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fountainpenguin · 3 months ago

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Hey!

I read the last chapter of "So, You're Studying the Cloudlands..." and I know it was mentioned in some of the fics before (at least for some), but can you tell us what some of the characters in your stories specialized in? (Magic Specializations)

Feel free to ignore this ask

Magic Specializations post (Worldbuilding sideblog)

Kitchen & Vanity

This type of magic is all about levitating multiple objects at a time. Experts can actually use multiple objects (Think magically controlling a sewing needle in one "magical hand," a jackhammer in another, while pouring milk into a cereal bowl with a third).

Cosmo and Wanda studied this kind of magic as part of their godparent certifications. A lot of non-godparents don't bother; it's not something they consider relevant or beneficial in daily life. For godparents, mastering the ability to levitate things - sometimes multiple things - is pretty important, since you're always trying to manage your life with that of a child's.

I think Peri probably specializes in this in City Lights AU. This is also Goldie's field of study since she's going into politics (will o' the wisp ambassador position)- Levitating items is hugely helpful for all the things she juggles.

What I'm saying is that Goldie can weightlift via magic better than Poof can (even though he's the jock) because she put all her tokens in on this. Her homework is all about flaunting magical strength. As she gets older, she can bench press a skyscraper, yacht, a blue whale... stuff like that. She can also fight you physically; she briefly enjoyed fencing and grappling (Plus she's a fan of morning jogs), but she was pulled away from these things by her mom and mentor, who didn't see the point. Goldie reluctantly cut back on fighting boys and - in line with traditional will o' the wisp values - turned to flirting with them instead. Poof, however, finds everything about Goldie's strength extremely attractive. She absolutely messes with Foop by yoinking him off his feet with magic and tossing him in the air.

Essential Magic

Also called "essential sensories"

This kind of magic is about poofing, teleporting, and shapeshifting. Those who specialize can pull this type of magic off on the first try.

Wanda has more training in this area than Cosmo does. He's certified as a godparent, but he gets a lot of wishes wrong on his first attempt.

This is what Poof is studying in Cloudlands AU- We see him talk about it in "Looking Back:"

Poof floats forward, shaking his rattle. The rice and beads or whatever else is in there clatter around and two small figurines appear in his hand. He sets them down at opposite sides of Denzel's desk. One is a figure of himself. The other is a figure of Foop. Both stand across from each other, rattle and ba-ba drawn. "Essential magic is all about spontaneity, experience, and power. This is what we use for stuff like poofing and transforming objects. That's my specialty. We like to be able to poof up the right thing at the right time in the right place on the first try. No mistakes, and no pain for any living creatures we summon. That's what essential magic is all about." Denzel plucks up the Poof figurine and squeezes it a few times in his hands. Cathartic, but… It doesn't offer the same maniacal thrill as grabbing hold of a fairy in the flesh. "Hmm. Why the extra names? Why not call them Fairy magic and Anti-Fairy magic?" "Well, just because this is the stereotype, it doesn't mean every Fairy and Anti-Fairy specialize in the variety of magic you would expect them to because of the culture they were raised in. That's racist." Denzel grunts without comment. Foop snorts and Poof tilts his head. "It's like this." He waves his rattle over the desk again. This time, a pale green apple pops into view with a puff of dust. "I'm learning how to poof things from one place to another. Even if I'm in a third place! If I keep up my studies, then someday I'll be able to close my eyes and actually see locations I want to poof to, before I try poofing there."

"Looking Back"

He also implied he'd be able to steal snacks from the cupboard at his house, but Cosmo put a magic lock on it

Mama Cosma also specializes in essentials- She was once a godparent (Playing into why she teaches fairy summer school at the end of "Where's Wanda").

