Anna's History: in one convenient location

[falsejezebel]

Trigger warning: violence, rape and sexual violence, self-harm.

Quick summary
- born in Russia in 1908 to family of wealthy bureaucrats and begins training in dance
- loses pampered only child status to younger brother, Pyotr
- Communist Revolution forces family to flee to America, leaving most of their wealth behind
- life of poverty in New York City involves half-hearted (at best) education with ballet classes from a local woman where Anna can fit them
- fed up with Pyotr’s favored status, Anna runs away from home at age 17 and gets a job at The Cat’s Eye, a burlesque club (of the new, stripping variety) run by Audrey Black, a Toreador Daeva. She and Audrey become lovers.
- in 1927, Anna is brutally raped and nearly killed to punish Audrey for one of his mistakes; he Embraces her in desperation
- Anna is too scarred by her experience to continue her intimacy with Audrey, so he kicks her out because he’s a classy dude like that
- While living on her own and still trying to figure out the whole being a vampire thing, Anna learns that Pyotr ran off to make his own fortune, rather than helping the family. Infuriated, she rushes home, only to frenzy and kill her parents. Awkward.
- convinced to join the vampire church of the Lancea Sanctum after one of their priests helps her cover up her crime… and also after his cross burns her (“holy shit Christianity must totally be a real thing”)
- in 1931, finds out that Pyotr went to Chicago and leaves to search for him
- Chicago is totes overrun with True Fae. While maintaining her Harpy position, Anna secretly fulfills a deal with a Fae calling herself the Queen to find her brother.
- originally because of a bet with Mina Barrett, develops relationship with the Gangrel Priscus, named Leander Ailuridai, who is (to his great displeasure) bound to another aspect of the Queen, known as the Huntress. Anna eventually is inducted into the Gangrel pack; however, her sexual hang-ups prevent her and Leander from consummating their relationship.
- Turns out her brother was turned into a candlestick. Anna kills him by throwing him into a fire after confirming that he did indeed run away to Chicago (as opposed to being kidnapped by the Fae first). In fairness, he was begging for death at the time… This results in more emotional trauma To The Max.
- In a desperate bid for power to defeat the Fae known as the Baron, who currently the greatest threat to the city, Anna allows the Queen to give her a "weapon," which turns out to be the Huntress title (“Storm-Chased Mistress of the Hunt”). Things between she and Leander promptly become Extremely Awkward.
- Ultimately estranged from Leander and considered untrustworthy at best by the city's vampires due to her new Fae nature, Anna allies with two mages, Jones and Vivian, to defeat the Baron...only to have the Queen's resultant victory be effectively no different than the Baron's would have been.

Anna - “Anya” to her closest friends - was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1908 to a wealthy bourgeois family. Her father was a government worker (from a family of the same) of middling status; her mother was a former ballet dancer who quit once offered the prospect of a married life of ease. The family was Christian - Russian Orthodox - but not particularly observant; Anna’s small awareness of the spiritual came from the half-comprehended tales of sin and duty from her grandparents.

Because of her mother’s nostalgia and because the family could afford it, from the time she could walk Anna began training as a ballet dancer. Her parents were soon delighted to learn from Anna’s instructors that their daughter possessed prodigious natural talent. However, the attention faded from Anna when, in 1912, her parents gave birth to her baby brother, Pyotr. Between the extra demands of a second child and her parents’ relief at having gained a male heir, Anna soon found herself the mere second favorite. The difference in affection was subtle, but children, especially those in little Anya’s position, notice these things. Sibling rivalry was the least of her family’s worries, though, for the country was filled with unrest against the Tsar. In 1915, and then again 1917, it came to a head - and by 1917 the army was too weak from the War to quell them: it could no longer be denied that it was not a good time to be part of the system of the Tsar’s control, and when in 1918 the Bolsheviks seized power, the family was forced to scramble to get themselves to safety. Fearing for their lives - or at least their livelihood - the family took what possessions they could and escaped to the legendary New York City, having heard tales of the great wealth to be made there. Of course, like so many others before them, they found the city an unwelcoming place. The family struggled to make ends meet, but their primary concern was to make enough to afford for Pyotr to stay in school, so that he might eventually become a doctor and support them all. For her part, Anna attended public school as well, just scraping by in classes that had been designed for native speakers and enduring the double frustrations of the mocking of her fellow students and her brother’s comparative ease at learning English. After school, though, she was able to continue her dance instruction at a class taught by an old woman in their Russian neighborhood. It wasn’t the same, but it was something. It was only when she danced that Anna felt she could reclaim some of the young girl with a bright, wealthy future ahead of her who she had once been.

