#the unseen coven

[rootandrock]

There I was in a Circle doodling and note-taking in my "workbook" when I get The Vibe.

The Vibe is when one of the principle players in The Nocturnal Gatherings decides to nudge into my personal bubble. This nudge is, I think, another 'priest'. Certainly someone touched by Herself in a particular way, anyway. I am paraphrasing their words, because I get it as more of a "meaning" that my brain attempts to assign the best possible word choice to almost as fast as I get it. There's 'input lag', and a bias for sure, it's sometimes hard to convey the full spectrum of what I 'get'.

It is late, and my brain is half-asleep anyway, owed to a very loose border between the two states for me, so I lean a little more into "sleep" to tune in better.

"You're going to need to start writing the [grammar], and the [rites], and the methods for traversing the [badlands] to get to [the gathering place]." Says the Nudge.

Now, in this message I also get Jake Stratton-Kent's name, the word "Grimoire" (Which seems fairly self-evident... pick up their version of The True Grimoire, or maybe some of their other work) someone with a Swedish accent/low voice, saying "sigil", the image of beads being strung. A few more images like that, and those will take time to puzzle out.

"We'll assume I believe that this is genuine communication, and a genuinely communicated wish of the Whole of The Assembly and Herself. Then what is the meaning of doing those things?" I reply.

"You have heard most of the words, and found the right replacements when you couldn't. You found the right way - without losing the meaning - to leave behind the [parts that would cause genuine harm]. The [Ludo narrative, mytheme, mythic truth, 'dream logic', Magical Truth] is now good (as in "proper and useful" but also good as in "not harmful") enough to share."

As they say this I also get that their 'meaning' is intended to match how I describe my own 'traditional witch' as more of a literary tradition than a direct, physical, person-to-person, lineage due to the complications of spirit interactions just like this one. I also get flashes and bits of the things they're referencing that are harmful, and the mitigating factors I've employed.

So I take a second. I think hard about what I just picked up. "So, you're telling me y'all want me opening the way for more people...?"

"They will arrive either way. They sometimes come without being invited, and bring trouble [A flash of the visitor who got their head ripped off for rudeness]. Aren't you the [Image of a retriever gently offering a duck to a hunter]?"

"No, you know very well that if I am a dog I am far more the [Lurchers running down hogs, Border Collie directing a herd, Kangal soaked in blood]. Maybe I can show people how to shape and fashion the right keys, and prepare themselves the right way to gain entry into their version of the roads and ways? Maybe I can nip their heels to keep them walking in the right direction? And uh... keep the rabble out."

The Nudge is nodding slowly, but enthusiastically. "Even if they do not come to us, they go where they belong."

"Well, there's a tiny problem with that: You and I both know the writing would have to be a physically delivered medium, and the last four printing houses I talked to said no in the strongest possible terms with one of them threatening to send the prayer warriors... so..."

"[That sounds like a you problem.]" says The Nudge, and is gone.

Wow thanks.

[downfalldestiny]

"But it is there ⚓ !".

[dysthanasia-series]

Coven Department: Enforcers

While most Coven operations involve the acquisition and preservation of knowledge, keeping people safe is its primary motivation. Aside from mundane ills and injustices plaguing society, there is true Evil in the world. Creatures and corrupt individuals who exist only to sow chaos, or who cause harm in pursuit of personal gain. Thankfully, each department trains its own units of enforcers to deal with related threats.

To become a Coven enforcer is to put duty before personal life and comfort. These agents risk everything to make it possible for researchers to collect data and for ordinary people to continue believing monsters only exist in their imaginations. Enforcers deal with cases ranging from confiscating unauthorized grimoires to exorcising malevolent spirits, putting not only their bodies at risk but their minds as well. This department is not for the faint of heart or weak of will. However, the gratitude of innocent people, bonds forged between comrades-in-arms, and a substantial benefits package make the demands and sacrifices of being an enforcer well worth it.

Patreon | Ao3

Coven Departments

[author-with-anime-icon]

Adding onto this if the OP doesn’t mind me hijacking their post somewhat. Ever since 343 started making a broader effort to canonize civilian usage of Spartan equipment, a big question about the project freelancer content of Red vs Blue’s narrative has started to sneakily find itself more and more narratively justified. Everything between the Rakshasa and Hazmat cores implies some really interesting things that generally amount to ‘now we can explain why the project freelancer agents had armor that looked like Mjolnir without them having augmentations.’ In the past at least I think the implication was always that they were utilizing an unpowered form of Mjolnir without the neural link that helped predict movements before they occurred. Though, this was relatively unprecedented and hard to substantiate with canon, since the broader Halo universe at the time the project freelancer flashbacks were written only had Marines and ODST using unpowered equipment. Now with what we know about what would eventually become Spartan IV’s and folks that used Hazmat tech, the once strange hole of continuity that was the unpowered Mjolnir armor of the project freelancer soldiers has been filled in. I find it interesting how years after this original Red vs Blue content was written it’s still finding ways to integrate itself with the broader ever changing Halo canon.

man I love watching halo lore videos talking about the differences between bungie canon and 343 canon because it adds a completely new layer of understanding to rvb.

for example; in bungie's halo an ai experiencing rampancy is an ai realizing its sentience and gaining true freewill—aka, they become human.

in 343 canon this is obviously not the case, and an ai experiencing rampancy is degrading into non functionality rather than transcending from the limitations of their original programming.

both forms of rampancy involve the ai "going crazy", but it's so interesting to see how these lore changes are reflected towards the ai's in rvb. with burnie and matt returning I wonder if epsilon's rampancy is going to reflect bungie's lore instead of 343's, and if his degradation in function will instead be attributed to the fact that he's always been an unstable ai fragment whose functionality has always been questionable?

[animusrox]

TOP 10

Past Lives

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Poor Things

Oppenheimer

Barbie

BlackBerry

The Holdovers

The Iron Claw

Killers of the Flower Moon

MY LETTERBOXD Grade A 11.    The Killer 12.    Beau Is Afraid 13.    Dream Scenario 14.    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 15.    Godzilla Minus One 16.    American Fiction 17.    They Cloned Tyrone 18.     Evil Dead Rise 19.    Eileen 20.    The Artifice Girl 21.   Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem 22.    Talk to Me 23.    Reality 24.    Leave the World Behind 25.    A Thousand and One 26.    Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One 27.    Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. 28.    Theater Camp 29.   Carmen 30.    Merry Little Batman 31.    Priscilla 32.    Society of the Snow 33.    Infinity Pool 34.    Enys Men 35.    Sanctuary 36.    Rye Lane 37.    Skinamarink 38.    Monster 39.    Anatomy of a Fall 40.    Landscape with Invisible Hand 41.    Reptile 42.    Sisu 43.    Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game 44.    No One Will Save You 45.    Tetris 46.    May December 47.    The Zone of Interest 48.    V/H/S/85 49.    Dumb Money 50.    El Conde 51.    Arnold 52.    Maestro 53.    Napoleon 54.    20 Days in Mariupol 55.    Influencer 56.    The Creator 57.    Origin 58.    Thanksgiving 59.    Next Goal Wins 60.    The Boy and the Heron 61.    Bottoms 62.    Wonka

[Press Keep Reading For The Full Graded List]

Grade B

63.   God Is a Bullet 64.    No Hard Feelings 65.    Joy Ride 66.    Fair Play 67.     Cocaine Bear 68.    NYAD 69.    Asteroid City 70.    Nowhere 71.    The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster 72.    Divinity 73.    The Equalizer 3 74.    The Last Voyage of the Demeter 75.    Venus 76.    Butcher’s Crossing 77.    Somewhere in Queens 78.    The Persian Version 79.    Boston Strangler 80.    Polite Society 81.    Miguel Wants to Fight 82.    The Color Purple 83.    The Royal Hotel 84.    Saw X 85.    All of Us Strangers 86.    Fallen Leaves 87.    Ferrari 88.    Elemental 89.    Peter Pan & Wendy 90.    Renfield 91.    Cat Person 92.    Scream VI 93.    The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes 94.    BS High 95.    Blue Beetle 96.    Huesera: The Bone Woman 97.    When Evil Lurks 98.    Dark Harvest 99.    A Good Person 100.    Final Cut 101.    Knock at the Cabin 102.    Quiz Lady 103.    Leo 104.    Air 105.    The Super Mario Bros. Movie 106.    Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham 107.    John Wick: Chapter 4 108.    Beaten to Death 109.    The Wrath of Becky 110.    Passages 111.    Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 112.    Gran Turismo 113.    65 114.    Sick 115.    Sister Death 116.    The Blackening 117.    Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain 118.    Flamin’ Hot 119.    Nimona 120.    Cobweb 121.    Totally Killer 122.    What’s Love Got to Do with It? 123.     Sharper 124.    Unseen 125.    Dunki 126.    Bird Box Barcelona 127.    The Marvels 128.    Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Grade C

129.   Wildflower 130.    Freelance 131.    M3GAN 132.    Strays 133.    Sympathy for the Devil 134.    Creed III 135.    Chevalier 136.    The Marsh King’s Daughter 137.    A Haunting in Venice 138.    The Little Mermaid 139.    Silent Night 140.    Master Gardener 141.    The Flash 142.    Fast X 143.    The Pope’s Exorcist 144.    Saltburn 145.    Kandahar 146.    Stand 147.    Plane 148.   Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 149.    Fingernails 150.    Quicksand 151.    Fool’s Paradise 152.    Migration 153.    Rustin 154.    The Covenant 155.    Good Burger 2 156.    The Pod Generation 157.    Alice, Darling 158.    Insidious: The Red Door 159.    Missing 160.    Shotgun Wedding 161.    You Hurt My Feelings 162.    The Boogeyman 163.    Showing Up 164.    Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom 165.    Champions 166.    Consecration 167.    The Nun II 168.    Biosphere 169.    House Party 170.    The Exorcist: Believer 171.    Big George Foreman 172.    Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves 173.    Children of the Corn 174.    The Beanie Bubble 175.    Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Grade F

