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DispatchFactbookMiscellaneous

by Zitravgrad. . 210 reads.

Secret Service's Medical Department: Dr. Sergey Petrovich Pashkov



Sergey Petrovich Pashkov
Сергей Петрович Пашков
Сергій Петрович Пашков

Director of Security Service's Medical Department
Директор медицинского отдела секретной службы
Директор медичного відділу Секретної служби


Full Name:
Dr. Sergey Petrovich Pashkov (M.D.-S.D.)

Birth date:
6 March 1950 (Age 70)

Place of birth:
Khovarets Naukograd, Nyebessa, Imperial Zitravia, Kozavian Empire

Religion:
Eastern Orthodoxy (lapsed)

Spoken Languages:
Russian, Ukrainian (native)
English (intermediate)

Position(s):
Pharmacist (Providenska State Hospital, 1976-1987)
Security Service Physician and Researcher (1982-Present)
Zitravian White Cross Pharmacist (1996 - Present)
Lecturer of Toxicologist and Pharmacology (Providenska State University, 1996-Present)
Director of SSMD (2016-Present)

Marital status:
Married

Spouse:
Larysa Stanislavivna Nelizhamova (1951-1982, married from 1976-1982)
Stepan Alexandrovich Marmesont (Married from 2011-Present, Age 34)

Children:
Lyudimia Sergeyevna Pashkova (Adopted, born in 1978, Age 42)

Jump to Political Views and Works -- even if his political views are not relatively strong in the plot For his biography, please go to Biography, which will be divided into parts: Early Life, Security Service, Imperialists' War, Post-War Period, Revolution, Civil War and the New Zitravia. For more trivial information: Appearance and Health, Education, Personality and Personal Life, and Pictures

"Once upon the time, there was an insidious black snake with scales as hard as obsidian, longer than the road from Paplonbrianska to Kasgalamov, eyes like amber with red rings around them, fangs sharp as needles and white as snow. Its venom kills, fast or slow... but its sole duty is to protect. That is the Security Service -- created for good intentions, with the methodology brought up from Hell." - Sergey Petrovich Pashkov

Security Service's Medical Department



- The SSMD is responsible for the medical services, medicines and medical supplies within the Zitravgradian Armed Forces, as well as its branches, in all of its operations. This might sound logistically confusing, but it is convenient to consider that all medical staffs in the Zitravgradian Armed Forces are from a single organization, with the same trainings and equipment. Its Director also oversees much of this byzantine logistics. Moreover, the SSMD also works in collaboration with Law Enforcement Medical Service (LEMS).

- The SSMD is responsible for the researches concerning medical sciences within the Zitravgradian Armed Forces, as well as collaborative effort with state-owned sector and subsidized private sector within related industries.

- The SSMD has its headquarter in Providenska State Hospital, where the office of its Director is housed.

- The SSMD is also responsible for most projects that are considered top secrets and ethically ambiguous, under the cover of the state-owned pharmaceutical companies named (REDACTED) and (REDACTED).


Biography (Back to the top)

Early Life (Back to the top)

While Zitravia (under the guidance of the The kozavian empire) has had advanced in nuclear technology slightly earlier than the most parts of Gaia, this advancement was ridden with flaws and rushed projects done without oversight. The nuclear power plant in Khovarets, Nabevsky, Nyebessa Oblast, had been operating since the start of the Second Global War (1939-1947) and was credited as one of the first nuclear power plants in the world. However, the power plant was taken and retaken several times during the war and most of its starting staffs in 1939 were gone by the end of the war, leaving the plant in the hands of new crew, most of whom still unfamiliar with the technology as well as the protocols that kept the plant running.

In September 1949, one of the reactors suffered from an explosion, which soon caused the radiation to spread all over the city of Khovarets. The people who survived and were extracted from the city would suffer the effects of radioactivity afterwards, such as severe cases of cancer, mutations and deformed offsprings.


Sergey Petrovich Pashkov was born shortly after the aforementioned Khovarets Nuclear Disaster, the first nuclear accident in the world, into the world that had yet to learn full risks and potentials of nuclear power and weapons but soon would. When his parents, Pyotr and Anna Pashkov, both of whom were workers in the nuclear power plant, were evacuated from the city, they were sent to "rehabiliation" where they were treated for any symptom visible for the time being, as well as gaslighted into forgeting the disaster itself. True to the doctrine of "history erasure", the Kozavian authority did not put this disaster on news or announcements only until the international community pressed about it. Nonetheless, most people who were sent to this "rehabilation" would at least not remember that they were a part of it. When the disaster happened in September, Anna was three months in pregnant with their first -- and only -- child who was due to be born in March. When Sergey was born, his parents were already in Providenska, and they told him they had always been Providenskan despite their child's birth record saying that he was born in Nyebessa.

