It will rain again tomorrow (RP)

- Mark -

"Hellhound? On the tracks? You mean that story is real! Wow!" Jena exclaims as you brush over your adventures.

"Josephine." She says with a knowing sigh. "What has she done this time?" Jena is still not sure why you are looking after the wayward girl. She does not have any ready, easy answers, apparently there aren't any, but you recall —maybe too late— that Jena spent her teenage years trapped in a cult, her views might not be completely conventional.

What do you do?

- Mark -

You can almost hear Jena facepalm at your diatribe. "I think that is ... normal?" She says. "She's just testing her boundaries?" Both these statements had distinct question marks at the end, Jena is no expert, but what she says does fit with what you have read.

People need boundaries, if only so they can push against them, and there are complications with Josephine that mean you need to protect her from more than just the usual threats out there. You don't know who her father was —neither does she— but with what happened to her mother† leaving her in your care, she is bound to act out, but also less wise to do so.

Does Shelyna know that this has been going on?

• † Do we know what did happen to her mother? Something to think about later.

"Please?" Benji repeats. "I really need your help."

- Benji -

"Uh... come in ... come in." Bev says. She is still nervous of you, and is also not sure about the stories she has heard about vampires needing an invitation to enter, but she is also becoming concerned about the neighbours seeing this tableau at her door.

"What happened to you?" She asks and you get the sense she wants to add '... is everyone (meaning Rhiannon) OK'.

"Do you need to ... um... clean up?" She motions to the bathroom and you realise you probably look like a homeless-person to her right now, adding an additional layer of resistance to her defences.

What do you do?

Benji hesitates for a moment before following Bev into her flat. "I… I don’t know. I don’t usually let it get this bad." He doesn’t tell her about the tunnels or the Hellhound, afraid that it will invite more questions that he just doesn’t have the time or patience to answer right now.

In response to her comment about getting cleaned up, he blinks at her, confused by her priorities but eager to do whatever it takes to satiate his Hunger without hurting anyone. "…Do you want me to? I can, if you want, but listen, you had that needle and tube gizmo, right? Maybe we could use that," he suggests, trying to get the conversation back onto more important things. He would prefer to bite her, but anything to take the edge off and buy him a little time to think…

- Benji -

Your more calm and rational words are helping diminish the bad impression you made earlier. If you can hold yourself together enough to wash the dirt from your face —so you don't smear it all over her skin and increase the chance of infection, the doctor in her is thinking— that will help, but the Eternal Hunger is raging at you to take her right here, right now, to drink your fill.

"I... I did not expect, not so soon. I did not think to bring it home again." She had brought that kit from work especially because Rhiannon said she was bringing a vampire over, and does not have it now (the hospital bean-counters need to be appeased). This is good news, since it means biting! It also means she took the opportunity of having a vamp over to already be thinking about offering up her vital lifeblood. She is ripe for the plucking, if you can just get past her instinct for self-preservation. On the other hand, if you can scare her she may run, and then you can chase...

What do you do?

Benji pushes aside those predatory impulses — to chase and dominate and what-have-you. It’s not particularly hard for him to do, even now in this frantic state. He hasn’t truly hunted anything in over a century at least. Other vampires may not think very highly of him for that, but it’s the reason he’s still alive (or undead, as it were) and many of them are not. The harder part to manage is the Hunger itself.

"I’m sorry for frightening you," he says, carefully. "It’s hard for me to- to think right now. I’ll wash my face, but I need… I need a decision, okay?"

- Benji -

Bev has every reason to turn you away, this was not what she originally signed up for and you have done nothing to reassure her that you are 'decent people' like Rhiannon dubbed you, nor sufficiently in control of yourself to do the right thing. So it may come as a surprise that she follows you into the bathroom, watching you intently.

Clearly you are going to owe her, big time, for this. Your agreement is tacit upon your coming here.

