REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA/REPUBLIC D'AFRIQUE DU SUD |
Actor |
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P «KRUGER««VASHA««I««SAF««««« |
VIK11082010173617«5SAF14057410F150«00«MERCENARY«« |
Many people believe that your childhood is what defines you as a person, I do not believe that this is the case. It is my own theory that every person has one defining moment in their life, one point in time where they make the decision as to what they will be. For many this is in their childhood, but not mine. Mine was the one time that I chose to give mercy.
My childhood was different than most. Some would say it was one of privilege, others would say it was tragic. For me, it was simply a childhood. I learned many things, things that a child should never be exposed to and yet it was mine. I was born the bastard child to the mistress of my father and adopted into his family as his only heir. I will always be thankful for this, for it is my firm belief that had my father rejected me, I would have spent my days in Capetown as yet another fatherless color.
My birth mother was nothing but a servant woman, for the first few years of my life she served me. I was never permitted to call her mother, she was never permitted to show me affection. Perhaps the only reason that I knew she was my blood was because the wife of my father, the woman I was told to call mother, would never allow me to forget where I came from. To her, I was the filthy daughter of an even filthier colored whore. Yet, it was this whore that shared the bed of my father, not his wife. At least for a little while, until she was thrown from the house for being as unfaithful as the wife.
In my life there have been three things that are constant. My father was hard and a diligent taskmaster, in his world there was no room for weakness and tears. The woman that adopted me, the closest thing I have to a mother, despised me. I was the daily reminder of her failures to my father. The last was my mentor, the man who molded me into the perfect soldier and leader of weaker men. At the behest of my father, he was the one who taught me that if I did not rule over men, someone lesser than I would take the position. Along with my intolerance for failure and my own ambitions for success, I was a sponge for every lesson.
At times my childhood was difficult, the daily chore of attending school was arduous, as I had to face the prejudice of the white children there. How my father managed to enroll me in a white school when I was of mixed blood is unknown. My theory on the matter is that he threatened the life of the administrator and that was all the requirement needed for my admission. The daily beatings I received on the playground were overlooked by my teachers, those who might have been sympathetic were too filled with hatred for my father and family to interject. At home it was no different. I was not permitted to shed a tear for the punishment taken, instead I was given more lessons on how I should defend myself. Before I graduated from that place, I had everyone bowing to me as they did my father. I did not need sympathy, for I had all of the power.
After graduation, I was sent on to University in Pretoria. It was a much larger city with a higher population of colored people, a place where I could fit in. It was there that I blended in with whites more than any others, yet I was still colored. Once again, I was too dark for the white skinned people and too white for even my own kind. This time, however, I was able to blend in much better. It was only due to my identification papers that any sort of trouble arose. In Pretoria, I had to adhere to the stricter rules for black and colored people, whereas in Cullinan the station of my family kept me quite protected from apartheid law.
Every weekend and holiday, I spent at home keeping with the lessons that I had begun with Lefu so long ago. The time spent in the company of the militia that my father had built was my freedom from the world in which I lived. Even while in university, I quickly rose within the ranks of the small military faction as I recruited more and more of my own soldiers. My own men were loyal to me to a fault. In some ways I felt pity on them as they were only boys stolen from the bosom of their mothers, too young to be in such a place. Yet my own needs took precedence for I intended to become as great, possibly even greater, than my father.
I was twenty years of age when Apartheid was abolished. One would assume that it was a great day for blacks and colored people across our nation, but in reality not much changed aside from the papers that we carried. The hatred and fear was still there, the fighting and the blood at the forefront of my world. Legally, we were all equal but the poverty forced upon the black and colored people for centuries had left them nothing when it was over. Employment rates rose as white men could no longer afford to keep their servants on. Wages rose at the price of less jobs.
It was for this reason that our army grew stronger, my father could afford to pay a fair wage for all who served him. His business enterprise had never been better and the diamond mines were still thriving. The need for ammunition and armaments grew too great for one supplier and so he began searching for someone that could supply us with the amounts needed. Two years from the break of Apartheid was when Mikhail Kirilov entered our lives. He was a dashing man and I cannot deny that he caught my eye. It was not the same for him. Soon, unbeknownst to my father, he began carrying on an affair with the lady of the house.
Turning a blind eye and ear, I carried on with my own business. I did not inform my father of what I stumbled on to, nothing good would come of it. We were too in need of weaponry to allow his whore of a wife to stand in the way. In my mind, it was better to let the sleeping dogs lie until after we received our supplies. For nearly a week they carried on, a week that I busied myself and avoided my father and Lefu both. I would not be able to conceal the truth from them if I had to face them, my consolation was that there was more work to do elsewhere.
