2023.10.09:Five Points Rare Books Soft Opening

Five Points Rare Books Soft Opening
Mark greets his first new customers.
IC Date	October 9th, 2023
IC Time	7:00 PM.
Players	Mark, Tillie, Mary
Location	Five Points Rare Books

Every retail workers knows, don't speak the //quiet// word. Especially don't speak it too close to closing time. Did someone say it tonight in Five Points? Because about an hour and some change before closing, the door opens (perhaps a little bell jingles), and in walks the turtle-neck bedecked woman. Tillie may not have been in the shop before, but she definitely has The Look of frequent shoppers of crystals and other new-agery merchandise.

Mark is puttering around behind the counter, crouched down while shifting some boxes of stuff. He stands up as the door opens, triggering a chime sound. He smiles as he turns toward Tillie, greeting a new customer in a well practiced fashion. "Hello there, welcome to Five Points. Just looking to poke around tonight, or can I help you find anything specific?"

Those Introduction to Crystals and The Secret Guide to Understanding Your Chakras are quickly bypassed, though a basket of beeswax candles meet a quick inspection and an approving nod, and then Tillie's turning to meet Mark and his greeting, her head tilting to look at him as curiously as she did the candles, before offering a small smile. "Oh, I think poking for now, though that seems like it might be a task that would take more than a single night. Still getting myself oriented, I'm new in town." Indeed, her accent does have some certain New England-ness to it, not from around Southern Cali.

Mark nods at her, a small quirk of amusement showing at the corner of his mouth as he watches her barely grace the big rack of bullshit with a glance. "Ah, then in that case, welcome to Prospect! I just moved here recently myself, but really from just up the road a little ways. Moving all of this was a lot more work than I expected, and I expected a lot. But this is a much better location than in La Jolla, so hopefully it'll turn out to be worth it. And yes, you're right. There's a lot more here than a single night's browsing can get through, unless you're really, really fast."

"Was it just better business opportunities that brought you to Prospect?" Tillie asks as she steps closer to the counter, into more comfortable conversational range. "I remember full well how difficult it can be to load up just a few shelves worth of books. For a whole store's worth..." She pauses, glancing at those many, many shelves. "I can only imagine. And rarely am I called //fast/ when it comes to books. I prefer methodical."

Mark laughs, but with the pained look of someone making a joke out of an actual hardship. "Right, if anyone ever asks you for help moving a book store, I'd recommend you don't. But yes, I needed more space, and a bigger city means bigger opportunities. Plus, the scene is much better here. Some of my best customers and contacts were from the city already, and this makes things a lot easier all around. That's a good attitude too, I think. There's no need to rush when it comes to books. Or anything else in here really."

"I'll make sure to keep that in mind," Tillie laughs along with the joke, though the delicately built woman probably isn't anybody's first call for moving muscle. What muscle? "And that's convenient for your customers. Less time commuting means more time perusing. Absorb in that old book smell and see what volume might call to them that night?"

Mark is standing behind the counter, leaning against it and talking to Tillie where she stands a bit in front of it. He grins at Tillie, recognizing her as someone who 'gets it'. "Right, of course! These are books with histories, not PDFs. Some of them have hand written notes more interesting and valuable than what was originally printed. And that's hard to spot from an online catalog."

Tillie props her arms on the counter, a few feet from where Mark is leaning on the other side, her head nodding along. "While I'm grateful there are some of those digitalization, right? available, for one-of-a-kind and hard to access books... it's just not the same. No camera can fully capture all the life imbued in a page. Especially the older, hand written volumes. Even the early printed works, each letter had to be hand placed on press before then copies could be made."

Mary slips in quietly almost like she doesn't want to be seen. She moves through the place, not quite hiding but trying not to draw attention to herself. She almost but not quite touches pretty much everything she comes to. Eventually that brings her near the counter.

Mark gestures vaguely towards the back room as he answers Tillie. "Oh, sure. I'm not a Luddite or anything, and we do have a digital catalog and presence. It's just not as good as hands on, with real goods. It is really good just in case though, if only the Library of Alexandria had digital backups, right?"

