An Evening of Tea [Rose/Nikolaus/Aisha][16 June]

At the exact time Rose had indicated in her message, the door of the White Wyvern opened as Nikolaus gallantly let Rose in.

This week had been pretty hot for a month of June in London. But now that the sun had set, the temperature was much more pleasant. The Tremere Regent was wearing a black and white outfit composed of a cashmere patterned panty hose, a short black skirt, a white shirt and an elegant Victorian style jacket.

After a nod to the bartender, Rose immediately noticed Aisha sitting in her booth, sipping her tea. She walked to her, a small smile on her lips.

“Good evening, Professor Ria,” she said politely. “Thanks for accepting my invitation. I hope we didn’t keep you waiting.”

Aisha watched as the two walked in. Their attire making her feel way under dressed, with the heat she wasn't going to run around in something to heavy. She smiled as they made their way over. "Good evening. Please call me Aisha. Professor is so formal. She put her tea down and slid out, standing out and offering her hand in greeting.

"Not at all. I came a few minutes early for some tea." She chuckled at the comment from Nikolaus. "In this heat, I am not sure ice would help, it might just add more water." She smiled and offered her hand to him as well.

"Please, sit. I hope your week was well." After shaking hands she took a seat back down.

Don't feel too bad, Aisha; the Tremere may not look like they belong in a board room like the Ventrue or in a fashion catalog like the Toreador, but they were known for their sense of style, as well. Of course, when there's an almost continent-wide heat advisory (which, unfortunately, the Wizarding World was not exempt from), it wouldn't be possible if their body temperatures weren't already below natural levels, and indeed they'd be corpselike if not for the blood they had to consume.

"Aisha it is," he answered, taking her hand, before sliding into the booth next to Rose and propping his cane up against the wall. "Blood from what, exactly?" While he was always a creature of opportunity when it came to feeding, he bristled at the thought of drinking from an animal unless it was a matter of survival. It just wasn't the same as feeding on a live human being. There was a reason why the taste of living, mortal blood was just so intoxicating to a vampire. But he caught Rose's meaning. He thought back, with a smirk: 'Also sounds like a convenient place for an accident to happen.'

He turned back to Aisha. "Awful heat, cricket season, British kine--, pardon, 'muggle' youth rediscovering the thrill of political activism at all hours... what a time to not be alive." Certainly made feeding more satisfying. Heat plus tensions running high equals elevated heart rates, and that made the taste of blood all the more ripe.

Rose listened to Nikolaus' attempt at casual conversation - he had always been much better at that than she was - but all that while, she was studying Aisha. And for some reason, her aura clashed a bit with her statements. Rose wasn't going to try and read her thoughts, but the way Aisha's aura kept flickering and changing colors clearly meant she was confused or uncertain about something. The fact that the transfiguration professor had planned on only drinking tea and was now ordering wine was only confirming that. Yet Aisha was trying very hard to convince them she had had the most uneventful week possible. So the logical conclusion was: What was troubling her was highly personal and she had no intention to share this with two people she barely knew.

Rose chose to focus on subjets that seemed to provide Aisha comfort. "This berage smells delicious. Stawberries and a hint of vanilla, isn't it? I wish I could taste some. I think it's the kind of wine I would have liked back then." She meant, as the witch could easily guess, when she was still mortal. She paused as if something just occurred to her. "By the way, you said your specialty was transfiguration, correct? Last time we met, I completely forgot to ask if that meant you were an Animagus yourself?"

Aisha watched as Rose seemed to study her for a moment, she wondered briefly if sh had given away to much of her personal issues with her body language or facial expressions. She would need to work on that she thought for a moment as she met Roses gaze with a smile. "Yes, it is a fairly new wine I have discovered. Quite the taste." She smiled softly.

"Yes that is correct." She smiled brightly then. "Yes as a matter of fact I am. I rather enjoy it as well." She loved her falcon form, it provided opportunities for many different things and it was probably her most precious magical gift, at least to herself. "Maybe before we part ways, I will let you see her beauty." She laughed softly.

"I did meet my first of your kind in that form. There is one of you that teaches at our school. Quite an interesting person. It was also whom I purchased the gift for but I have an inclining that you already knew that." There had been a lot of meaning behind words during their last interaction at the book store that left a bit of open interpretation.

"You know I am not quite sure. I think I was more surprised that she came from the shadows. Seemingly out of no where." She replied noting that Rose seemed intrigued about her magic, her abilities. She herself enjoyed her magic so very much.

"I think she rather enjoyed the gift, I do appreciate the help with that." She said with a soft smile as she sipped her wine. She noted the change in the woman sitting across from her. It was a similar change she had to take when she was with her employees. All business. It was what pushed her out and into a behind the scenes roll more times than not.

"I do have a question that has intrigued me for sometime now." She looked up at her. "Maybe you could answer it. You do seem so interested in the magic after all."

