Cowley

Gabriel scoffs and turns to leave, slamming the door behind him on his way out. A few moments later, Rae's housemate Andrei peers around the corner at her. "Problem, pui?" He asks in his heavy Romanian accent.

Rae gives Andrei a tired smile as she collects her bag to continue on to McFarlane's office. "No, Andrei. Thank you for asking. That was my brother, he may be stopping by a bit more often from now on. I hope that you are well, I'm on my way out myself." Without stopping to chat, Rae exits her home and makes her way to campus.

Returning to a quiet home, Rae wastes little time in embracing the swimming darkness of sleep. The mortis of her rest readily waving off the cacophony of her more recent nights with an all-powerful stillness, she begins to wonder-as she wakes the following evening-if she will see the end of these restless times. But these are not thoughts to linger upon, for they will only slow her down and distract her when the moments that truly count fall onto her. So now she waited for the knock on the door that she knew would be coming, hoping that the Ventrue professor would truly be able to help. To pass the time, she sends another text to Lyra before silencing her phone and watching Lotus watch her. "What do you think, Lotus? It is all just buggered?" Hello darling. Are you busy tonight? I'd love to have a taste of you if you're available. You could tell me all about the days that brought you to Oxford and to me. <3

Lotus is not curled up on Rae's bed, as usual, but instead is perched on the windowsill. The cat's back is arched and the hair is stood up on the back of his neck.

Rae perks up when she notices Lotus's agitation. Remembering that this strange cat is-in all likelihood-as or more intelligent than her, she immediately allows her Beast to surface and comb her surrounding for a sense of immediate danger. Finding nothing, she then reaches out to understand the perceptions of Lotus to ascertain the threat. She is granted a vision of the black cat's ears growing long as his eyes grow wide with awareness, all leading towards her bedroom window. The faint sound of clicking bounces through the silence, the shutter of a camera. "Shit." Launching herself through her flat, she opens the door at the back of the flat that leads to the garden as quietly as she can. With the nimbleness of instinct and muscle memory, she jumps up and grabs onto the ledge of the first-story roofing. Hoisting herself up, she moves across the tiles and grasps onto the metal of the gutter drain pipe at the buildings edge. With little effort, she begins to scale the side of the building till she reaches the roof. Pulling herself up once again, she walks gingerly across till she's able to look down on the street below and get a glimpse of just who is photographing her home.  

From her vantage point atop the roof, Rae catches a brief glimpse of a lithe tracksuit-clad figure sprinting away down the narrow, dirt footpath that runs along the foot of the terrace gardens. Whoever it is turns a corner and is gone before Rae can pick out any further details. A soft mrowr  rumbles up from her around ankles. Lotus is perched besides Rae, paws crossed in front of him as he swishes his tail, eyes trained in the same direction as the vampire's own. 

Rae's brow furrows as she watches the figure leave her line of sight. Looking down to Lotus, she shrugs. "Tracksuit. Probably someone connected to Andrei in some way. I'd go after them out of self-preservation if nothing else, but I do have other things to see to tonight. Do you think we should pursue them, Lotus?"

"Mrowr," Lotus replies, without deigning to move.

Rae stares intensely at Lotus, then shrugs once more. "Alright. Could you let me know if that person ever comes back, then?" Without waiting for a response, she carefully climbs back down the side of the house and returns to her bedroom. Sitting back on the bed, she pats a spot beside her to call Lotus over to her, then picks up her phone to check her messages.

"Mrowr," Lotus remarks, still not rising as he watches Rae descend from the roof. However, when she arrives back in her bedroom, the cat is already waiting for Rae on her bed. Checking her phone proves a welcome respite from the other challenges on Rae's mind; Lyra has replied. Couldn't even wait 24 hours for the booty call, hm? :P I'm going to need to start wearing a scarf, aren't I? Come over at 9 and I'll wrap up work for then.

Rae does a double take when she spots Lotus on her bed, and squints in confusion at the cat as she lays back down. "We need to find a way to talk properly."  The text from Lyra makes her smile despite herself, and she quickly types out a response. What can I say, you're addictive, dear. I wouldn't worry about a scarf, but I do foresee a pretty collar and a spreader bar in your future. May get there closer to 9:30, have an issue that I'll be getting taken care of tonight.

