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?

- 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?

- 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.

- Benji -

Fortunately the susurrus of the rain masks the hollow clonk of porcelain on stone, and the residents of the neighboring flats don't come to check on the strange man outside in the middle of the night.

The pattern of wet patches suggests that many of the ornaments have been moved recently, but the ongoing rain means this is not a reliable indicator. You find a place where you a key was definitely Prestiked inside a large statue —large enough to irritate the neighbours but unlikely to be casually moved— but the key is missing, leaving only an impression in the Blu Tack. Off to the side you finally find another key, this does not look like it goes to the front door, but these ground-floor flats have a rear entrance that you can access via a dark alley if you are willing to hop the gate.

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

You assumed that since you had not heard any bad news from Charles or Jordan that everything was safe in the holy water. You still have not received a reply back about trying the acid by the time you get to class. This does not mean anything, of course, what you are proposing is a slow process and presumably they will get back to you when they have results.

Parking is always a nightmare at the Uni, and the rain means more people opting to drive instead of taking the tube, but you don't have to walk all that far to get to class. The walk helps wake you up, at least.

• How does the class go? Does your tiredness affect the quality? Did the students enjoy it?

Bev did not follow, or participate in, most of the discussion —missing the background as she is— and is a bit prickly, or maybe resentful, afterwards.

• Do you have the energy to bother with her moods?

What do you do?

Hoping that none of the neighbours see him and decide to call the police, Benji ducks into the dark alley and scrambles over the gate.

- Benji -

You are a predator, at home in the night. No human notices your passing. The key fits the back door, and starts to turn before you hear a furtive sound from inside the flat, the lights are low, but there is someone moving around quietly in the dark, more than one person, and you don't think any are Lizabeth.

What do you do?

Benji eases the door open and silently slips inside. He listens carefully to the sounds of people shuffling around in the darkness, trying to get a sense of how many of them there are and where they’re located. He is mostly just curious, at the moment, wondering who these people are and what they’re doing, but there is a part of him that is a little bit excited. It’s the same part of him that he brushed aside at Bev’s — the instinct to hunt and chase and kill… Well, he probably shouldn’t kill them, but maybe he can have a bit of fun.

- Mark -

"Is Josephine here?" Jena asks in her usual to-the-point way of greeting. She is wearing a large orange sweater that falls to below her knees, but below that you see black tights and running shoes. There is a distinct whiff of 'gym interrupted' about her, but you did not know Jena went to the gym.

She looks around at the place, not sure why you are here.

What do you do?

There are three intruders scattered around the flat. Benji can hear them clumsily moving around in the darkness—two in the living room and one in the kitchen, by the sounds of it. Silent as a spider, he makes his way toward the kitchen to see what the one in there is up to.

- Benji -

By the dim light they have brought with them the intruder in the kitchen does not look like your typical opportunistic street thug. They are dressed in deliberately-nondescript dark clothing with a hood obscuring their face. Their clothes look more valuable than most of the stuff in this flat.

They are currently feeling behind the microwave, and you can see that all the cupboards and draws have been thoroughly emptied and searched, their contents piled uncaringly on the floor.

Intent as they are by their excavation of all the nooks and crannies, they have not noticed your silent approach. But there is little place for you to hide in the kitchen if they turn around.

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

"Not that I am saying your subject is boring." Bev says, clearly saying your subject is boring. "But I think some of them only take your class because the want ... to be near you. That girl, Roxy, who kept asking question after question, yeah? She was not listing to the answers, just desperate for your attention, ran out of questions and went round and round in circles, did you notice?" It seems Bev is fighting a loosing battle with jealousy.

"I can't believe they expect us to believe Queen Elizabeth is dead. But she was looking old, so I suppose she needs to take her face off and regenerate. Mind you, she did look rather good for 500 years old." You can't be sure if Bev is joking or not, she must be though, right?

What do you do?

The expensive-looking clothes give Benji pause. Could they be police? But why would the police be searching Lizabeth’s flat in the dark like thieves? Maybe they work for those mysterious higher-ups Kenedi was talking about? Whatever the case, Benji thinks he probably ought to keep his fangs to himself.

He flicks on the kitchen light and looks around at the piles of plates and cutlery strewn all over the floor. "Oh dear. You’ve made a proper mess, haven’t you? I hope you all are planning to pick up after yourselves."

- Benji -

The figure turns at your words, her hand to her breast in surprise, and at first you think 'ninja' till she speaks and you realise 'niqāb'. All you can see are her eyes.

"Goodness! You startled me!" She says with a strong middle-eastern (probably Arabic, if you had to guess) accent. "I was just cleaning up. Cleaning service. Cleaning service." She explains while trying to edge around you to the door. The black rubber glove covering her visible hand, combined with the expensive clothing make this lie very unconvincing, though.

What do you do?

"Cleaning service?" repeats Benji, frowning. "Hm. Well, I don’t mean to criticise your work but I think Lizabeth prefers her cups to be stored in her cupboards, rather than in pieces all over the floor."

