Monika Corvo
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Pansexual
Role: The Timekeeper's Descendant
Relationship with Ability: Telling the past of any item or person is quite a straight-forward ability. Although, depending on the item, it could be hundreds or thousands of years old. Take for example, a rock, sitting dormant and eroding, who knows how many times it has been kicked, thrown or stepped on. So, absorbing that much information in one touch can cause quite a big headache for Monika. That doesn't stop her though, her primary ability has prompted her to be much more curious about the world around her, and also is the reason for her love of collecting coins, keys, watches, rocks, minerals, anything really. She also sometimes used to start listing random facts about a person's past if they were bothering her, in hopes they would leave her alone. It worked. Although, she has never seen this ability as anything other than a fun pastime.
Her secondary ability, which she got recently, Monika hasn't tried to use it yet, and she has some reservations about this ability.
Appearance:
Being a little shorter than the average, Monika stands at five feet two, which often makes her frustrated when she is unable to reach the top cupboard in the kitchen or push her way through a crowd of people. Having little fat or muscle on her build certainly doesn’t help either. She has a figure shaped like a rectangle, with no discernible or defined curves, with narrow shoulders and small hips, that make for an overall balanced silhouette. Her arms are spindly and thin, with the skin being quite fragile and easily bruised, leading to her mainly wearing long-sleeved clothing. Her hands, likewise are bony and delicate, but with calluses around her fingers from holding a pen for too long.
Despite still being a teenager, Monika appearance suggests that she is older, appearing raddled, largely due to her sedentary lifestyle. Her skin is milky pale and surprisingly soft to the touch. It burns in the sun instantaneously if a large amount of sunscreen isn’t applied beforehand. Monika’s natural curls are as dark as charcoal, paired with her fair skin, they make for quite a stunning contrast. Her hair is thick and coarse too, reaching a little bit beneath her shoulders. Unfortunately, Monika can’t be bothered to take proper care of her hair or even brush it on some days, and it usually just ends up being frizzy, brittle and dry, resulting in a chaotic mess of locks and split ends. But, she just puts it in a low ponytail, and calls it a day. As for the hair that’s not on her scalp (or body hair), she doesn’t have a lot of it, but it’s somewhat dark and noticeable, so she just shaves it whenever it gets to the point that it starts bothering her.
Monika’s face matches her perfectly. Deep and dark circles crease under her eyes, most likely from lack of sleep. She doesn’t concern herself with covering them up using make-up, not that it would make much of a difference, since she doesn’t know how to use make-up. Her eyelashes are long, and her eyebrows are thin and patchy yet dark, softly arched towards the ends. Monika’s face is slim and gaunt, with sunken cheeks and rosy lips that are slightly bigger in the upper part, making for uneven lips that are heavier on the top. Her forehead is the perfect size, not too narrow nor long, however her nose is faintly hooked, with the tip pointing downwards.
In reality, Monika would seem quite plain if it weren’t for her eyes. They are her most striking feature. Vibrant, bright pools of emerald mixed with every other shade of green. They also seem to change their color depending on her mood, when she’s excited or inspired, that’s when they shine the most and she gets this peculiar glint in her eyes. However, recently, her left eye has become quite irritating and has started itching, some even noting that the pupil in her left eye is vaguely different from the right one.
Attire & Accessories:
Monika is nearsighted in one eye, and farsighted in the other, so she can’t function effectively without her glasses, and although she detests wearing them, it beats wearing contacts any day since they dry out and irritate her eyes. Her most recent pair are rimless and oval-shaped frames, since she broke her last pair, and the one before that, and the one… you get the point.
Monika doesn’t go out much, so her wardrobe is not very diverse, since she doesn’t really have any need for it to be. She is also extremely sensitive to cold temperatures, so she usually dislikes wearing short-sleeved shirts or shorts. Her clothes usually consist of oversized hoodies, cardigans and turtlenecks. As for pants, she just puts on some sweatpants, or if she decides to go out, she’ll put on the only pair of trousers she owns.
Personality: One look at Monika, and you can immediately distinguish her unsociable nature. From her stiff physique and restrained mannerisms to her controlled and discreet body language. Chances are, if she walked into a room, you probably wouldn’t even notice her presence, or if you do, and you decide to try to talk to her, she would probably give you a confused face and walk away. First impressions would be that she is vain or disdainful, and many don’t make it past first impressions. In actuality, Monika is quite a nervous and reserved person, especially in social situations, since she never had many friends or never got out of her small apartment very much, she ended up being quite uncommunicative and withdrawn.
Growing up, she never longed for company or friendship, and she was quite content to spend all her time at home reading all kinds of books, resulting in her having an overactive imagination as a child. Soon, she idolized the heroes, wanting to be valiant and daring like them, and longed for the adventure they were having the in the books she read, which lead to her reading even more books to satisfy her need to experience something new and exciting. But that need was never quite fulfilled, and she tucked it away far away in the back of her mind.
