it's a girl panic, the midnight traffic in her eyes

[vila]

Draculina
There's a party in my closet, calling all skeletons
Where did you go when the lights went black? And what's become of me?
I've come to love your disappearing acts, do one more, pretty please

I've waited with a glacier's patience, smashed every transformer with every trailer
till nothing was standing sixty-five miles wide, still you are nowhere in sight

Dorothea "Dotty" Vukoja is a tattoo artist based out of Detroit, MI. At 22 years old, she is very young for her job; her older brother is in the business and gave her a leg up, which, that in addition to her being female in a male-dominated profession that is openly hostile to women means that she is constantly having to prove herself in a way others in her field don't, and it's seriously annoying. Accordingly, Dotty has thick skin and a backbone of steel. She has a pretty high bullshit tolerance -- she has to or else she'd just kill everyone around her -- but what she is not is a doormat.

Dotty is 5' 8" tall, white, thin, and very animated. A very pretty girl, she is also a total goofball and is constantly making weird faces. She has naturally brown hair that she bleaches and dyes lavender, worn with long, matching extensions usually, but sometimes she can't be fucked. Her eyes are brown and she has a pretty smile. She has both dimples pierced as well as both nostrils, her septum, her tongue -- twice -- both nipples and her hood, and has her ears stretched. She used to have her lip pierced -- labret and medusa -- but hasn't worn anything there in years and is pretty sure they're closed up. She has a chest piece, a half-sleeve and another piece on one of her hips, plus a couple smaller tattoos in miscellaneous places. She tends to shave off her eyebrows and draw them in, much to her mother's dismay.

She has a look that often elicits responses of "You would be so pretty if..." where 'if' is followed by some suggestion to normalise her appearance -- take out her piercings, cover up her tattoos, grow in her brows, dye her hair blonde, get a tan, wear Hollister. It used to bother her a lot when she was a kid ("no one understaaaaands me!") but now she's capable of shrugging it off and saying, "Thanks, but I think I already am pretty." And she does; she's not trying to hide from anyone, just express her personality.

Born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the child of Croatian immigrants, Dotty is the youngest of six children. Growing up with five older brothers and all-male friends, all signs pointed to Dotty being a major tomboy, and that was true for about half her life up until she hit puberty and suddenly all her boy friends turned into jerks and/or Nice Guys who would get suddenly and irrationally angry at her for "friendzoning" them. It was about then that Dotty realised maybe she had been kind of an asshole her entire life for dismissing all other girls as bitchy and catty, and she started opening herself up to making female friends. She ended up being a lot happier that way.

Dotty was an average student with a solid 3.0 GPA whose major interest and passion was art. She's been doodling since she could pick up a pencil, starting off by tracing copying Sailor Moon, moving into a super heavy Kawaii Animes Bishounens Uguu phase in her junior high years, and eventually being forced to actually learn anything about the fundamentals (including human anatomy) by her high school art teachers, which was good for her development but she whined the whole time about her precious yaois. She's since dropped the uguu desu, although her style is still heavily cartoonish. She gave some of her friends homemade piercings and poke-and-stick tattoos, and then started hanging out in the tattoo shop her brother opened as a kind of mascot/unpaid help/intern. She became an official apprentice when she turned 18 and didn't become an actual artist for three years -- her brother sweated her even harder than his boys just to be absolutely sure that she deserved that spot on his staff -- but there are a lot of people in her field who still think it was just handed to her.

A mildly popular Internet celebrity nowadays, Dotty is experiencing moderate success while considering whether she should bother finally going to college. She runs a popular blog where she posts art, talks about her life, interacts with fans and talks a lot about feminism and misogyny in the alternative scene, which generates a lot of controversy (and page views). Her blog, for the record, is called Feminist Killjoy, a phrase she's seriously considering tattooing right above her crotch.

No one presses too hard when she insists she can't do karaoke because she's tone-deaf. She doesn't dance at clubs and explains it's because she's really terrible at it. And if her apartment's always full of white feathers, it must be from all her ridiculous costumey accessories. And if it tends to rain when she cries, well, that's just a funny coincidence, isn't it?

my love, I'm an owl on the sill in the evening but morning finds you still warm and breathing.
this tornado loves you, what will make you believe me?

The Vila, Wila, Wili, or Veela are believed to be female fairy-like spirits who live in the wilderness and sometimes in the clouds. They were believed to be the spirits of women who had been frivolous in their lifetimes and now floated between here and the afterlife. They sometimes appear as swans, snakes, horses, falcons, or wolves that they can shapeshift into, but usually they appear as beautiful maidens, naked or dressed in white with long flowing hair.

It is said that if even one of their hairs is plucked, the Wila will die, or be forced to change back to her true shape. A human may gain the control of a Wila by stealing feathers from her wings. Once she gets them back, however, she will disappear.

The voices of the Wilas are as beautiful as the rest of them, and one who hears them loses all thoughts of food, drink or sleep, sometimes for days. Despite their feminine charms, however, the Wila are fierce warriors. The earth is said to shake when they do battle. They have healing and prophetic powers and are sometimes willing to help human beings. At other times they lure young men to dance with them, which according to their mood can be a very good or very bad thing for the man. They ride on horses or deer when they hunt with their bows and arrows and will kill any man who defies them or breaks his word. They are said to have power over storms, which they delight on sending on lonely travelers. Fairy rings of deep thick grass are left where they have danced; these should never be trodden upon, as this brings bad luck.

Offerings for Wila consist of round cakes, ribbons, fresh fruits and vegetables or flowers left at sacred trees and wells and at fairy caves.