This one's different

[all_too_familiar]

Blair can't actually track witches with his power, nor does he try to find them with it, but when his scenery abruptly changes from city to the middle of the forest he immediately thinks he accidentally found one and pissed them off, and is alarmed.

And then he is very alarmed because all of his magical signatures of people stop pointing at where the people are. Instead the signatures are confused. They haven't disappeared, so presumably the people that own them are still alive, he just - can't find them.

What kind of crazy meta power is this? He stretches out with his power, looking for the nearest person, looking for something like civilization.

Comments

[exerce_imperia]

"I think we are going to get along very well," she says. "My name is Lisbet Serise. May I ask, what planet are you from?"

[all_too_familiar]

He is so pleased that she thinks they'll get along very well that he takes half a second to notice the planet question, but he does notice it. He blinks.

"Earth," he says, "year 1931, Gregorian calendar. If that's relevant. Which it sounds like it might be."

[exerce_imperia]

"My home planet is Eta Ceta, and when I was last there it was 2972 in the Earth Common Era, which I believe is congruent with your calendar. Interesting. I also have strong reason to believe that if vampires and magic existed, I would have heard about them."

[all_too_familiar]

He nods. "That answers some questions and brings up a few more. I'd thought this was some kind of supremely powerful witch's power, but that seems less and less likely. How did you get here? I'd just finished hunting - I eat animals, instead of people - and the scenery abruptly changed."

[exerce_imperia]

"I went to sleep as normal and woke up lying in the grass in the middle of this island at noon with an unsettling automaton greeting me by name and offering me a bag of tools. It was... surprising."

[all_too_familiar]

"You seem to have done well for yourself despite it," says Blair, noticing after he's said this that he's doing the thing mated vampires do where they fawn over their mates. ... He is okay with this.

"Though I'm worried about getting out of here. Have you found anything that might look like an exit?"

[exerce_imperia]

"Not remotely," she says, shaking her head. "My first concern is ensuring my own safety; I'm in no hurry to return home unless I find information indicating that the danger here increases with time. Now that you're here, however, it might be time to reevaluate my approach."

[all_too_familiar]

He nods. ... He eyes her armor.

"How difficult is ensuring your own safety?"

[exerce_imperia]

"I haven't had what I'd call significant trouble. There are hazards, but so far the cautious approach has worked very well for me."

[all_too_familiar]

"All right," he says, relaxing just a little. "Good."

[exerce_imperia]

"I'll appreciate your help, of course. If you can help me safely explore my island and make use of its resources, and then help me find other people on nearby islands, perhaps we'll eventually be able to find a way out of this place."

[all_too_familiar]

"Agreed." Pause. "I'd really like to find a way back to my world, because my sister's in it and wants to become a vampire but hasn't become one yet. There's a bit of trouble with the transition, I want to help her if she goes through it."

[exerce_imperia]

She nods, absorbing this information. "Approximately how urgent is that situation, in terms of time? I can't predict how easily we'll be able to leave, but I want to know where to balance the schedule."

[all_too_familiar]

He considers.

"... A year, at least," he pronounces, "likely longer. I disappeared, she'd want to know why, and she wouldn't want to rush with the vampire friends I made while I'm missing."

[exerce_imperia]

Nod.

"So. What more can you tell me about vampires and witches?"

[all_too_familiar]

"The vampires in charge are called the Volturi - they keep their power entirely through witches with various personalized powers. Highlights include: Aro, one of the three leaders that gets every memory from someone's head upon physical contact, including every thought they've ever had, Chelsea, a woman who can toy with how you feel about people and casually does so in order to prevent the Volturi from fracturing under the weight of a bunch of vampires all together in one place." Pause. "Vampires that drink human blood get aggression problems, and it's hard to have a lot of human-eating vampires in one place because of it. Because they'll want to kill each other. Recently turned vampires - the colloquial term is newborn - have a serious aggression problem and are naturally stronger than ordinary vampires, because they are filled with their own blood. ... Vampires that drink human blood are stronger than vampires that don't. But it's harder to resist human blood when you have a taste of it, and harder to resist if you're used to drinking it, and I just think it's better to not eat people because of this, despite the loss to strength.

"I don't know the specifics of how other witches' powers work, but I can tell you about mine, if you'd like to know more about it? And also list off every witch I know of, which certainly isn't a complete list."

[exerce_imperia]

"I can't say I disapprove of your decision not to eat people," she says, with a dry little smile. "Do tell me all about your power, please."

[all_too_familiar]

"Okay," he agrees. "It's two-fold, actually, more than just tracking. I sense - the terms I want to use are personality and quirks of a person. I can, if I focus, track people by personality traits and can find certain types of people - that's how I found the vampire that told me that I could eat animals. I asked my power for a person that could help and it led me right to him. The longer I talk to someone, the more of a complete picture I get, and the easier I can find them. It was incredibly helpful with stopping myself from eating people, and - before I stopped eating people, I used it to lead me to the correct sorts of people to eat. That is, irredeemable monsters."

He says this pretty nonchalantly, though he does make a slight face. It doesn't seem to be guilt at eating terrible people, but at something else.

[exerce_imperia]

"Good use of resources," she murmurs. "...Can you tell, right now, whether or not there are any other living people around? How far away would they have to be before you couldn't?"

[all_too_familiar]

"Thank you!" he says, pleased. "My range for finding a specific person's further than my 'search all' range, which varies a bit depending on how much attention I pay to it and how much I bully it into giving me more answers. I can find people on the other side of the world that I haven't met if I manage to nail a specific characteristic, if I just search everybody it's a bit more of a modest ten-ish miles. Give me a minute, this is tricky."

He closes his eyes and polls his power.

"... One person in the nonspecific search. That way." He points. "I'll poll for characteristics next, I've got a much better range on that. Input for what I look for?"

[exerce_imperia]

"Hmm. Of course I'd prefer people who aren't likely to greet us with hostility; is that the sort of thing you can look for or do you need something narrower, or differently qualified...?"

[all_too_familiar]

"I think I can narrow that down if I do some mental contortions."

He does some mental contortions.

"Found someone else. Same general direction as the first."

[exerce_imperia]

"That's promising. Are there any more to be had on that search, or should we try a different angle? I still prefer to wait until we're better established before we go looking for any of these people, but finding out where they are seems like it can't hurt."

[all_too_familiar]

"I searched for a person that strongly did not want to harm anyone, and found just the one, it's probably a bit narrow for finding everyone. It hasn't found me anyone else." He hums, thoughtfully. "I'm going to try favorite foods because that's easy and listable."

....

Nope.

"But upon observation there's no guarantee that anyone has foods I actually know of that are their favorites. Hm."

[exerce_imperia]

Interacting with this person is so comfortable and efficient.

"You and this power of yours suit each other very well," she says, instead of saying that. "It's pleasing. Hmm, what would be a good quality to look for... well, what would be a bad quality to have in a neighbour? Is there anyone nearby who likes to harm strangers?"