#//five ages later because I was not smart enough for Maxi all week

[morvantmortuary]

Hello love! For the OC ask, could I get 6, 9, and 23 for all three Morvants please? (I hope your first week back went well!) 💜

thanks, Jess darling!! <3 it went okay -- I already feel kind of behind, but we’re hanging in there :’D I hope your first month of the year is going well in your neck of the woods! <3

this got long, but I had a lot of fun with these questions! I’m putting them under a cut to save people’s dashes though lmao

6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate?

Maxi: The most book-focused of the three. He managed okay - he tried to get along with the other students, but the reputation of working on dead bodies with your dad is... kinda strong for the average school kid lmao. :’D He thought college was going to be his way out of Greymoon, so he worked the hardest of the three trying to get into a good school. (Not one of the Ivies, just a state school far away from Louisiana.) He tried his best to keep them up after Hector was forced to move back to Mexico and Rora died, but when he graduated from high school alone, it was hard for him to feel like anything mattered. Then Vincent told him he had to stay in Louisiana and go to mortuary college, and he just kind of... went along with that, for his own reasons. He had the necessary associate’s degree, and then after Vincent died he went back and finished the remaining credits to get a bachelors in Mortuary Science. He’s kicked around going back to school once or twice, but a masters in anything seems kind of pointless considering the Mortuary keeps him pretty busy. He was excellent in Chemistry, Biology, Anatomy and Physiology (I mean, you’d hope, right? :P) and he enjoyed English, even though he was discouraged from paying too much attention to that at home. He really, really wanted to be a theater kid, but Vincent shut that down pretty quick when he caught Maxi trying to sneak off to rehearsal in high school (though he definitely still reads plays for fun when he gets the chance). He’s decently quick at math, but it’s def not a favorite.

Hector: Hex was, surprising no one, the class clown. He was usually pretty well-liked until people figured out he really was a Morvant, and then he got mostly avoided like the other two, but he managed to sneak into/crash enough parties in high school that people kind of warily accepted him. He was smart, but he didn’t really focus on his classes, although he usually managed to pull solid Bs through school. He finished high school in Mexico after he moved, and then he attended a few classes at UNAM in Mexico City, but he dropped out before he could finish his degree because he wanted to focus on completing his Chain. He was always good at languages and anything pertaining to the social sciences, especially History and Government/Economics, but he definitely didn’t have a knack for any of the STEM subjects. Except for Computer Science, which he actually had some pretty impressive skill for (and still does, which will come up later!)

Rora: Rora was a terror, straight up. Whereas Hex was well-liked and Maxi at least tried to get along with people, she had only one friend outside the family from elementary school through high school. She was precocious for her age and vicious - she didn’t really focus on her classes, but she still made As in most subjects, which frustrated the hell out of Maxi and annoyed Hector endlessly. She didn’t give much thought for English, enjoyed History, but really shined in the same subjects as Maxi: Chemistry, Biology, Anatomy, and then the bonus of being good at Physics. After an Incident towards the end of her junior year where she set the school on fire and may or may not have caused the death of five students, she was home schooled, where she excelled further in her decidedly esoteric areas of study. She died before she graduated high school, and she hasn’t really had the time to go back for her GED yet, all things considered. :’D

9. Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals?

Maxi: Animals like him a lot! He always loved to feed the little critters that frequented their backyard when he was a kid, and then he still leaves appropriate snacks out for animals that frequent the cemetery near the House. He loves cats and dogs, but probably cats more, truthfully. He’s a friend to pets in general, though, and has been known to help undertake a pet funeral pro bono more than once (usually for the braver kids in town who come to him and ask, and for the little old people who are his usual clients). He adored Magnolia when he was younger (until Rora unfortunately used her for a science project), and as you can see, they’re still close now. His initial death vibes might make animals a little wary at first, but they warm up to him quite quickly.

Hex: Animals like him generally (except for one little blue bird named Ding), and he’s generally pretty chill with them in return. He’s pretty low-key about them compared to Maxi, and probably wouldn’t adopt any animals himself bc he usually expects to have to leave somewhere pretty quickly, but he hasn’t met a dog or a cat at someone’s house that he wasn’t friends with by the end of the visit. He’s probably more a cat person bc they match his vibes better, but he’d be interested in pets like snakes, lizards, and spiders if he were to get one for himself. He might end up adopting something more like a cat, though, once he’d start to worry about being around often enough to take care of a small animal’s enclosure like they need.

