Four days pass, the third being a raucous night that ends with the inside of a car needing a deep clean and a missing person poster emblazoned near every precinct as well as Estelle grow slowly more aggravated at being called "feral". The young vampires who do this are then chewed out aggressively about kindred and camaraderie by her "pet ghoul," unclear if this makes matter better or worse.
Still, the night comes, and Eleanora dangles her keys in front of Katherine. "Mon amour, ready for your first day at work?" Her smile is self-indulgent, enjoying this shot of normality in her night-life.
"Not really, no, but they've already bought out the surrounding buildings so I feel as if I must at this point." With a big grin and a kiss on the cheek of Estelle and Eleanora, she grabs the keys. She had just finished updating her Spreadsheets with its meticulous list of weapons, bullet counts and armaments. Quickly taking the new meds from the company, finding them oddly efficient.
"See ya, agent lady." Estelle chuckles, smoking a black cigarette, radiating menthol and cherry from the couch.
The keys go in, the car goes out, and heavy broadway show tunes play her out as she goes to the dingy office on the Miracle mile. The drive is rather pleasant, if quiet. Her first time truly alone in a few hundred years, and her first time going back to a real job in even longer. The normalcy settled on her as she stepped out in a black suit, with matching black tie. Her auburn hair done up in a tight bun with sparkling hair clips. She had to settle for less weaponry without the Trench coat, but everything else fit, and a longarm wasn't… That necessary she supposed. Sure enough her badge, biometrics, and codes got her into the building. The metal detector making a very panicked noise as she walked through, though no-one seemed to pay it any mind. The trench coat had most of her things, which irritated her having to cut down on pockets to something more business-like.
The central hallway leads to a door marked 'Common Room'. Entering it reveals a hotly contested ping-pong competition, where two women are glaring at each other whilst a betting ring has already formed. Both are terrifyingly muscular and have an odd scent of oil about them, slowly deforming the paddles in their hands.
In a more quiet side of the room, Belltower and another, much younger man, share a drink, both in suits and keeping an eye on everyone else. Belltower nods to Katherine as she comes in. "Welcome to the party."
She smiles watching the game, and gives him a nod, "Did you bet?"
"God no. It's an even fifty fifty." Belltower laughs, short and curt.
The laughs returned as she sees the ball start to move terrifyingly fast, "I don't think I'd have the self control to not see what happens if I messed with it if money was on the line. I try not to put myself in tempting situations like that.
"Don't worry, Agent. We won't be sticking around here long. We've got work while they play." The Director clarifies, finishing his drink and igniting another cigarette, starting to drag it down. "You'll make acquaintances with them later."
Not something that interested her very much, but she understood the importance of it at least. She very quickly did a check of everything, though not taking the weapons out, "You ever consider a trench coat? It's like a walking backpack."
"Trench coats are at least fifty years out of date." Belltower answers, rising up. "And we stopped wearing fedora's to go with them thirty years ago." He gestures to a side door, not the entrance Katherine came from.
With a faux offended gasp to something she's heard a million times. "How dare you. I'll have you know the trench coat and trilby is a detective classic. You show up in that and everyone knows you're a detective!"
He opens the door, waiting in the cold metal entryway to a very different part of the building. "Come on, we've got an armoury to raid first. I spent a quarter of the budget on this thing." The smirk that's growing familiar returns to him as he walks off that way.
"Please tell me you have a Barret M107." She says quietly, almost skipping at the word 'Armoury.'
The downward incline hallway quickly opens up to a room that is packed top to bottom with guns familiar and unfamiliar, from military kit, to smooth polymer pieces with unfamiliar names and advanced looking everything. "If we're being low key, you can take an anti-material rifle, yes." Belltower gestures to the model hanging on the wall, hand length rounds in a row beneath it.
She squeaks with joy as she runs over to the giant gun, looking at with awe. "You know, I never had thirteen thousand dollars. I could never afford one of these, let alone a scope or bullets." Then her mind clicked over at the rest of the sentence, "What if we're not being low-key?" She asks as she looks around the room.
