Winter our discontent (OOC)

Really? Thanks. I just thought she was someone experiencing something new and slightly risky.
I thought that was a tad obtuse, but this seemed a good location for that. She was caught off-guard by your sudden switch into hunter-mode, so she is babbling a bit. The staff seem to like her, and they may have something she can do while you might be otherwise-occupied this weekend. A party with the queers will make her feel like she understands it all.
'Barista'! That's the word. I knew there was a word.
That was your fault. Instead of looking up Viviana's name, I found I was typing Vivian then pausing to let the spell-check check, then adding the 'a', so that is what they assumed. Circe was just carrying on with that once it started. This whole business of shouting people's names to the public is weird.

lol Well then let me share two of my favorite barista name memes.

I work part time as a barista, you see. Because my stupid university doesn't cover transgender healthcare, but Starbucks does. So even though I have tenure as a professor... I have to work a second job.

So anyway! Memes.

Which Circle does Alastair Sinclair belong to?

The whole cult is Power. They are people who have used demons to gain power, not actually demons themselves.

I rolled surprisingly well for Put a Face to a Name! I think it would be good to 'learn something interesting and useful about them' in this situation because then Benji can pass that information on to Emma, but I'm not sure what that would be...

We have many options.

Do you want to know something that makes you concerned for Emma's safety this weekend? I don't think any warning from you would deter Emma, though. She will probably still go, but it might induce you check it out. Feel free to make something up if you want, else I can provide a simple tale.

Do you, the player, want his demon cult to have anything to do with the demon summoning group that sent rock demons after Jacob [ref]? We can let that story-line fade since we lost both the PCs it was tied to, but The Lanesborough, where she is meeting her demon cult, is right there where you were looking for the entrance to that demon cult's base of operations... coincidence?

These are independent elements, we can use any one or both of them if we want. Or we can do something completely different.

Persephone is definitely beginning to sense a knot of guilt forming in her stomach. She'll have to deal with that eventually! Or not; we shall see.

Ohh! That’s a good idea! Perhaps Benji recognises Alastair Sinclair’s name as someone else who was involved in the hellhound fighting circuit Rhiannon shut down, tying him to all that demon stuff we had going on before.

In terms of involving Benji in the retreat then, there’s still a hellhound loose in the Underground. Maybe Benji tries to go looking for the hellhound again on his own, over the weekend, ends up following/tracking it back to the Lanesborough, and gets entangled in the weekend retreat stuff that way? Would that make sense?

Sure. Or maybe associated with Chaudry's activities after that was shut down? You didn't know much about Chaudry back then, but may have kept your ears open in the meantime.

Do you think 'Sin is the sort to be involved in dog-fighting? Or just sniffing around for power after they were more desperate? This dictates his personality a bit, but I can work with either option easily enough.
Up to you if there is. That seems like something you would have a vested interest in, it is your station, after all. That does seem like a connection to what is going on (even if an oddly coincidental one, but we can fabricate a resurgence if we want that to be the reason you get involved).

(If you don't want to have to deal with the scary dog, we could also say that Rhiannon dealt with that beast before leaving (seems a bit of a cop out, but that was put there for the demon Hunter).)

What the cult is doing may have stirred up the dog again, and that could send you into the tunnels... and to their activities. Did someone come to you with a concern, or did something happen to make you feel you need to face your fears and tackle the problem? Up to you, and up to you how much detail you want to provide.

@Drgwen: This is looking like it might need a Keep Your Cool to avoid coming on too strong and freaking her out [ref]. If you have other Moves that are appropriate you are welcome to suggest them instead. I am not sure Persuade's trigger is met, but could be persuaded.

Even on a fail, you will still have opportunities to salvage the job. This just shuts down this 'easy in'.

What do you think?

Huh. I mean, I think Persephone absolutely came on too strong, but she spent every subsequent post back pedaling and normalizing. She apologized and said she was just trying to be more assertive. Then she says, hey we might just end up being friends. Then she divulges that she lives in London and is mostly concerned with being a good sister at the moment. These would all lessen Viviana's panic, I would think.

