"So first order of business is figuring out whether you can live on animal blood and slash or blood from bags. And then how often you need to eat."

"And hopefully I don't get an allergic reaction to animal blood or– get high again, actually, that would be pretty– shit, um."

"Um?"

"It would be very shit if I got high while drinking blood especially since I don't currently have a place I can lock myself up to prevent myself from going out of control," he clarifies. "Overall: shit."

"Oh. I'm sure you'll be able to control it, now that you can recognize it for what it is. I could be your spotter, maybe."

"That'd be good if I don't turn around and attack you and it turns out your shapeshifting isn't up to 'save me from the vampire', yeah."

"...I'm pretty sure it is."

"I'm not sure I really want you to stake your life on 'pretty sure' but I'm also more than pretty sure that if I can't keep in control it will be horrifying, so…" he shrugs, looking slightly like he's got a bad taste in his mouth.

"...well, we ought to test it. Somehow. What does it feel like, exactly, to want blood?"

"Like I want to bite you because you smell good and also I have to keep reminding myself that you're a person and I shouldn't just drain you like you're a Capri-Sun because you're a person."

"So, you forget that people are people? How does that work?"

"… You're food instead of a person and I can drain you and want to because that's a thing I can do and you're tasty? It's not like I don't know you're a person, it's just– you're food first and it doesn't cross my mind to think 'oh, this food is a person, should not eat' instead."

"Okay, that's weird, but you're, like, not eating me now."

"Again, because you're a person and I keep thinking that instead of accidentally skipping that whole thing and apparently that works, at least around just you in this environment while I'm this level of hungry."

"What level is that?"

"… I don't have a neat measure of it as a percentage but if you want values, uh, I woke up really high presumably from the turning and then– drained five people."

"All of them? ...that's like twenty-five liters."

"Yeah." Guilty shrug.

"Where did it all fit?"

Because the objection that killing five people is bad seems to not be relevant, at the moment.

"Apparently inside me," he says, "and I have no idea and I'd really rather try not to dwell on the fact I have killed five people and I feel really guilty about this thought."

"...it's not that bad, and I mean, you couldn't have known, you were being all vampire-y. What's important is that you will do your best not to do it again."

"Ugh, 'it'll get better' just leaves such a bitter taste when I know just how bad it's been."

"Look, you've hugged me, we've been talking for a while, you're okay. It's under control, and we'll—we'll figure it out, alright?"

"Yeah," he says. "I– guess. Oh, and I apparently have a good memory – don't know if I said that – and can, uh. Literally tell similar things apart by licking them."

"...I assume you figured this one out when you were high?"