Brasenose College

Aubrey looks across the three, quickly sizing them each up as she shoots a glance over at Dr. Bispham’s door and back. With a growing smile on her face she flares her Awe and approaches, genially waving to the group. “Hiiiii, I’m in the right place right? For Dr. Bispham?”

Inquisitive looks slip into sycophantic smiles as Aubrey's Awe washes over the girls. "Yes! Nice to meet you. I'm Sarah," the first introduces herself, offering Aubrey her hand. Emma and Charlotte quickly also throw their names into the mix.

"Aubrey,"  the starlet eyes the outstretched hand with a disguised look of disgust but takes it nonetheless, then gives a small wave to the other two as she sits. "Sooo you're, like, also on the Stones and Bones track, yeah? Her mind is quickly at work, considering attempting to size each girl up for how useful or smart they seemed to be. She'd promised her sire she'd take the whole academic side of this role-research trip seriously, but the truth was the classes so far had  been challenging already. Having someone or some three she could reliably copy off of would go a long way. Plus, she'd come here alone. It really was time to start building a following. "'Cause I'm super new here so, like, I've been really hoping to find a good study group, you know?"

"Yes!" Sarah quickly agrees. "I suppose we're all going to share a tutor. Dr Bispham is just prolific . "

“Is he? Scarcely know a thing about him.” She admits, pulling her things to the side of her seat and beckoning to Amun to hop up on her lap. “Anything I should know before we do this? Some pre-tutor tutoring perhaps?” 

Amun curls up in Aubrey's lap and begins to purr, causing the other girls to stare. "How on earth did you get a cat in here?" Charlotte asks incredulously.

"I promise you I hardly did a thing. It was really all Amun here."  A smile curls at the edge of Aubrey's lips as she strokes the cat's back. "Besides, what harm's a cat, honestly?"

"Pets aren't allowed in college," Emma whispers to Aubrey by way of explanation.

“  Perhaps for most people; but I’m not most people.”  Aubrey laughs and grins at the girl. Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, she nods though and sits back. “Thanks for like, the warning though. Emma, right? Don’t worry Em I’ll be super careful, Amun will just be our little secret, yes?”  She presses her lips together into a firm smile and stares around the table, making eye contact with each of them.

The other girls glance at one another, but say nothing more. A few moments later the clock strikes half-past eight and the door opens. "Welcome, welcome. Please come inside," Dr Bispham calls to the girls, beckoning all four inside. The voice and face are immediately familiar to Aubrey as those of her circle mentor Odin.

"Wait, fucking  what?"   Aubrey stands up with a jolt as the familiar voice gives way to the even more familiar face of her mentor, and her awe drops at once. "Are you having a laugh, why are you here?"  Her mouth moving faster than her mind, she hardly registers the logic behind the man being both her mentor and tutor, and gawks slack-jawed for a second before attempt to compose herself. "Apologies, I... had like, no clue  you were Professor Bispham, is all. When we last met."  

The other girls stare at Aubrey with mouths agape when she addresses the professor with such familiarity. "I'm always happy to help a new member of college, Aubrey, but how about we all calm down and get to know each other, hm?" Bispham tells her with mild reproach as the students step inside.

Shaking her head in disbelief, she laughs to break some of the tension. “Of course, Professor . It’s just like, crazy how small of a world it is sometimes.”  With a dismissive wave to the other girls, she tries to explain away the outburst further. “Right so like I was on a set the other day for a new project and Odー Dr. Bispham  was there as a, I don’t know what was it exactly?” She turns her smile on him, a conspiratorial glint in her eyes, “A consultant or whatever? I just hadn’t the faintest!  You should’ve said something, honestly. Anyway have you met ー ah wait let me see if I have it right ー Emma, Sarah, and Charlotte?”

"That's why we're all here today, isn't it?" Dr Bispham notes congenially. "Why don't you come on in, Aubrey, and we can all start on even footing, hm?"

The rest of the tutorial passes more smoothly as the shock wears off and Aubrey composes herself, slipping into an affected academically-minded state for the duration of the meeting. When it ends, she leaves with a long last look at Dr. Bispham, and an exchange of numbers among the other girls in the group to study together in the future. With that all taken care of though, she was finally free to make her way to Professor Bocksberger's office for the more important meeting of the evening. A rap of knuckles against the door and a flex of fingers held at her sides later, and she is ready to meet her ' mother ' once more. 

