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Description
Interview with Two Vampires (Part III)

Would you be happy to answer some questions from one of our readers?
Aedan: Sure.

Bradan: No problem.
If it's not too personal, how were you turned? Together, or at different times?
Bradan: How were we turned? We got bit!

Aedan: (to Bradan) Bro! Don’t be a prick!

Bradan: (to questioner) Sorry, dude. It’s not a remarkable story. We were up late one night, drinking in the barn…

Aedan: …We used to live on a farm…

Bradan: …We had a bit too much – got a wee bit tipsy…

Aedan: …We were locked, Bro! Pissed… hammered… off our faces…

Bradan: Yeah, yeah… anyway, I’d passed out. Aedan heard someone coming into the barn and went to see who it was. He got grabbed from behind, was too drink to struggle much after being surprised, and the guy – turns out he was a vampire – bit him in the neck, deep.

Aedan: That pretty much pissed me off. Adrenalin kicked in and I fought back.

Bradan: I got woken up by all the ruckus. I sat up to see what was going on and next thing I knew, I got grabbed and bit myself. Like Aedan, I struggled and fought back.

Aedan: Anyway, back in those days times were rough, so you couldn’t get by with a clean fight, so we O’Shaughnessy Brothers learned to fight dirty. You know… go for the bollocks, grab hair, bite, that kind of thing. That’s what we did. Both ended up with gobs full of their blood.

Bradan: In the end, though, they overpowered us. I’m not saying we couldn’t hold our own in a fight, but when you’re up against vampires, there’s a strength there that’s tricky to go up against. In the end we just lost too much blood, and passed on. By the end of the fight there wasn’t much blood left for the vamps to feed on so they just left us there to be found.

Aedan: A few days later we woke up in coffins, six feet under.

Bradan: We Irish bury our dead pretty quick. It’s a catholic thing.

Aedan: Anyway, it took a while to dig ourselves out.

Bradan: Aedan got out first, saw me struggling, ‘coz we got buried next to each other, and helped me out. It didn’t take a genius to work out what happened. We both knew the stories, even back then.

Aedan: It was a dark time for us… feeding on people… but we still had our morals. We never killed. Just took what we needed to get by. That went on for a couple hundred years or so, ‘til the guilt got too much.

Bradan: We travelled a lot… Europe mostly… that’s when we ended up finding a witch who knew more about vampires than we did. He taught us that even if we don’t drink blood and get real hungry, we still won’t ‘die’, on account of already being dead.

Aedan: That’s when we went cold turkey. It was hell, but we got through it. We were weaker, but we weren’t hurting anyone anymore, so it was worth it.

Bradan: Years later…

Aedan: …more like centuries…

Bradan: …we found out that it’s iron that feeds a vampire, not necessarily from blood. So we gave that a try. We got our strength back, the hunger was gone, and from then on we’ve never touched a drop of blood. And that brings us up to today.
Are you still in contact with your sire?
Aedan: Oh, right. Yeah, we never covered that, did we.

Bradan: We came back to Ireland. By then we’d been long forgotten. Everyone we knew was long in the ground, but there were still stories of vampires. As luck would have it, we fell in with the right crowd, found a small vampire community, and the two who ‘sired’ us, as you put it, were a part of it.

Aedan: Long story short, we ended them.

Bradan: All of them.

Aedan: So no, we’re not still in contact with our ‘sires’ on account of them being dust.
Being almost 1k years old you guys have seen a lot. What was the most exciting era for you so far?
Both: *looking at each other*

Aedan: For me, probably the 1920s. You know, before the big crash. I know that’s pretty modern, but it was a wild time. We were in the States at that time. Gangsters… prohibition…sleazy dives and speakeasy bars. Movies were starting to take off in a big way too. It was pretty exciting for me.

Bradan: Me too, but to be honest I think life gets more and more exciting the more you live it, so I’m living my most exciting time right now. Rock ‘n’roll… cars… motorbikes… I love the 60’s, man!

Aedan: You’re hardly ‘living’ it, Bro… you’re dead!

