It will rain again tomorrow (RP)

- Mark -

"I'm coming over." Jena says firmly, and you realise that, during your 'distraction', she had asked if you needed her to come over, and become concerned when you did not reply.

Then, in reply to your question: "Without boundaries she has nothing to push on." Jena says. "And I think she will find some way to exert her ... personality on the world, to make an impression. Rather the restrictions you put in place than the ones the law does?" It sounds like she is walking and gathering a few things.

What do you do?

Benji sits down on the floor so as not to cover any of Bev’s furniture in soot. "We were in the underground— Rhiannon and I and a couple of our other friends— and we found a hellhound. Or a hellhound found us, I suppose. I got spooked and I tried to summon up some courage from deep down inside myself, but… well, deep down inside myself there’s nothing much but hunger. I was afraid I would hurt someone if I stayed, so I ran away. I remembered that you had seemed… curious, so I ran all the way here, hoping that you might help me."

- Benji -

"Well, of course I would help." Bev says, still curious about your whole experience.

"The 'Hunger'? It drives you?" She is paying close attention, hanging on your every word. "But you can control it?" She remembers how manic you were when you entered, but that did not force her and instead waited till she said it was OK before you took her. She also remembers the power you showed when you did take her, how she could not have stopped your if you had decided to force the issue. You can't tell how she feels about that part, she does not seem overly scared, and her reactions are not that of 'prey', but then she is probably overwhelmed by the whole experience.

"Was it good for you?" She asks in a small voice, curling up on the couch and pulling the cover over herself.

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

Bev brushes aside your apology, it seems like Geraldine was not far from her thoughts anyway, so you did not really bring up a sore point.

She laughs when you escalate a date all the way to 'wedding invites', but she looks saddened by the thought of long-term plans. More so than by the death of her best friend.

"'Normal for London' anyway." She jokes, changing the subject. "Everything changes once you know." She admits. "The things I have seen, and had to 'put a believable face on' at the hospital, even you would not believe. I have to make the reports work, come up with a plausible excuse, that sort of thing. I had to stop working A&E, too many unanswerable questions." You know the Bev was never good at accepting the obvious or easy answers when there was more behind them.

"So, you haven't slept?" Bev asks, falling into her habit of mothering you. There is no way for you to know this —you don't know that she saw Benji last night (or more like earlier this morning)— but she is slightly wondering why you have not mentioned the ordeal on the tracks with the hellhound. She wants to press, but also wants to keep that meeting secret for now.

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

"It must be hard to date people who don't know what you do." Bev agrees, heavily suggesting that you would, therefore, be better off dating someone who does know, and who has handy medical skills.

"The great black dog on the tracks?" Bev asks. "There have been stories of that for years. Has it ever hurt anyone?" Bev does not know much about dogs —she has always joked that she is more into pussies, but never owned a cat that you know of— she also does not know much about demons beyond what you have told her, there is not a lot of reliable literature out there for the public to consume. "Would your bosses be happy with your making friends with it though? You mentioned how they are suspicious of your demon friend."

When you talk about 'class before nap' Bev looks concerned. The thinks you work yourself too hard. "I was thinking of taking a sick-day from work." She says, scratching her arm distractedly. "Do you want me to join you?"

What do you do?

"The Hunger is… Well, I don’t really remember what it was like to be a human, but I imagine it’s not so different from how you experience hunger – only more intense and it never really goes away," Benji explains. "I can usually keep myself distracted well enough that I can ‘control it’, as you say, but that took time and practice. It’s harder for new vampires. Older vampires, too, can begin to forget why they ought to bother with self-control in the first place. You forget the human feelings—empathy and guilt and all that—so you need to find new things to hold on to…" He trails off, lost in thought. Bev’s other question returns his attention to the present moment. He frowns at her, perplexed. "Of course. Why do you ask?"

- Benji -

"'New vampires'?" Bev asks sleepily. "How does that work? I won't ... what do you call it? 'Turn Undead'? from, this, will I?" She sounds relaxed and not overly concerned about this prospect at the moment.

"It is fascinating stuff." Bev says when you ask why she is asking. You have caught her on the edge of falling asleep, apparently this is a state eminently susceptible to suggestion and one can get answers to almost any question at a time like this... if one chooses to abuse the power dynamic.

What do you do?

After reassuring Bev that she won’t ’turn undead’, Benji decides it’s time that he left. He stops by the station briefly to fetch his violin, but doesn’t linger long, afraid of running into the hellhound again. On the way, he tries to call Lizabeth, wondering if she’s been released yet. It’s been nearly twenty four hours since she was arrested and he still hasn’t heard from her…

- Benji -

Lizbeth's phone goes straight to voicemail, as it has been doing all night. It is probably around 2 in the morning, but you feel refreshed and revitalised. You could swing by her place on the way home and check on her, or on her tortoise.

• Did you ever try phoning her lawyer? It is too early now, but maybe they will get back to you in a few hours.

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

"Yes, yes. Absolutely!" Bev agrees readily. If she is disappointed about being excluded from the 'dog-training' later she does not show it. "Do you have your car?" She asks, always keen to try the muscle car.

"Are you teaching? And what?" She asks. "Can I sit in on the class?" She had fairly different interests when you were in Uni, but will happily audit any class you are teaching, or wait for you to finish if she has to.

• Do you use your car, or does he have one of her own nearby?

What do you do?

Benji remembers that bit of note paper with the lawyer’s number on it that Kenedi gave him and fishes it out of his pocket. It’s a bit crumpled and sooty at this point, but the number is still legible. He thinks about calling it but the lawyer is probably asleep right now… Maybe he should just stop by Lizabeth’s flat and see if she’s home. Even if she’s not, he can say hello to Hermes and maybe, if he’s lucky, Lizabeth might have left behind some clue as to why she was arrested.

He stuffs the bit of note paper back into his pocket and makes his way to Lizabeth’s flat. He likes Lizabeth’s flat a lot. It’s full of treasures she’s found washed up on the banks of the Thames — old glass bottles and bits of broken pottery and little tin soldiers and thimbles and horseshoes and all those wonderful sorts of things.

- Benji -

The rain lashes the streets outside Lizbeth's flat, muffling all other sound. As you observed at the police station, you don't have a key, but do you maybe have an inkling where she might have one hidden, or some other way inside?

You can suspect the, if she were home, she would charged and turned on her phone —if she had it— so her lack of answering, or it even ringing, suggests she is not yet home... is there any sign of movement in her flat? No one else should be there.

What do you do?

There’s a large collection of garden ornaments clustered haphazardly around Lizabeth’s front doorstep and Benji suspects that if she were to hide her key anywhere, it would probably be under one of them. He spends quite a bit of time checking under each and every little animal statue and garden gnome. Most of them are cracked or broken in some way – either because Lizabeth found them like that or because, having been left out on the street like this, they’ve been mistreated by passersby who thought it would be funny to throw them at cars or kick them halfway down the street.