the widow

Name: Olesya Alina Nabokov

Age: 43

Gender: female

Type: Aspect

Appearance:

Olesya is a striking figure. She's someone who attracts attention when she walks into a room, whether or not she's intending as such. Either way, she's a beautiful woman. Her youthful beauty gave way to a regal sort of standing, a sort of posture that commands respect. Her dark brown eyes are piercing, even if no one would really know that. Her hair is dark red, usually kept swept up. She has a pair of reading glasses she keeps with her due to her eyesight beginning to fail her. She's medium height, but always wears high heels to make her taller. Her usually height of 5'5" shoots up to 5'9" with every pair of shoes she owns.

She's the type of woman who is absolutely never seen without being fully made up. At no point do people see her even slightly disheveled. Appearance is everything, and she makes damn sure hers is up to standards.

One quirk of hers is everything she seems to ever been seen in is black. She is constantly ‘in mourning’. While it’s rumored she actually owns clothes that have color, no one’s seen them.

Personality:

Olesya is known for having an extremely strong will, for being incredibly sharp witted, and for being an utter mystery beyond that. Everyone knows she’s smart, but she’s also more than a little scary to people. No one looks her in the eye, there’s that strange ‘mourning’ thing she’s always got going on, and people do believe she’s a little crazy. Possibly more than a little. No one knows for sure--and that’s how Olesya likes it.

She knows her reputation as being mysterious, and it’s something she’s worked hard to maintain. She knows people think she’s a bit off her rocker, and she maintains that as well, even if she isn’t anywhere near crazy. She’s perfectly aware of everything she’s doing, she has her reasons, and just because no one else knows what they are or understands them, oh well. It only adds to the growing ‘legend’ that is Olesya, the Widow. No one is all that certain just how much she controlled her husband or his side of the business with they Syndicate, but as time goes on, it’s becoming clearer that it was more than people had initially assumed.

Beneath the mysterious behavior and carefully constructed public persona of intrigue, Olesya can be an incredibly warm person. She has doted on her daughter and tried to give her the best life she could give her. When her husband was alive, she truly did love him, and they had a happy marriage. She does actively want to make things work in the Syndicate, and genuinely feels for anyone they lose. Her softer side is the one that mourns. It isn’t just some silly thing she’s doing to throw people off of her game, she believes they deserve respect. The fallen, the dead, no matter how small they were in the grand scheme, deserve someone to feel their loss. So, she does. Most people don’t ever truly get to experience this side of her.

Most people see the other side. The scary, can be an iron clad bitch when she wants matriarch figure. Who knows how to lay down the law, when she gives a command it is expected to be followed, and people have learned it’s best to do things her way. It isn’t necessarily that she’s deliberately cruel, or even outright (though she certainly can be when necessary) it’s more that she’s more stubborn than the majority of people around her, and she can wait. She’s got a combination of the patience of Jobe, and a stubborn streak a mile wide. If angered, she can go up one side of a person and down the other, with little to no warning. She won’t hesitate to do so, if she feels it’s necessary. One would likely not think it, but she does actually only do it sparingly. She’s just made sure the times she has done it were memorable--truly, quite a lot of her reputation was built on a few incidents that stuck out so largely in people’s minds that they built up a legend of their own. And that’s just how Olesya wants it.

Olesya can be everyone’s worst nightmare idea of a schoolmarm. She can teach people things if they’re willing to put up with the weird, she’s motherly in some respects, very ‘my way or the highway I DO know best’, and if crossed, she can come down on people like a ton of damn bricks. (Also, she has actually hit people with a ruler.)

Sexuality:

hetero

Constants:

~Medusa~

Do Not Look The Medusa In The Eye - It's been long established that people don't look Olesya in the eye. No one does. No one has in years. If she's looking your way, you're looking over her shoulder, or at her diamond broach, never in the eyes. She cultivates a sort of inherent fear of doing so, even people who don't scare easily feel uneasy about even the idea.

Mistress of the West Gate of Death - Olesya is a woman who is extremely aware of death. Her daughter is named after her sister who died shortly before Tatiana’s birth. She is actually constantly observing mourning for people around her. Even foot soldiers of the Syndicate, when they fall, are worth something to her. Everyone is worth something to her, even if it really doesn’t appear that way. If someone she likes falls, she’ll add time to that mourning period. Only she actually knows how long she’ll be in mourning, it’s her own internal clock that keeps it’s own time. No one bothers asking her anymore what it’s about or how much longer it will go on.

