Name: Anushka (Anne) Katherine-Morgan-Rose Whiting
Age [appearance]: 6yrs
Age [actual]: 5yrs and three quarters
Gender: Female
Species: Human
Hair: Shaved to the scalp with a dark stubble of unidentifiable colour.
Eyes: Big for her small face and very dark. They are green filmed and large white cataracts swim within them.
Frame: Short and slender, sickly even, with body proportions that indicate her bones still have a lot of growing to do. 2 ft. 10 in. 39lbs.
Tattoos/Distinguishing Marks: None other then seemingly ever present grazes on the elbows and knees.
Personality: Anushka (Anne) Katherine-Morgan-Rose Whiting has a very dreary outlook on life. The glass is always half empty with her and this pessimistic outlook creeps it’s way into everything she does. Because of this little Annie can be quite honestly surprised that you came back after going shopping, as she had previously convinced herself that you must have certainly died while out. Despite this Miss Whiting tries not let herself dampen a room. She is very sensitive to other people’s mood and goes to extreme lengths to please them, although she’s not a very good liar.
She is disturbingly mature for her age, and understands the more adult complexities of life so well that her opinions on them come across as having an almost child like simplicity.
While at the same time Anne is quite a daydreamer. In fact most of her waking, as well as sleeping, hours seem to be spent in wonderland. This does not make her less observant, it just makes her difficult to communicate with. Asking for directions to the subway can have you travelling through a gumdrop forest and down into the caves of the fierce dragon. Of course she’ll expect you won’t survive the journey.
She is very mistrusting of people and animals, expecting they want to do her harm. She is easily intimidated as her imagination carries things out of proportion. She tries to feel brave, but in the end all she amounts to is a small child.
History: In her short life Anushka has accomplished a great deal. Born somewhere in Russia to a poor family, she spent the first two years of her life in poverty. In those two years Anushka had taught herself to talk and read without any apparent aid from her parents. A mind like a sponge, Anushka was able to distinguish twelve thousand shades of each of the primary colours, recite by heart any book she had ever read, tie her shoes and count by twos.
While her parents loved her very much, they were secretly scared of their young prodigy. They also felt that they were not fit to raise her, or provide her with the needs of a budding genius. Unknown to her parents, Anushka picked up on these feelings and, misunderstanding, ran away from home.
Laying half dead in the snow was how a passing troupe of gypsies found her. Instead of taking her in as one of their own, the troupe designed to secret her away to an orphanage, under the impression she was an omen of doom.
Three months until her third birthday, the orphanage in which Anushka was living, sold her and another one hundred and twelve orphans to a business venture in northern Canada. After being smuggled to Northern America along with an export of caviar, Anushka and the other orphans were sent to work in the acid mines. It was here that Anushka’s eyesight was ruined forever. For ten months she laboured in the acid mines before the operation had the plug pulled by looming financial crises. The dissolving company covered their tracks well and all the surviving orphans were allocated to special need homes, hosted by charitable families.
Katherine and Morgan Whiting were a lesbian couple who had considerable standing with the now liquidated child labour company, and had recently come into a lot of money (circumstance aside). They owned an expansive estate and several acres of farmland. For Christmas that year Anushka was given a brand new name and family. Miss Anne Whiting was the jewel of her mother’s eye’s and was showered with gifts of stuffed animals and pretty filled dresses. They lived happily together for a time, or as happy as Anne Whiting could be.
It was sometime before Katherine and Morgan discovered Anne would sometimes come back from walking in the wheat field; she had no fear of snakes, with strange notions in her head. In the beginning she started talking with people who weren’t there, then later talking about things that she couldn’t possibly know about. Other times she came back swearing and tried to build small fires in the house. When asked where she picked up the foul language, for Morgan and Katherine were always careful around her, Anne explained her friends had taught her.
Despite becoming increasingly worried, her foster parents nurtured Anne’s creativity and supplied her with the books that would make up the better part of her education.
On Anne’s sixth birthday Morgan and Katherine were found dead in each others arms. After a short process of grieving Anushka took with her the terracotta piggy bank she owned and her previous mother’s names before leaving forever. The authorities did not arrive until the following week, after the window cleaner had found the decomposing corpses.
Taking the first bus that presented itself, Miss Whiting then wandered from station to station without aim until her change ran out. Stranded in the city she struggles to survive and avoid the notice of the people and monsters that live there. But she knows that she’s never really alone.
Awareness of Supernaturals: Although she cannot distinguish one supernatural from another, Anushka can tell if someone isn’t human. She just knows. She’s a genius alright, her imaginary friends tell her.
Occupation/Job: None
Interesting Facts / Quirks: Sometimes she talks to people who aren’t there, plays with friends from nations that never existed, or pretends to fly.
Two imaginary friends are only ever written to and seem to really exist. Her letters to them have become a ritual and they are contacted on Anushka’s birthday, Christmas, and the third Wednesday of every month. Whether the intended recipients receive these letters is a mystery.
The only thing of any value that Miss Whiting owns is a heavy metal necklace gilded with silver and a stone locket with a clasp made of entwining snakes with garnet eyes. It is very old but not magical. It has within it a black and white picture of Anne’s real mother, Rose.
If it weren’t for the shaved head that makes her look like a gremlin and being perhaps a little malnourished, Anne would be a very beautiful little girl.
Anushka’s mother is “the most beautiful women in the whole wide world.”
Anushka is also technically a genius, she has an extended vocabulary and is able to process and understand rudimentary high school math. People often forget that they are talking with a child. She retains everything she ever learns.
She is, of course, very near sighted, almost blind.
Hobby/Hobbies: Drawing, playing with dolls.
Likes: Food, dolls, safe dark places
Dislikes: Going hungry, being exposed, generally people
Strength: Independent. Smart. Lucky. Knowledgeable of supernaturals.
Weakness/Flaw: Small and weak. Poor. Unhealthy. Almost blind.
