Aleksandr Averin

[Aleksandr Averin]

The Basics

Name: Aleksandr Grigory Averin.
Nicknames: Aleks.
Age: 42, born 12 October 1972.
Orientation: Heterosexual.
Desired Rank/Job: Home economics teacher.
Powers: Sensory manipulation.
Aleks has the ability to temporarily manipulate the senses of another person, shutting them down completely or enhancing them up to two times their normal range. For example, he could temporarily blind someone or improve their eyesight to allow them to see two times farther and clearer than they normally are able to. In order to manipulate someone like this Aleks has to have them within his line of sight, and he can influence up to ten people at a time. He cannot give people senses they don’t have; a blind person will remain blind no matter how much he tries to enhance their vision. The more people he is influencing the less time he can hold the effect for (five minutes for a larger group, up to around four hours for a single person). Side effects of this include frequent headaches, fatigue, nausea and nosebleeds if he’s working it for longer periods of time. He sometimes has trouble controlling his own senses and frequently has issues with his sense of touch in particular, alternating between hypersensitivity and an inability to feel anything at all.
Play By: Jeremy Renner.

The Details

Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Any Piercings? None
Any Tattoos? None
Any Scars? An appendix scar and a few small ones from his fighting days, none of which are worthy of note.
General Appearance: If Aleks was a few inches taller than his five foot seven he would likely be very intimidating. As it is he does not radiate a ‘cuddly puppy’ vibe, being broadly built and carrying a fairly large amount of muscle mass, though his face still seems to hold on to the puppy fat of his youth. Aleks has bright blue eyes under a fairly large brow, and his mid-brown hair is always kept cropped short. His face usually carries a small amount of relatively well-groomed stubble, mainly because he does like to keep up appearances in that regard but doesn’t have the willpower to shave every other day. Aleks is well aware that he qualifies as ‘fairly handsome’ but he does believe that he’s never going to be a threat to the marriages of Hollywood-types.

Clothing-wise Aleks tends to prefer the smartly casual look and when not working is most often seen in jeans and a tee. Having grown up with very little he holds no innate desire for big brands, and the only times he is seen in designer labels is if he was lucky enough to find them on the racks in the thrift store. He has far better things to be spending his money on than expensive clothing. However, he takes great delight in customising his clothing and he has tailored most of the things he owns in some way or another. He wont throw out a shirt just because it doesn’t fit any more or got stained; he’ll take it apart and turn it into something else instead. Aleks doesn’t often wear much in the way of jewellery, but he is never without his watch and will occasionally wear a chain depending on the situation.

Personality: Polite, bubbly and outgoing, Aleks is the sort of person that is generally easy to befriend. He enjoys socialising and meeting new people, and can always be counted on for any kind of adventure or mischief, regardless of what people tend to think is ‘appropriate’ behaviour for a man his age. Aleks very much has a ‘live for the moment’ mentality and holds a strong belief in making every single second of life a moment of joy and discovery, because you never know when those opportunities might be taken away from you. He is very much a risk taker and a daredevil at heart, though he has become a little more cautious in recent years thanks to the addition of his daughter to his life.

As a father, Aleks is generally loving but baffled. Single fatherhood was very much forced upon him and for a long while he did not really have a clue what he was doing and held some resentment towards both Holly and the girl’s mother. This was made additionally difficult in light of Holly’s mild learning disability. However, as he learned more and adapted more to life as a father he found it was something that suited him, and he loves his little girl more than life itself. There are still often times of panic, when he finds himself wondering whether he is truly capable of raising her and keeping her safe from all the horrors of the world, but every time he sees her smile he knows it is all worth it. She is his absolute everything, and there is no limit to what he would do for her.

To his friends Aleks is incredibly loyal and dedicated, and he will go massively out of his way in order to help those he is close to. He can always be counted on to lend what little money he has, bring a smile or be a shoulder to cry on. That being said, many people have learned that his advice on things such as love and relationships can be a bit hit-and-miss. As long as people don’t start asking about his past, Aleks is happy to converse about anything and everything. Those that do enquire about that are met with subject-changes and distractions away from the question posed. To his students he can be very strict, but he is also very fair and does his best to keep his lessons fun and interesting while still actually getting the work done. He believes that every person deserves a second chance and everyone is entitled to one mistake, and he is very slow to form judgements on people unless they give him cause to question their motives.

With that being said, once the line in the sand has been crossed Aleks can be incredibly cold and aggressive. His temper is usually docile but the moment his friends or family are hurt he will go to any length necessary to ensure the person who harmed them is made well aware of their mistake. He is very much not the sort of person to back out of a fight and where protecting his loved ones is concerned, he will do whatever it takes to defend them. Once that line is crossed there is no going back with him and he will carry that antagonism to the grave. God help anyone who ever tried to harm his daughter; he would rip the world apart to get to them.

