After her classes are done with she does the first three quarters of her last-minute studying in the library, and then heads down to the attached coffee shop to get some caffeine in her; she allows herself a second cup of coffee on exam days if she feels even a little less alert than she'd like. And the place is nice. It's a chain, but the seating is comfy enough and even if all the people mean it's loud the music she's listening to is louder anyway. 

She takes a table against the wall. It has seating for two, but the place is more than half empty- she isn't taking up space beyond what she should.

(She double checks every once in a while, while she studies.)

She goes over the entire first half of the textbook, everything they've covered so far. She carefully skipped a few questions in each chapter so she could do a compressed pass over all of the material at the last second and ensure everything was fresh in her mind. So she reads the major theorems covered in each chapter to help keep it all structured in her mind, one thing implying another in a great tree of knowledge built up from the axioms they covered on the first day, each theorem following from those proved prior.

One question after another is finished without stuttering, without slowing, and she feels a bit like she's slowly ascending a roller coaster.

She likes roller coasters.

She's going to do well. She can tell. All of this is- well. It feels easy. 

She has, in fact, studied enough.

That doesn't mean she's going to stop early, though. She still hasn't finished the questions in the last chapter. Two more to go. And then she'll head off to the room where the exam is being held and go over the material in her head while she waits.

It's a cloudy day, so Sable's having a walk past campus. It's always so nice to see people care about learning, care about growing their minds and selves. She's passing by the coffeeshop when she catches a glimpse of an incredibly pretty girl studying a math textbook. Double-take. Triple-take.

<I want a coffee, let's go get a coffee,> Ruby suddenly interjects in mindspace. 

<Yes let's,> Maya adds. <And maybe talk to that girl while we're at it.>

And so they step inside. People are muttering to themselves, and the girl is listening to some fun music as study-motivation. She's got good taste, another utterly lovely thing about her.

Sable orders a small coffee, as strong as possible so she'll still get anything out of the taste despite being a vampire.

And then she sits down in the empty chair across from the girl.

"Hello there. Impressive math you're studying. Got a mid-term?"

Person? Sitting across from her? Talking to her?

She thinks she could make out what Random New Person was saying? Something about math and a midterm?

She pulls her earbuds out of her ears, pressing the little button that pauses her music as she does.

"Yeah, I've got a measure theory midterm. Starts in-"

She takes a look at the clock.

"-an hour and twenty minutes."

She's a bit annoyed to be interrupted mid-question, honestly, but- well, it doesn't hurt to be polite, and realistically it's fine- she'd plausibly have ended up spending the last half hour before the exam talking with her classmates, she's just moving a little of that early, and it's Random New Person instead. If this even turns into a conversation and not just pleasantries.

It's a bit odd she didn't even ask whether she could sit there, though.

"Sorry for interrupting. I just... was absolutely struck by this impression of an incredibly pretty girl studying such fascinating math that's reifying basic intuitions, and clearly having such fun with it, and I had to meet you." She smiles at her, gentle charm mixed with eagerness and a bit of sheepishness.

"Could I get you a refill on your drink to make up for the interruption, or perhaps a pastry?"

She has finally come up enough from her Math Fugue to notice that the Random New Person is, in fact, a very pretty girl.

Who just. Said she was incredibly pretty??? And apparently noticed the fun she was having from a distance? Somehow? And decided to introduce herself over it?????

(Is this the moment where she suddenly meets an interesting pretty girl and hits it off with them and then it doesn't later turn out that they're Terrible?)

(No, it isn't that moment, somehow it's never that moment, even if it looks like it's that moment.)

(She has learned this.)

Mostly on autopilot, she says, "Oh, no, don't worry about it, it's fine. I'm nearly done with all my studying anyway. No need to buy me a pastry over saying hello. I don't charge by the minute in confectionery for talking to me."

WAIT. Did she just autopilot turn down something datelike? Maybe?

Probably not.

But also maybe.

(But what if it is that moment?)

"I'm glad it's not as much of an interruption as I feared, and it's kind of you not to charge me, but what if I value the smile of an intelligent, pretty girl at the taste of pastry several times more than I value the cost of the pastry? Won't you please tell me your favorite kind?"

Okaaaay, yeah, she definitely turned down something datelike on autopilot, it has ceased to be ambiguous.

The ambiguity is dead. It was shot out of a cannon into the sun. And also the sun was a t-rex and ate it.

My goodness, this girl is forward. 

It's honestly kind of charming? And definitely adorable. She's trying so hard to be roguish and dashing and it's approximately two thirds working.

"Well, if you insist, I wouldn't turn down a Boston cream doughnut."

She has enough coffee left to drink with it, so she doesn't need to make the mortifying request for also milk.

Why would it be mortifying? Who knows, she's sure there's some reason.

She smiles warmly and nods. "Be right back then."

She gets up at a normal human pace and walks over to the counter. She will not break the masquerade just to get the pretty girl her doughnut faster.

<Even though it is incredibly tempting,> Maya notes.

<We have it bad,> Hailey adds.

Acquiring a Boston cream doughnut is reasonably quick, even if it would've been quicker with supernatural speed. Soon enough she sits back down, setting the plate in front of her companion with a grin. "Your doughnut, milady."

My goodness, Strange New Person's stride is purposeful when she walks off to get Alethia her doughnut.

And then! The "milady" when she gets back! She's trying so hard and it's mostly not working.

Alethia kind of wants to- ruffle her hair? Tell her she doesn't need to try so hard?

Alethia's abstractly aware she's pretty. Sometimes people stare. But she hasn't been pretty for long, it's only been a few years since she lost the acne. She's never seen someone have to push through getting bonked on the forehead with pretty on her account before, and it's actually kind of really nice? Even if Strange New Person ends up being kind of terrible in some way Alethia expects she'll positively remember this encounter for a long, long time.

"Thank you ever so much."

Her eyes briefly flick up to the menu displayed behind the counter, and- yeah, the doughnut was cheap, if not quite a chocolate-chip muffin level good deal.

Good.

Was that an eye-flick to the menu? Was she checking... the price? To make sure it wasn't expensive? This girl is too considerate for her own good. They'll have to spoil her. Not today, not now, but have to.

"So what got you into studying the universe's native language?", she asks with a grin.

She glances down at her not-quite-finished questions, and then back up at Strange New Person.

Yeah, she can spare some time to talk.

"Well, at first it was because there were a few thorny theoretical problems in computer science I'd been convinced were really important for society to get to grips with, but, uh, I discovered I don't actually enjoy doing research and the field kind of got a bunch of new highly qualified entrants while I was studying. So instead now that I've fallen back on my backup plans it's because I desire to earn enough money to retire in, like, ten years, and not have to hate my job while I do it, and knowing math and how to code can help greatly with this."

"Ambitious, retiring in ten years, but smart. Definitely a good way to have a relaxing life, once the decade's up. And what about it inspires the delightfully exhilirated expression you were wearing when I came in?"

A request to infodump! One of her primary skills!

"So- there's a broad level and a focused level. A level about the shape of mathematical knowledge and a level that's about the fun of playing with that knowledge."

"So- on the broad level, it's all so ordered. So built. You start from axioms, statements that define what exactly it is that you're going to be talking about. And then you see some of the things those axioms imply about the thing you're thinking about, and then you use those new implications to build more implications that can be used, again and again until you have a tower of truth stretching up to the heavens, each step firmly planted on the one beneath it."

"On the more focused level, it's actually just really fun, for me anyway, to- figure things out with math? Pure math specifically, actually, uh, working with numbers is a lot less fun. But- starting from a few assumptions and building my way to conclusions- it's just viscerally fun."

Her grin just gets bigger as the infodump goes on. Infodumps are great, and this girl's infodumps are even better than usual. Goodness.

"Yes, that tower of truth, that's exactly it, it's this constellation of interconnected truths that give you a lens through which you can understand so much more. Gosh, it reminds me of Church numerals, just a bit, the ability to construct even numbers themselves out of something else like functions. It's all connected, built into and atop other pieces, and that's just beautiful."

She nods excitedly. "I'm glad you can find such joy in it. So many people bounce off of math, learn to hate it, and that just feels like a pointless loss to me. Maybe more of them could see the fun of the puzzle if they were taught differently. I especially feel the same way about logic puzzles. There's just so much fun in working your way out from the core facts you start with, and satisfaction in solving it just through thinking clearly and carefully."

"Yeah, exactly! The- it's kind of just- logic puzzles with slightly less tricky logic and more ingredients, honestly? Or, well, at least pure math is, applied math is thornier. Are you a math person too? Oh, also! Church numerals! I've never heard of those."

"Hobbyist at best. Been meaning to pick up more of it, because it's fascinating on top of being useful as a programmer, but I haven't made enough time for it. I know things like Church numerals because I absolutely adore lambda calculus. Church numerals are a method of representing numerals and operators using just functions and recursion, allowing you to use the fundamental pieces of lambda calculus itself to then build up the rest of everything."

Strange New Person is enthusiastic about math and math-related things! Honestly possibly more so than Alethia is, she has the enthusiasm to enjoy working with it, but 

"I know literally nothing about lambda calculus, I think. A blank spot in my education. It certainly sounds interesting, though-"

Wait. Wait.

"I, uh- just realized we never introduced ourselves. My name's Alethia. What's yours?"

"Sable. It is an absolute delight to meet you, Alethia. And do not get me started on lambda calculus unless you want me to start rhapsodizing about how much saner it is to build all of programming out of math rather than declarative statements and global variables."

"It's nice to meet you too, Sable."

