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“I have to agree,” Emmy put in, popping a couple of peanuts into her mouth. “I never thought Dr Frankenstein would hire a TA.” She looked at Atta apologetically. “No offence or anything.”

“Oh, none taken.” Atta ran a finger around the rim of her glass. “He’s sullen and has a reputation, but I think it’ll be all right.”

“He’s a prick,” Dony put in uselessly.

“He’s not all bad,” Gibbs jumped to Murdoch’s defence to everyone’s apparent surprise, and Gibbs looked down at the scarred table. “I mean, he’s not the greatest, but give the man a chance.”

Dony snorted something, his speech already fairly slurred. Emmy flipped her hair over one shoulder and bustled off to order another round, ignoring Gibbs.

“Do you all know the professors fairly well, then?” Atta asked when she returned.

“I wouldn’t say we know them much at all,” Emmy offered, smiling her thanks to the lad behind the bar who made their drinks. “We knowaboutthem, sort of as caricatures, I guess.”

“We know they like to drive us into the ground,” Dony groused into his glass.

Gibbs frowned at Dony and turned to Atta. “We are their assistants and we do our jobs. Lynch is Faculty Dean of Health Sciences, so I stay rather busy in that department, but he’s also Professor of Applied Social Research which is my college.”

“Dr Marguerite Vasilios,” Emmy announced regally, “is Professor of Psychology and Mental Health.” She pressed her fist against her chest to stifle a burp. “Oops, sorry about that. Dony?” she prompted and all of their attention swivelled to him.

“You’re really pretty, Atta,” he slurred and Emmy punched him in the arm.

“He’s a dick when he’s had one too many,” Gibbs explained apologetically. “He TAs for Professor Kelleher, Pharmaceutical Sciences.”

Atta nodded along, feeling a little out of place.

“How old are you?” Emmy asked at random, though there was no malice or judgment in her tone. “I took a few years off,” she explained before Atta could answer. “So everyone is younger than me. You seem about my age.” She smiled, her cupid’s bow lips flushed with drink. “I’m twenty-six.”

A tinge of relief flooded Atta, to room with someone not only kind and welcoming but closer to her age than all the other students. “I’m twenty-eight.”

“I knew it!” Emmy smashed her glass against Atta’s creating a tidal wave of Guinness and whiskey. “This is going to be nice, having you around.”

They spent the next couple of hours drinking and getting to know one another before Gibbs responsibly ordered everyone food and coffee to sober them up, and they walked back to Briseis House together.

Gibbs and Dohmnall claimed they were going to play some video games out in the common room while Emmy followed Atta into her room, looking at all her books and oddities.

“You are an intriguing woman, Atta.” She smiled at her over her shoulder as she inspected the moth display. “I hope you know that’s a high compliment.”

“I appreciate it. I never really fit in anywhere, so I tend to stick to myself.”

Emmy plopped down on Atta’s bed, leaning against the pillows. “Fitting in is all a masquerade, anyway. Quality over quantity is my motto. I tend to stick to myself, too. You seem all right, though.”

Atta laughed, sitting down in her desk chair. “You seem all right, too.”

“Are you ready for tomorrow?”

Atta shrugged. “I don’t know what to expect, but I’m sure it will be fine.”

Emmy nodded thoughtfully. “Just be sure to wear something sexy.”

Atta screwed up her face at her new roommate. “I want to command respect.”

With a snap of her fingers, Emmy pointed at her and winked. “Exactly.”

“So,” Atta explained slowly, “coming off assexyis not my aim.”

Emmy rolled her eyes and sat up on the bed. “I didn’t saysluttyor that you have to fuck him. It has very little to do with who the man is, anyway. It’s abouther,the woman in the scenario. When a woman feels sexy, she feels confident and in control. It puts a spell on men. It hasnothingto do with sex and everything to do with power. It’s just another tool in a woman’s arsenal.” She laid back, resting on her elbows. “You clearly have the brains.Makepeople see you.”

Atta considered Emmy’s point for a moment, understanding her new friend wasn’t insinuating she should degrade herself to gain a man’s respect at all. “Show them where to look without saying a word,” she mused.