Hello Grandmother,

As she speeds back off to Europe, Kelly Burke’s prosecutor Faustina Magnus has been replaced in the states by another major German vampire, Magdalena Schneider, or as she’s know today Iduna Fenrir. Iduna is a German technomancer vampiress, a master of machine magics who just happens to be undead. She’s taken her name from Norse deities, but don’t let that fool you, she’s fully integrated into the 21^st century, which puts her about three centuries ahead of any other vampire in the hemisphere. She’s also been the lead negotiator between robots and vampires worldwide. From what I’ve been able to ascertain, her roll in the states will be to serve as liaison during what’s already being called “the Infiltration Crisis” by the vampire higher-ups.

I understand she’ll be reporting to the King of Hearts in New York, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see her sent out west to address the Alternate and any possible disturbances from the far East.

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Hello Grandmother,

The Atomic Clock is ticking.

Prophecy is a hard thing to nail down. Predictions are easier. But where do the two meet? What if you could see into things, just sat there all day, put all your resources into coming up with what was likely to happen? And What if you had a nuclear brain? The Atomic Clock is a robot buried deep under Greenwich Park in London, which has become know for being the best prophet of our times. It can tell the future more accurately than anyone else roaming the earth (the Clock doesn’t roam, but… you get the idea).

As events have been pouring in, the clock has been sending out more and more troublesome prediction on the current state of things. They don’t look good. It’s latest states “The Infiltration will bring fire to the Seven Ministries reign.” Which is about the place where a future predicting robot passes into vague portents. I know the future’s changing all the time, but man, it sure would be reassuring if the indicators themselves weren’t just getting cryptic on us. We’re having a hard enough time figuring things out on our own.

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Hello Grandmother,

I’ve been desperate to find any information I can about the Infiltration, and a large part of that has been accepting rumor and trying to discern as much truth from it as I can. I know Flux’s legend about the three robot cities. Valhalla, Montana. Purgatory, California. Duat, Massachusetts. Three hidden cities spread across America that have been growing infiltrators for years. I still have no evidence of their existence, or a place on the map where these cities might exist. If they are there, then there has to be some vampire collusion in their existence.

I’ve been trying to pin down what facts I do know, and even that is proving difficult. I was fairly certain that Thomas Edison had an artificial human program that he’d been using to supply friends with significant others, but any detail on the project I’ve had trouble surfacing. It was high Illuminati, to my recollection. But what interests me is where the line goes from an artist sculpting a perfect human replica in a garage to an army being built in a mock suburb. Where is this happening? Who thought it was a good idea? And how did it all go unnoticed for so long?

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Hello Grandmother,

Ok, I’m doing my best not to turn this blog into a soapbox for the enfranchisement of robots. It’s a little hard when the levers of power are so far removed from any form of criticism. But clearly the robot designers and vampire power brokers are thinking along the same lines.

A list of changes has been passed to me of policy shifts in the vampire hierarchy. A lot of it has to do with harsher practices towards themselves, tighter security and more insular control, but some of it will make things easier for the bots on the street. It sounds like the Alternates meeting this weekend had strong benefits, at least for it. It’s distribution network is going to become more prominent, with robots capable of charging in major city centers (still in secret of course), and vampires are going to receive major penalties for messing with them. I’ve heard that the Alternate rejected straight out forming any kind of pro-vampire robot organization, a power hierarchy that the vampires could more easily monitor and control. Which is a smart move on it’s part.

For once, I feel like I can say the Alternate did what was best for it’s people. We’ll see how readily these changes are implemented as they’re inforced.

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Hello Grandmother,

If you are a vampire, things are looking scary. Robots have infiltrated your highest institutions, past all your magical sensors and technological information gathering devices. You are at the whim of leaders who in all likelihood have been lying to you, and who seem to demand complete devotion while they only look out for their own skin. And by all accounts, you’re going to have to go to war against a foreign consciousness that has never been seen before on this earth. Things are not going well.

But vampires don’t have it nearly as bad as it is for robots. Living on the outskirts of society. Your existence unrecognized, your survival dependant on whatever you can find. Your creator made you to mimic itself, its independence and free thinking; yet at the same time bound you to slavery. And in this mix comes a brethren, a fellow machine that uses its mimicry of mankind as a weapon against the deadly force in the world. And because of this, you are now more persecuted, reviled and ignored than ever before. Sure, many robots might want to fight back. But very few have any powers that can strike against the monsters in charge of the world. You have to remember, most robots are living in the streets, alone, only able to maintain and upgrade themselves through Faustian deals with their more powerful kin.

