![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
20 Random Facts about Reka Lengyal
1.She's never even tasted alcohol, baring the occasional medication.
Even though she'd worked at the Recess since she was sixteen, it was more the appeal of meeting new people and a general enjoyment of waitressing that drew her to the job than the appeal of drinking. While she doesn't admonish the activity, she's never felt the draw of a good drink herself. And besides, that stuff smells awful.
2.She came up with most of the design elements for the Recess's 'Gothic' makeover.
When the owner of the bar made an idle comment about changing the bar's look to draw the 'darker and edgier' college kids, she took is a a challenge, and after three weeks of research into various design elements and relatively enduring trends, she had a cost estimate and the rough design preview sketched up for presentation. It won her an internship with a local design firm when he showed it to an old school buddy of his with a few connections, but she isn't sure if she is going to take him up on the offer.
3.She straightens her hair and dyes it black; it's not natural.
She inherited the same curly mop that her mother did, and while she loved the woman with all her heart, being constantly compared to her by family members at every bleeding reunion...so after she turned sixteen, she showed up with jet black locks down hanging just over her shoulders. 'Kamella's Daughter' was quickly replaced with 'That Reka'. It was a start.
4.She has a killer right hook.
Her uncle spent a summer teaching her how to throw a proper punch once he found out where she worked, and while very little of the other self defense he show her stuck, the was something very satisfying about perfecting the snap at the end of the swing, and when she knocked out a cousin in one swing for calling her a bar-wench, her uncle laughed and deemed her a success.
5.She hates her freckles.
She's tried every mask in existence, but the ones that are effective without being layered an inch deep left her looking pale enough to star in 'Queen of the Damned'. And while that might be a draw for her at work, her co-corkers would never let her live it down.
6.She can't roller-skate.
Oh, she's tried to learn, several times, all with varying degrees of tragedy. Rollerblades, ice-skates, and even Moon-shoes are anathema as far as she's concerned.
7.She's godmother to her sister's kids.
Heck, some people joke that they look close enough alike that it's a negligible difference anyways, though Reka is somewhat blind to their resemblance. All that aside, Reka absolutely loves to spoil them rotten with sweets and trips to the pizza play-scape after big tip nights at work.
8.She can speak Hungarian, German and French.
A big part of it came from being a military brat, though she largely began to learn French because of a high school crush. Good luck trying to get her to admit that, though.
9.She wrecked her parent's car when she was eleven, and they never found out.
While they were out of town for a few days, Reka decided to go to McDonald's. After all, she knew all the roads to get there, and driving couldn't be that hard. After totaling the truck in a ditch, she jumped out and ran the two miles back home. Her parents assumed that someone had stolen the car, and the officer in charge, seeing the miserably guilty look on the girl's face, decided not to point out the stack of phone books now scattered across the floorboards.
10.She really isn't a big horror fan.
A part of her distaste comes from the general clientèle at the Recess, but the biggest is that despite the excellent writing and themes, in the end it was all largely fantasy or the very worst of what humanity could be. Apt Pupil gave her nightmares for weeks when she saw it on TCM, and afterwards she swore sole allegiance to science fiction. Best to imagine the highest of human achievement than the lowest of its depravity, by her book.
11.She has several tattoos depicting feline striping across her back.
It's embarrassing really. She's had these horrific scars on her back from the accident that nearly killed her sister, and some other-kin pal she had in high school told her it looked like her inner animal was a tiger because of how they lined up across her back. While she didn't ever talk to said person again after high school, and thought the whole other-kin spiel was bull, no pun intended, the truth of her observation stuck with her, and after one drunken weekend in Vegas with some friends after graduation, she woke up to rather intense pain along her spine and the beginnings of stripes running along her shoulders and back. As the job was already fully paid for (annihilating her winnings for the weekend) she decided to go ahead and finish the deed, though embarrassment keeps her from wearing low backed dresses and two piece swim-suits to this day. They do a great job of hiding the scars though.
12.She's virtually addicted to MMOs.
It's terrible how much of her pay-check goes toward pay-to-play subscriptions, but it's about the best form of stress relief that she's ever found. After six hours of trying to keep drunken quasi-Gothic punks from pinching her ass, thirty minutes flying through the skyscrapers of Paragon City is strangely therapeutic.
13.Cats creep her out.
There's just something about the things, like they know a little too much. She remembers a lot of cats wandering about the property in the days before her parents died, so they have unfortunate associations for her these days.
14.She remembers the night her parents died.
