Svetlana

Svetlana Mikhailovna Volchkova

Some Americans tend to call her "Lana". Her parents call her "Sveta". She just prefers "Svetlana" Born: Feb 19th, 1970 (Aged 19) Daughter to Mikhail Andreyevich Volchkov and Irina Pavlovna Volchkova, Svetlana is a Russian immigrant "demon" currently living with her family in the United States.

Appearance

Stands at 181cm (5'11") and sports a lanky frame with a very modest bust. She's quite tall, which even with her morphological features covered up, still ensures she frustratingly stands out in a crowd. Her morphological transformation as a demon, partly inherited from her mother, is that she appears as what the Japanese would call an "inumimi" or dog-girl. Specifically one that seems to imitate a coy-dog, or coyote-dog hybrid. She possesses a fluffy coyote-like tail, and does not have human ears, but rather a pair of canid ears atop her head. Her ears are unfortunately very expressive. They twitch toward sounds without her thinking about it, flatten when she is nervous, and make it difficult to pretend she is not listening. Her tail is not much better, and she usually keeps it close to her legs in public. Her hair is a soft brown and fluffy in texture, cut just above her shoulders, with her bangs swept to the side. Her eyes possess that same soft, comforting brown. Her mother often tells her that she "has eyes like an angel". She sometimes wears a toque to cover her ears, but the weather is often too hot for it, and she finds it uncomfortable and hard to hear. It also does not hide them especially well. She has very subtle freckles along her face and upper shoulders, almost unnoticeable except up close.

Personality

Svetlana is a very timid creature, often finding herself doing her best to blend into the shadows. She really wants to be a part of something, but her obvious status as a "demon" means that isn't always possible at all. It's not that Svetlana wants to be completely anti-social, or that she cannot enjoy talking to people, but rather she doesn't like to deal with the strange looks and a plethora of questions about her appearance and things she doesn't even understand herself. As a result, she has buried herself in the very early internet, like Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). On places such as these, she cannot be seen as a demon; she's just another anonymous poster. Being stared at, being mocked, but also being treated with excessive pity are all things she hates. She just wants to exist as a normal person, and she despises attention. Svetlana, although of course never diagnosed or even considered for diagnosis, presents with ADHD-like hyperfocus, which can most often be seen when someone starts on a topic she's actually interested in. It's one of the few times the real Svetlana can be drawn out of her shell, as she engrosses herself in the things she loves.

ComputerFreak

ComputerFreak is Svetlana's online handle, both a play on her love for computers, and her slight self-deprecation as a so-called "demon". She uses her wealth of knowledge to answer questions, and is a lot bolder in sharing what she knows, though she avoids topics related to Operation Downpour. She's much more confident, has a sense of humor, albeit a dry one, and is much more willing to socialize knowing people can't look at her when she does. She's very smart about online safety, doubly so given her disposition towards people not knowing what she is. ComputerFreak is the real Svetlana. Unburdened by labels and appearance, and allowed to be what she wants to be.

In person

In person, Svetlana behaves very differently. She is a much more reserved, and avoids talking to people if she can help it. She gets a lot of strange looks, but going out in public is a requirement of life, unfortunately, and for as much as she loves her computer, being cooped up in one room is no way to live. She's a quiet person, her voice soft and understated, her sentences lacking in prose and floweriness. Her ears will betray more of her feelings than her mouth ever will.

History

Svetlana was born Feb 19th, 1970 to her parents in Russia. Later that year, her parents moved to the United States with the infant to avoid the incoming collapse of the USSR. They settled down in the lowly town of Milledgeville, Georgia, where Svetlana grew up. Her family does not speak openly about their connection to Operation Downpour. Svetlana knows her condition was partly inherited from her mother, and she knows enough about the event to understand why people are afraid of it, but there are still many things her parents have never told her. Her inner ethnic identity is... a mess. Svetlana doesn't know whether she's Russian, American, a "demon"... in truth, she's all three. She's simply Svetlana, even if admitting that to herself is difficult, since she's been conditioned that she needs to fit under some kind of label.

Svetlana's Computer

Svetlana owns a BIM-PC/AT, running an Untel 80286 processor. She's running Monolith Solutions' DOS-4.0, or just MS-DOS-4. For her typical BBS shenanigans, she runs BIM NoComm-X. This is only her main rig though; her room is full of hardware, some she still uses regularly.