Vampire Killer

The entry title has a double meaning, as I often enjoy doing.

Firstly, and more immediate to today, it is a reference to the Castlevania series of video games, of which I am a long-time fan.  That doesn't completely sum it up, though; there is something about the series that I have found inspirational in a deep way, and I'm not completely sure I can put a finger on it, but I will try.

A few years ago, a bit before I met the lovely lady who would become my wife, I had a dramatic change in my life.  It was a rebirth for me, where I found my true authentic self and started claiming my happiness, my spirit, and my power back.  I finally ended an emotionally abusive twelve-year-long marriage when I stopped being what someone else wanted me to be.  I turned away from the rigid, judgmental, and sterile Church of my upbringing when I found a true connection to the Divine through a Pagan path.  And I claimed my power, when I started to finally be what I had always wished I was--or really, what I had always known I needed to be, but had never imagined to be possible before.

As a culmination of this process of rebirth, I was granted the opportunity to rename myself, legally:  I could choose any name I wanted for myself--first, middle, and last.  I 'tried on' a couple of different last names, ones that honored a grandparent, or a great-grandparent... but in the end, the thing that felt right to me was to name myself for the line of inspirational heroes from the games I loved, those heroes who faced daunting odds and impossible challenges, all to oppose an immortal adversary that can never truly be defeated, but has to be continually controlled.

And this is why, today, I am a Belmont.

The creator of many of my favorite Castlevania stories, Koji Igarashi, wants to continue making more of this kind of games and stories, and despite publishers telling him that nobody wants 'those games' anymore, the public is telling him differently through his Kickstarter project, which is ending today.  I am backing him with $125 (for 2 backer-exclusive copies of his new game) so far, and I'm tempted to go higher even though I probably shouldn't.

IGA, I hope you get to keep telling your stories forever.  I will be there to enjoy them all; I am, after all, a Belmont.

---------------------------------------

The other thing that the title refers to might actually be the more important of the two, at least as it affects my spiritual well-being:  The psychic vampire that I had been forced to work with as part of my job is no more.  Or at least, she's gone somewhere else, which is just as good; the point is, she no longer works with me.

I'd like to take credit for this victory, actually; it was after she (literally!) asked me to be "her champion" (against our boss!), and instead I finally stood up for myself and told her how it would be, that she abandoned her job.

I have to say, I could immediately feel the difference once I knew she had left for the final time to turn in her work property and that thread had been cut.  I'm feeling much more positive this past week, and I am looking forward to restoring my physical and spiritual health back to where it was before she came in to my life.

I guess I wouldn't be a real Belmont if I had never had to defeat a vampire...  :b

(I'll just hope I don't have to go round up her body parts and fight her again to get things back to normal.  Simon can keep that nonsense to himself--I will be happy to never get a sequel, personally.  She can be someone else's problem in 100 years.)