8072/Under the boardwalk....Boardwalk

Under the boardwalk....Boardwalk
Date of Scene:	01 October 2021
Location:	Coney Island
Synopsis:	Jubilee heard that other vampires hang out under the boardwalks in Coney Island. Instead of finding them, she is caught by Phoebe Beacon and John Constantine. It goes about as well as one might expect from a meeting between a vampire and vampire hunters. Phoebe gets sent to bed without supper and John has a score to settle.
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, John Constantine, Phoebe Beacon

---

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    It's been a couple months since the coroner affixed his seal to the death certificate of one Jubilation Lee, a student at some fancy private school in Westchester. There was some commotion about a misplaced body and apparently some kind of petition to get her death certificate declared void, but the bureaucracy moves slowly. In truth, Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee is now a card carrying member of the Undead -- a baby vampire who only knows that's what she is because people call her that horrible word. After some adjustment, Jubilation has gotten used to life after death and so have the administration at her school, though not all of them equally. Most students, unfortunately, have been keeping their distance. So, when young Jubilation got a lead that "under the boardwalk" at Coney Island is where all the vampires hang out, she had to check it out, however unlikely it is.

    Expecting to meet others of her kind and wanting to impress them, Jubilee is dressed in what she believes vampires would wear. Her hair is long, allowed to flow halfway down her back, and without the usual curls and ringlets she does. It's in its naturally straight condition. Her makeup is dark -- black liquid eyeliner forming winglets at the corners of her eyes -- and dark purple lipstick, bordering on black. She wears a black tanktop, black pleated skirt, and a pair of black Doc Martens. A studded bracelet is worn loosely but the price tag is still attached to it. Apparently she went shopping.

    "I guess this is the place..." Jubilation mutters to herself. She's walking underneath the Coney Island boardwalk, moving slowly in between the wooden supports that keep the structure above the sand. "But... I don't see any..." The word is vampire, but it's not one she's willing to use right now. She looks down at her smartphone and frowns. It's not exactly the kind of thing you can Google.

John Constantine has posed:
    Normally a 'rumors of vampire activity' alert would have Chas checking things out first and calling on John only if it was more than he could handle. But tonight John's decided to take it on himself and bring Phoebe along with him.

    Why? Because, well, rumors generally turn out to be just that so it's not like there's any real danger of running into a slew of blood suckers anyway?

    Still, when John steps out of the portal from the House of Mystery, he's ready just in case. Hellfire dances in the pupils of his eyes, ready to be called upon in the blink of an if need be. There's no attempt to hide his entrance, no attempt to be stealthy, he just strides on in like he owns the place. It's not, after all, his first vampire rodeo. This isn't just another day ending in Y, this would be just any day if they all ended in different letters.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe, incidentally, knows how difficult it is to be listed as 'alive' after someone's declared her 'dead'. It took a bunch of sad eyes to Harvey Dent to have things reversed for her mother -- so she could claim emancipation. It was a weird month.

    Phoebe has her hair pulled back in short pom-poofs today, and was wearing Jeans and a T-shirt promoting some New England brand of medicinal cola -- it's got Moxie. It was twenty-five cents. She comes out prepared to fight with her own little palm of Light in her hand, following behind John and toting a backpack. She doesn't quite stride in like she owns the place -- but she is keeping an eye out for suspicious characters.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Is Jubilee a suspicious character? Well, for someone apparently here for some clandestine vampire club meeting, she's doing an awful lot to look the part. Her clothing and makeup scream Hot Topic mannequin.

    Jubilation moves with some hesitancy, as though she knows she's not meant to be down here, walking through the sand and in between the supports. Despite that, she's still a vampire, and despite her discomfort moves with a supernatural grace and beauty. Her feet are making contact with the sand as she takes each step and yet it seems as though she's gliding across, hair gently flowing in a breeze that does not exist.

    As soon as the portal rips open a ways behind her, Jubilation turns around in a readied stance. Her Dark Passenger, as she's come to call it, sends her flight-or-fight response into overdrive. Without so much as a thought, Jubilee lets out a hiss that echoes into the night.

John Constantine has posed:
    John... laughs. Oh yes he does, he laughs right out loud. "I'd put those claws away, kitten, lest you end up with them clipped," he quips before he reaches into the pocket of his trench coat for that pack of damned Silk Cuts. He lights one off the Hellfire dancing between his index finger and thumb, almost as if to prove a point.

    "Well luv," he shoots in Phoebe's direction. "We're either late, early or this isn't happening."

    When his attention shifts back to Jubilee those faded denim blues of his narrow ever so slightly even as they open *wide*, that is to say if there was a visible representation of it, he'd have a third eye in the middle of his forehead right now, but that'd just be weird, wouldn't it?