"Then we use these." He points to a wall of black polymer and smooth metal firearms, bullpupped and very clean, holographic sights and magazines without casings. "Caseless hyperburst, about thirty years ahead of the Sleepers, no casings, the flechette degrades in an hour after impact, and can punch through three feet of concrete but still tumbles in meat." He pulls one off the wall, shouldering it. It seems light.
Tiny sparkles in Katherine's eyes light up as she hears that looking at the adorable weapon. "You really need to make more things in fun colors, imagine this with zebra stripes." She says quietly as she looks at both suddenly struck with indecision of the thing that is cool and the thing that feels cool, before deciding the unnamed gun was probably much better at almost anything they were going to do today.
"Think its called the IX-5 or something. Didn't pay much attention to the eggheads gushing about it." He presses a button, letting a wall unfold into a range.
The firing range had three rows, tables, and cubicle dividers, while a small stream of water flowed into grates. Laser lights portrayed moving targets doing different things. Some quick drawing, others walking, some standing still. As Belltower fires, parts of the target light up, showing accuracy, grouping, and speed in a display next to the target. While something very gelled and wet in the back of the range caught the bullets fired through.
She very quickly checks both sides to look for a clear safety, before disengaging the clip, checking that the chamber was clear, before placing the clip back in, and turning off the safety. Then walking to the range, squeezing off tight controlled bursts. The weapon didn't kick. It was as close to a laser rifle as she could imagine.
"Electromagnetic recoil handling. Uses some sorta ferromagnetic fluid to counterbalance the recoil actively. If the computer fails, it's got about as much recoil as an M4." He describes, watching the whizzing bursts of target shredding fire.
"Is there a button for the computer in case of malfunction that isn't immediately recognized by the weapon?" She asks as she very quickly empties a clip, and then puts a new one in.
"Yeah, it's in the stock, you can dump the whole assembly, just press these latches." He shows her, catching the hard polymer box as it slips out. "Quarter million dollars of computing in a box."
She takes the stock off quickly, placing it respectfully on the table in front of her. Before testing the recoil without the stock, and still finding it surprisingly light. Very quickly, she placed the computer stock back on. Then flicks the safety, switches out the half empty clip, checks the inside of gun, and the affixes it to her shoulder a carried precision keeping it pointing away from herself or anyone else.
"Tonight, we're going after a-Well." He carefully rephrases, "We're going to harass a Christos Valailokos. No chance in hell we actually tag him tonight."
"Be careful, I'm an overachiever." Katherine says, though making sure to add, "Not in a gung-ho way. I'm just incredibly good at what I do. I think. I can't imagine why all the gun muscle memory and mind wiping otherwise."
"Yeah, this asshole's just being doing it for four centuries." He pulls out his phone, showing a photo of an astonishingly cut Greek man, clean shaven and looking to be maybe twenty-five. "He's like me, but nastier, faster, luckier and three hundred and sixty years more experienced." Belltower shakes his head, "Thankfully, he's got a much bigger hit team on his ass. We're there to make him move."
There's something about what Belltower says that gives Katherine a tingle that she can't help, "I feel like… We should wait ten minutes before we leave? I don't know why."
Belltower thinks, frowning, "You…might have the muscle to predict him, or enough to try anyways. Let's follow that hunch." He shows Katherine to a suit while they wait, not fitted for her yet, "Take this home when we get back. It's like mine. Carbon weave and non-newtonian gel inserts. Lowkey body armour."
"I mean, I can probably change now?" She says as she begins to unbutton her suit, and then stops. "Right. Normal people don't do that. Also I guess it needs to be tailored."
"It'll chafe the hell out of you if it isn't." The Director answers, not looking at Katherine's unbuttoning. "And, I'm beginning to realize, you are not…socialized." That last word is tired.
"I spent… Ten years in an apartment, alone. I would go to work, I have a very hazy memory of what I did at work, I would come home exhausted and smelling like gunpowder. I assumed it was because I was sick, or my meds." Katherine admitted as she very quickly re-buttons. "Then the time loop happened, after about… I dunno, a while it all stopped being so hazy."
"Brainfog? I get that off the cigs." He admits, looking down at the stub between his fingers.
