#𝙺. 𝙸𝚅𝙰𝙽𝙾𝚅 𝙰𝙼𝚁𝙰𝙽𝙸 intro.

[seplchral]

❄️  in  krovograd  ,  survival  is  a  test  of  both  skill  and  morality  —  will  KONSTANTIN  IVANOV AMRANI  withstand  the  horrors  ,  or  will  the  city  break  them  ?  over  the  comms  ,  their  voice  cuts  through  the  static  :  “CUT THAT SHIT OUT BEFORE I CUT YOU.”  our  records  confirm  they  are  a  THIRTY ONE  year  old  EXPERIMENT HANDLER  ,  assigned  to  BLACK VEIL  for  FOUR YEARS.  field  reports  describe  them  as  PERCEPTIVE AND FORTHRIGHT  ,  though  firsthand  accounts  suggest  they  are  equally  UNFORGIVING AND CAUSTIC  under  pressure.  there’s  something  about  them  —  something  in  the  way  they  move  ,  speak  ,  or  fight  —  that  brings  to  mind  YOU WANT IT DARKER  (  LEONARD COHEN  ).  maybe  it's  just  a  coincidence.  or  maybe  ,  it  says  everything.

in short,

name. konstantin ivanov amrani. or: kostya. date of birth. january 10th, 1975, thirty one. gender. cis man, he/him. sexuality. heterosexual. ethnicity. serbian & moroccan. nationality. krovograd born. languages. russian, serbian, moroccan arabic, english [and asl]. height. 6'3. career. previously, mercenary for hire. currently, black veil experiment handler.

𝙱𝙾𝚈 𝙰𝚂 𝙰 𝚂𝚃𝚄𝙳𝚈 𝙸𝙽 : how far grey can stretch until it dips into black. old wounds bleeding into the new, staining once-pristine innocence. patience like a bomb. hand outstretched, knife kept hidden behind back. leashed dog that bears its teeth towards all except its owner. beware his grin because it longs for blood! beware his claws because they can find your throat! clipped silence after a gunshot. the power in choosing to follow, in stretching loyalty like taffy. to go without limits, becoming unhuman while remaining mortal. the scent of cigarette smoke flaring in the air. there was a heart here, once. you might hear it beat still.

at length,

born in krovograd to two immigrant parents, konstantin has always been on the outskirts. his father was a petty criminal and his mother stayed at home to take care of him, their only son. soon enough, his father was dragged off to war: another casualty in the sea of thousands. that was the first time kostya learned that to care was a fault, a weakness. because his mother cared so much about his father that the news of his death left her a shell of her former self: she would not eat without him prompting her to do so, she would not bathe without his help, she spent her days staring at the walls in silence. and, slowly, she withered away.

at sixteen, the soviet union fell. at sixteen, his mother died. left to fend for himself in a state collapsing in on itself, kostya turned to crime. petty, at first, like his father, until it grew and grew. until he crossed paths with the wrong person, a mercenary who was blessedly merciful. in exchange for trying to rob him, kostya would repay him by training under him and taking the difficult missions for him. so he did.

nikola karsov finds him in the aftermath of a mission gone wrong, when he's half-bled to death. the man must see something in the bleeding once-boy, because he rescues kostya, brings him from the brink of death. in doing so, he offers kostya a chance at something new: this is how he is introduced into black veil. karsov offers him a purpose beyond senseless killing, and kostya seizes it like a starving dog. he does not know why he's trusted as the experiment handler. he is not the eldest, or the most experienced, despite his background. he assumes it is his undying loyalty towards karsov, that they know he will not run or snitch or betray. and so here kostya is, from one leash to the next, though this one he's wrapped around his throat voluntarily.