Alex: So what exactly is a vampire?

Lucy: I’m not sure what you are asking.

Alex: Can you explain in plain words what it means to be a vampire? What exactly makes you different from the rest of us?

Lucy: Since your post last week where you mentioned ‘living vampires’ I have been doing a lot of thinking about that actually. I had no idea that there were humans like that, and you know what, they don’t seem to be wrong. I was reading how some of them believe that people have a life force, an energy, and the most concentrated form of that energy is found in the blood. That sounds about right. That these living vampires take that energy from others in various ways including the drinking of blood. Which is pretty interesting.

We are not far from that really, except we need the blood to exist, and the blood or energy forces our bodies and minds to be able to do extra ordinary things.

Alex: That is interesting, I just thought of those people as losers. Wonder if there is a historical or actual connection to the two groups.

Lucy: Wouldn’t that be a riot.

Alex: What have you been doing with yourself since becoming a vampire? It’s been nearly twenty years?

Lucy: I’ve been doing what anyone would do. Trying to survive. This town is hard. Our culture here is spread out and diverse. Unlike bigger cities, there are very few covens.. There isn’t an official word for it as far as I know, I just like coven. Maybe it is my love of teenage witch movies! Whatever the word would be it would be groups of us with the same way of doing things. In the bigger cities I hear they have more structure, more law. Here it is still kinda the wild west. It can be hard.

Alex: What do you mean by hard?

Lucy: I’ve been lucky since Isabelle is one of the older ones in the city, and she took me under her wing. (she thinks for a moment) There was this one guy once. He came from outside the city and I saw him down in Westport trying to pick up some really skanky looking girl. This was before the power and light district, before the hipster whiskey bars mind you. The next night Isabelle showed me what remained of him. Nothing but a small box of ash. She said that you “have to be mindful of those who watch, and who they server”. She didn’t burn the guy I guess, just another group that didn’t like poachers.

Alex: You are saying that in this city you can be a lone vamp but you have to tread carefully because there really isn’t any agreement between the groups that do control territory, no laws?

Lucy: Yeppa, totally it.

Alex: Besides gang turf what makes these ‘covens’ come together?

Lucy: Ideology I think. Historical ideas about how we came to be, or theories on our place in the world. For example, Isabelle believes that we are a dominate… I hate to say race, but sure we can say race. She believes we are a dominant race and that your people are more like cattle. Your minds are weak, your bodies are weak, and your blood is power. Although she is kind of an animal rights activist in ways, she has taught me to never play with my food. Although she would not say it like that. Humans to her are dignified, even if they are lesser creatures. On the flip side, those that burned the poor vamp I was talking about. They believe that we must live in secret, and only use our abilities around each other, never on humans unless we have to in order to cover our existence. They kinda creep me out to be honest. They are always spying on each other making sure their belief systems are not broken.

Alex: Are those the two biggest ideologies?

Lucy: Oh no, there are as many different theories as there are vampires I imagine. For example I’m technically and socially in Isabelle’s camp but I really don’t give a shit about theory, ideas, or philosophy. I’m a kinda do what you want type of person. I just don’t like stepping on toes. I only side against someone if they are complete assholes. Like every so often we get a group that just likes havoc. Then I’m all torches and claws on those bitches.

Alex: In larger cities then, these groups are codified? Controlled?

Lucy: That is what I hear, but I wouldn’t know.

Alex: So this blog is really going to make one of these groups mad then?

Lucy: I think so, but I could be wrong.

Alex: That reminds me, why the hell do vampires love popular vampire culture, like movies and books? I’m about ready to punch the next one that quotes something stupid at me.

Lucy: I’m not sure. I think we all like watching and reading that stuff. I mean one of my biggest influences as a teenager was watching Interview with a Vampire! When I was made I constantly thought about that movie and how when Louis is transformed the world opens up to his senses just like it did to mine. It helped me identify with what was happening to me. We are interested in the popular concepts of what we are but I also think in a way it defines us. As we become more of what we are it is proven time and time again that we become more like the media than we care to admit. Isabelle has lots of theories on that. That is why she doesn’t watch or listen to any of that ‘mind trash’ as she calls it.

Alex: Did you have any other references that helped you with the transition?

Lucy: I played a bit of vampire the masquerade in college. LARP style. I would think about the clans in that and wonder which one I would most be like. I still can’t decide actually, Brujah maybe, Toreador maybe, although my art would be doing my nails and picking out vintage band t shirts! Total poser.

Alex: Someone on twitter asked if you ever played that. I guess vampires are defined by that game in way.

Lucy: Not really. I mean the guy who wrote it was pretty on to something, and whoever did the later editions had an attitude that was pretty rockin. It makes it hard for me to talk about what we are cause I’m so tempted to use the terms they coined. Domain is pretty spot on for example. I just wish we had clans, that would be cool. I guess we kinda have bloodlines. The person that made you or teaches you can really influence how you bloom in a way, but they are not as big of an influence as your own mind.

Alex: So you can really influence the monster you become?

Lucy: I’m not a monster! (she makes a cute face to back up that statement and then laughs). If you are taught how to control yourself than yeah, it becomes a choice. The more you choose to be a monster the more of a monster you become, just like Isabelle said. If you don’t realize you have a choice then you will make those choices on a level that you are unaware of and before you know it, you’re totally fucked.