It really is. She's cute. And adorably opinionated.

(It remains to be seen if any of her opinions are that evaluating charities based on cost-effectiveness so that you can help lots of people sounds vaguely sociopathic. She's, uh, not sure where that girl got her ideas about what "sociopathy" was, but it did teach her the valuable lesson that even when bright college students say they care lots about ethics this does not mean they don't somehow know literally less than nothing about what ethics even is.)

"I do in fact have an already-extant distaste for global variables! But- what's the problem with declarative statements?"

"Massively inferior when you start working with concurrency, which is increasingly necessary the more we switch to multi-core processors and networked software design, but nobody wants to turn their whole way of thinking about programming inside out to switch to functional programming."

Eee. She already knows global variables are awful!

"Oh! I've covered some stuff regarding how to avoid concurrency instantly killing you and also somehow destroying France, but we mostly just- well, described some of the problems. A few techniques to avoid accidentally having problems due to them. But not really- the idea of whole different programming paradigms to avoid them. We've only covered object oriented stuff, not really anything about other paradigms."

She bursts into giggles at the bit about concurrency instantly killing you and also destroying France.

"Oh that's perfect. Yes. It's like that."

Composing herself from the giggles, she hums to herself for just a moment. "The basic reason functional programming is better for concurrency is because it encourages you to segregate as many processes as possible into pure functions — functions that take data in, and spit different data out, and do absolutely nothing else. Pure functions are easier to write tests for, easier to model in your head, and best of all they can't break anything by being run in a different order. Just stick a pure function on the end of an inter-process or inter-thread communications channel, and it chews on whatever gets put into it, nice and easy. Fundamentally it makes separation of concerns easier to implement. Likewise with keeping your code DRY."

"Ohhhhhhh! That makes sense! I- do not in fact instantly believe you that this is automatically a superior way of doing things because I couldn't yet generate the arguments from scratch if I didn't already know they existed. And I haven't ever done any functional programming. But it certainly seems plausible that it would help like that."

She grins approvingly at the epistemological caution. "Smart girl. Don't just believe me, try it yourself. Trust but verify."

She smiles softly. Sable is cute. And apparently doesn't mind Alethia not instantly believing her. Approves, even!

She thinks she likes her.

"That's how I tend to do things, yeah."

"Would that more people did the same. Maybe things would be getting better quicker than they are. People don't often think about how well their plans actually work, though. Especially not when it's important."

She giggles. "Indeed. How else would you know they were very smart, if they didn't get already have all the answers? Why, that bit is so very important they might as well skip the stage where they check whether their answers are right."

She giggles as well, nodding sagely. "Who needs to check, doesn't everyone know that the bragging about being right part is so much more important? If you brag well enough, that makes you right. Clearly bragging about your charitable contributions means they helped people, and bragging about your conclusions means they're scientifically sound!"

Okay, she was just thinking about that, can this woman read her mind? 

I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME.

Okay, nothing, she probably cannot in fact hear her.

No, she cannot hear her. Wrong vampire, honey.

It is never the case that people can secretly read her mind. She has learned this.

"Indeed. For if one says things sufficiently loudly, they become true. This is how I became mistress of the universe."

"Indeed. You have my eternal fealty, most benevolent mistress."

<...Wait, how serious are we with that fealty?>, Ruby asks.

<...Very,> Hailey responds.

"I will be a wise and benevolent mistress, who only uses her powers for good."

I will only take a minimum of sexual liberties with your vulnerable person.

Tragically, this joke must remain entirely internal.

"I promise to demand only a maximum of two piggy back rides per day."

"Truly you are most gracious and noble. You could easily get away with five or more, but you have settled for two. I cannot imagine a more suitable mistress."

"Hmm. Five piggy back rides, you say? Perhaps benevolence is not all it is cracked up to be. I shall fall to evil!"

"Come to the dark side. We have piggyback rides, cookies, and more."

Like brain upgrades you'll probably love.

"Ooh, cookies! That cinches it."

Wait, she's completely forgotten to eat any of her doughnut! She can fix this!

Nom.

Sable grins at how absurdly cute Alethia is when eating her doughnut. 

<She's really just too cute. Can we keep her?>, Ruby asks.

<We'll try,> Maya replies.

<We'll have to read her in, if it goes far enough,> Hailey notes.

<It's probably going far enough. Let's figure out what forms we need,> Ruby insists.

This all happens very quickly, but the entire exchange is accompanied by a very fond grin.

When she emerges from Doughnut Euphoria she is slightly embarrassed by the fond look on Sable's face. Did she eat in a silly fashion, somehow?

Eh, Sable looks fond, if she ate in a silly fashion Sable found it cute, it's fine.

"So, why were you walking through the university, today? Do you work for the university?"

She shakes her head. "Studied here previously. It's nostalgic to pass by, sometimes."

She's not going to explain that it was over a decade ago until she explains vampires.

"Ah. Yeah, I expect I'll do the same, eventually. I spend so much of my time here. And once I've moved along, all of a sudden this will be a place I don't see any more. It feels a bit strange, sometimes, how things can change like that."

"I try to attach lightly to a lot of stuff for that reason. And try to make time to come back and see the rest. I travel a lot, since I can work remotely, and so nostalgia's usually just a short trip away. But I know what you mean, about changes like that."

"Ooh, remote work! I'm planning to try to swing that myself, if I can. Even beyond the freedom of being able to go where I want, just not having to commute in the morning would be so nice."

"It really is. Absolutely worth hunting around for an employer who offers it. What languages have you focused on so far, and what aspects of programming most interest you?"

"So far I've mostly been programming in Java, Python, and C++. I- uh, I'm not sure how ell this answers your question, but I like the sort of- general process of building a thing from basically-scratch, such that I relatively-naturally end up with a model of the entire codestructure in my head. I, uh, am kind of under the impression that most of what you actually do when you're working involves rather a lot more working with code you didn't write up yourself."

"Decent languages, for all that C++ is an unholy abomination, and should be a foundation you can bridge from if you work somewhere they're using a different language. And yes, you're right about usually working with other people's code. There are exceptions, but they're a bit rare until you get a good bit of experience." 

She drums her fingers for a moment. "Hmmm. Logic or UI? No, given you like modeling the whole thing, probably logic. Probably working with other people's code would be more tolerable if there were coherent naming and documentation standards? Some companies have that, mine for one, but not all. Any industries you particularly don't want to code for?"

"Yeah, I've actually never done, uh- any UI work. Or, somehow, any database work. Neither were in the core course set I needed to complete my compsci major, and my math major takes up enough time that along with essay course requirements I kind of don't have space for, well, anything but what's required. As far as industries I want to avoid- well, game production is famously terrible to work in, so I plan on giving that a wide birth. But- not in particular, really? I guess the defence industry. I don't particularly want to program missile targeting systems."

"Extremely valid. I don't want to work on either of those either, and I can tell you that my company does neither without violating any NDAs. Hmmm. Probably I can't magically line up an internship today. That'd be a little too improbable, even for me."

They could if they told her everything, which they'd dearly love to do, but they should wait until they're a little surer of her before that. 

<Um. That's an awful lot of desire to tell her stuff. And solve things for her. And generally pamper her. Are we... Is something happening?> Ruby tilts her head a bit in mindspace.

.....Something might be happening. Ruby has a point. Sure Sable loves incredibly easily, but this is a new record, and it hit all of them at once.

<Mate bond?>, Maya asks.

...

Dangerously plausible.

Yeah, it is, uh, not surprising she can't manage an internship literally today. 

"Yeah, no, of course you can't, I'm not even through with my degree yet. I appreciate the thought, though."

It is, uh, kind of- odd, though? To basically-offer that quickly? This whole encounter is a bit odd.

Sometimes odd things just happen, though, it's probably nothing more than just- a girl being somewhat silly around another girl she finds cute.

But maaaybe she's a secret talent scout who read the paper Alethia and her advisor submitted for publication, or something like that? And has some sort of quantum information theory adjacent programming needs? Or just- something highly-using-of-linear-algebra? And is thus approaching Alethia in a strange and sneaky way to get a sense for what she's like? For some reason? The paper was pretty least-publishable-unit, honestly, she kind of doubts it. Even if she stands out at this university, once you're looking at all the universities she's no longer anything you can't find a lot more of.

You were closer with the "finds you cute" idea. 

"My desire to lavish you with opportunities aside, I don't want to interfere with your studying too much more. I'd love to see you again, though. What do you say to going out dancing to celebrate a test you'll almost certainly ace, later tonight or tomorrow?"

As much as the idea of spending time not in her company utterly wrenches, they'll do better giving her some space. And interfering with her test can't possibly be allowed. So they have to leave her some time to study.

"Iiiii don't know how to dance. Uh- any. Kind of dancing, really."

The idea of going dancing with the honestly-quite-hot Sable is, uh, appealing, though.

"But, uh, my lack of skill aside, we could- do something else, though? Probably tomorrow, I'm going to be pretty wiped after my exam's finished with. So- maybe coffee?"

"I'd love to. Here, a different coffeeshop of your choice, or want me to pick?"

"There's a coffee shop a couple blocks from my house, it's- well, it's a chain, but it's close by and has nice hot chocolate. And pastries, I think."

She names the place and the pair of streets it's on the intersection of.

"Could you get there real easy? I, uh, don't want to ask you to go bunches out of your way just so I don't have to go far."

"Entirely separate of the fact that it's not out of my way," given that she's a vampire with a nice apartment in the center of town, everywhere is convenient, "I would be utterly delighted to go out of my way to make a date more convenient for you."

