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greyskyflowers · 1 year

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✨🌙 Magic AU ideas for fun ✨🌙

~ Please credit me if you use any of these.

🕸️ Ink spiders

Spider like creatures that tend to live in places with lots of ink (think libraries, book stores, antique shops, etc).

Most people think the black spindling legs are the creature and it's made of ink (hence the name), but the spiders are actually made of the spaces between words, the black ink is the shadow. They're very thin and you have to get close and look sideways at them to faintly see their actual bodies, which almost look like very thin glass threads. More of a distortion in the air than an actual image. Leave ink splatters when startled and make little clinking noises like tea cups when they get curious enough to climb something you've left close enough to the page.

**Think that photo of camels in desert where people think shadows are the camels

🚪Little shops in between the books on shelves in antique and bookstore.

They look like little miniature houses/apartments but they aren't fond of people lingering so if you look away they'll shut the doors and windows by the time you look again.

Some even take their welcome mats back inside.

🌌 Planetary rings can be bought for an unbelievable price but only the best magic users have them. They make amazing engagement and/or wedding rings.

🐠 If you find the right crosswalk in the rain, you will loo down between the painted line over a mirror image of the city, see fish swimming, leaves floating, etc. Stepping on the blocks gets you across but stepping in the water spins you around and you end up in the city. If you look up you'll see the blocks in the sky and fish swimming high above like clouds. You can watch people walking across the street above you.

This is the only way to find certain magic market places and it can be hard to find the right crosswalk. People usually end jumping in lots of puddles trying to find the right one.

**You leave the same way

🌧️ Kitchen clouds that rain spices

🌊 The most expensive and rare lace is foam from the sea pulled off at high tide under a full moon. White with the gentlest hints of blue, perfectly imperfect in it's details. They say it smells of salt and feels cool against the skin.

**Sold by mermaids, sirens, ocean nymphs. If you buy if from someone else it's probably fake

💡Sting lights that fly off the string when not in use and flicker on and off around the room. When you ask for light or turn it on, they all come floating in to sit on the string at their spots.

**Like lightning bugs but just little puffs of light

🌱 Rooms where grass grows on the floor or up between floorboards. Wildflowers and clover joining it. Sometimes sunflowers pop up to keep depressed or sick people company, common in hospitals

🛁 Night bath bombs: Black ones that turn the water black and silver dust forms accurate constellations in the water.

Cloud bath bombs: White ones that cover the top of the water in rolling puffs that look like cotton but dissipate like fog when you wave your hand through it.

Ocean bath bombs: Blue ones that foam and make small waves, sea salt scent and the grit of sand at the bottom of the tub.

Rain bath bombs: Grey ones that smell like rain and look like puddles, the occasional leaf or two floating by, and the perfect warm summer rain feel and smell.

🎨 Colorful butterflies like paint chips travel together and always form beautiful murals when they land. They usually stay for awhile before getting up to move their artwork to somewhere else.

🐙 Upside down flowers that move like octopus, the petals like little legs they scurry around on. They sometimes produce pollen puffs when startled or angry.

🦷 Dentists that do teeth whitening for vampires

👗 Dresses with flower edges, the skirt made of stems all going up to form the waist with leaves occasionally helping to cover and the flowers all at the bottom. Living dresses.

Along the same thought, flowers that weave in your hair and stay, Ivy, lavender, gardenia, etc.

🥪 Swamp houses on giant lilly pads with monsters that lives in the muddy waters, ancient beings that adore grilled cheese and will accept it as an offering of friendship.

🐾 Veterinarians that can speak multiple animal languages and can ask animals what's wrong as well as follow up on any neglect or abuse claims

⚓ Tattoos that move and change as the person does. Flowers that go through blooming and wilting. Words that change fonts. Animals that wonder around the body. Anchors that sink down to the feet. Watercolor that leaves the skin damp

🛒 Groceries that pop into your kitchen as you order them.

**They keep putting the milk in the wrong place and at this point you think it's just to fuck with you.

🪞 Store changing rooms have two types of rooms available, with mirrors that flatter and support, or mirrors that are brutally honest and occasionally hurtful.

💉 Werewolves that need to stay up to date on their rabies/disease shots instead of their flu shots.

💰 The best thieves and scammers are fae because they're amazing at getting information, names, numbers, etc. Also kitsune because of their remarkable cuunning and playfulness.