176.    Anyone But You 177.    Marlowe 178.    Paint 179.    Extraction 2 180.    It Lives Inside 181.    Deliver Us 182.    Trolls Band Together 183.    Finestkind 184.    Corner Office 185.    Wish 186.    Prisoner’s Daughter 187.    Pain Hustlers 188.    Foe 189.    The Mother 190.    Old Dads 191.    Ghosted 192.    Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken 193.    Haunted Mansion 194.    Mafia Mamma 195.    Five Nights at Freddy’s 196.    The Machine 197.    Justice League: Warworld 198.    We Have a Ghost 199.    What Comes Around 200.    Legion of Super-Heroes 201.    The Boys in the Boat 202.    Attachment 203.    Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre 204.    About My Father 205.    You People 206.    Meg 2: The Trench 207.    Pathaan 208.    Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire 209.    Assassin 210.    Dalíland 211.    Vacation Friends 2

Bottom 10

212.    Sound of Freedom 213.    Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 214.    When You Finish Saving The World 215.    Heart of Stone 216.    Family Switch 217.    Expend4bles 218.    Sweetwater 219.    Hypnotic 220.    80 for Brady 221.    Spinning Gold

[dark-corner-cunning]

Honoring the Spirits of Home: Creating Sacred Spaces for the Unseen

Welcome back, Seekers! Within my local coven, we are journeying through the mysteries of Spirit until Winter Solstice. Today, I introduced the art of crafting Spirit Houses, and I thought it would be fitting to share a bit of that here. I like to keep these crafty posts simple and open-ended, leaving space for the practitioner to add their own touch. The best magick often arises from just diving in and letting your intuition guide the way. May this inspire you to connect, create, and explore! 🌙✨

As witches, we work with spirits every day, whether we realize it or not. Our homes, like ourselves, are steeped in the spirit world, alive with layers of unseen inhabitants that have their own roles, wisdom, and stories to tell. For many of us, it’s a quiet understanding that a witch’s home should be haunted—not in the fearful sense, but filled with life that pulses in harmony with our craft. From ancestral guides and house spirits, to the land’s ancient beings, these entities weave themselves into the very fabric of our spaces, enriching them with energy and presence.

Regardless of whether a home is newly built or weathered by decades, each dwelling becomes imbued with spirit. There’s an existing ecosystem of energies that connect to the land itself, the history of the area, and the layers of life that once lived or passed through. These spirits, sometimes subtle, sometimes profound, thrive within the space we call home, coexisting with us and enhancing our magick. But it is up to us to nurture a balanced and harmonious relationship with them.

Why Connect with the Spirits of Your Home?

Developing a deep, reciprocal relationship with the spirits of your home doesn’t just benefit your craft; it offers blessings for everyone under your roof. When these spirits feel acknowledged and respected, they offer protection, lend strength to your magickal workings, and create an atmosphere of peace and nourishment. A home can truly feel like a sanctuary when the spirits that dwell within it are in harmony with those who reside there in the flesh. This connection turns your space into an anchor—a place of personal power, healing, and resilience.

Building Friendships with Spirit

Nurturing relationships with spirits requires time, care, and a commitment to reciprocity. Just as with human friendships, there is a cycle of giving and receiving. Spirits respond to sincere attention and intention, as well as the gifts and gestures we offer them. One meaningful way to foster this connection is by creating a spirit house or a dedicated space where spirits can feel welcomed and honored.

A spirit house is both a physical symbol and a spiritual anchor. It becomes a place where offerings can be left, and it serves as a gateway for interaction with the spirit world in a respectful and clear manner. It’s a way of saying, “You are welcome here, I honor your presence, and I seek your guidance and protection.”

Creating Your Spirit House

Designing a spirit house is a creative, personal process. It need not be elaborate; sometimes, the simplest gestures carry the deepest respect. You may choose a small altar, a shelf, or even a discreet box placed in a peaceful corner of your home. Consider using natural materials—wood, clay, or stone—as they tend to resonate well with spirits of place. Personalize it with items like stones from your land, soil, dried herbs, or even water from a local stream. Each addition builds a bridge between your energy and the spirits you invite into your home.

When crafting your spirit house, remember that offerings and gifts can strengthen this relationship over time. Spirits, like friends, appreciate time, energy, love, and tokens of appreciation. Remember, spirits are aware of intention as much as they are of the physical offering, so approach this creative expression with reverence and sincerity.

For my spirit house, I’ve chosen to weave in unsea, or “old man’s beard,” gathered lovingly from my mother tree, a sacred link to the ancient and wise energies of the land. I've placed birds within the space, their forms standing as messengers and symbols of spirit, guiding and connecting with the unseen. Mushrooms, too, find their place here, embodying my bond with the natural world—grounded yet reaching into hidden realms. They carry the magick of spiritual growth, reminding me of the mystery and connection to realms beyond. Each piece breathes life into the space, deepening my relationship with the spirits I honor… and I placed a bell at the entrance, placed with the hope of hearing it softly chime as the spirits pass through.

[hazelfoureyes]

Cheezus CRISPUS, did you read the other works this past week?! fuuuuck...do...do I wanna fuck Adam now?! no...shh, no. fight the darkness....

Here is this week's schedule heheh

Coven: @fraugwinska @minkdelovely @sugoi-writes @macabr3-barbi3 @synamartia (banners by Syn!)

Masterlist for Kinktober (Thank you Syn!)

Kinktober 2024 - Day 7 - Amen

Lucifer takes the time to properly worship his lover's soft, inviting body.

꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷

「warnings/promises: Lucifer x SoftAFAB!Reader, I don't want to say curvy reader because sometime out body folds not curves, no sex just Luci lavishing reader's curves and softness with kisses, because fuck we don't love them enough, short short short because it was a love letter, little pussy lick just as a treat, I will sing the praises of thick and soft thighs and bellies until you get aroused looking at your own reflection」

꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷꒷꒦꒷

MDNI 🛕🛐

Lucifer always had you start the evening sitting on the bed, because he liked the way your stomach touched your thighs.

What good was existing if he couldn’t indulge in the pleasures of a luxurious body?

He wanted his lips to press into soft flesh. He wanted his hands to roam over bounty and curves. 

Luci began at your feet, so that he could look up at you from a proper place of worship — his knees.

Each foot doted on and caressed, hands sliding up calves that he praised for carrying his love to him. His mouth gave his gratitude up to your thighs. He kept them closed at first, and peppered the skin available with increasingly lingering pecks. His fingertips ghosted over dimpled flesh, evidence you were real and not just a painting of a well kept woman. 

“On your back, please.” He instructed and you followed without hesitation.

He didn’t know where to continue next. He never did. A starved man staring down a banquet — he wanted to grab and touch every part of you until he was sure he was satiated. 

But he had to begin somewhere, so he returned to the comfort of your thighs. With your legs open, he lied on his stomach and brought his mouth back to your body.

His lips parted and he pulled the skin of your inner thigh between them. As he drew closer to your core you could feel his smile sliding up and in.

And when his hungry mouth swiped his tongue between your folds your thighs tightened around his head.

Closing the temple doors on a devotee? He’d call it cruel if he didn’t feel his cock jump against the blanket at the feeling of your heated skin filling in the negative space of his adoration. He’d be happy to die, for the first time, smothered between your legs.

But he moved on, after a quick kiss to your bud. He lifted his head to kiss his way up. Finally, his hands could explore and squeeze the divine shape of you. 

He blanketed your stomach in unseen prayer, words whispered into the beauty of a temple grande and generous in its refuge. 

On a hot day you were his reprieve that let his mind go dull and quiet and exist in the most simple of pleasures; his head on your lap, your hands in his hair. And cold nights were made sweat inducing with his inability to tire of the way you shook and jiggled with every harsh thrust. How could he keep his eyes off of you when even your skin echoed his love?

Luci knew he must not lose focus now,  not yet. The ritual wasn’t done, and he couldn’t truly indulge until he first said grace.

Your breasts were not made for his pleasure or attention but he was grateful you allowed him to give both. His hands were cups you overflowed, inviting in the way you spilled from his palms. To be made too great to be held in even an angel’s hands, flesh and fat and bone that formed in God’s image as they saw fit. Designed by a universe far too vast to see in a single look, much like a figure he could endlessly lose himself in. A body even the king of hell couldn’t adore in a single pass.

He tried his best with his mouth to take you in as he would a round and freckled apple. 

Luci moaned into your chest, leaving marks as he found himself desperate to claim this body for his own. Like every Roman villa had a deity and an altar, he needed to make it clear he had his. A shapeshifting shrine that changed with the whims of his goddess; his lap, his hands, his tongue.

Along your neck he kissed ever soft lines until he reached your chin. 

Now, he was in church. His body resting on yours where his weeping cock now pressed into your gates. 

How many centuries had he watched man recreate such delights in stone, wood, oil, and light? And now here it was; in the flesh. 

He may have forced God to abandon Eden, but he was grateful to find his own safe, personal paradise in you.

Lucifer kissed your cheeks and then your nose. When you smiled, he smiled back. His hands wandered down to grip handfuls of your thighs as his brow rose suggestively.

“Ready to begin?”

