#witchy lena

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

If they had given Lena's magic more time to grow and flourish, I wouldn't mind if they'd had it manifest as Lena slowly becoming a touch-know.

It's something I've already worked with before, but it seems like a very magicky ability. And it would be so fun to see how it would affect Lena's personality changes post finale.

She's finally opening herself up, allowing herself to connect with people. And then suddenly, slowly, she starts getting these flashes of other people's lives simply by touching them or objects they've handled.

Lena slowly starts retreating again. Where she'd finally begun to ask for and receive the tactile affection she's always craved, she now draws away, maintaining a small distance between herself and others. Most painfully, from Kara.

Because how can she tell the woman she loves that she can feel the ache of overwhelming loss Kara carries with her, and the haunting chill that clings to her since the Phantom Zone. How does she explain that she just can't handle it-- the grief that lingers, on top of all her own shit she's still working through.

Lena doesn't go quite so far as to wearing gloves. Not yet, anyway. But she wears long sleeves that she can tuck her hands into, and wraps her arms around herself as though to keep herself from touching anything by accident.

Until one day, Nia goes missing. Her roommate reports it to Lena first, who quickly calls in the rest of the team. But soon, they're in a deadlock, seemingly without a direction to go in. Until, slowly, Lena focuses on Nia's cell phone left behind on the kitchen island, and releases a long silent breath. Kara is the only one who hears it, and her eyes snap to Lena just as her partner relaxes her arms and shoulders, and reaches out to press her fingertips to the phone's screen.

Kara watches Lena close her eyes, features tensed as the muscles in her jaw tighten. After several long moments, Lena blinks her eyes open, and she retracts her fingers to tuck inside the cuffs of her sweater.

"She arranged to meet someone on King Street at 1am," Lena announces softly. Her gaze flicks to Kara's, and, realizing Kara had seen the whole thing, swiftly looks away. "No name."

They all stare at her, before Alex finally shifts into work mode. "Okay," Alex says with a nod. She nudges Kelly with an elbow. "We'll check out King. Brainy--"

"I will scan through any digital activity in the area," he says briskly. He's not using boxes, but he refuses to get lost in worry while there are still answers to find. "I will keep you all updated of any developments."

Soon, only Kara and Lena remain. A long quiet stretches between them, before Lena swallows thickly.

"There's something I need to tell you."

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Okay, now that the age gap au is finished...

Agatha looks for a green witch to avoid grabbing the one Lilia wrote on the paper, and finds Lena instead.

Go.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Been thinking more about Lena being sent to Camelot after she has a grasp on her magic. Like, not full grasp, but enough to be able to control it and have fully embraced it.

So when she's thrust back to Camelot, she's forced to hide it, to deny it. Until she finds a band of druids, who teach her and help her come into her full power. I wonder if they would make her a high priestess, for the potency of her power, her empathy and kindness, and her swift mastery of the arcane.

I also wonder what would happen if Lena's druid camp were attacked by either raiders or knights. She'd want to protect them, and well... she doesn't have fencing experience for nothing.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Witches of East End AU Thoughts

My previous thoughts trended towards Wendy being Lena's birth mom, and Lionel Luthor being a dark warlock, thereby making Lena a child of both light and dark magic. Which is something I really want to work with. Like, she straddles the line between white and black morality anyway, so it tracks that Lena would have this role as a witch as well. And Lena would be unique in the magical world for this birthright.

So maybe Lena would be the key to a curse or prophecy of some kind?

Of course, instead of thinking about that, I wondered what would happen if Lena were pulled into the plane of shadow/dark magic somehow. I was thinking of an experience to what Dean went through when he went to hell (i think?), where he met Benny. Except instead of meeting someone like Benny, Lena is landed in a world where everything and everyone wants to either use her or kill her outright.

She might be missing from our mortal plane maybe a couple days to a week, but Lena's stay is much longer on her end. So when Joanna and the rest of Lena's family summon her back to our plane, Lena is practically feral in her aggression towards anything that moves.

Lena comes back *different*, y'all. She's sensitive to light and bright colors, she doesn't trust anyone, and she's constantly on edge, unable to rest. Let's call it her emo phase. Her family doesn't really understand what she went through or how to help her.

And it's at this point, with Lena fresh out of the shadow plane, that Kara finally tracks Lena to East End.

Lena had left National City months to maybe a year earlier, on a sojourn to learn more about her presumed-dead mother and any other family she may find. Kara misses her, but keeps her distance, until she hasn't heard from Lena in months and she gets worried.

So Kara arrives and Lena is like... weird about it. She can barely look at Kara, and doesn't share much when Kara asks how things have been and how her search is coming along. Lena is very curt with her, single-word answers, if that. She's kind of squinting through most of the stilted conversation, but when Kara asks if Lena's okay, all she gets is "Headache, I'm fine. We done here?"

