Untitled Witch Worldbuilding
originally posted on Twitter on October 27, 2021
the witch wakes up in the middle of the night
she reaches out her hand and her grimoire (a small notebook) and a Pilot G2 leap into her hand from the desk
she writes down an idea that came to her in a dream in handwriting that she knows she won't be able to read in the morning
she banishes the grimoire back to her desk and drifts back to sleep
in the morning, she puts on her glasses and looks at what she scrawled, which is exactly as illegible as she expected
she touches the letters and glyphs with her pen and the the lines and curves straighten out
with another stroke of her pen, she aligns what she wrote with the edge of the paper so that its jaunty angle doesn't bother her
only then does she realize that her brilliant midnight idea is almost entirely the same as a spell she's seen before
she decides to implement it anyway, if only because her way solves a problem she had with the previous way and ignores some of the complexities she doesn't need
when weaving a spell, it helps to know that someone else has done it before
pushing the boundaries of what can be done with magic is difficult and incredibly risky, even by witches' standards - there's a reason why thaumic researchers usually wear heavily enchanted lab coats
the more complicated a spell gets, the more chances you have to miss up and break local reality and cause devastation
even though her idea is simple, she checks her amulets instinctively, feeling her rough enchantments and the smooth spells of the necklace her girlfriend gave her
every witch's spellcraft has its own unique feeling to it and feeling her girlfriend's spellcraft makes her think of her and smile
she takes her beryllium-copper enchanting tool and starts tampering with the essence of her pill trays and her pill bottles
with a flourish, she finishes the enchantment and various medicines begin to jump from the orange prescription bottles to the clear plastic tray
as she puts on her boots to head out, she looks out the window at the rain dripping off the roof and has another idea
she makes another enchantment and runs out the door to not be late for class
as she walks to class, she leaves perfectly dry footprints on the rain-soaked sidewalk which steam a bit
perhaps this spell is excessive; she'll tune it down a bit when she has time
the lecture in the mandatory seminar class is boring and she idly fidgets by contorting reality
her right hand in the pocket of her jeans, she exerts magical force, breaking the laws of physics and growing the pocket to absurd internal proportions
she takes her hand out without pinning the spell in place with a rune or her enchanting tool, and reality snaps back to normal
she looks over to her friend in the next row of desks, who's repeatedly picking a lock instead of paying attention
he'd started out with a small Master Lock at the beginning of the semester, but now he's picking a cobalt-blue Paclock
he suppresses a shout of excitement as he finally gets it open
the teacher (someone from the career services office) is too busy reading from slides to notice