Just under half an hour later, Rae hears muffled voices from somewhere outside the house.

Rae frowns as she registers multiple voices, and considers that Gabriel may have been stupid enough to bring a friend along, or he was bait for a hunter ambush. Exiting through the back door, she once again scales the side of the house to look down on the front door from above. To her extreme relief, it is merely Andrei speaking to Gabriel. Coming down from the roof, she makes her way through the house and opens the front door.  "Hello, Andrei, I hope that you're having a good evening. I see that you've formally met my older brother, I hope that he's behaved himself."

"Night is young," Andrei replies with a shrug. "Gabriel vas just telling me stories of your childhood," he adds with a laugh.

"Oh? Which ones? Gabe and I have a habit of carrying different recollections of our childhood."

"You are - how do you say - golden child, pui!" Andrei laughs heartily. "You never tell me."

Rae laughs with Andrei, but there is no joy in the display. "I wouldn't say that I was the golden child. My parents and I just shared common interests." Ushering Gabriel into the house, she smiles warmly at Andrei. "My brother and I have some business to attend to. Do shoot me a text if you need anything, Andrei."  With that, Rae retreats back to her bedroom with her brother and closes the door behind them. "We're going to campus, an associate professor I know will turn you. I'm too young, I don't have the strength to do it myself. But before we leave, tell me, why do you want this? No bullshit tough guy hedonist act, you've always been too melancholy to make it look sincere. Why?"

Gabriel stares at Rae like she's stupid. "Are you seriously going to stand here interrogating me on what's so appealing about eternal youth and supernatural power?"

"You're no Hawking, Gabriel, but you're smarter than that. This is a cursed, lonely life. You think you'll become a god? Your existence will depend on your ability to deceive and use humans and navigate the politics of this "shadow world" as you call it. You'll lose the passions that make you who you know yourself to be, leaving strange fixations to take their place. And if you live long enough, you'll cease to even be recognizable as a person. You'll become a series of patterns, habits that you repeat simply because they're all you have. A fixture of nature that acts without emotion or reflection."

"Right. You're clearly regretting it so much."

Rae grits her teeth and does her best to keep her composure. "I was only ever half in the world of the living. This life suits me better. And frankly, yeah, that's a sort of sorry statement in and of itself. But this is the life that makes me happy, where I feel truly fulfilled and able to reach my aspirations. You are human. People talked to you in high school. You had friends and went on dates. Being human suits you, don't take that for granted."

Gabriel rolls his eyes with a tut and reaches for the door knob.

Rae's shoulders sag as any hope for an alternative drains away. After a deep breath, she continues. "Before it happens, I'll need to drain you. If you have most of your living blood in your body, it won't achieve the effect that you're looking for. You're about to die, it won't be comfortable." With that, Rae leaves with her brother for the office of the Ventrue professor.

Gabriel's expression remains cold and uncaring as he follows Rae out into the night.

(Continued from Worcester College)  Michael walks up to the residencial area of Cowley and takes a seat on a bench. With low level obfuscation, no one should notice him here. He will wait a while and he might get lucky and see Raziel walk by. If not, when her phones moves, he will get an alert.  He runs for a search that might connect her to any property here and also searches for any cameras on the street. He may not be able to see her face, but a blurry faced woman going into the same house day after day would be suspicious.  Michael sends a quick message to Aubrey.  Your friend's phone is currently at Cowley. I am taking a look and will let you know if I see her. 

