Striking Looks
Manipulation
Resources
Barfly
With a sigh of frustration Crystal chucked his phone onto the couch. How could this smug Obrimos Hippie manage to get under his skin so easily?
"Your problem is that you quit too easily once it gets hard." What the fuck did his mentor know? Was he spying on Crystal? "Try to see things through once in a while, you could even start with something small. You could write a paper, for instance." Yeah, he definitely heard that old bastard smile now - he had been spying.
"I wish you'd at least take interest in the things I do well, you might be surprised and definitely better entertained." Of course, aggressive double innuendos never broke Enigma's composure. Just as well, Crystal mostly wanted to get out of those lectures dressed up as phone calls between old acquaintances.
"Just keep doing what you've been doing. You seem to be onto something here." Yeah right. Crystal just scoffed and said his goodbyes and in his unbreakable good mood his mentor had the last word. As always.
Crystal looked at the drawer where he stored all his goodies. No, Enigma probably didn't mean he should keep on doing that. His eyes wandered some more and found the books he bought to write the paper with Aurora. It didn't surprise him hat neither of them had taken any effort in getting back together and finish it.
Was he really this bored? It would probably keep the Obrimos from riding his ass for a while - and Corn's look would certainly be priceless.
"All right old man, you win." He lazily carried himself over to the books (just to show any spying Mystagogue that he really didn't enjoy doing this) and brought them over to the kitchen table. Then he went over to his bookcase - the biggest tell-tale sign of him being some kind of incognito egghead - and grabbed a dictionary and a few classics on philosophy, Sleepers' theories on Magic and some other things he deemed fitting.
Finally he looked for the outline he had worked on with the Shaman - he felt like he could flesh this out with some big words and a few cross examinations of various smart ideas.
He spread all of his books out in front of him and thought for a few moments, mentally checking where he could find what he was looking for.
Research 8 successes
He was making some progress, in fact he was absolutely smashing this one: by defining 'reality' and juxtaposing it with 'lie', 'simulation', and some 'madness and delusion' he laid the groundwork for his thesis. Then he gave some explanations on what people thought were 'natural laws' just to be able to show how true Magic 'broke' those laws. Fitting passages were marked by folding the pages - beyond that, he trusted in his memory.
Next he'd have to give some examples of what normies thought of when they talked about magic. Luckily this was already something he had been reading up to once. Crowley's translation to the Lesser Key of Solomon was a prime example and you could find recollections about Voodoo and other religious rites basically everywhere.
Of course you could just as easily find people trying to explain such things scientifically, to cram everything into their little box of laws and rules. This part he did mostly for completion's sake - every Awakened knew that although all of this was part of the Lie, the miracle workers of the world were sometimes actually closer to the truth than any 'enlightened' believers in science.
Now he just had to put this into some coherent form. It was getting kind of late, so he decided that a little visit to the PEP-box was not too out of line. He was using his powers for good, after all.
Two lines later he sat down and typed away.
Writing 8 successes
With a triumphant shout he hammered in the last footnote. Frankly, after getting through the slump he kind of got into it after a certain point. He had no idea how interesting, informative or useful this paper was, but he at least finished something.
"Suck it, Enigma." This time Crystal's voice carried the hint of a smile.
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