Willow is normal. This time for sure.
It took a few weeks, but she's almost certain she's gotten used to vampire blood. Alice gave her another hit last week and she barely went crazy-hyper-mode at all, much less reached the three days of extreme energy - 36 hours of dead sleep cycle she had going at the peak of her initial transformation.
She is normal. She doesn't feel restless, or jittery, and she can look back and realize that she was definitely not normal for a while- which she's pretty sure the ability to do that is a good indicator of normalness. Perfectly used to her new powers.
For instance, right now she is using her enhanced reflexes to absolutely destroy Bonetail with frame-perfect powerbounces. Remake nerf? Not for her! She should try speedrunning, except she isn't quite sure if that counts as cheating or not. Are there rules about supernatural powers? Is that a TAS?
There's a knock at the door, which is... strange, but not unheard of. She pauses and goes to check it.
She opens it to see a gaunt, monstrous older woman in fancy gothic attire.
"Hello?" She says, and the woman glides past her into their apartment. "Wh- Hey!"
"I can't enter unless invited." Says the woman, not even sparing her a look. "Explain yourself."
Immediately Willow is on the back foot. This woman belongs here, and she- well, she belongs here too, but she doesn't have any magically self-evident way to demonstrate that. And this woman is... scary. She looks like she lives in a manor or a castle or something.
Sure, Alice and Senna are vampires, but she's like, Nosferatu.
"Are you going to answer me or are you going to keep gawking?" She asks, lazily examining her surroundings.
"I- I live here." Willow says, closing the door.
"Ha!" The woman laughs, dryly. "Let me get a look at you then."
She grabs Willow's cheeks with both hands and examines her, tilting her head to the side to look over her neck. "Mm. Bite scars aren't fresh."
"Itsh been a wittle while." Willow says, defensively, which- why is she defensive about that? Who the fuck even is this? She struggles out of the woman's grip and glares at her.
"Ugh, unruly child." The woman says disdainfully. "Very well, I've seen enough. Go do whatever it is you do. I'll call if I need anything."
Willow does not go do whatever it is she does, and instead follows the woman around as she snoops through their apartment.
"Alice," she types out hastily on her phone, "there's a weird lady here, she just walked right in."
When she looks up the woman has made her way into their bedroom, which, fuck no.
Willow rushes in after her to find her examining Alice's closet. She glances at her and reiterates: "I'll call if I need anything. I'm not thirsty."
"I wasn't offering???" Says Willow, and the woman has already tuned her out to return to her snooping. She tuts and shakes her head.
"Tell me honestly child- Is she still dressing like the boy from the Buffy show?"
Oh god, does she mean Spike? Is that on purpose?
"Um, I haven't seen it." Willow lies.
"Oh. Was that a long time ago, now? I can never keep track anymore." The woman says, and Willow thinks she's ignoring her again until she continues: "How is her hair, is she still cutting it all off?"
"Uh..." Willow trails off, as her phone buzzes. Who is this? Why does she care what Alice does with her hair? She peeks at her screen.
"Shit. On my way."
"It's like, um, it's like half short and half... longish." She answers, and the woman raises an eyebrow.
"Half?" She asks.
"Like if, like just this bit is shaved short." She says, covering up the side of her head with her hand. "And then the rest is a bit shorter than mine."
"Is that the style now?"
Willow shrugs, and the woman continues looking through their things, moving from Alice's closet to-
"H-hey!" Willow squeaks. "Don't- Don't snoop around in here."
"Oh, relax." The woman chides, looking through some of Senna's things. "I know her and Senna share a room, that they're tribades. I'm very forward-thinking, I'll have you know."
What the fuck is a tribade? Should she be offended? Relieved?
"R-Right, that's all well and good, but-" Willow stammers, and then the woman starts looking through a third stash of clothes that are conspicuously neither Senna's nor Alice's, and that could be an issue.
"Hm." She murmurs, batlike nose twitching. "Are you-"
Thankfully, Alice gets home right then.
"Mom!" She snaps, rounding through the door.
"Mom!?" Willow squeaks.
"Alice, darling! How good to see you." Alice's mom says, dropping Willow's pajamas and her previous train of thought. "How is Senna?"
"She's great, mom, can we-"
"And who is this? Why does she share a room with the two of you?"
Okay, she didn't drop it very hard.
"Right, ah, well-" Alice flounders.
"She's your mom???" Willow asks, and Alice half-shrugs.
"Vampire mom, not human mom. She sired me." She says, rubbing the back of her head. "Look, mom, you're not supposed to just drop in unannounced-"
"Oh, but I had to!" Her mom says. "I needed to give you my new contact information, I purchased a smart telephone, have you heard of these?"
"That's great mom, that's really great, we can talk about that in the living room just follow me out here-" Alice says, and her mom leans toward Willow.
"So pushy, she always gets like this, you know. Doesn't write, doesn't like when I come visit-" She says, and Alice flushes red.
"Mom!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming." She says, following Alice out into the hallway. "Alice who is that? Is everything alright with Senna?"
"Mom everything is fine I really don't want to explain this to you right now-"
Willow sits on the bed, dazed.
She had never really thought about Alice and Senna's parents as like, people she would meet. Should she take them to meet her parents? She pulls out her phone again to text Senna.
"Alice's mom is here."
Moments pass, and then-
"Have fun."
Okay, no help from Senna then. She joins the two of them in the living room, where Alice's mom beckons her closer.
"Hello child, why didn't you tell me you were- Oh, what do I call her?" She asks, and Alice sighs.
"My girlfriend."
"-Alice's girlfriend!"
"Um, well, you didn't really introduce yourself?" Willow says, and Alice's mom waves her off.
"Oh, but that was when I thought you a common ghoul!" She says, and Alice winces. "Tell me, what are your intentions with my daughter?"
"Uhhhhh..."
"Don't answer that." Alice says. "Mom, give me your phone number, we can make plans for while you're in town."
"But I'm here now-"
"I have work, and Willow is... sleepy. Humans. You know."
"...Well, okay." Alice's mom says. "Here, you just type it in and you don't even have to remember the number-"
It takes about ten more minutes for Alice to herd her out the door and then return and slump onto the couch.
"I am so, so sorry you had to see that." She says.
"...Your mom?"
"My mommmmm." She groans. "She's going to want to talk to you more."
"She seems very, um..." Willow pauses. "Grandma...ish."
"Did she grab your cheeks? She does that." Alice asks, and Willow nods.
"Is... Is tribade a slur?"
