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]

"Yep! This'll keep me busy for ages. There's a concentration in Italy, I bet I know who those are, but there's others I didn't know about."

[all_too_familiar]

"Happy to help." ... He thinks. Maybe.

[taste_tester]

"Now the obvious thing to try to squish this power into doing is intersections. I wonder why it won't. Does it feel wrong to try it in some way?"

[all_too_familiar]

He thinks about it, sifting through some searches and trying to get them to intersect.

"... Okay, this is vague hunch and might be wrong, but, what I think is happening is that it doesn't like multitasking and likes being focused on one thing at a time."

[taste_tester]

"Okay... hm. So, what are some intersection searches that would give you special, clearly interesting-in-themselves results? Like, 'vampire' and 'child', or 'mated' and 'in mourning', or 'witch' and 'skeptical that magic exists'."

[all_too_familiar]

"I'll try poking at those, yeah. Maybe I can get it to accept an intersection if I try and force two to go at the same time."

He attempts this thing! It is hard. He doesn't make any immediate progress, even as he tries ones that would have very interesting intersections.

"Maybe I'm coming at this wrong," he mutters. "This power of mine seems to think in silly moon logic, I am not thinking enough in silly moon logic..."

[taste_tester]

"It's your silly moon logic," Addy reminds him. "Do you like multitasking? If you don't, why not?"

[all_too_familiar]

"I mean, I will multitask if the circumstances call for it, and they often do, but I really don't want to get into a situation where I am juggling so many things I can't give each one the attention it deserves. So I tend to keep it to a minimum if I can, unless it's some kind of emergency."

[taste_tester]

"Quick. Detect the Volturi witches, ignore the rank and file. It's an emergency."

[all_too_familiar]

... That's sort of not convincing at all as an emergency, but okay, he can attempt to consider it one.

He closes his eyes and attempts to pretend that the Volturi are after him for his power and will rip him away from everyone he cares about. Demetri hasn't seen him yet but he needs to make sure he never does, right this second, the longer it takes him the more likely he'll be screwed. Killing Demetri is impossible, he's guarded by Jane. The best way to win is to run, but run in a way that won't get him spotted by the one that could actually chase him forever, he needs to out-track him, c'mon -

Augh, doesn't go, his search doesn't accept 'Volturi' as a valid concept - vampire witches, he can do that, he got vampires and he got witches, those are doable, combine damn it.

Have personal opinions on vampire transition/good for playing with magic with?

It does one after the other, vampires then witches, he can pay attention to what lights up twice, but that's vague and directional and prone to messing up, he can only really detect them all if it does both at once, c'mon it's an emergency work damn you I need you to work.

He tries again - there's a bit of an overlap period, brief but definitely present, that's almost it, yes, come on, don't even lie and say you can't he knows he can multitask -

Two at once, again, push - and they overlap and both stay. Now detecting vampire witches.

He opens his eyes, blinking.

"... Got it. Couldn't get Volturi specifically, but I got vampire witches."

[taste_tester]

Boop. "Think you can do arbitrary intersections or just the one?"

[all_too_familiar]

"Let me test it."

Understand mate bond/in heavy mourning?

It's tricky and he has to push, it's not as easy as just looking for one, he slips the first time he tries it and just has a brief overlap, but his second try he gets it to go.

"They're more difficult, I slipped a bit and just had a brief overlap instead of both of them going the first time, but I got it on the second."

[taste_tester]

Boop. "Maybe it'll smooth out if you try more things."

[all_too_familiar]

Nod.

He tries more things.

It's not easy, but he can start consistently not slipping if he keeps pushing at this. ... Clearly he needs to practice at it more, but that's doable, he can practice at it more.

"I can make it stop slipping but it's still difficult to do. I think I'll need to practice at it a lot."

[taste_tester]

"Practice is very important," Addy nods.

[all_too_familiar]

Nod.

"Yes, magic teacher. Is there an - ideal amount of practice that's best?"

He's thinking specifically of an ideal workout routine, actually. He vaguely recalls that this was a thing.

(Funny, he didn't remember his last name. Or his sister's name. Human memories are so bizarre.)

[taste_tester]

"Depends on the person. I am getting a one hour twice a day vibe from you, and my vibes maybe expected to be unusually accurate this afternoon."

[all_too_familiar]

"I can do one hour twice a day," he says agreeably. "Hell, it'll even be easy, I like my power, it's fun to play with."

[taste_tester]

"Lovely! Are you going to stay local for the time being?"

[all_too_familiar]

He actually would like to go find his sister and ask if she'd like to have a witchly teacher.

"I can stay a little while longer if you think it'll help, I'd rather not do something that might permanently stunt my magic, but my coven's probably going to start missing me soon."

[taste_tester]

"Oh, I'm sure you can find me easily whenever you start to plateau. No need to alarm your covenmates. The risk is that you'll start to find the existing avenues of exploration boring and you won't do your hour twice a day."

[all_too_familiar]

Nod.

"If I get bored and try a different avenue of exploration, would that hurt, too?"

[taste_tester]

"Only if it's a poorly chosen one."

[all_too_familiar]

"Poorly chosen like what?"

[taste_tester]

"Oh, you're not going to be able to sort anyone by blood type. Probably wouldn't be able to get there even if I'd caught you earlier."