LENSKA, Elijah Ari'el

[ELIJAH LENSKA]

...elijah ari’el lenska *
* “Do you love me, Master? no?” *

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...basics*

name Elijah Ari’el Lenska
nickname Eli, Elie (by his mum)
age Twenty-two
gender Male
occupation Acrobat, trapeze artist, contortionist, tightrope-walker, amateur magician, dancer, artist, and musician. (Only a few of these could actually be counted as “professions,” but when asked, these are the things he will list.)
hometown Tel Aviv, Israel
sexuality Bisexual
personification Ariel of Shakespeare’s The Tempest
status AWAKE
face claim Pawel Szajda

...appearance*

hair color Light brown, slightly wavy
eye color Blue, very expressive
build Tall, but not too tall; lithe and lean and very well-muscled. He’s got a mean set of abs, but he’s also absurdly skinny.
height 5’10”
clothing style Comfortable and easy to move in, but fashionable. He’s fond of sweaters, and can sometimes be seen in blazers or button-downs. He also likes t-shirts with clever designs and is very pattern-oriented.
distinctive traits Bright blue eyes, square jaw and cleft chin, exceptionally flexible.

...personal*

personality
At first glance, Elijah Lenska is not an intimidating figure. He is polite and slightly soft-spoken, with a charming but demure smile and sparkling blue eyes. He is modest and gentle, but seems to have an air of confidence in himself about him that is both impressive and reassuring. Everything about him exudes a sort of compressed grace, like there is a great deal of him not visible to the naked eye. He moves with ease and decisiveness, he is very light on his feet, and he speaks with a worldly but not overbearing intelligence.

And indeed, Eli is intelligent. Though he never completed his secondary education, he is exceptionally bright and has done a great deal of reading and learning on his own. His spark of adventure has taken him all over the world, so he is extensively cultured, and always has some sort of fascinating story to tell. He is enthralled by the tiniest things, and will often take a moment to stop and watch a Yellow Swallowtail flutter across his path. (He absolutely adores butterflies.) The entire natural world fascinates him and he dislikes urbanization and pollution. He is fiercely passionate about maintaining the environment, and for that reason, he does not even own a car; he either walks or rides his bicycle wherever he goes. Always an advocate for what he believes in, Elijah is stubborn about things he is passionate about, but is never offensive about his opinion.

Eli hates small spaces more than anything else. He cannot even stand to be in his apartment with the windows closed for too long. “Manufactured" space really bothers him, and he spends as much time as he can outside, preferably somewhere as natural as possible. He loves almost all animals; he’s the type to pick up a spider in his bare hands and put it outside instead of killing it. Animals tend to like him; whatever aura he exudes around them, it seems to be calming. In the right context, he is exceptionally gentle, caring, and kind to all animals and most people.

However, Elijah is no pushover – thoroughly the opposite. Eli is usually seen as benevolent, but he is not of any specific orientation: he just is. He is more neutral than anything else. Though inherently not a bad person, he provides more for himself than the common good and does what he wants when he wants. In this respect, he is very headstrong, and values his independence and freedom over all. He resents orders, and, due to his childhood, has developed a mild authority problem. However, unfortunately for him, he always seems to end up in a position that forces him to work for someone else – the superstitious could say with surety that Eli has very bad luck in life.

Eli is a bit of a trickster. He is quite mischievous and loves to play pranks, the more elaborate and convincing, the better. Wily, crafty, and clever, Elijah is the type to think ten steps ahead of everyone else and foil the plans of others while simultaneously tangling them up in his own schemes. However, he does not believe in actually harming anyone, and therefore is decidedly not wicked; his intents are never cruel, but more lighthearted, though typically impish. Elijah is, in fact, quite elfish and naughty in nature, but he never means to hurt anyone. He has a wisdom far beyond his years (particularly after the awakening of Ariel), but also a very playful side to him that is almost childish and cannot stand to be bored or even sit still. He is constantly finding new ways to entertain himself and is very fickle; his interests often change from day to day, or even with the weather. He is capricious, erratic, moody, and picky.

Though Elijah greatly values his liberty, he is also an exceedingly loyal friend. If you need him, and he likes you, he will more than likely be there when your need for him is most dire. He’s one of the best at cheering up, but he can also be quite serious and honest when you need him to be. Eli isn’t fond of lying, so he does tend to be blunt, and it’s hard for him to sugarcoat the truth, but he will never be dishonest with a friend. He is also forgiving, and tends not to hold grudges unless something horrible was done to him or someone he loved. Also, though he may seem lackadaisical at times, he can be a fiercely hard worker when he is properly motivated.

