Lucy

Player Name: Sarah aka Jingles
Character name: Lucy (Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, Duchess of Modena. Yes, that's why she invites everyone to simply call her Lucy. She's not THAT pretentious!)
E-mail address: kittiklaw@yahoo.com


Define the basic concept for your Character: how your character views him/herself and how he/she fits in to the World of Darkness. For some characters, this view applies to a current understanding; for others, the character concept is related to the character's behaviour and feelings from centuries ago. Either way, the character concept sets the overall theme for how the character is played. Answer the following questions as your character would, with the exception that your character, of course, is being much more forthright than he/she normally would be. Answering in the style of your character should help understand their personal "style".

General Information
This section asks about all the basic information on your Character.

1. What is your name? List any associated pseudonyms.

I am Lucy! It's wonderful to make your acquaintance! That's short for Lucrezia, by the way. No, not Borgia. Medici. Yes, THOSE Medicis. I also go by a few names as modern aliases, but those are separate, and listed below.


2. When and where were you born?

February 14th, 1545.

3. When did you become a vampire? Who Sired/Bound you?

At the age of sixteen in my mortal life; my sire's name is Endymion, and we are to this day cohorts and friends, and sometimes lovers. He is the other half of my soul and I am absolutely dedicated to him.


5. What is your mortal lineage?

I was born to Cosimo de Medici, of the Medicis of Italy, and that alone is its entire own story that I do not wish to tell at the moment. For the most part, it was just that, my mortal life, and there was very little to it for me, but much to my legacy.


6. What is your prime nationality, and what languages do you speak? Where did you learn these languages, and from whom?

I am Italian by birth, though I am very long removed from Italy; I have been everywhere on the globe worth going and many places not worth it. Those early years, we traveled all over Europe, and then to the New World as soon as it was discovered - we were pioneers, we were, more interested in spreading the philosophy and expansive thinking that was our passion, more than rising to the top of any social circles. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good party, and I LOVE a roomful of people staring at me with worshipful gazes, but I would much rather inspire a roomful of people to think until their brains explode and their minds take on whole new forms altogether! Yes, a little mad, isn't it? The truth always drives you a little crazy. That's why the universe shows us a tiny bit at a time. The strongest of us can seek it out, but sometims, we find the wrong secrets. Or the right ones we weren't looking for.

See, I digress. Languages - I've learned many the world over... Italian by birth, then French, English, Spanish, and Dutch all before I was made vampire as part of my childhood studies. Since then I have learned Japanese, as well as Indian; some of the most brilliant thinkers in the world have come from the ranks of Hindu and Buddhism and it pays to understand them. When I learned Japanese during the Meiji Restoration it was from this little washer woman who made riceballs. We did not meet any of the Eastern Kindred while we were there, which I still regret.


7. In which familial group do you belong (Clan, Bloodline.)? Do you attempt to infiltrate another group? If so, why?

I am of the Clan of the Rose, and frankly, there is no better mantle with which to adorn oneself, so why would I -ever- need to pretend to be anything else? We are the Beauty through the Thorns, and it's the greatest gift of my immortal soul to be Toreador.


8. What positions have you held, if any (City Positions, Coterie, Clan, etc.)?

I spent a while with the House of Price in the 1600s, but their art took second rank to their socio-political machinations, and we continued on our way back to Italy; I was Whip of Venice, Rome, while my sire was Primogen there for a while in the seventeen-fifties, and I am still very well known amongst my countrymen and considered Wise by the Prince of Venice to this day. When we left, it was to set out again and start yet another revolution at a time when great peace held Rome (and the Church was going positively bonkers over the splintering sects and I realized that the whole of Christianity was just another chain holding the Enlightenment down), and we hitched our way to the new world, now that it was safe to travel... for a long time, passage to the colonies was dangerous, and it took much longer than we would have liked for our journey to be more trustworthy than some dubious months on a boat hoping no one opened your coffin in the day.

