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."