⋅˚₊‧ ଳ⋆Masterlist.ೃ࿔*:･

˖  ݁𖥔.Summoning the Horny Little Deer Cult.𖥔 ݁ ˖

@eris-norwega @reath-solia @catticora , @angelicribbons , @xalygatorx

@cxrsedwxrlds , @nonetheartist , @tsunaki , @janchei ,  @moonmark98

, @readergirlstuff , @berry-demon , @chirimeimei , @fairyv-ice , @olive-frog ,

@thonethatflies620 , @tiredkiwiii , @ilikemyteawithmilk  , @whateverlololo , @psipies

@howabouticallyou , @roxxie-wolf ,  @fizzled-phoenix   , @star-kujo-platinum

, @a-case-of-attachment, @multifandomfanatic02 @watereddownmilk   , @bontensbabygirl  @smoky000

@hoebihoeshi , @pansexual-opera-house , @polytheatrix , @lorddiabigmommymilkers , @backinthefkingbuildingagain

@harley2223-blog  , @poinappel , @midnightnoiserose , @spookieroz , @missmidorima ,

@ivebeenthearchersstuff , @downbadforfictionalppl , @xx-all-purpose-nerd-xx , @sleepylittledemon , @aether-th3-enby

@dontfuckbutimfab @breathlessaura , @aperfectidiot , @certainlygay , @jth12

[d-z20]

The Ballad of Agatha Harkness

Ongoing - follow this post for updates

Summary: The night of Agatha Harkness's birth was anything but ordinary. Under the shroud of a lunar eclipse, magic crackled in the air as a formidable coven prepares for a moment that will change their legacy forever. In the shadowed heart of a forest clearing outside Salem, power and prophecy intertwine, weaving an eerie harmony with the haunting notes of a song carried from a nearby tavern. As the storm inside and outside the chamber grows, unseen eyes watch from the veil, drawn by the promise of a destiny both dangerous and extraordinary. - OR - The backstory of Agatha Harkness we were robbed of

A/N: Big sad that we didn’t get more Agatha (and Rio) backstory so I’m taking matters into my own hands and taking us back to the very beginning. It's going to be like so so gay dude

Any 18+ chapters are not essential to the plot and can be skipped

Click here for to find the story on AO3 | Master List

Navigation

Chapter 1: Birth Under Darkness

Chapter 2: Shadows of Youth

Chapter 3: Sorrow and Solace

Chapter 4: A Difference Punished

Chapter 5: The Night of Reckoning

Chapter 6: Whispers Made Flesh

Chapter 6.5: Before the Dawn (NSFW)

Chapter 7: In Her Shadow

Chapter 8: The Hunter's Moon/A Kiss With Death

Chapter 9: Death's Dilemma

Chapter 10: A Confrontation of Hearts

Chapter 10.5: Death and the Woman That Defied Her (NSFW)

Chapter 11: Power Plays

Chapter 12: Twisted Bonding

Chapter 13: The Confession of Death

Chapter 13.5: She Who Comes for Death (NSFW)

Chapter 14: Love in the Darkness

These chapters are coming soon:

Chapter 15: Shifting Tides

Chapter 16: Life and Death

Chapter 17: Two Years Of Blood

[sasheemo]

When we collide

Chapter 3

Read on AO3

Fic masterlist

Chapter Summary: Returning to the forest the morning after Agatha’s outburst, you attempt to restore order. Agatha soon appears, sparking a tense confrontation. Tensions flare as past assumptions are shattered, and under the weight of vulnerability and unresolved questions, Agatha reluctantly begins to open up, hinting at a depth neither of you fully understands yet.

Word Count: 2.3k

As you enter the familiar woods, the cool morning air greets you, filling your lungs with the earthy scent of damp leaves and moss. Each step crunches against the carpet of foliage, a reminder of the chaos that had unfolded here just the day before. But something feels different today, heavier. The remnants of Agatha’s magic hang in the air like an invisible veil, tinged with her raw emotion.

You shake your head, trying to silence the conflicting thoughts. "You’re not here to check on Agatha” you tell yourself, but deep down, you know that isn’t entirely true. You reason your apprehension is directed just at the sake of the forest, trying to remind yourself that the fragile ecosystem deserved better than the mess Agatha left behind. You’d been using this place as an escape and you refused to let it be tarnished by the fallout of someone else’s turmoil.

Finally, you reached the clearing, your stomach twisting into knots at the sight before you. There, piled high, was the wreckage of broken branches and uprooted plants that Agatha had carelessly discarded. Your disappointment morphed into anger as you approached the pile, an unimpressed scoff escaping your lips.

This is her idea of fixing it?

With a flick of your wrist, you summon your magic, the air around you buzzing with energy. You focus on the pile, envisioning it engulfed in flames. “Back to the earth” you mutter softly as you channel your frustration and, as the flames flickered to life, you feel a sense of satisfaction washing over you. You are watching the flames dance in a controlled fire, when a rustling sound echoes through the trees behind you, followed by a voice that cuts through the air like a knife and makes you turn immediately. “What do you think you’re doing?”

You hold her gaze and despite her coldness, or maybe because of it, there’s a part of you that refuses to back down. “I didn’t think you’d come back to fix it, Agatha” you reply, watching her closely. “Thought I’d finish what you started”

She narrows her eyes, clearly not amused. “I didn’t ask for your help and I don’t want you here” she mutters, arms crossing defensively as if shielding herself from an unseen threat.

You cross your arms in return, mirroring her stance. “And yet, here I am.”

The silence stretches, tense and unyielding, you can feel her indifference trying to chase you away but you don’t move. You wait, watching the way her fingers twitch, the way her jaw tightens. This isn’t the same Agatha you’ve seen before in passing glances—poised, composed, a picture of confidence.

She stands there, the hood of her deep purple cloak partially covering her features and you can’t help but search her face, remembering fleeting memories of times you’ve crossed paths. She was always at the edge of your life, a presence looming just out of reach. You can clearly see her, walking through the coven’s halls with that same proud gait, her head high as if carrying secrets you could only guess at. In all those moments, she’d barely looked your way, barely spared a glance, addressing you only when necessary or required. And yet, you realize, you always knew where she was. Her figure was a fixture in your periphery, a silent reminder of the path you’d been expected to walk.

But in the last 24 hours, seeing her like this, almost brittle, that image started to shatter. You feel a strange sense of satisfaction in piercing her armor, but there’s something else too. A nagging feeling that makes you want to reach out, to make her drop the pretense. But why should you care?

She’s watching you with a mix of suspicion and something you can’t quite place, and for the first time, you wonder if she’s hiding as much as you are. Her shoulders seem tense, and though she tries to stand tall, there’s a slight slump that betrays her exhaustion. You wonder if she spent last night lying awake, haunted by whatever had brought her here to begin with.

“So, you’re here to gloat? To judge me for—“ she suddenly accuses, her jaw tightens as she looks down, studying the ground as if it could give her an answer.

“No.” you cut her off, surprised at your own intensity. “I’m not here to gloat.”

She meets your gaze again, and for a moment, the hard lines around her eyes soften. There’s a question in her stare, one she doesn’t seem willing to ask aloud. You find yourself wanting to answer it anyway, but the words elude you. What are you supposed to say? That her tears made her seem…human? That seeing her break apart the way you sometimes feel on the inside made you feel less alone?

“I didn’t tell anyone” you say, unsure why you’re bothering to reassure her. 

Her shoulders relax a fraction, though her eyes remain guarded. “Why not? I thought you’d use anything you could against me.”

You let out a bitter laugh. “Believe it or not, Agatha, I don’t have time to waste on plotting your downfall. I have my own life, my own things to deal with.”

She watches you, skepticism etched into her features, but you can sense her defenses faltering, the slightest crack in her armor. You can’t help but push a little further, hoping to get to the truth, though you can’t explain why it matters so much.

“What happened yesterday?” you ask quietly. “What was so terrible that it…made you do all this?” you gesture around, your hands pointing outwards to the remains of her outburst.

Agatha’s face hardens again, but this time, the mask seems thinner, almost translucent. “You wouldn’t understand” she whispers, her voice barely audible.

You feel a pang of frustration, mixed with something else—something softer. “Try me.”

She lets out a sigh, and for the first time, you notice how small she looks against the towering trees, her defiance shrinking in the morning light. “It’s…complicated.” she murmurs, almost to herself. Her voice holds a vulnerability that for some reason makes you want to reach out, to say something, anything, to make her see you’re not the enemy she’s built you up to be.

You take a hesitant step closer, feeling the weight of her words pressing down on you. “We both know our mothers have their own agendas” you say slowly, testing the waters. “But that doesn’t mean we have to live by their rules. Maybe you don’t owe me an explanation, but…you don’t have to keep pretending, either.”

Agatha glances at you, a flicker of surprise in her eyes. She opens her mouth to speak, then hesitates, her fingers brushing against the frayed hem of her cloak as if grounding herself. Your words settle between you, fragile and raw. You swallow, feeling your own walls begin to crack, pieces of yourself you’ve hidden away for so long resurfacing in the silence. You want to tell her you understand—that you, too, feel trapped beneath expectations that aren’t yours. But the words remain lodged in your throat.

Agatha seems to relax, if only slightly, her gaze lingering on yours as if searching for something she’s not sure she’ll find. You can feel the tension ebbing, neither of you says anything but there’s something that feels like an unspoken understanding, a silent acknowledgment of the burden you both carry. Finally, Agatha lets out a quiet breath. “I don’t need your pity” she murmurs, but her voice lacks its usual bite.

“I didn’t come here to pity you” you reply, and for once, the words feel entirely true. The moment hangs in the air, thick with tension, until you continue “I just assumed—”. Before you can finish your sentence, Agatha raises her hands, her magic swirling around her. With a flick of her wrist fire leaps from her fingertips, merging seamlessly with the flames you already conjured.

You turn back around just in time to see the pile bursts into a roaring inferno, both of your magics entwine feeding the flames with vibrant intensity, the fire still controlled yet wild. Entranced by the view, you can’t help but reflect on the striking contrast between the two versions of Agatha that now live in your mind. One is the girl you had seen yesterday—vulnerable, trembling, tears spilling as she mourned the chaos of her actions. And the other is the Agatha Harkenss you’re used to see around Salem, the version that everyone knows, radiating power and confidence with a fierce smirk on her lips. How can someone be so broken yet so … mesmerizing? It is unsettling, and you find yourself wrestling with the realization that maybe she is far more complex than you initially believed.

With the heat of the flames casting flickering shadows around you, you can feel your heart racing—not just from the exertion of magic but from the tumult of emotions swirling in your chest. You are angry, yes, but there is something else simmering beneath the surface: a growing curiosity about Agatha, about what makes her tick, about the real girl hiding behind the confident façade.

