Brasenose College

The swirling splatter of vitae gels and sifts across the hollowed-out bone before Aubrey, a vexing pattern written in a tongue she couldn't speak. But she tried. Scrunching her face up, she stares at the inkblot of blood for almost a minute, hoping vainly to decipher something from the spilled life. At first she swears she can make out a definitive shape. Two large pools of the blood strike at her like the eyes of an owl, and she widens her own instinctively. Looking up to Odin, she starts to speak, but a glance back down reveals something new and unreadable, and she swallows the words before they can leave her mouth. Finally, she sighs, pushing the bowl across the desk to the man. "I can't tell what this is," she groans, the frustration clearly hung on her voice. "I was so close! I could like, feel it! Like it was going to show me something and then... ugh . Just, bleh."  With a pout adorned on her face, slumps back into her chair.

Odin smiles, lifting the bowl and swirling its contents around in front of him. "That was very good, for a neophyte. You've taken your first step into a larger world." He pours the clotting blood into a small cat bowl by the leg of the table. "Would you care to go again?"

Aubrey takes a last look at the bowl before her and runs her thumb over the nick she'd left in her finger, which had by now already nearly disappeared. With a nod, she takes up the blade once more, and again blood pools down into the bowl.  Nothing . Again she pricks at the wound, and again her vitae splashes the white bone red. The familiar feeling of something tangible coalescing, only to slip away, procs an exaggerated eyeroll.  "Must I bleed myself dry for this?"  She doesn't give the man across from her much chance to answer, instead dragging the knife sharply across her palm with a wince. A stream of red washes across the bowl, and her mind focuses once more. Just bloody show me something... The now-familiar swirl of blacks and reds forms beneath her, and she grits her teeth as they start to settle. But there's something different this time. The form is more than an inkblot, a rorschach test to be interpreted. It's clear. It's simple in its shape, but the answer is clear in her mind. "There's a bush," she looks up with child-like wonder to the man. "I can see it!"  It takes only seconds though for the elation to subside. "What the hell does that mean." No clearer answers come to her over the course of the training, unfortunately, and within another hour she's dismissed, with little to go on. As Aubrey slips down the stairs and back out onto the quad, she pulls her phone from within the gown and makes for her dorm to change into something normal. Soooo much to tell you about luv Call me later yea?  With a quick couple of texts sent to Camille, she flips over to Facebook and starts to type, but her thumbs pause, and she squints her eyes. Shit. What was his name. Lance? Liev? Ugh no he was like, welsh or scottish or something wasn't he. Logan?  Each name she enters brings forth no one familiar to her and she stamps a foot. It bothers her all the way home until, slamming the door to her dorm behind her, a light flashes in her mind. Within a minute she's sent a quick message, throwing her phone onto the bed as she starts pulling the stuffy gown off and placing her new mask aside. To think I almost didn't believe you were really a teacher!!! well guess which actress just started her first term and would absolutely  love  a tour... professor mccarthy : )

It's a full 20 minutes before a message comes back.          Who dis? A few seconds later it's quickly followed by another.           Jk. You play? Sunday nights I play at Sandy's. Dress for Jazz, we could cause quite a stir

Returning from a shower to find the texts, Aubrey can't help but roll her eyes and laugh. I don't need to play to cause a stir, I just need to appear <3  wouldn't mind grabbing a bite together if you know anywhere good, absolutely famished

A stir without art is meaningless. When I play at Sandy's the food is free.

making a stir *is* an art besides, not much of a crowd at a pub compared to a red carpet ; ) see you in a bit, professor  Tossing the phone down, she heads into her closet to start rummaging through the myriad outfits she had on hand to pick something fitting. Before long she's out the door and on her way. (Continued in Baby Love)

