The Werebear
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"I have a secret. A dark, furry secret with big teeth. Its actually not totally a secret - more of a bear, really."
- based on a quote from Oglaf.com
THE BASICS
NAME: Anechka (ah-NEH-chkah) Sokolov (SOH-koh-LAWV)
NAME MEANING: "Grace" and "Son of Sokol" ("Sokol" meaning "falcon")
NICKNAMES: Ane (pronounced "Ah-neh"), Echki
GENDER Male trans-intersex
ASSIGNED SEX Female* - NOT a "hermaphrodite"
SPECIES: Human
RACE: Immortal Therianthrope/Zooanthrope: Werebear (Ukranian Brown Bear)
BIRTH: February 18th, 1505
AGE: Anywhere from 250+ to 510+ (May differ greatly depending on the setting he's in. The stated ages apply to olden times/modern times, respectively)
BODY: Slender and angular; Ectomorph
HEIGHT: 5'10" (8'6" when in therian/bear form)
WEIGHT: 140 pounds (850 when in therian/bear form)
COMPLEXION: Pale with faint bumps and lines from long-mended wounds. They and the burn-scars are only visible up close
HAIR: Corn-silk Blonde
EYES: Icy Blue-Grey
SCARS: Extensive, time-faded burn scars covering his entire body (only visible up close)
RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Unnatached
PERSONALITY: Wry, Pleasantly Sarcastic,Tentatively Optimistic, Unintentionally Cold at Times, Repentant, Aloof, Naive About Many Things, Wise About Many Others, Generally Polite, Favors Witty Banter, Kind-Hearted.
ATTIRE: Never wears shoes, ever. Other than that, bland colors with flowing cloaks and breezy shirts/trousers. He really hates hot weather but love the Tether too much to leave again.
PROFESSION: To the public, he is a simple tailor. To the right people, he sells rare, illicit silks from a mysterious supplier (Supplier is on the Silk Road in olden time dreams)
SHIFT: At half-moons (see current moon phase on the Info page- approximately 48-52% is when I play him in his shift because of scheduling problems that might arise)
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BIOGRAPHY
(All references to any he meets being anthros or ferals are assumed to be human when in human-only dreams. Gendered pronouns will remain feminine from past history, but all new history will be masculine.)
Anechka doesn't remember much of his childhood before he was mauled by a were. In north-eastern Russia (now Ukraine), the witch and werewolf hunts were just beginning, and local weres were growing more and more anxious. The anxiety forced them into their bestial forms, and they began attacking villagers at random. Anechka was 19 at the time, newly married to the man of his dreams. He remembers him to have dark, curly hair and eyes the color of new buds on a tree.
The fateful night in the winter of 1524, Anechka and his beloved were taking a late evening walk against the warnings of the towns' leaders. He cannot remember anything between looking into his husband's eyes for the last time as his head was ripped clean from his body in a spray of hot blood, and when he woke up, thousands of miles away, stowed away on a boat heading to the New World. He wore nothing but shreds of his peasant clothes, coated in dried blood gore, and the pain in his side, where much of the blood seemed to have come from. anguished screams alerted the European immigrants to his presence, and when the men discovered him, they promptly brought his to one of the ships beds and treated his wounds. They asked his over and over again what happened, but even through his tears and wails of agonizing pain, they could find nothing.
One month later, Anechka was begging on the streets of the New England town the ship had landed in. His disfigured body - covered in unexplainable scratches and bite marks, along with his pronounced limp stemming from neurological damage from whatever had attacked his - was the source of derision from the village's youth. Eventually, the childish rumors of his being a beast of Hell itself began steadily gaining credibility from the growing unrest. Anything strange, unfamiliar, not of the norm... it was seen as signs of the devil. Over the next 160-odd years, Anechka traveled from town to town, never staying there long enough for people to notice he wasn't aging. In actuality, he seemed to be growing younger, more powerful as the decades passed; his limp steadily subsided as the grotesque wounds eventually faded completely. But for one week out of every month, Anechka would leave for a "trip to his mother's farm" and vanish into the forest depths.