But then Persephone did ask to exchange numbers. But really, making plans to meet to chat, and swapping numbers to be able to let the other person know if they need to cancel, just seems like common decency to me.

So I am not convinced that Persephone was taking a high pressure approach here. On the other hand, this may mostly just be a function of Viviana's own fear and self-loathing as a closeted queer person, and obviously that has nothing to do with Persephone. I am not sure why Persephone would be the one who needs to keep her cool; it seems like Viviana would be the one with that struggle. Rather, Persephone is trying to convince Viviana that this is a low stakes casual meet up and chat, nothing to be afraid of.

I'm open to being convinced otherwise. And heh, maybe I myself am romantically/sexually aggressive IRL (maybe?), so maybe my sense of these things is skewed. And I suppose, if Viviana is about to run because of her own baggage, and Persephone can sense that, Persephone might have to scramble to calm Viviana down. And since Persephone is the PC and Viviana the NPC, I suppose I should be the one to roll. But I still think it feels like convincing the NPC not to freak out, rather than needed the PC to keep calm. So I think Persaude an NPC makes more sense.

Heh, not that it is likely to matter with my bad dice luck!

Hmm, I think I was imagining the latter -- that he became involved in the hellhound fighting circuit more out of interest in the occult and demonology and the power that it might bring him, rather than because of the dog-fighting aspect.
Maybe Benji finds evidence that the hellhound has attacked someone near his Harbour? I can set up a scene for that after wrapping up this scene with Emma

This is why we talk about things rather than just calling for rolls. :)
True. But then I explicitly said that Viviana had avoided exchanging numbers [ref], this is her safety-net, her way out, and you are taking that away from her.

Viviana wants to be able to deny anything happened, that she just had a casual conversation with someone in a coffee shop, that she 'had no idea she was a < slur >'. As you say, a function of her own closeted issues.
Yeah. I know, right. The rules are a bit wonky.

Don't focus too much on the names of the Moves, they are definitely misleading. Focus on the trigger and the outcome.
[ref] This is for when you are 'trying to stay in control when the situation gets messy', it is the fallback Move when no other Moves apply. The trigger is when something is happening and you don't want it to happen: 'tell the MC the situation you want to avoid and roll', and the situation you want to avoid it her running off.

This is the closest to a 'do you feel lucky' Move.

You can also try 'roleplay' your way out of the situation (without Moves), but you might not have time for that, and once she runs off it may be too late for this approach. But rolling a 6- makes things worse than they are if she just runs of (and feels embarrassed about it 'next time')
Yeah, but look at the Persuade Move [ref], ignore the name and assess the mechanics. It probably does not apply here. It is not a 'convince' Move, it has specifics that are a bit limited in scope. I could be convinced otherwise, but, given the context, 'seduction' and such promises are a bit off the table as your 'offer' since they are the casus belli (though, maybe, 'beli' is too strong a word:).
Precisely. Hence your character knowing the details included in the RPs about how she is feeling skittish, and also that she she has explicitly 'not offered to exchange numbers' and that this was not just an oversight, and that she worries she will regret not being able to 'chat' over the weekend.

You can tell these things.
Yep... though 'scramble' might be the wrong approach. You can tell you are coming on too strong, so backing off might solve this?

It might be as simple as sensing Viviana's hesitation and choosing to overlook her 'missing' the fact that you had not exchanged numbers. If you doggedly go after what you want you will scare her off, this is about what she wants, and, deep down, you know that.
If a roll is need, then it has to be you, only the players roll, there is no mechanism for NPCs to roll, they don't have stats to roll with. Keep Your Cool seems to be a way to 'roll for the NPC', but it is not a great mechanic, so I try to keep it focused on the PC and how their actions affected the NPC.

