Welcome at the Witch House

[Ellaria Undertow]

Looking up at her ripping and tearing kin, using her fingers to tear up this piece of meat into more manageable chunks, "You get remembered as food that bit back." taking the strip and feeding to passed her teeth, down her gullet. She allows a golden note held, as a hum. Nodding. Some people didn’t eat other people, and Ellaria thinks that was a damn shame for the meat left to rot, uneaten. Unenjoyed.

With an amused twist to her lips, she follows his glances thrown around the yard. "So there isn’t anyone else here. Thank goodness, or all this talk of people eating would have raised alarms." Reaching again for the brandy, and again taking a small, polite sip. "And with just you and I here, Ashen both. Your candles, drown my pages. I don’t need to speak King, to remember my place here." she begins, before looking up at the giant from under her lashes, "I doubt your ego is fragile enough that you require me to proclaim you King with every other breath. If it is, I can," harder thrust than she’d given before, a test? Maybe. Or maybe she just wanted to see what would happen next.

Ellaria actually stops eating when Kray says that. "How…far is too far the other way?" If this Freehold had Doordash for Cannibals, maybe this was the place for her. "Ah, so you do see me surviving this meal." a tease. She resumes consuming. "Right I heard about Sacramento's three pronged leadership above…and with? The Seasonal." she nods again in understanding, hair floating, trailing after the motion. "Unless this Groundskeeper is another connoisseur of long pig, I doubt I’d call them in any instance regarding…indulging."

She finishes her first bowl, and reaches for the crockpot once more for another. "Most recently? San Diego." She doesn't add more than that.

"It did make things easier in the beginning. Yes.” Drinking more of the bone marrow broth. "Fear is Fear is Fear. To me." But again, she wasn’t yet truly practiced in Fear. Not like someone Autumn claimed as King could be, but she does take the bait. Following his sight lines, towards the House. "So, the Witch House?"

[Kray]

What food didn't fight to live be in thrashing, begging fleeing or yes biting? Now several mouthfuls in he grabs the leg about the knee joint and begins to twist and bend cracking the tendons and ligaments until the ball joint came free from it's socket and now he could hold the haunch from the hoof up to his mouth. Like a leg of turkey. "Uh. I've quite forgotten many of the times something tried to fight or bite back while I was killing it." That feeling of stillness as his jaw found the critical point, when muscles slump and screaming cuts off. Oh that was just as a much a part of the experience that appealed to the cruel violent tenancies ogres were known for.

That she plays along does appeal to him, this sense of darker humour was rather missing from the freehold. All the ouns and movie references went over his head, but this was quite good fun. "Oh. No, the nearest mortal is in the boarding house." He did of course have a few brave or foolish tenants tucked away. The place was a free standing business now it did need an income. "Ah. But if they did overhear then well that's a problem that I'm sure can be made to disappear quite readily." Major benefit to cannibalism was the ability to dispose of a body. His chuckle is deep and dark but he isn't really joking.

With her feet under the table he hasn't really got a good look at fairest pages yet but regardless he lowers the leg from his mouth for a moment, almost serious. "Oh. It isn't always the strongest mantle Autumn chooses for the crown. Stranger things have happened by far." The court and contracts were deals with Autumn itself and how it choose the crown was all in all something of a mystery. It had passed to the ogre after all out nothing more the necessity.

His toothy I'm going to eat you grin split the ugly mug of his face once again though as he is put to the test. Looming forward across the table some. "Oh. With every breath will you?" Letting that hang a moment. Before shattering it with a another dark laugh. "Ha. Be careful with you words I am tempted to say yes just to see if you could." Some lost would be mad or proud enough to make it so. "Ha. No. Not every breath, just as the greeting between two lost will suffice fine, the once is for the sake of doing things proper." Names and titles mattered, they had a power all their own after all. The leg comes back up and he teeth rip another streak of red meat from it before he continues. "Oh. For sake of ease around mortals I go by John. Always good to know those things before they are needed." That was the name on the paperwork he had acquired anyway.

Rather then stop eating he bites and chews for a little bit thinking the question over allow a short lull of silence between the to feasting cannibals. "Uh. They know what I am. No one challenges or complains about it. One guy jumped in to give me a hug upon first meeting. Another thought insulting me was a idea that wouldn't come back to haunt him. One has asked me to run security for an event even." Taking advantage of the implied outcome should rules be broken. "Ah. Bet tunes would challenge if I actually ripped an arm off and ate it though." Indeed no one was found of losing limbs. "Ah. But all in all as long as I clean up and it doesn't cause the freehold grief no one seems to care any about the particulars of my appetites." It could also just as easily be members of the freehold operating under the ignorance is bliss frame of mind. "Oh. You? Hm. I would say your chances are increasing by the minute." So far Ellaria was making a rather good first impression.

