Name: Mikhail Aleksandr Volkov

Nicknames: Mik, Mikki

Age: 25

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Pansexual

Species: half-human/half-Cursed One

Looks:

(Faceclaim: @lightswitchturnedmeon on Insta)
He's 6'2

Personality: Mikhail is a fairly chill guy. He can be rather serious when he's working, though he is also likely to crack a few jokes here and there to ease any tensions. He isn't the warmest person around, or the most open, but he isn't exactly closed off, either. He can be very friendly, but he always seems to be teetering on the edge of something. He seems so normal, though. So, so normal. But that is so far from the truth. It took him a long time to reach this stage where he seems to be a master over himself. But he has been known for the serious impulse control issues, or rather the lack thereof. He is heavily driven by instinct, good or bad, and that has lead to issues in the past. He has a sort of manic energy to him, when he isn't focused on being a normal, acceptable member of society. He has moments that are the highest of high, where nothing can bring him down, and his unrelenting optimism and energy is borderline insane. Then he has moments of deep, deep, deep lows, though these moments are less depression based and more primal and animalistic. In these lows, he has little control over himself and his actions, giving into the baser instincts of his being, consequences be damned. But when he's not in either of these extreme moods, he is seriously such a normal guy. A good soldier, personable enough to put people at ease, and the right amount of serious and playful. He does like people and he has an intimate awareness of them. He is sensitive to the moods of others, his own emotions mirroring the people he's around, at least to a small extent. His perception of the emotions of others is beyond what people expect, and beyond what he tends to let people see. He doesn't want people to freak out by how much he picks up on. He is touchy, but not to a ridiculous extreme. Friends and coworkers often get used to an arm slung around their shoulders and waists, a high-five or quick hug in greeting, a hand-shake just as common as a kiss on the cheek. He is respectful of boundaries when he can be, and he restricts himself far more than people realize. If he gave into to his impulses, he'd be very grabby and physical, hands everywhere. So may perceive his actions as sexual, even when they are not. He does love people, but he also fears them getting close. He does have a soft spot for humanity, but he doesn't let many people in beyond the walls he's built up around him. When he leaves his low moments, he is deeply ashamed of all that he has done, and deeply ashamed that people witnessed it. Those states are almost fugue-like states, only he remembers all of it. He is a far more complicated man than people tend to recognize. His armor of normal-guy is far too intact. Though stories and rumors follow him, he's done a decent job of keeping people from seeing the full extent of his mood swings.

Likes: people, physical touch, his hair, traveling, experimenting with style (including hairstyle, makeup, and clothing), a drink after a long week, going to the bar with friends or coworkers to de-stress, his job

Dislikes: his impulses and lack of control, his mood swings, people seeing the full-extent of his swings, how good and exhilarating giving into the bad and terrible things feel

