Polina takes after her maternal family heavily. With the blonde hair and psychopathic look in her eyes, she's as Kozlovskaya more than she is a Tolstokozheva, but she embraces both sides of her heritage openly. She's tall like her father, which she doesn't mind until she's shopping for clothes. Being tall is as much of a curse as it is a gift, it seems. Regardless, seeing as most of her clothes have to be tailored regardless, she has an enclave of designers ready to create outfits for her at a whim. She prefers a chic style, but has a taste for beautiful suits regardless. Her FC is Jodie Comer.
HISTORY
TRAITS
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Anzhelika Kozlovskaya and Ruslan Tolstokozhev’s relationship was always very dysfunctional, from the moment of its inception, all the way to Ruslan’s imprisonment and eventual death. It was taking more than it was giving, and there wasn’t really an understanding of each other’s basic needs. They were reckless and prioritized what they wanted over anything else that appealed to reason and logic. Consequently, when they accidentally conceived Polina Tolstokozheva as a celebratory act for successfully coordinating a cyber attack on one of Russia’s few economic pillars with the aid of their rebel organization, the only solution they could think of - rather than terminating the pregnancy - was to get married and provide the child they didn’t want with a dreadful childhood.
Being raised by revolutionaries whose idea of a family outing on your average Sunday was to plant seeds of doubt against the Romanov family, Polina grew up emotionally stunted. She struggled to connect with many of her peers. With a warped understanding of love, where screaming matches and physical aggression were the norm, Polina was in trouble more often than not. Violence was her love language, and Polina was definitely quite the romantic when it came to pursuing new friendships. Unfortunately, these manipulated opinions of love led to a severe case of isolation that resulted in Polina struggling to grasp the mundane concept of true love. What she felt towards her younger siblings - Vyacheslav, Yaroslav and Yelena - was the closest she’d feel to it for a long time, and even then, the bruises that often littered their skin spoke differently to how she felt.
Anzhelika and Ruslan’s abusive tendencies didn’t subside for as long as Polina was in their home. It seemed as though history was repeating itself. Although Polina’s maternal grandparents, Pyotr and Jadwiga, had died in Anzhelika’s early childhood, the loss and subsequent life in an orphanage had marred her own abilities to care for anyone, much as would happen to Polina if nobody intervened quickly. Unfortunately for their young daughter, Ruslan was just as inept when it came to raising children. His father, Yaromir, took perverse pleasure in abusing his son physically and mentally, whereas his mother Milyena took interest in engraving revolutionary sentiment into him through rudimentary methods. Starving him in the face of disobedience and depriving him of shelter for weeks at a time whenever he questioned their motives was their go-to, and sadly, it’s a cycle he perpetuated as a father.
Polina had no escape growing up. Their ideals were like bile in her throat that would choke her every night, but over time, Polina became a child soldier, prey to her parents’ exhaustive damnation. Sadly, there was nobody that would come to her aid. All her tutors were carefully assigned by her parents’ employers, seeing as she was of the same age as a high-profile member of the royal family - Vasilia Romanova. It was their aim that, even though Polina had yet to exhibit any magical prowess, she would one day attend Koldovstoretz and befriend Vasilia. They wanted her to insert herself into the family and destroy it from the inside out. Polina didn’t have the willpower to object or even consider going against the forces of her parents’ organization, so it quickly became a game of hoping she would be a squib. The torture she’d endure then would hopefully conclude in swift death, unlike everything she’d have to live through as one of the members of the family her family abhorred so much. They killed for sport and hunted for amusement. Her parents could have her head at any moment, and so more often than not, her tears were reserved for the early hours of the morning, when she’d be nursing her abused baby siblings back to health.
At the age of nine, terror gripped Polina’s heart and squeezed it painfully. The moment every Russian revolutionary had been waiting for had arrived. Polina was a witch, like the rest of them. Thereon after, Polina was expected to spend twelve hours of her day devoting her attention to the art of magic. Day in and day out, she was perfecting her spellwork. She spent hours pouring over history books and practicing different spells that some of her parents’ affiliates had crafted. Although Vasilia was merely third in line, at a great distance from the throne itself, Polina would eventually be under orders to poison the Emperor. When the time came, she needed to be able to fend for herself or, if necessary, ingest cyanide and go down with the rest of the Empire. For once, fear overshadowed the pain and rancor that had plagued her consistently during her childhood.
Between then and turning eleven, Polina mastered the art of staying away. She spent most of her free time locked up in her bedroom with only her siblings to keep her company. She was still lacking friends, but by that point, Polina had learned that she would never be meant to have any. She had one purpose only, and it was to fulfill her parents’ darkest wishes. She had no way of getting out of it, so she may as well use her time the only way she knew how, through personal experience - bestowing what she’d learned onto Yaroslav, Yelena and Vyacheslav. Of course, it didn’t come without arguments. Like Polina, they’d inherited a short temper and impatience, which paired with their violent tendencies, often resulted in fights that Polina had to break up whenever she herself wasn't involved before their parents came upon them and starved them for a week. Polina wasn’t daft; she understood her siblings needed the nutrients to grow. Twisted as she might have become, she didn’t care to become involved with the deaths of her siblings.
