something's got ahold of me

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Kate's Outfit

Sloane was married again... Honestly Kate hadn't thought that that was what was coming when her cousin had come back from wherever it was that Corban had shipped her off too all of those years ago. She didn't think that she knew anything about... Well... Any of it. Kate hadn't been a part of that, and really, she thought that she should have been. That she would have been, if she wouldn't have gone a little crazy when Griffith had gotten hurt. Her brother had been such a big part of her world, she hadn't known what to do without him. Without having him there to act as a guide, a compass. Her morality slipped a little bit. Her everything had slipped a little bit. Kate didn't think that her father had tried all that hard to marry her off, but honestly, she wan't angry. It made her different, she knew that. That she was the only one that had never been married. That she was the only one that hadn't had that chance, and she didn't know if that was good or bad anymore.  On one hand it was good, because it gave her her freedom. Something that she thought that she was going to have to be more than a little inclined to accept as years pressed on. She wasn't tied down by a husband, and children. She didn't have to worry about being home in time to report to anyone. To feed anyone. To make sure that everyone was in bed by a certain time. She didn't have the mundanity of that life. But at the same time, she thought that there was a part of her that just knew that she had been left out of it. And that part made her angry. She didn't want her mother to be right. She didn't want Vitalia to be the only person that had seen that one day she would realize that she wasn't supposed to be alone forever. But she wasn't about to admit that either. Not now, not ever. Her mother would never be right, and those that did know her knew exactly why that was. Kate would not bow down to her mother, or what she wanted. Not since they had been so easily replaced.  And that wasn't Fitz's fault either. She knew that. Some part of her was more than aware of the fact that it was in no way his fault that he was born, but she also knew that they were never really going to get along. That they were never going to see eye to eye about... Well... Anything. And she knew that he got on a little better with Griff than he did with her, but not well enough to think that they were actually siblings. Unless you knew that Griffith and Catherine had a younger brother, it was easy to think that it was just the two of them, and that Fitzgerald was someone else's brother all together. But that wasn't the case. They were all one and the same, and that was the fact that really annoyed her the most. That there was no escaping what they all were to one another. The perfect brother, the youngest one, the angel that their mother would never let anything happen to. The eldest, that had a wife, and a child, and a pureblood life the way he was supposed to. And then there was her. And she knew that she didn't fit the mold, but as far as Kate was concerned, being out here in the Forest, where she stuck out like a sore thumb, was better.  Catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye she looked around for the source of it. It was ethereal, and gave her the sense that it didn't belong in these trees. There was something here, there was something that she had been looking for. And Kate knew that she dealt with the spirits that inhabited their world every day, but this was different. There was something about this one that made her think that it was new. That it didn't quite know what it was doing here just yet, or why it had come to be in this particular place... It was a puzzle that she had solved countless times over the years. She was one of the best in her field for a reason. There was no doubt that when it came to ghosts, and spirits, and finding ways to communicate, Kate was one of the best. Her head whipped around again though, and this time she knew that there was something very much alive in the trees with her as well. The ethereal being was gone, disappearing into the trees, and her eyes were scanning the shadows for who had made the sound, "Who's there?"

Something's Got a hold of me

It stood to reason that no matter how often he went exploring where things went wrong, Rolf never learned. The minute he was patched up he was on the move again and looking for the next place to scout out, new creatures to find or known ones to observe and help. That was who he was. From a young age he'd always found that he struggled with other people; he had been bullied in school for his nervous demeanour and his stuttering and his inability to look other people in the eye. Of course back then he didn't know what social anxiety was so he couldn't address the problem properly. All he knew was that he didn't understand his peers and they didn't understand him... but he did understand animals. Encouraged by both of his Grandparents who had brought him up when his parents were away on expeditions, the hobby had turned into slightly more, and then his dream to pursue further knowledge of and further interaction with the beasts and creatures of the world took root. Somehow he had the feeling his Grandmother Tina had wished for him to pursue something a little more hands on like becoming an Auror like she had... but his Grandfather Newt's nervous smile and excited words had swayed her. So they had moved from America when Rolf graduated Ilvermorny so he could attend the same University as his Dad and his Dad before him; Lufkin.

There he had brand new struggles. The Brits weren't the most forthcoming of people- but that suited Rolf just fine as he didn't really want to speak to anyone for any length of time anyway- so finding his way to his designated area of the campus had been... trying. With the aversion to looking at anyone let alone speaking to them and the fact that no one wanted to approach him or bother him, he was left to his own devices to become hopelessly lost. And when he finally had found the right Department, it was to find that in a few short weeks his class was to embark on an adventure of sort out into the world to observe the subject at the source. And there.... there he had met the love of his life. Luna. 