(Continued from Oriel College...) It's on her way back from her chat with Liam that Aubrey finds herself walking by the New Quad. She had  planned to return to her room and run over what she knew while freshening up, but this was where it supposedly happened. And few people were around. And she'd seen several episodes of Veronica Mars. Diverting into the quad, it wouldn't have taken a detective to denote the bush in question — it was cordoned off with police tape and cones, as was a good deal of the area. With little care for the barriers before her, she steps gingerly through to start examining the bush. There were still some faint traces of dried blood and broken branches where the body was presumably thrown, but several minutes of searching brought little substantive clues for the amateur sleuth to uncover. Scowling, she instead starts to look about for the next best thing: witnesses. Of course, Aubrey didn't exactly know anyone around here, but that mattered little. They knew her, surely. She saunters up towards the first couple of passerbys that look headed for one of the buildings and, flaring her Majesty, flashes a concerned smile their way. "Ugh I'm sooo  sorry, I'm like, totally frazzled and lost but I'm here researching for a role and like, I heard about this horrid murder? And I'm just so heartbroken I can—"  she sniffles, her face contorted into a pained grimace as she fans at crocodile tears, "—I feel like so stupid? You know? Here I am, this actress or whatever, and what am I doing with my time? I could help so much more and it just puts it all into perspective and..."  she pats her face a few times to regain her composure before exhaling a ragged breath. "I must sound so stupid ughh, rambling here like this. I just want to know, like, who were they? If I knew what happened — and like maybe it's stupid of me to say but like — maybe I could help somehow? Reach out to the family? Raise awareness, you know?" Her eyelashes batted and her makeup almost definitely running at this point, she smiles kindly through a false face as the now-gathering crowd of passerbys starts laying each bit of information so generously upon her. 'His name was Matthew Wiggins and he was a wealthy kid studying PPE.'  ' He was really kind!' Oh wait others say he was as full of himself as any other rich brat who comes here. 'Well what does that make you, idiot?' Don't actually say that,  she thinks. 'Professor McCarthy put this party together and performed.' Right. Knew that. He was trying to pull — how'd that work out for you —  and was last seen with a black girl no one recognised or has seen since. Well fuck. I mean, that's useful but like, also, not? "Gods you're all so lovely," she nods, making strong eye contact with each of them, "Thank you. I just hope I can find some way to help..."  she can barely hear her own platitudes as she finishes her work here, instead focusing on each bit of info and how it may help her as she eventually makes her way back towards her own room. She'd made progress, for sure. Probably.

Arriving back at her dorm, Aubrey first flops face first onto her bed, letting the warmth of her comforter and pillows envelop her body. She nearly nods off right then and there, but a niggling urge at the back of her mind keeps her awake, and after a few blissfully peaceful minutes, she pries herself off the blankets and over to her MacBook. Stifling a yawn with an oversized jumper sleeve, she pulls up Liam's facebook page and starts sorting through the various videos from the last week of the party at Brasenose. She takes a mental note that the event seemed noticeably less orgy-like than this evening's had been, but continues on to find what she was looking for. The kid described and shown to her by those sympathetic passerbys outside appears soon enough, but more importantly, the blur of a girl he was with does as well. Right. That whole picture thingy.  Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, she instead pays special attention to those around the pair — the students most likely to have seen her suspect . Which is totally a thing I have now. A suspect. For a case. That I'm solving.  The smirk that slips across her face is almost instinctive; unconscious. God I'm like, actually being a detective aren't I? Like fucking whatshername. Like Sherlock or whatever. And Daphne. Aubrey screenshots the students' faces and syncs them to her phone. Her plans were shockingly falling into place in a way. Who knew being Nancy Drew was so easy?

By the time the evening rolls around the next day, Aubrey is feeling a bit less sure of her confidence from the night before. In speaking with Liam, getting basic info from other students, watching the party vids, and attempting legit divination, she’d come away with… the fact a girl did it. Maybe. Rolling over in bed, she reaches out to give Meowlando scritches under his chin. “Did you sleep well?”  She gives a warm smile his way ー her way? She actually wasn’t entirely sure still ー and laughs. “If all you cats are some sort of spies or whatever, you probably know exactly who killed poor little Matthew, don’t you?” Now on her side, she scrolls past the throngs of notifications from facebook and pulls up messenger to enter the number Liam had PM’d her: Hiiiii are you Professor McCarthy’s friend? I’m super sorry reaching out like this but I heard you’re like, really good with cats ^._.^ I just adopted a stray and I need help D: I know it’s weird but I’d be soooo grateful. Do you like macchiatos? I’m buying ; ) With that message sent she quickly switches to email to compose a slightly different one: Subject: Practice? Hiii Professor, Yesterday was super fun! I think I really made some progress, don’t you?  Anyway so good news! I went to that bush. Bad news! It was boring. There was nothing there. So my thought is like, why??? But I learned some other stuff that might be useful! So yeah when can we practice more? I’m ready to totally nail this ^ ^ X O X O A With both messages sent, she closes her eyes once again to let the tranquility of her private sanctum here surround her. The night could wait just a little longer, surely.

