Oriel College

Aubrey can only tilt her head in confusion at everything he was saying. "There was... a wolf? Here in Oxford?" Burying her head in her hands, she groans loudly. When she looks back up, she brushes the hair out of her face and shrugs. "Seems awfully conspicuous to me. Cats show up to spy on vampires, then a vampire kills a mortal. Anything else of note happen that night? Snakes slither in from the sewers? Bears in the library?"  She laughs, an incredulous scoff.  "I did a picture last year with a giant monster in New York. Perhaps it popped in for some Nando's?"

Liam shrugs. "Scoff all you want, these cats following us are evidence that I'm not making this up, the murder you seem to already be obsessed with, and the wolves were werewolves, and if you don't know about those over at Brookes, you need to educate yourself fast or you won't live long. As for the library, what do you know about it...?" He looks at her suspiciously, her comments were a little too accurate for his liking. "I don't know why you are so dismissive of monsters, we just sucked the blood from the Becks of several humans, we are as much a part of this as any of what you mentioned like it was off of a movie set."

"I'm? Literally just trying to understand?"  She rolls her eyes and groans again, "I don't know anything  about what's happening here, that's why I came to you ! Like, I'm not being dismissive? It just seems like a lot of weird shit happened all around the same time the other day? And that seems super sus? I don't know anything about the library or werewolves or murder or this cute little spy cat. You just mentioned it?" She rubs both of her temples and then claps her hands together before her mouth. "Forget it, I'll just stick to my courses and fans, it's okay. Thanks for the night, Liam. It was def fun to perform a bit." "Next time, I choose the setlist though."  She stretches, looking about for the way back to Brasenose. "Oh, and if you know a way to talk to cats, let me know so I can ask Meowlando here what name he actually prefers."

"If there's one thing I could advise, it would be to do as you just said, the more you know, the more your danger. I try to keep to the mortals, avoid being a threat or a useful tool. If you play the pawn, expect to be sacrificed at some point. The cat though? There was a mage, seemed to be able to speak to them a bit, I'll pm you his details if I can find them."

For once Aubrey is rather quiet, taking in the advice with a reserved look on her face. She fights the urge to scoff, instead swishing the words around in her head as Hera’s face fills it.  ”I’m no one’s pawn…”  The words are muttered low, under her breath, as she starts to walk away.  “That’d be splendid, though,” she calls out, louder again. Coming to a halt, she turns only once more to blow a kiss back towards him. “Cheers, Liam.” With that she’s off, quickly settling into a stroll on her way back home. Pushing the man’s words of advice from her mind quickly, she instead thinks to all the new information she had to look into. Werewolves and libraries and mages? And the bush from the ritual with Odin. A white and orange shape moves within sight once more near her feet, garnering a tight-lipped frown. And you, my adorably curious little friend. Continued in Brasenose College….

As Aubrey leaves Liam pulls out his phone to text Mehdi. He knew what he was about to do was hypocritical, but the truth was, better the bishop than the pawn, and he'd been slipping down the list he knew. Mehdi, let me know when you're done with the party. I need to make some moves. I'm handing over our house guest so we need to get his stuff from the house tonight. Reopening an old message he hesitates, it's been over a year though, and his safe, cozy life relies on this relationship. Professor, my apologies for the intrusion. I have a gift for you, if there would be a good time for me to deliver? It is rather large... Liam

Julian M. said: Mehdi breathes a sigh of relief, it smells sweet like plum wine. “Flummoxed is a good word for it. For all of this really.” He says, cracking a smile. “Liam doesn’t slaughter though, he craves their adoration as much as their blood. Dead fans aren’t worth much. There’s actually specific breeds of both sheep and cattle just for milking, I guess it’s like that. As I understand it the Court and the Kindred have something of a… mutual understanding.” He pauses, studying Daxon once more, now paying more attention to the temperature and breeze as he does so. “There’s quite a lot of vampires here at Oxford. Whole bunch of mages too. The other courtiers didn’t warn you?” "Not as much as I would have liked, I guess. But I spend more time at the hospital and watching my family in Banbury than I do with court stuff." Daxon shrugs and sighs a bit. "So melancholy and dramatic, I know. But it's a life... For now anyway."

