The Magic Box, Thursday

[livingartifact]

The Magic Box had been still and quiet for a little while now. Dust floated gently in the still air, sparkling in the sunlight streaming through the front windows — and then the light streaming in from the door to the storage room. A strange, blue-gold light, far brighter than might have come from any normal lighting. The door opened, and Jenkins stepped through, a large book tucked under his arm.

"Yes, Colonel," he said as he turned to shut the door behind him. "You need only to call. Though . . . do try to avoid being turned into anything strange for a little while at least." He paused a small smile crossing his face. "Stranger, anyway."

He shut the door, set the book down on a shelf, and straightened his tie. Then he looked back at the book, at the shelf he'd chosen, sighed, and picked the book back up to put it somewhere it wasn't likely to start a magical chain reaction, before setting about opening up the store.

Miscellaneous hexes*: 30% off!
* The Magic Box assumes no liability for ironic backfiring of any hexes, curses, or wish-fulfillments sold. Caveat emptor.

"Hello again, Fandom," he said as he opened the front door and took a long whiff of fresh air. "I like what you've done with the place."

[open!]

Comments

[arboreal_priestess]

"...Miscellaneous hexes?" Verity asked from the doorway. "That sounds dangerous."

[livingartifact]

"They would be," Jenkins said. "If they weren't almost entirely useless."

He held up the box he'd found marked "miscellaneous hexes" and showed them to Verity. It mostly included stick art, irregular rabbits' feet, and glow-in-the-dark tooth replicas.

[arboreal_priestess]

"So, the real danger here seems to be to the potential customer's wallet," Verity said, poking through the box.

...Not with a bare hand though. She wasn't that stupid.

[livingartifact]

"Hm. Quite," Jenkins said. "A terrible hex, that, the draining of a wallet. A small one, in this case, especially with the discount." He smiled toothily. "But nasty."

He nodded approvingly at her poking methods. "And how have you been doing, then, Ms. Verity?"

[arboreal_priestess]

"Hey, I've been struggling to find a counter-curse for years," Verity said, looking up to give him a smile. "Not bad. I've got to head back into Baltimore in a few hours. Chasing down a boogeyman."

Literally.

"You? I haven't seen you around much recently."

[livingartifact]

"Bit of trouble back home," Jenkins said. "A rather rambunctious young woman got her hands on an extremely powerful new artifact and made life . . . exciting for the Librarians. I honestly hadn't realized it'd taken quite this long to clean up."

He suspected it hadn't, on his universe's end.

[arboreal_priestess]

"I managed to progress to the next level in my current dance competition?" Verity chuckled. "So we're about the same, I'd say."

[livingartifact]

"That's marvelous! A tango, wasn't it?"

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity flushed. She hadn't meant that seriously--that is, she had moved up in the competition, but she was used to downplaying the importance with her family, who didn't really understand the appeal. Or approve.

"Thanks," she said. "But that's not really much compared to stopping mad amulet-wielders or whatever."

[livingartifact]

"My dear, I have been around a very long time. Trust me when I say that dancing competitions are one of the things that makes stop the amulet-wielders worth it."

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity broke into a smile. "It's the one thing that could convince me to give up the rest of it," she admitted softly.

[livingartifact]

"Why should you have to give either up?" Jenkins asked. "Certainly I can see where one would be your 'career' and one would be relegated to hobby. But surely you're allowed a little free time."

[arboreal_priestess]

"It means a double life," Verity explained, a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Juggling Valerie Pryor and Verity Price is exhausting. And if I get good, if I dance the way I want--it's too high profile. I was on a televised dancing competition--there's no way I could be both Verity and Valerie at the same time. Cryptozoology isn't something that can become a simple hobby and I'm not sure if I can keep dance to just that, either."

[livingartifact]

"Ah, the agony of dual passions," Jenkins said. "I'd say it's a tale as old as time, but honestly, for much of history that was only really true for the very very rich." He tilted his head. "Unless you count survival as a passion."

[arboreal_priestess]

"I've definitely been in a few situations where I felt a passion to survive," Verity said with a laugh. "I don't think about it pretty often, but it's pretty intense when it's roused."

[livingartifact]

"I think you'll find that's an instinct," Jenkins said. "Humans don't have many of them, so the confusion is understandable, but it's not actually quite the same thing."