Appearance-wise, there was nothing wrong with Sergey Petrovich, much to his parents' relief. However, the boy was still somewhat alienated from classmates and neighbors who vaguely knew that his family was in fact from Khovarets. This vexed him to an extent and he was skeptical of his parents' perpetual insistence that they were not from that place or had not heard of it. When he questioned those around him, none of them could give full answers either because any information would be redacted or destroyed by the Security Service. This distrust of his parents soon spread into other aspects of his life and he would eventually find solace, companionship and trust outside of his house, and it was even harder to do so at school where he was known as "the boy from Khovarets".


Young Pashkov in
1960s

As he grew up, however, Pashkov became a rather attractive young man with superficial charms. In the high school, his slate was erased anew as fewer people knew or cared about his origin. He became increasingly popular with his classmates, excelled in academics, sports and social life in school, but was cold to his parents for whatever reason he could concoct at the back of his mind -- all of them would eventually lead back to his distrust of them that stemmed from the childhood lies. Moreover, Pashkov would also slowly develop a habit of womanizing, often trying to shuffle around multiple relationships at the time and looking for emotional fulfillment despite not wanting to settle with anyone. But eventually, he found a young woman named Ekaterina Svaskova. This Svaskova was the exact opposite of him -- conservative, shy but sincere. The two met in the last year of high school and planned to study at Providenska State University together, with Pashkov planning to enter pharmacy school and Svaskova to nursing school. That was perhaps the first relationship that Pashkov held as stable, with potential to last.

However, it was not that easy. Svaskov Family was an upper-middle class military family and Ekaterina's parents had their eyes set on another suitor, the handsome naval officer from an equally prestigious and wealthy family named Ivan Miroslavsky. Pashkov knew from the first glance that he, a pharmacy student and son of blue-collar workers, was no match for Miroslavsky, but did not back away, much to the Svaskov's dismay. On the other hand, Miroslavsky took Pashkov as an obstacle not only to his love for Ekaterina but also the future of his family. (It is also noteworthy that his sisters also married noblemen. In fact, the Miroslavsky Family rooted themselves into the Zitravian high society for several generations.) But in the end, it did not matter whether Pashkov yielded or not because Ekaterina was the one who yielded to her family's demand to marry Miroslavsky and was soon engaged to him.


Pashkov with his wife, Larysa

Pashkov came to terms with this loss and let Svaskova go. However, he remained cordial with her and was named a godfather to her son, Kazimir Ivanovich. Soon enough, he turned to another woman, Larysa Nelizhamova, who was his classmate in the university. Nelizhamova was a free-spirited young woman, with cheerful and daring personality -- a complete change from Svaskova. Larysa too came from Nyebessa, but her parents had insisted that they came from elsewhere. She later introduced Pashkov to her brother Adryan Nelizhamov, and the three became close as they started tracking down clues of the city that was forever lost on the map. At the back of their mind, this mystery had always haunted them. Meanwhile, Pashkov graduated after six years in pharmacy school and immediately landed on a pharmacist position in Providenska State Hospital in 1976. He married Nelizanova that same year and reconciled with his parents.


Joining the Security Service (Back to the top)

His marriage soon revealed more and more questions about their origin as the couple found out that they could not conceive a child due to infertility and eventually that Nelizhamova was suffering from cancer. Moreover, the two would hear from their colleagues in the hospital that a woman from Nyebessa Oblast gave birth to a "mutant child", which she immediately abandoned. After further inspection, the mother was bitten by a spider before being evacuated from Khovarets in 1950s and the mutation had been deep-rooted in her DNA, causing her child to grow extra limbs in the womb. With both pity and fascination, the couple adopted the child and did everything that medical sciences of the time allowed to bring her to normalcy; but in the meantime, Larysa also received regular treatments for her cancer. The two named their adopted daughter Lyudimia and the three lived in peace for the time being.


The young family
at their home

Pashkov with his
daughter, Lyudimia

This happiness was short-lived as Larysa died of cancer in 1982. Broken by her death, Pashkov went back to his parents' home with his daughter. It was then that Adryan Nelizamov came up with a plan to find out the truth about Khovarets once and for all. The two drove through Nyebessa Oblast for several days on end to find a fence with 'No Entry' sign in Western Nyebessa but was soon arrested by the local authority. Nelizhamov decided that he would give up his career as biology teacher to find out something in the National Research Institute, where he suspected that there might be some information. Meanwhile, Pashkov took a more risky path -- the Security Service itself. After a few attempts, the two got a position at their targeted organizations. Pashkov knew it was one risky investment, as the job in the Security Service was utterly demanding and, true to its name, secretive.

