vulpeculaet | (no subject)

Setting Concept (Shamelessly stolen from Prof)
Modern Earth, but with magic-wielding humans called Mages who fight monsters to protect humanity. Mages can be magical girls, sentai heroes, or a variety of other kinds of flashy defenders of humanity, but the powers are fundamentally the same, and manifest at an early age - usually around 10-13. Mages fight monsters in savage battles of survival until they turn 18, at which time they surrender their powers so that magical energy can be recycled for the next wave of Mages to be able to defend humanity.

The thing is, this setup is a lie, perpetrated by a massive 300-year-old conspiracy. Its originators, the Elder Magi, are humans who hoard magical power to live forever as gods in the shadows of the world. Magic isn't actually a non-renewable resource - when a Mage offers up their powers, it's the power they were born with, not power recycled from others. The power taken from the Mages at age 18 is crystalized and put in the vaults of the Elder Magi so that they can continue to amass metaphysical wealth, living eternally in luxury and letting the youth do all the hard work of fighting the monsters drawn to Earth by its steadily increasing concentration of magic.

This story isn't named yet, but it's about young people realizing that they've been lied to by older generations about the form of a society built to exploit their suffering, and those kids getting mad and rising up to tear down the system that torments them to seize their own happy endings when the adults fail to help them.

Character Information
Lily is a disgraced mage, a former hero. Well-celebrated and well-loved, she had everything in the world.

She had gained her powers at six years old, and was fighting monsters ever since. Too young to keep her name or identity a secret, she grew up as a celebrity, and with her selfless and kind personality, and her all-encompassing love for everyone, she was loved by everyone as a hero. Her magic was ridiculously powerful, and she had started it so much younger than everyone else, she had control and experience leagues above other mages.

And as she approached her eighteenth birthday, she began to question giving up her power. She talked to her familiar, Flora, and decided that she wouldn't give up her power. After all, she had power, she had experience- She could fight. She could fight so others woudln't have to. If she fought, others wouldn't have to experience the same fear she did as a child. She could save people, she could save even more people...

The elder magi used their kill-switch on Flora, as they had on all familiars. And just like that, the familiar face of Lily's familiar transformed into a ravenous monster, bringing its claws and thorns to bear against her. And Lily, who lost her powers without her familiar, let her monster-fighting instincts take over... And with a nearby fire ax, she killed her own partner.

She broke. She soon discovered her power returned, as it was her own power. She found a boy named Marco, and learned the truth of the conspiracy. That everything she had done had been for nothing. And, when she showed herself to fight more monsters, the elder magi hit the killswitch on other nearby familiars, blaming her as the source of it, for not giving up her power.

Thoroughly broken down and despairing, Lily now fights the conspiracy of elder magi, doing as much alone as she possibly can. She doesn't have an end goal, past a vague plan to plant herself as a figurehead of the conspiracy and let herself be defeated, to bring about an ending that won't cause anyone else to feel as though their sacrifices were meaningless. Her life, as far as she believes, has no other use. So she'll fight it alone, and not take away anyone else's purpose. She'll do everything she can on her own, and not drag anyone else into her mess.

She knows her role. She is the villain of the story.

Prompt ideas
1) AU into Lily's setting! You're probably either a mage or a concerned civilian, and here's this famous criminal former-hero fighting a monster right in front of you. What are you going to do?
2) AU Lily into your setting! Well, I'll figure out an AU, but you just tell me what the setting is.
3) Jamjar setting! Pick a game, pick a non-specific jamjar, figure it out and we'll work with it! You can assume they know each other or are just meeting for the first time.
4) Wildcard! Shitty texting memes, bad life choices, seven minutes in heaven, whatever.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Your father's... throne room. So that makes you royalty.

[She pinches the bridge of her nose.]

Yes, it does. Not that it particularly matters, here. [technically their throne room, now, but they're not going to say so.]

[Lily just. Sighs.]

And that sword is some sort of special sword, passed down the royal line, or something like that?

Yes. But the use I have made of it is...unorthodox. It is not meant to be used outside of ceremonial rites. [because while it has god-powers in the hands of the emperor or the heir...actually using it vastly shortens lifespan.]

And you used it. On people.

[She's just confirming that it was people who got killed, not monsters.]

I did specify 'duels', did I not? [spirits don't duel.]

You did.

[Her staff seems to flicker in her hands, but... Perhaps that was just a trick of the light?]

But please understand, I can't simply trust you and let you leave when you appear with a story from an anime and blood on your sword.

A story from a what? [what are you even talking about. and that pretty much is a very stoic version of a wtf. but they do recognize a threat when they hear one, obviously, and their stance shifts slightly.] Very well, then.

... Never mind.

[SHE'S NOT EXPLAINING ANIME.]

Don't worry. I'm not going to just attack you, either. I have no way of proving your story's false, after all.

Then what do you intend to do? [look, you're telling someone from an intensely warrior culture something that sounds very much like a threat. especially since they're real jumpy from...everything.]

... I don't know. To be honest, I was hoping you had a suggestion.

[at least she's honest?]

One moment. [probably a good idea to hide the blood. and there's a glimmer of...sunlight? before the blood on their kimono almost seems to...disappear. hooray illusions. they still look dreadfully out of place, but at least they don't look like they just murdered four people.] ...If I had any idea how I arrived here, replicating the cause would be much simpler.

Edited 2018-03-21 08:31 (UTC)

That's... a start, I guess...

[christ.]

My magic can't do anything like that... Even Marco couldn't pull this sort of thing off.

Really? [well, this is pretty specifically part of the imperial magics.] It's...not especially common where I'm from, either, but I'm not actually very good with this gift. Illusions have never been my stock-in-trade.

I meant bringing you here. I have a washing machine to handle the clothes. That's only an illusion?

It is, yes. [pause. what is a washing machine?] Such travel is beyond most of the magic at home as well. True sorcery could accomplish such a miracle, but the Sisters mostly don't leave their home and Singers are....rare, among us, and the last I knew about died several months ago. And I have never known true sorcery to be able to be used from beyond the grave.

Edited 2018-03-21 08:48 (UTC)