Needful Things (Yoshio/Simon)

[jarahamee]

In a quiet part of the Underground where once a series of book stores, small shops and knickknack stores had been, cropped up a cheery little shop, seemingly overnight. Where once empty, papered over and cracked glass had been was now gently lit front, its tinted glass lettered in delicate gold on the front "Obscura Oddities and Curio.” The rest of the street stood as still and silent as it had been before, seeming deserted.

From the street looking inward, one could see a wide variety of vintage leather-bound novels, ancient-looking devices, stuffed and mounted heads, a vintage bicycle, a restored typewriter, and an ancient-looking phonograph in great condition. Beyond that, the inside of the shop appeared to be dimly lit, though if one looked through with great concentration, they could make out the outlines of a number of large shelves, and all manner of objects hanging from the walls and ceiling. Great bookshelves filled with thick and musty tomes, interspersed with golden platters, orbs and glowing baubles.

And unlike many shops, the shopkeeper did not appear to lurk about, watching for newcomers. In fact, the entire store seemed completely uninhabited, though clean. On the door the sign read “Open for Business.”

[beastly]

Simon loved his days off. He loved his job, of course, but he loved his days off, days where he had nowhere to be, at least for a little while, and no pressing responsibilities. He was eager to wander through some shops today, track down alchemical supplies, find magic trinkets to talk with a shopkeeper about, and maybe come home with something nice.

As he approached his usual go-to shops, however, he noticed a new member of the group. He squinted up at the lettering and whistled to himself. They'd set this place up fast, but that's what was fun about the underground. Things were magical, exciting. It made sense to him that a magical shop could just pop up overnight.

Peering inside, squinting, the werewolf couldn't help but grin when he spotted the bookshelves. Jackpot. He'd kind of picked through the other shops' book collections, what luck that this new place seemed to have a whole fresh assortment he could look through. Perfect.

A look at the 'open for business' sign, and Simon pushed the door open.

[jarahamee]

The shop itself was deceptive in size; from the front it had appeared small, but within it seemed almost labyrinthine, opening up into various sections displaying shelves and shelves of old books, ornate-looking toys, outdated but beautiful devices, and furniture from eons past. The interior of the shop was gently lit with artfully chosen bulbs scattered amid the various decorum that hung from the ceiling, lending it a yellowish hue. While not claustrophobic, it certainly seemed like every inch of the available space was being utilized, and utilized very well in this case.

At a glance, the shop-keeper’s ancient desk appeared empty, adorned with a small automaton of two kittens on marionette strings. From where he stood, he could see the curtain behind the desk, likely leading to the storage portion of the store. If he chose to move to the rear of the building, an open door appeared to enter into a twilight hue courtyard-like space. Not exactly what one might expect from the outside. As soon as he might think the store was uninhabited, a voice picked up from around the desk.

"Looking for something specific?”

While there had been no noise, or sign of entrance, the desk that had previously been quiet and empty now had a small figure behind it. A short, thin man wearing an antique-style suit seemed to be working on assembling some kind of clockwork automation. The many parts were laid out around it in its tray, carefully sorted. He used a tiny screwdriver to tinker with the mechanics.

The man himself was of indeterminable age, pale-skinned and dark-haired. He could have been a teenager, he could have been twenty, thirty, maybe even forty. Had he not spoken, one might not have been able to determine his gender either.

[beastly]

It's bigger on the inside, Simon mused internally, delighted by the intriguing clutter that greeted him. He sniffed the air, appreciating the particular scent that came with old books and antiques. He walked over to a bookshelf, inspecting the spines for titles and trying to figure out if there was some sort of organizational system. At first glance, he assumed the empty desk meant that the shopkeeper was just behind the curtains.

The werewolf continued to look through the store, and the back door caught his eye. He was interested, but was too polite (and had watched too many movies) to go poking around magical doors in seemingly empty 'bigger on the inside' shops.

He turned at the voice, perplexed but delighted when he spotted the owner. Cool.