Mark smiles and waves at Mary once she approaches the counter area. "Hello there, and welcome to Five Points! Don't let me interrupt you if you just want to poke around, but don't hesitate to ask if there's anything specific you're looking for. If we have it, I can dig it out of the stacks, and if not then I can try to find it for you."

"Certainly not," Tillie laughs a little. "A Luddite wouldn't be caught dead in modern mass produced textiles, cloth produced 'fraudulently and deceitfully' stealing work from honest craftsmen!" She also catches sight of the new arrival's wanderings and as Mary approaches the counter, Tillie takes a half step back to allow a little more room in case the woman does need assistance from the store keep.

Mary stops. Caught! She looks oh so guilty when you both look this way. A bit pail but her cheeks quickly take on a pink hue. "Oh ... Me? No. Just browsing." A nervous laugh. "Not even browsing. Sight seeing." There's that laugh once more. "I can't afford any of this but it's all so fascinating."

Mark grins with amusement as Tillie catches him out on using the modern casual usage of Luddite rather than the accurate one, then turns a more normal customer service style smile towards Mary. "Don't worry about it, I'm not going to be hard selling or kicking you out. This isn't a Barnes and Noble, we have standards. Are you an appreciator of things mystical and mysterious, then?"

Tillie's own look at Mary is a bit more judgmental when the girl mentions she can't actually afford any of the books, judgey but also curious. "There's more than a little truth in the saying that knowledge is power. Luckily for book-lovers, most book-store owners tend to also be in it for passion rather than pure commercial drive, though keeping the lights on and affording more books is usually desired..."

Mary laughs softly. "Me? Oh yes. I'm a witch! Just got back from dancing naked around a bonfire." She laughs at her joke up until she catches that look from Tillie then the sound fades. "Ahem. Sorry." Her head bows as she apologizes.

Mark rubs the back of his neck as Tillie calls out the truth once again. "That is true, capitalism is something we all need to deal with and lease payments are a real thing. But I wouldn't be here if I didn't love it too. So no need to apologize. So, you're a Wiccan then? We do have some books about that, of course. I've even got a few scholarly works on the history of the groups the modern Wiccan groups drew on, if that's more to your interest?"

Tillie quietly uh-huhs at declaration of witching and bon fire dancing. "Aradia is an interesting read. If I remember right, it was one of the sources for the origin of skyclad ritual practices with Modern wiccans...."

Mary laughs more nervously as no one takes the joke up. She moves a couple steps closer. "Well. I mean ... I really don't know. Wiccan is closer than anything else I can think of. If I have to name ... what ever I am." Her interest in that book and those rituals is clear but perhaps the judgmental looks from the woman keeps her from asking further.

Mark seems to accept Mary's declaration pretty easily as he nods and points off towards the maze of bookshelves to his left. "I do have two copies of that in stock. I had a very early printing version, but I sold it a couple of months ago. And to be fair in matters of disclosure, it is a public domain work now, so you can even legally get the text online for free these days. And of course, the origins and his sources have been disputed, but sometimes it's hard to know the real truth of such matters. There are plenty of groups and organizations that would want to suppress any inconvenient truths, after all. Researching in depth can be difficult, and the sources on these matters are often fragmentary or even lost. In the end, sometimes you just need to find what truth works for you. Which it sounds like you're already doing, if you already know that you're close to a Wiccan but not quite. That means you're forging your own path, right?"

"Labels are... seemingly ever changing. But researching is also the fun part. Pick at what you think is one tiny thread and end up finding it connected to a vast tapestry you had never imagined... it's always fascinating," Tillie adds.

Mary looks quickly to where Mark directs. One step and she stops herself. There is that whole broke and can't afford it problem. "OH. Well ... free? I mean the digital isn't quite the same but ... it's free." She pulls out an Iphone several generations old.

Mark turns his attention back towards Tillie, nodding slowly at her metaphor with a growing smile of enthusiasm. "Right! Most stuff barely scratches the surface, but if you dig hard enough there's clues to... Well, lots of things. Really fascinating stuff."

