Romannia Keskinov

Full Name: Levina Fidelia Emesta

Aliases: Romannia Keskinov

Born: 1924, Guerrero Mexico

Family: Efraín Emesta (Father), Tatiana Adelita Emesta (Mother), possible brothers and sisters she is completely unaware of.

Occupation: KGB Sleeper Agent/Assassin/Spy

Sexuality: Whichever way the wind happens to blow for her job.

Appearance

Gender: Female

Age: 27 (In 1951)

Height: 5’5” (Without heels) 5’8” (With heels)

Weight: Never ask a lady her weight...Cad. (Approx. 145 pounds of butt, thigh and muscle) 

Hair colour: Dark Brown

Eye colour: Hazel

Race: Latina (Mexican)

History: 

Mexico wasn’t exactly the most simple place to live, and being a poor family with hardly a candle lit to your name only made it more of a challenge. This was especially the case when you were a young lady whos family turned their back on you because you married a man that they had forbidden of you- a thief and a sneak.

Such is what Tatiana had to suffer through when she fell in the arms, and eventually the pocket of her new husband, Efraín, and Efrain was not about to give up on his wife and what could be their wonderful future together with beautiful children; the American Dream, was what he had in mind.

And so, he took his wife by the hand and ran, travelling for weeks on end to finally cross the border into the United States of America. Illegally. 

Efraín worked his strong, diligent fingers to the bone under the table as best as he could to earn himself and his now pregnant wife a living wage. He had his eyes on a quaint little house for the two of them, keeping her safe in an abandoned train cart until they could afford it. He took on odd jobs around the city; gardening, moving objects for shops, stocking, shoe shining- perhaps the odd pick-pocketing here and there until finally, he bought the house and the two lovers settled right in comfortably. 

Their neighbour, an average American man, seemed to take to them quickly as he brought a bouquet of 'Welcome' flowers, a crib for the baby who was soon due, and offered Efraín a job. In return, they shared bits of their culture (mostly foods and hand-made clothing) with the man, seemingly having established a very happy coexistence with each other despite the racial differences.

1924, baby Levina Fidelia Emesta was born. A beautiful baby girl, with a full head of dark hair and the tiniest button nose. Tatiana and Efraín were immediately enamoured with their new daughter, and so too, it seemed, was their neighbour. 

As little Levina grew, times were tough for the happy family once again when the market crashed, the great depression settling in and affecting a large portion of the population in the United States. Deportation was a very real threat to Tatiana and Efraín now, both of them growing increasingly weary and paranoid with each day until finally, their worst nightmare came true. 

Officers arrived at the couple's door, demanding in that instant that they be sent back to Mexico without even so much as a peep, or else they'd find themselves and their little six year old Levina as good as dead. 

In a frantic panic, the couple rushed next door to meet with their long trusted neighbour who had promised the young couple that he'd take care of their daughter had anything happened to them. 

It was an unforgiving parting of ways; Tatiana and Efraín were utterly devastated to have to surrender their one and only child, though the yield was renunciated for quite some time given the fact they were living illegally in the United States for so long.

It had finally caught up to them, and this was their punishment. They refused to bring their daughter back into Mexico- into the unknown of how their life would pan out, no family, no money, no home. They would never want Levina to experience the poverty they had suffered prior to her birth.

The spoiled child was nothing short of nonplussed when her parents left her, not able to or wanting to understand the situation she was abruptly faced with; her parents, gone. The life she had known since birth? Abolished. To such a young, innocent mind, the only evidently correct reaction to such trauma would be to rebell. The neighbour who had willingly adopted the girl was constantly facing off with a snobby brat; she refused to speak English, and actively worked against doing whatever the man had asked of her. 

Despite it being rocky and difficult at first, the two often throwing curses towards each other and getting into wild arguments (most of which he couldn’t understand), he came to treat her with nothing but love and respect, as though she were truly his own cute, sassy, and clever daughter. 

She too, eventually opened up; it unfolded slowly, with menial things such as beginning to use English words for basic needs and objects. It eventually grew to speaking mostly fluent English, working with the man to get dressed for the day, eat her breakfast- and, finally, by the time she was 9 years of age, she undertook referring to the man as ‘Papa’. 

It was one peculiar day in particular when the girl was 10 years old, that a mysterious phone call broke the silence of the household. Levina did as she usually had done upon hearing the telephone ring; she darted across the room and answered with an excitable ‘HOLA!’ To greet whomever it may be on the other side, perhaps her school friend, or her Papa’s work boss. Such was not the case. Rather than a sweet young girl’s voice, or even an English speaking person in general, a man with a thick, Russian accent began to sling foreign words towards her. Quickly, her father snatched the phone from her hands, his eyes wide with panic as he put the phone to his ear. 