Now, so many years on, he had twin boys to his amazing wife and a brilliant home and marriage. Which meant that when he wasn't away on expeditions... he was out of the house finding trouble in the form of trying to observe and help nature on its course. Sometimes that led him to great places and other times he nearly ended up eaten by a very angry, very territorial bear. Today he had decided to take another gamble and travel past the border into the admittedly more risky lands of Scotland to see what he could find. After crossing the Cairngorms off his list since his last adventure- he'd be sure to check in with Alexander eventually, no doubt via owl instead of actually visiting- he had decided on much safer ground. The 'forbidden' forest, that skirted the borders of Hogwarts. He'd never actually seen the Magical school before, though he'd heard Luna speak of it many a time, and he also knew that from wherever he chose to enter into the densely wooded area, he wouldn't be seeing it anyway. But he could very well meet something that had. This forest held sentient life of the cheerful kind; merpeople, in the lake. Centaurs. If he was lucky, a well satiated Acromantula who didn't want to eat him if he should cross paths with it. It was all just so... so exciting. 

Rolf's careful gait was all but halted as something whispy passed him, and he turned his head to try and catch a glimpse once more when someone called out a few feet from where he was. Torn, he looked towards where the strange thing had gone and then towards where there was clearly a person expecting an answer, and chewed over what to do. Should he dismiss the woman and follow his gut? Or should he do the polite thing and step out before she hexed him?

Finally he stepped out from the trees, his boots barely disturbing the ground underfoot as his hand pulled his briefcase in and slightly behind him as if to keep it mostly concealed. It went everywhere with him as did its inhabitants. He didn't trust anyone but Luna with it and as she had other things to be doing it was with him. They were with him. Besides he never knew if he'd need something from within it's other compartments, too. Raising a hand, his head ducked a little to the side, barely meeting her eye before his gaze skirted off again and towards the trees. "Er... I um... I'm terribly sorry to intrude. Rolf Scamander."

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Something's Got

Ahold Of Me

For the life of her she hadn’t thought that her cousin would come home and be married and have a baby with a man that had been married to… Well one of her friends. She liked to think that she and Genevieve were somewhat friends. They were co-workers now. And they had gone to school together. It had never been the same sort of relationship that she had formed with Donna, or even the same as the ones she had with Asteria or Kirk, but everything about their lives was complicated and they all knew that. Gen had had to grow up, and get married, even before school had ended. And then Kate hadn’t known what to think of that. The witch was a couple of years older than she was. A year older than Donna was, but still… Everything was different. Everything had changed. And Kate knew that their lives were not a single one what they had planned back then. She knew that they had all strayed from what they were supposed to be, but they were all okay. Or so she thought.

Sloane seemed to be okay now. Even if she had taken what was Gen’s to start with. It was a complicated situation. Because while she did love her friend, Sloane was family, and now Carlisle was family, and she didn’t know what to think of any of it. They were supposed to have all settled, and had babies, and everything that Gen had done. She had done it right, and then everything had fallen apart on her. That wasn’t anyone’s fault but Carlisle’s, and Kate knew better than to say that to her cousin, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t believe it. She wanted better for her cousin than Carlisle Rosier. Everyone, in her opinion, deserved better than Carlisle Rosier, but that wasn’t her choice to make. She would keep her mouth shut and be supportive. If her mother could fuss over Sloane, and Brenna, then maybe she would lay off of Kate for a little while. That was something that she could most certainly get behind. She didn’t want to be her mother’s punching bag forever.

And she knew that Vitalia was just trying to help, but most of the time it was more critical than it was helpful, and it made Kate feel like she wasn’t ever really going to be good enough. That she couldn’t live up to her mother’s expectations. The only chance that she had was that she could have a son. Whenever she finally decided that it was time to grow up, and get married, she could marry well, and she could have a son. A first born being a boy would make her better than Davina, and that was something that she wanted to be. She knew, they all knew, that she was never going to beat Fitz. No one was going to beat Fitz. But she didn’t like being replaced by Davina. She didn’t like her taking that spot, and she knew that both of her brothers would always be held in higher regard than she was, but having her sister-in-law in that spot too… She didn’t care for it.

There was nothing that she could really do about it. She was in this the way that it was right now. She wasn’t going to be able to change anything until she decided that it was time to grow up. And leaving the Ministry had been a part of that. She had gone to work in the Ministry as a form of rebellion. Getting a job under an administration that should have hated someone with her surname. She had proved that she was one of the best, even back then. And she was even better now. Kate was one of the best occultists in the country, but she didn’t think that there was any reason to believe that that was going to follow her into the forest tonight. Something had though. She was worried that there was something that didn’t belong. There was something here that she was looking for, trying to find. But whatever it was had been displaced by this… Man… “Oh…” She stood down a little bit when she realized that he wasn’t a threat, “That’s okay. I was just following a…” Kate shook her head, “Never mind. I’m Catherine. Kate.” No surname. Not if she could help it.

