It will rain again tomorrow (RP)

- Jacob -

Lizabeth's description of events seem sto be borne out by her phone not having anything after the time she probably found... whatever it was she found. She has documented all her recent finds in quite some detail, photos of the sites and the items as they lay before she found them, then of them after being washed, and more of them back at her home.

In this case she said she touched something and was 'zapped', then people were there. There is nothing on the phone from her search yesterday morning, just preliminary site-survey photos of piles of detritus on the banks and such. There are branches, and some twisted angle-iron and a broken plastic shelf and a shopping trolley, and other such garbage, there is also something shining dull bronze-coloured but mostly verdigris-green in the last photo you are looking at (not in chronological order), there may be better angles, but the shower has shut off and Lizabeth is probably drying herself and looking for clean clothes.

What do you do?

- Benji -

Still Water is ... still, the rain forming rivulets across its skin. You get the feeling it is watching you for a moment, but then its focus slides off you and you get the impression it is paying attention to things far, far away.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

"Much better, thanks." Lizabeth says, wearing your clothes and taking the tea gratefully. "Yeah, alright. Let me know what you find, yeah?" She says, picking up her phone and contacting Benji, apparently planning on leaving the 'finding out' to you guys while she sleeps.

What do you do?

Benji is fascinated by this strange, inhuman consciousness. The other statues are imbued with the personalities of the people they were made in likeness of, but he wonders what sense of identity something like Still Water might possess. Perhaps some idea or emotion imparted by the artist? He wants to explore this further but the sky is starting to lighten and he knows he really ought to head back to the station soon. He decides he’ll come back and pick this up again later – Still Water isn’t going anywhere and he’s lost Amira’s trail already anyway, so there’s no hurry.

On his way back to Piccadilly, he sends Jacob a text, asking him to pick up Lizabeth from the police station.

A few hours later, he feels his phone vibrating in his pocket while he’s taking a break between performances. He picks up immediately. "Lizabeth! You’re with Jacob, yes? Is everything alright?"

- Benji -

"No everything is not alright!" Lizabeth complains. "I am tired and confused, and don't know what is going on. And your friend won't let me go home and his place is strange. Can you come get me?"

It is a bit early to be leaving work, there are always other buskers keen on poaching your prime spot, but you have been here long enough today that it should not be an issue, just this once, right? Maybe you can encourage Lizabeth to get some sleep, but she will find that easier if you were there.

What do you do?

Benji sighs sadly. He didn’t get to play much yesterday either. "Okay, I’ll be there soon," he says. "But Jacob is just trying to keep you safe. We’ll stop by your house to pick up Hermes and some of your things later, but I don’t think it’s safe for you to stay there right now."

- Mark -

"I think she's the one supposed to push against the boundaries, you set them." Jena says but she does not sound at all sure about this stuff.

"Do you want to... talk to her in a public place, or something?" She asks. "You worried about a fight if you do it at home? It is a good idea to offset the discipline with a treat? What does she like doing? Frozen Yogurt? Hiking?" These two suggestions are things you know Josephine has engaged in, but mainly she is interested in things involving large groups of people, often sweaty, and none of those will be an appropriate venue for 'a talk'.

By this time the cab has arrived outside the school. Jena look uncomfortable, not only is she not dressed for this sort of upmarket place, she does not overly want to be involved in the next part as she is sure it will get awkward.

What do you do?

Benji arrives at Jacob’s a short time later. He’s still covered in smudges of grime and soot from their adventure on the tracks and his clothes and hair are still a bit damp and bedraggled from running around in the rain all night. "Jacob!" he says as soon as the demon opens the door. "Thank you for your help with all this. I hope everything went smoothly at the police station?"

- Mark -

"That's 'parenting', isn't it?" Jena says when you comment on your disciple making Josephine hate you. It is tricky since you are not 'family' to 'fix' the emotional issues, but then again, you are not family to make all the emotions heightened. "I suppose it is up to you if you want her to like you, or if you want her to ... not be spoiled... I mean, 'be safe'. I don't know.

"'Pestered' is a loaded word." She says. "But it is not your fault." You get the impression she means 'not all you fault'. "It seems like every time I try to talk to her she is into something new. It is hard to keep track."

The cab driver feels compelled to comment —seems like they always do. "Your kid giving you problems?" He asks. "'Spare the rod, spoil the child', y'know. I can't be having with all this namby-pamby right-leaning ideologies." You are pretty sure he did not mean 'right-leaning'. He seems content to sit outside the school and let the meter run up.

What do you do?

- Mark -

The receptionist checks the computer and tells you that Josephine missed school today. If you ask her to check further there are no other unexplained absences, a few tardy notices, but, as much as she complains, Josephine is not avoiding school.

A friend of hers send you a message saying that she was in school, but that seems to have been a lie to cover for her.

What do you do?

- Mark -

No on is paying attention to Jena, but she still feels very self-conscious as you two stand in the school foyer.

"Why would she lie to you?" Jena asks, showing her own naivete about how teenage friends act and the assumption that they cover for each other, even when they don't know anything.

"It is a bit of an invasion of privacy." Jena comments about tracking Josephine. "But what if something is wrong and she needs you." Jena tends to assume the worst about these things, she feels that if someone had 'reacted' (even if they thought it was an overreaction) when she was trapped in that cult, they could have gotten her out sooner, she forgets that, for the first few years, her family tried, but she rejected their proffered aid.

"Better safe than sorry? Right? If it is nothing, then you don't have to tell her you tracked her? Right? Don't you want to know?" Jena's advice about these thing might not be the best, but she is technically not incorrect.

What do you do?

"Not exactly," says Benji. "Have you ever heard of a group called the Night Sisters? They ransacked Lizabeth’s house. They told me that there might be ‘bad people’ after her and that she’d found something… significant, but that they didn’t actually know what it was. That’s all I know, I’m afraid." He shrugs and, as a seemingly unrelated afterthought, asks, "Say, what sort of music do you think a horse might like?"

Before Jacob can answer, Benji wanders off into the next room, looking for Lizabeth. "Lizabeth? Are you here?"

- Benji -

"Benji?" Lizabeth says muzzily from where Jacob put her to bed. She sounds relieved that you are finally here, yours is a face she feels she can trust, but she is fragile right now and you might need to be delicate.

What do you do?