Her face wrinkled as a thoughtful expression quickly replaced her playful demeanor. "Oh," it was an unexpected question (well questions) with a lot more weight than she had anticipated. And he was interested in her opinion? She exhaled slowly through her nose and crossed her arms over her chest.
It was intimidating. "Huh. Let me think for a sec." As much as she hated not being able to just fire back an answer, she wanted to take her time and be thoughtful. She didn't know much outside of the world of vampires, and demons but to a much lesser extent. Supernaturals with human pasts were easier to understand, their motives informed by their human lives. Some people are assholes, and jacked up with power just made them bigger assholes. Her introduction into the realm of the supernatural was unquestionably the worst thing that happened to her, and if she had the choice to avoid it she would've. Well, no, that was a complicated issue. Had she not been captured, she never would've met Damien - she definitely didn't regret that. But it was needless suffering at the core of it, at the hands of a monster, and it forever changed her life for the worse.
Then there were the human hunters who wiped out Damien's entire bloodline, almost very nearly including Pierre and himself. She didn't have many details about that - it wasn't exactly a pleasant topic of conversation for them - but what she did know was more than enough. Humans could be just as cruel toward what they didn't understand.
Did knowing make much of a difference? It looked like mess no matter what.
A frown on her face, she inhaled slowly.
"I don't think I can decide what is best, there's just too much out there that I don't even understand." Like fae, and magic and stuff. "On the one hand, if you try to keep shit secret, that limits your exposure to horrible people that want to exterminate you. The internet isn't a beacon of truth shining into the shadows - people manipulate photos all the time, and like, technology is getting better and better for that kind of thing. People say whatever the fuck they want to say online, pretending to be completely different people, saying shit that's completely false with absolutely nothing to back it up. Super easy for hive-mind to develop and like, a bunch of people blindly following what some popular blogger says just because they've got a million subscribers-" She stopped, suddenly becoming aware of the fact that she'd been speaking for a solid chunk of time.
"Uh, sorry, I guess what I'm trying to say is, Social Media doesn't necessarily make it any harder to keep shit on the down-low. Not if you know your way around how people are using it. Someone posts a video of something happening, all you need are a dozen commenters pointing out supposed-details that "prove" how the thing is fake." She paused, eyes glancing toward the ceiling of the car, "Or, like, you just have to plant staff into the popular platforms to control censoring. Oh - or like, hacking their systems, obviously."
Fuck, I'm doing it again. She gnawed on her lower lip and glanced at Jake before continuing.
"On the other hand," Okay, wrap this up. Stop fucking rambling. "Integrating the two worlds is better for the long term if you wanna live peacefully, 'cuz a secret is safe only so long as its kept. But that's hard as fuck because not everyone's gonna get along, people don't like change, and making sure everyone is safe during the transition would take a fuck ton of resources." She huffed a laugh through her nose, "But then again, so doesn't damage control when you're trying to keep it secret."
Another sigh.
"I'm not sure if that answered your question - how do I want to be counted? I don't know." Rachel offered him an apologetic smile, cheeks burning and heart hammering. Need to stop acting like an excited fucking puppy every time I leave the house. She fidgeted in her seat and glanced out the window.