"So, about that sandwich you ate..."

"… About that sandwich I ate."

"Did it work? At all?"

"Not as far as I can tell? It didn't make me high, it tasted– not great, but that's a possible indicator it won't help, and I don't think it's helped with the wanting to bite people but, like, I didn't have much of it and I don't have a neat quantitative indicator of how much I hunger for stuff, not really."

"Nor a qualitative one, apparently."

"Not accurately enough that I can say 'oh yes that small bit of sandwich I had earlier totally helped me to be less hungry', no."

"I mean, you still haven't indicated hunger in any form."

"When I was done with the deer I felt less like I needed and-or wanted to bite someone and more like 'hey know what it wouldn't be that bad an idea' instead. So, less hungry, more idiotic, similar overall tendency to bite."

"Ah, so you go crazier when you get hungry, how fun."

"What, feel more desire to bite? Yeah, and feel slightly less desire when not so hungry but I usually feel high because blood?"

"What a nightmare."

"Little bit, but I've successfully gone however long without doing it after the original thing, so." He shrugs and looks down a bit. "Hopefully it'll only stay as bad as this."

"Mmhm. All in all, of all possible transformations into a vampire, I think this was probably one of the nicest."

"And hopefully if it is transmissible and we do decide to transmit it to people, they will have turnings that are even nicer."

"Mmhm." Omnom food. "It's kinda funny that the vampire is good at cooking you know."

"Yeah, but not exactly surprising." Shrug. "It's not like I lost anything major that'd be relevant, except perhaps 'ability to taste it to see if it's okay' which doesn't really apply to stuff I've cooked loads before."

Matt seems to be enjoying it too.

"I suppose."

Theo will wait patiently while they finish eating. Apparently he doesn't have much to say.

Sadde does not suffer from this problem:

"So when's your mom coming?"

"In a couple of days."

"...you don't look alright about it."

He shrugs. "She's great, I just have no idea how she'll actually react to me being a vampire in person. You know, apart from the 'oh you're wonderful' going on from the sway-or-alternatively-motherhood, which is potentially very or very not reassuring."

"So she arrives here and records you a bit until everything's fine, I guess?"

"At which point I then, again, have no idea how she'll react."

"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!"

"Try… arguing myself, consciously, out of fretting over how my mother will actually respond to the scenario."

"Yes, that's what I said."

"… Still not sure I can do that."

"Yes we've determined this already."

"But like– I am not sure I know what you mean by consciously arguing myself out of it, because just going 'this isn't going to help' doesn't actually, uh, stop it."

"Repeat it inside your head? 'There is no way this is going to help, there is nothing I can do about it, this feeling is not serving any purposes and is making me upset for no reason, I will not feel it.'"

"Does it need to sound convincing? I'm assuming yes, but the 'I will not feel it' part won't."

"No it needs to sound like an assertion not a prediction. You're telling your subconscious what to do."

"… Uh." Pause. "And now I'm not sure how to check whether I have successfully stopped fretting."

"You seem to have stopped fretting a while ago."

"That was mostly because I was focusing on other things, I think…?" he says, slowly.

"Yeah, probably."

"So I don't know if the telling myself to stop thing actually works."

Matt raises an eyebrow at him.

"No, you don't, so maybe we should shut up and see if you start fretting again."

"… While I try or do not try to continue not fretting?"

"Don't try, if you try you'll be contaminating your experimental results!"

"I was checking that the experiment was– seeing if I'd return to fretting while not trying or seeing if I'd do it even while trying not to. Checking if it was to check if I was no longer fretting, or if it was to check I would not return to fretting while trying not to."

"No it's to check whether you can stop fretting after you have started fretting."

"… But we need to first get into the point where I am, again, fretting, which I am not currently doing – I wasn't clear that we were trying to return me to fretting so that I could then un-fret, I thought it might be that we were seeing if I could or could not return to fretting while trying not to. Yeah, okay – return to fretting by trying in no way to affect whether I am fretting, then try unfretting?"

