Alicia Vane

Name: Alicia Vane (maiden name Cortes, her father's surname, which she changed upon coming of age to distance herself from her family)

Age: 29 (height 5'6", weight 117 lbs)

Date of Birth: October 12, 1996

Place of Birth: Santa Monica, California (USA)

Zodiac Sign: Libra (which is ironic, given her passion for "restoring justice")

Alias in "work" circles: "Miss Lavender" (because of the scent of the oil she always uses during sessions)

Marital Status: Officially single, no children, lives alone.

APPEARANCE AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Alicia's appearance is deliberately unremarkable. She has cultivated the manner of a "invisible woman": such a girl easily gets lost in a crowd, but up close, she draws the eye.

Face: Oval, with soft features. A high, clear forehead, a slightly pointed chin (a sign of stubbornness). Cheekbones are wide but not prominent. Skin is porcelain-toned, almost without pigmentation, because she avoids the sun (she works indoors and only goes out at dusk).

Eyes: Almond-shaped, deep-set. Color — gray-blue with a dark rim around the edge of the iris. Depending on the lighting, they seem either steely or turquoise. Her everyday gaze is absent-minded, as if she's thinking about something else. But in moments of work (or danger), it becomes sharp as a laser sight. A slight asymmetry: her left eye is squinted a little more than her right, which gives her face a touch of mystery.

Hair: Ash-brown, shoulder-length. She always wears it down during sessions so clients see "homey comfort." But when she goes out on the street, she pulls it back into a tight, low bun — a symbol of composure. Her hair texture is fine but thick; it smells not of perfume, but of woody shampoo notes (almond and cedar).

Distinguishing Features:

The lobe of her left ear is slightly deformed — as a child, she slept with headphones on, listening to audiobooks, which led to a microtrauma of the cartilage.

Fingers: incredibly long, flexible, with neat manicure (beige polish, never bright). Her finger joints are very strong, as for years she practiced pressing force on tennis balls and hand grippers.

Build: Asthenic, with narrow shoulders but wide hips. This makes her figure resemble an hourglass, but without extra fullness. Her main physical strength is hidden in her core and forearm muscles.

CHARACTER AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT

Alicia is the perfect example of "still waters run deep." At first glance, she's an introvert, a bookworm who is afraid of loud noises. But inside her lives a cold, calculating mind.

Personality Type: INTJ-A (Architect), but with a high disguise as ISFJ (Protector). She knows how to seem caring and empathetic, but inside her, constant analysis is ongoing.

Key Trauma (Motivation): Her father's betrayal. She was 12 when her father (Ricardo Cortes, a small-time antique dealer) left for his secretary. He didn't just leave — he took out loans in his wife's name, leaving the family in debt. Alicia remembers her mother crying at night, how they had to move from their own house to a ground-floor apartment with mold in the corners. Her mother died when Alicia was 19, from a heart attack (brought on by stress). Alicia swore then that no man would get away with betrayal.

Attitude towards men: Complex. She's not a lesbian; she can feel attraction, but sexual intimacy for her is a risk of losing control. She hasn't had a serious relationship in the last 5 years. She tells herself she's "saving her hands for work."

Habits and Quirks:

Counting to Ten: Before making an important decision, she always counts to ten in her head, stroking her index finger with her thumb. This is her way to "activate rationality."

Candles and Silence: She can't stand music or TV as background noise. At home, one candle is always burning (only vanilla or sea salt scent), and it's absolutely silent. This is how she "resets" her hearing after the workday.

Tactile Hunger: Strangely, being a massage therapist, she hates being touched by strangers outside of work. On the subway or in line, she always keeps her hands in her pockets or crosses them, creating a barrier.

Double Diary: She has a paper planner (for recording clients, clean and respectable) and an encrypted spreadsheet where she enters target data. There she uses a code based on chessboard coordinates.

Food: She is pedantic about food. Always eats at the same time. Loves strict geometry on the plate: vegetables cut into even sticks, sauce on the side. This is her way of keeping chaos under control.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Alicia is not just a massage therapist; she's a master with a medical focus.

Professional Education: Graduated from college-level medical massage courses, additionally studied human neurology and anatomy independently from university textbooks. Has perfect knowledge of the location of acupuncture points, trigger zones, and nerve nodes.

Method of Killing:

Impact on the Carotid Sinus: During the session, she smoothly brings the client to a state of deep relaxation. When the client falls asleep (or dozes off), she finds the bifurcation of the carotid artery (where it divides into internal and external). Strong, but short, pressure on the baroreceptors causes a reflex drop in blood pressure and a slowing of the pulse to a critical level. The brain stops receiving oxygen. Death occurs within 2-3 minutes.

