diviningtime

[diviningtime]

Lilia felt herself caught in the moment she'd Seen, several moments actually, cascading through time, throughout his childhood. None of them pleasant. He'd had a difficult start in life punctuated by daily torments and sufferings as well as the larger events. There was one person at the heart of it all; Lilia could See her, the outline of her figure, some of her features, standing behind the agent, as if always present if not acknowledged.

She could also See Her. Death. That face again, those familiar skeletal features.

Forcing herself to smile politely, Lilia made herself nod at his assurances, knowing he was lying to himself more than to her. She should let him; it was his life, not hers, and he hadn't asked for a reading, not really. Anything she shared would be unsolicited, and probably unwanted.

Lilia closed her eyes, forcing the image away of man, a stepfather, and a fateful day involving a girl, the agent's sister, trying not to See what he clearly didn't wish to share, but instead it only made things gain more clarity.

"Your real name isn't Sterling." The words were out before she could stop them. She looked at the Agent, hearing his birth name in her mind, and knowing the names he'd chosen had been for his family.

His ears were still pink but he seemed to have accepting her amusement and reflect it back at her.

Wait. The past?

Sterling hesitated but didn't stop her as she turned over his hand. It was too smooth a transition for him to think to stop her and it took a moment too long to realize what she was doing with it. The past. It had always been tricky with Sterling. He often pretended everything before SHIELD didn't exist. It wasn't the healthiest of coping methods but it seemed to be serving him well so far.

His hand twitched in hers as one of her fingers ran along the scar carved into the back of his wrist as she moved his watch slightly to get a better look at his palm. He'd gotten better about people touching it but it was always a stark reminder of his time bound in that lonely chair. THAT was the past he hoped Lilia didn't see. Instead, she saw something else no one was allowed to touch.

"No. I... I mean yes, but I... It was a normal childhood other than... It wasn't difficult." The denial was pouring from the man, denial he didn't even seem to realize was denial at all.

Perhaps he didn't need his cards read.

[diviningtime]

Lilia only smiled in reply, giving a small shrug, letting Susan come to her own conclusions. Everyone usually had their own word for it; they called her clairvoyant, psychic, a mind reader, a trickster, a fraud, even a mentalist. Just as long as they didn't call her witch; hiding in plain sight didn't work very well if someone successfully guessed her identity aloud.

And yet despite wanting to hide, surviving this way, Lilia always felt that pang in her heart, the part of her that wanted to scream from the rooftops; guess what? I'm a witch! And I'm proud of it!

That never ended well though, even today.

"You want to carry me in your hand?" she asked in disbelief, looking at the very palm she was supposed to be reading. Biting her lip, she wondered how different it could be from riding a broom. "Alright," she allowed, throwing her hands up a little in acceptance, and stepping onto the hand.

The moment it began to move, Susan lifting her up to shoulder level, Lilia grabbed the giant thumb to hold herself steady. Feeling the air whipping across her face, her hair spiralling in the wind, Lilia turned to look at the view from such a height, smiling widely at what lay before her. Seeing over the houses, seeing the horizon, she let out a loud laugh of delight.

"Oh, I haven't seen a view like this in centuries..."

She got to her feet in the slow, controlled way she had trained herself to as Lilia returned.

Susan blinked, surprised as she heard her name spoken. If anyone off the street recognized her, it was much more likely they were familiar with her government-given name, Ginormica. But somehow, Lilia saw right past that.

"Yes! Oh my gosh, how did you know?" She beamed, clearly impressed. Well, actually she supposed that it was probably pretty obvious how she knew, being a fortune-teller. She imagined it must be complicated, to see people and just know things about them. Not just their names, but their pasts, their fates... If that was how it all worked, she couldn't claim to know.

"I can take you," she offered, lowering an open hand. "Then you don't have to bother with your car." She shrugged, "save a little gas."

[diviningtime]

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴋɪɴᴅ ᴏғ ʜᴇʀʙ ᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ?

