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sapphoshands · 2 months ago

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Happy Birthday! May I request a DVD commentary about Rio teaching Agatha how to fly with a broomstick, and possibly fundamentals of witchcraft on "you open always petal by petal myself"

again an extremely belated response! but thank you for this ask - it was fun to dig into you open always petal by petal myself a bit!

prepare to learn a LOT about the native foliage of connecticut in here, because boy, did i do a lot of googling :P

Her mother’s coven always refused to teach her more than the very basics of her power. Any skill they thought she might misuse—anything that might make her more difficult to control—they hid from her. Agatha found ways around them, clawing knowledge from wherever it lurked, but the hexenbesen charm requires at least one other witch, if not a coven. She could not learn it on her own. And after she escaped the Salemites, her reputation preceded her. No witch would ever make themselves vulnerable enough to trust a broom made by Agatha Harkness, witch-killer—nor would anyone ever stoop to making a broom for her.

so, this story actually started with a somewhat less considered post i made after ep 5 that was just like, has agatha EVER flown with anyone other than rio? would anyone ever make a broom for her, or trust a broom made by her? i think it’s entirely possible she never has! which is heartbreaking, honestly.

“The hexenbesen charm is about community, about selflessness. It is about thinking of the other, not of yourself.” Agatha must look nervous, because Rio smiles at her, a true smile, gentle and—Agatha barely dares think it—loving.

i wanted to give this line about selflessness to rio here so that it echoes forward to agatha saying it in ep 5. there are so many ways the two of them have influenced each other *weeping emoji*

Next to the bush, a birch tree has splintered, one trunk lying fallen against its mates. It’s a decent size, and when Agatha lifts it, its heft is pleasant in her hands. The papery bark curls in stripes of dark and light, but the branch itself is smooth. [...] Several long thin boughs lie nearby, spongy and soft to the touch but still holding their shape thanks to moss and mushrooms. Agatha snags a creeper off a tree and secures them to the end of her branch. She remembers Rio’s vines with a pleasant shudder and wraps the rest of the creeper up around the branch, tying it off at the top. [...] On an older fallen log, one that’s nearly subsided back into the humus, a bright orange fungus sprawls towards the ground. Agatha lifts a few segments, carefully, and drapes them between the branches at the bottom of the broom.

okay, so, remember i said lots of googling about connecticut plants. everything i mention is native to the area. the broom agatha makes for rio uses a birch tree because birch is a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings - very green witch. i wanted the branches at the bottom to counterbalance that by being in the process of rotting and becoming another part of the life cycle. the vines, well, that’s just a note about rio tying agatha up (see also Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight). and then the fungus is just another comment on life, death, rebirth, the ways death brings life, etc. i did all my early forest rambling and foraging in a very different environment, so i was thinking specifically of an orange fungus i was familiar with and then went googling for an east coast equivalent. and it turns out that connecticut is home to an edible orange fungus called witches’ butter. so clearly that had to go in here!

The broom Rio is holding couldn’t be more different to the one Agatha has assembled. Made from a dark, gnarled branch of knotty oak, it bursts into a riot of leaves and flowers at its end. Agatha can see honeysuckle twined amongst laurel, soft white petals peeking between sharp green edges. Dotted throughout, purple asters add a surprisingly whimsical touch.

rio’s broom for agatha is assembled much more deliberately. oak symbolises power and longevity: rio chose it because she wants agatha to have all the power her mother’s coven denied her, and also to live a very long, powerful, magical life (...careful what you wish for, rio). honeysuckle is for happiness, sweetness, and love: it’s a little too nice for them, maybe, but this is early in their relationship and rio is perhaps a bit besotted. it’s also balanced out by the sharpness of the laurel leaves, which of course symbolise victory, much as rio wants agatha to be victorious over the charm. and purple aster is for enchantment - very on the nose, i know - and admiration - which rio won’t say out loud, because agatha will get flustered, but which she definitely feels. all together, it’s basically about rio wanting to give agatha a gift of magic because she loooooves heeeeeerrrrr.

