Satanic Mechanic | home
Tes
In 1968, Theresa Margaret Bruce was born to Edward John Bruce and Margaret Ellen Cooper. But those are just names and dates. You'd understand more if I were to tell you as a child, Tessa loved playing with Lego, digging in her sandbox, dressing up her kittens, and somehow remembers watching the moon landing. Theresa Margaret attended Harvard's Graduate School of Design, specializing in Urban Planning. She ended up as a landscape designer for the rich and famous. On one of these projects, Tessa encountered a statue that changed the course of her life. A metal sculpture that somehow managed to look delicate in its spirals and twists, but the owner had let his tree grow through it. For the job, she was forced to separate the two, killing the tree… but it inspired her to make more works like it. Tessa took a night course in welding while Theresa Margaret continued to design parks, atriums and estates during the day. When she turned 21, Tessa finished her first statue. She combined living branches with metal, and included a feeding system to keep the branches alive and growing. The branches were from the original tree, and the finished result looked like the original inspiration… except the metal seemed to be taking over the organic… She loved it for a day. Then hated it, and started a new project.
Tessa experimented with combinations of different forms. Metal and Clay, Metal and Ivory, Metal and Organics, Ivory and Clay… combining the organic and the inorganic intrigued her. Theresa Margaret continued with her work during the day, using her parents' contacts to get herself lucrative jobs. When Tessa, one night was approached by a club owner who was interested in purchasing some of her works, she was immediately intrigued by this new form of combination. Piercing, she discovered, was another way of combining the organic and the inorganic. So she had her septum pierced. The pain was excruciating, but beautiful. She wanted more. During the day, Theresa Margaret flipped her piercing into her nose, to continue her work. At night, Tessa pulled it forward again, and started work on another piece to commemorate the pain.
As the years passed, Theresa Margaret became more and more in demand in her field. Tessa, as a result had more money with which to be more creative. That club owner bought several more of her works, as did others. Tessa also got more piercings started attending the clubs that displayed her art. She also ended up shaving her head and getting a few tattoos. She also picked up a few wigs and some makeup to complete her transformation into Theresa Margaret.
Theresa Margaret was also busy. She put together an art gallery for sculptures. Tessa's work was to be the main display. The gala opening was a huge success. Many of Theresa Margaret's clients attended - including the owner of that first inspirational piece. Very few recognised the similarity between Theresa Margaret and the photo of the artist. One in particular noticed, however. And It's notice changed the life of Tessa.
On her own at last she came to grips with her new life quite quickly. She had become so used to change that she couldn't help the speed at which she adapted. She'd spent her time combining two opposites in her art, that it made sense. She was both human and non-human, and she embraced that. She also had no need for the art anymore. Her tools were her hands and her new abilities. She could now concentrate more on the change of herself. The pain was so beautiful. She spent months playing with her features, experimenting… When she was finally satisfied with her work, she no longer resembled anything she'd ever been before. She was now Tes.
* * *
An addendum to the background....
Me and Tes go out driving together often. She and I like to spend a few hours of each day just BEING with nature, but sometimes there are nights when we just can't spare the time… so to make up for days (or weeks) like that, she and I go out driving. Needles to say, it happens fairly often. Anyway, so we drive out, to like the country. We take the most scenic routes we can, we usually end up driving fast, and we sing along to music. This isn't normal, modern, music though. I've got this CD I made with all of those good oldies that you just can't help but singing along with… the ones that always cheer one up (The Archies, The Foundations, Simon & Garfunkle… and you can't forget Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild). Tes loves that shit. She's such a silly little beast. So, we drive up. Sometimes we stay out longer than we really should, but those are times after we've really missed our little nighttime ritual for a while. Tes always seems to be more on edge after a long time without just looking at the stars, and listening to the nighttime sounds, so I take her out to the country. She loves the car, and adores singing along with happy oldies. We usually get out someplace and just meditate for hours. Then we eventually head back. Sometimes if we stay out too long, or venture too far, I find a shack for us to crash in. People have told me it's too dangerous venturing out so far, but I like it. Tes and I can take care of ourselves.
There was this one time, some dude came up to us all territorial and stuff, and interrupted our meditation to ask us what we were doing there. I replied:
"Communing with Nature, what does it look like?"
He got all friendly then, and started asking me all this ritualistic-sounding questions, but I ignored him - I wanted to get back to my quiet-time. Then he did this sniffing thing, and tried to kill us. He got all big and hairy and full of clawy goodness, and I was like:
"Is that all? That's easy. Here look how I do it better"
… and I turned into something that looked just like him (down to the same markings and smell - ugh), but bigger and with bigger claws. I growled, and he sorta ran away. I think he was young. Tes and I laughed about that for hours afterwards. I suppose I could've been nicer about it, but he'd just interrupted our meditation.
Oh? Yeah, I'm a vampire. It's kinda the same as being human, just you have this beast half kicking around that you don't have any control over. Me, I deal with the situation better than most. I just figured getting along with my other half instead of trying to control it would me a little more productive… Not like I haven't had to deal with another half before. Before, I had a different persona for both day and night. They were - like day and night - completely different people. But don't get me wrong, I'm not crazy or anything. I just did different things depending on where the sun was in the sky. During the day, I used to make people's lawns pretty. At night I used to go clubbing and create. After, I couldn't exactly have a daytime persona anymore, so she sorta died. That's okay, cause now I have Tes.