Not long after she awakens from her deathly slumber on Monday night, Aubrey finds a new email in her inbox. Subject: RE Practice? Good evening, I'm glad to hear that you found our first tutorial stimulating. With time and patience your understanding will deepen, even when the answers are not immediately apparent. We can discuss this further tonight at 10 pm, if you come by my office. All the best and don't be late.

(Continued from Christ Church) [Saturday morning before Aubrey's arrvival] Merric takes his notes and prepares his magical implements in his bag in preparation for the worst possible outcome and heads over to Brasenose quad to investigate the crime scene. At the quad he sees many students coming and going normally between classes and he spots a guard in front of police tape, 'That must be where the body was found. It's clearly not there anymore but considering the guard, the investigation must still be ongoing. Let me see if I can spot something that guard can't' Merric gathers the essence of death into his eyes as he focuses his vision to see the unseen. The world grows gray and dim like a cloudy winter evening. Streams of faint arcana flow through the world like a breeze of light, and in this new world he sees a transparent floating man pacing the quad in distress. 'That must be Matthew; poor fellow.'  Matthew paces through the flow of foot traffic in the quad, ''Dang, wish he'd stay still for while, at least go float somewhere less dense. I can't imagine how it'd look to the crowd to be talking to the air.'  Looking off to the corner pensively he thinks of a smooth way to handle this. 'I got it'. From a distance, Merric stares the spirit of Matthew down, and like greeting an old friend he yells across the quad as if to get the attention of a friend passing by, "Hey Matt, over here!"  He makes sure to send noticeable but subtle body language to Matthew's spirit so that it recognizes Merric was addressing him. Once he established the connection he beckons to him with a nod to follow him, to a nearby bench so that they can sit and talk.

A group of students passing by give Merric an odd stare and laugh amongst themselves as they head from their staircase to the old quad. It seems that his act isn't as convincing as he'd hoped. Nevertheless, the ghost ceases its wandering and begins to drift directly towards Merric, watching the mage intently with its head inclined to the side at an odd angle. For the moment, it says nothing.

'Ah dang it, looks like popularity at Brasenose is off the table now. Oh well, at least he got the message.'  A bit embarrassed he makes sure not to meet the eyes of passersby. As Matthew drifts closer he beckons and continues to move to the bench to sit. At the bench he speaks in a quiet voice to Matthew's spirit, "Hey Matthew, can you understand me?"

The ghost continues to stare at Merric. Its expression is strangely vacant, but it nods slowly in response to his question.

Merric pulls out his pad and pen, "Great, do you mind if I ask you some questions?"  Merric doesn't think he'll get much of a response so he quickly answers his own question, "Great! Thanks for your assistance. Do you remember how you died?"

Aubrey spends a good bit of time getting herself ready for the night ahead, selecting an appropriately gothic cropped hoodie to go with a dark set of jeans. Placing the mask she'd received within a small black backpack, she is off to her first classes. By 9:56 she's knocking on Odin's door, and soon enough they are back with the bowl and the athame.  She holds the blade over her palm once more, and this time when she closes her eyes there's something to focus on. Someone. The blurred image on the video of the girl seen with Matthew flickers across the insides of her eyelids. Frustration filters in as her attempts to get a clear view of her face falter against the image's constant shifting and changing and morphing, always warping just out of view and into shadow and obscurity, and she almost misses how tightly she was clenching her eyes.  She exhales, and the tension releases from her face and the grip around the knife's handle. If this figure was to be revealed to her, it wouldn't happen through force. Instead Aubrey lets the image sit in her mind as it is, and drags the metal cleanly through her deadened flesh. The drops swirl and glisten at against the curved bone below, and her eyes widen at the image they coalesce into.  The lecture theatre. The one she'd been in only hours earlier. Her lecture theatre. Thanking Odin for a more illuminating experience, she is off with her mind racing to deduce who it was. She didn't know anyone in these classes, nor had paid attention to any of them, but there was a chance one of her own classmates was the one? She'd need to know who was actually on this track. A programme registry or something. Checking her phone to see if that Khalid friend of Liam's had gotten back to her yet, she leaves Brasenose for the Sociology Faculty. (Continued in Oxford City Centre...)

