ACATA APP

[adorned]

OOC INFO;

NAME: Jenny
AGE: 27
CONTACT: cephalopods
CHARACTERS IN GAME: n/a

IC INFO;

CHARACTER NAME: Nina Zenik
AGE: 17
CANON Six of Crows
CANON POINT Post Six of Crows, after recovering from using jurda parem.
HISTORY: Nina's wiki sucks, so here we go:

Nina was born in Ravka (basically fantasy Russia), and as a Grisha, was raised and trained in the Little Palace as part of the Second Army. As a Corporalnik, she studied anatomy and physiology for the first few years, and then chose to be a Heartrender, where her trained shifted into more of an offensive role. While she does have some skill in healing, she knows far more about how to break a body than mend it. The Grisha were also trained in usual military and fighting tactics, as well as a variety languages including Kerch, Fjerdan, and Kaelish.

She was still in training during the Ravkan civil war, but since things were falling apart rapidly, her training was cut short and she was sent on missions early. It was during one of these missions, when she was undercover as a Kaelish girl, that she ran into a group of young Fjerdan soldiers. One of them almost instantly recognized her for what she was, and she was captured.

Fjerdans believe that the Grisha are unnatural and essentially evil, and so capture them and bring them to the capital for trumped up trials, after which they are always found guilty and executed. Nina was thrown on a boat, where she was crammed belowdecks with other captured Grisha and given barely enough food and water to survive. Only one of the Fjerdans, a druskelle or witch hunter, was anything near kind to her. He gave her water when she asked, and left the tin cup behind. When a storm hit the ship a few days later, that cup was what allowed her to escape her bonds and kept her from drowning when the boat sunk.

Nina found herself in the open water, and was able to use her abilities to keep her heart beating and prevent herself from succumbing to hypothermia. She found the druskelle in the water, too, and out of necessity they clung together and barely made it to shore—Nina keeping them both alive and warm, and the druskelle dragging them through the freezing water. Still, though, they were in the middle of nowhere and utterly alone, without supplies. The situation forced them to work together to survive, though, and the two slowly got to know one another. Nina discovered that the druskelle was named Matthias, and though he was ignorant and stubborn and grumpy, if she teased and cajoled him enough, eventually she could get him to laugh and joke, too. Though she tried to remind herself that they were enemies, eventually she found herself growing increasingly fond of him. By the time they reached safety, even if they wouldn't admit it, they were friends, and Nina's feelings were growing into something more.

However, as soon as they reached a nearby city, Nina realized there were other Grisha spies working in it. They found her and demanded to know what the deal with Matthias was, and she lied and said it was part of a mission she was doing for Ravka. Matthias, for his part, was fully prepared to help Nina get back to Ravka and back to safety, but Nina knew that if he found out about the other Grisha, he'd reveal them. With no other options, she threw herself at the mercy of a Kerch trader and claimed that Matthias was a slaver, assuming she'd only be rescued. Instead, the trader secured them passage to Ketterdam, a Kerch port, both to save Nina and to bring Matthias to trial.

Matthias was sent to Hellgate, a notoriously horrific prison. Nina, consumed with guilt, stayed in Ketterdam, even though she was given enough money to get home. She tried to recant her testimony, but the authorities were no longer interested. Refusing to leave without Matthias, but terrified of the slavers that were constantly on the prowl for Grisha, she found herself in a dangerous situation. The gangs that crawled Ketterdam had already heard that a Grisha Corporalnik was in the city, and wasted no time in trying to secure her for themselves. That's when Inej, a young Suli girl and a member of the Dregs, met Nina and offered her far more favorable terms than any of the other gangs. She could pay off her contract in a year or two, and Nina instantly found herself fond of Inej, who was honest and around the same age she was.

The Dregs were technically run by a man named Per Haskell, but Kaz Brekker, Per Haskell's second in command, seemed to be the brains of the operation. Nina began to work at a brothel called the White Rose, using her abilities in a therapeutic way, to calm the emotions of customers, and refusing to sell herself. She took the white rose tattoo and the tattoo of the Dregs anyway, and spent the next year begging Kaz to get Matthias out of Hellgate, which he always refused.

A good summary of the first book is here. Nina's canonpoint is post Six of Crows, when she's recovered from her use of parem but is still struggling with her abilities.

PERSONALITY:
Nina is a seventeen year old girl whose had to deal with a ton of things that no teenager should, which has forced her to grow up very quickly. It's also made her something of a chameleon. She was raised as a soldier in the Little Palace, and that identity is a point of pride to her, and something she clings to when she needs courage. It means she grew up with privilege, learning multiple languages and the customs and cultures of many of the nations surrounding Ravka. It also gave her a love of luxury and excess. In a lot of ways, she doesn't really act like a stereotypical soldier—she loves perfumes and beautiful clothes and sweets. She's an unrepentant flirt, and isn't exactly what one would call disciplined.

