Persephone

Kira Volkov is a Russian law student who was trapped in Sword Art Online, in her avatar Persephone, commonly referred to as Percy. She was a beta-tester of Sword Art Online. She is one of the main protagonists of Sword Art Online: Oaths to Keep.

==Appearance==

When Percy first logs into SAO she uses a male avatar. She wears the default clothing in crimson, and almost immediately buys a black hooded cloak for no other purpose than to make herself look cool. Her hair is white and in a waist-length braid, and her eyes are red. She is also noticeably taller than in real life.

After her avatar is taken away she takes on her real life appearance-messily cut shoulder length chestnut colored hair, grey eyes, and a decidedly androgynous form.

She wears a dark red capulet coat, black boots, a simple black shirt and black pants with a red scarf later in. Later on she replaces her red coat with a black one, and black shirt with a red one. She always carries a bag of explosives on her side.

In real life Percy favors blazers and dress shirts in varying colors of red and black, as well as typically wearing some sort of trench coat. She will occasionally dress more informally, wearing beanies, combat boots and flannel shirts. However, this is rare.

==Personality==

Kira typically seems somewhat absent from her current situation, as though she's focusing on something else. She often seems to go on long, irrelevant tangents, and questions almost everything she hears in a very in-depth way. She tends to be very observant, and good at solving puzzles and piecing things together, but at the same time she finds it hard to communicate her findings to other people. She talks fast and a lot, and thus tends to come off as somewhat obnoxious. While she cares for people as a whole and would do almost anything to protect others, she tend to have a hard time dealing with actual people, and can come off as insensitive or cold.

She is a compulsive liar, and she herself can't think of why she is. She just tends to say things that aren't true, or is at least cryptic about it. She feels almost subconsciously compelled to say things that aren't true, almost as if out of habit.

She is very motivated and hardworking, and often idolizes those above her. She is a proper workaholic, and never devotes any time to things other than the work at hand unless absolutely necessary. She gets very easily excited and is very determined. However, she has issues trusting other people, and often thinks that even the closest of friends are out to get her, although she very rarely brings this up, preferring living a lie to living alone.

She can be very loud, outspoken and political when the situation requires it. She is often opinionated, but will change with evidence. She is a perfectionist, and can be very hard on herself when she doesn't meet her own very high standards.

She always moves quickly, as though driven by a motor, and some find her obnoxious. She tends to overthink everything she does, and often worries way too much. She can occasionally be slightly pretentious and/or overbearing, although she tries very hard to keep this under wraps.

==Background==

Kira Volkova was born in 2007 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a mathematician and a neurosurgeon. From a young age Kira was unsociable child who preferred books to other people. She was raised to be an elite intellectual, and became terrified of failure. She shut herself off from other people, dedicating herself entirely to her studies. She skipped two grades and was generally considered a prodigy.

As she got older, Kira became less and less content from her way of life, and began to sneak video games into her life. She also lost interest in STEM fields and began to study the social sciences. She learned about inequality around the world and decided that she would dedicate her life to it. Her parents were surprisingly supportive.

When Kira was fourteen she was diagnosed with ADHD. While no one actually discriminated against her, she was terrified and tried to deny it, thinking that she was too 'smart' to have ADHD. She began to develop low self esteem, her anxiety worsened, and her grades dropped as she stopped caring and spent most of her time playing video games.

She was given an opportunity to pick up her life when her family decided to move to Japan. At fifteen they moved to Japan. At sixteen she graduated high school and decided to take a gap year working as an intern at a local law firm. She saved up her money until she had enough to buy NerveGear.

She became a beta tester, and while she did averagely she had very little time to actually play the game due to her job and studies. In fact, had she not taken a sick day (the first in a year) on the day of the release, she would not have been trapped in SAO.

==Chronology== ===(Series title)=== ==Relationships== ==Abilities==

===Sword Art Online=== *Level: 50 *HP: 10042

====Main Equipment==== Night Sting (One-handed Rapier - Monster drop, first floor)

Blood Needle (One-handed Rapier - Player-Made by Blank)

Crimson Shroud (First coat - Dropped by the 4th Floor Boss)

Night Coat (Second Coat)

====Skills==== ==Gallery== ==Trivia==

- Kira is fluent in English, Russian, Japanese, Ukranian, and American Sign Language

- Kira's alignment is Lawful Good, her MBTI type is INTJ, and she is a Scorpio

- After being elected to office, Kira becomes the first openly transgender politician to serve in elected office in Russia.

- Kira is a panromantic asexual.

- Percy was not the same avatar as the one Kira used in the Beta. The avatar she used in the beta was named Euridice. - Kira has a second ALO avatar, an imp named Mallory.

- Her given name, Kira, can mean 'ruler', 'one the people look to' or 'beloved' in Russian. It is also the anglicized version of the gaelic Ciara, meaning dark. Her second name is a traditional Russian patrimonial taken from her father, Vladimir's name, meaning 'daughter of Vladimir. Her surname means 'of the wolf'

- Kira's surname at birth was Volkova, but she changed it to the masculine version to make her name less feminine.

- Her avatar, Persephone, is named after the Greek goddess Persephone, who was the wife of Hades and ruler of the underworld. The name itself means 'bringer of death', which is likely why Percy chose it.

- Kira confesses herself to be attracted to dark and brooding characters in fiction, although she says that she would 'definitely punch them in the face if she met them IRL'

- Kira studied Krav Maga from childhood.

- Kira's family is reform Jewish, however Kira herself is agnostic.

- Kira spends much of her time on the popular microblogging website Tumblr, where she has a decently sized following. She describes her blog as 'less politics and more memes than one would think.'