(this fits in with a longer fic I wrote about Rubin's whole journey, Sewing Together Guts And Soul but should also make sense on its own)
For the longest time Rubin possessed a life that didn’t matter and would have laid it down without question if that’s what the Town needed, but now, after being handed a slip of paper and taken below the earth, she – not Stakh, but Ksenia – can see for the first time that if *her* life has value, then perhaps no one’s blood has to be spilled.
“We’ll need a couple dozen IV drips so the Humbles can replenish their fuels, an alembic or two which Cub should be happy to donate, and a suitable nutrient broth to sustain the Living Blood as you draw it out of them. Oh, and while you’re at it, Devotress, I’d like to have my hormones sorted out for good.”
Pathologic, trans woman Rubin
For the longest time Rubin possessed a life that didn’t matter and would have laid it down without question if that’s what the Town needed, but now, after being handed a slip of paper and taken below the earth, she – not Stakh, but Ksenia – can see for the first time that if *her* life has value, then perhaps no one’s blood has to be spilled.
“We’ll need a couple dozen IV drips so the Humbles can replenish their fuels, an alembic or two which Cub should be happy to donate, and a suitable nutrient broth to sustain the Living Blood as you draw it out of them. Oh, and while you’re at it, Devotress, I’d like to have my hormones sorted out for good.”