#magicians in space

[sjscoyote]

Blood On Our Hands, Hope In Our Souls

Fandom: The Magicians

Challenge: AU Roulette 2023 by @astriiformes

Prompt: Space Opera AU

Rating: M (for language & themes consistent with canon)

Word Count (Ch. 1): 1064

Summary:

“In my defense, we were being chased by murderous vagabonds. The statue had a ram’s head on it, so it should have taken us to Fillory.”

Josh groaned. “The Fillory fountain has two rams heads back-to-back, not just one. How does a former High King of Fillory not know that!?”

“Another reason why he’s a former High King,” Alice snapped.

---

The Children of Earth take a wrong turn in the Neitherlands and end up trapped in the middle of a space-age empire hell-bent on conquest. Now Quentin, Eliot, Margo, Alice and Josh need to figure out how to get home, plus keep both Fillory and Earth safe from the Empire in the process.

[turtleblogatlast]

Leo, if he leaned more into his love for magic tricks: for my next trick, I’m gonna make myself ~disappear~ *proceeds to get lost in space for five months*

[thewertsearch]

GC: 1 DONT SUPPOS3 1 COULD T4LK YOU 1NTO PUTT1NG H1M OUT OF H1S M1S3RY B4S3D ON TH3 R3SULT OF 4 CO1N FL1P >:D […] TG: put your fucking death coin away jesus […] GC: YOUR3 OV3R3ST1M4T1NG 1TS R3L3V4NC3 H3R3 4NYW4Y […] GC: 4FT3R 1 FL1PP3D 1T, 1 D1DNT 3V3N LOOK 4T TH3 R3SULT!

As we've already covered, she didn't need a coin at all, because she wasn't the one splitting the timeline. Dave was the one tricked into splitting the timeline, and he did so by merely thinking about a coin.

I feel like I'm starting to understand the general idea of what it means to be a Seer of Mind, but I can't quite put it into words yet.

TG: i sent you the money i got all the fraymotifs tell me what is there thats left besides you jerking me around […] GC: YOUV3 GOT SOM3 WORK TO DO, 1 C4N T4K3 4 H1NT 4ND G1V3 YOU SOM3 SP4C3 TO DO 1T >:] GC: J4D3 1S GO1NG TO N33D YOUR H3LP ON H3R N1C3 FROST3D M4RSHM4LLOW PL4N3T

Hell yes!

Assuming Dave takes Terezi's advice - and assuming we don't get trolled, like we did when John and Rose met up - then Jade is about to meet another human for the first time in almost a decade.

...fuck. Jade hasn't seen another human in almost a decade. Sometimes I forget just how isolated she is.

TG: i still dont really get what you did TG: was the trick really necessary TG: it sounds like TG: the splitoff was a result of both possible decisions i could have made TG: and had fuckall to do with your coin or randomness or luck GC: 3X4CTLY!!!

Fortune and luck are more Vriska's department. Terezi only ever pretends to use luck, tricking people into thinking she's playing a game of chance, when she's actually playing chess.

The coin never actually matters - and if she's convinced you that it does, she's already won.

[flipjack]

Jewel Staite for Gloss Boudoir, June 17, 2024

[nathaniel-underwood-is-an-intj]

Looong rant about chapter 16 Ptolemy's Gate and how being passive can add to the cycle of ab*se.

oof so I just read when Nat goes to see Ms Lutyens and I can't help but be absolutely furious at her??

I know that's maybe a little bit unfair given she's frightened of him as a magician and is obviously angry when she finds out the department he's responsible for, but honestly it kinda brings up the problem with inadvertent bystanders to child ab*se in my mind.

And I'm definitely not blaming her solely for who Nat becomes but it makes me think of all those people in huge child ab*se cases who give interviews to press about all the things they noticed that were wrong but they just...never do anything?

She stood up for him against Lovelace, and when Nat thanked her- "I wanted to say that I know you were trying to save me, and-"

''Yes, and I'm sorry I didn't" Like girl be for real did you really think that alone would undo the years of indoctrination and abuse he's already suffered and prevent years worth of the same in the years to come? And she won't take responsibility - "My job is with children, not the adults they become" and again while it seems harsh to blame her for who Nat becomes, it's so much easier to pass the blame to people who are more directly responsible rather than acknowledging you also play a part.