The matter of leadership was rather unusual for sure and the ogre titles his great head back and forth weighing up how to explain while making the lichens of his hair sway and bob a little, just regular momentum movement nothing cool about that. "Uh. The monarchs pick the freehold leadership. Usually from the monarchs. Keeps it simple. Then handle their duties within their courts." A great grey hand gesture between the two of them. "Ah. The leadership handle things on a freehold level. Queen Circe for example is groundskeeper she handles hedge patrols, and security stuff." Although twice he had stopped in to lead a patrol when Circe had been absent. "Hm. Normally if you in a bind or danger she will be the one to come in and get you out of it." But yes she did lack one key quality. "Ah. But no best as I know she is not a cannibal. Hence why I would be better for that. More experience." And well in such things experience did count for a lot.

He reckoned he had all of that right and swigs another mouthful of brandy from the bottle. But bulbous yellow eyes light up at the mention of that city. "Oh. Never heard a thing from or about it. What's it like?" A intrinsic curiosity gleaming through. Before shaking his head a little. "Ah. No it is not so to me. I'll settle if I have to but that deeper soul shaking fear, theirs nothing like it." Which did raise a question. "Uh. Well then why, why the court of ash for you?" With what the autumn court required of those seeking to join it was rarely something done on a whim or spontaneously.

First leadership and now this Ellaria was starting to ask questions and this seemed as much as anything else to please the giant. "Oh. Yes Edna's, it's a very important place for use. Recently liberated from Funderland and free once again to live up to her name. Once I finish waking her up of course." The relocation had only been the first step in a much larger and further reaching plan.

[Ellaria Undertow]

Reaching to refill her plate for the first time. She piles it high. "That was imprecise. It’s more than simply fighting, biting back - but actually taking some of you…them, with me.” She clarified, gnawing at the stripes of meat her hands brought to her maw.

Her head tilts, her hair floats, "In the House, not in the freezer?” A tease? An idle question? Maybe it’s both. Ah there it is, she chuckles along. Cannibalism aside, the Lost really did have many ways of disappearing bodies. "Or are you a fresh, never frozen sort of person?”

Again she hums, thinking about it, she’d only seen those with heavier Mantles claiming the Monarchy of the Courts…but - it was a Spring not an Autumn, who’d won their way to Sovereignty through the strength of their Desire, no matter how slight their own Mantle had been.

Musings cut, she freezes. The stillness of movement of predator and prey both, breaths quite to nothing as the Cannibal King looms. Only to relax when Kray breaks the tension. "With every other,” she winks, "I am as careful as I need to be with my words. I say them, I mean them. I’ll deal with the consequences, good or ill.” Nodding twice, her floating hair jerks with the movements. "You are much more reasonable than other Monarchs I’ve known.” she says, even though it is more than obvious. If she’d been this blithe with Ol’Coal Eyes, she would have already had to flee. But not before she’d taken at least. one. good. bite. "Good to know. The name I’ve taken amongst mortals is Hannah.” Thinking of her own shiny, falsified documents.

Ellaria stops eating. Never mind a Cannibal Doordash, "Someone hugged you?” She had to ask, voice disbelieving. The only times she’d been embraced was before people knew what her teeth could do. "Do…do people not believe you?” Normally when a Gristelgrinder - hell any Ogre - tells you that long pig is my favourite, yum, yum. You know they’re speaking truthfully. "Oh, the whole genre of music would change if you did that.” She replies in a sort of daze. ’hugged him.’

"Good to know. Very, very good to know.” for the Freehold not caring as long as she’s careful, and her own chances to come out of this meeting without being strung up next to the quickly diminishing side of beef.

Quickly beginning to feast again, she offers an involuntary smile at the sight of Kray’s lichens swaying and bobbing. Hers might be annoying, leading often into irritating, but it was noticeable. It was striking and Ellaria had grown into such a vain little creature. "Ah.” a breath, "That’s much simpler than I was imagining.” Were it another way, Ellaria could easily see how conflict could breed, and battle lines drawn. "Haha, so, is it only yourself then, of our appetite in the Freehold?” she hadn’t been Officially Welcomed, so she wouldn’t include herself as a member of the Freehold…yet.