"They showed me tapes occasionally, Estelle said it does something to make you more susceptible to domination magic." She pokes her cheek with her tongue. "Then they rip out your memories. A few years in, started having paranoia, anxiety, hearing phantom sounds, and occasionally I'd see a spider or a thing that wasn't there. Thanks to one lovely Jarred Ox."
"Funnily enough, I relate." He lights another cigarette. "There's this thing, it's not used anymore. Called Conditioning. It was used to stabilize people who we're losing it, or we're flipping to the other side. I used to have a…lot of it." The cigarette vanishes in under a minute. "We're better at it than vampires though, no side effects like that."
"They're permanent." She said with a sigh, "Neurologist showed up next day, took a peek around, need to basically reconstruct the entire thing, build a new person." There was a very bitter tone there.
"Bet they were excited to try." He smirks, the look fading after a second, back to something placid and normal.
"They were, I had to remind them that Estelle and Eleanora only seem pleasant." The memory of the black eyes going at the mere mention giving her an actual moment of panic for the two doctor's lives.
A chuckle escapes him, "Yeah, they always wanna push the limits of what they can do. The two girls in the other room, did you smell it?" He asks, curious.
"The oil, was it pneumatic?" She responds looking at him curiously.
"Yeah, they're…enhanced. Went under the knife for it. It's another sort of Procedure. Can you tell why we don't like the M word yet?" He asks, curious once again.
She looks at him very… Sheepish. "No, not really. Though, they mentioned computer eyes that could store terabytes of data and that is going to live in my head rent-free forever."
"It's been a long, bloody mess. But the other side are the…magicians I guess. This Christos guy? He chugs mercury, and instead of killing him, he can track a bullet in flight." He sounds bitter about that. "We figure out how it works before we start making it, more academic."
That makes sense, "At least with enough bullets he'll just be tracking an untimely demise." She said, noting in her mind that ten minutes exactly had passed, and it was time to go. Then moving towards Belltower's car.
Belltower stands up without a word, likely with the same realization. Entering the drivers seat, the engine already on, he starts driving, a cold business infecting his demeanour, stiffening him to the world. "Like I said, we are a distraction. Don't try your luck."
"I am planning to follow orders," She says trying to be placating, "When it's my show, it's different. This isn't my show."
The drive isn't long, fifteen minutes on the road before stops outside of an antique shop. "Alright." He grabs an IX-5, seven magazines already mounted on a slim tactical vest he slips overtop his suit. Another one's ready behind Katherine's seat. She grabs it and puts it on, very quickly. Though she checks all seven magazines, before checking the IX-5, then double checking the safety, magazine, and chamber of the weapon.
The antique shop is rustic and wooden, stylistically built in an "old" style. A scent of mildew from age is easily imagined before Belltower or Katherine even gets near it. He takes a position on one side of the front door, motioning for Katherine to get in behind him
She falls in line as she feels a slight ripple of… Something. She taps Belltower, who gives her a slight nod. He must have felt it too. Did they already know they were coming. Training kicks in almost immediately, as she starts to buzz with anticipation.
"You know." A voice passes through the door, mildly accented, "I didn't expect just two." Belltower responds by flicking to automatic and emptying through thee door, moving to kick it open and reveal the open plan building, stocked with glass cases, suits of armour, flintlocks and revolvers alike, a mishmash of collectables from every era of paraphernalia. Christos, is leaning aside, a few holes in the jacket of his suit stared at distastefully.
Katherine is in behind, but instead of aiming at Christos, fires into a wall hearing a pained gurgle from behind it. "Ooops." She said quietly, before pointing her weapon back at the greek man, before on a second hunch, firing into the floor to more yelps.
"Ah, cold hearted." He groans in response as Belltower finally points and starts to shoot. Christos moves.
"Christos I wouldn't go left." She says, pointing her gun to the right and firing. Trying to will a split decision as he makes his own movements.
The strings coil and twitch, forced to start to split, time and probability mixing before a second will interferes, coiling and practiced around her own effort. He moves straight, arriving between the two without skipping a beat, magic and skill intermingling in this centuries old fighter.
"Shit." Belltower barks as the Greek grabs his weapon and bends the barrel with a grit of effort.