I think it hurts so much more because it's her specifically- Nat goes to her in sheer desperation, it almost seems like a goodbye- he wants to thank her, tries to set her up in a job that will pay well and struggles to communicate he's trying to help. At this point he thinks Bartimaeus has been summoned by another magician and his birth name will be revealed. He's sure he's about to die and if not he'll be stood on trial and lose everything.

He goes to her because she represents the peaceful moments from his childhood when he got away from his master. He's scared and feeling lost and really it's call for help; but he doesn't ask for anything he just wants to make her feel proud of him- he's looking for that validation that he's been chasing since childhood.

And that shows he still does have that little bit of childhood innocence in him; he thinks she will be proud, thinks she'll see him as the same little boy in the garden gazing up at his teacher in adoration. He can't quite grasp why she's separated the man stood before her from that little boy. Because in that moment the child inside Nathaniel is seeking comfort AND THAT'S WHY it makes me so angry. She's completely given up on him when he's at his lowest ebb, because she doesn't want to be associated with the magician he's become. As if it isn't a massive step in the right direction that he saught her out in the first place- what other magican would bother? I wonder if that's why she reacted so strongly to seeing him again? Before that moment she could go about her life wondering if /pretending her attempt to protect him was enough, and now she realises it wasn't, of course it wasn't, and the image she had of Nathaniel's childhood innocence is completely ruined in her mind.

Or was her contempt for him even grater than Nat realised? She was naturally disgusted by the rhetoric he'd started to repeat from a young age, and gently tried to correct him although she was clearly angry- was she just resigned to the fact that there is little else she could do to change his future? I always thought- couldn't she have looked for him? The Underwood house fire was in the papers and they mentioned the apprentice was being searched for. Did she ever worry about him? Surely something must have been in the papers since- an announcement of new ministers, ANYTHING! Look at how much research Kitty did to find out about Bartimaeus and Ptolemy. I just don't think Rosanna Lutyens cared enough, realistically Nathaniel wasn't hard to find- but he was no longer her responsibility so she could turn a blind eye.

And sadly it's not just her- I know everyone loves Martha Underwood including Nat; but I think her submissiveness to her husband has a negative effect on Nathaniel as well. In AOS when Nat is locked in his room for ages after setting the mites loose, and is forbidden to have any contact with anyone and she won't talk with him. I know she's been told by Mr. Underwood she can't, but it still boils my blood. She's an adult and going along with ignoring Nathaniel because her husband told her to...I can't even begin to imagine the psychological damage that would do to a 10 year old child. (It could be argued she's frightened of the consequences if her husband finds out she's disobeyed him which is fair, he could always be watching through magic- but this is Arthur Underwood we're talking about. He's lazy, oblivious and weak I doubt he'd expend all that energy each day to check up on her.)

And It's even more painful that Nathaniel is often described as fiercely loyal to her and I think to Ms Lutyens as well- he doesn't expect to be treated well by Arthur Underwood but he loved Mrs Underwood and Ms Lutyens so much he started to view them through a rose-coloured lense. He never feels betrayed by either of them, even though they absolutely let him down, because the pedestal he's put them on is too high AND THAT ABSOLUTELY DESTROYS ME.

Would things with Nathaniel have been any different if Mrs Underwood hadn't died? I don't really think so. Do you think she'd see Nathaniel's temper at 14 years old and be reminded of Arthur Underwood? He was awful, absolutely awful to Nat and to her; but he was under so much stress in an underfunded departement, where pressure was being put on him by superiors to accomplish far more than they knew him to be capable of, and he took it out on the easiest target. Nathaniel ends up in exactly the same place and he starts to take it out on the only person around him- Bartimaeus. Would he snap at Mrs Underwood all the time if she were still there? Because he's learnt that behaviour from his father figure, and subconsciously learnt from his mother figure that she'll put up with it. He learnt from the woman he loved so deeply, that if you don't resist, people will walk all over you. So you have to maintain control even if it ends up hurting people you care about because no one will step in to stop the suffering no matter how much you love them, no matter how much you want them too.

