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User:

golden_koshka (260412)

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Name:

Nadia Baronova

Bio:

Name: Nadia Baronova

Nickname: Nada, Dia, Koshka, Deedee

Age: 27

Birthplace: Primorskaya Krai, Russia

Sex: Female

Occupation: Freelance Photo-Journalist

Appearance:

In human form, she's slim, curvy but toned, standing 5'8", with skin that is a light golden tan from spending time outdoors, her hair is wavy and naturally sun-streaked light caramel brown, she has hazel eyes, high cheekbones, and bee-stung lips. Her style is usually fairly casual - make-up, when she does bother to wear anything beyond lip-gloss, is generally lightly applied and natural looking. She tends to get around in jeans paired with wife-beaters or t-shirts a lot, though she does dress up when the occasion calls for it. She has a small tattoo of a dove of peace on her belly.

In Leopard form, she resembles the rare Siberian Amur Leopard of her motherland, her coat is deep tawny on the back, lightening to pale cream on the belly, with widely spaced, thickly bordered rosettes all over, with smaller markings on the face. In the winter time, her coat lengthens from a sleek 2.5cm to a luxuriant 7cm, and lightens in colour to blend in better with the snow. Her eyes are liquid gold. She weighs approximately 45 kg (99.2 lb) and is somewhat larger than a normal female leopard, though still not quite as large as a normal male leopard, and still only 2/3s the size of a male were leopard.

Personality:

Fiercely independent and pretty much fearless, Nadia has always been a fairly adventurous sort of person - in fact it would probably be safe to say that until very recently, the only thing she's feared on a personal level is commitment - or more accurately, getting attached to someone who will leave her. Since the traumatic events in September (described in her history) she's a little more vulnerable than she used to be, but she tries (not always successfully) to keep up the front that she's fine.
She's often bluntly honest when dealing with people, and if she doesn't like someone, she usually won't pretend otherwise - at least not for the sake of their feelings. She's got a snarky, cynical sense of humour.

Special abilities/talents:

She's an award-winning photographer and also likes to sketch. Has an eidetic memory. Research and investigation are both vital skills in the repertoire of any journalist. As Russian is her first language, she speaks it fluently, but her English is impeccable. Trains in Ju Jitsu for fitness and self-defence, and enjoys archery as a hobby.

Supernatural Affinity

Species/Group: Therianthrope; Were-Leopard
Power(s): Changes form to leopard. Has all the advantages of a leopard when in bestial form and enhanced abilities and senses when in human form.
Level: N/A
Affiliation/Rank: Leopards are loners by nature.
Preferred Prey: She's not choosy, she travels a lot and will hunt whatever is commonly available in whatever place she happens to be - deer, boar, hare, badger, raccoon, kangaroo, etcetera are all on the menu.

History:

One of the rare were offspring born of a mating between a human and a therianthrope, Nadia is the daughter of Lena Baronova and Mikhail Samarin. Unaware that Mikhail was a therianthrope, Lena could never have been prepared for the result of their tryst. Born under a New Moon on the 6th of January in 1981, Nadia came into the world in human form, and apart from the fact that Mikhail wasn't in the picture (having moved on not long after Nadia's conception), everything seemed fine, right up until January 20, when Nadia transformed from a squalling babe into a leopard cub before her mothers' terrified eyes.

To say life wasn't easy for Lena and Nadia would be an understatement - Not only was Lena a single mother trying to raise her child in Soviet Russia, but her child had... special needs - needs which she could not reveal to anyone. After a couple of years, Lena once again crossed paths with Mikhail, and told him of their child - ill equipped to deal with Nadia's feline needs, she begged him for help. Mikhail began to teach Nadia the things she would need to learn in order to survive. However, pulled away by his leopard instinct to roam, Mikhail's assistance was anything but a constant - he would disappear for months on end, showing up sporadically to check on his daughter, but otherwise left the child rearing to Lena. The last time Nadia saw her father was when she was seven years old - after that, he simply disappeared - it's entirely possible that he died, though to this day, Nadia doesn't know for certain, but because his presence in her life had been a fairly unreliable one, she tends to be of the belief he simply couldn't be bothered about her any longer.

When Nadia was nine years old, she was roaming the Sihote-Alin forests near her home one day when she was shot with a tranquillizer dart and taken by a poacher for the exotic pet trade. She managed to escape by transforming into a human and unlocking her cage, then ran away home back to her mother. Realizing the danger of discovery or death, Lena made the decision to take her were-daughter away from Russia and from that point forward saved every last ruble she could spare in order to afford the move, often taking jobs she would have never otherwise considered - including prostitution. The difficult and distasteful work paid off, however, and two years later, Lena and the now eleven year old Nadia emigrated to America.

