Life and Death

Valli knew he was a demigod of course. It would have been hard to miss that. But for the most part, he'd assumed that his powers had remained like they always had. That he'd looked presentable and put together even when he didn't try and very little else.

The idea that life itself had taken a special interest in him was not something he'd noticed. He was not the sort of person who engaged in risky behavior regularly, and most of his accidents had been very minor and carefully averted.

So when someone stopped in front of him, squinting in his direction and telling him he was bright, Valli had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

His eyebrows knit together in confusion as Valli tilted his head, trying to get a feel for the man. Student, most likely. High school? He seemed tall for that, but there were plenty of non-humans, so it was a bad habit to judge by that standard.

"Ah... thank you?" Valli said, trying to puzzle it out. "Are you on any substances, perhaps?" People seeing halos while taking drugs wasn't uncommon, and the man did seem taken aback in a way that someone who normally saw halos probably would not be.

Valli's eyebrows remained pressed tightly together as the student described it as life magic. As far as Valli knew, he had absolutely nothing of the sort, so it was all news to him, but thankfully the student continued, giving him at least... some idea.

Some very general idea.

"I am a demigod," Valli said carefully. "Although as far as I am aware, I have no abilities that would qualify as life magic." It was unusual but not unheard of for someone to develop powers late in their life, but life magic? Wouldn't he have noticed something? "In fact, I barely have any abilities at all." He qualified as a demigod more by virtue of Manta Carlos not having any restrictions on how much godly blood qualified. He was only an eighth god, if that.

"Would it be bad if a child reaper did...?" He didn't really understand the consequences of it.

Valli accepted the offered hand, giving it a firm shake as he did. Obviously skin contact wasn't bothering him, which was good.

"My name is Valli Bryndisarson, I work as a therapist here," Valli said, doing his best to sound calm and not at all like he was mentally twisting himself in knots at the idea of potentially injuring someone with his newfound... glow.

"I don't suppose there's a way to... to check? To know if there's life magic or not?" Why was it just coming up right then, anyway? Couldn't things on the island just stay calm for one moment? Apparently not.

Valli had never felt the need to check, because he'd never had anything odd about him. His mother had fairly mundane powers, and he'd had fairly mundane powers after her, so why go looking for something that apparently wasn't there?

Valli had to wonder if it had always been there, or if not, when had it popped up?

"Hm," Valli said, considering it. "I think that might actually be possible."

His grandfather had a strong association with life, after all. "Have you been around gods before? Do they... do that? Like, would a life god?" Baldr wasn't really a life god, but... well, he was very stubbornly alive.

Well, at least there was that much. It wasn't as strong as a life mage. Maybe it was connected to something else though. Was he getting some kind of life magic power? He wasn't even sure how to check, and while people might pick up on his new life-powers or what have you, they might not get more detail then that.

"Well, hopefully it doesn't bother anyone else," Valli said, his face slightly pinched. "I'll have to look into it immediately, in case it starts effecting my work. But thank you very much for telling me, at least. I'm not sure what kind of trouble I might have gotten in if you didn't."