Kaia Clarke jumping on the plant trend with Hemlock
Age: 30
FC: Hande Erçel
Witch Path: Eclectic, combining her practices in some traditional means (spells, potions, tarot) and going so far as to put some to art forms and occasionally, a trinket she makes - it's all about exploration, meditation and presentation, baby.
Profession: Freelance Lifestyle Consultant, which is a very official way to say she deals in spells, potions and enchanted objects. She owns a tiny chocolate shop, called Spellbound Sweets.
Interests: I DO NOT KNOW, there are 7 people on my list, but let me move/remove them as I write. Alphabetically: Alden. Baz. Juniper. Marlene. Milo. Moros. Orpheus.
Traits & Personality: Resourceful. Observant. Extroverted, most days. Opportunistic. Selfish. Non-apologetic. Resilient. Lazy. Charming, when she needs to be. Lies easily, sometimes even reluctantly. Reckless and hyper-independent, according to the bio I'm typing. She keeps a lot of things bottled up. Brushes off emotions as if they aren't there for her.
Dunno, I'm thinking about this way too much.
Good girl syndrome started strong with Kaia, smart ass, bossy, uber-imaginative, overachiever: she had the whole sit still, look pretty act down to a T. That is until things started to crumble down: studies did not come easy in her university years, so she dropped out, causing a huge rift between her and her family. It took a fair amount of her twenties to unlearn some of the things that were almost in her veins. It was easy to spin out of the old habits once she made it to Lavaeuwood, and boy it really did make a whole lot of sense when she discovered her community with the coven.
She rolled into Lavaeuwood with a cheap bus ticket, stepping down with all her possessions stuffed down a duffle bag, some cash in her pocket and things only picked up from that point onwards. She finds a way, always has, always will, and she's willing to try everything at least once - Kaia is born with a what can go wrong? mindset and a I bet I can do that on my own gene, which is a very dangerous combination. She might appear overly confident, but she's just good at masking her insecurities and at times she's just reckless.
She stayed in the town for over a month when she decided this might be it, although she did not decide what her source of income would be at this point, she made it through a few shifts at the coffee shop, she did have some shifts at the local diner and even applied for a job of a personal assistant at a small solicitor office, but no one was super interested in hiring an 18 year-old college drop-out. She looked into her options, looking into the local college, where she met Bartholomew Guidry. Soon-to-be-professor Guidry (who turned to Baz at some point) took pity on the wanna-be-prodigal daughter and helped her realise there might be more to her luck than she realized before. Turns out she's a late bloomer, and there's magic running in her veins.
A few months later, she rented a small room in a house near the community college, starting her career as a cook while trying to make ends meet. It went on for around five years, or a little bit more, she was never good at keeping with strict timelines, but it turned out for the best: she got hired as a private cook for the Moors.
While she was good at it for a few years, it did not pan out as she liked and when she was on the verge of quitting, she found her audience in magic, doing a lot of freelance work in the grey areas. Tarot readings turned to palm readings, turned to selling good luck charms, magic mixed into food and sweets, and everything soon escalated to many different ways to get money to her bank account. Manifestations, reading fate, love potions, dabbling into the occult - and often she was not sure if it was real or it was smoke and mirrors she was selling. She quit her cooking job at that point.
Charming nature did not go to waste, she's easy on the eyes as well and it added to the whole story, she played into it easily and a few years back she stopped applying to jobs in the town, finding jobs through her previous clients and eventually, she needed a nice front for her business, which made her rent a small space in the same building under her rented studio apartment - she made chocolate confectionary there and it was a lovely front for what people usually came to get. Altho, chocolate was going well, too, most of the time.
There's very little that did not feel like it was going well, Kaia occasionally joined Baz's experiments and picked up more than a few friends along the way, Juniper being the most important one in her opinion. And Juniper's opinion, too - after all, there's nothing wrong with a bit of ego. While she dated a few boys in her day, she never got attached to anyone properly, finding comfort in her friendships, so she considers herself happily single. She's had some flings here and there, very rarely something worth mentioning.
While she might consider her life in Lavaeuwood to be her, you know, default life, around six months ago she got a call from her biological family notifying her of the passing of her grandfather. She did not think it would push her to pack and travel back to a place she once called home. Things did not go as planned, and her two-week trip turned into a half-year homecoming.
Relationships:
Bartholomew, or Baz, mentor turned friend. She's honest with him, but he's also on the receiving end of her worst behaviour as she finds him the closest person in her life - still, she is the most caring with him, even if she does not believe he needs anyone to take care of him.
