Name: Yoska Petulengro
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Unsure, possibly asexual.
Occupation: Handyman at the local book shop. He builds and repairs shelves, sweeps the floors, rebinds old books, and helps run the coffee counter. The irony of it is that the man can't even read.
Apartment Description: I'd actually love if someone was a roomie with him. Probs a female, because men intimidate him too much.
Personality: Skittish and stand-offish to most people, Yoska finds it hard to be comfortable no matter where he is. He avoids confrontation with other people, doesn't communicate well, and is kind of hard to get a reading on. Most people assume he's just not a nice guy. Fortunately, most people are wrong. Yoska isn't mean, he's just very hard to understand. He doesn't open up to a lot of people; his trust is hard to gain. He's painfully shy, has serious confidence issues, and would rather allow people to use him as a doormat than to stand up for himself.
Appearance: When Yoska first showed up on the shop keeper's doorstep, shabby wasn't nearly enough of a word to describe him. The manager came to work one day and there on the stoop huddled a too-skinny, dirty, pale and sickly waif. Needless to say, he's come a long way. Yoska cleaned up well and, with proper nutrition, gained the weight that he needed. He stands at 5'10", 143 pounds, has built up a lean muscle build, has curly brown hair, dark brown eyes, and olive skin. Yoska is of Romani/European descent. Essentially, he's a mutt.
Other: His native language is Romanian, and he speaks bits and pieces of other European languages. When he talks, he talks with an accent that is sort of hard to place. Having traveled all across Europe while he was growing, he picked up speaking habits from all over the place.
One thing Yoska failed to learn in his travels was how to read. While traveling with his dirt poor family, it never seemed important. And once he lived on the streets, it seemed impossible. Now that learning is completely within his reach, he's too embarrassed about it to ask for help.
He seems to like animals more than he does people. Dogs, cats, birds, horses, you name it. He has a habit of feeding strays, even if he can't afford to feed
himself half the time.
History: Yoska was born to a Romani family that traveled around Europe. They were a very traditional bunch, using horses and wagons (along with cars) to travel from place to place.
When Yoska was 10, his family crossed the border into Romania, where they were arrested and deported due to lack of passports and papers. Yoska, however, was left behind. Separated from his family, Yoska barely got by. He became thin, sick, and was in constant fear of being hurt or robbed. The Romanian people didn't have a very kind view of gypsies.
When he was 15, Yoska was found and taken in by a farmer and his wife, who put him to work to earn food and a place to live. He never earned actual money. Yoska did everything from make home repairs to work in the fields, all the while favoring the barn animals over farmhands. Although his life had improved from begging for money on the street, Yoska still lived in fear. The farmhands weren't too kind to him, often making him do the work that they were supposed to do, calling him a 'filthy, lazy gypsy' all the while. If he ever tried to defend himself, he would be beaten or scared into submission.
At the age of 20, after suffering a concussion at the hands of his fellow workers, Yoska decided that it wasn't worth it to live on the farm anymore. He ran away, as far as his tired legs and bare feet could carry him, until he found himself at the docks of a small town. He used a handful of money that he'd taken from the farm before his departure to pay his way onto a cargo ship that was heading to the United States. It should be mentioned that this was completely illegal, but it was no skin off the dockworkers nose to let the kid ride and, hey, free money.
When Yoska arrived at the New York City docks, he found himself surrounded by massive sky scrapers, bustling streets, and more cars than he could count. It was overwhelming. Yoska wondered many times if he'd made a mistake. He was unable to find work due to his poor social skills, illegal citizenship, illiteracy, goofy accent, filthy appearance, and a whole slew of other reasons. He barely got by from begging on the streets and eating out of trash bins. When he hunkered down on the stoop of a bookshop one night, he had no expectations of being awoken by the shop keeper and offered a job. Yoska isn't dumb; he knows he got this job purely out of pity. But it's money in his pocket, and he was grateful nevertheless. Still, the guy has yet to come out of his shell. He talks more to the bookshop's cat than he does his co-workers.
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