She didn’t do bad in school, actually she was quite good, getting perfect scores in most of her subjects. Not that she really cared, but being praised by her grandfather gave her the motivation to study. Although, Monika is a fairly rational person, she prides herself on being logical, and she is usually able to solve problems with ease, if she can’t, she begins to feel frustrated and annoyed, driving herself crazy until she comes up with a solution.
Speaking of, Monika does tend to fixate on certain things, like little details or unimportant and trivial minutiae. At which point, she’ll become immersed in and infatuated with said thing until she finds an answer or until she can’t stand it anymore and gives up, which rarely happens, since she is quite stubborn. She is also a very detail-oriented person, which is a strength in itself since she’ll notice little patterns others wouldn’t or would discard as insignificant.
One thing you can probably notice about Monika is how restless she is. She is always fidgety, playing with a strand of her hair, tapping her foot or fumbling about with her hands. This often happens when she is feeling anxious or excited. Though, she always seems a bit anxious and on edge, probably due to her cautious and uncertain character. She has a hard time trusting others, and has a tendency to second-guess herself and others.
Even though her outside appearance suggests a frigid demeanor. Close relatives and acquaintances know Monika as an excitable and eager person when in her element, some would even go as far as to call her eccentric. On rare occasions, when she truly gets excited about a passion of hers, she can ramble on about it for hours if given the opportunity, or when properly motivated and inspired, one can most likely convince her to even get out of her apartment and experience the world a little bit.
Likes:
↠ Books (Unsurprisingly)
↠ History – anything from reading historical books to watching documentaries or videos on the Internet
↠ Autumn – when it’s still not freezing, but the agonizing hot and sunny days are over, Monika considers it the perfect weather
↠ Journaling
↠ Collecting odd trinkets
Dislikes:
↠ Loud music
↠ Extreme weather – she can’t stand neither hot nor freezing weather – although if she had to choose, she would probably choose colder weather
↠ Crowds
↠ Irrational people
Strengths:
Analytical: When faced with a problem, Monika is very meticulous at noticing little details and coming up with solutions from a logical and objective perspective.
Memory: Monika has an excellent memory, and she can recall things that she’s watched and read or certain events with extreme accuracy and precision.
Knowledgeable: Looks like not having any friends paid off! Monika is effectively a walking encyclopedia from reading so many books and articles and having watched so many documentaries.
Weaknesses: Not Seeing the Bigger Picture: Because she often gets caught up with in the particulars and specifics of a certain problem, she fails to see the bigger picture, often being too preoccupied or tunnel visioned.
Bad Vision: Without her eyeglasses, Monika cannot function at all. She would probably walk right into a street light, hit her head and faint. She is dependent on her eyeglasses.
Uncommunicative: Yeah, well, maybe staying indoors all the time wasn’t the brightest idea. Monika can’t socialize at all, and would rather just run away when overwhelmed with large amounts of strangers.
Affiliations: Aside from her grandfather, Monika doesn't have any affiliations.
Backstory:
Being born to an absent father and a non-committal mother, Monika was raised for the main part by her grandfather. He was and still is her role model. He taught Monika everything he knew. They lived in a small, cramped apartment, with Monika’s mother visiting every few months to leave a check, but that was it. As a child, she spent her time with her grandfather, reading. She recalls the times that he used to read her bedtime stories and fairytales most fondly.
Monika never had many luxuries growing up, they weren’t dirt poor, but they certainly weren’t swimming in cash either. She didn’t really mind though, as long as she had a book, she was happy. She remembers how she used to save up all her allowance so that she could buy a new book. However, once her mother disappeared and stopped leaving money for Monika and her grandfather some two years ago, paying rent was noticeably harder. Monika was forced to take a part-time job.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last very long and she was soon sacked. So, she turned to doing odd jobs mostly over the Internet, and selling her collections of coins, small trinkets and jewelry which she had accumulated over the years. She even thought about going into the fortune-telling business one time, but decided against it. Most recently, she is still in her last year of high-school, working and studying hard, hoping to get a scholarship to a good university, finish as soon as possible and get a decently paid job, so she can live out her life with her grandfather in peace and quiet.
RP Example:
Activity Level:
I would say around a 6 at the moment, because of school, but I should be much more active in the upcoming weeks!
Trivia:
↠ She is definitely more of a cat person than a dog person. Not that she hates dogs, she is just scared by the amount of energy they have.
↠ She has a habit of biting off her fingernails when bored or nervous.
↠ She is a hoarder. Her room is filled to the brim with books, not organized in any sort of order. Resembling a library hit by a tornado. She probably has five books minimum scattered about on her bed at all times. Not to mention all the collections she has. Needless to say, she doesn’t invite anyone to her apartment.
↠ Even though everything would suggest otherwise, she is a pretty good cook.
Other:
I am pretty sure this is finished. It's quite late and I'm quite tired, and I haven't proofread this, so I'm sorry if something doesn't make sense. Let me know if I need to change anything.