This magic also lets you glimpse the location you're about to teleport before you actually do. We saw H.P. use essential sensories in Baby, You're a Rich Man:

I puffed upwards at my cowlick, adjusted my tie, and allowed him to disintegrate me. After several seconds, we rematerialized back where we'd been standing beneath the floating table. "Sir?" H.P. frowned at his starpiece. He shook it by his ear and tried again. Once more, our particles zipped down to the Kansas area, struggled to reform, and the emergency safety measure kicked us back to the bar. "Something's interfering with it," he muttered, then locked eyes with me. We said it together: "The rain." Weather like rain and snow and hurricanes scattered the magical energy field. When it got really bad, it wasn't safe for us to even stand out there, lest we risk asphyxiation either because our magic lines would lose connection, or they'd keep connection and we'd taste too much unfiltered, raw magic dripping with pollution. Sometimes the presence of lightning under the clouds beneath our feet was dangerous, just from the static electricity that sent our lines fritzing. "We have little choice but to take the long way." H.P. closed his eyes. I could see the balls, glowing lavender, moving left and then right behind his lids. "Let me see… Where's a clear, dry spot I might set us down? Definitely not… Try a few hills over… Has to be something closer… Too near the state road… That's a will o' the wisp burrow… Got one. Pool of magic, right there. The lip of the barn roof's keeping it stable beneath. We'll be outside. If there should chance to be humans about, prepare to run."

Baby, You're a Rich Man - Chapter 8

Combat Magic

Foop and Big Daddy specialize in this! Poof gave Denzel Crocker a brief explanation in this scene:

"Charms can increase your abilities like your speed or strength and give you an edge in a fight. Or, they can heal you if you're hurt. Foop always says he decided to go into this field because he can feel it every time I give myself a papercut, but I think he probably just wants to beat me up." "Don't give me a reason to," Foop grumps, kicking the teacher's abandoned desk. Denzel scribbles this down anyway, not trying to hold back his snort. "Now that, I would pay to see." Poof smirks back and slides the two figurines closer together on the desk. "Hexes are, like… little traps placed on objects that only activate when someone triggers them later. Those are things that I might never get around to studying unless I want to spend more time in school. I don't. My mama studied hexes and I'll never get over the betrayal I felt when I found out there's one on our fridge door handle that turns your appetite off from everything except healthy snacks… "The thing is, every focus follows the rules of a single magic system. They're just different. They're all very deep and take centuries upon centuries to totally master. Like, even if you learn how to make a hex, it takes ages before you can develop it in a way so it won't be undone by bacteria, water, counter-spells, or just the decay of time. Things like that. And you don't want your hex to wash off and infect something else."

"Looking Back"

Teen Poof isn't very experienced in combat magic, which is why we had this scene in "All I Ever Wanted:"

Anti-Marigold herself lay crumpled on one end of the couch on the far side of the room, her arms around her torso and her face twisted up. She looked so absolutely tiny like that- smaller than even Foop. Goldie probably would have sprawled her limbs over as much of the couch as possible, but Anti-Marigold seemed to want to disappear. Poof shut the door behind him and poofed his coat onto an empty hook nearby. "Hey." He lifted the pocket spellbook above his head. "I've got painkillers. What do you need?" "I won the snake-eating contest," she mumbled by way of explanation. Poof chuckled. As he floated over to her, he flipped the book open to its middle. "That's so you. Okay, let's see what I've got. Hm hm hm. So, uh…" He glanced again at the groggy anti-wisp, then at the book in his hand. His finger rested on the first step of the relief process. "Do you want me to just do it for you?" "You, please. I'm in pain. Drank lots of soda. Didn't help." Funny. She looked so like Goldie with her pigtails, the sharp point of her jaw, and the way she curled in all her toes, and yet… she also wasn't Goldie. Anti-Marigold carried herself through life with a less confident air, shying away to the fringes of a party rather than mingling with the big names in the center. She was delicate, fragile, but still so passionate about her dreams. The same blue eyes, but different faces. Also, Goldie would never let him recite a painkilling charm on her if she was still awake enough to wave a wand. Poof cleared his throat and knelt down by the couch. "I'm gonna have to touch your bare stomach for this, okay?"