There is something a little otherworldly about Elijah. He moves with an exceptional ease and grace, and he is always seeking out new challenges for his exceptionally limber body. He sometimes has this slight knowing look in his eyes, and he is unusually perceptive; he sees, hears, even smells everything there is to be seen, heard, or smelt. He is a trustworthy secret-keeper, but his shrewd little smile makes you wonder if he knows more about the secret than you do. Musically, artistically, and physically gifted, sometimes it seems like he can do anything, and God forbid you anger him – his fury is to be feared.

However, though he may seem impenetrable, Eli, like everyone, has weaknesses. He acts as if he is very independent and aloof – and he is, most of the time. However, there is a part of Elijah, a very small, very well-hidden part of him, that is delicate. That part of him craves acceptance and truly wants to be loved. That is the part that is continually shattered by every betrayal and abandonment. That is the part of him that sometimes keeps him away from other people, against his better judgment. Because, deep down in his heart, Elijah just needs someone to need him for him.

past
Nava von Halle was a German Jew living in Munich. She was eighteen years old when she first met Anastazy, a dashing young Polish man three years her senior, and fell for him. Of course, Anastazy was fair-haired and blue-eyed, and she was, well...she was of a considerably darker complexion, though she came from a wealthy family; she assumed he would never pay her a second glance.

But Anastazy did notice young Nava, and he was just as infatuated with her as she was with him. However, it was not until the two of them could be alone one evening that their feelings came out, and the two celebrated.

Nava’s father, Abichail von Halle, did not immediately approve of this match. Anastazy was a carpenter from the small Polish town of Bolimów, and he did not have a great deal of money to his name, nor was he actually Jewish. However, after Anastazy vowed to convert to Judaism and raise any children they had as Jews, Abichail consented, and Anastazy converted to Judaism. He and Nava moved back to Poland, where they were married; after they both gathered up some more money, they decided to move to Israel, where they purchased a small home in Tel Aviv. It was in this city that their first and only child, Elijah, was born.

There are many different kinds of Jewish families in the world, and Elijah’s was not the sort to be crushingly Orthodox. Though Elijah did go to synagogue every Saturday, participated in all the Jewish holidays, kept kosher, and was bar mitzvah’d, he otherwise led a fairly normal life. His parents were very strict about his grades, but, being intelligent, it wasn’t difficult for him to keep them up if he tried. He had friends, went to Hebrew School, did extracurriculars, and he lived the happy, average life of a young boy in Tel Aviv, until his parents decided it was time to move back to Poland.

Eli was angry and shocked. He was not keen on leaving his friends or the city in which he had been born, but his parents had decided. They moved back to Poland, where they stayed with Anastazy’s parents for a time before buying an apartment of their own. Elijah was enrolled in a Polish liceum after passing secondary exams and spent three years there, before taking his matura, or maturity examination.

However, by the time he was taking his maturity examinations, Elijah was starting to doubt if academia was the place for him. His mother, who was very well-educated, wanted a bright future for her son, in a profession that would earn him a great deal of money. His father, who was more intent on Eli’s happiness, assured him that they would support him whatever he did.

Eli refused to study to be a licentiate, something that alarmed his mother; in fact, he did not intend to pursue a secondary education at all. Over the years, he had discovered that he was talented in the arts and very physically capable, and what he most wanted to do – to his mother’s absolute horror – was join the circus.

Against Anastazy’s better judgment, Nava sent their son off to live with his grandfather in Munich. Abichail von Halle was a man hardened by years in an anti-Semetic world; he didn’t trust “goys,” as he called them, and, for that matter, he didn’t trust Elijah’s father. He said it was his father’s blood in him that made him soft and dreamy like he was. Elijah, who had always loved his father, was greatly offended by this, and he and his grandfather had an enormous fight the very first night he was in Munich, in which Abichail nearly kicked him out. But he did not – instead, he put Elijah to work in his store chain.

Forced to work in his grandfather’s store for no pay, with few breaks, Elijah knew hard work for the first time in his life. He had had a relatively pampered childhood, and his grandfather knew it, and told him quite firmly that the buck stopped there. Elijah was resentful; he grew to hate his grandfather and the work he was forced to do for him. Manual labor was not to his taste.

One day, after a particularly harsh fight with his grandfather, Eli packed his things, left the house, and ran away to join the circus that was presently in Munich. In this profession, he was happy; the circus traveled all over, all the time, and he was elated at the opportunity to see the world and do what he loved. He sent a letter home to his parents telling them that he was sorry, but he had to do what he wanted to do, and that he refused to be kept in servitude under the thumb of his demanding and verbally abusive grandfather.

