Vasily Kozlov

Name: Vasily Yurievich Kozlov

Age: 24 – born 10th of December 826

Group: Survey Corps

Rank: Soldier

Appearance:
Vasily is a young man of noticeably short stature, standing only 163cm (5’4). But due to many years’ worth of acrobatics and military training he is also very fit. He weighs about 65 kilos (143lbs). He is rather light skinned, but has freckles sprinkled over his nose cheekbones and arms.

Vasily is a natural redhead with wavy medium length hair. It is shorter from sides and back, but Vasily has left a fringe to right side. He possesses mildly round facial features with large expressive dark brown eyes and a snubbed nose. He hopes he could grow a beard to look more mature, but unfortunately it grows in queer uneven blots – leaving him little to no other choice than shave it all off.

Most of time Vasily wears his Survey Corps uniform with additional lightly padded leather gloves due to his habit to land on his hands almost as often as feet when using 3DMG. Outside of active duty he dresses in simple – if not shabby – pioneer clothing.

Identity:
First thing people tend to notice about Vasily’s personality is his overflowing self-confidence. He is convinced that with effort he can achieve anything. And he has overcome life’s obstacles with minimal setbacks giving him no reason to doubt himself. The shadow side of this is that Vasily has a habit of showing off and thrill-seeking. The main reason he even joined Survey Corps was for the thrill of fighting titans close and personal.

Another noticeable thing about Vasily is his optimism – that at least partly springs from his self-assuredness. No matter what life throws at him it cannot wear down his pure good attitude for long. Although this can make him somewhat insensitive when confronting others who are in low spirits. Generally, though Vasily is amiable and sociable yet a very tactless fellow, who does not hesitate to engage with anyone. He is also chattery, often ending up rambling on of whatever he comes up.

Despite coming across as an affable person Vasily is lacking in empathy, and he frequently feels frustrated for being incapable of sympathising with others. Neither he feels much remorse. It is hard to say how Vasily ended up like this or does he have a natural amoral bend. Nevertheless, he feels no regret or guilt of his actions. While he does not go out of his way to harm others, efficiency to meet his ends means the most to him.

Joining a circus at young age gave him an extremely relaxed upbringing. With little rules to bind him Vasily never grew out of the childish recklessness. He prefers to call himself spontaneous, yet he comes across flighty and giddy. One way his whimsical nature shows itself is how he falls in love at first sight – about every other week. Yet he always believes it to be true love – until his heart gets broken. But still Vasily remains a laidback man, who does not mind making a fool of himself. He just does not take himself or life too seriously.

Preferences:

-Likes:
New experiences: Being easily impressed and graving for adventure, new experiences are the joy of Vasily’s life. Visiting different places, meeting new people or discovering something – Vasily will jump at the chance of it.

Fruits of hard work: Being (selectively) industrious himself Vasily finds almost anything that people have attained through hard work impressive whether it is skills, wealth, products of art or something else entirely.

Philosophical conversations: Despite being illiterate and lacking any kind of proper education Vasily is quite curious individual and often ends up pondering about himself others and the world.

Vasily is also fond of socialising, circus, love stories, superstitions, tall people, insects, dairy products, bunk beds and books with lot of pictures.

-Dislikes:
Being belittled: Vasily cannot stand it when people dismiss him or his efforts. After all hard work and believing in oneself are cores of Vasily’s life philosophy.

Sulking: Particularly the aimless kind. Moping with no desire to make things better is waste of time and energy according to Vasily.

Animals: This distaste seems to be mutual as Vasily originally came to dislike animals due to hostility he seems to attract from them.

Vasily also has a dislike for lack of activity, swearing, gossiping, farm work, writing reports, staying up late, hemming trousers and high shelves.

-Fears:
Fire: Especially poorly controlled ones. Vasily also links fire to Samson the Blaze, Circus Curio’s late fire breather, who caused much unease and even fear in many other circus kids along Vasily.

Mice and Rats: Vasily’s mother used to warn him that rats are filthy and carry disease. Having lived most of his life in poor sanitary conditions steering clear of mice and rats has become deep rooted in Vasily’s psyche.

-Goal(s): Fight titans, earn enough money to support his family and restart the Circus Curio with as many old members as he can gather.

Backstory:
Vasily was the fourth born child of Yuri and Katarina Kozlov – whose big family would eventually grow to have in total of eight children: Ivan, Andrei, Katya, Vasily, Irina, Dina, Lina and Mikhail. Yuri Kozlov was a proud owner of a generational dairy farm in a small Valdkond village, North East of Wall Maria. With so many mouths to feed their already modest earnings were always a concern. Nevertheless, their family life was peaceful. Or as peaceful as it could be with a rascal like Vasily. Whether it was teasing his siblings, pranking neighbours or just sneaking off from farm work, Vasily was always causing problems. No punishment could remedy him.