She opens fire on Christos, bullets riddling the floor as she tries to aim for his legs. More pained screams from beneath the room, while Christos finally twists, throwing Belltower at Katherine, one bullet slipping through the waves of twisted probability and nicking his leg.
Katherine ducks under Belltower, switching to her ankle weapon now opening fire with a small Sig, saying "Christos, Stay or run? I'd stay." Trying to get the man to fight instead of flee as she continues emptying her mag.
More bullets fill the air as Belltower sails past, smashing through a decorative pillar with a groan of pain and cough. He stops, scrambling up to his feet fast. Christos shakes his head, sliding into cover behind a case as bullets rip through the air near him. "I don't like fighting women, I'm sorry." He apologizes.
She reloads her IX-5 and tosses it to Belltower. Before switching to the weapon in her chest holster and fires into a random wall at leg height. Prompting a groan of annoyance from Christos. "Can it just be between me and the Belltower?"
She refuses to respond, as she pulls a fragmentation grenade from her pocket, throwing it to him. Christos darts into motion, twisting through the air to grab the grenade, crumpling it in his grip slowly.
She fires at it the minute he touches it, trying to detonate it. Time suddenly moving at slow speeds. As if everything was happening in an atmosphere of molasses. The bullet impacts, blooming shockwaves and shrapnel that tosses Christos against a wall bleeding with a grit of his teeth and concusses everyone else in the room.
"He's still moving." Belltower grits out as the blackened man stands up, bleeding from a dozen impact points and then rushing at Katherine, footsteps shattering wood floorboards in a superhuman charge. She lights her zippo throwing it at him, hoping to god centuries old meant vampire. This guess was off the mark, zippo bouncing off as suddenly, she's pushed against a wall hard. Smell of burnt pork and blood mixing as he slowly heals at a miniscule pace.
A rib cracks, and she spits up a little blood onto him. Choking as something else breaks. "Should you really be trying to kill me instead of running?" This time, she doesn't put time magic behind it, just trying to freeze him for a moment. Anything to buy a few more seconds.
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A whooshing of rotors is heard outside, something shining a spotlight through a window before a ripple of rounds tears into the building, forcing everyone to hit the deck or be torn to pieces.
Katherine grabs for her KA-BAR and doesn't stop trying to kill Christos, bloodlust rising as she tries to bring it down on the man's brain. Her ribs broken, her head weary and dazed. Damnit she wanted the kill to be hers so fucking bad. Slamming it down just off the mark, catching his cheek and tearing away with a small piece of tongue. She reaches into her coat pocket, before remembering she's out of guns.
The bloody man rushes away as bullets rip through the walls, a helicopter painted black unloading a rippling minigun into it under moonlight, somehow not attracting every pair of eyes in the city. Belltower stumbles to his feet, the dazed and uncoordinated movements of a spinal injury evident.
"You have a gun at your feet!" She yells, as she reloads her pistol and starts firing into the wall in a very clear direction following some invisible line through the building. The zippo having fallen right next to Belltower, "Have a cig walk it off."
He snaps to the gun, sending rounds after Christos who jumps ten feet clear up the building, hanging off a window sill from the second story before vanishing into an alley while the helicopter turns to chase. "Fuck!" Belltower shouts, stumbling.
Katherine rushes over to Belltower, getting under him. "It's not over," She says quietly, handing him one of his smokes and lighting it with the zippo, "We can go to a… Donut shop over by highland if you want to continue. Or we can stop. Your show."
Belltower shakes his head, "No, they're bringing the hammer down on him. Hammer with a blast radius." He has a tremble to his fingers, "Damn, gonna be under the knife for this one, hit my back dead on a corner." He's not scared, just aggravated.
"That's gonna suck," She says looking at him with a small snort, taking the majority of the man's weight onto her shoulder, "I can just carry you to the car, unless your pride says no."
"Pretty sure I'm lighter than you, go ahead." He stumbles, not able to keep his feet underneath him immediately as his mirrorshades slip off.
She catches the shades before they hit the ground, with the same motion scoops under his legs and picks him up gently, carrying him out in her arms. "Fuck I love this job." She says as she carries him to the passenger side of the Suv, though now slightly nervous never having driven such a large car before. It's probably the same though, she hoped looking at the multitude of dials, knobs, buttons, toggles and switches.