Rora: Magnolia is really the only animal that likes Rora, and that was after Rora brought her back from the grave (although Maggie did try to make friends when they were both alive the first time, truth be told). Most little critters can sense that Rora is sizing them up to see if they would make an interesting subject for her taxidermy. If her person had a pet, she’d treat it with the utmost respect, of course. She’d probably even grow fond of it, in time. But she tends to prefer the company of plants and fungi to both people and animals. Most animals give her a wide berth for a long time -- they know she’s something that’s violated the natural order, somehow, and that she’s probably going to make them do so next.

22. What are their favourite insults to use? What do they insult people for? Or do they prefer to bitch behind someone’s back?

Maxi: Maxi tends to be very reserved about his insults, tbh. He’s used to having to deal with ridiculous, belligerent people in his line of work, and he’s gotten pretty good at gently and politely fending them off/talking them down. The thing that really tends to make him snap is someone being rude, cruel, or underhanded to someone else - he can’t abide any of those (despite feeling some guilt about the last one himself). It’s part of why he goes after a certain brand of people (usually dudes) like Pinky McDipshit or Mr. Landry, though it has to be a pretty egregious violation. In the very first chapter, tear you apart, we see him complaining to his Reader over the phone about someone he’s likely going to end up targeting bc they seemed completely self-centered during a funeral service for a beloved family member. Most of the time he’s content to hold his complaints and save them for a trusted ear later (so yes, bitching behind people’s back lmao), but when someone exhibits a specific combination of self-centeredness and entitlement, he’ll usually let them have it. I can’t think of a specific insult he returns to repeatedly, but he definitely tends to insult people based on their poor manners and their even poorer upbringing (though ”pig fetus” is a memorable one, from when he had Pinky cornered in that alley lmao).

Hex: Hector loves to insult people in Spanish, because it has the two-for-one effect on people who don’t speak it of them either missing it entirely or them feeling like they insulted him but usually not being able to prove it, leaving them in that awkward in-between stage. Hex is weirdly less likely to jump to insults than Maxi, but that’s just because his expectations for people are lower, if that makes sense?? That said, if someone’s being an asshole or their vibes are just generally rancid, he’ll likely have a snarky comment under his breath to someone nearby. The thing that really sets Hector off is condescension - he cannot abide it, period. Not to anyone he’s with, and if it’s him, he’s definitely going to lose his temper and fast. He tends to insult people for their mistakes they hope no one noticed, especially if they’ve been acting like a big shot - he’s quick to point out how people are less smooth or put together than they like to come off. Being in and out of the Art/professional photography world, he’s definitely met his fair share of people who get too big for their britches, so to speak, but he’s more inclined to mock them subtly than he is to jump to an outright confrontation. When he does, though, he’ll call someone an idiot in every language he speaks, which is a few by now!! (Although he’s less shy about up and punching people than the other two, when it comes down to it.)

Rora: Rora is very hard to impress, period. She’ll insult someone while just speaking bluntly, especially if they’re trying to assert themselves as an authority figure in some way (she has issues with those that she honestly should work on but won’t). She usually starts by talking under her breath to whoever she’s with, and then openly calling them out if the behavior continues. She’s snarky to begin with, but what tends to set her off is incompetence. She cannot abide it in any way, shape, or form. If you demonstrate you don’t know what you’re doing (and not in a “I’ll be honest I’m not sure about this part” kind of way), she’ll dismiss you immediately and you won’t get the chance to earn back her esteem. She tends to notice aesthetics first and foremost, being raised as she was by a Southern Belle, so she’s likely to start by calling someone some synonym for “tacky” and then go from there. The worst thing you can be to Rora is some little poser who talks a good game but can’t get the details right - and she will know, and she will mercilessly discredit you for it to her friends or to your face. :’D

thanks again for these questions, Jess! I really enjoyed answering them, sorry it took me a minute! <3