Mehdi gives a knowing nod; he spends a fair amount of his own free time watching as well. "Well hey, if you keep hanging with me, you'll still get your fair share of melodrama but it'll hopefully be just a tad more lively." The changeling cracks a wry smile, and prays that it's as charming as he imagines it to be in his head. He is grateful when he reaches the knob and finds it unlocked, but he's less so when they enter the lackluster affair. It's a dorm party alright. One girl does the last line off of a nightstand while her friend attempts to scrape the inside of a now empty vial. A pair makes out sloppily on the couch. A couple heads turn almost hopefully as Mehdi and Daxon enter, but Mehdi recognizes the familiar turn-away that screams "Oh, not Liam." The others are too occupied or inebriated to care about the strangers. "Welp," he says, blinking back towards Daxon and wishing he couldn't take in all these details quite so well in the dim light. "I don't see either of them, let me," he trails off as he fishes out his phone and goes to text Liam, but pauses upon seeing the professor has just texted him.  "Shit," he says, still looking at the screen. "He's already left, and he wants me to meet him to go... uhm... take care of some kindred shit," Mehdi attempts an apologetic smile and shrug. "I don't know if..." he gestures over his shoulder at the party behind him. "You wanted to stay and harvest a bit, I have a second before I need to go..."

"No... I'm actually a little concerned that I might run into a client here and that would be awkward for sure." Daxon scans the room with a glance, then turns back. "I think I'll just head home... unless you're worried about this 'kindred shit' and want some support?"

“Yeeeah that would be pretty awkward.” Mehdi follows Daxon’s glance, considering how ridiculous it was that Liam frequented these parties so often as a professor. “And I appreciate the offer, but it’s nothing worth getting mixed up in tonight. We should stay in touch though,” he hands Daxon his phone with a new message opened up. “Just shoot yourself a text.” He steps back out through the door into the hallway as he waits for the message to go through, then as the pair make their way out of the dorm he sends a text to Liam. Leaving now. Meet there? “It was really nice to meet you,” Mehdi says as he and Daxon emerge into the cool night air. “We should hang again soon, feel free to hit me up if you ever need to go into the Hedge by the way, I have a ride.”

I'm outside, I'll meet you at the gate. Liam texts back immediately, his phone in his hand waiting for a reply to his other message.

Julian M. said: “It was really nice to meet you,” Mehdi says as he and Daxon emerge into the cool night air. “We should hang again soon, feel free to hit me up if you ever need to go into the Hedge by the way, I have a ride.” "Ace! Unless I'm working, I'll be there. Take care of yourself, Mehdi." The darkling looks over his shoulder, unconsciously rubbing the back of his neck as he waves before fading into the darkness and firing off a text of his own to Jimmie. Any cabs around Oriel?

It’s only a minute or so before Mehdi joins Liam at the gate to Oriel college. “So we’re headed tooo…” he searches the pocket of his denim jacket for the note where earlier he’d scrawled the address after flipping through the yellow pages to find it. “5 Davenant Road. We can just walk in of course, but do you think it’s worth it for me to steal his face too? Just in case anyone is keeping watch on his place already.”

Liam thinks for a moment, "Yes, good idea, will look less suspicious if you open your own front door and move your stuff out with a friend, make it look like you're moving out incase of follow up investigations if we make a bit of noise for the curtain twitchers"

Mehdi nods and produces Silas' phone. He holds the item in one outstretched hand and conjures a mental image of the Kindred. "He's a vampire, he studies the occult, and right now he's torpored in a gift box." As he recites the third fact, the skin of his palm peels and blossoms out like a flower, petals curling away from the phone. He takes his other hand and rubs it up his arm and the petals continue to peel and fall away. Like dominoes they continue to fall, the cascade spreading up both arms now leaving pale white skin in its wake. As they reach his face, Mehdi's features dissolve and what remain are the severe, clean cut features of Silas Mallock. Mehdi clears his throat and sets his jaw. "How do I look?" he says, attempting the grave tone of the Kindred and stifling a laugh as his voice acting skills fall short.