"Automatic drive, homebase. Legal pace." He mumbles, sighing as the car starts driving itself. "It's not a fast driver, but it's a decent one." Belltower pats the dash, immediately regretting it with a mild twitch of his face.
"Jesus christ, how did you do any of this without back-up?" She asked, looking at him, before coughing up blood onto herself. "They got something for a punctured lung right?"
"You'll learn to love Sophia." He chuckles, "And her knives." The car continues apace, taking turns, respecting lights, avoiding incoming police cars and generally moving with a purpose back. "It doesn't usually go like this. Christos's just…special. Fresh off from eviscerating Union upper staff in Istanbul."
"We almost got him." She said trying to cheer Belltower up, "I don't know how close you usually get, but I got a little chunk of tongue as a souvenir."
He nods approvingly, "Good work." It's a curt compliment, but by far and away meaningful, it's said without a second thought, instantly. "Usually Christos just uses me as a punching bag for six to eight minutes." Belltower grimaces.
She deposited the meat on her KA-BAR into a small ziploc, wondering if it might have some use. "Yeah, he didn't seem so fond of me comparatively."
"He said why." Belltower shifts, trying to get comfortable but finding no spot to get comfortable. "Asshole's from the Renaissance, has opinions on gender equality I guess."
"Well, he's going to have a harder time saying them." She says as she looks at the little ziploc, "Will you think I'm a freak if I put this in a locket to remember our first mission?"
"Only a little bit." Belltower smirks, no heat to him. "I'm gonna get blasted after this. Next mission's not for a week. Should be easier, just a problem with a post-noetic en-Its a revenant, I'm talking about a revenant." He cuts off the practiced proper speech and uses layman's terms.
"Thank you." She says happily, "No offense but trying to classify magic shit seems… Well intended, but a little silly. You call a vampire a homeophage, and I think you're just a bit homophobic."
Belltower snorts, "Yeah, tell me about it. No one outside of the fuckin' symposiums actually uses any of these terms. I'm just so used to giving reports it's slipping out." He seems chatty while injured, not as raring to smoke, calmer in general.
She nods, "I'm actually good at paperwork if you want me to do it, as long as I can work that part from home."
"I got it, agent Doukas. It's my job anyways." He waves a hand, "You might be spending the night under Sophia's care, depending on how rough you look, though."
She immediately pulls out her phone, calling Estelle, hearing it get picked up after only a ring and a half, "Estelle it's Katherine, I broke two ribs and am going to one of their special doctors, good news though. I'm fucking great at this."
"Wicked! Stop breaking ribs." Estelle matches Katherine's energy with a rough gravel, "Did you kill anyone?" She excitedly asks.
"Cat shows up tomorrow by the way, also! So close, but he has these powers that are insane I fired into the floor and killed like seven people, then a wall and another three, then through his legs to a guy planting… Something. Then I tossed a grenade out a window he catches it and I shoot that and it blows up in his face and then this big hulking freak rushes me all charred up throws me into a wall, and THEN a helicopter shows up and fires with a miningun, we all drop and I stabbed him in the MOUTH and now I have a little bit of his tongue."
"God." Estelle growls, "You gonna be back tonight or no? If not I'm gonna go bother Eleanora."
"No, probably not, they're going to do a science on my ribs." Katherine admits, "Hopefully back in time for the cat in the morning."
"A science?" Belltower quietly whispers, staring at the dash with confused amusement.
She looks at him with a shrug as they pull onto the Miracle Mile.
"By the way, Kat, you want a video?" Estelle casually asks, making Belltower actually tilt his head to the phone in confusion. "Of, you know, me and Eleanora. Since you won't be home."
Katherine turns bright red, and squeaks into the phone trying to find words. "Eeep?" There's a slight uptilt at the end as she tries to intonate… Something. More stuttering as the words leave her. "Maybe. Yes. Depends on how private the hospital room is, but yes." She tries not to look at Belltower as she says this, "Tell me what's appropriate behavior in a hospital, wait no get Eleanora, have her tell me what's appropriate behavior in a hospital." She coughs up more blood as she gets panicked, it now dribbling over her chin.
