"On the other hand, some projects are too important on a scale of days to be delayed and postponed until one is absolutely sure they can do something that will work, and sometimes important tradeoffs must be made early even in decades-or-centuries-long projects that require one to have as much information as they can as early as they manage."

"You do have a point about proper planning... But I fail to imagine a project that depends on learning about my kind faster than I would like you to."

"Oh I was just making a general point. I mean, my current project is 'eradicating involuntary death,' so if your kind has something relevant to it I would very much love to learn it as soon as possible, but otherwise it is merely my curiosity at stake."

"I will not die until and unless every one of my trees perish. I do not know how to share this property."

She nods. "Yeah don't think that'll help."

"Perhaps you should speak with Professor Stetson. He knows the sort of things that cause humans and mer to die well."

"That could be pretty useful, for any humans who don't want to turn into vankires and if that doesn't work for mer."

"...Turn into your kind? That is a highly dangerous proposition. It will alarm many."

"Yeah, I know. And I'm not about to just go turning people all willy-nilly, and I'd never do it nonconsensually. Dealing with newborns is hard and dealing with a vankire population nigh impossible sans some pretty impressive infrastructure."

The deer has been paying very close attention to the last minute or so of conversation.

"It seems. That it might be useful for you to know whether mighty Knights of my kind can successfully confine 'newborns'."

"It could be, yes. There are a few tricks to it, newborn-wrangling isn't impossible even if they're stronger than the average mature vampire and even the stronger mature vampire."

"You imitated a newborns strength, before." He's not going to outright ask for the contest. That's rude.

"I did. Do you want me to go there again, and see if you can contain me?"

"It would be interesting."

The dryad chuckles. It sounds eerie. "That's practically challenging you to a duel, for him."

The reltik stamps one hoof in irritation.

She smiles. "Okay, so, the biggest advantage you would have against a newborn is intelligence. Not that newborns are unintelligent, exactly—they have as much mental space and capacity as any vankire, and that's quite a lot—but that's also their disadvantage, because they're not going to be used to dealing with how overwhelming everything is, they will fight inefficiently and have very little in the way of form or strategy." She starts shrinking her wings back down.

He nods. "There are ways to take advantage of inexperienced fighters. I take it illusions of humans could be distracting? Perhaps a heartbeat and the smell of blood, as well."

"If you can do heartbeat and smell of blood that would be immensely useful against a newborn, yeah. The instinct to fight for their prey might still win out, but it would definitely distract them. How realistic are your illusions? Can they do ultraviolet?"

"I am fairly sure one can be made for that. Depending on which illusion type - failure to move quite like a human and looking different depending on the viewer, or being a recording and having identical actions after observing for a time, and passing through solid objects if they intersect. The heartbeats will be convincing even to boosted senses, I think. Music from stones is incredibly high quality. The blood would be real blood, preserved under artifacts."

"I'd like to verify that, but to a frenzied newborn, it's likely to be enough."

"I do have some of my most favored musicians recorded on one of these... It is quite the same as hearing them produce the music live, to my ears."

Something classical-ish starts playing. The recording quality is really good, and Sadde can hear the musicians' breathing and heartbeats under the music. 

"Yeah, that's very good. But heartbeat for heartbeat, you have a heartbeat, that won't be quite enough to distract a newborn. The sight and the blood are going to be the cinchers."

"I do not have the relevant illusions prepared. Or any blood."

She nods. "That's alright, if it can be arranged it should be pretty good. Other tips: use their momentum against them, newborns are likely to throw all their weight at you and their inefficiency can cost them a lot. Rip their arms off, the pain should distract them. And no matter what don't let them wrap their arms around you or anyone else."

"While it is good to be prepared, I sincerely hope these tactics are not necessary any time soon. Also, I would like to try hindering your movement, as a test. I do not plan to rip your arms off."

"Yeah, I'm just running through the basics before starting to pretend I'm a newborn. Do rip my arms off if you need to, though, vankires can just reattach them and I in particular can grow new ones. Plus no pain you could possibly visit on me could possibly hold a nanometric candle to the pain of turning. Really."