Characters / Extraordinary Adventures Of The Athena Club

The Athena Club/Residents of 11 Park Terrace

Mary Jekyll

• Amateur Sleuth: Mary becomes one, using her analytical mind and what she picks up as Sherlock's assistant to aid the Athena Club.
• Benevolent Boss: At the beginning of SCAD, Mary has to let all of her servant staff go due to having nothing to pay them with after her mother's death, but she makes sure to give them a fortnight's pay and a letter of recommendation for whatever field of work they'd be going into next.
• Beware the Nice Ones: According to the commentary, Mary has a reputation for shooting others in situations of self-defense.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Despite being raised apart for most of their lives, Mary and Diana quickly fall into this.
• The Gunslinger: Mary always carries her revolver into combat and is the best shot out of the Athena Club.
• The Leader: Mary is the most logical and organized of the group and the one who brought them all together.
• Proper Lady: Mary acts every part the English gentlewoman.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Mary was raised as a Proper Lady but will pull out her revolver and shoot someone when the moment calls for it.
• The Strategist: Mary is the one the members of the Athena Club always rely on for a plan.
• The Team Normal: Unlike the flashier abilities of the rest of the Athena Club, the circumstances of Mary's birth have only resulted in a keen analytical mind and a gift for strategy.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: As part of her Sibling Yin-Yang with Diana, Mary is the Girly Girl to her sister's Tomboy.

Diana Hyde

• Animal Motifs: Diana is frequently described as a monkey and is called "Monkey Girl" several times.
• Big Eater: Diana frequently complains about being hungry, and Mrs. Poole calls her stomach a "bottomless pit."
• Blade Enthusiast: Diana never goes anywhere without her little knife and will pull it out at the slightest provocation. Shown even more with the reverence with which she treats the large, ceremonial, Egyptian knife she finds in the last book.
• Boyish Short Hair: Diana cuts her hair as part of a disguise in the first book and keeps it that length for the rest of the series.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Mary and Mrs. Poole frequently, although mostly lovingly, regard Diana as this and the staff of the Magdalen society and Inspector Lestrade certainly view Diana as this.
• Catchphrase: Diana always refers to opening locks as "easy-peasy".
• Fiery Redhead: Diana has red hair and is prone to emotional outbursts.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Despite being raised apart for most of their lives, Mary and Diana quickly fall into this.
• Hates Wearing Dresses: Diana despises wearing feminine clothes.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Through much of the second half of ETMG, Diana spends her downtime with Carmilla and Vlad's dogs.
• Hidden Weapons: No one is quite sure where Diana keeps her little knife, though Catherine suspects she keeps it in her belt.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though she'd never admitted it, Diana does have affection for Mary and the other members of the Athena Club.
• The Lancer: Diana is Mary's sister and Foil.
• Man Bites Man: After her knife, Diana's favorite combat tactic is to bite people.
• Master of Unlocking: Diana is called upon multiple times to get past locked doors. She never fails once at unlocking something.
• Miss Swears-a-Lot: Diana, who a few times in the commentary swears so profusely that Catherine doesn't repeat it. Diana's swearing is often, but not always hidden by the Narrative Profanity Filter.
• One of the Boys: When she's not with the Athena Club, Diana spends most of her time with the Baker Street Irregulars, to the point that she's basically their one female member.
• Pride: While Diana has several accomplishments to be genuinely proud of, she is a braggart and her constant need for validation is her most obvious character flaw.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Diana takes to cutting her hair short and dressing in boy's clothes, which leads to her getting mistaken for a boy by a police officer.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: As part of her Sibling Yin-Yang with Mary, Diana is the Tomboy to her sister's Girly Girl.