When he was six a travelling circus called the Marchioness Schulz’s Circus Curio came to a nearby town what also Kozlovs went to watch. And Vasily was exhilarated! Even after the show he could not stop talking about how amazing it was or how he wanted to become a circus performer too. At first his parents thought it just as a childish whim – but Vasily was so insistent that Yuri and Katarina grew worried and outright denied him. Vasily had never been exactly rule abiding, hence he was already prepared to run away with the circus. That it is until his father called him for a long heart to heart talk about Vasily’s future. Mustering all his motivation and reasoning he managed to get his father’s blessing. Already few days later Vasily departed with the Circus Curio.

At the Marchioness Schulz’s Circus Curio Vasily met many new people. With some he became friends like Wise Vadoma, Rose and Grace, with some rivals just as Drake Boswell, as well as gained mentor figure from Petros, who would eventually teach him acrobatics. The next coming years Vasily spent training to become an acrobat and honing his athletic skills and agility.

Vasily was thirteen when got caught up in an incident with a fellow circus performer Samson the Blaze, who was famous for his superb fire performances. But among the Circus Curio’s children he was infamous for an utterly different reason – namely for molesting them. One day Samson invited Vasily to privacy of his tent. It took a while for Vasily to figure out Samson’s intentions, yet he was quick to resist them, making the situation escalate. A struggle followed and Vasily pushed him. He did not think it was even that strong of a push – but Samson fell, hit his head and died.

He was not feeling exactly sad for Samson. Nor did he regret what he had done. He was only afraid of being found out. But Vasily was neither afraid or hesitant to get rid of the evidence and douse Samson in the very same chemicals he used for his acts. So, he drenched the body before lidding it and fled the scene. Soon after the Military Police stepped in to investigate, but they had too little evidence left to work with from ashen remains. In the end the case remained unsolved – and Vasily got away scot-free. However, Drake Boswell, who had become Samson’s protégé, saw Vasily being the last person with Samson and kept blaming Vasily for his death. What had once been a youthful rivalry between them turned to outright hostility. However, Vasily put the incident behind him, continuing to train and perform as an acrobat for many years to come.

In 845, with the fall of Wall Maria, handful of the Curio’s lead performers and the ringmaster got caught up in the chaos and succumbed to titans. The remaining members tried to maintain their eclectic family and livelihood. But ultimately, they failed – and everyone went to their separate ways. Having nowhere else to go Vasily returned to his family. But Vasily’s biological family did not survive without loses either: His older sister Katya along her husband and child perished in hands of titans, and later Ivan met the same fate in the civilian attempt at retaking the Wall Maria. Miraculously Vasily’s father Yuri survived the attempt but lost his left foot and it would take years for Yuri to regain his jovial nature.

Rest of the Kozlovs had evacuated to Wall Rose and ended up doing fieldwork among many other refugees. But Vasily could not imagine spending rest of his life ploughing dirt – he wanted something more! Yet he had no education or a craft to speak off – all he had was his physical prowess. But then his youngest little brother Mikhail gave him an idea: In the military he could make use of his acrobatic skills!

Promptly enlisting to Trainee Corps with his little sister Irina Vasily did not expect the challenges he would encounter. The physical aspect of the training was not an issue but getting used to strict and authoritative environment took a toll on Vasily. Another hurdle were the classroom lectures: Never having been to school before Vasily nearly failed to graduate because of his horrendous grades. But with perseverance and some help from friends and Irina he pulled through. Once the time for graduation came Vasily had no hesitation to join the Survey Corps. Unlike Irina, who had earned a high enough grade to join the Military Police. Albeit he joined the military for money, he might as well fight titans and have some real excitement for a pay check!

As he had thought, fighting titans was the greatest thrill he could ever hope for! But it was lonely. Vasily missed those idyllic days with his friends. Also, the military life was way too restrictive for his taste. He wanted to return to his old circus days. But he needed people, more than just his old co-performers, and money. Now that Marchioness Schulz was not sponsoring them, they needed lots of money. And so Vasily devised a plan to persuade old companions to join his ambition, as well as begun working other jobs along his military career. Two years later he still works towards his goal with an unwavering determination.

Stats:

Strength: 6
Agility: 16
Intellect: 3

Extra:
I would like to request in total three extra points – one for strength and two for agility – due to Vasily’s training from early age and an over decade long career as a professional acrobat. I think his personality has faults to balance it out.

APPROVED

I can find no faults with your character, honestly. It's unique, exceptionally explained, and well rounded out. The attribute points are also perfectly in order.