Introduction
Catherine Incontro
An Witch [
double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn, and cauldron bubble
Appearance
Notable Features
Tall, with sharp, refined bone structure, and a posh New England accent that says she's definitely not from these parts, although enough time under the sun of the wild and weird west, and she has enough freckles to turn her beauty marks into constellations.Scars, usually hidden: a ring of bone-white around her neck (a collar she'll never be able to remove), a through-and-through bullet wound on her left side (law in Colorado just barely missed her kidney).
Also usually hidden is a sigil marked in blue-black ink on the back of her left shoulder; a burning reminder of the debt still owed, it guarantees there are consequences to any attempt to deviate from the terms of her arrangement. Cat knows she has only replaced one type of leash with another, but this one comes with a lot less murder-against-her-will.
Personal Style
Despite having to re-stitch and re-fashion most of her clothing over the years, Cat's style still bears the hallmark of someone used to knowing what a good cut of fabric can do, and she can be a bit of a maverick when it comes to following trends (or setting them). Of course, that could just as well be a cover for the fact that she burns through her wardrobe, and a little creative draping goes a long way.When out and about town, she is almost always wearing some kind of bandana or scarf to conceal the scars around her neck. Her favorite is a dark green stretch of fabric stitched with faded gold thread in honeycomb patterns, sometimes secured with a simple brooch: a snake eating its own tail.
Catherine 'Cat' Incontro
trouble coming in the dead of night
trouble making everything all right
trouble coming in the dead of night
trouble making everything all right
Circumstances
Currently
A woman of her standing was never meant to stand on her own two feet, much less in a rugged and weird place like Never; nevertheless, she has worked hard to support herself these past years, and has only had to write back home for financial support once ... or twice.Cooking, cleaning, teaching, sewing, dressmaking—skills of a wife, mother, and homemaker. These labels are both familiar and unfamiliar to her, but Hecate has made the terms of their arrangement crystal clear to Cat.
So she does what she can to fill in any gaps in her community: stitching seams on tumbleweed-torn dresses; taking over lessons at the school after the last teacher ... well, until Ms. Klein arrived; repairing a friend's stove; and providing (albeit complicated) shelter to any witches who come through these parts.
Her mother's book of shadows taunts her each day, begging to be opened, to be read, for the spells and rituals to be explored—just like her mother would have wanted, just like Hecate demanded from her. Catherine knows the only reason she is alive right now is so that she can fulfill her end of the bargain and be the person (woman, witch, coven leader) she was meant to be.
One reckless misstep, however … one more boundary crossed, another life exploited, and it would all be forfeit—her life and afterlife.
Health & Capabilities
Cat is about as healthy as a 30-something-year-old woman of strong upbringing could be. She brought two fat, healthy babies into the world, and she's survived a few claims to her life in the wild reaches of Kansas and Colorado. Just ignore the scars she keeps hidden away, the way she winces through her right knee on a cold night, and the feral look she gets when she stands a little too close to open flames.Socioeconomics
Catherine grew up in a family considered upper or upper middle class by American standards under the banner of Hart Textiles, est. 1767. With factories and mills in three states, the Hart family dominates the textiles industry throughout New England and beyond, and Cat wanted for nothing growing up ... except perhaps a little (lot) more discipline.As an adult, Cat strives to be resourceful enough to make her own way, doing her damnedest to stubbornly avoid asking her family for even a cent. If she's learned anything in life, it's that everything comes with a cost. So she uses a mix of her fancy private education, her wits, and her witchery to wear whatever dusty silk bonnet she must in order to keep food in her belly and a roof over her head.
Currently, that roof is part of a modest homestead in the hills west of town, allowing her to be near enough to be accessible to clients, but far enough that most … accidents don't tend to extend into town. After the fire that destroyed her previous residence in town, it was not easy finding a landlord willing to work with her, but she's trying to be a little smarter this time.
That is, she hasn't managed to burn it down, yet.
Skills & Talents
- Embroidery- Dressmaking
- Piano
- Marksmanship
Present Relationships
Father, three surviving brothers (Michael, Morton, and Miles), aunts, uncles, countless cousins; spread across Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Her brothers she writes to at least once a year. Her father ... well, he writes. She writes back, but the letters end up ashes in her fireplace before she can send them.Beyond her blood, she also has a found family (of sorts) in a canine companion; when she arrived in Never back in '78, she was joined by a large black dog. Although it's hard to say the dog is 'hers' for as independent as she seems at times, Cat does call her by name when it's feeding time: Hecuba.
Identity
Hobbies
Cat thinks the best way to keep herself out of trouble is to not give herself a whole lot of time to get up to it. This doesn't leave her much room for hobbies anymore, at least, not those she'd consider to be as such.If she has any one such indulgence, one thing she is allowed to have for herself now, it is that she has started to play around with making ceramics. Thus far, it has been a wildly frustrating experience, trying to turn clay blobs into a shape that's useful, and for them to remain useful after being fired in the kiln.