(Ugh.)

"Yes pretty much, that's why I said we should shut up. But it appears you're fretting again about something."

"Maybe?" he says. "I don't know – my emotions haven't gained handy little labels or scales or anything for me to work out if I'm fretting any more easily than, I don't know, fretting a lot and it being extremely obvious."

He giggles. "You should get that fixed."

"Would be nice if I could."

"Would be nice if I knew how to teach other people to do it."

"Yeah," he agrees.

"Weird."

"What is?"

"That he can't do it. Especially since he's a vampire, I'd sort of expect that to make it easier. Sort of."

"Well, I'm actually surprised you can, I hadn't ever met anyone else who could label their emotions easily like I do."

"I don't always label my emotions that easily, and sometimes not in easy words, but I know what they are."

"I knew there was a reason I liked you."

He raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, no, I don't know what I'm feeling half the time."

He grins at Matt then raises an eyebrow at Theo. "That sounds difficult."

"It's not too bad if I can work around it no matter what I'm feeling because it'd be stupid to let the emotions get in the way."

"Well but emotions don't just get in the way, they're useful and informative."

"Right, but then I don't need to work around them, and they're not getting in the way? I work around them mostly as necessary, I think. Sure, I miss whatever informational content you get from knowing precisely what they are but I don't think I can easily fix that."

"I'd want to figure out how to fix that, in your place."

"Perhaps I will see if being a vampire has given me an easy toggle to label all my emotions, or if I can work out what classes of emotion they approximately fit into, in that case. But I don't consider it that important, really, possibly because I haven't notice an extremely grave lack and haven't known what it's like to know."

"If you say so. I like knowing myself and my brain."

"Don't think I know mine all that well but emotions are pretty okay."

"I mean, in general, I like knowing what's going on in my head. I don't always put it to words but I always can, it's comforting."

Shrug.

"Would be nice," says Theo. "Don't think I can do it that often, though."

"You confessed you haven't tried," he points out, "so I hardly think you can declare inability like that."

Pause. "Not even prefaced by 'don't think'?"

"Well, I guess not having ever tried is some evidence of being unable to do it..."

He shrugs. "I can sometimes put it into words, so it's not like I've never tried it, but, like I say, not always clear what I'm thinking. So, like, I've never tried always doing or always being able to do it, but I have tried sometimes doing it?"

"Mmm. Alright, I guess."

And then Matt has finished eating! (Nom.)

And so has Sadde.

And it's dark out.

"Nighttime testing?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Up first: testing whether I am actually totally un-burning at night or if that was some sort of time-delay thing after I turned, then– echolocation or entering-other-dwellings?"

"Un-burning?"

"I burn in the sun, didn't burn last night, see if it's a 'well I now burn outside all the time, it was just the first eight hours for which I didn't' or if it's actually 'only feel burning pain in the sun'."

"Oh. Well, it'd be really weird if you just burnt outside in general."

"Weird by standards of fictional vampires, yeah."

"Mmhm, that."

Door!

It exists! Then Theo goes outside!

It doesn't burn!

"As expected, I suppose."

"That's good. It'd be annoying if you burnt."

"Thanks, I guess," he says. "So. Echolocation or dwellings thingy."

"Echolocation's easier in the immediate case, maybe you could use it while we walk to my place?"

"Any particular non-obvious things I need to do for you to be satisfied whether I can do it, or just shut my eyes and walk along with you?"

"...I mean we're not looking for my personal satisfaction here."

"– That's not what I meant," he says. "I mean, I'm not thinking of any clear things that would make this be 'cheating' or whatever but I'm trying to clarify what I should do to try to get the sort of information we want, here, and echolocation was mostly your idea."

"Well, you're the one inside your head, if we reach a place you don't know by heart and you tell me can use your hearing to locate yourself I'll believe you."

