It will rain again tomorrow (RP)

Continues from It's raining in London... again

The weather report says it will rain again tomorrow... or is that 'today' already. It has been a long day and you are all tired and in need of rest.

- Jacob -

You still have a shop to clean up, and inventory to do since it is possible some of your books-and-things were sucked out by the demon teleportation circle earlier.

You also have the secondary task of that frustrating book. You have not been able to find any mention of a copy of Frankenstein that was annotated by Byron, you have to hope it was not some one-off thing where he wrote some comments in a margin, that would mean you have to find a unique item, which is not what you signed up for.

What do you do?

- Mark -

As you enter your home you happen to look up at the window of your Sanctuary. There is movement behind the curtain. Is that Jena —no, you know it won't be— or worse, Josephine? You can't say which room it is in, the Sanctuary is a bit unpredictable that way —sometimes a window overlooks the gardens behind the building, sometimes that same window overlooks the alley out front... sometime it overlooks a different alley, one you don't recognise.

Do you check it out or go to bed?

- Benji -

The Eternal Hunger consumes you. You have to feed. There are kine all around you, even at this hour you are surrounded.

Lizbeth's phone goes straight to voicemail, which you know she never checks —I mean, who does?— and none of your other regulars are near. Your mind returns hungrily to Bev, she seemed eager, right? Probably only hesitant because Rhiannon was there and they had a thing, once. But they are not an item anymore, right? And besides, feeding is not about that, right?

What do you do?

- Mark -

It takes a long while for Josephine to answers. She is not in the Sanctuary, you can hear this fact, but how? Where is she? Is she at home in bed, or out at a loud nightclub, or somewhere else? Is there anything strange about her behaviour?

What does she say?

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

You were awoken before 5 to deal with demons on the streets of London. You did that and more, but now you are tired. You have not heard anything from Charles (or Jordan)... which probably means everything is OK over there... right?

You also have class tomorrow... or later today, really, in like six or seven hours. And you promised Bev you would see her for coffee this morning before work.

What do you do?

Benji hurries through the dark, rain-slick streets of London, taking shortcuts through alleys and side streets to better avoid late night pedestrians. He doesn’t know Bev all that well but she did say that she would help him if he was desperate…

When he gets to Bev’s flat, he frantically presses the buzzer six or seven times.

- Benji -

It takes a while —seconds or minutes that feel like weeks or years— before Bev sleepily answers the door-phone, clearly you woke her (sleepy prey are easy prey), then she quickly buzzes you up.

You ascend the stairs fast enough that she is still by the door when you knock, standing in her small night-clothes and looking vulnerable, her afro squished down on one side where she was sleeping on it.

"What's wrong?" She asks, looking behind you to see if Rhiannon is with you.

What do you do?

The words tumble out of Benji in a fevered rush. "Bev! Hi! Sorry to wake you! I, ah… Well, earlier today you suggested you might be willing to let me drink your blood if I really needed to and I’m really hoping you meant that because I… I’m in a bit of a dire state, really." He is shaking and sweating like an addict going through withdrawal. "May I bite you? Please?"

- Mark -

It was a long day yesterday, what with being summoned at 5am to deal with incursions, and hunting demons and dogs in the underground till well after midnight. So you would be justified in being more than a little miffed that Josephine did not bother to eat the dinner you left for her nor take the school lunch you took the time to pack... That is if she went to school, she was out late too, especially for a school-night.

You check her room and she is not there. Her bed has not been slept in and you can tell she has not been home.

How strict are you trying to be with your Ward? She is a (somewhat) 'rebellious teenage girl', but do you know what the really means? You did not have time to work up to rearing a teenager, what with her being dumped on your doorstep fully-formed. Have you been reading the books? What 'parenting' approach are you taking with her?

This is not the first time she has gone out clubbing, but is this the first time she has not come home?

What do you do?

- Benji -

Bev subconsciously tries to cover up, pulling the thin fabric of the satin top close about her. Previously when you talked about it it sounded all 'romantic' —in the classical sense of the word, with the Romans, and the blood, and the excitement— but now it is... scary.

She is worried that you are acting like an addict and that you came to her so soon, and what that means about the frequency of the feedings, and if you can stop.

"I ... uh ..." She stammers, looking you over and seeing that your injuries don't appear to have worsened and that, physically, you are looking well enough. She also takes in the state of your clothes and skin, covered by grime and dust. You present a much less appealing image right now than she had been imagining.

What do you do?

- Mark -

... ... ...

Your message sits there, only one tick indicating it has been sent, but no second tick to show that her phone has received it.

For a girl so obsessed with her phone she is pretty bad at seeing to it that it stays charged, you can't count the number of times you have to stop what you were doing and rush around desperately seeking just the right kind of charger for her —current, but already in need of an upgrade— phone. (The older members of your order would sneer at the idea, but it might be worth taking the time to develop a spell to track down the nearest version of the exact right charger wherever one happens to be.)

Josephine should be at school by now. Don't they have some rule about the students turning off their phones during class? If so, you have never seen it being enforced and have received inane messages from Josephine at all hours.

Maybe she will check it between classes? Nope. An hour goes by and the message still has not gone through, her phone has not been on for a few hours.

What do you do?

- Mark -

"What did you find?" Jena is right to the point when she answers. "Did the spell work against the demons? How did the stave perform?"

She sounds way to bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed this time of the morning.

What do you do?