    "Special sauce girl," he murmurs, more to himself than to Jubilee or to Phoebe. It's like when someone pulls a file from a dusty old cabinet and reads the name on the label to make sure they have the right one. "What the bloody hell happened to you?" Now that *is* directed at Jubilee. He didn't see anyone bitten that night that she spilled sauce on his shoes, doesn't remember anyone being infected in any normal fashion, easy to make the leap that what he's seeing didn't happen that night.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe pokes her head out from behind John, and looks almost owlishly at the hissing Jubes, and her head tilts a moment as she herself tries to get a sense of what's going on, but she steps out and to the side. She's still got a palm full of light, though she's keeping it at the ready rather than letting it shine. She looks Jubilation up and down though, curiously.

    "... nice boots." she states. Never miss an opportunity to give a complement. That's Phoebe, trying to make up for John's Asshole with her own gentle encouragement.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee's muscles relax as parts of her brain, previously a dried out husk, fill with blood and allow her to recall a memory. "The Landlord!" Jubilation announces in response to being called the special sauce girl. Her voice is sweet, energetic, as though she's announcing the name of the homecoming king and it's a dear friend. John Constantine has been remembered as the guy evicting some crackheads from an office building.

    "What do you mean what happened to me? You drove me back and, I don't know, drugged me? Killed me? What the fuck?" Both hands have found their rightful spots on her hips. Jubilee looks over her shoulder, then the other shoulder, and then back to John and Phoebe.

    "Thanks," she replies, shrugging her shoulders at Phoebe's compliment. "You know, I think I, like, might have saved your life, maybe, that day... So, I gotta say, poisoning me or whatever was... a dick move."

    Jubilee's understanding of the events of that day are...flawed.

    "Wait..." Jubilee looks around again. The only people for the alleged vampire meeting are her and these two. "...Holy shit..." Jubilee rolls her eyes at her own stupidity. "You did this to me." Because obviously John and Phoebe are the vampires she's here to meet.

John Constantine has posed:
    John cringes, the look more in Phoebe's direction than Jubilation's. He makes little circular motion around his ear with his index finger. 'Wacko alert'.

    "Just take a breath, luv," he's addressing the vampire in the room now. "I did *not* poison you. I am *not* a vampire. I'm here because, just like that nest that night, I heard they were hanging out here." So, he came to evict them.

    He tucks that lit cigarette between his lips and leaves it there so it can bob up and down as he speaks. "Just stand still," he mutters before ... well, he mutters some more, under his breath. His hands do all sorts of weird things before they end up palms out toward Jubilation, but held horizontally rather than vertically and a few inches from one another so there's just enough space for him to peek at her between them.

    And he's implying *she's* a Wacko?

    After a moment or two of studying her from that space between his hands he just says, "Huh... didn't bloody well expect *that*."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe pauses a moment as she looks at Jubilation. She allows the light in her palm to grow stronger, casting shadow towards Jubilee as she stands to the defense, dark eyes narrowing a moment as John casts, and she breathes out.

    "Well, that's a first." she admits quietly. "What are we being accused of doing?" she questions, giving Jubilee a curious look over again. "Other than the hissing thing I mean, that's probably not in my repetroire?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation opens her mouth, a line forming across her brow. Two razor sharp fangs are on display, though this isn't meant to be a threat. She just forgot how to retract them. She might have argued with John, perhaps remind him that she doesn't /need/ to take a breath, as she has no use for the oxygen, but she doesn't bother.

    For Phoebe, Jubilation points an index finger right at John Constantine. "Not 'we'... /'he'/! /He/ drove me home and I wound up dead on the side of the road! And /now/ I need SPF 1000!"

    Jubilation tilts her head towards Constantine and raises both eyebrows. "What is it?" Her tone is accusatory, tense, and not-at-all collaborative. By their smell, these two might not be vampires but they're certainly dangerous.

John Constantine has posed:
    "No, Chas drove you home, luv. I don't drive." Probably because there's never a time that he can actually blow under the legal limit? "You've been cursed." He drags from that Silk Cut without benefit of a hand, it's still just dangling there. After the exhale he adds, "If I had to guess, I'd say it was the blood sucker makin' a meal of me." ...or being forced to make a meal of him more to the point.

    "I've been around the block, ridden hard, put away wet, seen all manner of all kinds of shite in my life, but never seen anyone turned by a curse." John sounds more intrigued than anything else. Something new. It's not often he gets to see something new. "Might be I could help you with that, given some time."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... oh. /Oh/." Phoebe realizes, and she breathes out a moment, and she brings her eyebrows up, looking up to John a m oment, and then back to Jubilee. "Yeah, making people into vampires isn't... the thing he does either." she quietly states, and she rubs the back of her head, and looks to John.

