Antediluvixen

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@Vigfast Still though, we do seem to love our tall people.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

>Is reading everybody's heights

>Sees everybody at First World 21st Century heights

>Is not sure what to think

Everybody realizes the average height in these times was almost four inches shorter for men, right?

Just figured I'd mention that.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Aleksandra marched briskly over to the table, seating herself and listening attentively as Adam spoke about the various cases.

A “bear” that was removing hearts from various forest animals, unusual, but not particularly interesting to her. Quite likely it was simply some witch doctor or quack harvesting the organs for his inane rituals. Such rituals tended to be nonsense, but then again so had psychic powers until recently. The case might have born some inquiry of her own, but somebody was already covering it, and she let it be, content with allowing someone else to pursue such matters.

A woman whose dead husband appeared to have returned from the dead? She wasn’t quite sure on the matter, and it sounded too far fetched to be true, even with many things recently so handily proving themselves to be quite possible indeed. However again, it was already going to be investigated by Adam himself, as well as Adriana. So not a pressing matter for her, however there was the last one...

Even as she continued to wolf down fish, eggs, toast, rolls, cheese, and everything else on table, the last of the cases stuck out to her and she raised a finger, pausing for a moment to swallow a mouthful of fish and a sip of coffee before speaking. “I think I shall work on the missing men, I’ve plenty of experience trawling the streets for suspicious activity.”

Also I get to look at those pictures some more. She thought to herself. She had a large personal library of pictures and illustrations of similarly attractive men and women, but who would turn down the opportunity to look at the pictures on the job?

She shook her head, muttering to herself to get her priorities in line.

The immediate potential culprits to this were obvious, human trafficking, murder, some highborn ladies looking to spice things up, or perhaps… She spoke up again, “Do we know if any of them had psychic potential? I might have an idea as to what could have potentially happened to them. If I’m right…” she trailed off, miming swinging sword as she waited. It was quite possible she had another cult on her hands, perhaps even a cult with potent psychics such as the Circle in Novgorod. Were that the case, things could rapidly devolve once more.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

I'm thinking Aleksandra will be tackling the disappearances. She's kinda got experience prowling around the streets looking for suspicious things.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@MacabreFox Oh I know it is! It's just been a loooong damn time is all.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Wrote some words.

@MacabreFox
God it's been so long since I read it, I'm gonna need to do it again, all I remember is that I liked it.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Aleksandra burrowed deeper in the dusty tome in front of her, furiously typing notes to herself on a well used typewriter as she puzzled over its contents. The room was… small, compared to her usual accomodations back in Russia. She’d had mild difficulty in finding space to store her various accoutrements, and whatever flighting fancy had persuaded her that she might finalize any metallurgical research of consequence unless she gained access to a proper laboratory she would never know.

However, the manor had a wealth of knowledge on psychic phenomena, as well as various scholarly theories on their origin, mechanism of action, and potential reproduction of such phenomena in the laboratory and then the real world. The vast majority was metaphysical poppycock unfortunately, written by raving lunatics or opportunists looking for their fifteen minutes of fame and some money to boot. This book however, this one had value. Genuine experimental documentation, rigorous application of the scientific method, and plausible hypotheses aimed at actually decoding these logic defying anomalies.

She had conducted some minor experiments on herself, but had been unable to find anything conclusive, likely due to her own ability’s nature as opposed to a more active one. However, willing test subjects were a rare commodity, and even more so when one wasn’t a man. Even money was of comparatively little use there, and she had been stuck with nothing to do but sort through the meaningless drivel to find the gold nuggets.

She reached the last page in the chapter, quickly scanning the page and jotting down the relevant information. In the Society she might finally get the chance to do some real tests, noninvasive of course, on active psychic manifestations. She was comfortable with the idea that they might not be explainable with current knowledge, and in fact the thought of expanding the field of knowledge further in such an area was an enticing thought indeed. See them laugh then.

Finishing the page she hastily threw a bookmark in and closed the tome with an audible thump. She hadn’t slept in over seventy two hours, and while she was accustomed to even longer stretches, they often involved actual motion, calibrating measurements, adjusting containers. She had sat on the hard wooden chair for the full stretch, pausing a few times to relieve herself a-...

A familiar pressure prompted her to sprint to the nearest lavatory, barely making it in time as… well… she emerged several minutes later, and immediately felt the parch of thirst and an aching pain in her gut that forced her to descend from her little nest-like area in search of food and water. The pitcher she’d taken with her had run dry a day ago. She made a mental note to ask one of the maids to check on her if she didn’t appear for more than two days so she didn’t run herself on an empty stomach again. Sleep could wait, she needed something to eat.

Walking through the halls, she poked her head into various rooms in search of someone to ask where she might find a bit of that wonderful fuel of the metabolic fire. Eventually the doors of the dining hall itself reared their heads, surely someone would be in there.