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Something's Got a hold of me

All the same, he should probably have been focusing more on being home more often than not these days since everything had gone bottles up - and not in the good way - and things were... rocky. Not with him and his marriage, naturally, as if it had been then he'd have needed a healer to unstick him from Luna's side till he'd fixed whatever had gone wrong. He wouldn't have been able to face leaving the house let alone adventuring through the woods looking for another herd of thestrals or something to help and make sure was doing alright. No... no, things at home were more than perfectly fine and he couldn't have been any happier for any of that than he already was. It was just everything else outside of their little cottage in Ottery that was the problem, that was so unstable, and after the scare last year with the twins being trapped in Hogwarts for weeks past their graduation, the wizard had been even more nervous than ever before and had wanted to spend as much time as he could with both of the boys as well as his wife. It was just that the other three had other plans of what they wanted to do with their days so he really didn't get much of a say in what went on. He was there when they were. Except tonight. Because he was trying to stop himself from becoming too attached and clingy lest it cause some strange kind of rift between them. Plus he wasn't the best at the whole affection thing. The last time Luna kissed him without warning he'd dropped an entire bottle of wine down himself and nearly choked on his breath as it had caught in his throat. 

Lorcan was the more adventurous of the twins, but Lysander was the most thoughtful... and that meant that things like trying to hug the boys when they were doing something usually was either awkward for all parties involved or he ended up dragged into whatever it was that they had been doing and after initially only stepping in for that sole purpose he wound up finding himself still in their room only now sitting on the floor and discussing whatever it was with them even more in depth or just participating in whatever it was that they had dragged out until Luna came up the stairs looking for him. Sometimes however they surprised him and hugged him over the back of the couch when he wasn't expecting it and he ended up speechless for a few minutes from sheer shock of physical contact and also the two faces grinning on either side of him. It went without saying that Rolf's family were his entire life, but his babies inside his case were as much his family as everyone else, and the ones that lived outwith... tended to pull him out of the house even when he had initially planned on staying in for the night. They were easier than people. He wasn't the biggest fan of people. And that meant that his 'people skills' needed more than just a little work. Typically he just did his best to avoid social interactions as best he could when it really came down to it but sometimes he didn't have a say in that either. Times like now, with this woman in the woods with him, where he had stepped out if only because he wanted to be able to go home tonight.

Rolf looked behind him quickly as she mentioned having been following something, curiosity instantly piqued even if it weren't the best of circumstances to be asking questions, then looked back at her feet. "Oh... d-dreadfully sorry for intruding, then, Kate, as I'm sure it must have taken quite a lot of time to have gotten thus far in tracking it and my accidental intervention- Well, I'm terrible sorry for potentially ruining it aha I wasn't expecting anyone out tonight so-"

He cut himself off and ducked his head a little further, moving from foot to foot. "Sorry."

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Let me tell you now

I never felt like this before

Something’s got a hold on me that won’t let go

Kate knew that life never really worked out quite the way that you planned, but then all of a sudden, it seemed like answers were clear. And she didn’t really know what to think about that. There had to be something. There had to be some clear something that she was going to be able to focus on, to get this out of her head. Because ghosts didn’t just disappear, they didn’t just leave. Ghosts were trapped here for a reason. There was something that was tying them to earth. Some sort of tether that held them here, and Kate was looking for those answers. She was always looking for those things. The things that she could do to untether them. The things that she could do that would help them move on.

And she knew that it wasn’t just as simple as telling them that they were free. Sometimes it was actually completing tasks for them. It was telling someone goodbye. It was making sure that people were alright. Ghosts were not something to be trifled with, and Kate knew that. It was hardest to see the ghosts of the people that she had known. To talk to them and know that there were things that they didn’t get to do. Watching Blair’s spirit leave last summer had been the hardest thing. Because she hadn’t lingered. There had been no true ghost. She had lived her life, she had done what she was meant to do, and she had died by her own choice. She had taken Andromeda’s place. A life for a life.

It was necromancy, and it was healing, and it was all of it, at the same time. Kate didn’t think that there had been another case like that in any of her studies. Of someone with such great healing magic pushing their life force into someone else and dying in their place. But that had been what had happened. They had felt it. The shift in power. It made her curious. Did Andromeda Lestrange know how powerful she was now? Did she have any idea that she had both her own life force, and Blair’s within her? Kate figured that she did. That she knew that she now carried both sets of powers. That she wasn’t going to lose another patient, even if she tried. Perhaps that had been what had led to her leaving the field. The fact that she knew how powerful she was, but she didn’t know how to control it.

She could kill, and she could save, and the difference was as small as a breath. Kate could only have wished for power like that. She could have only hoped to be that strong. To be that powerful. She would have never had to worry about her mother thinking that she wasn’t good enough. There would have been no one better. She would have been phenomenal. She would have been everything that she had ever hoped, and more. But she knew that that wasn’t the case. And Mother would always think that she was the worst of the lot. That she wasn’t even good enough to be a Yaxley. The writer, and the ghost hunter. The architect. That had been the one that had angered mother most. But that wasn’t the one that she was dealing with today.

Today she was chasing that ghost. Or she had been. Until she had found someone very much alive instead. The red head smiled, and then shook her head when he started apologizing. “That’s alright. I’m not sure that I would have caught it anyway. Spirits have a way of alluding us until they are certain that they want to be seen. If it wants me to find it, it will come back.” She had been an occultist for long enough to know that. And she wasn’t one of the best for nothing.

@ rolf • 649 • catherine's outfit

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