Occult store owner Andrew part 1
Andrew opened the shop at exactly 8:03 am (simply to be arbitrary), and sat in his regular spot behind the counter, with his peppermint tea and his Taylor Swift tarot cards. (No you don’t get to talk bad about his card choices, he likes Taylor, as well as tarot. Now shush)
He sits there for a good couple minutes just shuffling the cards and zoning out -as one does whilst shuffling- until the door opens and sends a chiming through the store, he looks up to see the most beautiful human being he’s ever witnessed! Also known as Neil josten, the exy striker who just got rescued from his father’s murderous plans a few months back, but anyways, back to andrew gay panic minyard. He tries valiantly to keep the pink from his face while he greets this god of a college boy (goodness gracious Andrew, why is a sweaty, short athlete with attitude problems your type?? I have some serious questions)
“Hello, welcome to twilight zone occult, can I help you find anything?” Andrew says in as monotone a voice as possible. “Uhh, I was told to say I was Renee’s friend and that and Andrew would know what She would need” neil explains, voice riddled with uncertainty. “That would explain the random envelope of cash yesterday. Give me a second” Andrew sighs
Andrew putters around the store gathering woodland themed tarot cards, selenite, a bunch of unscented natural coloured beeswax candles, and a few ‘tarot for beginners’ booklets. He puts everything on a cotton square of cloth, wraps it all up, and ties it with a rainbow ribbon. He pushes it for Neil to take. “Here you are. And this is for you” he hands Neil a carnelian and rose quartz bead bracelet. “Thanks?” Neil takes it, along with the package for Renee and heads for the door. Andrew grabs his phone as soon as Neil leaves.
“Renee. Why would you send him?” Andrew whines into his phone, forgoing his regular monotone nonsense. “Because I know you like him, and i know you want to tell him about your store.” Renee says calmly over the phone. “I resent that statement, how dare you. Goodbye.” Andrew hangs up his phone and goes off to reorganise the candle section
King comes zooming out of the back of the store and runs all the way to the front window and onto the cat tree there, growling in the direction of the back room. “King, what’s got you all fluffed up, hm?” Andrew goes over to pet her, and stick his face in her fur -as one does with a fluffy cat- “there’s nothing in here to be afraid of buddy, you’re okay” Andrew says softly. “You say that like you have the best security system possible for your little magic shop, and that nobody can get in without trouble” a voice says from behind him. “Kevin” Andrew mutters, turning to face the tall human “you explain why my cat is so fluffed up. Why are you here?” “Neil is off limits, do not go after him” Kevin states “and do not indoctrinate him into your magic shit, he’s an athlete, not a wizard”. Andrew looks at Kevin with his usual bland expression “Kevin, who I choose to court is none of your business, nor your concern, if I want to indoctrinate him I will. If he lets me” Andrew comments, now sounding slightly irritated “You should leave”. Kevin leaves, but not without knocking over a candle, just to piss off Andrew.
Andrew locks up the store and goes upstairs to his apartment, bringing the cats in from the shop was always difficult, but he did it. As he was getting into bed his phone pings in rapid succession
Aaron: what did you give Neil?
Aaron: he thinks it’s a curse
Aaron: why did you give it to him
Aaron: Andrew
Aaron: Andrew answer your phone
Andrew: a bracelet.
Aaron: why
Andrew: because i wanted to.
Aaron: are you being sweet on him
Aaron: I thought Kevin told you not to do that
Andrew: he did. However, I do not care about what Kevin says I should or should not do.
Aaron: is it a curse?
Andrew: it’s carnelian and rose quartz, he’ll be fine.
Aaron: …
Aaron: you gave him rose quartz
Andrew: yes.
