"You're very attractive."

"Tickling your fancy, am I? Well, maybe you could have me for dessert tonight."

"...here?"

"Here," Peter agrees. "I really want to know how you feel inside me."

Don licks his lips. "I would like that."

Peter... actually has a pretty good time, all things considered.

It's a strange switch to flick in his head, this change in how he approaches interaction with Don. The trick is taking things as they come, and not comparing the things Don says to things that would have felt more natural to say, to him. He has to clamp down on his occasional urge to say... longer sentences, sort of, since it seems like other people will always basically only extract a gist of whatever he says. It's even almost possible to have logical progression in the conversation, so long as he limits each step to a short statement and allows Don to register and react to it.

He has to admit this was... actually the best time he has had with another person ever since the day he came to be.

The way Don rails him against a wall after they're done with the food is a nice bonus, too. He even takes a selfie while doing it to post to his Simstagram.

Don does not remain Peter's only partner, after that. Something something opened the floodgates something. While he doesn't feel like the "memories" from before he woke up are really his, and from some "objective perspective" he can't really miss something he's never had, he really missed sex. His hands are nice and all but they don't really function as a full replacement for another person next to him sharing this climax. He does go to the beach with Don, and they have a ton of fun being absolute sluts, and Don's Simstagram profile becomes a lot closer to a porn profile than it was before.

And the world listens. The thrice-damned experiment works, as after a couple more weeks the Overton Window of the discourse moves to the "free bodies movement" focusing on liberating sexuality rather than literally just fighting against "oppressive dress codes" or whatever the hell. It is, again, completely acausal: it just happens that the world becomes a world where sex is a lot more accepted and widespread and... less of a big deal.

If Peter were to make an analogy of what it feels like, it feels a little bit like playing games with someone else, or singing, or any other regular human activity you might do with another person. There are places and times where it's expected you should refrain from it—if you play games on your phone in the middle of a work meeting people will be put out, you shouldn't eat popcorn in the middle of class, don't whistle loudly in a theatre—but other than that sort of situational appropriateness it's just another way in which humans have needs and wants and might do things. It's... nothing special.

Kind of. Spontaneous public orgies in the middle of a park are still frowned upon, a bit. They can get pretty loud and obnoxious.

He has a ton of fun with people, and almost loses himself in this character of a version of himself that only says short sentences most of the time. And he still has the occasional breakdown about how everything absolutely and completely sucks. But a vague plan starts forming.

The thing he seems to do, most noticeably, is change the status quo, right? It's being different. So, what if high-profile and interesting events start occurring more regularly?

His idea is staging various such events, anonymously. He's not quite sure what such an event could be, but things like large charitable interventions, scientific breakthroughs, magical events, even things like complex heists are all possibilities. And maybe... if those things start happening enough because of him... they'll also start happening without him. And then, maybe, the people who are behind the events that he didn't do... will turn out to be people.

It's a reach, but it's the best he's been able to come up with. At least so far. He needs to understand things better, but until he does, this will have to do.

But Don... ages. Everyone ages. Faster than Peter does, noticeably so, and it does still... get to him.

You know who doesn't age? Vampires.

Maybe it's time to get to know one.

It turns out to be laughably easy to find them. Not that he really expected any different. But for a group of people that's meant to be secretive it really is kind of ridiculous that he can very easily learn about the rumours of creatures of the night in Forgotten Hollow and how there's this one Count who is from a dynasty of Counts who all look extremely physically similar to each other.

Sure thing, Jan. By this point he's just exhausted by everyone's inability to see the obvious.

He transportalates to the town, appearing right in the middle of a park that hilariously has this huge statue of Count Vladislaus Straud I, supposedly the current Count's great-grandfather, who's meant to have founded the place however many years ago.

Well, time to go meet the Count.

Okay, Peter has to admit, Count Straud got the aesthetic down pat. Up a hill overlooking the town he founded and still presides over, big goth mansion decorated with gargoyles, tons of graves decorating it. Very nice.

But five minutes after he rings the bell it occurs to him that... probably... trying to find a vampire out and about in the middle of the day was not his smartest move.

"I am afraid you will not find Count Straud out at this hour."

Peter turns around to look for the source of the voice and sees a young man in a rather fancy red suit wearing recognisably Galce & Dobanna sunglasses standing in the middle of the street, arms folded.

"Yes, I believe I do detect a flaw in my plan," he says as he skips down the stairs to walk over to the man.

"Your plan?"

"What are you doing here?" he asks in lieu of replying. This is rather agentic behaviour for an NPC.

"Following you," he says with a shrug.

"Why were you following me?"

"To save you from Count Straud."

"...save me?"

"He is not who he says he is."

"...what's your name?"

"I am Caleb Vatore," he replies with a bow. "At your service. And yours?"

"Peter Tarleton," he says with an amused headshake. "Count Straud is a vampire," Peter tries.

That—changes things. Caleb sort of straightens up and nods.

(Caleb now knows that Peter is Aware Of The Truth.)

"He is evil and a murderer."

"Isn't that all vampires?"