better come in the kitchen, it's raining outside

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

Who: Ki and Mozenrath
What: Talking about who's who and what's what among the (un)dead.
Where: Bloody Sunday
When: Dusk on Veerdi
Notes: Dead people are cool.

Living on a nocturnal cycle is one of the hazards of working almost wholly with cruorvores, but Njoki has adapted to strange patterns of sleeping and has no qualms about ordering breakfast at sundown and skimming over the local paper while waiting for Mozenrath to appear. Perhaps it was a little cruel to invite him to Bloody Sunday instead of finding somewhere outside of Mafaton, but she's never been known for subtlety.

At this hour, the malt shop is quiet except for the lone cook and Vingar Tom, the shop cat. Outside in the streets, Mafaton is equally still as what remains of her population sleeps and slowly rises as the sun sets.

Comments

[mightymorbid]

"And how did you come across this trade?" Granted, he's learned in the last few years that certain magical disciplines, no matter how similar to his own, simply did not come about the same way. Having made a career of studying and collecting magic, the ones that differed were the most interesting to him. Just by listening to Njoki and looking at her, he knew that their practices must have differed greatly -- both in training and management.

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"I didn't pay enough attention in math class," she says with a bright, sharp grin. "But, to tell the truth, same way anyone ends up in a job. A bit of skill and being in the right place at the right time to find a way into the field. There are plenty of rootworkers and we all have a slightly different set of talents. Most work in more traditional things like hot foots and good luck hands."

[mightymorbid]

Mozenrath tried not to show that every now and again she had terms that he had never heard before. He never liked to look as though he were not well studied, even if there were legitimate reasons (like differing worlds) to explain his ignorance. "You mentioned 'fleshcraft' before. Are there many in need of that in this city?"

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"Enough to make a living. I don't work on the living, so I'm a bit limited there, but I get by." There are enough vampires and other undead xenians that she's comfortably off. "If you don't know the field, it's a cross between medical doctoring and sculpting tissue. New eyes, new limbs, removing scarring and the like."

[mightymorbid]

"What about new flesh?"

It came out before he even really thought about it, and he looked a little embarrassed. Not that minding what he said was something Mozenrath had ever really kept in check. He rubbed the back of his head.

"That's one of the things I was hoping to discuss with that other magician. I've looked for alchemical routes before but hadn't looked much into what you describe."

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"Growing it, you mean? I don't do that," she says plainly. Grafting tissues, be they living, dead or otherwise is one thing, but the creation of new body parts is not within her abilities. "There might be someone in town that can grow a leg in a vat -- they do have hufu here -- but, I dunno, it's not a common thing."

It's just too complex to replicate all the nerves, muscles, and tissue function from scratch.

[mightymorbid]

"I see." Mozenrath's brow knits in thought. "It's not really as simple as that, I'm afraid." In fact, with how great a variety of magics there are in this place, it's surprising him at every turn how many dead ends he's running into. "But it doesn't hurt to ask around. What I'm looking to do is experimental at best, and will be challenging for whomever I approach, in the end."

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"Don't beat around the bush, eh? What're you looking to grow?" Njoki might not be able to grow a new limb for someone, but she can replace dead or missing tissue. Her former roommate Pickman had been going through the change from human to ghoul and she'd done a fair job with what remained of his feet.

It should be noted that while she can work on the living, it's not something she advertises.

[mightymorbid]

Mozenrath sits back in his seat, and he and Xerxes share glances. The sorcerer shakes his head. "You'll have to forgive me; I've never really come out and shown anyone before just for the sake of showing them." He removed the gauntlet from his right hand, revealing the skeletal remains underneath. The bones moved as though the muscle and skin were not missing at all. "As you can see, growing a whole new limb won't really benefit me."

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

Njoki would disagree. If he was willing to remove the 'afflicted' limb, she (or someone who'd rather work with the living) could fit him with something entirely new.

"D'you know if the bones are living? Blood runs through them or you can heal a break?" A living skeleton, even one attached to a comparatively normal human body, is certainly unusual, but it's far and away from the worst she's seen. "D'you know if it's a curse or just an injury? Sometimes when a body's cursed no flesh'll stick until the crossing is removed."

[mightymorbid]

"The bones are alive," he confirms, quickly pulling the glove back over it. "A spell keeps them functioning normally and protected." With the gauntlet replaced his right hand seems to still have the appearance of a whole and complete hand. "And it's an injury. The bones were simply all I could preserve."

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"If it's all living tissue, then you definitely don't need a necromancer for anything other than a referral -- which I can give you, if you want treatment." It might take her some time to ask around at her guild and find a practitioner with the ability to work on such an injury, but it's not unrealistic. Prohibitively expensive, perhaps, but not beyond the realm of possibility.

[mightymorbid]

"In all honesty," he admits, "I'm not certain what I wish to do. I've been living with it for some years, now, but new life?" A shrug. "A change might be in order. It's normally the sort of thing I'd like to do myself, but there's all sorts of new magic here. It would be a waste not to explore, see what other people can do, what limitations they do not have that I do. You know."