Then he shifts to respond to Mary. "And yes, totally free. I'd check the Wikipedia page first, there should be a link to the text there. I hope you find it both entertaining and enlightening."

"First spot to start digging, after the original document, is to look at any bibliography or reference page included," Tillie offers with a nod as conversation switches to Wikipedia.

Mary close closer to you two, tapping away at her phone. "Where? I mean can you help me? Show me where to start?"

Tillie shakes her head, holding her hands up. "I might not be a Luddite," A quick glance back to Mark at that. "But I've never been much good with phone browsing. Especially ones without buttons."

Mark nods and slides down the counter closer to Mary, shooting an amused look at Tillie over her remark. "Sure, let me see if we can pull it up."

Mark takes the phone and start working with it rapidly. As rapidly as he can on this model of phone at least, muttering something under his breath about Apple and throttling. But within a minute or two, he's got the text pulled up on the tiny screen. "Here you go. It might be worth bookmarking if you want to go back to it later."

Mary waits and shifts from foot to foot. When she gets the phone back she cheer, bouncing a little. She looks like she's going to hug Mark but stops herself. "Um ... thank you." And does a brief curtsy. "This helps."

Tillie doesn't hover as the Wikipedia-navigation commences, but she doesn't wander far. Just far enough to look at one of the cases full of things rare enough to justify being in immediate eyeshot of the register.

Mark smiles at Mary's enthusiasm. "I hope so. But remember that it's just one thread, and don't forget to keep looking for more to tug on."

Mark glances to the case under Tillie's inspection. "Ah, those crystals were mined from cenotes in in the Yucatan. They are reputed to contain some of the energy of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, and in theory even tiny fragments of it that were throw there by the impact."

Mary taps taps away. "Oh yeah. Just scratching the surface,' she murmurs. But that description sounds fascinating so she and her phone move to stand next to Tillie.

"Oh, Chicxulub?" Tillie asks Mark, giving those crystals a longer second glance. "I thought that the quartz itself was pre-existing, just changed upon such a high impact collision and it was rarer elements the meteorite brought with it? Rhodium, Palladium, Platinum and the like?"

Mark's squint and flicker side to side for a moment as he thinks back on this particular set. "Close, these were sourced nearer to Chichen Itza. And you're correct, of course. There would be microscopic particles at best, possibly just single atoms if at all, which is admittedly hard to prove. All I can say for sure is that they are sought after for ritual use, and I've never had a dissatisfied customer try to return any. So a grain of salt as with anything, but I believe there's something to them. I am the one trying to sell them though, so I would say that anyway, wouldn't I?"

Mary looks a bit blank. Some of the more scientific talk is clearly going over her head. She does laugh at Marks comment. "True. You'd be a bad salesman." Another laugh. "So ... I mean ... what energy are they supposed to have? Something that caused a mass extinction? Doesn't like good energy."

Tillie turns not towards Mark, but towards Mary instead. "Mass extinction, but also mass change. As the reign of the dinosaur was over and an Ice Age came, it made room for newer, smaller warm-blooded life. Conveniently, mammals fit that description and rose out of the wreckage. So whle it may be disaster for one species, opportunity for others?"

Mark leans forward over the counter, his own interest in the subject bubbling up. "Absolutely! Also, many types of power are just power, or at least contain more than one aspect to them. It's all about how you want to use it that matters. Like how electricity can electrocute a person, but it can also be used to jolt a fibrillating heart and save a life."

Mary grins back. "Oh! RIght! Like the tarot death card. It doesn't mean something bad is going to happen for sure. Just something new and different." She looks to each of you as if not sure about her knowledge.

Tillie nods slowly. "And especially with things like crystals which are used as foci, it's the thought that matters. What you think, what you intend. Maybe it's just a placebo effect, but think hard enough and people will believe change came because of it."