Sophie opens the door in an elegant, floor-length dress of green velvet. "Good evening, Aubrey," she welcomes the younger girl. Her voice is as rich and husky as it was when they last met. "Please come in." In many ways, Hera's office is similar to Odin's. However, the decor is less oppressively gothic with brighter, classical accents.

"Evening, 'mother'."  Aubrey flashes a gracious smile as she enters, taking a good look down at the woman's formalwear as she does. "Was I supposed to dress up as well? I'm sorry, most of my red carpet attire is back with Camille."

"Death's too short to look anything but your best, darling,"  Sophie declares, falling into one of her office's armchairs. "Please, sit and tell me what it is that Camille thinks I should hear."

Aubrey laughs as she drops down into the chair opposite the Professor, crossing her legs and reclining back into the cushiony leather. "Maybe you really are my mum, think I've heard her say those exact words." The decor was a bit too dull though for that to be true. She caught herself admiring the classical looking bust on the nearby desk, however. Between the ancient greek monikers and her position as a Classics professor, it increasingly appeared like the woman just might  be into the ancient world. Maybe. "Well luv I've been positively scouring the campus on my hands and feet for who risked the masquerade. Learned some things that may be related, but also some things that, like, I don't know if you're aware of? But it's kind of... what's the classical word for it... fucked?"  She proceeds to recall and regale her mentor with the everything she'd learned and heard so far, starting with the most pertinent information — her meeting with Professor McCarthy and the tape from his party; the shadowy culprit caught in a blur of murder; the facts about Matthew that she'd gleaned from the passing students on the quad — but then into the bigger news: everything Liam and Khalid had mentioned regarding wolves and the cats appearances; the larger group they were apparently with; the information Amun had given them about himself and the other cats; and most significantly of all, the thing that made even Camille get all serious. The thing that she'd carelessly dismissed as fairy tale when first told about it. That which put fear, apparently, into even an Elder. "A Methuselah."

At first, Hera remains lazily reclined in her chair as she takes in what Aubrey has to say. However, the more the plot thickens, the more that the senior vampire begins to sit up and pay attention, her persian curling up in her lap as she does so. "You're certain of this?" Hera demands, her words no longer languid, but fast and precise.  "What exactly was said of a methuselah and by whom?"

Aubrey nods, "Definitely what was told to me, yes."  She can see Khalid's face once more in her mind as he told her of that evening, his voice hushed and grave in a way it hadn't been the whole date previously. "Said that like, somewhere deep in the library I guess? Some area protected by a mage's magic had a bunch of elder's coffins. Some other kindred awoke one they called a Methuselah, and it like, ate the others. Final death and all that, yeah?" The professor's tone had taken on a similar feel to that of Khalid's now — Cammy's too, even — which did little to assuage Aubrey's growing apprehension. Everyone taking it all so seriously was really starting to unnerve her. She'd starred in more than a few slasher and horror pictures, and scene's like this — where some spookily underlit character reveals the terrifying truth of whatever ancient evil or malevolent curse or unrelenting abomination had been awakened — were all too familiar.  But like, that was just in the movies, right? "Sooo... have I done well so far?"

"This is... unexpected, Aubrey," Hera replies quietly. "Your task was to identify which of the kindred was responsible for endangering our covenant and it doesn't sound like you're any closer to answering that question. The mage is something else entirely... he believes that this took place in the catacombs? That elder vampires were held there - by other mages, no less - and consumed by a methuselah? Did he say who these elders were, or where the methuselah came from? Why would he even confide in you with such information? Do you have any idea of his position in the Christ Church hierarchy?"

"Well, I..." Aubrey raises a finger, but frowns and lowers it, confusion creeping into her voice. "No... I don't know any of that? I just wanted to know what was up with these cats, right? He helped and, I don't know. When I mentioned what Liam had told warned me about he gave me more?"  Honestly in her mind the connections here seemed much more obvious before. She'd asked Liam about the murder! And he clued her in to other stuff. But this stuff was really scary sounding! And Cammy had told her to take it seriously and tell Hera! So here she was! Why was that hard to see? It doesn't sound like you're any closer.   "But I am  closer."  She pouts, crossing her arms over her chest. "I know it's some girl in like, the same program as me. I tried getting a list of all the students in the program but the school's stupid sociology faculty won't stay open late enough for me to like, go during the evening! Ugh. But I've been practicing my crúac! I feel so close. If I tried again I'm sure  I'd get even closer."