In February of 1692, Anechka had the misfortune of being followed into the woods by a curious young girl. The child witnessed the painful transformation Anechka went through as he was forced into the form of a massive bear, and ran back to the town in tears. The name of the town? Salem, Massachusetts. At the time, Anechka went by the name of Elizabeth Hart. When he returned to his small home near the edge of town, a gathering of people lay in wait to capture his and bring his to trial. After being promised he would be given a lesser sentence if he confessed, Anechka divulged where he truly went went he vanished into the woodlands. He was sentenced to burn at the stake.
His agonized, blood-curdling screams filled the early-morning air as the searing flames licked at his bare flesh. The girl struggled against his restraints, but the heavy chains were beyond even the strength of an ancient lycan like himself. After a full half hour, he was pronounced dead and his limp, lifeless, charred body was unceremoniously cut down from the pole.
This time, Anechka woke up under the ground. The townsfolk had been kind enough to try to save his soul and had given his a proper burial. For hours, Anechka scratched at the flimsy wooden casket He'd been buried in and finally, late in the evening of the next day, Anechka erupted from his grave. He stole some clothes from a clothes line and fled into the night.
The memory of the years between then and now are fuzzy, but somehow the unusual werebear managed to end up on the docks of the Golden Tether, his burns almost completely invisible to the naked eye. If one were to somehow see the scarred flesh beneath whatever outfit he wore, they would know just a small part of this mysterious woman's life.
FAIRY-TALE ENDING, THIS IS NOT
(All history after this point has been role-played or referred to within it. Characters belong to their respective players.)
Upon his first week in the island of wretched souls and power-hungry slavers, Anechka came across several. The only one of interest was a giant of a wolverine in the shape of a man with a grotesque scar jaggedly wrapping itself across the right side of his face; Mark Hoffman was far from a bleeding heart, but he took interest in the strange woman and, after an unexpected shift, offered his his shirt. As it was the only article of clothing he had, he treasured the meager gift right up until another shift ruined it. Naked, dirty, and without two copper bits to rub together, Anechka lowered himself to begging for scraps and eating vermin for some time. A few days later, Hoffman came across his and offered his a place to stay. He slept in a guest room at his lavish home and disappeared some time after he left the house for "work."
Determined to pay him back for his kindness, Anechka pledged his services as an assistant and secretary of sorts to Hoffman and they soon became friends. Anechka had no interest in him at all, especially seeing the way he handled his veritable harem of female followers. He served as verbal (and at times physical) punching bag for him, and he served as a teacher. He quickly learned the ways of life on Guilderim, and was able to find a job as a tailor's apprentice.
Somewhere along the lines, though, things got... complicated. As he remembers it, Anechka had a bit of a tiff with Hoffman, which turned into less-than-loving love-making. Their relationship forever altered, Anechka had no choice but to re-evaluate his lot in life, and his view of the self-professed homicidal criminal.
Unable to cope with watching other women fawn over him and shoot his jealous glares, Anechka was over-joyed to take a long trip overseas in the Orient to make contact with a silk trader. He was gone for several months, and when he returned, Anechka had steeled his resolve. He had a purpose now. Now, he would become a savvy business woman, become able to sustain himself without the kindness of strangers or friends, and find a healthy romantic relationship for himself.
Well, two out of three isn't bad, right?
A TRIUMPHANT RETURN?
Well, it was over two years since Anechka left the island of Guildereim in search of greener pastures, and not much has happened in the meantime. His business has done well, and he made a nice pile for himself, but other than that he found he hungered for the peculiar company he found on Guildereim and elsewhere. He arrived at a place called New Versaille, and hopes for many fun evenings with the locals.
Not long after arrival, Anechka met a wererabbit named Wynstelle and his mate, a werebear named Logan. So far, they are two of very few who know of Ane's existence. The Ukranian has purchased and renovated a two-story Victorian-style house to set his shop and kitchen up downstairs and his living quarters and bathroom upstairs. It's still under construction one year later.
