Beware Papercuts

**Morgan** · Dec 19th, 2019 11:18 PM

It was a bookstore. A bookstore with a dumbass name: POWER STORE. Because knowledge, yeah. Obviously this was just some sort of vanity project for an out of touch, retired assnozzle who didn't really understand the idea of shock advertising, but whatever. It sold books, and that was what mattered.

Books.

But not just any books. USED BOOKS. And after a few days on the road, Morgan was bored out of her damn mind. She needed some light reading, stat!

She practically rammed the front end of her GNX into some jerkoff's Elantra as she swung the Beast into a parallel park and then hopped out, pausing only long enough to lock and slam the door before she darted inside the store.

First up: astrophysics, followed shortly after by a little psychology, post-modern feminism, and then a fascinating book on Cannibal cultures around the world (it had recipes).

Yes!

A good 25-30 pounds of books stacked on a coffee table later, and Morgan was ready to settle into the reading nook. Thankfully, it seemed that the Power Store wasn't one of those "this isn't a LIBRARY" wankfests.

But, just as she flipped past the table of contents on the astrophysics textbook, her index finger slid down the side of the page and blood began to run. Shit! She poked her head up out of the book and looked around.

Maybe someone had some hand sanitizer and some tissue?

Dec 20th, 2019 01:22 AM

Maybe it was the tattoo. Or maybe he caught a glimpse of Morgan's book on astrophysics. Or maybe Shodan got to see her exiting her cool classic car in the way she did, as he was browsing by the window and couldn't help but respect the style. Regardless of the reason, the tattoed woman got slightly more attention than the average customer. Not so much to even remotely count as staring, however. Privacy was still a thing.

"Yo, do you need help with that?" He asks, looking at the blood drip drip dripping down and then at Morgan directly. You might question how a half-full bottle of hand sanitizer and a pack of tissues are in his hand right now, but really, you shouldn't. This Libertine doesn't know squat about medicine, but enough industrial accidents big and small happened to him that he comes prepared for minute injuries like that.

There's a bag in his other hand. Full of volumes (somehow, not every one of these is in .epub format yet, which is bull-shit). Quantum physics. Transhumanism. Occult periodicals. And an old edition of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, because nostalgia.

He wears blue trousers, a yellow sweater with a black hole on it and a concerned smile.

**Morgan** · Dec 20th, 2019 08:48 PM

It was safe to say that Morgan had never seen someone with a fashion sense quite like this dude's. It was like normcore's cousin, who was starting to embrace the fact that dope was legal.

Dope would be nice.

But more on that later. For now, it was time to clean up this Kurosawa impression before it really got out of hand. Goddamn, for a flesh wound, it was bleeding a lot.

"Yes, please, gimme, gimme!" Morgan replied, gesturing frantically with the hand that was spared from the paper massacre.

"The hand goop doesn't have triclosan or triclocarban in it, does it?" she asked, grabbing for the tissues. "That shit is nasty. And don't even get me started on phthalates or parabens. Straight up poison. And people act like meth is bad. At least that's pretty damn obvious it's fucking you up. So you can keep your ghost poison, if that's what you've got. Just good old alcohol and glycerin for me, thanks."

Dec 21st, 2019 04:04 PM

"I... no, I don't think it does" Where previously there was concern, now there's surprise. How many people do you know that react to a small cut like that? It's funny that she mentioned meth, of all things. No judgement, but hyperactivity was definitey there "Pretty sure that shit was banned years ago" It reminded him of how he met Star for the first time. The mop-haired dude went on about chemicals in shampoos straight out of the gate. Of course, that was before Shodan knew Star was a mage, much less what his Shadow Name was.

The sanitizer is still in his hand, on offer "Of course that something is not on the ingredients list need not mean it isn't really there... but we all need to take risks in our lives, don't we?" A small, reassing smile. Whether it'll have the intended effect remains to be seen, but the effort was made "I'm sure you'll be fine"

The Obrimos waits for a moment, to see if the 'hand goop' will be accepted or refused before continuing "You seem to know your esters. School or personal interest?" Trying to make conversation to distract the woman's mind from her wound. If he can show he can keep up with the chemistry talk? All the better.

**Morgan** · Dec 22nd, 2019 11:13 PM

Banned?

"Ha!"

Now that earned a short bark of a laugh. As if. It didn't matter how dangerous something was in America. It only mattered if it made you vulnerable to a law suit. Otherwise, poison, pollute, enslave, manipulate, and even outright murder your way to profit!

Ah...the American Dream.

"What the hell," Morgan agreed, snatching the bottle with a handful of tissues. "We're all gonna die, anyways."

She squirted a big glob of carcinogen onto the cut, wrapped a tissue around it, and handed the bottle back.

"Thanks. There's just something about a papercut, you know? It's like knowledge is biting back. Like it's an animal that's like, grrr, telling your stupid ass to hold up a sec," Morgan explained, cleaning the cut and then wrapping a fresh tissue around it and tucking the used tissue away.

"Kinda like my first experience with esters. Burned my fucking house down. Well, ok, not my house, but you know, the house I was staying in. Totally accidental. Thankfully, though, we were all running from the flames so we got out before we asphyxiated. An invisible, silent, and odorless killer had already been filling the house, so, the fire saved our lives, if you really think about it."

