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]

"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."

[exerce_imperia]

"Don't worry about it. And I would not be at all surprised to find super fire around here somewhere. So it would be worthwhile for me to accompany you on the monster-hunting expeditions, in case you need help. That's good to know."

Thoughtful pause.

"...If you don't sleep, I might ask you to spend most nights catching falling stars. They're a moderately useful resource, and they go to waste if they aren't picked up, but given that I do sleep and don't enjoy being attacked by walking corpses and flying eyeballs, I stay indoors at night as often as not."

[all_too_familiar]

Nod.

"I will happily collect stars for you."

Also that makes his previous thoughts upon seeing her kind of retroactively hilarious, he loves it.

[exerce_imperia]

[all_too_familiar]

What was that, vampire community that immediately turns their mate upon seeing them in of casual display of being completely non consensual? Blair can't hear you over how great he's getting along with his not-mate bonded mate!

"... The animals exploding might cause problems with eating them. Does everything explode when killed?"

[exerce_imperia]

"Unfortunately, yes. Animals, monsters, unsettling automata, everything. That does sound like it will be inconvenient for you... I wonder if we can find you some sort of substitute? Can you drink things besides blood? There are healing potions, and I've noticed they seem to do more for my hunger than most beverages; they might be of some use to you."

[all_too_familiar]

"I can drink liquids just fine, they just might taste awful," he assures.

[exerce_imperia]

"In that case - would you like to try a healing potion?"

She produces a tiny glass flask of red stuff out of a pocket and de-miniaturizes it into a non-tiny glass flask of red stuff. It smells... less unappetizing than animal blood, not that that's saying much. Sort of a 'you could, if you really felt like it, drink this' vibe.

[all_too_familiar]

"Sure."

He takes the potion.

...

Sip?

[exerce_imperia]

Lisbet watches curiously.

The healing potion tastes nice-ish, in a bland sort of way. It's definitely not blood, but it's... adequate, as far as his vampire tastebuds are concerned.

It's also very thirst-quenching. Even after a single sip, his thirst is noticeably quenched, the constant burn tamed to a prickle.

[all_too_familiar]

Well, the obvious thing to do is to finish off the bottle.

"Actively thirst-quenching," he informs. "As in, better than anything else I have had. Though not taste wise, it's just bland, but that's not a big deal."