Hello Grandmother,

The sun has fallen in Los Angeles, and I’m worried. The streets are going to be dangerous tonight. Fang received a letter claiming to come from the supposed “Mayor” of Perdition, the secret California suburb which is building a robot army for the Infiltration. According to said letter, the residents of Perdition are holding captive a team of werewolves sent to find them by Fang himself. This team includes Fang’s mistress, who demanded that Fang make her leader of the expedition. And how do I know all of this? Because Fang’s not keeping any of it a secret. He’s putting his vampires and werewolves on the street, and well as demanding the assistance of the human Knights of Day.

And now the streets are going to turn into a warzone. Because they are hunting robots, robots they can’t find, robots they can’t sense, robots that they can’t tell from their own number. I would recommend to anyone out there who’s reading this to stay indoors tonight. You don’t want to get confused for a machine and eaten.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I imagine the vampires were pretty proud when they realized they could use the innate fear and terror that comes from bureaucracy to their advantage. One vampire ministry is deadly enough. They have seven. But as of late, the powerful ministries have become more of a target than a tool of domination. The Infiltration has spread unknown fear throughout the vampire community. The Ministries own responses have only be to eliminate sub-groups within their number. And now, the vampire cult they’ve been picking on has decided to strike back.

When the Ministries executed the Cult of Lucifer’s leader Kelly Burke by staking and not waiting on tradition to burn her with sunlight, the cult took it kind of personal. On top of this, the cult has begun spreading a conspiracy theory that it’s leader Lucifer did not die by sunlight, but was instead captured by the Ministries and experimented on before they killed him. So in response, last night, the cult dropped UV bombs into seven Ministry controlled properties around the country. A MiniSloth furniture store in Queens, NY. A MiniLust club in Chicago. A MiniGlut gym and a MiniGreed Unemployment Office in Los Angeles. And the regional headquarters for MiniWraith, MiniLust, and MiniEyes in Dallas. I’m not sure why MiniPride was spared destruction, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s to instill fear in the self-confident. Quick Ministry raids found the main Cult of Lucifer headquarters empty, and few actual members available for arrest anywhere in the country. I don’t imagine that the cult has the resources for another attack like this, but they may not need it. They’ve managed to turn the dangerous into the fearful.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

The followers of the Dark Old Ones have adapted to hiding. They spent centuries as a secret society with secret societies, revealing the truths of their faith only to the select few who had unwaveringly and unknowingly earned their trust. So it’s unsurprising that the believers who’ve achieved vampiric immortality would be especially adept at withholding the truth from their enemies.

While the Necronomicon is well know even in the human world, the vampires Ministries are aware of a number of C’thulhic texts which have remained complete hidden from public awareness. And I imagine that the removal of C’thulhu’s followers had led some high ranking vampires to believe they might come into possession of said texts. However, sources inside the vampire hierarchy have revealed to me that so far they’ve come up empty-handed. I can’t say I’m not a little curious as to the names and contents of said books, but considering the stories of the Necronomicon that make the rounds at campfire storytime, I’m probably better off not knowing.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Vampires like to keep their secrets. It’s a thing they do. However, with the Infiltration making them all nervous about each other, there has been a surprising amount of information leaked out that I’m sure would otherwise stay quite. The big one this week is that the date and location of a large Vampire-Robot conference has been released to those who want to know. The Conference begins Wednesday of this week, in New Delhi, India. According to the Turk, this has been a regular occurrence every year, and is only now being discussed among non-attendees. The conference has become even more important because of the Infiltration making it’s presence know.

Turk also gave me a rundown of those likely in attendance this year:

Factorybot, the robot AI designing machine from China is becoming a major force in the region, and is likely to head China’s contingent.

Momotaro, the boy-king robot of Japan.

The Queen of Kolkutta, a robot train that has a lot of influence in eastern India.

Wolfhunter, a robot gangleader from Seoul who has recently taken control of the city.

The King of Hearts, the vampire ruler of America.

Cakradhara, an Indonesian vampire know for hunting aliens.

The Sister of the Beast, a high ranking Ministry leader.

And most importantly, the Blacksmith, the reclusive vampire who lead the Vampire Revolution a generation ago will be attending the conference.

I expect a lot to happen coming out of all this in the next few weeks.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

You were always the most difficult teacher I ever had. You taught me so much, you gave me so many tricks to use, but you always made every lesson so difficult. Now I worry I’m taking it easy on you. I’m giving you all this information, letting it just disseminate to you with a touch of criticism, and not really making you work for it. I know you aren’t the number one bad-ass I remember. Will you never reach that level again if I don’t force you to compete?