Oddly enough, I have also served as my clan's official liaison to the Malkavians, possibly because the rest of the Thorns don't see the need to bother with "those whackaloons," but mostly because I respect their visions. The openness of those minds makes the boldest philosophers look like children playing at grownup games, but too much of the truth too fast...


I have held the respect and reverence of many of our kind, in many places, and not solely for the greatness of my sire. Most recently, I have visited Paris, where I am considered Revered, and during the sixties and seventies, when New York City was still a safe place to be, I was Valued by the Prince there, though of course in recent nights it is a place of much trouble and little philosophy.


9. Where is your Haven? Describe it – go into detail.

I actually have many a safehouse all the world over, most of them owned by my sire in technicality, but any home of his is a home of mine and is of course a safe place for me to take my day's sleep. The haven I have purchased here in Saint Louis is a lovely little place, a seven-bedroom mansion on the outskirts of town - peaceful, out of the way, but still close enough to anywhere worth going, of course! I am a bit of a snob, I'll admit it, and so my place is very well decorated, but it's also important to know that my taste is extremely particular. Most Toreador prefer famous artists or things that are ostentatious and pretentious, things that if seen on their wall, would bring them accolades and compliments. Most of my art isn't even recognizable as art. My favorites are the ones made by the absolutely mad and the absolutely brilliant; I have a lovely sculpture of scrap metal melted and twisted together that was the accidental result of a nuclear meltdown... one could call my tastes eclectic. Many beautiful gifts from my Sire, my - well, the term today is BFF, best friend forever! make my home all the more stunning, though they are still being set up in their new alcoves and display cases.

My favorite of my Sire's palatial residences is the one in New York - it has been a very prominent place for us for centuries, after all. But I hope to make my true home here in Saint Louis, and turn it into a modern Renaissance city.


10. What do you own in the way of mundane and supernatural resources?

I own a massive amount of art and books, many of them very old and very rare. I am also employed as a singer in several different small venues, though for each persona I of course look quite unlike myself. I have many bank accounts in many cities and countries around the world, under many different aliases. Just in case, you understand.


11. Do you have any servants/Retainers? Who are your Contacts/Allies?

I honestly don't like having ghouls, but when it comes to other Kindred, well, I know a lot of people. My only real mentor is my sire, because honestly, I don't know many other Kindred who are older than I am, or more ... skilled. Frankly, that's another reason I'm here - I've heard a lot about Saint Louis, but most importantly that all the Kindred here seem to be... well, shall we say, high rollers? People I might yet learn something from, let's put it that way.


THE MORTAL WORLD
What were you like before you became what you are now? Do you still cling to your former life as a comfort, or have you turned so far away that you no longer are anything like you were? This section deals with your interaction with life and your interaction with the world on a day to day basis.

1. Do you still have your original Birth Certificate? If yes, what is your date of birth (e.g. 2000-01-01)?

Oh, they didn't make birth certificates as such back then, but I know my birthdate - Saint Valentine's Day, something I always considered an omen - and I have some paperwork of my original genealogy. A few of my aliases are legally registered as my descendants. As a woman, it's not been that hard to pretend to have a child, and pretend to hide the child, and then eventually pretend to BE the child. These days, it's harder, what with fingerprinting and Social Security, but I've got a dozen escape identities, each one intertwined with one for my sire.


2. Are you officially dead? If so, do you have a death certificate and what date did you ‘die’?

Yes, I am recorded as being dead. Hell, it's on Wikipedia! Isn't that something? Only because my parents' parents were famous, but still. I am known to have died on April 21st in 1561, of 'suspicious method' at first, and more recently supposedly of tuberculosis. The truth is, we stole the freshest female body with my color hair we could find off the funeral cart, and beat her face until she was unrecognizable. Perhaps the bruises, and her being dead before them, made them imagine she'd been poisoned. Perhaps now the body they exhumed to examine did indeed die of la tubercule. But it was not me. By the height of the moon on that night we were on our way to Venice.