It is a date, isn't it? Very definitely. With a very cute girl. Who is very enthusiastic about her and very keen to go on a date with her. And who has actually seemed consistently decent. 

She is pleased.

"Okay then. So- tomorrow at, say- noon?"

"Sounds perfect. See you then!"

And with a last smile and wave, she gets up and strolls out. No one can tell that her brain is melting from an overload of GAY and MATEBOND filling her mind.

Alethia could tell a little. 

Well. She has a date tomorrow. That's lovely. 

For today, though, she has a midterm to ace!

Meanwhile, Sable is definitely not hopping to a nearby rooftop to make sure Alethia is safe through tomorrow. Nope. Not at all. There is no violet-haired girl sitting just in vampiric earshot in case of sudden misadventure.

Alethia exists in complete ignorance of the fact that she has a silent protector, a watchful guardian, a dark knight a definitely-not-stalker, so she slips her earbuds back in, turns the metal back on, and finishes her preparations for her exam.

And then off she goes, doing her best to put her encounter with the cute girl out of mind so she can focus on what's more immediate.

There are no immediate problems between the coffee shop and the building where she's going to be taking her midterm, but, uh- it's inside. A long way from any windows. 

Is Sable going to be able to cope with this?

She is going to put herself in earshot of all the building's entrances. This may not protect against any threats that were already in the building, but the only thing she could do about that is inspect the entire populace of the building, and doing that would have a much higher chance of scaring Alethia than it would of finding any threats, because sudden assaults on university campuses inside school buildings are really really rare. The building doesn't smell like wolves or vampires, the Golden Coven has all the major threats handled already anyway, and if the building starts exploding or something she'll hear it just as easily out here.

But she's listening very hard. 

Then Sable and headmates will have a very stressful but ultimately uneventful two hour wait where very nearly nothing at all happens.

But at the end of those two hours, Alethia will emerge, looking happy and relaxed, and wait to take the bus.

Oh good! Sable will dart from rooftop to rooftop as necessary to keep up. Busses are great but vehicular transit is more dangerous than she'd like. And her Most Important Person is not allowed to die. So she will stalk the bus by rooftops. No serious eavesdropping, just make sure nothing happens that scares her or makes her scream or might injure her. Anything else is fine and she will ignore it for the sake of privacy.

Fortunately, nothing like that happens. She steps off the bus when it gets to her stop, and then it's a short fifteen minute walk back to her apartment. It's a studio, a tiny little thing, but that's all she needs, really. It's also on the eighth floor of her building, so she has a view. Not a great one, but any one. Sable will likely notice that Alethia appreciates this fact, since she'll look out her window over the city.

Awwww. She likes having a view. So do they, they have a nice apartment with a pretty good view of the city and the river. That's great. 

They continue to lurk where they can observe but not be observed, and generally relax knowing that Alethia is safely ensconced within her apartment and having a decent evening.

Sable taps out a message to their boss while she waits.

Pretty sure we& just mated to a mortal girl. We're calling in some of our unused time off. We'll keep you posted.

Take the week, tell me if you need more, and congrats, Pirates. 

Alethia spends the rest of her day, short thought it may be, relaxing in her apartment, reading things on her computer. After a few hours she eats a large helping of gummy candy, has a large glass of milk, and then heads to bed, apparently considering this an entirely reasonable last meal of the day.

Ruby switches in at some point during the evening. This is just a guard stakeout. She gets stakeouts. She remembers stakeouts. Nobody's going to harm Alethia, all night long.

At some point early during her watch, she dashes back off to their apartment. She briefly considers grabbing clothes in her size, but decides she doesn't mind being in oversized clothes for the stakeout. Instead, she just grabs a change of clothes for Sable to wear to the date, tucking them into a pocket of their bag. Then she sprints back to her rooftop.

The Alethia sleeps. She has her window open, a fan in it. If Ruby positions herself on the roof of the building across the road she could watch Alethia sleep.

The Alethia has turned herself into a burrito! 

So cute!

Eventually, after eight or so hours, the Alethia sleepily awakens!

Wait, no, false alarm. She just rolled over and went back to sleep.

Cute and valid of her. Sleep was nice, when they could still sleep. It's really nice not to need it, but it would be nice to indulge in it once in a while. 

Ruby has wedged herself into a position where she's very well-camouflaged. She can see out, but her hair and eyes just barely peek past the edge of her cover, and her hair blends in against it very well.

The next time Alethia wakes up it is in fact not a false alarm. Two hours until the scheduled date.

Okay, up she gets, off goes the alarm so it doesn't spend the entire shower going off, and then off she heads to shower and drink her morning coffee. She needs those two hours if she wants her hair to be dry by the time she heads out her door.

If she could still blush, she would be blushing right now. Nope, not going to peep on the very pretty probable-mate. Ruby watches everything else, not Alethia, for that period of time.

Well, her bathroom also doesn't have a window. So. At least Ruby doesn't have to fight temptation?

That's a relief. 

Probably Ruby will be pleased that Alethia emerges from the bathroom in a set of fluffy pajamas, rather than just a towel, then.

She is pleased by this fact, right?

She is pleased. There's a little bit of shy imagining about what might be under the pajamas (and more from her headmates), but mostly Ruby is relieved that she doesn't have to worry about peeping, and pleased that Alethia has cozy things like fluffy pajamas.

The pajamas are very fluffy.

The sleepy Alethia drinks her morning coffee at her desk and takes the next hour and a half or so to just wake up and enjoy her morning. And then she gets up and picks out the clothing she's going to wear to her date. She thinks- yeah, that pair of skinny jeans, that pretty red top, her Fancy Boots and her Fancy Coat. Aaaalso her lacy black panties and bra. Just in case.

And then she pulls off her pajamas to get changed.

Eeeeeeeep!!! Watch the doors! And streets! And everything but Alethia's window! Ignore how hard Neo is pouting in mindspace! Definitely not peeping on the very pretty mate!

Luckily, Alethia gets dressed pretty quickly, so Ruby won't need to exercise her willpower for too long. On goes the clothing, and then on go the fancy boots and the fancy coat! And then out the door of her apartment goes the Alethia! Off to the coffee shop!

She has a date!

During the brief interval while Alethia is in the elevator, Sable switches back in and changes to fresh clothes: lacy red bra and panties, silvery-grey leggings, cute dark-purple dress, fancy black heeled boots, and a pretty jacket overtop. She follows Alethia's transit from the skyline, preparing to break off and dash ahead when she's five minutes away.

Alethia lives very close to the coffee shop they're going to- it's maybe an eight minute walk from her house.

She's smiling softly as she walks.

A date! With a girl who she thinks she actually just likes!

Then at the halfway point, she sprints ahead and drops down into an alley near the shop, walking up from out-of-sight, dusting herself off, and making sure she's waiting with a smile when Alethia gets there.

Alethia gets there almost exactly on time. In fact, as she walks, she varies her pace depending on the time to noon, and gets it right enough to show up within fifteen seconds of the hour.

This is clearly Entirely Reasonable Polite Behaviour, she isn't weird at all. 

She spots Sable waiting. Sable has dressed up very nicely for the date.

She is Shy, and suddenly doesn't know how to say hello. 

How does one start conversations????? How does this work?????

Social scripts, go! You're surprisingly good at social stuff when we're not getting in our own way, you're my only hope!

She knows exactly what the scripts say to say here, and once she's out of her own way they're also obviously right. It's all true, after all.

"Good morning, Sable! My goodness, you look wonderful. I love your dress! The purple's lovely."

"Pot and kettle, Alethia dear. You look absolutely delightful, the jeans flatter you marvelously, and I'm clearly on a date with the most dashing girl for countless miles in any direction."

She gets the door and holds it for her date. "Shall we?"

The silliness of Sable's exaggerated compliments helps her get over her nerves.

She wonders if that was on purpose.

"Thank you. And- yes, let's."

And through the door she goes.

Sable finds an out of the way table with a nice view out any windows there happen to be, and pulls out Alethia's chair for her. "What would you like?"

"Hmm. I think a hot chocolate and a cinnamon bun."

That will leave her with a hankering for Actual Food in a few hours, but that's fine.

"I'll be right back, then."

Sable steps swiftly away to buy those, along with a black coffee strong enough to wake the dead — metaphorically, at least. This dead girl is forever awake. It'll be strong enough to have a meaningful taste through her vampiric taste buds, though.

And Alethia will maaaaybe check her out a bit as she walks away.

Maybe.

Who could say?

A vampire who can catch hints of movement in a reflection on a pitcher, maybe? But Sable shows no visible sign of noticing being checked out.

She just squees internally, instead.

Soon enough she's setting mugs and a plate down on the table. "Here you go!"

"Thank you, Sable!"

A pretty girl is buying her tasty food and pulled out her chair for her and held open the door for her. And now she has tasty hot chocolate and delicious pastry!

Life is good.

Is this a sappy look at seeing Alethia so pleased? Yes. Yes, it is.

"Gladly, Alethia. So how'd the test go? Kicked ass, I expect?"

"I think so, yeah! I finished twenty or so minutes before the exam ended and I could have left early but instead I just went over my answers to double check them. And it's a good thing i did, I'd somehow made a mistake on step one of one of the questions, would have gotten it completely wrong if I hadn't noticed."

Oh, wait! Sable doesn't have any food!

"Are you sure you don't want a pastry of some kind? They're quite good."

Unfortunately the pastry would taste of sadness and lies to their vampiric palate, and they'd have to dispose of it sometime later after eating it. That especially would be unpleasant, and the taste would make Ruby sad. It says something about matebonds that Ruby would rather eat the misery pastry than make Alethia sad, but they should be able to dodge this problem easily enough.