While you are lost in your thoughts, Agatha takes a few steps closer until she is standing beside you. The crackling fire roars around you, its brightness illuminating both your faces, creating an almost surreal atmosphere where everything else fades into the background. The ash dances in the air like tiny fireflies, swirling in the breeze, and for a moment, it feels as though the world has narrowed down to just the two of you.

You both watch as the flames finally begin to settle, turning into a smoldering pile of embers. Agatha huffs, snapping you out of your thoughts and brushing her hands together with a satisfied face. “There. I fixed my mess.” she states, a hint of finality in her tone as she turns to leave.

Suddenly, as she starts to walk away, an inexplicable urge wells up inside you and before you can stop yourself, you blurt out “How are you?”. The question surprised you as much as it did her.

Agatha freezes in her tracks, her back still turned to you, leaving a heavy silence hanging in the air between you. The moment stretches on, filled only by the soft crackle of the dying fire. Your heart races, anticipation coiling tightly in your chest as you wait for her response, not sure it will ever come, making you instantly regret the vulnerability of your words.

After a long pause, Agatha slowly turns around, her expression unreadable. “What does it matter to you?” she asks, her voice sharper than any blade. The defiance in her eyes sparks like the last embers of the fire, but behind that fierce façade, you catch a flicker of something else—insecurity, perhaps? A hint of fear? You can’t tell.

You feel frustration boil inside you again, igniting a fierce determination to break through her barriers. The words slip out before you can stop them, the image of her vulnerable figure holding the injured animal instantly surging back in your mind. “Yesterday I- I saw your face. I saw you crying. You weren’t okay.”

Her eyes narrow, the defiance morphing into something darker. “It’s none of your business.” she snaps, but the edge of her voice wavers slightly, betraying the vulnerability she is trying to hide.

You are tired of her games, of her dismissiveness “It is my business when it spills over into the only place where I can find peace!” You step closer, the ambers casting a fierce glow on your face, mirroring the intensity of your emotions. “You made it my business!”

Agatha shifts uncomfortably, the bravado slipping for just a moment as she glances away. “I’m not here to justify myself to you” she mutters, but the words lack conviction. You can see the internal struggle playing out in her eyes, as if she is caught between the impulse to retreat and the urge to reveal the truth.

“Then what are you here for?” You press, your curiosity sharpening your resolve. “To burn your problems away and pretend yesterday never happened?”.

“Pretend?” she shoots back, her voice rising. “I’m not pretending! You think you know me, but you have no idea!”

“I don’t think I know you, I know I don’t, I just want to understand.” you insist, your voice less sharp but equally steady and firm.

Agatha falls silent, and for a moment, it feels like the air itself thickens. You can see her breathing deepen, her eyes darting away, searching for something to anchor herself. “Why would you even care?” she finally asks, tentatively, as if your interest is a foreign concept.

“Because I don’t … I can’t, believe you’re just some spoiled girl throwing a tantrum” you reply, surprising even yourself with the fierceness of your conviction. “I saw you yesterday, Agatha. You were… real. Vulnerable. And it’s like you’re trying so hard to build a wall around yourself and pretend it didn’t happen”

Agatha’s jaw clenches, and she seems to shrink in on herself, the defenses she erected feeling more like a cage than a shield. “You don’t know what you’re talking about” she hisses, but you catch the tremor in her voice, the way it cracks just a little.

“Then tell me” you said softly, your anger dissipating like smoke. “What was it? What happened?”

The silence stretches out again and you can almost see the battle raging in her mind, the urge to spill everything battling with the instinct to protect herself. And then, as if she finally reached some unspoken conclusion, Agatha lets out a sharp breath and sinks to the ground, sitting cross-legged amidst the remnants of the smoldering fire.

“Fine” she says, her voice barely above a whisper. “You want to know? Let’s get this over with”

You follow suit, sitting across from her, the embers crackling softly between you. “I’m listening” you encourage, your heart racing with anticipation.

[steviebunny]

1.

Paris

The revving of motorbikes can be heard along Parisian streets, a woman and her entranced paramour look up as the noise approaches and roars to a stop. The party still thriving behind their secluded bench, the woman looks to the un-invited group in a less than impressed manner, barely suppressing an eye roll as she reverts her attention to the man who still seems more than slightly out of it. 

The first vampire, Armand. A tall man with bronze skin and silken hair that shines under the moonlight leads his coven in stride towards the two, a few rambunctious of his lot snarl behind him. They think they’re scary. How precious. The woman continuous to stare until at the speed in lightning one of his disciples snatched her prey away, tearing into his neck. Armand appears nonplused at the action and speaks to her 

“No solitary vampires may roam in Paris, either you must submit yourself to the coven or take your leave.” 

He stares the woman down trying to enter her mind yet remains incapable. The woman on the bench lets her eyes scan the small crowd,  a few zealots that appear closer to addicts than vampires, with faces painted possibly with lead or arsenic creams, a taller silver-haired one still on his bike with a woman on his back. A dark-skinned man holding a book swaying to the furthest end of the pack away from the commotion, and most interestingly a young girl. 

The Rusalka peers at the leader and announces to the group very calmly

 “That's all well and fine, good thing I’m not a vampire.” then suddenly she hisses at them- all her originally human-looking teeth sharpening to points as her mouth widens giving her an eerily beautiful, terrifying appearance. Her gaze then drops specifically to the young-looking girl and asks within her mind "Are these men keeping you? Should I punish them for it?" The girl, Claudia answers back "This is my coven, I choose to be here…What are you?" The rest of the vampires have shaken off their shock and begin to approach the woman, she drops her face back to normal, brushes her hair over her shoulder, and says 

“The young man you’ve done me the honor of disposing of has an unfortunate tendency of predation on the young children in his care. I’m simply performing a beneficial service but I suppose now I can take my leave.” 

Suddenly she takes off into a sprint and the vampires abandon their mission to follow her, they fail in their attempt as she pounces onto the barrier of the river Seine and plunges herself in. Her body is now unseen in the murky water, all that’s visible is a trace of iridescent color forming what can only be assumed to be a tail. Her escape is much faster that even the vampires can think to swim, almost all the disciples turn back to their coven leader looking for a directive. 

“Do not follow it!” he says grabbing Santiago’s arm as he appears ready to jump in after her, “It claims to not have the dark gift, we know no boundary of how dangerous it may be.”

Louis steps up placing his hand on Claudia’s shoulder “She seemed pretty calm to me, y'all are going to massacre that house anyway what's the harm in letting her take her pick of the lot?”

Celeste scoffs “What ‘arm? The papers are al’readzy reporting on her failure to clean-up. She makes a mess and we ha’ve the repercussions?”

“So we find her again, have a talk about the mess, and hope she responds well. If shes not a vampire what can we do to get her to comply?”

Santiago rips his arm from Armand’s hold “Who’s to say she could survive us? All we know is she has an appetite and too many teeth. I say we use her in a performance and be done with her, maître?”

“We learn is what we’ll do, Sam, Claudia, and I will look through the old texts for any mention of a creature such as it. One that has a face such at it. We understand the danger and then we act. In the meantime should any of you happen to come across her again you return to the théâtre and inform the others.”

–-–-–-–-––-–-–-–-––-–-–-–-––-–-–-–-––-–-–-

You’ve been traveling as long as you’ve been undead, why stay where you're not wanted, right? Once you got your vengeance on him there really wasn’t a reason to stay around and with the war on no one was worried about a young woman popping up in libraries, and auditing university classes on behalf of her ‘brother, fighting the good fight.’ You didn’t even need to mesmerize the scholars you spent time with, one sob story about writing letters to the front lines so your poor 'brother' could learn all that is possible before the worst occurs was enough to have professors tripping over themselves to please you. From physics in St. Petersburg to literature and art in Italy, and now chemistry in France where you’d spend your time under the mentorship of Madame Marie Curie’s apprentices at Sorbonne University. If I have eternity why not learn everything? Your mantra. And you’d be damned if some vampires interrupting your dinner would stop you. Paris is big, what are the odds you’d see any of them again anyway?

[s-soulwriter]

Dark ideas for your book

(promts)

The Eclipsed City: In a dystopian future, a city is perpetually shrouded in darkness due to a rare cosmic event. Within its shadows, a mysterious cult thrives, promising salvation to those who embrace the eternal night.

Spectral Inheritance: A family cursed with the ability to see and communicate with ghosts is haunted by a malevolent spirit that seeks to manipulate them into committing unspeakable acts.

The Silence Plague: A mysterious illness sweeps across the world, causing those afflicted to lose the ability to speak. As society collapses, a group of survivors must navigate the eerie quietness and unravel the origins of the plague.

Cabinet of Wonders: An eccentric collector amasses a macabre assortment of cursed artifacts. When a group of thieves attempts to steal from the collection, they unwittingly unleash ancient evils upon the world.

The Labyrinthine Asylum: A renowned psychologist opens an asylum for the criminally insane, but as he delves into the minds of the patients, he discovers a shared, otherworldly experience that threatens to consume them all.

The Dollmaker's Obsession: A toymaker creates eerily lifelike dolls imbued with the souls of the deceased. As the dolls begin to exhibit disturbing behavior, the townspeople must confront the consequences of meddling with the afterlife.

The Whispering Woods: A forest is rumored to house a malevolent entity that preys on the deepest fears of those who enter. A group of friends camping in the woods must confront their inner demons as reality warps around them.

Mirror, Mirror: A cursed mirror reflects not the physical appearance but the innermost desires of those who gaze into it. As individuals succumb to their obsessions, the mirror's dark power grows stronger.

The Forgotten Carnival: A long-abandoned carnival mysteriously reopens, drawing in unsuspecting visitors. However, the attractions harbor supernatural secrets that force patrons to face their darkest fears.

Phantom Limbs: After a groundbreaking medical procedure, patients begin to experience the sensation of phantom limbs that seem to have a life of their own, leading to a series of grisly and unexplainable events.

The Clockwork Curse: A clockmaker crafts a series of intricate, cursed timepieces that manipulate the lives of their owners. As time unravels, the characters must race against the clock to break the curse.