Bradan: Well, I’m hardly deading it, am I?

Aedan: Fair point.
On the subject of immortality, how do you pass the time without getting bored?
Bradan: Dude, how can you get bored? There’s always something going on if you look hard enough.

Aedan: We work hard, we play hard. Everybody loves an Irishman. We’re friendly enough to anyone who’s friendly to us. We get a lot out of learning about people… who they are, what they like, all that kind of thing. Ask enough people and you’ll always find a party, or a poker game, or whatever they’re into. I guess that’s why we’ve got such a broad range of interests.

Bradan: The real entertainment in this world isn’t the variety of things to do… it’s all about who you do them with. It’s the variety of people that keeps us entertained.
What brought you to the circus?
Aedan: You mean the Carnival of Secrets? To be honest with you, it was just a job, at first. A guy has to get by somehow. Vampires don’t hoard wealth, no matter how old they are.

Bradan: To be fair, some do, but we’re not your typical neck-biters.

Aedan: The carnival was more of a “freak show” back then. Reg is the ‘living skeleton’, Wyatt’s the ‘strongman’, Rick;s the ‘human canvas’ on account of his tattoos…

Bradan: And we were the ‘Vampire Brothers’ on account of the teeth *huge grin*

Aedan: Of course, the rest of the troupe didn’t believe we were real vampires at first, just two guys with big fangs. It was enough to get us in the show and get us paid. You earned more if you could do something other than your “weirdness”. We’ve always been athletic, the pair of us, so we set ourselves up as acrobats. You know… trapeze, somersaults, that kind of thing.

Bradan: We’re pretty good at it too, on account of having quick reflexes… greater strength…

Aedan: Audiences started to decline in the late 50’s and the Carnival was struggling. Then the boss made off with a month’s worth of takings, and that same day Mr Tzin showed up and took over. We ditched the ‘Freak Show’, and those of us who are ‘different’ became curiosities in something that’s more of a means of entertainment than something to just stare at.

Bradan: The whole thing has been a revival. No two days are the same. That’s why I love the here and now.
Is the myth that vampires don't get along with werewolves true?
Bradan: Only insofar as some people just don’t get along with each other. There’s no real rivalry between vamps and wolves as such. Some vamp clans might have a feud going on with a wolf pack, but it’s not universal.

Aedan: I’ve met a few wolves who are fine with me being a vampire.

Bradan: Me too. They don’t all appreciate the jokes though. You know… ‘can you smell wet dog?’ But for the most part they’re fine.

Aedan: I will say one thing… Wolves beat vamps, hands down. They’re stronger, faster, bigger, and fight way dirtier.

Bradan: Doesn’t help that their blood is toxic to vampires.

Aedan: It won’t kill us, but it’ll knock seven shades of shite out of us for weeks.
Ever had to deal with vampire hunters?
Aedan: Only once. There weren’t any “vampire hunters” as such, they were “Witch-Finders”, but they hunted down any rumour of the supernatural, and vamps come under that heaing. It was around the late 1500’s in England. They still had one foot in the dark ages back then, and things were bad even before King James I had his thing about witchcraft. All kinds of superstitions were bouncing around, including vampires.

Bradan: Women got hung for being witches in England. They got burned in Scotland, and anyone who had even slightly pointed teeth in the same town or village where someone else ended up dead would have had their head cut off, body ripped into four pieces, with each piece being buried in separate graves.

Aedan: It kind of follows that we got the finger pointed at us. We had a couple of close shaves that year, which is why we headed overseas to America in 1587 with a bunch of colonists.

Bradan: Less said about that the better, eh, Bro?

Aedan: Too fucking right!
If I gave you my address...*eyebrow raise*
Both: *Broad smiles*

Bradan: Now, how could any sane man turn down an invitation like that? *wink*

Aedan: We’ll bring a bottle…

Bradan: …or three…

Aedan: We could play some poker…?

Bradan: …Strip poker…?

Aedan: …Maybe Bradan’ll show you his ‘Irish Angel’ tattoo…?