She has had to rebuild the kiln more than once when her frustration gets the better of her and any attempt to solve the situation backfires. So far, she has only managed a single pair of plates without cracks. They're flat. She's very proud of them, and she uses them most days. The failures usually become target practice; she would not call that a hobby, but smart maintenance of a skill.
Habits & Routines
Chaos burns in her, but ritual and routine grounds her. Coffee at the same time every morning, tea at the same time every afternoon, and devotion to the old ways at the same time every full moon.Personality
Cat is a woman defined by resilience, resourcefulness, and an undeniable sharpness that runs beneath her surface. Her life has been a constant struggle between the person she was raised to be, and the woman she's been forced to become. Once, she was a daughter of privilege, with an upbringing that promised a life of comfort and ease. But tragedy, both of her own making and at the hands of others, has stripped her of that, leaving her with a fierce independence. She won't rely on anyone, not even her family, because she's learned the hard way that nothing is ever truly guaranteed. Her pride is rooted in her ability to survive, to face adversity and make the best of it, no matter how grim the circumstances.Stubbornness is both her strength and her curse. She can be unyielding to the point of self-destruction, refusing to let go of what she believes is right, even when it costs her everything. Yet, underneath her pride is a woman who aches with guilt and grief, a daughter, a wife, and a mother who lost her family in a series of fires she knows she helped spark. Though she has no desire to atone for every sin—there are too many, and she's beyond that kind of reckoning—she is nevertheless driven by a compulsion to not repeat the mistakes of her past. She holds herself back from recklessness, constantly measuring her actions against the contract forged under the moon and signed in fire.
Background
History
(Mild content warning: Death of children, kidnapping, enslavement)1847 - Fire
Catherine Elizabeth Hart was born on 14th of August, 1847, in Taunton, Massachusetts, in the Bridgewater Triangle, a place with its own history of weirdness and tragedy. Fifth-born, youngest, and only daughter of Mason Hart, owner of a successful textiles company, and Betsy Hart (née Johnson), a homemaker and direct descendant of one of the witches they could not burn.Her earliest years were spent avoiding nursemaids and governesses to escape into the woods behind her family's large manor, while her adolescence was spent attending a private all-girls school in the city. All the while, she was trained in the art of witchcraft under their mother's tutelage, learning the spells and rituals from a book that had been in their family hundreds of years (perhaps even longer based on some of the languages found inside). The pages are preciously maintained and thankfully very flameproof.
Her knack for fire rivaled that of her older brothers, to disastrous results.
1864 - Fire and Trouble
After accidentally setting fire to the property used for their rituals and killing her mother, she ran away, stealing her family's ancient book of spells and eloping to Chicago with Niccolò Incontro, a millworker from her father's company. Nic took work as a foreman, while Cat tried her hand at being a shopgirl; neither adventure went particularly well. A few fires were set—metaphorically, of course—but they both enjoyed the feel of the flames. Soon, she began to consult her mother's book again, using it to maintain the peace—or merely get the upper hand at work and in her social affairs.In 1866, they welcomed a daughter, Giulia, but more grief followed. In 1867, she returned to Taunton for the first time since her mother's funeral ... to attend the funeral of her brother, Matthew, whose house caught fire. Unmarried, he left no widow or children behind. When she gave birth to her son the next year, he is named Matteo to honor him.
Despite the pain and grief (or maybe in spite of it), she became further invested in learning the spells and rituals in her mother's book, fanning the flames of her magic at any cost; anything to improve her life, to get ahead.
1871 - Fire and Pain
The Great Fire consumed their home in Chicago, along with many more. It was several days before Cat is found in the wreckage, hugging the grimoire, all that was left of a family torn apart by the fire as it escaped. She did not stick around to figure out what happens next; another fire that may or may not have been started by her, another source of grief that may or may not be her own fault, however directly or indirectly—she ran, wandering restlessly through Missouri and then Kansas, taking on the odd teaching or sewing job.1874 - Fire and Blood
The settlement she made the mistake of settling in was ravaged by an outlaw gang who seemed impervious to her attempts to defend against them. Led by the destruction demon Emmanuel Castro, they killed her lover, her friends, half the town. He stalked Cat down and he offered her a deal. Burn for him and gain greater magical potential, all she had to give him was her soul.For all her faults and denial of the past, Cat remembered her own mother's words in the grimoire:
Never make a deal with a demon.
Unfortunately for her, Manny had all the time in the world to wear down her resolve in the bid for her soul, so when they moved out of town, he leashed her via magic twine and led her away as his little Kitty. She'd work for him whether she wanted to or not.
She would not be someone's pet.
She escaped and ran away into the wilderness until she collapsed; but she woke up back at camp in Colorado.
She begged the survivors of the gang's pillaging for help, only to be forced to burn them alive.
She escaped again, stealing a horse until it gave out beneath her, then she ran until she passed out, only to wake up back at camp, again.