"The cats are strange, it is true. Even by the standards of the shadow world," Hera admits. "However, the circle has come to the conclusion that they are not a threat. For now, anyway. Mages, on the other hand, are an ever present danger. To become involved with one is risky, but can also be rewarding. Find out what this one knows and what his stake in it is. Do not be too trusting. He could just as easily be manipulating you ." She reclines in her chair and once more runs a hand through the fur of her own feline companion. "As for your  crúac skills,  I'd love to see how your they've developed!   If you're so sure, then, by all means, show me, Aubrey."

"I'll be careful,"  she nods, as she sets about preparing for her ritual. By now the process was becoming old hat. Bowl. Knife. Vitae. Yada yada yada. But she'd been so close the last couple times to a true vision of something meaningful, and something within her just felt confident in it now. "Okay gaze in wonder or whatever because I feel real bloody good about this,"  she shimmies about in place over the bowl as she draws the knife cooly and assuredly across her skin until the first crimson drops splash down into the bowl below. Her mind withdraws, quieted and calmed, as she once more zeroes in on the blurred image of the girl from Liam's video. All of the things she'd learned, however little there may have been, materialised in her mind in a circle around the video; a mental aura of the murder.  Her breathing is steady but firm as the seconds draw out quicker now, but it's barely a minute later that she feels it — a shift. Like a fingers curling through the crack of a door, something within the blood starts to open before her, and her mind wastes no time probing within. What is her name? Who is she?  Though her eyes remain closed, the blood swirls in the bowl before her and within her shuttered vision. An image forms, stark and true; a feather-winged angel bearing armour and helm, sword in one hand and cup in the other. Aubrey frowns, having hoped for something clearer, but presses further. Where is she? Where can I find her?  Towering stained-glass illuminates the void around her, pulling back to reveal neo-gothic architecture. Again she frowns, hoping for clearer answers. This is like, blood magic isn't it? Can't magic be more fucking speci— Wait. That's that one college here. Kibbles. Kepler. Keble.  Okay. Okay cool. Cool that's useful.   She goes for another inquiry, but the window closes quick, and at once her mind is shunted back into the reality of the professor's office.  And at once, a strange feeling comes about her, like a dull blade on deadened flesh, she watches the color fade ever-so-slightly from the room, the world feeling at once washed out and wrong. "I... shit . I saw something?  Ugh I did that right I know I did! But..."  The spoiled starlet stabs softly at the bloody bowl, groaning.  "...the stupid rite won't just give me a straight answer. Whoever it is is apparently a fucking angel in Keble College though."  Quickly, she relays the visions to her mentor, then slumps back into her seat.

"Keble?" Hera remarks apparently surprised. "That's a good start. Crúac often speaks to us in ways that we don't expect. What were you concentrating on when you saw the angel?"

“The girl’s name,”  she sighs. “Thought it’d be as easy as that. I don’t even know any angel names…”  Words leaked from her lips in a languid wash, almost alien to her. She’d been so eager to cast that ritual but the second she had it felt as if the world itself was tilted. Not majorly so, but nearly imperceptibly ー a fraction of a degree. Something wrong and twisted, but nauseatingly uncanny and vague.  “You’re all about, like, classical whatever, right? Do you know?”

"Angelic names are far from unusual," Hera admits. "Michael and Gabriel, for example, but a female name might narrow it down a little. Ariel, Haniel, or Jophiel perhaps. The el suffix is usually the common syllable. Be on the look out for that."

Aubrey mulls this fact over a moment then nods. "Okay but like, those aren't Angel  names, yeah? I mean like Gabriel maybe, but Michael ? There are soooo many Michaels. Myers. Scott. Angelo. Jackson just  died this year alone. There's probably at least one kindred named Michael. And Ariel is a mermaid I'm pretty sure? Those others though, I'll look for weird shit like that I guess."  She shifts back in her seat, rocking her legs forward as if to push off the seat, but sinks further instead, and when she opens her mouth again the tone is at once more somber. "Hera, are we... safe here?  If what the mage said was true... if there's a Methuselah here... " The warmth of the soft cushions around her offer Aubrey a paltry bit of comfort despite her best efforts to embrace them. Why was this how she felt? She should've been thrilled to succeed in that rite but everything about it just increasingly compounded to weigh against her, barely dissipating with a heavy sigh from long-stilled lungs.

