cooperation | Glowfic Constellation

kaolinandbone

So gravity points 'down' while simultaneously causing orbits. Or maybe the orbits are done by something different, after all this is a crazy world with only half a moon. Why doesn't anything live on the underside of the world, since apparently the reason isn't "it'll fall off?"

The encyclopedia coughs up a summary of colonization attempts. Apparently nobody wants to live there because looking at an expanse of flat nothingness is depressing and you need to import topsoil to grow anything. No projects have accumulated sufficient stable populations to warrant putting in a teleportation circle.

kaolinandbone

And that offhand mention of teleportation circles implies interesting things about how common magic is in this world and its local cultural position. Though she supposes the children learning magic in school ought to have tipped her off.

Well. At this point, it appears that speaking to Keo about her unusual dietary requirements is unlikely to get her killed.

Keo? Have a moment to talk about my species?

Sure. What species are you?

kaolinandbone

Offworld Vampire. Have a moment to drop in? Even if I do have mental powers myself, talking to you in my mind when you're nowhere near me is unsettling.

Just a tick.

Slightly more than a tick later Keo appears.

kaolinandbone

Isabella waves from her chair.

"Personal teleportation seems awfully convenient."

"It is. So you're going to need blood? Perhaps under different constraints than local vampires?"

kaolinandbone

"I am uncertain what constraints local vampires have, but mine are that it has to be from an intelligent being, as close to human as possible, as fresh as possible. From the living vein or artery is best, but as long as it's still warm it's probably good. That's a time restriction, not a temperature one. So, a minute or two. Even dead blood can be of some help, though."

She pauses. "Though it's possible that nobody here qualifies as 'human' enough for my magic's purposes, in which case we will either need to summon some of my blood-servants from inside my castle or I will be spending most of my time here unconscious."

"There are humans. Saasnil's a human, for instance. I don't know that we'll want to summon people for you while you yourself are still confined to ward but we can send your servants a letter and summon blood they draw for you, if local humans won't do. What kind of quantity on what kind of schedule? Are you hungry now?"

kaolinandbone

"I'm not hungry currently. Weekly for comfort, monthly for... Not exactly survival, as my local type of vampire I'm immortal unless I die in very specific circumstances, but for me to continue functioning. If I don't eat for much longer than that, I will begin to uncannily resemble a corpse, up until someone with a pulse strays too close to me, at which point we will both regret the situation."

"We'll try you on some of Saasnil's blood. Will a measure -" Keo looks around and picks up a drinking glass from Korulen's desk. "This glass would hold about five measures, full - will a measure be enough to tell if you'll do all right on local humans?"

kaolinandbone

"Yes, likely. Animal blood tastes disgusting to me; I'd expect local blood to taste the same if it doesn't work."

"Okay. Saasnil's gone to the light's office to draw it; the pushing diagram's already set up and she'll send it in that way. A cup will do? Local vampires need pressurized containers."

kaolinandbone

"A cup will do. I'm uncertain why you would need a pressurized container- do local vampires process blood with their stomachs, or is there some biological oddity there?"

"They don't really have stomachs, and they suck it up through their fangs," says Keo, "which don't exert very much suction on their own."

kaolinandbone

"Ah. I can have fangs, but I ingest blood much as I would any other food. The fangs are just there to pierce the skin."

Isabella frowns. "Oh, by the way. You should know that being fed upon repeatedly by my kind of vampire comes with health risks. Even if local blood works, I'll want to spread out my feedings across multiple people to minimize that."

"What are the risks?" inquires Keo.

kaolinandbone

"About a month between light feedings is safe; closer than that will cause a loss of sense of self, then amnesia, then loss of intelligence, then intense depression and suicidal tendencies, in that order in ninety-nine point nine nine percent of cases. I stress that these are effects of chronic exposure, and for an acute exposure I would have to actually bite someone, rather than drink drawn blood."

Keo nods.

A cup of blood appears.

kaolinandbone

Isabella takes a sip, then makes an interesting face.

"It... Doesn't taste bad, but that's because it doesn't taste like anything. And it certainly doesn't seem filling."

She takes another cautious sip.

"I doubt I could survive on this, though at least it's not poisoning me. Will you check with Sassnil and make sure that he's not experiencing any unforeseen side-effects?"

"She says she feels fine. Should she be checking anything else?"

kaolinandbone

"Nothing springs immediately to mind that I haven't already mentioned. If your magic is exceedingly strange she might possibly experience a sudden fondness for me, which would be the result if she had drank my blood, but I don't know of any reason why it would be reversed like that."

"She has not experienced this result," says Keo dryly. "So we're going to need to summon blood from your servants? Do you want to write the letter to them explaining the situation?"

kaolinandbone