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 shrugs. "Distracted by shiny new vampirism? Just thinking that's how it works and not questioning it? Thinking they have all the time in the world and then never getting around to it?" Pause. "I am not very good at this, I was playing with my power ten minutes after I finished turning."

[all_too_familiar]

"And after she finished cackling."

[taste_tester]

"I often work with human witches, who only have the second excuse."

[poll_the_stars]

"Hm. I don't know, then. This is an alien concept to me, flinging myself into magic gleefully just seemed the obvious thing to do."

[taste_tester]

"I'm so pleased."

[poll_the_stars]

[all_too_familiar]

"Personally, I was a bit busy," says Blair. "I had a coven to plan to kill and then had to figure out how not to murder people randomly and then needed to get you vampirism and my witch power seemed a bit less important in comparison to all of that. I'd poked at it, but hadn't seriously sat down and figured out how to make it better. I imagine that someone could get into a similar situation and then just never pick it up again."

[taste_tester]

"Incidentally, you'll be pleased to know that for as long as I held on to your power I did restrict myself to meals I doubted you'd get along with very well."

[all_too_familiar]

"Thank you!"

[taste_tester]

"I didn't hold it long, though. Obvious reasons."

[all_too_familiar]

"Yeah, I figured. Every person counts, though."

[taste_tester]

[all_too_familiar]

"Are you surprised that my witch power comes honestly? I like people."

[taste_tester]

"No, I'm not surprised at all."

[all_too_familiar]

Neither is Blair, actually. He already knows Addy doesn't care about people very much. And that she disagrees with his 'every person counts' statement.

"But seriously. Thanks."

[taste_tester]

"You're welcome."

[poll_the_stars]

Yvette prods at her power a little bit more with Addy's help. She wrestles a better copied-item organization scheme, and this helps her get faster with everything else, but a lot of it's just going to come down to practice. Her power is very stubborn about being touch based, though Yvette is optimistic about persuading it to work from her nails and hair instead of just her skin.

Eventually it is nearing the time that humans will cease sleeping! There's more work to be done on Yvette's power, but she seems to have the right sort of mindset and has already proven to apply herself from the beginning to improving it. She and Blair depart.

Yvette goes back to Oxford, because gosh, she has got some more chemistry to learn while she plays with her power!

[all_too_familiar]

Blair does not go back to England. There is another witch who might want to improve his power a bit more. Maybe get himself an off switch.

Knock knock, Cullens, guess who's there?

[honey_twining]

"I don't think so," Edward says when he opens the door.

"Welcome, Blair," says Esme, with a hint of reproach for Edward.

"Come in," Edward says, "but I don't think I want the copy witch to know I exist, if she's as you're thinking."

[all_too_familiar]

"Hello, Esme," says Blair, amused.

Inside he goes. "She is exactly how I'm thinking. Not wanting to see her is fair; I haven't mentioned you at all. ... But I do think that if you can you should work on your power a bit, I get the impression that a lot of them can really grow if you put in the effort. And then if you don't, it's stuck like it is forever."

[honey_twining]

"Is there some particular expansion...? And I've been a vampire longer than you have, anyway. It may already be stuck."

[all_too_familiar]

"It also might not be. If you have the time I think it's worth the effort. And - I don't know, if you could prod your power into going in a direction, what would you want from it?"

Blair thinks 'the ability to turn it off' is a pretty good idea, because always-on mind reading sounds really obnoxious when you don't want to hear everyone's thoughts.

[honey_twining]

"It's not so hard to ignore, unless someone happens to think of someone called Edward. And we've avoided close calls before by having me attentive even when I might not have wanted to be if I had an - off-switch."

"Edward, most covens manage all right without a telepath. You can have a break from looking out for us," Esme says.

"Even so."

[all_too_familiar]

Blair is mildly disappointed in Edward's creativity. An off switch could be person-dependent but still universally always on for everyone else, such that he could avoid getting, say, Rosalie's thoughts all the time but still pick up everyone else. Or he might be able to persuade it to get his attention when something alarming happens and he won't have to personally pay attention, and just get little alerts. Or more distance faster, or - a number of other things, he hasn't thought a lot about how to upgrade mind reading because his privacy invasion power is of a highly different flavor.

But it is ultimately up to Edward, and he will shoo if Edward doesn't want to try it at all. If he does, though, he's got Blair's help.

"That's not the only thing possible," he points out, for Esme's benefit, "if you don't want an off-switch."

[honey_twining]

"I don't think I can get my power to do any filtering for me, and increasing my range would be more curse than blessing."