It's raining in London... again (RP)

- Mark -

Jena beams at your praise, and, even though this is dangerous work, she looks at ease and comforted by the enveloping power of your spell. An almost-permanent tension that she carries in her back relaxes and she looks like she feels safe for the first time today.

"It is storing up all that power." She observes out loud, as though talking to a recording device, but you know she is just articulating what she sees, partially as an aid to her memory but mainly so that you can correct her interpretations —it is not much good remembering facts that are not true, after all.

"What are you hoping for?" She enquires. "It is starting to show cracks. There, see? Are you trying to push it to... or past, the breaking point?"

• What are you trying to do exactly?

And, what do you do?

Benji answers Bev’s questions as best he can, though he is still reeling from the pain and a bit twitchy, flinching whenever anyone gets anywhere near his head. He explains to Bev that, being undead, vampires’ bodies cannot heal on their own and that vampires must feed on the living to heal their wounds instead. He mentions that the healing process can be significantly slowed if the wound is made by a silver weapon. He suspects this is somehow related to the fact that mirrors made with silver won’t show a vampire’s reflection.

"Of course!" he answers Rhiannon’s question. "Although I’m not certain how much use I was in our last encounter with these demons… Are you sure I won’t just get in your way?"

- Rhiannon -

Bev abruptly stops poking at the demon bits when you mention their inclination to reform. She pushes the dish away with a concerned expression on her face. "What do we do with these, then? Flush them? Or is that a bad idea? We don't want them reforming in the sewers? Oh, now I am not going to be able use the toilet ever again, this is worse than the pet alligators!"

She is interested in the hell-hounds and the rest of the investigation. You get the strong impression that if you were to say you needed her help, she would join you for the next part.

At your last question Bev becomes shy and turns away. "I worry about you too." She says, and then in a much quieter voice, pitched so you can easily pretend you did not hear it: "I miss you."

Then, at a normal volume, and as though trying to skip over the admission, she continues: "I am not so much worried that you will get hurt. I know how tough you are. I am more worried that you ... will get hard, that you cut yourself off from people, and you need people to ... to keep you human. Are you taking care of yourself?"

What do you say?

- Benji -

Bev is intrigued by the 'silver mirror' aspect, but disappointed to find that all her mirrors are aluminium-backed and don't exhibit that same phenomenon. "That probably also accounts for not showing up in photographs? They were made with silver too. What about digital photos? There is no silver there, is there?" She is all ready to test if you show up in her phone's camera if you let her.

She tries to make it sound casual, but there is a certain frisson of interest as she asks: "What is it like? 'Feeding'? And," she hesitates ever so slightly before finishing the thought, wrapping her arms around herself, covering her chest with her hands grasping her shoulders near her neck: "... being fed upon?" She is asking Benji, but also suggesting that Rhiannon might have tried it —she is not sure how close you two are— and would really want a first-hand account from the source, as it were.

What do you say?

- Mark -

"Hmm... Hold it there, please." Jena says (meaning the power-level you are pumping in) while she studies the stone rod carefully. She attaches wires to either end, plugging them into a meter from one of the shelves. The needle swings around frantically, and she moves the attachment points closer together and notes that the voltage diminishes as she does so.

"It seems to have some silicon in it? Like a semiconductor? And these shiny flakes may be mica?" She says. "But feel all that power?" She holds her hand over the stave to illustrate her point. "There is only a few volts, so it is not about that sort of power."

Jena pokes at a few of the flakes that have fallen off while it vibrated with energy. "It does not seem very strong." You recall that two of the three staves that were dropped shattered on the ground, and this one was protected by the body of the demon. "You could probably break it. But I would not want to be holding it, or even be near someone holding it when it breaks. It will probably go phloowey."

It looks like if you directed all the magical energy from inside your circle into the stave that it might overload and explode. You could also try channeling the energy out of the circle, leaving the area devoid and the staves impotent.

Channelling the energy out might take time, unless you can test each 'frequency' (they used to call them 'flavours' before, but the trends change) and find what magics are most efficacious and rob it of. This will be tiring, but safe.

Testing the stave to destruction will be easy, but you will need to balance getting it just right to avoid blowing yourselves up, and you will only get one attempt.

What do you do?

Benji smiles for the camera. His smile would be sort of goofy and endearing were it not for his fangs, excited to get his picture taken. "Oh, yes! I’ve been learning to use the telephone camera too! See?" He shows Bev his camera roll, which is full of very blurry, poorly-composed photographs, mostly of pigeons and the moon and whatever else has captured his attention throughout the day (or night). There are a few unflattering selfies of himself and Rhiannon hanging out at his apartment, in which Rhiannon is clearly stoned.