Cayenne

Everyone says that you're so bright, so loud, so much and maybe you are or maybe you're covering up that gaping wound in your chest with fireworks. Or maybe you really are so bright so warm so hot but sometimes you wonder if anything will ever be enough to soothe that aching burning cold fire in your chest. You don't know what it is, can't ever let yourself close enough to that pyre to know if it's anger or fear or loneliness or grief but it's there and if you're good enough, funny enough, bold enough, maybe you can hide it from everyone else. Maybe there's enough of you and enough of the world that you can outrun it forever, your own fire bright enough to put that wound to shame. Bright enough to prove to everyone, anyone, yourself, your mother, your father, your friends, your classmates, the world, that you're enough. You're enough. You're enough.

tagged by: @wiccawcnder tagging: anyone who wants to!

[diviningtime]

You, Lilia. You put a sigil on that boy.

[diviningtime]

Lilia frowned in bewilderment at the fist, not understanding if he was making an effort to express an emotion or simply replicating what he'd seen. Either way it seemed unprompted. Lilia managed to resist the urge to place her hand over the fist and force it back down to the table, especially when something else took her attention.

"Trained?" she repeated in loud disbelief. "Trained for what?" He was a child. Perhaps a far from ordinary or normal child, but still an actual child. What the hell could he be training for? This wasn't back in a time when she was a child herself when boys as young as twelve were sent off into wars, when childhoods were, for most people, so painfully short. "What kind of battles are you even supposed to be trained for?"

He hadn't. As far as he knew, none of the others had. No one even knew for sure why they were. Or maybe some had, but they had died before they could share. "Mom said we were going, she never said we weren't coming back."

The older he got, the more he wondered if those bullies on the ship he hated were right. This planet had its own death coming, but they weren't advanced enough to build a ship. He could imagine some parent somewhere on the planet putting their kid on a ship to give them a chance.

He just couldn't imagine Sally leaving him alone like this. Maybe that was what mattered.

"Chiron talked like that. When they told me I was a "half-blood"," He said, curling his fingers in the air the way he'd seen other Earth People do when they were being menaces. "That being half good, half Earthian, obviously, makes you a warrior. That I'll do great things when I'm trained."

[diviningtime]

"Vivienne," Lilia called out to her, worried the girl was getting too distracted, that she wasn't listening, and would do something drastic and definitely not thought out.

"It's not the window; it isn't the way out of here. The only way out is to fall," she insisted, smiling through her words as she did so. There was such clarity now, with everything; it wasn't just the gaps filling in, it was everything having a flow, having its own sequence, even if it was outside of time. The pieces were just consistently falling into place so easily, the answers coming to her; Lilia could almost laugh out loud at the thought of it.

"The tower reversed is an enchantment," she explained. "Enchantments have to end. We're the ones keeping it from righting itself again; we have to let go. It has to be both of us." Straining to make sure she had a strong enough purchase with one of her arms, Lilia held out a hand to the girl. "Hold onto me, Vivienne. I need you to listen."

Only when she had Vivi's full attention, when their hands were clasped, did Lilia take the chance to fully explain.

"When we fall, the movement of the tower righting itself is going to pull us apart. We'll be falling alone. Once it starts to turn, we need you to use your power to shield us. Not from the swords...but from the bodies," she explained. Lilia had no intention of defeating the Salem Seven just to be crushed by their corpses. "And to slow or soften our landing. I need you to keep us safe and wait for the door to open. You have to do it all because by the time we're leaving this trial, I'm not going to remember telling you any of this," she concluded, laughing a little through her words, knowing that the gaps wouldn't frighten her anymore, that it would still make sense.

"I know you're going to do it," Lilia told her confidently, smiling warmly at Vivienne before letting go of the table.

And then they were falling.

“ We were with you throughout the centuries? Us? How? ” Eyebrows raised in honest confusion. Agatha was centuries old, just like Lilia, but Vivi hasn't, the idea of being with Lilia throughout centuries when she was just 18, could make a head spin.

Vivi felt her hand slipping from the edge and almost slid away if she hadn't pulled herself up rapidly. It wasn't planned, of course, but she could use the opportunity to maybe give Lilia a little scare.

“ I can let go and I will. ” What was that, a Sicilian swearword? Vivi wasn't sure she'd heard that right, perhaps for the best. “ If you let go, I promise, the last thing you're going to see will be me, falling right after you. ” The threat might not had been from the smartest or well thought ones, but it only mattered if it was effective.

