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Aleks fills an understated but constant role in the lives and activities of his friends. He arrived in Beverly Hills by way of his second home, London, in his freshman year. While it was far from unusual to see the child of a Russian oligarch floating around California, Aleks nonetheless made a splash when he arrived, a young, aloof foreigner who looked and dressed like the ghost of James Dean, with all the intense focus and ambition that some of his more easy-going peers lacked. America had quite the culture shock in store for him, even compared to London instead of Russia, but he quickly made himself indispensable to the upper crust of the school thanks to his reliable personality and variety of talents. Along the way, the culture of the Los Angeles elite and all its variety of pleasures took their toll on the boy, leaving him with a taste for more and more exhilarating recreational options throughout the city. If his friends bumped into him at a race or a particularly raucous party, they would never get a reason on how he had found it - although he remained perfectly happy to stick to them for the rest of the night, as if he had been waiting and hoping for one of them to show up.
It helps to have a friend who is used to hopping through time zones; it’s rumored that Aleks never actually sleeps for very long, or at least sleeps with one eye on his phone. If someone sends him a text asking for help in the middle of the night, they will receive not a response over iMessage but in the lithe, fully-formed Russian boy himself. He’s given rides (or, maybe more accurately, getaways) to drunk or belligerent friends at all hours of the night, even on days where school might only be a few painfully short hours away. Drunken car crash? Aleks is there with a AAA card to swear he was in the vehicle with you. Need an alibi for your whereabouts and don’t know who would back your story? Text Aleks with your story and he will fill it in with a novelist’s detail. Need to get away from the police?
...
Everyone does have their hobbies.
"International man of mystery" reputation aside, Aleks seems perfectly willing to let some of the more flamboyant and needy personalities in his life take center stage. Instead, he reliably fills a niche in the lives of all around him without ever demanding too much in return. Maybe he is just a generous soul who doesn’t like to bother his friends; maybe he has just found the extra hours of the day to solve his own problems in addition to those around him; maybe he’s just not interested, or maybe newer and daring methods of problem solving are most of what keeps him interested. The Russian is a puzzle, one that some of his friends may find as irresistible to solve as he finds their issues.
► noteworthy appearance traits
Amazing hair; occasional mysterious facial scrapes or wounds; black, thorny circular tattoo on the back of his right hand; twin diamond stud piercings; usually wearing a leather jacket or a number of shack hoodies.
► Favorite item
The means of production, motherfuckers An out-of-season YSL leather jacket, worn and ruined by visible burn marks and charring. It has quite the infamous story behind it - in his freshman year, AJ Tyler had been throwing a house party to end all house parties (usually a triannual occasion) and found himself lit aflame while toying around with a bottle of Bombay near a tiki torch. Luckily for him, he was near a pool - and luckier still, the only one who hadn't broken out their phone to film it first was local exchange student Aleks Belikov. Aleks, of course, could have pushed AJ into the pool to put out the fire, but in true battle-hardened Russian fashion, Aleks pulled off his leather jacket and beat him mercilessly with it, smothering AJ's burning sweater at the cost of a burst lip from the zipper. Aleks tried to present it to AJ as a token of their new friendship, but AJ threw it back at him and proceeded to curse him out - which Aleks, smiling, took as AJ returning his friendship right back.
They've been inseparable since.
► current dilemma
Aleks' impatience has finally begun to manifest in peculiar ways. After four years in America and many of his friends seeming content to chart their current course, the Russian boy has started to wonder whether or not they grasp that the good times might really be coming to an end. It seems easier for them to say so out loud and use it as an excuse to keep partying than it does for them to truly accept. Their lack of focus has started to make Aleks wonder whether or not the United States is really the best fit for whatever he wants to be in life, and it seems - at last - that the question of what he truly wants for himself is creeping into his mind.
