When Jeanne heard Kal'tsit's words, she seemed to understand something. She looked up and stared intently at Jeanne for a full several minutes, her deep, probing gaze giving Jeanne a distinct chill down her spine.
Facing that unmasked stare, Jeanne quietly began shifting her weight to the side, only to realize that Kal'tsit's eyes followed her every movement, completely ignoring the Doctor sitting right there.
"Are you going to help or what? What's wrong with this Feline of yours?" Jeanne tried to communicate using only her eyes with the Doctor, who had finished her checkup and was sitting off to the side like a spectator enjoying a show.
"What can I do? I'm just a work mule, you know. Do you really think I have the power to handle whatever's on Kal'tsit's mind right now? Fat chance!"
The Doctor communicated back through sheer expressions and a helpless shrug of her hands, making it clear she was entirely powerless here before turning back to watch the drama unfold with amusement.
"How are you two communicating without speaking? Is it through eye contact? What kind of magical ability is that, can you teach me?"
Closure noticed the two of them conversing silently and immediately grew curious. She scurried over to the Doctor's side and whispered her inquiry.
"I have no idea either, so please don't lean in so close. And I'm sorry, I still have a bit of lingering panic regarding vampires—it's nothing personal against you..."
The Doctor flinched backward when Closure lunged close, still harboring a deep psychological shadow regarding blood-drinkers. She preferred to keep a safe distance from anyone of that lineage.
And she had Warfarin to thank for that trauma. Once, right in the middle of a routine blood draw with Kal'tsit, another patient's condition suddenly crashed, forcing Kal'tsit to abandon the room mid-procedure to save a life.
While Kal'tsit was gone... Warfarin had stayed behind.
That was the Doctor's first encounter with a blood-drinker in a feral frenzy, eyes glowing red and fixated on feeding. The sheer predatory expression had scared the wits right out of the strategist.
When Kal'tsit finally returned, what she found was the physically frail Doctor cowering atop a bookshelf, and a manic vampire practically drooling over a test tube of fresh blood. The Feline's fur had literally stood on end.
Ever since that day, the Doctor carried a lingering phobia of vampires, remaining jumpy even after learning Kal'tsit had strung Warfarin up by her ankles from the command deck for over half a month as punishment.
"Relax, I have zero interest in blood!" Closure defended herself, being the oddball vampire that she was. She cared far more about machine oil and circuit boards than human plasma.
"You still haven't explained how you two were talking without opening your mouths. I want that silent chatter skill!"
"Who knows? Probably just guessing based on vibes."
The Doctor threw her hands up with a shrug, genuinely unable to explain the mechanics of it. Even if pressed, she couldn't articulate how she managed to interpret the subtle nuances of Jeanne's glances, nor how Jeanne always managed to guess her thoughts in return.
The wasteland still held plenty of bizarre, inexplicable phenomena.
"Can you confirm whether your deity ever casts her gaze upon this land?" After a brief spell of intense contemplation, Kal'tsit asked the question weighing most heavily on her mind.
"If you're asking for tangible proof of the exact moments the Almighty looks this way, I honestly don't have hard evidence. But the miracles I trigger and my own innate abilities are proof enough that He occasionally directs His attention here—or perhaps, directly toward me."
Faced with Kal'tsit's skeptical tone, Jeanne remained completely calm, calmly sharing her perspective without trying to force belief.
"Is that so... Though there is no direct proof..."
Kal'tsit lowered her head, muttering softly to herself. Aside from Jeanne, who caught fragments of the whisper, the others in the room couldn't make out a single word.
"Regardless, your neurological readouts are clean. You've simply been staying up far too late recently—fix your sleep schedule."
Kal'tsit turned her attention back to the Doctor, using the exact tone of an exasperated elder scolding someone for browsing their terminal past midnight. The reprimand seemed to strike a deep, resonant chord buried within the strategist's soul.
"I was merely bogged down by excessive administrative labor! I certainly was not playing games past dawn!" The Doctor protested instantly, acting like a stubborn child refusing to admit fault.
