Ava Kalderash

Cast » Ava Kalderash

Ava Kalderash

Portrayed By	Mila Kunis
Gender	Female
Species	Witch
Date of Birth	August 14, 1980
Age	21
Zodiac Sign	Leo
Aliases	None
Place of Birth	Unknown
Current Location	Los Angeles, CA USA
Occupation	Fortune Teller, Con Artist
Known Relatives	Khalderash Clan, Jenny Calendar (deceased)
Significant Other	Nicolae Lakatos
Special Powers	Magic, Prophetic Dreams & Visions
First Appearance	Prelude To An Evening

Ava Kalderash is a witch of Romany descent who help out Team Gunn. She is a descendant of the young gypsy girl killed by Angelus that resulted in the curse that restored his soul, and a cousin of the now deceased Jenny Calendar. Ava is also gifted with psychic visions, sometimes of the future, sometimes of something happening at that very moment.

Table of Contents

History

Ava Maria Kalderash's parents were not only good Catholics, but also descendants of a long line of Romany who claimed themselves rulers of their respective clans. Not long after Ava was born, a ritual was performed to determine what her role in life would be by placing several objects in front of her. Almost immediately, Ava let out a bubbly little baby laugh and reached out to pluck her mother's crystal ball up from the various and sundry objects, marking her as drabarna, one who had the potential for magical power and the gift of prophecy in dreams.

Her family's kumpania moved around the US more or less off the grid for many years, her standard education ending up a mix of informal home schooling and forays into the local public school, often using fake ID's to keep the various family services departments from catching up with them. But Ava's education also extended to the mystic arts and to keep track of her dreams and interpet them, taught to her by the elders of her family - her mother, grandmother, aunts and uncles. She was given access to her family's tomes, but always under their watchful eye.

Ava often felt like she lived two lives, particularly when she had the opportunity to go to regular school. She had difficulty fitting in at times, for despite being pretty, it was pretty obvious that she was poor by most people's standards. And being poor and pretty usually resulted in guys making certain assumptions that Ava inevitably had to correct. She was grateful to the men in her family for teaching her how to handle herself, or at least get away. Still, often she would find herself wishing she didn't lead the life she led - she just wanted to be accepted and normal.

The Kalderash clan carries many secrets, and as with many Roma, it was their way to always remember those who offended them. Ava was told many stories of how they had prevailed against those that would harm them, and amongst those stories was that of Angelus, the vampire who'd been re-gifted with his soul as a punishment for feeding and killing upon a favorite of the clan, with gifts much like Ava's. It was a favorite story of hers, but it was also just that - a story. Oh, Ava knew that there were things that go bump in the night, but they didn't tend to pervade into her every day life.

When she turned sixteen, that all changed. Her dreams had become increasingly frequent, though they were never something she could control - they came when they came, and not always clearly. But throughout them all, she had the pervasive feeling that something was coming. Something was rising. Eventually she must have repeated her dreams to half the elders of her clan, but eventually it was determined that the kumpania should move. California was the locale of choice, and with her increased powers also came additional concern from her elders. Phonecalls were made, and within weeks a new arrival at the kumpania came in the form of Nicolae Lakatos, the son of another clan, born and bred for the hunting of demons and the protection of his people.

Their interactions were initially awkward, and began to grow in affection. The family noticed, and were concerned - what could they do? They had asked for Niku to be brought to America. Now the pair were acting in a fashion inevitable to their genders, and seperating them was dangerous to her safety. Things were more or less kept in check until the pair graduated highschool. They ran away that summer to LA, and proceeded to live in sin, quite content with themselves.

They've been in La La Land for about three years. Ava reads tarot and scams morons, while Nicu tends to get himself bruiser work, mainly as a bouncer. Living in a more dangerous part of LA, it was inevitable that they ran into Charles Gunn, and the pair occaisionally help him in his effort to destroy the demonic that would terrorize Los Angeles. For Ava, it's a 'helping others' thing. Nicolae calls it excercise.

Skills

[All Things Romany] Ava is familiar with the customs and traditions of her people, as well as her clan's dialect of the Romany language. She frequently speaks it with Nicolae, regardless of how rude it might be to do so in front of others.

[Con Artist] In as much as Ava is the genuine article when it comes to divination and magic, the majority of her clients are generally the victims of the various fortune telling cons she was taught by her family. It's the bread and butter of how they lived, after all.

[Fortune-Telling] Ava is educated in the various arts of divination. Her method of choice is tarot cards, but she is also familiar with palm reading, tea leaves, crystal balls, mirror gazing, runes, bones tossing, and even (gulp) haruspication.

[Quite The Little Actress] No one can pull a tearful face or project naive innocence quite like Ava. She's got a knack for convincing people of what she wants to believe, though it's much easier to do this to strangers then folks she knows, who know her. She believes that if someone is foolish enough to believe her, they deserve exactly what they get.

[Rough And Tumble] She's nowhere near the fighter that folks like Nicolae and Gunn are, but Ava knows how to throw a punch. She also bites and kicks. Basically, she fights dirty with an emphasis on Getting The Hell Away, though it's rare that she resorts to physical fighting when she has her magic to count on.

[Spooky Ooky] While Nicolae's occult education is more along the lines of Demons And How To Kill Them, Ava's knowledge tends to focus more on spells, mystical artifacts, and of course, the legend of Angelus.