Because the young girl will try anything to save the ones she cared about. If talking Lilia out of it wouldn't work, threats will have to do. Deep inside she was super upset at the mere idea of self sacrifice, but right now, this feeling needed to be pushed aside.

Watching Lilia pull herself up left Vivi impressed by her strength. And here Agatha was saying Lilia was over 450 years old? It was hard to believe. “ It would be fantastic if the tower showed you a way out. ” Wishful thinking. Perhaps she's learned to depend on magic too much, but for crying out loud they were on The Witches' Road. Everything here was magical.

At Lilia's statement, Vivi protested immediately, urgency in her tone. “ Absolutely not! ” She called out, repeating Lilia's initial words. As if to assure that statement Vivi adjusted her hold on the table even tighter. “ That's the worst possible idea, don't you see these swords?! ” Vivi came back to save Lilia, not to die with her.

Wide green eyes searched the brown for any indication of madness. Was that what the trial did to the person, took their common sense away? Vivi only hoped Lilia wasn't serious about this. While they couldn't be hanging like that forever, there had to be another way out, alive.

“ New idea. There's a window there, look! ” The girl let go one hand to point at the small, rectangle shaped window down on one of the walls. “ I'll try to jump down there and find something you can hold on to. This is a much better plan. ”

[diviningtime]

Feeling the leaves crunch and crackle under her bare feet, Lilia was keenly aware that something had changed in the dynamics now. Not only had one of their number already died, but this new addition...there was something to her, something more than just a green witch. The Road was as silent as it was before but still there was something...shifted in their surroundings. Lilia just couldn't pinpoint what it was.

"Sorta?" she repeated, one side of her mouth quirking upwards in sceptical judgement. The expression disappeared as she flinched at the sound of Andromeda's neck popping, the sound jolting through Lilia's body. She consciously did her best to recover quickly. Something that was made difficult by Andromeda's little story.

"If you didn't have art supplies then what had you used as ink?" Lilia asked, not certain she wanted to know the answer. She was getting that sensation again, the feeling that something was not off exactly but was hidden. About Andromeda. That there were other unseen elements to who she was. Trying to push to See, however, only made it less clear, as if there was--

"It isn't bones that people don't like, it's what they remind them of," Lilia told her sagely, thinking of how often she had seen that face, how she'd Seen it in people's fortunes, in so many of her visions. "Death isn't something people typically wish to look at."

🌿                                  centuries.   a  tool  used  for  centuries  must  have  served  her  well,   andromeda  thinks,   even  as  she  equates  a  tarot  deck  to  a  farm  tool  like  her  rusted  scythe.     (   it  looks  centuries  old,   perched  in  the  corner  of  her  barn  shed,   with  enough  rust  to  look  crimson,   and  enough  crimson  to  make  her  wonder  if  it  was  ever  rust  at  all.   )     a  deck  of  cards  paired  with  a  strong  third  eye  and  clear  mind  made  a  divination  witch  a  formidable  companion.   andromeda’s  quick  –  albeit  disjointed  –  impression  of  lilia  ticks  all  the  boxes  ;   the  blonde  feels  herself  settle  into  safety  beside  the  other.   enough  for  honesty,   at  least.                  “  oh,   i  sorta  made  it,  ”                       comes  her  bashful,   lackadaisical  response.   she  tilts  her  head  right  and  then  left,   a  gentle  stretch,   neck  softly  popping  and  the  last  dregs  of  soil  falling  from  wheat  -  colored  hair.      

        “  it  was  more  like  —  i  fell  asleep  sittin’  upright  at  the  table,  ”                  she  begins  slowly,   the  muddy  memory  coming  to  surface.               “  ‘cause  i  was  tired  –  farm  work,   y’know  ?   an’  i  sat  down,   totally  fell  asleep  where  i  was  sittin’,   an’  when  i  woke  up,   i  had,   like  —  ink,   just  –  everywhere  !   which  is  weird  ‘cause  —   don’t  know  where  i  got  art  supplies,   i  said.   anyways,   they’re  .  .  .   well,   real  scribbly,   kinda  scary,   lots’uh  ink  .  .  .  ”                 (   the  cards  are  easy  to  recall,   with  their  heavily  inked  numerals  and  consuming  vines.   their  appearance  had  startled  her  upon  waking,   more  questions  than  answers  coming  from  this  particular  deck.   )             “  in  the  air,  ”                 she  echoes  with  a  nod,   feeling  those  invisible  roots  solidifying  her  bare  feet  in  this  soil,   pleased  with  knowing  the  earth  preferred  her,   too.   andromeda  gives  her  another  appreciative  nod,   accented  with  a  huh.                 “  bones  usually  gives  people  the  creeps,   though.   i  get  it,   but,   like,   it’s  super  organic,   so  .  .  .  ”             