Eric D. said: Merric pulls out his pad and pen, "Great, do you mind if I ask you some questions?"  Merric doesn't think he'll get much of a response so he quickly answers his own question, "Great! Thanks for your assistance. Do you remember how you died?" The ghost stares at Merric intensely and then his neck twists unnaturally over, exposing the bite on his neck.

Merric takes that response in, "Riiight. Alright Matthew, this may be the final question. Do you think you could grab this pen and write down what you remember from that night into this pad?" He holds out the pen into the air as if to hand it over.

Matthew's form lurches forwards into Merric, meeting resistance in the form of the mage's body, but passing right through the pen. The ghost is ice cold to the touch and wails mournfully as it slumps against him.

Merric realizes he won't get very far with Matthew at this rate. Feeling into his bag he pulls out a half-finished water bottle, This should do . "Alright Matthew, I don't have many more questions for you right now, so this won't take much longer." Bringing his pen back to his pad he asks, "Would you be able to recognize your killer if you saw them again?"

Matthew stares into the Merric's eyes and the gaze is hard and determined, with a fire that the mage has not seen from the ghost until now.

Merric takes his Highland Spring water bottle and empties its contents into the bushes next to him. He takes his pen and carefully draws the rune  ᛟ,  meaning 'possession,' onto the bottle cap. He looks at Matthew in the eyes, "I see your passion Matthew; I want to get justice for your murder. I'll only ask one last thing. Will you trust me?"  He spots a corner of the quad secluded enough not to alert sleepers and beckons to Matthew to follow. Matthew, with a confused look, does not follow along. Well, guess he wasn't persuaded; I'll prepare the spell and come back, I suppose.  He goes off into a secluded corner by himself. Merric holds the water bottle in his left hand while hovering his right hand over the top. He begins to chant in a low runic high speech. As the chant continues, dark wisps begin to rise from Merric's skin, and a visible pressure can be felt by Matthew. His onyx-beaded bracelet begins to tremble as the mouth of the skull pendant begins emitting a shadowy opaque fog that flows down and envelops the water bottle. A bead on his bracelet etched with the same rune he wrote onto the bottle forces the bracelet to rotate the bracelet to face the bottle, and the dark fog connects the bead to the bottle. The chant finishes, and the fog quickly fills the bottle. The cap appears to be gone from the bottle, only left with a black empty void one could get lost in if looked at for too long. Merric walks back to Matthew and looks at him,  "Just one last step." He points the water bottle towards Matthew, and like a black hole, an intense suction force imposes itself on Matthew, attempting to suck him into the void. Matthew's spiritual body gets sucked in like a dense gas into the "ghost trap" bottle until there's nothing left of him. A grin comes over Merric's face; I'm  glad that worked . He looks down at the bottle as he walks back towards his dorm, "Don't worry, Matthew, we'll find out who did this."

(Continued from Oxford City Centre...) (Early Tuesday morning) The long evening finally drawing to a close, Aubrey hurries her way back to her dorm, reaching the Brasenose quad just as the first rays of the dawn's light breach the horizon. The dizzying glow of sunlight washes over her, and she feels her skin start to warm, prompting an extra bit of hurry to her step as she dashes indoors and up into her room, the blinds already pulled tightly closed to shield her further. Once safely out of the sun's omnipresent gaze, she sighs in relief and flops onto her bed to let the weight of the night wash off of her and sink into the comforter instead. Such succulently soft silks could easily carry her off to daysleep, but the tredding of a cat's paws along the carpet floor reminds her she has one thing yet to do here. Sitting up, she glowers at Amun. "Don't think we're done talking just because the mage isn't here, mister. I have more questions—" the last words stretch out over the sound of a dawning yawn that escapes her lips, "—after I sleep, okay?"   Not waiting for a response, the sleepy starlet instead pulls her phone out and starts a new text in earnest. Cammmmy we absolutely HAVE to talk soon I miss youuuu I've heard, like, the juiciest gossip already, and I knowww you want to know it   also?? I met someone maybe??? think, like, harry potter yeah? but more adorably naive :x anywayy going to bed now lets chat tomorrow kay? xoxoxo With the text sent, she's quick to change into some baggy pyjamas and wash her face. Staring into the bathroom mirror, she allows her reflection to still and coalesce, staring into her own eyes. With her blush faded, the sunken skin and darkened circles beneath her eyes sends a shiver down her own spine. Even after a few years of this life, seeing herself in that way still caught her off guard somehow, like the undeath was still fresh. And there, where the length of her neck met the curve of her shoulder, two nearly-imperceptible little dots of discolored skin remained; a permanent picture of life painted through the beckoning of death into the fabric of her flesh; an eternal memento of the nature of the requiem. She rakes a nail over the spot, carving a small valley of a gash across it that naturally forgets to bleed, and she shakes the thoughts of the past from her mind. Instead, she shuffes back into the bedroom and slips under her covers, letting the pull of daysleep usher her away for another day.

