Paying the Price (RP)

"Well... Alasdair thinks it’s the faeries that are causing the rain. If they’re trying to sow discord, kidnapping Elliot certainly achieves that, right?" says Benji. "Hey, there’s an idea! Maybe you could hide underground with Alasdair and the others down there. I suppose Ravenhall would still want to kill you, but you’d be very difficult to find. It sounds better than getting your fangs kicked in every time you want to eat, anyhow."

- Benji -

"Really? Underground with that mossback?" Teddy asks. "Eating rats? Would you do that?"

He eyes you eagerly, now that you have brought up the subject. "Do ... you do you have anyone to eat?" He asks. "I'm starving here."

• What happens when a vampire does not get to eat for half a week?

What do you do?

"If I were in your position, certainly! But maybe not the eating rats part… I like rats an awful lot. Does Alasdair really eat rats, do you think?" Benji is quite upset by the idea—far more upset than he is at the idea of Alasdair killing and eating humans.

When Teddy asks if he has anyone to eat, Benji says, "Possibly, but won’t they notice you’ve fed without permission if your injuries heal?"

- Benji -

"Oh... er ... yeah..." Teddy says about the healing. "But I am starving.

"What if I don't go back?" He says, not actually coming out and saying he wants to join you in your (perceived) 'independence', as that would be defecting... but, if the opportunity were there he would jump ship in a moment.

What do you do?

Benji frowns. ‘Not going back’ was exactly what he’d been suggesting, but Teddy hadn’t liked any of his ideas about that. "…What are you asking for, Teddy?"

- Benji -

Teddy deflates when you don't take the hint, step up your Status and take him under your protection. He is the sort of person that needs someone to tell him what to do, and would not survive as an independent. He would much rather the decisions and dealing with the aristocracy be done by someone else.

"I can't keep going on like this!" He wails, and you can guess he is speaking more about denying his appetites than about the beatings. "I'm going to snap, man!" He is a good guy —by vampire and thug standards— but his concern is still probably more about the unsanctioned feeding than about any harm it might do to who he feeds on.

"If you could... let me have a little taste of one of yours... we can... I don't know... bloody me up again afterwards so they don't know?" This ruse only has a small chance of working, and you know it will come back to bite one or both of you in the ass.

"Or, if I can bring back some valuable information ... maybe about your demon friend," he looks around the shop for anything that he can glean now that you have brought him past the threshold, but does not know what to look for in this, 'public', section. "They let us eat if we prove ourselves."

What do you do?

- Emma and Persephone -

There is no answer to the buzzer, and no indication that it even buzzed. You do notice that the building door is propped discretely open with a half-brick.

Peering through you see a bouncer-looking man pounding on Sarah's door. "Chablis! Sarah! I know you're in there!" He shouts. "The boss is getting right pissed! Poor Amy and Diamond have been covering your shifts! Diamond had to bring her kid in yesterday, and you know I don't like that! Open up!"

What do you do?

- Emma -

The man gives you a professional once-over, apparently approving of what he sees. "You a friend of the ladies?" He asks. "You looking for work? Pretty girl like you, we can find you something."

There is no sign of life from inside.

What do you do?

- Emma and Persephone Claire —

"Whoa! Claire." He says, raising his hands in a 'keep calm' manner that seems very practiced. "No offence meant. No harm done." His eyes dart around the hall for these friends of yours, not wanting any trouble.

"Let's start again?" He says to Emma. "I'm Gene. What's your name?"

Then, by way of explanation: "I am just checking up on Sarah. We all care about the girl, and she has been missing for a couple of days... and erratic for a while before that, too. Do you know if she is alright. We are all worried."

His priority seems to be more on finding out about Sarah —and Chablis, but you did not indicate you knew her, so he is focusing on the 'knowns'— than in recruiting more girls right now.

What do you do?

- Emma Bella -

"You know: Showing up late for work. Forgetting conversations we had 'yesterday'. Forgetting my birthday!" The last one seems to really bother him.

"She's been withdrawn and not wanting to talk. We thought it might be trouble back home, but her folks know nothing... not that they..." He sighs but stops himself before saying something bad about people who are not here to defend themselves.

What do you do?