Meeting September 21

Lina was putting the finishing touches on the cider as I walked into the True Blood Anonymous group meeting room. There were a few others as well. God Speed and Westexan were chatting about a special effect he was planning for the party and Eric Lover and iluvtheviking were looking over Linzy's shoulder at a picture of their favorite Vampire. Nia and Isabella were discussing the yummy tee-shirt they found in a catalog with our True Blood Gang of Bill, Eric, Sookie, Sam and Maryann featured on the front it. Nia pouted a little over the fact that Bill's face wasn't larger. "Or at least in the center of the tee-shirt so it would rest on my heart, like this one," she said, stroking the tee shirt she was wearing as though the man himself were reclined against her. I smiled...I shared her opinion. There just could not be enough pictures of the most handsome Vampire on True Blood...well, as far as I was concerned.

Hoyt and Dude and Minnie were discussing a few things they saw in season one they wanted to bring up in group. I sat big bag of crazy down on the chair and went to get my cup of cider and some sort of cinnamon twist pastry Raki brought and was about to sit down when Hoyt and Dude called me over. They asked me about what I thought about the topic they wanted to discuss and I told them to go ahead, knock themselves out, it would make for lively discussion, anyhow.

I went and sat down and Vi came and sat down with me.

"I saw that note you put up. I got a little note too," said Vi.
"I love getting letters in the mail. I would write to Satan himself if I thought he would write me back," I said. I am sort of old fashioned, and while I appreciate this modern world and it's new way of communicating, I liked the romance of the old way. People invested more of themselves when they wrote letters and were far more intimate in the hand written letter. Just holding the letter from our counselor was like holding some tiny bit of the man himself in the palm of my hand. "Have you gotten many letters from him Vi?" I asked

"I have received a few letters from him. But now that he has written you, he will write you often. It's so fun and so old fashioned," she said. Vi loved history and loved the way things were done "back then". Vi and I were sisters from another mother. "What did those two want?"
"They want to talk about Season One, Episode Three....that is such a tricky episode in my book. It troubles me," I said.
"It troubles me too," said Vi. Eric Lover and came and sat down in her usual spot. She looked at me and smiled.
"Been raiding Bill's closet, Aslinn?" she asked. I looked down at the raisin colored henley I was wearing.
"Yeah, I put it on when I got out of bed this morning and headed home," I joked, though I really could not remember how I got this shirt or when I bought it. Must be one of those don't ask, don't tell, 'a m*ther f@cker don't have to know everything they done did' type situations. "I see you are wearing your special shirt." Eric Lover was wearing a long sleeve black athletic shirt under a red Fangtasia shirt. How she got her shirt was identical to how I got mine, so she just smiled broadly at me as well.

Liz and Mel came in and got their treats and sat down by Renee and TBF. VCat had been MIA for a few weeks and I was worried about her. I reminded myself to write to her and check on her. The group finally began to settle into their accustomed places and waited for the signal group was to start. When it came, I rolled my eyes around as I sipped my cider, tasting the brandy in it. I could see the shadowy form of the lead counselor, leaning with his back against the door and my counselor sitting in his usual place. By the look on God Speed's face, I could tell that the female counselor and her young protege was in their place by the back door.

"It is 32 1/2 weeks of the hiatus, how are you all holding up?" asked the lead counselor.
"Okay," said Liz. "It is always a little slow while we wait for the next season, but we have been doing our radio show and posting contests and finding news for the forum and the home page."
"You have a very excellent web site, very high rent. I visited another forum very nearly like yours and most of the posts are so old, there has hardly been any movement at all on the forum. It surprised me on some levels, but then again, you simply don't have the same caliber of people on that forum as there are on the your forum," said the lead counselor.
"Well, thank you for saying so," said Liz. "There are a few bugs that have to be worked out, but so far we seem to be up and running."
"What shall we talk about tonight?" asked my counselor.

"I wanted to talk about something in first season. Is that alright?" asked Hoyt.
"Certainly," said the lead counselor.
"Well, we are getting ready to watch episode three, the one with the three evil Vampires in it sniffing up Sookie. What I want to know is why? Why does Bill let them do that to Sookie?" he asked.
"I think," began Vi, "Bill wanted to sort of teach Sookie a lesson. And then of course, Bill was out numbered and Malcolm was much older than Bill and much stronger."
"You don't think there was some ulterior motive in this, that Bill wanted Sookie to be afraid of Vampires so she would just want to be around him?" asked Dude.
"Maybe, but Bill hadn't claimed her as his yet. Maybe he just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make this play for Sookie in front of Sookie, so she would feel like he had a claim on her," said Westexan.
"Maybe he just wanted to teach Sookie a lesson about being cautious around Vampires, that not all Vampires are even working at a pretense to mainstreaming," said Eric Lover.
"Do you think Bill is really mainstreaming?" asked Minnie, our quietest member.

I thought about it for a moment. Was he really mainstreaming?

"I think he is doing his best to mainstream, but I don't think any of the Vampires really know how to go about mainstreaming, not really. It is an untested word for them," I said.
"How do you mean Aslinn?" asked my counselor. I closed my eyes for a second, savoring the soft sound of my counselor's voice.
"I mean, they are trying to explore what it means to be a Vampire in human society. They haven't trusted us for years and we have always thought they were mythological, and according to myths, they were evil, so we don't trust them either. They have seen us as prey for so many years, and we have seen them as predators. How do you go from being a mythic, demonized, but romanticized and mysterious creature to the bloke next door, discussing property taxes and the price of gas over a Bud Light and a Tru:Blood?" I said.
"Can they do that?" asked Liz. "Or is it impossible?"
"It may be for any of them to completely mainstream, like Bill. He will always be who he is, a Vampire, a killer. Maybe his motivations are different, he does kill bad people, but he is a killer. I think he tries to honestly mainstream while Eric mainstreams primarily for gain, the bar, other things," I suggested.
"Other things meaning Sookie?" asked iluvtheviking.
"Well, yeah, I mean Eric has no use for other humans except to make money from them or to feed from them. So, one of his few motivators to more than he does by way fo mainstreaming is to win Sookie. She would not want to be with him if he didn't try harder at being mainstream. She hates the fact he is all wound up in Vampire politics," I said.
"So, do you think Eric will try harder to be more human because of Sookie?" asked Eric Lover.
"No, I think he will try to explore what being human means because of his maker. Godric wanted it that way, not just for his child, but for all Vampires, so there could be real unity. But I don't think Godric was convinced that Vampires could recapture their humanity, that was why he told Eric that they were wrong, that they didn't belong here," I said. "Discovering that humanity may be the end of them, just as it was for Godric."
"But not all Vampires want to mainstream," observed Nia.
"You are quite right," said our counselor.
"I don't think that will matter to humans like the Newlins," said Isabella.
"I don't think so either," said Hoyt.

"I think we should leave it right there until next week," said the lady counselor.

We headed out into the night, our minds full of the discussion and the party and the road trip we were about to take to see the Connection, despite the counselor's warnings not to go and see her.