Now purposeless and aimless once again, Pashkov was willing to use seduction and manipulation to make anyone spill what they knew about the lost city of Nyebessa. In fact, his philandering habit soon crossed beyond messing around with women to men and married people as he had no moral obligation to anyone. In fact, it became an addiction, just at the same time as he was getting his hands on legal highs to hide away his depression. He was only functional enough to go to work and to be generally present in his daughter's life (althought he mostly left her with his parents), yet still doting on her nonetheless as he did not want to become the same kind of parent he used to despise. In the list of his "conquests", Sephisramia Ramovanovskaya was one of them -- she was a computer scientist married to an older rich nobleman in the classic trophy wife fashion and took lovers liberally. Her main asset for Pashkov was that she was holding the passwords to most of the Security Service's archives.

"If I ask you to pour the content of your soul into a syringe to be injected into my bloodstream, would you do it? For this poor soul looking for salvation, would you do it?" - Pashkov to Sephisramia


A troubled and
sketchy man at
best, a trickster
at worst

However, Sephisramia was not willing to risk herself for a man she would throw away today or tomorrow, or worse, a man who could do the same thing to her. Pashkov might have been indirected in his request for her help, but she was smart enough to see it through that he was implying something illegal and one that would put her in troubles. Meanwhile, he made a friend in the young mathematician Konstantin Nedelykov whom he came to respect as an equal despite a 15-year gap between them. Nedelykov was employed by the Security Service in 1983 -- one year before Pashkov; his position as a cryptographer and expertise as a computer scientist meant that he would be in the know just like Romanovskaya. However, Sephisramia got between them as she showed an interest in Nedelykov and would warn the young man of Pashkov's intention, causing an ominous tension between the three, which soon developed into a separated three-way relationship as a result. None of the three trusted one another, but were tied with the void-like need of companionship as their individual personal live were difficult at the time.

Nonetheless, Pashkov became Nedelykov's savior when the latter's mother died. As her death broke the young man, Pashkov knew this was his chance to manipulate Nedelykov into helping him under the guise of consolation and emotional guidance. As both men's sanity degraded side-by-side, Pashkov eventually 'crossed the line' with Nedelykov and later used it to blackmail the younger man. Nedelykov was far more sensitive about non-heterosexual relationship and premarital sex than normal people at the time as he hailed from a pious and conservative aristocratic family. His worth in 'marriage market' and reputation in the local church would drop if this scandal was heard anywhere. Trapped in Pashkov's scheme, he yielded and eventually allowed Pashkov to access the Security Service's Archive.

"My salvation was once yours, so now your salvation is mine, Sergey Petrovich." - Nedelykov's message to Pashkov, paraphrased

The truth was as terrible as Pashkov anticipated -- a nuclear accident that caused over 100,000 deaths and entire closure of the city of Khovarets, one that left long-lasting effects still felt three decades later. But the worst of it all was how the Security Service had all details of this disaster recorded yet classified, hidden and erased from the eye of the public. From the Archive, Pashkov found the names of his parents and photos of their old home, as well as everything he needed to confirm who he was. Instead of being relieved as his goal was achieved, he fell into a state of distress, caused not only by stress but also the amount of drugs he had been doing. The nightmares that were invading his mind became more frequent. His quest had ended, but his so-called salvation never arrived -- it only got further away.


Imperialists' War (Back to the top)

The longer Pashkov indulged himself in state secrets, the more he created new ones. Having earned the trust of the research team in the Security Service, he soon became one of its members, thanks to his expertise in toxicology and psychoactive substances. "Anything that kills" was his specialty. This means that Pashkov would be considered a great asset in the next war that the Kozavian Empire would fight against the Continental Alliance in the Imperialists' War. True, Gaia's nations had all signed Convention of Koniginsgerald in 1872, and further Koniginsgerald Protocol in 1965 -- both of which forbade development, production, stockpiling and transfer of chemical and biological weapons. With the League of Nations broken and a war breaking out, who would be around to enforce the rules? Pashkov was skeptical with his new assignment at first, but he accepted it knowing that denying a mission related to the upcoming war might mean his political downfall -- even if he had not been that political to start with. Moreover, the two noble families of Romanovsky and Nedelykov definitely would not want to hear about how he had been defiling their members. The Security Service knew this.

Pashkov's magnum opus to this day: the so-called "Evening Light" is a psychoactive concoction made of distilled opiate and certain [REDACTED] aero-solution. It was used primarily as an anti-infantry weapon in urban warfare in Western Zitravia, as the Auestriker troops were already occupying Zitravian cities. Its effects include but are not limited to shell shock, hallucination, extreme exhaustion, and heightened anxiety. While very successful, it also unfortunately backfired on some Zitravian troops who got caught in the fumes without prior warnings which was in fact frequent. Pashkov denies that there is an immediate cure from it, since it is essentially psychoactive substance, to which one could develop addiction. The true extent of danger that Vecherniy Svet possesses might have been exaggerated by the accounts of a few people who have experienced it, however, as it was barely as lethal or widespread as the Auestriker were made to believe.


