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"Golden's probably got the room for an extra project. In your opinion, Gloria, how would locals in your world react to a new kind of vampire?"

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"...Most of the world doesn't know that magic and so on exists, but the people who do--and know enough that their reaction isn't to become 'monster hunters' won't have a problem with it once she assures them that she's not going to kill people or make ghouls or whatever."

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"Golden can pass for human to people not in the know when it's called for. And doesn't kill people or make ghouls."

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"I didn't think she would. I don't think her kind of vampire probably even does ghouls."

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"Well, no. She's also against nonconsensual or careless turning in general. Reasons not to go with Golden in particular include factors like 'she's not the friendliest Bell' and stuff like that."

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"Ahuh. Okay, I probably won't introduce her to my wife, but I run a moderately successful nightclub--I'm used to people I wouldn't necessarily choose to interact with just on their own merit. Other vampires might be more...touchy. Unfriendly like grouchy or unfriendly like overly dignified?"

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"She's not un-friendly exactly, just sort of businesslike. She'll still do Bell-quality work on whatever needs doing, but she probably doesn't want to do lunch or make small talk."

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"Oh, that's fine then. Lunch is a bit of an awkward social situation for vampires anyway."

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"Everybody in Golden's world is on a synthetic these days."

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"I can supplement my diet somewhat with nonblood liquids but mostly I feed on willing donors."

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"Anyway, let's get Golden in here, I owe my kids a bedtime story."

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And another one appears. This one's prettier, paler, shorter-haired. Golden-eyed. Aura going BY THE WAY THIS IS A VAMPIRE. The other two disappear.

"As you're the point person in the new world, if you'd rather swap me out for someone else, you still can," Golden mentions. "Possibly someone should put together a catalog."
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"A catalog would probably be helpful," Gloria agrees, "but I have to say there's some appeal in having someone else who doesn't mean alcohol if they say they're going to have a liquid lunch."

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"Ha. I wonder if you'd like bubbly. Bar, would she like bubbly?"

Your class of synthetic substitutes will be agreeable to her, although I might recommend blue.

"First drink is free," Golden remarks, aiming a thumb at the bar, "if you want to try blue."
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"Sure, why not."

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"I'll go address your disagreeable character. Just step out of the door whenever you want to leave Milliways." [I can be contacted like this if we're in the same world, and so can Jane, our interdimensional computer helper, who is in all worlds we're aware of including here at once.]

And Golden vanishes.
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Gloria drinks her glass of blue. It is delightful.

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Eventually:

[Your disagreeable character has been dropped off Downside, where he will not be able to harm anyone except perhaps via being unpleasant company.]
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[Thank you. Well, that's a load off my mind. Klaudia will be happy to hear it.]

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[Your planet will experience a statistically bizarre lack of serious natural disasters. Investigation into how it will be handled if it also experiences an inexplicable extinction of various diseases is pending. Is there any good reason I shouldn't absorb your Internet, leaving its functions unharmed and except as-needed not actively monitored?]

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[None that I'm aware of. Thank you for preventing natural disasters.]

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[That was Golden. Internet eating in progress.]

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[Well, please relay my gratitude. So you're an AI? Is it rude to ask about that?]

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[Not rude. I'm not an AI in the classical sense; no one set out to make me. I seem to be a spontaneously generated blob of personhood which has some unclear relationship to an interaction between two telepathic mutations which are respectively communicative and defensive and I happen to be natively good at inhabiting computer systems and capable of extreme cognitive speed and parallelization. The people who had the originating mutations were a Bell, one you haven't met, and Pen's other parent template, but while I occasionally refer to them as my parents I'm not an alt of any of the biological results of the matchup.]

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[Huh. That's interesting, if not the strangest case of a person coming to be that I've heard.]

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