Liam raises an eyebrow. "I'll never get used to that, but very good. Now, let's get Jetty and go. Time is ticking."

(Continued from Cowley/Brasenose, Wednesday, October 14th) Arriving at the Oriel JCR, it dawns on Rae that she has made the tragic miscalculation of not asking for a physical description of Aubrey so that she would recognize her. Rather than give herself away by sitting down by herself, she remains standing, occupying herself with her phone while positioning herself closely to another small group of students. She then waits for the mysterious Kindred to arrive.

Raziel is forced to wait about seven minutes before a buzz on her phone comes in once more. Here!!! :) There's no physical description or attempt to place herself anywhere in the building. Instead, a moment later the door swings open to a face Raziel likely wouldn't have expected to see entering the JCR — Aubrey Knight. The starlet holds an iphone in one hand and a blue and purple pastel thermos painted with like a nightsky nebula of stars in the other, and she quickly looks down at her phone and around a couple times then back around the room, before sending a quick second text. Are you here yet? Just walked in

(Continued from Cowley)  Michael follows Raziel into the Oriel College JCR and finds a shadowy corner to lurk in, using low-grade obfuscation while he watches her.  To his surprise, not long after, Aubrey walks in and starts looking around. What game is she playing? If she already knows this Raziel, why fake this whole cat-and-mouse game? Or is it just an extremely improbable coincidence? 

When Rae had seen the name Aubrey, she hardly expected the person in question to be Aubrey Knight, but here she was. To think that she had been Embraced at such a young age, feels almost cruel. But then again, Eve was probably younger than her when she was Embraced. And now Ms. Knight expects me to believe that she's here at Oxford to study the cryptic writings of ancient hermits and cloistered scholars, all while getting bone dust in her hair. Hardly. It was a risk to assume, but her profession alongside her general appearance screamed Daeva, and would explain why Liam was the only person that she knew upon arriving in Oxford. If that was even true. Just getting here now, see you in a moment. Still happily obfuscated, she casts the gaze of the Beast across the space to peer into the mind of the young starlet and see what resides within the lovely corpse.

A rush of auspex fuelled visions assault Rae's senses as she observes Aubrey. The starlet's eyes glow red as they snap towards Rae. In her hand she carries a twisted cast iron spike. The familiar, metallic scent of blood hangs in the air and Rae can hear her own voice scream in the distance. Above Aubrey, Rae can see three figures leaning over her, each holding strings that connect to the girl's head and limbs. The first figure is an aged, wrinkled woman with a wart on her long nose. She cackles maniacally as she pulls Aubrey's strings. The second is a grown woman with a warm, caring expression. The final figure is a young woman, barely of age and dressed in a translucent, white shift. Lingering over Aubrey's shoulder, Rae sees the spectre of another famous actress: Camille Renoux. Finally, Rae hears the click of a camera's shutter from behind her, but when she turns to look, nobody is there.

Her suspicions having been confirmed, Rae confidently steps forward and takes a seat directly in Aubrey's line of sight. She watches as the young woman fails to perceive her, and she braces herself for anything from a curt and threatening conversation to an all-out pursuit or fight for her unlife. Barring Audrey Hepburn turning up and announcing herself as an  Antediluvian, this is manageable.  Dropping her obfuscation, Rae waves politely and gestures to the seat across from her at the table. 

Finally spotting Raziel among the crowd, Aubrey waves and approaches with a wide smile.  "Oh my god  hiii  sorry,"  she laughs, setting her things down on one table nearby.  "Thank you  so so  much for doing this on short notice you're a lifesaver ughh. " She begins pulling some of her textbooks out from the large messenger bag dangled over her shoulder and setting them out before them. "Studying has like, never been my forte you know? So I'm just trying to wrap my head around a lot of what's going on here."