Aisha said the magic word, no pun intended. At this point, Nikolaus knew better than to interrupt. He did, however, narrow his eyes just a little bit, focusing on Aisha. There had to be a reason she was asking. She had seemed bothered, earlier. Was she just trying to distract herself with a change of subject? Or maybe there really was something with which she believed Rose could be of help?

Like the dutiful partner he was, he remained silent, allowing the two to continue their conversation uninterrupted. While he had long since been desensitized to the idea that magic exists - he's a Tremere, for God's sake - the topic provided no small amount of interest to him, especially when he could hear Rose talk about it. He would have liked to visit Hogwarts, and for Rose to give him a tour, tell him about the time when she studied there, even if he knew the school was (mostly) off-limits due to the treaty. Maybe some day, he'd be able to, regardless.

Rose listened to Aisha as she explained her reasoning and asked her questions. It showed she was a teacher. Her trail of thoughts was easy to follow and the assumptions she made were based on logical comparisons. The Tremere wondered if the witch had asked the same question to Mary before, or to other vampires, or to fellow teachers maybe? But whether she had or not, Rose was planning on giving her a straightforward answer. She wouldn't be betraying any Tremere secret telling her what she wanted to know there.

"Some Kindred possess the ability to shift the very structure and shape of objects and individuals, whether Kindred or Kine, with mere touches. But only Kindred from a certain Clan are able to do that, and only if they've reached a certain degree of mastery of their Discipline. They can change their own appearance or the appearance of others pretty much to the limits of their own imagination. However this power of theirs, although great, is not absolute: some Kindred of another specific Clan remain immune to their powers. That's the first part of my answer to your question.

The second part would be that some Clans of Kindred, while they can't do this to others, are able to shift into an animal form. Usually, only one specific animal per Kindred and again whether the transformation is only partial or total depends on their level of mastery in their Discipline.

The third and last part would be the use of potions on a vampire. Surprisingly enough, the results of such experiments are rare and rather inconclusive," experiments recorded by Clan Tremere, of course, but Rose chose to leave that part unsaid. Part of her wished she could have access to Tzimisce archives. "But it appears that witch and wizard's magic, whether under the form of a spell or of a potion, could possibly alter the appearance of a Kindred but the success of this transformation depends on a rather large number of factors such as: The generation of the Kindred, the Clan to which they belong, their levels of mastery in their Disciplines and whether or not they know rituals to protect themselves from magic. Witch and Wizard's magic can affect vampires, it is a fact, but modifying the appearance of a Kindred has always been a peculiar topic. Some books explain that, as immortals, the appearance of vampires is intrinsically supposed to remain unchanged over time and that it confers us a certain degree of immunity to some kinds of magic meant to alter our appearance. Of course, it's only a theory."

Rose paused, to take a sip of wyne as well and to analyze the other woman's reaction.

"Now if we consider the opposite situation, I believe that if a Kindred was to try and use their Discipline to alter the appearance of a witch or wizard, it might work as well. Again, it would depend on how powerful the Kindred and the witch respectively are. That said, even if it did work, a curative spell or a potion might be able to undo the alteration performed by the Kindred. I haven't yet had the opportunity to experiment on this, but it would be interesting to be able to confirm or reject those hypotheses, don't you think?"

These ones and so many others. The Tremere Regent said no more after that, waiting for the Professor of Transfiguration to ask more questions if she had any. Had she wanted to give Aisha a complete answer, she would have mentioned the Path of Alchemy, but since it was a Tremere Discipine, Rose, as the good Tremere Regent she was, considered she had given Aisha enough to think about at that point. Tremere being secretive about their own Discipline wasn't a myth at all. They hadn't become as powerful as they were by telling others about their specific techniques, after all.

Rose's topic of choice had proven every bit as educational for him as it had for Aisha. Sure, he knew of Vicissitude, the Nosferatu, Protean, et cetera, but it had never been a matter of study for him beyond the absolutely necessary; mainly, how to defend against it. The former required skin-to-skin contact, and a certain ability of his own would ensure that anyone attempting to get close enough to try was in for a very nasty and painful surprise. Nosferatu were cursed to always be hideous, walking Masquerade violations, and Protean wasn't terribly unlike Animagus, with higher levels allowing even more complex transformations. Basic stuff for Kindred.

But the possibility of transfiguring or giving a polyjuice potion to a Kindred? Usually (with very few notable exceptions), anything that wasn't blood that was swallowed by a Kindred was violently vomited back up, later. Would they even be able to ingest the potion? And if so, would it work? It was an interesting question. As for transfiguration... well, Vicissitude worked on anything that wasn't a Nosferatu. Changing a Kindred's appearance via magic sounded possible to him in theory... but he highly doubted magic could be use to subvert or undermine the Curse of Caine. Attempts to do so with Thaumaturgy in the past ended in miserable failure. He can't imagine kine magic would be any more successful.

