RP:You're A Witch, Callum

From HollowWiki

Callum: "I'ma wot? o.o"

Part of the What Dreams May Come Arc


Summary: Callum returns home to give Meri the possibly unfortunate news: he found a crystal skull and he might be a witch.

The Rochester-Boyce Residence, Larket

After dealing with Caiburne in Rynvale, Cal made haste towards home. The only rest his horse got was the boat ride from the island to Cenril, for as soon as they hit the docks, he was off again, and didn't stop til he got home in Larket.

Mr. Storm Cloud was left to graze in the yard out front as Callum burst through the front door. “MERI!” Please be home. Or nearby. Something. Anything. He was exhausted. Using the skull to fight against ogres, and the alchemist, and even just controlling plants in general had drained him. Pulling the satchel from his body, he ever so carefully made his way to the dining room, his lean form sliding down into the nearest chair.

He didn't have the energy to call for her again and would likely just sit there for sometime regardless of if she showed or not. When she did, she'd find him covered in dust, dirt, sweat, and a few sprays of blood across his clothing that was not his own. More than just exhausted, he looked afraid, meek, confused, and entirely lacking any of that confidence and charm he usually oozed.

Up two flights of stairs, curled up like some bum in their large bed snoozing away is the blonde that Cal shouting for. Which means that Meri is definitely dressed for comfort, having found a pair of shorts and a baggy shirt. Cal's familiar with her favored sleeping attire by now. His shouting was enough to jolt her awake and shortly after he would hear the sound of her bare feet thudding down the steps but by the time she makes it down, he has slumped into a chair in the dining room. Meri has never seen him in a state quite like this, a realization that makes the woman's eyes grow wide. Usually the roles are reversed, aren't they, with Meri coming home in a mess? Not covered in dust, dirt, sweat, and the blood of someone else. Except Meri at first glance is not sure that it is just someone else's, so those blue eyes so wide and she's by his side with a quickness. She does not pull up a chair but falls to a kneel next to the guy, which allows her a closer look so maybe she can figure out if it is his blood he is wearing or not. "What happened...? Are you hurt?"

Callum shook his head when Meri arrived, a hand grabbing her wrist gingerly to pull her into the chair next to him for some much needed comforting. “No. Just drained, I think.” He sighed heavily, then leaned over, grabbing his satchel from the tabletop. He was hesitant, clearly, as the bag hit his lap. Reaching in, he pulled out a crystal skull and set it on the wooden surface in front of him. “Meri…” Her name came out in another sigh. “I think I’m a witch.” The rainbow colors of the bismuth crystal glimmered in the dim light of the dining room, giving the skull a rather creepy feel as its eyeless sockets stared in silence back at the Catalian and his woman.

Meri is easily guided into a chair next to him, the blonde pulling it as close as she can to the man so that she can try and give him that much needed comfort. At first this comfort would come in the form of close proximity, Cal was using his hands to reach across the table, grab his satchel, and pull out a crystal skull. The relief that Meri felt upon hearing that Cal was not injured is gone as soon as her eyes come to land on the skull, Valrae's warning echoing clear in her mind. Callum's hand is claimed within Meri's own at this point and given a tight squeeze, but that frown does not leave her lips. "I think you're a witch," Meri confirms. It's hard for Meri to take her eyes off the skull in front of her, but she manages to pull those blue eyes back, looking to meet with Callum's own. "What happened? Where did you find this? Out in Rynvale?" An assumption made based on where Callum had told her that work was taking him. The questions did not stop there, but three was enough to start. Cal was clearly exhausted, and probably full of questions himself, while still trying to process what he has already come to understand. Or so Meri presumes.

