"… It is maybe not the best idea to eat this around you," he says. "You know, because– biteyness might be easier when… biting."

"Okay, then we return to your place? How's the sun?"

It's burning, is how. Not just uncomfortably so, it feels like he's about to shed.

"Burning," he says. "Return to my place now, you mean? Or after I eat… somewhere…?"

"Burning how much? You don't look that uncomfortable. Anyway, back to your place, I think."

"Like I'm going to start peeling from sunburn," he says, then he reaches to grab Sadde in a bridal style. Unless he objects.

He winces at the description but does not object to being carried.

Then they can go back to Theo's house, through the few alleyways and across a road and then by ways of hopping a fence.

Theo goes up to the door, puts down the squirrel, opens it, picks the squirrel back up, gets out of the sun and then places Sadde down.

Running is kinda a rush.

"Do you want to hide somewhere while you eat, then?"

"Yeah," he says. "I'll go eat this– um, in the living room and try not to get any blood on the carpet."

And unless Sadde has any further input, he will go do so.

Sadde has no further input, other than nonverbal wistfulness.

So Theo goes into the living room and bites into the squirrel.

The squirrel tastes alright. But it's small and doesn't fill him very much.

… And how is his 'inclination to lick a wall' meter? Doing okay or does he actually want to go lick a wall?

He does not in fact feel like licking a wall.

How much does he want to go bite Sadde? Is it manageable or does he need to get away before it goes into 'unmanageable'?

It's... not noticeably less manageable than it was before the squirrel.

Okay good.

Then he goes into the kitchen and tells Sadde the results. Specifically: "The squirrel was small but not too bad. I don't feel particularly more like biting you."

"Promising! But if the effects happen at the scale of draining a human, that's a lot more blood than a squirrel could give you."

"Yeah, I know," he says. "Could try draining a deer or something instead, if I can find one." Shrug.

Is he feeling at all hungry yet?

He's not.

"Okay, so you can eat animals, and you don't go crazy when you do, and you can exist around at least one tasty person."

"Apparently," he says. "And also I have superspeed and superstrength and super senses to some degree and also a good memory and presumably sharp teeth."

"Yes. You do."

"… And can you brainstorm any things for me to do right now that aren't 'break down over what a horrible thing I am' so that I can actually hopefully feel like I'm redeeming myself?"

Do not say 'me,' do not say 'me,' that will be unhelpful and unlikely to succeed and he is suffering and even though sex would help with the suffering it is not the time.

"You're not a horrible thing just because you're now part of an apparently-not-fictitious species that just so happens to have a morally undesirable diet. What we could do is science."

"Yeah and maybe find some way to neutralize me if I'm in a frenzy that hopefully doesn't result in my death." Shudder.