My pivotal point came the night I returned to speak to my father of the generous contribution that the mine's owners had donated to our household. He was on his way to meet with Lefu and another warlord to broker a peace between our territories. The explosion was horrific and when I woke a moment later I was staring into the eyes of my would be killer. If I had been half the soldier I was trained to be, he would be dead. But for the wail of a woman and a slight hesitation on my part he would be and yet, he was gone. Upon lowering my gun, I bid him silent farewell and never spoke of the incident. It was a secret that I would take to my grave.
Since that time, I have carried on as a machine. I have done my duty to my father and the woman who calls herself my mother. I despise her but appreciate the finer graces she has taught me. Perhaps when I am extradited to the United States of America for a crime I did not commit, they will serve me in defense. Perhaps, should I be lucky enough to face a quick method of execution, I will finally send this to my father. For now, it remains in my possession.
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the soldier was lost. For want of a solder, the war was lost.
Profiler Notes: Dr. N. Schoeman
Subject: Vasha Kruger
Sex: Female
Age: 36
Race: Colored
Marital Status: Single
Living Arrangements: With Father
Employment History: Stable
- Upon initial contact, Vasha appears vain, self-centred, and highly dominant, all characteristics suggesting an archetypal princess complex. While she isn't seeking to be rescued, she likely never felt fully accepted by her parents, and consequently could easily be influenced by a parental figure in her life.
- Her connections and contacts tend to be fluid, never stable as many utilize her for her skills and vice versa.
- Exploitive weaknesses include a conflictual sense of family and a need for acceptance. Both could allow an asset easy access to Vasha's network and extensive skills.
- Thanks to her Elektra complex, and unresolved relational contact, she remains single and more dangerous for this reason.
- Her lack of nurturing and a strong nuturant have created an unusually minute sense of empathy and callousness towards human life. Thus she should be approached with extreme caution and regarded as highly volatile.
Hand to Hand Combat:
Being the daughter of one of the most dangerous men in the region did not save Vasha the cruelty of the children in the playground. Often she would come home from grade school with bruises, lacerations, and on rare occasion, broken knuckles. Over time, the young child developed her own particular style of fighting. Her father (being unhappy with his daughter being so abused) handed her over to his most trusted man, Lefu, for training.
Under Lefu, Vasha learned a brutal form of combat that involves finding pressure points, breaking bones, and twisting limbs at the joints to dislocate them. Lefu taught her how to combat multiple people at once by pitting her against dogs, some of the younger soldiers, and sometimes both at once. More than four are able to overwhelm the woman if she has no weapon. With a knife in hand, she is able to take on up to six opponents at one time.
Recruiting:
As the daughter of a warlord, Vasha has been witness to and a participant in some of her father's militia recruiting sessions. It involves intimidation, coersion, bullying, and eventually kidnapping. While this isn't always the best way to make friends, Vasha has always been able to bring in a few more recruits than her father's other lieutenants.
This skill has helped her a lot outside of the usual arena and in the outside world. She's refined the technique so that she is usually able to gauge exactly how far she has to go or pull back to have someone see her point of view. A careful combination of pressure, intimidation, and bullying generally gives her the desired result in the sort of company that falls under its influence. In prison, Vasha would likely be a leader rather than a follower.
Glamor:
A bully and brute on the inside, refined and rather nice to look at on the outside. When Vasha's father points her in the direction of a desired target, her first course of action is the honey approach. Having a step-mother who has made it her career to entertain the guests to her father's house, Vasha has learned by watching one of the best. By observing Elsa, Vasha has learned to mimic the subtle gestures and nuances that most men find appealing.
Her smile is rare enough that men strive to see it, her laugh even more elusive. The cool exterior gives a gentleman something to attempt to warm up. She gives off just enough of an impression that allows others to believe she is interested, but not enough to seem overly eager. As demonstrated to her time and time again by her step-mother, the trick is in the appropriate movements at the right time. The flash of the inside of a wrist, a touch to the hair, a caress down the neck with the tips of fingers, a lot of skin isn't necessary and sometimes it can even be distracting to a final goal.
Lurking:
She's no spy, she's no thief, but Vasha does know how to be quiet and be invisible when the situation requires it. In heels, boots, tennis shoes, jeans, dress, running shorts; no matter what she is wearing she has taught herself to be as quiet as possible. In the middle of a crowd, as long as no one is monitoring her closely, she finds it fairly simple to slip away to do whatever it is she needs.