"All I Ever Wanted"

At that stage of life, Foop could've done a painkiller charm (and larger types of healing) without the book or physical touch. There are benefits to specializing in something, but most Fairies prefer to master 1 or possibly 2 areas rather than spreading their abilities thin.

Spreading yourself thin risks you looking average or below average... Not what you want if you're trying to advance your career.

In "Looking Back," Poof mentions that he and Foop signed up for the Make a Godfriend program, so they take after-school classes and then they're essentially "godparents" to a child in need. They were paired because Poof studies poofing things up and Foop studies healing. Much better option than pairing two people who study the same thing.

I've mentioned previously that Binky was platonic godpartners with some of his friends. That would also be a "co-workers paired up because different specialties is beneficial" situation.

Alteration Magic

Sanderson is one of the only characters licensed in alteration magic, which is all about changing the body (and locking it in - essentially permanently - as opposed to temporary shapeshifting).

Here's a scene where that came up:

Anti-Cosmo shook his head. "Foop, aging magic is strictly to be used for costume parties and amusement parks. What you're proposing here is that someone age you well beyond your years and leave you that way permanently. Age altering is difficult for even the most experienced magic users. Even I didn't try to study it at the Academy. Where would we even find someone licensed to oversee it all goes well?" Mr. Sanderson pricked his ears. Reaching into his coat for the cell phone that functioned as his wand, he said, "I could do it for him. Age-jumping is my specialty. It's amazing how much that type of magic comes in handy when I'm working the complaints desk around the holidays." "And I'm licensed to oversee the process," the Head Pixie mused. "We could age the kid forever, lock him in place, and have the paperwork official within the hour. If in return, it will shut him up for life. I wouldn't mind. No, I really wouldn't mind that at all." Anti-Cosmo jabbed a finger the pixie's way. "Don't you dare. He's become a spoiled brat these days and you'll only encourage his whiny behavior." "Just a few hundred thousand years," Foop begged, clasping his hands. His lashes fluttered as he made the attempt to widen his already enormous violet eyes. "You won't even notice I've grown. Why, think of how wonderful your life would be if you had another brilliant adult around the castle to play chess with and rant about Mother to." "We already play chess together, and hardly a week goes by when I don't hear you berating your mum's intelligence in some manner or another as it is." Anti-Cosmo began to gather his map together, rolling it tight. "My answer, of course, stands at no. I most certainly won't authorize you to magically age yourself and skip out on several hundred crucial millennia of brain development. And since you are but a minor and I am your father, that will be the end of this decision as we know it."

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails - "Must Be 150k or Older to Order"

Cosmo and Anti-Cosmo use alteration magic to shrink the large noses they were born with. Timmy's wish temporarily undid this cover-up at the end of "The Girl Who Would Be Queen."

Black Magic

There's also black magic, which is what Dr. Rip Studwell specializes in because that's the medical field. It was used to switch Cosmo's and Anti-Cosmo's fagiggly glands.

Anti-Cosmo's first wife (Anti-Saffron) specialized in this because she's a veterinarian. Foop's betrothed Anti-Coriander studies this since she's a surgeon- She helped care for Anti-Wanda after the assassination attempt that kicked off the May Blossom War.

Here's a scene referencing that:

She led me down a rear corridor. My mother's room was locked. Given her status, it was safer that way. Topazimi unlatched it simply by waving her hand, and the door slid sideways into the wall. I'd steeled myself for a body lying unconscious in a bed, a tube feeding purple magic into her arm, her hair tossed sideways and make-up hardly smeared. Not this. The room was very cold and very black, the floor tiled and the walls dark marble streaked with gold. There was no bed. Not even a coffin. My mother was a melted pool of white cream dripping down the wall. An anti-selkie and a young anti-habetrot stood on either side of the smear, jotting down notes as though it wasn't a person. "How long has she been like this?" I asked, not moving. "A few minutes," said the anti-selkie. "She maintained herself as smoke for an hour earlier, but as for pulling her body together again… I'm afraid there's been no progress."

"You'll Never Know"

Thanks for the interest! :)

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