He too, began to speak in the foreign tongue- fluently, at that. A violent chill crawled up her spine as she backed away. She felt as though she were a young child who had been caught with her hand deep within the bowels of a candy jar, or like she had been found stealing money from her Papa's wallet. 

She listened from afar, unable to comprehend a single word being uttered by her father- it was as though he was a completely different person during the entirety of the call. 

The next day, Levina found herself seated on an aircraft beside her ‘Papa’, the duo on a one way trip to Mother Russia unbeknownst to her. Upon arrival, the layers of the young Mexican girl’s personality began to peel back, one by one until there was nothing but fear left riddled within her bones. A terrible, frightful feeling had overcome her as her trusted ‘father’ brought her to a building- a certain building, one belonging to none other than the KGB. 

Once again she was left unable to understand a single word any of the people within the building were saying, and the only details relayed in English were things her ‘father’ decided to translate to her. 

“They are going to make you strong! Like your Papa,” He’d said, “You’ll get to work with me now!” He’d sound excited when he’d say these things, though there was a certain sadness in his eyes that only encouraged Levina’s fear.

They’d then proceed to lock her up in what could be described as a cell, separating her and her father for what felt like forever. 

During the weeks she was isolated in her cell, she wished only to go back home and be with her father again, as they had used to be; eating ice cream, playing in the park, going to school- even that boy in her class, young Donald who she hated so, she couldn’t stop wishing she was with him again. Anything but this. 

By the end of the fourth week, she’d simply grown tired and no longer shed tears, nor screamed curses in Spanish when her food was brought to her. She’d accepted the isolation- the silence. Which is when, finally, her doors were permanently opened to see her father once again, directly on the other side.

The first trial was done, and Levina embraced her father tightly, not wanting to let him go. 

“Why…?” She’d ask, and the only thing the man could reply with would be a sorrowful “I’m sorry.”

Months of testing, trials, and physical training would pass for the young girl before she’d have caught her father arguing with the scary KGB men- she’d deduced by this point that her father was never the American man he’d established himself to be since she was little, but rather a KGB sleeper agent planted in America to gather intel and collect a specimen, such as herself, for training. As for what, she had not a clue in the world.

The men wanted to test the girl further; they wanted to put her through physical and psychological torture trails and perhaps even worse, but her father would allow no such thing. Despite having only adopted the child in the first place for this specific purpose, he’d grown attached to her. He loved her like she was his own, ensured he was there for every trial she’d been put through, and demanded they not proceed with the training beyond this point. 

It was clear he could not be argued with on the matter, and took Levina back to his person home in Russia. He was done with seeing his daughter be put through such things, and detested himself for allowing it to happen in the first place. His humanity kicked in and his paternal instincts went into overdrive.

This came across as a threat to the KGB; perhaps the man was a double agent, and was now working for the CIA. Regardless, such behaviour would not be tolerated. 

It took only a week before a foreign car saw itself up into the man’s driveway, the men inside covered from head to toe, leaving their faces a mystery. It seemed his fate had caught up with him, and if he were to go, he’d go honestly and with a bang. 

With only a moment's time to react, he hurriedly grabbed his daughter by the arm, and dragged her into a hidden cupboard within the kitchen. She noted the gun in his hand as he harshly whispered to her; 

“Listen to me, Levina. I am the reason your family was deported back into Mexico...I was the one to report them. It was my doing.” The girl was mortified, instinctively curling back away from the man who she had thought to be her father for half of her existence. 

“You should hate me forever, and never, ever forgive me for such a thing. Hate me with all of the passion in your body- Hate them all, Levina, hate them all-“ 

The front door was kicked open, and the man shut the cupboard door.

Levina covered her ears, the sound of gunshots, footsteps, and yelling were all still vividly audible until...silence. 

She hardly noticed herself being taken away by the men in her stunned desolation, her eyes squeezed shut during the entire car ride back to the KGB building she had assumed she’d escaped for good. 

The KGB now had full reign over the girl; her body was no longer her own, but theirs. The psychological, emotional and physical tests commenced simultaneously all to work towards one ultimate goal; breaking the girl and creating an empty shell. 

Years of torture, false scenarios that felt all too real, and electroshock therapy to rid old memories, sending them deep within the innaccessable bits of her mind to create new ones, Levina was successfully being transformed into the proper agent they’d hoped for. She no longer put up a fight or struggle- eventually she had completely forgotten who she was, and was given the pseudonym Romannia Keskinov. She could speak fluent Russian and English, any semblance of Spanish had been banished from the forefront of her mind. After tactical weapons training, she had finally become the ultimate agent; an assassin, spy, and a body completely void of life, resembling more a loyal AI in dance and tune than a human being. 