She begged another town for help; left another town in flames.
1877 - Fire and Ink
Finally, she managed to (roughly) translate some of the older spells and rituals in her mother's book, looking for a way to kill a demon.After three failed rituals and nearly getting her plans figured out, she woke up after the fourth attempt with a page ripped out of her grimoire, her own handwriting in Ancient Greek letters. She also found a new blue-black tattoo marked on her left shoulder; the sigil of Hecate.
It wasn't long before she discovered the tattoo's purpose and its link to the promise printed in her handwriting. It burns. She doesn't hate it.
1878 - Fire and Oil
Cat translated, troubled, moaned, complained, and tried to argue with a dog-thing named Hecuba. "What does she mean, return the fire? And how in Christ's name am I supposed to find holy oil in a place like this? I don't know if you have looked around recently, but we are not exactly walking in divinity and faith here." Finding no other way, she tracked down a priest and blinded him by spell so he couldn't identify her features, and then convinced him to anoint a jug of oil. They were almost interrupted; she didn't spare the time to reverse the spell before escaping back into the night, leaving him sightless, but safe.On the morning of July 29th, Cat woke up in a sweat, burning from the inside out; today was the day.
With the sun and moon in alignment, the ritual appeared to be a success. She bound Emmanuel, impaling him through the heart with her oil-anointed athame, and then relished in his last agonizing, unholy screams as his human form was consumed by her witchfire. No longer protected by their master, Cat burned through most of the remaining outlaws, chasing the others into the growing night. As the leash's power faded, she gathered what was left of herself and headed south.
Never, New Mexico. Never a place she thought she'd end up. Never a place she thought she'd find love in another woman. Never a place she thought she'd actually find a path to redemption.
1880 - Fire and Clay
Maria was a great artist, a greater witch, but her own past was spotted with horrors; her troubled brother came up from the south, arguing with Cat about Maria's future before dousing the house in flames and leaving town. It was never meant to be Maria in the house.Another fire, another loss. Cat began again, rising from the ashes. She took up a hobby. It was sometimes cathartic. It was mostly frustrating. She tried anyway. For them.
Powers & Magic
Powers Use
Cat knows better than most that all magic has a cost, and the magic she had to call upon to deal with her demonic captor had the greatest costs of all, some of which are still paying out, and will remain so for the rest of her life.Carry the weight of your lineage.
Never again use your witchfire for personal gain,
in anger, or sorrow.
Bear witness and act when others cross the same lines.
When the time comes, return the fire to its origin.
Fail these, and what's done will be undone.
Fail these, and the fire will consume what belongs to it.
Due to the terms of her bargain, her witchfire has been greatly muzzled: she is not allowed to it for personal gain, in anger, or sorrow. On the obverse side of this, understands that her innate gifts and her spells and rituals are now more potent when used to the benefit of others, selflessly and without expectation of gratitude or payment. Little things such as keeping a companion's tea warm feel effortless, but any attempt to extend the same courtesy to herself results in burnt tea leaves and a twisting behind her ribs.
Additionally, she has discovered a knack for seeing things in fire, a gift which she attributes to her newfound devotion to the Keeper of the Crossroads, always looking backward, forward, and sideways. She has been experimenting with ways to trigger visions and signs in the smoke, ash, and flame, and thus far, her forays into foresight have resulted only in sensory imprints of varying intensities, sights, smells, sounds, feelings … but only for things that have happened already, or are happening currently (certainly useful …). However, things that are yet to happen are as of yet elusive to her, but Cat is determined—she will do whatever she must if it means she can prevent another fire, or worse.
Plotting
Romance
Cat has had more long-term relationships with men than she has with women, but her private life with Maria altered her outlook in ways that she is still trying to reckon with.It is coming up on two years since Maria's death; Catherine visits her grave regularly, and afterward, the Silk Rose. Grief is a messy and expensive process.
Friends
Please teach this dumb witch how to be friendly without trying to manipulate or otherwise use someone. Selfishly driven to selflessness, she'll do what she must, but it's going to hurt a lot. Maybe for everyone involved.Antagonism
Cat made plenty of enemies back in Chicago; some human, more witch. She also burned a dozen or more settlements and encampments from Kansas to Colorado, and while her actions there were guided by a demon, she knows her hands aren't clean.Even with her deal with Hecate, Cat hasn't really stopped being Cat. She picks, she pokes, she snarks and condescends. It's probably for the best she can't really act on some of her worse judgments without feeling the stinging burn of her promises, but she's a Work in Progress.
Other Plot Requests
A witch is better with friends ...And this particular witch is in search of a protégé — someone who chooses the fire. Someone to whom she can pass on her knowledge, her skills. Cat is still privately mourning the loss of the last one, but ... Hecate insisted.
Kinks
Cat enjoys being with someone she can push around as much as they push her back. She hasn't explored with anything too broad by standards of the time, but she's passionate and impulsive and, perhaps most importantly, curious. For better, or worse.
