The Night After The Party We Don't Talk About

[Valentina Audley]

"Ooooh...." It's part sigh, part coo of admiration as Dukes gives Aurelia the candle. Valentina pauses in her search to grin at Aurelia, sharing the Elder's delight from her look earlier.

Valentina appreciates a romance as much as anyone, regardless of if she's part of it or not.

"That is a beautiful candle Elder." Her voice shows a truly toreador admiration for it. She remembers she never took one of her own and sighs a little to herself. Probably too late to go to the box now.

[Posh-Tim]

Keane sighs and sits in a chair.
"Thankyou for the offer but whilst I very much would like the bead returned, were it cleansed of any Umm Taint was it? Then it would rather lose its purpose. Not only that but it has seen far worse."
To Aurelia:
"Thankyou Elder, I imagine whatever he said was of little interest to one so learned as yourself. It is unfortunate that you won't be meeting him for the first time when we travel together, as planned."

[L .]

"Neh? Ah! There it is," Aurelia claps, delighted. "You had said you have a gift for me. The night passes, no gift."

She chuckles, and turns the black rose over in her hand, the laughter fading to be replaced by a sober, warm smile.

"It is beautiful... Thank you." She caresses its stem delicately. "I did not think. I will have a gift for you, but I will need time." She leans into Dukes' space slightly and - does not place a kiss - presses the upper part of the bridge of her nose into the hollow of his jawline, just beneath it and next to his ear. Aurelia inhales - and then exhales - once. What remaining tension there had been in her aura vanishes.

She looks up at Valentina's comment and smiles, more tenderly than she is given to. "It is isn't it? The symbol is something of a personal... affect of mine. I have a tatto of one such rose." She winces slightly. "I was young, and a Tzimisce put it there, so that it would last past the dawn. Human inks tends to come out, otherwise. Old memories, odd times, etcetera..."

To Keane: "No actually it was very fascinating. Lots about the Blacks."

[Valentina Audley]

Valentina's ears prick at the mention of the Blacks. "Weren't they in a spot of bother not long ago? I'm sure I heard something about some of them going missing? Or am I misremembering?"

She looks to Aurelia and Keane curiously.

[Madam Zaragoza]

Hermina looks at Dukes and Aurelia, and Valentina’s flutterings regarding the gift. A rose ..hmmm. She glances over at Jean-Jacques. Love... Romance... wooing.. fairytale knights on white horses.. gah!

She takes another large gulp of her wine soaked blood.

“May I see the gift Elder Aurelia?”

[Jean-Jacques]

Jean-Jacques catches Herminas gaze, raises an eyebrow and then appears to consider there is enough distraction to smile and then he leaves his chair and movers to the chaise long and starts checking underneath, looking for his own carved wax effigy of an avocado.

[L .]

She looks up at Valentina.

"Mnn, I don't know," Aurelia says. "I think much of it has been kept out of the media. Lady Anne - err, Bowesly, you know the one, London's Seneschal - has been forcing the matter of the Blacks out of kine attention for months and months. I think they were killed, most of them. There were a couple of them out in France but..."

She looks slyly to Keane. "Well... obviously one of those is here now, and dead in a roundabout way. What happened to the girl? Or both girls, even, one from the branch House. Cassiopeia is gone, but now: so is Calista."

At Hermina's question, Aurelia looks suddenly very possessive of her rose. She would not say she pouts, but the lift of the item to her chest was fast.

"Oh... Really? Can you not see it there?" She sounds a little miserable. "It is very delicate, Elder."

[Valentina Audley]

Valentina smiles sweetly at Aurelia. "Do you mean Narcissa Black Elder?"

Her aura pulses with satisfaction.

[Posh-Tim]

Keane looks a bit bored by the question but his aura is tinged with discomfort.
"I couldn't say. I am only learning of all the intricacies of that family now. Mostly from Raife I must admit. I have only found myself in Bryth- England recently and am learning the near-history as fast as I can."
He looks at Laurence collecting up all of his clothes.
" If you came back to pick those up, what did you walk home wearing?"

[alanwrotethis]