All my rps r ded so.... rp with a smol 'vegan' vampire?

Bearing the smile her reply had brought to his face, the boy stopped playing with his hair mid way, blinking a few times as if he was making sure he heard the question correct.
"What do i wash my… Uh, i think soap? Like, regular soap you can make? I just add a little bit of Sweet flower juice to dim out the chemical smell, why?"

"If someone ends up learning then i guess its all good, since that's the point, right?" he concluded, shrugging softly. Most mistakes he learned from were his own, given he had to learn to live by himself.
"Speaking of, what are people trying to invent today? im curious."

With some effort, Damien was able to control the tears he could feel coming, fuelled by the memory.
"Its okay… Thank you but, im pretty sure we couldnt find it even if we tried… i dont remember where i dropped it, and its been so long… It was most likely destroyed or taken by someone else by now. Thank you for the offer though" Damien gently turned her down, managing to sketch a smile in order to mask his pain. He did miss the doll a lot, but he had to also be realistic about its fate. The only thing he regretted other than losing his only companion, was the loss of his only connection with his father

"Oh?" the boy uttered, grabbing several strands of hair and sniffing them. He'd taken a bath pretty recently, but he didnt expect his hair to still carry the scent as strongly as before.
"Thats not the soap smell, its just my hair.. It always smells like this." he commented, looking back at her. As for the soap, of course he made it himself, otherwise how was he supposed to wash?

"Wait, Mars? Like, the planet? They managed to send robots to Mars? That's incredible!" he squeaked, genuinely surprised. To him, that had always been a total fantasy one could only dream of.

"Its okay though. Its been a long time, im kind of over it by now…" he forced a little smile, trying not to worry her. It was true he missed that toy, but no amount of grief could bring it back

Confused, Damien just nodded, looking at her with a slight frown as if she'd just told him the sky wasn't supposed to be blue.
"Is it not supposed to smell like that? I thought everyone had a scent like that" he said, scratching his cheek with one finger, unsure of his own knowledge. Whatever small memories he had of his mother were always accompanied by her soft fragrance.

"That's so cool… I always thought that place only existed as something out there in space, that could not be reached, because it was so far away. To think it was actually possible to reach the moon… What's it like there? Is it bright? How did people get there? The robots, what are they like? And the space station thing, how does it work?"
The notion that man had made it that far into the unknown both scared and intrigued him, seeing how it felt so hard to achieve, especially for someone as small as him - he may not have wished to personally go there, but his self image surely had a hand in his doubts, leaving him only with the option to dream about it. Therefore, his curiosity had peaked almost violently when this life long imaginary dream was finally realized.

The boy nodded lightly, understanding she knew just how much the loss had affected him, or at the very least had an idea about it. And he was honestly glad she did. Damien really wasn't completely over it, not by a long shot, - had it been just that he probably would have gotten over it, but having lost it in the quick succession that had deprived him of all he'd ever known and had, it was ten times harder - yet for her sake he was trying to put on a slightly more brave face. He didn't want to pour all of his life's misfortune on her from the second day he knew her.
"Mhm…" he hummed in understanding, glad she shared the same feeling as him

"I dont think its that obvious on everyone…"
He stopped for a brief moment, sniffing the air in Mari's direction.
"Well, at least yours isnt" he continued, puzzled by the experience. Compared to how he recalled his mother, Mari did not smell like anything, at the very least not until he got very close to her - that was probably one reason why he'd failed to notice her the night before upon entering the room.

"No atmosphere? There's no air up there? How come? And how did people manage to breathe then? So the moon is like a giant mirror of some kind?" the next wave of questions came, seemingly in quick succession. "What do the robots look like? Why do they collect samples? What do they do with them? What do they need it for? How are people able to control them from all the way here? And why are they alternating crew on the space station?"
He had read only a few science fiction books, but out of them, only one contained an actual story about being on a different planet, but even there, some things had always intrigued him, especially the machines. What could aid humans out there and keep them alive?

Damien gazed back at her once the girl opened her arms, looking for the meaning of her gesture somewhere on her expression. After a few seconds of just staring, he silently scooted over and hugged her tight yet again, grateful for the comfort. A gesture so small was very helpful to him whenever he felt down

"Dont worry, you smell nice, from up close that is" he rushed to assure her, partially out of fear she might misunderstand what he meant by earlier statement.

"How do they manage to bring air up there? In like some sort of container or how?" the boy asked. It was honestly funny how the more he asked, the more new stuff he found out, like how now people could contain air apparently.
"Samples in order to know to expect what? Moving there? Do people intend moving on the moon? But if there's no air how will they do that? And computers… Those are…? Okay, the crew alternating makes a lot more sense now, i guess no one would want to be so far away from home forever…"
Damien's voice faded with the final sentence, as his train of thought seemed to move in a different direction.