Ultimately, Anna dropped out of school at age 15, having learned to speak English to her own satisfaction, though she had developed no more than the most basic level of literacy outside her native language. She joined her mother as a maid in wealthy households not unlike the one she had grown up in. And if sometimes a bit of candy or a trinket left the house in her pocket, well, the world owed that much to her, didn’t it? Eventually, though, Anna’s resentment of her parents’ favoritism towards Pyotr grew too much, and at age 17 she ran away from home. Her training in ballet (as well as her fine-boned beauty) got her job as a dancer at a burlesque club.

The Cat’s Eye Club, as it was called, was one of a new breed of burlesque clubs that focused on the strip tease rather than theatrical and slapstick performances. At first, Anna was uncomfortable with the work, but no one paid better than Audrey Black, the club’s handsome and enigmatic owner. And, frankly, she needed the money. Unbeknownst to Anna and the rest of “the Black Cat’s Kittens,” as they were known, Mr. Audrey Black was no mere mortal, but in fact a Toreador Daeva. Mr. Black was an eccentric but respected member of New York City’s Invictus covenant, boasting extensive contacts among the mortal proprietors of bars, clubs, and theaters alike (and calling on his fellow Invictus’ influence over police and politicians whenever law enforcement got too close for comfort), but his true passion - and the source of his Toreador entrancement - remained classical dance, of which there was precious little in the portions of the city he could claim as his territory.

It was thus that, one late night after the Cat’s Eye had ushered out the last of its patrons, Anna brought out her point shoes for a bit of practice and caught Mr. Black’s eye. It marked the beginning of the affair between Anna and Audrey, who was passionate as only a Daeva lover can be. Within a few months, Anna became Audrey Black’s very favorite plaything, and was eventually made his ghoul (a thrall that has access to some vampiric abilities). Though Audrey kept her as in the dark as possible about the truth of things, Anna nevertheless understood that her lover was no human, and that somehow he had imbued her with some of his own demonic vitality. Even when she questioned her situation, her blood-bond to him (the result of drinking the same vampire's blood at least three times) enforced her love and her obedience.

Unfortunately, Audrey had never been known for his prudence, depending instead on sheer brazen charm to accomplish his ends. And then he went just a little too far: After the advent of Prohibition, Black had depended on the aid of the police contacts of his fellow Invictus to keep the speakeasy nature of his establishments from getting those establishments shut down. So when, in 1927, largely due to their protection of the Cat’s Eye club, some of those police officers were arrested as “crooked,” Audrey Black suddenly owed another Invictus a boon. When said Kindred came to call one night, Audrey, in desperation, offered him his choice of any of the Black Cat’s Kittens. Frankly, it was a rather inept offer, but the other vampire, a savvy Ventrue (vampires with mind control powers), recognized Anna for what she was and decided to be vindictive.

Anna was returned at dawn, battered, broken, and barely clinging to life. It seemed she had been Dominated (the vampiric discipline of mind-control) and raped, and intentionally used beyond the capacity of even a ghoul’s body to withstand. In a paroxysm of anguish, Audrey Embraced (made into a vampire) Anna, his most cherished possession, right then and there.

Even the Embrace, though, was not enough to heal Anna’s psychological wounds, and even her blood-bond to her sire was not enough to overcome her revulsion for the final act. In disgust, Audrey Black cast her out after having only taught her the barest facts of Kindred existence.

About a year afterward, Anna ventured back into New York City’s Russian neighborhood - in part because the feeding would be easy, and in part because she was curious to find what Pyotr, the beloved one, had accomplished in her absence. When she learned that, but a few months previously, Pyotr had skipped town to make his own fortune rather than supporting the family, it seemed to her a slap in the face after all that she and her parents had sacrificed for him. Intending to confront her parents about what had happened, Anna rushed to her childhood home. But she underestimated the strength of her own fury: when she arrived, her parents opened the door to a vampire in Frenzy - an uncontrollable supernatural rage caused when a vampire loses control of her inner Beast. By the time Anna recovered her senses, her parents were dead.

She was found by a vampire priest of the Lancea Sanctum, who helped her conceal her crime and also introduced her to the covenant’s core philosophy: that vampires existed as the Damned of God, denied salvation to, essentially, act as the wolves that would chase the mortal sheep from sin. When the priest’s cross seared and repelled her - not a standard vampiric weakness - Anna was instantly convinced of the truth of his words: if crosses could repel her, this Christianity thing had to be pretty legit. However, she didn’t stay long with the “Sanctified” of the Lancea Sanctum, because she learned that she could find Pyotr in Chicago.

Then shit really went down.

The Sanctified didn’t have a strong presence in 1931 Chicago, so Anna found herself scrambling for the political allies that would give her enough security to conduct her search unimpeded, and maybe to spread a little of Lance (as it is commonly abbreviated) theology along the way. It was a dangerous time to be in Chicago, though: strange and powerful creatures known as True Fae had begun appearing in the city, to unknown purposes. Eventually, it would be revealed that there were five Fae: The Baron, a trickster in a top hat; The Queen, a classic fairytale princess with faces of Maid/Huntress, Mother/Queen, and Crone; The Pontiff, who was twistedly religious; The Keepers, a hive-mind of water goblins; and The Virtuoso, with an identity as both a dragon and as a musician.

