[ sanctum app ]

[facethewolves]

OOC INFORMATION

Name: Em
Contact Information: notverywool
Personal Journal: n/a
Age: 27
Characters Played: n/a


IC INFORMATION

Name: Alexandra Udinov
Fandom: Nikita
Age: 19
Canon Point: after her (temporary) death in 1x22
Original Universe or Alternate Universe? OU

Personality: Alex's father was an ambitious man, who achieved his wealth and power by stepping over the corpses of anyone who got in his way. Though he was always loving to her, Alex's greatest fear is that she will become just like him, or worse. She wants nothing to do with her father's company and, though she eventually learns to use her name to open doors and to cow her enemies, she wants very little to do with his legacy. She is terrified that she has a "killer instinct," something she inherited from her father that could make her a ruthless murderer if she gave in to it. This fear is compounded by going through Division's training program, which is designed to turn ordinary kids into assassins. Initially, Alex is unable to pull the trigger on a stranger, but the more she kills, the more comfortable with it she becomes. But while her sense of right and wrong may be skewed by her training and her need for revenge, she clings to it nonetheless, always stubbornly determined not to be her father's daughter.

There is, however, one lesson of her father's that she took to heart: he taught her to only ever depend on herself and her skills for survival, because everything she owns and every ally she might make can be taken away in an instant, and anyone, even those closest to her, might betray her. This lesson is at the core of Alex's character. She exerts a great deal of effort to be self-sufficient, never asks for help, and is quick to clean up her own mistakes when she makes them. She always wants to do things on her own terms, and while she can take orders and work with others, she tries not to let people push her around. Trust is not something she gives lightly. She is always questioning others' motives, always suspects that everyone has a hidden agenda, and never fully lets her guard down with anyone. Later in the series, Alex learns to open up to others, but initially the only person she truly trusts is Nikita. Trust and honesty in a relationship are very important to Alex. The revelation that Nikita killed her father is a blow, but the thing Alex can't forgive is that Nikita lied about it.

Despite her trust issues, Alex is quick to form emotional attachments. She bonds with several of her fellow recruits almost as soon as she meets them, goes out of her way to help them when they need it, and shows sincere gratitude when they help her. She's very protective of those she cares about, and would never leave a friend behind. She also sometimes selfishly clings to people she really should let go of. She's lost so many loved ones that once she becomes close with someone, she can't handle the idea of losing them too.

Alex has several symptoms of PTSD (which Amanda diagnoses her with), including nightmares, panic attacks, flashbacks, and survivor's guilt. Amanda teaches her to repress these things so she can function, but not to deal with all of them in a healthy manner, leaving some of Alex's issues simmering just under the surface. Alex also struggles with a sense of powerlessness, some of which is tied in to her problems with drug addiction, and some to her survivor's guilt: she has watched a lot people die while she got to live, and she was unable to save any of them. Her response to this is anger. Alex is aggressive, reckless, and never backs down from a fight. When everyone else is running away from something, Alex will run towards it. She takes wild risks if she feels they're worth the reward.

Alex also has some suicidal tendencies. Nikita talked her out of killing herself by convincing her she had one thing to live for: revenge. Though Alex hypocritically condemns Nikita's "sick need" to bring down Division, she herself is focused solely on avenging her family's death, regardless of what that costs. She has very little sense of a long-term future for herself, and is content to die as long as she takes the people responsible for her parents' deaths down with her. For a while, Alex begins to think that she can get out and have a real life, and believes that she can be happy, and be a good person, if she can just be normal. But as her father told her, she was never destined to be ordinary, and she eventually realizes that, for better or for worse, her dream of normalcy will never come true. Of course, Alex is never content to just sit around and do nothing, so while that kind of life appeals to her in theory, in practice she would probably get bored quickly.

As a result of losing both her parents at a young age, Alex is drawn to mother and father figures, even people she knows are dangerous. She can be outspoken and rebellious, but she looks to her mentors for advice, protection, and support. Nikita, and Amanda in particular, teach Alex many of the aspects of spy work that don't come easily to her. By nature, Alex is not very subtle and prefers direct, frequently violent, solutions to her problems. Nikita teaches her how to come up with convincing lies and how to stick to them when being interrogated. Amanda teaches her how to use deception, how to behave, speak, and dress to fit in anywhere and make people believe anything she wants about her, and how to trick or manipulate people into doing what she wants. Though Alex will never be as crafty as Amanda, she becomes very comfortable using these tactics when they suit her.

