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

[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?"

[all_too_familiar]

"Thank you," he says, grinning. He does not say, It is based around my personality! but he thinks it. Very loudly. In a smug fashion.

He checks his power for people that like harming strangers, in several different wordings because his power is a bit tricky like that -

"... That is interesting," he observes. "Found a person that thinks hurting people is fun. Same person that very strongly doesn't want to hurt anyone. I don't know what to do with that, but it's interesting."

[exerce_imperia]

"What a conflicted individual that must be," Lisbet says thoughtfully.

[all_too_familiar]

"I hope they're okay," he agrees.

[exerce_imperia]

"I hope the same. Any other bad signs in a neighbour you can think of to check for?"

[all_too_familiar]

Thoughtful look.

"No one that I can find that's really desperate. Or desperate at all, actually, including in immediate danger of dying." He makes a complicated face that translates as I acknowledge that this is good and bad, because those that were desperate and in danger of dying either did not die and got accustomed to the danger well enough to stop being afraid, or did die. "Checking for various flavors of trauma..."

Checking. Checking. He is thorough. Recently lost family, recently had a near death experience, recently -

"... The closest person, the one I found earlier," he reports, "was recently a slave and is recovering from that."

[exerce_imperia]

"...We're going to have some trouble with this bunch, aren't we," murmurs Lisbet. "Oh, well. My priority is still understanding and organizing the resources available on this island before I go looking for allies. Speaking of which, we should plan some monster-killing expeditions. And I should tell you everything I know about Terraria."

[all_too_familiar]

Blair smiles in wry agreement at this first comment.

"I think I'll be very good at killing monsters as long as fire isn't a common monster attack ability. ... Fire can kill me. I am very flammable. Usually for this to become a problem I need to be in itty bitty pieces first and unable to put myself out, but there might be something that is - I don't know. Super fire."

He reviews their conversation for things he's missed. He's missed a lot of things. "I also don't sleep. Or sweat. Or have any biological needs except drinking blood, once every two weeks is comfortable but I keep to a once a week schedule because I like being safe. I am physically incapable of crying. I can't have children. And I sparkle in direct sunlight. My eyes change color based on my diet - animal eaters have gold eyes like mine, people eaters have dark red eyes, newborn vampires have bright red eyes, hungry vampires have black eyes. Occasionally some humans smell extra special delicious to vampires." Pause. "There, I think that's everything. I should have just reviewed how I explained it all to my sister, sorry, that time I'd written out a list beforehand to hand to her."