Despite her incredibly young age (especially by Kindred standards), Anna’s social savvy - and her ambition - got her appointed to the position of Harpy, a sort of social police whose praise, snark, and censures affect the city status of other Kindred. Meanwhile, she clashed particularly with one Dr. Mina Barrett, the main representative of the Circle of the Crone, a pagan covenant regarded as dangerous heretics by the Lance. Ultimately, Anna admired Mina’s success and self-reliance a bit too much to truly dislike her (though she wasn’t about to admit it), and the two became something like that deliciously high school term: “frenemies.”

Anna made an effort to appear the consummate seductress and socialite, and one day a casual boast led her to a wager with Mina: if, as she claimed, Anna could seduce any man, then surely she could manage a kiss from that one. “That one” turned out to be the aloof leader of the Gangrel Clan (animalistic vampires with the power to shapeshift), Leander Ailuridai. Though at first her interest stemmed from her desire not to lose face in front of her rival, Anna found herself growing far more attached to Leander than she had intended, especially when he began to respect and confide in her. She learned of his second identity as the Bellwether Beast, a monster that killed mortal criminals. And she was with him when one of the Fae, the Huntress aspect of the Queen, suddenly appeared and - using the magical bell around Leander’s neck - claimed him for one of her hunts. (She would eventually learn that Leander saw the effort to free himself from the Huntress's bindings - even if he had to kill the Huntress to do so - as his one of his greatest goals, second only to becoming a legend in his own right.) Though she tried to convince herself that her interests were merely strategic, Anna came to see Leander as more than just an ally and protector. Leander offered to teach her the ways of the Gangrel pack and, partially as a ploy to get a kiss out of him, she agreed to the training. Though Anna could tell that Leander was falling for her and attempted to manipulate him to her advantage, the more time she spent with him the more she came to confide in him as well. His quiet support and confidence in her strength was a balm to her fear of her own weakness and inadequacy. She eventually got her kiss, but by then the bet wasn’t really the point any longer.

Still desperate to find her brother, Anna made a deal with the Queen: to help her with an unspecified task, in return for assurances that she would find Pyotr. Once she fulfilled that task (a complicated journey through a mirrored labyrinth, accompanied by others who had made similar bargains, to retrieve what was, to all appearances, a cheap plastic magic wand but in reality - as she would learn much later - represented a valuable fae Title, the acquisition of which would determine the winner of the True Faes' contest), she was rewarded with a candlestick and a note from the Queen informing her that her wish would be granted. With Leander’s help, Anna discovered the map on the note and followed it to the Fae realm belonging to the third facet of the Queen, the Crone. There, she and Leander learned the true goal of the Fae: to defeat each other in a contest for complete control - to mold however they pleased - of the city of Chicago. Additionally, with the Crone’s hints, Anna realized that the candlestick wasn’t a guide to Pyotr, but actually Pyotr himself, transformed by the Fae. Having been warned by a Mage representative in the city that Pyotr might have been kidnapped rather than leaving of his own will (and having had a mini breakdown at the complete worldview shift that would necessitate), Anna lit the candle to interrogate her brother. He was in terrible pain (due to the whole "on fire" thing), and begged for death, but managed to tell her that he had indeed chosen to leave New York. In fury, Anna decided to heed Pyotr’s “request,” and threw him into the Crone’s fireplace. (The screaming was terrible.) After it was done, though, she had a moment of remorse, and thought to gather his ashes to bury them. For her trouble she got her right hand coated with a seemingly permanent coat of silvery ash; she felt as though, even in death, Pyotr couldn’t stop screwing her over. The trauma of the (let’s be honest) murder she had just committed led Anna to take desperate measures to remove her hand’s silver coating. Let’s just say she got gruesomely creative with a razor and then healed herself some new skin. It is not an experience she likes to talk about, to say the least, and it left mental scars in place of physical: she gained the tendency to, in times of extreme stress, self-harm as a coping mechanism.

Without Pyotr to pursue, though, Anna suddenly found herself empty of purpose - so she decided to devote herself to Leander, who she had come to truly care for, and his Gangrel pack, consolidating her bond to the Gangrel. When her bond to the pack finally set, Anna’s relationship with Leander came to a head. But at the last moment, her experiences of the rape triggered, and she panicked. She could only bring herself to give the slightest explanation for her actions: that it had to do with “the circumstances of [her] Embrace.” Leander, to his credit, was understanding despite his confusion (and wounded ego), and the experience actually served to solidify Anna’s feelings for him: for the first time, she had not been shamed for her sexual "failings." She soon found herself aiding Leander along with the rest of the pack in a battle against a crazed contender for the position of leader of the Gangrel. Though they were victorious, Leander’s vampiric Beast - specifically, in this case, the part of him that represented his shapeshifting abilities - left him and ran off into the night. (Reaction of everyone there: “. . . what.”)