His enemies probably
would not call him an
angel at any rate.

The true Zitravian Front began in 1990, with the occupations of Polizhen by the Auestriker Empire. With Polizhen gone, the front doors of Zitravia would be knocked both by land and sea. Once the capital city of Providenska was under siege, the Security Service would form medical operational teams to assist the troops, otherwise known as seven-headed [Leviathan]. Initially, [Leviathan-1] was not Pashkov's personal codename, but rather the codename of his whole medical team which operated in Northern Providenska and unoccupied part of Svarevna Oblast (most of which had been occupied by the invading forces). True to their nature, they worked in collaboration with the Security Service and its cousin organization, the Imperial Secret Police, in evacuating citizens, troops, documents and other things valuable to the wartime effort out of two respective oblasts. Pashkov served majorly as a medical staff in the camp of Zitravia's Providenskan Troops, charged with breaking the Siege of Providenska. However, he also worked as a transport pilot as the medical department was becoming understaffed. From then, Pashkov learned to operate spray drones used to launch the same chemical weapons he created.

"He started seeking purpose in killing. That's not what doctors should do, but so we say... war changes men. Security Service changes Pashkov, converts him into its ideology and methodology. He is Zitravia's own Angel of Death." - An unnamed colleague's comment on Pashkov

Pashkov's multitasking ability earned him trust among his colleagues and staffs, as well as the Security Service's higher-ups. He soon found himself in "command" of a small group of agents, consisting of spies, saboteurs and the like. Finally realizing the blood of the Zitravian inside him, Pashkov declared himself a patriot and a servant of the Motherland. Perhaps the indoctrination of the Security Service finally ate him whole, perhaps the fire of the war and endless death and destruction of his homeland burned onto his mind. In the autumn of 1991, he kissed his parents and daughter goodbye after sending them onto a civilian transport plane heading to the safe war-free zone in Nyebessa.

"Poison rarely discriminates." Pashkov had probably been credited with this quote, which might have also been wrong. Left to his own device as the chaos of war raged on, Pashkov was responsible for sabotaging the Auestriker troops in Northern Providenska. Although it was later seen as reckless to leave a military operation to a physician, his superiors did not quite bat an eye at the time. Knowing that Northern Providenska had a few stately houses belonging to noblemen and politicians, he knew that those locations might become targets for looting as the owners might have been evacuated. Thus, his agents were given direct orders from him to poison the water supply. However, the poison used was a slow one. It took the poison almost two weeks to take effects and the casualties were not only over 20,000 Auestriker troops but also a portion of their Zitravian POWs and remaining civilians.

At first, Pashkov denied being 'shaken' with the number reported to him. When inspecting the area to collect the bodies, he did not say a word, but, in one instance, looked at a dead civilian man and gave him a moment of silence. The Security Service was content with the achievements and consoled him with the fact that at least these deaths were 'painless'. Pashkov himself would get over it in no time as the war was not yet over. But at that stage, Pashkov had ceased to be a moral being. The Zitravian saboteurs played no small part in the Siege of Providenska, providing intel for their allies and undermining their enemies by causing anything from minor inconveniences to guerilla warfare in the difficult ultra-complex urban setting. Say, Northern Providenska has been primarily suburban, but it was adjacent to the sprawling city which was expanding in all directions, as well as industrial complexes.


"This is Leviathan-1 reporting from AIC [Alensky Industrial Complex - privately owned until evacuation of workers]."
"What is your plan, doctor?"
"I request permission to use chemical weapon."
"I don't know about you but it has been done to death."
"This is my last game."

- Radio exchange between Leviathan-1 and HQ-032

In the summer of 1993, Pashkov was not ready for his first and only tactical defeat. He had immense trust in his weapons that he forgot that the enemies might have learned from him. As the Auestriker troops crept up north to take over the AIC, he and his agents tried to set up an ambush for them in form of aerosol chemical weapon. However, Pashkov soon realized that the troops sent to occupy the complex was not called 'mechanized infantry'. It was 'mechanical infantry', consisting purely of robotic soldiers led by an elite A.I. that could lead independent missions -- Walter "SC-42" Sigiris, Codename [Edelweiss]. Sigiris could intercept all communication devices in the area and cut Pashkov off from the rest of his team. With metallic body and no sense to be manipulated by mere drugs, Sigiris had an upper hand on Pashkov's master plans. He soon captured and sent Pashkov to the POW camp, where he was spared from torture on the ground of wearing the medical insignia -- something Sigiris heavily disagreed with. He knew Pashkov was behind things that defied the so-called medical ethics. But then again, human morality did not concern the A.I. He let Pashkov be.