I’ve been talking to a few robots, those lucky enough to be spending the winter in the mild climate of Los Angeles. They aren’t emboldened by the presence of the Infiltration. They’re terrified by it. Most robots, you will have to remember, are reliant on technology that’s no better than the vampires use for themselves. What do you do if you are a machine who can’t tell if its looking at a human or another machine in disguise. Do you treat them the same? If so, the what, to those insufficient eyes, is the difference between man and machine? And what do you do when everything you’ve been programmed to believe had been upturned, your core principles denied. There are a lot of lonely robots out there, looking for meaning to their artificial existence. If an answer for these creatures isn’t found soon, if some form of purpose isn’t given, then its only a matter of time before many turn to violence. And then everyone’s fears become real.

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Hello Grandmother,

This has been a big weekend. Apparently, not only have the major vampire Ministry heads been meeting, but there have also been talks with the leaders of the robot community, to see if they can calm things down. I’ve been told that there was a major meet-up between the LA’s ministry leader, the manipulative people pusher commonly referred to as the Hack, and the Alternate, the lead designer and distribution chief for the robots software network. Sources indicate they met near the Alternate’s Colorado mountain headquarters, and that the Hack offered some pretty big concessions to keep the Alternate from making any kind of public support for the Infiltration.

Clearly all sides are worried at this point that war is emanate. Vampires across the nation seem on edge, either ready to bust up any robot they come across or quaking in fear at the prospect of having to give up their cushy lifestyle to return to one of violence. I’m still having trouble finding robot contacts that are will to talk about the situation at all. More on that tomorrow if I can find it.

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Hello Grandmother,

With their leader gone, the Cult of Lucifer is starting to rack up martyrs quickly. But anger and frustration is pointless if there is no one to take advantage of it. So all eyes are turning to their new leader, the mysterious Gregori, a German immigrant who has a flare for the dramatic. Lucifer’s cult has a tendency to attract the more flamboyant personalities in the vampire set.

Gregori has his work cut out for him, consolidating the cult’s powers while promoting their victimization in the face of the Ministries injustices. He seems to be one of Lucifer’s more obsessive followers, so he’s likely to be more interested in creating traditions and belief systems than expanding their ranks. He’s also got a reputation as being all talk and no action, which means he’s not going to be taking on the Ministry as strongly as some of his followers might desire. What this really mean, is that the Cult of Lucifer is going to be simmering on some rage until they find an outlet against the most powerful vampires in the world.

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Hello Grandmother,

I don’t envy the robots living in the streets. The balance of power has shifted, and now the full force of vampire fury is going to come down on them. Because the Infiltration has them running scared. And now every robot is a target.

Fang has had to pull back his wolfpack, after they trashed up a robot software update junction. You have to draw the line somewhere, and if you’re destroying the robots way of life, then they may have no choice but to fight back. Even Fang knows thing are getting out of hand. And dangerous. If the Infiltration has truly injected itself into every aspect of vampire society, then it’s only a matter of time before the push a war into existence.

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Hello Grandmother,

There have been rumors about robots who looked like humans for years. There are whole legends that build into this. But now that the truth has come out, an huge question lingers in the world of shadows: did someone in the Ministry know about the Infiltration?

It’s a big question to ask, because the vampires have prided themselves on knowing everything. If they didn’t know about the existence, the years of advancements it would take to create these robots, then they look like fools. But if they did know, if they’ve been keeping this a secret from the rank and file vampires out in the world, then there has been a huge breach of trust that goes straight, shall we say, to every vampires heart.

Because if they’ve been hiding this, what else are they hiding? For while they rule with an iron fist, they still need other vampires to help maintain that. Is this something that could dry up the vampires support? What did they really know? I have a feeling there’s a lot of death in following those questions. I’m going to have to tread very carefully here in the search for information.

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Hello Grandmother,

When you rule the world, you get to make up your own rules. The vampire court trying Kelly Burke didn’t have to wait to carry out its decision once it had reached its conclusion. Kelly Burke was to die, and unlike vampires of history, they weren’t going to wait on ceremony. You see, the classical vampire execution for one of their own is death by sunlight, but Kelly Burke didn’t have to wait for dawn. She bit the dust in a quick staking; her remains gathered up in a dustpan and dumped out with the rest of the trash. Maybe it’ll be important for her cult to go dumpster diving for her remains, maybe not. But she’s gone. And now the vampire bureaucracy can turn its attention to more troubling matters, like the Infiltration; while the cult and the remains of the vampire House system, lick their wounds and wait to fight another day.

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