This was very much written on vibes, and draws a bit on your own Magic Animorphs AU, but Pact functions on similar premises(haven't read Pale). Each Practitioner typically has an Implement, a Familiar, and a Demesnes(place you metaphysically own), and the system is all about balancing one's Karma while using old pacts and gaining the respect or obedience of Others to perform various spells. Still Imagining there are aliens here, this is just an AU where Otherverse Magic exists in tandem with the Galaxy's history.
Jake is Aware. Not a Practitioner, not quite a Witch Hunter. No family history or Patterns to draw on, simply wandered down the wrong alley at the wrong time-right time-worst time-with all the rest. He uses Escafil's Reliquary as the source of his power, energy taken from the stone and used to move mountains. Energy taken from himself, replenished with the stone. Jake is not a Practitoner. No oath, no ritual. Only power. Power he never wanted, and power no-one else can be trusted with, can be burdened with. Power that paints his flesh in stripes of red and gold, Prince of the Iron Crown.
Rachel is equally Innocent, and stains her hands in short order. Implement hangs from her neck, hawk talon fragment of future yet to come, never to conclude. Flying without wings, free of the face she was born into, but in truth, red in tooth and claw, red feather, red fear, red rage. She is their warrior, blood flowing forth and becoming fire, frost, thunder. Innocence. They bind her, break her, scorn her as she saves them again and again and again. But she still fights. As the beast boils over and her mind melts in the heat, she yet stands. She is their sword, their savior, their monster. She must keep them safe, as hatred burns beneath for what they have done to her. Familiar scurries forwards, echo of sin unspeakable. Seven lives, and single life given to serve them all, chained by bloody truth and new mask molded to her face, devil where once shone diva.
Marco, as always, exists in duality. Glamour glitters across his face, charm and clamour playing over his tounge. To Innocents, he is another pretty face, and not a terribly tremendous one. Perhaps cute, but cute is enough to curve through the traps and bars of their world. Marco knows how to lie. He's been doing it since childhood, when he stole ten bucks from his dad's coat. He's been doing it since his mother dissapeared, when the cops asked if he was okay. He's been doing it since Peter gave up, handling all the bills with barely enough to make ends meet. Yes, Marco knows how to lie. Snake coils around his wrist, venom seeping into his veins as the lie falls away. When Marco isn't lying, the Abyss beckons, and here his power shines. No tricks. No games. Only oblivion, for any who would stand in his way, pocket knife tearing portals through the thin skin of this farce we call a world.
Cassie has seen her parents' midnight visitors, the ones which refuse medicine and metal, bone needles and yarrow tonics. Gifts given, and payment owed, prosperous practice, though not themselves Practitioners. It is her Barn that becomes their base, combining claims to serve as new Demesne. The Spirits of the Earth sing to Cassie, child of Gaia and ambassador of aliens. She does not trust them as hippies would hope, ruthlessly binding and bargaining with beings utterly removed from Humanity. But she does use them, stone shattering as cave-in kills 25 Controllers. But she does help them, ground hearty and whole as she plants new life within. But she does fight them, demanding in no uncertain terms that Aftran be accepted among the oceans, Whalesong at her back. Cassie is composite, Mother Earth manifested in new calamity, to serve as her voice and her hand, no Implement, endless Familiars. She will not stray from her path, and if her path is not the progenitors, she will walk aside as she spits in the face of natural order, conviction unshakeable, and more allies flock to her side for it as others flee.
Tobias has always been other. Not quite Other, not Spirit or monster or mage. But he has always Seen what Humans cannot. Elfangor Sees as well, and the Bird begins to spread wing. Before the night is done, the Hawk has come, and taken roost within. It is her drive and his Familiar, feather-pen put to nonexistent page as they step forwards. He finally feels whole, missing piece put back in place. But was it stolen at all? Evolution, or reversion? Entity, or duality? It is no monster, no mage, no more Spirit. More than the sum of their parts. Less Human, as his life among them fades away. Less Other, as she glides among Humanity with silent wings. Augury, Enchantment, they see the leylines of the world, and pluck at them as if strings on grand instrument. Dreams are omen, prophecy, warning, and force of action impedes fate-or allows it come to pass. Beak where once were lips and fingers once were wings, predator. Person-scavenger. Loverloserkiller. Hork-Bajir and Human and Andalite and Hawk. She is all of these things. He is none of these things. They have found equillibrium, and ever search for balance.
Ax is alien to this world and its people, Spirits swarming new anomaly. But Aximilli is nothing if not clever, as Elfangor...as Elfangor always said. He learns, the ways of Earth and Humanity. Tobias assures him he's doing very well, though others seem to disagree. But he still aches for home. But he has found a home. Ax has little luck with the creatures of this world, trees of Andal far more personable. But Ax has forged bonds in the wake of disaster, bonds of war, friendship, love, tying them together. Jake is their Prince, but Ax is their tether. Alien becomes adhesive, binding the Animorphs into an actual Circle. They take of him(too much) and give in return(too much), knowledge of their enemies for knowledge of These Messages. Stories of family for family found here, Shorm Seeing their Connections before even him. Ax speaks not with the Spirits of Earth, but with the Truth, song spun from gossamer strands as he becomes his brother's counterpart, not-yet-Encore of not-yet-Ellimist. Alien. Anchor. Anhhiliation. Absolvement. Absolution.
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
kaledo-art
jacobvanloon