Mark grins crookedly as he answers the pair. "Right, a good point about the Tarot. And change itself can be scary for people. Not gonna lie, I did an invocation for luck and prosperity before moving the store here. Placebo effect or not, I haven't gone out of business yet. If I'm still here in a year, maybe we can chalk that up to good crystals. And also good chalk, for that matter."

Mary seems pleased to have gotten the one right. "Aweseom. Good luck. I, um, can't do much for your business but I'll tell all my friends about it. All those into this kinda stuff anyway. Oh ... I'm Mary, by the way."

Tillie laughs ever so slightly at Mark. "It'd probably be bad practice to //not// do at least some invocation before moving an occult shop. It's what the customers expect after all." And as Mary goes about introductions, she gives a nod of her head. "Tillie."

Mark raises his head with a sudden thought and leans to his right to slide a pair of business cards out of a small dispenser on the counter. He puts each down on the counter for the pair. "I almost forgot, I got new cards made up with the new address. I'm Mark. Nice to meet the both of you. And you're right, Tillie, it would have been downright neglectful to skip that, wouldn't it?"

Mary takes a picture of one of the card. She grins sheepishly. "I wont take one of 'em. They're very nice but I know I can't affort anything here. I'll share this though. And it's nice to meet the both of you. What do you do Tillie?"

Tillie takes the card after its placed on the counter, no actual hand contact there, and carefully tucks it into her bag after she gives it a good look. "Oh, me? I'm a researcher. Terribly dull stuff most the time." A little dismissive hand wave there. "At least with sage and incense people also expect for protection, the smell can be quite pleasant. Especially compared to some of the concoctions listed in older texts."

Mark smiles, waving his hand at the box of cards. "The cards are free, but suit yourself. I only even got physical cards because a lot of customers prefer the physical object to just digital contact information. Much like wtth the books themselves, we are a type, aren't we? And yes, some things can smell quite foul. A lot of texts specifically call for candles made with the fats of animals, usually some form of tallow. I'm betting you both know how much worse that smells than beeswax or modern scented candles?"

Mary wrinkles her nose a bit. "I kinda suspect that folks like me started doing stuff outdoors." She laughs a little.

"My grandmother would make bayberry candles," Tillie admits. "Not surprising why another name for the tree is candleberry."

Mark laughs along with Mary, then nods at Tillie. "Both are good ways to keep from smoking yourself out of your house with tallow candles. And you can still get actual bayberry candles these days, but you need to avoid the ones that are just bayberry scented if you're looking for something authentic. Or you can get them from family members making them by hand of course, if you're fortunate enough to have one. That's not exactly common these days though. Then again, I'd bet there's someone selling hand crafted ones on Etsy right now."

Mary is quiet a bit. "Or maybe at some local farmers markets? Craft fairs? I wonder if there is a ran fair near." She sounds like she's making plans in her head.

Tillie shakes her head. "I don't think you'll find many bayberry candle makers here. Maybe beeswax, but bayberry likes //cold//. I did have enough foresight to secure some before I left New England though. I'm not sure if I'd trust a candle from Etsy either... probably just paraffin with some essential oils tossed in for close enough."

Mark gives a small tight lipped grimace. "True, I wouldn't trust them for ritual use. If you run low though, I do have better sources than Etsy. Even if you prefer a New England pedigree, I should be able to turn up something vetted and suitable. Mary is right about small markets and fairs though. It takes legwork, but you can find some real treasures if you're lucky."

Mary beams again. She got another one right. "I mean especially ren faires. Sure, most of it's like ... made in China but if you're gunna find someone who's real into doing candles the old way, it would be someone who likes those. Maybe I'll dig around. I could make a great wench!"

Tillie tilts her wrist to look at an actual wrist-watch. "I believe I have another appointment to get to. And while my candle supply is sorted, I'm sure it won't be long before I'm needing something or other sourced and vetted."

Mark leans back to look at a clock mounted behind the counter and nods. "It is getting close to closing time, isn't it? It was nice meeting you though, and I hope to see you again some time."

Mary nods and sighs. A wistful looks around at the place. "OK. Thanks for letting me browse!"

Mark waves as the others leave, and sets about closing shop for the night.