#highwiitch

             They had succeeded; they had survived. And there was a moment of peace now throughout the academy. Of course she had insisted that they all celebrate, and so they had. Afterwards, Zelda found herself continuing her own celebration in the privacy of her office, in front of the thriving fire. Both the flames and the alcohol she graciously poured down her throat warmed her to her core. As she sat there she reflected upon the last few days. The depletion of her magick had thoroughly depressed her. And now.. to have that power course through her veins was a relief and a thrill.

punctual, as always - a trait the newer generations have seem to have forgotten ;; erica is grateful there are still some people in this WORLD with some semblance of manners...

and so she greets @highwiitch with a smile, eyes dropping to rake the lines of her body and assess her attire - black.  finally some good fucking food. 

mary has a moderately high voice, although it’s dropped somewhat and is lower/huskier in tone now that she’s in her 50s. it’s got a bit of a nasal twang that is, hdsgshg, just because m*chelle g*mez is inexperienced with an american accent, but given the new england-y vibes of greendale and its comparisons to salem, mass., it actually works--the different varieties of the new england accent are known for being nasal (e.g. e.g.).

in conversational speaking, especially in people or situations where she’s not terribly confident, she will periodically fumble over her words and use conversational fillers quite a bit--“you know, um, ah--that is to say, what i think, well, i think that...” generally it’s a combo of having a lot of thoughts at once that she’s trying to articulate clearly, plus social anxiety, but once she gets in her groove of speaking--and especially once she has developed a rapport with whoever she’s speaking with--she becomes much more fluid. she generally needs to know that the other person is... “plugged in” to what she’s trying to say--that they’re connecting--before she’ll start to feel confident about talking to them freely. if someone doesn’t respond in the way she’s hoping, she’ll stumble a lot more and might eventually just stop talking.

in lecturing and teaching, she’s much more confident. in those scenarios she’s in a position of authority from which she can speak on subjects she knows quite a lot about, so she doesn’t fall back on “um”s and “ah”s. she’s really quite a good teacher and when she’s in Teaching Mode she’s very clear and expressive, and has quite a calm energy in the classroom--she’s rarely frantic or excessively passionate about her material (especially bc as a high school teacher she’s rarely teaching the material she cares about the most), and students probably think of her as soft-spoken but articulate.

“soft-spoken” is probably a byword of all impressions of mary. she’s not actually like, very soft-spoken--she’s not dramatically low in volume--but she rarely raises her voice and is unlikely to be loud unless she’s in a specific situation (calling to someone or speaking in a large room) that requires her to project her voice. she’s not the person you can hear having a conversation from across a room.

“I can’t keep her. He’ll find out and there will be heaven to pay.”

Emilia was one thing. No one in the coven knew Meredith had been pregnant, nor was the girl married to him. A bastard child was hardly missed, a high priest’s legitimate child. . . not so much. “But I can’t very well give her back to him. She’s not safe with him.” The man she was going to marry. . . he couldn’t be trusted with either of his daughters. Well the ones who weren’t old enough to take care of themselves anyway.