Aubrey climbs into bed and her phone vibrates on her nightstand, the screen lighting up to reveal a text from Camille. Replacing me already? With a little nerd? Please tell me that he's at least cute. You know I love gossip. Spill.

The vibration of the iPhone beside her head jolts Aubrey’s eyes open before they can finish closing, and she quickly snatches the smartphone to read her sire’s response. Her undead heart is practically aflutter as she reads each word. It’d been, what, nearly a week without speaking to her now and the wear of such an eternity spent apart was quick to show itself.  Stifling a yawn, she quickly shoots back a reply. As if!! You’re all I need <3333 buuuuuttt he Is kinda cute  also suuuper weird question lol but like, do you have a cat now? like, super recently?? bc I do… and so does every other uhh  (㇏(•̀ᵥᵥ•́)ノ) here 

What? 🤨 No. What do you mean everyone? What kind of cat?

The immediate reply is met with widened eyes. So it’s only here then… She holds the phone up towards the curt-little calico at the end of her bed and snaps a pic to be sent. so I’d taken to calling him Meowlando yeah? bc of course look at him but Potter asked and he prefers Amun?? terrible name imo but c’est la vie right? sooooo yeah! like this. Everyone. All at once. Got one. And thats the least wild part, that’s why I said call meeeeeeee  also bc I havent heard your lovely voice in like foreverr <333333

A short moment later, Aubrey's phone begins to ring. "What do you mean 'Potter asked'?" Camille demands when Aubrey picks up. "Asked the cat ?"

The sound of her sire's voice rushes through her veins; an immediate high mellowed only slightly by the oddly commanding tone it traveled on. And yet that too seemed to add a rush of excitement. In a sing-songy voice she quickly starts explaining.  "I told  you, the cute guy I met. What'd you think I meant by 'harry potter'? He's a mage or whatever. Like the ones you mentioned! He spoke some magicky whatsit and we had a chat with little Amun here."  She gestures to the cat with a one-handed clap of a wave and a smile, then picks right back up, sliding forward onto her stomach, such that her feet kick lazily in the air. "Okay there's a lot to cover so sorry but Cammy you'll be so proud of me! Your friends — who are totally nailing the whole 'spooky cult' vibe, I'll add — asked me to like, solve a murder? And like? Scooby who? I've learned sooo  much already! That hot jazz professor I saw the last time I was in town here had me perform with him and — oh my god did I mention I fed on my own? So easy! Dunno what I was ever so worried about but — anyway yeah he introduced me to this mage guy and like apparently? The cats were assigned to protect kindred from I don't know, dark wizards or whatever. And the other night all the elder vamps here were killed by a — shit what's the word he used... method actor? Meth seller? Methusy something or another. And — and this is Khalid saying this by the way — oh sorry that's the mage's name, Khal. Khalid. Whatever he's unimportant anyway a monster like The Thing attacked him and his friends yeah? And... well, actually that's most of it." The long, spiraling diatribe finally comes to an end. For a few seconds. "Oh and I may  have learned some blood magic. That's all. So like am I absolutely killing it with this or what?"  She grins to herself, awaiting her praise like a dog does treats.

There's a moment of silence before Camille replies. "Aubrey, slow down. I'm glad to hear that the Circle has inducted you, but why is this mage helping you? They have their own agenda and they're dangerous. You can't trust this boy. Does the Circle know about him? Who is your Mother there?"

