Me to Lily:

@shadydruid made all my dreams come true

In the decades that followed, as their story passed into song, they were remembered not as heroes or heretics, but as lovers. They had never once submitted to wisdom—at least not the pale, cautious sort that counsels surrender—and instead chose devotion, and even ruin, if it meant choosing one another. Thus were they taken into the Sixth Arcana: not as a warning, but as its truest face.

HATCHETFIELD TAROT (OC Edition): Skyler Hirsch and Lillian Barclay

faceclaims: Denise Donovan (Skyler) & Britney Coleman (Lily)

The masses have voted and they chose correctly: lesbians! Let's go, lesbians!!

The schpeel:

Skyler ditched her ex-husband's surname as soon as they split, but back in Hatchetfield some still refer to her as 'that cheating Mrs. Jagerman'. Unsurprising. Max's father did everything in his power to poison Max against her-- said she ditched them for Clivesdale because she's a selfish, attention-seeking cheater.

In reality, she's a woman who realized she was gay late in life and fell in love with someone who loved her back. Cracks had already been showing in her marriage even before Max. Her husband never hit her or her son, but he was damn good at degrading her, isolating her, making her feel stupid and like a bad mom. She started volunteering at the Starlight to help make props and paint sets for shows just to get out of the house and have something to do (this also marks the origins of my version of the 'Max is a closet theater kid' headcanon lmao he'd have to sit around after school at the Starlight till she was done helping out, he now knows too much Sondheim against his will). This is where she met Lily.

Lily is a Clivesdale resident who served as her town theater's dramaturg, and though that put her Master's in Literature to use, she found the environment to be far too stuffy. So she makes the trek to the Starlight to bring a little of her literary editing prowess to stage managing. Skye makes the trek worth it. This is sorely needed for Lily who, ever since leaving New York, has found life a little lonely. She didn't feel like she fit in anywhere. But Skye sees her. Makes her feel seen. What a scary thing for both women-- and what an absolute light in the dark it is. The gift of a kind, knowing love.

When their affair is found out, she's all but kicked out and served divorce papers. Her ex makes it as difficult as possible to see Max, and every year that she sees him become more of his father, believes more and more of his lies, the more her heart breaks. She lives with Lily in Clivesdale for most of Max's teen years and performs an unsuccessful balancing act of embracing her new life while trying to save what's worth saving from her old one.

In better timelines Skye and Lil move back to Hatchetfield together and live in a sick as hell cabin on the outskirts of town, where Lil indulges in her other passion-- animals-- and opens up a dog sanctuary :'-) They do all this earlier than expected because Max's father dies of a heart attack after his senior year. For a long time Skye has been anticipating her son's inevitable post-high school "my life is over" crash out and after a very (VERY) bumpy start, living with his mom and Lily helps sort of stabilize his worldview and massive ego. I could talk at length about their whole overdue mother-son bonding arc but that's a WHOLE thing and I need to be crazy abt it in a separate post. But I hope these two images summarize the bare bones of that arc well enough for you

There all so cute/p

more under the cut + the characters