Lucy and I decided to open more wine and have ourselves a little interview. Isabelle’s rules are in full effect which means typing up my scribbled hand written notes into this blog might take time. Why didn’t I just type them into the computer while doing the interview instead of using short hand (which I hadn’t used since college)? Because it’s fucking impersonal to stare at your device while doing an interview that is why. Deal with it.

We started the interview at 9pm on Thursday May 28th.

Alex: State your name and tell me a bit about yourself.

Lucy: Rules! First question and you are trying to break the rules.

Alex: Fine, just tell me about yourself.

Lucy: Hi my name is Lucy and I’m a vampire.

Alex: Fuck you, this isn’t AA.

Lucy: I don’t know what to say, that pretty much dominates your life once it happens to you.

Alex: So who were you before it happened to you?

Lucy: Oh, umm, I don’t know. I mean I know but I hadn’t thought about it much. I imagine it is just as bad as asking you who you were as a teenager. Except I don’t really want to return to those days.

Alex: You still look like you are in those days.

Lucy: Really? I always look twenty two to myself. That is how old I was when I stopped aging.

Alex: When you were changed?

Lucy: No, when I stopped aging. I was nineteen when I was changed.

Alex: Explain that. Vampires are eternal are they not?

Lucy: Yeah as far as I know, but not all of us stop aging, at least not at first.

Alex: So there are vampires who look 100 years old?

Lucy: No, well maybe. I imagine if they wanted to go that long they could. I’m not sure. For some of us aging is a choice, and for others we stop because “our subconscious controls our bloods expression” as Isabelle would put it. For me it was that.

Alex: That is interesting, does that expression vs choice factor anywhere else into being a vampire?

Lucy: Yeah I think so. I think it might be what it is all about. Being a vampire. Our blood says one thing and we say another, and whatever side wins takes the prize. At least for that one thing.

Alex: I’m not sure I follow but I’ll come back to it once I have a better idea what to ask. Can you tell me how you were ‘changed’ and is that the word for it?

Lucy: HA! You really want us to have a lexicon don’t you? There isn’t a set word for it. At least not that I know of. The old ones have their Cant and I’m sure there is a word or words for it in that non sense but I don’t know what it is.

Alex: Cant?

Lucy: Yeah, some language they all speak. It sounds like Latin but with a French flair. Kinda like you should be in church but sexy at the same time. I don’t know, I’ve never been offered to be let on that secret. Anyways, how was I made? Right?

There was this guy in college named Mike. Of course I’m making that name up. Rules are rules. Mike was the hottest thing since sliced bread, and come to find out a campus vampire. I know you like using the most cheesy terms for us, do you like that campus vampire?

Alex: That is cute, it should be an 80s movie title!

Lucy: No kidding! Mike was the type of vampire that liked to pretend that he was in college and hang out at the places all the kids hung out. He had this really deep knowledge of just about everything, and a way with the ladies. I was no exception. I was head over heels for him. Spent all my free time with him and started to neglect my studies so I could stay up all night with him. He on the other hand spent all his time with me, and he professed that it had been ages since he was so attached to someone.

(Lucy stares off out the window for a bit, then comes back to the interview)

I’m not sure if I’m more sad about my emotions for him or how he dropped me like a piece of garbage after it happened. Our kind are petty creatures at times. We are territorial to an extreme, and when I say territorial I mean actual physical area. The more area you control the more potential blood you control. It is that simple. You pretty much said it yourself, it is all about the blood.

Mike and this other vampire, we’ll call him Steve, were having some big fight over a quarter of a block of territory. Some gas station or something off of 50th street, near Brookside Blvd. It was so not worth anything at the time, but territory is territory, and all is fair in love and war. I’m a casualty of that war. Steve kidnapped me and turned me into a vampire against my will, before I knew that vampires were real. He then dropped me off at Mikes place.

One look at what happened to me and Mike shut me out. Slammed the door actually, said I was tainted and spit on me. Isabelle would later say that Mike was a ‘traditionalist’ and didn’t understand ‘the universal characteristics of who we are’, when trying to make me feel better about it. I don’t know what she was talking about.

Alex: How did you survive?

Lucy: Well the change is slow. Sometimes it takes weeks, sometimes it takes hours, it really depends on the person involved. For me I had no clue what was going on, and wondered around sick for a few days. Out of my mind. I blamed it on being raped and then spit on by my boyfriend. That is essentially how it came across in my rationality. Steve raped me and then because of that Mike left me. Isabelle found me. She took me in and made sure that I wasn’t a threat to myself or anyone else.

Alex: Did you ever have to deal with them again?

Lucy: Yeah, they are around, or they were last time I checked.

Alex: Was Mike feeding on you during your time together?

Lucy: He must of been. Why else would he of been with me.

Alex: But you don’t know?

Lucy: We have ways of shifting perceptions away from us. I mean there is the direct mind control that everyone hates you for not falling for but that is just one expression of a greater ability to influence the perceptions and will of those around us. I think Mike was really good at making me have great sex. I mean great sex. Man I still get… I get bothered by thinking about it.

Alex: Am I the only one that it doesn’t work on, and does it work on other vamps?

Lucy: As far as Isabelle has told me you are the only one she has ever encountered who naturally is immune to our evil ways. Vampires can try to control each other but its a struggle, humans however are weak and easily led anyway we want.