don't break me down

closed starter for @aureamoretti location: lupercalia note: i mean good luck or whatever

"If I win, I win." And she'll go from there, she nods affirmatively at Eoin and she can't help but feel a little bit of pride. This is support from him, and she had his and Virgil's and it's not something she expected entirely. It'd made her realize that their bond was stronger than just the Ivy name. That'd been something she'd worried about once upon a time, before she'd struck out on her own, that she was just a Moretti. Leaving had her realizing what that meant, had her faced with finding out who she was underneath that. Aurea straightens up from where she's got her hands on her knees and trying to process everything that'd just happened, what might happen if she keeps going. "I'm taking it one thing at a time."

@aureamoretti location: Lupercal notes: proud dad stance, post-Max laid out

Huffing and running a hand through pink hair only to tighten up her ponytail, Aurea nodded. It takes her a second for everything to kind of sink in and she finds herself grinning at Virgil. "Yeah, yeah I am." Max hadn't been easy, he'd put up a good effort and she appreciated that. "And I'm gonna try to kick his ass." Before, when she'd mentioned throwing a hand in the ring for Alpha, she hadn't thought about the concept of winning. She had something to prove to herself and maybe everyone else, too. But after that, she can't say she's not thinking further ahead now.

@senatusstarters Location: Lubercalia

"Both." She's dyed her hair pink for the occasion, a fun little beauty spell she'd found to impress Paloma, but also to stand out a bit while fighting. That being said, she is looking at everyone and everything in Lupercal with wide, starry eyes. It's somewhere she's wanted to be for months but felt like Tripp was going to be side-eying her the entire time. "I've never actually been around this many of us at once." There'd been a couple of ladies from different packs she'd hung around with on the West Coast, but she'd never been around a couple of other wolves at a time. This guy himself smells like a wolf, but there's something else there unfamiliar, but he seems to be in the know.

Virgil smiled because Virgil almost always smiled; this time, it didn't quite reach his eyes, and when he looked up from his bowl and to the girl he'd practically raised, Virgil just looked tired. Maybe Aurea wasn't a child anymore, but even back then, Aurea had always been a smart kid. "No... No you're not, but you can't blame me for wanting to pretend." She'd already proven herself in more ways than Virgil would list, but what else was he supposed to say? "What do you wanna know?" If she wanted to ask a specific question, he could give her a specific answer; Virgil led a big life - they both did. That made things complicated, and it was often better to not know something if it meant you could retain some plausible deniability in the end.

I worry about you so much now. The fork has to go into her mouth to keep her from blurting the sentiment because she can't help the amounting anxiety she feels. It was all over, they'd won, the Ivy was always a coven that was strong, a pillar. Now she worried that the higher up they were, the longer the way down was going to be. "Are you okay with all of this?" Is what Aurea asks instead, shifting in her seat and squaring her shoulders because this was an adult conversation now. "Are you not worried?" That feels rhetorical because she knows he worries an ample amount, mostly about her and Eoin but there's so much more now. More eyes on them, perhaps more targets because of it.

"No one paid me, Miss Moretti. I am just getting some preliminary information for myself so that we don't butt heads on my future investigations." Frankly, she is a little offended the lycan thinks she would have accepted a job snooping on a coven for anything than the keys to a kingdom. Stupidity is not contagious, and despite finding herself amidst the company of clowns during her jobs, she has not been infected with their buffoonery just yet. "You can rest assured knowing that as long as Ivy doesn't threaten my and mine, I don't have plans on collecting information on your coven. I have better things to do than upsetting the careful peace for something like that."

"Good." Aurea smiles and it is all teeth as her legs cross at the knee and she actually slumps down a little in the chair. The business part of the visit was over and she really had shown up and expected the absolute worst. Sensitive ears don't pick up any irregularities in the blonde's heartbeat, she's telling the truth and she can relax now. "Now that that's taken care of, I'd like to be friends." It is blunt but she's smiling a bit anyways, tone matter of fact despite her playful smile.

It wasn't like Aurea had to work, and it wasn't like there wasn't a position in the company for her if she wanted it. Nepotism at its finest and all that. Virgil didn't see the appeal in spending all day in a greasy auto shop with greasier coworkers, but Aurea seemed content. "Whatever makes you happy." Virgil sighed goodnaturedly, his smile a bit light as he spoke. At her question, he just shrugged, "Same old, same old, you know me." The answer was naturally evasive but for now he wasn't going to get too far into it, besides it wasn't like he was going to talk to the lycan about coven business that she didn't have to worry about - and he definitely wasn't going to talk to the kid about his sex life or lack thereof.

Her eyes narrow in suspicion over her pasta and yet Virgil is Virgil and he is going to do whatever he can not to worry anybody. With decent reason, he can handle himself, it's why he's in charge. Not only that, but it's all done with style, grace, and often compassion. She doesn't know how she went without him for so long, being home again with him feels safe. Aurea thinks she needs that now more than ever, wakes up in her trailer below the hotel practically screaming at nightmares. It's all whatever the hell that thing had been telling her that Eoin was already dead. It's seeing Paloma die again and again, the people she couldn't help. That haunts her more than anything, the people she should have been able to save. They're all there now, only the Six remained gone and in a way, she'd chosen this, she'd chosen not to forget. It was a constant reminder that she needed to be better, to do better. "I do know you, which is why I know you're gonna keep the conversation focused on me so you don't have to tell me about anything." It's pointed but it's still playful. "I'm not a kid anymore, Virg."

"That was terrible." She points out but her fork finds a piece of pasta anyways before she's even seated because she does genuinely miss a home cooked meal. Something sits there in her chest at the idea of it even, that she's back at home. It's something she doesn't really want to get into with any of them, that she sits in that trailer down in the garage and thinks about the fact she is home with her family and she's not a little kid anymore. It had been something that'd been jarring upon returning to Roman soil, something to grapple with. Aurea Lucia Moretti was a grown ass woman with grown ass problems and she could handle them, she'd been through a war, she could handle anything. At least that's what she told herself as she sat down and proceeded to practically shovel Virgil's cooking into her mouth. "And maybe. Maybe not. Who is to say?" She says and it comes off as more suspicious than aloof between bites.

"No, that was hilarious. You must've left your sense of humor in your trailer park." Virgil tutted; Aurea could be as aloof as she wanted, though, when he sat down at the island next to her, a glass of diet coke in front of him, he was just glad for the company. Eoin had been all about that blonde twink lately who looked more like Denise the Menace than an actual person, but whatever made these fools happy. Aurea and Eoin had each proven themselves, they proved that Virgil didn't need to baby them anymore, and he wouldn't. For now, though, they could still enjoy a meal together before more doom and gloom started falling on them. "How's working going? Anybody giving you a hard time?"

The eye roll she offers him is playful as she keeps shoveling food into her mouth. Her metabolism burns through things quickly on top of the fact she'd had what, a Danish for breakfast and that'd been it? She does offer a shake of her head though before reaching for her own glass of diet Coke and taking a sizable sip. "It's good. The owner seems nice enough and the exasperated blonde is kind of adorable." Rawlins was definitely something, Kayce was a bit of a mystery in the sense that she desperately tries not to go all 'I'm a wolf, you're a wolf, let's be friends' on him. "How are things with you? You always try to sus out if I'm in trouble but what of you?" Her eyes narrow in playful suspicion, her legs crossing at the ankles.