yeah that happens if you turn into a vampire

[cross_and_bow]

(prologue)

Bella slips into the school by a side door; she just saw a thing and she thinks she's seen it in a book before and thinks it's supposed to be mostly harmless but before she wakes Giles up over probably nothing or kills a likely neutral demon she wants to check.

And she pushes into the library.

Comments

[unmarred]

"Miles," he says; and then louder, "What took you so long?"

[thisvorlunatic]

Approaching footsteps. The sound of someone trying the door, discovering it locked, and opening it anyway.

"Mark? What the fuck are you doing here?"

[unmarred]

Freezing in horror, apparently. That is what he is doing.

[cross_and_bow]

"Hi, Miles. You didn't say you had a twin."

[thisvorlunatic]

"He's an embarrassment on a number of levels and I've only known about him for a few months - Mark, what's wrong?"

[unmarred]

"You!"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Oh," says Miles. "That. Yeah."

[cross_and_bow]

"Him, what?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"My soul. Mark has detected the loss of my soul and accurately guessed how upset I am about it and now he's equally upset but worse at hiding it."

[cross_and_bow]

"Oh. Well, you're going on a field trip sometime, right?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Yes. Soon. I'm going to be fine, Mark."

[unmarred]

"You are not fine," Mark murmurs.

[cross_and_bow]

Bella gamely attempts to stand. Success. Wobbly success.

[unmarred]

Mark looks at Miles.

[thisvorlunatic]

"I'm not psychic," says Miles.

[cross_and_bow]

"...What, and Mark is? What are you being not psychic about?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Mark is non-literally psychic, he can just guess what I'm thinking with surpassing accuracy at all times. Normally I do a pretty good job of guessing right back."

[cross_and_bow]

"...Okay. Well. I've been kidnapped and drugged but I think I can walk now, so if nothing's lurking in ambush outside I want to call my dad and check on my Watcher."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Nah, we're good, I checked."

[unmarred]

"The question was something like, 'am I currently a more functional implementation of Miles than you are, and if so, what should we do about that?'," elaborates Mark.

[thisvorlunatic]

"... Good question," says Miles.

[cross_and_bow]

"Implementation of Miles?"

[thisvorlunatic]

"Mark can not only guess what I'm thinking with surpassing accuracy but also use that ability to flawlessly impersonate me. He probably is a more functional implementation of me-with-a-soul than I am, right now."

[unmarred]

"Where did your soul even go, for that matter?" wonders Mark.

[cross_and_bow]

"Lotta debate on where souls go when forcibly evicted," sighs Bella.