Sanna suppresses a sigh. "I appreciate the effort. That second one doesn't make sense, though." (Neither does the first one, but maybe it genuinely hasn't occurred to her that she could kill Sanna without the public or the police being any the wiser, and in that case Sanna's not in any hurry to correct her about that.) "There already weren't any people around when I got off the bus."

Despite how fishy these explanations sound, Sanna's sort of inclined to believe her. Her model of someone who wants to ask her some questions and then kill her once she has the answers, but chooses to spend half an hour freaking her out first — thus making the questioning more difficult (given that apparently she can't just dominate her into doing what she wants) — is someone who very much enjoys toying with her prey. And she's not really acting how you'd expect someone to act in that scenario. In the version of this where the stalking was done for the pleasure of scaring her, this is a really anticlimactic follow-up. She's just… standing here, like a normal woman, having a pretty ordinary conversation given the circumstances. Maybe she's just trying to lull Sanna into a false sense of security, maybe that's the end goal here, but she's not doing a very good job of that, either.

Still, Sanna couldn't forgive herself if she didn't exercise any due diligence about these answers not adding up.

Meredith gestures at the remaining nearby traffic. “There’s still people around. We couldn’t have talked once you were inside the building though, so I couldn’t wait more.”

Sanna will want to know why they couldn’t do that… it might help her feel safer once she knows? But she might also just decide to try to run away, since Meredith wouldn’t be able to follow her inside. Either way, she’s not going to volunteer the information unprompted. It’s not a good habit to go around telling others your weaknesses, even if they appear in literature already, especially when you don’t know theirs.

First, Sanna has to stop herself from reflexively glancing at the building, since that would mean taking her eyes off Vampire Lady.

Then, once she puts two and two together, she has to stop herself from letting out a small laugh, since mocking Vampire Lady seems ill-advised (and not in a way where the payoff is worth it).

Then, she has to stop herself from pointing out why her going into the building from this side wouldn't actually have been that big a deal. If Vampire Lady hasn't already noticed, this seems like a bad time to point it out.

(At this point, it may come to Meredith's attention that while this is indeed an apartment building, the first floor seems to be almost entirely a small library, judging from the rows of bookshelves visible through the front windows. And this side of the building does not in fact have any entrances, it's all windows. Perhaps she did not have to ambush Sanna at such an inopportune moment. …But then again, for all she knows there might be a way into the residential part of the building through the library, so perhaps she did have to ambush Sanna at such an inopportune moment. Who knows!)

…And then she has to suppress an eyebrow raise. Why couldn't Vampire Lady have followed her in?

Are locked doors as much of an obstacle to her as they are to a normal human? That's such a reassuring thought! Especially since it would mean she's been seriously overestimating how powerful Vampire Lady is! Still, it seems a bit too good to be true…

…Wait, is she the kind of vampire that can't go in a building if they haven't been invited?

Holy shit that would be such a fucking relief. Like, obviously there are ways around that, especially when it comes to public buildings, but STILL.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, it could just be that she is weak to doors doesn't want to draw unwanted attention by breaking into a residential building. Or is concerned about showing up on security cameras. …Or is concerned about not showing up on security cameras, according to some depictions. Or just wants Sanna to think she has a weakness that she doesn't actually have.

Anyway, if she assumes Vampire Lady's being honest about why she initially chose to stalk her instead of approaching right away, then this actually makes perfect sense of why and when she suddenly changed tack. (Even if Vampire Lady is faking ignorance of this building and its deceptive layout, she couldn't have known Sanna would come here in particular before she started stalking her; so she can't imagine how this specific sequence of events could be All According to Plan, unless she assumes such a ridiculous level of social engineering and/or mind control that Sanna's basically already lost no, brain, defeatism is the mind-killer. Like, it could be Xanatos Speed Chess, but in that case Sanna really can't hope to out-maneuver her DEFEATISM IS THE MIND-KILLER.) Other than signalling a fake weakness, any ploy she can think of that hinges on this explanation would have been better served by simply not stalking her in the first place. So… the stated motive for stalking her instead of approaching immediately does seem to hold up, which means… it might be true that the stalking wasn't meant to signal a threat to her life? Which doesn't make it fine, but having good neutral intentions instead of horrible intentions counts for something.

(She's tempted to explain why Vampire Lady was mistaken in assuming that an immediate approach was nonviable, and why that probably would have gone over a lot better; but on second thought maybe Sanna shouldn't give the Very Dangerous Vampire Lady pointers on how to avoid tipping off potential victims. Christ. Maybe she can try to explain that later — for a very flexible value of 'later' — if she ever feels like she won't regret it.)