[diviningtime]

Queued some replies, which is impressive considering how little I slept last night due to kitten related things.

BUT my mum is with me for the next four days so I get to sleep and laze and I will be using that recuperation time to peruse the dash and send things and post things, and also spiral into Lilia headcanons and thoughts as always, hehe.

[diviningtime]

Lilia inclined her head a little in consideration, thinking about when Cassidy had been crying in her apartment, but made an active decision not to voice the memory right now. Hearing Clytemnestra's accusations, Lilia almost cut in, but decided against it, instead letting whatever fury the girl had run its course. Lilia had no siblings of her own, but she had known enough to be aware it wasn't sensible to get in the middle of things before a piece was said.

Yet when the girl moved forward, Lilia instinctively stepped in front of Cassidy, her arms outstretched a little, creating something of a pseudo-barrier between them and cutting off the girl's momentum.

"Don't," Lila warned, not entirely sure what the sister had intended to do, but knowing it wouldn't have been a good idea either way. She felt the energy crackling at her fingertips, the glimmer of gold over her hands readying for defence if needed. However all that happened was more verbal sparring, with Cassidy explaining and Clytemnestra dismissing.

Looking over her shoulder at Cassidy as she spoke, Lilia felt sympathy for the girl being unwelcome in her own home, that the family members that didn't wish to bind or kill her just simply didn't want her around. She thought that perhaps was even lonelier than her family simply being gone; Lilia missed her coven, but they hadn't left her, they had died, killed by a fever. It was grief she still felt, not loneliness.

"What?" Lilia asked, head swivelling to look at Clytemnestra, a frown of disbelief furrowing her entire expression.

"No, absolutely not. This stops right now," she instructed firmly, having had enough of all of this. "You don't get to come here, invite yourself into my shop, my home, and start demanding people do what you want them to." Lilia stepped forward a little as she spoke, pointing a ringed finger at the girl, ensuring she was paying attention. "I'm aware of how differently your family seem to view things but, generally speaking, witches don't bind other witches, and they certainly don't drag them home against their will to do it." Lilia wrapped her enunciation around every letter for emphasis.

Pausing, her brown eyes fixed on the girl, she read her a little as she searched her features, Seeing something of her experiences and her opinions, her real motivations for being here.

"She's an adult," she concluded evenly. "She's her own responsibility, no one else's. Stop thinking about any Marston reputation and letting that dictate what you think is your duty. It's not your duty, or your right, to bend your sister, or any witch, to your will."

clem feels it the moment the magic releases her, is shocked when cassidy does so without a big fight. before her sister can speak, clem does so herself, launching into a monologue that rivals snl. "cassidy you are seriously something else. i assumed when you disappeared and ended up in new jersey you were doing drugs or getting blackout drunk and sobbing. you killed an entire coven, ripped them apart and then ran? they were grandma's friends, basically family. and you were what bored?" clem takes a deep breath before continuing on.

"no! don't answer that," she yells when it appears as though cassidy is about to speak. "you did this awful disgusting thing - seriously it is straight out of a true crime documentary. you came home, packed a few bags and ran! we still don't even know how you fully moved out without anyone noticing, not only are mom and grandma basically out for blood but the kids were so upset and somehow it became my problem!" clem yells. because yes cassidy is in trouble, and she should be bound, but more than that clytemnestra is livid that her sister didn't even try to turn to her family for help.

taking a step towards her sister, clem wants nothing more to grab her and take her home to atone for what she did, but the old bat is in the way. the younger marston is so mad that she doesn't even register the emotion cassidy shows, sees only a killer that she has to bring to justice. it's my duty as her sister. i'm the only other marston left, i refuse to let cass be some evil witch and live up to the shit our ancestors did. i have to bring her home, grandma is going to help me bind her and cass will be happy at home, safe, without the temptation of dark magic.