Melting into a crowd works in the same principle. If Vasha is being actively pursued, she knows exactly how far to duck down to match the average height and how fast she can walk without having other people pay attention. She also knows how to avoid notice when sitting in a congested room. Of course, none of this actually helps if someone is looking for a possible lurker. If someone is actually looking for anything suspicious, Vasha would stick out like a sore thumb unless appropriately disguised.
Appraisal:
In the region of South Africa where Vasha's father controls the territory, there is a rather lucrative diamond mine. Jan's dealings often have him collecting raw gemstones. Since she was able to play unsupervised, she accompanied her father to his various offices while she wasn't at school. To keep the young child occupied, Jan gave her a book, a magnifying lens, and some raw diamonds.
The childhood hobby has stuck with her all of her life and its importance has heightened significantly. Jan finds it convenient to have an amateur gemologist available to him at his whim and Vasha is usually more than eager to comply. While she doesn't have any sort of degree or certification, she does know what to look for and is usually within a few hundred dollars of an actual selling price on a good stone.
Firearms:
The first time Vasha ever handled a pistol was when she was almost five. To keep her busy and within his sight, Jan unloaded his favorite pistol and gave it to her to play with while he looked over paperwork and finalized some of his plans. She learned to take the CZ-52 apart and put it back together again, sometimes Jan would have her clean it. She was ten when Jan won a bet with Lefu, whether or not she could beat the older man in a race to take apart and put back together an AK-47.
Vasha was eleven when she was taken to the outskirts of the regional township for the first time> With Lefu at one side and Jan on the other, the young girl was urged to shoot at the feral dogs that roamed near the garbage. For every mongrel that was hit, Vasha was rewarded with ten rand. For every miss, ten were taken away. After starting out owing her father over one hundred rand, Vasha refused to lose the game any more. Over the years, dogs graduated to bigger game, people. By the time Vasha was almost twenty, she was able to hit a man walking down the street from the back of a moving jeep using only a few bullets.
Varied Knowledge:
Like most children of the western world, Vasha went to school, graduated and moved on to college and experienced what life had to offer. Between what formal education she had before dropping out of university in her second year, a step mother whose profession is entertaining, and a warlord of a father, Vasha has gained enough general knowledge to be able to follow and sometimes participate in a conversation about almost any topic relevant to her lifestyle.
The weather, hunting (big game), boats (motorized yachts and sail), sportscars, sports games, pop culture, South African history, African history, European history, entertaining, entertainment, and a few of the more general sciences are a smattering of the things she has been educated in. She would be unable to tell you precise details about any of it without actually reading up or having first hand experience, but she would know what someone else is talking about if they were.
Built-in Alarm System
Perhaps it's a subconscious awareness of her surroundings but Vasha is able to know if something around her is 'off'. The noise of the wildlife, ambient sounds, even the general noise of the people around her, Vasha is quick to pick up on it and blend it into what is 'normal'. In a dark house, she would be able to pick out the creak of a floor board from someone trying to walk quietly from the shifting of the same wood due to changing temperature and humidity.
This 'acute awareness' isn't precise or exact by any means, it manifests to others as paranoia or suspicion. There are a few times that her intuition fails her and gives her a false alarm. If she's too comfortable or too exhausted and in a deep sleep, she won't get any sort of ideation that there might be anything wrong.
Kruger Territory
Vasha has full use and unlimited access to all of the resources Jan has to offer. Weaponry, soldiers, money, vehicles, houses, and boats, anything that Jan has at his disposal is Vasha's to utilize. Though most of his resources are in South Africa, Jan does have some out of country contacts. Though it's a small list there are some very powerful names on it, including; arms dealers, South African diplomats throughout many parts of the globe, drug lords, military generals.
All of these resources rely on Vasha and her father remaining on good terms with each and every one of them. Should Jan or Vasha upset one or two of them, a few more could drop off the list. For this reason, Vasha is sent abroad to visit and keep ties.
Feminine Wiles
There's a saying in the midwest, "she cleans up real nice." This pretty accurately describes Vasha. When properly motivated, she's quite able to present herself in any sort of society that she wishes to be in. Her sultry charms tend to drive the average man to distraction and combined with a look or a small twitch of a smile, can be absolutely lethal (not in the literal sense).
Though there are those that are able to resist such things, those men are few and far between. As with all things in her life, should Vasha be determined, she will use her full arsenal of femininity against an unsuspecting victim.
Brutality
Vasha's upbringing has lent her a careless disregard for taking human life. Survival of the fittest is the law she lives by; should someone not be proven fit, they must be culled from the herd. As a mercenary and future warlord, Vasha maintains the respect of those around her by carefully weighing every action. If killing a father will force his children into submission, she will do it. If killing a child will force a family to obey proper order, she doesn't have any qualms about carrying out the action.