The world is getting more dangerous. It doesn’t seem like it’s gonna go to hell necessarily like I thought it was a year ago, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t terrible things that could happen right here on Earth. Violence is going to ensue. I can’t be your protector forever. Bad things are going to happen. And you’re going to need to be more than strong to survive what’s coming. Time to grow up. Time the time to take the reigns. Time to jump right into the tornado. Because otherwise you’re going to be roadkill for the bloodstained war machine. I can’t get away with being a kind voice from afar. I’m going to have to be your mentor too.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Since I talked about vampire religions the other day, I thought I’d bring up what I’ve discovered about robot religion. It might seem contradictory for robots to embrace religion, but I’ve found that the mystical and technical share a lot of similar properties.

The most common form of robot religion I’ve found is a kind of human worship. I know, they seem hell-bent on our destruction, but the truth of the matter is most rank-and-file robots haven’t gotten over their desire to please their creator. This has metamorphosised into a kind of ancestor worship, where they see their original programmers as guides to their continued existence.

The other major robot religion I’ve discovered is the worship of alien space gods who supposedly are going to come down and help them overthrow the human and vampire forces that keep them down. I’m not quite sure if there is anything to support this, but it does seem to be spreading among the more militant robot with a degree of mobility (mobility meaning the ability to travel large distance as say, an automobile).

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

The countdown has begun.

The Atomic Clock has predicted that a war is coming between robots and vampires. The Atomic Clock has never been wrong. Which mean either a war is coming, or the Atomic Clock is really going to disappoint it’s fans. Frankly, I’m hopping that they go home disappointed.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Vampires come from all walks of life. They come from all corners of the globe. Which means that there are vampire of pretty much every major faith there has ever been. Which means that old religious wars pretty much just continuate in perpetuity under a vampire regime.

The biggest conflict seem to be coming from a rift between polytheistic and monotheistic vamps. The massacres of Operation Cthulhu are a sign of the monotheists taking out a weaker link in the polytheistic puzzle. Navigating the field of vampire religious movements is like walking a labyrinth blind, and then having your feet cut off. But to the best of my understanding, the major forces at work are: 1) the Satanists and the penitent Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Zoroastrian populations. Surprisingly these sides have an easier time working together against the polytheists than fighting each other, though a lot of the firings do that too. And 2) The varying league of Hindu, Norse, Greco-Roman, Sumerian/Babylonian, Egyptian, Bantu, Navajo, and certain sects of the Chinese religion. Followers of the Old Ones had generally been excluded from this group, and it’s made them an easy target for their monotheistic opponents. Curiously, followers of Mayan faith and certain Chinese devotees form their own splinter group that is also not recognized by the major Polytheistic league.

Now you have to understand, almost all of this is happening on a cultural level, and not one of direct violence, except in cases like Operation Cthulhu. But this conflict I believe is as important if not more important than any other in the vampire world today, and how the coming confrontation with the growing robot powers plays out will have a lot to do with which side is dominant in the vampire religious arguments.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

With “Operation Cthulhu” in full force, the Vengeance Guild has been given its first real opportunity to make a counter-argument to the Seven Deadly Ministries. Because now the Ministries are actually targeting a minority, and one composed of ancient vampires at that. Which gives the Guild a big opening for recruitment. You’d really think the ministries would be in trouble.

Except they’re not. Instead of defying the Seven, the Vengeance Guild is towing the line, outing members who belong to the Old Ones sect, and following procedure. They’re not even criticizing the practice. I’m starting to get the feeling that the vampires know something I don’t. Add this on top of the Guild’s complete failure to back Li Yu, I’m really starting to wonder if they are really interested in representing the disenfranchised vampire vote or if they have an ulterior motive altogether.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

The one upside to all the Infiltrations terror is that it’s forced a lot of the vampire Ministries inner workings to come to light. I’m starting to find out that the vampire purges last week had less to do with fear of the Infiltration, and more of a cleaning out of minority extremist religious groups. Dubbed “Operation Cthulhu”, the vampire’s in-house cleansing has been about the removal of religious groups associated with older and more polytheistic gods.

The question is why? Vampire hierarchy historically has been about the old over the young, which promotes ancient belief systems, but with the vampire revolution of the 1980’s, it seems that all traditions were thrown out the window. Are the last remaining powerhouses of the old guard being eliminated? Or is it the opposite, is there a rising movement towards the old ones? These are the kinds of things that vampires like to keep to themselves. And I think these are the important facts that we all should be aware of.

-1159