Nika Veselovsky

Personality
Sheis calm, cool, and collected and is always careful to judge the intentions of those she talks to. Towards hostile individuals she will be filled with a sort of cold hatred and will always be wary and suspicious, but towards people of good will she will be funny, happy, full of wit, and always ready to have a nice chat, play a good prank, or enjoy a good joke among other things.

History
Anne Tarasov was an art student at Buryat State University. She mostly worked with clay, the love of her existence. She created many beautiful works, and knew the clay inside and out. While at the University, she met a man named Stannis Veselovsky, a professor of modern literature. She thought she was in love, and became engaged to the older man a day after meeting him. They had their wedding two weeks after.

She soon found out Stannis was not the perfect man. While a genius, it seemed he suffered from alcoholism, and a day after the end of their honeymoon, he began to beat her.

Anne suffered three years of sexual, mental, and physical abuse, a victim of domestic violence. She quit school and became a housewife, making her clay art in secret. Finally, she began working up the courage to ask for a divorce. At around this time, she met a man named Yaromir, one of the many employees at the place where she bought clay in secret. They talked, and one thing leading to another, they spent the night together. Two months later, Anne realized she was pregnant. When she sought out Nika, he was nowhere to be found. This left her with little options. She was a girl with no degree, who would also be called out as a whore. What job would she have? What kind of support would she provide her kid? Either way, she would have to whore herself out, with one providing a better future for her kid.

So, she lied to Stannis about the babies parentage. He believed her. It came a painful surprize when Anne realized she was having twins, instead of one kid. Even more painful? One was a girl. Who knew what kind of things Stannis might be capable of doing to her.

When the babies were born, as a little vengeance for herself, Anne named the boy Yaromir. As for the girl, she named her after her Babushka, a strong and fierce old lady named Nika. She hoped her courage would pass to her young daughter.

Growing up, the two kids witnessed their father beat their mother. They knew, instinctively, that what she was doing was for them. They also knew that what he was doing was wrong. They didn’t trust their father, not really.

In school, they didn’t relate to many of the kids. Most were loud and noisy, begging for attention. They had a sense of who to stay clear of. Instead, they focused on school work. ADHD and dyslexia made it tough to learn, but they were persistent.

After school, if Anne was well enough, she would take them secretly to learn Sambo (a type of russian martial art) and how to shoot a gun, all in case they needed extra protection from their supposed father. Afterwards, she would share her love of clay with them, moments they cherished above all. They didn’t know what it was about the clay, only that they felt at home, and at peace with it. It was the family stress reliever, so to speak.

On one fine day, the trio was heading to the place where Anne still bought clay. Upon entering, they found it dark, empty, and seemingly abandoned. Two piles of clay curiously lay in the middle of the room, and behind them, an eagle with a knife through it. Yaromir approached the right pile, while Nika approached the left pile. Sinking their hands into the clay, each found a duplicate metallic necklace with a pendant. Even more curious? The pendant held the same image of the murdered eagle behind the clay piles. Mystified, the trio left the store, never to return.

Yaromir and Nika fought their first mythological monster at age thirteen. They’d been walking home from Sambo lessons with their mother, when a giant beast (hellhound) rushed at them. A paw raked across Anne’s face, the other barely missing Yaromir’s calf. Luckily, with knowledge of Sambo, Nika had been able to move away quick enough. The twins double teamed against the hellish dog, Yaromir going to lock it’s head, and Nika struck at its weaker hind legs. It yelped, but was not deterred. It threw off Yarmir, and swiped at Nika. She danced away just in time. The situation was desperate. That at least, is what the twins credit to coming up with the idea to grasp their necklaces. With the same thought. at the same moment, the true twins tugged off their necklaces for the first time since they’d received them. A double bladed weapon appeared in their hands, and they stabbed the beast with deadly accuracy. It disintegrated to dust, and they were glad of their victory. It was short lived, however, as the twins realized their mother was injured. Touching a button at the hilt of the swords, the blades retracted and the matching necklaces appeared again. They put them on, and rushed their mother to the ER. Officials were suspicious of how Anne’s condition came to be. After all, saying a giant dog from hell had attacked them was not the most convincing of stories. Especially for kids their age. Some officials believed, even, that the twins had been involved in the attack against their mother. This would prove to be crucial later on.

Stannis’ condition became worse after he was fired. Anne received beatings at least thrice a day, and, as much as the twins wanted to something, they could do nothing. People respected Stannis, and would never believe he was capable of such violence. Also, gossip about the twins possible mistreatment of their mother had spread, and officials were more likely to believe they were the ones abusing. If they attacked Stannis, similar scrutiny and danger would befall them.