Kara eventually kinda follows Lena back to the Beauchamp home, and manages to introduce herself to the family without Lena knowing. And sensing that Kara a) means no harm, and b) loves Lena, Joanna reveals a bit about what little they know of Lena's ordeal, and how this change in Lena's nature is different for them too.

Lena very obviously does not want to talk to Kara, and does everything she can to avoid her. Which means Kara does everything she can to be persistent, respectfully. Eventually, Lena turns on her, anger at the ready.

"What do you want?"

"Actually looking at me would be a start," Kara would respond gently.

To which I imagine Lena's temper would reach its flashpoint.

"I can't!" she'd cry.

"What do you mean--"

"You're too *bright*, Kara!"

Which of course Kara has no clue how to interpret. She stares in confusion, but she's rescued by the fact that now she's started, Lena can't seem to stop.

"You don't even realize it, do you? Your energy, your aura, it's... its light, and pure, and good, and after so long in that place, where everything and everyone was so, so dark... you're too bright. You're just too bright."

Lena starts to cry then, tears spilling quietly to her cheeks. But before Kara can respond, Lena turns and books it out of sight, leaving Kara standing dumbfounded and alone.

The next day, Kara stops by the Beauchamp home with a pair of sunglasses, which she offers silently to Lena.

"What are you doing?" Lena asks.

Kara shrugs. "I figured they might make things a little less bright."

Lena stares at her a long moment, as though trying to decipher if Kara is making some kind of joke. But relying on what she knows of Kara, Lena deduces that her friend is in earnest.

She huffs. "It doesn't work like that," she says, accepting the sunglasses anyway.

"Oh." Kara stares glumly at her shoes for a moment. Then she shrugs. "They'll still look cute though."

The response takes Lena off guard, and for the first time since her return from the shadow plane some of the weight on her soul lifts. She chuckles. "Right."

Kara cocks a grin, waiting hopefully in the doorway. When Lena doesn't say anything more, she decides to press her luck.

"Can I come in?"

After a long moment, Lena relents. She steps aside, granting Kara entry to the Beauchamp home, and all the intimacy that comes with it.

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Ive been thinking about my witch's road au idea of Lena travelling the road with the other covenless witches. Some of the new thoughts include Lena being so new to the craft and culture that she doesn't understand that a ton of witches believe the road is real, she just thought it was witchy tune. Another thought is that she and Jen kind of bond as business women in their ways, and just kind of being generally the same age.

And then I was thinking about Lena's trial. Like, technically she's there as the green witch (don't ask me why Rio would still be there also, she just would be), but her trial is about her family-- or perceived lack thereof. She's presented specters of her family, both adopted (the Luthors) and found (the superfriends), but neither truly satisfies her desire for true family, do they? Her need for belonging, for heritage, for a link to her mother.

And through the trial Lena comes into her own as a true witch, as she comes to the realization that her magic not only ties her to her mother, but to every witch in their family prior, and to all the covens they belonged to. She is bonded with them whether she knows it or not, whether she can see them or not-- they are there, guiding her hands and shaping her spells. They are many become one, and she is the one.

I also imagine that after she succeeds at her trial, she's full of power and confidence. Her new understanding seems to transcend her into something greater than she was before, a witch not only in her own right but with the power of those who had come before, who linger still.

So when the Salem Seven catch up with them at the end of Lena's trial, Lena is perfectly at ease when she tells the others to go and leave her behind.

"What? No!" Jen declares. "No, we do this together."

"My contribution to the road is done," Lena says, zenlike. She smiles. "The rest is up to you."

"The seven will kill you, Lena! No one witch can stand against them!"

"Then it's good I'm not facing them alone," Lena returns blithely. "Go."

Jen ultimately obeys, leaving Lena to face their pursuers alone. But as Lena says: she is not alone. With the group's path at her back, Lena squares up against the animalistic witches calmly.

"Do you even remember why you're chasing Agatha?" Lena asks them.

"Vengeance...." one hisses.

"For deaths you don't remember, if you ever saw it happen at all. Do you remember why Agatha killed them?"

The Seven twitch and scritch, unable to remain still. They study her, as predators would watch their prey. Lena meets their gazes calmly.

"Abandon your revenge," she prods, "and resume your lives. Or what little remains of them."

"Neverrrrr!" comes the answering rattle.

As one, the Salem Seven lash out with their magic, intending to catch Lena unawares. But as she'd spoken Lena had woven a shield of spectral roots and vines around her, seething and intertwining like living thing. It shields her from every attack at every angle, giving her power time to build.

Her magic gathers between her palms, pouring not only from herself, but from the others. From her mother, standing at her right shoulder, and her grandmother at her left. From their covens and the covens before them, stretching back through time until she pulls from the very earth itself.

Its radiance shines so brightly that the Seven barely have time to quail beneath it before it incinerates them entirely, their own magics far insufficient to protect them from the onslaught. After they flake away into dust, Lena holds onto the power for a moment longer, and turns to meet her mother's gaze.

"Thank you," she says to the spirit. "I love you."

