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Father Aleksandr Przybyszewski Father Alex was not one much for formalities. Usually. Today he was wearing his best cassock, one of two"formal" cassocks that traveled with him. He'd been staying at the Church of Saint Peter, a dinky little church, full mostly of older parishioners, and had arranged for the driver to pick him up a few blocks away from the church. A paranoid habit perhaps, but he wasn't comfortable with anyone knowing where he was staying. Much less anyone who had summoned him under such... interesting circumstances. As he waited, he uttered a silent prayer that this might give him some of the answers he'd been seeking all these years. In some ways it felt like all the winding ways he'd followed had turned back on each other, landing him right where he started. The black car pulled up, and the priest embarked, a couple attempts at polite conversation later, he rode in contemplative silence, centering himself, meditating and very carefully avoiding fidgeting with the silver cross hidden in his cassock. Father Alex was not good at waiting. He was, in many ways, a man of action, even when that action was research, or conversation, or giving mass, just sitting in a car in silence put him on edge. He wished he'd brought a book, other than the rather well read pocket bible. So it was that when the car came to a halt, and he was ushered out, he breathed an almost audible sigh of relief. He was not the first one here. He scanned the faces of the other men, and then, with an amicable smile, ambled over. "Quite a place for a meeting, eh?" he asked, cheerfully, his accent thick but still understandable. [hr] Father Aleksandr Przybyszewski  Drive: Sudden Shock quote:Investigative Skills Pilars of Sanity [*]Faith In God [*]Human dignity and value Sources of stability: His superior, Bishop Ezikiel Mendoza. Backstory: Father Przybyszwski (or Father Alex, as he insists most people call him), was born in the abnormally warm winter of 1899, in Austria-Hungary, specifically the region that would later form part of the Kingdom of Poland. His parents are what could be refereed to as dirt farmers, poor, unlanded, barely making it by. Aleksander hated his life, the youngest among his seven brothers, and knew from an early age that he'd rather die than remain a farmer. When he turned 14, he ran away from home, and made his way to Kraków, just in time to get caught up by the war. Not being allowed to enlist, he worked odd jobs, until in 1915 when he was finally old enough to enlist in the Polish Legion. There, he discovered two things. God, and the Devil. God he discovered in a trench, shortly after being kicked by a horse. Bleeding and agonizing with what he'd later learn were three broken ribs, he prayed for death. It was then he had some kind of spiritual revelation, one that filled him with a newfound purpose and certainty in life. It was this drive that would lead him to join the seminary after the war ended. The Devil he met deep below the earth. Driven into a set of natural caves by constant heavy shelling, Alex and a half dozen survivors got irredemably lost... and met something deep beyond their ken. Etched ancient glyphs, carved of stone, in shapes impossible to describe. A voice that uttered half forgotten words... it drove them mad, one by one. All but Alex. He watched them go, one by one, gibbering, screaming, howling, into the dark. To lie prostrate before the stones, and offer their flesh. Of the twelve men who entered, only Alex returned, and when the war ended, and he looked for the caves again, so he could ensure they were destroyed, the passages were gone, as if they had never existed. But Alex didn't forget those men. Their names, their deaths, more horrid than anything he could have imagined. The fact that there is evil in the world. The desire, the need to serve God, to fight this Evil, is what drove him to study like he'd never studied before. In many ways Alex was a prodigy. When he joined seminary, he could barely read, when he finished, five years later, he had mastered not just German, but also Latin, Greek and Aramic. He was quickly induced into the Benedictine order of the Holy Path, an order dedicated to research, and scholarship. Alex retained his obsession with the strange symbols he saw that day, traveling far and wide to search out their mysterious origin, so that he may battle the Devil in the service of God.
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Aug 31, 2017 01:23
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Father Aleksandr Przybyszewski The priest took a deep breath to steady himself. None of this had been exactly unexpected, but he couldn't avoid the feeling that he was standing on the edge of some yawning chasm ready to devour him. Still, his mind raced at the possibilities before him. The chance for answers, finally... "Could we... ah, examine this correspondence?" they were going to have to start somewhere, and those letters were about all they had, short a name. Internalizing the comment from one of the other men "Do you expect violence?" The question is asked in a calm, even voice, as one might inquire about the weather, but on its reply ride answers to what this gathering is truly about.
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Sep 1, 2017 12:40
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Father Alex "Georgia, eh" the priest seems almost to be speaking to himself, "We can get this done on the plane, yes yes?" he asks cheerfuly, trying to shepherd his new compatriots towards the plane. No point sitting around when there's an address to check out.
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Sep 3, 2017 03:01
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