Despite the claims of the family proper, their beautifully constructed genealogical maps, and theories about magic being passed down through bloodlines… the founders of House Rasputin did not have any blood-ties to the man Grigori Rasputin. After all, the last name Rasputin was surprisingly common for the era and the area where Grigori Rasputin had been born. And after the overthrow of the Russian tsar, many papers and records were lost or destroyed during the resulting chaos and establishment of the Soviet government. For all intents and purposes, it next to impossible to prove they aren’t descendants of the famous Russian mystic.
One could argue that genetic comparisons to the “Rasputin”s of House Rasputin- Novyi to their alleged forefather would reveal the truth, but there is no original DNA to test since Rasputin’s body was destroyed—and historians have no true record of exactly how or where. Nicolai Rasputin, his son (Alexi), his grandson (Alexander) and all their forefathers have benefited from a very well strategized lie. Through bad luck, however, Alexi Rasputin decided to play house on the side with a woman who was a direct descendant of the real Rasputin—just not through his recorded marriage.
The man had, after all, been just as good at whoring as praying and definitely left one or two bastards in the process. ) Sasha, as the result of that long term affair of Alexi and one Lena Voloshina, is the descendant of both the imposter and real Rasputin lines. As a large part of the House’s paradigm (and a fair amount of the family’s political power within the House) is founded on the basic principle that magical ability is an inherited family trait, Sasha presents a problem if fully Awakened as a mage.
While the family could temporarily get away with claiming her innate aptitude is from Alexi’s side, inevitably someone would do the research into Lena Voloshina’s ancestry. After all, Nicolai did. And it is a lot harder to destroy those sort of records nowadays than during the upheaval of an empire. So, to prevent incident, Nicolai and his son-after some hot debate—came to an agreement. Sasha’s mind would be altered to prevent her from ever coming to the conscious conclusion that she is even capable of doing magic, and her Pattern would be “re-apportioned” to create a barrier confining her Avatar.
Alexi ended his affair with Lena soon afterwards. And, reassured their dynasty would continue unchallenged, all was deemed well and done. However, there is a slight hitch. Despite her inability to recognize her own potential for magic, Sasha’s Avatar has been throwing itself at the walls of its prison for years now and it has found a few loopholes. Places where it has exerted its influence in hopes of steering her towards being Wide Awake—such as her studies and interests. For Sasha, becoming a doctor made sense. She liked helping people and medicine had always been weirdly fascinating to her.
For instance, did you know an individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body? Or that new gene therapy treatments can treat even severe immunodefiancies? ) And it quickly became clear she was good at her calling. Her half-brother Alexander became a part of her life towards the end of college-contacting her via email, then texting, and then eventually meeting in person. He told her stories about ancient bloodlines and latent abilities allowing people to bend the rules of reality.
As a future medical professional, she was skeptical. But the part of her—the one that believed in Deo Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto- questioned, why not? If she believed in devils and angels, why wasn’t there room for other things too? Wouldn’t it make sense if perhaps the Saints were able to do what they did because God designed them each with traits for the unique purpose of performing miracles? But something about the topic had made her uncomfortable. Alexander seem oddly, well, smug when she shifted the conversation.
He didn’t ever push it again and Sasha didn’t think much about that conversation again until years later -fairly recently, in fact. “Recently” started when she found Gregor. She’d found him, took him home, and patched him up. For some reason, that had made more sense at the time than taking him to the hospital where she worked. As she’s taught Gregor ASL and he’s shared his stories, Sasha has decided that the world has room enough for angels, demons, elves, wizards, dragons, or whatever else may be out there. But, she’s thought a lot about that conversation about bloodlines and magic with Alexander.
Given the evidence, she’s willing to accept the idea there’s a quirk in some genes that make the impossible, well, possible. Miracles happen. And there’s a lot humanity hasn’t even begun to explore concerning genetic research, after all. Sasha has also thought a lot about the incidents where Alexander started brawls in bars and coffee shops. (And who the hell starts a fight in a coffee shop anyway? ) She’s certain now that he’s a wizard—or sorcerer, or mage, whatever. And a hot blooded mage who tends to hit people with chairs for just looking at him funny?
She’s decided the fact that Gregor is living with her is not something she’s going to bring up in the near future. Even if it is platonic. Sasha just has a feeling it wouldn’t go over well. She’ll wait until she can think up a good way to frame it without Alexander going bananas. And honestly, she’s a little too busy to worry about the Weird Stuff or personal drama at the moment. Until the mages, werewolves, and whatever else was out there started showing up in her apartment or at her hospital, she’ll let sleeping dogs lie. Seems like the best (and probably safest) policy at the moment.
And in the meantime, Sasha has important stuff to focus on. Like, for example, finding that article she read about that obscure African virus so she can save someone’s life. There were people counting on her to save their loved ones. And, honestly, saving the sick is what she does best. As for Sasha’s Avatar? For now, she’s still unaware it even exists. But her Avatar is hopeful—practically manic at the chance that someone will finally put two and two together. After all, someone’s going to notice all these terminal cases having miraculous recoveries sooner or later…