3. Are you using your original identity? If not, what is your current identity and how long have you used it for?

Amongst vampires, yes, I of course go as Lucy. My most common human moniker is Laci Field. Yes, she's a porn star. I'm very, very good at it. I do it under the Mask, of course, but she was "born" and has legitimate identification and even good credit. It's simple to fake people along the way - you Mask a false preggo belly, you seclude yourself with your 'young child', then you Mask yourself AS the child, and... each time, you just register the nonexistent baby with the government. Until very recently nobody checked, and it's still possible to have a home birth and not report your children to the governments. I have five of these such identities currently, three of them with traceable lineage that actually goes back to my Medici family. I've been doing this for a while.


5. Do you have any fake ID? When does your ID expire? How did you acquire your identification?

I have about ... oh, five that are good anymore. Each one is legitimate and is attached to a legitimate personality that the government thinks is a real, valid, living human. I have Laci, who is a twenty-something buxom brunette registered as born and living in the state of California; Eliza Silos, nineteen years and registered in New York; Miranda Veir, forty-six and registered in Minnesota (with a child of her own already! Imagine that! It's not too hard for my sire and I to Mask ourselves as parent and child long enough to register; you only have to produce the kid a few times. And all the homeschooling isn't that hard, these days; I've had a lot of long nights to study.). There's also Erick London - yes, sometimes it's useful to have a male persona, especially in the olden days - who is from Toronto. The last is Amanda Maddock, who is registered as born in Britain, but who is currently a citizen of France.

Any time any of these IDs expire, I simply Mask myself as that person and go in to have it renewed like any other human... ... just, you know, in the winter, after dark. And any time any persona gets too old to be useful, why, by then I've been inventing their children for years, and it's not too hard to have them move away, and simply never get there, and when you've no family but your husband as an old couple, and you supposedly move to Florida, and your daughter and her husband stay behind and say, oh, no they're doing fine! until they 'die'... who's going to suspect a thing? It's been pretty effective, so far; in these days, without too many mortal connections, it's still not that hard to 'move away' and lose contact with everyone you've known from a place. In the old days, we'd just fake our deaths, but that's not so easy anymore. Usually we just hire some freelance hacker or a mobster to go into the computer and list people as dead. ... Then Endymion erases their memory, just to be safe. They never even know we're not human.

While here in Saint Louis, I am using the identity of Lucille Veir, the twenty-one year old daughter of Miranda Veir, for the dealings I need to make with other humans, and attending 'night classes' as any young college student would.


6. Are you or were you famous in mortal society? If so, why? How have you maintained your personal masquerade?

I would not describe myself as -famous-, but my name is in the books, as it were. I am no longer known in the mortal world as myself, and my individual personae are not that hard to maintain.

7. Do you have a police record? If so, what made it to your file?

Of course not! By my age, you get to be veeeery good at not getting caught.


8. What constitutes a "crime", in your perception? Do the laws of mortals mean anything to you?

Harming another for pleasure tops the list; I try to follow the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Mortal laws are pretty useless, but for the most part I stick to them simply not to attract attention.

I have never, in all my years, killed a human simply to feed on them. I have killed two humans to save my life and my sire's once, and for the same reason have also put to Final Death three other Kindred, but I do not take killing lightly, and when I hunt and feed, my victims quite enjoy my Kiss and are never incapacitated or harmed by me. Other moral crimes, like stealing and dishonesty, I avoid, but if necessary, I don't feel bad about doing what I have to.


9. Have you ever done drugs or drank heavily as a mortal or supernatural? If so, what are your thoughts on them?

I have tried it all in search of the next mind-opening quest but for the most part they are simply distractions. Sometimes I still drink bloodwine, or drink the blood of humans who have smoked opium, but only when ... in for the night, as it were.