The Wretched Symphony: In a haunted opera house, a composer unwittingly writes a masterpiece that channels the anguish of tormented spirits. The music's power transcends the stage, causing supernatural disturbances throughout the city.

The Soul Market: A hidden market emerges where people can buy and sell souls. Those who partake soon discover the horrifying consequences of trading away their essence.

Tunnels of Despair: A series of mysterious tunnels are discovered beneath a small town, leading to an ancient chamber that houses a malevolent force capable of manifesting the fears of anyone who enters.

The Crimson Masquerade: At a masquerade ball, attendees wearing cursed masks find themselves trapped in a surreal realm where their darkest secrets are revealed, leading to a night of intrigue, betrayal, and horror.

The Oracle's Prophecy: A gifted oracle foretells a series of apocalyptic events, and a group of unlikely heroes must decipher the cryptic messages to prevent the end of the world.

The Coven's Conspiracy: In a secluded village, a coven of witches enacts a dark ritual to unleash a powerful ancient entity. As the villagers begin to vanish, a lone investigator must confront the supernatural forces at play.

The Unseen Gallery: An artist creates paintings that come to life, each depicting a nightmarish realm. As the paintings multiply, they threaten to merge the real world with their grotesque dimensions.

The Haunting Melody: A cursed melody is passed down through generations, causing madness and death to those who hear it. A musician discovers the haunting tune and must find a way to break the curse before it claims more lives.

The Apothecary's Concoction: A mysterious apothecary brews elixirs that grant extraordinary abilities, but at a cost. As users become addicted to the potions, they spiral into madness, leading to a city on the brink of collapse.

[aparticularbandit]

Heart's Desire

Summary: In old coven trials, they cast the spell Heart's Desire on their condemned.

The spell manifested a new, illusory world, wherein the condemned were given everything they ever wanted. For a serial killer, the world might be full of victims for them to tear apart, or it could show a world where the trauma that triggered their sequence of murders never existed. It's believed that the original purpose of the spell was to provide empathy for the condemned, but by the time it was used on Agatha, its more common use was one of punishment.

To learn what the condemned wanted most and then to make sure that they never gained it.

For a long time, no one realized that living through the spell and coming out the other side was often torture enough, and once they did, the Heart's Desire was considered a last resort.

This realization occurred roughly a hundred years before the spell was used on Agatha.

Her mother just didn't care.

Rating: T.

AO3

“Oh, no,” Agatha whispers as she walks into the room.  Her fingers hook into the threads of magic surrounding her – surrounding all of them – and cling to it as though that will soothe her, as though that will make her feel better.  She looks towards it, even though it has no physical form, and her gaze drifts through the magic on which she is focusing to where Rio stands beyond it, even though she doesn’t see her.  “Not again.”

She knows the spell.

In this moment, just as it falls about them, Agatha knows the spell.  She can taste it in the air, just as she can taste the counter-spell on her tongue.  It isn’t an easy spell; it isn’t an easy counter.  The coven would need to help her stop it before it takes root in their minds, before it encompasses them, before it becomes so much harder to leave.

But she knows the spell.

Agatha says nothing, and she lets it wash over her.

~

When Agatha was eighteen years old, her first coven put her on trial.  She’d reached too far above her station, they said, and she deserved to be punished for her sins, no matter what reasoning she’d had to reach for that knowledge.  It mattered little how well they all knew of her problems controlling her power and the damage that lack of control caused; maybe they’d been looking for a way to end her ever since she was born.  (Her mom certainly had.)

Afterwards, the rumors circulated that Agatha murdered her coven.

No one really cared what came before the murder.

~

The spell encompasses all of them.

It stretches out from Agatha’s heart and ripples outward – unseen and invisible, but an effect all the same – and it takes advantage of her knowledge of the others to grow and expand and engulf them the same way it engulfs her.  She doesn’t see them, but she knows that they won’t feel the sharp stabbing spears through them the way she does know, won’t feel their entire brain smoking as what feels like flames flicker on either side of their head.

They aren’t the center.

Agatha is the center.

It draws on her and from her, and she feels herself stretching thinner and thinner until—

~

In old coven trials, they cast the spell Heart’s Desire on their condemned.

The other witches in the coven would carry something on them to remind them that the world they were in and seeing was not the real one, so that they could invoke the counter-spell as soon as they learned what they wanted to learn.

The spell manifested a new, illusory world, wherein the condemned were given everything they ever wanted.  For a serial killer, the world might be full of victims for them to tear apart, or it could show a world where the trauma that triggered their sequence of murders never existed – a world where their mother might still be alive, a world where they weren’t abused, a world where their high school sweetheart never left them.

It’s believed that the original purpose of the spell was to provide empathy for the condemned – that more of the worlds seen were something like the latter instead of the former – but by the time it was used on Agatha, its more common use was one of punishment.

To learn what the condemned wanted most and then to make sure that they never gained it.

Sometimes, this took the form of multiple interlacing spells. Sometimes, this meant they were locked away.  Sometimes, this meant they were stuck in a family with people who cared about them because for some people, that’s more torturous than anything else.  (Sometimes, after growing close to them, they were forced to kill them.  Multiple condemned could be dealt with in this manner.)

For a long time, no one realized that living through the spell and coming out the other side was often torture enough.

Once they did, the Heart’s Desire spell was considered a last resort.  Worse than that.  It’s better to kill the condemned than it is to put them through all of that.

This realization occurred roughly a hundred years before the spell was used on Agatha.

Her mother just didn’t care.

~

Lilia snaps out first.

Agatha is the center, and so the spell builds the others’ illusions based on her unspoken and unconscious assumptions of what they most want might be.  She knows quite a lot about magic, but she doesn’t know as much as she pretends to know about each of her so-called coven members, and she certainly doesn’t know much about Lilia Calderu.

Lilia sees through the illusion almost immediately.

Almost.

She has never personally been under the Heart’s Desire, but she has been one who cast it, centuries before Agatha was born, before anyone understood what it meant.  As a result, she still remembers the spell to protect herself, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t still shed a single tear when she dispels the illusion surrounding her and makes herself little more than a spectator.

Agatha might know much about her, but she knows enough for it to hurt.

She does not hold this against her.  Agatha is not the one who cast the spell; the Road did.  She didn’t choose this torture.

No one would.

~

Agatha tries not to think about the time she spent under the spell during her Salem trial.

None of it was real after all.

But she remembers how nice it was to have a mother who loved her, to have a full coven who supported her, to have friends among the other daughters of her coven, to be accepted.

If she thinks about it, she misses it.

(And then refuses to say anything about it to anyone else.  Her desires sound so pitiful.  She has all this magic, all this talent, all of this witchcraft and knowledge.  But in the end, when she was a kid, she just wanted to be normal.)

((For a witch, anyway.))

~

Alice sees through the illusion almost as soon as Lilia does – not because the spell isn’t able to mostly accurately predict what Alice most wants, but because she’s already, in a sense, been given that.

The illusion gives Alice her mother back, crafting a world where she never died in that fire, where her music lives on even more than just that Ballad that has haunted her entire life.  But it’s the Ballad itself that breaks Alice out; it plays in the background as her mother dances in front of a fireplace, and the music and the flickering flame remind her—

She knows what happened to her mother.

This isn’t it.

When Lilia arrives for her, Alice isn’t ready to leave the illusion, but she does so regardless.

Her entire life, Alice has wanted to protect people.  She couldn’t protect her mom.  But she can protect the others.

~

Evanora broke the spell.

Evanora said the spell must have been set wrong.

Evanora said there was no way that Agatha wanted a life that she’d always had, if not for her wickedness.

Evanora said a lot of things.

Evanora’s coven believed her.

~

The world created by the Heart’s Desire has layers.

Lilia wants to get Teen first – like Alice, he wouldn’t know about the spell and certainly wouldn’t know how to break himself out of it if he caught what was going on – but he was closest to Agatha when the spell was set, still closest to Agatha in terms of the world they inhabit.

And there’s a darkness there.

Something she can’t see.

Alice wants to stay behind, to see if she can cut through to get to him, but Lilia counters.  Three witches are better than two.

They find Jen glorying in her power.  It takes Alice’s protection spells to break her out.  Even still, Jen doesn’t want to believe them, but she listens when Lilia gives her a small test – if she sets the counter-spell, then that proves the illusion one way or the other.  Jen doesn’t change her mind, but she says the spell anyway.

She cries when her magic is ripped from her again.

~

Evanora doesn’t want to try the Heart’s Desire spell again.  Someone did it wrong – or maybe Agatha herself is the one screwing it up, the same way that her natural magic screws everything else up.  Since they can’t figure out what she wants most, they should blast her.  They should end her the way that covens have been ending problematic, murderous, evil witches from the very beginning.

Because they refuse to believe what they saw as spectators, they don’t realize that in attempting to murder Agatha, they are doing exactly the opposite of what she wants.

Torture on torture on torture.

(She’s so tired.)

~

The three spectating witches look at darkness.

Lilia suggests that the sigil prevents them from seeing Teen’s desires the same way that it prevents them from knowing his name or anything personal about him.

Jen says that’s foolish – the spell is centered on Agatha, who knows just as much about Teen as they do and who certainly wouldn’t be able to provide the spell with enough information to give him anything remotely correct for what he might possibly want.  None of them could.  The sigil shouldn’t prevent them from seeing lies.

Alice pushes past both of them into the darkness because saving Teen is more important than trying to figure out why they can’t see shit.

~

Agatha’s son is dating another boy.

She hasn’t met him yet – in point of fact, Nicholas hasn’t said anything about it yet – but she can tell.

A mother can always tell.

~

Jen says it would probably be better if they called Teen by something other than Teen.  If they don’t use his real name, how can he even hear them?

Alice ignores her.  She’s taking in the monochromatic grayscale surrounding them as the darkness shifts more from a black void into what might as well be the colors of an old TV sitcom.  Before her grandmother died, she’d introduced them to some of the old shows she’d used to learn English, saying lines as the characters did and laughing, smiling.  The fact that Teen seems to now be living in one – she can only assume, since she can’t see anything else – and that Agatha seems to think that’s what he wants more than anything—

It makes her uncomfortable, if she’s honest about it.