Post-War Period (Back to the top)

"Almost fascinating that you are capable of rejecting your sense of right or wrong for the sake of warfare."
"No, it's a feeling, not the lack of it. A different feeling than right or wrong. You will not understand."
"I don't need it. I follow order and die."
- Walter Sigiris upon releasing Pashkov as the result of the Treaty of Plares

During his time in the camp, he worked as a medical staff to take care of other prisoners of war in the Auestriker camps. It was a U-turn for Pashkov, from the darkness into the light once more, even if the light was dim. The Auestriker were on the fence about making an example of him by executing him, but in the end he was more useful alive as the Zitravian POWs did not trust Auestriker physicians. He began to value life again at last and to feel the shame of using the sacred symbol of Caduceus as a shield. Sooner or later, he would forget how and why he came to despise Auestrikers at all, as the effect of 'two-minute hatred' was wearing off. Nonetheless, he was far from fraternizing with them. He only conversed with Sigiris who could speak his language, and the A.I. was not that pleased to see him everyday.

Pashkov had been in the POW camp for a year when the Nuclear Calamity happened. It was the exact opposite of well-planned. Neither the Auestriker nor the Kozavian-Zitravian troops had much idea what their respective mainlands were planning when the nuclear exchanges started. But this surprise put most of the actual warfare to a halt for a moment, just about long enough for the Zitravian troops to occupy both Airbase Tundra in Svarevna and the city of Providenska itself. Thus by 1995, the war ended with Zitravia freed and other territories almost left in original state. Soon after the Treaty of Plares was signed in the Fracian Empire, the prisoners became the warders. A sizeable portion of Auestriker Eastern Army was kept as POWs, with the purpose of creating a Naukograd.

Auestriker Empire was an archnemesis of the Kozavian Empire during the Imperialists' War, and its defeat meant that the furious and embittered Kozavian Empire was free to trample over it. In 1995, 15,000 Auestriker prisoners of war were handpicked for their expertise in military-related engineering and extradited to a Naukograd (science city) in Svarevna for the purpose of weapon research. According to their sentences, most members were to be put under labor for at least 20 years.

The Naukograd was essentially a city, with its own hospital, school, housing, emergency service, and utilities. For most parts, the "prisoners" had to take care of their own living condition, while living and working under the strict eye of Zitravian Gendarmerie. If anything broke, they had to fix it themselves while the Gendarmerie's only job was to watch them work and report on it and to prevent them from stepping out of the city without permission. This, however, also meant that their living standard certainly was above normal prisons and that they retained a sense of community. As a result, they kept their own culture and even refused to speak Russian or Ukrainian to their "jailors" and even demanded respect for their high-ranked officers and scientists.

Now walking free, Pashkov decided that he would try to redeem himself in civilian life by charity work in the White Cross International and lecturer job in the State University of Providenska. Still, he did not leave the Security Service for a reason he kept to himself. Once deemed safe, Providenska was rebuilt and reoccupied by people. The memories of the war were not naturally forgotten -- they were painted over, buried, and burned. The culture clash between the state's celebration of their "victory" and the people's attempt to get over the trauma tore Pashkov even more, as he tried to reconcile to both state and people. His family had returned to Providenska and Pashkov realized that his daughter was already in her teenage. For once, he hoped that he would be a good example for her, or at least what their society believed how a good man should be like. He laid his hand off his old, nihilist way and quit drugs and affairs, seeking to rebuild his history with hard work and charity.

This was perhaps his salvation, or just a smokescreen. Pashkov was troubled endlessly by a series of nightmares and kept taking sleeping pills until they were virtually unless on him. Nonetheless, he worked on and became a pioneer in mutant studies, a new branch introduced after the Nuclear Calamity. He wrote numerous articles and journals on the subjects sent to the Security Service and eventually suspected about himself, who had been affected by the disaster even before he was born. He ran himself through several similar tests and realized that he might belong to the same group as the nuclear mutants, albeit his symptoms were less severe and he had only mutated in a slow rate throughout the years and stopped doing so when he reached adulthood.

"Like they say in Protestant Ethics, work brings you closer to God. But mine is the other way around. Everyday, I stray from the Lord's light." - Pashkov on his own works

In 2002, Pashkov counted among his students an Auestriker emigre by the name of Etienne de Marmesont -- a son of a high-ranking officer working in the Auestriker naukograd. Studying to become an army surgeon, Marmesont was a prodigy in his field and had become close to Pashkov due to the obligation of military tradition. (As mentioned, SSMD is in charge of the whole medical service of the Armed Forces and the Naukograd is known for its stratocracy.) The young man also worked as his assistant both in the university and in the White Cross International, and the two developed an intimate, borderline sexual relationship, which was complicated by their vast age difference. (In 2004, Marmesont was 18, Pashkov was 54.) This did not only mean the social stigma from the outside, but also the generation gap between them. The two rarely actually arrived at a common ground.