Bradan: *Broad grin*

Description
Interview with Two Vampires (Part III)

Would you be happy to answer some questions from one of our readers?
Aedan: Sure.

Bradan: No problem.
If it's not too personal, how were you turned? Together, or at different times?
Bradan: How were we turned? We got bit!

Aedan: (to Bradan) Bro! Don’t be a prick!

Bradan: (to questioner) Sorry, dude. It’s not a remarkable story. We were up late one night, drinking in the barn…

Aedan: …We used to live on a farm…

Bradan: …We had a bit too much – got a wee bit tipsy…

Aedan: …We were locked, Bro! Pissed… hammered… off our faces…

Bradan: Yeah, yeah… anyway, I’d passed out. Aedan heard someone coming into the barn and went to see who it was. He got grabbed from behind, was too drink to struggle much after being surprised, and the guy – turns out he was a vampire – bit him in the neck, deep.

Aedan: That pretty much pissed me off. Adrenalin kicked in and I fought back.

Bradan: I got woken up by all the ruckus. I sat up to see what was going on and next thing I knew, I got grabbed and bit myself. Like Aedan, I struggled and fought back.

Aedan: Anyway, back in those days times were rough, so you couldn’t get by with a clean fight, so we O’Shaughnessy Brothers learned to fight dirty. You know… go for the bollocks, grab hair, bite, that kind of thing. That’s what we did. Both ended up with gobs full of their blood.

Bradan: In the end, though, they overpowered us. I’m not saying we couldn’t hold our own in a fight, but when you’re up against vampires, there’s a strength there that’s tricky to go up against. In the end we just lost too much blood, and passed on. By the end of the fight there wasn’t much blood left for the vamps to feed on so they just left us there to be found.

Aedan: A few days later we woke up in coffins, six feet under.

Bradan: We Irish bury our dead pretty quick. It’s a catholic thing.

Aedan: Anyway, it took a while to dig ourselves out.

Bradan: Aedan got out first, saw me struggling, ‘coz we got buried next to each other, and helped me out. It didn’t take a genius to work out what happened. We both knew the stories, even back then.

Aedan: It was a dark time for us… feeding on people… but we still had our morals. We never killed. Just took what we needed to get by. That went on for a couple hundred years or so, ‘til the guilt got too much.

Bradan: We travelled a lot… Europe mostly… that’s when we ended up finding a witch who knew more about vampires than we did. He taught us that even if we don’t drink blood and get real hungry, we still won’t ‘die’, on account of already being dead.

Aedan: That’s when we went cold turkey. It was hell, but we got through it. We were weaker, but we weren’t hurting anyone anymore, so it was worth it.

Bradan: Years later…

Aedan: …more like centuries…

Bradan: …we found out that it’s iron that feeds a vampire, not necessarily from blood. So we gave that a try. We got our strength back, the hunger was gone, and from then on we’ve never touched a drop of blood. And that brings us up to today.
Are you still in contact with your sire?
Aedan: Oh, right. Yeah, we never covered that, did we.

Bradan: We came back to Ireland. By then we’d been long forgotten. Everyone we knew was long in the ground, but there were still stories of vampires. As luck would have it, we fell in with the right crowd, found a small vampire community, and the two who ‘sired’ us, as you put it, were a part of it.

Aedan: Long story short, we ended them.

Bradan: All of them.

Aedan: So no, we’re not still in contact with our ‘sires’ on account of them being dust.
Being almost 1k years old you guys have seen a lot. What was the most exciting era for you so far?
Both: *looking at each other*

Aedan: For me, probably the 1920s. You know, before the big crash. I know that’s pretty modern, but it was a wild time. We were in the States at that time. Gangsters… prohibition…sleazy dives and speakeasy bars. Movies were starting to take off in a big way too. It was pretty exciting for me.

Bradan: Me too, but to be honest I think life gets more and more exciting the more you live it, so I’m living my most exciting time right now. Rock ‘n’roll… cars… motorbikes… I love the 60’s, man!

Aedan: You’re hardly ‘living’ it, Bro… you’re dead!