Raziel smiles in return at the care-free and garrulous act of an innocent fresher. Making no moves to retrieve her books from her bag, she places her hands on the table and intertwines her fingers. "You know, I'm trying to wrap my head around what's going on here as well. You have me followed, you have my flat under surveillance, yet you make no move to take me to the leaders of Brasenose who I'm assuming charged you with my capture. Getting Aubrey Knight to trail a Mekhet really wasn't the most thorough planning on their part, I must say. What's your angle?"

Aubrey’s head cocks to the side, taken aback at first by the girl’s brazen and immediate dismissal of any pretense, before her mind catches up with what was happening. She’s a Mekhet!. So she can like, read minds or whatever?   Hi! If that’s true. Her smile never fades as she places a hand under her chin and sighs. “You know I legit don’t understand all this arch and anthro stuff. I’d really hoped you could actually help me out here, my mentor says I need to like, take it seriously.” ”But hmmm okay! If you won’t help that’s super tradge and all but I’ll find another tutor. And it’s called role research, luv! It’s not like, personal or uncommon or whatever. You’re a big film fan, yeah? You’ve seen Silence of the Lambs  surely? Who doesn’t want to be Clarice and get to interview Doctor Lecter?” Her eyes are unblinking and piercing despite her calm smile, but after a beat she flexes a hand down with her wrist and adds in, “I’m totally kidding by the way you’re way prettier than Hannibal and nowhere near as creepy.”

Rae smiles fades, but does not completely leave her face. "Before I answer you, I would like to clarify that I find you grating in the extreme and loathe touching the souls of serpents. They're icky little things that stick to you like smoke on your clothes. Every time I do it I find myself in need of a bath and a good self-help book. But in your reference to Hannibal Lecter, you seem to be laboring under the assumption that I make a habit of killing stupid, handsy male humans. It was an accident, and the first time that I'd ever killed someone. Rae shifts in her seat, unclasping her hands and placing them on the tabletop.  "You've evaded my question. I'm sure that wasting time helps you in the seduction of humans, but I'm going to ask you to repress that instinct. Or I'll have to pick the thoughts from your pretty head and that's rude during the middle of a conversation. Why haven't Acolytes descended upon my home? Why aren't they descending upon me right now?"

Aubrey listens in rapt attention to Raziel’s litany of… I don’t know something or another, she supposes. Honestly it was proving increasingly entertaining as it went on, even if she did truly speak like one of the ancient hall’s here had come to life in female form. As she finishes, Aubrey pauses, a look of glee spreading across her face like that of a child on christmas morning.  “Oh my god  stop,” she laughs, dragging out the last word, “So we agree Liam’s like a complete sleaze right? Ugh,  you’re gonna like, actually make me like you. And like I’m not assuming anything love, I honestly? Don’t care much! Some idiot put his hands on you? Yikes! You drained him? Nice, no one cares about whoever the fuck, yeah? You leave him out in the open basically? Oof, kind of a bad move you know?”  She cocks a brow and looks Rae over once more, then leans in as if divulging some big secret. “Can I be honest? I thought you’d be like, a complete idiot for being such a complete idiot like that but you legit seem, like, kinda smart? A bit of a dork maybe, but smart.” Reclining back in her seat, she taps the table rhythmically as she continues. “So here’s the thing, I don’t know nor care about any of that? But it sounds like you think you’re a loooot  more valuable than you are. Which is tradge! But oh well. Anyway does anyone else know? Khal or Liam or his little toady or whatever?”

Now it's Rae's lips that curve into a delighted smile, her eyes shining with sadism.  "I'll save you a bit of time, trying to bruise my ego won't get a rise out of me. It had been a difficult night, as Khalid might have mentioned. And if I may share another bit of advice, being Aubrey Knight doesn't change the fact that you are a neophyte. You are dispensable by nature in this dark culture of ours. If others think I have value, then they can carry on thinking it and leave me to my affairs.  Clearly you think that you are important, Ms. Knight. And why wouldn't you? Everyone under the age of 35 wants to fuck you, be you, or both. And now you're a shiny Daeva and none can resist you, no matter how hard they might try. All of it is almost enough to drive  Camille Renoux out of your head, but not quite, huh? Having vented some anger, she sits back in her seat, crosses her legs and takes a deep breath. "Just because I find you unpleasant doesn't mean that I want to make an enemy of you. I'm sure that there are ways for us to help each other. I'd imagine that the Circle wants nothing less than for me to enjoy a nice Oxford sunrise, but I'd be grateful to you if you could help me find my way out of this misunderstanding with them."

