Concerning. Does he have a stalker now? Why???

He changes his usual path to work. It takes a couple minutes more, but it could throw the stalker off.

They're right back on Saturday. Ahead of him, in fact, lounging against a wall near the edge of an alley. It's not entirely clear if they're looking at him, under that hood.

They're not immediately vanishing into the alley.

Eh, fuck it, it's broad daylight and there are people mulling around, it's not as culty boy could really do anything to him in this situation. Worse that can happen is a punch or two, and he's good at throwing them.

He approaches the cloaked figure.

Now they go into the alley, though they nod first. It's not particularly long but it does make it less broad daylight, there's no one who can obviously see them waiting except Simone.

So. On the one hand it's obviously iffy AF.

On the other hand, if they wanted to rob him this wouldn't make sense, and if they wanted to hurt him it also doesn't.

On the gripping hand, it's not as if there is anything good exciting going on in his life.

Let's keep dancing this deranged tune.

Into the alley, close enough to speak without shouting, but far enough that he'll have some time to react if it comes to blows.

"Why are you stalking me?"

"Guess," she says, and snaps her fingers. There's suddenly a staff in her other hand, and she taps it on the ground.

A wave of... some sensation, pulses past Simone, and everything goes very nearly silent. No street noise, no wind. Looking around, everything's still visible, but there's a faint translucent edge, a sphere centered on the woman (well, going by the voice), about two hundred yards across.

What.

"You are incredibly dexterous, I didn't see you grabbing the staff at all!"

Silence, translucent edge thing. Uh.

"Some kind of skunkwork project? NSA, if I really had to guess."

"Try again," she says, letting the hood fall, which... makes more than just her face visible. Suddenly her body language seems much more expressive, and it's noticeable that she is gorgeous, wearing quite a lot of silver jewelry, and looks just a little bit unreal, like she walked out of a heavily airbrushed Hollywood movie.

Ok, showing her (pretty!) face is a good sign, it makes him a witness so less likely for this to be a danger to his health and more likely to be a danger to his wallet.

Or a really bad one, but if she wanted to kill him, this would be a rather weird way of going about it.

He doesn't even try to keep the admiration from his face. She's pretty, she knows it, and now she knows that he knows too.

"Well, this looks too detailed and precise to be a dream. Guess I could be hallucinating or could be gone batshit insane instead, but my mind seems fine. Not that I would know, probably. But I can see in your smile that it's not the correct answer."

"Oh, you could have drugged me. But see above, I don't really believe it."

It's kinda hard to look properly at the sphere around them without looking away from her, and he's super not looking away from someone this sketchy. Plus he doesn't want to look away. He likes pretty women, sue him.

No, there is something else. Nothing he has seen so far can't be replicated with really good practical effects (or CGI, but you can't CGI in the real world), but... why bother?

Stalking. Practical magic. What is he missing?

"Eh, whatever. Can we skip to the part where you convince me to give you money?"

"Money is for mortals. No, this is the part where I offer you a deal. You get magic, with my guidance, and then you owe me periodic favors with that magic. It has some side benefits you'll appreciate, too, at least when you think about them for ten seconds."

"Sounds waaaay too good to be true. Wouldn't say no to owing you favors, if I can pay in nature."

"Plus there's the tiny inconvenient that magic isn't real."

"No, we just need to keep everyone believing that or the cosmos will collapse again and all this world's mortals will go the way of the dinosaurs. If you really want to check... go look at the street. Every jogger and bike going by will disappear when they reach the barrier, unless they have quite a lot of witch potential like you."

"A cleverly placed mirror is not magic, it's science."

"Oooooh. Is it some kind of candid camera thing?"

"Go poke it if you like. Or leave, and pass on the chance for immortality, fabulous powers, and a full-body makeover that, incidentally, will make you a woman. Just don't keep being tiresome."

Sure, he'll humor her.

The bikes sure are disappearing. Well, that means that the mirror should be approximately...

A cyclist violently collides with his hand, emerging from the shimmering border.

"Look where you're going, idiot!"

That wasn't a mirror. What.

He walks back toward the stalker. No, not a stalker. Something else.

"I don't know what's going on, at this point the insanity and dream hypotheses are looking almost as attractive as you. Just a question, though."

"Can I get the immortality and fantastic powers without becoming a woman? I'm fine like I am."