Juniper, sharing the 1st place of closeness with Baz, and they do not go back as long, but the time seems to be irrelevant in this friendship. Juniper has taught her many things so far, and while she might be super nonchalantly playful about it most days, Kaia is extremely happy to have her in her life.
She considers both Marlene and Daphne to be her friends, and perhaps there's some balance in each friendship as Kaia might be the Daphne of her relationship with Marlene (she seems to be the level-headed one between them), and she might seem like Marlene of the friendship with Daphne (compared to Daphne, Kaia is the hot-headed one). Two of them do not play along nicely all the time with each other - not even Daphne has enough patience for Marlene's mood swings, and at this point, Kaia is their biggest connection.
What has been happening with Orpheus for the last two years might only be described as situationship at best. They grow hot, they get close and then blow cold before things can become public - or even worse - turn into something real. The potential is there, but there is very little use of just potential.
Cyrus used to work for him, they used to be friendlier and shared chats when they had a chance to cross paths at the Moore house.
Kaia is on good terms with most people - being a business owner does this to a person as you rarely know where your next bag of money is coming from - and that includes the fae population as well.
so, we're leaving striving for perfection in 2023, being very happy with done, so form is finished & i will get to the snippets now
Somewhere Between New and Old
The air was sticky, balmy even, clinging to my skin as if it was a welcome-back hug from the second I stepped onto the tarmac. Louisiana summers always came through, and while I wasn’t entirely happy at the prospect of not having the luxury of an AC unit, I was happy to be back. To be home. Sun is high in the sky, but the flash of a familiar smile from the driver’s seat of an unfamiliar car makes me stick my hand up in the air, waving as the door swung open, as an offer for everyone to turn their attention and take one good look at Miss Juniper Theroit.
In my very honest and not as humble opinion, the most gorgeous creature that ever walked this godforsaken land. And I considered my opinion to be the correct one.
The dream girl stepped out, pulling me in for a long hug.
“Your sense of direction is absolute [redacted],” she mused into my hair. “You’ve been gone for a year, it feels.”
“Hardly,” I replied, my bag now on the ground, and she took a step back, letting me do the same. “You look very nice,”
“I missed your [redacted],” I pulled my sunglasses back down before picking the bags from the ground, as June opened the door to the black card, gesturing for me to get in. “Come on, I need to get back before sundown, I promised Mrs Moore to help her with some harvesting,” she explained. I sit down, throwing my jacket to the back, along with my bag, grinning at her, sliding my hand across the console.
“Can I drive?”
“Oh, I wish, but Helen requires my help and I’d have to stay alive to be able to do so—”
“See, I told you missed your [redacted],” I grinned again, glancing around the car.
“Cyrus offered me his car,” she answered the question before I ever got the chance to ask it. “It’s very kind of him,” she continued.
“It’s only because he likes you,” I say, trying to think of a good radio station, trying to find anything at all.
“Can you blame him?” June was clearly in a very good mood. “Seriously now,” she reached for my hand once we were at the highway, prompting me to sit up. “I’m very happy you’re back, it feels like 17 months, not 7,”
“Still too many.”
It was a very strange feeling, sitting in your childhood home and considering home being in another location. So, I was home now, sitting in an unknown car with my best friend, looking forward to my - by now - very dusty home.
“Should we stop for some food?” June asked, throwing a glance my way. “They opened a cute place on the main avenue of Bellefonte. Italian, or so they wish to believe, but pizza is not half bad.”
I craved something spicier, but I could tell by the look on her she was really looking forward to this pizza. “Yes, please, I’m starving.”
Half an hour flew by, and between thin-crust pizza, and updates on the latest gossip, idle chatter and silly things we would usually skip, but it felt good to be in the loop on the most important things. There’s only so much I could have asked over the phone.
“I ran into Daphne this morning,” she started as if she was trying to reach a point, but she gave up right there, eyes trailing off to a group of passers-by. “What?” Juno blinked as I looked at her somewhat suspicious.
“Nothing, you seemed like there was something else you needed to tell me.”
A playful grin lit her face up. “Did I?”
“You do,” I offered her a smooth transition, deciding to ignore the question entirely.
“Amos is back in town, he took up a job at your favourite coffee shop,” the grin remained as she teased me to ask for more information. I smirked, downing the rest of my soda pop, watching her. “Daphne seems to be having a lot more coffee lately.”
She chuckled in the end, her mischievous smile turned to a very coy little shrug. I grinned. “Daphne?”
“It’s a little bit strange,” Juno continued. “I’m not sure they’re aware everyone else is aware they like each other.”