Because of how difficult life had been for Nadia and her mother when she was growing up, Nadia had made up her mind to never have children - why put them through that pain? - and focus on her career. She had recently graduated university, when at 22 she met Marcus Thomaston whilst on assignment in China for a travel magazine. She'd never met another were-leopard apart from her father before, but knew him for what he was immediately by his scent. Because her father had been so unreliable, she was wary and distrustful of Marcus, but ultimately couldn't resist him, their one night stand turning into a long, on-again-off-again love affair... And then she met his mother. From the moment Marcus' mother laid eyes on Nadia, she seemed to have Marcus & Nadia's future planned out for them - no matter what either of them wanted. The pressure proved too much for the fiercely independent Nadia, and she freaked out, provoking a fight with Marcus, then stalking out of his life for good - or so she thought. Only, they keep crossing paths, and Nadia has begun to suspect it isn't coincidence any more.

Flash forward four years, and Nadia is working as a freelance photo & video journalist, and has been published in many serious internationally syndicated publications, including National Geographic, Time, and Newsweek, as well as a number of current affairs programs, reporting on important issues all over the world. She was in Myanmar (Burma) during September of 2007, documenting the riots and resultant massacre when a colleague and friend who was there with her got killed. She blames herself for his death, because she had recklessly rushed into a dangerous situation to get footage and photos, and he had followed her. Both were shot down in a volley of gunfire, but while Nadia's therianthropy saved her life, her human colleague was not so lucky. She came to in an (open) mass grave and had to crawl over the corpses of hundreds of people in order to get out. She managed to escape the region by traveling in her bestial form.

Wracked with guilt over the death of her friend, and still plagued by nightmares and flashbacks of what she experienced in Myanmar, Nadia has attempted to bury her feelings by working harder than ever, pushing herself beyond the limits of exhaustion and has managed to work herself into a nervous breakdown. Seeing that Nadia was in need of a break, a friend offered her the use of a cabin just outside of Mysteria, North Dakota.

Flaws

Recklessly impulsive - a trait which can be a benefit in her line of work, but can also be extremely hazardous to ones health, and the health of those around her, as she has recently realized.

Mercurial - playful and affectionate one moment, at times she'll switch to aloof or pissed off without giving any indication of what prompted the mood swing - she is a feline, after all.

Jaded - She's experienced and seen a lot already in her life, which often leads her to be fairly cynical about people and their motivations.

Obstinate - Likes to think she's always right, and has a hard time admitting it when she's wrong - not that she won't ever, just that it's difficult for her to do so. To be fair, she usually does her best to make sure she is right, though.

Catty - Is often cuttingly sarcastic, which sometimes causes her to offend people either deliberately or inadvertently.

Merits

Adaptability - Can and does adapt to whatever circumstances she finds herself in at any given time.

Ambition - Nadia is driven and willing to work hard to achieve what she wants. She's also assertive enough to take opportunities presented without hesitation - this opportunism is very much a leopard trait but has also been of benefit to her in her job.

Curiosity - It may have killed the cat, and in truth it's probably already taken at least one of her nine lives, but it makes her very good at her job.

Sneakiness - Maybe this counts as a flaw, I'm not sure, but it's not a flaw if you don't get caught, right? ;) This is another trait which is useful to her in both forms.

Sexuality: Bisexual

She finds both sexes attractive, but that's irrelevant now (and has been for several years) because she's mated to a male were: Marcus Thomaston. She has tried to date other people since meeting him, but has never quite managed to bring herself to be intimate with anyone since him - not that she'll admit this particular failure to him.

Points Of Interest

✭ Koshka (her Mother's nickname for her) is Russian for 'female cat'

✭ Nadia is an activist, which is why she chose to go into photojournalism rather than art photography - she wants to show everyone all the things that are wrong and need to be fixed in the world.

✭ Goes by her Mother's surname because her mother didn't know her Father's surname until a couple of years after Nadia's birth, she didn't bother to change it, because he wasn't exactly a shining example of fatherhood.

✭ Her Mother Lena was a bit of a hippie.

✭ She's eco-conscious, and doesn't hunt endangered species if she can help it. (Gods help them if they run and she gives chase, though.)

✭ Nadia inherited her were-traits from both parents, although the recessive therianthropic-gene was dormant within her mother, and Lena didn't even know she carried it.

✭ Despite her choice not to have kids, she genuinely likes them and probably would've become a social studies teacher if she hadn't gone into journalism as a profession. She'd also make an excellent mother, but she honestly doesn't realise it - she thinks she takes after her father too much to be a decent parent.