"I actually had breakfast already. No room for pastries, much though I wish otherwise. Thank you, though. The coffee is certainly good, and I'm quite enjoying how much you're enjoying yours."

"Okay then, I suppose I won't insist. Even if the cinnamon buns are very good."

"I'll have to live vicariously through your joy," she replies with a playful grin.

She's posing in a way that vaguely suggests she's just said something lewd. She didn't, but this is empirically not helping her incipient blush.

Quick, Alethia, have thoughts that are not about this before you develop an embarrassing blush.

Hmm. The delicious cinnamon bun is right there.

Nom.

Yes, this has distracted her successfully.

Oh, there's that sappy expression again. Had Alethia missed it while it was away?

"So, are they giving you a break before term continues, or just throwing you right into it?"

"Oh, no break at all. We do have a one-week break before midterms start up though, to study in. The profs all have the brilliant idea to add an assignment due right after it ends, though. They're bizarrely incapable of extrapolating their collective choices to results, for people with math degrees. My measure theory prof assigned twenty hours of graded homework a week, for the first month or so, before I went to office hours and said I had half the class behind me in agreement that this was too much. He was very firm that four hours of class a week and twenty of work outside it wasn't an unreasonable workload until I explained to him that his students have other courses, and so he should multiply the hours of work he assigns per week by five before he decides whether it makes sense as a workload. Still barely persuaded him, he didn't seem to get it. How he manages to teach measure theory while not getting that I'm not quite sure. To his credit he did listen, eventually, and cut the workload down to about a third of what it had been."

She is still a bit annoyed by how it took her half an hour to explain that to the man. She doesn't even usually go to office hours, she's too shy about asking questions. But she and her classmates were being run ragged- that twenty instead of six hours a week was pushing her from fifty to sixty-four hours of work a week, on average and that's not including studying time. Her classmates weren't, for the most part, double majoring like she was, so it wasn't quite as bad for them, but that first month sucked.

They are... appalled. None of them managed to expect a professor to be that absurd, even Hailey, and Sable shakes her head in response.

"Wow. Just... wow. That has managed to skate beneath even my already low expectations of university professors. Good on you for getting it fixed, and shame on him for making your actions necessary."

"Yeah, you would really think "multiply by five to check if this decision process leads to a total acceptable workload" would be- pretty trivial for the kind of person making novel mathematical contributions to the collective knowledge of all humanity, but apparently not. But he did reduce the total amount of work, and he wasn't too much of a jerk during the meeting. I, uh, think it helped that I'd managed a perfect score in his class, at that time. Not sure he'd have listened if it seemed plausible I was just being lazy, or just couldn't hack it. But he did listen, in the end, and that counts for a lot. Plenty of people would just have completely failed to consider- actually listening to the undergrad telling them they were making a mistake."

"Despite how common I know failing to listen to undergrads is, I can't see myself ever failing to listen to you. You're just so obviously clever and careful. You might ever make a mistake, but I get the impression you'd take time to fix it the second it was pointed out."

"That's certainly the kind of person I try to be. Nobody can be right about everything, but you can try to- systematically move in the correct direction."

She is not completely sure how to respond to the compliments, The Scripts do not have an immediate response ready, so she is just going to Not. Hopefully this is socially acceptable.

"You can. Not enough people do, but it's certainly possible."

If Alethia is under the impression that she is capable of doing something that will inspire these vampiric headmates' affection for her to fail or run out, she is sorely mistaken. As far as they're concerned, she's responded in an absolutely adorable way to the compliments. They could probably adjust to be able to tell her what other people would think about something she did, but they are not remotely bothering with that at the moment.

Not loving Alethia is simply incorrect.

She likes Sable. She thinks she likes Sable a lot. But she's going to try not to get too enthusiastic too quickly. Just in case.

Doesn't mean she can't smile at Sable for saying that, though.

"Hmm. So. First date topics- Politics! Do you or do you not support Reform Anti-Moonism, which proposes that we destroy the moon, but not with a giant moon laser?"

And she dissolves into giggles.

Several seconds later, when she's contained the gigglefit, "Clearly Traditional Anti-Moonism is the superior choice. We absolutely must keep the otherwise-useless giant laser industry afloat."

"Indeed. How else shall we defend ourselves from the hordes of spacefaring moons just waiting to assault our fair planet? You have passed the test."

"Exactly! Some of them aren't even moons, just masquerading as them.

"But how do you feel about the Ninja Garrison Industry? Should ninja have specialized garrisons built, or should they be garrisoned in people's homes and workplaces?"

"Both, of course. The more ninjas the better. The more locations the ninjas are in the better. The more widely the ninjas are distributed the more omnipresent the fear."

She manages to contain the giggles this time. "Precisely. And this is why we must elect the shinobi party in the upcoming parlimentary elections. No one else can take back the world from the grip the far-too-benevolent vampire empress who rules from the shadows and seeks to gradually scale up turnings to spread immortality. No one else can bring the world back to the omnipresent fear we deserve."

She nods solemnly. "You, too, have passed the test."

"Precisely. If the vampire empress were truly benevolent she would inflict on us the fear we all ontologically deserve, rather than something as paltry as immortality. She could be using her vampiric powers to inflict suffering beyond imagining, but instead she is WEAK and she will not survive the winter."

"Indeed! She survived great suffering herself, and rather than see it for the blessing it was, she instead seeks to spread immortality, reduce suffering, and research synthetic blood substitutes that taste better than animals. How could she countenance such weakness in herself? How could she?"

This is getting weirdly specific.

Clearly, this is because Sable is a secret vampire and the vampire empress is REAL.

Hah, no. It'd be funny, though.

It's never secret vampires. Much like it's never secret mindreaders.

"Indeed. Truly, virtue through suffering is the first principle from which all others follow. Thus, my proposition to throw beehives at small children."

See, this clever knack for spotting when they're being suspiciously specific is part of why they love you.

"Truly, you are the wisest woman I have ever met. I should spend the future studying your understanding of virtue."

"Indeed you should. My wisdom is beyond mortal ken, and you are privileged to be in my presence."

"No woman has ever been so privileged as I am to be in your company, and nothing would please me more than spending my time making sure you know exactly how privileged I feel."

Lewd.

Correct.

"How wonderful. Then you shan't complain when I put you to work in the mines."

There we go, you recovered wonderfully Alethia, fast enough she certainly can't have noticed.

Probably.

She definitely couldn't possibly have noticed. No impossible vampiric perception here. Nope.

"As long as I'm mining gorgeous gemstones and precious metals that can somehow manage to complement your beauty, I will toil in the mines with a song in my heart."

She can't stop a fond little smile from ghosting across her face for a moment.

But no! She must keep up the bit and not simply smile at Sable! She must!

"Good. If the gems are not at least the size of my head I will have you launched out of the orbital suncannon. Into mars- the sun would be too good for you."

"Just the size of your head? No, I owe you a gem big enough to carve a life-size statue of you from."

Sable has an odd hunch.

Alethia seems like the type of girl who might prefer important info like matebonds quickly.

<Plausible. She really might,> Maya concurs.

<But how do we find out for sure without revealing in the process that there's important info?>, Hailey counters.

<Maybe mix it into some silly and not-so-silly hypotheticals, call it getting to know each other better?>, Ruby suggests.

"Ah, good, I see you are fully aware of the scope of my majesty."

"Indeed."

She giggles and shakes her head for a moment, grinning, then asks, "Favorite color?"

She breaks down into giggles herself, for a moment.

"Red. You?"

She points at her violet hair with a grin. "This shade of violet specifically, purple more generally. If you could have any one superpower, what would you pick?"

"Omnipotence. But- if I have to pick something more reasonably scaled- hmm, that's a bit difficult. I'm still tempted to go with something that would let me bootstrap into more powers, but that feels a bit against the spirit of the question. Something informational, that made me smarter or broader. Something like- being able to split into multiple copies of myself that could merge, or being able to accelerate how fast I can think, or just straightforward supergenius. If it's gotta be something more classical than any of those- telekinesis, probably. It lets you do so much. From party tricks to flight."

"Oooh. Reaching high. I approve. Informational powers are of course absolutely lovely, anyone who thinks the flying brick is more strategically dangerous than the oracle or the supergenius is suffering from a failure of imagination. And teekay is a great pick from the classics. One thing I've suspected is that if you're really clever with your use of it — like very lightly grabbing the air around you, or something like that — you could turn it into personal-scale radar.

"As for me, assuming omnipotence isn't on offer but big things still were, I'd find time loops a bit tiring but extremely satisfying. It would be a bit uncomfortable to retry personal-scale things with friends and loved ones, but being able to make sure all the big important stuff gets all the retries it needs would be so worth it. Barring that, just for purely personal satisfaction I'd have to go for shapeshifting."

"Ooh, shapeshifting would be nice. You could be so many different animals! And I'd bet you could parlay it into immortality."

"Exactly! So many options there. And I definitely love being able to stretch a power into immortality.

"And if you were in a relationship and your partner got some stressful news, especially at an ill-suited moment, would you rather they tell you about it immediately, or wait for a better time to bring it up?"

"Hmm. Depends on the scale of the news, and the scale of the delay. If it's time sensitive any amount at all, definitely quick. If they need a bit of time since it's stressful, and them taking that time isn't going to cause massive problems- then a bit of delay is fine. But all else equal I definitely prefer sooner. And- if you take some delay- there's always the temptation to take yet a longer one. Better to go sooner for that reason as well, I think."

