Name: Irina Ponomarenko
Age: 33
Species: Initia
Elements: Earth and Air
Family: N/A
Faceclaim: Anne Hataway

The U.S.S.R. fought on the side of the Unied States in World War II, but relations between the two powers and their allies became strained soon after the war ended in 1945. These tensions led to the Cold War in 1947.

Irina is the product of a supernatural science project, called project Hercules, to make a strong soldier and was born around 1984. Her birth mother, Vera, was apparently approached by scientists posing as a couple who needed a surrogate mother to deliver their child via in-vitro fertilization.

Both in-vitro fertilization samples had a different supernatural gene attached to them. Realizing that the children inside her were special and possibly in danger, Vera ran and delivered twins: Irina and Natalya in a private practice in what is now called Russia. Unable to provide for them and knowing the danger the children were in, she gave them away.

The twins became orphans at the age of 7 in 1991 when the Cold war ended due to the Soviet Union being broken up. Natalya was eventually taken in by Mrs.Volvakova, while her twin sister Irina was transported and given to a convent in what was now known as Ukraine.

While in the convent, although treated badly, Irina learned many things she could use later in life. Not one for prayer; Irina read many books, learned to knit & sew and became a decent cook in the kitchen. While working in the kitchen she use to feed the mice that scurried around the dry goods shelf. Eventually though the mice breed and became a problem. That was when the Matron of the Sisters brought in a cat and called it Judas.

Just a little over the age of 8 was when Irina witnessed her first murder. Cat and mouse, it’s claws and fangs trapping the mouse. Judas then slurped and scoffed the mouse whole, as if he hadn’t eaten for weeks. This moment traumatized Irina and she avoided cats ever since. Seeing them as evil nasty creatures.

Irina of course pleaded with the nuns that the mice were also Gods creatures and had every right to be there; that Judas again was betraying Jesus. This only insulted the Matron as they were the one that brought Judas into their home and they thought that the young girl was insinuating that they were metaphorically setting up for Jesus to be murdered once more. This of course led to one of the many scolding she had received.

None of the scoldings matched the one received when she first came to the nunnery. Not one matched the searing pain of her flesh being branded and melted away by the mark of the church on the back of her upper left thigh. The next few days after that were also brutal as she had manners and how to avoid temptation from sin bet into her. Each time she got something wrong, the Sisters would go for her not yet healed branding mark. Making her relive the pain.

It was at age 10 when Irina was strong enough that she became the church bell ringer or ponomarenko for all the mass’ the nuns attended. She didn’t mind and found it quite fun as she was pulled up from the floor and placed down on the ground again as the bell out weighed her with each tug.

Like the matryoshkas of her home country, the young girl always knew people had many layers or different sides to them. Some undiscovered. That was why she was quite forgiving towards people especially Dasha. Dasha was new to the order, in her twenties and receiving training as a novice to become a nun. One night after Irina had spilled the borscht they were going to have for supper, Dasha was given the task to scold her.

She could see it in her face; Dasha didn’t want to scold the child but, when did start to beat her that was when the novices face changed. It became manic, like she was enjoying it. Afterwards though you could see the regret in her face as she cradled the girl spouting nothing but apologies.

The next day the torture continued with both Dasha and Irina being referred to as “Mucha”. This was a nickname in Ukraine often given to an irritating person or someone considered of no importance. It comes from the word mucha, meaning fly. Irina did everything she could to prove she wasn’t mucha and even now uses the nickname to prove that she owned the nickname and the name didn’t own her or hinder her in any way.   

Eventually, in 1996 when she was 12, Irina was found by Tomas and Grace Chambers. Under their tutelage, Irina was told about the others of her kind. The kind that were made to be apart of an army to win wars, the perfect soldiers. This then led her to believe that she was the original and free soul among them as they had all gone into the training to become said soldiers all across the world.

Irina was then harshly trained to be a killer, particularly a killer of her kind. The supernatural soldiers that all started out in the lab in the U.S.S.R. When she was 15 she had completed her training but it still had not occurred to her that she still didn’t know what supernatural species she was meant to be. She still thought of herself as human.