"clem...i love you and i did my best to make sure you didn't get too fucked up but i didn't do enough. and i'm sorry but you don't have the full story, everyone except for you and grandma have been keeping in touch. mom isn't happy, but once i told her what happened she didn't exactly blame me. i mean she did say i wasn't welcome at home because i could hurt someone, but we both know she's felt that way for a long time.

"i'd rather die than be bound, and i don't plan on dying today." clem hears the tremor in cassidy's voice. for the briefest moment she thinks her sister may actually be sorry. but clem can see the pictures, can see the horror on her grandmothers face and hear the way she sobbed. honestly, clem is surprised cassidy hasn't tried to run away or attacked her yet.

"lilia, i need you to move so i can get to my sister. i don't think she'd be stupid or heartless enough to killer own sister. so i'm going to take her home and bind her, if she wants to come back to bumfuck new jersey after that, it is her choice. but she's my responsibility."

[diviningtime]

Lilia gave an incline of the head in allowance. When her own hair had begun to turn grey she had been almost into her third century. But then she did age a hell of a lot slower than Wanda appeared to. A different kind of witch she supposed; a witch with a more ordinary lifespan?

"Then dye it!" she said in advice, throwing her hands up in a 'who cares?' motion. "Why stop if you don't want to?"

"Lilia, you know I love your rocking the grey." She told her fondly as she continued to inspect her roots. "But I'm like 30 or whatever! And with my darker hair colour, it's going to stick out like a sore thumb!" She pointed out.

[diviningtime]

Again, the only one paying attention.

[diviningtime]

"You should just tell them to believe none of it," Lilia concluded dismissively. "No actual witch is going to be sharing information on social media. Even my account is full of absolute crap," she added, shaking her head a little. MadameCalderu was her her handle across all platforms, and as well as offering bookings online, she made a few posts about readings and crystals and talking to spirits; all of it as phoney as the crystal ball she'd purchased from a 'New Age' trinket shop at Halloween. She'd perfected the balance of appearing legitimate enough to potential customers, while seeming enough of a fraud to keep anyone looking for an actual witch from seeking her out.

And it had worked just fine until Agatha. Now, Lilia wasn't sure she wanted to hide herself anymore; she certainly wasn't hiding her gift. And she hadn't updated her work socials in over two weeks.

"A green witch..." Lilia repeated in interest, thinking of The Road. And of Rio. She licked her lips a little. "Does he know that it involves death as well as life?"

Leaning forward to grab some of the items herself, Lilia made an effort to pile them into some kind of organised order, something easier for Cassidy to put away.

"I suppose we should be grateful that people can be that ridiculous now. Lighting a candle and calling yourself a coven used to be a death sentence."

cassidy can't help but roll her eyes at the comment about tarot cards. so she had messed up, tried out a skill that did her active harm. it wasn't her best idea but cassidy wanted to learn and try more. divination ran in the family, but it certainly didn't extend to her. as much as she understands magical discovery, that doesn't mean cassidy can learn how to do everything out there. instead she's trying to better understand her base magical powers.

"my youngest siblings text me sometimes, want to double check what people do on the internet isn't or is right. one of the twins is all about potions they have a natural talent for it that rivals mine. the other will be a green witch, i spent like two months last year teaching him how that isn't the same as gardening." cassidy has basically no online beyond what she uses for dance. finds it a good tool to connect with others and see different teaching techniques, but it isn't much of a social tool for her.

"i will say, i find it really funny that friend groups are calling themselves covens just for lighting candles on a full moon," cassidy can't help but snicker as she empties the box in front of her and stands to begin putting items away.

[diviningtime]

As enthusiastically requested here are photos of all six kittens. We can’t sex them yet as they’re too young so they’re still nameless. Also please ignore my weird hand; it’s hard to hold a tiny kitten while taking a photo of one.

Photos under the cut

Who wants kitten photo updates?

