Oksana Koblenko "Proserpina" is a Caitiff residing in the Kharkiv area.
Biography[]
| “ | Did you see the screens I sent? Good. Never mind how I got your texts. Let’s talk about how to keep your Prince from getting them, too. | ” |
Mortal Days[]
Ruslana Koblenko studied law on a merit scholarship at the Karazin University, concurrently pursuing a Juris Doctor and a Master of Laws. She was poised, eloquent, the superstar of the Koblenko family, the true joy of her mother’s life. Her twin sister, Oksana Koblenko, hated her.
Oksana pursued a degree in engineering at the same school, without a scholarship, or poise, or her mother’s love. She didn’t want to be an engineer, but a throwaway comment from her mother convinced her it would finally get her attention. She kept her head down. She stayed away from boys. After a disquieting self-discovery, she stayed away from girls. She repressed everything that wasn’t perfect, compressed it down until she felt like she might blow to pieces.
Oksana let it out in little ways. Little cuts, mostly, high on her bicep where the scars wouldn’t show. Then little thrills she could get away with. She snitched on fellow students because it made her feel good to receive praise for exposing their secrets. She started accumulating stores of blackmail material on students, teachers, even family members. She called them “little tricks.” She’d find a way to slip them into the public, in an email to her sister, or a text to a classmate, and watch them work. Entropy — the breakdown of order, the flaws in trusted systems — fascinated her more than anything.
It started little and grew from there. Her tricks got better. Her cuts, deeper. She started going to group when her dorm mate caught her; Olympian Counseling Center — Free to Karazin Students! It helped, a little, to be around others like her. She had more focus, which she bent toward her little tricks. She found out she could sell them, and her skills. People paid her money for acquiring intelligence and extorting unsuspecting victims. Sometimes she’d see the aftermath of her tricks in the local news, and it’d be her first smile in weeks. Then someone tried to kill her sister.
Kindred Nights[]
Oksana woke up in the dark, slumped in a chair. The night was a blur of unimaginable, bone-deep pain. Pain, and a bleak, acrid hunger. Three white shadows loomed over her. They brought her something big, warm and struggling. She bit into it without thinking. It tasted — no, felt incredible, a better release than the knife’s edge. The white strangers asked something. She couldn’t make it out over her throbbing head. They muttered. Got angry. Started arguing. “God damn it, Simon!” A woman, high and panicky. “You dumb piece of shit, that’s her sister!”
She choked on fear, the scent of it rolling off them, and her own, crawling up her throat. The strangers kept arguing. One grabbed her by the shoulder and hauled her to her feet. What do we do now? We got the wrong damn Koblenko! They dragged her outside, fighting in angry whispers. Oksana stumbled free of the white claw on her shoulder. She ran, they shouted. The metro was smears of wet light, incomprehensible. Oksana ran forever and everything melted together like a nightmare. Until finally, finally, something looked familiar.
Olympian Counseling Center — Free to Karazin Students!
It was closed, of course. But she forced her way through the locked door. The group leader was there, young and quiet and red-headed, sitting in the dark with a familiar woman. “Oksana.” He remembered her name. “What happened?” She told him about the white strangers, about biting and drinking. She told him about the cutting (though he already knew), and more poured out of her like black water. The engineering degree she didn’t want. The girls she didn’t want to notice. The little tricks. Her sister, her disgusting sister, better than her and everyone knew it and Ruslana didn’t have the decency to feel bad about it. Nobody wanted her, nobody. Not even her mother.
Akhtem sat with her for hours. The woman — another group member — came and went as Oksana sobbed and Akhtem listened. He didn’t flinch, or ask questions, or raise his eyebrows or scoff. He simply let her purge. “You’ve been hurting for a long time,” he said when the black water finally stopped. He pulled her to him, an arm around her shoulder like a cloak of snow. “You’ll hurt for a long time more,” he admitted, and she found herself reassured by it — a plain, respectful truth. “There is someone who wants you,” he promised, gripping her hard. “He led you to us,” the woman finally spoke, “because he wants you to meet him.”