It's fairly fuzzy, but she remembers the shouting voices, the crack of a phone smashing against a wall, and her sister's arms wrapping around her as the garage door rumbled up and tires squealed into the night. She also remembers a man in a suit coming by, and her sister screaming at him, but she doesn't fully understand the significance of the memory. Whenever she's asked Aria about it, she'd look angrier than she's ever seen her, and she takes that as a cue to avoid the subject.
15.She's actually left-handed.
Her mother was very traditional and slightly superstitious, so when her daughter started to show signs of let-handedness, she immediately began a campaign to nip it at the bud. While Reka ended up being proficient enough with her right, it tends to hurt her wrist to do any serious activity with her 'off' hand over any extended period.
16.She's a strong advocate of Occam's Razor.
While not one to jump onboard of every idea and trend that bounces through, she isn't one to over-think much; in her opinion, that causes as much problems as jumping in head first. But she does believe that the simplest answer and solution is generally the best one, and if the guy who claims to be a vampire dramatically displays some massive canines you know haven't been so visible before, seems more concerned with reassuring you that he won't drain her dry on impulse rather than convince you that he isn't lying, and then shows that your sister is the freaking Paladin, then maybe there's more to what he's saying then some sad attempt to impress a potential 'Mistress of the Night'.
17.She's pretty good in a crisis.
It's largely why Aria choose her as Godmother; when shit hit the fan, Reka would wait until after it was over to loose it. Reka doesn't know where this eerie calm comes from, but when faced with something beyond her experience or belief, the panic centers shut down while she take the situation in and considers every option, then executes.
18.The breakdown normally comes after. In rather embarrassing fashion.
In the most recent upheaval, Reka quickly packed enough necessities and small items to keep the kids occupied, taking into account what she'd be able to borrow from Alvero and what she could simply replace. She checked to be sure there was nothing more that she could do, then got the kids in the van and headed down the street, idly considering that Alvero's was honestly the only family in Newcastle who would be able to take up three more people, including an infant, the night before Thanks...giving...
And then the dam broke. Thanksgiving was tomorrow, and while the entire damn country was sitting around tables in celebration of all they had, she was going to be at a near stranger's house, with her sister only Jason knew where, being possessed by a murdering psychopath, and what was she going to tell Mychal when he started asking where she was, oh, and by the way, the ones who told her all this are freaking vampires? Fighting back the onrush of hysteria, she almost didn't see the car she cut off at the four-way by the house, or that they followed her for another three blocks. In fact, it wasn't until she was on Alvero's driveway that she got her equilibrium back, and then it was only because the kids were going to need her.
19.She has no idea how she made those thugs believe she was Paladin.
Almost none of what she did was planned, but when Alvero stopped shouting and she saw the terror growing in his wife's eyes, Reka grabbed the kitchen knife she'd snatched up en route to the upstairs bedroom and ran out the door. She grabbed the hoodie out of an open closet and ran forward, hoping to grab a quick look over the railing before grabbing their attention...only to knock the thing loose and fall on top of all of them. As she recovered the wind that she lost falling from the second floor, she heard one of the mobster shout, 'That's her!' and after several seconds of scrambling to get to her feet, she managed to make it out the door having only tripped twice. Even so, she hadn't managed to run half a block before being tackled from behind, sending the knife flying into the street and her head cracking against the curb. She didn't wake back up until she was tied up in some warehouse, but before it faded to back, her last thought was that if that sorry display had convinced them, then they must be more desperate to end this than anyone could have thought.
20.The reason for her first near frenzy wasn't quite as straightforward as one might think.
Yeah, she wasn't happy about him killing her, but she honestly expected to die anyways; she'd only be hoping to buy Aria enough time to get the kids safe then come for payback. But the idea that Pino had thrown her sister, her parents, and so many others, criminals or not, into such a spiral of death and pain only to coast onto a few dollars infuriated her more than she understood. She saw the few surviving mobsters in the room staring at their former boss with such looks of betrayal and shame, that their rage became all but palpable to her, and she saw herself rushing forward, shoving the skinny guy out of the way, screaming 'Was it worth it?!' over and over as she pulped him head against the warehouse wall. It was only her sister's hand that stayed the part inside her that was roaring for blood, and the gratitude she has for that is more than Aria will likely ever know; while such a thing may have been worth it for Ricardo Pino, but for her, the price of that bloody vengeance would have been more than she could bear.
Reka Lengyel
June 8th, 1984-November 27th, 2005
Up next: 20 Random Facts about Rita B. Gattis
1.She's never even tasted alcohol, baring the occasional medication.