Aaron: okay
Aaron: go to sleep
Andrew gets woken up by cats jumping on his chest and screaming at him -constant meowing counts as screaming- to go make them food. Andrew checks the time, 6:30, he hates waking up early, but it is necessary unfortunately. He gets up and goes to the kitchen to make the cats their breakfast and to reheat some pho broth to put in a thermos cup for him to drink, because soup is good anytime of the day, and partially because solid food in the morning makes him nauseous.
He goes down to the shop to get everything ready for the day, reorganising the crystals, and restocking everything that needs it. Sir and king sit in their tree in the window, watching all the people rushing to work.
It feels a high pain day, so Andrew goes to the back of the store where he keeps his wheelchair (because the apartment is far to small to store it, and it has stairs). He sits down and puts on his compression gloves, preparing for his day. He has a shipment of books on medicinal plants coming soon so he’s goes back into the shop to wait for it, whilst waiting he always looks at redit, because why not. He frequented r/witchcraft and r/AskOccult, today there was a post on the latter, talking about how someone gave op a bracelet with pink stones and red orange stones, and if it was a curse or hex, and what to do with it. Neil. Neil made this post. Oh no, this isn’t good at all, Andrew only meant to give a cute boy something pretty. Aaron hadn’t told Neil what it was apparently, that’s less than preferred. “Ding” the doorbell rings, his books! Andrew goes to open the door, unlocking it and propping it open. He signs for the package and puts it on his lap, securing it with his lap stacker. He takes the worst selling book off the shelf and replaces it with the medicinal plants books. He takes the tape off the bottom of the box and collapses it to put under the counter so he can use it for when people buy a lot of things.
He opens the store to the public, and continues puttering around, doing all his usual things. He needs tea, it’s far to early for more broth, sadness. His usual tisane is a hibiscus and ginseng blend, it’s very good with honey and iced. Unfortunately it lowers his blood pressure even more, he doesn’t care though, pretending he doesn’t have pots only happens when he has his tisane. He has a plastic take away cup from a fancy cafe that he always uses, because it makes him feel fancy, he puts ice, the teabag, and a little honey in a bottle before filling it up, closing it, and shaking it violently. Once he’s done shaking it he pours it into the fancy cafe cup and sticks a straw in it. He got a cup holder attachment for his wheelchair for this specific reason, so he can take his tisane with him anywhere he wants. Time to go work, how unfortunate it is not being independently wealthy.
Renee comes in halfway through the day, bringing Allison, and a few skirts with her. “Andrew? I have skirts for you.” Renee says as she walks around, looking for him. “Over here, Renee” Andrew says from behind the counter, which is unfortunately far to tall when he’s using his chair. His own store is inaccessible to him, to customers it’s perfectly accessible, but to him? The owner? Not at all. The customer side of the counter is technically shorter than his side given the fact that the floor is raised by a few inches. The other problem is that to get behind the counter there’s a four inch drop, so Andrew has to pop his castors to get up over it. “Andrew, you should raise the floor behind there as well” Allison comments. “Yes i know. It’s expensive and I would have to close the shop for a couple days.” Andrew responds with his monotone voice. “I have the skirts, want me to put them in the back room?” Renee asks quietly, as reserved as ever. “Go ahead, you know the door code”
Renee and Andrew talk about their tarot cards, and Andrew surreptitiously slips her a limited edition version of her favourite deck. “Oh! Andrew! How did you get this?” Renee asks excitedly. “Renee, I own an occult store” Andrew replies, trying valiantly not to smile. “What did you give her?” Allison asks after walking around the shelves of things “you know my favourite tarot deck? It’s a limited edition version! It has silver foil on the cards, and the box is embossed!” Renee explains to her girlfriend. “That’s cool, sweetie” Allison states, kissing the top of Renee’s head.
Once Allison and Renee leave, Andrew goes to try on the skirts Renee brought earlier. One of them is a red 45 yard circle skirt, he puts it on and stands in front of the mirror. He kind of likes the feeling of femininity he thinks, it’s kind of nice being able to feel good in what he’s wearing, that hasn’t happened before. Wow.