Backstory: Mikhail is from the RaunVolk pack, initially. For a long time, he believed himself just to be a normal guy in the pack, nothing extraordinary about him. It wasn't until the time a first shift typically happens - and his didn't - that he started to worry. He'd always been an impulsive kid, but things started off small and innocent, as first. Nothing of concern. As he grew, things started to change. Mikhail may not have shifted yet, but his inner wolf had grown a consciousness. Less communicative in words and more so in feelings and desires, Mikhail started indulging, not fully grasping that most wolves don't lead you to kill small animals in the woods and taste their blood, then bury the evidence. Or that most wolves don't encourage you to to keep hitting until your opponent stops breathing. Or that most wolves don't encourage you to give up your humanity and enjoy the lifestyle of a free, unbound, unconnected life. These moments of indulgence were things that, for a long time, Mikhail thought just happened in his dreams. He didn't realize that at night, he genuinely did sneak free of his home into the woods. That he would sneak into the nearby human town. That the string of murders in the town were all committed by him. He was never caught. But by the time he was 16, he still hadn't shifted. It wasn't until he was caught, by one of the wolves of RaunVolk and brought to the Alpha, Brutus, that Mikhail finally realized this was all real. And that Mikhail learned the truth. His parents weren't his parents. His parents were some deadbeat human woman taken from the nearby town whom no one would miss, and none other than Mongrel, the gruesome Cursed One whom he'd been taught to hate. That Levi, that the RaunVolk Beast, was his brother. It was simply the worst possible thing he could have heard. It nearly destroyed him. But the truth gave his inner wolf more leeway and Mikhail was forced into an incredibly painful, horrific shift, right there in Brutus's office. His wolf seemed to radiate the wrongness of Cursed Ones. He'd advanced on the Alpha until someone came crashing through the door and tranquilized him before he could truly do harm. He woke up in a room, ankle chained to a bed, with a new sense of completeness. His wolf finally and fully emerged. Mikhail hated it. Hated his wolf, hated himself, hated RaunVolk. He was left for days in that room. He would mutter to himself, his voice a strange mix of his normal voice and a deep, gutteral, grotesque voice of his wolf. He'd pace the very small distance his ankle-chain allowed him to, his flesh burning from the silver. He was jumpy and quick to react, snarling at shadows and nothing at all. He was in a weird state, those days. Half himself and half his wolf, neither able to gain full control. Food was tossed into his cell after three days and Mikhail pounced on it, eating quickly, then falling back into his patterns. His eyes were hard to look at, at a constant flicker between his own and his wolf's - whose eyes look remarkably like Mongrel's, the white's a grayish color and the ring of color a blue-ish white. After three weeks, Mikhail seemed to return to himself, sat on the small cot, staring at the food that had been tossed to the floor. He was dejected, defeated, and full of loathing. When someone came to check on him, they found someone capable of civil conversation. He was told his parents requested to see him, so he was moved to another room, and his parents came in shortly thereafter. He hadn't known he was adopted and in the state he was in, his anger at his parents overrode most anything else. He told his parents to call the SUA and see if they'd take him in and give him a place. He refused to be here any longer, and maybe the SUA could help him get rid of this little problem. He was sent back to the cell and two weeks later, the SUA showed up to get him. They packed him into a van without any of his belongings. He'd been marched past Levi and Mikhail had come to a stop before the man he now knew was his half-brother. Even when he was tugged forward, hands bound in front of him, he didn't move. He stared at Levi, looking him over, before making direct eye contact with him. "I wish you'd killed them all," Mikhail had told him, before being yanked away so hard he stumbled. But he looked back at Levi with such hatred in his eyes it was practically a living thing. Not hatred for Levi, per say, but for RaunVolk. For everything and everyone, especially himself. Hauled to the SUA at only 16 years old, various tests were run on him. They taught him to try and control the wolf. They kept him because he showed great potential. When he was normal Mikhail, he was incredible at what he was supposed to do. Interrogations training was where he thrived, but he also did great with connecting with others. But when his wolf - dubbed The Thing by Mikhail and his handlers - came out to play, it was awful. He'd often end up chained when they caught him. When he was 20, they finally developed a special medication, just for him, drafted from all the tests run on him. The medicaion allowed him to suppress his wolf enough that his mood swings were kept mostly in check, only this had the unforeseen side effect of making his high moods more common than before. Either way, it was an improvement. When he was 21, after a year of medication testing and trial, he was finally allowed out on assignment. He always shadowed someone else, though. Even now, at 25, he doesn't typically go out alone, the SUA still too untrusting of his wolf to give him full leadership and autonomy. Mikhail loves his job. He goes around to packs and even human towns, investigating leads of disturbances and questionable activities. For human towns, he goes out to sites of 'paranormal' happenings and susses those out, dealing with the problem as needed. He hasn't gone back to RaunVolk since he left, nor has he talked to his parents or anyone from there, but enough rumor has spread at this point about what happened. About his parentage. Though he has his moments - sometimes at night he still sleepwalks and his wolf takes over, indulging itself - he is in the best place he's been in a long time. Rumors follow him, though he doesn't confirm nor deny any of them. Some hold truth and some do not. Either way, he just does what he is told. He has traveled to Crimson River to investigate a werewolf sighting in St. Louis and he stayed with them for a time, a few years back. He's stayed with Yellowstone for a small time, as well as Red Pine, and Rain Jewel. He travels where he is needed.

Other: He does know both Sunshine and Jericho
He still hates himself, but he hates his wolf more than anything
He has debated reaching out to Crimson River after hearing they have Levi
He has a personal interest in hunting down and finding Mongrel and has asked Sunshine to included him if he ever finds a lead
He doesn't really shift and every time that he does it is incredibly painful; he does partially shift, though. His claws are long and dark, his canines are thick and protruding, and his eyes are disturbing
He has a fear his mate will reject their bond, but then he also fears he can't have a mate because of his status as a partial Cursed One
His wolf mostly comes out when he's sleeping, though Mikhail remembers what happens as if it were a dream, and sometimes elements of the memory were actually in dreams and not real
He has killed far more people than there is a known count for
He was killing humans in the town near RaunVolk from ages 14-16 and he was known as The Full Moon Killer, because the bodies were only ever found the night after a full moon. The murder cases are still open, but are considered cold cases. They haven't even found all the victims yet
He knows if he messes up the SUA will likely just have him killed, so he tries to show them that he is worth keeping around; he is very. loyal to them and does everything they ask him to
Sometimes he scares himself with the well of hatred and rage he feels at every moment of every day
He really is very handsy, but he doesn't go crazy unless he has permission