[ that's a chilling, disturbing thought: losing all that makes him unique. the definition she provides him with is so broad, it could mean anything from his vampirism, his electromagnetism, or even ability to speak multiple languages and his genius intellect. ]
Uncommon might as well be my middle name. What about you?
[ nikola doesn't always know what's good for him, as being impossibly smart doesn't always mean he has the best common or social sense around, but thankfully decides against being a pain in the ass in this moment. ]
Yennefer. I'd say the pleasure was all mine, but I'm not sure meeting under these circumstances counts as a positive experience. Neverthelessβ [ still a product of the era he was born into in spite of how much he acclimates to the world as it changes and grows, nikola holds out a hand. ] Nikola.
I'm not sure it's ever a pleasure here, if I am completely honest. (and she almost never is. she's also known for not always using her common sense, something they have in common. but luckily she has met enough people that she knows what handshakes are and so she takes his hand in hers and gives it a firm shake.)
[ it's a good thing he didn't have to explain what a handshake was. he would've done it in the worst possible way and gone out of his way to insult northern europeans and americans while doing so. ]
A little less than a year. (and for the longest time she didn't try to get out because...well, she thought she was dead back home. it turns out she isn't and that does change things.)
[ so does he, though he hasn't been here long enough to commit everyone's names and faces to his eidetic memory. doesn't help that not everyone uses the network and that a place such as this is far vaster than he would have imagined had he ever sat down and seriously entertained the notion of hell existing. ]
I've been here about a month and a half. One month and fifteen days, if you want to get technical. I can give you it down to the millisecond, but most prefer not to have those specifics.
[ which doesn't stop him from making those specific calculations himself. the problem with his genius is that his mind simply doesn't turn off, which was a problem for him in the three short decades he spent before his vampire dna was brought out of dormancy. chronic insomnia and sleepless nights would have likely led to some sort of downfall for him as his life progressed if it weren't for a fact that vampires required little sleep. ]
I take it a hospital becoming someone's sick idea of an escape room over night isn't unheard of here?
(pay attention, that is. aretuza taught her social politics as much as it taught her magic.)
I don't know what an escape room is, but what's going on right now is not unusual. Apparently Mammon wanted to renovate the place.
(it's fairly obvious by her tone of voice that she does not care for mammon in particular -- being unwillingly tied to a demon lord will cause some biases, after all.)
[ nikola blames his upbringing as a once-devout eastern orthodox christian on him having any prior knowledge of mammon. his photographic memory having absorbed those sections of the holy scripture long ago to be recalled for far longer than the staunch atheist he's become has ever wanted to. ]
It's a life-size puzzle game. People pay to get locked in somewhere and they have to find their way out. Not my cup of tea, but plenty of people enjoy it. Though I doubt any of the people locked behind those doors are.
[ a roll of his eyes. ] Hire an interior decorator like everyone else. No need to be so dramatic about a redesign.
You can smell it from here? (she's not surprised, just curious. geralt had senses like that, so she's not unfamiliar with them, but he's not a witcher.)
What are you? (never one to beat around the bush.)
[ a nod of confirmation. he's no stranger to catching the scent of blood on the wind, but it's been decades since he's been in the position to pick up on it in such horrifying ways. not since the second world war. ]
(while yennefer has many abilities due to her magic, heightened senses has never been one of them, unless she purposefully tries to do it. she's listened to people's heartbeats before, to get a beat on them.)
You must be one of the rare higher ones -- we have ones with your level of intelligence and control in my world but they're very uncommon.
(even most higher vampires like the bruxa still have difficulty when it comes to their thirst for blood.)
[ oh, there was most certainly difficulty to be found in dealing with the scent of blood. it was tantalizing, to say the least, but he wasn't the type of man to be lured by its scent. he'd had a lot of practice when it came to resting and holding himself at bay, something he imagined was far easier for him than it was for his vampiric counterparts from other worlds where vampires were closer to what he saw as fiction than his reality.
a snort: ] My level of intelligence. I'm a genius. Intelligent is the understatement of the century.