Everyone Knows The Medusa - Olesya (purely by her own hand) has cultivated a reputation for being at least slightly crazy. People do believe her to be unhinged, and no one is quite sure what she’s going to do, or what she might be capable of. This has only gotten ten times worse since the death of her husband, where quite a lot of her associates were left holding their breath, wondering how the hell she was going to react. She’s known for being volatile at times and outright strange, which means people often have no real clue what to think. This means many people will keep their distance if they can, and may be paranoid around her, second guessing interactions with her. While no one’s turned to stone(yet)...everyone’s just a bit on edge around her, utterly unsure what to expect--and yet everyone’s sure it’ll be big, and encompassing when it happens. If there’s one thing people know, it’s that the woman wields power.

City History:

Originally from the Old Country, Olesya was born into an upper middle class family. She was married off at seventeen to her husband Yuri, a very rich man who'd chosen her. He was young at the time, so it wasn't a bad match. She grew to love him, and her situation was fairly ideal, considering. His criminal ties didn't bother her, something she saw the potential in. Eventually, she became her husband's most trusted advisor, something that while everyone knew, no one ever really talked about. At twenty she gave birth to their only child, a labor that put both mother and child at risk. In fact, when Tatiana was born, it was thought she was a still birth for the first few moments, but then life breathed from the child. Olesya was advised not to have any more children, something she took to heart. She and her husband lavished all of their love and affection on their daughter, knowing it was going to be their only offspring.

Life was pretty good where they were. They were some of the lucky higher class, their whims were catered to fairly well. There was really only one incident that stood out as being a black mark in the family’s history. Someone with a vendetta against her husband bribed Tatiana’s teacher at school. She fell gravely ill, and while she miraculously survived, it brought out a fiercely protective streak in Olesya. Even more so than previously. One thing that lent itself to Olesya’s later reputation was she did go to see the teacher...and no one knows what happened to her. She disappeared off the face of the planet, never to be seen again, and Olesya’s never spoken of what may or may not have occurred.

Eventually, however, they were called upon to move to the states to help out the operation there. So, six years ago, they packed up everything. Olesya had learned English when she was younger, part of her studies, and once in Eidolon City, she immersed herself in becoming the perfect society woman, as she was expected to be. She took to it remarkably well, it seeming to be really her element. She raised her daughter to fit into that same world, wanting the best for her. She worked as hard as possible to eradicate her accent from her speech, which she had mostly done save for when she’s upset. She also slips into Russian now and then during those times.

When they really got involved in the Syndicate's business ventures, Olesya was clear on one thing immediately--she had the head for this. She had the mind to really get things going. And while her husband was the one who was the voice, she was the one whispering in his ear. It was generally recognized, but no one ever talked about it. It worked out fine in the end, and so long as Olesya wasn’t making flashy grabs for power, and was content to stay in her role, no one had a problem with anything.

This system worked fine, for years. And the The Tyger happened.

Her husband was brutally murdered, and Olesya’s world tilted on it’s end. She grieved, most certainly, but a sort of calm settled over her as well. And after Iakov was killed as well? She knew she had to step up. The organization was going to require her services, and while she didn’t have a mouthpiece anymore via her husband, that was just too bad. And considering the times were getting dark and desperate, she decided to step up and take the chance that she wouldn’t be shut down because she was a woman.

Considering the whole of the situation, what she set up was a business venture that initially had been stalled in it’s tracks. An old casino that had used to be under Syndicate control had been shut down years ago. O Fortuna had been standing empty for that time, a huge beast of a building set into a hill. It looked off kilter, but in Olesya’s eyes, it was perfect. And so was the original idea. So, after procuring the deeds, and using her family’s money to bribe the right people, she got the go ahead to re-open it’s doors. Then she went to see the son of the fallen patriarch of the Syndicate, and made a deal with him. She wanted in on the business end of things, she had no desire to actually take over, merely contribute. But she wanted to be heard.

As it turned out, that could be arranged.

Moving herself and her daughter out of their town house and into the penthouse of the O Fortuna, Olesya is planning on opening it’s doors soon, and having as grand a place as The Drake, if she plays her cards right. The second stipulation that she had with opening the casino was to host a private, buy-in high stakes poker game on the floor below the penthouse. It would be run by her, and would be open to anyone who could pay to play. Neutral ground, as it were. She knew in the past, a game had been run at the brothel Babylon, but had stopped when it was shut down. With the environment in the city as it was, with the threat of real, possible war between the mob factions in the city looming, Olesya wanted to ensure there was an open line of communication put back into play. She believes it’ll be the salvation of the Syndicate, and treats it accordingly.

