Chase isn't one for messaging over the network if he can find someone in person, so he comes looking for Qetzi'ah, starting at her cabin and branching out from there. He knows who she is, but not her habits: he hasn't exactly paid that much attention.
Her cabin is dark and cluttered with ornaments on every surface as well as up the walls. One of her walls is devoted entirely to butterflies in frames. She also has one of Justine's monstrous artworks hung in here. Among the variety of other framed creatures and/or their skeletons are pictures of her family. Pale women with so much wild dark hair, round black eyes, and gleaming teeth. They stare from every angle.
Qetzi simply opens the door at his knock and leaves it open as she goes to throw herself down into an antique chair in the middle of all the sightless eyes.
"Including Barge time or not including Barge time?" he shoots back, brows up. The room is so very cliche-witch, he's almost amused by it. He drops into whatever other chair is available, or just stays standing if there isn't one. "How old are you?"
"Time is meaningless out here, why would I care about Barge time...." She doesn't quite roll her eyes, but she does take in a big breath and sigh it out her nose. "I was twenty-six when I died."
Hey, info! "Eighteen," Chase says, back. "When I died. Though I don't know, I've had a lot of experiences here, and I'm coming up on what would be my twentieth birthday if you count the Barge." If she makes a big deal about his age, he's not going to be happy, but he'll... deal with it. Ugh.
He is younger than Kandake. It really didn't matter what he said, she was always going to make that comparison. When did her little sister get so big, how could she have been cut so short.
Qetzi stares up at the ceiling, slouches back in her chair.
"I don't think that's how this works," Chase says, sitting back a bit himself. She has to know how temps work by now. "I'm not here to boss you around. I'm just here to make sure you're okay, see what you need, maybe hang out sometimes if you feel like company."
"Oh, shut up," she murmurs toothlessly. Her family has always been deeply hierarchical. Someone is always in charge, and Qetzi isn't in the mood for it to be her. That's as deep as it goes, though.
"Where are you from?" Such questions are probably not congruent with 'shutting up' but such is Qetzi. Her personality is fairly genial but there are certainly things that have gone rotten inside of her. Malaise, moodiness, sometimes rage. Just depends on how the wind blows.
"Maine, in America, on Earth," Chase says. "Not sure if you've heard of it, I don't know much about where you come from. And my parents are-- were rich-- but they were kind. They were good people. They adopted me when I was about two." He shrugs a bit, then adds, "They died before I came here, and I'm here to bring them back."
Her dark eyes actually focus on him. Here to bring back nice adoptive parents. Is that what she should do? Be a good little warden and raise her mother and her sisters from the grave? Or is she going to let this whole wretched empire collapse back into the dirt.
Well, Chase wouldn't blame her for leaving them dead if her family kind of sucked. Not everyone's parents are cool people like his adoptive ones were. (Hell, his birth father was a complete asshole who he murdered himself.)
"Appalachia, Blue Ridge Mountains." For the most part, she does not have the stereotypical twang one associates with this region. It only comes out on occasion: certain things she says or certain emotions that arise. Or when she chooses to play it up for one reason or another.
The mountain range itself spans several states, but that doesn't matter. The House on the Hill belongs to the mountains and the mists, not to the world beyond.
"Oh, hey, I actually know where that is," Chase says with a grin. "Haven't been down that way since I was a kid, but I know it. I'd believe it's not the same Appalachia, because literally nobody ever comes from my world, but still. Do you have family back there?"
She knows what he means with that question, and the answer just isn't that simple.
"My father owns a restaurant near Virginia Beach. My half-brothers live in some mansion in the rich people part of New York. I live in the House on the Hill with my cousins Tavor and Haran. And Haran's numerous nieces and nephews."
All of this is accurate and sounds about normal until that very last sentence. It will only get less normal.
"Haran overthrew the family and the House. He annihilated all the others, and I was waiting to get my revenge on him when I slipped up and the hyenas tore me apart."
She is a bit dramatic but at the moment she just wants this other witch to understand the situation.
One brow goes up. Terrible families abound, around here, it seems. Blood relations, anyway. "Hyenas. That's creative, I guess. My birth dad just set our house on fire. If he'd used hyenas I might not have survived to get adopted and then kill him later."
He feels bad about some of the people he killed. Not as much about his father.
He cocks his head, thinking and watching her, then asks, "Why did Haran kill everyone else?"
He'll remember that, because now he's curious. Just not right now.
He narrows his eyes in thought, and derision. You should always have a plan when you do shit like that, not just on a whim, god. "The only demons I actually know anything about are my spiders," he admits. "And they're small and stupid. I didn't know much about the kinds that can-- breed with humans." That sounds so gross. Why would anyone want to? "Did, uh, everyone know he was half demon?"