Beatrice Rappaccini

• Blessed with Suck: Despite their advantages, Beatrice's nature means that she can't physically touch people or even be close to them for long periods of time, leaving her feeling isolated.
• Girly Girl: Beatrice is the most traditionally feminine and empathetic member of the Athena Club.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: The Athena Club is exclusively made up of examples of this trope, though Beatrice is certainly the most obvious example.
• The Medic: Beatrice studied under her father, a renowned physician, and thus, is the most medically knowledgeable of the Athena Club.
• Plant Person: In addition to being a Poisonous Person, Beatrice displays various plant traits, notably subsisting on a form of photosynthesis.
• Poisonous Person: Beatrice's touch can cause chemical burns and her breath is toxic enough to kill small animals. Her poison is potent enough to kill a person if they're in a confined space with her for too long.
• Soapbox Sadie: Despite being one of the most soft-spoken members of the team, Beatrice is also the most outspoken one about feminist issues, especially regarding dresses. According to the commentary, she went protesting for the right to vote with Mrs. Poole at least once.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In "Rappaccini's Daughter" Beatrice takes the antidote Giovanni gives her and dies. Here, she refuses to take it, and it's Giovanni who dies.
• These Hands Have Killed: The performances she is forced to stage involve her killing flowers, insects, and small animals, and she hates doing it every time. She is deeply remorseful when she inadvertently kills her captor's guard dog during her escape, as he was only doing what his master wanted.
• Unscientific Science: At one point Beatrice describes Catherine as "no more bunk than I am" even though the way Beatrice was imbued with poison is not how anything works. Science Marches On as Nathaniel Hawthorne could not have known how it really worked at the time.

Catherine Moreau

• Animal Eyes: The main give away that Catherine is not human is her yellow, cat-like eyes.
• Cat Girl: Catherine, as Doctor Moreau's greatest creation, looks exactly like a normal person except for her cat-like eyes and her pointed teeth. She augmented her appearance with false ear and fur as a circus performers.
• Covered with Scars: As a result of Moreau's experiments.
• Failed a Spot Check: Despite her animal senses she still misses Doctor Steward coming down the hallway until it's too late.
• Fictional Document: Catherine has two series of novels, her Astarte books, and the ones about the Athena Club.
• Innate Night Vision: Catherine has this, due to being a Cat Girl.
• Magnum Opus: Dr. Moreau saw Catherine as his, which is why he allowed her to use his last name.
• My Instincts Are Showing: She still hunts mice on occasion.
• Shameless Self-Promoter: During her narration, she plugs the Athena Club books, as well as her Astarte series, every chance she gets. Mary calls her on this at the end of SMMG.
• The Smart Guy: Catherine possesses a combination of book smarts and animal cunning.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In The Island of Doctor Moreau, the unnamed puma woman who kills Dr. Moreau is killed by him in turn, but here, Catherine emerges from the confrontation unharmed.
• Uplifted Animal: Catherine, who started life as a puma, now passes easily for an educated young woman.
• Woman Scorned: Catherine despises Prendick, her former lover, who left her on Moreau's island to die.

Justine Frankenstein

• Ascended Extra: Arguably; Justine is explicitly said to have been created from the body of Justine, the Frankensteins' maid who was framed and executed for the death of Victor's young brother William, but she only retains basic impressions of Justine's life rather than full memories.
• The Big Guy: Justine is the largest and strongest member of the group.
• Frankenstein's Monster: Justine is a creation of Dr. Frankenstein, meant to be the mate of the original.
• Gentle Giant: Justine abhors violence and is haunted by the lives she has had to take in self-defense.
• Logical Weakness: Having been given an unnatural height due to the reconstruction process, Justine's heart is not always capable of providing enough blood pressure and she is prone to syncope.
• Really 700 Years Old: Justine has been alive for over a century, but still appears as a relatively young woman.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In Frankenstein, Viktor never completes the monster's bride and destroyed what he had made. Here he did finish creating Justine, though Shelly's book claims that he had destroyed her. At the end of SCAD, Catherine posits that Mary Shelly didn't write about Justine's creation as a way to protect her.

Lucinda Van Helsing

• Elegant Classical Musician: Lucinda seems to get more joy from playing the piano than anything else. She's teaching lessons in the epilogue chapter of SMMG.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Lucinda becomes one during ETMG.
• The Sixth Ranger: Lucinda ends up joining the Athena Club by the end of ETMG. She finally participates in the commentary during SMMG.

Mrs. Poole

• Exceptionally Tolerant: Mrs. Poole takes in all the members of the Athena Club despite all their quirks, and never is upset by having to deal with them.
• Old Retainer: Mary is forced to let all of the family servants go (with excellent references) after her finances collapse following her mother's death, but Mrs. Poole steadfastly refuses to leave and teaches herself how to do all the other jobs in the house, such as cookery.
• Proper Lady: Mrs. Poole is the one who most frequently talks about being a proper lady, and she taught Mary well how to do that.
• Stay in the Kitchen: While she admits it's not her place to say what Mary, and by extension the rest of the girls, should or shouldn't do, Mrs. Poole would definitely prefer it if they had more normal lives.
• Team Mom: Mrs. Poole, Mary's housekeeper, serves as a motherly stand-in for all the girls.
• Undying Loyalty: To Mary, and eventually to the rest of the Athena Club. At the beginning of SCAD, she stays with Mary even though Mary has nothing to pay her with and she could certainly find good paying work as a housekeeper somewhere else.