In general, she does nothing by halves. She savors everything, whether it's food or friends or a good nap. When she feels things, she feels them deeply, and Matthias comments that she's "too much" while her superiors often remarked on her lack of subtlety. She can rarely hold back her emotions, and can rarely keep herself from needling those she's mad at or throwing her arms around someone she's missed. Her time in Ketterdam has given her some skills as a spy, though—when the Dregs need someone distracted or flirted with, they go to Nina, possibly because she is in general a huge flirt.

Still, Nina is utterly dedicated to Ravka, and to the Second Army. She believes in her country deeply, despite the setbacks and struggles its endured since the civil war, and wants nothing more than to go home. She's also fiercely proud and protective of her fellow Grisha, and one of her number one goals is to protect them from the slavers and witch hunters who plan to do them harm. Nina's been through a lot, and it's made her a survivor. Despite all appearances to the contrary, she's not one to back down from a challenge, and she's absolutely lethal in a fight. This loyalty extends to others, too. The Dregs, of course, but also Matthias, who she spent a year near miserable in Ketterdam for, trying to right the wrong of getting him thrown into Hellgate.

Nina has a strong sense of morals, a sense that can sometimes lead her to think of things in ways that are too black or white. She has no issue stealing, manipulating, or killing people when she thinks they deserve it, but is disgusted when innocent people are harmed or taken advantage of. She also tends to paint people with wide brushes. For example, she believed all Fjerdans were horrible, cruel barbarians, and only meeting and falling in love with Matthias tempered that view. Even after that, Matthias has to remind her that the druskelle they face have been brainwashed just like he had. Nina often has a hard time showing mercy in those situations, and trauma and hurt usually curdle into vindictiveness with her.

Most of that comes from the fact that Nina has a big heart. She really, really cares about people, and desperately wants to help the underdogs she sees around her, especially the Grisha. All she really sees in Ketterdam is people being hurt and taken advantage of, and she hates it. She grows attached to people easily, and when she does, she'll do absolutely anything for them and is incredibly affectionate and supportive. In a lot of ways, she's a teenage girl who's in over her head, but leans on the support of her friends, her identity as a Grisha, and her (sometimes feigned) confidence to survive. She rarely allows herself to show weakness, and is often embarrassed when she's forced to. Two of the only people she really lets herself break down around are Inej and Matthias.

Inej is her best friend and confidant, the one who convinced her to join the Dregs and the first person in Ketterdam she ever trusted. She loves Inej fiercely, and the two have a deep and sometimes unspoken understanding. She'll support Inej no matter what (even if she thinks Inej really needs better taste in dudes), and is constantly worried about her wellbeing and safety. Saving Inej is one of the things that helps get her through her parem addiction in the second book, and she's constantly the one bringing up concerns about Inej's role in their heist, whether that be due to Inej's physical or mental health.

Matthias is more complicated. The two start out as enemies, become allies and then friends, then ricochet back to enemies and have to navigate their lingering romantic feelings and anger when they're thrown back together. The two are very similar, though—both are desperately loyal to their countries and their people, and both define themselves as soldiers. It's only through Matthias that Nina comes to understand that the Fjerdans aren't all mindless monsters, and it's only through Nina that Matthias realizes that the Grisha aren't demons. In fact, Matthias is often the one that reminds Nina to be more merciful to her enemies, and is far more horrified at the criminal side of what they're doing than Nina is. They come to balance each other out, and Matthias refuses to leave Nina's side when she's undergoing withdrawal from parem. His willingness to deal with her puking, begging, yelling and general misery cements him as one of the few people Nina is willing to be totally honest with. On the other hand, Nina's memories of her withdrawal from parem are humiliating enough to her that when she considers relapsing, she clings to that embarrassment to stay strong.

That stubbornness and survival instinct is what allows her to keep going, even after the Ravkan civil war, Ketterdam, and a parem addiction. She never backs down or gives up, even when things look bleak, and never lets anyone else tell her what to do, for better or worse.

CANON POWERS: Nina is a Grisha Corporalnik—this means that she has control over human bodies, and thus can do pretty much everything from breaking bones to healing stab wounds to altering emotions, as long as that person is within line of sight. She was trained as a Heartrender, though, which means that she's more adept at the injuring and killing side of the spectrum.

As of Nina's canonpoint, her powers have been drastically altered due to ingesting jurda parem and hasn't worked up the courage to use them since.
OTHER: Nope!

GAME INFO;

CRAU INFO: n/a
MAGIC ABILITY: Nina will have a charm ability—essentially, by touching someone, she can make them feel either intensely fond of or enamored of her, enough to influence their actions through her suggestions. This won't be unlimited, though. It won't override their own survival instincts or more deep rooted inclinations. For example, she could tell someone to protect her, but if that person is a diehard pacifist, they won't kill someone for her. They will, however, be more generally willing to trust her and believe that she has the best intentions despite any evidence to the contrary.

ANY WEAPONS/MAGICAL ITEMS?: n/a
ANY PETS?: n/a

SAMPLE;

LINKED SAMPLE: TDM toplevel and a thread with Matthias!