"Okay," he says. "Should I start now or when we get to the place?"

"Start now, why not."

So he does! And he can move around just fine.

"Are you going by noise?"

"Footsteps echo."

"Yeah, I figured as much, just surprised it was enough, you weren't sure it would be without high pitches."

"– I mentioned that some humans can do it?"

"By clicking their tongues, usually, or just otherwise repeating the same noise at regular intervals."

"Right. But I didn't think clicking your tongue was a high pitch."

"I don't know, maybe not, but it is at least more periodic in general they footsteps I think."

"More periodic meaning – more regular, or done more often, or…?"

"I mean I'm pretty sure it's made so that there's an actual period."

"Oscillation period, you mean? Yeah, I think they do it at a sort of, uh, regular interval. I'm not sure, though."

"Yeah, anyway, still impressive."

"Yeah," agrees Matt. "So– are you just listening for how long it takes, or…?"

"Nnnnot really?" he says. "It's just echoing and I can sort of go 'oh right it came from over there'." He points at a wall to the left of them. "And I can visualize how far that is."

"That is really cool and not how echolocation works at all I think?"

"You mean, in the humans who apparently do it or normally in other animals that are actually, like, optimized for it or whatever?"

"Both?"

"I have no idea," he says. "How do you think it works, though, like– I didn't actually research this."

"I didn't, either, I just have vague memories of having read, but I think the relevant thing is how long the same sound takes to reach you when repeated, rather than just once?"

"Okay, right, but they're footsteps, plural, and so I'm not just relying on one? I guess the distance changes…"

"I think it's more about tridimensionality, a single pulse can give you distance, multiple ones can give you shape."

"Right, so." Pause. "The confusion is, what, about whether my footsteps give me tridimensionality of the wall?"

"Well no just that the way you described it didn't sound like you were doing that but if you are I stand corrected."

"I'm not consciously processing where all my footstep echoes are going and coming from and building a 3D model of the world around me, no, but I sort of– know where things are anyway?"

"Weird."

"Do you know what they are, too? Presumably, I guess, you're not hitting any walls or anything."

"– I know there's a solid barrier about however tall over in a particular direction, and I know that the ground I'm walking on continues to be sidewalk and not, like, grass or road. So yeah. But not anywhere near as well as if I had my eyes open."

"Can you see street signs and stuff?"

"I can tell there are poles into which I should presumably not walk, yeah. If you mean ones attached to the side of buildings or something, uh, maybe but I don't think there are any around right now?"

"No, there aren—"

"What the fuck."

Theo– manages to remind himself that she is in fact a person without even taking more than a few steps in her direction.

Keeps his eyes shut and tries to cover his face.

Matt jumps! And looks around for her.

She wasn't actually walking towards them but now she is. "What. The. Fuck. Hadn't you died. You were dead. What happened."

"Died what yeah um," says Matt. "Who are you again – do we know each other?"

He then smiles a bit strainedly and says something under his breath.

Theo starts walking away from Willow!

"I'm Willow, why are you walking away!"

"Hi Willow," says Matt. "So, I totally understand where you're coming from, I know it's been a stressful few days, but I'm not sure this is the best way to cope with it."

Still walking away.

Covering his face, turning around, being overall very ugh because he knows this isn't going to work.

"Hey, fuck that, the best way to cope when someone who died is up and about is what, then?" She glares at Sadde as she asks that question.

Who shrugs helplessly. "I have no idea why he's walking away, don't look at me."

"Oh for fuck's sake, are we going to literally reveal to the whole fucking town tonight? Or are we planning on waiting until, I don't know, we have things worked out, or are– actually, right, yeah, no I can see why you might be like this, because there is literally no way to salvage this right now – hi Willow, Theo is a vampire, fortunately he's not currently particularly bitey, I hope you enjoy your newfound enlightenment."

Theo pauses in his movement.