10. Do you own a vehicle? If so what kind? Is it registered? When does the registry expire? How did you acquire it?

I'm not a great driver, but I have a cute little Volkswagen bug, newly registered to Lucille Veir, not expiring for a good five years, whereupon I'll Mask and renew it. It was bought as a graduation gift from her mother! Supposedly. Truly I just bought it for myself.


11. Do you a firearms license? Do you have a gun? Did you purchase the weapons legally?

No, no, and irrelevant. I don't do guns. I've watched the world of weapons grow and open up to man along the course of the years and I must say, guns disgust me.


12. Did you ever attend a University? To what level have you been educated?

I was very well educated as a child, as well as any noble should be, and since then the enlightenment of the mind has been my truest goal. I study and read anything I can get my hands on, and as a result I would consider myself extremely highly educated. Most of my personas who are old enough to have completed them have several PhDs.


14. Do you have any living relatives? If so, detail them briefly.

Not that are not so many generations removed as to've never heard of me. I merely have false identities that if traced would be my relatives. ...Well, descendants.


15. Have you ever been married? Any kids?

I was married to Alfonso dil Este, and no, he spurned me for the company of other men. I was turned at sixteen, and even before then, with Endymion as my lover, it was impossible for me to become with child.


18. Do you have your haven to yourself or do you share it?

Here in Saint Louis, it is all mine, but surely Endymion will visit; in other places, they are his homes, and my homes, and... we are a pair, he and I.


19. Does your haven have a phone? Power connected? Cable TV? If so, under what names are they listed?

It has a phone, gas, water, cable, phone, etc. all listed under the name Lucille Veir, and paid for from a fat bank account.


20. Do you have a mobile phone? If so, under what name is it listed?

Yes, under Lucille, paid for by the same account.


21. Do you work or have a job?

Lucille does not, she is what they call a young debutante with rich parents, but when I am in Cali and New York I am on circuits as a singer. And sometimes yes, in films.


22. Do you have a credit card? How do you pay your bills?

Very old, very vast accounts under countless names in countless countries. Endymion has a particular talent for predicting the stock markets, and our investments have only grown in recent years.


23. Do you own any businesses?

None of note. I am more focused on finally building my philosophe's Mecca.


MOTIVATION
What are the goals and drives that keep your Character going and guide his/her actions? A Character with no motivation reacts rather than acts. Such Characters often bore Players because they spend the majority of game time waiting for something to happen to which they can react. Characters with motivation, on the other hand, are always working toward some objective; such characters often actively drive their own plots and help enrich the game for everyone. Consider this when answering the following section.

Persona Information
The following questions pertain to the motivations and rationales employed by your Character and the internal forces that drive it in the World of Darkness. The answers should provide the Storytellers with insight into the Character’s goals and objectives, and how these came to be.

1. What do you hope to accomplish in the near future; why these particular goals?

Get settled, get my haven sorted, make sure my loose ends in NY and Cali are tied up properly, see to it that my sire is not pining without me up in the colds of Minnesota this time of year... get to know some folks here in Saint Louis, make new friends, ingratiate myself with the prince a little, you know the drill.


2. What are your long-term goals?

Golconda is too simple a word for it - let's say... sight. I hope to make my home here in Saint Louis, and to make it the next center of thought in the modern world. I want to spark the next Renaissance of the soul, both human and Kindred. And hell, invite the werewolves and the faeries and the mages and everyone else too.

3. What is the real reason you are in this city?

I want a home that is my own, and something tells me that Saint Louis is ripe for the planting of these seeds of ideas I bear.


4. How do you view City Politics? Do you have political backing in some greater sense?

I see them, secretly, as a necessary evil; I believe in a meritocracy more than anything else, but for the most part, I am good at being polite and playing along. My age, and my sire's power (and to a lesser extent, my own) makes us both a little famous amongst our clan, and between us we have a decent bit of clout within the Clan, and within certain parts of the Camarilla. I try not to use it, though, which seems to have everyone more determined to remind me I have it. No one likes owing favours.