He takes a step back, allowing her to slip past him out of the room. "My name is Benji," he introduces himself as he follows her into the next room. "What’s yours?"

- Benji -

"Benji?" She says, as though committing the name to memory. "Amira." She replies. She sounds puzzled that you introduced yourself the little catch in her voice and posture —you can't see her expression— suggests she did not mean to answer you thus.

She has been speaking loudly enough that her companions in the other room would definitely have heard her and they both join her in the livingroom. One is exceedingly tall for a woman, and the other short and curvy (it turns out the modesty-required face-coverings mean one has to concentrate on a woman's body as the only means of description). They all have pretty eyes, though.

Amira's tall companion frowns at her in admonition as they huddle together. They do not look scared, just alert and ready to run... actually they are definitely edging towards the door while trying keep you from noticing.

What do you do?

- Benji -

I neglected to say that all three are women, wearing smart, dark clothes and gloves, and niqābs covering their faces.

"Nice to meet you, Amira," says Benji. "I think my friend Lizabeth might be rather upset if she comes home to this mess, but it’s going to take me a very long time to clean it all up by myself… What are you all looking for? Perhaps I could help you find it and then you could all help me tidy up after?"

- Benji -

The tall on nudges Amira when she hesitates, but Amira gestures for her to wait.

"You really mean to help us?" Amira asks, clearly set off-kilter by receiving openness and friendliness from a stranger who just broke into a woman's home in the middle of the night and found other strangers have also broken in. She studies you carefully, taking in the slightly eccentric style of your clothes and the remaining layer of subway grime (that which has not been washed off by the rain or washed in by the damp).

• Are you carrying your sword? It makes sense that you may have taken it on the tracks, but walking around London with a sword at your hip is asking for police-trouble, but then again, you were not completely in your right mind when you left the underground.

If you can convince them that your offer is for real you may have an opportunity to learn something.

What do you do?

"Of course!" says Benji. "It must be important to you and I’m sure Lizabeth won’t mind. As much as she likes collecting things, she never hesitates to give them away when the opportunity arises to find them a new home."

- Benji -

This is all very surprising to the three women, especially the parts about Lizabeth not minding them being here and, even more so, that she is happy to give away her things. This is not the sort of behaviour they were expecting, so they clearly don't know Lizabeth at all.

"Your friend has ... collected ... " Amira uses your word as though feeling the texture of it and nodding with aproval. "... Something she should not have. Now bad people are after her, people whose attention you don't want."

Amira looks around the clutter of stuff in the living room —much of it created by their search— and you can see her doubt about the value of what is here. "Where does she keep the good stuff?" She asks. "We have intelligence that she is to be released this morning, and she does not want 'them' coming looking for her once she is out of police custody. If we have ... the stuff ...?" There is a definite questioning element to 'stuff', as though Amira does not know what 'it' is. "... they will leave her alone... maybe." The last word was added begrudgingly, she does not want to lie to you even though her companions look surprised by this concession.

• It is unlikely, but does Lizabeth have a 'secret stash' of 'the good stuff'? If so, would you show it to them?

What do you do?

"But won’t they come after you then? These ‘bad people’?" asks Benji.

Regarding ‘the good stuff’, he looks around at the mess and shrugs. "I mean… it’s all good stuff to Lizabeth. She doesn’t really arrange things by monetary value, if that’s what you mean. It would probably help if I had some idea what you were looking for."

- Benji -

"They are welcome to try." Amira scoffs with obvious confidence that those who pose a threat to someone like Lizabeth don't concern her. Clearly she feels she has protections that Lizbeth does not.

"You don't know?" She asks, sharing a surprised look with her sisters (not necessarily literal 'sisters').

"Um... We don't know either." She admits after a moment of hesitation. "We were hoping we would recognise it when we found it."

What do you do?

- Mark -

Josephine's phone is still dead, but you got a reply from one of her friends on one of the school groups that she was at school. It is not an ideal situation, but kids these days seem to have their own way of communicating.

"Yeah. I was." Jena says, slightly defensively. "But I don't mind cutting it short."

She looks at your phone (or is it a real camera?), puzzled, and asks. "Is something wrong with your lens?" All the pictures are either blobs of fuzz or blank.

"What are you trying to photograph?" She asks, looking around and not seeing anything your were especially focused (if you will excuse the word) on. Taking her phone from her bag she tries photographing the same place you did and is surprised to find her's also don't come out. Turning and photographing up towards Temple Place everything works, but down towards the water there are blank spots [eg] and down on the riverside road nothing comes out.

This is a public place, you can't have thought it would be so easy as to wander down here and snap some picks, else Stephano would have done so himself.

What do you do?

- Mark -

"You don't think it's radiation?!" Jena asks, taking a step back and immediately realising the foolishness of her exclamation and action.

You recall that Stephano would have settled for satellite footage and checking your phone's various maps apps you find that this area only has default 'map' data and not 'satellite imagery either. Seeing how Stefano is an accomplished model maker, you might find it strange that he has not just come down here and modeled it on-location, maybe whatever is preventing the camera and satellites, and caused general people not to notice the issue, also, somehow, prevents him from doing that, or even thinking of doing that. He did not mention having tried.

