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

"Bingo."

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

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

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

"Right then. Wanna be a vampire?"

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

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

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

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

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

"Be my guest."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Guilty."

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

"I could, actually. But I didn't keep it all that long. Lots to do."

"Right. I'm mostly asking for. Me. Becoming a mass murderer: does not appeal."

He's quite calm, isn't he? Yes, he is. There's no use losing his head now.