5. What are your greatest joys and fears?

Retaining my joy in life, in existence; just being dead and technically cursed isn't going to stop me from enjoying the world and everything it has to offer. In a way, immortality is the greatest gift I could ever have asked for and I savor all these years, watching the world grow and change, the humans evolve and think more and more with each passing day... and to correspond, my fears would be that this revolution of spirit would stagnate and slow, or be reversed altogether. That, and losing my sire, as awful as it is for me to even say the words; he is my best friend and even now he has more yet to teach me... but he's pretty old, and pretty tough, he should be alright without me.


7. What emotions or themes are considered primary drives for you?

I love to have a good time, but not the mindlessly intoxicated kind of good time that most of my clanmates do; I prefer intense conversation where you're too busy talking to drink. Enlightenment would be the number one, I suppose, both for myself and for others. I'm something of a proselytist.

8. Do you hold a vengeance against something/someone? Who? What? Why?

No. Vengeance is for those who are too hateful to forgive and I'm far too lazy for hate. That, and above it, and all.


9. What are your relations with your Clan/Bloodline/etc.?

Excellent. I am a revered elder of my clan, known everywhere the Toreador set foot. I pay for this respect by constantly having the younger ones ask me for advice. It must be good advice, since those who follow it tend to survive.


10. What are your relations with the Camarilla?

Very good. As far as the Camarilla knows, I am a resolute upholder and champion of the Masquerade and Traditions; indeed, I follow them quite well. But they do not quite know that my ultimate dream involves a world where the Masquerade is obsolete. Not sure they're ready for it yet.


11. What are your thoughts on the Tremere? Thaumaturgy?

If the stories I have heard are true about them... I think I would simply like to stay away.


12. What are your thoughts on the Anarch Movement? Anarchs in general?

There's those who burn the candle at both ends. Then there's the Anarchs. They're tiny explosions, burning in 360 degrees all at once. They burn out very quickly and they'll be gone again soon.


13. What are your thoughts on the Sabbat? Have you ever attempted contact?

Eugh. Sadistic, messy, stupid, and cruel. Somewhere there are Sabbat members aching to shed that horrible life and find inner peace; those are the only ones I'm interested in.


14. What are your thoughts on the Inconnu? Do you know they still exist?

Infernalists? Well, everyone has their demons, no pun intended. I strongly disapprove of their methods and the way they're so far strayed from the course, but... what can be done?


15. How do you view the Status system? Prestation?

A little bit nepotistic, a little bit anachronistic, and a little ridiculous all in all, but for the most part it serves us well in operation. Just don't tell any of the city heirarchy I said that.


16. What is your view on the Antediluvians? Do you believe they exist?

Certainly. We came from somewhere, didn't we? I'm a bit of a Kindred scholar, and the legends are too numerous to be completely false.

17. What quirks do you have?

I play with my hair like any silly blonde, duh! But many women do, so it doesn't stand out.

18. How do you dress? Why?

In the height of fashion, though not always modern. However the hell I want, really. However I think looks good and interesting and will make someone stop, their mind a little broken open just from the colors or patterns or my stunning beauty.

19. How do you view the Mortal world and its events?

Fascinating, like a science experiment with ants. But ants that we can guide!


22. Intangible Debts – who do you owe, who owes you and what?

There are many tiny interweavings amongst the Roses, of who's done what for whom, but the only important one of note is the fact that I owe my sire... -everything-, and he owns me and all my holdings in the end.


HISTORY
What has lead to your Character thinking the way it does? What has it seen, heard and felt over the years. What events have transformed your Character? Draw from Real Life™ history, as well as the created World of Darkness and in-Game history to provide pivotal points in your Character’s existence.

Background Information
These questions ask you to focus on the events that have shaped your Character, be they mundane or supernatural. Be brief and concise with these answers, as the intent is to highlight the most important moments in your Character’s history and provide Storytellers with clearly defined events.