(She won’t say that to the others.  They wouldn’t get it.)

Lilia catches sight of Teen first.  She points him out, gestures to the others, and then stops.  Is that other boy with him his boyfriend?

~

Agatha sighs as she shares lunch and tea with her mother.  It’s a constant weekly event: every Wednesday, lunch and tea with her mom.  So they can catch up.  Sometimes they meet more often than that, when they want to see each other or when something bad happens, but that hasn’t been the case in a while.

She confides her worries about Nicholas with her.

Worries is maybe the wrong word.  She’s not worried about him.  She just doesn’t understand why he won’t come out and say what’s going on with her.  It’s not like she would mind.  Has he met her?

Her mother just laughs.  She reminds Agatha that she hadn’t wanted to tell her she was dating a girl either.

Agatha smiles, snide, and runs her finger along the lip of her teacup.  It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted to tell her mother she was dating a girl.  She hadn’t wanted to tell her she was dating—

~

Teen won’t listen to them.

Teen can’t see them.

It’s entirely possible that Teen can’t hear them, either, so it’s not intentional that he isn’t listening to them.  With no way of seeing what he’s seeing – other than the boy he’s with, a boy that he calls Nicholas – they have no way of inserting themselves in the world he’s seeing.  They aren’t spectators here.  They can’t reach him.

Alice volunteers to stay with him while the other two go on ahead, but Lilia says a witch with protective magic will be of particular use when they speak with Agatha.  Jen suggests that Lilia stay behind, but Lilia chastises her – Jen hadn’t been able to realize her own illusion was just that, and she wouldn’t have known the counter-spell if Lilia hadn’t taught it to her.  Of the three of them, Lilia has the most experience.

Jen stays behind, while the other two go on ahead.

~

Agatha’s wife tugs on her sleeve.

They need to go.  Coven meeting, after all, and Agatha can’t miss that.

Agatha doesn’t ask how Rio got there so quickly, how she just appeared as though she’d been there the entire time.  She had been there the entire time; she was just very good about not being seen until – or unless – she wanted to be seen.

Rio kisses her.

They need to go.

Now.

Agatha glances over to her mother, and her heart aches.  She doesn’t understand why it should.  Life has always been like this.  Life will always be like this.  She’ll see her next week – or sooner, if she wants.  It’s okay to leave.

Rio mentions that Nicholas said something to her about bringing someone over to meet them.

Agatha leaves immediately.

~

Rio is never under the spell, or if she was, she’s already broken it by the time Alice and Lilia show up.  Alice glares at her – if she’s been out all this time, then why hasn’t she gotten Agatha out yet?  Only one of them is necessary for that, right?  They could have been done with this shit.

But Rio just shrugs.  It’s not her call.

Lilia’s brow furrows – she guesses something; she sees something – but whatever she guesses or sees, she doesn’t say.  It’s a suspicion, nothing more.  The more important thing is the smile on Agatha’s face that looks so weird and wrong there because it’s a happy smile, and it’s only on seeing this one that she and Alice have to realize that none of the others have been real.

Agatha invites them inside.  There’s a coven meeting.  Her son should be joining them.

Her son? Alice mouths as they follow Agatha inside, but Lilia doesn’t meet her eyes.  She’s heard the rumors, and she’s not surprised.

To be quite honest, Lilia isn’t surprised with anything they see spiraling out from Agatha.  A happy home.  A happy marriage.  It’s possible she noticed an older witch leaving the illusion – perhaps Agatha’s mother.  That was the other thing about the Heart’s Desire spell: more often than not, what people most wanted was this.  Most people didn’t want global reign or infinite power or everyone dead at their feet.  What they really wanted was—

There doesn’t need to be a knock at the door, but there is.

Lilia turns, sees Jen outside the window with wide and frustrated eyes, and makes the connection first.

She makes the wrong connection, of course, but she makes the connection nevertheless.

~

Agatha opens the door to Jen – another coven member, running later than normal, but she was likely preoccupied with someone who needed her magical expertise, and she says as much, not noticing the cringe on Jen’s face, since she’s focused on someone else.

Nicholas.

Agatha brushes her hands through her son’s dark hair as his bright blue eyes shift from her to the boy he’s brought with him.  He introduces her – she doesn’t recognize the name, and she turns to the teen with an eyebrow raised.  Then she recognizes who he is: Wanda’s magical boy.  She beams.

They’ll be building a coven of their own soon, so it’s perfect that they’ve found each other.  It’s always better to know that there’s someone in your coven that you can trust from the start, so that you won’t be alone.

Wanda’s boy says Wanda won’t be joining them today.  Some sort of superhero business with his robot dad.

That’s fine.  They can continue without her.

~

The other witches can only stare as Agatha has a conversation with Teen and Nicholas that they cannot hear.

Jen’s eyes narrow.  This is proof, after all, that Agatha must have set the sigil.  She’s the only one who is able to communicate with Teen within the world that he’s created, so—

Lilia doesn’t think that’s true.  Whatever world is in is one of Agatha’s own creation, spiraling out from the Heart’s Desire spell.  Of course, she would be able to speak through it to Teen.  It’s centered on her—

Alice just wants to know how they break the thing.  She turns to Rio and then to Lilia.  One of them has to know.  Spill.

~

The first crack comes.

Agatha tucks her fingers into the magic she always feels all around her.

It feels wrong.

It’s felt wrong for the past several….

Oh, she knows better.  This spell doesn’t care about time, so however much she thinks has passed, it’s probably not correct.

Agatha tucks her fingers into the magic and feels the lie again and feels the others trying to snap it.  To snap her out of it.  But the Road has changed the spell; she feels that, too.  So when she looks up with the light in her eyes, she reaches out, finds the thread tied around Teen’s neck like a noose, and snaps it.

He wakes.

His brows furrow.

Teen says he was home.  Like nothing ever changed.

Agatha smiles.  That’s the spell.  She wants to reach out and cup his face, but she doesn’t.  Instead, she tells him to leave.

He refuses – says he won’t leave her—

That’s not the point.

Agatha looks to the others.  They see.  One by one, they leave, guided by a Lilia who knows exactly what has to happen and who knows that whatever it is, they don’t want to see it.  She places a hand gentle on Teen’s back and leads him out.  It takes a moment, but then Jen follows.  She’s curious, but not that curious.  Alice hesitates, gaze landing on Rio.  Isn’t she going to leave?  Why do they have to leave?

Rio meets her eyes.  They have to leave because Agatha doesn’t want them to see.  She gets to stay because Agatha wants her to stay.

When Alice is gone and the door’s shut tight behind her, Rio turns to Agatha.  She doesn’t say anything.

Agatha turns to Nicholas and holds him to her chest.

(She knew, she knew, she knew, she knew, but a few stolen seconds under this stupid, stupid spell is better than nothing.)

((She’d stay here if she could.))

She takes Nicholas’s neck in her hands.

Takes a deep breath—

~

Teen hears the sharp snap of broken bone and looks up just in time to see Agatha staring at him through the windowpane, her son’s neck shattered in her hands.

~

Agatha tells him later, when she knows that he’s Billy, why the spell felt so familiar to him.  It’s the base of the one Wanda used to create the Hex, making the world her own Heart’s Desire.

Billy’s brow furrows.

He doesn’t ask about Nicholas.

[retiredkat]

New York Times Interview with Ben Daniels. Farewell Santiago, you marvelous bastard!

‘Interview With the Vampire’: Ben Daniels on That Bloody Season 2 Finale

“He has an energy that’s fun to hate,” the British actor said of his swaggering vampire character in AMC’s series-length Anne Rice adaptation.

June 30, 2024

A man in a gray shirt and striped trousers stands posed as another man comes up behind him

Ben Daniels, left, and Jacob Anderson in the season finale of “Interview With the Vampire.”Larry Horricks/AMC

This interview contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “Interview With the Vampire.”

Until his time in AMC’s “Interview With the Vampire” was cut short — along with his head — in the Season 2 finale, Santiago was the toast of the vampiric theater scene.

Played by the British actor Ben Daniels, himself an Olivier Award-winning veteran of the stage, Santiago was a dashing and devilish performer at the Théâtre des Vampires, in postwar Paris. Formerly known as Francis, a failed English actor, Santiago transformed himself into an underworld dandy after becoming a bloodsucker — and took a cooler-sounding name — rarely seen without a vampiress on each arm and a theatrically hateful twinkle in his eye.

“He’s so awful and delicious at the same time!” Daniels said in a video interview last week. “And it’s his relish of it as well, his glee. He just loves being a vampire.”

Daniels added: “He has an energy that’s fun to hate.”

Unfortunately for Santiago, the show’s title vampire was his hater-in-chief. Over the course of Season 2, which concluded on Sunday, Santiago seized control of the theater troupe, which turned out to be a coven of vampires in disguise. At the season’s climax, Santiago staged a mock trial that ended with the real execution-by-sunlight of Claudia (Delainey Hayles) and her companion, Madeleine (Roxane Duran). It was for this crime that Santiago lost his head to their father figure, the vampire Louis (Jacob Anderson), in the finale.

Based on the novels of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series, the AMC show, created and overseen by Rolin Jones, has already been renewed for a third season. But Daniels doesn’t feel too bad that his character won’t live to see Season 3. Santiago had it coming given his bad behavior — particularly by the end.

“If you didn’t want him dead before,” Daniels said, “you certainly do then.”

These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

If you’re an ex-high school drama club goth who loved “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Santiago is a very magnetic figure. In the show, he even has fans who attend every performance and dress up in character.

“Rocky Horror” was a big influence, “Rocky Horror” and “Cabaret.” I’m so glad Tim Curry’s performance in “The Rocky Horror Show” exists onscreen because it’s one of the best performances ever. I would’ve loved to have seen that in the theater.

I was curious if there was a David Bowie influence, too.