What do you do?

- Rhiannon -

You arrive at the 'safe' house where you left Charles yesterday (was it really only yesterday, it seems like a lot has happened in that short time), and expect to be buzzed in but no one answers the intercom. There is a complicated, manual procedure that you have to go through to let yourself in, but you remember the codes and tricks.

Inside you would expect to hear Charles' classical music played on the gramophone (though more often than not it is classic-rock that he insists is 'still classical music'), but all you hear is the hiss and click of the end of a vinyl that has not returned to start properly.

Something is very wrong here.

What do you do?

"If you don’t mind my asking, why are you looking for this thing if you don’t even know what it is?"

- Benji -

"Because others want it." Amira says. It is not within her idiom —and probably not yours either— but it definitely sounds like her sentence should have ended with 'duh'. She is surprised that this is not obvious to you: if someone wants a thing that gives it power, therefore others want that power and want that thing, therefore more people want it... and so it goes in an never-ending ouroboros of self-perpetuating power-plays.

From what you heard, Lizabeth had only just found 'the thing' earlier that night, and probably had it in her possession when she was arrested, and nothing of her stuff from before had caused such a stir. It is unlikely that there is anything here that would actually interest these power-players, but they don't know that.

What do you do?

- Mark -

"Intriguing!" Jena exclaims. "I never noticed that before. I am sure I must have tried taking photos here." (She uses her phone for such things all the time). "It seems to be more concentrated towards the river." She speculates.

"I wonder if it is also happening on the other side?" She points her phone at the far bank, zooms, and shoots a few shots. At first it looks like they are all fine, but then more study shows a similar shimmer over there, but only right by the water, the buildings are all in the shot. More study shows another strange effect: any boats on the river are clearly evident in the photos, but the water is lacking in detail, you can only see this when the wake of a boat should disturb the featureless surface but does not.

"It is worse down that way." Jena says, pointing east. She sound excited by the new puzzle you have presented to her.

What do you do?

"Well, that’s not a very good reason at all," says Benji, annoyed on Lizabeth’s behalf that her home has been ransacked and the people who did it don’t even seem to know why. "I suppose I could ask Lizabeth about all this once she’s been released. Do you have a phone number or address I could reach you at?"

- Benji -

The short sister scoffs at your naivety, but Amira silences her with a gesture.

Amira is watching you, puzzled, but you seem genuine in your offer, right? She gives you an email address, if you know anything about these things you might recognise it as a disposable, auto-created, possibly-once-off address.

What do you do?

"Oh, this is—I don’t really do computers," Benji says, frowning at the email address Amira jotted down like it’s some kind of indecipherable riddle. "You don’t have a telephone? Or a… a house, maybe? I could send a letter." He smiles, innocently.

- Mark -

As you head down Victoria Embankment, along the river, the distortions and interference become become more pronounced. A few blocks down from the station you come to what appears on a map to be a large, undifferentiated green section [map] but in person is less green and has more detail that does not show up.

Photographs of this area become less and less detailed, until the last one that has anything in it looks like this street view. After that point, going east towards Blackfriars', nothing comes out. After the green section, ending around Temple Avenue, things start to improve, and, by the time you get to Blackfriar's Bridge, they are back to normal.

Away from the river things improve, too. But Middle Temple Lane defies being imaged, and you even feel a strange reluctance to enter the lane from the north, going down towards the river (street view).

What do you do?

- Benji -

Amira seems somewhat amused by you technophobia, but she does not contest it, while you don't look old, she clearly has enough dealings with beings that don't age normally to accept that some people need to be treated like a elderly grandparent in these regards.

She has to ponder for a moment before reciting a phone number for you. "Do you need me to put it in your phone for you?" She offers.

• Do you hand her your phone?

Once you have the number Amira reminds you. "Our intel says Lizabeth is going to be released in a few hours, just before 07h00." How they can possibly know this sort of information is unclear.

With that the three girls turn to leave. "Call me." Amira says brightly from the open front door. You can see one of them bend and put the key back inside the ornament before walking casually away.

What do you do?

- Mark -

It only takes a little concentration to overcome the reluctance and enter the lane, Jena had been about to turn away but follows you without noticing either the effect or the breaking thereof. The lane is not empty, but the rain is messing with your ability to judge normal numbers. A wet cyclist zips past you, jumping down the steps, but there are probably fewer people in this area than on the roads on either side of this lane and park, but not by much.

The lane itself is rather boring, as is the park. There is a small water feature, and a few of the buildings have mythical creatures on the crests above their doors, but that is nothing unusual in London and they seem to be ordinary businesses.

It is rather peaceful in garden, and the ducks in the pond demand feeding in flagrant contravention of the sign.

What do you do?

"No, thank you. I can do it," Benji says, typing the number into his phone. "I’ve been getting pretty good at the telephone," he adds, proudly.

