Superhero AU but thereās both powers and magic, and powers are generally pretty strong but can only do One thing, where as with magic you have to study it and train extensively to become really powerful but anyone can learn all sorts so basic spells are pretty common. So the Heroes usually have a power and some magic they learn but trying to control both really well is hard to learn at the same time.
In comes ex street kid Tommy who learned sleight of hand and throwing suspicion off at an early age, made even easier by his power Inventory, and then got taken in by this nice magic lady, Clementine.
Clementine basically majored in making potions and now runs an apothecary/drugstore kinda thing. She makes stuff for healing or being able to sleep. Anyway Tommy starts learning some magic and potions but heās Really Really bad at like almost all the magic. People tend to be better at magic that āfitsā them and all the big fancy stuff like fire spells or air blasts. Heās not even good at potions like Clem, so he just helps out by buying ingredients or standing out front to talk to customers.
What he finds he is good at is cleaning spells and minor illusions. He gets to the point he can kind of just do them without thinking but theyāre not exactly good for fighting or defending himself. Thatās fine though, heās already gone this long defending himself with his wits and all the running from people heās pissed off has actually made him pretty strong. I still need to figure out the magic system a bit but Iām thinking about a kinda price system, so like cleaning spells are split between instantly cleaning an area or floating cleaning supplies to do the cleaning for you. The instant one makes you tired, like taking the energy it would have taken you to clean it yourself. The floaty one kinda borrows your strength, like you get a bit weaker while itās doing the cleaning for you and you feel like you just did all the cleaning, but itās more like a sore feeling than just getting sleepy.
Tommy notices that the slow one is basically free strength training, which is not the normal attitude to the spell as most people think itās inferior to the instant one, and just has it going in the back while heās up front. It took a while to be able to do it without being in the back but eventually he can get the magic to just work automatically so heās ended up with more free time after the shop closes since everythingās already cleaned up.
His minor illusion spells are really just putting a few basic colors where he wants them. One of them just kinda coats something in a new color like misty paint, he usually uses it to make pretty swirls for kids to enjoy or to make his eyes swirl with different colors (also for kids enjoyment) which he sometimes uses to express his emotions when words get hard.
The āpriceā for the color spell is that he has to keep the colors in his head just right or it starts changing color to whatever heās thinking about and just generally changing constantly.
Oh also, it can be kind of difficult to see through the colors when theyāre on his eyes so sometimes he has to drop the spell while heās doing magician shit to see properly. This has had the side effect of people thinking he created some kind of spell to let him see better because his eyes are naturally a bright crystal blue and other magic users and whoever else interacts with his magician persona just think his eyes are naturally āswirling with powerā
He started performing magic tricks at a festival for some kids and since making flowers disappear and reappear via Inventory (with some added showmanship for fun) was actually Very impressive and entertaining he gained a bit of a crowd. Tommy, still in peak street kid mode and Fully willing to do little tricks for money starts acting as a magician for festivals and stuff. He does shows when heās not running errands for Clementine and pretty quickly develops the persona of Heretic.
As Heretic he has a fancy tail coat and suit get up he made himself, itās black with gold detailing and a red interior. Heās also got basic black slacks and a white button up. He generally ties his hair back and has a cane with a ball top that looks like a little crystal ball. Iām not sure about jewelry but I think after meeting the heroes and villains and accidentally becoming a kind of neutral third party he gets dangly earrings with one of Quackitys feathers or a little emerald. Iām also contemplating making it an amethyst for accidentally befriending Death Herself.
Anyway, part of the persona is heās exuberant, friendly, willing to help, and has a mysterious aura. To help with the image he likes being vague for no reason and fairly mindlessly keeps up the swirly colors on his eyes, letting them change however they want. He has a soft spot for kids so occasionally when he finds street kids at the festivals heāll get some food from one of the vendors and put on a little show for them. He also tends to help out people he meets when heās walking home from shows since they usually get out at night. His personas pretty well trusted and for reasons he doesnāt totally understand considered pretty powerful so he ends up walking people home pretty often since Clem doesnāt have a curfew for him.
Eventually he unknowingly helps a couple villains and heroes in civilian identity and gets attention for delivering some really high quality potions to vigilantes and other people that canāt really go to medics without risking getting caught.
The heroes and morally-decent-but-still-criminals (las Nevadas and rocket duo) start looking into him because they wanna know who this random overpowered guy is and if heād join them. Because there are some Wild rumors about Heretic that are starting to get into urban legend territory because Tommy has met actual professional magic users and such and his first reflex is to act like heās better than him so they donāt fuck with him. Street kid rules, you donāt have to win a fight if your opponent doesnāt bother trying to fight you.
Tommy has absolutely no idea how he ended up being a walking legend rumored to be all powerful and immortal because really he hasnāt done anything to indicate heās more durable than anyone else. He doesnāt get how people think heās powerful even if they think all his parlor tricks are real magic, like come on. All he really does is make objects appear and disappear and throw some Advanced Glitter around, half the time heās not even using magic! And the potions arenāt even his! Those are Clementines! Theyāre even in the same bottles!
But anyway, one of the street kids asks him to get rid of some gangsters away from the street kids' communal spot because they had kicked the kids out and now some of them didnāt have a place to stay. Tommy, being a crafty bastard, decides scaring them off should do it and makes a plan with the kids to convince them the street kids have a big spooky shadowy demon protecting them. The plan works great and the kids have their building back. Tommy decides to figure out how to make sure the kids canāt get kicked out as easily again (and makes a list of stuff to get them for their āhouseā) and after talking to Clementine realizes he can just buy the building and let the kids stay there.
Thus Heretics super secret home for children is created. They start renovating the building a bit so itās safe and has heating and water. He basically accidentally adopts pretty much every street kid and passes this off as a āschool of magicā for legal purposes.
I donāt have a lot of other thoughts but the idea of the heroes frantically running around trying to figure out who the fuck this maybe maybe-not god of magic is is Hilarious.
Some other tidbits: some people think Heretic made a deal with a demon for ultimate power, others who know demons arenāt real think he made a deal with Lady Death. Most spells require set up or words unless youāve like Fully mastered them so Heretic walking around not saying any spells is confusing and frustrating for magic users everywhere. They have thus assumed the swirly eye thing isnāt a spell because who would waste their time perfecting that when they could be perfecting more useful spells, however now they have to assume heās just that powerful so his magic is constantly spilling out.
Oh and no one but Clem knows he has Inventory. So all the having things that shouldnāt fit in his pockets makes the theories worse.
Iām thinking pretty modern but like with magic mixed in so some stuff just isnāt as common because Thereās A Spell For That. I like to think Clem and Tommy buy like magic textbooks and work with the kids to learn basic spells like heating spells or stuff to help them hide or run away from bad guys. They try to help the ones interested in more specific stuff learn but itās mostly just Clementine learning stuff with the kids while Tommy and the older kids teach self defense