"Oh, hey there," Simon held up a hand in greeting, smiling, "Just looking for some books on alchemy. I haven't seen your shop before, just moved in?"

[jarahamee]

“You could say that. I’ve been here for a little while, and hopefully will be here for a while longer.”

The shopkeep shifted on seat, sliding off and putting the tray of clockwork parts away under the table as he slithered over the side of the register to join Simon. He was not particularly tall, though slightly taller than Simon. His shiny beetle back shoes had a slight heel to them that clacked like hooves against the polished wooden floor. He walked to Simon’s side, and then, past him, moving down the aisles to the shelves of books.

He spent a moment pulling out first one book, and then another, shifting through their pages with a single hand, before reaching up to touch the next book. All of the tomes in this section seemed aged, some of them practically ancient in appearance. Beautiful, handbound, likely covered in fine leathers, pages each individually handcrafted by artisans. That sort of thing.

“Here are a few that might suit your fancy. Are you looking for anything in particular, or are you just an…intrepid learner? We have a good selection of magic here.”

The devil’s hand passed over a very, very old tome, which he carefully pulled up with the index fingers of both hands, before clutching it in his left hand. It seemed to be bound with reptile skin, and carefully embossed on the front was a circular symbol; one of a dragon devouring its own tail.

[beastly]

Simon nodded agreeably, not quite sure when that meant the fellow had moved in. It didn't really matter, he wasn't being specific, and that was fine. More mysterious that way, which Simon was perfectly happy to roll with. He wouldn't press the guy.

The werewolf followed the shopkeeper, watching him work with curiosity. The books were all lovely, of course. Wonderful books, he thought as he admired them. Certainly they weren't going to be cheap, the thought occurred. He'd budgeted for this trip, though. Old magic books were rarely just pocket change.

"Oh, uh, I'm just looking to expand the collection, y'know? I have the basics down, and I'm exploring a bit. Trying to build off what I know, but," he grinned, "I like reading ahead and seeing the complex stuff, even if it's a bit above where I am."

And who didn't like old books?

Simon peered at the scaled book with undisguised intrigue, wondering at what the book contained. 'A good selection of magic' is what the other short man had said, and Simon let himself get hopeful that it'd be a good find. Best case, it would have new information. New 'recipes'. He always liked to see what people thought was worth comiting to paper in such wonderful books.

[jarahamee]

The shopkeeper’s eyes rested on Simon’s face for a little while, as if trying to read him and his intent, and for that moment, his face seemed just a little bit blanker than it had been before, as if the creature was staring through his body. Then the moment passed, and he smiled big again, turning over the book to hand it carefully to Simon.

The book’s words seemed to shift in its hand, reconfiguring into English before his eyes.

“Book of Alchemical Sorcery IV”

Inside were many diagrams, some for how to make a man sleep, some for transfiguring him into beasts, or other men. One for putting down the throat of a deadman to make him speak. How to create a werewolf. To summon devils to commune with, to regrow a lost limb, to create a homunculus, and to make plants and animals grow. There were so many more within.

“Attracted to lost magics, aren’t you? These are rather unusual, but they have their uses, and more people use them than you might think.”

He smiled in a knowing way. Simon had friends who had tinkered in such magics, some of which verged on forbidden, but that was no business of Yoshio’s. He took the other tomes and flicked through them delicately;

“I think these are more like what you want though. How to make a flame, how to make soil rich, how to create a good healing potion… It’s all in here. It touches on more advanced magics, but you know.. it’s not quite the same depth.”

[beastly]

Simon felt a little funny as the shopkeeper stared into his soul, but rolled with it. He was in a shop that had popped up overnight with a man that had appeared out of nowhere. It was a funky little situation, and he was into it. A lot of supers could be a little... different. That was just sometimes how people were, and, mostly, if you went with it, things turned out fine and you learned a thing or two. Besides, he was eager to hear about the books.

