They will! Nom.

The vampire will eat a reasonably-sized portion, in case it does work as a food substance.

Doesn't immediately seem to.

In fact, it feels kinda uncomfortable.

Oh ugh.

(Nom.)

And then the humans are done!

"So, more testing?"

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea."

And if he needs to hurl at some point he can get to that then.

They spend a while longer determining that it seems like sway grows with variety, resolution, and ease of copy/transference of data. When they're not actively paying attention to it due to testing, it's sneaky and almost unnoticeable by the affected parties. Eventually Theo does have to regurgitate the food he ate, whole and undigested, and it's overall not a very pleasant experience.

They move on to more precise tests of Theo's senses and abilities and stay there until: "So, it's gonna be dark soon and we still haven't figured out a good feeding method for you."

"Human food seems to be out, animals might work but animal populations might not cut it, human blood I expect we all have issues with and I don't think taking from blood banks is overall a good idea, and the results of 'infinite blood hack' are kinda still pending since they're sorta long-term."

"Sounds– frustrating?"

"Still don't know why you think blood banks is not overall a good idea. It's a net positive, if you then go on to heal people with your blood."

"I don't mean overall a good idea, I mean more like 'in conclusion I really hope we find a better solution than blood banks'. Since yes, it should go out to be positive on balance – I don't know how many lives however much blood saves on average but I should be able to do better – but I'd rather something else."

"There doesn't seem to be any obvious ones, though. I can help donating you some blood but it won't be enough."

"Yeah, probably not unless the infinite blood hack comes to fruition." He shrugs. "Well, that might well be the best option then, in which case okay, blood bank maybe supplemented by animals?"

"Are the animals even necessary? Like, the blood bank blood is all donated without death and, uh, animal feeding results in animal death unless I'm mistaken."

"Is that much different from the veal you're eating?"

"No," he says, "but Theo used to be kinda vegetarian-ish I think so I thought it was relevant."

"He did?"

"Not, like, actually vegetarian – you saw I had bacon – but I was trying to cut down on meat and gradually working that way?" He shrugs.

"Huh."

Shrug.

"So! Blood banks maybe supplemented and maybe you can drink an animal without killing it anyway."

"And we should probably get the blood before Theo actually needs it, to have it on hand—and actually I do wonder if vampire blood works via other means than just ingestion..."

"Like, topical application or inhaled or injected, or…?"

"Injected, really, I was thinking about replacing blood bags, if we ever found out that was an unambiguous good."