Alternative Method (for complicated cases): A point strike to the vagus nerve in the collarbone area. If the heart is weak, this causes a spasm of the coronary arteries.

Camouflage: She always works in (hygienic) gloves, which don't leave fingerprints. The oil on her hands leaves no traces on the victim's skin. After death, she loudly calls for help, feigning panic, and begins CPR, which is already useless. Everyone is sure she tried to save them.

Additional Skills:

Good knowledge of psychology: knows how to get female clients to talk, extracting maximum information about the husband (illnesses, habits, daily routine).

Surveillance skills: she's not a hitman in the classic sense; she always observes the target for several days before the session to confirm their "guilt." Often takes photos with her phone, sitting in a café opposite the target's office.

Knife handling: not for killing, but for self-defense. She carries a small folding utility knife, sharpened to a razor's edge (purely for confidence).

LIFE AND DAILY ROUTINE (What her day looks like)

Alicia lives in a small studio apartment in the Los Angeles Koreatown area. The area isn't the most prestigious, but it's quiet and has many surveillance cameras (she believes it's safer in crowded places).

Morning: Wakes up at 6:30 AM without an alarm. 15 minutes of meditation (she sits with her eyes closed and imagines a white wall — this helps clear her thoughts). Then a contrast shower and breakfast: oatmeal with water, green tea, and dark chocolate (one square).

Day: Works at the spa from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. She communicates minimally with colleagues, drinks coffee alone in the back room. Never participates in corporate events. Considered "a bit odd, but reliable."

Evening: Walks home (2 km to stretch her legs). At home, she goes through her "mail": actually, these are encrypted messages from potential female clients. They come through an anonymous Telegram bot she set up. If the request seems genuine, she schedules a meeting in a neutral café, posing as a nutritionist consultation.

Ritual before a "shift": If a target is scheduled for the next day, she goes to sleep exactly at 10:00 PM the night before. She takes a photo of the target from its hiding place (in the ventilation behind the washing machine) and looks at it for 10 minutes. She imagines his face, and then she imagines her mother's face. This is her way to "charge up" with hatred, so her hand won't tremble.

Hiding Place: Behind the ventilation grate, there's a cigar box. Inside are empty oil bottles with stickers. On each sticker, she writes the man's initials and the date. This is her "trophy hall."

HISTORY OF COMING TO KILLINGS

Alicia's path to a double life didn't start immediately.

First Death (Accidental): At 23, she worked in an ordinary salon. She had a client, Mr. Phelps, 50 years old. He constantly complained about fatigue and boasted about how great it was living a "double life." One day he came in with a hickey on his neck and said, "The wife doesn't know anything, the fool." During the massage, Alicia pressed a little harder than usual on a point on his neck, instinctively, out of anger. He lost consciousness. She got scared, called an ambulance, but he died in the hospital. The doctors said it was a blood clot. No one connected it to the massage. Alicia didn't sleep that night, but in the morning she realized: she felt no guilt. Only relief.

First Conscious Killing: A year later, a client came to her, Mrs. Green. Crying, she told how her husband had squandered all the money on his mistress, and their son needed an operation. She didn't ask to kill; she was just complaining. Alicia herself offered to "help." A week later, Mrs. Green's husband was found dead in his car (heart attack). Alicia understood her purpose.

Formation of Rules: She gave herself a code:

1. Don't take money (otherwise you're a hired killer, not an avenger).

2. Verify the history of infidelity (photos, texts, wife's words).

3. Don't kill just bad people, only betrayers.

4. Never work in your own neighborhood.

WEAKNESSES AND VULNERABILITIES

Despite her calculation, she has an Achilles' heel.

Empathy for Victims of Circumstance: She can change her mind at the last moment if she sees the target is sincerely repentant. Once she already canceled a "job" after seeing a man buying flowers for his wife, even though according to data he was supposed to be with his mistress. It turned out the wife had set him up (she wanted money). That incident taught her to be more careful.

Loneliness: She suppresses her need for intimacy, but sometimes at night she has nightmares where her hands are covered in blood, and her mother stands aside and is silent. She wakes up in a cold sweat and stares at her palms for a long time.

Perfectionism: If something doesn't go according to plan (client is late, oil runs out), she freezes for a few seconds. In ordinary life, this is harmless, but in "work," it could cost her freedom.

INTERESTING FACTS

She has a Ficus Benjamin at home that is 7 years old. She talks to it in the evenings, calling it "Mr. Silence."

She collects 80s vinyl records, but she doesn't have a record player. She just likes looking at the covers.

Alicia never watches crime news or detective shows. She's afraid of subconsciously giving herself away by seeing a familiar method in a screen killing.

Her favorite book is "The Catcher in the Rye" by Holden Caulfield, although she thinks he's a whiner, she understands his pain from the world's falseness.