#potion au

This song made me think of the recent potions au ask, where Silver’s memories peak out despite his choice to forget them…

OHHHHH ANON, I ADORE THIS!!!!

But I was proven wrong

So I got this story I'm trying to write, yeah? Fantasy magical dystopian, got any ideas you could shoot my way?

Hey, we live to defy expectations! We'd be more than happy to help.

Fantasy magical dystopian prompts is incredibly specific, but AMAZING. Let's get it started:

No one knows why some people lived while others died when the apocalypse came; they suddenly vanished, almost before their very eyes. With 95% of the population gone, the remaining survivors simply attempted to keep living and moving forward. Small communities were built in the ruin of their old world, later to be called “villages.” After some months of establishing the new world order, strange happenings began to take place: weird weather, objects moving on their own, and other such oddities. It’s only on that day when Character A looked up from their dry garden to the heavens, raised an arm, and pulled down with the intent of a god did rain fall from a cloudless sky. Seemingly impossible, the remaining survivors of the human race may have not been human at all, but something more.

The world was perfect. The complicated and seemingly impossible concept of utopia had been achieved. Waste had been reduced to near nothing, energy was renewable, the economy was saved from collapse -- the human race was thriving for the first time in centuries. As it always seems with perfect things, it was too good to be true. This new world isn’t without a massive, dark flaw: to create this utopia, influential humans have enslaved those with the gift of magic, using them to achieve their nefarious means. The concept of “utopia” had been completely bastardized for their own gain. Humans...they never change.

When you live in a dystopia, you learn to use what you can find. Scavenging wasn’t just a side gig now, but a way of life, and this wasn’t more true than for magical botanists and potion-makers. Because they lacked access to their previous supply chains (damn them for shutting down the internet and its associated conveniences), they had to find other creative ways to source materials. Defunct fabric stores, joke shops, herbalists in Chinatown -- you name it, they’d scavenged it. All seemed well and good until some of their spells had, well, unexpected effects due to poor quality substitutions.

History repeats itself, and the world heals in cycles...at least, that’s what they all said when the climate took a turn for the worse. Everything was thrown out of whack in a mere 20 years, and few people could discover the truth of what seemed to be happening. The new world felt almost apocalyptic, but it turns out the world wasn’t ending, but merging. Two planes of existence were slowing melding together: one our own and the other...horrendously fantastic. No one believed the ravings of Character A until the first dragon ripped the sky open and rained fire down from the heavens.

Being a part of a coven after the world all but ended was difficult enough, but having that life be all someone knows makes it just that much harder when they have to leave it. As a part of a coming of age ceremony, Characters A, B, and C are sent on a quest across the country to source materials from the old world: The Munich Manual. However, they were refused reasoning as to why the elders needed the ancient script, citing it as “none of their business” and that they “weren’t old enough to know the truth.” Well, Characters A, B, and C are officially adults now, right? Who’s to say they can’t just open the manual find out for themselves?

The “wall of fish” trending on TikTok some time ago seemed like it was too strange to be true; so many people ignored it and simply kept it in their back pocket as a fun fact to bring up at parties. After all, what’s a better ice breaker than “you heard about those floor fish??” No one expected anything to come of it, simply writing it off as another secret the sea kept hidden. It wasn’t until this wall of fish completely disappeared did anyone take notice, because what it left behind was ten times worse. In this world, sea creatures are connected by a hive mind, and this in combination with morphic fields allowed the creatures to simultaneously alter their body chemistry and release a strong, deadly acid that poisoned almost every water source on Earth, eating the land and leaving little behind. Within five years, the only humans remaining on planet earth are the mountain tribes, sustained through the magical manipulation of their own morphic fields.

Supplies are hard to come by when the world has gone to shit, and that couldn’t be any more true of the world without UPS. The sourcing of rare materials was left for only the most brave and capable. These requirements made Character A’s trips along the New Silk Road that much more bewildering, given their small stature. Perhaps it had to do with the materials they were carrying...it seemed like an awful lot of bottles filled with weird colors, bones, and insect wings for such a little thing.

Being a plain non-magical human in a group of tightly-knit survivors trying to live in the slums of a dystopian city isn’t exactly a cake walk, but if they thought Character A was also magical because they could somehow convince neighboring groups to accept impossibly unfair trades for their own gain, who was Character A to correct them on their mistake? After all, it’s not like Character A would willingly admit that they were just in debate club in high school, not a silver tongued sorcerer.

Not everyone is cut out for living in an apocalyptic situation. Jobs that fit your skills are hard to come by, especially for a mute academic (and a linguist at that). In an effort to pull their weight, Character A becomes an archivist and logs information as best they can from members of the community to document how the old world can inform the new. They decide to start with the elderly who speak a myriad of languages (most were ones Character A could also speak, thank god). As Character A records their stories and words, they fail to realize that what they’re recording aren’t just stories, but spells and incantations with the ability to release something much, much darker if spoken by the right person.

