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

[taste_tester]

"Yes. Can you get it to stop? Or at least pick whether you're looking through the remedial or the honors?"

[all_too_familiar]

"I can try, but I'm not sure how to do that, though. Tips, witch teacher?"

[taste_tester]

"Well, that depends on how you work, how you think about it, why you have this power instead of someone else or something else. Hmm, I have a process usually but maybe your silly power will let me take a shortcut." She circles him, quizzing her copy about this fellow's style.

[all_too_familiar]

He cares about people a lot, this fellow. Not exactly in the sense that he would like to save everyone, but in the sense that he doesn't do things for a vague concept of morality, but for the specific people that are benefited by it. He doesn't avoid stealing because stealing is wrong; he avoids stealing because specific people would be hurt by the stealing itself, and he cares about them.

He's highly adaptable and loves exploring, but not for the sights. It's for the people that he meets, and for what he learns about the world. He likes seeing things big-picture style as much as possible, and he likes being as equipped as possible to handle whatever the world throws at him. This mostly seems to be in the sense that he should improve, not that he should get cool toys. He should know as much about a situation as possible, understand as many languages as possible, and be able to handle a given situation physically and mentally, and know who to go to for help. This means well-used witch powers and the ability to fight, but also self control, an open mind, and a good idea of what the world's actually like instead of just vague concepts of it.

Once she looks, it's pretty obvious why the power grades on a curve; he's of the opinion that context is highly important when judging people. Writing off an entire culture for being lesser in comparison to another culture is - not exactly incorrect, but short-sighted, and to properly judge something one has to judge it by the circumstances that surround the something too. So his power is being 'helpful' and accounting for the context on its own, at least for vampires and humans.

Also, he prefers black and dark red as colors, has a strong preference for hand-made objects over factory-made objects, eats animals instead of people because he hates the idea of not having perfect self control, and likes playing chess.

[taste_tester]

"So," she says, "why do you want your power to find you vampires?"

[all_too_familiar]

"... Because it's important to know where the people that can kill me are?" he says dryly.

[taste_tester]

"So you need to find people who are a certain way relative to you," she says. "Not relative to their - category. Have you ever got your power to do anything like that before?"

[all_too_familiar]

"... Sort of. It's managed to find me two people that were helpful to me specifically, first try. Not relative to their category. The organ freezing one was for someone else."

[taste_tester]

"Sort of? Am I one of these people?"

[all_too_familiar]

"Yes. The other was Carlisle Cullen, if you've heard of him."

[taste_tester]

"No; who's he?"

[all_too_familiar]

"A vampire who can resist the smell of blood so completely he can work as a doctor; he hasn't eaten anyone and his self control is amazing. I went to get help with my eating people problem. I'm as certain as I can be that he was the absolute best person to talk to."

[taste_tester]

"Huh. How'd you find him?"

[all_too_familiar]

"The exact search I had was for someone that would understand the situation and could help."

[taste_tester]

"Can you broaden 'the situation'? Someone who will understand the condition of being a vampire, say? There are not that many informed humans."

[all_too_familiar]

"... Not exactly." They are getting into something he considers to be kind of private, but witch powers are very personal, so it makes sense. He won't close up and tell her to bugger off. He thinks back, and disentangles the emotions he had back then. "The exact thoughts I had put into 'the situation' was of more than just the condition of being a vampire, but the condition of being a vampire who could not just see humans as food. On account of my power."

[taste_tester]

"So what does being a vampire, in general, mean to you?"

[all_too_familiar]

"As it is now, or as it was then?"

[taste_tester]

"Both."

[all_too_familiar]

"Then, I was a newborn who was trying to figure out if I was a monster or not. My choices seemed to be 'be a monster that kills innocent people' and 'be a monster that kills monsters,' and I wasn't even guaranteed to consistently be the latter, because my control had proven to not be perfect.

"Now, I'm a vampire who's pretty firmly of the opinion that I'm just - myself. I have a set of abilities that are different than what they were, and a set of downsides that I need to account for, but I'm whatever I choose to be if I work at it long enough. With superpowers."

[taste_tester]

"Hmm. Well, vampires in general have all gone through a transition period, and will feel some way about that. What happens if you look for people who have opinions about that sort of thing, like you but not the same?"

[all_too_familiar]

"Hm."

He looks.

"... I think I just got a vampires only checker," he says, smiling.

[taste_tester]

"That'll be ten thousand francs," she deadpans. Briefly. Then she smiles.

[all_too_familiar]

Snort.

"Do you want to set up a payment plan or should I write a check?"

[taste_tester]

"Oh, I only take the equivalent in twenty-four carat gold." She reaches out and boops his nose for a power update. "There's a while before my other witch gets home. Want to see what else you can get this thing to do while it's in a cooperative mood?"