Young Writers Society

A long time ago, I created a character named Magic. They were the physical embodiment of the magic in my fictional universe, and could access any type of magic in existence. Long story short, they were really, really cool. Unfortunately, I decided to stop writing the story they made a short little appearance in. Flash forward a few years, and you find me making this roleplay, which features Magic as a guide of sorts. This, naturally, made me fall even more in love with the character, and I decided that they needed their own story to star in.

Enter Magic: The Podcast.

My current goals with it are to write up the first season over the course of my senior year and the summer that follows it, and start producing the actual episodes once my first year of college starts. I'll likely be posting the episodes here on YWS to be critiqued as I work on them, though I can't promise that I'll be frequent about these updates, or even if the project will end up being finished.

But here's what I have so far:

Imagine the worst mistake you've made, and then multiply its terribleness by a hundred. Even if you did that, you'd still be just barely scratching the surface of the mistake that the Personification of Magic has made. You see, Magic's a person. A person who, thanks to a series of spells gone wrong and a tricky ancient artifact, has accidentally made themselves into a human with absolutely no magical skills whatsoever. Which is incredibly problematic, considering that they've spent their life being, well, magical. Luckily, they've managed to find a job at an elusive organization that'll give them a place to stay, food to eat, and all the benefits anyone could ever look for in a job.

The organization? They're called Perseus, and unfortunately there's a catch to working for them: they're hunting down nonhumans. And they're doing it pretty darn well. This is the true reason that Magic's decided to get a job here - after all, who would ever suspect a completely normal human? They can break it down from the inside. Better yet, they've got access to all the resources Magic could ever need to get back to normal.

Of course, things aren't ever that simple, and Magic's search for a way to get back to normal involves dealing with all sorts of strange people on a regular basis. There's Loki A. Lias, her shapeshifting partner, and his beloved pet snake Thor, who definitely isn't a normal snake. There's Shadow, Loki's former partner who left Perseus right before Magic joined. There's Ari and her sentient shadow Zion, both of whom Perseus is keeping an eye on, and the former being the receiver of Loki's rather childish crush. And, most importantly of all, there's Celeste - a mysterious girl who keeps foiling Magic and Loki's missions.

This sounds really, really cool! Can't wait to see what you do with it.

Thanks, @Mea! I'm planning on posting more information about it as I come up with more ideas.

This sounds very cool! One thing I want to point out is that Magic: The Podcast looks very similar to Magic: The Gathering, a popular trading card game. I don't know if this was intentional, but it's probably something you should know about.

I didn't think of that, @Feltrix! I was actually modelling it after the name for a podcast I had been planning on writing. (It was supposed to be called EXTRATERRESTRIAL: The Podcast.) I might change the name in the future, but it's definitely a cool coincidence.

The Personification of Magic

Known mainly by Magic or PoM, the Personification of Magic is the podcast's unlucky protagonist. After an unfortunate accident, Magic is now stuck as a nonmagical human - which, when you're used to having countless forms of magic at your disposal, is pretty traumatizing and does a number on your identity. So Magic - using the name Sam Turner - has been visiting a therapist, and said therapist suggested recording their thoughts on every day. This eventually involved into Magic recording other things, too, in an effort to figure out more about Perseus and to figure out what to do if this sort of thing ever happens again.

They're currently partners with Loki A. Lias at Perseus, and the two spend a good majority of their time together. They've got a relatively chill personality, have been known to reference everything under the sun, and absolutely adore meeting magical people.

Loki A. Lias

Perseus only has one shapeshifter among its ranks, and that shapeshifter is Magic's partner Loki A. Lias. No one really knows much about him, though they're all certain that he's using a fake identity. He says that he's twenty-one, was born on April 1st, and that his parents are completely unaware of his current occupation - and says this with an almost joking tone. But he's a handy person to have around, and they don't like asking questions because of it. His best friend is his pet albino rat snake, Thor, who he found when they went after a witch a few months back.

He acts over-the-top, tends to play the part of a cliche villain when encountering anyone other than his best friend Thor, and has a weird little quirk that Magic picked up on pretty early on: he sweats. A lot. Magic only knows a few types of people that do that when they're changing their form, which implies that Loki is one of them and is almost always using a form that isn't his natural one.

His outfits tend to either be a fancy suit during work hours, or light exercise clothing when he's spending his down time with Magic and Thor. No matter what outfit he's wearing, he'll be wearing an golden locket, which has absolutely nothing to do with my lms novel.