[Sticky Fingers] Though it's a sad stereotype, Ava's got some experience in picking pockets and shoplifting. She can even jimmy a basic tumbler lock, but she'll never be a professional thief. And hot wiring cars? She'll leave that to the experts.

[Tiny Dancer] Ava's hips don't lie. She was raised in a family that loved dancing and singing, and while she's not a professional, she can work it on the dance floor without being laughed off. What she can do is more or less limited to what you'd see in clubs, though she's also familiar with some forms of ballroom dancing.

Timeline

(Click to display January 2002 Logs.)

(Click to display December 2001 Logs.)

(Click to display November 2001 Logs.)

Relationships

(Click to display Relationships.)

	Ava knows this much, for now: she has awesome shoes. Tarot Card: Queen Of Cups
	Dan is under the assumption that trouble follows Ava and Nicolae, conveniently forgetting that they actually show up after it happens to fix it. He interfered with Ava while she was trying to make some cash, and she thinks he's kind of a jerk. Tarot Card: Page Of Pentacles
	Gunn leads a group of disaffected inner-city teens and twenty-somethings to combat the forces of darkness. Gunn's got his heart in the right place, but Ava finds his brooding to be somewhat off-putting, and his tendency to disregard the use of magic in the field even more so. He's not a bad guy, overall. Tarot Card: Knight Of Swords
	Something to go here soon. Tarot Card: Page Of Wands
	They're sort of like Bella and Edward, because Nicu kinda stalks Ava, and they go a little batshit if one thinks the other is in trouble. Except Ava's neither a klutz nor lacking a spine. And Nicolae is not a vampire, he kills them. Also, he does not sparkle. (Except for that one time when he accidentally tripped on her makeup box.) So maybe they're more like Rosalie (an account of Ava being somewhat bitchy), and Emmett (because Nicolae can tear off people's arms and beat them with it). Tarot Card: Knight Of Wands
	Reggie's cool for a gaja. She's competent and no-nonsense and Ava likes her, though she knows Reggie's had bad experiences with magic. Tarot Card: Knight Of Pentacles
	Not only is this guy a jerk, he was able to sense Ava's capacity for magical power. That makes him a dangerous jerk, especially since he seems to be a warlock. Ava is boning up her defenses in the event of a hex war. Tarot Card: The Magician, Reversed
	Wesley's painfully white, but he respects Ava, and that counts for a lot. Tarot Card: The Hermit

Quotes

"So you and Nic get to go hunting, and I do what, stay home and float pencils to entertain the kiddies? You do realize that magic isn't just standing around holding white candles chanting in Latin with symbols drawn on the floor in Crayola, right? You need more experience with street magic."

"The past is often easier to be specific about. What's done is done. The future's nebulous, you know?"

Ava's Bag Of Tricks

(Click to display Ava's Spells.)

(Click to hide Ava's Spells.)

Spell	Incantation	Components	Effect	Source
Adamanteus Aer (Steel Air)	Thicken.	Outstretched palm.	This spell causes the air to harden into a barrier as strong as an inch of steel plate, the barrier is approximately 20 feet high and wide and is invisible unless touched (in which case the air seems to "ripple"), if cast in a smaller space the barrier will re-size itself. The barrier lasts for one minute per success level of the spell. The spell can be cast anywhere within 100 feet of the caster but it will only cast in open space it can not displace living or inert matter. This spell is useful for both blocking the escape of fleeing foes or providing a barrier for a hasty retreat.	Buffy S5 (Intervention)
Disperse Curse	Latin, ending in dispergere 3x.	Needle or pin.	This incantation, with act of stabbing the target's hand with the pin on the last word, will cause the target to temporarily come out of the influence of behavior altering magic.	Original
Five Minute Rewind	Forget.	Sand of Karnak	This spell wipes someone's memory of the last five minutes. One must blow the Sand of Karnak in their eyes. It'll put them in a temporary trance for about five minutes while the memory is erased. Hypnosis, telepathy, or appropriate magic can restore the memory.	Original
Magic Vision	None.	Sand of Karnak	Pouring Sand of Karnak in one's own eyes will allow the caster to see magical energy and auras for roughly four hours afterward. It can make the user seem spaced out or like they're a bit high, and there's usually a significant headache once it wears off.	Original
Reverse Witches Spell	20 minute incantation	Eye of newt, boiling cauldron full of hot water, personal effect of the target.	Reverses any spells cast by a magic-user. Halfway through, the caster can sense the exact location of the target magic-user, but the target becomes dizzy and disoriented, and aware that a spell is being cast against them. Upon completion of the incantation, the caster must plunge their hand into the cauldron. Luckily, the fact that it's a spell means you don't burn your hand off!	Buffy S1 (The Witch)
Summon Flame	Incendere.	None.	This spell produces flame, either in one's hand or within about ten to twenty feet. The effect is no bigger than that of a large candle, but fire does spread easily. Use it to catch a vampire's clothes on fire, and they poof pretty quickly.	Buffy S4 (Superstar)
True Form	"Ihr Goetter, ruft Euch an! Verbergt Euch nicht hinter falschen Gesichtern!" (Translation: "You gods, I call upon you! Do not hide behind false faces!"	None.	This spell causes a demon to revert from any illusion or transformation into its true form.	Buffy S3 (Gingerbread)

Trivia

The visions that drabarne experience while dreaming cause them to weep as they slumber. The tears of a drabarne harvested while sleeping are considered a potent and rare spell component.