Alice

• Adaptational Name Change: In Theodora Goss's original novella "The Mad Scientist's Daughter.", Alice's name is Leda, which evolved into Lydia for SMMG.
• 11th-Hour Ranger: Though Alice is present since the first book, she only really joins with the rest of the Athena Club for the final battle and becomes a member in the trilogy's second to the last scene.
• I Know Your True Name: Alice is actually Lydia Raymond and is the daughter of Mrs. Raymond.
• No Poker Face: When Mary asks Alice about her family back in the country, Alice gives no response, but the narration notes that she was fidgeting with her hair, an obvious tell that Mary doesn't notice at the time. We don't learn Alice's situation until the end of the first book. and that gets all overturned in the third book.

Archibald

• Animal Species Accent: Archibald speaks extremely simply.
• Beast Man: The only one of the second batch who survives.
• Put on a Bus: He accepts an offer from Ayesha to help him return to the wild and find an orangutan tribe that will take him in.

Allies

Sherlock Holmes

• Demoted to Extra: Zig-Zagged. Holmes appears in most scenes in SCAD, but is only in the beginning of ETMG and is officially missing for most of that book while new supporting characters take the spotlight. Holmes is important once again in SMMG.
• Distressed Dude: Sherlock is locked up and/or drugged for the overwhelming majority of SMMG, and is later accidentally shot by Mary.
• Sherlock Scan: Sherlock naturally performs this a few times in the story, notably using it on a riverboat captain to prove he is, in fact, Sherlock Holmes.
• The Team Benefactor: Sherlock often arranges financial matters for the Athena club, particularly in their journey through Europe. Sherlock is also Mary's employer, so some of their income comes through him.

Dr. Watson

• Demoted to Extra: Zig-Zagged. Watson and Holmes are both very prominent characters in SCAD, but as ETMG follows the main five to Europe, Watson and Holmes are left to the side while new supporting characters take the spotlight. Watson is back in SMMG.
• Old-School Chivalry: Dr. Watson frequently insists on Mary and the other girls not putting themselves into dangerous situations, even though Mary and the rest are capable of protecting themselves.

Irene Norton

• Demoted to Extra: Irene is an extremely important character in ETMG, but she spends much of SMMG off fighting vampires with Mina and Carmilla. Irene never appears in person in SMMG.
• Shipper on Deck: To Mary and Sherlock.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Irene is American, but her life of singing opera and learning French, Italian, and German and living in Vienna has made her accent virtually impossible to place.

Mina Murray

• Demoted to Extra: Mina is an extremely important character in ETMG, but she spends much of SMMG off fighting vampires with Irene and Carmilla.
• Mysterious Protector: Of Justine. Because of the work of the Subcommittee, Mina and her colleagues were able to keep intruders away from Justine for nearly a century.
• Private Tutor: Mina was this as Mary's governess, though it was half this and half spying on Dr. Jekyll for the subcommittee. Mina's friendship with Mary was still genuine.

Carmilla Karnstein

• Demoted to Extra: Carmilla is a very important character in ETMG, but she spends much of SMMG off fighting vampires with Irene and Mina.
• Drives Like Crazy. Her current passion is her brand new, modern, automobile, custom made for her by Bertha Benz herself. With it, she drives the club from Styria to Budapest (a 4.5-hour drive with modern roads and vehicles) in under a day. Mary, at least, did not enjoy the trip.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: While she has done terrible things in her past, Carmilla is a friendly and helpful character.
• Lesbian Vampire: Carmilla, The Trope Maker, appears now in a dedicated relationship with Laura Jennings.
• Really 700 Years Old: Carmilla, having the long lifespan of a vampire, is 200 years old.

Count Dracula

• Adaptational Heroism: Mirroring the depiction of the original novel's heroes, Dracula appears in a heroic role, though he does have a sordid past.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Dracula is described the same way he usually is, but he is helpful to the Athena Club.
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: While he has done terrible things in his past, Vlad is a friendly and helpful character.
• Really 700 Years Old: Vlad, having the long lifespan of a vampire, is 400 years old and calls Carmilla a child.
• Romantic Vampire Boy: Dracula is in a romantic relationship with Mina.