"It’s a port city, Freehold, larger than I’ve heard of Sacramento's. More martial too. Heard tell that someone thinks that what’s happened in Miami is just swell. Others took affront to that. It’s a powder keg. Everyone who’d not made a year or longer pledge to the Freehold itself was…politely asked to leave.” While the eating could have been good, Ellaria was glad to not live in a potential warzone, Cold or hot, it would have…uncomfortable.

"There wasn’t a spontaneous epiphany, or a finding of some great lore that drew me in. It…just feels right.” And she knows what kind of monster she could be if she’d fallen in with Spring.

Wryly, "Is that why I was given directions to an amusement park when I asked a local?” she wipes a hand across her mouth, smearing even more blood, "How are you going to wake her?” Was it a turn of phrase, or was there something Autumnal in the undertaking.

[Kray]

It has been a while since eating quickly was a determining factor in how much he got to eat but the giant does not slow his pace, or play with food the lower half of the leg now stripped bare gets discarded and the meatier upper section takes its place like a club of beef in his large hand. "Hm. Many have tired to take a piece of me. Some have managed it." Not that those wounds were visible on his flesh. "Ah. But yes those I do remember." A sharp crack follows as the thigh bone snaps under the pressure of his bite. He does not remember them all that fondly.

The joke, jibe or even just idle comment draws his flinty pupils out of memory and back to the fairest in front of him, but it does catch his sense of humour. "Ha. Ah. Safe and sound in their beds by now most likely. If they are in the freezer then it's because they are raiding it for a midnight snack." Which with the clientele the Witch house drew was not entirely out of the question. "Uh. But me. Well I take it as it comes, but if given the choice. I like the blood to still be steaming when it hit the air." Fresh as fresh can get.

The humming is nice to listen to, Ellaria's musical voice and tones make sure of that, and the giant does interrupt it.

Bur he had made her blink first so to speak. The freeze as much a sign of danger as it was one of fear. But such was the presence of the king. Bigger, stronger, nastier all rolled up into something that viewed you as a potential snack. It was a kind of fear mankind had felt since it's earliest days. The fear of being eaten. "Oh. That's good. Very good in fact. Far to many seem to think their words consequence free. I had to duel a winter king who thought such." And oh how wrong the old darkling had been. Now that just sound like flattery but you know, it kind of worked. "Ah. Right? I don't think I ask for all that much. And a lot less then some lost I've known, monarchs or otherwise. Just the title I have, once upon greeting when in changeling company." It really did not seem like a major ask. No gifts or tribute, heck not even a bow or courtesy. "Ah. But it seems even that is to much for some." A particular Summer upstart comes to mind. Before nodding. "Hm. Hannah I'll remember." And he would make the effort to. "Uh. Would you like me to use it or avoid names entirely if we are among mortal company?" Some lost preferred it one way, some the other.

The disbelief is in a way gratifying he had felt the very same when it happened. "Uh. Yeah I'd never met the beast before and he just walked up and hugged me at Winter Solstice. Put himself right into my arms." To some that would have been an open invitation or attempt at suicide by gristle grinder. "Ah. He's dead now." Going to take another bite before holding himself for a moment. "Uh. Not because of me mind." No another reckless choice had lead to that outcome. "Uh. Well Queen Circe has seen me eat meat off of a person so." He couldn't do much more to convince of his cannibalism then that.

Now he does take the time to tear more mouthful of rare succulent beef from the limb. Letting Ellaria's daze sort itself out. "Hm. Oh. As far as I know it's just me and you should you stick around." Where wanderers were concerned it was hard to know, she could be gone by the morning.

Well that sounded like a situation loaded with potential and risk. The Giant chews it over literally for a little bit. "Ah. No I'll take the relative calm of Sacramento thanks. But good to know, it's not to far from here in the grand scheme of things is it." South down the coast a bit he was fairly sure. "Ah. Bet that displaced more then a few lost then as well." Another thing to be careful of. "Ah. But I bet your wandering about an oath yourself about now, if your planning to stay." If she had heard about leadership and size, had she heard about the wyrdstone?

That was rather different to himself, Autumn had felt right yes but its many themes and focuses had also appealed greatly to him. "Huh. Well you'll have a lot of room to explore what Autumn means to you, find your place in it here." That was for sure. He might e a giant but he could only fill one court sport regardless of size.