"Oh, you can, it would just mean a little less magic for something useful. And, as I said, you'll think about it for... about ten seconds."

Sure. Ten seconds.

One.

Ok, let's get the obvious out of the way first: boobs are great. 

Two.

Having boobs would be... fun? Confusing?

Three.

Also, she's hot, which means his guard is lower than it should be, and he's more likely to agree when he shouldn't.

Four.

Being concave rather than convex down there... uh.

Five.

Pros: not having to worry about knocking up women.

Six.

Cons: the possibility of pregnancy? GAH. Gah gah gah at what it involves.

Seven.

Guess he could just be a lesbian. To be honest lesbians always made more sense to him than straight women.

Eight.

Women are great, why would anyone want a man anyway?

Nine.

Oh.

Ten.

Uh.

"Let's say for the sake of argument that it would be acceptable for me to become a woman. What do I get in exchange?" Where is the catch?

"If you're taking the deal either way, about ten percent more power than you'd otherwise have to turn into specific magic you can learn. The bubble's nearly free, but, being able to do, say, this:"

She takes off her hat, taps it with her staff, pulls the brim wide, and pulls out a full length standing mirror, which she plants on the ground facing him.

"Or this:"

She gestures with her staff, and a second one pops up, showing a woman who looks very much like Simone who mirrors his movements.

"Would take, oh, about the same amount as staying physically male. Either of them comes with quite a few other tricks. Being a witch is fantastic and the only real downside is natural awakenings where you don't get to choose how Fate fucks you over."

"Is that how I would look as a woman? She's kinda cute." Selfcest isn't Simone's thing, but if it were...

"Whereas in this case you get to fuck me" pause "over?"

"You mentioned a thing about owing you favors. What would those look like? I think it's fair that I owe you something if you can actually give me magic, but I'm not going to sign a blank cheque. Faust and the devil and all that spiel."

"Best guess. If you looked like a Neutral, and not something more exotic. And don't change anything else about your shape on the way. I'm a Daeva, we're the least exotic that isn't near-mortal."

"Favors will depend on what you're good at. My most interesting success helps me undermine a huge tech monopoly and shares profits, because she's a rare android-witch, and is on-call for monster-hunting when someone asks me for a favor. Some just pay me money or in kind from magic crafting, or play courier for my personal coven. Money's always an option, but it's boring and inefficient so I set the price of a buyout higher than what you could do directly."

"And whatever I charge you, you will be free and clear within a couple centuries at the outside. If Fate gives you a reincarnating witch hunter stalker or curses you with a hag's face, that's forever. And witches get a whole lot of forever. I'm eighty-seven, and a tiny baby if you ask any of my aunts."

A couple centuries seems a long time, but Simone guesses that it's not a lot compared to eternity. Or well, until the heat death of the universe. Wait, no they have magic.

"Double checking: I guess magic doesn't respect entropy?"

If they can be immortal and fix negentropy then it's so worth it, who the fuck cares about man or women. Or something more exotic possibly, apparently. With enough time they could even fix their biology, probably. ... or not.

"It's not perfectly clear that it's utterly irrelevant, but if it wants to end the multiverse it's going to have to muster itself with more intelligence than usual, and then win a war. And nearly every witch, universe, and god in the middle will take Syntropy's side if it tries."

"Neat. Then I guess a couple centuries of being in your debt is a fine price to pay for watching the show. Who's Syntropy, by the way?"

"The thing slash place slash entity where new matter coalesces into universes. Allegedly where The Entity Sometimes Known As Yahweh's work touches the side of reality firmly enough to become actuality. Opposite side of the cosmos from where things fade off into decay and the void and fall apart, which is what Entropy looks like at... the scale of real reality, I suppose."

"Neeeat. Well, you can count me in on Syntropy side. As a freebie even."

"So, how does awakening work? Some horrible ritual sacrifice? Is blood involved?"

"That's special occasions only, unless you're into it or a Lamia. No, all that's needed is for me to take your hand, and then I'll walk you through a mental depiction of the decisions you need to make. It won't happen until both you and I agree it's ready, and the choices you make will stay stable if we step away. Such as to write a contract when I've seen what you're capable of but before it's final."

Simone extends a hand.

"Beam me up... I don't think I quite caught your name actually? I'm Simone ([siˈmoːne]). Or, well, I guess I'll be Simone ([si.mɔn]) now?

