i ended up dropping out of high school my senior year. i didn't care enough to keep going, and my parents didn't care enough to make me.
there was only one person i actually liked at school. giles. we'd been friends since we were pretty young. unfortunately, that also made it... uncomfortable when i realized i was developing a crush on him.
sometimes i wonder if i stopped going to school to avoid having to pretend i didn't love him.
anyways, the point is that i was 18 years old, drinking like a fish at a bar that didn't ask for an id, when i met jack smith.
"what are you doing here?" he asked.
"i want friends. i need money. i just... need to get away from it all."
"if you feel lonely, you only have to say the word."
"are you trying to be my friend?" i asked, eyeing him.
he laughed. "no. i am not your friend. but the mountebanks are always looking for new recruits."
"mountebanks?"
he gave me a card and a wide smile. i started to say something, but he just got up, patted me on the bank, and winked as he walked out.
i visited the place listed on the card the next day, once my hangover had subsided. i got some strange looks from the people there, but i had long since stopped caring what other people thought of me. someone in a devil mask came up to me and asked me who i was and what i was doing there. i showed him the card and said it had been given to me by a man i assumed was jack smith, judging from the name written on it. the man in the devil mask, whose name i later learned was alan roach, nodded.
i forget what happened after that exactly, but the point is, i became a mountebank. i joined the club.
i think jack considered that interaction of ours a deal. i sincerely hope not.
i don't know how much you know about the lonely hunters, but things like my boss don't really have our best interests at heart. each of them has their own way of doing things, and jack makes deals.
he's not the devil, exactly. i think he might be worse.
i visited the place listed on the card the next day, once my hangover had subsided. i got some strange looks from the people there, but i had long since stopped caring what other people thought of me. someone in a devil mask came up to me and asked me who i was and what i was doing there. i showed him the card and said it had been given to me by a man i assumed was jack smith, judging from the name written on it. the man in the devil mask, whose name i later learned was alan roach, nodded.
i forget what happened after that exactly, but the point is, i became a mountebank. i joined the club.
i think jack considered that interaction of ours a deal. i sincerely hope not.
i don't know how much you know about the lonely hunters, but things like my boss don't really have our best interests at heart. each of them has their own way of doing things, and jack makes deals.
he's not the devil, exactly. i think he might be worse.