"The kindred are never truly safe," Hera tells Aubrey with a look of what might almost be pity, "but right now all you have is hearsay and there's no need to fear that."

"Even Cammy got all serious on me last morning though," she pushes back. "Like I'm trying to focus on playing this detective role but like? Then Professor McCarthy was all, "bleh bleh the more you know, bleh bleh the more you're in danger" and said not to dismiss monsters or whatever." As she quotes the man, she raises her arms up in mock imitation. 

"What exactly did you tell Camille?" Hera asks. "A real methuselah would be cause for alarm. I'm interested to know why the mage believes that one is stalking the streets of Oxford. Why do you care what McCarthy says anyway?"

"Told her the same as I told you, yeah? And I don't  give a rat's arse what he says but... all this talk of like methuselahs and monsters... and then I did the ritual just now and it felt great at first! But now... like I peeled a curtain back on reality for a second and realised all of this is real? Like I knew it was real, duh, but..."  Her increasingly quickened speech cuts off as she claps her hands in front of her, closing her eyes and inhaling for a moment of calm. " Fuhhh-ck!"  She groans.  "It all feels wrong."  Burying her head in her hands, the darkness of her sleeves is a welcome sight. Finally, Aubrey shoves off the chair to stand and soon after moves for the door.  "I'm hungry. Going to drain the first person that looks at me then google the hell out of some angels, 'kay?" " Thanks Hera,"  she pauses in the doorway.   " I'll pop back in soon with this girl's identity."

As Aubrey leaves the professor's office, the wave of vague unease that had come over her so suddenly seems to hit all at once, and she grips her chest as she falls back against the wall. Her mind races races, pulsing as if her own heart still had a beat to it. Around her, the hall seems to stretch and contract all at once, elongating endlessly as the space shrinks around her, and all the while voices and visions of the past week vault into view; an assault of monsters and methuselahs and McCarthys and mages, mixing and mewling and magnifying in intensity. This isn't real.  The words weakly struggle to push through the noise in her head, her body sinking to the ground and pulling her knees in tight. For a handful of years now she'd embraced this unlife; relished in it. It helped that it'd never felt real — it was more of a game, really. A fun one between her and Camille.  Shut up shut up shut up.   That'd make this an extension of that game. An extension with magic and monsters. Monsters that could really hurt her. She clenches her eyes tight, gritting teeth until the pressure threatens to shatter them.  Stop STOP fucking stop it I don't want this I don't want this! You're wrong. That won't happen."  Tugging at her hair, she scours her mind for a specific memory: something that could ground her; drag her back from this edge. It only needed to one thing.  Her sister's smile releases a well of tension from within Aubrey. She slumps back, and almost as quickly as it'd come on the anxiety dissipates into the ether, leaving her too winded to even move for a couple minutes. When she finally does, it's to send a single long message out to each tutorial member she'd met. Hiiii, It was sooo cool meeting you all! So like favor yeah?? First bit of homework I need help on for some anthro thing: angel wearing armor and a sword with a cup in one hand. Big feathery wings, too. Anyone know? I'll love you forevurrr if you can help me with this!!! let me know asappp <33

We're in the JCR. Want to come join us? Sarah texts back a few moments later.

Be there in a min! save me a seat :) Aubrey makes her way towards the JCR, googling a few variations of her angel description along the way. 

When Aubrey enters the JCR, Sarah is sat chatting with Emma over some food, while Charlotte sits on the sofa besides them reading a book.

“ Hello helloooo,”  she chimes in in a singsong voice. A cheery smile and wave accompany the flaring of her Awe as she strolls up to the girls, and she quickly pulls up a seat besides them. “So I’m like, such a klutz right? I stopped on the way and queued for a quick latte and this cute barista whips it up in a sec so I’m like ‘Cheers!’ right, and get maybe two minutes down the street before tripping.”  She exaggeratedly rolls her eyes at the imaginative recounting of such trauma.  “ Whole thing splatters about like a scene from CSI, was lucky just to not get any on myself.”  Pitching one leg over the other, she reclines back in her her seat. “Anyway trying to survive without caffeine this late makes my brain go bleh, you know? So doing research is a slog. So…,”  Finally winding her tale down, Aubrey’s grief-stricken expression shifts suddenly to one of cheer. “What are you guys up to?”

