Full Name: Larysa Aleksandra Stasy Myzekantchka Sviatoslava Petulengro Wispersteppe Borodin
Vitsa: Midnight Sands
Trade(s): Phuri Dae and Singer
Date & Place of Birth: June 20, 1514, near Tver in Russia
Favourite Pastime(s): Singing for friends instead of the Gaje, dancing, charming people into doing what she wishes, and finding creative ways to survive on two copper pieces a week.
Favourite Meal: Larysa has recently discovered the virtues of Irish sodabread.
Favourite Colour: Forest Green
Favourite Member of the Kumpania: Although she looks on both her older brothers, Nikolai and Kyrill, as confidants, friends, kings and siblings, it is Sasha Zarovitch (no blood relation), to whom she is promised in marriage. Their first meeting was spent determining that Sasha was Larysa's half-brother Kyrill's father's sister-in-law's son. (Whew!)
Favourite Weapon: A dagger with no crosspiece
Quote: "Things can always get worse. I do not know if this makes me relieved about present, or dread the future."
Background
Larysa was born to Ravena and Kostos and grew up in Russia, but after difficulties with her father and the czar himself, our vitsa fled Russia when Larysa was 14 years old - never to return.
The journey was long and difficult, but once we reached England, Larysa found work singing in taverns and inns that took her away from our vitsa for months, even a year, at a time. This past year, Larysa ran into so many difficulties in being so far from her family that she returned to us and attended Scarborough's spring faire for the first time.
Baba Ravena apprenticed her as Phuri Dae, and by the time the festival season was over, Larysa had been made Phuri Dae of the Vitsa of the Midnight Sands, alongside the Rom Baro, her half-brother Kyrill.
Kyrill and Larysa's first order of business - a directive from Nikolai - was to reform the Midnight Sands, which was comprised almost entirely of thieves and rogues. Their
attempt so far has been largely unsuccessful, finding few marketable skills among their gypsies, and selling nearly everything they own just to keep their vitsa fed. After a highly unsuccessful stint to Canterbury, the vitsa knew it was only a matter of time until a major change had to be made.
A singer of a certain skill and some small renown, Larysa's first passion was for the stage, despite where the pursuit of it would lead her over the next years of her life. Things in England were getting
sparse for a gypsy in the Vitsa of the Midnight Sands. The next months revealed that England could not provide what the vitsa needed, and Ravena's children would be scattered again. With heavy hearts, Larysa and Kyrill decided to bid farewell to their mother and brother for what might be the last time, and lead the Vitsa of the Midnight Sands to seek their fortunes in Ireland.