Even though she'd worked at the Recess since she was sixteen, it was more the appeal of meeting new people and a general enjoyment of waitressing that drew her to the job than the appeal of drinking. While she doesn't admonish the activity, she's never felt the draw of a good drink herself. And besides, that stuff smells awful.
2.She came up with most of the design elements for the Recess's 'Gothic' makeover.
When the owner of the bar made an idle comment about changing the bar's look to draw the 'darker and edgier' college kids, she took is a a challenge, and after three weeks of research into various design elements and relatively enduring trends, she had a cost estimate and the rough design preview sketched up for presentation. It won her an internship with a local design firm when he showed it to an old school buddy of his with a few connections, but she isn't sure if she is going to take him up on the offer.
3.She straightens her hair and dyes it black; it's not natural.
She inherited the same curly mop that her mother did, and while she loved the woman with all her heart, being constantly compared to her by family members at every bleeding reunion...so after she turned sixteen, she showed up with jet black locks down hanging just over her shoulders. 'Kamella's Daughter' was quickly replaced with 'That Reka'. It was a start.
4.She has a killer right hook.
Her uncle spent a summer teaching her how to throw a proper punch once he found out where she worked, and while very little of the other self defense he show her stuck, the was something very satisfying about perfecting the snap at the end of the swing, and when she knocked out a cousin in one swing for calling her a bar-wench, her uncle laughed and deemed her a success.
5.She hates her freckles.
She's tried every mask in existence, but the ones that are effective without being layered an inch deep left her looking pale enough to star in 'Queen of the Damned'. And while that might be a draw for her at work, her co-corkers would never let her live it down.
6.She can't roller-skate.
Oh, she's tried to learn, several times, all with varying degrees of tragedy. Rollerblades, ice-skates, and even Moon-shoes are anathema as far as she's concerned.
7.She's godmother to her sister's kids.
Heck, some people joke that they look close enough alike that it's a negligible difference anyways, though Reka is somewhat blind to their resemblance. All that aside, Reka absolutely loves to spoil them rotten with sweets and trips to the pizza play-scape after big tip nights at work.
8.She can speak Hungarian, German and French.
A big part of it came from being a military brat, though she largely began to learn French because of a high school crush. Good luck trying to get her to admit that, though.
9.She wrecked her parent's car when she was eleven, and they never found out.
While they were out of town for a few days, Reka decided to go to McDonald's. After all, she knew all the roads to get there, and driving couldn't be that hard. After totaling the truck in a ditch, she jumped out and ran the two miles back home. Her parents assumed that someone had stolen the car, and the officer in charge, seeing the miserably guilty look on the girl's face, decided not to point out the stack of phone books now scattered across the floorboards.
10.She really isn't a big horror fan.
A part of her distaste comes from the general clientèle at the Recess, but the biggest is that despite the excellent writing and themes, in the end it was all largely fantasy or the very worst of what humanity could be. Apt Pupil gave her nightmares for weeks when she saw it on TCM, and afterwards she swore sole allegiance to science fiction. Best to imagine the highest of human achievement than the lowest of its depravity, by her book.
11.She has several tattoos depicting feline striping across her back.
It's embarrassing really. She's had these horrific scars on her back from the accident that nearly killed her sister, and some other-kin pal she had in high school told her it looked like her inner animal was a tiger because of how they lined up across her back. While she didn't ever talk to said person again after high school, and thought the whole other-kin spiel was bull, no pun intended, the truth of her observation stuck with her, and after one drunken weekend in Vegas with some friends after graduation, she woke up to rather intense pain along her spine and the beginnings of stripes running along her shoulders and back. As the job was already fully paid for (annihilating her winnings for the weekend) she decided to go ahead and finish the deed, though embarrassment keeps her from wearing low backed dresses and two piece swim-suits to this day. They do a great job of hiding the scars though.
12.She's virtually addicted to MMOs.
It's terrible how much of her pay-check goes toward pay-to-play subscriptions, but it's about the best form of stress relief that she's ever found. After six hours of trying to keep drunken quasi-Gothic punks from pinching her ass, thirty minutes flying through the skyscrapers of Paragon City is strangely therapeutic.
13.Cats creep her out.
There's just something about the things, like they know a little too much. She remembers a lot of cats wandering about the property in the days before her parents died, so they have unfortunate associations for her these days.
14.She remembers the night her parents died.
