AARONOVITCH, Skylar Dmitri

[Skylar Dmitri Aaronovitch]

SKYLAR DMITRI AARONOVITCH

FULL NAME: Skylar Dmitri Aaronovitch
NICKNAMES: Sky, occasionally
AGE: Thirty One
GENDER: male
SEXUALITY: Straight
STATUS: Single
GROUP: Student
GRADE: Sophomore.
MAJOR: History
JOB OCCUPATION: Tour Guide for the Museum of Natural History

HAIR: Longish dark brown, almost black hair. He keeps it longer than he probably should but likes to run his fingers through it.
EYES: Brown.
SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: A few he will never talk about.
TATTOOS: Nada.
PIERCINGS: None.
PLAY-BY: Johnny Whitworth

LIKES: Pancakes, Spiced Rum, video games, New Year's Eve, watching hockey games, strong coffee, loud music, casino games, dogs, jogging in the park, kids, parfaits, karaoke, classic Converse, lazy Sunday mornings, hard work, history, learning new things, strawberry kiwi smoothies
DISLIKES: Sunday drivers, toll bridges, above ground public transportation, those hipster kids, arrogant fools, the smell of alcohol rolling off someone, being interrupted, those girls who try too hard, a bad attitude for no reason (even he isn't that bad!), guns, violence, missing a deadline, anything to do with peanut butter
FEARS: Car accidents with transport trucks, someone breaking into his apartment, heights
SECRETS: Skylar and his sister are in WITSEC after testifying against some men running a human trafficking ring out of California.
PERSONALITY: Skylar isn't the softest guy in the world. In fact, it was his temper that landed Skylar in New York! Well, in a roundabout way, anyway. But he's not about to apologise to anyone for it either. He can be an unbelievably sweet guy but it'll take a lot for anyone to see it. He's built up a wall and probably comes across as a hard man but he's really just too overprotective of his little sister and it comes across as being an asshole. He's a survivor and a fighter, having had to claw through more bullshit than anyone should ever have to, to finally get where he is now. Skylar isn't so much an angry man as he is willing to do whatever he needs to do to protect his sister. He would never say he's a family man because his way of thinking is that would include his parents but Ilia is his only family and he would do just about anything for her. He's known women and been with women but he's not some manwhore but neither is he a romantic in any way. More a realist than anything, Skylar is actually a little scared of developing relationships and feelings. He's genuinely unaware if he'd be any good at it. The women in his past, though there are few, were mostly just hook ups and only two had ever lasted more than a night; and even in those circumstances, they never lasted more than a month.

MOTHER: Nadya Larysa Levchenko, deceased.
FATHER: Alexei Yosyp Levchenko, 57
SIBLINGS: Ilia Carlotta Aaronovitch, 22.
OTHERS: Sullivan Truman, 56 -Trafficker.
PETS: Ilia has a Lionhead rabbit she named Otter
HOMETOWN: Kherson, Ukraine.
HISTORY: Skylar was born Mykola Anton Levchenko and spent most of his life with that name. And that life was not an easy one. He was born into a loveless marriage, filled with more fear and abuse than anything else. It was a nightmare that no child should have had to live through. And for the first nine years of his life, he was alone in his secret war against his drunk of a father and frightened mother. And then Ilia came along and Mykola started really fearing for their outcome. He was old enough to know that maybe not right now, she was still too little, but eventually, she would get hit just as much as he did. Only a couple years passed before Nadya decided she couldn't handle it any longer and after their father passed out after an extended drinking binge, she tried to run. Whether it was for help or just to get away, Skylar couldn't be certain but either way, she never made it further than a few streets. Something happened, no one is completely sure what but her car ended up wrapped around a telephone pole and she was dead before the paramedics got her to the hospital. Skylar could remember, even at such a young age, thinking how at least one of them managed to get away from Alexei.

It only got worse from there for both of the children. School was allowed but it was difficult to have friends, especially when they weren't allowed over at all, mostly out of fear that Alexei would think it was acceptable to hit them as well. And when Skylar was old enough to leave, he didn't. Continuing his education wasn't an option for Skylar. He'd told Ilia all sorts of stories about how they would get away one day and he wanted to make good on those stories and the promise behind them. So when he finally found a job, he kept it, no matter how bad it could be. And in truth, it wasn't always bad. There were times of course, but there were always times when things got bad. That was anywhere so he stuck it out, only spending the money that he needed to and hiding the rest of it away. His job had him occasionally meeting some seedy men, who worked on the docks. But it was through these men that he'd formed the plan to take Ilia away. It was dangerous and illegal but it was their only option. Neither of them had passports, though Skylar was old enough to get one for himself. It would be sent to his home and his father would find it in the mail long before he would be able to get his hands on it so it wasn't an option. Illegally entering America was the only way they were getting away.