Having grown up with very little in the way of anything, Aleks holds a deep respect for the value of things and absolutely detests any form of waste or selfish indulgence. His small budget is stretched incredibly thin and he holds no shame in the fact that he often has to shop in the slightly less than fabulous establishments. He is definitely not the sort of person to splash out on luxury items, and if he or Holly want something outside the basic necessities he either saves up hard for it or finds a way to acquire it as cheaply as possible. It does frustrate him sometimes but he absolutely respects the fact that while he doesn’t have much, he loves and respects what he has and that is more than some people can say.

Your Vices

Likes:
* Being a father, which is still a bit of a surprise to him
* Taking Holly to the zoo (when he can afford it)
* Cooking, especially seafood
* Hunting, fishing and gathering wild food
* Sewing
* His work
* Horses, though he is only an average rider. He took a few riding lessons and loved them, but when Holly came along other financial concerns became more important so he gave them up
* Hiking
* Fitness training in general, but especially swimming
* Singing
* Classic rock music

Dislikes:
* Small dogs. Lady is the one exception
* People too afraid to take any kind of risk
* Lazy Sunday afternoons
* Vegetarian food. It’s the only thing he really hates teaching
* Heavily processed food, especially fast food like McDonald’s
* Despite the stereotype, he cannot stand vodka
* Modern pop music, though he is familiar with a lot of it thanks to Holly
* Judgmental people
* The meta-human recruiting process, largely due to his experience with the Odarennyĭ Institute

Strengths:
* Fluent in Russian, very strong grasp of spoken English and can muddle along a bit in German
* Expert multi-tasker
* Very talented chef and tailor
* Decent people skills
* Reasonable singer
* Good at juggling money to make sure the important stuff is covered
* Skilled fighter, though that isn’t something he’s particularly proud of

Weaknesses:
* Still occasionally baffled by fatherhood in general
* While his spoken English is very good, he sometimes still has a little difficulty with more complex reading/ writing and is never far from his trusty dictionary. They’re/ their/ there is the bane of his existence
* Can be impatient when things aren’t going his way
* Sometimes takes more risks than are necessary (or sensible)
* Good paella can reduce him to tears
* Unable to let go of a grudge and occasionally has trouble knowing when to stop

Fears: His biggest fear is his daughter becoming a meta-human. He remembers vividly what his youth was like at the school in Russia and he is terrified of her having to go through the same thing. He is also absolutely fricking terrified of flying insects, moths in particular.

Secret: Most days, Aleks would give anything to have grown up without any kind of power. He also goes to great lengths to keep the moths thing quiet.

Family Ties

Father: Grigory Averin, deceased.
Mother: Sofya Averin (nee Bardin), deceased.
Siblings: Nadya Yenin (nee Averin), 3 years older sister, non-meta, lives in Moscow. Aleks has very little contact with her.
Any Other Important People: Holly Durham, his 11 year old daughter. She has a learning disability and is developmentally a few years behind other girls her age, but to Aleks she is absolutely perfect. She likes fashion dolls, fancy dress, getting to try new things and anything yellow.
Justine Durham, Holly’s mother. She signed Holly over to Aleks’ care when she suffered from prolonged postpartum depression that was exacerbated by the challenges created by Holly’s disability. She occasionally gets in touch with Aleks to ask how her daughter is doing, but has had no contact with Holly since the sign-over.
Lady, Holly’s two year old Swedish Vallhund. They made a deal; Aleks got to pick the dog, and Holly picked the name. Aleks does most of Lady’s day-to-day care, but he is okay with that.

History

Grigory and Sofya met late in life and their romance was a deeply happy and loving whirlwind, but Saratov in the fifties and sixties was not a friendly place to rear children. They were poor and struggling to get by from day to day, and when Sofya became pregnant accidentally with her first child they struggled massively. Nadya was born and it was very difficult for the family to keep themselves afloat, matters that were only complicated when Aleksandr joined the world three years later. Even though life was very tough for the family, Aleks holds only happy memories from his youth. They never had anything in the way of luxury but he never doubted for a second that his parents loved him and he rarely went hungry, even when (unknown to him and his sister) his parents were making do with very little food themselves. His schooling was rudimentary and from a young age he and his sister helped their parents around the home and at work as much as they were able to. He was taught to hunt, fish and gather wild food in order to back up what little they could buy, and by the time he was approaching his teens he was developing significant skills in that.