Wiping a bloody hand down a sleeve, the ogre had forgotten to bring napkins. He reaching into a pocket and pulls out a heavy mental key, the kind for a old lock. "Bah. Yes it would have been. She was separate then part of and now free again from the park." Or so Anatole had told him. "Hm. She has a story, a bloody one I plan to bring to back into waking memory. Remind the entire city that dreadful things happen and some fear is a very good thing." To make a city quake in it's boots and lock it's doors few enough ashen kings or queens would be able to claim the same. The key however is placed on the table and slide across. "Ah. Your of the ash, so you get rooms no charge. Each comes wit ha bedroom big enough to live from if you need to and a private wash room." Access to the communal areas was a given.

[Ellaria Undertow]

Nodding, hair floating along, sometimes being remembered is all anyone would want. Even if it was from a monster, maybe especially from a monster.

"I’m sure you’ve the freshest of organic consumables within your pantry,” she begins with a tease, but as Kray continues, she knows she would have drooled, if not for the blood already on her tongue.

"Did you eat him?” was that how the Freehold found the truth of preference? "It’s more than reasonable, I’ve had minimum wage jobs, whose managers were more demanding.” In the grand scheme of things, they weren’t that important. Not compared to a Seasonal King.

More meat for Theher Mmaw, she quick to swallow, followed by a swig of broth to wash it down, "I need to learn to respond to it. Besides, sometimes it’s unavoidable to avoid naming someone.”

For the hugger, she was about to ask, nearly obligately so if he had eaten him, when King Kray reveals he hadn’t, which was nearly as surprising as the Beast hugging the Gristlegrinder, "You’d assume Beasts would know better than to put himself that close to a predator’s jaws.” Noting that even if King Kray had warned him away from informing Circe (Queen of the Iron Spear and Groundskeeper if Reverie Mae told her truth when she’d informed the Antiquarian of her destination) she knew, seen how a Gristlegrinder could strip meat from bone.

Blinking rapidly, "To find a Freehold this unconcerned about Cannibalism…” well, she’s sure that Kray had already thought of the possibilities therein. "I might just have to stay.” either to discover dark and delicious secrets, or for the ignorance of bliss to lead to something like acceptance.

"Relative calm sounds like bliss.” Another humming nod, it was far enough away that getting here had been annoying, but near enough that she wanted the safety of a Freehold from those who did not live within the realm of that ignorant bliss. "I’d heard your Oath was….different.” which of course was an understatement. She’d heard tell that there wasn’t an Oath at all. Ellaria most certainly wanted to know what method Sacramento's Freehold was using.

Smiling, more to herself, she nods. Silently this time. Autumn had embraced her when she offered her Oath, but she knew now how much she didn’t know. There was always more to learn. "And, I hope. Have a few more conversations with Autumn’s King on the nature of our Season.”

Neatly, and with restraint she wipes her hands as clean as she can. Looking at the key and the offer of a home. Few enough would want to board under the roof of a House as storied, and to be storied again, under the roof of the Cannibal King, within his if not his physical reach, not many would accept.

But Ellaria wasn’t many. She takes the key. Near reverently. Simply saying, "Thank you.”

[Kray]

A brief pause in his own overindulgence as a hand reaches into his own teeth liberating a chunk of something that had got stuck between his mess of teeth. "Oh. I keep a pretty good larder you can be sure on that." The morsel then being dropped back into his mouth, not even something so small is spared from his hunger.

A slow single shake of his head. "Bah. No the Summer and soon to be spring queen were in attendance to make sure I wasn't feeling to murderous, and my size does little and less to scare a shotgun." Not that he had been planning to kill, just hurt and maybe maim a bit. "Ah. I even let the winter king have the oath, he could have done a lot with that." And the ogre had been looking forward to seeing what. "Hpmfph. No He arrived and then froze stock still on the spot. I won by default." Not how he wanted to win but well that's how it fell out.

Well Ellaria might say as much but time and future meeting would tell if her words rang with truth. For tonight though it is very nice to talk with such pleasant, like minded company. "Oh. Members of the tin badge bigrade were they? The lot of them need a lesson in humility they do." Fragile people that liked to use their tiny speck of power like a cudgel. "Huh. Is that so? A name you've taken up recently then? Or you not been back all that long?" Why else would a name need to become familiar?

