Dear Tabitha Prior, inquiring minds would like to know — what are three things you want to do before your time?
3 things Tabitha wants to do in her lifetime:
Make her own wedding dress (she’d really like to make her sisters’ wedding dresses, too)
Get married
Have kids
Somewhere along the line, Tabitha missed the memo about dreaming big. Bucket lists just don’t do it for her. She tells herself, and anyone else who might ask, that it’s because she likes a simple life—family, home, something to do with her hands—and she’s not entirely wrong. But there’s something sad that happens when the central star of your little solar system goes out when you’re only four years old: wanting things starts to feel dangerous.
Her magic. She likes things that take effort, and she likes that magic is something where what you get out of it is what you put in. So it’s not the fact that she has magic that is her favorite thing about herself, it’s the quality of her magic and how powerful it is. It’s the fact that she’s earned it.
Despite all the love you have for your sisters, there’s an undeniable sense that you’re controlling them—shaping their paths, choosing their futures for them. Have you ever considered that your need to protect them might stem from your own deep-seated fear of losing them, or of losing control?
Honestly Tabitha would be heartbroken to learn that her sisters found her controlling, because that’s never been her intent. She wants to be a supportive presence in her sisters’ lives, a source of comfort and, yes, advice and guidance, but she would never try to choose their futures for them.
Tabitha sees the way her grandmother’s behavior has fractured the Proctor family, and she doesn’t want to make the same mistakes. She doesn’t want to tell her sisters who they have to be, she wants to help them be who they are, and she’s willing to let them decide who that is.
She didn’t try to talk Eden or Dorothy out of going to college so far away. She did ask probing questions about the decision, but it was only to make sure that they were doing what they really wanted. Even the way she pushes Dorothy to tell Elias she’s a witch is Tabitha’s way of being supportive. She knows how much Dorothy loves Elias, and she wants their relationship to last.
But her protective instinct absolutely comes from a fear of losing them, and she struggles to balance wanting to keep them safe with letting them do their own thing. Even if she’s not always successful, she tries not to be suffocating because she doesn’t want to push them away. That would be the worst way to lose them, because of her own actions.
what is your favorite memory from your teen years?
Tabitha is someone who has trouble picking favorites, because there are so many things that she loves. There are things that she gravitates toward, styles of quilt patterns that she favors, foods that she likes to eat, dominant colors in her wardrobe, but as soon as you ask her for a favorite of anything she remembers all of the wonderful possibilities and she can’t pick just one.
So while there are a lot of memories from her teen years that are special to her, she doesn’t have one favorite. There are memories of her sisters that are precious to her, like helping them with their math homework or teaching the twins how to ride a bike. Her junior prom was the first time she made a formal dress from scratch and she was so, so proud of herself for that. When she turned 18, her mother gave her the ring her father proposed with, which has a lot of meaning for Tabitha. There were also several magical milestones that happened during Tabitha’s teen years, each one important in its own way.
Your dedication to your sisters and your home is admirable, but do you think you’ve built your identity around them to the point where you’ve forgotten who you are outside of that role? If you were to step away from your family responsibilities for a time, what would you discover about yourself that you haven’t yet faced?
Tabitha definitely believes that she has an identity outside of her sisters, it’s just that her sisters are the most important part of her identity. But she has accomplishments that have nothing to do with them, like being a small business owner and even her magical ability. Her hobbies are also her own; she’d enjoy quilting even if she wasn’t making things for the people she loves.
However, there is absolutely an extent to which her identity as a sister has taken over. There are things that she’s left behind, given up, or made smaller not because her sisters asked her to, or even needed her to, but because Tabitha didn’t want to stray too far from home. If Tabitha ever got to the point where she didn’t feel like she had to be physically present for her sisters to love her, the first thing she’d rediscover would probably be her curiosity. She does love Cardinal Hill, but she’s also interested in the world outside it. She would actually find it very fulfilling to travel some and meet witches from other cultures or countries and learn about how they do magic. Also any kind of gastronomy tour in a foreign country would be fascinating to her.
Does Tabitha feel adequately loved by those in her life? Or does she feel as though she's always giving more than she receives?
For Tabitha this is two different questions. Does she feel adequately loved by those in her life? Yes, she’s worked hard to be worthy of her family’s love, especially her sisters. You may ask, is there anyone in her life outside her family that she’d like to feel loved by? Yes. Maybe. But that’s a conversation she’s not ready for yet.
Now does she feel as though she gives more that she receives? Absolutely, but it’s no less than she deserves.
what is a skill or talent that tabitha immediately picked up? did it surprise her?
Tabitha can play piano by ear. She can’t read sheet music, but she has a knack for hearing music and then reproducing it. There was a piano in her home growing up, and she used to play on it as a child. It was a few years before anyone realized that she wasn't just banging on the keys, but was actually playing bits and pieces of songs from the radio. It comes from her innate skill with numbers, which also contributes to her love of quilting and her head for business.
how old were you when you went on your first date? describe the date.
Tabitha’s first date was to the winter formal her freshman year of high school, so she was 14. At the time it felt like the perfect age for a first date, although in hindsight she recognizes that she was still really young. Her dress was dark fuchsia with an empire waist and crochet trim, and it only bothered her a little bit that the corsage her date got her didn’t really match. It mattered more that he got her a corsage, that he picked her up at her front door, that he danced with her for every slow song, and that he kissed her goodnight when he brought her home.
further headcanons nobody asked for under the cut
Her date was a junior, two years older than her, which felt less like a new indication that she was mature for her age than a confirmation of what she already knew. It was pretty cool that he had a car, though.
This was her first relationship, and also one of her shortest. It only lasted a few months, and ended because he wanted more from her than she was willing to give—not physically, but emotionally. He wanted to be the most important person in her life, but when he expressed his concerns that she cared more about her sisters than him, Tabitha just laughed and said, “of course I do, they’re my sisters.” It was an honest answer, if, as she quickly realized, the wrong one.
He was polite and respectful and from a good family and to this day, he's still Grandma Proctor's favorite of Tabitha's exes. But Tabitha was no more satisfied in the relationship than he was, because while he wanted things from her, she didn't feel needed.
