#mat au

They were part of the recruits Sadie and Carter found before the second book, who were brought in to be taught and to learn about using Divine Magic. Which they did!

Eventually Toby and Jim decided, after finishing their Magician Training, to go back to Arcadia. Both because of homesickness and to finish their normal schooling, and because the Main Threat to them all (the return of Apophis, the Sun Eating Snake Monster) had finally been settled.

(I mean, that’s how it’s “supposed” to go after the Apocalypse has been stopped, right? Everyone just goes back to their normal lives with no ill effects? (They are very wrong but they don’t know that.))

> I haven’t decided on their respective gods yet because there are a LOT of Egyptian gods and I want to pick someone who’ll be a good fit for them and hasn’t already been used for a magician in canon.

I’m clueless for Toby so far, but I’d love if I could tie in his use of a War-hammer or just a Hammer to his patron.

For Jim, I kind of want to play with his name and have his god be a Water/River god. I’m considering using Nephthys, since she’s a powerful goddess in her own right and tends to get overlooked in favor of others. (Plus, it would be fun to expand her character!) That, or a god that could be tied into his knife and/or cooking skills.

> Toby’s therapist is part of the House of Life so that he can fully unload/unpack everything they’ve been through. He keeps trying to convince Jim to go too, but Jim keeps shrugging it off or saying he doesn’t need it.

(He does. He absolutely does, no matter how much he denies it. And stress baking, while delicious, doesn’t help as much as he thinks it does.)

> Neither of them were front-line fighters during the battle in Egypt, but they WERE in the battle at the Brooklyn House.

The two of them hadn’t put a lot of focus on weapon training, focusing more on the magic side of things. That said, Jim’s got a MEAN swing with a sword when it comes down to it.

(Although, since they came back to Arcadia, they’ve become a tad rusty at fighting. Not because they haven’t been practicing, but more because they’ve only been able to train with each other and against Shabtis.)

> SPEAKING OF THE HOUSE OF LIFE!  There is a House in Arcadia, but it’s pretty much empty and unused most of the time. Arcadia does feel very magical/magic saturated to anyone who knows how to tell. But, as far as the Magician’s have been able to tell, there doesn’t really seem to be anything there. The House is more of an Out Post/Watch House than anything else.

Jim and Toby have a Bi-Weekly Sleepover Weekend there to practice their magic and try to keep in shape. It’s also a good place to just... Hang out without the usual problems that crop up.

A safe space to get away from everything and just be themselves.

> After facing the end of the world together, Toby and Jim are really close. They’re also really close to the other kids from the Brooklyn House.

This is part of the reason why they have problems connecting with the kids at school.

They can’t bond with everyone over the things they enjoy, they can’t talk about their experiences, they can’t share the things they learned during those couple years they were outside Arcadia, so they just kind of... Hang back and let everyone else drift by them.

(It’s also another reason why Jim has so much trouble talking with Claire. He has NO IDEA how to talk about Normal Non-Magician Teenager Things and he has no idea how to approach a girl who’s not a magician who helped stop the End of the World.)

> The two of them know A Lot about Egyptology and Egyptian History. Honestly, after everything they’ve been through, it would be weirder if they DIDN’T know about those.

> Barbara and Nana both know that the boys have been through Crazy Shit™ and try to help where/how they can. And despite how long they were separated, both boys still have really strong bonds with their respective guardians.

Things were a little awkward/clumsy when they first came back, but they’ve all settled into a comfortable routine with each other. Home feels like home again.

That said, Jim still suffers from some wanderlust because of everything that happened. It hard to fully settle into normal.

> When Jim and Toby find the Amulet, they are a HELL of a lot more cautious about it. Magic is an old hat for them by now, and talking amulets that know (one of) their names are SUPER SUS and treated with the UPMOST WARINESS.

(Who knows what could be accidentally unleashed if they try messing with it??)

They don’t bother trying to research the amulet at school. (Since it’s Very Obviously a magical artifact.) Instead they vow to look into it at the Arcadia House and to call other magicians if things take a weird/bad turn with it. (Or if they find something worrying about it.)

Plus, it’s not smart to talk about magic around not-magic people. They are smarter than that.

> Jim openly tells him mom he and Toby found a weird, magical-thing in the canal and that (after dropping his stuff off at home) he plans to go to the Arcadia House to have it checked out. There’s no need to hide magic from her in this one since she already knows about it.

Barbara’s okay with that plan, but also gives him explicit instructions to call/text her if anything happens.

>When Blinky and Arrrgh show up in Jim’s basement, things do not go as smoothy as they had been hoping for. Mostly because Jim is a magician who survived the Apocalypse and is armed with a duat locker that has his weapons and a wide array of verbal spells to call on.

Blinky gets magically punched.

Arrrgh gets a few new scars from a Khopesh.

Jim hits his head against something.

Basically, it’s frantic and messy until they manage to get across that they don’t mean any harm. Jim takes the testament with a grain of salt.

I'm not really sure where it would go from there other than this:

Blinky and Arrrgh are impressed by Jim’s skill in a fight.

They learn that the world almost ended and they didn’t notice

There is a new, genuine Pharaoh who can channel Divine Magic and Blinky is excited for the lost magic being regained. He is learning just as much from the boys as they are from him.

Toby is brought up to speed and makes it very clear that Jim’s not going to be doing this by himself. There is a lot of arguing about letting the rest of the House of Life know what’s up.

They get to see the Arcadia House, and learn more about the training Toby and Jim have.

Jim takes to the Amulet better than he thought, but worries about how is might mess with his magic since he doesn’t know what it was made with. Also, plate armor is new and hard to move in.

Jim still fights Draal, but spares him bc of compassion and “How the hell do you expect to take care of everything myself? I need back-up to get shit done, that’s how human’s work.”

Toby points out that “We’re squishy magic users, we need muscle to back us up. Especially if we need to bust out the BIG spells.”