It was both a relief and concern when she began attending Koldovstoretz. On one hand, it marked the beginning of the end for years of lived misery. On the other, she had no idea the kind of environment her three siblings would be forced to live in the years before their arrival. Would they be groomed into revolutionaries? Would they end up dead for being squibs? Or worse, would they survive and end up living among muggles? Each scenario was and still is worse than the last, but the longer Polina was in Koldovstoretz, the less she worried. She became well-acquainted with Vasilia, as was expected of her, and wound up becoming so close that, in their fourth year, Vasilia and Polina pursued something romantic with a simple but very telling (and rewarding) kiss. The relationship had the approval of both their families (though one for more sinister reasons), which wasn’t easy to get but was awarded after Polina successfully defended Vasilia from an attack orchestrated by her parents’ organization to help her earn her full trust. However, they were all getting very impatient. It was all taking longer than they cared for.
Ultimately, their impatience cost them everything. They used Polina to draw Vasilia out to their home, where they subsequently took her hostage. They flew her out to Finland, where she spent three weeks tied up in a basement. Unfortunately, Polina was partially unaware this was all happening. She thought the plan was still the same. That’s what she’d hoped, too. However manipulated their relationship might have been, Vasilia did teach her many things Polina hadn’t yet understood. She taught her how to love, how to demonstrate affection without fearing retribution, and most importantly, how to accept herself when everything she stood for went against all that had been taught to her. She still had trauma to overcome, no doubt about that, but the conflicting voices inside her head eventually led to her reaching out to the authorities and telling them about her parents’ nefarious plans along with where Vasilia might possibly be. They were then arrested and imprisoned, destined to serve a life sentence on grounds of treason.
Vasilia decided to return to home tutoring, but Polina didn’t have that option. Everyone else in her parents’ organization had been imprisoned or killed as well, which meant she had nowhere to go once classes concluded. It became difficult for Polina to come to terms with her reality. She had nobody to stop her whenever the dark side of her - the murderer she had the potential to become, the angry voice inside her head, the sadistic, blood-thirsty Kozlovskaya that lived inside her - demanded retribution for the mistakes she’d made. She gave into her violent tendencies more often and took to physically assaulting anyone who so much as looked in her direction. Eventually, everyone learned to leave her be. That same summer, while she was hiding from the government, she discovered a healthier way of channeling her emotions - boxing. It wasn’t very common in her region, but she took a liking to it, and whenever she wasn’t visiting her three younger siblings at their new children’s home under a polyjuice potion, she was fighting a pretend-Anzhelika and pretend-Ruslan.
Eventually, the unthinkable happened - Polina joined the Russian government. Who’d have thought? Quickly, Polina began to climb through the ranks until she ultimately became what is known in the United Kingdom as a ‘Hit Witch’. She was assigned a high-profile case that went wrong somewhere along the line. The memories of that mission are all gone from her head, and everything else is still a blur, but it did lead to her being reassigned to protective services. She wound up becoming Vasilia’s personal bodyguard. Over time, they began to spend more time with each other by free will rather than contractual obligation, which resulted in their old feelings resurfacing and, well, their romance being rekindled. It was tough at first, as distrust and wariness was still a very big part of their dynamic, plus Polina couldn’t stomach the sight of all of Vasilia’s injuries from her time kidnapped. Without the Romanov family’s approval, it was also difficult to even get them to take her seriously. It wasn’t until a long time later that they really started to forgive her and see her in a better light. Regardless, she and Vasilia wound up getting married. No problem there - Vasilia was not likely to inherit the throne, after all.
Unfortunately, Vasilia did end up inheriting the throne. Bloody Christmas, as it’s called. Polina didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late and the explosions were going off around her and her wife. She did the best she could to protect her and as many relatives as she could, but she couldn’t get to them in time. Many of Vasilia’s family died and those who lived blamed Polina for the attack, but thankfully, Vasilia - who was later crowned Ekaterina Petrovna, Empress of all Russia - could see she wasn’t lying. Regardless, it put them in a difficult spot as they were now the first same-sex couple to rule a mostly conservative country. There were fears of more attacks by the conservatives and those who simply abhorred the family. Consequently, Vasilia - now Ekaterina - made the decision to relocate them to England. With no other option, Polina demanded her siblings join her in England, but unfortunately, only Yelena and Yaroslav paid attention to her.
Polina can’t help but fear Vyacheslav might have had a hand in the attacks that led to this move...
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Polina is cynical. She’s angry and she’s embittered by years of abuse and torment that she suffered at the hands of her parents. She’s difficult to tolerate and even more to like, but her loyalty is something you should value. Generally, Polina is very withdrawn and only tends to seek conversation in the company of intimate family and friends, both of which are scarce. Don’t expect her to be very friendly - you’ll have nothing of the sort in her company.
RELATIONSHIPS
TRIVIA
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Vasilia Romanova:
TBD
Irina Kristensen:
TBD
Ilya Romanov:
TBD
Yaroslav Tolstokozehv:
TBD
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General
Boggart
Vasilia's ghost (Bloody Christmas)
Amortentia
Vasilia's perfume, Blood, Smoke
Patronus
Hungarian Horntail
Wand
TBD
Interests
Boxing, Hexes, Magical Creatures
Pet Peeve
Ignorance, Lies, Secrets
Habits
Picking fights, Arguing
MBTI
TBD
Star Sign
Libra
Dreams/Goals
N/A (All achieved)
Favorites
Color
Navy
Song
TBA
Show
TBA
Movie
TBA
Book
TBA
Food
TBA
Drink
TBA
her patronymic is ruslanovna her family consists almost exclusively of murderers her favorite planet is pluto
this character belongs to gaby | this template belongs to red
