Welcome back to The Gates’ Community Center, ALEKSANDER LASKA! Or should we say WORKAHOLIC? As a resident of HARBORVIEW HEIGHTS for TWENTY NINE YEARS, we are sure you need no introduction. However, we’d like to confirm some information for our community directory. You are TWENTY NINE years old, correct? And a DETECTIVE at THE GATES POLICE DEPARTMENT? Wonderful! We are so pleased to have someone who is AMBITIOUS, METICULOUS, and STRONG-WILLED within our community. Of course, we’ve also heard that you can be OBSESSIVE, EMOTIONALLY WITHDRAWN, and OVERZEALOUS… but you can’t believe everything you hear, right? Anyone who reminds people of A MAN STRUNG OUT ON SEVEN CUPS OF COFFEE, A PACK OF CIGARETTES, AND A SINGLE HOUR OF SLEEP, is welcome in The Gates.
Basics:
Name: Aleksander Laska
Nicknames: Alek or Laska
Species: Human (unaware of the supernatural)
Birthdate: January 10, 1995
Zodiac: Capricorn
Gender/Pronouns: Cismale, He/Him
Sexual Orientation: Demisexual
Relationship Status: Married to the job (otherwise, single)
Hometown: Harborview Heights
Pets: A beta-fish named Lucky
History:
For the men of the Laska family, police work has always been a generational calling. Alek's grandfather, and Alek's father (Adam Laska) after him, both served in the Gates Police Department as a Deputy and Detective respectively.
Alek doesn't remember much about his early childhood, apart from it being pleasant if a bit suburban. Alek's family lived in a small house just outside of the Heights. It wasn't anything special -- the Laska family had never been rich like many of the other families who were longtime residents of the Gates. It was a simple life, enough to be proud of. Enough for a child to find safe and secure. Enough to take for granted.
When Alek was nine years old, his father died of a massive heart attack, leaving his family with little in savings and a large sum still owed on their family home. This plunged Alek's mother into a protracted period of financial instability. She took on odd jobs, often working nights, leaving Alek to fend largely for himself. A boy learns to entertain himself. A boy learns how to live in his own head.
Despite Alek's mother's best effort, it wasn't enough. Eventually the bank came calling for their due and threatened to foreclose on the house. All seemed lost -- until, it wasn't.
"Someone in the Gates is looking out for us," she'd said once. As Alek grew older he pressed her for more information on their mysterious benefactor, his mother refused to elaborate (a secret she took to her grave in the summer of '22).
Life went on, almost like normal -- like before, but it could never really be the same.
Alek excelled in school, eventually matriculating at Washington State to study Criminology so he could follow in his father's footsteps. He graduated with honors and leadership distinction.
Returning home to the Heights, Alek joined the police force as a deputy, where he has served since early 2019.
He has only recently been promoted to detective.
Headcanons:
Alek keeps a worn photograph of his father in uniform in his billfold.
Though he doesn't know who it was, if it weren't for their secret benefactor in the Gates, his family would have lost their home – because of this, Alek feels indebted to the town itself.
Alek has a rare knack for numbers, puzzles, and trivia. He watches Jeopardy religiously and has a habit of blurting the answers out at the TV and to anyone else there to listen.
Wanted Connections:
The Benefactor: Someone paid off the Laska family mortgage. Who was it? Was it pity, or was it guilt? Did Adam Laska really die of a heart attack?
Childhood Friends: Alek has lived in the Heights his whole life (outside of college), so I'm definitely looking for someone who would have known/been close Alek when he was a sullen youngster.
The Stick-in the mud: I'm looking for someone, anyone, to get in the way, of an active murder investigation. You know, for funsies.
