Name: Vadim Lahti
Age: 23
Birthday: October 31th
Species: Anthro raccoon
Gender: Male
Category: Student
Class: College
Grade: Sophomore
College Major: Undecided
Appearance Description:
Vadim shares much of the physiology of a feral raccoon, being an anthropomorphic animal; his body is covered with thick grey fur, with the distinctive black rings around his tail, and the mask around his eyes. A lithe, slender build and a height of 5'1" makes him agile and a hard target to hit, and when combined with his large, brown eyes, his long, fluffy tail and his overall cute 'coon face, makes people sometimes forget that they are looking at a Machiavellian plotter who wouldn't hesitate to stab them in the back if he felt it was necessary.
So far as clothing goes, Vadim keeps things elegant, yet simple. In school, he can be seen wearing a simple button-down tucked into some black slacks with a pair of nice shoes (although on some days he’ll sport riding boots instead). In addition, he’ll sport a matching vest and an ascot of some color (usually red, blue or gold) Off the school campus, when the raccoon is out on the town, he'll keep the shirt, vest, and slacks, strap a pistol and long knife on his belt, and add in a decent pocket watch; regardless of what he wears, though, he can almost always be seen wearing his trademark black fisherman’s cap, regardless of formality or situation.
Personality Description:
If there were ever a check being paid out for being the living definition of the word "Machiavellian", Vadim would be a close contender for claiming it. Despite his cute face, this raccoon is a ruthless, manipulative plotter who views life as a chessboard and other people as pieces to be played. He has almost no qualms taking what he wants, and will gladly turn people against each other or ruin someone’s life up to and including ending it if he has to. He is cold, intelligent creature who thinks several steps ahead and has no scruples holding something over a person’s head if it serves his interests at some point in the future… And he does it all with an adorable smile and charm.
However, if one were to ask Vadim what the first emotion he feels when he thinks about his ruthless accomplishments, they’d not hear “pride”, “satisfaction” or “empowerment”, but rather “guilt”, “regret” and “contrition”. Despite his charming, well-to-do appearance and cute smile, Vadim is wracked with the burden of knowing his conniving is reprehensible and immoral while being unable to do anything about it; he can try to genuinely care about people, but ultimately fails when he lapses back into his plotting. This vicious cycle of trying and failing to change can make him angry, bitter and depressed, which gets bottled up in the darkest corner of his mind, stuffed into a little Pandora's Box until it can’t be held in any longer, often resulting in shouting, ranting and potentially violence if he can’t be calmed down and reassured of himself.
Species Abilities
Raccoon Physiology
It goes without saying that as an anthropomorphic raccoon, Vadim shares quite a similarities with the theriomorphic animal of the same variety, especially where senses are concerned. The biggest similarities are:
Powers:
Miscellaneous Criminal Skills
Befitting of one whose past was filled with more than a few run-ins with police and school authorities, Vadim is skilled in areas that are best left out any proper résumé. That said, unlike some of his classmates, Vadim possesses no known magical abilities or powers, and so his skills are not derived from the use of such, but rather his own manual dexterity and hours of practice.
Simple language charm (Russian)
Biography:
Vadim’s story begins In order to fully understand the conniving creature that is Vadim Lahti, one must first look at his past. Vadim's story begins in the laboratories of a secretive and largely unknown scientific organization in the Kola peninsula in Russia, as part of a series of questionable experiments on human embryonic development when spliced with other sources of DNA. In the case of Vadim, the team in charge decided to splice in the genetic code of a raccoon, which went better than planned when compared to the other tests run in the past. For the next few years, the scientists kept track of his growth and development, and noted the formation of a crafty and mischievous demeanor in the creature about the time it started to talk in coherent, if childish, sentences around the age of three. At this point, one of the scientists gave him the name Vadim as a way to address him easier.
About the age of six, however, the project of which Vadim was the result of was abruptly halted when the organization overseeing the experiment cut funding to the program, which brought up questions as to what to do with the anthro raccoon they had created. In one of the less thought out options they could have pursued, the scientists decided to take Vadim and dump him in the streets of an isolated town on the border with neighboring Finland which was a two hour drive from any major cities (coincidentally, the town also didn't have a local newspaper), leaving him to survive basically on his own... Which wasn't all that hard for him, given his crafty nature. Within a few months he had learned how to use his cuteness to his advantage in begging and getting around; by a year and a half on his own, at the age of seven, he was already picking coat pockets. Eventually, by the age of eight, the local social services found him and took him in and, after establishing just what exactly he was and that he could talk, put him in foster care; when they couldn't get a last name out of him, they just put down "Lahti" since Finnish was the language Vadim first spoke to the social worker filling out the information.
