navarro

“One: do not tell me about Dot, I swear to god.”

It’s unsettling enough that Rose has a snake that changes size and is sometimes a person, okay, Leo really does not need to hear about whatever the fuck Dot is. Probably a cursed clown doll or some shit. Listen, she can’t even watch Poltergeist without losing sleep for a week. No time for that crap whatsoever. It’s pretty not cool that she’s potentially sharing space with something like that.

Still, she falls back on the couch because she has an Image to maintain, scuffed boots dangling harmlessly over the arm of it because she’s not that rude. If Rose has to pack or whatever, she might as well get comfortable. 

“Two: duh. This is a soft kidnapping. But you’re not moving in, so keep it light.”

Her bike does not have a trunk. Which, like, obviously Leo isn’t gonna be inhospitable or anything. Plenty of room for Rose, and it’s not like it’s a big deal if they have to swing back to get her pajamas or something. Not that Leo isn’t willing to lend her pajamas in an emergency scenario. Anyway. Don’t think about Rose in pajamas, or lack of. Shit.

“Three: yes, he’s paying me so much. That bartender salary, you know?”

The problem here is that sarcasm doesn’t explain why she’s doing this with no clear incentive. Maybe she’s bored, maybe she’s lonely, maybe she likes Rose…maybe all three? Come on, definitely all three. Cue flashbacks to when Leo liked Rose too much too fast and had to pretend she was actually cool and aloof about their very brief thing, which is exactly what she needs to think about right now. Her lipstick is probably smudged, too.

Don’t let Rose catch you saying Luna is unsettling.  Personally, she finds the snake very settling, actually.  Speaking of...Rose breezes airly through her apartment, looking for Luna with a fond sort of smile.  She presses her tongue to the back of her teeth, makes a sort of spitting, hissing noise to try and get her attention.  

Now she cocks her head, listening for a response.  Nothing.  Hm.  She drops a hand on the back of Leo’s head lightly as she passes behind the couch and then crawls under the kitchen table.  Between the right leg and the table, in the little alcove is the snake.  “Hm, you were supposed to answer me,” she chastises lightly.

“I figured he was making some serious money, but I didn’t know it was bodyguard money,” Rose says.  She passes again, tugs a lock of Leo’s hair instead as she floats off to her bedroom to start packing.  She shoves clothes into a bag haphazardly, throws her toothbrush in too.  

Leo wants to be nosy and peek around the place a little, so she does exactly that, breezing past Rose after a friendly kiss to her left cheek. Oh, that’s adorable–blood red was a good choice today, definitely. But when is it not?

“Nothing’s wrong, babe,” she can’t help but feel like she just interrupted something totally weird, which is actually normal given that it’s Rose, “You know I thought it would be a lot creepier in here? Where’s your lamp made of human skin?”

Like come on, she’s a necromancer. There’s gotta be dancing skeletons or a human skull chair or something, but it feels pretty ordinary except for that feeling. Or maybe that’s her meds, ha. 

There’s a freaking stuffed bear sitting by the window. Maybe it’s haunted. Maybe everything in here is actually sinister and witchy and she just doesn’t realize it. That’s cool, though, she’d probably be fine with that. Why is she here again? It’s not a booty call, is it?

She peeks back to where Rose is still very obviously waiting for an explanation, and it’s definitely not a booty call–as much as Leo loves random little disassociation, it makes staying on track difficult. 

“Actually, I’m here to kidnap you because scary shit is going down and Ash doesn’t think you should be alone.”

Scary shit she doesn’t actually know much about, but it sounds a little too exciting. Does terrible shit really happen around here that often, totally unrelated? Is that a new thing or was she just too stoned in high school to notice? And it doesn’t seem fair that these gentle witch cousins are apparently always involved in some way.

A dopey sort of smile lingers on Rose’s face when she gets a kiss on the cheek.  Hey, maybe this is some sort of...mid-day booty call.  Admittedly, she’s pretty sure those are supposed to happen at the shameful hour of like...four in the morning, but she’s not really going to complain. 

Except it’s not, apparently.  Predictably.  Because that’d be a really cool thing to happen in this shit week, and Rose’s week isn’t meant to be cool.  “I don’t have anything made of human skin,” she says, disgusted.  “But if you want creepier, I could introduce you to Dot.”  Because she doesn’t really know Leo, though, she opts out of giving the special drumming of her fingers that means Dot should bang some pans around.  An old routine from when Rose used to conduct a seance here and there for money.  People pay better when they think you’re protecting them from something real and present.  

