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

[mrwoods]

"...is there anything more you can tell me about the non-murderous something before I make this decision?"

He does not seem to totally believe her. He does not seem to totally disbelieve her either.

[taste_tester]

"I'm walking a fine line as-is."

[mrwoods]

"Can you at least tell me whether you predict I'd take this bargain if I knew what it was? ...is this a dumb question? You probably do predict I'd take it or you wouldn't be offering it."

[taste_tester]

"Bingo."

[mrwoods]

He sighs. "Alright, then, there's a reason I was ever so good a student. Tell me."

[taste_tester]

"You sure? 'Cause if I tell you and you do something stupid like run away screaming your head off I really do have to kill you."

[mrwoods]

"You do remember my power was related to wanting to be in control of my body and my self, yes? I will do no such thing."

[taste_tester]

"Right then. Wanna be a vampire?"

[mrwoods]

"...is being a vampire the murder or the non-murder option? I'm genuinely curious."

[taste_tester]

"The non-murder option. I mean, either way you aren't leaving this conversation with a beating heart, but there will not be a period of time spent underground."

[mrwoods]

"You're serious. You're actually- well, okay, why the heck should I be surprised, I'm bloody Mystique." He shrugs. "I would still very much like to know as much as I can about this thing I now must become if I don't want to be dead."

[taste_tester]

"It's pretty sweet, although you do get the occasional angstpire. Immortality, eidetic memory, ridiculously overengineered speed and strength, witchcraft upgrade where applicable. Unquenchable thirst for human blood, but, you know, you can't have everything."

[mrwoods]

"Let me process this. Can I process it aloud?"

[taste_tester]

"Be my guest."

[mrwoods]

"Alright. So, eidetic memory first, obvious yes, that's so useful. I don't care much for speed and strength, but I guess it's fun. Witchcraft update is an obvious yes as well, but 'where applicable' suggests that doesn't always happen?"

[taste_tester]

"Speed includes cognitive. And some vampires aren't witches at all and some witchcraft doesn't turn out to respond to the change, but yours ought to if only because of the mental upgrade."

[mrwoods]

"Okay, great, good, yes. Erm. Immortality, I'm pretty sure I'm immortal already, at least where diseases and old age and a variety of accidents are concerned, how much more immortal would I be?"

[taste_tester]

"Killing a vampire requires pulverizing them into little tiny pieces and then setting them on fire. And we're hard to pulverize."

[mrwoods]

"Okay, more immortal than I currently am. I wonder if I could make myself harder to pulverize, or maybe make myself fireproof..." He shakes his head quickly. "Later. This human blood thing... might be a problem. Can you qualify it? Are we talking True Blood, here, with little secret divey bars where humans go to be drunk?"

[taste_tester]

"I have never seen the show. Or encountered a volunteer lunch. The way you turn into a vampire involves venom," she licks her teeth, "so it wouldn't really... work."

[mrwoods]

He's pretty smart, or so he likes to think.

He's also pretty in control of his facial muscles.

"So you kill everyone you eat?"

[taste_tester]

"Guilty."

[mrwoods]

"How often do you have to eat?"

[taste_tester]

"Every week or three. Less, optionally, it takes a truly uncomfortably long amount of time to actually starve, but that makes the unquenchable thirst thirstier."

[mrwoods]

He's talking to a mass murderer.

He's talking to a mass murderer.

He's talking to a mass murder.

He's talking to a mass murderer.

He can't run, he can't call anyone, she has super speed and super strength, there is absolutely nothing he can do as a human to top that, his magic will take too long, if she notices him doing anything that'd render him harder to kill she'd kill him first, crap he has to become a vampire but he can't be a mass murderer can't can't can't-

"...can't you produce human blood while you're using my power?"