NAME. aleksy ivanovich tarasov. NICKNAME. lyosha. (lyosha is far more liberal about allowing people to use his diminutive nickname. since working more internationally, he prefers it, although he may be less so inclined with other russians). AGE. twenty-seven. GENDER. male. SEXUALITY. bisexual.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
APPEARANCE. described by others to have the appearance of a golden retriever, lyosha certainly gives off those vibes. with big, round light eyes and a white smile (with slightly sharp canines and incisors). he has stubble on his face, much of the time, and a slight ruddiness to his face that reads as health and a certain level of joviality. he has a light golden tan, not deadly pale, as he enjoys to go outside to run or just to take walks, the sort of person to appreciate nature. his hair is a golden blonde, almost strawberry, and his eyes have a brightness to them. he has a solid, muscular build, rather sculpted thanks to a dedicated exercise regimen, rather tall at 6'3" of height. his hair is short and perfectly styled, usually, only messy when he has to work late (it is parted on the side). he wears dog tags frequently as well as an iron bracelet. lyosha is one of those people who is said to "always have a smile on his face." this does seem to be somewhat true. he has a very thick russian accent, but has carefully practiced his enunciation. he has a few scars from former missions, namely, a thick, coarse one on his calf, and another on his side. he has scars on his arms and back from cigarette burns as a child.
PERSONALITY. lyosha has an electric personality. he has been described as a golden retriever in terms of his personality too, and once he realized what it meant, couldn't exactly find it in him to disagree-- except on one point. lyosha is bright and friendly, a natural extrovert who could find something to talk about with anyone. generalizably, people like him. they think he's sweet and caring and funny, a light-hearted person, the sort who never takes anything too seriously. that's where they're wrong. they think he's dumb, a himbo, if you will, but in reality, lyosha is smart. he just tempers parts of his personality to get along better with people. it's better to laugh and grin and be friendly than it is to act all upset all the time, no matter how justifiable either reaction be. he learned it from hiding the reality of his home life as a child. he tends to be a secretive person, in true form as an intelligence officer, and often quite deceptive too, if not for good intentions. he can be a disaster at times. his work relies more on his personality, on that ease and affability that is so unique to lyosha, because if it relied on paperwork, he'd be out of a job. he's messy, his handwriting is terrible, and his uniform is always ajar. he exploded something in the microwave once. he can even act on impulse at times, and regardless of whether it's a good impulse or not, it's still dangerously unpredictable.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
BACKSTORY. born in a small town in russia, one of the most debt-ridden in the country, known as kyzyl, aleksy was born into a bad situation, a baby his teenaged mother was unprepared to have or to raise, and one who she struggled to even try to raise. his teenaged father was barely in the picture and moved provinces without telling anyone when lyosha was still a baby, and then, well, she essentially neglected him, not out of malice, but more so because she did not know any better. lyosha was a genius child, clever from a young age, and yet, she had no idea what to do with it or with him. she was addicted to drugs, starting when he was three, after a serious injury led her to seek out painkillers. lyosha was often alone, often reading by himself or playing sports with other kids, staying at their houses a lot as they felt bad for him. soon he learned to lie and say that he was fine with a grin to avoid the stain of pity. lyosha put up a cover to lie about having the perfect life. he was popular in school with his classmates, but wasted potential (because his living situation was unstable, and it was hard for him to do homework). he played sports, was handsome, dated even from middle school, and was always invited to parties, and yet he felt like no one really knew him. he went to a public school, a long walk away from his home, and yet stayed in the same province for high school, becoming the local sports star at both volleyball and wrestling. he was accepted, when he applied, after taking school more seriously, to the naval academy in the united states. he was nervous leaving his mother there, who was struggling financially, addicted, and angry at him, saying he didn't care about her if he left. but he knew he wanted something more. an opportunity in the united states. he moved and she cut him off and he doesn't know what became of her, but it has led to a lot of bad emotions ever since then. he was moved to the united states. he was homesick and grieving the loss of his relationship, and in a whole new environment where suddenly, the work was harder and people actually wanted to learn, rather than just skate by. it was nerve wracking. he was helped by an upperclassman, evgeny, the only other russian at the academy that year. and they were from the same small town. they helped each other feel more at home, relying on each other and eventually becoming the best of friends. lyosha was damn popular at the academy once he let the homesickness give way, and allowed himself to show his personality a little. he was seen as bright, friendly, and popular, just as beloved as he had been in high school. he even walked onto the volleyball team. and he had leagues of friends. lyosha had a crush on evgeny from the beginning, and used to joke about how he should just date him, as the only two to understand russian anyway, even being from the same hometown. eventually, the year he joined the academy, lyosha asked him out on a real date with flowers hidden behind his back until evgeny said yes. they started dating soon afterwards. evgeny graduated and lyosha was there alone, as evgeny went back to russia to work as a pilot for a while, eventually entering UNISED and working in their space division, as lyosha joined him in due time. lyosha worked special forces, particularly on mars, serving several tours. this affable and friendly nature of his made him great at intelligence. people want to trust him. people even often underestimate his intelligence and think they're outsmarting him. he was gone quite frequently, but tried to make his time home special, and really tried to compartmentalize in order to keep from sharing too much about what was going on in mars (even though the instability was really bad at times). he worked intelligence, often having to hide, having to observe and snipe and make a lot of decisions about who he ought to support and why. he got returned to earth when evgeny was diagnosed with cancer, wanting to be there for him (and luckily, his tour happened to end within a few weeks of it, because he was not married to him, and thus wouldn't have qualified for, say, family leave. he helped take care of him, but things weren't the same when he recovered, because zhenya was recovering from the effects of cancer on both his psyche and his physicality, and lyosha had just come back from mars (where things were pretty... not good, to say it lightly)... and he doesn't know why, but they just started arguing. and lyosha could tell that zhenya was just using work as a way to avoid actually facing his problems and actually focusing on getting better, instead just panicking about his prestige, his reputation... well, lyosha got another deployment, and zhenya said he was the one who was working all the time, not him, and they fought and broke up (and zhenya took the dog). lyosha was deployed back to mars, this time grieving his relationship, and that was tough. not only emotionally, but also with the situation around them... he certainly struggled, to put it nicely. lyosha however also distinguished himself. he came up on the right side of one of the power struggles in a mars settlement, and distinguished himself for bravery, taking on an intelligence mission no one else wanted to do. he was subsequently asked to come to this mission, and well, with nothing else to do and nothing to go home to, lyosha didn't have to think before signing the bottom line.
OTHER. lyosha is airborne. lyosha is pretty good at sports, even now. lyosha is allergic to peanuts. lyosha speaks russian, english, as well as moderately fluent russian sign language. he has some unresolved issues with trauma.
