Milliways Again

[her_imperial_radiance]

It lurks. Oh how it lurks.

Comments

[prima_sequentem]

"That's one way to put it."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"It's been known to happen. But not as often as it could, which is good."

[prima_sequentem]

"The fact that it's been known to happen at all is kind of upsetting."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Sometimes it's temporary, like Emily and Sam," he says. "They're happy now."

[prima_sequentem]

"Well, that's a little better."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Elena thinks we just need to keep imprinting from happening outside of controlled circumstances at all, but then unimprinted guys couldn't go anywhere, see any girls besides vampires and women who can't have kids - we're pretty sure those don't get imprinted on - and family members. It's not even impossible to imprint on a puppy, turns out, and then the puppy doesn't activate when she's old enough, so we're all pretty worried about Denise now. Her wolf most of all."

[prima_sequentem]

"I guess there's no way to check in advance whether or not someone's going to imprint on a particular person?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"No. The Imperial Seer can't see wolves, or she could - she can tell about vampire mates, as long as they aren't hybrids, because she can't see those either."

[prima_sequentem]

"Well, I know another person who can tell the future. I don't think she'd want to move here and start telling wolfy fortunes full-time, if it turns out she doesn't share that problem, but she'd probably be okay with the occasional consultation."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"There's... a fair number of us," Orfeo says slowly. "Most people who can imprint seem to imprint eventually, but it's unlikely to happen at any given time even if we travel a lot unless we're purposefully staring at lots of girls. There was a big cluster of them early on when Her Majesty activated my dad's generation in La Push but we think that's because the local Native American populations were particularly likely to be well-suited for whatever the magic's looking for. Puppy-making, probably, because of the sterility thing. If she doesn't want to do this full time I'm not sure how much help she could be."

[prima_sequentem]

"She could come by every so often, round up a bunch of unimprinted guys, and steer them toward imprints they'd be happy with," Libby suggests. "That'd be some help, right?"

[her_imperial_radiance]

"It would," Orfeo says. "That would definitely help, we can't imprint twice."

[prima_sequentem]

"And Mary's good at answering questions like 'will these two people get along?' I've asked her that kind of thing before."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"She must be useful for your fitting people thing."

[prima_sequentem]

"Usually I can figure it out myself, but yeah, she is."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"I'm not sure what age she'd start rounding people up," he muses. "People in La Push and Volterra can often wait until they're sixteen or seventeen before they run into a vampire and activate - Cody alone isn't enough to do it unless he's trying - but the Empire pack hangs around them enough that we're generally floofing for the first time at twelve or thirteen. People that young can and do imprint but it weirds some folks out. It's bad enough when the imprint herself is a little girl, but at least the magic is smart enough to back the hell off for a few years on anything gross when that happens. When the wolf's twelve, it is not."

[prima_sequentem]

"Well, I don't think anyone's going to convince Mary to point a twelve-year-old at that kind of situation."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"If she doesn't, he might go into town for groceries with his mom and imprint on the cashier," Orfeo points out. "I'm not making that up, that's what happened to Benny."

[prima_sequentem]

"That sounds awkward."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"It was. It really, really was."

[prima_sequentem]

"I'll ask Mary, anyway. We'll see what she says."

[her_imperial_radiance]

Orfeo nods. "I don't suppose she could see who's at risk of having that happen to them before deciding how to steer them?"

[prima_sequentem]

"Maybe. Risks are another thing she's good at."

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Useful."

[prima_sequentem]

"Extremely."