"Tesera," she says, and pauses to pull a pair of chairs out of her hat, "Alright, let's see what we have here..."

As she takes Simone's hand, there's a sense of double vision, and a field of clouds surrounding faint stars. It sweeps around, and as part of it passes Tesera it clears up, revealing eight points of light, each of which have two swirls of color orbiting them around a more complex pattern within.

"Eight races. And some unusual ones, too... And you're at the highest tier of potential, you'll reach rank 5 magic if you want it. I was pretty sure you would be, but not certain until this began."

"A pleasure to meet you, my lady."

It's not exactly clear when Simone stopped questioning what she's seeing and just accepted it as magic but has clearly happened now.

"That sounds good! What races do I get?"

She smirks at the compliment. Flattery will get you... somewhere, at least. "Let's see.. Neutral like everyone, Lamia, Erinyes, Jotun, Hollow - don't be Hollow, it sucks to be Hollow - and three odd ones - Sword, Phlegethon, and Xenomorph."

"Sword. How is sword a race. And definitely not Xenomorph, I don't want to look like I come out of an horror movie."

"Sure I can't convince you? They're very new, only a decade old, you'd be near-unique, and so likely valuable. And more human-looking than it might sound."

"Could you do the mirror-image trick again? It's probably going to be a no, but I'd feel silly refusing it without having seen it."

"Better way. Reach out and grab that light - this one here - and you'll get the sense impressions of being one. It doesn't commit you to anything - you'll want to try Sword as well, it's better than explaining."

It feels... powerful, primal, fitting to her instincts. She'd still have boobs, which is weird considering that she would not be a mammal, really. She would even lay eggs.

And those eggs are where she would get her magic juice from??? Oh hell no.

"I'm not going to lay eggs for mana!!!"

"It's honestly more convenient than a lot of them. Like, really, lamia have to eat people. But if you won't, you won't. Sword, then? They charge from combat, and it looks like you're the type that can pair particularly closely with a wielder if you choose to." 

"Yeah, no, I'm not into eating people. I'd also be surprised by picking sword, but it seems less controversial."

She grabs the sword light.

Ok, first thought: she's hot. Second thought, this isn't her real body, the sword is, which feels weird, but maybe she can get used to it.

Her energy comes from... battles. Uh. That's not great.

"Would I be able to recharge from sparring?"

"You know, good question, let me see..." She reaches out and touches the same light, focusing on it for a few moments. "...Yes, but very slowly, and the usual boost from a long fight won't help as much as usual. If you take a strong wielder bond, you share mana capacity and rate of gain both, as well as most of your magic - sweet deal, if you trust them, and fighting while synced up thoroughly is supposed to be as good as sex."

"Well, that's suboptimal. Also, as much as I'd like to... sync up with you I don't trust you enough yet. I dunno, being a sword feels so... violent? I act all badass and everything, but I've never hurt a soul. And I have a vague feeling that there is something to do with immortality and further violence?"

"There is. You'd be tough, but if you died the sword would need to take a life to wake back up again. ...I should back up. The important qualities of choosing a race. Four of them. Their immortality, or sometimes lack thereof - Neutrals, mostly. How they charge mana. How much mana they can store and how quickly. And which two elements they're tied to, which reduces the cost of magic associated with them, and unlocks some elemental magic if you're not a sorceress - but you seem like you'll make a good sorceress so you just need to worry about price."

"Yeaaaah, no thank you. Immortality is worth a lot to me, but 'one human sacrifice per death' is more than I'm comfortable with. On the other hand, this seems to exclude Neutral. I am going to favor a race with immortality, if it's not something terrible. Ok, let's go through the others. Lamias eat people and, see above. You said Hollow was a bad idea, why? Also what were the other options again?"

"Doesn't have to be a human life, a pig will usually do though a minnow wouldn't. Unless it's a golden fish, those work even for things that need human sacrifices. Hollows are a floating suit of armor with nothing inside, feed on metal, never touch anyone ever again. Fine if you're born to it, but nobody awakened into it seems to cope well. The others are Jotun, Erinyes, and Phlegethon. And... Neutrals aren't as bad as it sounds. They live two centuries and just about any witch can save up for a revival and reyouthening in a century. Certainly a rank-five one like you'll be."

