Winter our discontent (RP)

- Emma -

"Yeah? How's she doing?" Sarah asks, trying to sound casual, and mostly seeming uninterested if a little bit guilty.

"Did you ...?" You can't be sure what she was about to ask, but it probably was about what you told Chablis, maybe a concern of if you told her where to find Sarah. It seems like Sarah completely cut off that part of her life and accepted her new reality without qualms.

"Did you get my charger?" Sarah asks instead. Again, the only thing she seems to have any attachment to is her phone.

The bathroom is spotlessly clean, and the rest of the house has been tidied up after the party last night, there is a load of washing on the go as well.

What do you do?

- Benji -

As you leave, the cat slips out the door. Yasmine makes a grab for it, but it predicted that and easily evades her. "Ach!" Yasmine, exclaims in frustration, but does not try to get the cat back. "It is raining, you know." She calls, but the cat sits, just out of reach and blinks at her, drops falling on its head causing it to occasionally twitch an ear, but seemingly unbothered by the water.

It is a short walk down the alley to Jacob's shop. Yasmine hesitates on the threshold.

What do you do?

- Persephone -

"Ah! Right on time!" Wentworth declares as you enter his office, there are two cups on the desk, one for him and another for you, exactly how you like it.

What do you do?

"You can come in," Benji says, holding the door for her. "Well, I think you can, anyway. I brought Teddy in here earlier and that seemed fine."

- Emma -

"Was it her? I had no idea." Sarah admits, though you recall she was worried about her roommate when you first revealed to her that vampires were real, so she probably suspected, even if only subconsciously.

She merely nods when you say it is safe for her, she has felt safe since you took her in. She does not pick on your hints —or, actually: your lack of hints— about moving out.

What do you do?

- Persephone -

"There is a job for you." Wentworth says, as though that is all the explanation for his expecting your arrival. He nods in 'understanding' at your tirade of proposed demands.

"Of course." He says about the coffee. "Only the best for my favourite worker. Your handling of Howard Winters was masterful."

He takes a sip from his own cup —it looks like milky tea— and studies you. "What is it you want to know?" He asks, sounding completely reasonable.

What do you do?

- Benji -

As you hold the door and invite Yasmine in she takes a hesitant step over the threshold, her cat nips in quickly just before she does. As her foot lands on the inside floor she looks both relieved and more than a little excited.

She sees the pond in the middle of the floor and looks up, not seeing any leaks in the ceiling she looks confused. "Maybe we should check upstairs first?" She suggests. "See where that is coming from?"

What do you do?

"We could, but I was up there earlier looking for bird food and I didn’t see anything leaking," says Benji, crouching by the edge of the pond to get a closer look. "Anyway, I don’t actually think it’s a leak — I think it’s a pond. There’s duckweed on the surface, see, and I swear I saw a frog in here earlier."

- Emma -

Sarah looks disappointed by the idea of getting a new roommate, she thought she already had the best roommate ever, but you are telling her you don't want to keep being her roommate, and she does not know why.

She takes it in stride, though, as she does all such facts. "How am I going to pay for a new place." She whines, not really asking, but also sort of hoping you will provide an answer.

What do you do?

- Benji -

"A «frog»?" Yasmine says in a dubious tone of voice, she is not sure if you are mocking her French heritage, but thinks that unlikely. She looks at the yellowing duck-weed. "No ducks, however?"

Looking round the shop she seems overwhelmed. "This will take hours. Days, even." She says, assessing the sheer number of books. She is right, moving all the valuable books will take a while, and you are already tired.

"I have a trolley, back at my shop." Yasmine says. "If we can find a dry spot we can search for and sort the most valuable books, then wheel them over. But it will still take many trips." She sounds quite enthused by the idea of sorting all the new books. "Hé, regarde! This could be useful!" She says, finding a large roll of plastic, probably left over from Jacob's window repair work last week. "We can make a tent."

What do you do?

- Persephone -

"You didn't get a copy of your contract?" Wentworth tuts. "That's not like you. I don't have it." Wentworth likes using the insulation of being middle-management to disclaim responsibility for both what you do, and for what is done to you. Even though you have no way of proving it, you might suspect that he has, at least, seen your contract, but a hearsay recounting of the terms is not going to help you find a loophole... unless it is in his own best-interest. You may have to find a way to wangle the details from your Dark Patron directly.

"My my! You have been busy if you have had run-ins with that whole list." Wentworth exclaims when you rattle off your list. He knows for a 'fact' that you have not met two from that list, and you know that you have only met, like 1½ —depending on how you categorize Yasmine and Zhiyu.

"You can always phone the hotline and ask, you know." He says, probably hesitant to give up the levels of control he is used to. "That is what they are there for." (That, and to keep a record of who and what you encounter.)

"Is there anything you need to know right now?"

What do you do?

- Emma -

But can Sarah go back to Velvet Sin? She walked out on that job, and while Gene seemed concerned about her, Ray seemed mostly concerned that he still had her last paycheck, and that that was cluttering up his desk. She might be able to go back, but she has shown no interest in doing so.

You don't know what such dancing paid, but, if her flat was anything to go by, it was not a lot.

Do you speak to Gene, maybe just to tell him Sarah is alright? Or to warn him about Chablis —and sound like a crazy-person? Or do you try to get Sarah to stand on her own two feet and go back there herself? Or, do you try to help her find another job, or send her out on her own?

What do you do?

- Persephone -

"I don't trifle with such details." Wentworth says about the hotline number. "It should have been part of your orientation. It should be in your phone." He waves his hand a bit ineffectually in your general direction when he talks about 'your phone', you don't think he has a very strong grasp of what it means for a number to 'be in a phone', and you think you saw his mouth trying to form the word '-book' at the end.

Sure enough, if/when you check, there is a 'helpline' number in your contacts, and you did not put it there. It is an American number, so maybe you need to ask them for the local number, or you could just keep using the international one, its not like you are paying the bill.

"A 'kept woman', you say?" He sounds intrigued. "Well, we can't be having that." He does not actually order you to 'free her' or 'bring her into our fold', but his tone makes it pretty clear that doing so 'unofficially' and 'for your own reasons' would be delightful... unless 'she' happens to be 'kept' by an ally, and unless you happen to be clumsy enough to be provably responsible for 'their' loss of an asset. Unless you are willing to name names (you, or Emma could easily have 'Kat's' full name), you can't get any more details about what she means to anyone.

What do you do?