Callum didn’t take his eyes off the skull, his own frown forming.”At the apothecary, yeah. He had it.” He returned the hand-squeeze with one of his own, “That feeling I had… it wasn’t just nothing. It was the skull.” Raven brows knitted together as he finally took his attention off the magical implement that sat on their table. “The guy… Caiburne… he started talking about this place called ‘The Bellum’. It was a place in Catal where alchemists worked. I wanted to go join it when I was really little, but then I found out about the bad stuff they did there. Bad as in slavery and torture bad and not just some snake oil stuff to sell. He was Catalian, Meri…” -Was-. That word stuck out in his mind and only worsened that frown of his. “He said something about the witches there… they’d been enslaved too…” It was all too much like Larket’s issues, except worse--how could something possibly be even worse than what had happened -here-?

Meri was following the story in bits in pieces, some of what Callum was telling her made perfect sense, some of it inspired more questions. “You’ve got a knack for having an interest in jobs that are nothing but trouble.” Meri comments, an accurate observation. There was that slave-trading ship he worked on for awhile, that gig with Josleen, and now Meri is learning that once he was interested in working at this Bellum? Meri is half tempted to impose a ‘rule’ that Callum is not allowed to take on new jobs without talking to her first...but she has this tendency to find just as much trouble herself. Her hold on Cal’s hand is released so that she can trail an index finger along this smattering of blood. “Was? Is this Cairburne’s blood? Did he try and hurt you?” Meri frowns further, but Cal has already assured her that he was not actually hurt. Just a little shook up. “Cal...we need to be careful with this skull. You know what they want it for, right?” Another beat. “And you know I don’t care if you are a witch or not. You sure as hell will not end up enslaved either, not on my watch.”

“I think that’s a Catalian thing… Look at all the frakkin’ nonsense Lionel and Brand get into too. We’re just bad luck all around apparently.” And, unfortunately, Meri got looped into a lot of that ‘nonsense’ just by associating with all of them. At least she’s good at kicking butt when she needs to. Most females around here would either try to screw their way out of a situation or let death take them. “He mentioned something about needing a last ingredient for his experiments… and made no attempt at hiding the fact that I was it. He had some sort of device… it made some nearby ogres come over to attack. I… ended up using the skull to kill the ogres… and Caiburne. Brought the entire shack down with the vines he tried to use to kill -me-.” Cal’s eyes widened a bit at the thought, “It was… so much more than what I’ve been able to do with plants my entire life. It was like I was a druid or something. It was amazing.” He shifted his line of sight to focus back on Meri again, “Should I… help them? Maybe it’s not needed. Maybe that’s why they only knew about four skulls.”

Meri would never blame the Catalians, her luck was sour well before she even met them. A long, long before she met them. If Caiburne was not dead, then Meri would be taking off to Rynvale once she was certain Cal was good and comforted. Cal took care of his problem though. Realization hits right there, Cal took care of his own problem. It's not that Meri has ever doubted that he would defend himself should the need ever arise, but her pacifist killed someone? Meri holds no judgement in that respect, only concern for how Callum is processing that. Meri leans forward to pull Cal into a hug, never mind that he is a dirty mess. On the release, "We should get you upstairs so that you can change." But Meri does move, has no interest in rushing Cal, so when he is ready to move then she will too. The words 'it was amazing' raises a red flag in Meri's mind, Valrae's words once more echoing in her mind. "Callum. The skull is dangerous. You need to be careful with it. I talked to Valrae." What a statement, talking to dead girls now. "She said the skulls were hungry...So even if this one was not on the map?" For some reason Meri does not know. "Please..." There is only a small pause before Meri goes on to say, "Maybe it is not needed, because it was not on the map. Maybe it was not on the map because it was in Rynvale. Maybe the map was only capable of picking things up on the mainland." Meri did not know how map this works, pure speculation. "I'm going to support you in whatever you decide, help or not, but I don't think Valrae deserved to die...Not then. So I've been helping."