Her mother's shade nods once, its smile warm with pride, before fading away with the rest of the magic that bleeds back into the earth.

Letting her hands drop to her sides, Lena studies the empty room around her, then turns towards the path she'd been protecting. A path that is now a solid wall, no door in sight.

"Great," Lena grumbles. "Now how the hell do I get out of here?"

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

So. Lena as a stitch witch/thread mage. She spends multiple hours-long sessions with Kara's cape in her lap, her fingers slowly moving across the warp and weft, lingering every painstaking millimeter. Kara sees her do it, Lena tells her exactly what she's doing (imbuing the cloth with protection magicks) -- its not a secret by any means.

A couple months/years later, Lena develops the means for laypeople to see magic. (Think one of those magnifying ring lights that scientists and crafters use.) Kara thinks its dope that her girlfriend is so smart. But then she gets bored, and wanders into the lab alone to poke around. She's idly swishing her cape around her, as one does, until she pauses, recalling those days Lena spent with said swath of fabric.

Kara knows what magic looks like by now-- they've used it on a couple of magical items they've found around the city, trying to track down an unknown magic user. It looked like gentle ripples, undulating over the surface of the object.

As Kara takes a handful of her cape, drawing it towards the lens, she wonders what color Lena's magic is.

The fabric shines so bright under the magnifying glass that it sears Kara's retinas, temporarily blinding her.

"Mother of-- Rao!" Rearing back, she slaps her hands over her eyes, now watering, and tries to blink away the newly won shadows from her vision. "What the--"

"Kara?"

The sound of Lena's footsteps rushing to the lab draws Kara's attention.

"What happened--?"

"Jesus-- me being an idiot happened," Kara grumbles, blinking rapidly to try and focus on where Lena should be. All she sees is a large dark blotch. "Hey, what did you calibrate that thing with?"

"One of Nyxly's artifacts," Lena responds. Warm hands take Kara by the elbows and guide her over to a nearby stool. "I wanted to be able to distinguish between fifth dimensional energy and true magic. Here, can you follow my finger?"

"What finger?" Kara quips. The blotch is already beginning to shrink by a fraction, assuring Kara that the damage to her vision isn't permanent. Her mind spiralled.

Nyxly had had magic unlike the world had ever seen. More powerful than Mxy even. None of the artifacts they'd put under that lens had come anywhere close to producing even half that effect.

"Kara, will you please tell me what you were doing--"

"I wanted to see what your magic looked like," she says, bluntly. "My cape..."

"...oh." Lena's voice is quiet. "Yeah, that--"

"Probably wasn't the best idea. Clearly." Kara tries to grin, but she knows it probably comes up flat. "But my god, Lena..."

"Florence says I have an affinity for magic. Like my mother."

"This," Kara gestures towards her eyes, "is more than an affinity."

She hears Lena swallow. "Please don't be scared. I would never do anything to hurt--"

"Scared? Lena, I'm-- I'm in awe of you."

A beat of silence follows, before Lena's hands settle in hers. "Please don't be that either. I'm just me."

Kara blinks, and smiles towards the hazy silhouette of Lena's hair, in its usual gentle waves. She tugs Lena closer, until Lena relaxes towards her and lets her forehead rest on Kara's.

"Just you is amazing."

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Witches of East End AU Thoughts Pt 2

To bring it back around to the WoEE show, and Joanna's desire to break the curse on her daughters that has them dying young, over and over again each time they're reincarnated, I have an idea.

Before Lena is truly out of her emo phase, but after Kara is able to break thru to her a bit, Joanna finds her sitting outside on the back porch, watching her cousins Freya and Ingrid do some gardening together.

When Joanna sits with Lena, she's surprised when her niece finally speaks.

"I see it now," Lena says, her voice low. Somber. Joanna watches at her watch Ingrid and Freya, and waits for Lena to continue, which she does. "The death on their souls."

Recognizing that Lena's time in the shadow plane has further awakened her powers, and given her time to hone her abilities and explore its various uses, Joanna dares to hope.

"Can you save them?" Joanna asks in a low voice.

Lena doesn't respond for a long moment. When she does, her voice is soft, seemingly hopeless, but not quite a no.

"I don't know."

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Headcanon that Kara agonizes a little bit when her identity reveal is broadcasted, and though she requested to be alone the night it airs, Lena tentatively shows up and is like "I thought you might be worrying, so I brought you flowers."

Except she's standing in Kara's doorway with nary a bouquet in sight.

When Kara's brow crinkles in confusion, Lena cups her hands, and with a whisper of a spell, a flower grows from her palms. When she offers it to Kara, Kara doesn't expect it to have a tangible form, given that it's borne of magic.

But soft petals settle in her hand, precious and beautiful. And just like that, Kara's anxiety bleeds away and a warmth spreads over her instead.

"It's beautiful," she murmurs, touched. It's not just magic, after all-- it's a piece of Lena herself. "Thank you."

She pulls Lena into a one armed hug, careful not to crush the bloom between them.

"I'm glad you're here."