Appearance

Pryce put his hands on his hips. "You want me to what?"

"I think I was pretty clear."

"Do you know who I am?"

"Of course I do. That's why you can swing with me."

Presumably she meant she was safe, that she wouldn't make assumptions.

When he didn't respond, she sighed. He couldn't read her expression for more. She had an invisible face. And invisible everything else. He could only look at her clothes to see her.

Right now, he saw the heels of her shoes dig into the ground, bringing her swing to a halt. In fairness, she hadn't been swinging very hard, just swaying back and forth with gravity, or the breeze.

"Look, you don't have to join me if you really don't want to. But there's not really a bench nearby. And it's night, and you're with me. No one should assume you're a normal kid playing on the playground and come bother you."

Pryce didn't respond right away. A faint breeze ruffled his hair. Crickets chirped. The only lights came from the street lamps outside the playground fence and lightning bugs drifting lazily by.

"You'd be surprised what people can assume," he finally answered. But he shook his head, and sat on the swing next to hers. "Next time, we find a different place to spend time together."

Nova didn't lift her legs off the ground, but she did use them to push back and forth. "Most places to hang out make you pay for something, and I'm not about that."

"Libraries are free." Pryce held up a finger, in case she was planning to cut him off. "And yes, some are open at night."

Maybe it would be different if they lived somewhere else, but the island they called home was so magically dense, the magical species had to be kept in mind. And some of them couldn't come out during the day.

"Fine, fine," Nova relented. "Though. I do worry. Seems you avoid anything associated with childhood. That can't be healthy."

Pryce's grip on the metal chains of the swing tightened. "I'm constantly shoved into the childhood box against my will. That can't be healthy either."

Pryce was a vampire. Which was all fine and good, had its perks, but he was bit when he was twelve. He had some less than normal traits, like the red eyes and the fangs, but he was still mistaken for a child. Often.

He wasn't the only one in the world to have that magical problem, but it was pretty rare. And he wasn't the only one to be judged as incompetent based on appearance. That could happen without magic, though it was rarely as extreme.

Nova herself used to be cursed so that she was too terrifying to look at. And now she was completely invisible, and impossible to look at. So while she did know about being judged for your appearance, she might not grasp this particular aspect.

Pryce sighed as he realized that. He leaned back, gripping the swing's chains so he didn't fall right off the back.

"You have to understand, this is one of those things that affects your whole life, to the point you can't stop talking about it, even if people are tired of it. Even if you're tired of it." And Nova probably did understand that part. "I'm overqualified for my job. I carry about three IDs to prove I'm an adult, and still have trouble getting into bars." Not that alcohol tasted like much to a vampire, but it was still nice to go in. "I've had to explain I'm not a child playing hooky on the weekdays. And none of my IDs are a driver's license, partly because the DMV sounds like a nightmare."

And he could keep going. But they didn't know each other that well yet, and she hadn't joined him to listen to him rant.

Pryce shifted in his seat, or spun the swing to face certain directions as he spoke. Nova was outright using it to swing.

"Can't you turn into a bat?" Nova asked. "Makes having a car kind of pointless."

Pryce gripped the chains hard enough he felt them crunch under his grip. They didn't break though. "Yes, that's another reason. Not really the point I was trying to make though."

He was careful not to yell or scrunch up his face. That would make him look even more immature.

"Okay grumpy, would you change if you could?" Nova asked, sounding a bit annoyed as well by now.

Pryce dug his toes into the ground, stopping whatever movement his swing had picked up. He stared without blinking at nothing. Somehow, no one had asked that before.

"I-you'll have to be more specific."

"Sounds like you're dodging the question."

"No, seriously. If I woke up tomorrow looking like the correct age, or with the ability to age the human way, that sounds pretty good. I'd miss being a vampire." Things like unnatural levels of strength or the ability to turn into a bat were handy. And he'd had them for most of his life. He'd probably been using them as a crutch even more than he realized. "But I could always ask someone to turn me again. But if you mean never getting bit in the first place. . ."

Pryce ran a hand through his hair. He'd just said his situation affected every part of his life. He might not have considered teaching if he grew up as a normal human. Even if he had, he wouldn't have gone to the school designed for magical students and met the teachers and students he'd grown fond of there. And of course, then their lives would be different too.

More broadly, if he were being honest, he'd been on track to grow up a spoiled brat who didn't realize how many things were handed to him. Getting bit was a wake up call to how life wasn't fair, and to how much appearance and other intrinsic traits mattered.

He hated fighting so hard to be taken seriously all the time, but the alternative was so unknown, and what he could guess he didn't like. . .

"Hmm?" Nova interrupted his thoughts. He could hear the smile in her voice.

"If you're so wise, would you change your situation?" Pryce asked, voice level.

"Come on Pryce. We already established this is a step up from my last situation."

Pryce smiled. "Yes, but I'm not just asking about the invisibility, am I? I'm asking about your whole situation, curse included."

Nova stopped pumping her legs, swing slowing to a stop.

"I hated that curse," she said, voice extremely quiet. "Of course I'd get rid of it if I could."

Pryce had to strain to hear that part. He wondered if she was even talking to him at all. Her voice was also colder than he'd ever heard it.

Luckily, her volume and tone went back to normal for the next part.

"But, I wouldn't want to miss out on the magic school." Well, that made two of them. "Maybe I would be invisible my whole life. Can't miss being normal if you never were. And people make lots of assumptions based on appearance, even if they don't mean to. They can't do that with me. But, is that a good thing, or does it make people avoid me? I like to think I'm happy invisible, but would I be happier normal? I've never been that. I have no frame of reference." Based on her glove's movement, she was also running her hand through her hair.

She was broken from that spiral when her swing finally clinked to a stop. She shook herself, and switched gears.

"You know, you're not very good at this." She started swinging again.

"Oh?"

"Mhm. Now you're trying to take my life into account. But first of all, the DMV is a nightmare for me too, seeing as your driver's license is supposed to have a picture."

"Ah."

Right. And seeing as she had a car, she must've gone through that nightmare. He slouched a little.

"Also, you might have plenty of chances for childish things, but I was terrifying to look at as a kid. If I went to a playground, it'd have to be deserted. Otherwise, the other kids would run away, and that killed the mood a little."

Well, now he felt like a jerk. She'd only brought up the playground, but now that he was thinking about it, Pryce could extrapolate some other things she'd missed out on. It seemed they had opposite relationships with childhood. And he hadn't considered that. So much for not growing up self centered.

He glanced back up at Nova, still swinging.

"Did you ever jump off the swings after pumping as hard as you can?" Pryce asked.

It was something he remembered from his own real childhood.

"Was about to do that, before you asked me about changing the past."

"In that case. . ."

Pryce got up and walked around to the back.

Nova hadn't had much childhood. Now she was permanently invisible, and he couldn't tell if she was as okay with that as she claimed, or just forcing herself. The fact that he couldn't see her face, only hear her voice, didn't make that any easier. He couldn't do much to help, didn't know if she'd want his help, but he could do a little something now.

When the swing came back, Pryce put both palms on her back, and shoved.

The unnatural strength helped with this. The swing went as high as it could without flipping, and Nova launched herself off.

Pryce winced even before she hit the ground. He knew from experience that that much momentum was going to hurt.