"I watched you playing strategy games on your terminal at five in the morning for the entire past month. Did you really think the little back-channel deals you made with Closure went entirely unnoticed by me?"
Kal'tsit stood up, towering over the Doctor, who instinctively shrank into her collar. The dynamic made Jeanne feel like Kal'tsit was genuinely the strategist's strict guardian.
Perhaps that was simply the weight of accumulated time, giving the seemingly youthful Feline an aura of ancient authority.
Sensing the reflective curiosity in Jeanne's stare, Kal'tsit glanced back over her shoulder, only to find Jeanne quickly looking away.
"All of this exhaustion is just a consequence of overwork. Frankly, you might as well grant me an extended paid leave—it's not like Chernobog requires my active oversight anymore anyway..."
"Are you planning to leave with Rhodes Island?" Hearing those words, Jeanne immediately realized the Doctor's duties here were winding down and departure was imminent.
"Indeed! My physical constitution has recovered nicely over these past six months, and this city doesn't strictly need me anchored here anymore, so I'll be tagging along with Rhodes Island's next deployment!"
The Doctor waved her thin arms for emphasis. Of course, "thin" was only relative to the heavy combatants around her; compared to the frail state she woke up in half a year ago, she had made a remarkable recovery.
"Besides, my authority level back on the landship must be exceptionally high. I am genuinely looking forward to returning and finally bossing Kal'tsit around. That must feel absolutely—"
"You're going to be deeply disappointed. Your security clearance is currently restricted to parity with my own, and since you lack all prior memories, you will effectively remain half a rank below me until those memories return."
Kal'tsit's flat, unyielding declaration instantly popped the Doctor's fantasy bubble. Jeanne watched in real time as the strategist deflated like a punctured balloon, shrinking into herself with crushing despair.
The Doctor, who had foolishly believed she could return and immediately lord over the cold-hearted Feline, was now facing the brutal reality of her administrative subjugation. She could already picture her grim, joyless future.
Why had she run her mouth?! Given Kal'tsit's outward indifference and notoriously petty grudge-holding nature, she was entirely finished!
"Jeanne! Do you have any open staff positions? I can be your personal secretary, I'll carry your bags!" The Doctor scrambled across the floor, diving forward to latch onto Jeanne's legs in a desperate death grip.
Fortunately, the room was private. If the rest of Rhodes Island's operators could witness their brilliant tactical mastermind debasing herself like this, a good portion of the roster might have resigned on the spot.
Sitting off to the side, the two vampires watched the spectacle with absolute glee, furiously snapping pictures of the humiliated strategist. The sheer volume of new reaction images they could harvest from this moment was staggering.
Should they price this particular sticker pack at ten LMD, or fifty? Maybe they could even push it to a hundred and test the market!
"Pardon me, but I have exceptionally high standards. Besides, I'm already Talulah's primary aide; I've never heard of a secretary needing their own assistant."
Jeanne tried to pull her leg free with an expression of pure disdain, but the Doctor's grip was astonishingly stubborn, her helmeted head pressing awkwardly right against Jeanne's backside as she refused to let go.
"Don't be like that! You can't just sell me out to Kal'tsit so easily! You know her... her temperament and mine are fundamentally incompatible! I sincerely believe this city suits my talents much better!"
Had the Doctor completely forgotten that she was, first and foremost, a Rhodes Island core leader? Did she fail to notice Kal'tsit's complexion darkening into a thundercloud with every word she uttered? Don't drag innocent bystanders into your suicide mission!
Jeanne continued trying to shake off the clinging specter, but no amount of reasoning worked.
Realizing brute force was required, Jeanne ultimately had to slip her foot right out of her stocking, executing a tactical withdrawal that left her footwear behind in the Doctor's desperate embrace.
Freed at last, Jeanne joined the two vampires in watching as Kal'tsit calmly seized the Doctor by the back of her collar, hoisted her bodily into the air, and proceeded to administer a thoroughly educational physical correction.
Fortunately, Amiya had been safely dispatched elsewhere to finish her homework.
Amiya, currently drowning in impromptu extra assignments: Tears.