If you roll here it is about your keeping cool enough to appear casual enough that you don't freak her out by coming on too strong? I suppose that makes sense? 'Rules' are the bane of RPGs... but they also make the G part.
True, true. But a bad roll is not the end, it just complicates your situation. You will have the opportunity to try again another time, though all your prior actions make that next time ... more complicated.
But what about Persephone? How does her new 'demon nature' drive her? You hinted already that she had feelings of aggression in aggressive situations... are we finding that this extends to being more 'romantically aggressive' as well?

This could be a learning experience?

If he is not interested in dog-fighting, then he need not be at all involved in the hellhound stuff, that was just something that some members of the cult were doing on the side, the hellhound's function is (supposed to be) guarding. Of course, Benji need not know that sort of detail, we only need him to connect 'Sin to Chaudry, and Chaudry to the hound, that puts him in proximity to the action.
Sure. Attacked/chased/scared/.../spotted/... whatever you like. Whatever will motivate your character to head down there again and look for the hellhound.

You had a traumatic time last time, and keep claiming not to be a fighter. Do you seek backup? Did Benji learn that Persephone is a bit capable in the fighting department? Does he ask for her help?

If you do rope Persephone in, she would not know this has anything to do with her concerns for Kat (and Emma) so she may need some persuading to go that far from her target area. But maybe you hear of hellhound activity in Hyde Park (right by The Lanesborough, and near Byron), you know this is the next stop along the line from where you got last time (the stations go: Piccadilly Circus -> Green Park -> Hyde Park Corner), so you might be in the park when they do their thing (the thing with the hiking boots, but don't tell anyone, that is a secret).
Do you want to play that out? We can also jump to that night and you can 'explain' why you are there during the action.

Sure, he doesn’t have to have been directly involved in the hellhound stuff. All Benji knows for certain is that he has ties to Chaudry
Sure, I’d be happy to ask Persephone for help! Wasn’t she already going to be attending the retreat for reasons related to her patron though?
I was going to have Benji discover a puddle of blood and some traces of the Hellhound (huge pawprint maybe? Smell of sulfur?) on the tracks near his tunnels immediately after parting ways with Emma.

She is already involved. This was not for her sake but for gentle Benji's, just in case he would not want to confront the beast on his own. But, then again, being on your own might reduce the risks? There are not people that Benji would be a danger to, letting him focus on the task at hand better?

Leaving her out of it would be simpler.
Can do.
What a pity. I am sure Emma would love to find something like that near a busy station. If you do this scene, why not keep her with you? It can follow on nicely from your last RP [ref].

I mean, I’m sure Benji would prefer some backup, but as a player, I’m excited to push him outside his comfort zone. There’s also something narratively satisfying about Benji having to face the hellhound alone when the last encounter went so poorly for him especially
Good point! We’ll do that now then! Do you want to narrate the discovery of the blood and stuff or shall I? I’m about to go to bed so, if it’s me, it will probably have to wait until tomorrow

Great! Do that, then.
That's very true. I like it.

Does Emma still count as 'alone'? She is a civilian, after all. She does not have to go spelunking with you after the discovery, I was just thinking about the disappointment if she found out you had discovered something like that, right after she left. :)

To make the timing work you won't have much action until tomorrow night, so this could just be a discovery of a problem and then you part ways, only to meet up again tomorrow night or the next, when your two paths converge.
If I get a chance I can do it, but I don't have anything in mind, so we can easily wait for when you are ready.

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@Delirium: What do you think? Do you want Emma to get a hint about 'other' demon stuff happening around Piccadilly, or do you want to leave that as a surprise for her over the weekend?

Fair enough. And an elegant solution.
Are you ready to jump to that scene? David is sleeping, and will already be at work when you wake, so we can assume you said all your goodbyes already? We can find ourselves at The Lanesborough?
Do you, the player, want Emma to have seen the footprint? Or have you already left? Missing the discover makes the most sense, but there are myriad reasons for the search to not happen right away (there are still trains running on the tracks, as the most obvious example).