It's easy to blame Arthur Underwood and Simon Lovelace and the magicians that actively hurt Nathaniel but I just feel like it's a bit disingenuous not to acknowledge the role of those doing passive harm. It's really mean to say it but even Bartimaeus plays a role- he knows Nat is clinging on to him because he can't 'bring himself to break this last connection' (to his childhood) but instead of bringing it up properly he 'taunts' Nathaniel- a boy who has been taunted for his weakness by his master for years. And even in AOS when Nathaniel tells Bartimaeus he was beaten for the mites incident Bart just kinda shrugs it off. Like I get it, why should Bartimaeus do anything, he's suffered way worse due to the system so he doesn't owe Nat anything right? But from Nat's point of view this is the first and only time he's mentioned to anyone what has happened to him and nothing changes. It's like another lesson learnt: telling someone about it doesn't help. Another nail in the coffin.

And I like all these characters, I feel bad for them. They're all victims of the system, I think the chapter with Ms Lutyens is just the straw that broke the camel's back for me. All of those little opportunities that are insignificant to the narrative over all; the commoners have it worse, Nathaniel is in a privileged position in society, exerting control over others. He's very morally grey, crossing over into objectively bad person territory but I love him with my whole heart and all of those insignificant moments would have been massive to him whether he was conscious of it or not.

And it goes all the way back to the beginning with Nat's parents giving him up to the magicians at 5 years old. I can't get the image of that little boy sat crying all alone in the government building. And he's not going somewhere safer, or somewhere he'll be happier and more loved. Giving your child over to a total stranger, oh he'll be totally fine won't he? He'll grow up to be a magician and far richer than you'll ever be, he'll be happy and comfortable and be grateful he got to grow up in luxury. There's no way a stranger you've never met, who the majority of society is terrified of would ever hurt a vulnerable little kid right? And if they do? Well you aren't responsible anymore, how could you know? What could you possibly do against the magician taking care of him?

Every little thing is another grain of sand tipping the scale. Did anyone else have to analyse An Inspector Calls in school? It feels like that to me- those BIG moments and all the little moments in between that add onto the pile.

And it goes on to cause problems in wider society too- ab*se is so normalised to the magicians, they casually ask Underwood if he hits Nathaniel like it's nothing. Because to them it is nothing, they've all grown up in the same circumstances and are repeating what they've learnt as children. I can't help but feel a little sorry for them all, especially when they aren't looked at through the black and white lense of 'argh these people are the evil arseholes look at how they treat everyone around them, screw these guys.' When we see those little glimpses of humanity like Simon's anxiety with the amulet; looking to his master and father figure Schyler for reassurance, and what's sad is that Nat is "reminded...of his own master's cold impatience" It's clear Simon looks up to his master, wants to make him proud and loves him. But it seems like Schyler has just trained Simon up so he can get power through him later on. I love the little hints of similarities between Simon and Nathaniel; the anxious mannerisms like fiddling with his hair that Nathaniel starts to develop, the way their master's talk to them. Even though they're actively working against each other in AOS and Simon is placed firmly in the baddies category and Nat in the goodies category at this point in the series; these things always hinted to me they had similar childhoods, how was Simon treated? When he had the imp beat Nat into unconsciousness, was it because he'd had the same punishment used against him? Did he know the magicians in the room would do nothing to stop him because no one stopped it from happening to him? Did he ever have a teacher stand up for him only for it to change nothing in the end because all the negative influences were so much stronger? Is the reason he loves Schyler like a dad because he's almost developed Stockholm syndrome? It looks like love because he's never known anything else.

And Arthur Underwood- who doesn't think his upbringing, and being taken away from his family ever did him any harm- doesn't realise the harm done is that he doesn't even know another way of raising Nathaniel, because he was never shown another way. His childhood may also have been filled with people who hurt him and the people that didn't do enough to intervene.

There are so many psychology studies that show children copy everything they see the adults in their life doing. Nathaniel copies the magicians behaviour towards spirits and on a subconscious level I think he copies all the submissive people in his life. How many times does he end up upset and frustrated with the fact he seems to be going nowhere and how many times does he just hope things will be different rather than taking postive action.