After Amira and her companions leave, he waits a couple minutes before venturing out after them (making sure to lock Lizabeth’s door behind himself). He follows at a distance, sticking to the shadows and relying on the rain and dark to help obscure him from their dull human senses.

- Benji -

The three girls creep down the empty street, then turn into a more populated main-street and quickly change demeanor to 'a group of drunk girlfriends on their way home from a party'. You see them pass a bus stop and pause, out of sight for just a moment and, when they emerge, they have changed, somehow their practical, dark slacks have been transformed into long, flowy dresses, enhancing the image of 'party-girls'. They keep their headdresses on, though, as any good Muslim would.

They are unaware of you following them, but are still taking steps to blend in and avoid drawing attention. The more brightly lit street is lined with shops —a good proportion of them open, even at this time of the morning— and people, there are fewer shadows and trying to stick to them is likely to attract more rather than less attention. You see the tall sister turn, laughing, as though to speak to her friends behind her, but actually to check the street behind. She did not see you, this time, but they are alert and you may need get creative to maintain this tail.

What do you do?

Unable to follow Amira and her companions out into the brightly lit main street without revealing himself, Benji darts out of sight into a less populated side street. He cautiously glances around to make sure there are no humans watching and then, using the window ledges and fancy masonry as hand- and footholds, he scrambles up the side of a nearby building onto the rooftop, three or four stories up. The rooftops are not lit up like the streets below and there are plenty of shadows to hide in up there.

- Mark -

The photos still don't come out, it appears it was only the weak repulsion field that was easy to overcome. That field may just be a residual side-effect of the bigger magic that makes people not dig into the weirdness of not being able to photograph an area of London like this.

What do you do?

- Benji -

Revitalised as you are, it is no problem at all for you to scale the four stories to the roof, nor to make the leap to the next building along. It is all going swimmingly till bad luck strikes you. The London Eye, silhouetted in the sky behind you picks that moment to stop doing its customary Sauron impression, and changes from dull red to bright, flashing pink and blue. People look up and some smart-alec sees you and points, calling "Hey! It's BATMAN!"

You can see Amira and her two companions —on the Westminster Bridge— turn to look, they are about to see you (though they might not know it is you... if you are lucky).

What do you do?

Startled, Benji turns to stare at the person who shouted, his nocturnal eyes reflecting eerily in the darkness. Half a heartbeat later, he’s gone, hidden behind the nearest chimney (hopefully before Amira or her friends spot him).

---

Sometime later, Jacob receives a text from Benji:
Good morning, Jacob! My deepest apologies for running off last night! I was struck by a sudden urge to eat our friends so I had to leave in a bit of a hurry…
Anyway, my friend, Lizabeth Greenback, is in trouble and I was hoping you might be able to help keep her safe, seeing as I helped keep you safe yesterday morning. She needs to be picked up from the Charing Cross police station at seven o’clock this morning. Apparently, there may be ‘bad people’ after her, so if you could keep an eye on her or at least take her some place safe, I would be most grateful.
Yours,
Benji

- Mark -

The effect is mainly concentrated down by the river, but pushes up along Middle Temple Lane a bit further than other routes away from the water.

"Why here?" Jena asks looking around the peaceful garden and down towards water's edge. "There is nothing special here." She says. "What is it trying to stop people from seeing?"

What do you do?

- Benji -

You drop behind a chimney stack quick enough that Amira and her sisters don't see anything up there. They continue to watch the rooftops, now though, and if you stay safely hidden you risk losing their trail. Westminster Bridge opens up to many paths on the North (or is it West?) side of the river, but those are also your stomping grounds, around your Haven, so you may be able to pick them up again on the other side.

If you try to watch them from here they might spot you, but if you let them get away you will lose their trail and need to do something to pick up up again.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

You have heard of Lizabeth Greenback, she is a 'picker' along the banks of the Thames, and, though you can't be sure, it is possible some of the items in your inventory passed through her hands on their way to you. You are also not sure of the order of things, but at some point something she found revealed to her the existence of the supernatural world... unless she already knew and that is what drives her to comb the shores?

You don't know exactly how much she knows, but you can be pretty sure that she does not want to know you are a demon. It will be hard enough getting her to trust a stranger after what she has been through.

The weary looking, grey haired desk sergeant eyes you warily. She seems worried about Lizbeth's safety and does not want to talk to you.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

The desk sergeant looks you over suspiciously. "And? Who are you?" She asks, trying to sound polite but you can tell that she has been dealing with this situation all night and is getting impatient with the 'weird bollocks'.

You arriving at the right time for Lizabeth's release is a point in your favour, but she still has no reason to trust you, and Lizabeth can't vouch for you if she asks.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

"Identification." The desk sergeant —whose name badge reads Sgt Kenedi— sighs, holding out a hand. She has no reason to trust you and your circumlocution about who you are, as well as your trying to rush the process is making her even more suspicious, though she does not appear surprised by this tactic, it is like she has been dealing with similar 'chancers' all night.

