Lev Preobrazhenskoye

first name: lev
last name: preobrazhenskoye
nicknames: toffee
gender: male
orientation: does not really care about labels, has had romantic attractions to people of various gender identities before.
mental state: sane.
age: 24.
relationship status: taken.
handedness: left.
personality: quieter and reserved, has a calming aura; tries to be optimistic about things. is very imaginative, which makes him have this daydreamy look on his face most of the time since he tends to zone out a lot. very soft-spoken, which makes people deem him rude due to his short quiet answers.
appearance: he's about 6'6ft tall, but appears to be a bit smaller due to his bad posture. his skin is very pale and he seems to be quite tired most of the time due to vitamin deficiencies. he does have some rosey pigment to his knuckles, lips, elbows, and nose; has a condition that makes small flowers grow on his skin, more specifically small white orchids. they're scattered mostly around his arms, hands, hair, and some of his face, and shed from time to time. his eyes are pitch black, each with a beauty mark right below it. his hair is black and about mid-back length, and his bangs shadow over his eyes just the slightest bit. he also has quite a few tattoos, one that covers the left side of his chest, part of the top half of his left arm and goes up to the side of his neck, and some that go from his elbows to mid forearms. when he's not in his work uniform he's usually seen wearing more comfortable pj looking clothing, soft and fluffy, his hair kept in a low ponytail.
likes: books, playing the harp, making paint and painting, cooking, caramels, songs played in an accordion, baggy fluffy clothes. romances.
dislikes: the smell of cigarettes, mother figures, entitled and/or rude people, loud and chaotic places.
mannerisms: scratches and picks at his collarbone and nibbles on his sleeve. when he's nervous he picks at his flowers and sometimes ends up tugging so hard he accidentally tears them out.
scars: has a few on his hands and arms from pulling his flowers out.

backstory: he grew up in a poor little town in russia, living in a small apartment with his parents. due to his father's job as a ventriloquist, they did not earn much, which caused the food to be scarce and for his mother to lash out at him frequently, about how he was "some loser who should get a real job to feed his family instead of playing around with his fucking dolls!!". she also limited the already small quantities of food lev could eat, which combined with his genetically inherited vitamin deficiencies, made him constantly look sickly and weak. compared to his mother, who was constantly snappy and verbally violent, his father was the complete opposite. calm and collected, he'd play the accordion for lev when he was crying after being yelled at by his mom, and use spare change to buy him caramels at a local corner store.
since his dad was mostly out of the house trying to get a job at local bars to do his ventriloquism shows, lev tended to leave and only come back when the sun was gone, since he didn't like being alone with his mom. his time was mostly spent playing with the other kids in the neighborhood. at school, one of his favorite teachers taught him how to play the harp and gave him extra lessons after hours. at home, he spent most of his time reading, sometimes with his dad if he was home. his favorite genre was instantly romance, so much so that he'd walk around in the back of his apartment building while it was snowing and continuously daydream about his favorite books and characters.
since his neighbors also didn't have much food at home, sometimes they'd team up to steal food from local shops and farms and, since they'd have to cook them, that's how he found his passion for cooking. memories of them huddling around a small handmade fire to warm up in the cold Russian weather, lev stirring soup in a pan above the fire.
when he graduated high school, he got a scholarship at his dream college due to his great performance in school and grades. he flew out of russia to study there and started playing the harp for some extra cash since his pay as a waiter at a small diner didn't really cover his costs. it was at one of his small concerts where he met dorothy.
dorothy was a sick little girl who loved music and often begged the nurses to wheel her out of the hospital so she could hear the local musicians play. she quickly warmed up to lev and would spend hours listening to him play. they became great friends over the course of a few months, lev teaching her how to play the harp sometimes. unfortunately, as time went on her sickness got worse. the doctors just couldn't save her.
her death caused lev to fall into depression, sometimes after his concerts were over and the audience had gone away he'd sit and play for hours till his fingers hurt, playing a beautiful song for someone who just wouldn't come back no matter how much he played. he missed her bright soul and her cheerful way of making someone feel better.
he finally went to therapy after months of mistreating himself, and his therapist recommended him to get a hobby that would allow him to express himself and his feeling s freely. that's when he got into painting. he'd make his own paints, the sound of grinding pigments was so calming to him, how he'd mix everything together then paint. it really helped him get over his dear friend's death, and accept that she was at a peaceful place now.
years passed and he graduated and started working at a fancy restaurant, working his way up from a janitor to a respected chef. he saved up enough money to help his father move out from his poor little home in russia (his mother had divorced him in that period of time), and get him a house thirty minutes away from his own.