Her father's station in South Africa has allowed him to train Vasha quite properly in how to grow and maintain an empire through brute force. The strong survive where the weak fail. Vasha's first lessons came at a tender age, when she first started getting bullied at school. At first she came home crying, Jan wouldn't hear it and turned his back on her. It fell to Lefu to teach the youngster how to survive and even thrive. He taught the girl how to use brute force to triumph over her enemies, then he taught her how to be cruel to bend those less than her to her will. There has only been one instance in her life where Vasha hesitated and the price was very heavy.
Diamond Reserve
Even though Vasha has no property, vehicles, or weapons of her very own, she does have a small stash of diamonds tucked away for a rainy day. They range in color, clarity, and weight but all are of excellent quality. The total value of the diamonds should she need to sell them would be a little over one hundred thousand dollars. Of course, if she was trying to liquidated them in a hurry the profit would reduce significantly.
Even though they are large and of excellent quality, the diamonds are not saleable through regular means. They are a cut from the top of Jan's pay from the mine owners to allow them to keep the mine running. They own the mineral rights and land, he rules their labor with an iron fist. Should Jan discover that Vasha has been taking a cut of her own, the consequences could be extremely dire.
Fatigue
Due to her overactive senses and paranoia, Vasha is a very light sleeper. Unless she's completely exhausted, she very rarely has a good night's sleep. She will wake up two to four times in the course of a night and listen to her surroundings before closing her eyes again. Sometimes this takes five minutes, sometimes it takes thirty, depending on what she hears while she's awake.
To this end, she must stay active during the day or risk zoning out or at worst, falling asleep. This doesn't mean that she has to keep physically active, even reading something interesting or playing a game of chess would keep her awake. Patrolling the grounds or guarding her father's house is much more risky when she hasn't had a good night's sleep, the routine and repetition is a little too boring to keep her attention.
Overwhelming numbers
Because of Lefu's training and her upbringing by Jan, Vasha has trouble admitting or even facing defeat. There have been a few times when she's been overtaken because she was too proud to back down. She knows her own limits and if she has time before entering a situation to calculate the risks and weight them against the benefits, she will. Once she has entered a fight or stood against a challenge, her pride won't let her back down.
This pride is likely going to be the death of her, because unless there is someone there to drag her away, she will stand until the very end. When she is at home, she has her father's men to rely on, it is abroad that she really needs to watch her step.
Lack of Technological Knowledge
If asked, Vasha would say that she's always had other business to attend to. Her lack of skill when it comes to operating anything with a motherboard is akin to chimp discovering that a stick can be a weapon. For business purposes, she has muddled her way through a technical education session and learned how to send and receive email. She knows how to use a cellular phone when it comes to making calls or taking a picture, anything more than that is practically impossible.
Limited resources
Vasha is almost completely reliant on Jan. She earns her keep, but she doesn't get paid in the same fashion that someone working a regular day job would. She doesn't have any real assets of her own, what little cash on hand she has would not be enough to keep her fed and housed for more than a few days.
The biggest downfall of being completely reliant on a father that doesn't say no is that Vasha doesn't know the value of a rand. She knows how it compares to the currency of other countries and she knows how much things cost, but she doesn't think about expenses. If she sees something that she wants, she doesn't hesitate to purchase it.
Rivalry
Elsa Kruger… In many ways she is a failure as a wife to Jan. She isn't faithful, she either wouldn't or couldn't bear him any children, she spends more money than she is worth, and she doesn't contribute to the household in any real fashion. This is Vasha's opinion of her step mother. The bitterness and hatred between the two runs deep. Since the day Jan brought Vasha home, Elsa has loathed her. Perhaps because the daughter was a constant reminder of her own inability to produce an heir.
In Vasha's early twenties there came a turning point in their relationship; Elsa warmed a little to the younger woman while she was much cooler to her step mother. From the outside, it seemed as though Elsa was finally coming to terms and accepting Vasha as the daughter she never had. Vasha was seen as ungrateful. It is possible that their relationship will never be what it could have been, it is also possible that the bitter rivalry that once was their defining aspect could return.
Relationships
- Jan Kruger
- Lefu
- Elsa Kruger
RP Hooks
- Kruger militia members - If you ever felt the need to just up and kill someone, this is the place to do it. Target practice with an AK47 starts at 0500 and goes until there's no resistance in the township we decide to hit.
- Arms dealers, weapons manufacturers, black market fences - Always looking for better weapons, more weapons, cheap weapons, people to sell things to (strictly off the books), people to buy things from (also strictly off the books)
- American legal counsel (that would be a GREAT help)
Soundtrack
- Oasis - Gas Panic!