"I absolutely agree, though I run a little more patient about it for my own tolerance, assuming I trust them enough."

<Well, there's our answer,> Hailey notes. <We're gonna need to take her somewhere private and explain after a bit more hanging out here, long enough to plausibly be the deliberately-planned next stage of the date.>

And without the slightest hint of delay, Sable continues, "If you like museums, what's your favorite kind of museum?"

"You know, I'm somewhat fond of them but haven't been to many. So, I suppose the answer would be that I don't like them enough to have an answer to that question, just yet. But- hmm, I definitely lean more towards history or natural history over art. You?"

"Those and also science, over art," she replies with a nod. "Favorite book or series thereof?"

Oh no, is she too shy to say it out loud? She is maybe too shy- wait, Sable is nice. And she should know in advance if Sable is the kind of person who'd judge her over something like this.

"It's an incredibly long bit of cowritten scifi/fantasy fanfic. You, uh, have almost certainly not heard of it. The- basic theme is that characters from interesting reinterpretations of two different settings are thrown together and have massive culture clash that combines interestingly with surprising similarities they both have. It'd almost be fair to call large parts of it social science fiction. And it's also sort of- a bit of a mystery? It's really long, it's got bits of lots of things. Romance, mystery, tiny bits of action. All rather shockingly well done."

There. Hopefully Sable won't judge her about that.

"Oooh. That honestly sounds really fun to read. You've got to share it with me later. As for mine, I'm torn between a rather long and much smarter multi-book rework of an old fantasy series, which takes the previously cardboard main villain and turns him into an utterly fascinating anti-villain; or perhaps a particularly dark superhero deconstruction story that I like in large part for the absurd wealth and variety of fanfic it has inspired."

"Wait, a long dark superhero deconstruction story that inspired a lot of fanfic- are you talking about Annelid?"

A sudden burst of laughter spills out of her. "Yep!"

"I love Annelid. Read it all in one breathless week or so, a few years back. Woke up, read Annelid, went to sleep, repeated."

She grins and nods. "Same. Every moment I could steal, crammed it all into a week. It was intense."

She hums a bit, then asks, "Have you read the Nursery series? Took me a while to find that, but it's ruined me for other xianxia."

"I have! It's incredible. Not- smart in the same way the last thing I mentioned was, but- incredibly enjoyable to read. And the main cast- I love their interactions. He does such a good job drawing all of his characters fully in the wordcount he has to play around with, it's really impressive."

"I know, right? There's such richness to it. I absolutely love it. Oh, what about the Bright-Bough Trade Guild setting? I really enjoyed the mix of worldbuilding and romance in that."

"Oh, that I haven't read. I don't think I've heard of it, actually. What's the premise?"

And so they spend the next hour and change talking about shared interests in various media, suggesting things to each other, and getting to know each other.

Eventually, Sable suggests, "This has been delightful, and I'm definitely going to remember this coffeeshop for how nice a time I've had here with you, but would you like to come see one of my favorite little scenic spots near here?"

How likely is it that this is a prelude to kidney theft?

It is not kidney theft. That, much like secret mindreaders, is one of the things that things never are.

Also, Alethia can handle herself in a fight, and she's got a bit more muscle on her than Sable does. And is in Actually Good Shape. Unless Sable's got a gun, Alethia can just run away very fast if she needs to.

Also, she just- is not even slightly worried about that in real life, it's just the sort of question she habitually asks herself.

"That sounds nice."

Then Sable will stand, push in her chair, bus their cups and Alethia's plate, and then hold out her hand to Alethia.

And Alethia will take Sable's hand and let herself be led off.

Sable is deeply weird, much like Alethia is. It's nice, not to have to worry about- all sorts of things.

All five Pirates are definitely enjoying all of Alethia's weirdness, too. It's nice how these things work out.

Sable leads the way down a few streets, and then turns a corner to find a cute little park. Midway into it is a cute little grassy hill with a lovely view of the river, nestled in the middle of a copse of trees.

Sable reaches into her bag and pulls out a large blanket, which she spreads across the grass.

"Tada!"

"You had a blanket prepared! That's adorable! And sweet!"

Sure, planning out a date isn't, objectively, anything strange or abnormal, but Sable did it for her! And she took her to a cute park!

Sable smiles warmly and sighs fondly. "I'm glad you like it." 

And after a few moments of just enjoying sitting on the blanket together, Sable stretches and turns to Alethia. "I do have some full-disclosure things that I ought to share with you. They're not exactly in the usual search space you'd assign most of your probability to, They're rather private, which is part of why we've come to a secluded park. The other part is just that it's really pretty here and I thought you'd like it."

Is this the part where she reveals this is a nefarious scheme to steal her kidneys?

"Ah. That question at the start wasn't as hypothetical as it sounded, then. Well, I'm glad you're telling me."

She looks around for a second.

"It really is pretty, and I do like it."

"I'm glad."

She stares at the water for a moment, then nods to herself.

"You might've noticed while we were walking here that my hand is a bit cold. And firm."

Oh. Is Sable- does she have some sort of illness? Is she okay? Is she about to say that she only has three years to live or something? Poor circulation and abnormal muscle tension, does she know anything that causes that-

"I- the handhold wasn't tight enough to feel the firmness, really. But- I did notice your hand was cold."

She nods. "There's a reason for that. Let's give you a few more datapoints."

She stands up, takes a step off the blanket, and then suddenly vanishes, appearing at the end of the clearing in an instant. She pauses there, catching Alethia's eyes, then vanishes again to the opposite side of the clearing, crossing the entire space in an instant again.

"Cold to the touch, and superspeed. I can do a series of dashes to arbitrary points you specify, if that would help you better rule out the possibility that I could be doing some kind of trickery or misdirection."

It seems like a mistake, at first. Her eyes somehow playing tricks on her, her mind stuttering.

It's suddenly very obvious that whether she leaves this clearing alive is entirely determined by Sable's opinion on whether she should.

This realization shows on her face not at all.

Cold to the touch, and fast. What does that point at? Vampirism? But she mentioned feeling firm, are Vampires supposed to feel firm? She doesn't think so.

She doesn't even really feel nervous. Startled, certainly, but the flash of realization that she's left the world she knows behind has centred her, somehow. In an odd way that doesn't stop her from feeling a bit distant from herself, but she's calm.

"Hmm. Speed would imply strength, under most methods by which you could be moving that fast."

It's so nice to watch her reason things out.

"Correct. I'm not properly human, anymore, and the particular kind of former-human I am does not exactly match the usual tropes of the species. Would you like me to keep giving more clues or tell you outright now? I'm quite enjoying watching you reason things out, but your comfort is the priority here."

That's sweet. 

She's going to put the "former human" thought out of mind for a moment, she has a plan.

"I think I'm still in the "finish proving to myself that this is all real" phase, actually."

She looks around for a second and- yeah, there's a pebble just there. It doesn't need to be a large rock.

She picks that pebble up and rolls it between her fingers. Then she pinches, hard. Hard enough to hurt herself, just a bit.

Yeah, this is a genuine actual pebble, and not likely to break.

She tosses it to Sable.

"Care to pinch this to dust between your fingers for me?"

She catches it deftly between her thumb and forefinger, pinching it from its trajectory, then holds it up for a moment to make sure that Alethia's got a clear view of her holding it, before finally pressing her thumb and finger together, not seeming to exert any effort.

The stone crumbles to powder, and she catches it in her other hand as it falls, then walks up to Alethia and holds out her powder-filled hand.

"Well. That would be very difficult to fake. Do you have any other obvious impossibilities to demonstrate for me?"

She didn't ask that question first because, well- of course a Sable who was lying would have something else prepared in case Alethia asked just that question.

At this point, though, she's pretty sure of the end conclusion that she'll come to. And thus pretty sure that Sable will, in fact, have some third thing to demonstrate, and it will be at least as out-of-distribution as the first two.

She hums and nods. "I do have one quite blatant feat to show, but I ask that you only count it as evidence of my being broadly supernatural, not as evidence for or against a particular subtype, because this particular ability is unique. Fair?"

"Fair enough."

Unique, what does that say? Does that mean that question earlier about "one superpower" was more meaningful than she'd guessed?

As a matter of fact it was. Many things said today were.

"Some people have one unique bit of magic all their own. They're typically called witches. Becoming my kind of supernatural will occasionally unlock magic if you didn't have one yet, or will enhance it if you do."

And then her body shifts. She becomes a good bit shorter, a bit more slender, and her hair shortens and darkens.

Until a petite girl with messy black hair and piercing green eyes is grinning at Alethia.

What.

"What."

What?

"Wow. Well. That's not the kind of thing you can fake."

Hailey snickers and shakes her head. "No, it's really not. This particular ability has a very complicated story behind it, and has a limited set of target shapes. Be glad to explain it, but let's focus on the main thing first."

She shifts back.

"Any other questions or tests you'd like to see? I suspect we've very thoroughly proved the existence of the supernatural, at this point, but further questions or tests may help you validate or falsify any theories about what particular flavor of supernatural thing I am."

She could try to come up with more tests.

But she just watched someone shapeshift in front of her. Sable's right, she knows what those tests would tell her.

Does she want to spend a bunch of time playfully trying to figure out Sable's exact flavor of magic? She's not quite sure. 

Hmm.

Eh, it'd be fun. And Sable's obviously real keen to play that particular game.

"So, you've got a unique ability to shapeshift, which means that shapeshifting isn't a typical ability of whatever you are. Is that right?"