Everyone thought the creatures were destroying the world of their own accord. “It’s simply in their nature,” they’d say. “They can’t control themselves.” Well, that was a bit true in part: someone else was calling the shots, and they certainly didn’t have everyone’s best interest at heart. Who’s to say someone else can’t pull their strings, though?

These should give you a great start, but I’ll be honest in saying that I could have kept going forever! Maybe we’ll have more AUs along the same lines as these in the future~

It’s rare that Character A gets a break, but that’s exactly where they find themselves after quitting their job. Don’t worry, they had another one lined up, but the project itself wasn’t due to start for another couple months, meaning that Character A had a whole lot of nothing to do.

To fill their time and escape boredom, Character A looks online for free classes in anything and everything, from knitting, to video editing, to baking, to graphic design -- anything they had even a slight amount of interest in, they wanted to absorb as much knowledge as possible. Most of these weren’t live and involved watching pre-recorded lectures, but one of them was hosted on Zoom every Thursday at 3. 

Excited to interact with other passionate learners, Character A boots up their laptop and signs in for the class, but scrunches their eyebrows when they reread the pop-up: “Classes will be held at 3:00AM.” Crap, they’d already missed the first one. Bummed out but adamant about participating in this At-Home Apothecary class, they arrive exactly on time the next week, seeing others’ webcams on, cauldrons boiling, ingredients prepared, and...is that a real wand?

They’ve been fine tuning the potions and testing them out a lot! They’ve figure out what sizes that prefer and how long they last.

Tommy figures out that he loves being big, not just Tubbo shrinking, but the feeling of being a giant and seeing everything so small compared to you. Having the power to actually be able to do what he wants and not being pushed around. Tubbo loves being tiny, even if it’s just in comparison and not in general, he likes being able to rely on Tommy and have someone else make the decisions, it’s so nice to be able to relax and not have to act strong anymore. They’ve been the other way around but both of them prefer Tommy being big and Tubbo being small.

They have this huge clearing a long distance out in the middle of nowhere, where Tommy grows big without fearing being seen or destroying important things. When things get stressful, they journey out there and play around with the potions. Tommy growing big enough to cover a whole field and Tubbo running around on top of his chest, Tubbo shrinking so small he blends in with the grass and Tommy down with his head on the ground watching him.

This is the cutest thing though, my heart loves this

If the prison stuff happens in this AU then you can bet your ass that the potions become an even bigger escape for them. Tommy wants to grow a lot more after that, which Tubbo is willing to do. Tommy will hold Tubbo close and lean up against a few sturdy trees, being free and in control of his situation.

Tubbo was working on improving the height of the growth and shrinking potions when suddenly the shrinking one shatters and spills all over him.,, he’d been trying to make it so they could go even smaller to help with different tasks, so like 2 or 3 inches instead of the 6 inches he had before.,, it works both fortunately and unfortunately, since he can’t reach his lab at this height but he now knows they work.,, as if he knew, he gets a message on his communicator from Tommy telling him he’s on his way over,,, Tommy makes it over there, calling out for Tubbo and stumbled upon the mess all over the floor and lab, he’s drawn to a small someone calling his name out from the floor.,,

Tommy doesn’t immediately grow him back.. having an even smaller Tubbo in his hands is something he wants to have for a little bit.,, and Tubbo finally got his hand holding for the day in.,,

Tubbo is so tiny! Tommy ends up slowly kneeling down to look at the tiny Tubbo, a smaller Tubbo than he's normally used to. He gently cups his hands around his friend and lifts him up to his face. Tubbo stumbles a bit and holds onto one of Tommy's fingers for support.

Tommy is absolutely amazed that Tubbo managed this. He was starting to think they could only put the cap at the two specific sizes, but now they could experiment with different sizes!

Well, they could later. Tommy wants to keep holding Tubbo. He's always enjoyed holding Tubbo in his hands whenever he's bigger than him, but now Tubbo easily fits into one hand and Tommy is not letting this opportunity slip away. Tubbo can deal with being tiny for a little while longer.

I mean- Phil and Ranboo live with Techno right?

So they can probably help with Tommy?

Of they don't pass out from seeing giant Tubbo that is-

Oh yea! That makes this easier too! Totally didn't forget about that nope-

When Techno doesn't return inside, Phil and Ranboo go out to check on him. They were not expecting to see Tubbo as a giant cradling Techno and Tommy in his hands.

Phil instantly notices the blood stain on Tubbo's hand. And paired with the scared and pleading look on Tubbo's face, Phil instantly assumes the worst. He flies up to Tubbo's hand and is horrified to see Tommy in the state he is in. He carefully scoops Tommy into his arms and quickly makes his way inside the cabin, yelling at Tubbo to just keep watch on Techno and wait for him to wake up.