1. What important events did you participate in as a mortal?

None. My mortal life was very boring. I watched the tail end of the Renaissance from afar and ached to join in, and that's what led me to my sire.


2. What historical events as a mortal have you witnessed or partaken in?

None personally of note, really, there was little that an extra princess was privy to.

3. What historical events have you witnessed or partaken in, as a supernatural? What historical figures or events have you influenced?

Aha, now THAT'S the question. Let's say.. most of them? Any time humans were revolting or revolutionising, Endymion and I were probably there, whispering ideas about freedom and equality and rights and fair justice. But we stay out of the battles. I saw the Revolution in France, the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the Boxer and Bolsheviks in China and Russia... and of course, here in America, when the colonies turned? Some of those fancy phrases on that Constitution drifted into the right ears from the right lips. There is little that I can point at in concrete and say "I did this." It was usually simply a matter of being someone's muse, spreading the idea, and letting the humans carry it out on their own. They're remarkably good at taking ideas and running with them.


8. Have you ever broken the Traditions? Why?

I think there was one time when I ran a little too fast outside, but no one saw me, and it was centuries ago, so I don't worry about it anymore. These days, I behave myself meticulously.


- END -



BACKSTORY!



I was born on February fourteenth of the year fifteen hundred and forty-five. Saint Valentine's Day, at that! Such a long time ago, it was. My mortal life was remarkably... bland for a young woman of noble blood, to say the least, and despite growing up in such interesting times my life was hardly my own for those early years. But then, no woman owned herself then. How wonderful, to've made it to this enlightened day and age! It certainly took a goddamned long time. I remember many lessons in propriety in my native Florence, and infinite hours of needlepoint. ...To this day, I hate embroidering. I liked riding the horses, though - something I now miss, as horses won't come near me. But those breathing years were foggy, as though a dream, even when they were happening. I always felt like I was swimming in honey trying to live my life, until I died and realized that I should be living my unlife.

...Oh, I get so distracted so easily! So many memories makes for so very many tangents to run off on. My mortal life was a simplistic, boring blur. By thirteen I was married off to Alfonso, that prick, and when I failed to give him a baby, he promptly abandoned me to go back to his boys at the court of the French king. Pah, he knows not what he is missing! He never realized, and now he is but dust while I live on. But the man in the library there in Ferrera, he knew what there was to see in me even before I did.

I was barely fifteen when I met him, an unassuming looking man of middle years, but I knew within an instant that he was unlike anyone else I had ever met, though I could not have fathomed then HOW different, or in what way. He was quiet, and reserved, and tried to avoid me, but I, being a bored Duchess, was by this point determined to wrangle from the world what pleasure I could, and so I insisted on seeking him out. I found him by the music, actually; it was so beautiful that it ached, and when I found him at the great piano, that was the beginning of the end for me. I watched him play for hours every day after that, and he showed me how to play, and taught me to sing.

His name was Endymion and once I discovered him there, playing music that no mortal hands could have managed, I wrangled from him his compellingly tragic story, which is not mine to share here. Over the next year he told me everything about the world, about the Renaissance, this revolution of thought, the brilliance that could burn in the mind and heart, and I knew then that that was what I had been waiting for, this... opening of spirit, all these ideas tumbling around in my head... in those days, we all knew that magic and supernatural creatures and gods were real, so the discovery of him was not nearly as much of an epiphany as it was to see through his eyes, eyes that saw the beauty everywhere, in all of life and death. He taught me to love as my husband never had, and soon I was madly in love with him. Before long I talked him around to bringing me into his world, to making me a vampire. I have never regretted it, though there was a time or two that I've wished I waited another year or two, as my youthful appearance leads to many a problem in this day and age. But, alas, if we could see the future, there would be no past!