► warning
Though he rarely brings them up, people often feel comfortable bringing their relationships to Aleks' door, or asking him for advice on them. As this is another opportunity for him to earnestly help out the people he's closest to, he never shies away from any details and never breaks a confidence. However, Aleks is uncomfortable, borderline anxious, at the prospect of discussing whatever his own romantic prospects are like at any given time. They certainly exist - as random presences at more than one double or triple date can attest to - but they never last, and trying to push for juicy details beyond his usual, brusque explanation that ”It didn’t work out.” leads to snappy replies and cold, sullen stares. Lately, his friends' inabilities to learn from their mistakes seem to finally be grating on Aleks' nerves.
Like the theater boy. Aleks had never liked that smirking twink.
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃- One thing Aleks is enamored with is American movies, especially their depictions of Russians. He will regale people with impersonations of movie Russians on command; he does a better Ivan Drago than Ivan Drago, and his John Wick crime boss impersonation (”…with a pencil. A fucking pencil!”) is getting better all the time.
- Aleks hates being photographed. His Instagram is full of locales he’s been to, foods he’s tried, and people he’s with, but when he is included in group pictures or pairs of selfies, he will try and blend into the background or hide his face behind a prop as effectively as he can. His best disguise ever is managing to hide his entire face behind a hibachi grill fire in a group selfie earlier this year.
- He still does not sleep.
► hobbies
- Driving. Aleks prefers track-ready vehicles.
- Learning new movies [quotes]
- Following fashion
- Dance
- Self-defense and physical training
- DJing (?)
► dreams
Aleks doesn’t talk much about his dreams, but he has taken a shine to the idea of DJing over the last year, and he may choose to pursue it professionally after school. Other than that, his future is up in the air - he hedges on whether or not he will even remain in America after the end of the road trip, maybe because it's something he's uncharacteristically uncertain about.
► fears
If one of his friends needed anything to do with bears, Aleks would mourn for them dearly. Even AJ, Val, or Chloe would just have to catch those paws.
► likes/dislikes
✔ Going to museums. History - good stuff!
✔ Skincare technology fascinates him. Sun lotion has been so helpful since he came to America.
✔ Surprising friends with hidden talents.
✔ Wakeboarding. Do not judge.
✖ Bears, which are Satan's beagles
✖ Going to zoos. Fuck the big animals.
✖ Mathematics. Fuck the big numbers.
✖ Much of America feels like big, empty space to him. Fuck.
▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃► occupation
Recently met the requirements to become an Uber driver in California. Possibly a getaway driver???
► family
- Osip Belikov, father. Originally an industrial magnate in the 1990s, much of his wealth remained intact after the 2008 financial crisis, and in the decade since he's made increasing Western investments, first in European fashion. His son's curiosity about moving to America prompted a look at the tech sector there, which has proven good for the family net worth.
- Juliana Belikova, mother, half-Brazilian. Former swimsuit model. She drives even faster than Aleks. Not that he would ever admit it.
► brief history
Aleks was born in Russia, but didn't spend most of his life there. He grew up in London around the fashion circuit, an interest that will probably prove to be lifelong. For a time he dreamed of being a model like his mother, but the lifestyle proved to be too intensive for someone with such varied interests, and he gave up after a series of childhood modeling gigs. He also realized that his options in the United Kingdom were fairly limited, especially with growing tensions between his home nation and the nation where he spent so much of his life. That, plus a cultural fascination with the American dream (and American high school experience) caused him to relocate at the age of fourteen. He tried New York first, but he didn't agree with the culture.
California was sunnier, something which wreaked havoc on his skin for a time, but he also found it more inviting, the rich kids were nicer...and there were more chances for him to learn to drive. It was that fixation, the feeling of owning a car and pushing it to its limit, that first caused him to fall in with the Gearheads and become their go-to problem solver and secret keeper. In four years, this role has never chafed him or caused any sort of discomfort; he actually seemed to relish the idea of being needed so much to do such a variety of things for friends.
The only times he ever seemed to grow upset or implacable were the rare occasions when his own private life - usually messy breakups, usually hard to contain - made their way onto the group's radar. Once they did, he would take drastic measures to shy away from taking up the center of attention that AJ, or someone in his stead, preferred to bask in. He seemed less irritated about the things going wrong in his life than he did anyone paying attention to them.
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