"Yes, there is literally no way to salvage this right now, and this is a tiny town, it's gonna eventually come out that he's alive even if he's not a vampire, and it occurs to me that we really really should have thought of a way to explain this if we ever ran into someone who knew him which is pretty obvious in hindsight but."

"What."

"Yeah but it's dark and I assumed Theo would hear them coming even if he were doing echolocation or whatever and– seriously, do you just have a really awful idea of when to go out? What were you even doing?"

… Theo looks slightly subdued.

Not that it's probably clear in this light.

"I was at a friend's house and coming back home and enjoying my evening in a town with a nonexistent crime rate I didn't expect to run into the dead walking!"

"Crime rate isn't, um, quite nonexistent – think we had a theft, like, once five years ago or something – but I get your point."

"So what gives, why is the supposed vampire running away and hiding his face, how did he become a vampire, why do you two know it."

"He's not running away and hiding his face, he's just–" Matt turns to look. "Just hiding his face."

"And he has no idea how he became a vampire, he just dropped dead and woke up however many hours later."

"And he's hiding his face because...?"

"He will happily hide his face less so but apparently he previously thought it was a wonderful idea to go out in public while it was known that he was dead so he thinks this is a better idea." Pause. "He also finds speaking in the third-person to be weird."

"It was entirely his choice to speak in the third-person. But okay, I guess hiding his face is a good idea, except maybe not a good enough idea, if you wanna hide why are you even walking around, and why am I acting like I believe he's a vampire I totally don't."

"I can show off some superspeed if you want?" He sighs. "I'm not super attached to hiding, just didn't want to conspicuously announce my presence after my having died before being surer about some things."

"Please do show off."

So he runs up and down the sidewalk rather quickly and hopes that's sufficient.

"Okay."

"Feel free to think you're hallucinating or something. I won't be offended."

"...no thanks. So do you, like, burn in the sun, drink blood, are allergic to garlic and right angles...?"

"Right angles? – Burn in the sun yes, nowhere immediately fatal, potentially not fatal at all to vampires, do drink blood, not allergic to garlic."

"Crosses," she explains. "Why are you out right now anyway with these two, then?"

"We're lovely company, you know."

"Yup," he says. "Oh, and I woke up in the morgue yesterday, spent– a while doing things and then slept in the desert and then panicked and called Sadde in the morning after I got a, um. Note. From him."

She raises her eyebrows at Sadde.

"I was sad he was dead, I left him a note in his house about it, then he called me."

"Then he decided it might be a prank, he came to check, and he found it wasn't and we spent the day testing things and then got Matt in on it after school."

He still hasn't uncovered his face.

"Yyyyup. Then we had some nice food and now we're going for a nice stroll in town – sounds fun, doesn't it."

"We're performing more tests."

"Woo," says Matt. "Magical testing."

"Do you want a seat or something?" Matt asks. "I'm sure there's a bench around here somewhere."

(Sigh.)

"Didn't look like you were running experiments that require standing still. What are you experimenting on, anyway?"

"They did not in fact require standing still, no."

"Echolocation," says Theo. "Or, like, mapping an area in my head by using echoes not necessarily produced by me vocally, if that's a different thing."

"...that's actually pretty cool."

"Kind of weird, though, because it's just – sort of 'obvious' that things are in places and I get some other feeling about it too, so I'm not actually consciously doing it, which is, yeah, weird."

"And the two of them are with you because...? I mean I get why Sadde is, I guess, kinda, but..."

"Because the vampire needs moral support."

Matt eyes Theo a little, then says, "We're just – you know, being helpful."

She eyes Sadde.

Who shrugs. "It's not my secret to share."

"I can't be trusted, basically, to be left alone. Sort of can, not totally. Probably. Sample of past-day-ish."

"Why not."

"You heard the vampire part, right, well bloodlust unfortunately is not a myth and I continue to have superspeed."

