player info Player name: Yasmine Player pronouns: She/Her/Hers Contact(s): Comment here, pp bluehellgazette, redmaresociety on discord.
character info Character Name: Vasiliy Yegorovich Ardankin Character Age: 33 Character Role: Husband Canon: Original Canonpoint: 2018, 1 year after immigration to the US 1 paragraph summary of character/canon: Vasiliy’s a Soviet ex-interrogator, fervent communist, and revenant–born in 1910, he served in Nikolai Yezhov’s NKVD from 1936-1940 as a ‘good cop’ interrogator responsible for emotional manipulation in the distinctly Soviet split style interrogation system: instead of beating confessions out of prisoners, Vasiliy approached them casually and with kindness, expressing sympathy and emphasizing that it was in their best interest (and their family’s) for them to sign the falsified confessions that would ultimately get them jailed or shot outright, justifying it to himself with the belief they’d be tortured until that happened anyway. When Yezhov fell from Stalin’s favor and was jailed and executed, the NKVD was purged just as it had been during Vasiliy’s time, and he was arrested, interrogated, and executed as an enemy of the state. But his story didn’t end there–for reasons that aren’t clear to him, Vasiliy woke up lying on his back in the snow in the middle of nowhere in 2015, unharmed, carrying the documents of a man by the same name born in 1985. He’s spent the past three years unlearning Stalinism and coming to grips with the sheer magnitude of what he did, racked with overwhelming guilt and deep paranoia over being discovered and executed for what he did a second time. He trained as an EMT and immigrated to the US on a work visa two years after his return to the world of the living, and has spent the past year working with Chicago municipal EMS in an unconscious effort to balance some of the cosmic harm he did while processing how he was summarily disposed of and living in fear of rediscovery, still a true believer in communism but now living in an environment in which traits that helped him survive in a police state are seen as deeply unusual. “Family” members: Margaret Houlihan Links:Info; Permissions; CWs/Opt-Out Other Info: N/A
event plans A Thought is Haunting Me: Vasiliy's definitely going to be hanging out before the actual ball drop, so possibly a chance to mingle here. The New Year is an important Soviet holiday and is the closest thing he has to Christmas, so even if there isn't a yolka like the tree he will be insisting stays up in the house until New Year's Day, he's still going to partake in festivities. He's going to see only the memory of the man on the phone and be super suspicious and paranoid about it beyond his basic level of those two emotions, so he isn't likely to actually share that he saw anything. I'm definitely down to have him approach characters with trauma that gets awakened by what seeps into their minds and try to offer some comfort. In The Valley of the Dolls We Sleep: Super excited for this one! Vasiliy's going to try to use his gun and then be horrified when it literally doesn't work because they're plastic. His instinct is going to be to team up with people and try to find somewhere to hide, but the issue with Vasiliy is that he's the type to want to intervene in crisis situations and has now been conditioned to do so as an EMT - so it's entirely within the realm of possibility that he may go back out into danger to help other characters. Down for all of the mannequin-fightingfleeing threads, and possibly him getting injured by one of them or him helping someone else who gets injured by one of them. Drill It In Like J. Paul Getty: Vasiliy definitely knows not to say a single peep about what he saw, so he won't be getting tortured/dosed or seeing any toe tags. Definitely would like to have him briefly encounter someone who's under the influence of the haloperidol injection either handwaved or threaded, or maybe to find out that someone was tortured - because finding out that there's a basement where people are tortured is going to really, really fuck him up on account of having worked in a basement where people were tortured. ...And I Am Watching You Shovel Snow: He's an altruistic person, he works out, and he's your guy. Vasiliy can be expected to offer neighbors help with their driveways or other snow-related tasks, although he's not really the type to participate in snowball fights or building snowmen. He does, however, love to ice skate, and is pretty good at it - being that there aren't rails to hold onto at a natural pond, characters are welcomed to hold his hands to help stabilize themselves! He's 5'7 and slim, so the amount of balance he can offer taller/broader people is a little less, but it's the thought that counts!
