Valesha Sienelis, a Romulan mercenary, is currently in the employ of the Skarbek cell of the Maquis. Sarcastic, smart and secretive, she is close-lipped about her past and a deadly shot with a rifle.
Valesha is a tall young woman, with a slim, boyish figure. Her skin is pale, crying out for a touch of real sunlight, and tinted ever-so-slightly by her copper blood. A long-standing practice of martial arts is visible in the defined outlines of lean muscle, and a languid, precise grace of movement. Emerald eyes are keen with a sharp intellect, sometimes distant if she drifts off into her busy inner world. Her dark hair is worn short, though she avoids the traditional, severe crops of her people. She uses few cosmetics, and her only perfume is that of soap.
Personality
Valesha is independent, adaptable and creative, possessing a fiercely logical and analytical mind. She often brings a unique perspective on a situation, and has a sharp eye for patterns and discrepancies. This also translates into a good ability to read people, and she's often quick to spot a lie. "Traditional" goals such as popularity and stability mean little to her, and she can be restless and temperamental, particularly if she doesn't feel intellectually challenged. She has an appreciation for action and risk, exemplified by her choice of career and leisure activities.
Her constantly busy mind can have the effect of making her look pensive and detached, while she's actually conducting a full-fledged debate in her own head. With people she knows, or who share her interests, she can be relaxed and friendly, though she never quite loses that sarcastic edge. If she believes her conclusions or theories are being unduly criticised, her attitude can quickly turn combative and her sarcasm can become deliberately cutting.
She isn't easy to make friends with; relationships tend to form with those she shares a common interest or train of thought. In those cases, the connection sparks instantly and can surprise those who consider her distant. Those who have sharply differing tastes may only find a stony demeanour that borders on the rude.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Analytical, abstract thinker
Imaginative and original
Open-minded
Objective
Honest and straightforward
Very private, withdraws easily
Insensitive
Condescending
Can struggle with rules and guidelines
Insecure
Hobbies
Literature: A voracious reader, she makes an effort to read seminal and classic works from across the known galaxy.
Martial Arts: On the insistence of her father, Valesha is a long-term student of Ch'Vashrek. Her lessons were focused on a variation that involves rapid, hard and direct assaults intended to incapacitate as swiftly as possible.
Swimming and Underwater Diving: With the luxury of rivers and a lake near the family home, Valesha enjoyed swimming and often spent hours in the water with her brother. As she grew older, her love of the water expanded to include snorkelling and scuba diving. It's not a hobby she gets much of a chance to indulge in, but when the opportunity presents, she does.
Quarters
Valesha's quarters are sparsely decorated, and she has little in the way of personal belongings with no particular inclination to accumulate them. There is limited evidence of her various hobbies; shells, corals and underwater pictures from her dives are tucked onto one shelf, another filled with books and PADDs to fuel her reading. The locker in her room is heavily secured, and legendary for the armoury she keeps stowed inside it — of which a very limited selection of people have permission to access.
No one knows in what circumstances Walter and Valesha met, and neither has felt inclined to share the story. Known for firing off sarcastic remarks at one another as though they're exchanging mortar fire across trenches, they somehow appear to know how far is too far, and don't cross that line. She is one of the few who receive his rare invitations to share a drink, when the mood takes him.
Talked at almost as soon as she stepped aboard the Skarbek, surprised when he delighted in her sarcasm, Valesha has developed a firm friendship with the Russian technician. He introduced her to tequila, she introduced him to Romulan home cooking, and the pair can often found in one another's company, relentlessly teasing one another. Of late, there's been a friction to their repartee and Valesha doesn't feel quite so easy in his company as she used to.
Personal History
Valesha was born and raised in the Jhianhre province, in a small, quiet settlement some distance from the city of Tal K'shir. She shared the family home with her mother and her twin brother, Taeval. It is a time she remembers very fondly, growing up happy and healthy, with very few troubles. As the twins grew older and matured into adolescence, their father began to pressure both his children to take a career in the military, so that they might follow in his footsteps one day. Neither had much interest — Valesha wanted to study science, while Taeval had already begun apprenticing with their mother to take over the family craft and trade — but the tug of war was eventually resolved in their father's favour, and they entered the Imperial War College.
Though not permitted to serve together, the twins followed a similar career path, swiftly reaching the rank of Lieutenant and considered prospects for the Tal Shiar. The death of her brother in her father's machinations saw Valesha vanish in the night, taking only a few belongings and leaving the Star Empire. Her efforts to deliberately put herself on the other side of the Federation to her former home brought her to the Demilitarised Zone placed her directly in the path of Walter Brunsig. What exactly happened next is between the two of them, but when he returned to the Skarbek it was in her company, and there she has been ever since.
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