💧 Depression medicine that shoos away the rain clouds over your head

Calming tinctures that literally stop your head from spilling

Warming spells that start at you toes and roll up your body like sinking into warm water

Cooling spells that run down from the top of your head like a cool shower

💀 Classroom skeletons that teach their own classes and love dad jokes. Real ones that tell stories from their lives, or died very recently but it was in the middle of the semester and they still have shit to do. Fake skeletons that like to pretend they were famous/fictional people and spread completely ridiculous and often hilarious rumors.

🏘️ Ghost towns/neighborhoods like spirited away. Quiet and empty during the day but bustling streets and shops as the sun goes down. They aren't on maps for a reason - tip your hat or nod your head and remember your manners while quickly passing through

🌫️ Spells that hide your home from those with ill intentions. Sometimes they can't see your house or it looks abandoned. Sometimes it switches the roads around so none ever lead to you. Those with good intentions will always find their way to you, even if they get lost.

**Think irish proverb about the road rising up to meet you vibes

🗑️ The creature that lives in the break room trashcan always has the latest gossip and will gladly trade you some in return for some old coffee or a snack from the vending machine.

🐌 Sea slugs as street cleaners, make their way through the streets at night in slow wiggles like how they clean the bottom of the ocean.

**Often cause traffic delays if they get behind and can stay out til morning, so listen to the local morning radio to make sure to avoid any road closures due to slug

👁️ Seers make the best personal assistants, front desk, nurses, etc. Catch things right as they fall, will call and reschedule appointments before people know they need to, can make sure messages get where they need to go exactly when needed.

**Fake seers will sometimes try to pose as weathermen or similar to get some fame and money. They usually get booted quickly.

🌿 Eucalyptus that grows in the shower and greets you in the morning with happy waves and wishes you good night in the evening. Moss that grows on the floor like a rug and sprouts like flowers when it thinks you need some cheering up.

⌛ Time delays are a thing, however they must be approved by the time equality agency. You can request to change the hours in your day. For example, a student might request to have more time to study before their 7am final. If approved, they might have say 5am last 4 hours before time resumes as normal. However they'll have 4 hours removed at the end of their day.

**Kind of like daylight savings where the clock jumps forward and backwards

Usually this is reserved for very special situations as there's a lot of paperwork and requirements involved.

🚀 Spaceships gets stars stuck on the side, like boats get barnacles stuck to them, and they have to be scrapped off and throw back up into the sky

**Stars also go too low sometimes and get stuck in tree branches and gutters

🍄 Giant mushrooms used at part of the structure and/roof in forest homes. Living homes.

🌳 Willow trees are incredibly protective. If someone gets a willow whip mark (snapped a branch at them like a towel) it usually means they were somewhere they shouldn't have been.

🦋 Some butterflies have extra pollen on their wings that gets shaken off. This can be gathered and used in magic makeup - doesn't harm the butterfly as they shake it off themselves when it gets too heavy.

🐉 Fire flowers that burn blue at the base and end in flickering flames. Little embers in the middle like pollen. Very small dragons take the embers and soot like bees.

Please note that it's illegal to take anything from a dragon, including fire honey, but sometimes if you befriend them they'll trade you. Maybe a shell of honey for something shiney. They're fond of things like tinsel and shiney confetti, it's easy to carry and they sometimes wrap it around them like little scarves.

🗺️ Physical maps that direct you like Google maps but also refuse to ask for directions if they themselves get lost. Sometimes they fold on the sides like little arms on their hips when they're mad.

**Map: don't you dare pull over, take the turn in .5 miles.

Driver: There is no turn!

Map: Take the turn!

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laceyjane44 · 7 months

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GaaSaku 2023 FanFest Day21

Prompt: "What will this cost me?"

(Mythical AU)

Compared to the winds raging over the open desert, the inside of the canyon’s cave was quiet and still.

Once free from the gales of the outside, Gaara pulled the deep hood of his cloak down and unwrapped the scarf from about his face. Sand trickled off him as he shook out his clothing, the dull flapping of the fabric echoing deeper into the cave. He had made it, he had found it, right where he was told it would be. He took one last look at the world beyond the entrance, to the endless dunes he had traveled through to get here, and hoped that his journey wouldn’t be in vain.

With a torch pulled from his pack, he doused it in lamp oil and set it aflame, the flickering light illuminated his way into the tunnel growing deeper and darker before him. This would be his last chance, he knew it, and if he wanted to turn back, he could only do so now. Steeling his will and swallowing his fear, he refused to back down and run. This is what he journeyed for, this is what he had been seeking, and the only way to attain what he desired would be through his deal.