In Europe, she was able to hunt down and kill three people from project Hercules: Janika Laneshka, Arya Giordano, and Daniel Fournier. She also found Alex Obinger, who then traveled to Canada. Irina and her mentors followed him there, where they found many others.

~

At age 17, Irina finally slowed down the speed her life was going at. She now had time to stop and think. She wondered about what had happened to her sister Natalya all these years. If she had become a stereotypical ballerina from their homeland. It seemed likely as Natalya always seemed to be the more feminine, posed and charming of the two. Even Irina could tell and she only had memories of the two of them from ages 4-7. Her thoughts also turned to Vera who had tried to give them a better life all those years ago. Wondering if she was still alive and well making pryanik like she had when they were kids.

It was for this reason that Irina liked to attend ballet recitals and imagine one of the dancers to be Natalya. That she liked eating gingerbread men, even though they weren’t the same as pryanik. The reason that she said winter was her favourite season and she loved the Canadian snow. Because she wanted to be taken back to her roots and to Russia.

When she was 18 she decided to get her high school education online. She was bright enough to understand everything you’d learn in middle school except struggled a little with maths past the basic levels. Everything from how money worked to long division she understood, it was after that when she started to get a little fuzzy.

She eventually went on to do a bachelors degree in community college but gave up after a year and a half not having any interest in what she was studying. She instead took every odd job she could and even managed to learn to play the piano at one of the waitressing jobs she did at a fancy hotel. She managed to pay Tomas and Grace Chambers back every cent she owed them for taking care of her over the years.

It was in 2007 at age 23 when she finally found out what made her a supernatural creature. One night after working she came home and flopped onto her mattress that was on the floor, due to not having a bed frame, and she felt a burning sensation in her lower back. She thought it was just from carrying heavy boxes with the shipping company she works for or that she had landed on the bed wrong. Really though it was her Initia tattoo.  

While in her new home in North Coast California, Irina made her succulent bloom before her eyes while in her studio apartment. She hadn’t noticed the tattoo until one of her fellow employee’s pointed it out during a night shift at a dive bar. Asking her where she got the “tramp stamp”. Investigating it she found that others had the same tattoo in the same place.

The next account she had with her powers were in January of 2010, she was visiting some friends in Humboldt County and at 4pm, she had caused an earthquake just offshore. She wasn’t sure how she did it or why it happened but one thing she knew for certain was she had caused earthquake Eureka. Irina herself though didn’t experience the earthquake as she passed out from the use of her powers. She was lucky enough to have not been crushed by a building.

In May of that same year U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev set up an agreement to reduce nuclear weapons. The two countries she loved were finally starting to get along after so much brutal history between them.

Through social media she had found many other Initia. They helped her put together the species history and culture, discovering yet another layer to herself like a matryoshka. She began moving eastward towards a temple in Nevada where she learned to control her powers from a Sensai in 2013, training in the mountains.

In 2015 when the comet hit, Irina was again a little thrown off balance with her powers as she gained an ability to use the element of Air. The night the comet hit she was at a house party celebrating a novice in the temple completing their training and passing the test of combat. Everyone in the house dropped and passed out. When she awoke she had a pounding headache and she was trying to make her way outside for some fresh air.

With her eyes squinted she tripped over someone on the way out the screen door, lunging forward she put out her arms to protect herself from the fall. In the processes she managed to project a blast of air from her hands to knock someone backwards off the patio and onto the grass below.

When the whole house awoke again, they turned on the news and found out that the comet had come down in Evermore Colorado. This was the first time Irina had heard of the city. She heard the murmurs around her about how the city was filled with supernatural creatures. That the Magister there was young and the Initia tribe was also very small.

Irina knew that this was the next place she must travel to. She spent a year or so tidying up loose ends and giving away the things she didn’t need. Travelling to Evermore with as little as possible, all her possessions fitting into a car she had hired, she made it there by nightfall. 

|| Recklessly impulsive || Possessive of people || Overbearing || Afraid of cats || Nostalgic || Forgiving ||

|| Good all-rounder || Nomad || Culturally proud || Independent ||