Yes! Santiago gets more and more nihilistic as it goes on, and I thought, it’s so Thin White Duke — that awful cocaine coldness. I just sent Carol Cutshall, the costume designer, endless pictures of Bowie as the Thin White Duke. If you compare, she completely replicated it. Then she added a see-through shirt, which is genius.

As a screen presence, Santiago needs that kind of ammo. He has to hold his own with the “big four” members of the show’s emotional quadrangle, Louis, Lestat [Sam Reid], Claudia and Armand [Assad Zaman], even though he’s not romantically or emotionally involved with any of them.

[Smiling] Is he not?

Well, well, well!

This was one of the first jobs I’ve ever done sight unseen, just because it meant working with Rolin. From the outset, Rolin called up and said, “Listen, are you OK if we don’t make Santiago queer?” I was like, “Yeah, I can sort of see it.”

But as the script started to come in, I thought the only way this level of vitriol that he has works is if he’s in love with Armand. There is this extraordinary psychological term called reaction formation, which is what Iago has for Othello. It’s a defense mechanism whereby your impulses are so unacceptable to your ego that they’re replaced by this opposite, exaggerated behavior.

Santiago finds Louis incredibly attractive. Because Armand killed Santiago’s maker — who I think he was in love with too — and also finds Louis attractive, the whole thing must be destroyed. It gave such a drive to his hatred. It was just something ruminating in myself that drove him forward in a very aggressive, mad, extreme way.

You’re not just a human playing a vampire playing a human playing a vampire. You’re also a stage actor playing a stage actor.

When we shot the majority of the theater stuff in Episode 2, I’d been doing “Madea” for three months on the West End. I finished on a Sunday, and on Wednesday or Thursday I was shooting that whole sequence. So I was already primed when Levan [the director of Episode 2, Levan Akin] said: “Do it like a theatrical performance. We’ll take care of everything.” They filmed everything wide with four cameras, so we didn’t know when we were on and when we weren’t. You just had to keep at it. It was relentless, and he shot it brilliantly.

In Episode 7, just before Claudia dies, being on that stage was like doing a play. We shot that courtroom sequence in 15-minute chunks. They were insane. A lot of the time there were no cameras onstage with us. They were either on cranes, so they were sweeping in and out, or it would only be Emma [the director of Episode 7, Emma Freeman] shooting, doing all the close coverage first so you get these fresh performances immediately, not at the end of three days or whatever. Then all the cameras went away, so you never saw them again. It became like a play.

Is it tricky, as an actor, to play an actor with a … different level of talent?

Poor old Francis. Yes, he’s never achieved the giddy heights that he would like to have. He’s a big old show pony, isn’t he? Basically, I was like a magpie, looking at everything from Vincent Price in “Theater of Blood” — well, Vincent Price in lots of things, actually — to my cat. I would watch how my cat plays with mice, and I was like: You know what? I’m going to steal a bit of that.

Had you ever wanted to play a vampire?

Yes, absolutely. I love horror. It’s what I live for. I grew up watching Christopher Lee as Dracula, and William Marshall as Prince Mamuwalde in “Blacula.” Very debonair, theatrical, that rich voice. I’ve watched those vampires as long as I can remember.

I’ve always adored horror. Kids that are outsiders often do. Growing up as a queer kid, those villains, like the vampires, are often how people treat gay people. It’s always there, that queer coding. In those old James Whale movies, it’s there. It’s written into them.

More than any other writer, Anne Rice identified the tragedy within the monstrousness of the vampire. They are immortal, but the people they love can still die, and that experience stays with them literally forever.

Part of the reason I can’t watch “Vampire” at the moment is my partner just died. The resonances are huge at the moment. Grief is a [expletive] beast. It’s like being mugged in broad daylight, and you never know when it’s going to hit you. She explores all that brilliantly.

I think in any kind of creative job, you are like a sponge. You soak up what is happening to you, or in the world, and sometimes it bleeds out, and it’s useful. We were shooting “Vampire” when Ian [his partner, the actor Ian Gelder] was first diagnosed [with lung cancer; Gelder was later diagnosed with bile duct cancer, from which he died last month]. When I started watching Episode 2, I know what was going on in my life fed into it — of course it would, when you’re telling a story about death and dying and killing people and living forever. I watched it; I knew the conversations I was having between takes … It is too much at the moment. It’s too close to home.

But [eventually], I will be able to see what I was going through with Ian, even in the anger I have with other characters. I know it will have informed it in some way, but I hope in a good way.

What I am enjoying is people’s reactions to it, without actually watching it. Rolin called me up and said: “Just Google yourself. Search ‘Ben Daniels Santiago’ on Twitter. Look at people’s reactions if you’re not going to watch it.” So I’ve been living through people reacting to it, which has been great.

[a-magpie-in-gravesfield]

Just me nerding out about fragrances

I was asked about the scents I picked for the fragrances I use on my letters/the other sents I came up with, so I decided to make a whole document nerding out about my thought process behind each one XD I might come up with a few more in the future, I'll put a "keep reading" so this post doesn't clog your timeline because it's VERY long XD

EMPEROR'S COVEN

Scent description : 

This is what I imagine the castle/Philip to smell like - it's the scent I use for the first couple letters I send with Etsy orders. It’s not too overpowering, it’s fairly calming and reminds me a little bit of scents from old historical buildings.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

Incense is often used in churches, which I thought would be pretty fitting for the character, especially considering the castle is, well, a coven ahah. The incense scent also has notes of sandalwood, which according to google "Because of sandalwood's purifying properties, it is believed to help clear negative energy from our surroundings. For this reason, spiritual ceremonies often use it to create a sacred space." Considering Belos says he wants to purify the isles from wild magic, this seemed to fit his vibe too (Obviously I don’t agree with this, but I was trying to pick scents that would be fitting the vibes of specific locations, so I tried my best to represent them the way they were intended to be portrayed, if that makes sense !). "Library" scent was because I can see the castle having a lot of these, Philip seems to be the kind to enjoy books a lot. The scent also has undertones of leather, dark musk and teakwood which I thought were scents that could go well with the castle too. For the "sage and cypress" cents, I found on google "Sage is also a symbol of protection, a guardian that stands sentinel against unseen forces that may seek to disrupt one's state of balance.", and that also fits the way Philip portrays his coven, where everything is always in order etc. The cypress tones were mostly because the castle is surrounded by a forest, but cypress also represents "everlasting life" and is also "used in rituals with the dead", also very fitting for the character ! "Golden Santal" had a really fitting name because of the gold part, cedar also represents "protection, wisdom and strength", lavender is told to have calming properties (and Philip often has a calm demeanour), amber and musk also contribute to those castle vibes.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

GRAVESFIELD

Scent description : 

This smells a little like after it rained outside, and has a sort of sad/gloomy vibe to it.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

"Rainy Morning" is a scent I wanted to use because rain seems to have significance to Philip, but also because rain scents can give a kind of sad/gloomy feeling, which I thought would be pretty fitting for 1600s Gravesfield "Noble pine" is a scent I picked because the town was surrounded by a lot of forest areas, Incense was used for the same reason as it was in the Emperor's coven scent, because church was very present in Gravesfield at the time. Sandalwood is "Said to bring people closer to the divine, inciting calmness and clearing the mind, it is the most commonly used incense for meditation, prayer, and other spiritual practices across multiple religions.", which also felt fitting for the town.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

PEACEFUL MEMORIES

Scent description : 

It smells really really sweet, it has a very “cheerful” and floral vibe to it.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

This scent isn't something I imagined a specific area to smell like, but was more meant to represent a certain mood, when I made it I was thinking about the good memories Philip and Caleb would have when they used to play as kids. Firewood is a scent I picked because I imagined this is what they used a lot to cook, and the scent also has undertones of sandalwood and incense. Even tho in that case the religious memories aren't the best for him, I thought that since these scents would have been a huge part of their upbringing, it would still bring memories of home. Moonflower is a scent I picked for two reasons, one of them was that during my research, I found "Moonflower is an essence that supports the heart in healing deep wounds of abandonment, rejection or betrayal.", which is probably what both of them felt when they lost their family (parents), but also being outcast by the town, and then how Philip specifically felt like when Caleb left. But the main other thing I found while looking it up was "Since they bloom in the darkness, moonflowers are also symbols of the ability of beauty to emerge in dark times. They can provide hope for people who are going through tough times and encourage them to seek positivity.", and I thought this was extremely fitting regarding the two brothers trying to make the best of their lives in a dark town like Gravesfield. Red roses can have many meanings, but in that specific context, I was thinking of "On a spiritual level, red roses symbolise passion and sacrifice.", so I was thinking about Caleb sacrificing his own childhood to raise his little brother. Red roses are known to represent love, but in that context I was definitely thinking of it in a familial sense. "Noble Pine" was meant to reference their time playing together in the woods.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

LORD BELOS

Scent description : 

It has a strong smell of spices, like if you walked in an old caravan and a lot of spices had been left to dry there.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

This scent was specifically thought of in the context of the caravan I designed for Philip's preacher era, aka what I imagined the inside smelling like. "Mountain Mist" was definitely a reference to the outdoors, him travelling through mountains and snow from town to town. Sage and cypress are there for the same reason as they are in the Emperor's Coven scent, I was thinking of Philip seeing his quest as "bringing order", plus this is a very woodsy scent, and the caravan is mostly made out of wood. For Smoked Oud, I read "Eastern culture often uses Oud during moments of prayer with the aim of getting close to God. The extremely intense smell is linked to the sacred, in fact oud is called “the wood of the Gods” in the Old Testament." I imagined Philip burning a lot of incense-like scents in the caravan as if to remind himself why he was pursuing his "holy quest" as he would see it, the general "Lord Belos" fragrance has a very "spicy" smell which I found fitting for that. "Frosted Juniper" is mostly there because I wanted the woodsy sent to be really present and also have a "winter-y" feel because of the snow we see in the preacher era memory flashback. 