One thing Alex doesn't have to be taught is her cleverness and resourcefulness. She's good at making connections and extrapolating facts from small details, and figuring out ways to get her job done when she doesn't necessarily have the means. She's stubborn, and refuses to let any task defeat her. And she can be quite cocky, not always taking things as seriously as she should. There are some very basic things she's not good at, like cooking or even buying food, because she's never had the need or opportunity to do them before. But after living in inhuman conditions for six years, she gets very excited over these things, and other new experiences that seem boring and everyday to the average person.


Is this character immune? Yes.

Background: There is a secret division of the U.S. government, funded by black-ops money, completely off the books and overseen by a shadowy group of high-ranking politicians and military personnel. The man in charge, Percy, uses Division as his own private mercenary force, taking on jobs for anyone with enough money to hire Division's services. He acquires new recruits by abducting troubled youths from prison, faking their deaths, and forcing them to kill for him or be killed by him. To ensure that the government could never remove him from power, Percy hid information on all the clandestine government-sanctioned operations Division had undertaken on six "black boxes:" hard drives stored in secret locations all around the world. If he were ever to die, the guardians of the black boxes would make that information public, plunging the world into chaos.

In 2005, Division was hired by a man named Sergei Semak to assassinate Russian oligarch Nikolai Udinov, his wife, and his thirteen-year-old daughter Alexandra. A Division agent named Nikita Mears killed Udinov, but she could not bring herself to kill his child, instead handing her off to Udinov's loyal chauffeur and telling Percy the girl was dead. The chauffeur sold Alex to sex traffickers, who brought her over to America. She ended up a heroin addict, living on the streets, until Nikita found her again.

Nikita had escaped Division with the intention of bringing them down, but the work was difficult. Division was excellent at remaining in the shadows, and predicting their movements was next to impossible. Once she had gotten clean of heroin, and been told that Division was responsible for her parents' deaths, Alex volunteered to go undercover inside Division, working as a mole for Nikita. Nikita arranged for Alex to wind up in prison, where she "committed suicide," in reality falling into Division's clutches.

Division trained Alex as a spy and assassin, while she fed Nikita as much information as she could on Division's every move. Nikita also made an ally inside the CIA, an analyst named Ryan Fletcher. And she rekindled her romance with Michael, Percy's right-hand man, who agreed to help Nikita take Division down. Within less than a year of Alex going undercover, Nikita was able to track down the location of three black boxes. Unfortunately, Percy was one step ahead the whole time. He swapped the third black box for one containing a nerve gas, and manipulated Nikita and Ryan into smuggling the box into the CIA for decryption. Percy's plan was for the box to release the nerve gas when the head of the CIA was called in to view the contents of the box, killing him and creating a power vacuum that Percy himself was eager to fill. Alex was found out and captured, and Percy told her the truth: that Nikita had been the one who murdered her father. He told Alex that she had two options: lure Nikita to a warehouse, or be killed by the explosive chip he had implanted at the base of her skull.

Alex opted to betray Nikita. But instead of simply bringing her to the warehouse, Alex stole a syringe of tetrodotoxin from Nikita's stash. At the warehouse, she shot Nikita multiple times in the chest. Nikita was wearing kevlar, but Alex injected her with the toxin, making it appear that Nikita had died. When the cleaner arrived to dispose of her body, Nikita regained consciousness, escaped, and was able to get to the CIA in time to prevent the box from killing anyone. Alex wasn't so lucky. Percy turned her over to Division's interrogator Amanda, who electrocuted her to death. (This was actually a ploy to trick the "kill chip" implanted in Alex's brainstem - once she was dead, it deactivated, and Amanda was able to revive Alex seconds later.)

More details here.


Other Notables: n/a

Inventory:
- "recruit pjs" (navy blue hoodie and gym pants, white tank, white sneakers)
- two Beretta 92FS handguns
- modified Benelli Nova shotgun with pistol grip, laser sight, and collapsible stock
- Smith & Wesson fixed-blade tactical knife with a 6" matte black high-carbon stainless steel blade, and whetstone and leather sheath
- Vortex 8x36 tactical monocular
- a ye olde 2011 mp3 player
- her father's fancy analogue watch
- one frozen pizza