"Y... es," she murmurs, her lips pale. "My aunt's philosophy was to expand the family ranks and to... Identify powerful male donors for herself and her sisters in that endeavor."
She picks at her fingertips and looks at nothing. "You don't want to know any more about it, I promise."
"Clearly not a great idea, if the result of that went and killed most of the family," Chase comments. He pauses, and adds, "And I won't ask if you don't want to talk about it. I just wanted to get to know you a bit. All I knew before was you do weird rhymes on the network and liked my spiders."
"Things were really fucked up," Qetzi says. Her tone is matter-of-fact, but she is also biting anxiously at the edge of her thumb. She is deeply troubled and traumatized by the reality of her family, and she is a good daughter who would never wish for any other relatives.
"While my aunt was gestating a prince of hell, I was dallying with the faeries. Sometimes they look a bit like winged spiders and their kiss bestows on me certain magicks but it also has a tendency to drive out my reason."
There. Everything answered from spiders to weird rhymes. She exhales heavily, weary with everything.
"You seem like you've got plenty of reason, to me," Chase comments. He honestly always figured the weird rhymes was her being dramatic for attention. (Pot, kettle. Whatever.) "You're being perfectly rational right now."
"Wow, yeah, ghosts keeping you awake would definitely make a person less rational." Elder god dressed as-- right, that's John, probably. Hard to think of the guy as eldritch when he is, in fact, a bit goofy sometimes. "Why were they haunting you?"
"Because we are coven. We are all a part of each other on the deepest level. And just because they chop off the limb doesn't mean it isn't still screaming."
"No offense, but maybe it's time you got a new coven," Chase comments. "Your last one kind of seems like they're more trouble than they're worth. If they're making babies with demons, and screaming at you after they die, and all."
Nevermind that he definitely felt haunted by his parents after their death for a long time, but it's not the same. They weren't literally yelling in his head making him lose so much sleep that he didn't act rationally.
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Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Qetzi simply opens the door at his knock and leaves it open as she goes to throw herself down into an antique chair in the middle of all the sightless eyes.
"How old are you?" A flat demand.
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Qetzi stares up at the ceiling, slouches back in her chair.
"Fine, witch brat. You're in charge."
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
"Where are you from?" Such questions are probably not congruent with 'shutting up' but such is Qetzi. Her personality is fairly genial but there are certainly things that have gone rotten inside of her. Malaise, moodiness, sometimes rage. Just depends on how the wind blows.
"What are your kin like?"
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Her brow furrows.
"I'm from Earth, just not yours."
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
"Yeah? Where on Earth are you from, then?"
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
The mountain range itself spans several states, but that doesn't matter. The House on the Hill belongs to the mountains and the mists, not to the world beyond.
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
She knows what he means with that question, and the answer just isn't that simple.
"My father owns a restaurant near Virginia Beach. My half-brothers live in some mansion in the rich people part of New York. I live in the House on the Hill with my cousins Tavor and Haran. And Haran's numerous nieces and nephews."
All of this is accurate and sounds about normal until that very last sentence. It will only get less normal.
"Haran overthrew the family and the House. He annihilated all the others, and I was waiting to get my revenge on him when I slipped up and the hyenas tore me apart."
She is a bit dramatic but at the moment she just wants this other witch to understand the situation.
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
He feels bad about some of the people he killed. Not as much about his father.
He cocks his head, thinking and watching her, then asks, "Why did Haran kill everyone else?"
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
She sighs and wraps her arms around herself like she's cold.
"For fun. He ruined everything for fun. That's just what happens when your shitty little cousin is half-demon."
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
He narrows his eyes in thought, and derision. You should always have a plan when you do shit like that, not just on a whim, god. "The only demons I actually know anything about are my spiders," he admits. "And they're small and stupid. I didn't know much about the kinds that can-- breed with humans." That sounds so gross. Why would anyone want to? "Did, uh, everyone know he was half demon?"
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
She picks at her fingertips and looks at nothing. "You don't want to know any more about it, I promise."
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
"While my aunt was gestating a prince of hell, I was dallying with the faeries. Sometimes they look a bit like winged spiders and their kiss bestows on me certain magicks but it also has a tendency to drive out my reason."
There. Everything answered from spiders to weird rhymes. She exhales heavily, weary with everything.
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Yes, it was a relief but now she has to deal with having gone crying to that goofy fragment of eldritch divinity. Eugh!!
"Sleeping sometimes really helps me keep it together. Who would have thought."
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Nevermind that he definitely felt haunted by his parents after their death for a long time, but it's not the same. They weren't literally yelling in his head making him lose so much sleep that he didn't act rationally.
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement
Re: Spam, after the pairing announcement