He very carefully took the scaled book from the man, noticing letters jittering from one language to another with more than a small sense of wonder. He sniffed the book, trying not to be overly obvious about it, and opened it up. He skimmed the book, eyes widening at what he found within. It was... More advanced than what he was currently doing, for sure. Some of the things he wasn't sure about how terribly ethical they were. His eyes lingered on the page that described making a werewolf. He definitely didn't want to make a werewolf, but if there was a way to make a werewolf- could a cure be reverse engineered? Agent Lucidus would have known about it, probably, if there was a way, right? He would have just helped Simon that way, the werewolf was fairly sure, but the thought lingered. He blinked up when the shopkeeper spoke again. He closed the book.

"Ha- I think it's, uh, pretty cool. Even theoretically, you know? It's... There's pieces to it, I guess," He shrugged, stopping himself from rambling about how he liked that people had recorded what they'd figured out in old books, and how he enjoyed comparing one book to another, watching how people built upon work already done. The man had grabbed another book.

While what the other books had was more tame, they also were, as the guy had said, more close to what he could feasibly use. They were a more realistic, solid choice. He wasn't made of money, either, he told the side of himself that still very much wanted the "Book of Alchemical Sorcery IV”. It probably was way more expensive. He had money, yes, but it wasn't coming out his ears. He needed to be smart.

"That's probably more practical, heh."

[jarahamee]

Yoshio watched Simon explain himself, staring into the werewolf transformation with longing. He did not, thankfully, have the ability to read minds, but in this case, he didn’t need such a power. The man was a werewolf, and he did not appreciate his gift, any more than Yoshio had appreciated his own. Well, perhaps… he could find something that really tempted him… Or maybe, he’d be satisfied with living his life.

He reached up to the shelf, and squinted once, before pulling out a very, very thin collection of delicately colored and unbound vellum, carefully stored in a leather folder. He turned it once in his hands. The front was unmarked but badly worn. There was no writing on the front, no author, no title.

Yoshio then handed over the folder with a slight bow;

“Perhaps this is too advanced for your taste, but it might interest you.”

Simon felt a strange thrill as he held the unbound leaflets in his hands. His heart beat faster. His fingers tingled. This was something of power. This was something rare. When he opened the folder, the top sheet was very clearly a skeleton growing flesh, rising from its grave for the master Alchemist. The scribbled notes on the page indicated this was ‘raising the dead.’

Then, the sheet beneath, a clear image of a man shedding his wolf skin, lovingly painted on the paper-thin vellum. The notes here were frantic, a few drops of what looked like they might have been dried blood here or there, but after the writing rearranged itself, it read ‘Curing a werewolf or vampire.’

[beastly]

The werewolf stared at the folder in his hands for a moment, something in him setting off both alarms and growing increased excited. He could feel the power coming off these papers. After a pause, he opened it.

The first page shook him. Necromancy. Not just baby Necromancy, not speaking to the dead, not raising a skeleton to do your dirty work, bringing the dead back. He was fairly certain this type of thing was highly illegal. His eyes darted from the sheet back to Yoshio, then he delicately turned the page.

He didn't get it at first, reading over the notes and looking at the blood. Then, he saw it. 'Curing a werewolf or vampire'. His hands began to tremble and grow sweaty as his eyes bored holes in the page. He forgot all about the previous page. Could it be real? He started reading the contents of the frantic writing, holding his breath.
Please. Please, please, please, he begged whatever God was out there, Please let it be real.

[jarahamee]

The ingredients list was long and unfamiliar, the instructions complex, coiling around the document with various branching solutions in all directions. It called for tools and implements that Simon was not familiar with, though one of the ingredients, he recognized well; ‘a drop of blood from the werewolf progenitor.’

Something he likely did not have.

How unfortunate.

Yoshio peered over the book thoughtfully. It was forbidden magic, though magic that Simon desired over all else. Would his morality win out in the end? There was no good solution for lifting curses, unless it was a neat and tidy curse, like crossing Yoshio and making him angry.

