Batiatus had of course meant that he appreciated the blood of gladiators on other gladiators, rather than the audience, but, he wasn't in a mood to argue with anything as perplexing as Skwisgaar at that moment. It would have actually been rather difficult for blood to have gotten on the audience at the arenas, as, they were typically quite spacious and designed with seating at a level a gladiator would find very difficult to reach. Although, Batiatus knew of an 'alternative' sort of low-class arena, which they called the 'pits of the underworld', where the audience would often end up rather bloody due to close quarters and anything-goes rules. Dethklok would have greatly approved of the place, unlike Batiatus, who agreed it was low-class, even if it was useful on occasion.

Most of what Skwisgaar was said about Dethklok continued to make no sense- the translation spell could only work so hard, and, it couldn't provide words for concepts that didn't exist in the mind of someone from his era. 'Videos', 'recordings', 'death metal'- the terms just couldn't translate. He did manage to figure out that Skwisgaar was a musician, as the translation spell managed to translate 'guitars' into a Roman variety of lute. In combination with the bit about making people go crazy and kill themselves, he almost wondered if Skwisgaar was supposed to be some sort of legendary siren from the Greek myths, but of a male variety. "You are a musician, then?" he asked, finding his question answered almost immediately, as the house-elf arrived with Skwisgaar's Explorer. Batiatus examined the guitar with interest- it wasn't like any instrument he'd ever seen, and so he immediately started trying to evaluate it. "It's a unique instrument, I've never seen anything of the sort."

When Skwisgaar began to play, it was like nothing Batiatus had ever heard. "Jupiter's cock!" he muttered in surprise, unable to recognize the noise as music for a moment. Perhaps it was supposed to sound different underwater? Skwisgaar did admit to coming from a lake. As Skwisgaar continued to play, Batiatus began to realize that there was an actual musical quality to the sound, albeit one he'd never heard before. It was an almost primal, savage quality, which seemed as if it might actually go over quite well in the background of an arena, a good complement to steel against flesh and blood on the sand. "I've never heard anything like it," he told Skwisgaar, who seemed to be indicated that he. . .held a position of some sort of power at the school? He supposed that if this musical mythological being was of some importance, he'd best make the most of the opportunity, even if he didn't understand half of what was said to him, such as the meaning of 'food library'. "Your speed is remarkable, as is the strange tone of your instrument," he told Skwisgaar by way of an attempted compliment- 'death metal' was going to take Batiatus some time to fathom, but he could tell that Skwisgaar considered this show of his musical ability to be something of a treat. "I am intrigued, and am curious to learn more of this. . . 'death metal' tradition?"

He was pretty sure that Skwisgaar had asked his profession, despite the curious phrasing- his playing was somewhat distracting, but he tuned it out as best he could as he replied, "Hell if I know now- before I found myself here, I was a lanista, a trainer and trader of gladiators, and I entertained notions in the political arena. I was getting somewhere too- but now, I'm at a fucking magic school, and need to find something to do."