Setting off, his steps slow and cautious, Gaara kept himself alert to the changes in the air around him. As the entrance to the cave became further behind him, the sounds of the wind outside had subsided, and he found himself isolated in darkness. Only a flickering dome of light followed him, the walls of the cave growing narrower the deeper he went, and the air quickly became stale and musty. At his feet were the bones of animals that had sought this cave as their final resting place, the possessions of those to travel here before him, unaware that this would be their tomb as well, and strange markings covered the walls. Like scratch marks, they were slashed into the rock, though they were high above his head, even on the ceiling, and he knew of only one thing capable of etching those marks into the stone.

His heart began to race, his blood ran cold, and he knew it wasn’t due to the sudden chill in the air. He was frightened, anyone in their right mind would have been, though only those mad enough to attempt such a daring expedition would ever hope to make it to where his feet currently tread. He took slow and even breaths, fear would do him no good, and when he approached a thin break in the wall of the cave, a junction that the tunnel had led him to, the pressure in the air around him suddenly changed.

Electric, heavy, and reverberating through his chest, it had nearly made him think to turn back. But he thought of why he had made the dangerous trek into the sands alone, why he had sought this power, and the visions of her face in his memories gave him strength.

Slipping through the narrow passageway, he came out the other side within an open chamber. The feeling of pressure was stronger in here, the air seemed to smell of old musk and dried blood. Gaara held up his torch, the flame illuminating the jagged walls of the chamber, it was stained with splashes of a dark substance.

A warrior since birth, he recognized blood in any form it took. Though, where it had come from was a mystery; there were no bones in here, there were no corpses, but the longer he stood within the space, the stronger the stench of blood became.

Gaara took a deep breath, knowing his fate may be sealed the very same, and readied himself for what was to come.

“I know that which I seek,” he called out into the open space, his voice echoing around him and repeating his words. “And I come prepared to make a deal.”

Silence answered him, the flickering of his flame the only sound to be heard within the cave.

Another deep breath, his exhale shook this time, before he belted out, “Show yourself!” His command bounced between the walls, reverberating the desperation he’d long since felt, and eventually quieted.

Nothing.

The arm hand holding his torch dropped to his side and he huffed. Had he said something wrong? Was this the wrong cave? It couldn’t have been, it was precisely where the fortune teller had advised him, though they begged of him to reconsider. Perhaps the old stories were just that; stories, and there was no deal to be made here.

Frustration bubbled up within him, years of pent-up anger and resentment brimming up to his eyes before he finally fisted a hand in his hair, grit his teeth, and cursed the ancestors of his name. Was there nothing else to be done? “Dammit,” he muttered, his hand clutching the torch at his side in an iron grip before his patience snapped and he hurled it against the wall. “Dammit!”

The torch bounced off the wall, rolling to the ground, the lit oil leaving a flickering trail of flame before its light extinguished. Darkness enveloped him then, a pitch black that was deeper than any night kept awake by the demons of his past and, standing alone in this faraway cave, he felt his shoulders slump.

“Heh,” Gaara laughed as he shook his head, a mild grin on his face. “I’ve finally gone mad.”

A chill swept through the chamber on the back of a sudden draft and when it whipped around him, he covered his eyes as the sand it kicked up sprayed across his face. He couldn’t see where it was coming from, he hadn’t seen another entrance into the chamber, and that pressure returned with force. The weight of it at this time was unimaginable; it bore down on him and nearly drove him to his knees, a ringing in his ears drowning out all thought of panic and retreat, and he could do nothing but hold his head as it flared in pain.

“Not yet,” whispered a voice, deep and guttural, and it seemed to be carried on the very wind that surrounded him.

All at once his torch near the wall was alight again and he jumped in shock. It rolled over to his feet, no longer leaving a trail of burning oil and, choosing sight over the fear of the unknown, he grabbed it and raised it up above him.

At first, he thought it the smoke from the torch that was gathering at the ceiling, but it wasn’t black; it was tinged a crimson red, and from its haze came a light sprinkling of sand.

Gaara froze, his breath stolen from his lungs, and he watched as the smoke churned and congregated, becoming an opaque cloud out of a fine mist. A light, two of them, golden and mesmerizing, took form from within the cloud, and he knew at once the eyes of a jinn were upon him.

From the musky smell in the air, the stench of blood became ever more prominent and, as the smoke descended from the ceiling and those eyes became on level with his own, he willed himself to find strength.

“What do they call you?” it asked, its voice just as raspy and grating to the ears.

