Velvet's Room
Interacting with:@KuroSuzy, @DragonydasTheria (barely)
There are stories that say vampires are heartless monsters. Stories where they're heartless creatures of the night with souls awash in blood and shadow, only donning the human guise to blend in, so they can creep up to their prey undiscovered. Where human emotions are seen as inextricable to humanity, and when one is lost, the other follows.
Velvet was not one of those vampires.
She was as vulnerable to the whims of emotion as anybody else. Even back during her Queen of the Night phase, it was because she was just...so angry. And anger was an emotion. So when Suzy wrote out the message on the monitor, she felt a lump of cold lead drop into her stomach. She'd never asked how Suzy died, just like she never talked about how she was turned; it just felt too personal, like asking or telling would be somehow violating. Something it felt like you just shouldn't do. But imagining a child, wrists tied and drowned...
It had been a long, long, long time since she'd thought about the death of her own daughter all those centuries ago. But those old bloody memories leapt to the forefront of her mind. It was so long ago now that any trace of grief had vanished over the course of time, but the murder of children was always a tragedy. Consequently, when she spoke, her voice was unusually soft and tender. "Suzy..."
But there she trailed off. It had been far too long since she'd been a mother for her to actually say anything insightful. And it'd probably annoy Suzy if she tried. So instead she just gazed at the area around her computer, wishing fervently that she could actually see the poor girl.
She was saved by having to think of something to say in response to such awful news by the timely arrival of Duscenia and departure of Theria. As the dryad stepped in through the door, she saw the blood-soaked and obviously injured Velvet and gave a low whistle. Of surprise or intrigue, Velvet wasn't sure. It had always been hard for her to tell what the doctor was thinking; it was like trying to read a book written in an alien language. She hadn't seen her much in the first place; just meeting her in hallways or cafeterias now and then, and that one check-up right when she first joined the condo. But still, dryads always had the best poker faces.
Well, figurately, at least. She'd never played poker with a dryad. "Wow, that's almost impressive! How did you manage this?"
"Werewolf," replied Velvet, refusing to elaborate. She just did not want to go over the whole cluster again. Painful, generally unpleasant, and worst of all, embarrassing. "This is just a formality anyway, you know I'll be fine. This won't take that long to heal, so can I just—" get into bed, she was about to say, until she looked down at herself and once again realized that oh, right, she was completely covered in blood. Duscenia hadn't even taken out her things, and she rose to go before Velvet cut her off.
"Actually, Doc, can you bandage me up anyway? I have a pretty nice mattress in that tomb over there and I'd rather not have to replace it because the whole thing got soaked."
"Oh~? Are you telling me that you need medical attention, Ms. Coventry? A higher ancient vampire like yourself?" Velvet rolled her eyes, but grinned alongside Duscenia as the dryad plopped her kit to the floor, taking out a twin rolls of bandages and medical tape. She gestured, and Velvet reached her hand out obligingly. Blood almost immediately bled through the gauze wrapping, but the pressure meant it'd stop bleeding sooner and a lot of it would be absorbed. She fumbled with her shirt for a minute before sighing and ripped it off her so Duscenia could wipe the blood off her chest and then bandage it as well. Man, she'd liked that shirt, too.
The doctor knew what she was doing, Velvet had to give her that. She'd barely blinked, and her wounds were securely bound. It was, quite frankly, weird. She hadn't actually gotten medical treatment in aaaaages, and the medical treatment at the time was applying leeches to draw out the bad blood and balance the humors. This was...novel. Still, it meant blood wasn't going everywhere now, so that was nice. She opened her mouth to say something to Duscenia, but the second she did, an enormous yawn split her face. She blinked heavily. "Thanks, Duscy. 'Preesh. But I'm exhausted, I need to go to sleep now or I'm liable to collapse." With that said, she turned on her heel. Didn't see Duscenia leave or anything, but she heard the door close as she walked to her dresser to toss on a nightshirt.
Another long yawn. She shoved the half-ton stone aside as though it were no more than mere cardboard, then sat down on the rim of her bed and looked back over to her computer. "Sorry, Suzy. But I really need to sleep. If you want to talk more tonight, I'll be here." With that said, she fell back into the tomb, nestling into her mattress and pillows.
She was asleep before she could even put the cover back on.