"Ok, that's actually way more acceptable. Still not amazing, but much better. I would take it over no immortality, but probably won't over whatever other options I have. What's up with goldfishes? I just thought they were dumb fishes? Oh yeah, heck no to an Hollow, I definitely want to touch people, feel things, eat!"

"What are the immortality methods for the other three? I guess if there is a reasonable path to immortality for Neutrals it's not completely off the table."

"Some angel or something claims to have invented golden fish, they're very shiny goldfish who reproduce once a decade and are metaphysically, but not cognitively, equivalent to humans. I think it was meant to wean us off human sacrifice, which some covens do directly use as part of some ritual magic. I'm not in one of those, but I trade with them. Jotuns have a tiny homunculus in their heart and it takes three days to three weeks to break free and regrow - less if they're fully giant at the time, because it's larger. Erinyes die and pop up in another body somewhere on the planet, unless they're banished for a century with a ritual murder. And Phlegethons turn into a wildfire on death, and come back if it takes a human life or is fed an intact human heart from a recent death from other causes. And anybody can buy the same immortality as Neutrals, including for friends and family."

"What do you mean by 'pop up in another body'? The Phlegethon one also looks iffy, but I guess one could obtain hearts that would be unusable for transplants. Regrowing from a tiny homunculus seems fine though, how do Jotuns get mana? It's going to be something horrible, isn't it? I feel like I'm starting to warm up to just buying my immortality in some other way and picking a race based on everything else."

Including for friends and family.

"Including for friends and family that are still alive, I'm guessing?"

"I mean you displace the previous occupant, somewhere in the world. Presumably their soul goes straight to an afterlife. Resurrecting the long-dead is in principle available, but it needs both rare skill and rare artifacts. I doubt I could afford it. And it might not be appreciated, few people get sent to Hell or anything like it."

"Jotun are Body and Blood - you'd be naturally taller, and with a little mana almost ten times the height. Low charge speed, but pretty easy - eat meat. Mortal meat, human or some other race, gets them charging faster; witch meat very fast. Those are often considered addictive, and they get messy if they try to rely on it."

Why are all charging and immortality methods like this?

"So that's still killing someone and a thus no for me. And good to know that on average people don't want to get resurrected, although it means I kinda need to re-evaluate my view on life and religion and that can wait, I'm already re-evaluating kind of a lot today."

"Jotun seems... not terrible. I'm not thrilled to eat meat, and I'm actually trying to do less of that, and of course I'm not going to eat human meat."

Sigh.

"How do Neutrals charge? Is it something horrible too?"

"Neutrals are boring, they charge on sleep. You got things on the violent side, mostly, rather than embarassing or sexual. Some are both - you'd be surprised how cheap the going wage to be lamia food is, some people enjoy it and come back easy. And Erinyes charge from inflicting pain, which can be consensual if they like. Or emotional. And one of the minor perks you can slot into your soul is to add someone's charge method to your own - I'd have to look whether there's anyone else's you could borrow."

"I have that one. Daeva and Luxal, I charge from my nice pretty jewelry and from boys lusting after me."

"Uh, if I can add another charge method then I should pick based on immortality and looks. Jotun seems... fine? If I can skip the meat their resurrection seemed innocuous."

"Could I pick a race and not get their immortality method but buy the Neutral one? Actually, what happens if I buy an immortality method and die as - say - a Phlegeton? Do I still try to burn everything or do I just... get resurrected in a different way?"

"Oooh, so I'm charging you right now. That must be useful! Wait. Uh. Do you also charge from girls lusting after you?"

"Yes, also from you, silly. All strong emotions, even, this one's just more fun. And no, if you're an Erinyes or Phlegethon or anything else, you can't get rid of it. But you can preempt it - lichdom or a curse of immortal aging or specific artifacts of delaying damage all work first. And youth restoration can be bought separately even if you have the curse."

She blushes so much.

"Well, that's... not nothing. But so far I think my first pick would still be Jotun with an additional charging method. How do Jotuns look like? Just... big? Actually, which one is the Jotun sparkle, so I can feel it for myself?"

"There's all the range of humans. Not even all Nordic, they just got to pick the name. This one here."

Ooooh. She's a bit taller like this, more... well rounded.

She can feel the hunger for meat, but it's just normal hunger, not the kind of overpowering feeling she feared.