I dislike the actions the magicians end up taking but I also find them fascinating to analyse. I tend to prefer villains in media because they're usually slightly more complex individuals and I love to think about how they ended up that way. They can all be seen as victims of their circumstances in a way, despite all the power and privilege they have had terrible and traumatic childhoods, and if the commoners had no valuable worldy possessions at least they had a sense of togetherness; of love and understanding and selflessness. I wonder if the magicians hated them at least partly because of that. Because out in the sea of faces of the commoners talking about nothing important, doing nothing great and noble- could be the parents that abandoned them. And when your life is on the line daily because of working with spirits, and your colleagues want to stab you in the back, sometimes not being responsible for anything important looks good. But you can't leave your life as a magician, it would be too difficult; you have nowhere to go, no real friends, no one who really loves you. So it's better to stay and be a submissive bystander in your own life because it's so much easier.

Doing nothing is doing something- being passive can be just as harmful.

[tringstar]

Tarot of Wizard Cats

XVII - THE STAR ⭐

I'm starting a tarot card art series of the major arcana cards featuring wizard cats hehe!! :DD

[oceans-beloved]

[marlynnofmany]

Human Magic

You would think that a life gallivanting through space would be an endless string of exciting locations, and mostly you would be right. But sometimes my job on the courier ship is just a job, and occasionally that job sucks.

Like most jobs, it sucks when the people do. Today would have been unpleasant enough because of the location: a jungle area thick with plants, fog, and heat. I dislike sweating. I got to do a lot of it today. I also got my hair caught on umpteen different twigs and branches, completely messing up the braid. But all of that could have been fine if the clients were nice.

Nope! Snooty little buttheads of the same species as the captain, completely uninterested in acknowledging the rest of us, and ready to argue about the price of the delivery.

I stood there beside all the crates we’d just unloaded, wanting to take a nap on the hoversled but knowing that it would probably just make Captain Sunlight look bad. So I just sweated and waited, next to the Frillian twins and Mur, all of whom seemed to enjoy the sauna temperatures. The lizardy Heatseekers did too. Lucky me, the only one not either coldblooded or from a semi-aquatic background. They could have gotten someone else to help with this delivery, but the rest of the crew was busy loading up our next shipment. And I hadn’t realized how distasteful this would be.

“The items clearly smell rank,” argued the lead client. “Especially that crate; I can barely stand to be near it.”

“Once again,” said Captain Sunlight with more patience than these people deserved, “They smelled like that when we accepted them, as I have noted right here, and we traveled with exceptional speed.”

“I just can’t justify paying the full price for a spoiled product.”

“You are paying for the delivery, not the product.”

The argument went in circles while I sighed and undid my braid. Might as well fix that while I waited; there wasn’t anything else to do. When one of the underlings gave me a glare, I rolled my eyes and stepped behind the Frillians. Blip squared her shoulders and blocked me from sight.

How dare I catch their attention with my unsightly mammal fur? I thought, finger-combing the leaves out. No appreciation for — hm. I’d found a loose hair and also an idea.

I tucked the strand into my mouth while I redid the braid, then tied one end of that stray hair to the pen from my pocket, and the other end to my finger.

This was a trick that had gone over well in elementary school. With the fog and the way hair was exotic here, I was curious to see how it did.

“Captain,” I said politely, stepping forward. “Perhaps they would like to pay the full price if we throw in the secret of how I can move small things with my mind?”

Captain Sunlight quirked a browridge but played along. “Valuable information,” she said. “What do you say?”

The clients whispered to each other and argued for a moment, then demanded a demonstration. I happily obliged.

With the fog blocking out any traitorous rays of light that could give the game away, I held the pen out on my left palm, making dramatic flourishes above it with my right. I affected a look of deep concentration. Wiggling the fingers of both hands, I lifted my right, and lo! The pen rose into the air!

They bought it. Such goggle-eyed expressions; I had to work not to snort in laughter. Instead I stood up straight and caught the pen with my left hand, bowing while the clients all talked at once.

Captain Sunlight may or may not have known how I’d done that, but she was no fool. She took their payment as quickly as they offered it, then managed to usher everyone else back toward the ship without making it look like they were preparing to run.

“Go ahead,” she said to me. “Share your secret.”