"Let's do it in here." She says. "Tiles are easier to clean up if there is... spillage."

She is still holding her top, which places her hands close to her neck, like a barrier. "We don't have to ... you don't need to... I don't want everyone to see..." She stumbles over her words, clearly struggling to think straight.

She gathers her thoughts, unlocks her phone and places it within easy reach, takes a deep breath and turns to you, lowering one hand to lift the hem of her sleep shorts. "There are lots of major blood vessels here." She says, touching the flesh of her inner thigh. "And it is easier to hide. Will that work?"

What do you do?

Benji frowns. "…That’s not necessary. Here, give me your hand."

He takes her hand and, without further ado, sinks his teeth into her wrist. He hooks his other arm around her shoulders, to keep her from falling and hitting her head if she passes out.

For Bev, there is a brief moment of pain and then a sort of numbness spreading up her arm and a gentle fading in and out of consciousness, like she’s just beginning to fall asleep.

For Benji, there is a euphoric sense of peace and satisfaction. The Hunger subsides and, in its place, he feels almost human, for a brief time.

- Benji -

"No, my work..." Bev says, concerned that a hand-wound would be very visible and could impede her job, but she is powerless to resist you and swoons as you feed.

She is pretty out of it when you are done, though she looks content and pleased.

The wrist is a complicated and delicate structure, with hundreds of nerves and controlling tendons concentrated in a small space alongside those vital veins and arteries. Injuries to the wrist can incapacity her and even cost her her job.

What do you do about the injury and the bleeding? Do you leave her where she is, or move her to a more comfortable location? Do you hang around and wait for her to awaken from her fugue state?

What do you do?

Benji helps Bev over to her living room and sits her down on the couch. He finds a box of bandaids in a drawer in her bathroom and sticks a couple of them over the two little fang wounds on her wrist. While he waits for her to come to, he busies himself making a cup of tea in the kitchen, then brings it over to her on the couch, along with a tin of biscuits he found in the pantry. "How are you feeling?" he asks, as he hands her the cup of tea.

- Benji -

Bev looks at the puncture wounds on her wrist with distaste. "I said I did not want this to be visible." She complains that you ignored her one request. She flexes her hand —unfortunately cause the bleeding to start again so she has to press on the spot and then replace the plasters (what brits call your american 'bandaids':) with a proper white, cotton dressing from the bathroom.

"Are you feeling better?" She asks, curious for details about why you were so desperate before, but not sure how to ask.

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

Bev is late to your breakfast meeting, but that is not overly unexpected in your experience, and maybe she wasn't sure you were coming until she got your text. When she finally arrives she is bundled up against the rain, an umbrella to protect her afro, and a long coat, boots, and gloves. She shakes out the umbrella as she enters the coffee shop and leaves it in the umbrella stand by the door, hanging her coat up on the peg nearby, then comes over.

She still has her gloves on when she sits down, but that is not unusual, and complements the jersey she has on over her scrubs.

"You look..." She starts to complement you, but then cuts off the lie. "Actually you look tired. Did you do anything interesting last night?" She does not make any mention of how her night went.

What do you do?

"Much better," says Benji. "Thank you for that, and sorry again for turning up in the middle of the night, uninvited, like this, by the way. That was very rude of me. It won’t happen again."

- Benji -

"Let's not make a habit of it, no." Bev agrees with a wan smile. "But it wasn't so bad." She rubs her wrist distractedly.

"And I am sure you had good reason. Won't you tell me what happened to bring you here like this?" She sounds sleepy, and you are sure that, with a little reassurance and comfort, you can coax her to slumber if you don't want to go into detail.

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

Bev looks a little awkward at this. "I thought you knew." She says quietly. "Geraldine passed away last year. Cancer." Bev and Geraldine were involved, before Jeff, and she could probably have used your support during that time, but you were incommunicado, wrapped up with your own stuff.

Did she try contact you a year ago? It is hard to tell.

What do you do?