#25.
>"Hey, are you okay?" Octavia blinked, staring with bewilderment
>you had almost hyperventilated, but thankfully you calmed yourself before you made even more of a scene
>"Sorry, I shouldve warned you," Octavia chuckled a little nervously, glancing at the stuffed arthropod and back to you...
>"I... bugs..." you exhaled, shimmying away from it only to feel your tail snag on one of the other taxidermied critters
>"Do you have a phobia or something?" Octavia asked, picking your wayward appendage off of the ghoul claw, "you don't seem the type..."
>"I mean, look at it! Its MASSIVE!" you responded, gesturing at the centipede while your tail flipped back behind you
>The owl woman seemed a little hurt at that, and got quiet, "I thought it was cool..."
>... oh
>oh no...
>"I... no, its... it is cool," you tried to remedy the situation as best you could..
>an upset goetia would only put you that much farther from fixing all this...
>"You're oddly jumpy."
>"... Is it that noticeable?"
>"I'd say screaming bloody murder at a stuffed animal and a mummy is pretty noticeable," Octavia smiled weakly, as the stares died down, "you're wound up tighter than I thought... I always come here to relax, I figured from Sinstagram you did too."
>"I do! I... yeah, ha..." you were mentally tugging your collar, trying to smooth the whole thing over, "I've just been stressed since... well, I'm not trusted with the book right now..."
>that earned an eyebrow raise
>"I THOUGHT something was up. You seemed kind of, 'not there'?" she responded, putting together puzzle pieces in her head as she considered your half-truth, "Was there... an accident? From all the texts about wanting to learn more magic I thought your dad wanted to use it to take over the whole ring or something."
>Blitzo taking over anything?
>you snickered a little, putting Octavia at ease somewhat
>"No, I... needed to study it," you spoke quietly, "But then I went somewhere I shouldn't with it, he didn't like it, and..."