She glances towards the front door, and the street outside, and is relieved to not see it full of reporters, or whatever.

What do you do?

Benji waits a few minutes for the attention of the crowd to shift elsewhere and then quickly slides down from the roof and drops down to the street below. He lands lightly, gives himself a shake (splattering any nearby pedestrians with rainwater), and then sets off across the bridge. By the time he reaches the other side, Amira and her companions are, of course, nowhere to be seen.

Rather than give up, he trots up to the statue of Boadicea and Her Daughters across the road from Big Ben, offering them a very formal bow. "Good morning, ma’am! An honour, as always. I’m looking for three women wearing headdresses who passed by this way. Would you be so kind as to tell me which way they went?"

- Mark -

The effect is most concentrated by the river, but the water level is too high for you to find a place to work down there. The next best place to get away from the crowds is the lane, just off where it intersects Victoria Embankment (A3211), the magic of the lane keeps the pedestrians out better than the rain.

As your senses probe the magic in the area you get a clear sense of power, old power, this is an effect that has been here for a long time. You don't know of anyone who can lay down spells that last that long, even the best working you have encountered —or even heard of— needs to be refreshed from time to time. It is possible, you suspect, that this effect has been refreshed, but even that is so long ago that it barely matters to this equation.

Your phone rings just as you are trying to wrest answers from the enchantment, breaking your concentration. Any irritation that might make you not want to answer is sidelined by who it is calling (and possibly why the call came through if your phone was on silent).

"Mark? Where are you?" Shelyna (the head of your Order) demands, sounding harassed. "What are you doing poking around the demesne of a dragon? Do you have a death-wish?"

There was a set of dragon statues [street view] near the border of the effect. Mayhaps that was meant as a warning to those in the know? But you were never told about dragons in London. What have you stumbled into?

What do you do?

- Mark -

"Photograph? Why? Nevermind." Shelyna says. "Meet me at the Garden Room Grill. I will be there in ... 7 minutes."

You passed the restaurant during your exploration of the lane [map]. Apparently Shelyna knows pretty much exactly where you are, but, even more surprising, is how quickly she can be there. Was she in the area? The chances of that are low. Has she dropped everything to rush here? This might be even more serious than you thought a moment ago.

The Garden Room Grill is a small, old-style pub and grill with a modern pastiche. Unsurprisingly it is quiet and mostly empty, though there is a group of two hipsters working on their laptops at one of the downstairs tables. The only waiter is an average-looking young woman, wearing a peasant blouse and long skirt over bare feet. She watches you curiously as you enter.

"Welcome." She says, warmly, if rather formally. "Table for ... two?"

If you brought Jena with you you will need a table for three, but there are plenty of tables and she will let you sit anywhere.

You still have several minutes before Shelyna's arrival. Do you order anything? Do you order anything for her? Do you have questions for the server?

What do you do?

- Jacob -

Kendi notes down your particulars on a clipboard, you catch a glimpse of Lizbeth's name as a heading at the top, and a string of people who have tried to see her over the past 24 hours. The sergeant dutifully phones through your name to someone at the back, waits a long time for a reply and then turns to you impatiently. "The lady does not know you. I will have to ask you to leave before I have you arrested." She does not say for what, and it is probably an empty threat.

It takes some finagling but eventually you find that Benji's name, and a quick call to confirm, opens doors, literally. "Well, why didn't you say so." Kenedi exclaims exasperatedly as she buzzes you through to the back, calling for someone to take over the front desk for a while and joins you, showing you the way personally. "You aren't a literal 'guardian angel', are you? With Benji's type of friends you never can rule anything out." She says.

---

Lizabeth looks terrible. On top of the fact that she always dresses sloppily and is usually dirty and covered in mud (or dust when such stuff still used to exist), she looks like she has spend the day and night in a jail cell. She glances eagerly past you to see if Benji is with you, then eyes you nervously.

"Can we go?" She asks, seemingly more concerned with getting away from here than anything else. If you were a 'bad guy' it would have been very easy to get her to leave with you, she needs more protecting than you thought.

"I think it may be best if you leave through the back entrance." Kenedi whispers. "The street is empty, but I keep checking and something feels off, you know what I mean?"

Lizabeth wants to go home, but Benji indicated there were unknown people at her home.

What do you do?

- Benji -

Without moving, Boadicea turns her gaze upon you with a slight smile. Aloof as all the statues are, she has always been friendly to you, ever since she was erected, other people come and go, but you have been something consistent. Once again you get the slightly uncomfortable feeling that her daughters, especially the one on her right, really want to cover up their breasts, and are not happy with the throngs of passers-by ogling them. People say 'it was a different time' but you have had this impression since the beginning. Stoically, they have not complained, though, and nothing has been done.

Boadicea and her daughters are know to watch the byways. They are usually a good source of information about people's movements. But there is a slight hesitation before Boadicea replies, as though she was considering her answer carefully.

"They passed. Heading that way." Somehow the statue indicates direction without moving, but then somehow they are able to talk to you without motion either. If you did not see their unmoving mouths, you wold swear they were talking normally and you were hearing with your ears, but, even though outside noise can make them hard to hear, no one but their intended conversee ever hears their words, even if they stand between.

