Yekaterina "Katyusha" Braginskaya

Stats
Age: (Deceased at 28)

Birthday: August 24th

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue-green

Species: Ghost (rusalka, specifically)

Likes: bright flowers, knitting, singing, farming, cooking, her siblings.

Dislikes: crying (does it a lot anyway), arguing with people, her brother being angry, being alone.

History
Though Yekaterina grew up in a family of werebears, she had always been a gentle person. It was an usual personality to have in a travelling clan of people who would burst into monsters once they lost their tempers, but rather than mark her for slaughter, it simply endeared others to her. She got the name Katyusha from her younger brother, who had trouble pronouncing her longer name when he was little. The name stuck and she was soon known more by her nickname than her real name.

Surrounded by this chaos and, with the loss of her mother when she was 12, and their father before that, Katyusha ended up playing mother to her two younger siblings as well. The rest of the nomadic tribe did lend a hand to the young girl, but she was determined to do what she could for her siblings herself.

The tribe had been considering marrying her off, as she'd shown no signs of carrying the werebear gene. But it took until she was 27 for her to find a man she loved. Passing through a small town in Ukraine, she tripped while carrying groceries, and a young man stopped to help her pick them up. They got to talking, and continued to meet, first by accident when they saw each other in town, and then by arrangement. The nomads lingered for an unusually long time, waiting on Katyusha's decision. Finally, she said she would stay behind, and marry the man she loved. Though she knew Ivan and Natalya would be sad to see her go, they were both fully grown adults now, and it was as good a time as any for them to fly the nest, as well as her.

She and her lover soon were engaged, and Katyusha realised she'd fallen pregnant only a month before their wedding was planned. However, her future husband wasn't phased. By the time the child was born, they'd be married. However, in this conversation, Katyusha let slip that their baby might come early, as those cursed with the werebear tended to do. Horrified that his child might be a monster, he demanded Katyusha abort it. Shocked and dismayed, she refused, wishing to keep her child no matter what. Enraged, her husband left the house. He returned later that evening, drunk, and grabbed Katyusha by her long, plaited hair.

Dragged to the lake near their house kicking and screaming, Katyusha could do nothing when her fiance cut off her long braid and used the hair to bind her legs together, kicking her in the stomach and slitting her throat with the shards of a glass bottle, before finally tossing her in the water.

Traumatised, Katyusha couldn't move on. Trapped at the scene of her death by her own despair, she lingered as a certain type of ghost, a rusalka. She could not leave the lake for long, though she haunted her fiance's house, sobbing and following him, invisible to his eyes but not his ears. The sound of her crying finally drove him out of the village.

Not long after he'd left, Ivan appeared, not recognising she was dead until she had to tell him herself. Upon realising what had happened, Ivan flew into a rage unlike any that the werebear nomads had ever seen. He destroyed the village, and swept across Russia and Eastern Europe, rampaging and seeking out Katyusha's fiance in vengeance for her.

Ever one step behind her brother, Natalya appeared next, similarly angered but ever blessed with a cold, calculating personality. The family had never been welcome, always hunted but experts at avoiding capture. With their brother putting himself in danger with this rampage, she would have to protect him. Katyusha, bound to the lake by her sorrow, begged Natalya to stay safe also, and not to act too rashly. Natalya assured her sister that she didn't need to worry, because she'd protect her too.

Katyusha is unaware of what happened to her siblings after that, but waits patiently for their return by the lake, either as spirits like her, or with smiles on their faces with their vengeance completed. Only then will she move on.