Pushing through the doors she halted immediately, a lock of unkempt snowy hair falling in her eye as she took notice of the little meeting in progress, and perhaps more importantly though not as likely, the food on the table they sat around. “Sorry.” She managed to croak out in the smidgen of Czech she knew, about to attempt actual communication before accepting defeat and asking in English, “I was searching for some, eh, food…” she trailed off, not sure whether to flee or try and grab some of the eggs on the table and make a run for it.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

@MacabreFox Yaaaay!

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

I exist now guys.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Aleksandra Alexeyevna Volkov:

Birth Name: Aleksandra Alexeyevna Volkov
Other Names: The Wolf of Novgorod

Gender: Female
Age: 26

Rank/Titles/Social Class: Countess, currently living on Prague on her own but heiress to her family’s estate.

Appearance: Standing at an impressive 5’ 10” Aleksandra can easily literally look down on most others she meets, be they male or female, and takes great pleasure in doing so whenever possible. Her body is an unusual combination of lean corded muscle from many hours of intense exercise and combat training, and a softer figure owing to her ability to afford as much food as she needs. Her prematurely white hair is held behind her ears and allowed to fall into a mess of wavy locks down her back, the front bangs being permitted to hang free for the most part. Her face is smooth, with slight cheekbones and tawny eyes that burn with a fierce intelligence. She disdains dresses, instead preferring the coats men tend to wear, and has become adept at concealing firearms underneath them, and has many coats tailored to her figure in various weights so that they may be worn year round.

Clothing Style

Excellent for concealing pistols, ammunition, and looking like a goddamn badass.

Personality: Aleksandra doesn’t just go against the grain for what is “good and normal” for a woman in 1890s society, she completely and utterly ignores it, and happily flaunts this and her opinions favoring women living in society with the exact same power and responsibilities as their male counterparts. While clearly a woman of high birth, she has a tendency to not keep her nose stuck up, preferring to see where she’s stepping. A brilliant scientist, she has a tendency to become completely and utterly fixated on one particular subject, be it scientific or not, to the point that she might forget to eat, drink, sleep, or relieve herself, instead working for literally days on a project before simply collapsing from exhaustion. Despite this, she is not unapproachable, especially if one has some matter of interest to discuss. An experienced fighter as well, she takes care to be armed every moment of the day, shashka worn openly on her hip and pistols concealed under her coat, and she has over time come to be constantly on guard and rarely relaxed. Even so, there is a reason for her reputation as a sexually free spirited woman, regardless of the sex of the other (idk where else to put this).

Psychic Talent: Aleksandra does not have a psychic power in the sense that some might think of it. Instead, her psychic ability allows her to detect the use of other psychic abilities, be they speech suggestion, someone reading an aura, detecting the history of an object, she simply knows it’s happening and more often than not, who’s doing it. In addition, she finds herself able to shrug off such things as suggestion or what-have-you, seeing straight through other types of psychic deception as well.

Skills: Aleksandra, whilst born into high society and expected by most to be groomed for such, has little if any skills required to function in such society, instead finding herself most at ease with soldiers and fellow scholars. While she speaks two languages, neither of them (English and Russian) are particularly useful in the city of Prague, and she struggles to learn Czech as well, her mind being attuned to different things. Where she truly shines is her skill at arms, and her prowess as a metallurgist and materials scientist in the burgeoning field that is genuine science. Enrolled in Moscow’s State University by her father at her continued insistence, Aleksandra quickly rose to the top of her field, demonstrating a blinding intellect and remarkable skill in the field, with a seemingly innate knowledge of mathematics, inorganic chemistry, and most particularly, anything involving metallurgy. Having trained her mind from a young age with strenous mental conditioning, she has developed an adamantine will and mental discipline. She also developed a rather nasty reputation as a woman unrestrained by the social norms of her time, and… tales, of her skills beneath the covers became a mythos uttered in muted whispers whenever the older population was not around.

Weapons/Fighting: Aleksandra is an excellent shot with both rifle and pistol, disdaining the more ornate versions reserved for dueling in favor of rugged and chunky models intended for genuine combat, and has two revolvers in particular based on the Colt 1889, these however are custom ordered models in .45 Colt, with an extra two shots per cylinder due to the extraordinarily strong materials she provided them with to make the guns and are consequently capable of withstanding immensely powerful smokeless powder loads. She carries both of these revolvers and on a leather belt beneath her coat, along with huge amount of ammunition for it. She has practiced extensively with the pistols and used them in actual combat and has never been failed by them. She also carries a well used Cossack shashka, having been taught anything and everything in the use of the savage weapon, and garnered plenty of firsthand experience in training bouts and genuine fights to the death.

Shashka

Custom Colt Revolver

History:

Born into a very wealthy and eccentric if somewhat obscure on the political stage noble family, Aleksandra never knew her mother, who died a few days after childbirth from an infection. From day one, her upbringing starkly contrasted with the norm for noble girls, instead of being taught to be unquestioningly obediant and to do housework, Aleksandra was instead taught to read, write, do mathematics, and speak English from a young age. In addition she was given rigorous training to hone her mind to a razor keen edge and strengthen her will into wolfram, the exact reasons were never given, but her father always provided the answer, “You’ll know some day.”

