Felicity

Felicity was born in Paris in the 80s. She was assigned male at birth and grew up in the Latin Quarter in a conservative household. In her teenage years she would sneak out to mingle with weirdos and deviants of Paris. While celebrating her passing school she stumbled home in a dress and makeup and her parents promptly kicked her out.

She survived by squatting until a friend got her a job bartending at a nightclub in the Quartier Pigalle. The income was enough for her to start her medical transition. It went well enough for her to get a job as a go-go dancer in the club. This caught the eye of Lina LaCroix, a Toreador. Lina groomed Felicity to be her childe, but they kept putting off the embrace because Felicity was never satisfied with how she looked.

One day the club got bought by the Zantosas. The new boss, Victoria Zantosa, took a liking to Felicity. The night they met Victoria took Felicity to her office and embraced her. Victoria paraded Felicity through the vampire world and dens of debauchery. Felicity was reborn into a force of personality.

It was after her embrace that she met Irene Olivier. They met in a fast food restaurant where Irene’s friends put together a meager birthday party for her. They all heard of Felicity and were ecstatic to meet her. Felicity and Irene had a connection and have been together ever since. Felicity plans to embrace her eventually.

Eventually the Camarilla of Paris discovered Victoria was working for the Sabbat. She skipped town before they could grab her, but they got Felicity. Felicity bargained for her unlife by denouncing not only the Sabbat, but also the Caine myth. The Paris Camarilla turned her over to the Bahari.

Felicity’s time with the Bahari was short, but she did absorb some of their teachings before she bailed. While not fully convinced Lilith was the first Vampire, she was convinced that it wasn’t Caine.

Felicity fled to LA with Irene after leaving the Bahari. She hopes someday to return to Paris and see Victoria again. But for now, she’s trying to carve out a niche for herself in LA.

Felicity describes her own life and unlife here:

There is undoubtedly a cacophony of stories revolving around moi, the lusty and illustrious Felicity. As enthralling and scandalous as I am sure they are, I do not have faith in their accuracy. While no one has the perfect perspective, I have been present at every moment of my existence. This won’t be a magnificent piece of literature, but it will chronicle my life and unlife.

I was born June 1st, 1982. Paris is where I was born. Paris will always hold a special place in my unbeating heart, even if I can not return. At least not yet, but let us not get ahead of ourselves.

My childhood. My family lived in the Latin Quarter. Our street was narrow. Our home was on the 4th floor. My parents had a vision of their perfect child. They wanted a sports star. They wanted a genius. They wanted a casanova. They wanted a renaissance man. What they got was an autistic slacker with no friends. They were very disappointed, and I had not even come out yet. Such joyless people.

How on Earth did I manage to survive such a dull childhood? I lived in my imagination for years, I remember nothing of the 80’s outside my bedroom. When I was in my teens, I would climb out my window, down to the streets. I would explore the nightlife, the weirdos and the degenerates. Paris breathed life into me. I found my kind. Quartier Pigalle was my Mecca, and I made my pilgrimage every weekend. It was here that I saw The Matrix. I was 17 at the time, and I watched it over and over. It spoke to me in a way I did not understand at the time.

I do not know if I passed school. When I finished my final exam in 2000 I spent the rest of the day celebrating my liberation from the tedium of it. I bought my first dress that night, my first makeup, my first wig. There was a beauty in my amateur girlishness. I did it more out of compulsion than anything. I just couldn’t help myself. I had heard stories, seen glimpses of people in the night, I did not understand how I felt until I lept headfirst into womanhood that night. Spontaneity is a virtue. It was the first night I spent as my true self. And the last I spent with my parents.

I was too drunk to walk. I was carried home by a couple of altruistic trans women. I wish I was sober enough to remember more about them. One of many reasons why I no longer drink. I woke up the next afternoon still in my dress. My parents didn’t yell, but their anger was palpable. They hated me. I sullied the family name. I was a degenerate freak that the world would be better off without. They kicked me out.

I survived by squatting in vacant buildings for a while. One of my friends helped get me a job as a bartender in a nightclub in the Quartier Pigalle. I was ok at it. It was enough for me to pursue my transition. I got prettier over the years. In 2003 the club was bought out by some eastern european company. Shady group with fingers in pies across the entertainment industry. When the new management said they wanted to promote me to go-go dancer I was nervous, but I accepted. It ended up being one of the best decisions of my life.

My dancing is actually what brought me into the world of the kindred. Lina de la Croix, a delightful Toreador, liked my moves. She liked me. Took me under her wing, showed me the world of bloodsucking fiends. A world where you could be whatever you wanted to be. She was preparing to sire me, but I insisted we wait when I learned I’d look the same for all eternity. So we went to work prettying me up, but I was never satisfied.