Can she get away with asking to conduct the rest of this conversation from the other side of the library's glass door?

(Hell, can she even get away with letting on that she thinks this might protect her?)

…She wouldn't get as much information as she likes from Vampire Lady's reaction. If she refuses or freaks out, it probably means that the weakness isn't fake and she didn't mean to reveal it. If she agrees, it could mean it's a fake weakness, but it could also mean it's a genuine weakness that she's fine with Sanna knowing about. The only scenario where Sanna gets clear information is the one where Vampire Lady reacts badly. Not worth it.

And yet, can she afford to say what she's about to say without some measure of protection, even if it turns out to only be the ordinary protection of a glass door…?

Maximum Hypervigilance is SO EXHAUSTING, how the fuck did she manage to be like this for THREE-PLUS YEARS when she was a LITERAL CHILD, like seriously holy shit

no brain you may not have an emotional flashback right now, maybe when you get home you can have just a little one, as a treat

Focus focus focus, holy shit focus, you can focus on anything forever if you couldn't you would be dead

that isn't actually true anymore though

it was never true, idiot

FOCUS

She takes a deep breath.

She lets it out.

With great difficulty, she uncrosses her arms, as a deliberate signal of openness, of having passed a threshold between 'zero trust' and 'one tiny iota of trust'.

"Okay. Let's say I believe you that you have no plans to kill me. I don't fully believe that, but let's pretend I do. Clearing that up does not automatically mean I'm going to answer a bunch of personal questions for you. I wouldn't trust any creepy stranger with my secrets, even if they didn't stalk me first. I might trust them to not hurt or kill me, because I'd have some idea how they think and what they're capable of. I still probably wouldn't tell them anything. You're not a human and I have no idea how you think or what you're capable of, so I trust you even less than that.

"That doesn't mean I'm outright refusing to tell you anything. But aside from maybe a very small handful of things, it isn't going to happen literally right now. And when it does happen, it's going to be on my terms, which among other things means it's not going to happen under conditions where I feel threatened or intimidated or unsafe.

"I happen to feel unsafe right now. Therefore, before we continue this conversation, I would like to briefly go inside the library, by myself," – mustn't let on that she's assuming she can't follow – "and let the staff know that I'm here; and then I'd like us to sit on the bench just outside the entrance. You can't see it from inside the entrance, and there are no windows looking onto it either, so it still offers some seclusion. I promise I won't try to give you the slip while I'm in there, and given the circumstances it would be pretty rich if you protested that you don't know if you can trust me. But if that's not enough, then you can hold something of mine as collateral." Pause. "I'd really rather you not come in. This isn't just about talking to the staff, I also need at least a 60-second break from being around you."

Meredith doesn’t visibly react to Sanna uncrossing her arms, although her instincts do comment that, if Sanna was planning on attacking her, she could do so more easily now. Humans have different body language, right? Sanna probably didn’t mean to signal that.

She does react to the ‘I’m not telling you my secrets’ part, an expression halfway between a pout and a frown lasting less than a second on her face before she schools it back into looking calm. That's not an encouraging announcement. She really really wants to know more about Sanna and what her species is and what her magic is like and why her flair feels so weird and and and. But she doesn't know how to get her to trust her if that's a prerequisite!

She can do what she's asking? She's not happy about it but sure. Libraries usually count as public enough to enter without an invitation, at least during opening hours, so it's won't be a problem even if Sanna tries to run away unless she gets to the private parts of the building faster than Meredith gets to her. So, she'll wait outside and keep her focus on Sanna and try not spontaneously combust from the impatience and curiosity (that's probably impossible but who knows what self-destruction protocols vampire instincts hide?). And if Sanna gets to her apartment anyway... Meredith can knock on her window, asking questions like that probably won't get any answers either but she'll try if that's the option she's left with.

She nods slowly, "Alright, I'll wait by the library door and we can talk after you've gone in for a bit. I can offer some information first...? I don't know if you're interested or if it'll make you likelier to share any in return but I'd very much like to know more about you." She's an adult vampire, she can resist making puppy eyes and begging, for now at least.

…Okay, that's a much more favourable response than she was expecting.

She doesn't visibly relax — she doesn't want to reveal how much this means to her, or give Vampire Lady pointers on how to put her at ease — but internally she is releasing a metric ton of tension. (And she probably can't help looking at least briefly surprised. Skill issue.)