"I kinda like it, actually?"

"Yupp. I think this fits me well."

"Good for you. We'll come back to it if the elements aren't looking good for you, but you have a lot of Body and Blood - more like Flesh, really - so it's not likely. Next - you can pick a class, but sorceress is the obvious one. Sorceresses are elementalism prodigies, improve their magic by practice, and generally live more in their bodies than Academics. If you want to go the study and theory route like me, I won't stop you, but you don't seem like the type."

"Hey, I am smart! But... getting better by practicing magic does sound more appealing than study. Are there other differences worth noting?"

"Many of the non-elemental magics are cheaper for Academics than sorceresses and they can get better results out of them. Alchemy brewing, Rune enchanting, some others. Things that are slow and methodical, basically."

"Makes sense. Yeah, Sorceress seems fine. Can I change my mind later if I realize I prefer runes or that my life calling has always been brewing concoctions?"

"You can," she reassures her, "Nothing final until we agree to make it so. I think that's possible to get around but none of the people who teach awakening want to make it common." She did check, because she'd rather have the option, but she doesn't really need it.

"Good, then Jotun Sorceress it is! What's next?"

"Four main categories. Flaws, little magic, elementalism, and spell magic. Or, actually, explaining the costs. The unit of power - not mana, the power that determines what you can spend mana on - is a certain size, and everything costs it, or gives it to you. You start with thirty units, points, granules, whatever name you like to call them. Gaining more after you awaken takes, for a sorceress, practice, which earns them what's usually called 'might', one a day with an hour of practice or two in four hours, no more than that. Ten might for your first extra granule, twenty might for your second point, thirty for the third unit, et cetera. Academics have the same curve of earning power, only it's four hours of study for one or eight for two. You'll have about... yes, a hundred units/etc. of lifetime magic, absent divine intervention and relics. Flaws typically give you more of the hundred to start out, and can't push you above sixty; past that you can raise the lifetime cap with them instead. And you start with four from how the mortal and magical worlds interact in some way that needs more cosmology and aethernautics than I have to explain."

"Raising the cap sounds very interesting, if the flaws are not terrible I'm probably going to take a handful of them. So what flaws should I pick?"

"It's tricky. There's a few obvious ones - third nipple, get it moved anywhere you like by anyone with Hexes, four units for you because it's sorceress-aligned. At least one school of magic, choose not to ever be able to learn it - four more, up to eight if you make that three schools. Necromancy's popular there, and Aethernautics which is sort of lame unless you get up to rank four. Be eye-catchingly attractive even if you shapeshift, and draw attention even when it's not obvious, four more. Some almost no one picks on purpose - an eternal witch hunter, nearly impossible to kill for good, obsessed with you, is eight units, and not worth it. But there are many more. Do you want things that make your life suck for a few years or a few decades and then pass? That's conventional wisdom. On the other hand, you can learn to live with things - my leg's bad, I need the staff to walk easily, and that's impossible to fix, and yet I don't really mind."

"Total recall is a yes, especially as it seems easy to move to a reasonable place. Not learning some specific magic irks me a bit, but I guess if I try to be good at everything I won't be good at anything, so it's probably a yes, although I'll need to get more familiar with the various schools before picking how many to avoid. Being attractive seems like a plus actually, if I can recharge like you? Although I would be worse at stalking than you were with me. Agree on the eternal hunter being so not worth it. Having things suck temporarily is fine, decades seems long but that's talking someone who did not expect to have centuries, much less infinity as a lifespan." And it's not as if her life doesn't suck right now, does it?

"Oh, you can get the cloak, too. I have that flaw, but the Hespatian Shroud wins - it draws attention but it's impossible to remember anything about who it was you were drawn to. Beyond 'A Hespatian', which is a collective reputation we have very much earned. We also have our own magic - Occultism, it's called, we make use of the power of shadow for various rituals. Some take animal sacrifices, but other than the really powerful ones a coven can substitute sex. Not that you have to join, if you'd rather let Hawthorne Academy poach you I won't even discourage you."

"Sacrificing animals is not ideal but I'll take it if it's worth it, but if you can have sex instead then I see it as a win-win."

"What are the things that would make life suck for years but then be fine? I probably want some of those."