She nods and smiles. "It's not typical for the actual version of what I am, and it's only typical for some fictional variants of the species, and not at all in the way I demonstrated it."

"Ah. So whatever you are is a common enough kind of thing for there to be a variety of fictional variants! And some of them can shapeshift. But not all. And you're formerly human."

She's not actually completely sure, just yet. But she has, thus far, had exactly one idea which felt like it even sort of fit. And it would be cool to just suddenly get it right.

"You're a vampire."

She grins delightedly. "Fuck I love seeing your mind at work. Exactly right."

She got it right!!!! And got to look cool in front of Sable!

The Pirates indulge for a long moment in just grinning sappily at Alethia's cleverness and her glee at getting it right.

"Now for the related things that are less guessable, and one of which is somewhat concerning."

"Ah."

"The story about the Empress was actually true. She overthrew a much shittier coven of vampires and is slowly scaling up turnings for the sake of immortality. She has sensibly banned drinking human blood despite how awful animal blood tastes because drinking humans is reliably lethal for the human, and reliably bad for the vampire's impulse control, aggression, and decision-making. She has a team working on synthetics that are actually palatable, though it's slow going. That, among many other things, is the good news.

"The concerning news is that vampires have the capacity to matebond. This occurs when the vampire perceives someone that is optimally compatible with them romantically, and sexually if they're not ace. If it occurs between two vampires, it's guaranteed to be symmetrical every time. If one of the two is a mortal at the time, only the vampire experiences the matebond unless and until the mortal turns. The compatibility-selection is still in effect, every mortal with a mated vampire partner who's commented has had positive things to say about the lovability of their vampire, even before they turned and bonded back. But fundamentally no one is choosing for this to happen and that's concerning, as is the fact that that your happiness and approval has become a terminal value in my utility function without any conscious choice involved in the process. I couldn't think of someone better to have that power, but the fact that I worked that out after the fact is still objectively concerning.

"Also if a mated vampire's partner dies, or they are made to believe this has happened, they are basically a useless and permanently miserable wreck with a near-guaranteed suicide chance. Everyone is kind of shocked and impressed that the Empress lasted the years it took to eventually find out her mate was still alive."

She hums, taps her lips for a moment. "Hmm, anything else? Don't think so, nothing relevant at the moment anyway."

"Ah. That's- that's a lot."

She takes a slow, deep breath.

"I'm glad the Empress did that, given the givens."

Another deep breath.

"Thank you for telling me. I- had noticed that you were- oddly keen on me. But- love at first sight is a thing, even if it's rare- one of my parents had it for the other. I thought you were either just- really enthusiastic in general, or else had had something like that happen to you. I suppose it isn't too different if it's a vampiric thing rather than a human one. But- it being invariably symmetrical- yeah, that's concerning. Caring about a specific person suddenly. What- what is it like? You described it in very- abstract terms."

What is she dealing with, right now? Exactly how much impaired cognition is Sable working with, here, and- does she have to worry about being kidnapped or something? She doesn't know, and really isn't a fan of that fact.

"It's.... In terms of practicalities, your priorities and wishes win out against literally everything except your safety. This makes convincing you of the merits of vampirism extremely compelling, just on the basis of vampires being immortal and extremely hard to kill, but I can think past it as long as you're not in imminent danger. If you wanted me gone, I'd be gone. If you wanted space, I'd give you space. I... Oh!"

She suddenly digs in her bag and pulls out a pamphlet, passing it to Alethia. It's titled PRPR 1-A: Introduction to Vampires. It's very informative and readable and friendly, explaining many things about vampirism. Section three is titled Mates. 

Hmm. Which means she's relying on Sable correctly evaluating whether kidnapping her will keep her safer. Or whether turning her involuntarily and getting guaranteed love in return is worth it. And also, of course, on Sable telling the truth about everything here.

Her instincts are pretty strongly saying that Sable is telling the truth, is likely to bend to Alethia's sense of what the safest course of action would be is, and is in general not a threat. And her instincts are trustworthy, usually. 

Usually she's not dealing with an ex-human with who-knows-how-many years under her belt.

Okay. Caution but not paranoia. Right now her future is pretty heavily determined by how Sable lets it go, regardless.

Time to read that pamphlet.

It doesn't take her too long, but it is a bit of complete silence while she reads. Mate bonds are objectively very concerning but fortunately they also seem to be pretty well understood, in terms of psychological effects on those who have them. Yes, they last forever. Always. Yes they're symmetrical, always, and come with a minor sense that this is obviously how things work which can apparently cause problems with half-vampires if the vampire in question isn't aware that they don't mate-bond, and this can cause problems that don't tend to turn up with human-vampire pairings or vampire-vampire pairings. Also, apparently half-vampires are a thing.

Vampirism also comes with some very notable downsides. Unending thirst which very much hurts, and an incredibly strong desire to drink people. Along with the other things Sable described. Apparently if you don't know what's going on when you're turned, you also come out sufficiently emotionally discombobulated that you have serious problems controlling yourself. Well, she won't have to worry about that, at least.

"Huh. This is- solid. I'm glad you had it."

It also helped some with her doubts- Sable could have written it herself, she supposes, but it's still evidence. Especially the minor ways it talks differently about mate bonds, carry a slightly different emotional tenor. That would in fact be pretty hard to fake, and most people wouldn't think to do so.

She smiles cautiously. "Yeah. Picked it up last night after I started realizing that there was probably a matebond going on. So... how I think about this is that all of this is your choice. If you wanted to never see me again, I'd ask you to install a panic button app of your choice on your phone first, but I'd stay gone unless something happened to you. In that circumstance, I'd run you to a hospital faster than any ambulance if you'd live long enough to get to a hospital and get stabilized, only emergency-turn you if you were literally going to die without it. Because it has to be your choice. I don't mind that my choice was taken away, it's an occupational hazard of vampirism, but I'm not taking yours."

She hums for a moment, then adds, "Full disclosure, I would not enjoy any of that process, but I'm willing to suffer a decent bit to avoid making an already concerning situation substantially moreso."

That's a very reassuring thing for Sable to say.

"Well. My default response, upon learning that immortality is on the table, would be to just take it, as quickly as I could. For fear that I'd get unlucky. But- well, it's not just immortality that's on offer, it's a matebond, eternal thirst, and- well, you know. Emergency turning- the pamphlet says it's pretty reliable. And you have made quite a good first impression. I think, provisionally, the best option is to- go on a few more dates, have me talk to another vampire associated with the Golden Coven, and try to- keep me safe by having you relatively close by but also not, uh- functionally rush into getting married. No need to send you off when you're such good company."

Cue sappy gaze and relieved sigh. "I'm so glad. Okay. I'll get someone from work, maybe, or maybe someone from the team that handles turnings, or something."

Sudden thought, though. "Um. I'm not confident I could hear you scream when you're deep inside a building, like at the university. Could I persuade you to take a panic button app, just in case?"

"You absolutely can. Now that forever is on the line I suddenly find myself more inclined toward caution."

Sable's concern is kind of cute, honestly? And flattering?

You are not immune to cute girl.

She quickly pulls up a link to one she'd recommend, which doesn't require the sending user registering for an account, only the user who'd receive the panic signal, and doesn't share location at all except when the button is pressed. It can sync with a smart watch (which Sable would buy Alethia if she wanted one), it can bind to holding a combination of physical buttons on the phone, and when triggered it makes a customizable alert on the chosen recipient's phone and provides a high-resolution fully-3d compass to the sender along with traditional map views.

Once the app is installed, Sable grins a bit wider in relief. 

"And now I know that if something happens while I can't hear you, you'll let me know if you can, and that's one more way to avoid emergency-turning."

She nods.

"Yeah. I myself would rather not have to deal with emergency-turning, given the lack of pain relief available. Three days, my goodness."

She nods very seriously. "Yes, the idea of you going through three days of turning pain that I could prevent just by doing a good enough job of protecting you does not sit well with me. Much better to just do the thing properly in the first place."

She tilts her head. "How're you doing on revelation overwhelm? There's one more thing that's important to tell you between now and your possible turning, but it's not as urgent as all that, and it's not concerning the way that mess is, just a bit complicated."

<Planning to lay all the cards on the table, are we dear?>, Maya asks.

<Yes,> Sable responds, <she deserves to know, all of you deserve to meet her, and we don't know what will happen if she hasn't seen all of you at least once before turning. This situation is just a bit unprecedented, us being the first plural system to mate someone.>

Huh. That's a good question, honestly.

She's in a state of moderate but not intolerable overwhelm. But- does she prefer leaving something hanging to not immediately increasing the overwhelm level?

No, she thinks she'd rather not have something waiting in the wings like that.

"I would rather hear it now, I think. It's- today has been a day, even with that extraordinarily nice date, but I would still rather know as much as I can, I think."

She nods. "Okay then. Have you ever heard of plurality? Or it might have been called multiplicity?"

"Nothing is really coming to mind, at the moment, honestly? But, uh- those names together do have- uh. They're suggestive."

Is Sable secretly multiple vampires in a proverbial trenchcoat? Somehow?

She giggles faintly and nods. "They are, aren't they? You might be familiar with the psychiatric condition called Dissociative Identity Disorder, which is one of the diagnoses given when plurality occurs in a disordered — and often trauma-sourced — way. The fundamental condition, whether disordered or not, is one of there being multiple self-aware entities crammed into one brain. Simplest way to think about it is multiple people sharing a body between them, and ideally they can communicate to some degree about who 'drives' the body at any given time — called fronting."