Emma shrugs. "Procrastinating," which makes Sarah break out into giggles. Charlotte looks up from her book to see what is going on. The cover features a muscular, tattooed male torso bathed in golden light as it looms over a dark city.

Aubrey’s eyes blaze a path around the room to each of the three undergrads before coming to a halt on Charlotte’s book cover. Her gaze returning to the two giggling ones, she cracks a knowing smile. “Do tell…”

"We should be working, but instead we're just eating cheesy chips and gravy," Sarah explains, pushing the plate towards Aubrey.

Aubrey struggles to maintain her genial smile, but honestly in the face of such banality, who could?   “Absolute debauchery, I see,”  she laughs, grabbing a solitary chip practically dripping cheese and gravy and mentally groans anticipating having to retch the stuff back out later once her blush fades. “God it’s been ages since I had anything that wasn’t approved beforehand.” Dropping her chin into her hand she sighs dramatically and reclines back once more. “Wish I could procrastinate too but this project I’m working on’s a bloody killer. And this one stupid angel question’s keeping me from making any prog…”  Her majesty flaring strong, she flits her gaze down to look at each of them.

"What do you need it for?" Charlotte asks curiously as Aubrey's majesty drags her from her book.

“I dunno I’m not supposed to say but… well,”  She drags a finger up to her chin and taps as she scans the three girls up and down, “you guys can like, keep a secret yeah?”   After waiting a moment for them to assent, she leans forward. “Right well it’s kinda why I’m here, honestly. I got this new role and it’s for this suuuper like, gothic horrory kind of story? Lots of monsters and blood and all that fun. But the director is really  into all this like, ’method’ stuff. Wants me to truly get into the head of this character, who’s like this occult sleuth out of Scooby Doo or whatever.“ As she spins her tale she finds a certain bit of amusement out of how much of it was technically  true, from a certain point of view. But she continues on. “Anyway there are some other actors in the cast secretly here too and I’m supposed to figure out who they are. I’ve figured out one is at Keble, and this angel riddle is supposed to point to her name, yeah? ”Sooo mum’s the word and all, kay? But if you could help me I’d love you forever because this research stuff soooo isn’t my thing.”  She pouts, batting her lashes at them as she reaches for the plate. “After finishing these cheesy chips of course.”

"What's the riddle again?" Emma asks between bites.

Well it’s not much of a riddle  really but, I need the name of a feather-winged angel bearing both armour and helm, wielding a sword in one hand and raising a cup in the other,”  She shrugs. “Google brought up a ton of angels, right? But I need to figure out like, which is a student at Keble.”

"Sounds like Raziel," Charlotte laughs, twisting around to get comfortable with her book in the corner of the sofa. She gasps as a thought occurs to her. "Gothic fantasy? It's not an adaptation of the Mortal Instruments, is it?"

“Raz…?”  Aubrey blinks. Of all the clues she’d chased down so far, she hadn’t expected some random girl to come up with an answer immediately. Pulling out her phone, she quickly types “Raziel” and “Mortal Instruments” into the search bar and hardly tries to keep her jaw from dropping. “How the hell did you know that so quickly? I mean like it’s not 100%, I found some other angels before that could fit ー Jophy something, Uriel, and Camel I think? But like, still… damn,” she laughs.

Charlotte smugly holds out the cover of her book towards Aubrey. It reads 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'. "Raziel is an important angel in this series," she explains.

Aubrey stares hard at the cover. Was it really that simple then?   "No shit,"  she shakes her head as if in disbelief. "Guess I should listen to my agent more often, she only begged me to read the thing a dozen times. May I?"  She waits a moment for a nod then takes the novel in her hands, turning it over twice. "I should add, of course, that I can neither confirm nor deny anything — you know how N.D.A.'s are, yes? But this is pretty promising."   Laughing, she hands the book back over, "Thought I'd be researching angels all night. Now I just need to like, figure out if there's a student in Keble named Raziel or Uriel or whatever."