    "If it's a curse, can it be brute forced out of her?" she asks in curiosity, her gaze still set on Jubilee with a little suspicion, but the teenager is a bit protective of John. The Light peeking between her fingers casts folden strings against the sand and the water, and then it hits that John hasn't seen this before, and she raises her eyebrows, and then glances to Jubes.

    "Looks like we have more in common than good shoes." she wisecracks.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The events of that day have all blended together for young Jubilation. Chas. John. Landlord. Crackheads. It's all but a vague memory, so she's bound to get some details wrong. Give her a break -- she died!

    "A /curse/?" Jubilation repeats. At first, it sounds like she's upset about that. Being told she's cursed is hard to hear. But...

    "Oh good! Good! That means no one was mouthin' on my neck!" Jubilee exclaims. She tilts her head towards Phoebe and shrugs her shoulders. "My girlfriend can be kind of jealous."

    "Wait, wait... You just said you've never seen this before but you can help me?" Jubes exclaims. She folds her arms across her chest. "How do I know you're not going to stake me or something?" She waves her hands in the air. "I'm just getting used to this... I... You know, have it under control, I think... I'm fine. I'm fine."

    All she knows is that prior to becoming a vampire, she was dead. What happens if she's not a vampire anymore? Dead?

    "What do you mean?" Jubilation asks, squinting her eyes at Phoebe and her, well, beacon.

John Constantine has posed:
    "Wow," John deadpans in a tone that someone might use when they can't believe that someone else is really that daft. "Luv, you'd have been dead ten times over by now had that been what I wanted," he points out SLOWLY.

    "Suit yourself, just know that when," not if when, "...the cravings become too much and you hurt or kill an innocent? That's when I'll stake you, or set you on fire, or cut off your head..." Whatever works against cursed made vampires. He might have to experiment. He flicks his spent cigarette into the sand and smooshes it in further with his toe before reaching into an - there are MANY - inside pocket of his trench coat to pull out a business card.

    It's a simple affair, he dropped all that 'Master of the Dark Arts' business shortly after Ravenscar. It's just his name and a telephone number. "Call me before it gets to that point, aye," he offers along with the card.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You turned and you're worried about a jealous girlfriend?" Phoebe asks, "Examine your relationship priorities when you get this fixed, girl," remarks the girl with the poms on her head, and she gives a little shrug. Her nose wrinkles when John flicks the Silk into the sand, showing her disapproval at it as she drops her light, and holds up her palms. Nothing up her short sleeve, but she has goosebumps. It's cool next to the ocean at night!

    "I mean I have the same Docs. Had the same Docs. I lost them in a fire. Long story." she states as she side-steps the question.

    "... you got a name or am I going to have to refer to you as Sauce Girl when inevitably I ask questions?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Oh, I'm shaking in my boots!" Jubilee announces. In fact, she lifts one of her legs so she can actually shake her boot. It's done with an unnerving amount of grace and smoothness, as though she's being posed by some outside force.

    "Maybe you should just mind your own business about things you don't understand," Jubilation suggests, pointing her finger at John again, still clearly not knowing who he is or what his qualifications are. After all, it was Jubilation who thought she needed to run into that vampire nest to protect him. As far as she knows, he's just a guy with a lot of wrinkles in his clothes.

    "I'm not here to hurt anyone. I just wanted to meet others like me," Jubilation explains, finally putting her foot down. "Find out... you know... everything." As though there was some leader vampire that has all the answers...

    "Jubilation," she says to Phoebe. "Jubilation Lee."

    Jubilee extends her hand forward and pulls the business card from John's hand quickly. She briefly looks at it and frowns. "Call you? Ew," she mutters. "You mean text, I'm sure, but..." Jubilation's nose wrinkles a little as she looks John over, up and down.

    "...You mean text, right?"

John Constantine has posed:
    With a quick incantation in Latin, something about burning flames of protection, and a sweeping gesture with his hands, a ring of fire springs up instantly around Jubilee. It's not just any fire, it's Hellfire; that stuff burns hotter and, despite its name, cleanses better.

    With nothing more than a circular gesture with his hand, a tiny sandstorm kicks up inside that circle around Jubilation. It's tiny but mighty, those little grains of sand might sting as they beat about. Odd though, that they never put out those flames.

    The same fire dancing around the poor baby vampire now, dances bright in John's eyes.

