Mystics are the norm in this world.

Every so often a fantastical threat descends upon the world, and a band of heroes rise up against it. Every time the heroes would win, but usually at some "Cost". Be it one of the heroes dying or losing a limb, or the threat manages to deal some such sufficient damage. Either way, it literally always plays the same, and over the years, people realized that it was completely invariable... except for the "cost" part.

Around 1850, Gurrug Molank ended up paying the smallest cost in history. After defeating his threat, all that was costed was his pinky toe. From this point on people started to realize that these costs could actually be minimized depending on the person. And so the Mystic Association of Gurrug International Congregations (or MAGIC) was founded in order to seek out heroes who were calculated to have the lowest dollar rate costs per threat.

Now obviously this sounds impossible. How do you calculate who has the lowest costs? Well there are a number of factors, such as physical stamina, mental skills, and magical prowess, and to be fair the program didn't actually help much until 1972, when Kullull Malgoon discovered a mystic artifact that could detect, and measure peoples "Attunements".

I won't get into it, but basically "Attunements" are a person's level of magic in any particular field. Turns out there's a direct correlation between a person's attunement, and the cost of defeating a threat. If a persons attunement to a particular field is higher, and the attunement of the threat is weak against that persons field, then their costs will be minimized. (Think of it like a level 100 charizard having an advantage over a level 1 Bulbasaur.)

From that point on, world governments replicated that artifact, and have found the optimal candidate for these threats every time. The costs are practically non-existent anymore, and the heroes always end up succeeding with minimal hardship.

The problem is now that it's a beurocracy, there are lots of new "Problems" that arise with selecting a candidate. For instance, a lot of big-name brands like to put the face of the latest hero on their products. Well for that the hero needs to give the rights to their likeness. Turns out a lot of heroes aren't business savvy, and end up getting screwed over. So MAGIC started assigning them lawyers. Then turns out being one of these laywers is a pretty lucrative position, so there's a lot of competition to be one. Well then they needed a refined vetting process for the laywers. What about the hero themself? they need their expenses handled while they're off saving the world. So a new fund was set up to help the heroes with expenses. This means higher taxes for countries that pay into MAGIC. Then some countries may not want to pay into MAGIC, so they don't get protected by it anymore.

And now you see why it's an issue. MAGIC is at the center of a huge political debate pretty much all the time. Some arguing that the heroes should just be sent off to fight with no compensation since they're already predestined to win. Others saying it isn't right to force someone to be a hero without compensation, comparing it to slave labour. Some arguing the heroes should be left to their own affairs after and not given legal help. Others saying it isn't fair to be a public figure without knowing what it means for them.

Yet by far the biggest issue always ends up coming to the heroes themselves. All this political and social pressure gets to their heads, and while they may not end up with a "cost" for the threat, they absolutely get one for simply being a hero in the first place.

There are groups that either hate or love the heroes. If you thought being a celebrity was bad, being hero is a hundred times worse. Your face gets plastered worldwide as the saviour of humanity. While you're getting all those cheers from fans, it will often twist your ego, making you accustomed to the love. But when the next threat comes around, and you're no longer the center of attention, the cheers abruptly stop, and with the lack of cheers, there's nothing to drown out the hate.

Hate groups are merciless, and will dig into every single wrongdoing of any given hero, even years after their time as a hero is up. They'll insult, threten, and even outright attack previous heroes simply because they hate the way they look, or talk, or even as a byproduct of hating MAGIC. Some extremists will even go so far as to try and kill the hero they hate. But even if those extremists fail, the post-hero depression might do it.

13.1% of heroes end up dying from suicide and 12.7% die of "Unintentional Injuries" (which everyone knows usually means overdosing). The insane pressure of being a hero, and having hate groups associated with you is more than enough to get the better of someone. Sure there's been political pressure to do something about it, but most governments are no longer concerned with heroes after they've done the hero work.

So now after explaining all this, I'm sure you'll understand why I will NOT let my daughter work for MAGIC, a MAGIC girl if you will. I don't care if her attunement is abnormally high, or if there's a college fund or anything. I will fight to make sure she isn't put into that position, and so that she doesn't need to suffer the true "Cost" of being a hero.

What’s that old saying? Something like “If you’ve already tasted the poison, you may as well take it all?”

Edit: If you’ve already eaten the poison, you may as well lick the spoon.