worshipthesquid wrote:Username: worshipthesquid
Name: Mikhail
Gender [Biologically has to be male]: male
How were they separated from the family? [If they were separated]: [welp here we go]
Mikhail was very young - young enough to know only that he hated the life his parents were bringing him up into. His parents had sheltered him from their work to some extent, but he was still aware of the monsters, the violence, the scrambling about in the dark, and the fact that he and his sisters were at least slightly expected to continue the family business. Though a tolerable hand with weapons -as much as could be determined at such an age, anyhow - the idea of trudging through cold, rain and sleet to do battle with monsters that he had no personal vendetta against was really the opposite of appealing. His spare time was mostly spent longingly reading of the lives of those with more 'ordinary' families: people who, it seemed to him, never had to choose between their own safety and the safety of others, their own dreams and the dreams of their parents.
He found it difficult to voice these concerns, however. Although Elena's accepting nature would otherwise make her the perfect confidant, Mikhail was acutely aware of her own keen ambition to become a hunter, and of the nightmares that left him unwilling to burden her further. Anastasia, on the other hand, would usually be - had, in fact, always been until then - the recipient of all his secrets, and yet when he tried to explain his uncertainties to her the words stuck in his throat, swallowed by an upwelling of fear. What if she rejected his concerns, dismissed them, wouldn't take him seriously? What if she told their parents? He had long harboured the idea that his twin was far better suited to this life than he was, even generally superior, and he was increasingly afflicted with a sense that Anastasia would soon realise he wasn't her equal.
So Mikhail kept his forebodings to himself, instead spending more and more time buried in books, away from his family. Likely he would have confided to his twin eventually; but while uncertainty still plagued him, an opportunity arose.
They had paused for a while on an evening journey between boltholes, the Impala parked in a safe-looking clearing in a birch wood not too far from the nearest town. As the others checked their weapons or flopped down to half-heartedly moan about the journey, he slipped a few paces away to read out of sight, as was his habit, braced against a wider birch.
It could have been hours or mere minutes before he heard the shout. It was night - when had that happened? Twisting around, he could just see snatches of familiar coats between the ghost-pale trees, and the dull occasional gleam of light on metal. He could smell… with a start, he realised that he could smell blood. He must have made a sound: a head-shape whipped to face him, eyes glowing with reflected light, and it was a disorientating and panicky moment before he realised it was Karasu, her relief plain even in the cloud-shrouded moonlight.
"Mikhail! To me!" she called over the snarls and pained yips of their attackers.
His only firm conviction in that moment was that he wanted to get as far away from this life of death and monsters as possible. Without making a conscious decision, his mind's turmoil replaced by a panicked blank, he ran.
[haha this is way longer than I meant it to be sorry. man I am rusty]
[gonna do the rest of the potential backstory in note form]✂ runs off to the nearest settlement, obvs
✂ mostly believes his family will come and find him soon, and has mixed feelings about this (resentment/overwhelming relief), until a few days go by and it becomes clear that his hiding place was too good & by this point they're probably states away
✂ doesn't even consider that they might have died in the fight until years later - at this point he still sees his parents and Elena as basically invulnerable
✂ does, however, consider that they might have just left him behind, one of those thoughts that he knows is irrational but still sticks with him
✂ ends up having a pretty normal life and studies design (he has a good eye for colours and composition but his draughtsmanship is terrible)
✂ and he tries to forget all about the family he remembers only bits of
✂ UNTIL [the fire nation attacks] there's a string of monster attacks in the area
✂ of course he has to save/avenge his friends because finding more people who will tolerate him that much would be pretty difficult
✂ also he cares about them and there's nobody else there who knows anything about how to fight, damn it, it's ridiculous how nobody seems to know how to vanquish monsters properly in this town
✂ unbeknownst to him the reports of low-level monster activity have drawn his family to him as part of their job
✂ dramatic reunion!!
✂ probably neither him nor his family make good first (second?) impressions on each other
✂ but on the plus side [?] it has become obvious to him, however reluctantly, that he can't actually just run away from monsters to have an ordinary life
✂ reluctant monster-hunting ensues!
✂ not necc. with his family bc I don't know how the decision'd work out
✂ this is probably the point at which he slooowly starts to work through his issues and figure out a sustainable life plan, or at least a short-term plan that he can tolerate and does not involve ignoring the existence of his own wants, his family or monsters
✂ fun & profit!What's it like to not know their parents?:
He can only remember a few things about them, the things you learn when you're very small - warmth, a quiet rumble of voices, his father's jokes and his mother's calm amusement - and of course the panic that accompanied the last time he saw them, just glimpses between trees in the dark. He tries to put it out of his mind, for the most part. There are so many more important things for him to worry about than a long-gone family - and after all, even if they were still alive, tracking them down would be practically impossible. [Depending on what age he left & on the structure of Makoatl society/the world in which this is set, which admittedly I do not know a great deal about, he probably has foster parents for a few years; if so, he is fostered into a family with loads of other kids that he doesn't really understand or click with, and they don't really come close to replacing the strong familial bonds he had beforehand. He leaves to live on his own as soon as he can. But perhaps I am overthinking this.]
EXTRAS
Personality:
- paranoid & insecure - even though he knows logically that he can trust those very close to him, he still finds it difficult not to question their motivations at every turn - especially when he feels that he hasn't done anything to merit them staying loyal to him, which is pretty often. this leads to him being unnecessarily secretive with the things he's most touchy about, and seeming standoffish even with close friends, battling between a desire to share and a fear of giving them too much potential ammunition.
- doesn't enjoy exercise - sees it as a duty & a chore rather than a leisure activity.
- intelligent - a very mixed blessing; he overthinks almost every decision in his life, except the ones he is forced to decide quickly and blindly (and mostly at random) on.
- selfish - not everything he does is motivated by self interest, but he's a long way from the selflessness of Elena and his parents. He feels to an extent that monsters killing people isn't really his business.
- particular - he nit-picks plans like nobody's business, and is absolutely not satisfied until his work reaches his (unreasonably high) standards. it is very easy to take him out of his comfort zone; he clings to the routines of everyday, ordinary life & 'sensibleness' like a lifeline, and putting in the milk before the tea, for example, or changing the positions of his drawing materials for no good reason, will set him off balance for the whole day. he basically just likes things to be done properly.
- driven - when he has set his mind to achieving something, he pursues it with an unnervingly intense narrow conviction. He is determined to prove to others or to himself that he can not only do something but do it well.
- dry and sarcastic - actually has a pretty good (if weird) sense of humour, on the rare occasions that he isn't a bundle of 100% irritated stress.
- bookworm - likes literature, research and preparation, although he doesn't like the act of reading itself that much. although he does go in without a plan himself when things get too much for him to think it through, he finds it very irritating when others do the same, and his first instinct is to prepare exhaustively and take all reasonable precautions.
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