"Okay. I think I'll take you up on that." That was actually going to be another one of her terms, but she wasn't going to try and bring it up until she gave herself some insurance by talking to the library staff. Vampire Lady suggesting it on her own shows enough goodwill that Sanna can probably afford to be a bit more polite about presenting her terms. (Seeing as a lot of the speech forming in her head was going to be setting her straight about who should get to ask questions first in this situation.)

Anyway, if Vampire Lady isn't going to demand any collateral, Sanna's not going to remind her of the offer.

"So, let's go." She turns slightly and gestures towards the library to indicate that Vampire Lady should go ahead of her.

Meredith guesses that Sanna wants her to go first so she can’t attack her from behind. That's an understandable reason and she doesn’t mind walking in front of Sanna as long as it’s fairly obvious where the library’s entrance is. She doesn’t know this area but can guess that it’s on the other side of the building and so she should walk around it in the direction Sanna gestured at. Hopefully the architecture here isn't intentionally confusing (in a city with no good roof travel, can you trust their streets?).

Once they reach the entrance, Meredith will stop near it and stand waiting as Sanna walks in. She'll focus her senses on her, mainly on her flair, since it's Sanna's most identifiable characteristic.

Yep, if Meredith just keeps walking she'll find the entrance at the side of the building, tucked under an archway. There's a bench there, like Sanna mentioned.

Sanna strolls into the library like someone who has no reason at all to be rattled.

She collapses into a squashy chair. She takes several deep breaths.

She relaxes a little. Not enough to crumble into a weeping mess, that would be counterproductive and mortifying; but enough to be a huge relief from all that tension.

When was the last time she genuinely feared for her life? When was the last time it seemed like every visible path forward might spell her doom?

She'd forgotten how it felt.

She fucking hates it.

She really, really hates this woman for showing up out of nowhere and doing this to her. And Sanna could patiently explain exactly what she's done and how awful it is, but she probably wouldn't care at all.

She might try to explain anyway.

In the meantime, even if Sanna were willing to risk her life on putting her foot down and saying 'Fuck you, I'm not telling you anything', she isn't willing to risk losing her first and possibly only chance at piercing this world's version of the Veil. If she plays her cards right, she might be able to turn the third-worst thing that's ever happened to her into the best thing that's happened in the past four years.

But there's no guarantee of that, and until it happens she expects to continue hating everything about this.

SIIIIIIGH.

She gets up and goes to the water fountain and takes a long drink.

Objectively, things are going pretty well. Way better than she dared to expect when she first turned around to face her stalker. And it bodes well that Vampire Lady was okay with separating for a bit. By all accounts, Sanna has less reason to be afraid than she started out with, more reason to trust that Vampire Lady doesn't mean her any harm.

So why is some part of her even more freaked out than when she didn't trust Vampire Lady at all?

…Because trusting that things will be okay is scary.

If she acts on that trust, and turns out to be wrong — as she's been wrong so many times in her life — she could die.

She doesn't want to trust, she wants to know.

It's been so long since making the right call was Literally Life or Death. She's not used to powering through that fear. How did she use to do it?

(How did she live like this?)

She speaks to a librarian. By the time she's done explaining, the librarian is left with the impression that Sanna knows this woman and definitely does need to talk to her, but they aren't friends and they don't get along and things could get dicey. Sort of kind of accurate, if you squint.

(The librarian is confused and a bit alarmed, and asks the predictable questions: Is she okay, should they call the police, should they come out to check on her every couple minutes instead of waiting for ten, is she sure they don't want to have their discussion inside where it's warm and there are witnesses.)

She gives Rey a quick call. (Rey is definitely going to bombard her with questions tomorrow. UUUUGH.)

She curls up in the squashy chair for one minute two minutes three minutes, until she doesn't feel like she's being piloted by adrenaline anymore.

She gets up, and walks back out. Presumably Vampire Lady is still there, waiting for her?

Vampire Lady is indeed waiting for her! While Sanna was inside the library she had her eyes closed and didn't do much, just loosely keeping track of Sanna while letting her thoughts flow. Hopefully some of that thinking will have helped with the conversation they're about to have. She's not going to start said conversation though, just in case Sanna finds that too agressive or anything. Now that Sanna is walking out, Meredith reopens her eyes and turns slightly towards her, she hasn't sat down in this time. Staying still for long periods of time comes easily to vampires. (One time that she was bored enough that she managed to collect a visible layer of dust although that hadn't been her goal. In fact, she might have been subconsciously aiming for self-starvation, vampires are somewhat susceptible to death by boredom. Fortunately, that didn't work and now she's here and can learn about this new species and being -debatedly- alive is worth the hassle and she's excited and it'd been too long since the last time!)

