AMITYVILLE ACADEMY ENROLLMENT FORMName: Tsetsiliya Pavlova
Nicknames: Whatever nicknames you can come up with; she will happily answer to it
Gender: Female
Age: Appears 14 ( real age is somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 years )
Faction/Race: Demon ( Poludnica )
Personality:
Tsetsiliya is as nervous and mousy as they come. Not intimidating in the least, this timid nature does not become a poludnica, who is supposed to be enticing. Tsetsiliya is very aware that she's not living up to her name ( nor her family pride ), but she is trying very hard to surmount her nervous disposition. But years of ingrained habit make that difficult - bullying will do that to you. In this respect, she's a pushover. She is naturally intimidated by larger characters or those with strong personalities, but is drawn to them at the same time. She tends to be clingy to friends, then becomes increasingly paranoid that she's annoying them. It's a vicious cycle.
It takes a lot to push her to the point where she will lash out at others, and times like that are often accompanied by an unexpected shift in appearance. Things such as meddling with her stuff ( including stealing, rooting around, or even destroying ) or getting into her business are good triggers, and at such a point she will get highly upset and go into a rage fit to make any spoiled child proud. Any other show of emotion is accompanied by these shifts in appearance, and this happens quite often. She would rather bottle her anger and keep it to herself, which often ends in a small explosion of words and tears, than complain every other second.
And it's a good thing she does this, because she has a lot she could gripe about if she were a little less stubborn about solving her own problems. She has been made aware of her weaknesses quite often, and as such she is very protective of them. Any critiques or offhanded comments that sound like critiques are met with a nervous, slightly snappish reply. If told that she is in the wrong, Tsetsiliya will endlessly apologize and try to make amends. When she is especially intimidated by something, she'll fluster around trying to find a solution, and snap at those who try to fix the issue themself. She's independent and believes that if something is her problem, then it is exclusively hers to deal with - another resulting behavior from bullying. It's probably the only thing she is adamantly stubborn about. Well, that and proving herself.
While not necessarily dumb, Tsetsiliya lacks street smarts and common sense at times. It can be said that she's a little on the forgetful side, and has a hard time keeping names and faces down. But that is not to say that she certainly won't try. She may get it wrong the first three times, but she will do her best. If anything can be said about her, it is that she is determined to try, even if something intimidates her. Making friends? Tsetsiliya will try. Even though it sets her knees quaking at the thought of it. She does want to make friends, it just takes her a while, seeing as she is wary of kindness given out of the blue.
If anything can be related to her poludnica nature right off, it's her affinity for children. Youngsters can find a guide in her. In turn, she will do her best to appear brave and confident for the young ones, who seem to respect her more than some of her peers, or even her own parents, might. She will take any kind of praise she can get, glowing with pride when she does receive it and constantly stumbling over herself to continue to impress. The results can vary from good to horrendous.
She enjoys spending her time doing a number of things. She loves being active and is in constant need of keeping her mind occupied; an idle mind is wasted, she believes. She enjoys taking walks or runs, and would probably do well on a track team, being a fairly decent sprinter ( have to run through those big grain fields, after all! ). She also has a fondness for riddles, either collecting them or sharing them. Gardening is her main passion however and the thing that brings her the most happiness - this is probably related to the fact that poludnica tend to hang around grain fields and silos a lot. Despite the pristine condition of her clothing, Tsetsiliya is not afraid to get her dress dirty, and enjoys growing a number of odd plants on her dorm room window sill planter.
She also loves wheat and bread; being a poludnica, she has a natural affinity for grain. Any kind of bread-like product is her favorite treat, and she will consume it shamelessly until every last crumb is gone. It's a wonder she hasn't gained a lot of weight.
Why are they enrolled in Amityville Academy? The fact that she is just not scary enough. Her parents are concerned she is not coming into her abilities fast enough, and hope that by placing her with boas and ghouls her own age, she'll finally grow in a way that Ruining School did not allow. She wants to be scary, she really does! Especially if it'll make her parents not look at her with such disdain. One can expect a hard working student from this timid girl. She aims to please!
Brief History: Tsetsiliya's family is old money, with a father who was known for terrorizing royalty ( a demon who's dwelled in the Russian palaces during the time of the tsars - a fact he is very proud of and apt to bring up in conversation ) and a mother who did not discriminate on who she scared ( known to haunt areas near Poland, and while much more demure than her husband she is much more demanding from her daughter ). As such, when she was born, her mother ( a reputable poludnica herself ) insisted that the girl would be schooled in the same proud institution she attended: Madam Morrigan's Ruining School for Ghouls. Needless to say, her parents had doubts about their timid child, who cowered at the overbearing responsibility on her shoulders. Carrying the family name proudly, her race, being a poludnica her parents would be proud of! Being sequestered away and tutored privately kept her from meeting others of her own age group, which perhaps stunted her emotional growth a little, and her parents are likely the ones to blame for her shyness. When she came of proper age, she was ready to be enrolled at Ruining School. Madam Morrigan assured her parents that all would be well ( anything to keep the hefty donation the missus gave yearly ). She would make Tsetsiliya just as frightening a poludnica as her mother was.
