[hider=Sasha Zaitseva]
WHAT IS THE CHARACTER'S NAME?

Sasha Zaitseva

WHAT IS A STRANGER'S FIRST IMPRESSION UPON MEETING THEM?

Mousy, timid, afraid of her own shadow. Sasha is a small thing, petite and short, made even smaller by the way she curls in on herself and keeps her head down; her voice is quiet and she has trouble getting her words out, especially when people are looking at her. She is not good around people in general.

Nonetheless, there is a surety to the way she does things that is at odds with this. When carrying out a task she moves with purpose, not slowing, never wavering or pausing to think about the next step; something not exactly like confidence, but more a certainty of what she is doing. That is, until she notices someone watching her and then it all falls apart.

WHAT IS THEIR PROFESSION AND HOW DO THEY FEEL ABOUT IT?

She is a hunter. At least, in theory they are.

Her father was a hunter, someone who would venture out into the woods and the mountains in search of deer or rabbit to bring home; then her mother would dress it, prepare it for cooking and separate out the parts that needed to be discarded from the parts that could be sold. Fur, antlers; that kind of thing. Before he… disappeared, he taught Sasha everything he knew; how to track game, how to navigate, how to avoid making noise or being seen. How to shoot and lay traps.

But Sasha has never hunted anything. She cannot bring herself to kill. Instead she uses the skills she was taught to forage for berries and fruits and wild vegetables; avoiding the animals, both dangerous and peaceful along the way. Sometime she will lead other hunters through the woods, the ones who can’t track as well as she can, finding and following the tracks of animals and bringing them to the place where they may shoot deer or rabbit or whatever else.  Then she helps them bring their kill back to town and her mother dresses them and the hunters will give them a portion of it.

HOW HAS BEING A HOWL AFFECTED THEIR LIFE?

It’s not so bad. Sometimes she will see things in the woods that no one else can; dangers far worse than the wolves and bears that other hunters are afraid of, but ones that she can thankfully avoid. Sasha is almost certain that it was the Rue that caused her father’s disappearance; she can think of no other reason why a man like him would walk into the woods one day and never return.

WHY ARE THEY IN OAKEN CITY?

She was born in the city, technically. Albeit on the outskirts, where the buildings start to give way to the wilderness and fewer people live.

DO THEY HAVE A HOWL ABILITY? WHAT IS IT?

Sasha can see the Rue; shadowy figures that she hasn’t told anyone that she can see except for her mother. They are dangerous things that cannot be frightened off by a gunshot like a wolf can; even when she points her hunting rifle, loaded but never fired, at them they don’t care at all, but for some reason her father’s old revolver seems to give them pause. She pulled the trigger once, while pointing it at one of the shadows and although it wasn’t loaded Sasha swore she could hear the gunshot regardless, feel the gun kick in her hands and saw the shadow flee as if burned.

That only seems to work against the Rue though. The old gun is just a useless memento any other time.
[/hider]