"So how'd the parasol work?" asks Matt. "And the river?"

"Parasol helped some but not as much as shade," he responds. "River didn't stop me at all, also turns out water does approximately nothing to sunburn, also I don't have some creepy ability to wipe minds by staring deeply into someone's eyes, apparently."

"Did you think you did?"

"Well, it'd explain something if vampires were able to do that, because I don't remember being fed blood or bitten or anything and I somehow managed to drop dead and turn into a vampire anyway. I mean, unless it is a contagiously-getting-magic thing, which was floated as a possibility."

"Why?"

"My gender thing isn't just very good makeup, I can shapeshift, but only when I feel strongly about it, it's awful."

"Oh."

"So it's possible I got it from her. Somehow. In which case we've got to work out if anyone else got something somehow and if not why not and if so what they got, and we've also got to deal with the weird repercussions of me being a vampire – and that reminds me that we should really tell the hospital, like, I have no idea what they're thinking, maybe they lose bodies somewhat frequently and they're just looking for me now."

"They proooobably don't lose bodies frequently."

"I have no idea! You'd hope not, but like, maybe they do, and here I'm just making suggestions for why they haven't called my mom yet or, I don't know, panicked, though I guess it wouldn't be all that clear that they were panicking, necessarily."

"Would you have noticed if they'd panicked?"

"No, that's my point, unless their panicking involved, like, putting out a bulletin about a missing body or calling my mom – she would've told me when I spoke to her – or calling the house."

"Why would they call the house?"

"'Cause they maybe expect my mom to be here and wish to let her know that her son's body is missing? Except, you know, it's been like a day and maybe they expect to find me so again maybe they wouldn't even try that were they panicking."

"Do you wanna call them?"

"… To clarify that I'm alive?"

"Yeah. Or something. Or maybe it's best to leave them in the dark, but, I dunno, and aren't there documents about it and stuff?"

"Like a death certificate? I'd expect so, yeah, and it's probably not best to leave them in the dark if I plan on going around without making it clear I'm a vampire. … I don't think it's a good idea for me to go around masquerading as a human, because it comes with risks, but I also don't think it's great to explain all my strengths and weaknesses immediately, and I expect there will be some combination of sceptics, curious people, and people calling for my death if I am publicly outed."

"...I think it's actually not best to, like, share that you're a vampire."

"And is this because of the fact someone could abuse my power, or the fact I might incite angry mobs, or because revealing magic is inherently a bad idea, or all of the above? I mean, I get that it's not optimal but I don't know how I rank the associated negatives in comparison to masquerading as a back-from-the-dead human."

"I mean it's because we don't know that you're the only vampire or what and there might be a reason why no one's revealed vampires before. Chesterton's fence."

"… I assume 'Chesterton's fence' refers to, you know, what you just said – that just because the status quo doesn't seem to have a reason for its being doesn't mean there isn't a reason?"

"Yep, that. You shouldn't take down a fence until you know why it was built, roughly."

Nod. "Okay, yeah, but then what sort of thing do we need to be pretty sure there is no fence, because it sounds like this current thing might just result in us doing nothing just because there might be a reason that the maybe nonexistent other vampires haven't done anything themselves yet."

"I mean, maybe try to ssssslowly peel the masquerade? Maybe heal some people with magic blood and stuff like that, try to attract attention and see what kind of attention to attract? I'm honestly at a loss."