Rose contemplates whether or not she should be annoyed with Ash.  The concern, no doubt, comes from a good place, but --- it’s not that easy to just leave her stuff.  All of her candles and herbs and cards and crystals and everything else are here.  Luna and the frozen rats for her are here, so is Dot, actually.  

@desolateroads

Leo hates rattling around that big house by herself. It’s never felt like home,just the gray, chilly monstrosity she lived in as a kid and now again through very shitty circumstances. She wants to sell it, really, but the terms of the will dictate that she can’t–it’s been in the family for generations, blah blah blah.

Too many ghosts, if you ask her, and not just her parents. Leo has never been good with ghosts. She has a hard enough time knowing what’s real on a daily basis, and she never wants to talk to anything that’s not really there again. 

Speaking of which, she hasn’t really seen Rose since the botched seance or whatever. Leo, at least, is no closer to finding out what actually happened to her parents, but the creepy white noise from beyond wasn’t Rose’s fault. Leo’s heart wasn’t in it.

She has, though, been texting Ash quite a bit, and he has some alarming news that she’s decided to take to the next level. As in kidnapping, basically. God, how does Rose live in this place? Leo could probably punch through the door without breaking a sweat. She’s not gonna do that, but she does bang on it pretty intently. 

“This is the police,” better be awake, girl, “I’m here for your weed!”

Okay, she’s awake.  Except she’s being a good witch and meditating.  Because things are going to shit all around her, and Orph has been helping her practice what she’s pretty sure could end up being kind of badass.  When she’s not trying to make contact with Leo’s parents (and, seriously, she can’t fathom why this particular set of souls is damn near impossible to make contact with, but she’s going to figure it out), and when she’s not working, she’s trying to figure out this projection thing.

In all honesty, it’s terrifying.  Leaving your body is weird, and it feels cold, and sometimes when she comes back she has to take a twelve hour coma.  But Rose is trying, and that’s kind of a damn miracle on its own.  She’s not known for approaching witchcraft with any sort of ambition in this life.  

The banging on her door snaps her back into her body like a rubberband.  And she’s left with the feeling of having been snapped by that rubber band too, except...inside.  Ouch.  She rubs at her chest lightly, as if that’s the part that hurts or something, as she catches her breath and heads for the door.  

Even if she hadn’t known the voice well enough, Leo’s got an interesting aura to her, and Rose can feel the edges of her even through the wall.  “Just let me kick out my hooker!” she calls back, finding a pair of shorts that are mostly-clean discarded in her kitchen.  Which...why?  And when?  When she’s actually dressed, she pulls open her door, mindful of the hinges.

Jace might have something to say about popping illegal opioids in a hospital, but he’ll save that conversation for when they both need to hear it from someone else. But he holds onto the bottle because he doesn’t need to be worrying about her, too, god. 

Ash is asleep, presumably, somehow small and frail against the white sheets even as his feet hang over the bed. It hurts to look at him, more than almost anything, but Jace deserves that pain right now. 

His only consolation in this is that they didn’t hurt Rose. It’s horrible to even think like that and he hates himself for it, but he knows Ash can survive so much where his beautiful cousin cannot. 

“No,” his throat is ragged from crying, so hard he almost threw up, “did he tell you why he did it?”

They’re technically not illegal opioids.  Just...illegally obtained.  Those are very different things, right?  Anyway, the hospital’s too busy to notice what she’s doing.  A visit a few years back means that a lot of them really don’t know how to make eye contact with her.  Her parents had caused quite the ruckus.  Which might have been warranted, in their defense.

Whatever.  She’s not here at the hospital to think about other trips to the hospital.  She’s here because Ash looks like hell.  If she didn’t know how quickly he was likely to bounce back, it would seem a lot worse.  But the fact is that even in the few hours it took Jace to get here, the bruising has changed colors, and the swelling has gone down a little.

She takes her cousin gently by the hand, feels a swell of relief a bit like his.  She is glad that it’s not Jace in the hospital bed.  He’s seen enough hurt, and Ash is a very particular kind of goofball.  With a very particular kind of soul.  It’s in his nature to bounce back.  Which is not to say that Jace isn’t every bit as resilient, but he carries a different kind of sadness.  She loves Ash, but she doesn’t think Ash could ever feel as acutely, as poignantly as Jace.

    “Here.”  Rose hands Jace an aspirin bottle full of not aspirin.  “It’s just hydrocodone.  You’re in charge of it, in case Ash needs it still.  The doctor’s aren’t going to give him enough.”  She takes Jace’s other hand, squeezing gently.  “You holding up okay?”

