saltburnt inbox 2.0

[rehandle]

WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK

USERNAME: itsakindofmagic

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text ⚰️✒️ un: stefan

[interpersonally]

( how can he put this? exactly? a vampire bitten by a werewolf normally has forty-eight hours to live. the bite presents itself as an infection. quickly drives the vampire to rabid hallucinations, and finally, they die.

but he has every reason to keep damon dying. here. again. he refuses to let him. )

Do you have any experience in the adverse effects of an interspecies bite?

[rehandle]

[ Huh. Hello. ]

You're going to have to narrow it down.

[interpersonally]

( he doesn't have many close confidantes and his resident witch (and friend) isn't here, also, she's dead. so, he's casting a bit of a wide net. but stephen seems sane. enough. )

In your world, is a werewolf bite fatal to a vampire?

[rehandle]

[ Oh. A moment to take that in, and then: ]

In my world, I've never knowingly met either. I take it something's happened?

[interpersonally]

It happened before.

This isn't public knowledge, but you seem like the most sane source of magic we have in here at the moment, and I appreciated our conversation.

In our world, my brother was bitten by a werewolf. Vampires bitten have forty-eight hours before they become rabid and then bedridden. The manor seems to be stretching out his symptoms. He only recently told me so I don't know how much time we have. But, the antidote... isn't accessible. It acts like an infection.

@stefan

[interpersonally]

( stefan approaches him in person about needing that spell. things progressed faster than he anticipated and damon wasn't strong enough to recognize the symptoms. or he ignored them. stefan felt guilty enough for missing the signs and the miscommunication. but, people are safe and he sat by his brother's bedside.

he found something in one of the rooms, something he never expected to find. and even though damon refused, he slipped into unconsciousness and stefan made the choice for the both of them.

late one night, stephen gets a message. )

You can take town the ward.

[rehandle]

[ The only assumption he can think to make here is the worst, but he's learned better than to act on assumptions. The message comes soon after Stefan's is received, a keeper of small hours himself. ]

How is he?

[interpersonally]

He's asleep.

Against all odds, this house had another idea. He's going to hate me, but he'll be alive.

( he'll deal with the consequences. )

[rehandle]

[ Good to know the house is good for something, but - ]

Why would he hate you?

[interpersonally]

Because, I found something from our world, something I only thought there was one of. And it had been used. And there are consequences. He asked me not to, told me to take it.

I didn't want him to wake up a monster. He thinks of himself as one enough.

I cured him. He's human, and thanks to a friend of a friend, healed from an infected bite.

@salvatore; shortly before the end of the month

[blooded]

I'm sure my brother made the rounds already, but thank you. I prefer it to be my choice when I kill people.

[rehandle]

You're welcome. Do me an answering favor and choose not to kill anyone for a while and we can consider it even.

[blooded]

I make no promises. At least not where my brother is concerned.

[ a toothless threat, for so many reasons—but damon is angry with stefan, and if things were different they would absolutely be getting physical about it. one or the both of them would have been stabbed in the stomach with sharp wooden things already, if damon weren't human and weak and still reconciling himself to that. ]

[rehandle]

Family business is family business.

[ He just overrode Damon's choice to entirely change who he is, so Stephen's happy to overlook any murderous sentiment there. ]

[blooded]

You're not going to tell me to be grateful? He saved my life, the way he tells it.

at some point

[nishtha]

[ Don't be alarmed by the vampire standing at the end of the bed watching you sleep, Stephen. It's probably fine. ]

i'm crying what u doin armand

[rehandle]

[ Almost compulsively, Stephen spends most of his nights wandering the castle halls while his body sleeps, trying to get a sense of the place in a form that can drift through walls and ceilings. He returns from one of these outings to find with some small measure of alarm that he has a visitor, slips back into his body so he can ask without cracking an eye open: ]

Aren't you supposed to get stuck at the threshold?

[ He's long since past the stage of assuming which stereotypes Armand is and isn't bound by, but that's mostly the point. ]

[nishtha]

[ Fascinating, to watch the vessel be filled, the pulse of blood suddenly rich with thought and feeling. Armand brushes his fingertips idly over a nearby stack of books. ]

Mortal superstition. I can also cross running water, and I'm quite fond of crucifixes. What did you do, just now?

[rehandle]

[ His eyes open now, fix on Armand, blinking away the thickness of sleep as he pushes himself up against the headboard and tempers a yawn. ]

Astral projection. [ He offered him an exchange once. If he's going to wander in while Stephen's sleeping either way, there's no real harm in telling him where he's gone when he's away. His voice is rough with sleep, but he powers through with coherent sentences in spite of it. ] Left my body sleeping and went on a tour of the house. Do you do this often? Wondering if I should set up an alert.

[nishtha]

I sensed the disconnection. The body, still alive, but left behind. The roaming soul as it departed. So I decided to investigate and witness the miracle. [ He tilts his head a little, the faint light in the room reflecting off the back of his pupils. ] Or the magic trick.

[ He frowns thoughtfully, drawing a circle over the embossed cover of a book with the tip of his fingernail. ]

You have protections over your body when you leave it. I assume you do not simply abandon it to.. all that could happen.

text

[ripher]

Hello. I thought I'd check in and see how your investigations are faring. Have you met the vampire chicken?

[rehandle]

I should ask you the same thing. Yourself and a Shadowheart of some make or model seemed to be getting along famously.

[ripher]

She's a very lively conversationalist. The non-chicken version.

[rehandle]

Perfect. So happy to have facilitated.

Not a huge amount of investigative progress, though I seem to have met just about every other vampire in the building. Funny how you know no vampires and then seventeen come along at once.

[ripher]

Yes, I'm afraid I have rather the opposite experience. I assume I don't have to warn you to be careful with them? Whatever you do, don't allow them to enter your room.