Finding himself in the comfortable hug once again, he dared rub his cheek against her shoulder, in a small attempt at comforting himself. Up close, the girl did smell rather nice, although it was a vague fragrance, like some sort of perfume.

Damien rushed to confirm, relieved his words hadn't been misunderstood.
"Yea, its subtle." he repeated, rubbing the back of his head.

"Have you ever seen one of those spacesuits?" he asked, secretly curious if she could provide some more pictures, like she had done before with the cherry blossoms.
"Why would people want to move to a different planet? what's wrong with this one?"
The idea of trapping air so it could be breathed in outer space intrigued him, given he couldnt touch it or feel it. How could one trap something they couldnt touch?
"i know, i know, its just… I kinda miss the place i used to live in before"

A slight shiver went through his body when he felt her hand touch his head, but it quickly subsided, as he remembered he wasnt in any danger. It actually reminded him a lot of his mother, who used to do the same to him when he was sad.

With his hunch proven correct, Damien leaned in closer to her phone, anticipating the pictures that would come. Surely enough, he was soon presented with pictures of people in fat white suits, with a weird helmet on their head.
"These are the suits? They look so chubby… That box on the back is the air container?"
His initial puzzled expression turned into a frown, as he took in the idea of overpopulation.
"You're saying… Theres so many people, that theres no more room for them?" he asked slowly, like he couldnt believe it.
"Homesick… Mari i-… i really appreciate what you do for me, but finding my old home would mean travelling the sea… And even then i couldnt tell you where i used to live… im seriously grateful for all your efforts but.. I just dont think its possible."

With each stroke, he slowly allowed himself to relax to the point of him just melting in her arms, no more resistance at all. Resting on her shoulder with his eyes closed was the most calming thing in ages.
"Its okay… Dont worry… Just habit" he whispered back lightly, reassuringly

"So its also cold out there? Not just unbreathable? That's so cool… I wonder why" he muttered, taking another mental note about the great unknown out there. Cold enough for one to freeze to death…
"I never thought about life other than here. Well, maybe once or twice but not like this." he admitted, considering the option. Damien barely dared explore the things outside his house, let alone a whole differrent world, filed with other creatures he didnt know anything about. No thanks.

Confused, the boy looked at her again. He wasn't afraid of boats and ships, after all, he'd been on one before with no bad consequence. The problem laid elsewhere.
"Ah, no, i didnt mean that. Its just… I wouldnt want to bother you more than i already have. You'd probably have to pay for the transport, and i wouldnt want to burden you any more… For now, just finding him should be enough for me." His request was small, but it was all he dared ask of her.

Damien continued to enjoy the calm moment, just simply laying there unmoved and feeling the way her fingers made their way through his crudely cut, yet soft locks

"Oh, so its like void out there? With nothing in it, right? But the planets have air, which is also why its warm here, kinda like a greenhouse effect?" he tried to clarify things for himself while also looking at Mri for confirmation.
"It wouldnt be excluded for them to be real. After all, you didnt think vampires were real until you met me. Who's to say they dont exist, but simply just hide away like i do?"
Damien didnt know much about aliens, but that reason had felt the most logical to him, given the circumstances. If vampires were real, then who knew how many other creatures were as well?

While it was good to know his friend did not see him as a bother, he still couldnt allow her to pour too many resources in helping him find one person who probably didnt even exist anymore. The failure scared him more than the success.
"ook… But i have no idea how much this is going to work. I'll be glad if we just find him."

Slowly, Damien moved away from the girl, pulling back his spindly body and lifting a shy gaze towards her. He would have loved to stay there more, but he figured he had spent enough time as it was. Also, he was two steps a way from falling asleep on her arm, which might have been awkward.
"Thanks…"

Getting an answer right boosted Damien's confidence, further amplified by her encouraging smile. He was learning, which was good since that always brought him some joy and pride in being good at something.
"They could, though im not sure. I can only speak for myself, i dont know what aliens are or if they are real" he added cautiously, looking down at his hand somewhat shyly.

Damien only nodded in response, not contradicting Mari anymore. She clearly had more confidence than he did, so he decided to let her have it her way. Somewhere deep inside he feared that if he were to find his birth father, if he didnt reject him first, he'd lose him the same way he'd lost everyone else in his life who had been dear to him, and he really did not want to go through that again. Unlike Mari, he did not know much about vampires and what they supposedly could do, so he was clueless about the potential flaws in his ideas.