    As long as she doesn't try to cross those flames, she should be fine. There's just a point to be made. "*Little girl*," John begins, his voice all jagged dangerous edges. "I have been dealing with vampires, demons, evil spirits and just about anything you can dream up in your worst nightmares since before you were even in nappies. So, Do. Not. Tell me about what I *don't* understand."

    As if to drive his point home further, a quick upward gesture with one hand sends those flames up about six inches over Jubilation's head and then back down once more. She could *try* to step over them at this point, but does she really know that the spell ends at the height of the flames?

    "My name is John Constantine and I've walked through the nine levels of Hell, literally, and came out the other side of them. Insult my coat, my clothes, my accent, the size of my dick, but do *not* insult my ability to do my fuckin' job."

    Oh-uh, he's *pissed*.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives a smile, and was about to introduce herself -- but John comes first. She startles, taking a step back and bringing one hand up to shield her eyes against the Hellfire, burning in the night, and the sand kicking up around them. She gives a sound of alarm, drawing a few more steps back and behind John in concern that there was danger *other* than her mentor, eyes squinted a moment as if trying to peer into the Aether -- but that's not a lesson learned yet.

    "John --" she tries to call him back, "she's just a dumb kid like me!"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    As soon as the hellfire sprouts up around her, Jubilee brings her arm up over her eyes. She hisses loudly again, an instant reaction baked into the ancient instincts hidden in her blood. The last couple months have been a struggle for young Jubilation -- she's been snapping at people, finding attitude and confrontation in the simplest of interactions. She's been fighting against what she called a Dark Passenger, but it's just been a curse all along.

    She looks all around her, as though there might be some way out of this. A lunatic who claims to have a paper route in Hell is casting spells at her down under the docks! Some dumb kid would probably panic in this situation, but not Jubilee. Somewhere deep down is a girl who has seen her fair share of trauma and received her fair share of training. But, there's a vampire there, also, and vampires HATE fire.

    "OKAY!" she shouts. "YOU MADE YOUR POINT!" Jubes is still frantically searching all around her, apparently unwilling to accept that there are no breaks in the ring that surrounds her. "BUT HOW IS THIS A JOB?!"

John Constantine has posed:
        With a simple little wave of a hand, it's all gone again. "I hear you hurt *one* person," he warns, that dangerous edge still there. "...the next time, it won't be a circle, it'll be you in flames."

    That just about sums up his job dunnit? Protecting the unknowing from the things that go bump, the nightmare things like... vampires.

    He does't wait for a response, he mumbles a word or two, not even audible, and the portal to 'home' opens to reveal the parlor of an old Gothic house.

    "Now," he growls at Phoebe with a finger pointed at that portal. Just getting his point across in case the girl should decide to try to make nice with the kid over here that's obviously rubbed him the wrong way... twice.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe was about to open her mouth again, but she sees the wave of the hand. Her mouth closes, and she draws her gaze lengthwise to Jubilee who had just set John off. She hitches her breath, and she gives a small nod. Pheobe doesn't make nice with Jubilee, though she does look over her shoulder in concern as she passes through the portal ahead of John, looking beyond the trenchcoated Constantine back at the vampiric teenager, eyes showing concern for her before she disappears to the left of the portal opening.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation's face sours, tensing up from the anger that's welling up inside her. How dare he use that bullshit magic!? How dare he talk to her that way?! How dare he throw that cigarette butt on the ground?! These are the indignant demands of that predator instinct that has taken hold of her.

    The real Jubilee, still in there and occasionally able to break free of her tormentor, watches in horror as the one person who might be able to help her is now threatening to kill her. Jubilation tilts her head to watch Phoebe go into that portal, eyebrows hiked up. Don't. .... Go.

    A thin red line braids across Jubilation's bottom eyelid before breaking free and trickling down her cheeks. Each eye bleeds a single, thick tear. It's the last image of Jubilation Lee that John Constantine will see before she summons some of that vampire speed and runs off into the shadows under the boardwalk!

John Constantine has posed:
    And at the last second, John Constantine mumbles again - he does that a lot, man needs to learn to speak more clearly - and the portal closes with only Phoebe inside it. A second later, she'll find herself deposited into the loft apartment above the Laughing Magician.

    Why?

    Because John's going vampire hunting. Not for Jubilation, no, but for others that might now something about the 'Ancient One' - he still believes that to be the lamest name *ever* - that cursed a child to a life of sucking blood and living in darkness.

    The monster in question may already be dead, but John's going to need more information before he can set this right. ...even if it means tracking down a few nesting types, the nasty ones, the ones that hunt in packs to get the information.

    Because fuck all, he's not leaving a kid to that fate.