“It’s an old set of leaflets. Some of the ingredients and tools listed here are quite rare, sadly, but I have no reason to doubt the effectiveness of the contents. The other downside is that it’s quite delicate. A real shame.”

[beastly]

Simon's heart dropped into his stomach with a cold splash. He stared at the words. 'A drop of blood from the werewolf progenitor.’ No. He didn't even know the guy that bit him. It'd been a full decade now, whoever the werewolf was, Simon didn't have a hope of tracking him down to ask for blood. Hopes raised, then crushed.

It was, he reminded himself as he emotionally tried to untangle things, probably very illegal. Even if he had what he needed, based upon the previous page, it was probably not something allowed. The thing was covered in blood, potentially from someone else's use.

Carefully, slowly, Simon closed the folder. There wasn't anything there for him. He didn't want to look at it anymore. He gave the shopkeeper a weak smile and offered it back.

"Yeah, uh. Theoretically very interesting."

[jarahamee]

Mr. Sano’s eyes became wider, and a slight smile fixed itself on his face. And now came the cincher. The final straw. The possible answer. Oh, Yoshio was not good at many things, but he was excellent at finding what was desired. What was hidden. And he could certainly find the werewolf that had bitten Simon.

“I can find them, you know. The one you are looking for.”

He accepted it back carefully, his fingers finding the right place to avoid bending or folding any of the incredibly delicate pages as he shuffled it around. He adjusted the folder, closing it down, and then slipped it into the bookshelf with the other tomes, as if he had said nothing at all of interest.

“Maybe, we could find them together. If that was something you wanted.”

His eyes never left Simon’s face, eager, waiting.

[beastly]

"I'm sorry, sir?"

Simon blinked at the shopkeeper's waiting face, confusion and disbelief on his own as he processed what was being offered. The guy was offering to help him find the werewolf that bit him, it didn't make sense otherwise. It didn't make sense even then though, he couldn't have known what was in Simon's head. Could he have? Not unless he was a mindreader.

The werewolf took another sniff of the room, and this time he acknowledged what his nose was telling him. Demon? Sulfur.

Simon clicked his tongue at the realization, and smiled faintly in understanding despite himself. Ah. It all made sense. The shop that pops up to fast, the store being larger than it should be, the assortment of incredibly specific rare and forbidden information. Simon was nothing if not genre savvy, an avid enjoyer of films both terrible and classic. Demon shop. The nerdy side of him became even more intrigued.

The realization shook him out of his sadness, just a little bit. He didn't have to be Faust today. Nothing good ever came of dark bargains for forbidden knowledge. He took a breath, running a hand over his head. It still was a shame. He very much wanted to find the wolf that bit him, to be free of his lycanthropy. The cost would likely be his soul, though, or there'd be some awful twist. He'd hate to find the werewolf that bit him dying in the street somewhere, that being how they could obtain his blood. No.

He'd turn down the guy politely. This was fairly standard infernal activity, he wasn't going to take it personally. Maybe he could pay the fellow with money for one of the other books still.

"I'm gonna have to pass, sir. The price tag on that kinda thing is a bit high, huh?"

[jarahamee]

“Information costs much less than providing solutions. It might be within your budget, if you are willing to spend some of your precious human time in return. An address. If you want it.”

The devil’s tone indicated it was not offended, and it finally turned its gaze away from him to pull one of the other alchemical tomes off the shelf, putting it in a neat little pile on top of the others. His eyes traveled over each, reading without reading, knowing without seeing as it hummed to itself.

“These bottom ones are very basic, as far as my fair goes. They are about 250, and offer fairly detailed instructions. I also sell some of the rarer ingredients that are requested by some of the more advanced potions, just be wary that most more powerful potions require more time or more expertise. All magic is a sort of exchange, and this is no different.”

He turned towards a broad shelf of what appeared to be potion ingredients. While he seemed to have some basic amenities, his fair definitely tended to be more on the advanced side.

Mr. Sano did a wide half-circle, arms outstretched, like a ballet dancer, and then swooped low, picking up another tome as he did so.

“More advanced is 500.”