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

PREACHER

Scent description : 

It’s definitely not a sweet scent, it’s very citrus-y with a lot of forest type scents (think if you get really close to a pine tree for example)

Thoughts behind the scent : 

This one is more of a "vibe" scent than a location scent, I was trying to think of the mood from his preacher era. "Firewood" definitely had to be in there because of the burning cities, "woodland snow" was there for the snowy landscapes. "White Birch" also has Eucalyptus notes which is often associated with winter, and Pine and Cypress both have the same sylbols as mentioned in previous paragraphs, but Philip seemed to travel through a lot of forest-like areas, so  wanted the woodsy scent to be very present too. Sandalwood as mentioned above was used a lot in religious ceremonies and incense, it also has undertones of "amber" and "dark musk", and I wanted to make sure this scent didn't really smell "sweet" in any way.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

BEAST

Scent description : 

It smells like mossy wet dirt, it doesn’t have any “perfume” type scent to it. It’ll really smell like it just rained and you opened the window very wide.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

I know there are a lot of different interpretations of what Philip's beast form would smell like, some think it would be more like rotting flesh and some think it would be more like moss-type scents.

Personally I went with the moss interpretation (I felt like if the smell was as bad as rotting flesh we would have seen characters like Luz react to that when standing close to him, but there was no indication of that), and his curse spreading also seemed very plant/mushroom like. I also didn't want to create a scent that was fully repulsive because no one would want to smell it ahah

But in any case, with that explanation out of the way, the "cut grass" and "rainy morning" scents are there for that exact reason. Cedarwood is there because cedar, at least to me, has a very "dusty" kind of smell - I wanted to have some kind of woodsy scent that wouldn't be too floral in the mix, and Leather is there because I have some leather fragrances of my own, and I wanted something a little stronger that would balance out the other "peaceful" scents like cut grass. (Plus, the leather scent also has undertones of incense, so that was a bonus too ahah)

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The scents after this one are more of "vibe scents" I created that aren't reflective of a specific moment from the show, so you can see those are more of my own things. (I picked the scents for every category, I meant more in the sense that these are my own original scenes/vibes ideas).

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOME

Scent description : 

It has a VERY overpowering smoky scent. Think if you just walked in the old Wittebane house but the window had been left opened and there had been fire outside. If you get it in candle form it won’t come off as strong as in pure fragrance form, but definitely think old medieval type outdoor house instead of modern time house.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

I wanted to have a scent vibe for what I could "home" smelling like for Philip. Library definitely had to be in there because Philip most likely enjoyed books and writing a lot, "Lush Linen" was because of the other fancy clothes he owns, like waistcoat etc, and I find the smell of linen very clean, enjoyable and calming. (Tho the more peaceful scents are first definitely overpowered by the smoky scent, you can only pick up on those when the scent settles a bit, if that makes sense). It also has undertones of white tea in the scent description, and I can definitely see him as a tea person. Lavender embers is a little different from the lavender scent I used in "Peace" later, but lavender is also calming, and "smoke" is a smell I thought would be fairly present in Gravesfield (mostly referring of people cooking over firewood outside). "Redwoods" is a very woodsy scent, and the outdoors would probably be a very home-y feel as well (more in the sense that it would seem familiar to someone from that time period rather than what a current home would smell like).

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FREE

Scent description : 

It has a very floral and outdoors type scent, but it doesn’t smell as overpoweringly sweet the way “peaceful memories” does, it gives me way calmer vibes.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

I was thinking of this as more of an AU type scent of, what if things had never gone bad, the moonflower scent is there for the same reason as it is in "Peaceful Memories" ("Moonflower is an essence that supports the heart in healing deep wounds of abandonment, rejection or betrayal.", which is probably what both of them felt when they lost their family (parents), but also being outcast by the town, and then how Philip specifically felt like when Caleb left. But the main other thing I found while looking it up was "Since they bloom in the darkness, moonflowers are also symbols of the ability of beauty to emerge in dark times. They can provide hope for people who are going through tough times and encourage them to seek positivity.") Incense usually has a church feel to it, but a lot of people also use it for things like meditation, and I find the smell very calming personally. Library definitely had to come back once again ahah

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

PEACE

Scent description : 

It’s a very soft and calming scent. When I smell it I really think “peace” ahah. You can definitely smell the lavender, it also has a very clean and fresh type smell.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

That one was more of a vibe scent as well. I'm guessing that back in Gravesfield, Philip had some moments to indulge in his hobbies such as writing, drawing, creating things in general. I was picked a lavender based scent because lavender has calming properties, tho the lavender scent doesn't feel too present to me. Library is there because I definitely picture him as a bookworm. The scent is super calming as a whole and something I love having around when I draw, probably one of my favorites actually ! Cedar and wood are also some undertone scents I could see him have in his old house.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

WITTEBANE

Scent description : 

It has a very soft scent, very outdoors-like. You can smell some floral smells, it has a very mossy undertone.

Thoughts behind the scent : 

I know Violet can seem like a strange choice of scent, but I didn't want to re use too much of the other previous scents, and in my research I found a lot of little facts : Violets have a symbol of "faith and spiritual passion", there are also superstitions that "Carrying violets keep malevolent spirits at bay". Another interesting thing I found was "The ancient Romans gave the violet flower a sombre interpretation. They perceived the deep colour of the flower as an image of spilt blood while its soothing scent lent a peaceful aura to proceedings.".The color of (blue) violets also feels very similar to the Wittebane coat (my interpretation of that is that it belonged to their father, was then passed down to Caleb and then Philip). Saffron was also a scent undertone of the "Violet" fragrance, and saffron has a lot of spiritual meanings such as "being closer to the divine". Another meaning of saffron is "courage and sacrifice", which Caleb would have definitely went through for his brother. But even tho we know Philip didn't make the right choices, he probably saw himself as doing those exact same things for Caleb when he went after him to "save" him (since well, going to the demon realm was probably the same as going to actual Hell to someone from his era). Saffron is also a very expensive spice, and I felt like it was fitting to the vibe the Wittebane statue gives off (considering the clothes they are represented with, even tho we know they had a very difficult upbringing). Leather is another scent that I liked being used as an undertone, because it balances out the floral sweetness a little. "Redwoods" is there mostly because growing up surrounded by the forest is a big part of the characters, so I wanted a woodsy smell to be very present. Cedar, Moss and Embers also balance out the rest of the scents.

[rita-repulsa-ke]

the witch who cried wolf

Two times Agatha doesn’t need Rio and one time she does.

In 1830, a coven of canny witches catches her out, places a magic circle around her to bind her while they prepare the stake. Only burning will do, for a witch-killer like her.

She tries all manners of tricks, begging and pleading and her personal favorite, pissing people off, before she resorts to murmuring, under her breath, “Look, I know we’re having our differences right now, but I could really use a hand here. Come on, for old times sake?”

Then an apprentice witch carrying a bundle of sticks stumbles, falls. Mars the edge of the circle.

By the time Rio gives in and arrives, Agatha has just finished up.

“You called?” Death asks, surveying the scene.

“Who, me? Call you?!” Agatha snorts, sputters. “As if. You must have imagined it. But look, I got you some things. Be a dear and clean all of this up for me.” She strolls past, quietly snickering.

**** The next time, she does it on purpose. She’s in the middle of nowhere, a long hike to the next town and she’s bored and maybe a touch curious. “Rio! Please! Help! Save me, oh save me!” she pretends to swoon, even though no one is there to see her, laughing at herself.

She’s not sure when she started laughing again.

And then, between one breath and the next, Death is there, knife in one hand, mask fully off, ready to sweep in and save her maiden fair.

And now Agatha is really laughing, a vicious cackle brimming with contempt. “Ah, Rio, that’s so sweet,” she coos. “My brave hero.”

Rio takes a moment to comprehend the situation, then crosses her arms across her chest. “Someday, Agatha, you might end up regretting this little game.”

Agatha’s expression hardens, her smile calcifies. “I’d burn before I’d ask for your help.”

****

No, she wouldn’t! The flames are a little too real now, crawling up the pyre toward her unprotected feet and death by fire is such an ugly way to go that her pride and shame both fly out the window, thrown by the burly arms of terror.

“Rio, please, I know I said something stupid, but come on, it’s me! I say stupid things all the time, you used to find it endearing! I know I’ve been a little rough with you for the past…hundred…years, but we can work this out! You don’t want me to come to you this way, you want to do it yourself, right?”

She can feel the heat on her skin, and she screws her eyes shut, tries to prepare for the pain. “Rio, my love, please…”

The first drop hits her cheek, rolls down it like a tear—then the downpour. Not a gentle summer’s rain, but a torrent of unseasonably ice-cold water, quenching the fire and soaking her to the skin.

Green magic.

As witches curse and wonder aloud, Rio, unseen to everyone but her, stands at the foot of the pyre, her lips curved into a skeleton’s mocking rictus grin. “Hi, Ags.”

“Oh. It’s you,” Agatha says, giving what she hopes is an imperious nod. “Well, go ahead. Untie me.”

Rio doesn’t move, forgets to even blink. After the moment hangs too long, starts to feel dangerous, Agatha squirms. “…Pretty please?” she tries.

Lightning strikes—since when was there lightning—and when her vision clears, Rio stands next to her, studies Agatha Harkness, soaked to the skin, teeth beginning to chatter. Laughs once, a sound as short and sharp as a sudden drop. “You’re right,” she says. “I do find it endearing.” She slits the ropes, reaches for Agatha’s elbow as she staggers free.

Agatha jerks violently away before they can make contact and Rio steps back, skeletal smile becoming a more human frown.

“Fine,” she says, looking down at the witches staring up. “Your turn, Agatha. Show off for me.”

Agatha’s magic levitates her into the air. She glances back, hair slicked to her cheeks, smile wide and manic. “Don’t look away,” she purrs, then turns to do what she does best.

“I never do,” Rio says, the words washed away in the rain.

If you liked this, try jealousy or for something cuter, the rabbit

[origami-butterfly]

No Marolmar option, because I hate him ✨️

Non hfth fans, vote for which title you vibe with