She does not take a step back. "So. Why are. You outside. At all."

"… You realize I continue to have superspeed and inside my house would not help that much if I were in the mood to bite people? Better question: why am I not in some remote desert."

"Yes, that."

"Well, see, it's because I'm terribly selfish and also at the time I was burning in the sunlight and then Sadde's kept me here all day because we've been talking and also he's been mind-altered." Pause. "That sounds bad – it wasn't intentional and it has been mostly fixed."

She might note how he continues not to look at her, though, he supposes he can still hear her.

"Mind-altered how?"

"Ugh," he says, then looks around at the others. "Is no-one going to help explain this really awkward-slash-annoying thing while I continue to be in a bad mood? I get that I'm sure I'm asking overmuch because my preferences don't matter or I'm being melodramatic or whatever the fuck but I am seriously not in a good mood and this isn't improving it."

Matt gives him a bit of a look – it's a look that says 'what the heck, dude' crossed with 'um right whatever' – and says, "Instinctual trust-slash-affection-slash-attraction, can be squinted at if you think to bother to do that, is apparently kind of invasive."

"I'm operating under 'not-my-secret' here, if you want I can infodump Willow, I think I'm generally good at infodumps."

"He's got a bunch of super-senses, he's got superstrength and speed, he so far drinks the blood of people or animals, he has bloodlust, he has that mind-control thing that we're calling sway that is sort of– abusable and we should probably be careful about it, and also he's got a bunch of various brain improvement things." He looks at Theo. "Apparently."

"Is that why he's not looking at me, is he gonna control my mind, is he controlling your minds-"

"It's complicated, but no, it's not mind-control, it's a sort of fascination or glamour or something like that and Matt and I are more-or-less immunized to it now but you aren't."

"...okay."

"And I'm specifically not looking at you because it will probably make it worse and I'm hiding my face, quite annoyingly conspicuously, because you had a good point that if I don't want to be recognised I shouldn't be acting as I was."

"Looking at me activates it? ...now I'm kinda curious."

"– Uh, nope, also hearing you activates it but in lesser quantity."

"Nope what? I don't actually want to be mind-controlled, thank you."

"Nope that looking at you activates it…? Like I said, hearing also activates it but in lesser quantity, I can hear you, that is to say it's already activated in lesser quantity? But I'm not going to look at you and make it worse, note how I am pointedly currently not doing that."

"...I don't feel mind-controlled."

"Would you like me to instead look at you and you can analyze if you feel mind-controlled then? I'm gonna guess no."

"I'm remarking on the apparent subtlety of it."

"Right," he says. "So we're going to test if I have to be invited into a dwelling or if I can just go in, because that is a stereotypical vampire thing, and you already know I'm not dead so how do you want to join us or do you need to get home?"

"...I need to get home but I'm gonna ask about it later."

"Okay, well, I'd appreciate it if you didn't scare the town or, I don't know, start up some vampire hunting."

"I will do my best to resist the temptation of pitchforks and torches when I get home."

"Thank you," he says.

Off she goes, looking over her shoulder a few times.

Eyeroll. "So, let's continue?"

Matt shrugs.

"Right, yes, but, uh, are you gonna just walk around covering your face?"

"It's dark," he says. "I'm not even sure how she saw me – I continue to have my eyes shut, which is probably a bad idea – but I can make sure to stay out of the way of the streetlamps or something, avoid making myself obvious, or rush back to my place and grab a hoodie."

"I think maybe the hoodie is the better idea. And I'm not sure there's a good reason for you to keep your eyes closed, we've determined you can echolocate-or-whatever."

He opens his eyes but is still looking down and trying to keep his face in shadow. "Is there any reason I shouldn't just run back to my house and then to yours, at high speed…? I mean, people will see 'blur' but I don't think they'll go 'oh that must be the new supernatural creature' just more like 'well that's weird' and rub their eyes."