She suspects Jace already feels like shit for all this.  It’s not his fault, of course.  Even if maybe he shouldn’t have left town, he can’t be blamed for this sort of thing.  But the very real reality that this might be more than anticipated is starting to close in around them.  

Oh, does she now? Leo looks at the snake again, considerably less comfortable than she was before with the strange animal in her house. It might be arbitrary, but it wasn’t phrased as “Luna is an animal sometimes”–which implies something totally different. Now she’s just imagining a girl wriggling around on the carpet and swallowing rats whole. Weird. 

But that would be kind of rude to express aloud, so she doesn’t. Witches have their own definition of normal and so does she, and she’s one hundred percent certain Rose would be ??? about some of Leo’s ‘normal’. So. 

“Huh. Neat.”

Leo is actually kind of surprised Rose doesn’t know she’s adopted? It’s not something she’s ever tried to hide, and her parents certainly loved to tell the story of the baby girl they rescued from a life of poverty. Maybe she actually didn’t tell her way back when, like she thought she must have. It’s no big thing. 

“Nah. I don’t have any blood tie to them in the afterlife, or whatever. I don’t know how that works, I’m sorry. Did you bring a ouija board or something?”

It’s not arbitrary, actually.  Nice catch, Leo.  These days, Luna is far more animal than human.  It hasn’t always been like that, but now she’s only human shaped when she needs to form ideas they can’t communicate without words.  Or when Rose is eating something that seems particularly enticing to her.  

“Very neat,” she agrees, scratching under Luna’s chin indulgently.   

There’s a very good chance that Leo has mentioned being adopted.  Hell, she might have mentioned it yesterday.  It’s no guarantee that Rose will remember it.  Eventually she’ll have to explain that just because she doesn’t remember something doesn’t mean she doesn’t care about it.

With an indelicate snort, she shakes her head at Leo’s question.  “No, I don’t need a Oujia board.  Those are like --- well, mostly for amateurs.  But they’re mean to cast a really wide net.  Just to get any spirit in here.”  

“The blood might have made it easier, but you being here will still help.  It’s still a connection.  But something physical that belonged to one of them.  If I could use that to start with, that’d be great.”  She starts unpacking her bag, pulling out candles of varying colors.  Rose sits down on the floor and begins arranging them to her liking.  

     “ While I appreciate the suggestion, I guarantee that I’m quite fine on my own, thank you very much. “ The witch replied rather icily.                

   rose doesn’t exactly understand the attitude she’s getting.   it had been a friendly warning.  things in town have been... ...weird and a little scary lately.  her gaze is a little unfocused while her mind wanders through this exchange and through what she might should say.  as always, she gets lost about ten seconds into a conversation she doesn’t have a set script for.  finally, she snaps herself out of it and blinks at the girl.

@desolateroads

Jace doesn’t knock, just lets himself into the house like he’s been there a million times before–and he actually has, so it’s okay. They should add his name to the mortgage or something, right?

“Rosalia!”

He kisses his aunt on the cheek and ventures further to find his cousin, the light of his life, the wind beneath his wings, the–there she is. Just sitting on the couch like they aren’t eternal, transient creatures with a million things to do and see? Pfft. 

Perching on the arm of it, he tips daringly forward to kiss the top of her head and blow a gentle breath through her hair. Wired today because his dad hid his meds, again–all because he accidentally popped three in one day, which is because he forgets, not because he’s trying to get high or whatever his dad thinks he’s always trying to do. Anyway. 

“Do you think they would notice if I took a dead guy to prom?”

Rose hears Jace coming the moment he steps into the house; he’s always a very loud  presence.  But she’s sitting on the couch, and she’s got a fleece blanket, and High School Musical 2 is on.  She flips the channel before Jace can find out that the answer to What team? is Wildcats because she does have some shame.

She grins when he kisses the top of her head but scrunches of her face when her hair ruffles with his breath.  Weirdo.  She bounces up off the couch now, though.  Comfy or not, it’s prom talk, and that gets her excited always.

rose observes the other witch in a probably creepy sort of silence for several seconds.  but there’s just something --- different.  like looking at a piece of glass with a hundred thousand fingerprints on it.  it’s a disconcerting and fascinating thing all at once, and it makes rose wonder for a moment if she’s just finally snapped and started actively hallucinating.

no.  she’s fairly certain this woman just has a strange soul.