Finding Mr. Tool
Occult shops are funny places. While they're chock-full of all kinds of kitch and misinformation and junk, you can - if you know what you're looking for - find the most useful tools there.
Right now, the tool I'm considering is probably plowing that little fluffy-headed Wiccan that he was chatting up for half an hour in the back shelves of Blue Star Books.
Much as I don't want to admit it, that creepy bastard Griogar is right. I *do* hold on to things too tightly, and it's long past time that I sacrifice one of the most tightly held of them. To Artemis of course, not his Morrigan, but sacrifice all the same. But for this particular sacrifice, I'm going to need a very particular kind of tool. With any luck, I'll find him in one of Lamar's assortment of occult shops.
I know what I'm looking for ; I've seen the type a thousand times.
He'll be charming, in a smooth and easy kind of way ; that's how he gets all the young things to listen to him in the first place. He's blessed with decent looks, and has taken great pains to grow a goatee so stereotypically pagan that you half expect him to have goat legs and pull out a panflute. He'll know his stuff... that's how it seems to the new Wiccan wannabes, anyway, as he regurgitates feel-good drivel from Buckland and Cunningham and that godsdamned bleach-blonde hack Fiona Horn. He's practiced his lines, and knows how to sell "The Great Rite" as the ultimate in spiritual experiences. If he's on his mark, he has a girl - or a couple of girls - good and conned by closing time, and in his "temple" about half an hour later. He'll keep them on the hook until he gets tired of them, or they wise up and figure out that the only wand he's got is the one in his pants, and then he's back on the hunt for his new "coven".
This is Mr. Tool. And he's exactly what I want for this job. Unlike him, I'm not in a rush ; I don't need to settle for the first one to take the bait on any given night. I want to make damned well sure that I've got the right one. After all, he's going to help me to make one hell of a sacrifice of myself, and help me consecrate my temple as well. Don't want to pick wrong. That's why I didn't take the self-styled "Moonwalker" tonight when I saw him doing what he does best at Blue Star. He might be the right one... but I'll shop around a bit more in the coming nights, and see if there's one more fitting to the task at hand.
I certainly want to pick a tool that'll make Artemis happy.
Right now, the tool I'm considering is probably plowing that little fluffy-headed Wiccan that he was chatting up for half an hour in the back shelves of Blue Star Books.
Much as I don't want to admit it, that creepy bastard Griogar is right. I *do* hold on to things too tightly, and it's long past time that I sacrifice one of the most tightly held of them. To Artemis of course, not his Morrigan, but sacrifice all the same. But for this particular sacrifice, I'm going to need a very particular kind of tool. With any luck, I'll find him in one of Lamar's assortment of occult shops.
I know what I'm looking for ; I've seen the type a thousand times.
He'll be charming, in a smooth and easy kind of way ; that's how he gets all the young things to listen to him in the first place. He's blessed with decent looks, and has taken great pains to grow a goatee so stereotypically pagan that you half expect him to have goat legs and pull out a panflute. He'll know his stuff... that's how it seems to the new Wiccan wannabes, anyway, as he regurgitates feel-good drivel from Buckland and Cunningham and that godsdamned bleach-blonde hack Fiona Horn. He's practiced his lines, and knows how to sell "The Great Rite" as the ultimate in spiritual experiences. If he's on his mark, he has a girl - or a couple of girls - good and conned by closing time, and in his "temple" about half an hour later. He'll keep them on the hook until he gets tired of them, or they wise up and figure out that the only wand he's got is the one in his pants, and then he's back on the hunt for his new "coven".
This is Mr. Tool. And he's exactly what I want for this job. Unlike him, I'm not in a rush ; I don't need to settle for the first one to take the bait on any given night. I want to make damned well sure that I've got the right one. After all, he's going to help me to make one hell of a sacrifice of myself, and help me consecrate my temple as well. Don't want to pick wrong. That's why I didn't take the self-styled "Moonwalker" tonight when I saw him doing what he does best at Blue Star. He might be the right one... but I'll shop around a bit more in the coming nights, and see if there's one more fitting to the task at hand.
I certainly want to pick a tool that'll make Artemis happy.