Watching the time as they walk, Rae tells Gabriel to spend a bit of time in a nearby café, as she has business to attend to and will come for him when its complete. She's almost shocked to see him actually comply with this, and turns to head in the direction of Lyra's flat. The walk through the brisk night air is calming, and it occurs to her that it's been over a week since she had moved about without constantly looking over her shoulder and obfuscating herself. She wishes that she could go for a night run, but other stimulation was soon to come.  She then feels her phone buzz in her pocket and looks to see a text from Khalid, telling her of a Kindred named Aubrey who would like to meet with her, and that he had met her through Liam. The paranoia snaps right back into place, as any unknown Kindred seeking her out right now was a potentially deadly threat. But at least now she had a name to watch out for. Though risky, she asks him to give this Aubrey her number. Reaching the front door of the human she was becoming increasingly fond of, Raziel knocks thrice and waits. The dark curls and  pale features of Lyra grace the doorway, and as always, Rae finds herself unable to look away from the gleaming hazel eyes that looked back at her. Taking a confident step into Lyra's space, she smiles and whispers softly. "Hello my sweet girl, may I come in?" Leaving Lyra approximately 30 minutes later, she picks Gabriel up at the café, his countenance having visibly soured over the course of the wait, before making the rest of the journey to Keble. 

It occurs to Michael that he doesn't know why Aubrey wants to find this vampire or why his Sire wants him to help. He doesn't even know what clan she belongs to. If she is another Mekhet, she could walk past him unnoticed. The weight of how little he really knows about what is going on and this new nocturnal world makes him feel suddenly very alone.  After a while, watching people walk by, Michael's phone vibrates. Raziel's phone is switching towers and is obviously on the move. He gets up and heads in the direction she is moving, hoping Raziel doesn't own a car.  (Continued in Kebel) 

Obfuscating herself on the way home, she considers going for an evening run in the hope that it will help her think of a manner by which to find a suitable vessel for Dr. McDermott.  (continued from Keble, October 14th)  Finding that the walk from Keble was sufficient in helping her to think, Rae decides against the evening run. She also thinks to reach out to Liam to see if he could assist her in finding a powerful, distinguish person of youth and beauty to offer to the professor. And in spite of herself, she finds that she is excited about the prospect of working with Dr. McDermott in furtively uncovering hidden information and using her talents to tear away lies and misdirections. This not only alleviates one of her emergencies, but may very well earn her a good reference in Kindred social circles.  Approaching her front door, she once again dares to feel hopeful for the future.

(Continued from Keble)  Michael would have missed her if he hadn't been staring dejectedly at the front door of the house in front of him when it opened. It is Raziel. Surprised and excited, he almost gets up and calls out to her. Then he remembers he is only supposed to help find her.  He figures she's likely a Mekhet, one of his clan. Low-level Obfuscation is the only way he knows for her to have walked right in front of him without him noticing.  He wonders for a moment if he should tell Aubrey or not. Raziel is probably one of his blood and he doesn't really know Aubrey at all. But it was his Sire who had asked him to do this, and she certainly wouldn't have if anything bad were going to happen. Would she?  He texts Aubrey: Hey again, I am looking right at your missing friend right now. 

Walking into her bedroom, Rae feels her phone buzz and retrieves it from her pocket. "Hiiii ! ! ! Is this Raziel? im Aubrey, Khal’s friend! he said itd be cool if i like, reached out and all that sooo hope he wasn’t lying haha." She wrinkles her nose with a frown at the manner of speech of this Aubrey, like the captain of her high school cheerleading team produced unholy offspring with Malibu Barbie.  Hello, yes this is Raziel. It isn't my intention to be rude, but may I ask just who you are and why you sought me out? (Conversation continued in Brasenose.)

(Continued from Brasenose text conversation with Aubrey) Sitting up from her bed, Rae grabs a few books and readies herself to head out once more. What a busy evening. Wonder how this one is going to go. Heading out of the door, she once more obfuscates herself on the way to Oriel College's JCR.  

