"I am not actually all that invested in doing laundry with magic, I'm just trying to find every single opportunity to practice witchcraft in every possible aspect of my life right now. Parenting and being a newborn vampire with a mate and cool powers is a lot to juggle, okay, even as a vampire!"

"Ah, yes, of course, and you absoutely hate having a lot to juggle like that."

"Hush, you." Kiss. "While we're getting me used to not eating people, do you think it would it be a good idea to test how Aurene responds, too? Even though she's very young? Not with actual humans, with laundry and the like. Just so we can know how she'd even react."

"Yeah, probably. Given that she can even eat actual solid food, I suspect she will be less tempted than we are."

"I expect so, but I'd still like to keep her away from any actual humans until she's got more impulse control."

"Absolutely."

"Good," says Yvette, nodding. "... Want to go get something for me to smell now? I'd send Blair to go play fetch instead, but for some reason he seems to think the minute that Aurene's asleep he needs to make for the hills yesterday."

"Wonder why he would think that," he says, grinning. "Sure, I will be right back."

Zip.

"Bring interesting things for me to copy to my library while you're out, if you can!" she calls after him, then she settles back in to try and get a better feel for transmuting air into something else. It's perfectly easy to transmute things to air, but whenever she starts pushing a solid or liquid material at air, it destabilizes and she can't get anything of any real neatness. Maybe it's just a matter of practice, or working in smaller sections than usual...

He returns shortly.

As soon as he appears, though... there is a scent.

It is rather like inhaling the most delicious scent in the universe, that also happens to set her throat more than a little on fire.

Well. That’s uncomfortable.

She wrinkles her nose, but doesn’t stop breathing. It’s probably good to get in practice now. Her mouth fills with venom and that is uncomfortable too, no matter how much she tries to swallow it, it won’t really wash away … She transmutes the venom to water, which she then drinks. That works better.

“… huh,” she observes, blinking. “I can transmute liquids into other liquids. I just did venom into water to clear it out a bit, but. Presumably I could just directly turn it into blood.” Pause. “Also, this is uncomfortable.”

"Unreasonable self-control strikes again. You probably don't want to turn your venom into human blood, though." He extends the hand that is holding a T-shirt. "Closer is worse, probably."

"It's really not unreasonable. The vampire instincts are operating entirely illogically, there is no way I can actually follow the scent to its owner without getting ripped to pieces. You'd stop me. It'd just be unpleasant for everyone involved. It's a dumb urge that I feel, but don't want to act on. You're more tempting than the shirt, I could actually get somewhere with you."

She tentatively takes the shirt, and brings it to her nose to sniff. Yvette makes a face, and lets out a tiny hiss of displeasure. "And now it is very uncomfortable. James, love, if one of us has unreasonable self-control, it's you. Considering I was human and we made Aurene anyway. I can't imagine an actual living breathing human with a beating heart and blood in their veins would be less uncomfortable than this."

"Well, no, an actual living breathing human is a nightmare compared to this, but I had a century and a half to practice. At least you weren't my singer."

“Singer? What’s that?”

She inhales more smell of human, faint expression of discomfort still on her face.

"People vary in how appealing they smell and taste to vampires, and there are some people who—it really is a whole new level, some people smell so enticing most vampires will just actually slaughter an entire room of people just to get to the one person. And it is said their blood sings to you."

“That... Is… Needlessly terrible, really. I mean, I guess not if you eat people, but. Augh.”

"Mmhm. So, yeah, I think that one will be basically impossible to test for, but hopefully once you are used to regular humans you will be able to resist a singer."

“I suppose I could just spend a lot of my time not breathing, but. Mmm. I do like the sensory information.” She looks at the shirt in her hands. “Even if it comes with flames. Just not the murder. I’d like to skip the murder.”

"'Twould be ideal."

“I have to set a good example for our daughter,” she agrees. “You know, I do hope I can handle being around humans quickly, it’s very annoying to have other people bring me singular objects instead of just walking around poking everything, getting copies of all materials I can interact with. Instead of just ones that are small and wouldn’t be easily missed.”

"Like this lighter," says James, grabbing the object he did take with him from his pocket.

"Oooo!" says Yvette, and she takes the lighter and copies it. "Want me to indulge in some pyromania at some point, love? We're all very flammable, you realize."

"Not a problem while we're still mobile," he shrugs.

"This is true. Fortunately, if there are any accidents, I've copied every inch of you, myself, and Aurene. I guess this just means I need to get Blair to hold still so I can copy every inch of him too."