JC didn’t like begging. He’d had a bad experience when he had first started out on the streets where he’d nearly been arrested for it. After a long night of constant abuse by people he’d lost his temper when one of the Kine kicked him, hard, and then stole what little he’d been able to solicit. He’d almost frenzied. ‘Luckily’ he was able to keep from killing the guy and ‘only’ punch him. Hard.

Not so luckily the cops got called in and that’s when he learned about the Safe Streets Act that British Columbia had passed in the early 2000s. And even though he hadn’t been the aggressor, he was the one in trouble for ‘aggressive panhandling’ and assault. He’d been able to get away but that had put him off from any further begging in the future.

There were places in California that also banned ‘aggressive panhandling’ but the local homeless said that outside of San Fransisco and Arcata, begging fell under free speech protections. Though punching was still out.

Not that it was all sunshine and roses. JC wasn’t easily overlooked to begin with, which made it difficult to catch people’s eye. Even more so since most people actively avoided looking if they could manage. Only being able to do it at night made it even harder. Less traffic, harder to see, looked even more creepy in the moonlight. Not ideal. The only upside being that he didn’t often need to fight with others for a corner.

All that remained was to put up with the emotional and verbal abuse people were more than willing to give those of lower station. However, he’d gone without steady income for over a year and if JC wanted to have a life he needed money. Even as a vampire you couldn’t escape capitalism. How fucked was that?

All you could really do was hold onto the tiny spark of joy that came with seeing the few kind people still willing to help others in the world.