[ he couldn't say for sure if other vampires were as smart as he was, for the only other vampire he'd had the (dis)pleasure of meeting had been a queen hellbent on reclaiming her right to rule. she'd viewed him as some sort of mongrel and had intended on harming helen, so she'd had to go. there hadn't been time to ask any of the questions he desired answers to. ]
A sorceress. Can't say those exist where I'm from, though there have been plenty of people with unusual skillsets and abilities that have been deemed witchcraft by those who didn't understand them and feared them.
(there were different breeds of vampire in yennefer's world, some more monstrous than others. most of them dangerous. a few blended in with humans as if they belonged, even able to go into daylight, but they were uncommon.
she snorts, as if amused by the correction.)
My mistake -- the vampires in my world are rare to have what we would consider human intelligence, then. Some do, but they are rare. And even some, like the bruxa, can communicate and feel but lack control.
(she may not know as much as geralt when it comes to monsters, but she's been around long enough.)
People always fear what they do not understand -- and try to punish it. At least that has been my experience.
[ he makes a face in response to what she's telling him. one that conveys how none too pleased he is to hear that vampires in her world are thoughtless grunts that are likely guided by hunger alone. how barbaric. ]
In my world, the sanguine vampiris were the scholars of ancient times. They had vast cities that were far more advanced than anything human civilization at the time had come up with. Before their demise at the hands of humankind's most extreme religious fundamentalists, they were the dominant species.
[ and now, they were gone. all that was left was him, a remnant brought out of genetic dormancy thanks to being bold and reckless enough to push the boundaries of known science. he hadn't known he had vampire lineage when he participated in that blood experiment, but he's grateful he did. ]
That sounds like the elves of my world. Before the Conjunction of Spheres they were the dominant species. They taught magic to humans, for all the good it did them.
(many of them have been persecuted and killed, including her biological father, a half elf.)
My ancestors taught the humans how to manufacture and use their technological advancements, their industrializations. And they turned out and eradicated my people with it. Leaving nothing more than empty ruins and butchered myths and legends behind.
[ bitter? oh so bitter. why he no longer glorifies his ancestors in the way he once did, he's still not happy about being the last of his kind. nobody wants to be the last living relic of a peoples long gone. ]
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Uncommon might as well be my middle name. What about you?
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Likewise. I have been called many things, common is not one of them. Most people who know what's good for them call me Yennefer.
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Yennefer. I'd say the pleasure was all mine, but I'm not sure meeting under these circumstances counts as a positive experience. Neverthelessβ [ still a product of the era he was born into in spite of how much he acclimates to the world as it changes and grows, nikola holds out a hand. ] Nikola.
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I'm not sure it's ever a pleasure here, if I am completely honest. (and she almost never is. she's also known for not always using her common sense, something they have in common. but luckily she has met enough people that she knows what handshakes are and so she takes his hand in hers and gives it a firm shake.)
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Tell me, how long have you been here?
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A little less than a year. (and for the longest time she didn't try to get out because...well, she thought she was dead back home. it turns out she isn't and that does change things.)
You're newer.
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[ so does he, though he hasn't been here long enough to commit everyone's names and faces to his eidetic memory. doesn't help that not everyone uses the network and that a place such as this is far vaster than he would have imagined had he ever sat down and seriously entertained the notion of hell existing. ]
I've been here about a month and a half. One month and fifteen days, if you want to get technical. I can give you it down to the millisecond, but most prefer not to have those specifics.
[ which doesn't stop him from making those specific calculations himself. the problem with his genius is that his mind simply doesn't turn off, which was a problem for him in the three short decades he spent before his vampire dna was brought out of dormancy. chronic insomnia and sleepless nights would have likely led to some sort of downfall for him as his life progressed if it weren't for a fact that vampires required little sleep. ]
I take it a hospital becoming someone's sick idea of an escape room over night isn't unheard of here?