After a course in acting, she could blend in to either Russia or America without a bat of her eyelash. Consistent torture kept her body tough; a nut that would never crack under pressure. She was ready.

1939, Levina is flown to the United States of America on her first mission to see if she is as valuable as they had made her out to be. Success was crucial for this assignment; she was to gather intel on any nuclear studies under wraps in America. She eventually catches wind of a “Manhattan Project”, and follows the scent as a bloodhound would to its prey. 

Doing exactly as she was told, she obtains as much intel as possible given the circumstances, and returns to Russia to report to her KGB masters. They are pleased with the information she has provided during her mission, and consider it vastly successful. Their puppet turned out to be exactly as they had hoped. 

No praise was given to code name Romannia, however, as such a thing wouldn’t register to a brain that no longer hosted emotions.

They’d send in multiples of alternate agents into America to finish gathering any other intel they could scavenge, and decided to promote their puppet into K-5 forces, undercover as a member of Stasi residing in East Germany, 1944. She continued to do everything she was instructed, whether it be sniffing for information, guarding, killing, being forced to bend over to the whim of any K-5 who so pleased to have her (both physically and metaphorically)— the tasks were seemingly endless. 

There was a sudden shift in interest come 1945-1946, when one relentless man continually attempted to escape East Germany over, and over, and over, each endeavor more unique and intriguing than the last. 

At first, he was disregarded as a trickster between the Stasi, but it didn’t take long before he was known for his clever escape methods. 

The moment he became a person of interest, Romannia was sent to keep track of him and feel him out- which she did. She dragged the man into an interrogation, her job being to crack him open like an egg and expose his insides to see what information he could possibly be hiding.

Such personal confrontation had her nearly excited for each interrogation session, the questions and digging into such a handsome, determined man being the best part of her day. Fortunately, it took her a couple of weeks to finally convince him to disclose information. 

She relayed the information to her K-5 bosses who were content with what she had to share. She then asked the men if she could keep him, as a ‘partner’, to which they hesitated though allowed this once, since they wished to further recruit and populate Russia with the men that had been forced prisoners during the war.

She offered to the man, [Ilya|, a chance to join the Stasi as her partner to escape punishments and perhaps even, eventually, East Germany. He agreed. 

Years later, when Ilya had managed to escape East Germany by his own clever accord thanks to some forging tricks, he finally had returned to Russia in the desperate attempt to learn what had happened to his father. Romannia went with him, not willing to part with her partner at this point. Despite her lack of emotions, control, and quite literally everything else in her life, Ilya had become something solid and consistent for her to just barely grasp on to.

Once the fact Andrew Ryan was relevant to Ilya’s life in some way, Romannia contacted the KGB mentioning the name that had been muttered on curious lips. Rapture was a thing of absolute interest and had been spoken about, though it was very clear no CIA or KGB were welcome into this ‘haven’ that Andrew Ryan had built. 

Ryan took Ilya in as a member of security, welcoming him into the city. Romannia saw this opportunity, and under the guise of wanting to help Ilya find his father, she became his ‘wife’ to easily albeit silently slip her way into Rapture alongside her partner to gather information for the KGB.

She ends up indulging in ADAM, using certain plasmids that will help her force information out of certain people, or even to torture them.

Depending on the universe, there may be a 1% chance her brain can be tapped in to and her memories flood back alongside a wave of emotions and remorse for all the evil she’d committed. It’s incredibly rare and unlikely, but it is possible.

Personality:

Considering the fact Romannia/Levina is not her own person, she is very cold, calculating, and emotionless when she’s in an idle state. But, her range of expression is vast thanks to the acting lessons she’d taken; she could play the damsel in distress, or perhaps the ever-so-talented posh noblewoman, she could even play a homeless cretin. 

When she’s in Rapture, she carves out her own personality given the fact the only person who knows who she truly is, and has an eye on her routinely is Ilya. She managed to recover some of her sass that has been deeply embedded into her memory- the typical ‘strong, attractive female lead’ character with only one goal in mind, and will stop at nothing to see it achieved. She truly is a dangerous woman, not one to be toiled with. 

Sometimes she will look at things with a child-like curiosity, which speaks to her general lack of education in every-day objects and mannerisms, though that is a rare sight and usually kept to herself. 

~Combat/Utility~

Weapons: Depends on the day, usually a silenced pistol or something akin to that

Gear: Her weapon and plasmids 

Plasmids/Tonics: I haven’t properly decided which ones as of yet fully, but definitely an altered form of enrage that forces them to speak the truth rather than fight for her, probably tonics that keep her acrobatics and strength up to par (will adjust this later) 

Strengths: Cold, detached, dangerous

Weaknesses: Curious, wanting to break her own chains, a puppet