As if the complications between them were not enough, Pashkov's godson, Kazimir Miroslavsky, was engaged to Etienne's twin sister, Rosaline de Marmesont. With the context of 'in-laws' added into their relationship, the two began to open up about themselves in a more truthful light. Meanwhile, his life went on. His daughter was married to her girlfriend, Zinaida Rostova, in 2005 and adopted two daughters, Lilya and Iris, whom Pashkov took care of from time to time. At that time, Pashkov acted as if he was apolitical, but in fact was denying reality that Zitravia was looking for radical changes. For the last few years of Imperial Zitravia, Pashkov had always been in denial of its pending downfall. He was in the Security Service... and its destiny was unclear as he witnessed it all falling apart bits by bits.


Revolution, Civil War and the New Zitravia (Back to the top)

'Shattered' was the best word to describe the Security Service in 2007. It was not a singular, united organization, but rather several supportive agencies tied to several parts of the Imperial Zitravian Armed Forces. When one part slipped away, its Security Service branch went with it. Pashkov himself was in the Medical Department of the Army. Hence, he intended to wait for orders when the 'revolution' broke out. At that moment, he was not sure where he was in the political spectrum of the revolution, except for the fact that he feared changes more than anything. He was not sure if he was loyal to Kozavia as the empire, or only Zitravia that was his motherland. Pashkov was no longer the brainwashed patriot he was in the war.

Pashkov stayed low and quiet, only following orders from the newly-founded and short-lived Provisional Government from the beginning to the end. However, once the Civil War started, he chose to side the Workers' Union, only because the Union had taken hold of the Naukograd, and hence Marmesont's allegiance. Finally admitting to exhaustion and weariness of war and vicious cycle of life, he surrendered himself to Marmesont who was assigned as a medic to the Naukogradian 2nd Division -- no ambition, no allegiance, only bated breaths and broken soul. He watched with concern as Marmesont grew into the war machine not different than the Auestriker Naukograd's closed-off world that birthed, raised, and educated him. In the Civil War, Pashkov met Sigiris again, with the latter spending more than thirteen years as a POW in the Naukograd. This time, they had to work together.

"The noblest of edelweiss flowers are blooming. You should get your hands off them."
"Strange. They call you an edelweiss, too, right? You are in no way pure or noble."
- Sigiris and Pashkov's exchanging snarks

With the new dawn arriving, Pashkov had accepted that changes were inevitable. He settled down with the new shape and form of the Security Service without much question, working in the SSMD, the White Cross and the State University simultaneously and continuing his researches. His political opinions practically do not exist, even if he is considered as 'siding' with the Workers' Party. And after all their struggles, Pashkov married Marmesont in 2011. The couple live together in their apartment complex in Providenska, close to Pashkov's parents, daughter, and her family.

Now approaching his seventies, Pashkov could be considered a middle-aged man by Gaian standard. He knows himself is becoming senile and should wake up from the eternal nightmares that were his first wife's death, the wars, and all the wrongs he has done in the past. In 2016, Pashkov was made the Director of the SSMD after the previous Director retired. Beneath him, nothing eventful has happened, as he seeks to maintain the decentralized system of the SSMD rather than consolidating the authority in his office and giving himself unnecessary works.


Appearance and Health (Back to the top)


He does look like
he will eat you up
literally

The grind of the Security Service keeps him physically active and mentally taxed -- Dr. Pashkov possesses quite a youthful appearance and demeanor for his age thanks to several dietary supplements, medications, experimentations and cosmetics. He also has a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle if one is willing to ignore the sheer amount of psychoactive drugs he had abused from his youth until he quitted in late 2000s. Of course, as someone from the medical field with the experiences of people around him dying of cancer, he would take his health and his loved ones' health seriously. He is also physically active, playing sports in his free time and taking long walks from work to home. Still, he could be seen smoking from time to time. Pashkov looks at most like a man in his mid-thirties or early forties, with neatly-combed black hair, healthy complexion and amber-colored eyes. He is also quite tall and somewhat muscular, fitting well into bespoke suits. He talks in low, hissing whispers, which is, according to some people, incredibly alluring yet dangerous.

