Magic is labor.
One can be forgiven for forgetting that magic is work. In many games, a spell goes off simply because the character sheet has a box for it. Yet for a witch it ought to be felt as labor, as wrok. The genuine article, with all the time and attention and repetition it entails, not to mention the sweat and the errors and the practice.
Consider what a witch does. She is copying spells, mixing oils, gathering herbs and learning names. There is cleaning of ritual tools and study of the moon. She prepares charms, sits with those who are ill, makes tea, and keeps her notes. If something does not go to plan, she starts over. She will listen to the dead or watch a candle burn itself out.
For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, this is significant.
A witch is more than a pointy hat and a list of spells. She is one who puts in the work. It may be mystical or emotional in nature, but there is also the physical side to it. Carrying books, hauling water, digging where others would not, or just staying up when one wants to sleep.
In Jackson, IL, such labor could mean a bit of research at the library, a dark walk home, or seeing to a friend. Or perhaps dragging someone from an abandoned building before whatever is in the basement has a chance to wake up. Or it could be bartering bits of your soul for knowledge so dangerous that there is no other way.
Again, it is Saturday, and Zatanna is still a good example. In the comics, she speaks backward, and the magic happens. But as an example, try reading this sentence backward...while you are getting someone to try to hit you. Not that easy now. She puts in the work to practice this.
Magic is built on the labor.
People tend to notice the magic. But it is the labor that makes it possible.
Jackson and Carbon Vale NPC
Today is Day 29, Saturday, Emotion and Works Hard. And I have the perfect NPC.
Lars Nichols: Larina's father, trying to hold a family together while pretending he does not see all the impossible things. Trying to be both father and mother to a teenage girl is hard enough; trying to do that for a teenage witch? While still grieving your recently passed wife? One would be forgiven for thinking I hate Lars.
Jackson Soundtrack
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