You already know they passed in that direction, and Boadicea knows you know, but she does not seem to want to tell you more. This is strange, usually these three women are happy to share —never demanding any payment that you know of— but, in this special case, they are mum.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

Lizabeth collects and signs for her things, barely looking at the contents of the plastic bag and just shoving it into a large, inner pocket. "I need to charge my phone." She complains, holding up the dark screen.

"Why can't I go home?" She asks once you are in the car. The street out back was empty, but you see what Kenedi means: the looming facades definitely give the impression of being watched.

What do you do?

- Mark -

"So dragons are real? You never said." Jena seems excited by the events.

"How do you... Oh," She says, taking a while to catch on to why you care. She looks down at her shapeless jersey and mud and grass splattered, soaking wet tennis shoes, and tries to pat her sweaty, gym-lank hair but settles for pulling her beany tighter on her head.

"You look fine." She says, though you suspect she is leaving out a 'by comparison'.

• What are you wearing? You were coming out to do work, and to check the school, you were not preparing for a date.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

"Why isn't it safe‽" Lizabeth wails, sounding very distraught and confused. "I don't know why I was arrested. I don't know how these things work. They said I was a thief, and then they were saying I was a spy... but they dropped that for some reason. They they were saying all sorts of things that did not make sense, but I zoned out and let the lawyer handle it. Then they let me go. And now you are saying Benji says it is not safe! What is going on‽"

She looks very young and very vulnerable, tears streaming down her dirty face.

What do you do?

- Mark -

"Yeah! But dragons! Wow!" Jena says. She looks equally uncomfortable with the idea of meeting a dragon and meeting Shelyna. She tries to laugh at your joke about kissing, but there is an edge to it, and she watches you, worried.

The clock ticks, it has been exactly seven minutes, now seven thirty, now seven forty-five. Shelyna sounded so definite and precise, but it is nearly eight minutes before she walks in, a flurry of rain accompanies her entry and she is looking over her shoulder at something behind her, she looks impatient and irritated, but she is alone.

Shelyna will apologise for being 52 seconds late.
• Aside from that, how does she greet you before getting down to business?
• Is this her customary way or does she seem stressed?
• Describe her style and demeanor.

"Well… yes. That much was clear to me too," Benji says, puzzled by Boadicea’s reluctance to help. He hesitates. The longer he stays and talks, the further away Amira and her companions get but, at this point, he doesn’t have much hope of finding them again without the statue’s help anyway. "Did you see where they went specifically? Or do you know who they are, perhaps? They broke into my friend’s home and I’m trying to figure out if I can trust them or if they mean my friend harm."

- Mark -

Shelyna is not carrying an umbrella, but there are only a few drops of rain on her coat and hair as she approaches the table. "Good morning. I'm sorry I'm late." She greets the two of you. "This weather... well, we will get to that.

"A glass of white wine, please." She says to the waiter. "What are you having?" She asks yourself and Jena. Jena will follow your lead, but the food smells great and everything on the menu looks appealing.

"I was going contact you today, anyway." Shelyna continues once the wait staff are gone. "To talk about the weather." You suspect there might be a joke in there, but, with Shelyna, you can never be sure. "I am wondering what you have heard? But first, what's this business of you taking photos?"

What do you do?

- Benji -

Boadicea pointedly ignores your two questions, which suggest both are a 'yes' and she does not plan to reveal this information. When you talk about the break-in she looks uncomfortable, though.

"I am sure they mean no harm." She replies, not sounding all that sure. "Unless your friend is up to no good."

This may be a chink you can seize to persuade them to reveal more, if you say the right thing, but every moment you spend talking to the statue puts the sisters that much further away, the rain is already dispersing their scent past the point where even your vampire senses are struggling to detect them.

What do you do?

"You do know them, then?" Benji says. "They seemed… nice, I suppose, aside from the breaking-and-entering. The friend in question is Lizabeth Greenback. You would have seen her around here before… Perhaps you may have even met her. She’s a good person. She’s in some kind of trouble and I want to help her."

- Mark -

Shelyna listens carefully to your whole report before responding.

"You think Basint's demons are the sources of the bad weather?" Shelyna asks, taking your points in the order they were presented. She seems to know about Basint's warning. "Who were they attacking?"

• Does she know about your relationship with Jacob? If so, how does she (or your order) feel?

She does not comment on your research into the staves, that is common enough practice to be unremarkable for a wizard. She does seem interested in the news of them reforming.

"They left 'bodies' behind?" She says. Depending on how they are summoned, demons need to be put into some sort of vessel: possessing a human body is a well-known favourite; otherwise ectoplasmic (if you will excuse the use of that very unscientific term, Shelyna certainly wouldn't) matter (goo, if you will) is a cheap and easy option that leaves little evidence afterwards. This 'rock-form' is new to all of you, but seems logical enough.

