Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is reference to canon events such as Original Penny's death. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Why yes, the gals started a knitting circle with the Fates, because I'm a sucker for Hades/Persephone parallels.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Post Term 16); Ministry (Pre-Open); MC4A (Summer Year 5)
Individual Challenges: Red Bull; Red Wave; Happy Birthday; Bi Rainbow; Rainbow Rainbow; Missing Rainbow; Lovebirds; Other School MC; Brakebills MC; Magical MC; Neurodivergent; Ethnic & Present; Rian-Russo Inversion; Immortal MC; Immortal MC; Immortal MC; Bi Bi Bi; Shipwreck; Setting Sail; Zed Era; New Fandom Smell; Magic Exists; Divinity; In a Flash; Bucket Listing; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Ribbon
House: Slytherin
Ministry Challenges: August Bingo [B1](Tangerine);
Other Hogwarts Challenges: 365 [110](Garbled); Insane House Challenge [12](Knitting); Days of the Year [Sept 13/Fortune Cookie Day](recieving a cryptic message); Video Games Day [09](Mythology AU); Shark Awareness Day [18](Only fem characters); International Cat Day [08](Next Gen Era); National Dog Day [06](Vivacious); National Indoor Plants Week [04](Sunny); Teddy Bear Day [09](Park); Colors [11](Mustard); Flowers [08]("You're making me a bit nervous"); Crystals & Gemstones [05](Sunset)
Other MC4A Challenges: AU [1A](Aberration); Ship (Traveler Lament)[SuMic2 (Black; Gray; Red; Orange; Transparent]; Chim (Gyv)["King" - Florence & the Machine; Life/Death; Crimson]; Hunt [Su WD (Deaf/HoH)]; Fire [x3](Not Cookie Cutter); Garden [Pick Your X (Jewish)]; Harvest [A&B (Knitting/Crochetting); AU (Royalty); Relationships (Partners); Settings (Queens); Tropes (Hand of Fate)];
Representation(s): Kady Orloff-Diaz/Penny Adiyodi; Mythology Rewrite & Fix-it; Chim Song Prompt
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Most Human Bean; Rock of Ages; Abandoned Ship; In the Trench; Surprise!; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress; Middle Name; Mother Hen; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Pocky Pockets; Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Peddling Pots; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Eternal Boredom; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature); Demo 1 (Casper's House; Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Triton's Domain); Demo 2 (Sitting Hummingbird; Seven Gates; Yarnspinner)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Toad); SN (Rail; Spare); FR (Satisfaction; Affirmation); O3 (Oath); HoSE (Schooner; Keen); Once (Moses Supposes; Santa Fe; Under the Sea; Inchworm); War (Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); TY (Slainte; Ntaiv; Kulonbozo)
Word Count: 770 words
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Skeinning Fates
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It was becoming a regular thing, almost without Kady even realizing it. Growing up the way that she had, with a mother like hers, Kady had never had a chance to learn the things that were traditionally feminine. There had been a few things she had picked, purely out of self defense. After all, if she didn't learn to cook, then there had been a good chance that she would just starve while her mother was out on a binder of whatever her drug of choice that week happened to be. Learning to sew meant that she could make her clothes last a little longer before she needed to figure out how to replace them.
Both cooking and sewing were useful for magic, especially hedge magic, of course.
But knitting wasn't quite so applicable in magic.
Which actually made it sort of perfect for what they were doing.
Kady and Julia had stumbled across the women spinning in the park just off the beach while looking for clues on the Lady of the Underground. It had just been three old women working together and yelling at each other. They had welcomed both young women to sit beside them. With unending patience and scandalous jokes feeding snickers, the elderly trio had taught the younger women the intricate craft, using the very yarn that they had just been spinning. The respite from their quest had been a welcome relief at the time.
They had come back later, hoping to recapture that feeling. And then they visited again. Alice joined them eventually, taking up the needles with the same frantic perfectionist that she did everything else. Poppy tagged along once but ended up being more of a hooker than a knitter.
Like the field researcher that she was, she didn't join them often. Horrifically, Poppy loved to show off the mismatched socks that she had crocheted. Even with the dubious paternity of her baby (regardless of her claim otherwise, Kady was good at math), that had to be the craziest thing she could have done.
The oldest of the original trio, Lana, greeted Kady with a secretive smirk. She was measuring out a skein of yarn the color of tangerines. On the bench next to her was finished skeins of crimson, mustard, and ash gray. The second oldest, Pauline, snipped the ball of inky black yarn she had been wrapping free of yet another skein. The setting sun glinted off her large silver scissors.
"It is time," said the youngest, Dottie, as Kady sat down beside them. Her words were garbled slightly, in the way that told Kady that she had left her hearing aids out again. (Not that Kady blamed her. They weren't very comfortable.) All the while, Dottie's hands moved through the motions of spinning more yarn, this one flowing between a golden peach to a rich plum and back again. The transparent weight of her drop spindle threw off rainbows of color as it caught the fading light.
Kady could suddenly taste the magic saturating the area around them. Something stilled within her, like a rabbit sensing the nearness of a wolf. Or worse: a fox.
"You're making me a bit nervous, ladies," Kady tried to snark, only for the attempt to fall flat.
"It is time," Lana agreed as if Kady hadn't said a thing. The words had the echo of power beyond anything Kady had ever encountered, even when she had been in the presence of actual gods. Pauline hummed her agreement.
"It is time," Pauline repeated. She looked up at Kady, despite being mostly blind. "The King has rejoined his Queen."
"The King is dead," Dottie said, picking up the thread without any hesitation. Her white teeth glowed against the dark brown of her weathered face as she grinned too merrily for announcing someone's death. "Long live the King."
"And may the Queen never see another pair of crocheted socks," Lana concluded, "no matter how long her reign shall be."
A dinging sound drew Kady's attention the open beach beyond the trio's bench. In defiance of anything other than magic, there was now a pair of doors standing freely on the sand. They were the sliding doors like one would find on elevators in any office building in the city. Her breath caught in her throat.
She didn't know how.
She didn't even care.
She could feel Penny, her Penny for the first time in what felt like longer than forever.
With barely a thought for all the hedges depending on her and her missing friends, Kady walked towards the doors that just knew held her destiny.