"That seems weird to me and also this world doesn't have the stereotype yet. But didn't the centaur say fate saw it that way?"

"Yes, but it's also not just a stereotype? The only thing that could keep me away from you for very long would be your own desires, right now."

"And vice versa, sooner or later. Hm."

"The magic seems to know what it's doing. I feel like we would have been fast friends for sure even if you were still human."

"Probably," she agrees. "And I think I'd have developed a crush on you pretty quickly, too."

"Oh man I probably wouldn't have realized for ages and ages. Socially oblivious, my friends call me sometimes."

"I'd have told you, don't worry. The idea to tell you about the mate bond immediately didn't come from nowhere."

"Probably a good choice. Days of confusion from me any other way. And I'd have thought you were a stalker."

"Well. That could be a reasonable description anyway. When we met and you went to class I literally stood there waiting for you for hours, and after the centaur gave me that prophecy about you I was near your building until I heard someone calling security about me."

"Um. I'm glad someone was security conscious enough to call it in?"

"Yeah it's reasonable, I just wasn't thinking straight." She shrugs. "Anyway. Have you eaten?"

"Yeah. Sorry if you wanted to buy something yummy for me again."

"Nah—well, I like giving you things to eat since you won't really eat anything you'll like after you turn before we invent minimally tasty synthetic blood, but I was mainly concerned about the time and the possibility you might've gotten distracted by work."

Shrug. "It's not like food and cooking is a vitally important part of me. When you put it like that though I kind of want to go on a food tourism trip. Heh."

"We could totally arrange that if you want," sayth she who cannot say no to Terel.

"Well, then I'd have to weigh limited-time deliciousness experiences off of getting a head start on several human lifetimes of fascinating engineering work."

"Don't forget that with a vankire brain it is much easier to fit several human lifetimes' worth of knowledge."

Shrug. "Yeah. I'm still not inclined to rush into it - things to wrap up, finish being human, if nothing else. That probably doesn't make any sense."

"Nah, I get what you mean. So that's a point in favour of food tourism."

"Hmm. Guess that means I should probably just drop the campus meal plan. Three restaurants a day until we run out of them here, go to Windvale or further on weekends. If food is so important, that is."

"I never liked food that much, even before I was turned, but I also got turned on very short notice, so I was just, you know, informing you of things you might want to know since you have about as much advance notice as is currently possible."

He nods. "And thanks for it. Food isn't paramount, but I guess I will miss it. I don't need to tour exotic lands looking for rare spices but I would like to eat well from now until then, since money isn't a particular concern."

"Nope. Millionaire in two days sets a good precedent."

"You know, if we want to get computers implemented very fast - short term figure out what shortcuts we can make with magic, and how to integrate the two, start working on manufacturing ability. But once we're making them we'll need a ton of people who know how to use them and fix them. Think we'll want to start a computer school eventually?"

"Probably, but tutorials for the basics are easy enough to make, and I'm betting golemcrafters will have a pretty easy time with it, modulo using base two as opposed to base four."

"Hm, I think it's more adjustment than you think. But sure. Cross that line when we come to it."