"And you think they can reform without being summoned again? That is bad news." Shelyna says. "Are the remains safely contained? Do you know where?" She asks, also offering to have someone take care of that problem if you want her to [OOC].

"You encountered the hound?" She sounds surprised, and a little impressed. "And survived? Not many do. And you think you know what it is protecting? There have been rumours, but they have never been substantiated. Keep us informed of your progress on this." This is the sort of thing that might lead to promotions.

"A train-enthusiast? You are poking around here for a train-enthusiast?" Shelyna sighs. "Well that is innocent enough and happens often enough. I encourage you to dissuade him from pursuing this further. But discretely." This will conflict with your promise to help Stefano, you will need to find some way to reconcile these two commitments.

"I wanted to ask you to look into the weather." Shelyna answers your question. "Good that you are on it already. We need a fix, and quick.

"Let us know if you need any resources to resolve that". This sort of offer is rare, and should not be abused, save it for when you know more, or are desperate. No Debts are involved.

What do you do?

- Jacob -

"I don't know!" Lizabeth wails. "I was poking around the accumulation the flood waters have pilled up near the Royal Air Force Memorial [map]. Then something... zapped me? And then all these Ministry of Defence people were swarming all over me, shouting conflicting orders and was taken to jail."

She does not mention finding anything before being 'zapped' nor what 'zapped' her before the MoD guys showed up. You think she may be holding back, but can't be sure.

"Can you charge this?" She asks, handing you her flat phone as she heads straight for the shower.

What do you do?

- Benji -

"Oh, yes? This is Lizabeth's trouble? That is what they were doing?" Boadicea thinks about it for longer than you would like. "Bad business." She states, giving you the impression of looking back over her shoulder while remaining still as a statue.

"There are lots of powerful players in the game. I don't know the details, but this feels like it has the potential to reshape the world." The three women study you for a while longer, as though assessing your worth. "I think you and The Night Sisters may be able to be persuaded to have the same goal. And that goal needs to be the destruction of what Ms Greenback found. I don't think either you or they are strong enough to do it on you own. Powerful players." She says again.

"Promise me that you will seek out this... thing, with the sole intent of destroying it, and never to use it." Boadicea demands, she sound scary as she does. "Promise that and we will point you towards your quarry."

What do you do?

- Mark -

"Quite right." Shelyna says in reply to you only calling for help if you really need it. She defers to your judgment about whether the demons are related or worth pursuing.

"I have been inundated with missives about the weather problem, many fear is it a foreshadowing for something else. We believe that likely." She looks tired, but hides it well. "I do not have time to put out fires from people poking their noses where they don't belong." She is clearly talking about you and the dragon photos, and whoever contacted her to complain about what you were doing cleanly has some clout to get her to jump to action herself so quickly, within minutes of you starting to probe with your magic.

Shelyna finishes her meal, eating daintily and without any mess. She is not inclined towards small-talk and the food probably bought you substantially more time with her than you would otherwise have had, this meeting is drawing to a close. If there is anything else you want to say to her, now is the time.

What do you do?

Benji nods, taking everything Boadicea is saying very seriously. He trusts the statue's judgement. If she says this thing needs to be destroyed, she's probably right. "You have my word," he promises.

- Benji -

'Promises' don't have the same binding power that Debts do, but they also don't have the same ways out of them. It is interesting that Boadicea asked for a promise rather than Debts, something about her (the 'real' woman, not the statue's) history makes this significant and delicate ground.

"They left the Birdcage to cut through the parks, both James and Green, then up to Hyde." Boadicea points —though exactly how she could 'point' without moving is something your mind skates over. "I don't think they go into Hyde Park, but I can't see that far." She 'shrugs' apologetically.

"Maybe ask the Horse?" You don't get the impression she means her horses.

What do you do?

"Thank you." Benji bows again and bounds off in the direction she indicated. There are a couple of statues featuring horses between Green Park and Hyde Park (the Duke of Wellington’s horse, Nike’s horses atop the arch), but the one that springs to mind when he hears ‘the Horse’ is that giant disembodied horse head. He’s never tried to talk to that one before. The thought is, at once, fascinating and a little bit horrifying.

- Mark -

Shelyna gives you the smallest suggestion of a smile, though it looks sad. "We all have our own paths to walk." She says cryptically. "And our own responsibilities." She does not mention Josephine, but you get the fleeting impression there is an oblique reference there that you can't understand.

"See to the weather." She says by way of goodbye. "We are all counting on you." Then she turns and walks away.

"That was awkward." Jena comments quietly to herself. She has not said a word since Shelyna arrived and was trying to fade into the background like a big orange... well she is wishing she was not dressed like a squashy pumpkin compared to the other woman's elegant outfit.

What do you do?

- Benji -

It would have been nearly impossible with the rain and the minutes that have passed, but, knowing the route, you can catch hints of your prey's scent as you head down the Birdcage. As directed, you find the spot where they left the road and headed into the park, apparently not worried about being out in the dark. Their scent is stronger in the trees, away from the direct falling rain and the wind, but you lose the trail when you come out at Piccadilly.