“But…” Callum started to protest against the warnings that Meri had been given by the spectral witch. “I…” He sighed heavily instead of continuing; she’d used his full first name after all, and that wasn’t something that happened often. The fact that Meri had been talking to dead girls didn’t really phase him--especially because that redheaded friend of hers had been dead for quite some time. “No. She didn’t deserve to die. She wasn’t exactly the pious type and it would’ve caught up to her eventually, but she definitely didn’t deserve going out like -that-.” Cal eventually would slide from his chair, to go and change as Meri suggested. First, though, he’d pick up that skull and shove it into his satchel to take with him. It wasn’t -that- long ago that one of Kahran’s cronies found their way into the Rochester-Boyce home. Once that was finished, he’d drag his tired self up the many stairs, silently wondering why he got a house with so many stairs, and had to try really hard not to collapse on that nice cushy bed of theirs without removing his blood-stained clothing first.

That 'but' was concerning to Meri. yet Cal was so exhausted so Meri was not going to try and drill it into his head. It did inspire the urge to try and keep an eye on that skull and what was done with it. Cal goes up the stairs, and Meri is right behind him trying to support him as needed....like he were some sort of pregnant woman who might topple down the stairs. Cal is left to undress himself but Meri does not stand uselessly about the room. While Cal is undressing, Meri is moving to their shared dresser to find him something to change into, thinking he does not want to lounge around in his briefs, A clean shirts and some comfy pajama bottoms are produced and set on the bed next to Cal. From there Meri will try and collect that satchel. The skull will be taken out and set on the nightstand next to the bed, for now, with the satchel finding a spot at the foot of the nightstand. Once all of this is done, Meri will climb up onto the bed next to Cal. Given that Meri was just snoozing away right before Cal came home, the covers of the bed are already messed up (not that Meri is the sort that believes in making the bed on the daily anyway). "She wasn't the pious sort, no. It is up to you, ultimately, if you help or not." Meri was torn. In one hand, she did want to see Valrae back, on the other....she really did not want Cal using the skull. It was okay for Talyara, Lanara, the others. Cal? She was protective over, for the obvious reasons. If she did not have the warning that the skulls were dangerous, her tone might be different. She might be more insistent he help. "I feel like...we need to invest in something to keep this in a safe. I don't think your standard safe will do...Something enchanted probably. I feel like we can't just keep this sitting around any old place in the house. Honestly, it is something we should probably have anyway." People with money need safes.

Cal definitely didn’t care about the bed either. And if he really did? He’d just hire a maid. This was not something Cal and Meri were going to be bothered with. They were very busy people, you know! He resisted the call of that glorious piece of furniture on which he could fall into a deep, mana-drained-induced coma for several days and changed his clothes, tossing them aside in the corner for now. They’d need a nice long soak with water and vinegar to get out those stains, but he wasn’t about to do it now. No, now, he was going to crawl into bed with Meri, eyes a bit wide still with that shock that’d yet to wear off. He opted to rest his head on the blonde’s stomach rather than his pillow, clinging to her somewhat like she had with him after Khitti had died. “Yeah… I think I want to help her. And a safe would be good. Something with a magic-nullifying enchantment on it. So not even I can sense it.” Maybe he wouldn’t be tempted to use it then.

The blonde was more than content to let Cal use her as a pillow. One arm would wrap itself about the mage’s torso while the other finds a place on the back of his head so her fingers can comfortingly fiddle with his hair. Meri has a million things on her mind right now but Cal was clearly exhausted. They could fret over the details later. Details like where to get an enchanted safe. Rachelle obviously came to mind, yet on the other hand Meri would almost rather spend the extra dough and import the safe, that way no one local had any insights about the safe. Also if Cal was a witch, did they really want to stay in Larket? All of these things were on Meri’s mind and keeping her from finding sleep again. It would be a couple hours before she would manage to doze off with Cal. It would be a couple of days still before Meri would consider approaching him with all of the things on her mind. In the mean time? His behavior toward her after Khtti’s death served as a prime example for how she should behave toward him. Meri would go out of her way to be especially nice to Cal. He’d wake up to breakfast, a bath, etc etc.