She's not going to show any of that excitement. Sanna would probably think her crazy; she might be, vampire minds are bizarre. That won't help with getting her to trust her and then she won't be able to learn and that will not be good. So she'll just wait, staring placidly (or doing her best attempt at said expression) and waiting for Sanna to say something. 

Right. Okay then. Apparently she's doing this. Damn the torpedoes, or whatever.

Vampire Lady seems to be letting Sanna take the lead here, which suits her just fine. She'd feel genuinely grateful if she thought Vampire Lady wasn't just doing it to make Sanna more tractable.

She sits down on the bench, waits for Vampire Lady to do the same, and then says:

"Okay. You first. Your name, what you are, plus one or two other things that you think are interesting or relevant or whatever. And then I'll tell you my name, what I am, and one or two other things of my choice. After that, if you want this to proceed any further you'll have to agree to some conditions."

Meredith stays standing until Sanna gestures for her to sit down, it's not like it makes much difference to her, comfort-wise, and her social habits are obviously rusty. Sanna seems to act very much like a human? Not that Meredith understands them anymore. 

But now they can begin talking! The 'conditions' are a bit of a mood killer but hopefully they won't be unreasonable, and Sanna will most likely only tell her one thing first. She'll still offer two though, just in case she's deciding based on that. 

"Meredith Baines. I'm a vampire-", she grins, shows off the fangs, her eyes change; then she looks human again, "- as you can see. As for the two facts...", what are interesting things that it's a good time to share-, "is there anything you would like to ask? I'm not sure what you'd find interesting."

This time, the eye change lasts long enough for Sanna to figure out what she's seeing: Cat-like slit pupils, not unlike her own. Irises like… like tiny mirrors reflecting giant pearls. Funky.

"…Alright, sure." She kind of wanted to get some insight into what Meredith considers interesting/relevant (or what she represents herself as considering interesting/relevant), but this is also fine. "But just so we're clear, I'm still going to choose which one or two things I tell you in return.

"Um… Are vampires former humans, or are they a completely separate species from humans? And… how old are you? You don't have to answer both of those. Actually, you don't have to answer either of them, you can tell me to ask something else." Being able to veto questions is going to be one of her conditions after this, so she might as well offer Meredith the same courtesy right from the jump.

She wouldn't have expected Sanna to be interested in either of those things! They're easy questions though, so she'll answer both. (She also isn't expecting Sanna to let her ask in return but is alright with it, any new knowledge will be better than none).

"Vampires are transformed humans, yes. Although we change in multiple ways, not just physically, and that, combined with time, makes us pretty different from humans. I'm around 260. I've been a vampire for all but the first twenty-some years of it." 

Wow. She got turned really young, in human terms. (And she was born in the 1700s? How much does she remember from that time? …Possibly not much, if she doesn't even remember her exact age when she got turned.)

"Thanks. I… guess it's my turn." She takes a breath that may or may not be a sigh. "My name is Sanna. I'm a mermaid. I was born… not exactly in the Caribbean Sea, but very close to it. And…"

She perfectly imitates Meredith's voice: "I can do this. I have a similar vocal organ to birds."

A mermaid? It's not that she couldn't be one, based only on her flair, but Meredith has met others before and flairs are consistent within species. Plus, Sanna's flair feels weird (wrong, almost) in a very distinct way, she'd recognise it if she'd seen it before. She'll have to ask about it. If Sanna lets her ask.

(Meredith registers Sanna's name but continues to think of her mainly by her flair, as she's been doing so far.)

The voice-imitation is interesting too! She wonders how many sounds she can mimic. It partially fits with the typical mermaid tales, Sanna probably has a great singing voice. 

Externally, Meredith keeps her expression neutral (she's so excited to be learning! But if Sanna knows, she'll might be able to use it to her advantage), and simply nods.

(In any other situation, Sanna would feel kind of put out by Meredith's non-reaction to the vocal mimicry. But given the circumstances, she's kind of assuming that Meredith's doing the same thing as her and deliberately concealing exploitable weaknesses, such as excitement or dismay. Super valid of her. …Okay, fine, Sanna still feels a little put out. She wanted to at least see Meredith look wrong-footed for a split second, for her own amusement/revenge if nothing else. But she can deal.)

"Okay. So, that's that. As I mentioned, if we're going to continue then I have some conditions.

"First: There might be questions that I'll only answer vaguely, or that I simply won't be willing to answer at all. If that happens, don't push it. Just move on, ask another question. I'll extend you the same courtesy when I ask questions. With me so far?"