yasmine | vasiliy | original character | husband
Player name: Yasmine
Player pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Contact(s): Comment here, pp
character info
Character Name: Vasiliy Yegorovich Ardankin
Character Age: 33
Character Role: Husband
Canon: Original
Canonpoint: 2018, 1 year after immigration to the US
1 paragraph summary of character/canon: Vasiliy’s a Soviet ex-interrogator, fervent communist, and revenant–born in 1910, he served in Nikolai Yezhov’s NKVD from 1936-1940 as a ‘good cop’ interrogator responsible for emotional manipulation in the distinctly Soviet split style interrogation system: instead of beating confessions out of prisoners, Vasiliy approached them casually and with kindness, expressing sympathy and emphasizing that it was in their best interest (and their family’s) for them to sign the falsified confessions that would ultimately get them jailed or shot outright, justifying it to himself with the belief they’d be tortured until that happened anyway. When Yezhov fell from Stalin’s favor and was jailed and executed, the NKVD was purged just as it had been during Vasiliy’s time, and he was arrested, interrogated, and executed as an enemy of the state. But his story didn’t end there–for reasons that aren’t clear to him, Vasiliy woke up lying on his back in the snow in the middle of nowhere in 2015, unharmed, carrying the documents of a man by the same name born in 1985. He’s spent the past three years unlearning Stalinism and coming to grips with the sheer magnitude of what he did, racked with overwhelming guilt and deep paranoia over being discovered and executed for what he did a second time. He trained as an EMT and immigrated to the US on a work visa two years after his return to the world of the living, and has spent the past year working with Chicago municipal EMS in an unconscious effort to balance some of the cosmic harm he did while processing how he was summarily disposed of and living in fear of rediscovery, still a true believer in communism but now living in an environment in which traits that helped him survive in a police state are seen as deeply unusual.
“Family” members: Margaret Houlihan
Links: Info; Permissions; CWs/Opt-Out
Other Info: N/A
event plans
A Thought is Haunting Me: Vasiliy's definitely going to be hanging out before the actual ball drop, so possibly a chance to mingle here. The New Year is an important Soviet holiday and is the closest thing he has to Christmas, so even if there isn't a yolka like the tree he will be insisting stays up in the house until New Year's Day, he's still going to partake in festivities. He's going to see only the memory of the man on the phone and be super suspicious and paranoid about it beyond his basic level of those two emotions, so he isn't likely to actually share that he saw anything. I'm definitely down to have him approach characters with trauma that gets awakened by what seeps into their minds and try to offer some comfort.
In The Valley of the Dolls We Sleep: Super excited for this one! Vasiliy's going to try to use his gun and then be horrified when it literally doesn't work because they're plastic. His instinct is going to be to team up with people and try to find somewhere to hide, but the issue with Vasiliy is that he's the type to want to intervene in crisis situations and has now been conditioned to do so as an EMT - so it's entirely within the realm of possibility that he may go back out into danger to help other characters. Down for all of the mannequin-
fightingfleeing threads, and possibly him getting injured by one of them or him helping someone else who gets injured by one of them.Drill It In Like J. Paul Getty: Vasiliy definitely knows not to say a single peep about what he saw, so he won't be getting tortured/dosed or seeing any toe tags. Definitely would like to have him briefly encounter someone who's under the influence of the haloperidol injection either handwaved or threaded, or maybe to find out that someone was tortured - because finding out that there's a basement where people are tortured is going to really, really fuck him up on account of having worked in a basement where people were tortured.
...And I Am Watching You Shovel Snow: He's an altruistic person, he works out, and he's your guy. Vasiliy can be expected to offer neighbors help with their driveways or other snow-related tasks, although he's not really the type to participate in snowball fights or building snowmen. He does, however, love to ice skate, and is pretty good at it - being that there aren't rails to hold onto at a natural pond, characters are welcomed to hold his hands to help stabilize themselves! He's 5'7 and slim, so the amount of balance he can offer taller/broader people is a little less, but it's the thought that counts!