Aubrey rolls her eyes. The mage hardly seemed dangerous to her, so she didn’t see what the big deal was there. “He’s a friend of the jazz guy, McCarthy. I doubt he’s any worry, he was super willing to tell me all that with only like, a few batted eyelashes and a cup of coffee. I didn’t even need any Majesty!” That there was definitely a point of pride ー a notch on her acting belt. Not that she’d admit she really had  come to enjoy hanging out with him, of course.  “And no they don’t yet but! That’s only because I just got back like twenty minutes ago from our little date. I’ll tell them tomorrow, pinky promise! And it’s Hera? Do you know her? I got a fun role too, yeah? She said I’m Artemis.”

"The huntress..." Camille's acknowledgement is quiet and pensive. "Hera is capable and will protect the Circle's own for as long as you remain useful. Tell her about the mage this evening. McCarthy isn't that big a fish. It's strange that he would have dealings with mages, especially with so much else going on. Did you say that the mage boy told you that the cat's name was 'Amun'?" 

"Yes yes don't worry,"  the girl groans into the phone, rolling over onto her back until her head lolls off the side of the bed. "I'll be sure to give her a ring when I wake up. Anyway yeah,"  picking her head up, she clicks her tongue twice, trying to get the cat to walk over to her, "That's what he said at least. Right Amun?"

Amun stands and stretches his legs forwards and back before lazily trotting over towards Aubrey and curling up on her stomach. "That name... it's old, you know. Egyptian old. It means something along the lines of 'the mysterious one' or 'he of great mystery', or perhaps 'the hidden one', depending on how you translate it. It was the name of an ancient Egyptian god... are you sure that this mage isn't mocking you? How do you know that the cat said anything at all?"

"Because... because..."  Aubrey frowns as she starts to stroke Amun's fur, running a hand down the cat's back. There was no way Khalid had been mocking her, right? He was so naive and doting. Even when he tried to hide what the cat was saying, he seemed so flustered and bad at it.  "Because! He wouldn't have dared to! And also Amun was very vocal. And everyone  suddenly has a cat here. Hera has one. My crúac professor or whatever, Odin, has one. Liam has one! And on top of little Harry Potter being all sweet and doting, a muggle — err, mortal, was killed like right after all this happened. It's what Hera has me trying to figure out." A funny thought crosses her mind, and she pauses, her face twisting in confusion. "How do you know so much about old Egyptian stuff anyway?"

"Do you think I had you enrolled in archaeology and anthropology for nothing? The ancient world is our history, more so than for any mortal." Camille pauses for a moment, before asking a new question. "Why does Hera care about some dead mortal?"

“I mean yeah it’s kinda interesting maybe but like,”  Aubrey stifles a yawn,  “still don’t see why I need to know it to act.” “And Hera doesn’t care about the mortal. She cares because whoever did it was like, super sloppy? And nearly broke the masquerade? And also did it here in Brasenose.”

"You might one day be cast in a role where it's useful... or you might not," Camille admits, her tone abruptly shifting into nonchalance. "Amongst kindred though? Recognising our history - for example, understanding whether or not and how  a sighting of a  methuselah is  important - could mean the difference between your continued existence and the Final Death."  Her last words broker no nonsense from her childer.

Aubrey opens her mouth to speak but closes it quickly, a tingling running down into her stomach. She scrunches her toes up and pulls her legs in towards her chest, as something in the way her sire speaks of a methuselah unnerves her. Methuselah. That was what Khalid had said. Shit. I was told about this. Um. What are they though?   She fumbles in her mind to think back to the early days and months of her requiem — to nights sat in rapt attention at the edge of her sire's bed, to evenings curled up on her couch, entombed in a swirl of thick blankets as she was fed a litany of reality-changing facts of life on the supernatural, and the end of all that she'd once known. She knew without remembering that a methuselah was bad news, but she hesitated to admit that was all she knew. It was odd though, she thought. For all that she knew of Dame Camille Renoux that even the adoring public did not, she knew there was still so much she was unaware of.   The quiet that hung in the air following Camille's words grows thick, and when Aubrey does finally speak, it is without any of the irreverence that usually accompanies her voice. "I'm sorry,"  she squeaks out. "I... I didn't realise this was that serious. I thought..." Her words trail off smaller and smaller as she wracks her mind for a better way to appease the woman on the other end. "What shall I do? I can study harder — I'll take it seriously I promise Cammy!" Beat.  "I... may need you to remind me what a methuselah is though."