"...well there's the possibility the lack of Matt and I around you will make you eat someone."

"Well yes there is but if I run to my house and back I wouldn't really expect– yeah, you know what, I can just carry one of you if you don't object. That worked fine earlier."

Shrug.

Matt says, "Sure."

And since Matt actually gave a positive response, Theo will – unless Sadde objects – pick Matt up and go!

Sadde does not object (now kiss), and just waits there.

Theo and Matt are back shortly! Theo does in fact have a hoodie, with the hood up.

Matt feels a little dizzy! He seems okay, though.

"Let's go, then."

Off they go.

Eventually they arrive! It's a smallish house, but pretty and well taken care of.

"Welco—nope that might count as an invitation, uh."

"… Well we can try it and see if that does count as an invitation slash I don't have an invitation limit, then we can see if I can, I dunno, sneak into Matt's place?" Pause. "Sneak as in without his parents knowing, not as in like, through a window or something."

"Right, okay."

He opens his door and steps out of the way.

Matt waits patiently.

Theo looks at the door, then at Matt! Perhaps Matt should go first.

Matt is: slightly confused! Indicates that Theo should go first.

"...there's no reason for Matt to go first."

"… No? But there's no reason for him not to." Pause. "I'll just go first, then."

So he looks at the door and walks that way. Somewhat slowly.

Waits.

Theo gets closer to the door! Slows down. Looks at the door and frowns a bit.

"That's a no, then."

He frowns. "So half a welcome doesn't actually– count."

He takes another few steps towards the door, then stops. And tries taking another step, but can't quite bring himself to do it.

"Well that's– weird," says Matt. "You okay?"

"Yeah?" he tries.

Sideways works mostly okay. Lifting his leg works fine. But walking forwards is– nope.

"What's it feel like?"

"Sort of– um." Pause. "Just a moment."

He tries leaning forwards, which is a no, then sees if he'd be able to jump in the direction of the door – also a no – and then sort of hops around on the spot a bit.

He stops. "It's. Hard to verbalize but sort of– can't or don't want to or really shouldn't go closer than this, and it was like that but less so further back, and I am sort of nervous about getting closer because it feels like it would be wrong?"

"… I'm curious what happens if one of us pulls you closer," says Matt. "Probably me because it might be an invitation if Sadde does it."

Theo shudders a little. Very briefly.

"Science or no science?"

He looks between himself and the door a bit more, then says, "Science."

Well okay then! Matt can go the other side of Theo and – unless Sadde would like to suggest something else – will try pulling Theo closer to the door!

Sadde has no suggestions.

So Matt pulls Theo.

Theo doesn't really want to budge.

Matt tries harder!

… Well, he's probably not going to pull hard enough to pull Theo over, because Theo is good at staying up, but he's also probably not going to pull hard enough to make Theo budge in the direction of the door.

Maybe a little. Not much.

(Nngh.)

"What if Matt were carrying you?" he wonders.

Theo looks at Matt somewhat suspiciously.

"I can probably lift you," he says, eyeing Theo. "Not like you'd be that heavy."

… Theo nods.

So Matt picks him up! Then walks closer to the house.

Theo feels a little undignified being carried like this.

He feels worse when Matt starts moving, and– after a couple of steps tells him to stop and put him down then runs back away from the house a bit.

"Why did you do what he told you to do?" he asks Matt.

Matt looks at Sadde. Thinks for a moment. "Didn't want to cause him undue harm?" Pause. "We can do it again–?"

Theo shudders just a little. Again.

"Was it harming you, Theo?"

"No, not– it's just, like, ugh." He thinks a moment. "Like, I don't know if this applies to you, but when you were younger if you were told off by a teacher it'd be horrible for the sake of there being disapproval from a teacher? Like that except the disapproval is 'you really should not be anywhere near this house, really nowhere near, why are you getting closer' and internal."