So. She's- heard about this. About it being a thing. Not about there being non trauma-sourced ways for it to happen, although apparently that's an option. Watched a few honestly kind of silly television shows, when she was younger. Even read some fiction touching on it.

It being more real than she'd thought of it being is- honestly incredibly interesting but right now her first question is, "So- you're plural, then? Did all of you mate on me?"

"And the gorgeous blonde wins the prize! Yep, we're plural, and the mate bond hit all five of us. And this, in turn, is the complication with the shapeshifting we demonstrated earlier. You see, it's not exactly shapeshifting. It's a power for making someone's body match what their soul needs it to be. It can't take into account instrumental needs or short term desires. The only ways to get a different shape out of it are for a different headmate to be fronting when the power is active, or for you to be genderfluid or have some other form of shifting written deep into your identity such that your 'true form' changes."

"Wait. Souls are an actual literal tangible thing that your magic system interacts with? Or- wait, no, you plausibly meant that metaphorically."

"I meant that metaphorically. No one has verified the existence of souls yet, as far as we're aware."

She nods.

"So. Should we be- doing introductions to everyone, or something?"

She really doesn't know how to- expect all this to work. Do they share memories? How different are they? What if she doesn't get along with the rest of them?

"Yep. We're co-conscious a lot of the time — that's when others are close to front alongside whoever's fronting — and we share memories, so it's mostly you meeting all of them. We think part of the reason the bond hit all of us at once is all of us saw you at the same time. Maybe everyone individually gets a date with you, so you can get to know us all more individually? It's up to you."

"The idea of all of you getting a  date is- I like it. I really, really like it. But, also, I feel slightly odd interacting with one person when there are four others watching who I haven't even properly met, you know? So- dates later, small introduction sooner?"

Perhaps even now? Wait, no, she should say that out loud, she's suddenly very impatient.

"Or, um- ideally now, actually?"

She smiles and nods. "Well, then allow me to cordially introduce Maya."

She bows sweepingly, already starting to shift mid-bow as Maya slips into front.

And a dark-skinned woman with brilliantly copper eyes straightens in her place. She's an absolute bombshell, busty and tall, nearly as tall as Sable, with wide hips, thick thighs, and a tight waist.

"Hello there, dear."

Her voice, now that you hear it, is smoother, a little bit like ASMR, or a lot like a late night radio host, rich and smooth and steady, with somewhat formal pronunciation.

"It's lovely to meet you properly. The shaping power is mine, I call it 'soulshape'. I help out with transitions for people in the know, whenever anyone associated with the Golden Empire cracks their eggshell, or brings a trans person into the community. Not all of us have our own witchcraft, only Sable, Neo, and myself. Sable's is a rich and magically-supported mental realm for us all to occupy when we're not fronting, and I'll let Neo show you hers herself."

She twirls in place, slowly. Her movements seem a bit more... sultry, than Sable's were. The dress is rather more stretched on her body, especially around the chest.

"Do you have any questions for me, before the introductory whirlwind continues?"

Oh no, she's hot.

She is going to stop staring at particular parts of Maya's anatomy right this instant and answer her question, actually.

That was definitely long enough for Maya to notice but she still doesn't want to embarrass herself.

"It's nice to meet you, Maya."

It is also nice to meet your boobs.

She is not saying that.

"I don't immediately have any questions, I think?"

She definitely noticed. She's also quite flattered. "We don't mind when you check us out. We rather like it, in fact. Although one of us in particular would blush rather a lot if vampiric bodies were capable of such."

Oh nooooo. She knew Maya would notice but she didn't realize she'd say things about it!

"I, ah- good. That is good. I suppose that does make sense, given the whole- mate bond thing, and the compatibility filtering going on."

By which she means that she in fact has a rather noticeable libido and thus probably wouldn't get mated to by someone who would dislike that fact about her.

"Just so. And now I'll take my leave, and introduce the lovely Neopolitan. I will caveat that she's mute. She works around it quite well with her witchcraft, however."

And then she stretches her arms high overhead, beginning to shrink and shift as Neo steps into front.

Before a five-foot-nothing girl with pink and brown hair and a white stream grins at Alethia, heterochromic eyes blinking at her. She waves playfully. The dress hangs lower on her shoulders, having been cut far more for Sable's frame, though not quite low enough to be indecent.

This isn't quite as bad as Maya was for keeping her eyes behaving themselves but it isn't helping either.

She could apparently not bother with keeping her eyes well-behaved but she doesn't want to end up precipitously Distracted during her first meeting with a group of people who are probably going to be the most important people in her life from here forward.

She waves back. "It's nice to meet you, Neo!"

She grins, points at Alethia, and then holds up two fingers — clearly "you too". 

Then she conjures a hand sign in her right hand.

I really like sparring, so if you do decide to turn I'm really looking forward to maybe teaching you to fight, if you're interested, and then having other kinds of fun after~

She waggles her eyebrows just as Alethia finishes reading the sign.

Her attempt to keep her mind out of the gutter has been ruthlessly sabotaged. Clearly Neo is Evil.

"I will. Um- probably take you up on that."

In both senses. 

She grins eagerly, and just a bit lewdly, and turns the sign around. The backside reads:

Oh good~

Any questions before the next headmate?

Honestly, the impish lewdness is kind of- comforting, somehow? She feels safe.

"How does that work? The- making things, changing things. How far does that extend?"

She turns the sign around again. The front has been changed.

I make physically tangible illusions. They're basically hardlight, and somewhat fragile. A good hit breaks them. I can control them remotely, and fine-tune the texture if I'm careful. As for how far...

She points behind Alethia. When she turns around, there's a picket sign standing on a little stand, a hundred meters in front of Neo.

This far!

(100m)

"Impressive! And highly useful!"

She is going to temporarily put the potential lewd uses of such a power out of mind.

"Hmm. Good hit by human standard or vampiric ones?"

The distant sign dissolves into shards of pink hardlight that quickly fade away, with a faint sound of shattering glass. The sign in Neo's hand gets flipped around again.

Human.

And then Neo conjures a steel rod and hands it to Alethia. It feels like steel, while she's holding it.

Sign flip.

Try smacking that against something?

She will whack a tree!

It feels like a solid whack, up to a point. Then the rod shatters in her hand. The shards feel like they're only partially present, and certainly not solid enough to cut anyone, and quickly fade.

Neo flips her sign again.

I can deliberately reinforce it, but that's tiring.

"That's so cool! And flexible! There are so many things you can do with that! Illusions, props, tools on-demand."

She grins and nods and bounces in place. And flips her sign again.

I know, right!?

The bouncing combined with the very loose dress maybe has effects.

Oh no, effects.

It, uh, takes her a moment to stop Noticing the effects. But she does manage it! Uh, mostly.

Neo has noticed Alethia noticing the effects, judging by the smug expression on her face. She takes a moment to slowly adjust the dress to a position of more effectiveness, then flips her sign again.

Oops~

"Truly, you are evil beyond compare."

She nods, a mischievous smirk on her face, and flips her sign.

You get me.

"You showed up and decided you would Cause Problems On Purpose. For thus, you shall be consigned to The Mines."

You'll have to beat me in a fight if you want to spank me send me to the mines.

"Despite your impending mine visit you continue your evil. Truly, your sentence shall be long!"

Ha! See, she can banter through blushing, nothing can stop her now!

Promises, promises~

She grins.

"So! As much as I love bantering with you, Neo- uh, I should probably be introduced to more of you lest we get caught in Infinite Banter like I was during my date with Sable."

As fun as infinite banter is, you're right.

Allow me to introduce Hailey.

She bows dramatically, giving Alethia a bit of a view, and straightens back up.

And by the time she's straightened up, the black-haired girl from earlier is back. She's two inches taller than Neo, a little more petite in build, and smiling warmly at Alethia.

"Hey there, I'm Hailey."

Her voice is a little sharper than the others, just naturally, but absolutely filled with fondness.

"Normally I have a whole thing about taking my time getting used to touch from someone new, but apparently mate bonds cheat gloriously at that. Lucky us."

The hints of snarky amusement in her tone are laced with a warm delight that suggests that while she finds the change a bit bizarre, she's sincerely glad for the result.

"It's nice to meet you, Hailey! Oh, that's good news about the touch thing. Or, well, I'm glad for you that things were convenient."

She's not going to ask why Hailey has a touch thing, it's probably something sensitive from their shared past.

It is, yes.

"Likewise, Alethia! And yes, it's rather convenient. Do you have a favorite board game? Or computer strategy game?"

"I have a deep and abiding love for the Total War series! Board games- I don't really have much experience with those, honestly."

"There are a couple I'll have to introduce you to, then. We haven't tried the Total War series yet, but we've heard good things about it. Wanna introduce me sometime?"

Somehow that last sentence manages to be snarky and a bit lewd at the same time. Maybe it's something in the mix of snark, smirk, and a faint hint of lilt.

How did she manage to add lewdness to that!? 

"I'd like that. I really enjoy them, and sharing them would be- nice."

She smiles warmly. "Sounds like a date, then. I'd love to learn about your favorite games. You're taking all this impressively well, you know."

She smiles softly.

"I try. And a date it shall be!"

"Any thoughts on what would be an ideal date for you?"

"I, uh, don't have a lot of experience dating. So I haven't really had the opportunity to form preferences there? Or, rather, to investigate my preferences there. I'd think- time together, doing something we enjoy- that's a solid starting point?"

She nods and smiles. "Agreed, that's the foundation of good dates. We've had good luck in the past with sharing favorite shows, or playing games together. But we're open to lots of things."

She tilts her head for a moment. "Oh! Most aesthetic thing vampires do."