His Sentient Nuclear Mutant status is vague: most people couldn't identify him by eyes and he belongs to the different generation to the post-nuclear calamity mutants. Pashkov has spent years upon years with snakes he used for harvesting venom and experimentation or kept as pets and hence has had genetic swappings with them, and this added into his reptile "genetic heritage" (as Gaian humans evolved from multiple species) and mutation both from birth and from self-experiments; thus, he has evolved into a human with some reptile characteristics. He sheds his skin in continuous pieces like snakes do at least 4 times a year and releases venomous secretion through his canine teeth when he feels an imminent threat or psychological distress. The venom itself is not immediately fatal but has long-lasting effects, comparable to the venom of common Auropian adder. Meanwhile, his gradual exposure to poisons and venoms has rendered him immune to both of them.

Personal Health Evaluation

What is it about?

Gender

Male

Age

70

Orientation

Bisexual

Sub-Species

Sentient Nuclear Mutant: Humans forced to mutate by exposure to radiation BUT remain humanlike and capable of free thinking.

Height

187 cm (Above Average)

Weight

75 kg (In Range for Healthy Weight)

Hair Color

Black

Eye Color

Yellow

Blood Type

- HS: Donate only to HS/HST

Hand Dexterity

Right-Handed

Physical Health Quotient (PHQ-I)

Gamma (Slight Above Average Physique and Immunity)

Intellectual Intuition Quotient (IIQ)

Gamma (Slightly Above Average Learning and Memory Capacity)

Psychological Health Quotient (PHQ-II)

Gamma (Slightly Above Average Psychological Health)


Education (Back to the top)

"Our minds are getting brighter, our intellect stronger, and imagination more vivid. What are we going to do with all the thoughts in our heads? All the thoughts, young man, all these thoughts. Are we doing anything about it? If we don't, we will only go nowhere.” - Pashkov to one of his students

Pashkov has his roots in "the pharma" -- chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences and toxicology are his main domain. He excellent knowledge of drugs, their mechanism of action, side effects, interactions, mobility and toxicity as well as treatment and pathological process. His passion and fascination, however, narrow down to psychoactive substances and toxicology. Being in the Security Service where the majority of "risky" projects are overseen, he is also one of the first pharmacists in Zitravia who explored the field of radiopharmacology Link(here). He is mostly up-to-date with modern medical sciences despite the sociopolitical and technological changes in the medical world in the last forty years. Moreover, he is an adamant opponent of traditional and alternative medicines.

Again, being in the Security Service demands him to multitask. While not normally authorized to do so, the military setting of SSMD means he can apply first-aid, give advice, operate basic surgery and amputation as well as oversee low-level cybernetic installation. (He is not very fond of the last one.) Outside of his work, Pashkov is not exactly interested in general knowledge or trivial factoids. As one of his colleagues note: "It's fortunate that Pashkov has seen the Sun enough time to tell it rises in the East." Moreover, Pashkov is not great with foreign languages. He only studied English because it was a lingua franca and his English skill is only good enough for conversations and listening to some vague podcasts. His works are only translated into other languages thanks to the help of his colleagues and hired translators.


Personality and Personal Life (Back to the top)

“That man is a Deathstalker scorpion, a venomous black snake -- an apparent danger. Yet we all are baffled as we fall into his hand again and again. Put yourself in his control and you will never know any sense of self again.” - A colleague's remark about Pashkov


Pashkov with
some roses

Everyone's first impression of Pashkov tends to be overwhelmingly positive, but might or might not degrade later as they delve deeper into him. In line with his career, he presents himself as utterly gentle, compassionate and understanding, allegedly a good teacher and healthcare worker, showered endlessly with adoration of people he has worked with. Charming, caring but ultimately manipulative, Pashkov waits for his preys as quietly as a snake behind the bush. He has been quite a philanderer in his youth and in the gap between his marriages and used to live life without a direction, but eventually came back on track and grew up to be a mature and wise figure. Perhaps it is in his fear of being alone that leads him to both care and control people in his life to an uncomfortable degree. He is supportive of his loved ones in an unhealthy, indulging way. More often than not, he is seen as cunning and sketchy due to his overly accommodating manner, which is sometimes sincere and sometimes not. Him being himself, he can only display one face at a time, depending on his moods -- either that of a charming and saintly gentleman or that of a vicious serpent. Despite his non-violent stance, it is ill-advised to make an enemy out of him.

Ultimately, Pashkov is a man with a past, whose nightmares are still haunting him whenever he closes his eyes, whether it is the cold childhood, the death of his first wife, the experimentations done by the Security Service or the entirety of his experiences in the Imperialists' War and the Zitravian Revolution. Even to this day, he has a turbulent inner mind, which he hides behind his calm and collected facade. Behind the mask, Pashkov is a man with twisted logic, ethics and morality -- having not much sense left about what is right or wrong, only what is useful or useless and what goes according to his innate reasoning and desires. This is an explanation as to why Pashkov feels little to no qualm about marrying for the second time to a former student of his, who is thirty-six years his junior. Indeed, he has an unhealthy reliance on Marmesont who, fortunately for both of them, has a strong and nonchalant personality on which he could count.