From age eight to about age ten was probably the most boring period that Vadim can recall; the social workers looking after him were strict and didn't really let him do much at all outside of the remedial classes he took at a local school, and with good reason; if he were able to do as he pleased, he'd probably get caught and make national headlines. To get back at them, the young raccoon would often attempt to pick their pockets of their keys or sneak out at night, but more often then not he'd get caught and stuck with more remedial coursework, or menial chores around the foster home as punishment. A couple years of this back and forth antagonism led to the social workers eventually giving up and leaving him in the care of an Orthodox priest in an even more remote hamlet a few towns over, one Father Fedor Voronin.
The first couple years of this arrangement were fairly smooth. Voronin was less strict than the social workers who had previously cared for Vadim to a point, but was quick to correct his ward whenever he'd get into trouble with his teachers or the police. However, after the age of twelve, as Vadim often puts it, life got unsettling. His lifestyle of mischief and misdemeanor was put under the microscope by the otherwise gentle and understanding Father Voronin, who began taking extensive notes during their quite regular counselling sessions. A retired psychologist, Voronin was intrigued and worried by the young raccoon’s propensity for manipulating people, but even more so that he seemed trapped in an endless cycle of sin, regret and sin again. Vadim himself at this point was making his way through the Russian secondary school system (thanks largely in part to Voronin pulling strings with the local authorities), where his teachers often complained to Father Voronin about him cheating on tests, or worse, hustling money from his classmates with rigged card games and other ruses.; other times they'd find things like lock picks or other contraband gadgets on his person.
These problems continued all through Vadim’s academic career in secondary school in a cyclical manner; he'd seem to be making progress for a month or two before falling back into his old habits as if he were Sisyphus himself, watching his boulder of emotion roll back down the hill over, and over again. By the time Vadim was about to graduate secondary school, Father Voronin sent word to some old colleagues of his to make arrangements for Vadim to transfer to Starlight Academy; prior to his retirement from psychology and ordination as a priest in a small Russian town, Voronin had been an adjunct professor at the academy on Manta Carlos island in addition to owning his small psychology practice on the island, and figured a change of scenery could potentially help his young ward. Within a few weeks of Vadim’s 18th birthday the young raccoon was on a plane to the island, off to start down what the old priest hoped would be a better path in life… Could he have been any more wrong?
Resources:
Vadim lives mostly off of the charity of the academy, being unable to hold down a job long enough to really make ends meet on his own; any spare money he has is usually from rigged card games or, less frequently, selling stolen valuables. Father Voronin might occasionally send packages of food and money, but these are rare and usually only around Russian holidays.
Additional Information:
--The pistol Vadim carries with him is (coincidentally) a Lahti L-35, while his knife is an old Mosin-Nagant bayonet modified into a spike; he refuses to say where he got them.
--Vadim speaks Finnish and Russian.
--Because of his reliance on factory-made lock picks, Vadim keeps a pick and a tensioner on him at almost all times, usually in one of his socks.
Age: 23
Birthday: October 31th
Species: Anthro raccoon
Gender: Male
Category: Student
Class: College
Grade: Sophomore
College Major: Undecided
Appearance Description:
Vadim shares much of the physiology of a feral raccoon, being an anthropomorphic animal; his body is covered with thick grey fur, with the distinctive black rings around his tail, and the mask around his eyes. A lithe, slender build and a height of 5'1" makes him agile and a hard target to hit, and when combined with his large, brown eyes, his long, fluffy tail and his overall cute 'coon face, makes people sometimes forget that they are looking at a Machiavellian plotter who wouldn't hesitate to stab them in the back if he felt it was necessary.
So far as clothing goes, Vadim keeps things elegant, yet simple. In school, he can be seen wearing a simple button-down tucked into some black slacks with a pair of nice shoes (although on some days he’ll sport riding boots instead). In addition, he’ll sport a matching vest and an ascot of some color (usually red, blue or gold) Off the school campus, when the raccoon is out on the town, he'll keep the shirt, vest, and slacks, strap a pistol and long knife on his belt, and add in a decent pocket watch; regardless of what he wears, though, he can almost always be seen wearing his trademark black fisherman’s cap, regardless of formality or situation.