However, the suffering was not yet over for Eli. While in Berlin for a performance, Elijah was confronted by his grandfather, who insisted upon his return to a “respectable life.” His grandfather, who was a very wealthy man, screamed at Eli that he himself would financially ruin the circus and make sure that Elijah never worked in showbusiness again, if that was what it would take to get his head in the right place. He insulted Eli and tore him down, hardly giving his grandson the breath to fight back as he ridiculed him in three different languages. The other performers could only look on in horror, unsure of what to do.

Then, Eli snapped. Something welled up from deep within him, and he felt his entire body explode with fury. He lifted off the ground and acquired the visage of a fearsome monster, one with great black wings that roared, ”I’LL DO WHAT I PLEASE!” Abichail was so alarmed by this sudden transformation that his old heart gave way.

As Elijah sank to the ground and returned to normal, he watched the paramedics swarm around his lifeless grandfather and looked around at the other performers, all of whom where staring at him in horror. Terrified and ashamed of himself, Elijah fled right then and there, hardly taking the time to pack his things before he boarded a bus and set his destination for anywhere but Berlin.

present
Elijah was confused and mortified by what had occurred to him. Horrified that he would be found out for a freak, he moved to the bustling New York, New York – not because he liked cities, but just because he wanted a place where he could disappear. It was in the darkness of his new studio apartment one night that the spirit Ariel appeared to him and explained things to him: who he was, what he was, why he had reacted so vividly to his grandfather’s challenges to him back in Berlin. At first, Eli denied the existence of Ariel. He attempted to ignore the beautiful, androgynous spirit flitting about him, unseen by anyone but himelf, for weeks.

However, Ariel at last got through to his reincarnation, and Elijah accepted the evidence that Ariel had provided him. (Ariel even pointed out the indicator in Eli’s own name: his middle name, Ari’el.) Eli could see, after all, no other rational explanation being presented to him for his alarming transformation in the circus tent.

As he tries to adapt to the newly discovered knowledge that he is the reincarnation of a literary spirit, Elijah now seeks new friendships and new recreational activities. He works as a street performer and at local circuses; having been trained in acrobatics (including trapeze, contortionism, and tightrope walking), he is an exceptionally versatile performer and can usually find somewhere that his talents are useful. He makes a very small salary, but he is happy, and he was thinking of writing home to his family soon. He just hopes they can forgive him for what he’s done.

family
Nava Lenska [nee. von Halle] – mother, 42
Anastazy Lenska – father, 45, carpenter
Abichail von Halle – maternal grandfather, deceased

likes
Fancy coffee drinks
Cake
Candy
Chocolate
Caramel
Ice cream
Flying
Magic
New physical challenges
Aquariums
Animals, particularly butterflies
Nature
Quiet
Fire
Freedom and independence
Birds
Antiques
Swimming
Thunderstorms, snow…weather.

dislikes
Tasteless food
Sitting still
Small spaces
Being underground
Large crowds
Pollution
The smell of exhaust fumes
Small spaces
Witch-related anything
Prejudice
Any sort of slavery or forced role
Cruelty

other notes Eli is a vegetarian and does stick to a kosher diet, as he is still a practicing Jew. He also has a heavy Eastern European accent and speaks Polish and Hebrew fluently, as well as German and some Yiddish. His English is good, but not perfect. He has been learning magic from Ariel lately and has been taking to it well.

...literature*

book title Shakespeare’s The Tempest
backstory Ariel is a powerful spirit that lives on a distant tropical island. When the dark witch Sycorax was banished to the island, pregnant, she forced Ariel into her servitude, but he was too pure to carry out her evil deeds. Sycorax, furious, painfully imprisoned Ariel in a pine tree for twelve years until Prospero, the former Duke of Milan and a talented magician, reaches the island after being banished himself and frees Ariel. In return, however, he requests Ariel’s servitude, and thus, Ariel must serve Prospero. When a ship arrives in the midst of a storm, Ariel (on Prospero’s instruction) rescues the mariners, including Prince Ferdinand, the son of Alonso, the King. Throughout the story, Ariel helps Prospero confound (but not kill) his enemies, and bring Ferdinand together with Prospero’s beautiful daughter, Miranda. At the end of the play, Ariel assists in arranging a whimsical wedding for Ferdinand and Miranda; and then, at the very end, Prospero at last releases Ariel from his service, and the spirit is finally free.

...roleplayer*

name Zelda Zelda Zelda Zelda Zelda
age ega
gender redneg
rp experience ecnceirepxe pr
how you found ouac cauo dnuof uoy woh
rp sample elpmas pr

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