"'Hard Lessons' - magic takes twice as long to earn, and you need more practice beyond that to get effective with it. Probably the longest time horizon of these, worth eight. 'Nemesis' - someone else awakening at the same strength hates your guts and will be a long time being convinced to stop sabotaging or attacking you. On the other hand, my great-great-grandmother is married to hers and they joke about it at family parties. Worth ten. Arguably, unveiled, removes the effect on the world that makes people not notice or immediately forget that you're nonhuman - also covers things like your passport retroactively always being for a woman. Six. Big Brother - everything I know about you from this process, magical and mundane, will get magically leaked to a variety of other factions who try to mess with you to keep you from helping their enemies. Eight; I picked this one, and I don't regret it even though my coven at the time had a lot of enemies. Bounty - in trouble with the law, wanted for capture and questioning, will die down if you beat the hunters off for a year or two. Only two, but I can help you with this easier than the one before it. Defeat - at some point, you will be captured and killed. You'd need prep to ensure you'd resurrect, which I can help with. Six. Betrayal - someone you trust will turn on you, for one good reason or another. Four. And maybe the worst - Natural Awakening. Ten, forget all about this the minute we sign the contract and finalize it, and some time - tomorrow, next year, on your aged deathbed but almost never that - you'll painfully awaken like I'd never found you, except with all the choices set like we agreed."

"Hard Lessons is tempting, it would be annoying but it's worth a lot and in the end I'd still reach the same cap. Let's say yes for now. Nemesis is... ugh. Ten points is a lot but having someone hellbent on making me miserable sounds like a recipe for disaster. Unveiled would be a pain, and it seems like it's permanent? Big Brother seems... fine, I'll grab it. Bounty could be fine if I can rely on you but two points is not a lot. Will probably pick it up if I really need those two points. Defeat sounds incredibly scary.... with my immortality method, they could just... kill the homunculus immediately? Six points would be good though, and if I can make sure it doesn't stick it's a one-off thing. It's a maybe. Betrayal is so not worth four points. Natural Awakening... I'm not scared of pain, and if the choices I get are the ones we're agreeing on now... will I remember you when I awaken? Will I remember my, you know, other awakening, or will I go back to believing I'm a man?"

"If I pick Natural Awakening, do I risk being Defeated and thus killed before awakening?"

"Unveiled's permanent, but witches over a few centuries usually lose all connection to mortal humans and leave the Veiled world anyway. The other worlds aren't veiled. If you get the natural awakening, big brother, your defeat, and your nemesis typically won't take notice until then. Defeat definitely not - Fate guarantees that it all happens. But it's entirely possible that your defeat could come within moments - nearly kill you, you Awaken, they keep attacking, you suffer the first death and maybe the second. It's risky."

"You would recall me and all of this conversation when you awoke. For your gender situation... probably you'd be subconsciously a little closer to working it out, but you'd be back to thinking you're male for the time being."

"So I should pick either defeat or natural awakening, both would be cutting it way too close for my liking. And natural awakening is ten points instead of six. But. But. Uuuugh."

"Unveiled would suck with the ID situation, and especially because I could really do without explaining I'm a girl to everyone. But it's six points that would be really nice to avoid getting Defeated."

"That's probably wise. I'd try to watch out and come to help you, I take care of my people, but I wouldn't bet on succeeding in time. And it's more likely than chance - awakening is typically at least mildly traumatic and being attacked by a stalker or ganger is the kind of thing that triggers a natural, or a house fire, et cetera. If it's an overlap with the non-mundane I couldn't promise. There are other flaws we can consider and you can come back to it. Sink like a stone, float like a duck, make your senses duller, or sharper. There's options."

"Wait, making my senses sharper is a flaw? Why wouldn't someone want that? Sink like a stone is also probably fine if I can find some way to breathe underwater?"

"Painfully sharp. Only wear silk because everything else irritates too much, wear wrap-around shades to go outside during the day, or similar issues. Four for one sense, up to eight if you pick three. It's common enough that, for example, there's a section for silk in most witch clothing stores. The opposite is two points per dulled sense or five to lose it entirely, no overlap - losing smell entirely isn't that bad if you pay twice-weekly cleaners and have a personal hygiene routine you can stick to when you half-forget why."

"Oh, but losing smell would be utterly unacceptable, think about all the nice things that will never taste the same. I think I might pick the sharp hearing, do people do that often? I guess there are earplugs for it, if so. Vision would also be fine, probably? Although constantly wearing shades would isolate me a bit..."