She looks around for a moment, spots a convenient sunbeam, and steps into it.

Suddenly all her exposed skin glitters and sparkles gently. She twirls in place slowly.

"Ooh! That's pretty! I do have to admit while I expected from, uh, your being out during the day, that the whole killed by sunlight thing was a myth, I did not expect it to be replaced by sparkles."

Hailey laughs and nods. "It was a surprise for us too. My working theory is that vampires stayed out of the light to avoid breaching the masquerade, but doing that without explaining it led to people making up reasons, and then they think we're hiding from it because we're harmed by it."

She shrugs. "You could call masquerade breaks a form of indirect harm, I suppose, especially back in the days before the Empress deposed the old coven and they killed people for the crime."

"Why did the old coven enforce a masquerade, actually? Just that- there were so many humans, so secrecy was safer even though individual humans would be, uh, helpless?"

She tilts her head thoughtfully. "That's probably it. There are enough humans, and humans do sometimes throw witches. Plus, sufficient blunt trauma can break a vampire to bits like rubble, and then if you burn the rubble before an ally can reassemble it that actually does the trick. So we're not completely invulnerable. Only mostly."

"Ah, human witches, that helps make some sense of it. Along with the burning rubble option. As much as I would orefer for the immortality on offer to be, uh, even more durable than that, the ability to, uh- opt out, eventually- is probably net good to have."

She nods, frowning for a brief moment. "Yeah."

Not a happy thought, and leads to thoughts of what if Alethia decided to eventually "opt out". Which is the Least Happy thought.

Distraction please right.

"So what's your favorite thing about Total War? Or what're you more curious to experience for yourself about vampirism?"

"Oh, uh- before I answer that question, to be clear I don't expect to ever opt out, just- the world is big and has lots of people in it, you know."

A wry smile flits across her face. "That obvious, was I? Thank you. That means a lot to hear."

"Well- that obvious given I know about how mate bonds work. But, to answer your question! I like the way that all the individual elements of Total War help prop each other up. The campaign makes individual battles feel important, and those battles feed into campaign success, and everything just works. And, vampirism- honestly, the immortality. But I'd be lying if I said the ability to run faster than a car didn't appeal to me greatly. But- probably the largest individual thing is the eidetic memory. Not having to worry about losing moments- I like that."

"Void yes the eidetic memory is so great. Our memory was terrible before turning. And now it's perfect. I love it so much."

"I'm glad you have that, then! My memory's decent but I'm still really looking forward to just- not having to worry about forgetting things. To having all of my past available to go over, if I want to."

She hums. "One caveat with that. New vampiric memories are so much higher fidelity than anything from your mortal life that they drown them out a bit, so take some time immediately after turning to go back over everything from before, that way you reinforce it and upgrade it."

"Ah. I suddenly wish I'd been much more diligent in journaling. Would rather get around the issue. Well- maybe I'll try to tell you my whole life story just after turning. And do it in advance of turning, too, so it's fresh and I have the chance to realize I missed things."

She really hopes that will work. She likes having a pretty solid recollection of her life.

"I think that will work. It's my theory for how I'd try it, anyway. I really hope it works for you."

"I hope so too. Thank you for warning me. I appreciate knowing in advance."

"We try."

She shakes her head and smiles.

"Well, any other questions for now, or shall I introduce the last of us?"

"No more immediate questions, I think."

"Then I'll leave you with the note that you can ask for any of us at any time, and depart to introduce Ruby."

She salutes playfully—

—And then grows an inch taller, her messy black bob shifting to a shorter, asymmetric style and developing dark red tips. Her eyes turn silver, and some muscles are a bit more clearly visible on her arms and shoulders. She smiles warmly at Alethia.

"Hi! I'm Ruby and it's really really great to finally meet you properly! I took the shift on watch last night to make sure no armed assailants attacked your apartment building! We probably won't need a watch since you installed that app now unless you really want one although now I'm wondering about that because you won't really be able to push the panic button if someone invades your apartment in the night until they're already inside and possibly stabbing you so maybe we do need a watch still?"

Ruby sounds excitable, and she talks rather quickly, but with clearly evident warmth.

She's adorable. So cute!

"Hi Ruby! It's nice to meet you! I have said this for all of you but also it is true for all of you, so I shall not apologize for repeating myself. And, I, well. I do not in fact expect to unexpectedly have to deal with a home invader. But, uh- well. I would not turn down a temporary roommate? Like- not immediately, I'll need time to adjust to lots of interpersonal interaction, but. Pretty quickly? And before then I'm not going to get annoyed if you decide to hang out on my roof. I may need, like- full actual privacy at some points, but while I'm sleeping kind of isn't actually one of them?"

"Oh good there are really great rooftop spots on and around your building and we can't sleep so we just won't read quite as many books for a week or two and my Factorio world will just have to wait a while."

"Oh my gosh you're cute. How are you so cute."

She. Did not mean to say that out loud.

Ruby is not blushing. But she looks like she really would be if she could. She squirms and flails a bit and hides her face.

"Aleeethiiiaaaaa~~~!"

"Really, by getting even more adorable when I compliment you you're just incentivizing me to do it more. An adorable cycle."

Oh no her only escape is to quickstep across the distance, stop just short of actually impacting Alethia so as not to break her, and then gently bury her face in Alethia's shoulder. This is where she lives now.

Cute! Absurdly, illegally cute! 

"You're adorable and I am pleased by this. Highly cute. Five stars, would recommend."

She will hug the Ruby close.

She will quite happily hug their mate. This is pretty great, honestly. All it cost was turning her into an embarrassed mess, and now she gets to hug their mate first. She sticks her tongue out mentally at her headmates.

It turns out Alethia was kind of incredibly touch starved? And thus this hug is the Best Thing Ever.

Hugs good.

So much hug! Alethia deserves All The Hugs. Gentle hug and stroke her back and smiiiiiiile warmly.

Well, since Ruby seems happy to engage in Much Hug Alethia is going to just bask in this for a little bit. It's really nice.

So Much Hug. She has a wonderful mate and she's not letting go until she's asked. Basking is very much The Plan.

Hug good, hug nice.

However, eventually, due to her squishy meat body, hug uncomfortable. So, she says, "Sadly, I am not yet made of rocks and superpowers, and so I cannot hug forever without becoming somewhat uncomfy. Shall we- sit down on the picnic blanket, maybe? I can put my arm around you. It'll be nice."

She giggles and nods and sits down, smiling up at Alethia.

And Alethia will sit down next to her, and drape her arm around her shoulders. Give her a little squeeze, even.

Ruby is not soft but she remains very good.

Ruby wiggles happily at the squeeze. This close, Alethia can see that there is a ring of gold just around Ruby's pupils. On reflection, the other four Pirates looked like they might have the same.

Oh, that's pretty. 

"I hadn't noticed the gold rings in your eyes before now! I, uh, am not the most observant person in the world. They're pretty! And, if that pamphlet was correct, probably come from consuming animal blood?"

Ruby nods eagerly. "Mhm! Maya's witchcraft does eye colors too, but the way vampires' eyes change based on our diet is important, so the magic found a compromise. Gold ring and true color if we're well-fed on non-human blood, black ring and much darker true color if we're hungry but have been drinking non-human the past couple weeks, and the colors are just as normal for soulshaped vampires who've been drinking human blood."

"Oh, I hadn't quite been thinking of magic as the kind of thing that would be- finding a compromise like that. That's interesting. I'm glad it, uh- preserves the ability to tell important things like that at a glance, though. That's important."

Ruby nods seriously. "It really is important. Empress Bella has one vampire in the coven whose job is just periodically checking the eyes of all vampires remotely using their witchcraft."

"Oh? How do they do that? Some sort of remote viewing witchcraft?"

How could something like that be leveraged? Would vampiric vision and memory translate to being able to, say, read the pages of a closed book, despite the precipitous zoom required for such a thing?

"Mhm!" Ruby nods. "They can check everyone without leaving their house or their office!"

She rests her head on Alethia's shoulder. Lightly. Because vampires are heavy.

"Incredibly convenient! Means they don't need to have an entire department with offices all over the world just for that. And makes people rather a lot less likely to give in to the temptation. I recall reading that certainty of swift punishment was in fact the most important thing for deterring things you want deterred, and severity is effectively not involved at all."

She gives Ruby another little squeeze.

Suddenly Ruby gets a bit of a sheepish expression. "Aaand Neo just bonked me in the face in mindspace with a sign that says 'Alice does the checks, you adorable dork.' Which, um. Apparently I'm too distracted by snuggling our Very Pretty Mate to remember that the person doing the eye checks is the woman who can see the future? Oops? Heheh."

A few embarrassed giggles spill out of her lips.

"Oh wow. Future sight. I didn't expect something that gamebreaking was on offer, honestly. If the Golden Coven has something like that on hand no wonder they're in charge."

"Aaalso." She gives Ruby a little squish, "Cute."

She squeaks in embarrassment at that, but rallies and nods! "Yeah! They've got a lot going for them in terms of running things! But getting there was a closer call than you'd think, from what we remember of the history."

"Oh, huh. Their opposition really must have had some resources for things to be difficult with future sight on their side. I'll probably want to read a history book about that at some point myself, honestly."

She nods. "Yeah. We can get you one when you come visit the office, at the latest. Maybe sooner."

"Lovely. I'm looking forward to it."

Another little squeeze.

"Hmm, actually, should we rotate hugs through all of you so none of you miss out?"

She smiles and nods. "Good idea!"

And then she kisses Alethia's cheek before starting to shift in place.