"Hmm, yeah, neutralizing is a good thing to think of. You said the sun burns you but doesn't damage you, so not that. I don't think I wanna test other typical neutralization methods like beheading or staking."

"No, I'm not particularly a fan of those ideas either. And I have no current idea how to make more vampires except for trying to guess from fiction, if I even want to which we don't yet totally know since we don't know how well I'll cope long-term and stuff, maybe overall it will be worse and I'll just expire in a month or something, and I have no idea how I even got to be one."

"Oh, right, yeah, that. No memories of being bitten by anything or fed blood or whatever?"

"Nope. Maybe vampires can do it from a distance or maybe they can alter memories or maybe I'm literally the first one for some messed up reason, I don't know. Presumably you didn't catch shapeshifting so maybe it's just some people are mysteriously magical."

"...yeah, actually, I got it when I was very small. My father was really upset."

"… Did you catch it from somebody, though? I mean, you might have without knowing, I guess, but I mean – do you know you caught it from someone?"

"I do not know that I caught shapeshifting from anyone, no."

"Okay, well, sample size of two isn't actually that helpful unfortunately anyway. And you don't conveniently know anybody else with a magical thing, I suppose."

"Nope, I never lied even when I was banking on my magic messing with your head and making you not believe me."

"I mean, I'm not sure how much it actually messed with my head – it's not like people usually get magic, so that's really not a good explanation to have for 'someone manages to change quite dramatically physically' – something like 'is really good with makeup' is probably a lot more plausible." Shrug. "If it had happened right in front of me, maybe?"

"It did, a few times, actually."

"… Huh. Really?"

"Yeah. Subtler things, though, especially eye color."

"What, do you feel more like being blue-eyed some days and brown-eyed others?"

"No, but my eyes change color to reflect my mood. Skin sometimes, too. I was basically all white when you died."

"That's– um, kinda weird and I'm sorry that it was that bad for you?"

"...how wouldn't it?"

"Be that bad, you mean?" Shrug. "I don't know, I was just– some random student at some new school you'd moved to like three weeks ago."

"A month and a week, actually, and I get broken up about any deaths, and deaths this close to me are particularly terrible."

He nods. "Well, I'll try not to die again. Not that I was really expecting it the first time."

"I appreciate it."

Small smile.

"So, vampires invariably have fast healing in fiction."

"Yeah. So I should probably try stabbing myself – not burning, that sounds like a terrible idea – and seeing how long it takes to heal! Woo."

Sharp knife? Presumably. A less sharp knife will likely not cut him properly.

… Unless Sadde has objections.

Sadde is a bit queasy about cutting Theo but yeah that's what he's thought too.