moon cycles and raven feathers [r. lupin]

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june 5th, 1976

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othella webster made it her life's purpose to intimidate her way into what she knew to be rightfully hers, and quite frankly she was pretty damn good at it.

her specific brand of composed terror started when she was just 21 and running for salem's coven head. the other woman gunning for the position, 28 year old elizabeth swan, had confided in othella telling her that she was "coming down with something fierce" and would be "embracing the witches before her" all too soon. in short, she was going to die soon and othella would surely make head by default.

othella though was not a woman to just take things by default, and she knew it would be much too foolish to not take advantage of a situation like this.

so a rumor started, or more accurately othella started a rumor:

othella webster had killed elizabeth swan, there was nothing she wouldn't do for power.

her words, that no one knew were hers, caught like wildfire. papers used it in headlines, housewives whispered it over tea, it was everywhere. soon enough the newly anointed coven head had made a name for herself before she had even lifted a finger, she wasn't just a webster anymore, she was the webster.

othella webster.

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to her daughter othella was the scariest thing in the whole world. since she was little cath had known to fear her mother, and what she stood for.

it wasn't like othella was overtly cruel though, she had never laid a hand on cath and all of her insults and jabs were thinly veiled in a layer of passive aggression. no, cath had learned to fear the idea of her mother more than the woman herself, she feared the paragon of  power that was her mother, the physical embodiment of her families unique brand of 'webster influence'.

she was everything cath was expected to be, the perfect balance of selfless and selfish that allowed her to make the decisions that shaped their family. the attitude that allowed her to take a man in marriage solely for images sake but also use her influence to benefit the family of her betrothed. she seemed to make all the choices that cath found much too hard to wrap her head around.

she had devoted her whole life to upholding her legacy and was convinced her daughter should do the same.

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"i don't see the point in you having friends if they can't talk you out of stupid decisions, catherine."
"it's not stupid mother, and she put up a real fight to get me to stay."

the two webster women wove in and out of the busy salem witches institute, dodging the women hard at work. her mother had coven business to attend to but now it seemed she also had to attend to the business of her 'ungrateful daughter' who was taking after her father much too much for her liking.

"i mean really catherine, what problems could you possibly have to run away from? you're a webster for god's sake, there's nothing to complain about. if this is about your father and i then-"
"well i-"
"honestly the last thing i need is for you to run off with your father and besmirch the family name, have you no pride in what you've come from?"

of course cath had pride in where she came from, at least in some sense of the word, it was hard not to. her whole life was practically devoted to upholding centuries of respect for her however many greats grandmother (her mother would know how many greats, her mother would say mary webster is rolling in her grave right now knowing that she doesn't know). it didn't seem to matter what she did, somehow she was always doing something that would make mary webster wish she'd died when they hung her. there was always something for her mother to take an issue with, she was always 'taking for granted the pain and suffering of the witches before us'.

"i'm not running away from anything mother, i just need a change of pace." she sighed, she knew her mother wouldn't give up on this until she was an ocean away.
"i should've never let this be a choice you had, when your father-" she seemed to almost spit the word father, making her distaste for the man very apparent. since their divorce othella had began to take every opportunity to speak down about her ex-husband even more than she had when they were married, for a man she had never loved his departure from her life sure seemed to sore her mood.
"-brought the idea up i was sure you'd decline."

'how could i possibly have done that?'
cath thought to herself. she'd never say it to her mother but she was most certainly running from something: the very woman she was conversing with and the very legacy said woman very clearly wanted her to uphold.

cath really hated that word, 'legacy', it just sounded so stuffy.
'just like mother, how fitting'

her mother sighed, looking her up and down before speaking again.
"leaving salem doesn't mean you can just go around expecting to be something you aren't, to be someone you aren't, catherine."
"maybe i just want to do a little searching for who i am by myself mother."
"searching?" her face softened a little, "why do you need to search dear? you already know how you are, what you are, you don't need to worry about that, you're a-"
cath cut her off sharply before she could finish.
"webster. yes, trust me i'm painfully aware of my surname mother."

whatever softness that had entered othellas webster's face dissolved as cath spoke to her. "if you're so aware of it you might as well start taking some pride in it."
and with that her mother briskly walked away, presumably to attend to whatever business brought them to the witches institute in the first place.

cath watched her mother as she walked off, something she seemed to do quite often after conversing with her daughter, noticing how she walked off not stormed off.

'i don't even have as much control over my emotions as she does.'

comparing herself to her mother and what her mother wanted to be was somewhat of a habit for cath nowadays, and she really hoped, just as she hoped she could find freedom in neckties, that making a 'utterly disgraceful' move with her father would break it.