“Hold up,”  Aubrey takes a moment to laugh to herself, “What about Camille Renoux?” “And there’s sadly nothing for you to help with, Rae-Rae. As you said, I’m doing quite well, and as I said, I don’t quite care about this that much anyway. So like…”  She gives a half-hearted shrug. “…I’d absolutely love  to hear what Oxford’s Most Wanted has to offer that’d change anything.”

Rae cocks her head to the side in exaggerated surprise. "No ambition on you, Ms. Knight? I hardly believe that. We have distinctly different skill sets, you and I, as is demonstrated by the fact that I plucked your deepest desires from your heart before we even made eye contact. We can be a great resource for one another. Are you going to spend the rest of eternity as Camille's hand puppet? With this provocation, Rae once again casts her Beast unto the soul of the woman before her to dive even deeper into her psyche.  

“Do you always talk like you’re auditioning for a Jane Austen adaptation?”  Aubrey looks at her sideways.  “Also you must not like, be that great with your “skill” if it told you that about Cammy,”  she chuckles. “Anyway don’t worry your pretty head about my  goals. You’re already set to help quite well with those.”

Rae focuses her auspex on Aubrey once more and sees the girl at the centre of attention between the three figures that had previously been shown watching from above. Camille is also amongst Aubrey's onlookers. Then, just as suddenly, everybody turns away from her, including Camille. Rae can hear the distant sound of jeers and Aubrey is left isolated and alone.

Rae stifles a laugh at Aubrey's comment. "Yes, this is how I normally speak. It's a habit that I picked up from a thing called reading. Actual reading. Not Cosmopolitan and the Twilight series. And I have yet to lie to you, love. Seeing the unseen includes things that people don't want to accept, and you can trust me when I say that Camille sees you the same way that you see me. As a means to an end." Rae holds up her hands in a show of submission. "But I'll let you come to these things in your own time."  Lowering her hands back down to her lap, her expression becoming more serene as she regard Aubrey. "You really are a simple creature. Simple in the way that a sword is simple, I mean. You have a goal and an incredibly efficient way to reach it. But a sword cannot act without being noticed, nor can it take apart an enemy faction from within. Rae narrows her eyes as her tone becomes low and grave. "And one day you will fail the Circle, fail the Three-In-One, and fail Camille. And they will turn their back on you and it will undo you. You need to diversify your portfolio if you want longevity in this game." 

Aubrey's phone buzzes in her pocket: a text from Hera. You found her? Already? Engaging her directly is risky. Keep your distance, if you can. What's her Covenant? Hera

Aubrey at first furrows her brow as the things Raziel says start to strike a nerve she wasn't fully aware of, a pang of fear at the thought of Cammy turning on her stabbing with the same terror of a jumpscare in a movie. But like any jumpscare, the fear was manufactured and fleeting; forced and unrealistic. Instead, she rolls her eyes.  "Right right cryptic speak blah blah,"  she holds a hand up mockingly chatting with it like a mouth.  "So like get this? All I need to do is catch a killer? And that person —  you  — hasn't like, given me any real reason to not do that?" The sudden buzzing of her phone catches her attention. Rolling her eyes, she gives Raziel a gesture to hold that thought as she quickly responds. Don’t know yet. And we're already talking just fine :) But you didn't answer my question??

Rae breathes a deep and exasperated sigh. "I've told you plainly why you shouldn't do that. You aren't stupid, Aubrey. You'd do better with me as an ally, but if you aren't even quick enough to understand that what I tell you is the truth, then I'm burning moonlight. I'm going to stand up from this table and leave, you can try and stop me if you like." Placing her hands flat on the table, she lifts herself from her seat. Looking down to the still-seated Daeva, her expression is an unbalanced mix of anger and resignation. "If I see you again, I will use everything at my disposal to destroy you so utterly that you'll walk into the sun yourself. And be sure to keep it a secret that you're the one that found me. Those close to me might seek retribution in the event of my end."