"It's a clinic, more of a room. It'll just be me, a curtain, you." Belltower describes, dreading tonight.
"Sounds like I'll have privacy, yeah send it." She says as Belltower speaks, now very aware of a new person to tease.
The car stops, and before either can get out, the two women, now having black instead of brown hair come out the door with stretchers. They move to the doors and pick up Katherine and Belltower like they weigh nothing.
"I can walk," Katherine says quickly, "I have a very tough woman image to maintain. I need to seem properly rugged." The smile as she's carried in is somewhat marred by the copious amounts of blood.
"Yeah, and you've also got a lung to maintain, Agent Doukas." The woman carrying her answers, pulling the stretcher along quickly to a clinic, sliding it in and shifting both Belltower and Katherine to a much more comfortable bed, the sort that can control its angle and shift with button presses.
In the room is a tall, black haired woman with very mediterranean features, olive skin, a birthmark on her cheek and long hair in a loose bun. She's got a labcoat on and is already pre-measuring bottles of pharmaceuticals as the duo was interred in her clinic. "So. You've gotten injured again, and dragged someone else along too, hmm Director?" Sophia's voice is very accented, rolling every R she can get her hands on.
"I'm not injured really." Katherine says smiling, playing with her phone, "You should see the other guy." Swiping gems together making full volumed pops, jingles, and whizzes.
"Now there's two of you." Sophia stands, moving to Katherine first and jabbing her in the side with a needle. It pierces thee clothes and skin so fast it takes a second for the woman to realize anything at all happened. Sophia's already moving to Belltower, inspecting him closely whilst the gurgling of blood slows in Katherine.
"You, Director, are once again a ruin." Her eyes glimmer a deep orange before returning to their amber, "Three cracked vertebrae? Remind me again why I let you leave my clinic." She starts pulling his suit off, cutting it with scissors much to his protest, "Doc, that's a million dollar-Damnit." Fluid spills from the suit as she cuts it off him.
Katherine snorts at them both as she continues to excitedly match gems.
"Don't think you're getting off easy, Agent Doukas." Sophia turns her head, "I'll have you opened up tonight, don't you worry." The threat is…interesting to hear from a doctor.
"I'll have you know that I always ge—" She stopped suddenly, "I haven't been in a work environment in over a hundred years. I may need sensitivity training."
"Yeah, she's worse than you." Belltower grumbles to Katherine as Sophia smiles warmly at him.
"Oh good, well have you considered that instead of a punctured lung doc, that you might just have… Does that line work? I think it does. Lungs. Breath away. It works. I think? Do you have my prescriptions on file?" Katherine asks suddenly, very concerned.
"I do. And if I wanted to steal your breath." Sophia chuckles, "I'd just put my electric pads to use." There's a glimmer of orange in her eyes.
"That's a weird name for them but I like it." Katherine responds as she turns back to her phone, now switching to a different game app.
"No making her find out, Doctor Illyanova." Belltower suddenly orders, "Professionalism for gods sake."
That makes Katherine frown a little, "But I like new experiences." She doesn't push it though, "I think I'm still a little tweaked on adrenaline."
"Don't mind the director." Sophia says, little arcs of electricity passing between her fingertips, "He's a grouch." She smiles.
"Wow, I find him incredibly pleasant. My girlfriends love him too." Katherine says winking at the Director.
"Oh, so do I! He's still a grouch, it's part of the charm.' She reaches down a finger and shocks his arm, making him twitch. "Nerve function is still reasonable, not too bad, Director." Sophia refocuses, looking him over, "You'll be thirty minutes under the knife, I think I can get her done in fifteen, recovery is probably six hours each. Lets pencil in eight for spinal and cardiovascular safety, mir?"
"Do you think you could get me home before sunrise?" Katherine asks hopefully, "I have family waiting for me doc."
"Ah, I'm sorry." Sophia shakes her head, "Earliest I could let you out is thirty minutes before, and I'd feel bad doing so."
"Can you top me–" She's cut off
"Sure, later?" Sophia chuckles, making Belltower groan again.