The boy murmured some kind of thank you to her, before moving his attention back to the letter. There wasn't much left in it, but he was curious about what Mari thought of the whole thing.

"Why would anyone make stuff up for publicity though? And why aliens?" he questioned.
The whole thing was curious to him - people trying to prove their existence so vehemently they would go as far as fake things. Just why? Perhaps where he was used to people knowing and fearing those like him, he hadn't considered that maybe there were other things out there on the same boat as him. After all, according to Mari, vampires too were in the realm of fiction currently.
"Oooh, i think i got it. But when you mean aliens from another planet, what do you think of? As in, what do they look like? If they have an appearance that is…" he continued, noticing the slight fist bump which made him smile a little.

Damien noticed her eyes on him, and decided to avert his gaze from her.
"Its okay, im just… worried, thats all." he replied, stuffing all of his throughts into that masking comment.

The rest of the letter didnt contain much, just well wishes and an implied hope of one day meeting face to face, plus a post message note, about the boy's mother and a few other things that were slightly ambiguous

"But, how does one get famous from aliens? Just, how does that work?"
Was it something similar to when people discovered a new species of animal and they became known for it? But then again, aliens werent animals, according to Mari. So how did it count?
"People seem to have a lot of interests these days" he hummed, scratching one of his cheeks thoughtfully. "I mean, the alien situation sounds a lot like the vampire one you told me about. Why are they so interesting to people?"

Damien initially avoided answering, looking to his side at the couch pillow, but slowly melted enough to speak.
"I…. i dont know, i guess everything. From looking for him to finding him or not. Theres so many things that could go wrong… And im kind of scared…" he finally admitted, speaking slowly.

The boy sat quietly next to her, staring at the simple yet delicate signature that only said "Dad". Not his name, not anything else more formal, just dad and it was honestly a preferred term for Damien. It was just so simple yet lovely and heart warming to pronounce

Honestly, the whole thing about publicity, news and papers made very little sense to him. In the end it was just all about making more money, wasn't it? One of the reasons old as time that often pushed people to do who knows what in order to obtain them, of course.
"Stories really are interesting, so i can see why people would be very interested. I'm just still slightly confused that something like that is considered myth or legend, after it having been fact for so long… Its really impressive how things change over the years." Damien spoke, as he thought about all the info he'd been given.

The gentle pressure of the girl's hand did not make him sink, though normally it would have, and her support once again felt like a soft pillow he could land on, when struck by his own insecurities.
He eventually sighed, resigned.
"I guess you're right.. Knowing really is better than having no clue… So where do we start?"

"Of course, no problem." he sketched a smile, as he took back the letter carefully. It may have not been much, but it had been an item of comfort to him throughout the years.
Yet, the news she had brought out the boy's curiosity once again. Where would she start looking?

"Just how bad does a story need to be in order to be considered trash? I mean, i know a bad book when i see one but never that bad" the boy asked, genuinely taken aback by the term. On one side, he probably did not know the library in the mansion contained a most likely carefully selected collection of books, where the chances of a bad book were kinda low from the start, if the original owner had any taste. While on the other one, Damien always appreciated a fantasy story, since it allowed him to imagine so many things, and none he'd read so far had been any lower than the average at best level.
"Guess many people like a good mystery, i assume?" he attempted to summarize everything, while also trying to figure out how on earth did people believing vampires were myths and everything he'd ever been told about them connected logically. If they were real, then how did they become legend?

"Ja..pan…"
The word came off broken out of the boy's mouth, like that was the first time he ever heard of the location and he was trying to engrave it into his memory, as if it was a tiny clue he'd just found.
"Do you.. have any clue as to how to get there? or find him there? It sounds far away…"

The boy frowned.
"People are weird sometimes… But how does a bad book make it to the publisher? Just, how? If its that bad, shouldn't an editor reject it or something?" he asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

Curious and afraid? Damien stopped to think about it for a little bit.
"I dont think i ever assumed that people would be scared of something new… Like, for me, i always just thought they hated me, but never thought they could be afraid and that was why they wanted me gone. it just, never crossed my mind that anyone could actually fear someone like me… Its so intriguing to think about" he confessed, looking past her, at the wall. Judging by the girl's soft tone, he knew she was trying to be comforting, but he couldnt help start questioning his knowledge.

Damien quietly followed her mini ramble, just with his curiousity visible in his green iris. To him it was a whole new world she spoke about, and he had no idea what to think of.
"Is… is that it? You just need to find the place where the festival happens and start from there? Sounds a little good actually." the boy dared smile a little, motivated a bit by the possible "plan"