"...not with teachers but with mom, yeah, I get that. If you don't wanna do it we don't need to."

"– I don't know, maybe it'll snap if I get close enough and be okay, or it'll just stay at a constant level or something." He rubs at his eye a bit. "Should probably try it again."

"Go ahead, then."

Whee, picked up by Matt again. (Eugh.)

Yup! And then slowly brought closer to the house. And then a bit quicker, 'cause there's no point prolonging the suffering, and then he'll just keep going.

Well, it acts like expected at first, with him just being sort of not inclined to go towards the door, and then it gets worse, like before, and then he says that Matt should probably put him down—

— Matt ignores this.

And then they get closer and they're still a few meters away from the door and Theo is really kinda suggesting that Matt should probably put him down now.

(He doesn't. He almost does one time but then remembers that, like, that's not the goal here. Stupid sway.)

Theo starts poking Matt. To get him to put him down. Because like, Theo doesn't want to hurt him.

(There is an implied threat-or-prediction here.)

And one of the sets of steps and smells in the background gets close enough to ask, "Is there something you want to tell me, Sadde?"

Theo pokes Matt slightly harder this time, hissing at him to let him go–

– which he does, surprised –

– and Theo runs over to the smell and bites down.

"Let go of my mother!"

He– sort of slows down, confused?

"Person! Stop!" shouts Matt, hoping that will get through better.

By the way Theo stops and lets go of her and moves backwards, slowly and looking at the blood and then shaking his head and moving back some more, speeding up and then noticing that there's a building and changing directions to try to get away from both of them – yeah, it probably got through better.

"Jesus Christ am I gonna have to associate the word mother with person to you are you stupid," he says in a bit of a panic as he runs towards his mother—

—who's surprised and faint and terrified but otherwise not too bad off. "Is your friend a vampire," she asks in a low voice.

No response from Theo. He's just– sort of crouching down, a fair distance away, hoodie still hopefully covering his face.

Matt follows over with Sadde, gets out his phone in case she needs the hospital, leaves Sadde to communicate things to her.

"Mom, let's get you inside so the vampire can't get to you, yeah?" He blinks and looks at Theo. "And I think collecting some of your blood would be a good idea."

He starts leading Laura inside.

Matt looks between Sadde-and-mom and Theo, not really sure what to do.

He settles on going over to Theo because it would probably be worse to leave him there unsupervised and, uh. There are no containers or anything, how is he meant to get blood, uh.

He goes to the door of the house and asks Sadde for some sort of container or something, keeping an eye on Theo as he does so.

Theo stays crouched in the same position.

Sadde goes inside, provides one, then goes back inside.

So Matt takes it and goes to Theo and– finds that Theo has already cut himself, so, okay.

He'll just collect some blood and go back to provide it to Sadde, then. While keeping watch on Theo, somewhat worriedly, and hoping Sadde's mom is okay.

Sadde wordlessly accepts the blood, and goes back inside yet again, and gives it to his mother.

And starts explaining.

Okay. Well. Matt will go sit with Theo and hope he's okay and try talking to him a bit.

Since he probably didn't mean to go biting Sadde's mom.

At least he didn't bite too much.

Eventually Sadde will go outside, though. "So, why'd you attack my mom and not Willow."

Theo doesn't say anything for a few seconds, then he responds, "I think it was because of the threshold testing."

"...stupid magic. Are you really just hungry all the time? Can't you just say, yes, that's an appetizing smell, but I ate a few hours ago and don't really feel like it?"

"I don't know if there's anything I can easily compare it to, and I haven't been properly hungry yet so I don't know if I get that, but so far it has just been a desire to bite and– it bypasses the 'am I really hungry' and the 'should I really be doing this' bits of how I would usually process something?" Pause. "Unless I'm focusing on how I should not bite people, which I was when we saw Willow, in which case I seem to do okay."

Matt bites his lip a bit.

"That sounds like a useful mental habit to eventually adopt."

