MELANIA BOCHAROVA

Resident Goth

Bio

Personality:Very Patient | Hard Working | Determined | Slow to warm up to others | Realist | Observant | Sarcastic | Impulsive | Cold/Standoffish | Unapproachable | Compulsive Liar | ObsessiveBio:

TL;DR:Mel was born and raised in Antioch, and fell into an alternative lifestyle. She became interested in paranormal encounters after seeing her brothers interact with a "ghost" firsthand. She found out about Freak Fest through the press surrounding the fire, and decided to continue the rebellious streak in her life by attending.

Early Life
Mel is second generation Russian, her grandparents having immigrated to the US in 1922 in the group commonly known as the White émigrés. The important thing to note about this is that this was the last wave of immigrants out of Russia before the Soviet era, which separates Mel and her family from the ideals of their home country in the years leading up until Mel's birth in 1966. Her family did not seek wealth or fame, only a good life for their descendants, which is exactly what Mel's parents sought to provide to her by moving to Vermont, to the relatively quiet and tucked away town of Antioch.
Mel's parents always wanted more than one child, but they didn't want to have a huge family. In fact, they only intended to have two children. Mel was their eldest child, and after she was born, they encountered fertility issues, leading to a rather large gap between her and her younger siblings. It was when Mel was 10 years old that her parents were finally successful. Imagine all of their surprises when they found out her mother was pregnant with triplets!
Mel was never a child who expressed big emotions, but she was excited about the company that having three little brothers would provide. She was at the age where climbing trees and inspecting rocks was of utmost interest to her, so she could only imagine that she'd get along with a set of boys. If anything, they'd be little rock collectors for her. Boys weren't afraid to get their hands dirty. She was never interested in dolls or playing house. She was vastly more interested in knights, castles, swords, and adventures.
At some point during her mother's pregnancy, her brothers began to be referred to as "twins" instead of "triplets". Mel was not given an explanation for the change as her parents didn't want to bother with the complicated explanation. She believed that it was perhaps a mistake. Maybe they had always been twins and someone had told them the wrong thing.
In any case, her twin brothers were born, healthy and happy. She was excited to get to know them, and though she was older, Mel definitely became close to them over the years.
Mel owes a lot of her patience and ability to not blow up on people to the amount of time spent with her two little brothers. As they became louder and more expressive, Mel became the opposite. They were absolute rays of sunshine, and Mel grew away from this. They were the spotlight, and she let them be so, content to fade into the shadows and watch over them, the gargoyle on the parapets of their castle.
There was one thing that Mel always thought was strange about them, though. As children, the two boys seemed to be talking together to an invisible friend. Mel would ask them about it, and they'd always respond with "Oh! that's our brother!" This was especially strange to her because she had a vague memory from her childhood about them being triplets and not twins. She remembered asking her mother about it and getting vague, evasive answers. She wouldn't learn how eerie all of this behavior was until she was in her senior year of high school.
Ah yes, high school.Teen Years
As with most alternative kids, high school was a trying time for Mel. She struggled with finding an identity among the sea of makeup, boys, hormones, and cliques. As a child, she had been a tom-boy, but as a teen, her interests inevitably shifted. Shifted, but not to the extent that she desired to go to parties with her peers, get into makeup, or keep up with the latest fashions. Instead, Mel became further withdrawn. She desired to blend in for the first few years of high school, letting her clothing choices remain shapeless and mostly colorless. Her braces and flat hair certainly didn't help either. She was shorter than the other girls her age, and she never found a space for herself within the perfumed and primped group of "normal" girls.
She wasn't completely alone, though. She found refuge with others who didn't fit in. Those that preferred louder music, or had odd interests, or those that actively chose to do the opposite of what the group en masse was doing.
As the years passed, she began to develop her own sense of style along with her small group of outsiders. She picked up on their music taste and where they spent their time. She found that her own interests began to align with them, and she was glad to have peers that weren't put off by her interests in reptiles or insects or scary movies or conspiracy theories or ghost stories, or -- well, you get the idea.
She even managed to snag a high school sweetheart, though the experience was short-lived, because the idea of going to College fast approached, and she didn't want to be chained to someone at home when she traveled away for it.
As her interest in the paranormal began to increase, her brothers at home and their strange "brother" became a kind of fixation for Mel. It all came to a head when she confronted her mother rather sternly about it, citing concern for her brothers as the reason, and to her immense satisfaction, her mother caved. She explained how, in the womb, there was originally three of them, but that the third was absorbed by one of her brothers. They were lucky at the lack of complications from it, and one of her brothers only suffered a slight indentation on the right side of his ribs and some discolored skin in that area due to it being the spot where the third embryo had been absorbed.
Upon learning this news, Mel became absolutely convinced that her brothers were somehow linked to the ghost of their unborn triplet, and this became a running fixation for Mel in the years to come.Early Adulthood
Mel's college experience had been short-lived. She'd taken two semesters at a college in Pennsylvania doing forensic science, but she realized that her interest in the more morbid aspects of life would absolutely not be enough for her to survive a whole degree in this field. She decided to come home for a "gap year" that turned into two, and then three before she finally gave up on the idea of going back.
She took on several different jobs over the years, mostly retail, except for an 8-month stint as a receptionist at a vet clinic. Eventually, though, an exciting opportunity right up her alley opened up. In 1988, there was a store opened in New York that sold the kind of fashion she had been into since high school, and in 1991, they expanded south to several cities in Vermont, and later in the same year, the Antioch branch of Twilight Threads finally opened. Mel applied before they even opened their doors, and was among the very first group hired to run the store. She's worked there since, climbing up the rungs until she managed to snag a spot as store manager.
The pay was mediocre, but it was enough for her to afford her tiny one-bedroom apartment, and with the slow wage increases, she began to be able to afford more extracurricular activities.Current History
Mel heard about Freak Fest on the news. The fire had been blasted all over the newspapers, and of course conspiracy abounded, most especially within the community of people who shopped at Twilight Threads. A gathering of weirdos? That sounded like the majority of her life. She found comfort and belonging in those weirdos, for god's sake.
Of course, like with most things in her life, she went on a slightly obsessive investigation into Freakfest and the rumors surrounding it. She was hooked instantly. Mel somehow managed to snag herself a visitor's ticket when they first sold. A legitimate one. She was proud of that fact.
Of course, she wanted to go to Freak Fest. What goth wouldn't love to go? And it was held near her own hometown, which was great since she'd never gotten a driver's license or a passport, which made it difficult for her to travel anywhere significant in her life. Of course, she got a spot in the lodge itself too, since driving to and from the event every day would not have been feasible for her. She was hitching a ride with a friend that was going as well, and all it cost her was a portion of the gas money.
As soon as her badge came in the mail, she wore it. She wore it every day as part of her work outfit leading up to the event. Flaunting it perhaps, or gauging who else she might see there based on the comments she got about it. She diligently wrote down the phone numbers of people she met who were also attending and looks forward to the PTO she snagged to go to the event.She hoped it would live up to everything she imagined it would be, and looked forward to talking about the experience afterward for years to come. Maybe she'd even go next year, too, if she liked it enough.