This was how Oksana found the Church of Set in Kharkiv, to her mind quite by accident, but to the Church by an act of providence. They assured her that her reason for being there was ordained by a force greater than any single being, and tutored her in the existence of a vampire. They reminded her it couldn’t just be coincidence that she was Embraced so close to a Setite temple. They praised her good work so far in liberating others, and made sure she knew that good work was to continue, but under their direction.
Now, Oksana is a dedicated agent and adherent of the Church of Set, traveling between domains, serving her temple’s will. She finds even greater pleasure and purpose in her actions now than when she performed them as a mortal, as she finally receives congratulations for her achievements. The Church of Set liberated her, and she uses its ways to liberate others.
In the midst of a new Anarch court, Akhtem’s hold on Kharkiv’s Kindred wavers between those driven politically and those who feel the summons of faith. What he needs is a front that can hold up to all scrutiny, cover its tracks, and grant protection to other Kindred Church members. Oksana is intent on procuring this for him by expanding her network of victims and defrauding anyone who would stand in the way of the temple’s expansion. The feuding Anarch gangs in the northwest represent huge, untapped potential. The Church can help them. Oksana knows it, but they need to know it, too. She’s taken it upon herself to deliver digital “presents” to prominent gang leaders, like blackmail material on rivals or stolen identities to be mined for resources. No strings. For now. Natalia Koblenko finished her Juris Doctor and her Master of Laws, made a huge splash in the political and public law arena, and is now on track to be the youngest woman to run for — and win — the Kharkiv mayoral seat. Baron Karina wants Natalia in her retinue, and thwarting the Baron’s attempts is another of Oksana’s full-time jobs. Oksana knows she should be beyond care for her sister’s progress or downfall, but she doesn’t care. She finally feels superior to Natalia and refuses to let that change.
In her efforts to become a self taught Mask cobbler, Oksana has learned how to craft replica documents and spoof data from pre-existing Masks. So far, three titled Camarilla vampires have been brought to task for breaches of the Masquerade, only for the Sheriff to later learn the breaches were committed by Anarchs using stolen Masks. Oksana’s got taps on major cell towers all over the city, and for the past few years she’s been training an algorithm to sniff out Kindred texts with telling keywords, like juicebag, leech, donor, and lick.
Appearance[]
Oksana Koblenko appears to be a young woman in her early twenties, 5’4 and bony, with dim, sad eyes and a small mouth. Her short, soot-black hair feathers her cheekbones and brushes the edge of her jaw. She writes more eloquently than she speaks; her voice tends toward sudden stops and mumbles. Though she doesn’t have a Mask, she does have several online personas. At work in the Church, Oksana dresses simply: dark red leggings, a red tunic top, fingerless gloves to keep the joints in her sensitive hands from stiffening while she codes. She travels in a haze of kyphi incense, and even outside the temple bleeds a faint aura of frankincense and pine. When she appears to her cult as the Proserpina, Oksana’s frame becomes delicate and ethereal. She accentuates her eyes with charcoal, weaves long golden cords into her hair, and dresses in a cyber-nouveau collection of neon green straps, gold rings, and heavy black fabric. Her Proserpina persona gives her an ocean of confidence she doesn’t normally have, but she tends to fall into campy “dark goddess” clichés.
Character Sheet[]
Oksana Koblenko
Sire: Simon Danilenko
Embraced: 2015 (born 1993)
Ambition: See a permanent temple of Set established in Kharkiv
Convictions: Never refuse aid to another member of the Church; Never turn down the opportunity to liberate others
Touchstones: Tara Bakurova — fellow self-harm survivor; Ruslana Koblenko — narcissistic nightmare twin
Humanity: 6
Generation: 13th
Blood Potency: 1
Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2; Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Composure 3; Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 2
Health: 5
Willpower: 5
Skills: Craft (Electronics) 2, Drive 1, Larceny (Extortion) 3, Survival 1; Etiquette 2, Insight 2, Persuasion 2, Subterfuge 4; Academics (Research) 2, Awareness 1, Finance 1, Investigation (Scandals) 3, Occult (Church of Set) 2, Politics 2, Science (Engineering) 2, Technology 4
Disciplines: Auspex 2, Presence 3
References[]
- VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods, p. 81-94