Aubrey’s frustration grows as Rae makes her threats, but she takes a breath and washes the feeling from her face, instead smiling ー well, more like grinning ー at her; a look that widens across her face with each passing second. ”You know you’ve spent an awful lot of time so far trying to read my thoughts and stuff, and it is  a neat trick, yeah? Wanna see an even neater one?” She doesn’t give her a chance to respond, instead letting all her pent up frustration flare out through her Majesty, blaring against everyone in the JCR until she can feel all their delicious attention on her ー but she lets them go about themselves. It’s only Raziel she needs right now. There’s a moment her beast feels Rae’s rise to challenge her but it is snuffed out almost entirely, and Aubrey watches as Raziel’s confidence fades into a lovingly docile one of awe. It takes but a thought for Aubrey’s eyes to focus in on the girl’s, ensuring she was well and truly hers , at least for the next little while. Burning some of her well-stored up vitae she’d fed on earlier in the night, she burns some to change that frown upside-down into one of desperate subservience. ”See Rae-rae? Don’t you feel so much better now? You wanted to be friends and look! We are. Total besties, right? And besties tell each other everything. ”

There are a brief few seconds before Rae's cognition is eclipsed and subsumed by the dazzling gleam of Aubrey Knight, in which her mind flits back to the party the week before and Liam's Majesty as he enthralled a crowd of students with his performance. Rae had easily shrugged those effects off, but this was something beyond any hope of resistance. This was natural-born charisma sharpened by years of patience and dedication to the art of appeal, unnaturally augmented by the trademark allure of the Daeva Embrace. The magnitude of Aubrey's seduction would make God second guess Their place upon the throne of Heaven. Liam had been the dancing lights of a great pyre. Ms. Knight is the cataclysmic scintillation of a violent supernova. Rae is bound to her as blood is to marrow, aching for her attention, her approval, her love. And more yet remained. As Rae slipped back into the seat before Aubrey with a warm smile, she feels loose, relaxed. She feels good. And she wants to feel even better. "I'm so sorry about all of that just now. I haven't been myself lately, I've been so stressed out with everything going on and it means so much to me to have someone to vent to. You know, we could go back to my flat if you'd prefer more privacy?"

Aubrey laughs and shakes her head, “Perhaps a bit later, luv. For now I just want to like, get to know you a bit better. You got to know me after all so it’s only fair.” Leaning forward, she almost can’t choose which questions to ask first. “Let’s start with… who is your sire, aaaannnd…”  she raps her nails against the table, “…who and how many people have you told about what you did at that party besides us?”

Rae nods enthusiastically.  "Yes, my sire is Genevieve de la Fontaine. She's been preoccupied while I've been working to get myself out of hot water, which led me to meet Kirsten McFarlane. The both of them, along with Khalid, are the only people who know what happened at the party."  Her attention waivers to the humans in the space, sizing them up as her tongue curls over the point of one of her canine teeth. "Speaking of parties, do you know any good ones? I need someone beautiful, unique, upper class and ideally high in social stature to give as a gift to someone."

“Who’s McFarlane?”  Aubrey raises a brow, surprised as she is at how few know about this.  And Khal knows. He wasn’t just talking about the mess in the library . “ And why ever would you need a gift like that?”

"A professor at Keble and a member of my covenant."  Rae now eyes Aubrey up and down, resting her chin in her hands and staring at her dreamily.  "And the person is a gift for another professor at Keble who is helping me with another problem of mine. He's a Ventrue who will wipe the memory of my idiot brother who discovered my nature through what appeared to be a deeply unfortunate coincidence." She leans in and whispers conspiratorially, "I actually thought that I was going to have to kill him to keep him from getting our whole family killed, but the talents of the portentous Lords may just do the trick."