After my Embrace we faked my mortal death and promptly fled Ferrara to Venice; we only stayed there a short period of time, til perhaps 1575 or so, when the last rise of the Plague subsided. Those early years my hunger was quite insatiable, and our philosophy demanded we not kill anyone, so we fed from many, many people on our travels. We spent much time in libraries, museums, opium dens, opera halls - oh, how I love the opera! La Boheme is my favorite, it is the story of my life, and when it was reinvented in the 1990s I nearly died of ecstasy - practicing our craft, talking, learning, spreading every idea and thought we could find... those were the golden times, when my love for my sire was full and fresh. We met many other vampires, in those days, many Toreador especially, mostly artists and craftsmen more than other philosophers, but they were still possessed of a vision, if a different one. Hell, a Toreador envisioned the Masquerade in the first place! Though personally, I dream of a future where humans accept us and we don't need to hide OR own them... but that's a long way away. I can only hope that I live to see those nights!

Are you perhaps seeing a pattern here? We were in China for the Boxer Rebellion and the colonies before the American Revolution; France for their Revolution, and Japan for the Restoration... my sire and are, we are what one might call... fomentors of progressive ideas, all in the secret hopes of guiding humans to the ultimate realization that they can live in loving, ecstatic peace with us, not as prey but as... happy walking buffets who share the burden of keeping us fed amongst themselves and so never suffer any, and don't notice. Yes, it's a strange utopia, but it's not impossible, and I dream that one day the Masquerade that the great elder of our clan, Rafael de Corazon, helped come up with after the Dark Ages, will no longer be necessary. But shhh on that one. Some folks don't like that idea.

I remember spending a few years in the depths of the Black Forest in Germany with a True Brujah back when I was still quite young. He told me many things about religion, but mostly what I remember as true was this: "He who has eyes to see shall see." He said there was no use trying to teach the blind to see, but I've always believed that everyone has the potential to open their eyes if they only choose to. Of course, making them realize they can, and getting them to want to, is... occasionally quite difficult. You can't force it. For the most part, you can only offer and see if people want to dream. That's why we came to the Americas - so many philosophers and thinkers and revolutionaries and bold, crazy men with vast dreams... And oh, but isn't the New World just the most amazing thing? This is where the future is, I've felt that way for a long time, and oh, the faster and crazier the world moves around me, the happier I am.

It's been such a long time since then. Even then, Endymion was the other half of me, but as the years happened and time went by, from one city and one revolution to the next, our love grew and changed from a whirlwind tornado of romance to a calm, peaceful ocean. We are still as close as we ever were, though, and it is only in these most recent nights, with the world growing so quickly and travel becoming so easy, that we have separated to encourage art and free thinking in many parts of the world at once. We are entering the Age of Aquarius for real, now, and oh...

For the first time in my unlife I am separated from him for more than a few nights. It is strange, but not heartbreaking. He keeps sending more pieces of artwork, saying that of course I need this one or that one, to decorate my solar, my library, my chamber; to remind me of him, to remind me of Paris or Saint Petersburg or... he's a sweet thing, despite his age. I think we have kept each other sane for these many years. However, I think that once I've established my... academy of thought here in Saint Louis, that he will come join me. That could be a while yet, though.

Over the years I have learned much, especially about our kind and our origin, or at least the legends of us. I wish I could say more but such secrets are hardly the kind to be summarized succinctly.

When I told Endymion I was going to move out he was so surprised. That was five years ago. This has taken a lot of planning, and frankly, I'm a bit of a procrastinator... I'm so easily distracted by my pursuits. But finally I'm here, established, getting started. And soon I'm going to change the world forever. ... Maybe again. But I'm not bold enough to take credit for such things all on myself. Pride before a fall, and all. I may not be a Catholic anymore, but a lot of those old sayings are perfectly good maxims even today.

I think this should be enough for now. I feel almost like I'm writing in a diary. I'm not always so introspective, I swear.



Voila! Now, to print it out.