"It doesn't sound like a now-problem, though, there's nothing you can do about it."

He nods. "Which is why I wasn't saying anything about it."

"Yeah but you were fretting about it."

"Uh-huh…? And I'm not going to stop just because I can't do anything about it right now – being able to do something about it right now would mean I do things about it, instead of just fretting."

"Why would you fret if it doesn't help?"

"… I'm not intentionally fretting, I just have nothing else major to focus on to try to distract me, and even if I did I would still be fretting."

"Sounds unpleasant."

"Yyyeah…?"

"I mean, I won't say that I don't fret at all ever, but I usually try not to, when there's nothing I can do. ...when there is though I fret a lot."

He shrugs, frowning a bit. "I don't know that there's all that much I can do not to fret?"

"Well, I kinda just... argue myself into not."

"I could argue myself into focusing on something else more than the fretting, at least when I was human, and then possibly forget about it while I'm doing stuff, but not actually argue it gone."

"And I try to focus on things I can actually change and if I can't they can stay out of my attention until they reach a point I can change them."

"That's more or less what I do," he agrees with Matt. "I tell myself that if there is something I can do about it then I'll worry—at most I make, like, contingency plans for each possible outcome, if that's relevant—but then I'm done. It does have the disadvantage that when there is even a little bit I can do about it I start worrying about all the details, but."

"If there's a little bit I can do, and I in fact want to do that, then I will do that thing." Shrug. "Otherwise, yeah, I just don't."

Theo looks at them both, a little bit confused. "It's, you know, still not a thing that I consciously choose."

"Well... have you tried?"

"Tried consciously choosing not to fret? I have tried consciously not focusing on it, but it's not really a thing I can just switch off, like I can't just switch off being angry, but I could try not focusing on it until it went away? Hopefully?"

"I mean, tried consciously arguing yourself out of fretting, yeah."

"Consciously arguing that it's not useful and expecting that to stop it…? Or consciously arguing that I shouldn't be doing it for– I don't know, some other reason, and expecting that to do it…?"

"Former."

He pauses for a moment. "I am inclined to say that it would not work because it feels like emotions and I don't think I can do it for them, but I am not certain as to whether this is in fact the case."

"So, you have not in fact tried."

"At least not while being a vampire, no, and I'm not sure about when I was human."

"Well then try it!"