Snippet #2363149

The lady in question merely directed a curt little nod Maiko's way, and, with all the expression of a boulder, said, "Thank you very much." And then she just turned around and walked right out of the old bookstore. Man, what a dick, Maiko immediately decided. Not really for not returning the smile-- Maiko would probably have just figured her for yet another imbecile, one of the many others who polluted this campus. You'd expect that in some densely populated hole of human refuse like New York City, or Los Angeles. Who knew I'd be dealing with it in an insignificant little town in the middle of Wisconsin? But, more to the point, on the subject of the woman being a dick, there was just something... oh, to hell with it, Maiko just didn't like her. Did she really need to start thinking of reasons to not like people for being there?

Hell, now she was in a bad mood again.

"Anyway," she said in a bright voice, turning back to the woman at the counter with a good-natured smile. "I was wondering if you, perchance, had any books on Thelemic occultism..."





It was shortly thereafter that, with the newly purchased book in tow, Maiko set off once more for the college-- in particular, the campus bookstore, destined to spend the next few hours diligently retrieving whatever bullshit college students wanted from her. Really, if it wasn't for school, then it was almost invariably something that simply wasn't worth the time. Sure, Maiko was more than prone to disparaging the campus bookstore, and it wasn't like its content was flawless, perfect, worthwhile reading throughout. Still, there had to be something these idiots thought was worth reading more than the latest Twilight book or whatever. All the amazing things to read about in this world-- physics, biology, anthropology, you name it-- and yet I couldn't for the life of me enumerate the sheer volume of people who come into that store consistently showing absolutely zero interest in any of it. Apparently, a book about a sparkly vampire with apparently crooked nipples is more relevant.

It was enough to make anybody lose their faith in humanity, except Maiko hadn't cared much to replenish her stocks of that rare commodity in many years.

Maiko had already begun to scan over the foreword to the book on Thelema she'd purchased as she encountered a cross walk and stopped, waiting for the light across the street to indicate it was permissible for her to cross-- or, more importantly, waiting for when there weren't any cars prohibiting her from just crossing anyway. She glanced from side to side for any cars, but looking to the right down a sidewalk devoid of pedestrians revealed no cars. Instead, far down in the distance, Maiko caught sight of what appeared to be a person-- some freakishly pale man, in a black coat, off in the distance. It was much too far for Maiko to make out much in the way of details, but she did know from the second she saw him there was something definitively off about him.

A recurrent tone tore Maiko's attention from the man, and she looked across the street; the light on the post had switched to an image of a walking stick figure, indicating that it was now time for her to cross. Still, somehow, Maiko couldn't help a second glance towards the queer man in the coat. And, predictably, when she went for a second look, he was gone.

... well, either some anemic dude in a coat's got some bitchin' ninja skills, or I just found myself in the plot of some kind of horror movie. Maiko figured in the latter case, she'd probably be the first person to die-- as it always is in movies, where the first person to die always gets the most violent death so that the rest of the protagonists have a total 'oh shit' moment.

As far as she was concerned, though, as she crossed the street and walked onwards, there was no horror that pale person could inflict upon her worse than having just one more degenerate ask her if they had Twilight in stock.