Character Sketch: Aleksandr (Sacha) Romanov-Mikhailachev
1) Sacha came to America with his family at the age of twelve, as his parents were escaping persecution from the Soviet government at the time. As a result, his Russian accent is not as pronounced as his husband Sergei and his Mikhailachev in-laws.
2) His father was extremely misogynist and had patriarchal views about how men and women should act. He desired only sons, specifically masculine sons. When Sacha turned out not to his expectations, he beat on him, hoping that perhaps he could get his youngest son to "behave properly like a real man". Sacha still bears the emotional scars of his abuse, even now almost 600 years after the fact and his parents and brothers long gone from the world.
3) No, Sacha really is not descended from the Russian czars and he gets very annoyed when people assume as much just because prior to his marriage to Sergei, his last name was Romanov.
4) Sacha worked a number of odd jobs after he was disowned by his family for being flamboyantly gay. His favorite one was obviously the beauty salon, and it kept him sane as during that time, he was in a physically abusive relationship with a man seven years his senior. Eventually his boss, a kind, motherly figure in her fifties with a lesbian daughter of her own, convinced him to leave the man and helped him get into college where he would meet one Sergei Mikhailachev. (It should be noted that Sacha lost his virginity when he was fifteen.)
5) Even though Sacha's nature as a Romance Sim makes him fear commitment, Sacha did not object nearly as much to marrying Sergei as Sergei did. Part of it was because of Sergei's pregnancy hormones at the time and the other part being Sergei's own fear of commitment, that Sergei objected, even though he clearly loved Sacha. Sacha didn't mind because he rather liked the feeling of family that the Mikhailachevs gave him and wanted so much to have a place to call home.
6) Sacha is deeply attached to Sergei at the hip, as Sergei was the first man that came into Sacha's life who treated him with love and caring; something that he didn't have in his past relationships. Sacha puts up with a lot from Sergei, and loves him unconditionally, in spite of Sergei's immaturity and vanity. It was because of Sergei that Sacha decided to allow himself to be changed into a vampire, as he figured he had nothing to lose by doing so.
7) Because of his own past abuse, Sacha can't stand to see people that he cares about getting hurt. He's eager to help out Kliment in any way he can, acts like the protective older brother to Chelsea, and is eager to do special favors for Pavel.
8) It's ironic that Sacha is the oldest of the vampires, in that he's not a Mikhailachev by blood. He doesn't seem to mind this much, though.
9) Sacha has been out and about giving people makeovers and buying the latest outfits since we last saw him, and has since changed from the look his daughter Kalina had given him, in part because he is slowly but surely overcoming his loss of her. He was very attached to Kalina, especially as she re-opened his passion for fashion. He does the makeovers as a way to honor her memory by doing what he loves.
10) When Sacha did go to his father's funeral, his brothers had actually lured him there so that they could kill him for being gay. Luckily, Sacha had Sergei with him, and the worst Sacha suffered was a bruising. He didn't find out about the murder plot until well after he'd become a vampire and he was spying on one of his brothers (the one who lived to see old age) who was bragging about it with some friends.
And yes, I'll admit the topless men are done for complete fanservice purposes. :P I'm also doing some serious testing of the pose boxes, so this gives me a good excuse to do so.