1.3 On the Beach

Flora grows quickly into a toddler. She has her father's eye shape and hair color, but luckily not many of his other features.

 

Flora has become the light of her mother's life.

With distant, bittersweet memories of having a sibling once, and much fresher, more painful memories of growing up in group homes and foster care, Alexandria decides to adopt a sister for Flora, giving another orphaned child a home, a family, and the support and stability Alex herself did not get to grow up with.

Alexandria barely meets the income requirements for adoption, but Child-Sim Services was just happy to get a kid out of the overcrowded system.

The little blonde girl came with the name Echo, and Alexandria doesn't want to change it on her, so Echo it is. Unfortunately she is given no other information on the girl's origins. That will make the inevitable future questions both easier and harder to answer.

 

Flora and Echo get along instantly. Alexandria's parenting books warned her there might initially be quarreling, desperate vying for attention, and refusals to share toys, but as usual life refuses to give Alex anything she tries to prepare for.

As the single mother of two toddlers, it would be tempting to stay at home all the time and be exhausted, but that's not how Alexandria wants to spend her youth. She hires a sitter for at least a little while every day so she can work, or go for a jog, or whatever.

 

The warm sand beneath her feet, the sounds of the waves... she has an appreciation for it. It's so beautiful.

She's paid enough now to drop by local club Flamingo for a drink without breaking the bank.

 

 

 

And it is there that she notices a vampire.

 

Of all things! A vampire! In this sunny tropical paradise. A vampire.

 

"Out hunting?" she whispers, through closed teeth.

"Are you?" he asks.

She can't contain a small laugh. "...What?"

"Then no." He smiles. "You're a civilized dryad."

She instantly knew what he was. It's fair, perhaps, that he instantly knew what she was.

They chat over drinks. The humans in the bar do not react to his glowing eyes, his discolored skin, or his fangs. "It's the glamor," he explains. "A witch casts it on me daily, so I can live among humans without attracting attention."

"And you talking about witches... that doesn't raise an eyebrow either?"

"Obviously not. It will work with you too, by the way. Say whatever you like to me, they won't react."

Alexandria frowns. "So I can't scream for help?"

"What do you need help with?"

Alexandria narrows her eyes at him.

"Ah. Forgive me, I see now my word choice was unfortunate. Let's start over. I'm called Darshan."

"Lex," Alexandria introduces herself. "Have you been here very long?"

"No, I arrived here last night. I'm on contract with a mage's guild. I use my psychic abilities to identify others who could be useful. Your energies led me straight to you."

 

"This is weirdly nostalgic," Alex says, their conversation continuing over a game of pool. "I haven't spoken to a vampire since I was super tiny. And even then, only in Bridgeport, where they're allowed to live. You're taking a crazy risk being anywhere else."

"I've had no trouble so far," Darshan replies with a shrug that's a bit too quick, a bit too forcefully dismissive of the anxieties that plague any undocumented vampire.

"You have to be mistaken about my energies though. I'm kind of useless."

"You seem untrained... but, you have those marks. How did you earn them?"

Alex glances at the green designs on her left arm. "They grew in when I was a teenager. I don't actually know anything about them."

"That doesn't mesh with what I know of dryads. I'll consult with Lucretia about it."

"Whoa. I didn't say you could consult with anyone about me."

"Your kind have incredible potential. Lucretia will want to know you're in her territory."

"What is she, some vampire queen?"

"No. She's the owner of a little caravan on the beach that sells fortunes and miscellany."

"...That place? Really?"

"It's a living."

Darshan proceeds to encourage Alexandria to work for his boss. Supernatural creatures should stick together, he says, for safety.

"So you think I should quit my job... to go tell fortunes?" Alex buries her face in her elbow as she laughs, incredulous, about how this night is going.

"Well, if you'd rather live and die as a human..."

Alex snorts. "Hey, nobody wants that. And if they say they are, they're lying."

 

 

"So you will speak with Lucretia?" He steps closer, his expression eager. "She could see you are taught to awaken your psychic powers."

Alex looks down at her feet. "I have to get home to my daughters."

"Daughters?" Darshan is startled. 

 

He must be a terrible psychic, Alex thinks. "Problem with daughters?"

He looks away. "I'm sorry. Are you married?"

"No. And what if I was?"

"I've been flirting with you all night. I don't want my face punched in by a violent human male."

Alex stares at him. "You've been flirting with me?"

"I didn't mean to frighten you, pretty flower," he apologizes, as she takes her leave. "You won't see me again unless you wish to."

"Hey, I'm not frightened," she says, though she is apprehensive about walking home alone suddenly, and she's regretting mentioning her daughters. She shouldn't be so willing to give out her personal information to randos.

 

"As you say." Darshan can sense her fear, but it is not polite to contradict someone about their feelings.

After that he rushes off, a blur of motion, a gust of wind, invigorated by the night.

Alexandria barely sleeps that night, as she lays awake thinking about Darshan, and about the weird occult stuff her parents were into. They were researchers of the arcane, connoisseurs of conspiracies, and in her heart she knows they died because of it. 