"Earplugs make sharp hearing generally inoffensive, though it's also the one most likely to incapacitate you suddenly when they're not quite enough. You wouldn't be too isolated among witches with shades, but mortals and the other races probably more."

"Yeah. Let's pen down super sharp hearing and a good pair of earplugs."

"I had been thinking about the Natural Awakening, sans Defeated, and... I think I'm taking it. I survived this long living as a man, I think I'll survive until the awakening. I'm not overjoyed, but I won't know it, so it's... acceptable."

"Harder for me to help you with than the reverse, but not so inconvenient I'll push you on it. Should I look for you? It's not impossible to be pulled in behind the Veil early. Big brother and the nemesis might take an interest early if you are. Possibly the question is, how long should I wait before looking?"

"If you pulled me in, that would mean I'd be at danger and not have magic yet? Seems risky."

"Ooooor, I could take a nemesis and be awakened now. It still doesn't seem very appealing but. You said a nemesis can be overcome eventually? And I wouldn't take the one that kills me, to be safer."

"Minor danger and if necessary non-minor support. Nemeses will rarely kill you; beat you up, yes, but it's more... political, than that? Killing a rival is a bad way to disgrace them. It's a good choice, but it's rewarding for good reason, until you talk them out of it, it will be unpleasant."

"What do you recommend? You're the. Witch? Sorceress? Mage?"

"Hmmm. Nemesis and Big Brother, skip the defeat and natural awakening. Probably. And I'm a witch, but not a sorceress - I'm a academic type."

"Then nemesis it is, and I don't need to die or - worse - forget your pretty face."

"Ok, this was the bad stuff. How about the powers? What do I get?"

"Oh, you might recognize me if I tried. I can be very memorable," she half-purrs.

"But business - Let's say elementalism. Each of these comes with a specific element it has an 'affinity' for, or another pair where you can get affinity if you have both; that cuts the price in points by half, but it rounds up for each rank - there are five, for the naturally talented, which you and I both are. As a Jotun, you won't get any of the classic elements, but there's a rarer element called Visceramancy and..." She sweeps away a 'cloud' "...yes, here it is for you to take. Not quite as gruesome as it sounds but that's a near thing. The classics are firecalling, windkeeping, waterworking, earthmoving, naturalism - that's plants - metallurgy, and psychotics - often called psionics but Hawthorne gave them the standard names and she wasn't a fan. You get a free rank of each of these for being a sorceress, and a handful of free points besides, and the same for getting a familiar."

She taps a few reddish-tinged lights in the clouds, and they glow brighter; some kind of energy flows toward Simone as they light up.

"There's also metamorphosis, which is the animal element, but you can only get it at rank 5 and only if you have get yourself a grafted affinity for beasts. Otherwise it's only for your familiar."

"Oooh, I could feel that."

"How would I graft an affinity? Is it worth it? Could I possibly do it later if I change my mind?"

"There's a relic for it, cosmic pearls. You can tweak fate to bring you one sooner than later rather than buy spells - eight points - and that's about the only relic I ever suggest tweaking fate for as you awaken. It gets you the discount on learning anything tied to the element even if you wait for me to get one through my contacts, and it'd free up the same points of magic, but it wouldn't get you back the time you spent mastering it without an affinity."

"Seems worth it! So, I should get some ranks in most elementalism probably. Visceramancy was the cheap one you said? What do I get out of it?"

"Visceramancy is the element of Blood, which largely means flesh in general. Passively it protects against physical transformations and scarring; if you get up to rank five you'll keep living even if you're badly mutilated and taken apart into pieces. Actively, you can control threads of flesh and sinew; the first rank it's a few feet of thread and with the precision of sewing needles, by rank three you can control about a full body's worth and shape them into fully-functional sensory organs. You can create new flesh from rank two up - about an arm's mass at rank two, up to a full whale's mass at rank five. You can keep the flesh attached to yourself and use it as tentacles, growing in strength and precision from rank three up to five; you can also throw gobs of flesh or bone like sling-stones, but you won't be able to sense or control them unless you get rank five. Which you can and probably should do - a sorceress can get one elementalism for free if it fits their affinity, so it's either this or something you pick up with a Pearl."