Accepted! -- Sparky

Your Nickname: Sarah
Have you read and do you agree to the Code of Conduct?: Yes
How did you find us and decide to write with us? Friend
If you have written other characters here: Yes
If Yes, list them all: Cyhirae Trishna, Nikolas Falkenrath, Ishane Blair, Luthas Blair
Is this a Primary or Secondary Character?: Primary

Full Character Name: Yekaterina "Katya" Ilyinichna Alkaev
Character Birthday & Age: November 3rd | 17
City & Country of Birth: St. Petersburg, Russia
Pureblood, Halfblood or Muggleborn: Pureblood
House & Year: Durmstrang,  6th, Obertiel

Wand: 9in, Cherry, Ashwinder Ash, Supple, Smooth Surface, but the wood's whorls and knots are very prominent

Physical Description: Yekaterina stands of average height at 5'7" and weighs 119lbs. Her body is slender and fit with long, dark brown hair, bluish grey eyes and medium skin tone. Katya is fairly pretty, but not classically so. With a pair of large lips that are sensual until she smiles fully and her upper lip flattens out and makes her look like there is nothing between her nose and lip. Katya is very self conscious about this and so never fully smiles.

She wears little make up, mostly lip gloss and eyeliner and occasionally mascara.

She is always well put together, hair neatly in place, clothing pressed etc. Due to the frugal nature of her parents her non school clothing tends to be slightly out of date. Even so her style of dress is quite modest and always elegant. All of her jewelry has been in the family for ages and the only new piece is her blue topaz studs that she received as her family's traditional gift when a child leaves for Durmstrang.


Personality Description: 
Katya is, at first appearance, dignified and ladylike without coming across as delicate. She is nice, personable,  and patient with others, and is, for the most part, content to stand back and observe life. She is smart and studious, with a well enough trained memory that, if given the correct context, she can remember facts and scenes from several years prior with relative clarity .

However, the personality that most see is a facade. In reality Katya is an introvert and socially withdrawn. Disinterested with most of her fellow students, Katya only has a few close friendships, any other relationships she does have are comparatively shallow. Her observation skills have been honed during her time at Durmstrang and Katya understands how people work, which has resulted in a strong cynical view towards people.

She is prone to holding grudges, and the repercussions of a bad first meeting can linger for years. Katya is a perfectionist towards herself and holds others to her own standards, but does not voice this; bottling it up inside with everything else that irritates or angers her.
 
She doesn't like the political game, but she realizes she needs to play it in order to get the special classes that are available only to Obertiels, which she very much wants. After years of being involved she has found that she is good at manipulating people, but hates that she needs to act that way to succeed, feeling it to be a massive roadblock and bother.

If given a choice, Katya would chose to only focus on her studies, but in a school like Durmstrang that isn't possible. Much to her irritation, she has recently realized that her facade has become an ingrained part of her personality. She basically is becoming her mask.

Katya's English is very good for someone who has only been really learning it for a couple years or so if very formal. Also very basic. And also somewhat outdated as she spent most of her time improving her English by reading old classic novels. Defiantly doesn't get slang or idioms. Depending on how comfortable she is with a word's pronuciation Katya's accent ranges from light to cartoonishly thick. She doesn't use new words very much.

History: 
Born the only child of Ilya and Yuliya Alkaev, she grew up in a medium sized apartment in St. Petersburg's wizarding district. Her mother owns  a small confectionary shop in the Russian equivalent of Diagon Alley and her father worked for Russia's Ministry of Magic International Division. The family is comfortably middle class but are very frugal, a remnant of her father Ilya's young adult life after his father had squandered the family fortune and her mother Yuliya's childhood where she assisted her parents in running the family shop.

Her father's job required him to travel a lot so Yekaterina's childhood was spent mostly helping out in her mother's shop. Any time not at the shop or at school was filled with 'ladylike' extracurricular activities such as piano, choir, and horseback riding.

When she arrived at Durmstrang Katya ignored the political game to focus on her studies. When she found out that if she wanted to get the special perks, such as special classes and honors, she had to be an Obertiel, she began to involve herself in the school's politics. Never one to hold back when she has a goal in mind, Katya threw herself into the game. She studied how the Obertiels behaved and began building a personality that would appeal to them. Making the right connections with others was hard for her, and having to rely on other's good graces to excel continues to irritate her to this day.

Her efforts paid off, and she became an Obertiel in her second year . Not long after Headmaster Eisenberg recruited her to be one of his spies in the school. This put her in an interesting position, while it  did come with a powerful network, her spy duties took time away from her studies which were the entire reason for involving herself in politics in the first place.

Academics wise, Katya has excelled, being naturally good at Charms and her contextual memory making the lecture classes easy for her, though anything involving teamwork is a personal struggle. She chose  to focus on Potions for her career after school, and is currently aiming for a job in potion's research after she leaves school. Any classes that she dislikes or is bad at, (Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, History of Magic and Arithmancy) were quickly dropped.


Why was your character Allowed/Chosen to attend the Tournament?:
Personal motives aside, Katya is one of Eisenberg's better spies and those skills can be used against the other schools to give Durmstrang an advantage in the Tournament. Even if she wasn't one of the Headmaster's spies, Katya is a good student and her academic focus' can be put to good use for any of the champions.


Writing Sample:

Sum up your character in one paragraph: If something is going on, Katya knows. And if she knows then you can count on the Headmaster knowing as well.