"Off with extra blood then?" Katherine finishes giggling. "You're going to have to fight two vampires for the honor ma'am. I'm very monogamously polyamorous"
She's flipping Belltower over, cutting his shirt off to reveal a trim, muscular and scarred back, a tattoo of a skull at the centre of his shoulders with latin phrases above and below. "Oh~, haemophage lovers? How delicious. I'll see if I can get you something, do you want to be on an enhancement list? Bone marrow implants can vastly increase blood production." Sophia idly suggests
"The neurologist was also talking about eye computers, so I could keep all my logs and things in that." Katherine admits with a nod, "Do you know if the bone marrow implants affect the flavor?" She says thinking about Eleanora and Estelle suddenly being put off her blood.
"I'll give you a bag of mine to test." Sophia says as she finally hooks an IV to Belltower, rapidly putting him to sleep. Then, scalpels come out as she quickly opens him up with barely a second to spare from his eyes drifting shut. As she works, suturing bone with gels and repairing nerves with eyes that shrink to pinpricks to see precisely enough, she talks. "I never had the chance to be bitten, what is it like, agent Doukas?"
Katherine thinks, "There's two kinds, a really intensely burning painful one that I really like. Like every nerve is being torched and electrocuted simultaneously. Like if it doesn't stop you're going to die, but you never do and you're left trembling. The other kind is less rare apparently, and that one is like… Being edged for half an hour and then finally releasing, but over and over for like five minutes straight." It's all said matter of factly, without looking up from her phone.
"Oh." Sophia says very breathily, "That's…well advertised." A clack of bone being sealed together by hissing gel fills the room.
"There's a reason ghouls are a thing, that and drinking vampire blood also rules." She says absent mindedly, "I don't really know if I want to mess with biochemistry if it's not well researched to be honest. You have two people who love you exactly the way you are, you don't want to come home worse just because good enough wasn't enough."
"Very true, but striving for better is important too." Sophia raises a scalpel covered in blood as emphasis, "Still, have you ever seen the Director naked?" She shifts conversation sharply, reminded of something as she seals the cut on his back, starting to work in injections instead of surgery.
Still not looking up from her phone as she rapidly swipes through an album of what seem to be some sort of comic, she says, "Guys aren't really my thing, I've made him breakfast though."
"He has this delightful scar on his upper right torso. I can't place what caused it, which is rare, I'm the leading trauma surgeon on…the continent!" Sophia sounds excited at the very idea of something she can't identify. "Director Belltower is a mystery wrapped in a lie, drip fed through to us." She bemoans as she carefully measures out silvery fluid, injecting it into Belltowers IV.
There's a notification with a jingle and two quick buzzes on Katherine's phone, which she instinctively opens then immediately closes as feral moans escape her phone. "Ope." She says as she turns a dark red.
"Ah, someone has a loving pair of lovers. They're sending get well presents!" Sophia laughs, finally pulling away from Belltower to wash her hands in a sink.
"Do I recover faster without… Whatever you did to him?" Katherine asks looking at Belltower anesthetized.
"Ah, no, I will not do surgery on a moving patient." Sophia smiles, "Besides, it's the stress of the surgery, not the anesthesia that will have you not wanting out of bed for at least a third of a day, Agent." She pulls a sharp new scalpel out, using it to cut Katherine out of her clothes quickly.
"Careful doc, I'm a screamer." She says with a grimace as the clothes are practically ripped off of her. Katherine now feeling a bit exposed. Though not shivering in the cold, far used to worse.
"I'm a good doctor, agent Doukas." Sophia assures as she starts marking off incision lines with a marker, "Unless you ask me not to be." She smiles darkly at her words, finishing the lines and starting to prepare an IV.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do I suppose." She responds with a giggle, looking at the needle with an odd sort of joy. "Sorry, needles and… Fun are inextricably linked in my mind now, since they normally happen very close to each other."
Sophia jabs the needle in smoothly, hitting a vein first time, exactly like Eleanora does. "Good! It means this is enjoyable for both of us." She turns the valve, letting fluid flow down the IV and into Katherine, "You have one to three minutes, any requests?"
"Do you do tattoos?" She asks with a giggle as the fluids start to take hold.
"I do scars." Sophia whispers with a grin as the last of conscious thought leaves Katherine.