"There's one just outside town," says Matt. "Conveniently."

"Should be careful if I'm going outside in the sun, though. I think there are trees near it, though, so I can be in the shade."

"Maybe we could use, like, an umbrella?"

"Yeah," he says. "Or if we want to go have a picnic–" sigh, "I think I have a parasol somewhere."

"If that works it'll be so silly."

"I'd be kinda surprised if it didn't work, like at all, because it hurts less nearer sunset, and I'm fine indoors, but yeah. Trenchcoat and a hat and sunglasses, something like that."

"I mean, if it works completely like being inside or at night does. It probably works a little, yeah."

"Could get a thicker parasol if it doesn't work well enough, or a bigger one." Shrug. "Might not be the best, but probably better than the alternative."

"Yeah. Test that now? ...have you had breakfast, we should figure out a long-term solution for how you'll feed."

"Have not had breakfast," he says. "The sway thing is at least good at making me not want to bite, but I should probably go grab some– squirrel?" Pause. "I don't know how much I need but 'deer' is probably too much if it gets me high, and 'a deer a day' doesn't sound sustainable."

"I'm not sure there are even that many deer around here."

"Yeah, and not to mention that you haven't yet complained about hunger, maybe you should go without eating and without straining your attention with stuff like doors or the sun to see how long you can go?"

Nod. "Might want something around for me to eat if I do suddenly snap, though, hopefully not a person."

"… Could get a squirrel and store it in a cage or something? Or, kill it and hope the blood's okay after a while – not the best idea."

"Hmm... can you eat someone in spite of knowing they're a person? Like, if you bite me, can you consciously stop?"

"– I think I could bite you despite knowing you're a person, yes, but I'd be inclined not to because I think that might go out the window when I have bitten you?"

"Right but then Matt could tell you to stop, and depending on how often you need to feed he and I might be enough to sustain you." Pause. "If Matt's okay with that."

"I– yes? Probably?" Pause. "That might work if we get his blood in return and heal up, yeah – I was going to say about blood healing rates and that I wasn't not sure it'd work."

"Okay," he says. "Um. I don't know that I'm usually particularly, uh. Careful while biting. So it might not work out great because you might end up having slightly more than puncture marks, but healing blood might work okay."

"Mmhm, and I mean, if you can produce more blood than you actually consume, which is possible given that you ate a whole deer and was fine and fit after, we might've stumbled upon an infinite blood hack for you."

"Maybe," he says. "I feel somewhat pessimistic here and feel like there might end up being long-term side effects to feeding, though."

"Like?"

"Addiction or something, which might not be the worst, or something like sway but somehow different," he shrugs. "I don't know. Just– seems like it's too easy an out in a system that's as messed up as this."

"Well, bears testing anyway."

"Yeah," he agrees. "Would be stupid to not do it just because of imagined risks."