Special Skills and Abilities:

Speaks Russian (first language), plays poker with the best of them, is a good shot (carries a small, single-shot .22 on her at all times), well educated(she took over her daughter’s schooling after the poisoning incident)

Weaknesses:

Never Forget - Olesya is the type of person who never forgets a slight. This means her ability to ‘forgive and forget’ is severely hampered, and it’s possible that she may hold a grudge against someone for something stupid they did a long time ago that no one remembers but her. She has a very long memory, and is awful about truly letting things slide. Even if she smiles, and puts on a good show that she’s let something drop, she hasn’t. Not really.

Tatiana - Even before the death of her husband, Olesya’s always been a very attentive mother, very doting. And everyone knows that. It’s entirely possible to manipulate Olesya through her daughter, on a number of levels. In another aspect of this, while she’s incredibly sharp and perceptive with everything else in her life, she tends to be blind to her daughter’s less desirable traits. She also tends to be overbearing in Tatiana’s life without realizing it, viewing her own role as ‘helping’ and trying to give her daughter the best life she can, as opposed to how it could be viewed from the other end as smothering.

Protective - Going along with her odd warm streak that has her mourning everyone who happens to drop dead that was part of the Syndicate, Olesya is by nature a very protective person. As she’s gotten older, that’s really only getting worse. She sees more and more youths coming into the fold, and she has a tendency to start thinking about them like her charges. Like she is meant to take care of them and protect them. So, there are times when something happens, and Olesya may become overly protective, in ways other people may not quite understand. It also isn’t always exactly welcome, as many young people trying to make their name in the Syndicate don’t exactly want a crazy mom figure looming over them while they’re trying to prove themselves.

Paranoia - This is just developing now since her husband’s murder, but she’s starting to jump at shadows when she’s alone. Oddly, it isn’t a fear for her own safety that prompts this, but a fear for her daughter’s safety, or anyone under her roof. Security for the casino is eating up a whole lot of her time and she’s very preoccupied with it being flawless.

Grieving - Her husband was just brutally murdered. It’s definitely left her bereft. And while she’s trying to channel that into positive things, moving forward and trying to help out the Syndicate however she can, she’s still a woman who’d loved her husband and he’s very abruptly gone. She definitely isn’t doing all that terribly well on her own, even if she won’t admit it. She hopes her daughter has no plans of moving out soon, because she doesn’t know what she’d do if she had to face a life without anyone in it. That’s a very real fear that’s plaguing her--that she’ll wind up all on her own, facing a world that doesn’t even slightly understand her. She also is certain she’ll never find love again, a prospect that’s terrifying for someone her age. She’s ‘too old’ for a society man to really pay her any mind, but really a fairly young woman. Young enough that the idea of forty years by herself is like a funeral bell ringing in her head.

I Could Just Take You Home - Due to a combination of her fear of dying alone and her wanting to look out for the youngins, Olesya’s just starting to develop urges to adopt people. It’s an unconscious, internal panic response. Whether this is wanted or not, she doesn’t quite see it, and these tendencies have just started to arise. Before she’d be motherly, certainly, but it’s getting more pronounced, to the point where she’s considered taking people in. Most recently, she’s considered heavily telling Nate that he should come live with her, despite the fact that he’s still got his mother. It’s definitely a sort of crazy reaction to her circumstances, that could fade, but it could just get worse, only time will tell.

God Complex - Roll everything together and you have a woman who thinks she knows best, thinks she can do better than everyone else, thinks she has it all figured out, and that she can handle everything. This manifests in a few different ways. One of which is she has decided these days to stop observing the proper ‘place’ a woman is supposed to occupy, disregarding it wholesale to step things up with the Syndicate. Another is her protective/adoptive sorts of ideas where she is starting to believe the only person around who can properly protect these ‘children’ is her. She’s the only one who ‘really’ cares, she’s the only one who ‘understands’. Due to her reputation, she believes no one is really going to try to stand in her way, and if they do? Well she’ll just have to take care of it.

Strengths:

Iron Will - Olesya’s biggest strength and most prominent personality trait is her iron will. The woman seems unbreakable, and no one really wants to get into it with her. There have definitely been people in the past who’ve tried and failed miserably. Once she’s Decided Something, she’ll find a way to make it happen, one way or another. It’s best to go with the flow, and help her out than try to stand in her way. People get bowled over that way.

Family or Connections:

the Syndicate, Tatiana, Nate, Alexi, etc.

Residence:

O Fortuna

Career:

Mob Widow/Casino Owner

PB: Carla Gugino

Other Information:

Olesya has an absolute adoration for statues of all shapes, sizes and styles. She has many in her gardens, she’s decorating the O Fortuna with them, and there are tons in her living quarters.