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You'd be stupid not to.
(pay attention, that is. aretuza taught her social politics as much as it taught her magic.)
I don't know what an escape room is, but what's going on right now is not unusual. Apparently Mammon wanted to renovate the place.
(it's fairly obvious by her tone of voice that she does not care for mammon in particular -- being unwillingly tied to a demon lord will cause some biases, after all.)
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It's a life-size puzzle game. People pay to get locked in somewhere and they have to find their way out. Not my cup of tea, but plenty of people enjoy it. Though I doubt any of the people locked behind those doors are.
[ a roll of his eyes. ] Hire an interior decorator like everyone else. No need to be so dramatic about a redesign.
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No, nothing going on in there is made for enjoyment -- or at least not the enjoyment of the sinners.
(the doctors and nurses who "treat" their patients in there? that's another question.)
Where would be the "fun" in that? Everything he does seems to be excessive -- certainly living up to his reputation.
(she may not know much about christianity but she's learned enough to know mammon is deeply connected to the idea of greed.)
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[ not that his priest father would be pleased to learn that his son was in hell. ]
He's hurting them. [ he says after a moment, of mammon and what's going on behind those hospital walls. ] I can smell it. Blood.
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You can smell it from here? (she's not surprised, just curious. geralt had senses like that, so she's not unfamiliar with them, but he's not a witcher.)
What are you? (never one to beat around the bush.)
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I'm a vampire.
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(while yennefer has many abilities due to her magic, heightened senses has never been one of them, unless she purposefully tries to do it. she's listened to people's heartbeats before, to get a beat on them.)
You must be one of the rare higher ones -- we have ones with your level of intelligence and control in my world but they're very uncommon.
(even most higher vampires like the bruxa still have difficulty when it comes to their thirst for blood.)
I'm a sorceress.
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a snort: ] My level of intelligence. I'm a genius. Intelligent is the understatement of the century.
[ he couldn't say for sure if other vampires were as smart as he was, for the only other vampire he'd had the (dis)pleasure of meeting had been a queen hellbent on reclaiming her right to rule. she'd viewed him as some sort of mongrel and had intended on harming helen, so she'd had to go. there hadn't been time to ask any of the questions he desired answers to. ]
A sorceress. Can't say those exist where I'm from, though there have been plenty of people with unusual skillsets and abilities that have been deemed witchcraft by those who didn't understand them and feared them.
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(there were different breeds of vampire in yennefer's world, some more monstrous than others. most of them dangerous. a few blended in with humans as if they belonged, even able to go into daylight, but they were uncommon.
she snorts, as if amused by the correction.)
My mistake -- the vampires in my world are rare to have what we would consider human intelligence, then. Some do, but they are rare. And even some, like the bruxa, can communicate and feel but lack control.
(she may not know as much as geralt when it comes to monsters, but she's been around long enough.)
People always fear what they do not understand -- and try to punish it. At least that has been my experience.
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In my world, the sanguine vampiris were the scholars of ancient times. They had vast cities that were far more advanced than anything human civilization at the time had come up with. Before their demise at the hands of humankind's most extreme religious fundamentalists, they were the dominant species.
[ and now, they were gone. all that was left was him, a remnant brought out of genetic dormancy thanks to being bold and reckless enough to push the boundaries of known science. he hadn't known he had vampire lineage when he participated in that blood experiment, but he's grateful he did. ]
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That sounds like the elves of my world. Before the Conjunction of Spheres they were the dominant species. They taught magic to humans, for all the good it did them.
(many of them have been persecuted and killed, including her biological father, a half elf.)
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[ bitter? oh so bitter. why he no longer glorifies his ancestors in the way he once did, he's still not happy about being the last of his kind. nobody wants to be the last living relic of a peoples long gone. ]
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It seems like even in different worlds, certain patterns are always bound to repeat themselves.
(at best, yennefer is disconnected from her elven roots, but still, she understands, objectively, that what's happened to them is wrong.)