Aubrey can hear Camille sigh on the other end of the line. "Methuselah was a biblical figure who lived for almost a thousand years. When the kindred use the term, they are referring to one of our own who is of a similar age."

Right. Old vamps. Super dangerous.  Aubrey winces. At the time she'd been taught of this stuff, it all seemed a lot less real than now — more of a bit of scary storytelling than anything she'd ever have to worry about, so she had paid little attention to it. Besides, it'd been a lot to take in when simply knowing the supernatural existed at all was already tripping her up.  "Right right, I remember now."  She hears herself apologise again.  "Um, you're not mad at me are you?"

"I just don't want you to end up as somebody's meal, Aubrey," Camille tells her softly. "Be careful how much you trust these new friends."

Aubrey wriggles about on the bed, caught somewhere between giddy joy and guilty shame. “Of course,”  she nods to the phone, “I don’t trust anyone besides you anyway.” Attempting to stifle another heavy yawn, she rolls back onto her side and stares across the room into the dark of a corner. “You’ll come visit soon, won’t you?”

"Oh, I'd love to," Camille assures Aubrey, "but I'm going to be very busy with a shoot in LA. I'll let you know when my schedule clears up. Stay safe. Study hard. Talk again soon."

“Fiiiine,”  she groans into the receiver, “though you’re Camille Renoux! You should just, like, force them to change the call times and schedule? But alriiiight, I’m off to sleep. Love you, miss you terribly, I’m hugging you through the phone byeeeee.” As she hangs up, she stares at the screen for a moment as the contact picture of her sire lingers for a second longer. With a sigh, she rolls over and pulls the covers tightly over her like an arm pulling her in close. With Cam’s image still in her mind, she drifts over to daysleep.

The evening finally arrives, and with it the grip of daysleep loosens on Aubrey, her heart starting back up with a jolt that pulls her up and out from her covers and into the dark of the sun-blocked room. She yawns, stretching one arm overhead as another reaches to stroke her cat's back. "How did you sleep Amun?" In a short time she's gotten herself ready for the night ahead. Between getting access to the sociology department, reporting everything to Hera as she promised Camille she would do, and having to go meet with an actual tutor for her regular lessons, she had an eventful evening planned. First things first, she shoots a quick text off that she'd been holding off on responding to until she'd finished her little date with Khalid. You hadn't mentioned how cute your friend was professor, almost felt like you were holding out a bit ;) next time ur performing lmk, I'll try and squeeze you in for sure  With that taken care of, she had one more important person to reach out to. Of course, first she'd need to know how to reach them. A quick search of the university website reveals who she's looking for: Dr. Sophie Bocksberger — A.K.A. her 'mother', Hera. Dear Professor Bocksberger, Hello! Hope you had a splendid weekend and all that. We haven't technically met but also like, I feel like we have, you know? ;) I certainly had an interesting time the last few days. As one fan of Classics  to another, I think you'd be like, super interested in hearing what I've learned.  I still have more to research of course, but a mutual friend (maybe? I don't know) Ms. Renoux suggested you'd be keen to hear the deets so far so like, let me know when works for you yeah?? I'm free all evening save for a meeting with Dr. Bispham at 20:30. Okay byeee hope to see you soon! xoxo Aubrey K.

About half an hour later, Aubrey's laptop chimes indicating an unread email. Good evening Aubrey, I'm glad to hear that you're making progress. Will you be done with Ed by 21:30? I could squeeze you in then. Please send Camille my warmest regards. Best, Sophie

Aubrey checks her phone as the email comes in and quickly fires back a reply as she walks out the door of Brasenose and towards the city centre once more. I’ll be sure to let Cammy know, and great! That should be fine. At your office listed on the site, yes? See you soon <3 ーAubrey Sent from my iPhone First thing’s first though, she hoped to add just a little more info to her report, and that required a visit to her department. (Continued in City Centre...)

Shortly before her tutorial, Aubrey makes her way to Dr. Bispham's office, where she finds three other girls also waiting in the corridor, each with a bag slung over her shoulder. They're quietly talking amongst themselves, but look up when Aubrey approaches them.