Laura Jennings

• Adaptational Name Change: She's called Laura Hollis in Carmilla, but she's called Laura Jennings here.
• Badass Normal: Laura has no special abilities of her own, yet she participates in both the battles in Budapest and Kyllion Keep.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: "Diana, do you want to see how we hunt vampires in Styria?"

Clarence Jefferson

• Amazon Chaser: Clarence is in love with Beatrice, and he becomes fascinated with Ayesha as well.
• Fake Nationality: In-Universe. Clarence plays the Zulu Prince in Lorenzo's Circus, but he is actually a former lawyer from Boston.
• Let's Just Be Friends: When Beatrice uses this line on him, for his own good, he "accepts her friendship" but does not give up.
• Love Hurts: He's willing to take the risk of having a relationship with Beatrice.

Joe Abernathy

• Basement-Dweller: Joe still lives with his mother.
• Friend on the Force: Joe is this for the Athena Club at the Purfleet Asylum.

Charlie Sutton

The Société des Alchimistes

The Society as a Whole

Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde

• Body Horror: The result of his experiments.
• Disappeared Dad: To Mary and Diana. Mary thinks Jekyll had committed suicide, but Diana knows that Hyde had run off after she was born and Danvers Carew was killed.
• Karma Houdini: Hyde completely escapes consequences for the murder of Danvers Carew and the kidnapping of Mary, Diana, Justine, and Lucinda by moving into Castle Frankenstein by himself.
• Never Suicide: It's believed that Jekyll committed suicide, but it turns out to have been faked and he ran away as Hyde.
• Professor Guinea Pig: Experiments on himself, much to the dismay of his fellow scientists.
• Put on a Bus: Hyde plays no part in SMMG, despite being the focus of the mystery in SCAD and being a major side antagonist in ETMG. Having moved into Castle Frankenstein, he's still probably doing experiments.
• You're Not My Father: Mary refuses to call Hyde her father for most of the series.

Abraham Van Helsing

• Adaptational Villainy: Van Helsing is a completely despicable man who experiments on Dracula, and later both his wife and daughter without any regard for their safety or sanity.
• Big Bad: For ETMG. He is the leader of the faction trying to overthrow Ayesha and continue the violent experimentation on girls.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: In the style that many scientists held degrees in law and medicine at the time, and also associated with many universities on the continent.

Dr. John Seward

• Adaptational Villainy: Seward is a member of the Alchemical Society and part of Van Helsing's faction who wants to overthrow Ayesha.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Seward steals Archibald from Lord Avebury's menagerie and confines him in a coal cellar.
• The Dragon: To Professor Van Helsing.
• Take Over the World: Seward believes that with his and Van Helsing's army of vampires, they can rule the world.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Seward moves from his plan to take over the Alchemical Society to being a part of the Order of the Golden Dawn within a month. Subverted in that he gets killed by Queen Tera.

Ayesha

• Adaptation Origin Connection: To Queen Tera. Ayesha and Queen Tera are from different books entirely, but the first chapter of SMMG shows a young Ayesha at the court of Queen Tera.
• Really 700 Years Old: Ayesha claims to have been a priestess of Isis in Ancient Egypt, making her thousands of years old. Vlad admits he believes her. Her stories are seemingly proven true in SMMG.

Dr. Giacomo Rappaccini

Dr. Moreau

• Evilutionary Biologist: Just like the source material.
• A God Am I: This is how Moreau maintained control over the animals on his island.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Catherine kills Moreau for all the pain he caused her.

The Order of the Golden Dawn

Helen Raymond

• Adaptational Villainy: In Theodora Goss's original novella, Helen was a member of the Athena Club.
• First-Name Basis: Helen Raymond goes from being referred to in the text as "Mrs. Raymond" to "Helen" as she becomes more sympathetic, though this varies depending on whose perspective the story is being told from.
• I Have Many Names: True to her source material, Helen Raymond went by the last names of Vaughn, Beaumont, and Herbert over her lifetime.
• Tragic Villain: Though we don't learn how tragic she is until SMMG.