Shadow

Shadow is Loki's former partner, and she left Perseus a little over a year ago. Magic only knows handfuls of information about her. Her wardrobe and personality appropriately matched her name, as well as her ability to manipulate darkness. She apparently had only been a part of the organization to get information on it, which is something that Magic could definitely approve of. She highkey hates Loki for sticking with the organization, and lowkey hates Magic for being a part of Perseus. She also has an annoying tendency to show up in the middle of their jobs.

Aria Wright

Known more casually by Ari, Aria Wright is a monster hunter - just not a stereotypical one. She loves meeting and hanging out with different supernatural beings, the most notable of all being her sentient shadow, Zion. She's only eighteen years old, but she's already a pretty competent sorcerer. Perseus has their eye on her for reasons Magic doesn't know. Loki also has his eye on her, though Magic knows the reason for that. Her partner has a major crush on her, to the point where he gets flustered, starts stammering and turns bright red upon seeing her.

She's easily excited, overly curious and tends to always be wearing a t-shirt or a hoodie. She also has a notebook on her at all times to jot down notes about supernatural encounters or magic in. If Magic wasn't stuck as a human, they'd totally be down for taking Ari under their wing.

Zion

As Ari's sentient shadow, Zion is her automatic protector. If anything happens to her, Zion will end up with a new host - and, as they're best friends, Zion's made it clear that they would sacrifice their life if it meant protecting Ari instead. Magic's overheard a conversation or two where Zion's mentioned a former host of hers, one who tragically passed away after a particularly bad exorcism.

Since they're Ari's shadow, their form is a direct copy of hers. The only difference is that it's made solely of darkness. Zion is usually the most responsible one in a room at a given time, but has been known to crack the occasional joke.

Thor

Thor is Loki's pet snake and best friend. Loki found him when he and Magic were hunting a witch; he was the only living thing left behind. Thor weirdly seems to understand English, but, because he's a snake, can't communicate back. (Magic's been trying to teach him Morse code when Loki's not looking, but they're not making much progress.) Loki's convinced that Thor was a normal snake experimented on by the witch; Magic, on the other hand, is convinced that Thor is some of shapeshifting magical creature in a similar predicament to their own.

From the little they've been able to communicate, Thor seems pretty smart to Magic, further supporting their theory.

Celeste

Celeste is considered to be one of the major enemies of Perseus. No one knows how she gets her information, but she frequently shows up and gives nonhumans a warning before Perseus shows up on their doorstep. In particular, she seems to have a thing for messing up Loki's plans. She's been doing it for as long as Loki's been a member of Perseus. She doesn't seem to have any sort of magical powers, but the magical nonhumans absolutely love her for how helpful she can be.

Celeste appears to be somewhere in her late teens, and frequently is seen wearing very feminine clothing. However, Magic doesn't get to see her all that much, do to her hurrying off before Perseus can arrive.

Ah yes does Loki have a low-key alias

This sounds awesome!

@zaminami, yes, yes he does.

@corvidconvalescence, thank you!

Here's some pictures of the cast I had lying around on my computer!



That's Magic as Sam Turner. Sometimes they wear sunglasses as well, but they're almost always guaranteed to be looking like they do in that picture.



Here's Celeste being iconic, as per usual.



This is a picture of everyone except Celeste and Magic, back from the days where Ari's story was being told on a Tumblr ask blog. Ari's on the far left, with Thor peeking out of her pocket. Shadow's standing next to her, and is holding hands with Zion. Loki's the one with the turned back.

Fun idea that has absolutely no relevance to the plot: Loki A. Lias and Sam Turner are perhaps one of the worst pairs ever to be associated with Perseus. This isn't due to incompetence or being disliked - they just happen to be some of the most childish and immature members of the organization. Loki really wasn't a problem back when Shadow as around, but "Sam" has a tendency to let him go through with things that Shadow would have objected to.

Case in point: one time when they showed up in front of Shadow, Ari and Zion, Loki and Magic hilariously reenacted the Team Rocket speech. This resulted in Magic falling off of the tree branch they were standing on, as well as a diss from Shadow about how Loki finally found someone as stupid and immature as him.

Update: I have the very beginning of a first episode written, and already have two voice actors for the story! The first of these actors is me - I'll be doing the voice of Magic. The other voice actor is my friend, who will be voicing Shadow. She's already very excited about it, and has the perfect voice planned for her.

This looks great, Mage!

Good luck with it.