“It’s quite simple,” I told them, snapping the hair from my finger. “All you need is a single strand of human hair.” I tossed them the pen and stepped behind a bush while they caught it in surprise.

Now, they could have chosen to laugh and offer to buy some of my hair. They could have pulled the same trick on their friends, and maybe won some bar bets or whatever. They didn’t. I’d made the right call by ducking out of sight.

They were yelling some extremely rude things when Captain Sunlight sped past and leapt onto the hoversled. “Back to the ship!” she said. Blop pushed the sled through the undergrowth at a run, with Blip jumping forward to clear a path and Mur scrambling up beside the captain. I wasn’t small enough to get away with that, so I followed behind Blop and kept an eye out for pursuit.

Luckily for us, they decided to stay there and be grumpy instead chasing after us. They’d gotten what they paid for, after all. Even if I’d used slightly more than my mind to move the pen.

“That was a great trick!” Mur shouted from the sled. “I didn’t realize your head-tentacle was useful.”

“So useful,” I called back, ducking a branch. “Sometimes that even works on other humans, though they usually figure it out pretty fast.”

“I appreciate the quick thinking,” said Captain Sunlight. “I’ll keep it in mind for future negotiations.”

“As long as they aren’t the type to end in violence,” I said. “I was pretty sure these guys wouldn’t fight us about it, but I couldn’t be sure.”

“Oh, these were former crewmates of someone I know!” the captain said. “They’ve always been eggholes.”

“Great!” I said. “I hope they enjoy the pen. It’s almost out of ink.”

~~~

The ongoing backstory of the main character from this book. More to come!

[iminloveedits]

One of my fav archetypes: cocky men, w/ a heart of gold 💛

[euphorictruths]

Magician- Tea Revazishvili

[campbyler]

forever ago @wayward-sherlock asked suni for a sticker tour of her laptop — since we are together we wanted to show off both our laptops!! we think it is very easy to tell which laptop belongs to who 🤸

[if-you-like-pina-colada-s]

I think the Justice League should be weirder. They should be weird people who let each other be weird as fuck when they're together. Like, be so fucking serious, none of them are conventionally normal. Lean into that!

[fatewitch13]

ೃ⁀➷Introducing my blog: devoted to my deities

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ °

╰┈➤ Who are we?

We are Evermore System, our host is Stanley. We are a traumagenic and polyfragmented system, with over 1,000 members. You will see other alters besides our host who will introduce themselves when the time is right. Our collective pronouns are He/They and Neos. We're 20+.

We are transmasc. We are also Demisexual. We are Dragon Therians, furries, and otherkins. We are in a happy relationship with our fiancé partner system and 3 other partner systems.

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ °

╰┈➤ What is the goal of this blog?

This blog is a devotional blog to our different deities. You will see posts about Kemetic deities, Infernal Divine, PCEs, Hellenic deities, and others.

Main Patrons: Djehuty, Moirai, Mephistopheles, Hekate

You will also see posts about our different devotional workings. We're Hedge Witches, Liminal Space Witches, Death and Life Workers, Dream Walkers, and a little bit of Kitchen and Love workers as well. It all is mixed together in a beautiful bow as eclectic. We will post about stuff as we see fit.

We also work closely with PCEs and PCE magic, and the focus on that is Star Trek, Star Wars, and Resident Evil.

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ °

╰┈➤DNI

Minors

Basic DNI

Bigots of any kind

Hardcore Christians or Republicans (I don't need to be prayed for)

Endosystems or Endo supporters/allies

Anti-Godspouses or PCE work

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ °

[businessmemes]

I hear the tophat magnates bought boats that year but got bored of them soon after and sank them over a dolphin sanctuary in the Atlantic. fiscally this was a wise move on their parts.

[midnightmagicks]

FFXIV 30 Day Writing Challenge Day 12: Quarry

Quarry: a thing or person that is chased or sought.

Swirls of fog denote danger within the alleyways of the quiet city of Kugane. 

Lurking. Waiting. Always hunting for the newest entertainment.

Whispers of a finicky yokai; One whose whims flow and dissipate much like his telltale mist. One is warned to always be on guard and never alone at night in the dimly lit pathways that weave the city, lest one find themselves the fox’s quarry. 

Pray to the Kami that he does not take interest in you.