She also developed tastes in literature, enjoying the short stories and poems of Edgar Allen Poe, The Vampyre, Dracula, In A Glass Darkly, The Picture of Dorian Grey, The Devil’s Elixirs, The Turn of the Screw, Frankenstein, and a special place in her heart for Wuthering Heights. A fascination with the dark and the macabre developed early on in her life, and stayed with her throughought and to the present day, as shown by the silver memento mori-esque necklace she wears.

Her father was the very definition of absent minded scholar, rarely leaving his study except in the evening when he and his daughter would discuss various matters, increasing in relevance as she grew older until they were having intense sociopolitical debates nightly, or arguing over the proper method for the synthesis of sodium barbiturates by the time she was fourteen. Her father was delighted at this and needed little in the way of encouragement to browbeat his way into securing an education in Moscow’s State University for her at the age of eighteen.

During this time she was not idle, and practiced extensively in less refined forms of martial art. Pulling strings with her father’s influence she secured for herself a set of revolvers which she practiced with daily, soon becoming remarkably adept with the weapons. While her father initially disapproved of this, he eventually relented and retreated back to his studies, giving his daughter a hand wave of defeat. From that point on little if anything could stop her, and she found her way into the tutelage of one of the Imperial Russian Army’s Cossack warriors, who, after much pushing and exchange of coin, agreed to teach her everything he knew in the use of the traditional and lethal shashka. She grew to be a formidable opponent with the blade, almost matching the old Cossack himself and easily exceeding him in agility by the time she reached twenty two. While such activities as becoming a deadly shot with the pistol or a master of a less… refined blade such as the shashka were intensely frowned upon by almost everybody else, she developed her trademark unconcerned air during this time, content in ignoring such things.

In Moscow, she discovered both her remarkable affinity for metallurgy, eagerly forging ahead in the field of metallurgical science, and her own psychic talent. One day a man accosted her in a hallway, a not unusual occurence, but something was… different. She felt an unusual presence in her mind, and mentally poked at it, finding it somehow linked back to the man in front of her. Further investigation revealed the purpose behind this intrusion into her mental space, and she hurriedly threw whatever the mental equivalent of a brick wall was in its way. She all too clearly saw his intent to influence her thoughts and the direction of the conversation towards… stereotypically male ends. While she was used to such attempts at this point, what struck her was the probe in her mind she had felt, and she entered into a studying spree, entrenching herself in the library of the university in an attempt to glean what she could from the multitude of dusty tomes.

Gradually she came to know all the contents the library had on the matter of psychic powers, and the notion intrigued her to no end. She would set out at night through the streets of Moscow, sword at the ready in case of trouble as she sought out the various “psychics” that proclaimed themselves in the streets, finding the vast majority to be frauds and scam artists, and the genuine few to be disreputable sorts who also attempted to scam, charm, or simply psychically influence her out of her money, time, or clothes. She quickly grew disgusted with such people, and began to seek out like minded individuals who studied and investigated these psychic powers. In this time she returned to Novgorod, living in the family manor and conducting her own research, psychic alongside metallurgical, and while the latter yielded wonderful results, the former remained infuriatingly mired in mystery.

She acquired the anonymous nickname “The Wolf of Novgorod” among some circles during one of her nighttime expeditions, which never ceased even when she returned home, when she stumbled across unusual markings on an old dilapidated house some distance from the city center. Slowly pushing her way inside, she came to realize that she had stumbled across a cult of some sort, and as she soon realized, a cult headed by a psychic with powerful abilities of suggestion. Had she been a more foolhardy type she might’ve attacked then and there, but instead waited and listened, learning their plans as well as some names and information she tucked away for later investigation. Over the next month she systematically tore the cult to shreds, tripping a cultist on his way to an assassination, a small dart with a small amount of sodium pentathol in the neck of a cultist making a speech, and then watching as he lost any and all ability to lie, and soon, simply killing them in one on one duels in a back alley or wherever. By the end of the month she was able to walk straight into their now much emptier headquarters and gun the remainder down in a quick but brutal gunfight. In doing so she too was shot, giving her a noticeable limp and a bloody hole right through her side. She survived thankfully, and abstained from further cultbusting antics, instead devoting herself to researching such things even further.

One day she recieved a letter addressed to her in English, inviting her to a manor in Prague, a certain House Ianus, in order to discuss matters of import, matters she knew instinctively the topic of. Of course she was very familiar with the House and knew some of its doings, but not nearly as much as she would’ve liked. Jumping at such an opportunity she packed her bags and set out for Bohemia, arriving in relativelty short order. At this point her father had given up all hope of keeping her in Novgorod or Moscow to study, and simply sent his blessings.

After a couple months she was fully settled in and becoming restless, instead of prowling the streets like she was accustomed to, she took to the various mysteries the Society dealt with, and delved into the wealth of knowledge on psychic phenomena the Society had amassed.

Random:

• In case it wasn’t obvious, she’s openly bisexual and doesn’t care what anyone thinks.