#I spent thirty years researching lizards in the peninsula & now i secrete a hallucinogenic poison

[unicyclehippo]

i don’t want to make a magic system i just want magic to be like. this chick is into magical plants she’s pretty normal haha a normal botany major!! DONT go in greenhouse 4 tho. & she has a literal green thumb she can do the lighter trick yknow where u make it look like there’s a flame coming up out of ur thumb except it’s a flower or a thorn or whatever. this guy is rly into beetles yeah he has pincers now & also he was experimenting, as one does, & now he has lil wings on the side of his head that change colour when he gets stressed or embarrassed also he trains the hordes of excavation beetles we use on construction sites.

but then i ALSO want a rigorous system of magic in which spells are designed & constructed to the most pedantic specifications & it’s just it’s these differences btwn how people use & access magic & it’s so INTERESTING bc it’s like well in the first case those people just use n access magic differently n it’s so cool bc it’s like here’s how the thing i love changes me but it could also be a horror story bc it’s like what if u don’t love the thing ur good at, right? like what if it’s smth intensely scary what if ur naturally gifted w fire what if ur naturally gifted with ghosts the visions the constant groaning of people wanting justice or vengeance or just staring at u bc ur the only one who can see them, all these things i know have been explored before they’re just so fun to gnaw on. n then the spellcraft im just obsessed w maybe it’s bc i work w researchers all the time (but not close enough to be disillusioned) i love the dedication the seven thousand articles on the exact same topic with one thing changed, the way u can open up twelve articles & see that for eleven articles researchers Bonney & Tran have worked together & now Bonney isn’t there? what happened? did they get swiped by their rivals? did they take a break from research?

& then there’s the magic that’s like. in a sense, in my story, witches & divine spellcasters are the same. go into this more? no. im just THINKINH abojt MAGIC this morning