Nikolaus wondered if Rose was already thinking of suckering some neonate or thinblood into trying. And the revelation that kine potions could undo the effects of certain Kindred abilities was information he'd file away for later.

The possibility of combining kine magic with Thaumaturgy was a fascinating prospect. But... 'She's certainly eager,' he thought to Rose. 'She's a Hogwarts professor, though. Doesn't she know the risks of doing something like this behind the backs of the Ministry?' Does she even care, he thought to himself?

He narrowed his eyes, focusing on Aisha.



"Truly, it's an interesting proposal. But, I must ask: You are a professor at Hogwarts, are you not? Would Madame McGonagall" - there wasn't a single witch, wizard, or Kindred (especially Tremere) in Europe who hasn't heard of her at this point - "or perhaps, more importantly, the Ministry approve of such experiments?"

Or did she plan on doing this on the side?

Rose was used to Nikolaus' rather blunt attitude and way of asking provocative questions purely in order to get a strong reaction from the person he was talking to. Most of the time, it wouldn't work on the Regent but it would on pretty much anyone else, especially those who didn't know him well yet. So, she wasn't surprised by Aisha's surprised reaction. However her answer did surprise her, in a pleasant way.

"You have an excellent point there. One never goes asking for their superior to approve some research without a documented research project and basic evidence that it might actually lead somethere." It was especially true among the Tremere. Research was taken very seriously and a Regent or a Pontifex would never allow a fellow Tremere to spend time or funds on a vague theory.

"And I believe you're right to be cautious about what the Ministry would do if some of the people working there would caught wind of the possible implications of this particular research. I know some members of the Ministry have a high level of ethics but, as they say, you only need one rotten apple." It was a risk for their fellow Kindred that the Tremere Regent would not take, and it was rather encouraging that her and Aisha seemed to see eye to eye on that regard. Because of how close she seemed to be to Mary Del Belmonte, Rose wasn't quite sure if she could trust the transfiguration teacher just yet. But she had rather enjoyed their conversations so far.

Plus, there was that 'boyfriend' of hers... She didn't know him yet but he was at the Club so he could be Sabbat too.

Rose sighed. Her life would be so much easier for her if the Sabbat wasn't in the picture... But, well, better the Devil you know, they say.

She smirks slightly. "Nothing wrong with curiosity, as long as you know who to ask and to stay safe." She briefly thought of Jillian but she decided not to mention the encounter to Aisha. No need to put the poor girl in trouble for wandering alone in the streets of London at night. "Besides, I'm a bit like that, myself. I always have lots of questions on my mind."

Aisha nodded her head in understanding as she sipped her wine. "Brave?" She smiled. "I am not sure that word would work. Curious, yes, foolish possibly. Though, no advances would of been made if someone didn't take a foolish step to sate their curiosity. Still not sure brave is the proper word." She pondered for a moment of two.

"You are free to ask questions dear. I would answer to the best of my ability. I have no reason to not answer if there is something you wish to know." She smiled softly. She liked the way it seemed to her that Rose's mind seemed to work.

"Masquerade?" She had an 'oh yes' moment. "Yes well sharing findings in one thing, but none the less the experience would be an interesting one to write about should one want to take such a path to find what they could. Besides muggles have books that speculate doesn't mean that they are accurate. I am sure they have similar ones about kindred, though from experience they do seem to teeter more on the line of fabled tales or movies." She chuckled softly thinking about all the movies and books put out via their kind.

"Prestation? My French is a bit rough." She wasn't sure she knew the word and what it meant but she could take a gander.

Aisha listened to Rose as she spoke to each point Aisha had brought up. "I would not have an good answer for that. I don't know the biological make-up to a vampire, nor do I have the science of biology on my side as it is." She smiled softly. "I think doing a potion would be relatively easy though as their are muggles that can combine things to make similar drinks of a sort. I don't see why it couldn't be done but then again I have been magical since the day I was born. I have little knowledge outside of my culture and upbringing on what a Kindred could do without the proper requirements." She took a sip of her wine, finishing off her glass.

"I do recall, yes." She said simply. "Makes sense, a sort of barter system."

As for the foolishness to begin something, Aisha had just enough to try it. She sported a grin on her face, she always had that drive to try new things, to test theories.

Rose shrugged. "I don’t know either." And it wasn’t for lack of having studied the subject either. "Maybe someday I…" She paused. "Or, well, someone else I guess will figure it out." But she'd rather it'd be her. What an accomplishment it would be. And, more importantly, she wanted to find a way to reverse that phenomenon. That was, after all, Rose’s ultimate goal.

The Tremere smiled. "I’m glad we got to meet casually like that. Hopefully we’ll have other opportunities in the future." She was done with her glass as well.