When he was thirteen, Aleks was very surprised when one day a man in a very fancy looking car arrived at their home to take him away. Despite all the family’s protests and Aleks’ fighting to get away, the man told them that he had manifested a meta ability was being recruited to join a military training school for meta-humans and there was no way to stop that. His parents did everything they could to get Aleks back and the young boy created hell in the school, but eventually the military officials stepped in and forced the family to back down. Aleks was not an easy student by a long shot. Resentful of being taken away from his family, he created chaos wherever he could and once he was taught how to use his ability, matters only got worse. He used it on everyone and anyone, until the strict discipline forced on him began to work. Aleks was still a troublemaker and quick to turn aggressive and defensive when pushed, but he began to just get on with it because fighting wasn’t getting him anywhere. Thankfully for him, his power was not impressive enough to gain him as much attention as the telepaths and the pyrokinetics, especially when combined with his temperament that made him unreliable and unpredictable. However, he was still enlisted into the military upon graduation (which he just barely scraped through), and there he learned the hard way to control his frustrations.

Aleks’ role in the military was mainly support, enhancing the eyesight and hearing of ground troops in information-gathering missions. He grudgingly served for two years before being dishonourably discharged for breaking the arm of a fellow soldier he caught attempting to steal his food rations. He was left with absolutely nothing, his parents having passed away while he was in the school and his sister having married and moved to Moscow. Drawing on what little experience he had, Aleks managed to make a bit of a name for himself fighting in rather less than orthodox rings across the region. Aleks saved every penny he could, spending just enough to get by and stashing the rest away. Eventually he managed to save enough to escape from Russia and all the horrific memories it held for him, and he moved to America to start anew.

The first few months state-side were incredibly difficult for Aleks, scrounging for places to sleep wherever he could and taking absolutely any job that he could in order to keep himself fed. After living like this and travelling northwards for a couple of months the twenty-eight year old landed himself in Vermont and managed to get himself a job as a cage fighting coach. He was deeply unhappy having to once more step into that world, but it kept a roof over his head and food in his stomach so he never complained. He got friendly with a few ladies and married one of them, Justine, when he was thirty-one. The entire relationship was rushed and based purely on lust instead of love and understanding, and despite their efforts it only barely lasted a year before they both decided that it wasn’t going to work. Once the divorce papers were settled Aleks’ focus turned back to the ring full time… until three years later when Justine reappeared in his life with a young child in her arms, claiming he was the father.

At first Aleks completely denied that the toddler, named Holly, was his. However a paternity test soon proved that he was indeed the father. Wanting to do the right thing, Aleks asked what Justine wanted of him. Justine explained that after the birth she had suffered from severe postpartum depression and it had never fully gone away, only becoming worse with the challenges that Holly’s disability created. She announced that she was going to put Holly into foster care for both of their sakes but thought Aleks at least had the right to know of Holly’s existence. Aleks flatly refused to allow that to happen, and after a few long months of checks and paperwork and meetings with solicitors that he couldn’t really afford, Holly was signed over into Aleks’ custody.

To say that fatherhood didn’t come naturally to Aleks would be a bit like saying flying didn’t come naturally to elephants. He was awkward and found it incredibly difficult and seemed to spend more time researching what he should be doing than he did actually doing anything. The one thing he was certain of, however, was that he wanted a much better life for Holly than he had created for himself. As such he enrolled into adult education. He had spent his whole fighting and coaching career looking out for his and his client’s nutrition and he had learned to sew out of necessity to keep himself clothed during the hardest times. He didn’t know enough about sports to go down that route so, with those skills that he did hold (as hilarious as his friends found the image), home economics seemed the logical way to go. He managed to graduate those classes with decent grades and enrolled on to college to get his teaching certification. Juggling learning with working and raising his child was exceptionally difficult, but with the help of his friends he somehow managed to make it through and secure a job in an elementary school.

Aleks had long been aware of a meta-human school in Vermont and had been doing his best to keep well away from it. However, when a job opportunity opened up there for a home economics teacher Aleks had applied. Admittedly a large reason for that decision was the fact that he wanted to see how the place functioned, just in case Holly ever did manifest a power. If it was anything like the Odarennyĭ Institute he would do everything in his power to ensure they never got anywhere near his daughter. He has now been at the school for a few days and is settling in slowly. The differences between Hammel and Odarennyĭ are like night and day, but he still doesn’t trust the place yet. For now he is still scoping the place out, still settling down to life in Pilot Ridge, and still trying to perfect the whole ‘fatherhood’ thing.

And still sewing sundresses for Holly’s never-ending string of dolls, of course.

Roleplay Example

*points to my herd*

What About You?

Name: Splatt.
Age: Late 20’s.
Experience: <that long>
Ready To Play? A character who ISN’T a local! Aren’t you proud of me?!?

[Deleted]

Accepted!

You know what to doooo! ;D