Gaara swallowed, a bead of nervous sweat dripping down his temple. “I am called Gaara,” he answered, managing to keep his voice relatively even.

“You know what you seek,” the voice said, it gave Gaara a chill; it had been listening.

“And I am prepared to make a deal,” he assured again, taking a bold step forward toward the repugnant smoke.

He now stood in the center of the chamber and the smoke began to swirl around him and he felt as if eyes were on him from every corner, as if he was being studied. “To what end?”

“Power,” he said. “Influence. I wish to rule these lands.”

A pause as the jinn observed him “Rule them? Why?”

He refused to back down and give in to this instinctual fear coursing through his veins and telling him to run. This was a beast of old, a consumer of men and the downfall of kings; nothing came without a price. “I have given everything to this land,” he began, conviction in his words as his hatred for the people who had scorned him outweighed his fear of this apparition. “I lost my mother to be born, I lost my father to the greed for power, and the sacrifices of my lifelong commitment have been repaid in their desire for my blood.”

The jinn did not respond, those golden eyes, like diamonds glittering in the darkness, only stared silently through him.

He willed himself to remain hardened; an audience with the likes of a jinn was an opportunity that sent nearly all to their graves in failure. “I will suffer at their feet no longer,” he declared. “I will overthrow the systems that had failed me and instill a new law.” His fist clenched at his side, the knuckles around the torch going white. “Mine will be a reign for the ages, a sovereignty that will be unshakable. Those that have denied me will bow at my feet, my judgements untestable and my word absolute.”

The jinn’s smoke closed it, the eyes coming closer, and again he felt as though they stared straight through him. It spoke then, its words chilling him and eliciting a shaken breath. “What of the woman?”

Try as he might, her face flashed through his mind, the vibrancy of her green eyes a color unknown to him in the desert, the hue of her hair unlike any flower that bloomed among the sands. She had stepped into his life like a monsoon in the wake of a century long drought, giving promises of new beginnings and rebirth. Even her gaze falling upon him was like the gentle patter of rain on his face, quenching a thirst he didn’t know he possessed. “There is no woman.”

“I see into your mind,” the jinn warned. “She has infested you.”

Gaara broke his gaze from those floating eyes, unable to bare how they saw the desperate truth.

If he had been able, he would have simply forgotten about her, it would have made this existence of his bearable, but she had captivated him with her exotic allure and he coveted her since. How could he have been so enraptured by the simple glances and kind few words she had thrown his way? He was a hardened warrior that made no qualms over being bathed in blood, made no arguments over being sent to battle, and he had resigned to a lifetime spent as cannon fodder.

But she…she had melted him, and the jinn had already seen that.

“She is above me,” he admitted, his teeth clenched. “Beyond my reach. Her prospects are more than what I can offer, but I refuse to watch another man have her.”

“I know,” the jinn responded. “Your desires lay in a foreign land, for a prize most sought.” The eyes circled him slowly, the mass of smoke leaving a trail around him. “Why?”

Gaara wouldn’t refuse, it would be fruitless to do so. “Had I been stronger, I could have overthrown that land and claimed her, but I failed.”

“Was she your only prize?”

Shaking his head, a cold tingle traveled up his neck as the eyes moved behind him, as if he were prey in the gaze of a cunning predator. “No, but she was the only regret I left behind.”

The pressure returned, a sudden force weighing down on him and a searing heat through his mind. Clutching his head, the pain surged through him and his knees buckled, he groaned as he sunk to the ground. His torch fell beside him, his hands fisted in his hair, doubled over as he tried to breathe through it and keep himself calm.

“A changed man?” the jinn grumbled, amused. A deep and foreboding chuckle echoed throughout the chamber. “You fool yourself. You only seek to rule these lands to attain her favor. Will you not lose yourself to greed just as your father?”

Knees on the sandy earth, pain subsiding, Gaara remained humbled before the spirit. “She would not have me if I abused the title that I seek,” he said, the truth of his words evident in every memory that he possessed of her. “I know this to be true.”

The voice sounded closer this time, as if spoken from lips right at his ear, and he shivered with unease. “If I could give you her body,” the jinn began, the very words suggesting his deepest desires. “Would you relinquish her heart?”

Gaara’s breath hitched in his lungs. Was this it? Within his grasp at last could be the greatest pleasure of his life, his biggest triumph as all those to pursue her watched as she fell to his will. He could covet her away within his lands where no one could steal her from him, able to drink in the spoils of his victories without fear of refusal, where she could be his and his alone.

