"Thanks!"

She does so.

The woman leaves.

A few minutes later a man with long blond hair sweeps in. He raises an eyebrow slightly. "Hello. My name is Kanimir Kozlov. I was informed as to the nature of your--misplacement."

She gives a half-bow. "Lotus. No last name, that's not the custom for most people where I'm from. If you have any insights into how that might have happened, I would appreciate it, but I expect I will figure it out on my own given enough time. All I ask of you is that you will share your roof with me tonight."

"I have plenty of guest rooms. I would be fascinated to attempt to study how you got here."

"I would be happy to help so much as I can, though I have my own research which I would prioritize right now."

"What are you researching?"

"Um. Immortality. Living immortality, not becoming an undead or anything like that." He probably cannot read Ostrean and hasn't been looking that closely at her books and so most likely cannot tell that one of the books in her arms is titled A History of Lichdom from Acererak to Vecna. She is not lying, per se, but it seems imprudent to mention that lichdom is her fallback plan.

He laughs softly. "I'm hardly one to complain about the undead."

Blink. Um. Sometimes lights means horrible monsters, right. "You look, ah. Remarkably alive." She starts backing towards the door.

"I haven't drunk from someone who wasn't a consenting volunteer in well over a century, I assure you."

Oh, sure, she'll believe that. But, vampire, OK, what does she know about vampires? Drink blood, duh, not helping, hate sunlight, wow she sure is coming up with useful facts, can't enter private dwellings without permission but it's his house come on something useful, hypnotic gaze - 

She looks away. Not completely away because that also seems pretty dangerous, but off to his side instead of at his face.

"What, exactly, is your standard of consent?"

"Fully informed, free to leave whenever they wish, and maintained to a standard of care in the meanwhile that leaves them of the opinion they made an unambiguously good choice.

I also haven't drunk directly from the vein since the technology to safely and reliably extract and store blood became available. It's quite hygienic."

"I notice that 'not being mind-controlled' did not make the list. I am not sure why you are mentioning hygiene are you trying to make a sales pitch?" If she gets outside of the house she will not actually be any safer, vampire night vision is not deficient at all and he knows the area. She stops backing away. She does not look directly at him.

"No, of course not. I merely have standards. I wasn't aware that mind control was a relevant concern; it's mostly not, here, unless demons are involved. My standards for consent do involve 'of their own free will, uncoerced, and not mind controlled'."

"I am not sure I believe you. Vampires - which is what I am assuming you are - on my plane can dominate minds with a glance and it seems incredibly unlikely that this plane has beings that are similar in all respects but that one."

"...That is definitely not a thing I can do."

"I still don't believe you." She sighs. "I am not going to run because if you are not hostile I'm safe here and if you are hostile I'm safer where I can see you. I will help you research how I wound up here as promised, but I won't go within arm's reach of you or look you in the eye and I hope if you are sincere about your friendliness you will forgive me."

"I'm not friendly; I don't like people. But I'm not what you believe me to be and have no reason to object to your precautions."

"Friendly is a relative term. I don't imagine I'll need to sleep tonight, it was the middle of the day on my plane, we can get started now if you want?"

"Certainly. Where did you arrive?"

"Less than an hour ago, I think. A dragon attacked the city I was in, I fled. I used a spell on the teleportation circle out so it would send me somewhere at random that couldn't be traced. It seems to have been more random than expected, and also more powerful if this is another plane. Give me a moment, I can - " She pulls of her bag and feels through it for her spellbook (eyes fixed a foot to Kozlov's right) and flips to the right page. " - here, this is the spell if you want to look at it."

He studies it for a moment.

"Your magic and mine are very dissimilar," he says after a moment.

"I have my own diagramming style, it's a bit more efficient for me but it does make collaboration harder. I could copy it in a more standard style if you have the inks, but we probably don't know the same standards... Or do you mean there is a more fundamental difference?"

"Fundamental difference."