✭ Is deeply in love with Marcus, and has even admitted it to herself, but getting her to admit it to him will be another matter entirely, because to do so would make him realize how vulnerable she is when it comes to him. To keep him at arms length, she's often antagonistic toward him.

✭ Is cynical about the concept of soul-mates and thinks it's a fiction made up by romantic fools. She certainly doesn't think that a were-leopard could possibly have one, as leopards as a general rule don't mate for life. Little does she realise she's actually got one, and she's stuck with him. (Mwahahahaha!)

✭ Knows a lot about normal Leopards, but not a great deal about weres, due to limited contact.

✭ It's quite possible she has paternal half siblings who are either were or human that she's entirely unaware of.

Character Stats

Character introduced: 23/06/2007
Character Played By: Jessica Biel
Status: Active

Player Information

Your Name: Ishara
AIM: felinegenetix
Email: felinegenetix@gmail.com

I am not Jessica Biel, she just had the perfect face for my character.

Interests:

11: archery, cameras, film, journalism, lenses, leopards, martial arts, photography, therianthropy, travel, wereleopards

Friends:

	92:	_extraordinary_, aeternum_vale, amytickerwhoo, angelic_wolf, arcane_warrior, artemis_hunted, bad_blood, best_damn_thing, bookman_bazzer, breaking_jade, chasethemoon, cherokee_dreams, christy_anne, cool_dad, curse_the_dawn, dare_me, dark_duchess, dark_firebrand, dark_hunter, dark_justice, dark_protector, darkdenton, deathangel_ryu, deaths_touch, deni_god, dreaded_hunter, dulce_bruja, eden_burning, embracethenight, encantadora, genes_genie_tm, gentleheart, glass_man, golden_koshka, greengreenjames, guitar_n_skin, hiddenvisionary, hound_dawg, impish_charm, in_the_ether, into_the_deep, justlikemagic, kittenlocke, lackadaisical, leonine_roar, lilvamplost, littlemisscleo, love_divine, magic_bites, magpieleopard, moon_called, mysteria_mods, mysteria_npc, mysterymechanic, mysticdreamer, naturalacademic, nearly_divine, nearlycivilized, no_damsel, of__life, quietwitnesstel, rat_trap, rune_says, scarlett_wings, secrets_i_keep, shattered_howl, silver_arrows, so_bewitching, sparklebouncyoh, stepwolf, super_vixen, tequila_sins, thesleepingwalk, touching, tovacait, tuff_tate, twisted_pup, undercover_hex, untamed_beauty, until_the_end, veilintheshadow, visionary_cop, vivacious_fae, walks_in_beauty, warriorheart, wayward_hunter, weird_scientist, wild_rose, winged_heart, working_stiff, wotwudscoobydoo, yourmindismine
	3:	mysteria_online, mysteria_ooc, mysteria_rpg

Mutual Friends:

65: _extraordinary_, aeternum_vale, angelic_wolf, artemis_hunted, bad_blood, best_damn_thing, breaking_jade, chasethemoon, cherokee_dreams, curse_the_dawn, dare_me, dark_duchess, dark_firebrand, dark_hunter, dark_justice, dark_protector, deathangel_ryu, deaths_touch, dreaded_hunter, dulce_bruja, eden_burning, embracethenight, encantadora, golden_koshka, hound_dawg, impish_charm, into_the_deep, justlikemagic, kittenlocke, lackadaisical, leonine_roar, littlemisscleo, love_divine, magic_bites, moon_called, mysteria_mods, mysteria_npc, mysterymechanic, mysticdreamer, naturalacademic, nearly_divine, nearlycivilized, no_damsel, rat_trap, rune_says, scarlett_wings, secrets_i_keep, shattered_howl, silver_arrows, so_bewitching, super_vixen, tequila_sins, tovacait, undercover_hex, untamed_beauty, until_the_end, visionary_cop, vivacious_fae, walks_in_beauty, warriorheart, wayward_hunter, weird_scientist, wild_rose, winged_heart, working_stiff

Also Friend of:

36: bloodandbricks, bull_headed, buoyant_beauty, catchyourfall, copse_coquette, damnedornot, detective_whyte, deviously, dingowalkabout, dream_warrior, dreamwalkerlee, emopanda, everylastsecond, evvil_goodgirl, fallenvixen, fire_power, fromoverthepond, green_heart, intangiblewings, irishhealer, kitty_cass, luvtocook, mischief_matty, newgirl, nice_doggie, radiantdisaster, redwingedbee, remember_aurora, soieetacier, spirit_fox, spreadmywings, thesetwohands, unseelie_glow, wanting_nyx, wicked_embrace, wordless_story

Member of:

4: musewhipped, mysteria_online, mysteria_ooc, mysteria_rpg

Account type:

Free Patient

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