Nemania Marquette's Questionnaire

Neva lives on the family farm in St. Ignace, MI.  Her family has lived there since 1670, when her too many to count greats-grandfather settled the town for the French.  Or rather, his brother did.  Etienne Marquette was the younger brother of Father Jacques, who gets the credit for settling the UP.  

The farm was originally several hundred acres, but most of the land has not been farmed since the 1850s and instead been allowed to return to a more or less natural state.  The house and outbuildings sit on approximately 60 acres that remain clear of the woods, but Neva doesn't bother planting it for crops beyond her small kitchen and herb gardens.  She does love flowers, but they don't grow so well in the region.

Though she remains on the property, most of the family has since dispersed across the state, country, and even world.  She is unsure what will become of the property when she dies, but she intends to return it to the local native tribe for preservation.  

The family has been wealthy for generations, although most of their horded wealth was lost in the 1970s during and due to various economic changes in the region, the country, and the world.  

Neva, who never much cared for the trappings of wealth, and scarred from a farm accident as a teen, never married.  Instead, she went to school at Northern then returned home to St. Ignace to be a teacher and librarian and encourage children to open their minds.  

At 58, she still works as a librarian at the local library and lives modestly off her family money and her paycheck.  Most of her expenses are in the form of books, tea, and gifts to people she appreciates.  

Neva has been a believer since she was a child.  Her family has had a divided secret for generations, one that is hidden even from most of them.  While the male Marquette's have always been christian zealots, the women in her family have often been gifted.  After all, when you've experienced the 'impossible' it isn't all that far a leap of faith to believe that there's more to the world than what the normal 5 senses expose.

Neva has spent her life in pursuit of that knowledge.  She's amassed quite a bit of it.  In fact, she would admit it's less of an Ambition and more of an Obsession for her.  

Her father used to tell her that the older she got, the more she would understand his conservative values.  She laughed even at his funeral that no, she never did.  

As to how far she'd go... well.... she wouldn't kill in cold blood.  Probably.  It would likely depend on the person, as she is a firm believer that for some things, the only righteous answer is death.  Protecting children, animals, and the helpless from those who prey on their weakness is a pretty strong calling in her.  Her own life is less sacred to her than others' although she isn't a fan of pain.  She's also not a stranger to it.

When Neva was fourteen, she was involved in an accident on the farm that mangled her right breast when she leaned too far over a piece of equipment and had her clothing caught.  She's had several surgeries, but still has a Soft Spot from the accident.  She has a prosthetic, which she wears for work at the library, but when she stands with her coven under the moonlight, her scars are silvery and old, but still very, very evident.

Worse, born in the 1960s, she was a teenager in the 1970s.  Small time folks were generally not kind about the injury.  She didn't date much because of it, never married, never had kids of her own.  

Now, she's the crazy old cat lady in the old farmhouse.  But what could have been???

1) Maggie Smith: Cousin and closest confidant.  They grew up more like sisters than cousins.  Maggie escaped the family and moved to California in the 1960s.  She is one of the gifted women in the family and enjoys finding and mentoring other gifted women.  Like Neva, she also didn't marry, although Maggie did have a daughter in 1983.

2) Alexandra Bishop: A fellow librarian and Sister of Diana, Alexandra is the first person Neva reaches out to when she's stumped on some research trail.  Alexandra's specialization is mythology.  She has her own issues with her family, although Neva doesn't pry.  The women are not so much close or even friends as they are colleagues.  

3) Grimm: A young man who Neva has watched grow up.  He's currently studying agriculture at Northern, but he's one of the ways Neva makes sure she stays somewhat up to date technologically and with her slang.  Somewhat.  She's far from perfect.  She acts as a stand in granny for him.  He acts as a stand in grandson for her.

Neva's childhood was pretty normal for the time and place where she was raised.  Her family had lived on the property for 300 years before she was born in the 1960s.  The house wasn't the original farmhouse, but it is an older monstrosity and she still lives there now in her 60s.  She doesn't farm the land these days, instead working with the local tribe to return it as much as possible to its natural state.  

Neva had an older brother growing up.  He was a pest in the way older brothers are.  Although he never had to defend her virtue, since the accident made her less appealing to the local teen age boys.  

She didn't really fit it with her peers, since she wasn't interested in the things they were.  She wasn't proud of her heritage, she didn't party.  She studied hard and worked hard on the farm and her free time was spent either buried in novels, outside in the woods, or with her cousin Maggie who was and still is her closest friend.

She loved school as a child, and that didn't change in her teenage years.  Her teachers were always kind (she may have been a bit of a teacher's pet...) and she found solace in the library.  Some things apparently never change.

Neva's been in love plenty of times in her life.

She had a massive crush on one of her brother's friends in high school.  He was always kind to her, even after the accident.  But he never showed any reciprocal interest.

At college, she did a bit of experimenting, but her scars made her self conscious and twenty-year old's aren't all that much kinder than teenagers.  

It wasn't until she started going to therapy that she began to develop a better sense of self-esteem and that she was defined by more than her meatsuit.

As an adult, she determined that she is more than her body.  She has never found 'her person' though.  Maybe because she's never left home for a place with a high enough population density to make that likely.  At 62, she isn't really looking.