Michael feels a little uncomfortable as he sends Raziel's address to Aubrey, and then he sees she's walking out the door and on the move again. Now he has seen her, she is easier to follow, although his brain keeps trying to blend her into the crowd.  At least he is getting to see more of Oxford with all this walking around.  (Continued in Oriel) 

(Continued from Oriel) Staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom, Rae feels no small amount of anxiety as she lays impatiently waiting to receive a text from Aubrey. Thoughts of Aubrey discarding her, of losing her new dear friend, swirl in her mind and make relaxation a near impossibility. She decides to go for a late night jog to help distract her when she feels a sudden chill.   Sitting up from her bed, Rae moves to stand when she feels the sensation of being pulled from the center of her sternum. It reverberates through each layer of flesh and bone, an unequivocal invocation of some deeper essence of her being. Reaching down, she feels the point of origin to find that it is deathly cold, even by Kindred standards. The tension of the pull is not in a straight line, and as she follows it with her eyes, it terminates in one of the dark corners of her bedroom. Ever mistrusting, she quickly moves to exit the room but the pull only grows in intensity, budding into a sharp pain that stabs through the muscle of her abdomen. Hesitating, she turns back to the corner, and feels her Beast react in a puzzling manner. The Beast had never had any kind of visual representation in her mind’s eye, it was merely an awareness. Like a lumbering carnivore that stalks just out of sight, its influence is an indisputable projection of intent. Her Disciplines were the employment of that intent in line with her own will, while hunger and Wassail were assertions of the will of the predator. But now the Beast felt as though it had been seized, arrested in its tracks. It was all so strange, unlike anything she’d experienced, and the Mekhet need to comprehend overtakes her paranoia. Stepping closer to the shadow, the pain dulls, but the cold becomes outright frigid. Reaching out, the shadows reach out for her in return, and she is aggressively pulled into them.  There is no sight in the beginning. Rae only feels the gelid shadows moving across her body, working their way through her clothing and into her pores to saturate her very soul. Simultaneously, she is aware of a similar maltha overcoming her Beast, enveloping tooth and claw and primordial need in a living dark. The Beast struggles against this to retain its original nature, and it reaches out for Rae to aid it.  She watches it struggle, distantly considering helping it, when the transfiguration reaches a jolting end. The invasion of her cells and soul complete, she is newly concordant with something so ancient and inscrutable that all she is able to do is marvel at it as it takes its first breath within her frame. She feels for the thrashing of the Beast, and pulls the shadows in all around it to drown it in the gunge that clung to it. Seconds later, the darkness recedes, and the Beast has been made anew. Still powerful beyond knowing, it shares her new nature, as Rae and the shadows of the world are now honorably coterminous. Her vision returns to her, and she surveys the room that had disappeared around her only moments ago.  Stepping forward, her body congeals from pure darkness back into her original form. Standing steady, she takes a deep breath.  Where the fuck did that come from. Walking over to her many stacks of books, Rae begins to look for some manner of explanation to what she just experienced.

Leafing through all of her books and writings on her clan and larger Kindred society, Rae finds nothing on what had just occurred and how it had changed her. Taking out her phone, she sends the same text to both Eve and Professor McFarlane. Good Evening, I hope that you are well. I just had a strange experience that I can't seem to find any writings on in the literatures contained in my home and I'm hoping that you may be able to enlighten me. I was just pulled into a shadow in my bedroom and fundamentally altered by the darkness that embraced and consumed me therein. My body coalesced from formless shadow back into my normal body as I exited the shadowed corner. What has changed within me?

A sound like the wings of a bird can be heard from the other side of Rae's blacked-out bedroom window. Her cat, who up to now has been purring peacefully, is on his toes in an instant, back arched as he hisses in hostility.

Rae's attention snaps to the window, confused at the idea of just what could draw such a reaction from Lotus.  Putting away her phone, she projects the Beast outward to survey her surrounds, ascertain the nature of the danger, and its constitution. What follows is yet another in an evening of surprises.  The night itself seems to curl around her perception, bowing to her and presenting its neck. The darkness at the corners of the room almost writhe in tenebrous exaltation as she calls upon her preternatural sight, and she is granted a clear vision of great strength. The blackout tape and fabric of her window billows and morphs into the form of a bird made of smoke and shadows, thick burgundy fluid dripping from its long beak. Whatever this creature is, it is not of human or Kindred origin, and it means to end her.  Unsure of what to do or how to handle this threat, Rae looks to the back door of her flat, then to the door of her bedroom. In a split second decision, she peels out of the room, out of her front door, and Obfuscates herself as she runs down her street. 