Dec 23rd, 2019 03:59 PM

"If it makes you feel better, the air pollution will probably kill us all before... I mean if that cancer develops" He says in an unexpected fit of bitter sarcasm "Going gently into that good night is what we're doing" He was certainly capable of depressing insight, but Shodan was nonetheless surprised at the grim observation. It's been an upbeat day so far.

The Obrimos listens to Morgan comparing cuts to animal bites as he pockets the tissues and sanitizer "That's why I prefer ebooks. And just computers in general. People act like it's not the same thing on a Kindle, or whatever, but I just think they're full of shit" In his first weeks as a mage, Shodan was shocked to learn the supposedly Awakened are not more fond of technology and social progress, but now he understands.

A Sleeper looks at a machine and sees improvement. A Diamond mage looks at that same machine and sees competition.

"The only way I can see 'esters' and 'burning your house down' in that same sentence is if that house was a coke factory. Blink twice if I'm on the right track" Not to stereotype here, but if Shodan's eyes don't deveive him, that is a GNX in good condition she just arrived in. What twenty-something can afford that if they're not a drug dealer? "Or don't. But you got me curious"

**Morgan** · Dec 24th, 2019 08:29 AM

"Let's just say I got carried away with a little science experiment," Morgan answered with an infuriating grin. She didn't blink, though. She was too busy studying the strange individual in front of her.

"And what about you?" she asked, suddenly, her eyes snapping back up from the stylized black hole splashed across the front of his sweater.

"You're making some kind of statement with all this," she continued, gesturing with her bandaged finger at his ensemble, "you're in the Power Store, of all places, and yet you like tech. You're not here to buy books ironically, are you? Or is your plan to scan these dinosaurs with some kind of OCR machine so that you can then read upload and read them on a device that's stabbing light straight into your retinas, thereby activating OPN3 proteins and other visual opsins within your neurochemistry? Yeah, totally the same as light reflecting off of paper."

**Phoenyx** · Dec 26th, 2019 10:07 AM

It's been a while since Phoenyx has gotten out and actually run into anyone. It was kind of a relief - she wasn't in the best of shapes. Wrapped in a hoodie and sweatpants, hood up, she slouched around the blocks surrounding the Circle, watching, observing.

Occasionally, she wandered further afield, trying to find inspiration. Today, she had made it as far as the POWER STORE, and any student worth their Initiate Arcana knew that here could be hidden gems in a store for used books.

Edging around the shelves she picked up a book on Greek and Persian mythology, and one on Probability theory as a part of quantum mechanics. The she heard a voice she recognized all too well, and something inside her actually longed for a little talking after days of lone silence.

Well, I'm not exactly presentable. But he'll just have to live with that.

Appearing around one stack, she gave Shodan a small, nervous smile. "Hey." The Arrow looked at the tattooed girl she was chatting with, cocking her head slightly. "Friend of yours? I'm Alice." tentatively she offers a hand to shake, holding her finds in the other.

Dec 26th, 2019 04:18 PM

Science experiment, right. Pretty obvious that it was far less innocent than she makes it sound, and the Prime Mover allows himself a few moments of coming up with possibilities, each wilder than the last, while she grins "Indeed, I am here to buy lots of books, digitize them and spread them all around the Internet. Possibly breaking quite a lot of copyright laws, but that has never stopped me before" Information wants to be free. It was true in his Sleeping years, it is truer now that he's a mage "And, I can tell you're not buying my techno-progressivist pitch, so consider this: e-readers are more convenient than stacks of books. They make it ever easier to access information, empowering lots of people. With empowerment comes social change, with change comes progress. With progress, comes the truth"

Technology Will Become Magic.

"In that sense, yeah, Kindle is not 'the same' as a book. It's way better"

And then Phoenyx enters the bookstore, with all the bluster you could expect from her, which is to say - none at all. In her hoodie and sweatpants she looks like she's here by accident, going to or from a run.

"Hey yourself" He looks happy to see her "We're not friends... yet. Although we may be, now that I've saved her life" Typical Shodanesque exaggeration aside, she clearly was not the most stoic of persons, which allows him to say that. Doesn't look like the type to mind, either "Might be quicker with names, though. Mine's Adam" Which only left the tattoed girl to return the favor.

**Morgan** · Dec 26th, 2019 11:16 PM

Morgan broke off the conversation as the jogger walked up to them, and surprise, surprise, she was a friend of "Adam". Ugh. Biblical names were so gross. Alice was almost as bad, but thankfully, there were some dope jokes that Morgan could always drop if the conversation got too dry.

"Hey, what's good, Alice?" Morgan asked, clasping the woman's hand in a loose shake. "Came in here to feed your head, eh? Looks like you came to the right place," she continued, glancing down at the books tucked beneath the jogger's arm.

"I'm Morgan, by the way. But you can call me Morgan."

The tattooed woman's mouth quirked as she fought down the urge to snicker at her own joke.

"How do you two know each other? You're not dating, are you? Did logic and proportion get sloppy dead in the light of those Kindles Adam loves so much? Naw, actually, that vibe doesn't feel right. Hmm."

Morgan crossed her arms and stared at them, searching one face and then the other, then the books, the clothes, everything.

"Nope, got nothing," she finally said with a shake of the head.

Beware Papercuts

Similar Threads

Beware of Dog