Aubrey looks quizzically at her as she spins the tale, opening her mouth to say something then closing it again. "You... really do have a lot of shit going on, don't you?" "Fucked up as that like, totally is, let's come back to that later."  She shakes her head, waving the story away. "So you know my  cov' yeah? But I actually don't know yours! What is it that you and professor McFarlane are in?"

Rae's shoulders sag as Aubrey acknowledges her plight over the last week. "It has simply been one thing after the other. I've done so much obfuscating, reading people, and running across campus at mach 5 that I even developed a new gift myself. I'm at my wit's end, really." "But yes, the covenant shared by Professor McFarlane, Eve, and myself is the Pythia Concord. We often work closely with the Circle."

"A new gift?"  Every sentence out of the girl — practically unprompted, too — revealed some ridiculous new complication or secret. Aubrey looks nearly beside herself; charming someone of course meant they'd open up but just what in the fuck has this girl been up to... aside from just murder? While Rae talks, Aubrey texts out another quick message to her own professor with the updated information. Right right so forget what I said, I asked her and she's in the 'Pithy Concord' or whatever, yeah? Says her, her sire Eve de la Fontaine, and a Keble prof McFarlane are the only ones who know? You wanna meet her? I have her right here, spilling her guts basically : ) "Wow, well that makes all your dreadfully mean and hurtful words earlier make more sense. Stress, innit?"  She places her phone back down and leans in, a feigned look of sympathy on her face as she props her head up with one hand.  "Ugh, I'm so with you on this bestie. And to think, all that terrible trouble at the Library happened too, huh? Khal and Liam told me things got super scary there. Can't have been easy."

"Yes, I'd love to show you sometime if you have the time and a firearm lying around." As Aubrey sympathises with her, Rae feels immense relieve as she lets all of her troubles and worries flow out with one of her truest friends. She feels so fortunate to have finally met this young Kindred. "Oh the Library was an absolutely demented time. First we find the Masters of several colleges in torpor, then there's writing on their coffins in Sanskrit. Luckily, I can read Sanskrit, and it said not to wake them. Eve and I woke the Master of All Souls since she's a fellow Mekhet, and she proceeds to Final Death all the other Masters in frenzy. Then this quadrupedal eldritch horror thing comes out of a sigil in the floor, and all of us are running for our unlives. Then an Elder that was with us begins to frenzy, so I tried to control Wassail, failed, and was almost eaten by said Elder. It was only through luck and the help of Khalid, Liam, and Mehdi that I wasn't ash on the wind."  Slowing down, she takes a deep breath. "Then I limped myself to that party and sank my teeth into the first idiot that I could. Said idiot dropped in the middle of the dance floor after I'd barely taken a sip of him. The entire night was fucked six ways from Sunday."

Aubrey again can only listen with increasing confusion washing over her face. Each time I hear about this it's somehow like, even more bizarre. "Absolutely horrible, Rae-rae. So that stuff with the boy at the party really was just a complete mistake then?"  Would that mean Hera and the other might not need to do anything too terrible to her? Maybe, maybe not. She couldn't say nor did she totally care still, though the sheer ridiculousness of this girl's week made even Aubrey Knight feel a twinge of genuine sympathy, fleeting as the feeling was. "Well like, easy peasy then yeah? If you just explain all that like you just did to me, but to like, those who sent me, they'll for sure totes probably likely drop it all, you know? Like no big deal if that's all it was yeah?

Rae nods emphatically, happy to see that Aubrey understands. "Yes, a complete accident. I was too exhausted and beside myself to think of anything other than throwing him into a bush and limping home." At the suggestion that Rae speak to the leaders of the Circle, her eyes go wide with terror. "No no no, I can't, Bri. I ended a mortal in their territory and almost broke the Masquerade in the process. The most I would be able to hope for is a quick death."

Aubrey's phone vibrates with another text from Hera. De la Fontaine?! Is he back in town??

Aubrey checks her phone again, scoffing at Hera's continued dodging of her questions. isn't Eve a woman's name??? she said its genevieve?? anyway yes or no here?  "Of course you can!"  Aubrey smiles up at her as her fingers make out the message. "I'll be there with you after all. And it'd make me, like, sooo  happy, after all."