Rae can hear enormous wings beating the air behind her and then her obfuscation is shattered, turned back on the vampire's own mind like so many fragments of glass that leave her flayed and disoriented. Sprawled across the pavement, Rae's vision is blurry and her hearing muffled as she struggles to find her bearings. She looks up and sees a tiny feline form standing alone between her and the wings of shadow poised to strike from the air above.  T he cat hisses and snarls, it's back arched in challenge.

Thoughts scatter and fail to take coherent shape, leaving a chasm between mind and perception as Rae tries to pick herself up off of the ground. A deep ache thrums from behind her eyes for a brief second. She turns to see the looming figure of the black, spectral raven, and it instills in her an existential horror that she cannot process. As her eyes focus, the creature comes into greater clarity, an immense avian body of constantly flowing and morphing shadow with baleful yellow eyes. She could feel the passionate rage in those eyes, inveighing a hate that transcended terrestrial experience. Malign by both design and volition, this creature thrilled in suffering, with pain and fear as the meat upon which it feeds.  Rae calls upon her blood to move her at impossible speeds back to her flat and into her bedroom. She reaches out for Lotus as she goes, but the cat steps away from her, and all she can do is carry herself back to supposed safety.

A few moments later, Rae hears the front door open and shut.

Still discombobulated, Rae moves to kneel with one leg in the deep shadows of the corner of her room, ready to diffuse herself into the darkness or attack to save her unlife. 

Andrei steps into the room with Lotus winding around his ankles. "Everything alright, Pui? I hear loud noise."

Tension leaving her shoulders, Rae slowly stands. "Yes...I...too much drink." Even in this lie, the fear instilled by the shadow creature remains, and she does not leave the safety of the darkened corner. Instead, she merely sits back down and leans back to rest her head against the wall. Her phone then vibrates in her pocket, and as she retrieves it and reads the name on the screen, fuzzy thoughts of her new close friend fill her mind. The text from Aubrey is particularly difficult to understand in Rae's current state, but she does her best. Heyyyy I’m done w that thing and I’ve got some, like, great news omg  where are youuu night’s still young ;) Though it is beginning to improve, Rae's mind is still far too cloudy to respond articulately. But the raven could still be outside, perched and waiting for her to exit or for another Kindred to approach. She can't put Aubrey in that kind of danger.  So great. Will see you tomorrow night. Too dangerous to leave my flat. Too dangerous for you to come. Was attacked by a strange creature. Could still be around.

Andrei walks over to sit next to Rae where she is slumped against the wall. "Red bull?" He offers, passing her a can. Lotus joins them, curling up at Rae's feet.

Rae smiles genuinely, surprised by and appreciative of Andrei's concern and willingness to help. "No, thank you. Tonight was hard. I think I need to just sleep it off."

"You just got up," Andrei points out, cracking open his own can and taking a swig.

Rae squints while continuing to smile at Andrei, caught off-guard by his statement. "...there's no fucking way."  "Well, I've been up for a few hours. You know that I'm most productive at night."  Looking down to Lotus, she stares in wonder at the strange cat, wondering how he could be alive at all, let alone resting comfortably at her feet. Reflexively, she attempts to reach out to the soul of the cat, only to be greeted with mental static and disorientation as her mind convulses against the act. Shaking her head clear, she resigns the query to another day. 

"Is life we lead," Andrei agrees with a casual shrug. "Pui, you know, if you need help, only ask. Da?"

Rae relaxes as the man shows simple, benign concern for her.  "Thank you, Andrei. I just th-" Rae is cut short as her phone begins continuously vibrating. Taking it back out of her pocket, she see's Aubrey's name flashing across the top of the screen. "I'm sorry, Andrei. This is a new friend of mine, I think she's just checking on me."  Hitting the green answer button, she brings the phone to her ear.  "Hello, Aubrey. I'm really sorry, I'm not in any shape to be doing much else tonight."

(Continued from Brasenose College ) "What do you mean you were attacked ?"  Aubrey's voice comes through crisp and still dripping with charm. "You're making me all like, worried Rae-rae. What the hell attacked you?"