The Downtown Eastside, poorest postal code in Canada, home to more drug addicts and prostitutes than there are moose in the Northwest Territories. Stretching along Hastings St. from Gore to Cambie, the DTES is a wallowing toilet of lives spiralling downward into despair.
Which is just how House Skavis wants things. Skavis is the family in the White Court that feeds on the emotion of hopelessness. Led by their patriarch, Victor, House Skavis has engineered the DTES into the perfect feeding ground. Nothing gets better, the sweet taste of despair is thick in the air, and if some Skavis should feed too hard, everyone assumes the victim just died of a drug overdose.
Victor took power from his father, Archturis in the 70s, and has forged his fiefdom into one of the strongest and most stable in Vancouver. His extended family in the city is estimated at about 15 vampires, which for a normal city of 600,000 would be extremely high, but the DTES can support them with no problem. This veritable army has helped cement Victor into a position of great authority, and he, along with 3-4 other major players, pretty much sets the policy for our community in the city.
As you would expect, House Skavis has their arms (fangs?) in the drug trade, as well as owning at least half of the police force and city council. His son, Alexander, runs the Portland Hotel Society, while his daughter Anastasia oversees the needle clinic.
The entire Skavis clan lives in the brand new Woodward building, overseeing their domain. Some outside have questioned why they allow the rapid gentrification of the area, but make no mistake, it is a win-win for the vampires. First, the despair of the poor will increase as they are edged out...but soon enough, it will be the despair of the condo owners as they too fall prey to the DTES.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Welcome to Vancouver, City of the West
Greetings, my anonymous “friends” in the blogosphere. If you're reading this, you either already know there's more out there than the average Joe knows, or you're probably on track to be visited by some decidedly “non-average” Joes who will want to know how you got here.
No, that's not a threat, that's just the truth. We live in a world that doesn't reward sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong.
I've created this blog to share with you the “truth” about Vancouver, the parts they don't talk about in the “Lonely Planet's Guide”. Vancouver, the Jewel of Western Canada, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, an ethnically diverse quilt of cultures and people living together in harmony.
Yeah. Right.
Let's try this my way: Welcome to Vancouver, murder capital of Canada, and home to all the sick, diseased and drugged out losers the rest of Canada prefers to ship our way. Vancouver, the city of soaring rents, slums and crime, all nicely hidden away from the ivory towers of Kitsilano or Kerrisdale. Vancouver, a den of police complacency or corruption.
Vancouver, where the people keep flooding in, because the rest of the province is EVEN WORSE.
Yeah that's right, the rubes keep coming, because however bad our city is, at least there's the illusion of jobs and hope here, unlike the back-woods, dying pits of hell that are most people's only alternative.
All that would be bad enough, but let's not forget the vampires, demons and other things that go bump in the night – in other words, us. We've got this city sectioned off into tiny little fiefdoms, and many areas are little more than hunting preserves for the most dangerous game.
Who am I? Just one of you, an inhabitant of the true dark side of the city. Stay with me, and maybe we can shed some light on what you're going to see in Van-city.
No, that's not a threat, that's just the truth. We live in a world that doesn't reward sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong.
I've created this blog to share with you the “truth” about Vancouver, the parts they don't talk about in the “Lonely Planet's Guide”. Vancouver, the Jewel of Western Canada, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, an ethnically diverse quilt of cultures and people living together in harmony.
Yeah. Right.
Let's try this my way: Welcome to Vancouver, murder capital of Canada, and home to all the sick, diseased and drugged out losers the rest of Canada prefers to ship our way. Vancouver, the city of soaring rents, slums and crime, all nicely hidden away from the ivory towers of Kitsilano or Kerrisdale. Vancouver, a den of police complacency or corruption.
Vancouver, where the people keep flooding in, because the rest of the province is EVEN WORSE.
Yeah that's right, the rubes keep coming, because however bad our city is, at least there's the illusion of jobs and hope here, unlike the back-woods, dying pits of hell that are most people's only alternative.
All that would be bad enough, but let's not forget the vampires, demons and other things that go bump in the night – in other words, us. We've got this city sectioned off into tiny little fiefdoms, and many areas are little more than hunting preserves for the most dangerous game.
Who am I? Just one of you, an inhabitant of the true dark side of the city. Stay with me, and maybe we can shed some light on what you're going to see in Van-city.
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