Being an Orthodox, Pashkov has tried multiple times to reconcile himself to his faith in search for a salvation, but to no avail as he also feels that he is beyond repair and that he would rather focus on worldly sciences. Hence, he has turned away the only thing that genuinely connects him to his godson. Nowadays, their only connection is a political one, which Miroslavsky does not want to utilize. For a reason, Pashkov does not relate himself to people of his age nor their interests, but also does not try to get along with younger generations. His youthful appearance and health also add to his immeasurable vanity as he believes himself "immortal in a sense." To be perfectly fair, a Gaian human in their seventies is still twenty to thirty years away from retirement and the true "elderly" criteria.

Trivia

    - Pashkov keeps one snake as a pet -- a 7-meter long reticulated python. Due to its sheer size, he doesn't let it out often or it might eat people whole somehow. It is a very thicc thick danger noodle shiny water hose snake and just because it has not tried to eat someone doesn't mean it cannot do so. His spouse and the cat do not like it that much. It is also commonly known that Pashkov goes by the codename [Leviathan] in the Security Service.

    - He has been in the Security Service long enough that he knows how to use firearms, ride transport planes and do intermediate self-defense. In fact, he shows mild interests in those topics, but not enough to talk about it with an actual military enthusiast (i.e. his spouse). His other interests include true crime, forensics science, and detective fictions. The stranger the situation, the better.

    - While not a heavy drinker, his drug habit was once so bad that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now he has quitted drugs, but he hasn't quitted schizophrenia. He also smokes from time to time. His official portrait in this dispatch even shows him smoking.

    - Surprisingly, Pashkov regularly engages in what people would call 'old people's hobbies' -- knitting, gardening and cooking. Sometimes, he makes scarfs or hats for orphanages and homeless shelters or bakes cookies or whatever for his neighbors. According to him, they calm him down to a point. Also, Pashkov was born before computers and smartphones became mainstream (1960s and 1970s respectively) and when they were first introduced, they were so expensive he was unable to afford high-quality ones until he was in his forties. This leads to him being more used to writing notes and appointments in his notebook. Pashkov is also highly cautious and even hostile towards sentient A.I. people.

    - "Smart people play chess" trope does not work on Pashkov. He is a mediocre chess player who gambles his fate on making the most convincing poker face he could to scare off his opponent.


Political Views and Works

While not exactly a political figure or even holding a degree of political influence, Pashkov has a certain power in his field -- an academic of sheer notoriety with dissertations written in blood. Moreover, he maintains a strong involvement with the (public) medical sector in Zitravgrad. He is a supporter for scientific advancement and a revisionist of scientific ethics, but he is in practice against AI personhood to a point. His argument stands that the true morality of research is consent and purpose. Methodology can be discussed later. This makes his popularity go up and down from time to time both at home and abroad, depending on the world's attitude towards necessity of extreme experimentation at the time. However, this means that his popularity as an academic surged after the Nuclear Calamities, especially as he is a pioneer in the studies of mutation. The closest thing to political opinions from Pashkov is his immense support for the healthcare and education to be accessible to all citizens, as well as less complications for foreigners to receive medical care in the country during their stay. Meanwhile, he views medical tourism with ambivalence, citing that while it brings incomes to the country, it also raises unrealistic competition within the private half of the medical industry. He had also spoken against private health insurance from time to time during the pre-war era, although much of life insurance industry had changed much since then.

“Yesterday, they called me a madman. What about now? What about when the flames of calamity burn down our souls? They have none left.”

Notwithstanding, Pashkov is a man who prefers straight truth in politics, having been lied to by the government for the first half of his life. In his opinion, free press is perhaps the least worst form of press but eventually it is the state that should be honest to its people. Working with the military, he also has generic complaints of rigidity in ranks, orders and bureaucracies. Despite being considered one of the Premier's "inner circle", he cannot give half a darn about the zealous nationalism or the radical social democracy of the Workers' Party. Ultimately, Pashkov lives for himself and his works, and would treat a regime for what it is at the present time rather than its ideological goal. He has been (and still is) criticized for lackluster opinions towards the Revolution and rather indifferent views towards the Imperial Rule under the Kozavian Empire. If anything, he still feels an animosity towards Zitravgradian tendency to 'cover up' things and to commit discreet or clandestine dealings or operations. It is an ironic position of a man who has a prominent position in the Security Service. His only deep political idea is that he is not a great friend of the Auestriker naukograd's crypto-fascist High Command or the Grand Prince's stance as a 'thinly-veiled theocrat'.




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