Bradan: Well, I’m hardly deading it, am I?

Aedan: Fair point.
On the subject of immortality, how do you pass the time without getting bored?
Bradan: Dude, how can you get bored? There’s always something going on if you look hard enough.

Aedan: We work hard, we play hard. Everybody loves an Irishman. We’re friendly enough to anyone who’s friendly to us. We get a lot out of learning about people… who they are, what they like, all that kind of thing. Ask enough people and you’ll always find a party, or a poker game, or whatever they’re into. I guess that’s why we’ve got such a broad range of interests.

Bradan: The real entertainment in this world isn’t the variety of things to do… it’s all about who you do them with. It’s the variety of people that keeps us entertained.
What brought you to the circus?
Aedan: You mean the Carnival of Secrets? To be honest with you, it was just a job, at first. A guy has to get by somehow. Vampires don’t hoard wealth, no matter how old they are.

Bradan: To be fair, some do, but we’re not your typical neck-biters.

Aedan: The carnival was more of a “freak show” back then. Reg is the ‘living skeleton’, Wyatt’s the ‘strongman’, Rick;s the ‘human canvas’ on account of his tattoos…

Bradan: And we were the ‘Vampire Brothers’ on account of the teeth *huge grin*

Aedan: Of course, the rest of the troupe didn’t believe we were real vampires at first, just two guys with big fangs. It was enough to get us in the show and get us paid. You earned more if you could do something other than your “weirdness”. We’ve always been athletic, the pair of us, so we set ourselves up as acrobats. You know… trapeze, somersaults, that kind of thing.

Bradan: We’re pretty good at it too, on account of having quick reflexes… greater strength…

Aedan: Audiences started to decline in the late 50’s and the Carnival was struggling. Then the boss made off with a month’s worth of takings, and that same day Mr Tzin showed up and took over. We ditched the ‘Freak Show’, and those of us who are ‘different’ became curiosities in something that’s more of a means of entertainment than something to just stare at.

Bradan: The whole thing has been a revival. No two days are the same. That’s why I love the here and now.
Is the myth that vampires don't get along with werewolves true?
Bradan: Only insofar as some people just don’t get along with each other. There’s no real rivalry between vamps and wolves as such. Some vamp clans might have a feud going on with a wolf pack, but it’s not universal.

Aedan: I’ve met a few wolves who are fine with me being a vampire.

Bradan: Me too. They don’t all appreciate the jokes though. You know… ‘can you smell wet dog?’ But for the most part they’re fine.

Aedan: I will say one thing… Wolves beat vamps, hands down. They’re stronger, faster, bigger, and fight way dirtier.

Bradan: Doesn’t help that their blood is toxic to vampires.

Aedan: It won’t kill us, but it’ll knock seven shades of shite out of us for weeks.
Ever had to deal with vampire hunters?
Aedan: Only once. There weren’t any “vampire hunters” as such, they were “Witch-Finders”, but they hunted down any rumour of the supernatural, and vamps come under that heaing. It was around the late 1500’s in England. They still had one foot in the dark ages back then, and things were bad even before King James I had his thing about witchcraft. All kinds of superstitions were bouncing around, including vampires.

Bradan: Women got hung for being witches in England. They got burned in Scotland, and anyone who had even slightly pointed teeth in the same town or village where someone else ended up dead would have had their head cut off, body ripped into four pieces, with each piece being buried in separate graves.

Aedan: It kind of follows that we got the finger pointed at us. We had a couple of close shaves that year, which is why we headed overseas to America in 1587 with a bunch of colonists.

Bradan: Less said about that the better, eh, Bro?

Aedan: Too fucking right!
If I gave you my address...*eyebrow raise*
Both: *Broad smiles*

Bradan: Now, how could any sane man turn down an invitation like that? *wink*

Aedan: We’ll bring a bottle…

Bradan: …or three…

Aedan: We could play some poker…?

Bradan: …Strip poker…?

Aedan: …Maybe Bradan’ll show you his ‘Irish Angel’ tattoo…?

Bradan: *Broad grin*