Adjusting his seat so he can stretch his legs out and managing to leave a bloody handprint in the fabric of the arm the giant seems inclined to settle into the more relaxed setting. And sitting at a table that required you to press your knees into just get them under wore thin fairly quickly. "Huh. You would think so wouldn't you. He was an odd one for sure." Maybe the kindest thing he had ever said about Vincent. "Hm. Well choices like that caught up to him." As they were always going to.

The bottle of brandy is raised for another chug, seems the king is fond of the drink. "Ha. Yeah it's a little different isn't it." It was the sweet and sour people stew if he recalls Circe had seen him eat but he had not been shy about what was in it. "Oh. Well that's good to hear. I'd rather like you to stay." It had been oh so long since he could this close to openly with another changeling.

Great shoulders heave a mighty shrug. "Uh. Stuff does happen don't let me mislead you. We had a rampant hedge plant about a year or so back. And before I got here some crazy queen from the bay was supposedly up to no good." Not that he knew all to much about Anne bar that of rumour and partial accounts. And that Circe got mad when the topic came up. "Oh. And Before even that the last Autumn king told me some lost here killed one of them, a dragon he said." Back in their very first conversation Anatole had told him that. "So. Yeah relative calm, but not nothing going on." But it worked just fine for him. Enough to keep busy and helpful with enough time to expand his own endeavours.

But now they had come to it and with a sigh the ogre sits up straight again. "Ah. Yeah it is. We could enter into an oath if we wanted you and I. But that would only be between us. Something doesn't work right with the freehold oath so we use this thing called the wryd stone. At the seasonal events the ascendant monarch invests it with glamour, refreshing ties to all the lost of all the courts still present. Then New or court less lost invest glamour of their own." It was a system the ogre seems to stomach as a necessity but has no fondness for as frowns and sighs again. Ellaria would find out soon enough herself.

The following proposition gets a ghost of toothy grin to remerge, it had been so very long since he could talk of Autumn, its themes and meanings the context and all the rest with anyone that could have chance of understanding. "Oh. You can be sure of that." It would be unusual to be what seemed like the more experienced member of the court in those conversations but well it had to happen eventually. Now he just has to try and not make a fool of himself.

The key taken restores the nasty grin in full. No words said but the prospect of Edna's being host to an actual ashen court again even if was but two, now that was a part of the plan he ha not dared to hope for since Anatole left. And two hungry cannibals under one roof, that promised to be a real interesting time.

[Ellaria Undertow]

She releases a golden laugh, "I’ll be sure to inspect the larder myself then.”

Tearing strips, dunking half into the broth before devouring the new combination of flavours, "That sounds incredibly dissatisfying. Especially after offering him the Oath, he could have turned the duel into anything right?” First blood, riddles, bake off.

A hum, as she fishes strings of sinew from between the notches of her serrated teeth. "It’s simply a new one. I’ve recently acquired new paperwork.” she explains, while not saying which way, if Arcadia’s stench had long washed away or not.

A startled laugh escapes, as almost unconsciously, at the same time as Kray relaxes in his chair, she crosses her legs under the table. She feels the smack of a wet page cling for a moment before dissolving into nothing. "Did he try to hug another cannibal? Inside the Hedge this time maybe? Was this Beast a predator kind? Think he was the big bad, because he’s the one who’d stalked little red?” it might be projection, maybe she’d known someone akin, who treated her such.

Ellaria notes his favour of the flavour, but hasn’t yet decided if it was favourite, or if it was one of he Gristlegrinders many hungers. Warmth blooms across her face, colouring her cheeks a lovely rose, "Thank you for saying such.”

Blinking, as she takes in what Kray says, she nods, hair following "If I really wanted boring, I’d go to ground. Calm is different. Though I hadn’t heard anything of a dragon…really?” Her brows had climbed, surprise arching them. "I think I’ll want to ask around, for stories.” She smiles, then. Small, but hungry and the Ogre can smell a noticeable uptick in the scent of soggy old books.

She frowns at the news of something wrong with Oaths here, "An Oath until the Equinox then?” the inquiry, speaking as though it was a given that they would until something else could bind them - even if that thing, wasn’t what was expected.

She leans forward, uncaring of the mess that might end up on her clothes, "Good.” she gives him a toothy smile, nodding, hair following, "I look forward to it.” She was a layman to be certain, but under the Autumn King, she was more than sure she could learn the nuances of Fear, discover more of what she didn’t know. Debate long into the night, share food, and not be shamed for needing to feel blood on her tongue.

The key she rubs between her fingers, memorizing the heft, the feel. The lay of the teeth. Tapping it against the table, enjoying the sound of it.