His breath escaped him, a short laugh as he shook his head, and he rose from the floor to look into those golden eyes that floated within the smoke. “You tempt me,” he said. “But I refuse, her body without her intent, without her affection, it would mean nothing.”

“Then I cannot give you what you wish,” the jinn replied.

Gaara sighed, dejection settling over him as his heart sunk into his stomach. After the days of endless trekking through the unforgiving desert, after the nights spent shivering with chill, after his rations ran out and his water dried up, this was his answer. He should have known.

“But,” the jinn spoke again. Gaara looked up. “I can help you earn her.”

His heart thumping in his chest, he swallowed; his fear, his apprehension, his doubt, all of it. “What must I do?” he asked, desperate for whatever answer may come. If there be a way; he could do it. If he be put on a path to her; he would walk it no matter the ground. “What will this cost me?”

The jinn spoke slowly, clearly, a deal could only be made if he knew what to sacrifice. “I need a body,” it said. “I need flesh, and blood.” The mist began closing in and where it brushed against his cloak it felt frigid and vile. “I will need you.”

Gaara stared ahead to the walls of the chamber, to the splatters of stain that he had observed when he first entered. He could very well be looking his at his own fate, but even so, he would at least be free of this longing. He went to speak but his voice caught in his throat. He grimaced, the weight of that energy that surrounded him making it hard to breathe. “If it allow me the power to pursue my conquest,” he spoke, that same determination returning to his voice as it had when had called upon the jinn. “If it make me worthy of her, then so be it.”

The smoke closed in, enveloping him in an inescapable cold that permeated his flesh down to his bones. He cried out within the isolation of that chamber as another gust of wind kicked up around him and the sand at his feet began to swirl. He collapsed to the floor, his body going limp with the pain, with the cold. He gasped for desperate breaths. How could something born of the desert feel so frozen? It felt as though the life were being sucked from his core.

Suffocating, it swarmed his face and he was forced to breathe it in. It was thick and rancid and tasted of death, his throat constricting around each breath and his stomach retching, it burned his nose and his lungs, his eyes began to water. He was on his back then, his body thrashing against the onslaught as he felt every fiber of his being fill with the sickly weight of the spirit. It crawled down body, settling into his limbs and swelling within his mind. Nearly overcome, Gaara wondered if this had been the fate of the others, filled to the brim until they simply burst from the immensity of this power.

Just until he thought he could take no more, when he thought he may have truly traded his life for the chance to chase a dream, the wind stopped and the pressure lifted.

Air suddenly filled his lungs; he coughed as he convulsed on the floor. The smoke was gone and he shivered when that icy cold lost its grip. With shaken hands and arms he wasn’t sure would hold him, he attempted to lift himself from the ground. His body felt different, his muscles felt new and not like his own. What had happened to him? He made it to his knees and hunched over, a sudden queasiness slushing within his gut that turned his stomach and he puked.

He hadn’t eaten in two days, the last time he drank was the previous night, he had nothing but bile and it burned his throat all the same as the smoke had. Shaking, he couldn’t yet find the strength to stand, though he found the strength to choke out a laugh at his sorry predicament, weighing his chances of returning alive now that he’d survived accosting a jinn.

Though, just to be sure… “Is it done?” he breathed, his voice was horse and scratchy.

There were no more words spoken within the room, they were now within himself. Startled, the whisper came as a foreign voice inside his mind, like a thought that wasn’t his own.

You have what you need, but your repayment has only just begun.

Gaara looked down at his hands, contemplating the blood he felt throbbing through his veins. He was overcome with a sensation he couldn’t place, a feeling of power that coursed through his body and begged for release. “What is it that you’ve given me?”

As the gusts within the chamber had died, the hollow whistling of the wind seeping its way from the entrance of the cave found him in the flickering darkness cast by his discarded torch. The sand storm still rages. The jinn spoke to him. Go into it, I will show you.

He obeyed, managing to find his feet as the uncertainty of this new feeling quickly faded away. He now felt invigorated and empowered, his senses felt sharper, and he abandoned the torch to die out in the chamber as he left.

“So” Gaara huffed as he guided his hands along the wall, though he could see much better now. Had there been this much light when he first entered? “What do I call you?”

…Shukaku

Thanks for reading!

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaceyJane

FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/2120361/WiccadBaltane0501

#gaasaku #sabaku no gaara #ao3 #fan fest 2023 #gaasaku fan fest #sakura haruno #gaaraxsakura #gaara #sakugaa #mythical au

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