Until 2005. That is when I met Victoria Zantosa. She was with the people that bought the place. It did so well she came to inspect it personally. She saw me. She saw Lina. She saw opportunity. Victoria was a force of nature, she owned every room she walked in. When she told me to come to her office I could not think, I just went. Oh the things she did to me! It was incredible. I was hers from that moment on.

Victoria was a queen bee and she did not let anyone forget it. She was confident, assertive, uncompromising. I envy her. She did not waste time on anything. She embraced me the night we met, she broke me out of my shell, she dragged me to dens of debauchery, she gave me everything. She was not a Toreador, she was a Tzimisce, and she gave me a body I could spend eternity in. Then she made it better. I was never as good with my presence as she was, but my personality and style could make up for that. What impressed her was how well I took to vicissitude. She did not anticipate that I had wanted to shape shift my whole entire life. In just 5 years I was able to sculpt the flesh and bone of others. It was quite the income stream back home. Even a few Toreador came to me for my fleshcrafting.

The Masquerade is just so dreadful. I have spent enough of my life pretending to be something I am not. But alas, my kind is hunted by those dogs that name themselves after torturers. So we can not be open. But that does not mean we have to hide. It does not mean that I can not take pride in my unlife. So I did. There are humans out there that fancy themselves “real” vampires. I am no gatekeeper, I am fine with it. I would like to make it true for all of them one day. But first I must render the Masquerade unnecessary. And before that I have to destroy the Inquisition. So much to do.

This work was my focus. Grand and overwhelming, I nearly lost touch with who I was. Then Irene came into my life. Irene Olivier was from a family much more fun than my own. A family too fun for their home country. They were from Saudi Arabia. They came to France on a tourist visa. Irene was born here. Her mother died when she was 16. Stomach cancer. Doctor thought she was being dramatic. Her father drank himself to death not long after. She bounced around foster care for a while. No one wanted a queer brown girl with a vampire fixation.

We met on her 22nd birthday. Her friends took to a fast food place to celebrate. I saw some broke gay goth girls giving their friend the best birth they could afford and it warmed me inside. They were awestruck when I came to them. I was a legend in Paris’s scene, and I ended up turning this makeshift celebration into the best night of their lives. I took them around. I showed them off. And me and Irene, we connected on a great many things. They chose that place because their nuggets are her favorite food. I relate to that more than you ever imagine. Our relationship has never ceased to be exciting since that night. I love her.

I am a pathologically open book. So Victoria made it clear I had to keep secrets from Lina, from Irene, from everyone. Paris was the capital of the Toreador clan, and a stronghold of the Camarilla. Victoria could pass herself off as a Rose, but she was a Fiend and a member of the Sabbat. That was the one thing she was not an open book to me about. I still know little of what she was doing for the Sabbat. What I do know, is that they have a better understanding of the Beast than the Camarilla. We do not cage the Beast, we tame it. When we frenzy we do not panic, we ride the wave. But the Sabbat are a doomsday cult that reached the accelerationist stage. So I would prefer they not get their way.

Victoria was able to hide her Sabbat status for years, but her house of cards came tumbling down. In 2020 a Camarilla goon squad raided her club. She was gone. I still know not where she is. The Camarilla knew I was her childe and brought me in. It was a kangaroo court, my guilt was already decided, it was a pageant. The only thing that was at stake was my punishment. While they were chittering over all the ways I could be humiliated before my final death I remembered things. Things mentioned in passing by the kindred I met. The Camarilla were the Ivory Tower and the Sabbat were the Sword of Caine. Cainites. Followers of the Caine mythe. I never bought it. I had nothing to lose by sharing that fact.

It saved my unlife. Or at least it gave grateful clients an excuse to spare my unlife. There is a group in Kindred society called the Bahari. They believe that Lilith was the First Vampire. To prove I was not Sabbat I was sent to their ministry in Paris. While I agree with them on who the original Kindred was, their masochism is something that I don’t understand. It is foolish. A reenactment of injustice. We should use Lilith’s gift to improve our unlives! We should indulge ourselves to spite those that would keep us under their boot! Pleasure, vice, and an avoidance of misery is my way of honoring our mother. Needless to say, the Bahari did not like me.

As of the time of this writing I am exiled from Europe. My new home is in Los Angeles. I am the queen of the nocturnal scene. Irene is with me, and Lina is in touch. Slowly but surely I am rebuilding what I lost.