about Law was how it had been used against her. Returning to her Father’s company, she started to look for a bit of retribution. It had been her fathers company, and to have been hers. Though circumstances had found herself understanding that it had been avoidable, being only 15 at the time, now she could at least avenge a little what had been stolen from her due to unfortunate chains of events.
It was unfortunate that she had not foreseen the ramifications of using her own name entering into the corporate aspect of the company. Within a year she had been able to move up a little, but only to be closer watched. Once they noticed her recording more and more documents for private use, instead of using legal means (which would have brought to question the original deal 6 or so years ago), and it being Russia, they sent someone to her home to take care of their little problem.
Annika learned quickly that she wasn’t like others. During the scramble that lever her with a broken computer, lamp, ripped books and an incredibly large mess of books. Not to mention the body in the kitchen and a stove that was now parked outside her building, She felt something.. euphoric. It was obvious that she was no longer safe, but it came with a renewed purpose that she was getting to where she needed to be. There was power in her body, and it was something she needed to learn to control. Also, if she was going to get into these sorts of situations she would need to learn self defense.
Becoming a infiltrator, a spy, or perhaps even an assassin, happened a little more organically. Annika didn’t draw from a terrible childhood, for it really was filled with good memories. Her purpose was perhaps built from a series of events, or even a mentor to give her direction. But as the years progressed, Annika learned. She studied, and oddly put her Masters degree to a different use. She used it to study people, patterns, and to find loopholes. Eventually she contracted out to a small Corporation when she was 25 where she spent a lot of time traveling all over eastern Europe. Even some time in west. Annika was able to regain control of her father’s company, now a moderately successful shoe and clothing company, through legal means after a few unfortunate deaths up the corporate ladder. It was a clean income, free of blood money and gave her a bit more comfort that would otherwise be challenging to gain.
4 years of steady work filtered down into a few jobs here and there. The last job was in Moscow, where Annika has found herself in an apartment complex above a collection of stores. Tailoring, a Grocer, Chinese (in Moscow?! Who knew!) and a shooting gallery. The Shooter made for a good way to burn off steam while leaving the tenants feeling surprisingly safe. Mostly, Annika is a little upset that she lost her contact in Moscow, and really hasn’t decided what she wants to do next. However, there are whispers of work for some other organizations, and Annika is curious to check them out.