1. Does your OC have a voice claim, if so who?

I don't have a strict voice claim for Pahre, but I usually describe her voice as being airy/detached. There's a lack of inflection or outward emotion. These two singers are pretty close to how I imagine her sounding:

I think Vashti Bunyan also has some of that ethereal quality I'm looking for.

3. What song describes your OC?

The two above are taken directly from her character playlist, but I would also have to say

Poison Tree by Grouper:

Oh, beautiful poison tree Let your power grow in me Let your sorrow flow in me Take away my blood and bones Make your flowers deep inside of me

Blinding by Florence + The Machine:

No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone No more calling like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden

Kidnapping An Heiress

How could you not defend your honor? And we think we've found your daughter

4. What song describes your OC and their partner/love interest?

Her main love interest is definitely Parsifal. They've been engaged in a sexual relationship for a few years by the time the story begins. The main appeal for both of them is the knowledge that the other person can hurt them very, very badly, but won't. Neither of them really has any authority over the other politically (although Parsifal certainly enjoys letting someone else tell him what to do for once so he can turn his brain off and feel good). So it's a good way for both of them to get out a lot of pent-up frustrations.

I would also say that while there is certainly companionship between them, they're both super emotionally closed off (to put it mildly). Parsifal is the one initiating more of there traditionally romantic interactions and Pahre indulges him because she doesn't mind his company. I think she is in love with him (whatever that might mean for her) but she is also so divorced from her emotions that she believes she doesn't have any. So in her head all the times she's carefully tended to his wounds and taken baths with him and purred while he cuddled her after sex are all kind of just practical. Not like she CARES or anything inane like that.

Anyways, onto the music!

Headlock by Imogen Heap:

You've been walking, you've been hiding And you look half dead half the time Monitoring you, like machines do You've still got it, I'm just keeping an eye

Work Song by Hozier:

Boys, when my baby found me I was three days on a drunken sin I woke with her walls around me Nothin' in her room but an empty crib And I was burnin' up a fever I didn't care much how long I lived But I swear, I thought I dreamed her She never asked me once about the wrong I did

6. If your OC is in a fantasy setting, what profession would they be in the modern day?

I love this question because I honestly have no idea. I kind of picture her as an heiress living in a crumbling house (Crimson Peak vibes) and living off of money she inherited through mob ties. She's a hermit by nature, so I think most of her relationships would come about from her either hiring services or some very brave neighbors worming their way into her life. But in any setting she's got the interests of a Victorian doctor, so she's probably performing weird back alley surgeries for pure love of the game. And tending a massive medicinal garden that may or may not be fertilized by a few dead bodies.

In the actual book, Pahre does not personally consider herself to be "blind" since she can see through her magic, but she still doesn't have eyes. I think this carries over to a modern universe as her either being 100% blind from birth or having a degenerative condition that has made her eyesight get far worse with time. Either way I think she has some kind of braille typewriter she uses to send letters to people. (She knows how to use computers she just doesn't want to.)

10. How does your OC handle their mental health? Do they take care of themselves?

Short answer: she doesn't

Long answer: Pahre grew up in an environment with a lot of dangerous people who had, let's say, very big feelings, and her way of dealing with all her trauma was to just shut down and not participate in any of that noise. Like I said, she's so heavily dissociated from her feelings she considers any passing emotion as something separate from her. Like a bug landing on her arm.

She doesn't really remember most of her life to the point where she tells herself she isn't a person and kind of just spawned into existence completely separate from any family. Like Athena spawning from Zeus' head fully-formed. And if you asked her, most of her life before that probably isn't worth remembering anyways. She has the knowledge she needs to perform surgeries and grow plants and maybe handle a conspiracy or too. Nothing else really matters aside from her longterm goal.

Needless to say her way of dealing with her mental health is ignoring it until her dissociative amnesia eats the memory and it stops impeding her as much. In more extreme instances, she reacts with violence. If you try and force her to confront The Bad Stuff she might literally eat you.

Or maybe she'll shrink down teeny-tiny (but she's more likely to bite). Her physical form reflects her mental age at the time so if it really comes down to it she might regress.

She's slightly better in regards to her physical needs. She eats and sleeps and bathes, but she doesn't really take pleasure in it. She's more used to surviving than actually living and never really learned how to let herself enjoy something for the sake of it. Although she does have quite the nice bed set up with a bunch of pillows. Like a little nest.

Itothon and Asede like to wrangle her into playing the equivalent of boardgames/cards with them (they have special sets with braille so she can join 💖). And she does like to go for a nice stroll through the gardens. Maybe feed some birds. Mental health walk while she checks the system of snares she's laid throughout the palace.

17. If your OC has kids, are they a good parent? Do they ever feel guilty if they have to leave them?

:)

Pahre is fundamentally lacking in maternal warmth or instincts. She has no desire to have children of her own. She doesn't even have good bedside manner LMAO. She's very "wire mother." Which is to say she will give you what you need to survive but won't be very comforting about it.

That being said, she has kind of stepped into the role of Asede's primary maternal role model. Kind of in the way one steps on a rake and gets hit in the face. Oops!

I think this was only able to happen because Asede has been around her from such a young age she just doesn't find Pahre offputting like most people do, and is, well, I don't want to say pushy (she's very well-mannered!) but she's certainly persistent. Most people kind of give up on any attempts at friendship with Pahre the first time she looks directly as them because. She's scary. She's a scary monster who you'd reasonably assume would kill and eat you. But Asede has managed to be so consistently invested in her relationship with Pahre that she has managed to slip past all the landmines and barbed wire fences and has successfully infiltrated the fort around her heart.

Asede had never been uncomfortable around Pahre, even back then. She had always wanted to climb into Pahre’s arms, to be held, to be nuzzled, to be kissed and sung to. She needed comfort for her skimmed knees and potions for her tummy aches and sweet syrups to stave off bad dreams. Pahre gave her what she could, but what she had was knowledge of poisons the proper way to grip a knife.

Pahre will say protecting Asede is just a part of her deal with the High Sage. It's not anything personal, it's just her holding up her end of the bargain. But it's also quite notable that Pahre has a relatively infinite supply of patience where Asede is concerned & even goes as far to reciprocate Physical Affection.

Asede did not care. When their party finally reached the palace, she ran towards them at full speed and flung her arms around Pahre’s middle. “Oh, Pahre!” Three of Pahre’s hands hung limp at her sides. The fourth came to rest atop Asede’s head. She gave the girl a light pat. There, there.  

Pahre would absolutely not be a good parent and certainly doesn't extend this same care towards all children. Asede is a special case. She doesn't mind Pahre not loving her in the way most people do. She loves Pahre enough for the both of them :')

Anyways, it's no surprise Pahre takes a lot of measures to make sure she doesn't have to deal with any spawn of her own. It would take extremely extenuating circumstances for her to agree to carry a child to term. Even if she did, I'd imagine she'd immediately dump the baby off on the other parent and dip to go live in the woods. Maybe dropping off a dead deer carcass once and a while as child support.

24. Can they play any instruments? If so, what do they play?

I don't really think of her as musically inclined but I could see her plucking at some string instrument. Maybe she had some kind of schooling in it as a child but it doesn't seem like a skill she'd bother with. Maybe she'll hum a tune once in a great while.

26. What flower do you associate your OC with?