The situation in Chicago was getting increasingly desperate. It looked like the Baron would win, and Anna knew from her conversation with the Crone that his vision of Chicago would turn it into a hellish wasteland: anything would be better than his victory. So, when the Queen, claiming to have grown weary of the contest, summoned Anna (against her will: by then Chicago's Prince had ruled that the Kindred were to avoid all contact with the fae, particularly when it came to making deals) to a party she was hosting, Anna allowed herself to imply that she would far rather the Queen won than the Baron (especially since the Kindred seemed powerless to stop the Fae). To her surprise, the Queen commented that she was losing interest in the competition, which would make her a potential ally. So, when the Queen offered her any gift of her choosing, Anna decided to ask for a weapon to defeat the Baron. She thought that the bolt of lightning she was given was that weapon...and it was, in a manner of speaking. As soon as she touched it, it absorbed into her, and she felt herself change. The Queen had just granted her the Huntress title (“Storm-Chased Mistress of the Hunt”), effectively making Anna a Fae (or, specifically, as the STs ever-so-helpfully dubbed it, a faypire). For those of you just joining us, yes that’s the same Fae who owned Leander. You know, the one he hated and wanted to kill.

The influx of the Huntress's personality into her mind was frightening, but also intoxicating. Anna was certain that the power that had been granted to her was the best hope to save the city from the Baron, but it also marked her as one of the True Fae, and therefore an enemy to every Kindred in Chicago, as per the Prince's decree. Rather than attempting to keep the change secret, Anna scrambled to find allies; however, few would trust her now. There was also the painful matter of breaking the news to Leander (over whom she now felt an obsessive possessiveness), an experience that was not helped by the fact that the Huntress had an unfortunate tendency to completely take over when her interest was piqued - and Leander, of course, piqued the Huntress's interest. Though the conversation was painful, Leander supported her even then, though he nevertheless encouraged her to rely on her own strength, rather than the Huntress's. Still, the Huntress's influence had its advantages: newly assured that she could stay in control of the situation, Anna consummated her relationship with Leander, and the two affirmed their love for one another. She then used her new powers to help Leander track and reclaim his Beast...only to accidentally ruin everything when she, thinking it was what he wanted, then removed the bell that bound him to her. Leander considered the bell a part of his identity - part of the legend he was building for himself as the Bellwether Beast - and wanted to regain his freedom some other way, leaving them at an impasse: Anna did not have enough knowledge of her own abilities to change the bell's function, leaving Leander both furious at the violation and unwilling to accept the bell back. Frustrated and confused, the two parted ways, and remained estranged during the final battle.

In the end, Anna's only allies were the two mage emissaries to the vampire court, Vivian and Jones, as well as (in theory, if ultimately not in practice) the other vampires who had gained titles from the Queen: Wallis, a friend and mentor-figure who became the Crone; and three other women, including Mina, who had somehow had the title of the Queen herself split between them. It seemed the Queen (no longer truly the Queen and now just the undefined Fae who had previously held the title) was making a last, desperate gamble to win the competition by creating powerful allies at the expense of weakening herself. With the title of the Huntress, Anna had gained an instinctive knowledge of the nature of the True Fae competition: due to the esoteric occult actions of the former vampire Prince of the city (long story, and not really important for Anna's version of things), the City of Chicago had become a Fae Title all its own, and since control of the mortal world is a hot commodity to the True Fae, the competition to claim the title had been devised. However, the terms of the competition's contract - and True Fae are bound by their word - stated that the True Fae could not involve mortals in any way in the competition (vampires and mages, as not strictly-speaking mortal, were loopholes), on pain of doom to the one who broke the contract (though unfortunately breaking the contract for one Fae would not break it for all of them, so just sacrificing herself was out). Using this knowledge, Anna and her new mage allies devised a plan, using Fate magic to ensure that the Baron would be tricked into moving - and thereby involving - a mortal child from where she sat on top of the physical manifestation of the contract. After this, the city's Kindred were easily able to destroy the Baron.

But it wasn't over yet. As soon as the Baron had been defeated, the Fae-who-had-been-the-Queen stepped forward and claimed the prize in his stead, dragging them all into Arcadia, the land of the Fae, and leaving a fake Chicago made from sticks and twigs and dreamstuff where the city had once been. Anna's victory on behalf of the Queen only meant that the form Chicago's enslavement would take would have a more beautiful appearance, but it wouldn't be any less of an enslavement.

Before the Fae-who-had-been-the-Queen could take the Huntress title back, though, Anna is brought to Cape Kore.