Finders Keepers

[all_too_familiar]

Sometimes witches have powers before they turn. But this is rare, uncommon.

More often, a potential witch displays almost nothing out of the ordinary at all. Just, say, a little more skill with people, a little more natural charisma. An extra dose of something that could almost be called luck, if one were paying attention and on the lookout for witches.

There is one such maybe-potential, right over there. He's not from around here, but he is fluent in Italian and French and German and he professes that English is his first language and laughs when people call him a liar because of his perfect accent. He might not be the most powerful, but a polyglot witch could be useful for something. And who knows, maybe there's more to it.

Maybe someone would care to find out.

Comments

[honey_twining]

"I'm not sure it's replicable. For long, anyway. Carlisle's the only one I've ever heard of. His mate's only killed one, but still."

[all_too_familiar]

"I mean. How many vampires have tried?" he wonders. Because he thinks the answer is 'not very many.' Or possibly 'four.'

[honey_twining]

"Tried from day one? Three."

[all_too_familiar]

Blair feels that he did try from day one, just - he was given a nasty hand and, yeah, he was weak, fine, fair enough. He'd managed to stop himself from killing the fifth, then... Failed at that.

"Are there others that haven't tried from day one?"

[honey_twining]

"We have - we call them our cousins. A coven of three, who picked up the habit of eating animals later, independently of us."

[all_too_familiar]

"Ah. So it's a ridiculously tiny sample size."

That is incredibly depressing to him. Why don't more vampires try not to kill people? Oh right. Because they're delicious. And also probably some psychological distancing, un-personing them instead of admitting you kill people and that is wrong. Which his power didn't let him do. Thank you power, he loves you.

[honey_twining]

"Carlisle managed on his own with no witchcraft, Esme and I picked it up from him. Our cousins fumbled their way there via... getting to know... humans and redeveloping empathy for them."

[all_too_familiar]

...

Getting to 'know' humans. He briefly wonders how the fuck anyone could possibly manage that when humans are squishy before he shuts down this line of thought. He refuses to have sex with someone he could - break. That just seems like a great way to kill someone he would like to have sex with. If this means he doesn't have sex, fine. This is an acceptable loss if it means not killing people he would like to have sex with.

"Carlisle is ridiculously impressive," says Blair, because he is not the type to voice his musings on this topic out loud and will instead pretend he did not think about it at all. "How'd he manage it?" Did he get complimentary (ha ha) people for eating upon finishing turning, because if he did Blair is just going to call the man a witch whose power is people eating resistance because holy shit.

[honey_twining]

"He wasn't offered any humans. He came out of the turning alone," Edward says. "He starved, for a while, avoiding people. Eventually tried chasing down deer and didn't find them poisonous, just noxious."

[all_too_familiar]

Blair nods. This makes sense to him. Also damn it he should have tried that. Instead he ate terrible people. ... Terrible people were delicious, mind, and he's not exactly sorry, but still. People eating. Probably bad, even if the people he ate were all (with five exceptions...) terrible.

"Good to know."

[honey_twining]

"...Eating anyone makes it harder to avoid eating other people," Edward mentions. "Even if you're exercising unique judgment in picking targets."

[all_too_familiar]

Oh. He supposes it does, doesn't it. He knows what it tastes like, now, and is becoming used to drinking delicious blood. He wouldn't have if he'd lived in an alternate reality where he did not get offered humans right out of turning, and then managed to not eat people.

That is an excellent point in favor of not eating terrible people, the vampire gets a point on the little mental tally board Blair invented just now.

"I'm Blair, by the way, I don't think I mentioned out loud."

He does not recall his last name anymore, it didn't really matter to him and he often went without anyway.

[honey_twining]

"I'm Edward."

[all_too_familiar]

"Nice to meet you."

And it is! He wouldn't mind becoming another 'cousin,' actually, if he manages the not eating people thing, which it seems like he will because he does not like it being easier to accidentally eat more people at all.

[honey_twining]

"Likewise."

And here comes Carlisle. He has been listening to their conversation, apparently, and nods to Blair. "Hello, Blair. It's good to meet you."

[all_too_familiar]

"Hello. It's good to meet you, too." He's not surprised that Carlisle was listening. He bets Edward was quietly called because aaa newborn vampire.

"I am extremely impressed with you," says Blair, sincerely.

[honey_twining]

"Thank you," says Carlisle, "although of course there's no way to know what would have happened if I'd turned under more intentional circumstances -"

Edward quietly snorts.

"- or with covenmates attempting to steer my development. I'm quite as impressed with you."

[all_too_familiar]

"Thank you," says Blair, pleased and smiling. He feels somewhat like he has just met and been complimented by his hero. That he gained about ten minutes ago. It's still a valid feeling.

He's not going to tell Carlisle 'by the way I killed my covenmates because they made me kill people.' That seems like it would earn disappointment from his hero and that would be terrible.

"Is there a guidebook on how not to eat people?" he wonders lightly.

[alicornucopia]

"No," says Carlisle, "it would be a little difficult to publish - but there are six people's worth of experiences working on it, and we can give you advice, to the extent advice helps."

[all_too_familiar]

He nods. It's a thousand times better than what he had, oh, twenty minutes ago.

"I'd love to hear any and all advice on the subject."

[alicornucopia]

"Would you like to come home with us? We have a house a short jog from here."

[all_too_familiar]

"Sure," he agrees.

He is making vampire friends! They try not to eat people! He's very excited about this.

[alicornucopia]

"A short jog" turns out to mean "we walk over that hill, then when nobody's looking we run for about a minute and a half".

The house is adorable. A vampire who is obviously Carlisle's mate is putting shingles up on the roof when they arrive. "Welcome home! Who's this?"

"Esme, this is Blair," Edward says. "He came for Carlisle's advice on revising his diet. Blair, Esme."

[all_too_familiar]

"Hello!" says Blair, brightly. "You have a lovely home."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, I'm not half done restoring it," Esme says. "But I'm glad someone else can see the beauty it'll be when it's fixed up. Welcome."