Sure, they probably could have gotten away easier but their father would have found them and hurt them beyond recognition when he did. He may have been a drunk but he was possessive and as far as he was concerned, they belonged to him. Skylar had been assured that it would be fine, safer even than if they'd tried a border. And he couldn't deal with being caught at a border. Ilia was only sixteen when they'd finally left, their father would have been notified, Skylar might have been tossed his prison and Ilia would be left alone with their father to be beaten on a daily basis. He couldn't have that. So off they went, arriving in California after a journey that felt like it equally took forever and no time at all. What the man in Ukraine hadn't told Skylar was what would be waiting for them when they arrived. The American counterparts wanted to sell Ilia off and Skylar couldn't have that. He fought with them, pleaded and begged on hands and knees, which as it turned out was both smart and so very stupid at the same time. They saw a way to manipulate and use Skylar for their own means. He quickly became their lackey when they needed something done.

They put the siblings up in a rat's hole of an apartment. Even worse than the house they'd left, which had gone into disrepair after their mother's death. Ilia and Skylar had done their best but there was only so much they could do, after all. And then he was forced into working for these terrible men and watching as they threatened Ilia's life if he was ever a minute late with something. She was their weapon against him. She was the reason he kept doing everything they asked of him. He didn't want to see her hurt any more. There were times when he was late and though it wasn't his fault and they knew it, they still hit her or threw her around and he wanted so badly to do something to stop them. But they held him back, forced him to watch as they tossed her around, smacked her around. It broke Skylar every time, little by little. This all went on for too long and Skylar hated every single second of it. They were prisoners in what was supposed to be a free land. And then one night he returned home from a job early and found one of the slimier men trying to hurt and no doubt take advantage of Ilia. Skylar's mind went blank and he saw red as he attacked his sister's attacker. They fought but the slime ball had fifty pounds or more on Skylar. Sky had the height but not the weight he would need and it looked like this night would be his last when the shots rang out and the man who now had more holes in his body than Swiss cheese fell into Skylar's chest and he pushed him off before rushing to Ilia's side.

He heard the siren's only a few minutes later but barely even registered the wood from the door splintering when the police swarmed their apartment. He was too busy trying to comfort his sister. Skylar wasn't scared of going to prison for everything he'd had, he'd made his peace with that a long time ago. But he was scared of leaving Ilia alone in a city she didn't know. As it turned out, he had nothing really to fear. He had information that the police needed and they were willing to let him go free and clear from all the charges he may have brought up against himself if he were willing to tell them all that he knew. They offered up turning their illegal papers into legal ones, new identities and the ability to actually be free and pursue the life they'd been dreaming of since they'd been children. Handed over to the US Marshals, they put the siblings into WITSEC and brought them to a safe house where they were given new identities. And while the marshals gave Ilia a more ethnic name to match their new background, Skylar had asked for something that wouldn't remind him at all of all the troubles that they'd suffered through for the entire length of their lives. And they provided him with Skylar Dmitri Aaronovitch. It was something he could live with. And quickly took to the task of memorising the background they'd created for him. At least they'd kept their childhood mostly the same, it was easier to remember it that way. He signed his new name more than a dozen times until it felt as natural and breathing.

It took a lot of work but they were all making it work. The trial came and he testified against the group that had been holding them both prisoner, telling the judge and everyone in that room everything he knew. Once that was said and done, Sullivan and the group locked away for the rest of their lives, the marshals took them away to start their new lives. New York was a sight Skylar thought he'd never see. The programme got him a job as a tour guide at the Museum of Natural History. He'd learned a lot when he'd been working at the museum in Kherson. He might have just been cleaning and moving things but he was already curious and the lot that worked there welcomed the intelligent questions that weren't asked by snivelling children who didn't really care or by people just asking because they wanted to know where their money was going towards. He was genuine and sincere; he wanted to know. So when they were relocated, Skylar ventured to ask if he could enroll in school as well. He knew he was a bit old to be returning to school but he could just pretend to be one of those scholarly types, returning to school dozens of times over because his love of learning was just that strong. The marshals made it work though. He had no further education and he had always wanted to attend university but the only job he could get would be manual labor, things he really didn't want to do anymore.

He had a brain, he was smart and he damn well knew what he was talking about. At first, the museum had him giving tours to those who preferred to speak Ukrainian or even Russian as he spoke that language as well. But his English skills were superior, especially thanks to all the work the marshals did to try and get them to blend into society. And they let him do a couple tours at first, to test him before allowing him to take on more tours between his classes. Now a sophomore history student, Skylar is learning even more about what he's already interested in and since it's still fresh in his memory, he's using what he's learning in his classes in his speeches for the tours when they're useful, anyway. The first little while in New York had Skylar looking over his shoulder a lot and worrying if he'd find someone in his apartment that was supposed to be there with his sister but it never happened. And the few times it had happened, Ilia had sent him a message, letting him know ahead of time. So far so good and Skylar is just happy to finally be living the life he'd promised his baby sister.

YOUR ALIAS: Cali!
RULE WORDS: These are mine!!
WHERE YOU FOUND US: Found you? I stumbled across you in the back of a dusty old book in a local shop!
SAMPLE:

I would really rather not at this time, thank you!

 

[Cali]