![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Name: Alida Sokoloff
Age: 21
History:
Alida was born to a Russian man and a Roma woman - an unusual pair in the woman's family. The family is insular and still keeps to some of the oldest traditions of the Roma.
Alida is the second eldest of four children. Two girls, two boys. She's got an older brother and a younger brother and sister. Her grandmother is still living and a large part of her life.
Born in September, she was a surprise pregnancy for her parents. What really surprised them, when Alida took a school trip to Gettysburg at age 11 and then ended up in the hospital. It turns out that Alida, like her grandmother, can speak to spirits, to ghosts. The ghosts of the battlefield overwhelmed her and sent her into a coma. She was unconscious for three days, until her grandmother could set up protections around her. Even then, Alida had problems, with the spirits wanting to talk to her.
Alida learned from her grandmother not only how to block the spirits out, but how to send them on to their final rest, or to as final as it can be. She also learned a few things about finding those that hunt Roma - werewolves, vampires - and making jewelry that warns her they are around.
Alida learned all this at her grandmother's knee. The other thing she learned was how to draw. Art is a good skill for spirit-speakers to have and helps them picture the spirit that they need to talk to. After graduating from high school in the middle of her class, Alida went to South Carolina to the College of Charleston. She spent four years there, studying Historic Preservation and Planning as well as Art. She focused on cemetery preservation.
She also took courses in Russian so she could talk to her father's mother, since the woman only speaks Russian - she got out before Gorbachev took control. Her mother's family speaks Romanian and a Roma dialect - they got out during Ceausescu's reign. Alida speaks Roma fluently, thanks to her grandmother.
Personality:
Alida is proud of her heritage and defends it at every turn, especially to those that are not part of the Roma culture. She doesn’t feel the need to explain it to anyone.
She’s also proud of her art skills. She specializes in portraits and loves doing the art for others. She’s sold her art several times. While she knows that this doesn’t make her special considering all the other artists in the world, she does think that she has the talent and the stubbornness to be something more than she is. She is just held back by her loyalty to her family.
Despite that loyalty, Alida finds little ways to undermine it. She enjoys finding those ways so she can once again step outside the confinement of the family. She walks in both worlds, and loves it. But if the question ever comes down, she steps back into the comfort and confining embrace of her family.
Alida finds pleasures in the little things: cooking, cleaning, the scratch of a pencil against paper, taking care of little ones. But she doesn’t ever give up her time alone. She likes it, and will defend it with force if necessary.
While she pays lip service to God, she isn’t as devout as she probably ought to be.
Age: 21
History:
Alida was born to a Russian man and a Roma woman - an unusual pair in the woman's family. The family is insular and still keeps to some of the oldest traditions of the Roma.
Alida is the second eldest of four children. Two girls, two boys. She's got an older brother and a younger brother and sister. Her grandmother is still living and a large part of her life.
Born in September, she was a surprise pregnancy for her parents. What really surprised them, when Alida took a school trip to Gettysburg at age 11 and then ended up in the hospital. It turns out that Alida, like her grandmother, can speak to spirits, to ghosts. The ghosts of the battlefield overwhelmed her and sent her into a coma. She was unconscious for three days, until her grandmother could set up protections around her. Even then, Alida had problems, with the spirits wanting to talk to her.
Alida learned from her grandmother not only how to block the spirits out, but how to send them on to their final rest, or to as final as it can be. She also learned a few things about finding those that hunt Roma - werewolves, vampires - and making jewelry that warns her they are around.
Alida learned all this at her grandmother's knee. The other thing she learned was how to draw. Art is a good skill for spirit-speakers to have and helps them picture the spirit that they need to talk to. After graduating from high school in the middle of her class, Alida went to South Carolina to the College of Charleston. She spent four years there, studying Historic Preservation and Planning as well as Art. She focused on cemetery preservation.
She also took courses in Russian so she could talk to her father's mother, since the woman only speaks Russian - she got out before Gorbachev took control. Her mother's family speaks Romanian and a Roma dialect - they got out during Ceausescu's reign. Alida speaks Roma fluently, thanks to her grandmother.
Personality:
Alida is proud of her heritage and defends it at every turn, especially to those that are not part of the Roma culture. She doesn’t feel the need to explain it to anyone.
She’s also proud of her art skills. She specializes in portraits and loves doing the art for others. She’s sold her art several times. While she knows that this doesn’t make her special considering all the other artists in the world, she does think that she has the talent and the stubbornness to be something more than she is. She is just held back by her loyalty to her family.
Despite that loyalty, Alida finds little ways to undermine it. She enjoys finding those ways so she can once again step outside the confinement of the family. She walks in both worlds, and loves it. But if the question ever comes down, she steps back into the comfort and confining embrace of her family.
Alida finds pleasures in the little things: cooking, cleaning, the scratch of a pencil against paper, taking care of little ones. But she doesn’t ever give up her time alone. She likes it, and will defend it with force if necessary.
While she pays lip service to God, she isn’t as devout as she probably ought to be.