“Now, repeat after me,” Rio says. “Pro te, dilecta, aperio viam.” Agatha’s cheeks heat. “I bet you say that to all the girls,” she says, trying to cover the thrill that ran through her. Rio rolls her eyes, but there’s a little colour high on her pale cheeks, too. “It’s how the charm goes.” She smirks. “Quick, say it back to me. And walk deosil.”

i cheated a bit on the latin by putting commas in, i know, i know. rio translates it later, but roughly, the charm goes ‘i open the way for you, beloved.’ i originally had agatha and rio getting a bit more flustered about that, but my beta convinced me to dial it back, and i think this sassy flirtiness is much better.

on the other hand, my beta also pulled me up on ‘deosil,’ but it’s the proper witchy word! (deosil = clockwise, widdershins = counterclockwise) I tried to make it a little clearer later, but i wanted rio to use the right term.

“Now.” She grips the broom’s neck with both hands and cackles. “Run like hell, jump… and fly!” She races ahead into the underbrush. Heart pounding, hands shaking, Agatha follows her and gives herself over to the magic.

lillia would hate that i’ve got rio cackling here. culturally offensive! but what can i say. sometimes, rio cackles. also i wanted to make it clear how much agatha trusts her.

Agatha tips her head back and laughs with delight, and hears its echo from Rio in front of her.

they love each other *weeping emoji*

The silver birch shines in the moonlight, and so does Rio’s skin, pale and enticing. Her hair flows back from her face and her green cloak billows behind her. Agatha leans forward on her broom, entranced by the vision almost more than by her own first flight. [...]Then Rio tips her head back again, baring the long pale column of her throat, and Agatha feels a pull in her gut as strong as the wind in her hair.

just… thinking about the way agatha looks at rio when they’re flying in ep 5.

It’s true—Agatha feels like she’s been flying all her life. The broom responds to her wishes almost faster than she can steer it physically. With Rio beside her, haloed in the glow of a galaxy of stars, Agatha never wants to come down.

in my brain, flight is half physically controlling the broom and half the broom just responding to its rider’s desire.

Rio props the broom against the front wall and looks up, and Agatha feels the distance between them like a wound. She drops forward, arrowing towards the ground, and pulls up just in front of Rio. Her momentum carries her, half-controlled, off the broom and into Rio’s arms, and Rio staggers back against the cottage, both of them laughing.

ugh i just wanted to write something that had a few moments of sweetness in it! also note the cottage, which makes its return briefly in Rabbit Heart.

re fundamentals of witchcraft, i didn’t put a ton of that in here, but here are a couple of things:

Rio summons both brooms as she follows Agatha, leaning them up against the wall next to the door. It’s a bit strange, Agatha thinks, but then again, maybe it just makes sense not to leave magical objects outside for anyone to stumble on. Especially ones that are so attuned to the two of them. The idea of someone else touching the broom Agatha so carefully put together for Rio brings a possessive surge of jealousy with it.

so MAYBE all of this was just an excuse for some magical dildos, but that DOESN’T mean i didn’t think about the mechanics. my thought was that the hexenbesen charm requires the witch to put some of themselves into the broom they made because it was so deliberate an exchange. agatha doesn’t know that yet here, but she senses it. probably a side effect of this would be that malicious forces could use a broom to hurt the witch who made it.

“There’s something else you should know about magically-imbued objects like these,” she says, and though she sounds matter-of-fact, her lips curve in a devilish grin. [...] Instead of a broomstick, Rio holds a wooden phallus, bone-white and with striations of black from the birchbark. Long and curved with bulbous knots on each end, it gleams like Rio’s skin, and when Agatha lifts one hand to touch it, it’s just as smooth. She can still feel the magical energy humming in it.

instead, of course, this is just about playing with toys :) basically, having put a little bit of herself in the broomstick, it becomes sort of like a voodoo doll, so that agatha feels some of the same sensations as the broomstick/dildo does. not quite a magic strap, but… similar. >:}

Agatha has never been able to put words to Rio’s taste. Sometimes she thinks of saltwater; sometimes raspberry leaf, or nettle tea.

okay, this is just me being self-indulgent, but: saltwater, because it can’t support human life; but raspberry leaf, because it’s good for pregnancy, and nettle tea because it’s good for nursing mothers. life! cycle!

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