#serial-cat

“Knowing us, this is bound to go wrong.” 

Coming from the mouth of a boy who can wield bad luck as his magic, it doesn’t make Marco feel any better about what lays before them. In the distance a burst of fire erupts and the faint sound of screaming can be heard. Eren and Marco make no move to leave their spot at the front gate. 

The both of them really don’t want to move. The building in front of them is a giant mass of ramps, flaming hoops, and deathtraps. There’s evil laughter coming from somewhere inside and Connie’s voice can be distinctly heard going “My leg!”. 

“Can you sabotage it? That’s your specialty, right?” Marco asks. He winces as more screams come from inside, praying the inside of it all doesn’t look as bad as what he can see on the surface. 

“Too many variables. We’d end up causing a domino effect and I’d rather not kill someone because I was careless.” Eren purses his lips, squinting into the depths of the school with a frown. “Jean inside?”

“He was in the home ec room when the building changed,” Marco sighs. “What do we know about the victim?”

“Upperclassman. Failed her attempt to get onto some extreme sports show. Don’t know what her trinket is.” Eren lists off the information without much enthusiasm. He only knows the details thanks to Hitch’s grip on the school gossip, it wasn’t hard to piece together what happened after the building changed. 

“Alrighty then.” Marco takes a moment to breathe, nodding to Eren as they raise their arms and prepare to change. “Guess we’ll just wing it and hope we don’t die.”

Eren snorts, muttering under his breath before he signals his ring to begin the transformation. 

KEEP THE QUESTIONS COMING

1: Marco is far from the first magical boy. It happens. If it were really a strange thing then Mabel would have thought twice about passing the bracelet to him. I’m guessing boys in the age range magical girls usually develop would mostly turn down being something so....well. You know what they’re like. 

2: As for otaku, I’d say they exist. But mostly for fictional magical girls because to the world at large, real magical girls get the urban legend treatment. (if I was playing this au seriously they’d be outed for sure, but let’s play this For Laughs and say somehow only young people seem to notice what the hell’s going on) Of course that does mean if you’re in a town where you have a real one, you’ll end up with fans. 

Like Annie. 

I guess it’d be a case by case basis. Usually one side overpowers the other (in my original work I have a character who comes from two pure lines of fae and sorcerer, he ends up taking after his fae mother but presents as a sorcerer for plot reasons) but I suppose with each generation afterwards it’d get a little more muddled. 

Say, if a vampire and a werewolf had a child. What results is a first generation dhamphir who can also turn into a wolf. But lycanthropy tends to be...overpowering so even though each generation after would have less vampiric power you’d still have a decent line of average wolves. 

If a person were quarter vampire and quarter fairy, I’d say their abilities would be limited depending on what else is in their bloodline. You have a chance to get the dhamphir strength booster but you’re waaay more likely to have an inherent talent with fae magic. With both in the bloodline you’re guaranteed to have a better aptitude with magic in general than the average pureblooded human. 

What’s your character’s aesthetic (things associated with your character)?

Hot tea, a beat up hockey stick, blood in his gums as he smiles, fist making contact with the enemy with a loud crunch. The smell of scented soap and soft flannels. Running eyeliner smudged into war paint. The distant sounds of pop-punk music playing in the most nostalgic way. 

(checkered belts and concert tees, the Killjoys album thundering as converse kick in the teeth of his enemies, but he’ll shoot a man before he lets anyone know that) 

Does your character have any tattoos, piercings, mechanical parts, or other body modifications? What’s the story behind them?

So funny story time. 

Levi and Petra were active ten or so years ago. If it’s 2017 now then ten years ago they were in high school during the peak years of emo/scene culture. 

Levi had the works. 

Ears, eyebrow, and snakebites. He was so proud of them back then. A few years after high school he took them all out and hasn’t put anything in since. The only evidence left of their existence is the fact his ears still have holes in them. 

Petra begs him to start wearing earrings again but he refuses. 

When does your character feel truly at peace?

At the end of a successful theft, when the adrenaline is coursing through his veins and his prize is clenched firmly in his hands with any pursuers long gone. 

When a trinket is restored to normal, the damage coming undone before everyone’s eyes as Marco (or Spinel, to those who know the name) sets everything right once more. 

When the ragtag team he’s somehow gotten roped into drags themselves to Levi’s place for something to eat after a long day of fighting evil, and for a moment, just a moment....he feels proud. 

(When Marco pats him on the back and tells him he did good, too. When that happens Eren can almost believe they’re partners out of choice instead of penance.)

Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such?

Eren was already showing signs before freshman year, but after getting the ring his mood took a nosedive for the worse. He’s depressed. He’s obsessive. His emotions can swing wildly. It’s hard to say how much was the ring taking advantage of him and how much is his own honest feelings. 

Turn-ons? Turn-offs?

At this time in the au Eren’s only 15, so this sort of information is still developing. 

How misanthropic are they?

At the lowest point of freshman year Eren was willing to let the entire world perish all for his own selfishness.

He’s...gotten a bit better. 

He’s trying to make amends now, for what it’s worth. 

Is this person afraid of dying? Why or why not?

Just a little bit prior to Marco getting the bracelet, Eren was willing to fall. 

After being forced to look at the consequences of his actions, and what all he did for the sake of a goal that was never meant to come true, he thought it was what he deserved. 

The people who make transformation trinkets tend to be....varied. Hanji is one, and they’ve been busy for the past year purifying corrupted trinkets and collecting data on how they work. Mabel’s villain was one, and he was experimenting with how to make them for evil purposes. I’d say they could be anything from alchemists to sorcerers to fairies, depending on what story you’re reading. Magical girl shows always seem to originate from that sort of thing. 

And the line of succession depends on the transformation trinket in question. 

Marco’s bracelet has lore behind it (of the girly and cliche variety, it sounds like something straight from Pretty Cure) but overall the bracelet is passed from wearer to wearer based on who they think would be a worthy successor. Petra had it when she was a student and passed it to Mabel. Mabel passed it to Marco. Eren’s ring was created for him, specifically with abilities to inconvenience the abilities of the bracelet. There’s nothing saying he can’t pass it on if he wants, but it’s yet to be seen. 

The qualifications for being a magical girl/boy aren’t really written in stone. Typically the people who make the transformation trinkets look for someone who has good qualities, like being an open, friendly, empathic person. They look for someone who wouldn’t misuse the trinket and use it for good purposes. But then we see cases like Eren. 

Eren was chosen because he’s angry, resentful, and depressed. He’s vulnerable and easy to manipulate through that.