He struggles to describe the Hunger and the sensation of feeding. "I guess it’s a bit like scratching an itch that never goes away. Very satisfying in the moment, but the itch comes back as soon as you stop."

He’s not offended that Rhiannon doesn’t think he’s much use in a fight. He’s a musician, after all, not a demon slayer. He is, however, a little insulted that she thinks he doesn’t know how to keep himself fed. "I do! I have lots of friends!" he insists, indignantly. "It’s just that most of them work during the day and my friend Lizabeth, who I thought might be available this morning, went and got herself arrested."

- Benji and Rhiannon -

"So, 'vampire spit' does not magically heal the bites, like in that TV show? I forget what it was called." Bev ask, obviously agreeing that constant neck wounds would be a bit of a messy giveaway. "That would be convenient. But there are lots of... less visible major veins and arteries.

"Do you need to 'bite' or can you use a phlebotomy needle and tube as a... a straw?" She asks Benji, holding up just such a device from a kit for taking blood samples which she just happened to have with her.

"I suppose you would need to spread it around." Bev agrees. "The body can refill the volume in a day or so, but the red blood cells take anywhere from a month to two months to fully regrow, which is why we say 'wait 12 weeks' between donations, and that is when we only take the regulation one bag."

She is sad that no one spoke about what it feels like, but she does not press the issue at this time.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

"I work here." The urchin says. "So I am here most days. It is a good place for tourists. Three days ago? It was raining. If that helps. I don't recall anything special happening, though, but if there was an uproar the statues would have noticed and they would have been talking about it. They love to gossip, and sometimes we can overhear them and learn things that are useful. All they do is watch people and gossip, they are better than the cameras," they note, waving a hand at all the security cameras covering every inch of London, including the square, "and, maybe, easier to get information out of, if you can get them to care enough to talk.

"Sometimes they ask us," you assume they mean the Beggars' Guild, "for help when they need a little something-something. They can't move, you see, so they need us to fetch things, like 'books' I suppose, or wipe the pigeon crap off their noses, but they don't often talk to me, only Smuts, over there, trusts me so far."

If the statues really do watch everything so closely, then whoever stole the book three days ago must have found an approach that was hidden from their view. Maybe they were not quite so careful about the security cameras?

What do you do?

- Mark -

Jena is, likewise, pleased by the work and the result, and upset that she could not do more. She feels that she let you down by refusing to help you in the Sanctum, and that this was, at best, a second-rate effort down here.

She gives a noncommittal response to your talk about cleansing the Sanctum, indicating that, for sure, she wants to help, but, you realise after she has left, not actually promising to talk about her experience.

"Maybe," says Benji, of the needle and tube. "Jacob— a friend of ours—supplies me with blood bags sometimes, but they don’t seem to help much with the healing situation. And they taste gross anyway."

He tilts his head at Bev, picking up on her curiosity. "Do you want to try it? To see what it feels like?" He glances quickly at Rhiannon to see if she seems okay with that idea.

- Jacob -

The promise of another 10 or even 20 quid definitely gets the urchin's attention. "I will ask Smutsie. See what he has to say." They say, skipping off to the statue of Jan Smuts, and waiting for a moment to chat.

Your search definitely suggests there are cameras or all types around. The Surveyor's overlooks the statue of Millicent from behind, which might be a good angle —and you may have heard dubious rumors that they are associated with Mark's people— while the government offices have a side-on view of the statue. On the far side of the square are the general assortment of gift shops pharmacies and taverns, one might associate with a tourist location, as well as the subway entrance, and the underground have cameras everywhere.

Your urchin returns, looking hopeful. Smuts narrowed down the time he thinks the book went missing, but none of the others were willing to talk.

What do you do?

- Benji and Rhiannon -

"They probably taste gross because of the chemicals in the bags, to keep the blood 'good' for longer —just like our food. Else it clots and congeals into something unusable... for its intended purpose." Bev says confidently. "Or does the 'bite' make it work?" She wonders, academically, about the 'healing' aspect.

You can see her mind working on questions about 'taste' but she is distracted from asking them by the sudden offer of 'trying'.

"I ... don't know." She says, hesitantly at the prospect. She may be particularly confused by Rhiannon being around for it and, possibly foolishly, feels like it may be like 'cheating'. "I mean, if you were desperate, and really needed me," being 'needed' is always a big turn-on, "then maybe I could... Of course, if there was no other choice." You get the impression it would not take a lot push her over the edge.

Bev is partially reassured by Rhiannon words, especially her vouching for Benji as a 'decent guy', but she changes the subject. "Was that the one? I am glad he does not sparkle, and not getting the reference is... quaint."

She puts the needle and tube away, clearly still thinking about their use compared to a bite.

What do you do?