Personality Description:
If there were ever a check being paid out for being the living definition of the word "Machiavellian", Vadim would be a close contender for claiming it. Despite his cute face, this raccoon is a ruthless, manipulative plotter who views life as a chessboard and other people as pieces to be played. He has almost no qualms taking what he wants, and will gladly turn people against each other or ruin someone’s life up to and including ending it if he has to. He is cold, intelligent creature who thinks several steps ahead and has no scruples holding something over a person’s head if it serves his interests at some point in the future… And he does it all with an adorable smile and charm.
However, if one were to ask Vadim what the first emotion he feels when he thinks about his ruthless accomplishments, they’d not hear “pride”, “satisfaction” or “empowerment”, but rather “guilt”, “regret” and “contrition”. Despite his charming, well-to-do appearance and cute smile, Vadim is wracked with the burden of knowing his conniving is reprehensible and immoral while being unable to do anything about it; he can try to genuinely care about people, but ultimately fails when he lapses back into his plotting. This vicious cycle of trying and failing to change can make him angry, bitter and depressed, which gets bottled up in the darkest corner of his mind, stuffed into a little Pandora's Box until it can’t be held in any longer, often resulting in shouting, ranting and potentially violence if he can’t be calmed down and reassured of himself.
Species Abilities
Raccoon Physiology
It goes without saying that as an anthropomorphic raccoon, Vadim shares quite a similarities with the theriomorphic animal of the same variety, especially where senses are concerned. The biggest similarities are:
- Enhanced senses – Particularly the senses of hearing and smell, where they are about the same as a dog or wolf. In addition, Vadim has decent night vision, and can see well at night and in dark places where there is a dim source of ambient light but would need a source of light like anyone else if he were to enter pitch black darkness.
- Claws and hands – Vadim, like a theriomorphic raccoon, has claws on his paw like hands and feet, and, also like a theriomorphic raccoon, his hands are extremely sensitive, allowing him to feel more details than most. In addition, he has greater manual dexterity than most, allowing him an easier time of things like card tricks, sleight of hand and lock-picking, among other things.
- Fur – while this should be obvious just by looking at him, Vadim is covered in fur from head to tail. It provides good insulation in the summer and keeps him warm during the winter, which means he basically gets to wear dress clothes year-round. The only downside is that he has to deal with shedding fur getting everywhere for a couple months during start of the summer season.
Powers:
Miscellaneous Criminal Skills
Befitting of one whose past was filled with more than a few run-ins with police and school authorities, Vadim is skilled in areas that are best left out any proper résumé. That said, unlike some of his classmates, Vadim possesses no known magical abilities or powers, and so his skills are not derived from the use of such, but rather his own manual dexterity and hours of practice.
- Sleight of Hand – Thanks to his dexterous hands, he’s got a knack for sleight of hand tricks, which come in handy when rigging poker and blackjack games; chances are, if one seems like they got a good hand, Vadim probably gave himself something better. That said, he’s not on the level of a street magician; a particularly astute observer could see his trickery without much issue.
- Pickpocketing – A particularly early ability he picked up in the streets of his hometown, pickpocketing is Vadim’s most well developed skill. Using a combination of sleight of hand and his naturally adorable looks, Vadim is pretty well able to take anything he might want to, assuming he can reach it (although neckties and belts are rather hard targets), and his target would probably never know it was missing until much later, at which point Vadim would be long gone. Once again, though, he’s not perfect, and an astute observer can call his shenanigans out rather quickly.
- Lock-picking – As the relatively newest skill in Vadim’s arsenal, picking locks is not Vadim’s forte, but he’s good enough at it for most applications. Padlocks up to six pins aren’t a problem and he can pick those in a matter of about ten seconds, although anything with more than that is going to take him longer than he is comfortable with. Deadbolts in doors are also not a problem provided they don’t have multiple sets of pins (at which point they are impossible to pick), but they take some time given the extra force needed to turn them. In addition, due to his relative inexperience, Vadim needs a proper set of lock picks as he can’t quite get the feel of using improvised tools yet.