Margaret Trelawny

• Adaptational Villainy: Margaret in this version is a resentful and ambitious woman who will do whatever it takes to gain power.
• Beware the Nice Ones: An outright villainous version. Margaret Trelawny starts out genuinely nice to Alice, but she is extremely ruthless, eventually trying to shoot Alice in the final battle. Helen takes the bullet for her.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Margaret's ruthlessnness is much more her defining characteristic than her initial kindness toward Alice.

Professor Moriarty

• Back from the Dead: In-Universe. Sherlock and Moriarty's battle at Reichenbach Falls from The Adventure of the Final Problem has already happened and everyone thought Moriarty was dead for a long time until he resurfaced during SMMG.
• Diabolical Mastermind: This is certainly how Moriarty is presented in the stinger of ETMG and the first half of SMMG, and he certainly thinks of himself this way. Surprisingly subverted with Moriarty halfway through the novel when he gets completely blindsided by Helen Raymond and Margaret Trelawny and murdered by Queen Tera.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Even for the setting, Moriarty's disdain for immigrants in London is noticeable.
• Smug Snake: Mary thinks this of Moriarty.

Quincy Morris

• Adaptational Villainy: Quincy Morris is a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn, an ally of Moriarty and participated in the experiments of Professor Van Helsing.
• Americans Are Cowboys: Alice wonders if the way Quincy acts is true of all Americans or only those from the Wild West.
• Gentleman Adventurer: Deconstructed. Quincy Morris is always out for adventure, but he doesn't care what the consequences of his adventures are. He views trying to take over England with the Order of the Golden Dawn as an exciting adventure without any regard to the harm it would cause.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Quincy is around after any initial battle he and his friends may have had with Dracula. Subverted in that Queen Tera kills him along with the other seven men of the Order of the Golden Dawn.

Jonathan Harker

• Adaptational Villainy: Harker is a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn and participated in the experiments of Professor Van Helsing. Of the adaptational villains, he is the least evil, however.
• The Drag-Along: It's clear that Lord Godalming has dragged Harker into the Order of the Golden Dawn. It turns out that seven men are needed for the sacrifice to resurrect Queen Tera, and Harker is the last one.
• Naïve Newcomer: To the Order of the Golden Dawn.

Arthur Holmwood, Lord Godalming

• Adaptational Villainy: Lord Godalming is part of the Order of the Golden Dawn and an ally of Moriarty. He was also aware of the experiments of Professor Van Helsing.
• Flat Character: Of the members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, Lord Godalming is given the least characterization by far.

Colonel Moran

• Dumb Muscle: For Moriarty's organization and the Order of the Golden Dawn.

Dr. Raymond

Other Adversaries

Adam Frankenstein

• Big Bad: For SCAD.
• Frankenstein's Monster: Adam, is the Big Bad of SCAD.
• Not Quite Dead: After the fire in SCAD, Adam has been slowly dying in Castle Karnstein, but is not dead yet when Mary, Diana, Justine, and Lucinda are brought there. He does later die off-page in a letter sent by Hyde.
• Really 700 Years Old: Adam has been around for nearly a century.
• Stalker with a Crush: Adam is obsessed with having Justine.

Queen Tera

• Adaptation Origin Connection: To Ayesha. Ayesha and Queen Tera are from different books entirely, but the first chapter of SMMG shows a young Ayesha at the court of Queen Tera.
• Big Bad: For SMMG.
• Knight of Cerebus: Queen Tera is certainly the most terrifying villain the Athena Club ever faces, and she is introduced by horribly killing seven men at once.

Neutral

Edward Prendick

• The Atoner: Prendick clearly regrets his past actions and gives Catherine details of the place where the meeting will be.
• Dirty Coward: Prendick left Catherine to die on Moreau's island and has been bullied by Adam Frankenstein into creating beast men for him, and being an accomplice in both the Whitechapel murders and the removal of Justine's brain.
• Maker of Monsters: Prendick makes beast-men as Moreau did, though he is not nearly as elegant as Moreau at it.
• Prematurely Grey-Haired: Due to the stress of working on Moreau's island, Moreau has "a shock of grey hair" that Holmes states does not come from age.

Renfield

Inspector Lestrade

• Fiery Redhead: Is an ill-tempered grouch for much of the series, and regularly insults Diana.
• Inspector Lestrade: Naturally, it comes with the territory.
• Stay in the Kitchen: By far the most prominent practicer of this trope in the Athena Club series. Lestrade more than anyone else insists that the girls should stay home and focus on embroidery than work on investigations.