↪ brief introduction to alina koivisto.
BASICS.
full name: alina sohvi kielo leka koivisto. nickname(s): lina. age: twenty-nine. date of birth: 24 april 1995. zodiac sign: taurus. place of birth: hancock, michigan, united states. ethnicity: white. nationality: american, finnish. gender: demigirl ( she/they pronouns ). sexual orientation: homosexual. romantic orientation: homoromantic. religion: agnostic. education: bachelor’s in finnish languages and literature ( university of helsinki ), master's in literature with a focus in russian literature. she's currently studying to earn a degree in library science. occupation: graduate student at providence peak university; works at the university library. language(s) spoken: english, finnish, russian. alina grew up speaking finnish in addition to english and she learned russian while she was in graduate school in finland to study for her courses with books in the appropriate language. accent: alina doesn't have a terribly thick accent but the way she pronounces some things makes it fairly clear she's from the midwest.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.
face claim: florence pugh. hair color: blonde. eye color: green. height: 5'4". weight: 112 lbs. build: slim, athletic. tattoos: a watercolor stylized fox on the side of her left leg ( here ). piercings: alina has her ears pierced in several places— she wears jewelry, most commonly, in her lobe and upper lobe piercings as she can change that jewelry out. She has fixed piercings as well: a helix piercing in her left ear and an industrial piercing in her right - both of which she got while she was attending university. she also has a septum piercing that she's especially fond of. distinguishing characteristics: her stutter, her shyness, the fact that she always seems to have at least three books with her at any given time.
PERSONALITY.
label: the wallflower. positive traits: adaptable, charming, clever, compassionate, empathetic, flirtatious, independent, methodical, passionate, persuasive, resourceful. negative traits: anxious, avoidant, impulsive, non-confrontational, sarcastic, self-deprecating, self-sabotaging, shy, stubborn. goals/desires: to finish her graduate program and officially become a librarian, to fall in love, to be happy, ultimately. fears: autophobia ( fear of being alone ). hobbies: studying, learning anything new in any capacity, baking, cooking, finding the best patches of sun to nap in, gardening ( when she has the time and energy for it ), reading in general, meeting new people ( in spite of her shyness she does find people fascinating and often tries to make friends to help her push through her anxiety ), finding new and varied ways to pester her siblings, sketching, watching the mummy for the millionth time, singing, playing video games when she can sit and focus on them, finding new outlets for her energy. quirks: she very nearly always talks with her hands to some extent when she’s speaking, she gets obscenely excited over animals of just about any sort, she occasionally has to force herself to find a new way to say something mid-sentence to combat her stutter, likes: disney movies, cute girls, ( occasionally ) flirting with said cute girls, spending time with her friends and family, taking naps with her cat, strong coffee, food of any kind, trying new things if her friends will try them with her, watching documentaries, watching foreign TV shows, fantasy novels, queer romance novels, jigsaw puzzles, crafts of any sort ( knitting, especially ). dislikes: people who question her ability when it comes to just about anything, hurting anyone she loves ( she never does so intentionally but the guilt she feels afterwards is honestly next level ), being bad at things on the first try, people who don’t listen, the fact that she stutters.
FAMILY.
father: salomon koivisto. mother: luvianna koivisto. sibling(s): older sister, older sister, younger half-sibling. pet(s): a one year old norwegian forest cat named pushkin— alina calls him alexei or alecki, as he’s named after alexander pushkin, the author. financial status: upper class.
BIOGRAPHY.
(TW: infidelity mention, anxiety mention)
Hancock, Michigan was a small, cold town a stone's throw from the Canadian border and home to a significant population of Finns and Finnish-Americans who'd immigrated there or grown up there or simply cast eyes upon the town and decided it was a perfectly fine place to raise a family. That was the choice Salomon's parents had made when they chose to move from Helsinki, Finland to the United States. As a boy, he had no real recollection of what Helsinki had been like, nor did his younger sister but each of them delighted in the stories their parents told them and the pride the older Koivistos seemed to take in the fact that they'd found a city in the US that reminded them even tangentially of home. Sal and Matty ( as the Koivisto children were eventually called ) both seemed to love their hometown; it was small, yes, but there was plenty of adventure to be had and each of them seemed eager to throw themselves into it at every turn.
The pair remained thick as thieves until the time came for Sal to attend university and he made the decision to return to the country of his birth, live with his grandparents, and study in Helsinki. It was there that he met another international student – Luvianna Aadli, an Estonian woman who captivated Sal from the moment they locked eyes. The two bonded incredibly quickly and it wasn't a surprise to anyone in their lives when the pair announced they were dating. By the time they'd finished university, Luvianna was pregnant and Sal suggested they move back to the US to marry and raise their family. Luvianna was all too happy to accept and their first daughter was born shortly after they settled down in Sal's hometown of Hancock. Their life together was picturesque and continued to be as their family grew and when their youngest daughter Alina was born on a crisp morning in April - Sal and Luvianna were blissfully happy to have each other and their girls.
Alina, unlike her sisters, was a quiet child – full of excitement for life and a genuine joy that seemed to exude from her in the way of most children but painfully shy and, when she learned to speak, plagued by a stutter that seemed to vex her endlessly. With her family she seemed to be able to relax enough that it wasn't as much of an issue but it was evident to all of them that Alina's shyness made it difficult for her to relax in front of other children her age and strangers she had to interact with. It often took her multiple tries to introduce herself and even with speech therapy as she got older, her stutter never quite went away.
When she was seven her parents announced that they would be moving— Alina was anxious to leave Hancock as she’d never known anywhere else but that anxiety was overpowered by a genuine excitement and as they settled into life in Colorado she decided that it really wasn't so bad. Though her stutter continued to plague her when her anxiety was high, she had very little difficulty making friends throughout her childhood and into her teen years. When she wasn’t spending time with her friends Alina could reliably be found in the library or local coffee shops reading— it had been an escape of sorts when she was a child and continued to serve that purpose as she got older, her fascination with imaginary worlds and the written word never truly fading. She considered writing herself for all of a few months before she decided that she might like to study literature and decide whether she ought to go afterwards.
By the time she finished high school she had a solid group of friends and a girlfriend she was deeply in love with but agreed to split from as she had made the decision to attend university in Finland - following, in some small way, in her father’s footsteps on that front. Shortly before she was set to depart for Finland, her parents sat her down with her sisters and (remarkably calmly, as far as Alina was concerned) explained that they had moved to Colorado in the first place because their father had a child there. It was a shock to learn of their father’s affair in such a manner but their mother’s previous knowledge and the careful admission that her parents were really more best friends than romantic partners served to soothe Alina’s confusion surrounding the situation. She agreed to meet her half-sibling before she left and found herself more than comfortable in their presence almost immediately in spite of the fact that she jetted off to Helsinki for school shortly thereafter.
After earning her bachelor’s degree, Alina made the decision to remain in Finland with her grandparents— she wasn’t quite ready to leave her friends and the life she’d made there behind and threw herself into studying once more to earn her master’s degree. Seven years of her life was spent in Finland before Providence Peak eventually called her back when she enrolled in her second graduate program with the intention of studying library science at the university.
Overall, Alina was delighted to be back home in Providence Peak when she returned in 2020 and even as she studied she ensured she had plenty of time to spend with her family, old friends and getting to know her half-sibling more deeply than regular Christmases spent visiting for a handful of weeks before returning to Finland had allowed. Her time away had made her bolder in some ways but Alina remained the same sweet, slightly too shy woman she’d always been and though her anxiety was a daily struggle she remained eager and happy to greet whatever the next day might bring.