[diviningtime]

Though the comment was not directed at her, being in listening vicinity, Lilia chose to still take offence on behalf of her own hair colour, or general lack of it, with a gasp of shock.

"How dare you?" She questioned, only half-joking in her protest.

open (to mutuals)

"Ah, shit, a grey hair." Wanda muttered as she looked at herself in the mirror in the middle of her morning prep. "I knew quitting the dye jobs was a mistake." She complained, inspecting her roots.

[diviningtime]

Lilia nodded in quiet appreciation of Billy's support, the way he didn't mock her feelings here, the sentiment she couldn't shake no matter how much she knew it was misplaced. Alice wasn't here, no more than Mrs Hart-- Davies---Sharon was. No more than she herself had been really.

"She could also throw back her wine..." Lilia muttered in a wry tone, only half joking.

"We should have just let her fall through the mud. It only led to that abandoned transit system she talked about," Lilia told him as she walked over to stand by where he sat on the stairs, leaning against the railing herself. "But hindsight is 20/20, even for me."

"No, not foolish at all," Billy promised. He watched her through the support beams of the stairs, a hand curling around a wooden railing. "She'd have Mrs. Davis. And Mrs. Davis was really nice, really motherly."

It would give him some comfort. Maybe witches and non witches went to different places when Rio took them, he wouldn't know. But the thought was nice - the shattered pieces of their coven could still be together, Mrs. Davis watching over.

[diviningtime]

"I haven't been missing you," Lilia told her, emotion filling her voice as she looked at Vivienne warmly. "You've been with me this whole time, throughout the centuries, my coven, all of you, I just didn't See it." Perhaps if she hadn't been so determined to put her powers away, she would have seen that a life out of sequence was a gift just as her maestra had told her; it meant the people in her life were by her side always. In another time but always present.

Taking a deep breath as she felt the pain running down her arm, urging her to let go, Lilia looked at Vivienne mid-exhale. "You can't just refuse to go forward without-- ah minchia," she cursed, straining. Taking all the strength she had left, she forced herself to pull up a little, dragging her body weight a little further up so she could get her other hand on the table. Using the grip of both palms, she lifted herself until the flat of her arms were on the stone. A little better, even if she was now out of breath.

Lilia tried to rethink things, of what could be done. This wasn't how she had planned this, it wasn't what she'd Seen. She'd been falling. Falling alone. She'd Seen nothing else; only darkness.

"My task is not to control, but to see..." she recalled under her breath, trying to determine what that meant here. How she could use it. Vivienne was right when she'd said this trial was tied to her magic; everything here was for her powers, her expertise.

"No, absolutely not!" She exclaimed loudly, as if arguing with someone in front of her. Blinking in confusion, Lilia turned to see who was hanging beside her. "Vivienne!" She exclaimed as though partly surprised to see her there. "We have to fall."

“ No! ” Vivi opposed with a frown, not sure if she was more scared for Lilia or angry at the fact that the witch even considered letting go. “ You have a coven now, you have all of us. This is what you've been missing for centuries and you want to leave us? We need you— I need you. ” Her voice trembled at the confession. Vivi couldn't be speaking for the rest of their coven, even when she had a feeling all of them would agree with her words, but she was speaking for herself, from her heart, stubbornly holding Lilia's gaze and refusing to close her eyes like Lilia told her to.

She hasn't come back just to watch her fall. The Road was only taking, they've lost two already, but the trials kept coming. Vivi wasn't going to let The Road take Lilia too. “ Lilia, this isn't a trial anymore. It ended when the exit opened, when we could leave. You've beaten the trial. ” Her mind was made up. “ I refuse to go forward without you. You're indispensable and irreplaceable. ” Vivi wouldn't look away even when her fingers were getting slippery and had to adjust her grip.

“ We'll find a way out, there must be a way. ” And if there wasn't, they'll just have to make one, but it required group effort. Maybe she could try pulling herself up to the downside of the table and pull Lilia up? “ Lilia, you gotta work with me. This was your trial, it's tied to your magic the most. ” One quick glance down, nope, the swords were still there. And so were the bodies.

Lilia's magic got them into this and Lilia's magic will have to get them out.

“ I wish your Sight could show you right now how much future there is for all of us together. With you. ”

[diviningtime]

"Can't say no to you."