Simple language charm (Russian)
Biography:
Vadim’s story begins In order to fully understand the conniving creature that is Vadim Lahti, one must first look at his past. Vadim's story begins in the laboratories of a secretive and largely unknown scientific organization in the Kola peninsula in Russia, as part of a series of questionable experiments on human embryonic development when spliced with other sources of DNA. In the case of Vadim, the team in charge decided to splice in the genetic code of a raccoon, which went better than planned when compared to the other tests run in the past. For the next few years, the scientists kept track of his growth and development, and noted the formation of a crafty and mischievous demeanor in the creature about the time it started to talk in coherent, if childish, sentences around the age of three. At this point, one of the scientists gave him the name Vadim as a way to address him easier.
About the age of six, however, the project of which Vadim was the result of was abruptly halted when the organization overseeing the experiment cut funding to the program, which brought up questions as to what to do with the anthro raccoon they had created. In one of the less thought out options they could have pursued, the scientists decided to take Vadim and dump him in the streets of an isolated town on the border with neighboring Finland which was a two hour drive from any major cities (coincidentally, the town also didn't have a local newspaper), leaving him to survive basically on his own... Which wasn't all that hard for him, given his crafty nature. Within a few months he had learned how to use his cuteness to his advantage in begging and getting around; by a year and a half on his own, at the age of seven, he was already picking coat pockets. Eventually, by the age of eight, the local social services found him and took him in and, after establishing just what exactly he was and that he could talk, put him in foster care; when they couldn't get a last name out of him, they just put down "Lahti" since Finnish was the language Vadim first spoke to the social worker filling out the information.
From age eight to about age ten was probably the most boring period that Vadim can recall; the social workers looking after him were strict and didn't really let him do much at all outside of the remedial classes he took at a local school, and with good reason; if he were able to do as he pleased, he'd probably get caught and make national headlines. To get back at them, the young raccoon would often attempt to pick their pockets of their keys or sneak out at night, but more often then not he'd get caught and stuck with more remedial coursework, or menial chores around the foster home as punishment. A couple years of this back and forth antagonism led to the social workers eventually giving up and leaving him in the care of an Orthodox priest in an even more remote hamlet a few towns over, one Father Fedor Voronin.
The first couple years of this arrangement were fairly smooth. Voronin was less strict than the social workers who had previously cared for Vadim to a point, but was quick to correct his ward whenever he'd get into trouble with his teachers or the police. However, after the age of twelve, as Vadim often puts it, life got unsettling. His lifestyle of mischief and misdemeanor was put under the microscope by the otherwise gentle and understanding Father Voronin, who began taking extensive notes during their quite regular counselling sessions. A retired psychologist, Voronin was intrigued and worried by the young raccoon’s propensity for manipulating people, but even more so that he seemed trapped in an endless cycle of sin, regret and sin again. Vadim himself at this point was making his way through the Russian secondary school system (thanks largely in part to Voronin pulling strings with the local authorities), where his teachers often complained to Father Voronin about him cheating on tests, or worse, hustling money from his classmates with rigged card games and other ruses.; other times they'd find things like lock picks or other contraband gadgets on his person.
These problems continued all through Vadim’s academic career in secondary school in a cyclical manner; he'd seem to be making progress for a month or two before falling back into his old habits as if he were Sisyphus himself, watching his boulder of emotion roll back down the hill over, and over again. By the time Vadim was about to graduate secondary school, Father Voronin sent word to some old colleagues of his to make arrangements for Vadim to transfer to Starlight Academy; prior to his retirement from psychology and ordination as a priest in a small Russian town, Voronin had been an adjunct professor at the academy on Manta Carlos island in addition to owning his small psychology practice on the island, and figured a change of scenery could potentially help his young ward. Within a few weeks of Vadim’s 18th birthday the young raccoon was on a plane to the island, off to start down what the old priest hoped would be a better path in life… Could he have been any more wrong?
Resources:
Vadim lives mostly off of the charity of the academy, being unable to hold down a job long enough to really make ends meet on his own; any spare money he has is usually from rigged card games or, less frequently, selling stolen valuables. Father Voronin might occasionally send packages of food and money, but these are rare and usually only around Russian holidays.
Additional Information:
--The pistol Vadim carries with him is (coincidentally) a Lahti L-35, while his knife is an old Mosin-Nagant bayonet modified into a spike; he refuses to say where he got them.
--Vadim speaks Finnish and Russian.
--Because of his reliance on factory-made lock picks, Vadim keeps a pick and a tensioner on him at almost all times, usually in one of his socks.
Last edited:
Name: Vadim Lahti