PARAMONOVA VALERIA KONSTANTINOVNA
The Void ◼ November 28, 2008 (16) ◼ Female
It blinked.
This lady makes you think of a savvy alley cat. She has almond-shaped white eyes that are like two discs of bone. Her luxurious, straight, midnight black hair is long and draped down her back. She is tall and has a voluptuous build. Her skin is white. She has prominent cheekbones and nearly-nonexistent eyebrows. Her wardrobe is flattering.
Val's parents had planned their wedding the week before her due date - December 25, but instead her mother went into labor early, during a snowstorm. She almost died during the home delivery in that apartment - and again afterwards when her mother went crazy and tried to strangle her. It took both her father and Great Aunt Yashina to pry her out of her mother's hands and to get her to the hospital.
Later, when they returned, her mother was gone, having fled the apartment.
Her father, an archeologist, soon followed, leaving Val in the care of her great aunt. She gets the odd card from him.
Yashina was an often sought-after character actress, known for her impressive performance, despite her lisp. When she wasn't performing, Great Aunt Yashina worked at a bakery or at a butcher shop just down the street. It wasn't a grand life, but it was full of love and very comfortable for the two of them.
Val would accompany her aunt when she was working on stage or in the studio, staying very quiet during takes and practices, always watching - especially the make-up artists. After a lot of practice, they even started letting her do some of the other actors' makeup - under supervision, of course. She also learned to skate at an early age, a natural on the ice.
She was thirteen the summer of the great disappearances, the police even questioned her, as she knew two of the missing persons. Val tried tracing the steps of one of her friends, only to find herself on a winding side street in an unfamiliar part of town. A curio shop drew her eye, its window full of the most unusual pieces. Oddly enough, there was this tiny silver dagger in a small, dark oak sheath in the front that caught her eye. As she watched, it suddenly shifted - and vanished.
Only to appear in her hand.
Shocked, Val shoved the dagger into her pocket and fled down the street. The next day, she tried to return the dagger, but somehow could never find that street or the shop. There were other... incidents, where random objects somehow found herself in her hand, and although she returned them, apologizing profusely, she was starting to develop a reputation as a kleptomaniac. The dagger in particular worried her, but she found she could store it someplace else, then call it back when she needed - like an invisible school locker that was always available. Still, she knew it would look strange for things to appear in mid-air, so would pretend she was pulling things out of her book bag.
Curiously enough, the disappearances stopped about that time as well.
That summer, she unexpectedly blossomed - her clothes (or anything she could find in stores) fitted anymore. Fortunately, her aunt knew a lot of people involved in the theater, even a few offices for custom fittings. However, as she started her freshman year, the word spread through the school that Val was "easy" - and she hadn't even been on a single date!
The end of her sophomore year, she overhead some of her classmates talking about her - and lost it, calling a baseball bat out of hammerspace and taking a swing at the boys.
And so she came to the attention of the Merryweather Institute.
Val is grim with an anger simmering under the surface, suspicious of everyone around her. To avoid gropes and pinches, she likes to wait until the bell before darting out of the bathroom for her next class, arriving a few minutes late. Often walks while looking at the floor to prevent her klepto-gaze from triggering.
A B I L I T I E S / S K I L L S:
Klepto-gaze - if she stares at an object - not too big or heavy, it will suddenly appear in her hands. It doesn't work when viewing something through a camera.
Hammerspace - about the size of a school locker, it holds a baseball bat, a weird silver dagger, and a few odds and end that she can summon to her, often pretending to pull it out of a pocket, purse, or bag.
C H A R A C T E R N O T E S: