SPELLS AND THE PHANTASM COLLECTION

Originally written in Early 2022.

the formal name given to code intended to change a living person’s body for cosmetic reasons is ‘spells’ and the pseudo-doctors who do the application are called ‘thaumatologists’. application is technically split into two general procedures; either through piercings that are engraved with code or through tattoos. the former is most often utilised for mild ornamental spells along the lines of optical illusions, and are meant to be temporary. the latter is done with ink that’s got excess magic energy imbued into it, and the design of the tattoo itself varies between spells but always contains written code compacted into lines or other abstract shapes. quite naturally the tattoos are way more permanent and tend to be the thing people most commonly think of when someone mentions spells — they effectively represent the whole philosophy of like. allowing magic into one’s life by intermingling one’s entire physical existence with it, more or less irreparably.

to get a spell for oneself, a person most provide identification and must agree to various terms — for more complex spells with wider-spanning consequences, people may be asked to provide additional records and undergo more extensive testing post-application. in general a lot of subsequent tests are done to ensure people know how to deal with their powers and also to ensure code’s functioning as intended. again these depend on the exact spell someone’s getting, some VERY basic temporary spells can literally be straight up ordered with no consultation in the form of rings and earrings and whatever. they hold about the same level of accessibility as colored contacts but also have way more ‘low-key’ effects most of the time and tend to be less reliable.

in terms of general social consensus, spells are kind of regarded as ‘the cool new thing’ but relatively strict age requirements and also it usually taking months to get approved for a spell tend to draw people away from getting one themselves. they’re still kind of an ‘underground’ thing but there’s no real embellishment applied to people who have spells, if that makes sense? it’s more or less the equivalent of a fashion trend and the only people who hold grievances toward the concept are people who are already pertrubed by magic being so widespread.

as mentioned piericings tend to embody more costume-y spells that at most do weird stuff to someone’s eyes or invoke patterns on skin or something of the sort. the more permanent spells are often actually designed for practical use, particularly with regards to self-defense. there’s various smaller ‘archetypes’ of these spells that have been designed but by far the most successful is the so-called phantasm collection, consisting of three different spells — therianthropy, vampirism and clairvoyance. the name’s because ‘phantasm’ is specifically the name of the group of thaumatologists that fashioned the three spells, and they’re often just grouped together because of that.

to get into the individual spells:

therianthropes possess the ability to transform into a given animal. evidently the most common type of therianthropy is lycanthropy, though codes for other animals have been made available to the public over time. a person’s therianthrophy spell only works for one animal, though initial consultation involves listing preferences for one’s transformation and also means someone can switch between their two forms instantly — most plainly put, therianthrophy is the quickest and precisest form of shapeshifting, even if it’s limited to one kind of transformation.

to drift back to the consultation thing though, if someone’s approved for therianthrophy they get to outline what they want to look like in their animal form. not to say someone can walk in with like a sketch of their fursona and that’ll get done — at most, it’s structurally how humanoid an animal form is or minuter preferences like fur length or patterning or whatever. as silly as it sounds it is a mandatory part of the process since these variables are baked into the code — if someone is flippant or unsure they’ll be given a list of ‘defaults’ to pick from to ensure there’s no huge issue with the animal form itself.

therianthropy is actually kind of intensive in terms of post-application care — it’s not an obligatory part of the process per se but a common offer given to new therianthropes is a months-long ‘course’ on adjusting to their animal form. it tends to be what people go for just because it’s far more convenient than trial and error but of course it still depends on individual’s own preferences.

the code for therianthrophy always depends on the moon as a power source, effectively being the one ‘vacuum drawback’.

vampires are quite far-removed from their namesake, in all honesty. typical traits of the mythos have evaded thaumatologists for quite sensible ethical reasons — there’s no weakness to the sun, they don’t rely on blood, they aren’t immortal… practically the one trait passed on to the spell was the fangs and elongation of nails to form razor-sharp claws, both triggerable at will. vampires also have distinctly strong night vision and mild telepathy, mostly limited to simply being able to tell how many people are in a room or if there are any people nearby. 

quite evidently vampires were one of the first major developments in terms of altering the human body wholesale instead of regular surgery, and carry somewhat of a milder smattering of powers. their first major purpose was actually to aid in navigation and leisure travel — hence the first few batch of vampires were actually hobbyist sailors, birdwatchers, hikers, etc. who wanted to do their work at night. the whole claws aspect was a finishing touch meant to help keep people safe, and the other abilities were chiselled down and refined to reflect the same idea.

vampirism is lauded as the easiest spell to attain due to the lack of follow-through testing and identification required as opposed to other spells. this transparency is, in part, due to the effectiveness of the claws and teeth relying on an individual’s familiarity with fighting techniques.

vampirism is ‘small’ enough to not actually require a power source as opposed to the other phantasm spells — only retracting one’s teeth or claws uses up actual energy since it’s the one adjustable transformation, and at most it makes people a little lightheaded with overuse.

clairvoyants technically embody a hybrid mixture of powers, despite the simplistic name. they’re capable of relatively advanced telepathy, both in terms of mind-reading and broadcasting their thoughts into a targeted individual’s mind, alongside minor shapeshifting abilities.

telepathy is straightforward and depends on magnifying the nerve impulses of other individuals via invisible magic currents. a clairvoyant’s eyes will dilate when they’re mind-reading, making it quite easy to recognise and hence, employ distractive thought to throw them off balance. because of this, many clairvoyants exclusively use their powers in darkness or wear obstructive eyewear that masks their pupils.

telepathy is prone to interference and ‘lag’ and it’s an intentional design choice — it was proposed as a way to mitigate the possible misuse of this power. because of this it’s relatively weak compared to, for example, manned machines containing similar mind-reading code. additionally, the code itself shuts off if it detects a copious amount of discomfort, if someone’s thoughts are ‘too loud’, or quite simply, if the scrutinised individual inwardly states they don’t want their thoughts read. it’s effectively just a short reboot and a mental connection can be reinstated a few minutes afterward, but the code can shut off again in the same manner immediately and at that point the clairvoyant would’ve backed off lol.

the shapeshifting is also constrained somewhat. shapeshifting comes with a moral caveat of there not really being a memorised ‘default’ state of the clairvoyant’s body. and so if they shift they’re stuck that way lest they manually try to replicate their previous body, which naturally can be prone to error. in addition shapeshifting takes a lot of energy and most clairvoyants can only shift a single thing at a time, though there’s no energy usage for ‘upkeep’ of shifted body parts so to speak. the code itself prevents overexertion and the set boundaries are extremely low and easy to hit… something as simple as shifting one’s height can render someone unable to transform anything else again for a whole week, including reversing that change. in theory someone could change their entire body but it’d literally take years — the shapeshifting of the clairvoyance spell is built for minor changes only. shapeshifting at a faster rate may come easier to certain individuals who have more endurance and can find a shifting ‘rhythm’ that bypasses the limit, effectively manipulating a loophole in the code. this does require finesse though and it still doesn’t mean someone could change their appearance instantly. contrast this with the far faster transformations of therianthropes.

individual tests may be done to ensure the code for both powers operates as intended. for shapeshifting, most commonly a clairvoyant will be asked to reshape their teeth, as it’s far less risky than morphing flesh. for telepathy it’s extensive guessing tests that may involve writing down words or phrases heard from an internally-monologuing individual, measured at various distances.

the whole reason these two powers are grouped together is because in early testing for it the pupil dilation incorporated into telepathy resulted in eye weakness and potential injury. as a quick fix shapeshifting was added to the code specifically to account for healing. eventually shifting was recognised as having recreational value and following development, constraints were applied until it was deemed safe enough for distribution.

generally clairvoyance is the spell that requires the most identification, pre-application ethics tests, etc. just because it’s the most volatile in the wrong hands. and again the drawbacks given to the individual powers + the dependence on someone’s own physical stamina still make it relatively esoteric and hard to attain. as opposed to the other spells where you could probably know someone who knows someone who knows someone who is a werewolf or dracula, clairvoyants sparsely exist — which, of course, is a good thing for them. clairvoyants may be flippantly referred to as ‘imps’ or the rarer term ‘poltergeists’ by others as a tongue-in-cheek way of describing their general secrecy.

final thing i’m going over, many clairvoyants tend to cover their eyes in some way if they intend to use their mindreading. the thing is, the code itself detects if someone’s intentionally trying to obscure their face to avoid identification as a clairvoyant by others and shuts itself off — funnily enough this can be countered by glasses with uneven lenses or ones with lenses in lighter colors. if someone’s wearing something along those lines it may still be a giveaway but people who aren’t too up-to-date with magic body mods will miss it and certain clairvoyants have gotten… creative enough with their eyewear to avoid distinguishing themselves in that manner.