Right takes you home, but left takes you to Hyde Park and the Horse's Head. You know that many of the statues are picky about who they talk to, and have never heard of anyone who has spoken with the Horse Head, the more human the statues the more human their reposes and interactions. You can try, but it might be a waste of time.

You recall that, in recent years, the area before you —North East of Hyde Park— has a high concentration of Arab residents. Given Amira's accent, it is possible they live around here?

What do you do?

- Jacob -

Either the police removed it or Lizabeth does not have a lock on her phone. You boot it up and can imminently swipe in. There are tons of messages, some of them from Benji, most of them concerned enquiries about how she it doing and what is going on.

What do you do?

Benji figures it’s worth a try to ask the horse. He’s honestly not sure this statue is even sentient like the others so it’s possible he’ll just be talking to a lump of metal, but he has nothing but time and he doesn’t mind making a fool of himself.

He takes a left toward Hyde Park and the horse statue—Still Water is its name, he thinks. When he reaches the statue, he hops up onto the plinth and rests his hand upon the horse’s nose. "Good morning, Still Water," he says. "My name is Benji. How do you do?"

- Mark -

Jena sighs and shakes her head in inscrutable exasperation at how clueless you can be. But she is not going to comment on her boss's doomed relationship... or if she thinks the word 'relationship' truly applies as you used it.

"Yes. Let's go find the other problem woman in your life." She says, trying to lighten the mood.

What do you do?

- 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?

- Mark -

"Sure." Jena says, sounding slightly intrigued. "I have never been to those places."

- Jacob -

You learned afterwards that the item you found for the Night Sisters had the potential to be dramatically devastating, on one of those 'end of the world' type levels. The Sisters went into hiding after they got it, and you would have been justified in fearing the worst, but months passed and nothing happened, eventually 'the appointed time' and 'the alignment' (portents related to that item) also passed, and still nothing. You don't know what happened to prevent that catastrophe, but if the Night Sisters are active again that can't be coincidence.

What do you do?

"Are you certain that they wanted that lion in order to use it? A friend of mine was quite insistent that whatever this artifact is, it needs to be destroyed, and she suggested that the Night Sisters might be working toward that goal or, at least, that they might be open to the idea. Perhaps the reason nothing happened is that they are collecting these objects in order to destroy them?"

- Mark -

The man behind the bar is young and attractive, with an Australian accent. "Can't complain." He replies in defiance of the emptiness of the cafe at this hour.

He eyeing you suspiciously. You are not dressed like his usual clientele, even during the day, and he does not want any trouble with angry parents. You can almost see him forming an excuse along the lines of 'she looked 18 to me' or 'of course I checked her ID', but he clearly knows enough to keep his mouth shut.

He also looks tired, like he has been up all night and is ready to finish his shift soon, this suggests he was likely here last night.

What do you do?

- Mark -

"Oh yes, Josephine." He readily agrees, supping her name if you did not. "She was here last night, sure. Always the center of attention.

"When did she leave?" He seems quite happy to talk at length, even when he should be asking you why you are asking. "I am pretty sure she was here till after 5. That's the usual time those sorts of parties start to break up. I didn't see her leave, but there is no one else here." He gestures around the mostly empty cafe. "You are free to check upstairs if you want, but we have not cleaned up yet."

What do you do?

- Mark -

He shrugs at your question of who Josephine hangs out with, apparently she is a diverse social butterfly.

"Today?" You are taxing this man's brain with your questions. "Man, I work nights, it gets confusing. She was here from just before midnight, so that is 'yesterday', right? She left, I think, around 5 in the morning, so that is 'today'? Does that help, you, dude?"

It seems he is happy to keep talking.

What do you do?

"She doesn’t? Well, that makes things tricky. I’ll ask her about what happened while she was in custody once she’s had a chance to rest. Presumably, the people who had her arrested are the ones who took the artifact…" Benji says. "I’ll take her back to my apartment for now. She should be safe there, I think. Thank you for taking care of her in the meanwhile."

- Mark -

When you arrive home and make to head in the direction of your Sanctuary, Jena hesitates before saying. "Do you want me to wait for you." She leans towards your home across the street, clearly preferring to go that way instead.

She also clearly wants to help. A girl in danger and being searched for feeds right into her particular fears.

What do you do?

"Hm? Oh, yes. That friend I mentioned, Boadicea, suggested that I ask ‘the Horse’ about the situation, so I tried to talk to Still Water— You know that big disembodied horse head at the edge of Hyde Park? The one near Byron? — but I think it was shy because it wouldn’t talk to me. Or maybe it was the wrong horse? There’s an awful lot of horse statues around… Anyway, I was thinking maybe I might play something for it later to properly introduce myself."

"Of course," says Benji, confused by the question. "Anyone can. Although, they don’t always listen."

"Sure!" agrees Benji. "If it’s alright with you, I think we should take your car. There’s less chance of someone spotting Lizabeth and following us to my apartment that way."

Continues in Talking About the Weather...