Extra

Trivia:
She dyes her hair for fun. Expect it to change colours over the course of the group.
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She has exactly 10 piercings and one teeny tiny tattoo.
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She almost exclusively wears black.
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She has a pet snake at home. His name is Goliath, but he is actually a very tiny ball python.

RP Preferences

Name:
Just call me Rini!
Pronouns:
She/Her
Age:
25 (as of 2022)
Timezone:
PST ( GMT - 8)
RP Locations:
Discord preferred - but I can also do Google Docs!
Methods:
Lit & headcanons (I can do script, but it's in a very specific format. If you're interested, just ask me!
Comfort Zones/Triggers:
I’m okay with pretty much everything as long as it’s discussed before the RP! There are some things that I am okay talking about/ headcanoning but will NOT RP - such as sexual assault.
Please don’t pull out super traumatic things without talking to me first, as I have a few triggers that only come out when it’s a surprise. (I don't like to list them publicly, because they are hyper specific, and I don't want people to stress about them) As long as I know about it beforehand, I can mentally get through the block and am happy to RP!
Likewise, when I'd like to bring up something potentially triggering, I will always ask if it's okay first!
Shipping Preferences:
I am definitely okay with shipping! That being said, I will never have my OC act out-of-character for the sake of a ship. I like things to develop naturally, so if my OC isn't feeling the chemistry, I absolutely will not force it. I value openness and good communication with a ship partner, and would like to have a good conversation OOC if it seems like our characters are delving into shipping territory to make sure we're on the same page.
Additionally, I'm super okay with break ups, having OCs have falling outs, being rejected, heartbreak, and having OCs that have had past history but don't have anything currently.
All items related to shipping I will want to discuss OOC before them occurring IC. This includes things like "making it official", important relationship milestones/next steps, and "drama" such as OCs cheating on each other / breaking up.I know that the above is a big spiel, I just know that shipping can delve into sensitive territory, so I want it out in the open! Don't be shy to come and talk with me about any of the above, though. I love having meaningful conversations!
Smut/NSFW:
My feelings around it are very much the same as shipping! All items to be discussed OOC before occurring IC. But I'm open to OCs having casual flings/discussing NSFW topics, just talk to me first! Also, it should go without saying, but I will absolutely not talk about anything NSFW related with minors, or OCs that are minors.I will not RP/ Take part in the following:
Incest | Active Discrimination | Deep Religion | Eating Disorders | Body Shaming | Pedophilia / Child Abuse | Animal Cruelty