The game changed when Anne died, the day of the twin’s second monster attack. By then they were fourteen, a fragile age for growth. They were heading towards a friend’s house when a myrmeke attacked. Now knowing they had a weapon at hand, the twins tugged and slashed. The monster hardly knew what hit it before it was gone. The real monster, in all honesty, was the one waiting at home. When the twins arrived, they found their mother on the floor, bleeding from everywhere, her face like ground meat. What could it be that could drive Stannis to the point of beating their mother to death? The answer was quite simple. “You!” he growled. “You falsehoods! You are not my children! Yur slut of a mother has been sleeping around.” In truth, Anne had only slept with Yaromir all those years ago. But he wasn’t one to listen. Yaromir punched Stannis in the face. “Stop,” he yelled, a bloody grin on his face. “Don’t you know? No one will believe that I would kill my wife. And now you’ve punched me.” His grin becomes more evil. “It seems thats what I get, for trying to protect my poor dead wife.” The words send ice down the twins shoulders.

Yaromir gave in, the only thing he could do. Nika knew, soon enough, her “father” would be looking for some ass, and he had them trapped. They needed to escape, and fast. Nika sugared up to a guy in school named Dimitri, whose uncle owned a sex trafficking ring, which he was apart of. Yaromir became his best friend. They detested Dimitri and everything he stood for, but this was the only way the could think of to truly escape Stannis. Everyone knew they shipped prostitutes to the U.S. to make more money. Nika pretended to get high on drugs and sometimes, even had to take them. Yaromir earned his place in the ranks. It was the dirtiest, slimiest, and most disgusting act they’d done. If they could help the poor women….but no. They were too far gone with the drugs. Here, they were owned. In America, they would be deported back. There was nothing to do.

When they’d just turned 15, Stannis struck. He took Nika to his bedroom, his intentions clear. Her intentions were clear too. She broke his neck and ran. This would be the day of their great escape. They ran towards Dimitri’s uncle’s facility, where many prostitutes were making the journey to America. Nika was supposed to be among them, the girl whose brother had apparently sold her in. Or at least, that was the story for appearances.

They reached the U.S. (NYC specifically) and from there, broke away. They needed to get away from their past life, as soon as possible. Not only were they part of an illegal sex trafficking organization (momentarily), but Nika had killed a man. They would also assume the twins had killed their mother.

On their run to get away, they came across a pair of interestingly cladded women. At first, they thought the women were prostitutes sent to find them and bring them back, but they were much worse. Scythian Dracnae. The ladies attacked, and the twins dodged to the sides. Yaromir tugged his necklace and sliced the one on the right. Nika tugged on her necklace and sliced the one on the left. What then lay in the middle was dust.

Getting used to the streets was tough. They’d learned english in grade school, but it didn’t help with all the slang and lingo used. What they did find, however, was the lovely soup kitchen. Sure, they only served dinner time meals, but it was something.

Yaromir made money working at a McDonalds. He was under the working age, sure, but he looked older than he was. Nika made money gambling on the street. Her being a female made her opponents underestimate her, and she had enough decisiveness to win. She also, was tough enough to take care of guys who thought she deserved to pay for winning. Life went on, but not without it’s ghosts, or hardships. Nika had nightmares of the ghost of Stannis following her around, mocking her that she would never escape. Yaromir was haunted by dreams of their mother, who cried to him and asked why he did nothing to Stannis sooner, why he didn’t save her. Sometimes, they would even alternate between dreams.

At 16, the twins faced yet another mythological monster. They’d been sleeping in some trees in central park, near a little lake. Nika noticed a little fin shape in the water. Curious, she alerted Yaromir, and they went to see what was up. As they neared the bank, three slimy seal like beings (telkhines) emerged from the water, gnashing their teeth in hungry wait. The twins jumped back, in their normal Sambo combat stances, hands near their necks so they could grab their weapons easily. The telkhines were slower out of water, but still powerful. Two bit at Yaromir’s feet and legs, and he swiped at them once he’d pulled to get his sword. Nika, on the other hand, only had one telkhine. She easily sliced open the mutt, and it was down for the count. Yaromir managed to get one too, and together, they stabbed the third. More to the kill list.

Although they were now getting a hang of the english slang, they felt the city was too crowded, and were afraid monsters or their ghosts would continue to attack with more vehemence. So, they packed up what little they had and moved to long island.

Unfortunately, this plan was a failure. When the twins were 17 they were taking residence in an abandoned house that Yaromir had found that was in ok fashion. They got there food by scavenging for it or by taking it from gullible merchants. Shortly after, another set of dracanae had set their sights on them. As they approached the residence, Yaromir could feel something was wrong. Using the techniques he had learned previously, Yaromir whirled around and started kicking at the dracanae with amazing speed and while they were dazed he got his sword out and stabbed them turning them into dust as Nika burst in and did the same. He then turned to Nika and ran away with her.

As they ran, they came across a hill of strawberries. sure, there was a sign saying not to pick, but they were hungry. what they discovered, was something entirely different. A home.