Tell us about the sin-eater AU!
this barely even discusses the actual story because thereās so much setup. the sin eater au has very complicated lore for something which is mostly about everyone suffering a lot. i apologize in advance
this is a modern world with magic, but itās not very powerful. the average person mostly interacts with it in the form of purchased physical objects. the average person is able to sense magicā for instance, walking up to an enchanted object, one can likely sense the power, the temperament, and the purpose of the enchantment. they can also tell some things about other peopleās internal magic.
everyone has internal magic. if you donāt it is because you are dead. your internal magic is affected by a lot of things. sometimes your physical health but mostly mental nonsense*. it can get corrupted due to the aforementioned mental nonsense, which is a tiny bit unfun.
(*this is debated** in-universe, we will come back to that in a later post)
(**"debated", weāll come back to that in a later post)
the vast majority of people cannot do anything with their internal magic. they have no way to access it in a conscious manner. a few people are able to consciously access their magicā āmagic usersā.. this is sort of but not totally genetic, but in any case you cannot become a magic user on purpose. you have it or you donāt.
having access to your internal magic is mostly not a good thing. there are very few Actual Magicians because trying to do anything notable with it means studying it as a discipline, which is like learning engineering and law at the same time while going to trade school on the weekends. if you donāt want to go to superhell college, you can practice a reasonable amount and then you can do silly little party tricks. which is cool and fun!
a personās body can only contain so much magic. if you are normal and donāt have any way to consciously access yours, your body handles it for youā youāll gradually produce more if you lose it, you wonāt end up with more magic than youāre supposed to have, everything will be chill and fine.
if you are a magic user, you are theoretically capable of decreasing your internal magic via performing spells, so your body decides not to be helpful. if you have somehow acquired too much magic, you gotta get rid of it on your own.
magic users can mess with the magic of non-users. you can give magic to someone or take it away from them.
again, normal people canāt use their own magic but can perceive the magic inside of objects or other organisms. some people can use magic, which may not be good for them. hereās a third category for you to remember: a small number of people are completely unable to perceive magic at allā they are āmagicblindā. this is mostly not a problem.
after Many Words, we have arrived at the prologue.
johnās family belongs to a religious community which is toeing the line between āslightly weird people with unethical beliefsā and ācultā. they are christian but most of their theological beliefs arenāt super relevant
things they believe which are relevant and (very) controversial:
magic is āwitchcraftā, which means it is evil and bad.
having corrupted magic is a sign of having sinned, and to cleanse yourself of that sin you must remove the corrupted magic.
being a magic user means that you have been chosen to act as the eater of sin for your community; this is, supposedly an honor. it is your duty to listen to the wrongdoings of your community members, to take their corrupted magic from them, and to keep it inside yourself literally forever. you are not allowed to say no.
john was eleven when he finally got caught shaking sparks from the ends of his fingers. he was twelve when he started taking sins. he was twelve, and the parents of his schoolmates were telling him about how they drink too much and they yell at their wife and they beat their children and they wish their spouse was dead, and he would take their hands and look them in the eyes and scoop out the rotten twisted bits of their magic and bury them inside himself as deeply as he could.
after a while it started to show no matter how much he tried to hide it. corrupted magic doesnāt smell, exactly, but it produces a similar sense of repulsion. his schoolmates began to look at him with disgust. their parents began to fear him. he moves his bedroom to the top floor of the house because his aura keeps his siblings from falling asleep. his mother doesn't touch him anymore.
it began to make him sick, eventually. it is a sickness that cannot be chased away, and one for which he gets no sympathy. it is a duty and it is an honor and he does as he is told. he is resigned to it. but it is a very lonely and painful path to walk. he cannot imagine anything else, but there is very little light left in his days. other than duty there is very little left to live for.
until the new foster kid with flyaway hair and ripped denim trousers sits next to him without seeming even to notice what he is.