Pleasant walk in the woods

[all_too_familiar]

Blair has gotten neater with his hunting. Comes with hunting so much. He regularly drinks until he feels like he'd ooze blood if poked with something sufficiently sharp - his sister will be safe from him. She'll be a vampire eventually, but until then, frequent and gluttonous hunting trips.

He's just had one such trip, and feels vaguely sloshy. Despite this, his clothes are in perfect condition. Good job, Blair, you've learned tablemanners. Back home he goes.

Comments

[all_too_familiar]

Blair closes his book.

"Hello," he says.

[willfindout]

"What just happened."

[all_too_familiar]

Oh look they share a language.

"You appeared out of thin air in front of me, half-dead. In order to save your life I had to change your species to something called a vampire - a process you just completed."

[willfindout]

"Oh," she says. "Thank you."

[all_too_familiar]

"You're welcome. There are some major downsides to vampirism you should be aware of, but I hope you don't hold it against me for thinking that it's still better than 'dead.'"

[willfindout]

"Do go on," says the stranger, with unheard-of composure for someone who has been a vampire for literally less than five minutes.

(Not that this is a surprise if you know her.)

[all_too_familiar]

"Of the most immediate importance is how you now have perfect recall, along with the enhanced everything - and your new memories are going to squish your non-vampire memories, and you'll have more and more trouble remembering them. So you should try to go over them now as quickly as possible."

[willfindout]

The stranger shuts her eyes and concentrates.

[all_too_familiar]

Blair falls silent and doesn't interrupt. Or breathe, actually. He'll give her as much time as she likes.

[willfindout]

It takes a while.



After about eight hours, she opens her eyes again.

"You were saying?"

[all_too_familiar]

Blair starts reading a book again after a few minutes. But he'll leave her be.




He looks up from it when she speaks. Book: closed.

Well, he'd had plenty of time to compose a list of vampire traits for her. He explains the following in a reasonable manner that other narrators might have trouble with. But he's had time to think about it, so it all flows well and makes perfect sense.

He explains thirst and the two currently available ways to not starve and their effects. The eyes and the strength and the bloodlust, and which goes with which blood type. Then explains how it's hard to not eat people, how in order to not one has to fight the urge every moment while in the presence of a person with a beating heart. Open blood is worse, Blair doesn't think he could control himself if he smelled it, and tasting it makes it near impossible not to drink. Then after all this, he sincerely recommends animal blood, based on keeping as much self control as possible and keeping one's head clear.

He moves on to other physical parts of being a vampire - sparkling in sunlight, gaining a compatible (and symmetrical, if the mate is a vampire or is made into one) mate if one has gooey thoughts about other people, not needing to sleep or breathe or take care of any biological need except drinking blood. Fire can kill vampires, but their limbs are re-attachable and they're not in danger of getting sick or old or irreparably hurt. They have supreme strength and speed, but things are very, very easy to break when one is a vampire and most everything else is not - she should keep this in mind.

Then he gets into explaining witches and how he is one (along with an explanation of his power) and then moves onto explaining vampire government and the rules associated with it - keep vampire existence hidden from humans, no turning children, no large numbers of new vampires, no attempting to overthrow the current government. And it is enforced with witches, here are explanations of the witches that enforce it, here is what they do. Here is how typical vampire society is arranged.

And then he clarifies that he doesn't really expect anything in particular from her. He just - didn't want to let her die. Though she is considered his responsibility until she's definitely got basic self control down, and he would obviously really prefer that she not murder and eat people, or at least not murder and eat random people.

[willfindout]

She listens impassively to this entire recitation, and at the end she says:

"So you don't have any idea how I came to be here in the first place?"

[all_too_familiar]

"No idea. I do think it's not the work of a witch, because, uh, to be frank." He waves a hand at her. "The number of witches to explain this exact situation coherently would be stretching plausibility a bit."

[willfindout]

"It's obvious that this is not my world," she says. "The magic I know of could not have brought me here - you would have noticed the portal, even if someone closed it after me."

[all_too_familiar]

He nods.

"I didn't notice anything portal-like at all. You just appeared out of thin air. No extra magical effects, nothing showy. Just suddenly a person where there hadn't been one before." Pause. "Also I would love to ask you about your world and how you have portals, but, I mean. I think your questions take priority, would you like a basic explanation of the world to go along with the vampire one?"

[willfindout]

"Yes," she says. "To start with, you could explain the appearance of your sky."

[all_too_familiar]

He blinks. That is a confusing question. A confusing question she made deliberately confusing, to see how he answers. So he doesn't just go, 'I have no idea what you mean and am confused.' The thing she wants from him is valid, so even if it's a bit hard to pull off he'll sincerely try it. There is a noticeable pause as he tries to create an explanation.

"... I can't actually explain why it is typically blue, something to do with light, but I'd have to go find a scientist to give you an explanation there. It changes color based on the time of day and where the big glowy thing is. The, uh. The big glowy thing in the sky is the Sun, this planet orbits it because of, the same force that draws us towards the planet instead of floating off into space. The Sun is really really big, and because of complicated physics reasons smaller things are drawn towards it, a concept called gravity. The Earth - this planet - is caught in its gravity well. Similarly, the Moon is a big hunk of rock that is caught in Earth's gravity well, and orbits it. Um. The white puffy things are clouds and they are evaporated water vapor, and if they get enough water vapor they will rain? I am running out of things to explain without knowing what's weird about the sky to you."

[willfindout]

"That will do," says the stranger. "My name is Rokarai Iserra."

[all_too_familiar]

"And mine is Blair Lowell. I am perfectly happy to keep answering questions and generally being helpful."

[willfindout]

"I have been getting that impression," she agrees.

[all_too_familiar]

"Oh good." He smiles.

[willfindout]

"Do you know of any way I might be returned to my world?"

[all_too_familiar]

"No. There might be a witch that could do it, but I haven't heard of one like that at all. I might be able to find them if they exist, though, with my power."

[willfindout]

"Useful power."

[all_too_familiar]

"I am extremely fond of it."

[willfindout]

"I can see why. I'm glad I landed on you rather than most other people," she says.

[all_too_familiar]

He does sort of suspect that if she landed on anyone else she'd probably be very very dead.

"Thanks. ... Because of the exact circumstances I'm sort of wondering if you were aimed."

[willfindout]

"Aimed?"

[all_too_familiar]

"I have reason to suspect that if you were dropped on almost anyone else, you'd, uh, just be dead now. An ordinary human wouldn't have been able to save you, even if you'd been dropped directly in a hospital, and most vampires in the world wouldn't see any reason to turn you. Too much trouble. I can think of exactly one group of vampires that might. Maybe two. And instead of being dropped near me where I could sense you easily with vampire senses - say, a mile - you appeared ten feet in front of me. On a global scale, that's enormously specific, especially when you take in everything else."

[willfindout]

"Without knowing anything about how I came to be here, it's hard to say what is and isn't likely," she says.

[all_too_familiar]

"True. And I'm not saying it definitely is what happened. Just - it is at such a level of convenience that I'm a little concerned." Pause. "Because I'm sometimes a bit paranoid."