[VOICE]

[primogen_vampirate]

[Mina is intensely angry and unhappy. And she's making little attempt to keep that fact unknown. It's more or less radiating out of every syllable.]

I don't suppose any of you mechanically-minded individuals can salvage my kitchen appliances out of that disaster?

Not that it matters much, but if people keep showing up at this rate, eventually someone is going to be forced to live with me. I would rather they could probably heat and cook their own food than resort to eating me.

[Locked to Bruce]

How are the medical supplies holding up? I have a small stockpile, if you need something.

Comments

[primogen_vampirate]

Yes. That and plenty of rest.

[burnburnburn]

I'm tired of being tired. I'm bored of resting. How long until I can go for a run without feeling like I'm being stabbed?

[primogen_vampirate]

If you're a compliant patient, about four weeks.

[She gives him a challenging look.]

[burnburnburn]

[That news is met with utter disgust]

A whole Moon?! If I don't train for that long I'll lose my tone completely!

[primogen_vampirate]

I highly doubt that.

Besides, if you aggravate the injury before then, you could do far worse.

[burnburnburn]

[More sounds of disgust before he gingerly feels the bandages to assess her work]

There's got to be at least one demon around here with magical powers to make this go away.

[primogen_vampirate]

Do you really want to trust your biology to magic?

[burnburnburn]

[He has to think about that for a moment, for as little as he likes magic he also dislikes being in pain]

If it was someone I knew who had my back, perhaps. There's no one I'd trust here like that.

[primogen_vampirate]

Then stick to science. Our bodies know what to do. We need to trust them.

[burnburnburn]

[That evicts a humourless little laugh]

Science? That's what you call the Sorcery of your world, isn't it? I've never met a single Sorcerer who didn't jump at the chance to push any boundary they could find.

[primogen_vampirate]

[She gives him a dull look.]

No.

[burnburnburn]

[He frowns. Just when he thinks he's getting a hang on what these foreigners mean...]

Then what do you call people who experiment and build machines?

[primogen_vampirate]

Engineers, generally.

Engineers, scientists, doctors, and sorcerers. Three very separate things.

[burnburnburn]

They're mostly separate things in Zaibach too. The Sorcerers are the designers and the experimenters. Engineers are the ones who build the successful machines and keep them repaired. Doctors have their own discipline, though there's branches of Sorcery that deal with living things.

[primogen_vampirate]

Well, no matter.

I assure you, I keep my sorcery and my medicine very separate.

[burnburnburn]

[The reaction is instant: he jerks away from her, his eyes pinpricking in shock]

You're a Sorcerer?! What sort of one?

[primogen_vampirate]

Not a sorcerer. More like...a witch.

[burnburnburn]

[His eyes narrow. A witch is a witch, but perhaps not in other worlds]

And what do witches do on your world?

[primogen_vampirate]

[She raises an eyebrow.]

No one, prescribed thing.

This witch is a doctor.

[burnburnburn]

I thought you were a vampire?

[primogen_vampirate]

It's complicated semantics. "Witch" is just the easiest word for it.

[burnburnburn]

[He's still watching her very suspiciously]

Then untangle it for me, since we're too foreign to each other for you to just make sense.

[primogen_vampirate]

[Sigh.]

Vampire society is divided into five covenants. The Invictus are the feudalists. The Carthians are the democrats. The Ordo Dracul are the scientists. The Lancae Sanctum are the Catholic twits. And the Circle of the Crone are practitioners of blood magic. My covenant is the Circle of the Crone. Therefore, their secrets have been passed on to me.

[burnburnburn]

[He doesn't like the sound of blood magic at all, but the name of her covenant makes him smirk]

You don't look quite like a crone just yet.

[primogen_vampirate]

Members of the covenant aren't crones, they just worship the Crone.

Consider it a deity.