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

[poll_the_stars]

"Yvette Lowell," she provides, because that seems like the thing to tell him when he's making that exact awkward face. "And our mother's name was Corinne Lowell. Father's is Franklin, he's upstairs." Pause. "I'm a nurse, unmarried so far because I've been picky and no one's been good enough for me, something something I'll end up as a spinster if I'm not careful, um, do you have questions I don't know what to explain."

[all_too_familiar]

"... I thought nurse was too small scale for you?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Oh, it is, but I didn't have better options available and it is a helpful and necessary field and - yeah."

[all_too_familiar]

"Well. I am a vampire who can comfortably be immortal if no one rips me to pieces and sets me on fire. I have a list of benefits and downsides because it seemed like a thing that might be relevant."

He produces a list.

[poll_the_stars]

"Good brother," she says magnanimously, and then: reading.




"Okay so the murder is kind of a problem, but it looks like it might be able to be avoided. The mating thing is, um, frankly kind of horrifying. ... And vampires can't have kids."

[all_too_familiar]

"Being a spinster is not a serious concern?"

[poll_the_stars]

"I mean. It's - one thing to look at my prospects and laugh and then go back to changing bandages, it is another to decide to never ever be able to have kids."

[all_too_familiar]

"True." He peers at her. "That outranks the murder? And the mate thing? Really?"

(Reading her is becoming easier. It's almost like she's familiar to him.)

[poll_the_stars]

"The murder I can actively stop. It's concerning and if I killed someone accidentally I don't think I'd forgive myself, but it's in my control. I can account for it and handle it. The mate thing is - I'm still going with horrifying, but I have the strong belief that anyone I could hopelessly fall in love with is not going to be a twit about it, which - assuages my beliefs somewhat. They're not gone but I'd put up with it for immortality." Pause. "So yes, it does outrank both, it's just. No kids. Ever. I'm not desperate to be a mother, exactly, but I don't want to forever lose the chance to bear children if I can help it."

[all_too_familiar]

"Adoption?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Is definitely an option on the table, but it's still lessening my available options. And I might discover I want to experience the miracle of childbirth."

[all_too_familiar]

Yes but instead you will be experiencing the miracle of death.

"Okay. .... One of the vampires is a doctor. That might be relevant. I don't know if that's at all possible to, to mess with, but he is a vampire doctor who's probably a bit ahead of traditional doctors on account of the sheer amount of experience. And how he doesn't need to sleep." Pause. "Or, uh, you could have a kid before you turn?"

[poll_the_stars]

She makes a face.

"Not anytime soon." Pause, consideration. "... I might talk to the doctor."

[all_too_familiar]

"And if we cannot bend the human body to our will with the powers of science?"

[poll_the_stars]

"... I embrace my future liquid diet from animals only," she pronounces, after a pause. "On consideration I don't find adoption objectionable, just. The option thing."

[all_too_familiar]

"Okay. No pressure, and uh, you can change your mind at any time, so on, so forth."

[poll_the_stars]

[all_too_familiar]

"Good news," he says. "I heard that 'you could try' loud and clear, sibling telepathy is in working condition."

[poll_the_stars]

"Technically you could forcibly turn me at any time!"

[all_too_familiar]

"If I want to have an angry newborn on my hands, sure I could."

[poll_the_stars]

She snorts.

"Let's not. I could kill someone." Pause. "Actually, from what it sounds like, one vampire dealing with a newborn is not enough for safety."

[all_too_familiar]

"Mm. Yeah. I was thinking along those lines already, though we could go find some extremely out of the way place of the world if that falls through. I'll ask vampire friends about it when I go to visit."

[poll_the_stars]

"Okay. ... How soon are you going to go visit?"

[all_too_familiar]

"Vague later, I just got here, and have a shiny new sister. And, I don't know, need anything heavy lifted?"

[poll_the_stars]

"If I find something," she says dryly, "I will let you know."