Ice Cream (RP)

-- Circe --
Circe laughs uncomfortably and looks away. She says, "Follow you??? Oh no! I just left after you and saw you and... well, followed you. I'm sorry. I felt weird being in your place alone. Well, plus your bird, of course. I can leave if this is, like, business or something..."

Circe blushes at the man's words and says, "Oh! Oh, no, just a friend. Um, and I do play an instrument, actually... mom made Pers and me both learn. I play clarinet -- not well, but I still play a little -- and Persephone learned cello. But, I don't think she's played in years. I can sing a little, but mostly my mom made me do madrigals and early music vocals. So unless you guys know some Hildegard of Bingen or something... Ha."

"Nice to meet you, Aart. I’m Benji," Benji introduces himself, shaking the other musician’s hand.

His eyes light up at Aart’s suggestions. "Oh, yes! Either! Both!" he says, excited. "Let’s start with Hallelujah, yes? It’ll give me a chance to warm up a bit."

He begins getting his violin out of its case and ready to play while Circe explains why she followed him. "No, no, it’s alright! You’re very welcome to stay. I was just surprised, is all."

- Emma -

"Good. That would be such a waste." The crone says blithely. "Beverly," —you don't know anyone else who calls her 'Beverly'— "works funny hours." She points out. "At the hospital." She says this last bit proudly.

"But, now that you mention it... I don't think I have heard a peep from her. And I had to take her mail in, her box was overflowing." She looks at you suspiciously, gauging your worthiness. "Well, give me a minute to find the key." She decides. "Would you like to come in?"

What do you do?

- Persephone -

"I am not sure you can process it without feeling it." Viv says clinically, but she is glad enough to see you laughing that she does not pursue it.

"What I want," she says. "Is to find the bastard who did this and cut off his..."

What do you do?

- Max -

"Uh, yes." Alara says, trying to make light of her move towards the balcony. She gives you a thorough head to toe look over, her eye lingering, and not just on your scar, her lips pursed in hungry appreciation.

"Do you need to borrow something?" She asks, more eager than she needs to be to see you in one of her streetwalker outfits. "Or does Benji like when you turn up like that?"

What do you do?

- Benji and Circe -

"Pity." Aart says while stooping to clear out his guitar case of collected money. He does not want to have to share that part after the duet. "A cello would be great to play with, if she needs the money.

"You American?" He asks Circe, a bit more interested and laying on the flirt now that he knows he is not overstepping. "I don't know them. Or 'madrigals'." He apologises, them not being very easy to fit into a public busking scenario.

"Hallelujah? OK? Do you have music? I play by ear." He boasts.

What do you do?

"Likewise!" says Benji, to Aart, lifting his violin to rest on his collarbone. He may be a bit scatterbrained or absentminded sometimes, but music is the one thing he does not forget. He doesn’t look at sheet music except when he’s learning something new. He cocks his head at Circe’s suggestions. He likes listening to modern music just as much as he likes listening to the older stuff (although he hasn’t quite figured out how to listen to music on his telephone yet, despite Lizabeth’s best efforts), and he remembers hearing those names on the radio recently. "Oh, Chappell Roan! She has the one that goes like this, yes?" He puts his bow to the strings and plays a few notes from the chorus of Pink Pony Club. "I’m afraid I don’t know it well enough to play the whole thing though…"

- Emma -

From your vantage point by the door you hear the old lady opening and closing drawers and containers till she eventually finds what she is looking for in a ceramic pot. Instead of a key, she returns with a whole bunch of keys, possibly enough for half the flats in this block, apparently she some sort of keeper of spare keys.

Back in the hall, she starts peering at the keyring, they have names written on stickers wrapped around the head of the key. She fails at first, apologizing: "No. That's Beverly on the second floor. Maybe this one?"

Her faffing with keys gives you time to assess the door and lock, you don't see any signs of recent damage to either, so it does not look anyone has forced their way in, which is always a relief... though not as much as it could be given the state of things inside.

From what you know of Bev, she is very organised, with everything in its place. If her have even been in her flat before you would know that that same level of organisation extends to her home as well...

There is broken furniture shoved to the side by the walls. The hanging light in the living room has fallen from the wire and the glass is roughly brushed to the side. The other rooms are in a similar state. The last thing in the fridge was purchased over a week ago.

The flat is empty.

What do you do?

- Max -

"If you wouldn't mind." Alara nods, meeting your gaze and giving a little twirl of her finger to agree with your 'offer' to spin around, either calling your bluff or actually eager to see more, you can see her teeth... eh... fangs... as she grins.

Her grin fades as you turn serious. "We all have our cross to bear." She says, sounding like she understands being controlled by the monster within. "I haven't killed anyone in nine years." She says proudly, with just a hint of defensiveness. "You don't need to worry about me on that score. It's just a little blood, and they like it.

"Thank you." She says about the permission. She still looks a little hesitant to test the limits of your authority, but really is hungry.

"But, seriously. You can't go out like that... do you need to borrow something so we can go to Benji." She is clearly eager to get going and get fed.

What do you do?

- Persephone -

"Oh? Really?" Viv says, her revenge was mostly theoretical-venting, but now she is intrigued. "How can I help?" She asks, licking her lips.

What do you do?

Benji waits for Aart to begin before joining in himself, softly and slowly, striving to complement the guitar and Aart’s voice, rather than show off with any sort of fancy embellishments.

I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?

It’s a joy to play simply and well, just taking pleasure in the music and the act of making it with someone else. He so often plays alone and, while there’s joy in that too, there’s this great big feeling of alive-ness and belonging that comes with playing with another person as if his cold, dead heart were beating in time with Aart’s, with the music, with the city itself.

Well it goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah…

- Emma -

It is still early in the morning, and it sounds like you woke Kenedi, and woke her from not much sleep. She is grumpy and impatient, but Bev was also her friend.

"What sort of 'break in'?" Kenedi asks, and you know she does not expect you to know police procedures and such, so she is probably asking about 'supernatural involvement' and if that is why you phoned her instead of 999. "Are there signs of a struggle? Blood?"

Looking around again, this time with Kenedi guiding, you can pick out enough details to convince yourself that no one broke in and, while the place is wrecked, there is no sign of blood. In the trash there are a few empty blood bags, like the sort Bev brought with her to Chablis' place, Chablis would not drink them, but someone has. Disposing of them in the trash seems a bit reckless.

So there is no actual sign of a break-in or a definite struggle.
• Do you tell Kenedi this?

The neighbour has found a photo album, it looks like pictures of Bev and her school friends. The album has been torn in half. "Bit old-fashioned." The neighbour comments with approval, looking at the pictures of the kids and running her finger down the profile of one of them.

What do you do?