Y'think.

"And you can't focus on that while being pushed through a door? And for that matter why did you let him go at that time, Matt?"

"He poked me, your mother startled me, he is a vampire. It's not like I did it intentionally."

"I cannot in fact focus on the fact that people are people and I should not attack people and that she was a person while someone is attempting to carry me through a door and my head is filled with 'I should try knocking him over so I can get away from him' and also 'I should not harm this precious soul that would be terrible', no."

"That. Sounds very annoying. Being a vampire is getting less and less tempting."

No comment.

"Is your mom doing okay?"

"Yeah, vampire blood's pretty good for healing stuff, apparently."

"That's– good," he says. "The invitation thing is nice for protection, at least."

"Well, theoretically the vampire could, like, throw a rock or use a flamethrower—or could they?"

"… Do we actually want to test this? Because it's not been ruled out but never know, it might cause him unspeakable pain to try and then he'll want to go chew everyone in town."

"Maybe just throwing a small stone? While being bride-carried by you?"

"At the house, intending not to actually hit it, or are we seriously trying to break a window here or something?"

"Or through the door," suggests Theo. Quietly.

"Yes, through the door is what I meant."

"Is the carrying to make it harder for me to run off if I have that desire or some other purpose?"

"Yes, that."

"Ok."

"So, let's do it then?"

Theo shrugs. Probably in assent.

Sadde finds a rock.

Theo takes it and lets Matt pick him up.

Doorwards! If he even needs that. And to an angle so he won't hit the door, in case it's not totally open.

Hopefully they don't go too close.

And then he will throw the rock through the door.

"Okay, so you can throw rocks through doors... You can form the intent to go through the door, can't you?"

"… I can, yes – not when Matt was trying to drag me over the threshold but before that yes."

"So we can't test whether your intent to do things is affected, hmm..."

"Intent to do what things? – Intent to go inside the house is messed with if I'm too close?"

"Intent to set the house on fire or throw rocks through the window or whatever."

"Well, we could see if my intent to try breaking the door lets me actually in to break the door, but I expect that'll be contaminated by the fact I can't get too close." Sigh. "Unfortunately I don't know any not-so-abandoned buildings around here, or ones people would be okay with me destroying, and if I did I think they might not count to keep me out anyway."

"Preeetty much. ...hmm. Can you get close to the door if you don't wanna get in?"

"… Should I form an intent to do something else or just see if I can get there while curious about being able to get closer?"

"Yeah."

Sure, whatever, he'll just go up to the door while intending to see if he can see inside the freaking house because obviously the fact he's a murderous vampire is totally his fault, ugh.

Apparently he can get to the door if he doesn't have an intent to go in.

But not beyond...?

He is not planning on going inside at this point, no. He thinks that were he planning on going inside he might have some horrible desire to get immediately away from the house so that he's nowhere near it and right now he doesn't want that sort of feeling so he's just going to very casually not want to go in, thanks.

"Anything we need testing here after that result or are we done?"

"I kinda still wanna explore the boundaries of that but I'm sure we won't find any loopholes."

"Yeah. Any particular boundaries you want to explore right now, or are we going to have to try to find a place that still counts that he can try to destroy?"

"Wanted to see if he could walk towards, say, me, inside the house, without forming an intent that mentions the house. And after that I, um, kinda wanna spend some time with my mother."

Nod. "Should we do that now, then? And – he could be further from the house so it's not as bad for him if it is bad."

Theo is probably willing to– whatever. Right now he's just standing near the door with his hoodie on, not doing much.

"Sure."

In he goes.

So Theo walks back from the house a bit, to about where he previously stopped of his own accord while trying to enter the house, and forms an intention to walk to Sadde.

He seems stopped exactly the same way as before, and reports that to Matt.

"Yeah, kinda expected that."

"Mm," says Matt. "So – I guess we'll see you tomorrow, then?"