Neither parent accounted for bullying, however. Bigger, stronger girls latched onto the weak Tsetsiliya and teased her without mercy. Her parents only told her to bear through it, or to channel those feelings into accessing her true potential. But the years passed, and their daughter only receded further into herself. Madam Morrigan insisted that she needed only a little more time, and indeed private lessons were given to the girl, but nothing did any good. She was encouraged to divulge the names of the bullies, but the stubborn girl would not say a word. It was her problem.
The bullying at Madam Morrigan's only worsened, and the timid Tsetsiliya was not coming into her abilities as quickly as either parent would have hoped. In order to strengthen their daughter, they decided to pull her from private school entirely and send her to a public institution. Perhaps this way, she'd finally bring pride to the Pavlova demon family. Perhaps interacting with boys as well as girls would trigger a change.
Not that Tsetsiliya feels that way. Looking at the Amityville Academy building is enough to make her want to run and hide. She wants to be scary, and she wants her parents to understand that, but a school full of girls -and- boys? What if she fails? She's not quite sure she can handle it, but she's going to try.
Natural Ability:
Shapeshifting - Tsetsiliya has three main forms: her default form, which makes her look like a girl of twelve; a beautiful young woman in her twenties; and an old hag. Normally she sticks in the child form, but any surge of emotion can cause her to shift, depending on the mood. The problem is she has issues reverting to her normal state when in high distress, and certain features will stick on her until she calms down ( such as the hag's nose on a child's face, but more often than not, the hag's hands remain a pretty constant feature ).
FEAR:
High Noon - Poludnica are also known as "noon demons", so it's natural that Tsetsiliya's FEAR would harness the powerful heat of a noontime sun. She has the ability to raise the temperature gradually in a battle, making her opponent lethargic and confused, before the temperature becomes stifling. When raised high enough, the opponent might pass out from disorientation.
All of this is ideally speaking, of course
Just as with her shapeshifting, her heat attack has a long way to go. She cannot properly zone in on a specific target just yet, and as a result the heat can encompass the immediate area around her ( i.e. the entire classroom ), but her range is expected ( hopefully ) to grow with time and practice. It is just as in-tune to her emotions as her shapeshifting is, and when pushed to a certain emotional extreme, it can either fizzle or become an inferno. Paired with her inability to contain it to a certain area, sometimes practice rounds do not end very well. She hasn't quite mastered detaching herself emotionally when it comes to attacking and can be easily overwhelmed or distracted, causing her attack to miss or not work in the first place. Those who are tuned well to heat or fire would be unaffected by the attack.
Physical Description: As Tsetsiliya grows, she'll move into taking on her woman's form more indefinitely. At the moment, her body is very much that of a twelve-year-old child's. The woman form is fairly attractive ( well-proportioned, tall, and fit ), if one avoids the hands, which are gnarled and clawed hag hands, and her mouth, which is fine when closed but otherwise hides rows of sharp little teeth.
Eye Colour: Milky white, almost opalescent, and eerie, with pronounced pupils. Her eyes yellow in her old hag form.
Hair Colour/Style: She's a blonde with thin, long hair ( it reaches the back of her calves ), which she normally keeps tucked into a braided bun underneath her head scarf. Her bangs are short and curl around her face. Her mother says long hair the color of grain is befitting a poludnica, and has not allowed her to cut it shorter. It takes on an appearance similar to candy floss when she's in hag form, turning cotton white in color.
Skin Colour: Pale white, leaning towards porcelain.
Clothing Style/Colours: A headband or headwrap that resembles this but lacking the baubles. Dressed with accents on her clothing that are distinctly Russian ( the quilted, curled-toe boots, fur trim on sleeves and hem of the skirt ), with a tendency to lean towards long sleeves and skirts or dresses. Maybe a vest instead of a loose robe or dress, with a shorter skirt that doesn't stop above her quilted boots if it'll make her look more contemporary/modern. Colors should be predominantly white but with hints of harvest colors ( golds, tans, reds, oranges, browns ). The artist can feel free to be as stylistic with any of this as they wish~! That's part of the fun of this. :3
Extra: She wears a chain belt around her hips that is adjustable for her transformations; it is a family heirloom from her mother's side. The belt is gold, and the interwoven links look similar to heads of grain. There is also a charm that looks like an old-fashioned scythe on it, which she fiddles with whenever she's especially nervous. She has a mouth filled with several sharp little teeth that looks smaller when closed, but widens greatly in other circumstances, stretching almost ear-to-ear when her FEAR is in full swing or she is particularly happy about something.
References: Here, have a super fail tektek
Possible Emblem Ideas: Perhaps a wheat stalk? A sun could also work.
