'I have incorporated several concepts I had not previously encountered into mine.  I do not seem able to - shift the core.  Though I have not yet tried very hard to.'

"And the core is... vampirism."

'Approximately.'

"Approximately?"

'It is more the collection of individual aspects than the whole of the concept, though I find there to be a coherency to which aspects are included and which are not.'

"What are the important parts?"

'Immortality.  Self-determination, power.  Elegance.  Miscellaneous concrete visual qualities which are not concisely reportable by verbal means.'

"Huh. Why vampires and not, like, Elves."

'I was introduced to vampires and not to Elves when I first arrived on Earth.  And my list of important parts was not exhaustive.'

"Fair enough. I don't think I've run into an idea anything like sangrades before, did you make that up?"

'It seemed the best available route to encouraging the spread of magic and ensuring the moral treatment of those whose blood was drank, within the bounds of my aesthetics.'  They peek out at Judy.  'Or attempting to ensure.'

(Judy looks at the floor and pets her cat.)

"How was it supposed to ensure that?"

'By giving them their own magic.'

"So you were - what, aware but not in the right level of detail of the possibility of hostility -"

"I mean in fairness it probably does mostly work once you get rid of the feralness, right.  Other possible forms of mistreatment are mostly - slower.  Although then why the vessel thing - or, I guess that still makes sense for other reasons . . ."

"Vessel thing?"

"Where if I put blood in a cup or whatever before drinking it, the person it came from doesn't get any magic."

"Oh, yeah. That totally allows you to keep people chained up in your basement and occasionally go all Red Cross on 'em."

Ancora sends Cam more sheet music.

Cam picks up his violin and plays obligingly.

They return to their standard illegibility upon rising, although gosh that sure is some sad cello.

Judy doesn't cry at the sad cello but does get very slightly misty-eyed.  After the first song she interrupts.  " - Um.  Disclaimer, I've met exactly three vampires that I know of, but my impression of the ones extant today is that - well they do mostly seem to be rich jerks, as far as I can tell.  But even rich jerks mmmostly don't chain people up in their basements?  Like probably it's ever happened, but.  - Actually I don't even know if that's true; there might be few enough vamps that it hasn't.  But in any case it doesn't seem like quite the right . . . trope."

"I didn't mean to suggest I thought basement blood banks were epidemic, just that they didn't seem structurally inconvenient for vampire reasons. Do they seem to be - tropey? I guess being rich jerks is arguably a trope."