 

Her records state she was abandoned, but they'd never have left her, not willingly.

A vampire, though. Should she be scared? A skilled vampire can influence a human sim's mind, rouse insatiable lusts, create harems of willing blood donors... Alex shudders.

In the morning she tends to her garden, arms heavy, certain she did not sleep at all.

In Sunlit Tides, on the beach could be anywhere, but Alexandria easily finds that caravan.

Lucretia Parrott, non-vampire, listens to Alexandria's story. She sighs loudly, and often, at the description of Darshan. 

"He's new," she says. "But he's good at finding things. And he found you. So what do you say? Your job with the military sounds awful. I can give you easier work, more time with your kids, help you unlock your potential? You're already immortal, you might as well get started."

"Excuse me what?"

Lucretia leans over and pokes one of the dark green lines on Alex's arm. "You're marked as ageless. As are many of your kind, though it's unusual to see on such a human-looking hybrid. Darshan thought you lost your memories or something, or maybe you're just special."

"I didn't lose any memories."

Lucretia was right about one thing, at least... Alex's job with the military has been miserable. Daniel is always around, and her boss wants her to go into space or something???

"I'm sorry Maru... I just... really don't want to die."

Maru Mango takes the news of her changing careers in stride because he's throwing one of his house parties right now, and nothing can distract him from having a good time with his crush, Alana Kahale, aspiring Empress of Evil.

 

Joining the guild — Hibiscus, they call themselves — is remarkably easy. The organization has simple tenets, mostly to do with not using one's magic to harm anyone, and keeping one's activities within the realm of "reasonable doubt", so the "normals" don't catch on to how they have actual magic powers. Its members are spread out across the world and have minimal contact with each other, making it harder for authorities to arrest the lot of them. They work mostly as fortune tellers and alchemists, with higher ranking members serving as keepers of arcane knowledge, or something. There is no clear path to making it from guild initiate to a mage's apprentice... that honor is given to only the most trusted, and the most capable. Alexandria's new job as a horoscope reader is pretty laid back, and after hours she gets to hang out with a vampire, so that's cool.

"What's that you're roasting?"

"It's a plasma fruit. Very hard to come by. I envy vampires who can afford to be vegetarians."

"How do you subsist normally?"

"I feed off of Lucretia. It's actually part of my wages. The guild subtracts roughly what a human would pay for food, and allows me to feed off of one of them instead. It's less risky and more... morally palatable... than a traditional hunt."

 

"You been on many of those?"

 

"None." He frowns slightly. "You are smart to be cautious around a vampire, but we are what we make of ourselves. We can choose our own values."

"Maybe I can grow plasma fruit," she says. "I've got a bit of a green thumb."

Darshan grins, fangs gleaming. "I hoped you would say something like that."

 

 

Though her income is currently less than it was when she was in the military, this is the point in Alexandria's life where she has saved enough to expand her house, adding two new bedrooms.

 

The garden is expanded as well.

She's in her garden, soaking up the sun and listening to the leaves, when she has her first vision.

"The strength of your magic in your last incarnation has followed you into a new cycle," a small voice tells her.

She spins around, her gaze moving from the ocean to the speaker. Her fear dims when she sees it's only a child. "Who exactly are you, little guy?"

"You don't recognize me? You didn't seek me out?"

Alex shakes her head no, meekly. The waves crash against the rocks.

 

 

"Well... I've been looking for you," he says, recovering from a long, visibly confused pause. "I left something with you."

She blinks. The ocean is far away again. She's still alone in her garden.

"Visions are a great sign that you're awakening your inner powers," Lucretia enthuses. "They can be really good, or they can be really bad. In witches, vision quests are usually from unwise dealings with the fair folk, but in psions it can be your unconscious mind processing new data, or strengthening psychic contact with someone you're linked to."

This all goes over Alexandria's head. I've traded one insane boss for another, she thinks, but of course she knew that going in. At least Lucretia is unlikely to order her to climb into a test rocket to prove the Earth is flat or something.

Lucretia doesn't wait for Alex to say more, "Come on, I saw some easy fools at the bar. We're going to practice our cold readings. I want you to REALLY SELL IT." 

This, at least, Alexandria can understand.

So far, her technique does little but cause amusement.

 

But at a measly 15 simoleons a fortune, she picks up a few clients to send Lucretia's way. Huzzah.

_________________________________________

Etc.: I've discovered Daniel Pleasant's chin looks monstrous if he's gender-flipped. I usually take more care to make sure I'm not breeding horrifying genetics into my legacy family, but sometimes I'm lazy and let it happen. Luckily, Flora is okay! She's the early favorite for heir.

Alexandria's rolls included second chance for career. She rolled military and fortune teller (mystic branch). Apparently the mystic branch has requirements like alchemy, and at level 10 she'll get a glow that makes scientists hate her. Yikes. 

 

REALLY SELL IT is one of the work tones for Fortune Teller, replacing the usual "work hard".