there's only so much I can turn into

[mswoods]

The thirteen-year-old girl is coming back home from school, on foot.

There's a cat following her. It's been following her for a while, but from a distance.

She decides to be friendly. She stops and turns around to look at it. It stops as well. "Mow?"

The girl's face- changes. It's still a human face, mostly, but now there's something different about it. More feline than anything. Whiskers grow, her pupils dilate and her eyes get a bit rounder, her bones move under her skin, their shape changing a bit. "Mew," she says, vocal apparatus having changed a bit, apparently.

The cat blinks and approaches cautiously. "Moow...?"

She doesn't giggle, but she feels like giggling. She's talking to a kitty! Well, kinda talking to a kitty, it's not like she can understand kitty-speech. But still! "Maw!"

Comments

[taste_tester]

"Oh yeah, that. Well, look, I didn't want to kill you. You'll remember anything really important."

[mrsparkle]

He nods a bit jerkily and thinks. Mum: Laura. Good. Last name: Woods, that's important, he's English. And...

There's just so much room, he can think so many things at the same time with almost arbitrary detail but why is everything so distracting fudging stupid vampire brain taking attention from everything and he's growling again but it's such a ridiculous notion that he starts laughing except who's this ducker laughing at him growl again oh wait it's him-

"How do you not get distracted by your own thoughts? Is everything going to-"

Food. He smells food and he's still so thirsty why does it burn wait the food's going away he has to go after it- Addy's there, she'll steal his food from him he should kill her no he shouldn't she'll kill him instead if he tries he growls and he bolts.

[taste_tester]

Addy chases him from a little ways back. Not close enough to make it look like she's planning to steal the food.

[mrsparkle]

He notices it, and draws the correct non-food-stealing conclusion. Good. Food stealing is bad, he'd hate to have to fight her.

He can hear his food, the delicious heartbeat, the-

He stops suddenly and holds his breath, then spins on his heels and darts directly away from where the food was.

[taste_tester]

He nearly runs into Addy. "What, not hungry after all?"

[mrsparkle]

He raises a finger and says, "Wait a second," without renewing his storage of air.

He notices he doesn't need to breathe at all. That's neat, he's not sure if Addy mentioned this when he was still human, the memories are muddy, but that's neat.

He inhales tentatively, then resumes breathing normally to talk. "Not hungry enough to want to kill someone. I need to go find those buckets again."

[taste_tester]

"They're right where you left them. Probably dissolving a little around the rims where you drank from them, but they'll hold blood. Might be more efficient just to generate it directly in your mouth, though."

[mrsparkle]

He blinks, and nods. That's a good idea, yes, one he hadn't thought of before because everything else was so- "Overwhelming, how do you deal with it?"

He starts producing human blood instead of venom in his mouth and drinking it. It tastes like his own blood did when he was still human, and it's produced much faster than he'd be able to actually bleed it as a human with a beating heart.

[taste_tester]

"Practice. That and I'm not being confronted unexpectedly by that thing you're doing now; that'll test any vampire's control if you start doing it all of a sudden, you could get some very violent kisses that way."

[mrsparkle]

He stops producing blood and swallows what's already in his mouth then washes it down with some more venom then nods. "Yeah, okay, will keep this in mind."

Chug chug chug!

[taste_tester]

"And if you do go so far as to slip up around humans, you cannot be squeamish about it. The Volturi won't stop at killing you, they'll mop up your loose ends too, and it's no good hiding people, one of them can download your whole brain with a touch. They will know if you've ever sparkled or lifted a car or moved too fast in front of a human, and you are not equipped to manage newborns of your own right now."

[mrsparkle]

The chugging doesn't pause, because his new brain is very good at multitasking when he actually tries, but this would be about when he'd have stopped whatever he's doing to be in shock.

Chug, swallow, clean. "One of them can download my brain with a touch," he says, deadpan. "Why didn't you tell me this before?!" he growls again, dropping into a crouch for a second before straightening up again. Godsdamnit vampire brain!

[taste_tester]

"Because I didn't want to kill you! Complain about my motives all you like, but I think that one's fairly noble as these things go!"

[mrsparkle]

"You were going to turn me anyway, what damage would it have done to tell me about this when you mentioned all the other things about them and why can't I fucking stop growling!" he growls again. It is very frustrating.

[taste_tester]

"I was going to turn you if you preferred it to dying," she clarifies. "I can newborn-wrangle but I don't like having to do it with people who didn't get at least the major warnings. Aro's witchcraft isn't a major warning, don't fuck up and he'll never bother with you."

[mrsparkle]

"...fine, no fucking up," he grumbles, and wrestles his anger back down. "We have very different conceptions of what counts as major." He sighs, and it's a wholly voluntary action. "I've deactivated my sense of smell, by the way."

[taste_tester]

"Oh, good for you, that'll make most activities in public places simpler."

[mrsparkle]

"Yeah." And it'll make him less likely to go on killing sprees. And a count of exactly one murder counts as a spree to him. "Okay, so, what exactly does 'newborn-wrangling' consist of? I guess it's pretty clear I have some work ahead of me. Maybe starting with ignoring the very insistent voice in my head telling me you're a threat and I should either rip your arms off or run away."

[taste_tester]

"That'll die down eventually. You're more lucid than the average newborn - well, maybe lucid's the wrong word, what with all the giggling, but you have not actually taken a swipe at me and running away from the food was incredibly impressive too. I am here to - should you lose it in front of too many people to easily kill quietly - rip your arms off."

[mrsparkle]

He winces. "Now the voice is very insistently telling me that I should run very very fast. It doesn't want my arms to be ripped off." He shakes his head then sighs. "Could- would it be okay if you didn't eat anyone while I was around? I can produce as much blood as you want, if you boop me you can too, and- yeah. I'd also separately be much obliged if you ripped my arms off if I tried to eat so much as one person."

[taste_tester]

"I will indulge your squeamishness as long as you supply me with such a convenient power for it," she says, holding out her hand. "I'm not sure I ought to stop you from preying on lone hikers. What's in it for me?"

[mrsparkle]

He boops her. "Erm. Making your witch pupil very grateful and happy?" he tries.

[taste_tester]

"All right, but if you turn out to be difficult to dismember compared to the standard newborn you can eat all the lone hikers you want, see if I care."

[mrsparkle]

He nods. "Okay, that's fair. I promise I'll try to make it as easy as possible to dismember." He shakes his head. "I should probably find a good excuse to disappear, huh. People will be worried."

[taste_tester]

"Well, if you can avoid smelling you might be rated for interacting with people in months if not weeks, and you, unlike other vampires, will be able to go out on sunny days. So you could go back to whatever you were doing, potentially, if you behave."