“We should have gone straight there,” I replied, making her laugh, and as her elongated hand reached for the air, she stopped me from trying to say anything, simply shaking her head.
“I do not want to hear about it.”
And she did not hear me say a word. I know better than that.
Still a Young Heart
The word of my return spread quickly, with some people randomly dropping in and I found quite a few messages pushed into the mailbox in front of the shop, it felt overwhelming for a minute, and as I moved a layer of dust as thick as my thumb, I started to wonder if I could maybe use some type of spell to keep it all at bay. The dust, the cobwebs, everything - I don’t want to clean anything right now, yet I’m aware that if I sit down, it will probably remain as is for at least a few more days.
Still, the windows are open, the trash bins are full already and I’m covered in a thin layer of dust, trying to figure out what to tackle next.
Sitting down is not an option. There’s a sound of footsteps outside the apartment, I walk past the front door thinking the Meyers family is back from their annual summer camping trip, but they do not stop where they usually do (one floor under mine). There’s some wind, curtains waving in the wind as everything is open, and I move to greet whoever might be coming.
“Hi.”
He sounds familiar, but my expression says otherwise, as a moment passed, I’m still standing there, looking confused. Suddenly, it hits me. The hair is longer, the summer brought some colour to his otherwise pale complexion. “Alden!”
“For a second, it felt like you’d yell for help,” he smiled shortly before pulling up an envelope. “This got lost.”
I took the envelope, turning it around briefly. It just had my address on it, no return or anything. “Thanks,” I mused, pushing some strands of hair away from my face as the air flew through the house.
“You’re back?” he looked around, hands in his pockets, hair flipping back with the draft. I nodded, shortly.
“Finally, yes.”
“It must have been, well, hard,” he shrugged, and I shrugged back, pulling into the house, and setting the envelope to a freshly dusted table. At least this little corner of the apartment did not look like [redacted]. “With the funeral, I mean.”
“I managed,” I replied, unsure of what to tell him. I left when I was young. I never looked back. Yes, it was sad, but there was no closeness in mind when it came to my grandfather, not really. I wished I could say something poignant, but nothing came to my mind. I must have looked at him for too long.
“Well, yeah, I mean—”
“Come in,” I say, watching a tiny splash of surprise on his face, so I smiled. “I need an excuse to have a break anyway,”
“Sure,”
“I’m afraid I only have coffee, which is cold, but there’s some ice and oh! some club soda, and—” I realized I’ve got basically nothing, turning around with a grin. He made his way to the window, watching something outside.
“Don’t go out of your way,” he offered, and I smiled. No place to go, let alone out of my way. I didn’t ask much, pouring two glasses of coffee, and adding ice and some creamer, some milk, stirring it, and made my way to him.
“You’re free to decline,” I said, glancing out to see what he was watching. “Waiting for someone?”
“I’m working, actually,”
“Oh,” I mused. “Am I keeping you—”
“No,” he interrupts me, softly and without it feeling like an interruption. “I needed an excuse to have a break anyway,” Alden smiled.
“Always happy to help,” I replied, turning around the room, realizing I hadn’t spoken to him before, not privately, it felt somewhat strange just having him there. He sipped on the coffee, giving it a little surprised nod of approval.
“Not half bad,”
“Considering the milk was just sitting here for around seven months,” I joked.
“In that case, I’d go as far as to say it’s amazing,” he smiled, eyes catching on something behind me. “Are you planning on reopening the Spellcast—”
“Spellbound Sweets,” I corrected him, shrugging. He might have been the first person to ask this, although many have seen me cleaning the space. “I mean, I guess?”
“You guess?”
“It’s far too early to say, you know?”
“I don’t, actually,” he addresses the elephant in the room and I laughed. “Have we ever shared a conversation before?”
“Unless you count the very rare mail exchange, I believe no,”
“What made you invite me inside, then?” he asked, and for a moment I was not certain how to reply. “I’m not complaining, just being curious, I guess.”
“I think this apartment has a way of picking its guests," I mused. "It's like the charm of this place extends beyond the treats from Spellbound. As for why I invited you in, well, maybe I sensed a fellow curiosity-seeker.”
I hated that sentence as soon as it came out of my mouth, but smiled in the end, watching his eyes catch something outside.
TBA
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TBA, and honestly, 3 AM mind worked better with this 1st person, I might switch, because I'm not sure if I have it in me to do it well.
edit: i swear to god, this 3 AM version of me is not using english properlyanother edit: I have a plan, and far too little time, but my key players (Baz, Daphne, Marlene & Orpheus are coming for sure)
Last edited by Zaralee (10/01/2024 at 10:17)