It's fairly fuzzy, but she remembers the shouting voices, the crack of a phone smashing against a wall, and her sister's arms wrapping around her as the garage door rumbled up and tires squealed into the night. She also remembers a man in a suit coming by, and her sister screaming at him, but she doesn't fully understand the significance of the memory. Whenever she's asked Aria about it, she'd look angrier than she's ever seen her, and she takes that as a cue to avoid the subject.
15.She's actually left-handed.
Her mother was very traditional and slightly superstitious, so when her daughter started to show signs of let-handedness, she immediately began a campaign to nip it at the bud. While Reka ended up being proficient enough with her right, it tends to hurt her wrist to do any serious activity with her 'off' hand over any extended period.
16.She's a strong advocate of Occam's Razor.
While not one to jump onboard of every idea and trend that bounces through, she isn't one to over-think much; in her opinion, that causes as much problems as jumping in head first. But she does believe that the simplest answer and solution is generally the best one, and if the guy who claims to be a vampire dramatically displays some massive canines you know haven't been so visible before, seems more concerned with reassuring you that he won't drain her dry on impulse rather than convince you that he isn't lying, and then shows that your sister is the freaking Paladin, then maybe there's more to what he's saying then some sad attempt to impress a potential 'Mistress of the Night'.
17.She's pretty good in a crisis.
It's largely why Aria choose her as Godmother; when shit hit the fan, Reka would wait until after it was over to loose it. Reka doesn't know where this eerie calm comes from, but when faced with something beyond her experience or belief, the panic centers shut down while she take the situation in and considers every option, then executes.
18.The breakdown normally comes after. In rather embarrassing fashion.
In the most recent upheaval, Reka quickly packed enough necessities and small items to keep the kids occupied, taking into account what she'd be able to borrow from Alvero and what she could simply replace. She checked to be sure there was nothing more that she could do, then got the kids in the van and headed down the street, idly considering that Alvero's was honestly the only family in Newcastle who would be able to take up three more people, including an infant, the night before Thanks...giving...
And then the dam broke. Thanksgiving was tomorrow, and while the entire damn country was sitting around tables in celebration of all they had, she was going to be at a near stranger's house, with her sister only Jason knew where, being possessed by a murdering psychopath, and what was she going to tell Mychal when he started asking where she was, oh, and by the way, the ones who told her all this are freaking vampires? Fighting back the onrush of hysteria, she almost didn't see the car she cut off at the four-way by the house, or that they followed her for another three blocks. In fact, it wasn't until she was on Alvero's driveway that she got her equilibrium back, and then it was only because the kids were going to need her.
19.She has no idea how she made those thugs believe she was Paladin.
Almost none of what she did was planned, but when Alvero stopped shouting and she saw the terror growing in his wife's eyes, Reka grabbed the kitchen knife she'd snatched up en route to the upstairs bedroom and ran out the door. She grabbed the hoodie out of an open closet and ran forward, hoping to grab a quick look over the railing before grabbing their attention...only to knock the thing loose and fall on top of all of them. As she recovered the wind that she lost falling from the second floor, she heard one of the mobster shout, 'That's her!' and after several seconds of scrambling to get to her feet, she managed to make it out the door having only tripped twice. Even so, she hadn't managed to run half a block before being tackled from behind, sending the knife flying into the street and her head cracking against the curb. She didn't wake back up until she was tied up in some warehouse, but before it faded to back, her last thought was that if that sorry display had convinced them, then they must be more desperate to end this than anyone could have thought.
20.The reason for her first near frenzy wasn't quite as straightforward as one might think.
Yeah, she wasn't happy about him killing her, but she honestly expected to die anyways; she'd only be hoping to buy Aria enough time to get the kids safe then come for payback. But the idea that Pino had thrown her sister, her parents, and so many others, criminals or not, into such a spiral of death and pain only to coast onto a few dollars infuriated her more than she understood. She saw the few surviving mobsters in the room staring at their former boss with such looks of betrayal and shame, that their rage became all but palpable to her, and she saw herself rushing forward, shoving the skinny guy out of the way, screaming 'Was it worth it?!' over and over as she pulped him head against the warehouse wall. It was only her sister's hand that stayed the part inside her that was roaring for blood, and the gratitude she has for that is more than Aria will likely ever know; while such a thing may have been worth it for Ricardo Pino, but for her, the price of that bloody vengeance would have been more than she could bear.
Reka Lengyel
June 8th, 1984-November 27th, 2005
Up next: 20 Random Facts about Rita B. Gattis
Current Location: The Homefront
Current Mood: accomplished
3 comments | Leave a comment
amused
giddy
drained