max worked the subconscious crimes, he was an old skool investigator, walking in many worlds, solving the unusual metaphysical dilemmas for his rich and powerful clientele, occasionally he would take on pro bono work but he had child support payments like everyone else, he had bills piling up and interest growing on credit cards, he also had a habit he needed sating.
one afternoon the phone rings, his agent asks if he would take on a case.
the agent is an american woman, she lives in new york city and has agoraphobia but in the web she is free and has many contacts, she is the nexus of all information pertaining to sub crime and sooner or later she finds something she knows max will be interested in.
such was the case march 19th 2010 when she awoke max from an afternoon siesta with the offer of a case.
'send the file over trixie.'
he flicked open his mac powerbook and booted it up, accessing his e mail he opened the file.
he scanned the information.
his client was a cactus entity who had found himself trapped in the soul of a republican politician. max looked over the relevant information, the politician was joseph achilles a greek shipping magnate who had found power the next acquisition after his fourth billion. he was one of the richest men on the planet but he was also not far away from being the most powerful, however since a trip to mexico he seemed to have trapped the cactus spirit within his soul and now the spirit wants out or was it the other way around, the report was ambiguous. it appeared that the cactus spirit was enjoying his earthly form, boozing it up in bars, brothels and roadside dinners, hassling waitresses and clocking up debts in casinos, meanwhile our fave republican was attempting to regain some discipline and control. or the story could read that the republican senator had taken the cactus god on a wild debauched hedonistic romp through excess and the cactus spirit could not escape, either way separation was needed.
max flicked the pages, it appears that the senator was under strict surveillance in a private mental institute in new mexico.
he accepted the case and within seconds was booked on a flight.

max had worked cases like this for many years, he was an old hand, he liked to research but his main tool was intuition and instinct, he used a form of chaos magick and some methodology adopted and adapted from various occult and esoteric traditions. he grabbed a book from the airport bookshop, he chose the book by his seat number, row 7, seat 3 which he translated to mean the 7th shelf the 3rd row. from here he looked at the spines and held his hand over them waiting for intuition to kick in, he was drawn towards two, but chose the one he thought he could also read, a sci fi novel by alister reynolds called 'bubble gun.'
he checked in, grabbed a bottle of water and went into the bathroom cubicle to shoot up. he had been using ephemeral for seven years now, it was his narcotic of choice after a stint with various opiates and psychedelics and extensive plant based spirits he had accessed the ephemeral via a massive dose of dmt that he had injected into himself. the dmt opened a gateway into the machine elf universe where he was given access to the machine elves drug of choice, made by their inter dimensional chemistry, never used by humans ever before. as he hit the vein ephemeral swept through his body. one of the amazing things about this substance was it allows the user to operate in many dimensional realms at the same time, while max was waiting for his flight, listening for departure details and starting to read bubble gun, he was also wandering through the enchanted forest looking for the witch that lived there. another max was also enjoying the pleasures of anteres 7 but that is another narrative completely.
following a natural trail he wandered through the trees and along the path, birds flew around him and sung their gentle song, butterflies flocked in the sunlight that filtered between the leaves and a squirrel ran up a tree. max could read the animals minds, he was able to telepathically ask where the witch lived. follow the freaking trail the squirrel replied.
eventually he came to a small shabby but cute cottage, there was a large herb garden outside the front, and a letter box with a package in it. he wandered past and knocked on the door.
the problem with witches is they are quite mad at the best of times and it's very difficult to get them to be direct, they like to be metaphorical and elusive, everything they say has a certain ambiguity about it, but there is no doubt they manufacture the best spells for hey type of work max had in mind.
'i need a binding spell, and a containment spell and possibly a matrix seal.'
seal seal seal, matrix containment to bind, why what an unusual request dear chap. unusual and obscure. who did you not say you are?'
'madame i am max, and i offer you some silver in return for your service.'
'oh max i care nothing for trinkets, i require other essential substances for my services. we witches are not so enamoured by the glamour of trinkets. anyways i will put a brew on the stove, you will drink?'
'yes i'd love to.'
we sipped the tea, magick mushroom tea, i felt the warmth invade my chest. my brain started to process the situation i was on ephemeral now mushrooms, the time shifts would start to become some what random, so i focused my attention of procuring the spells i had come for.
'i don't have much more time. i would be happy to trade anything for the spells that you require'
the witch spun around, she seemed to do a dance, and then strangely she smiled at me, 'mmmm, it has been a long long time since i have had any physical attention', she morphed before my eyes, then changed again, various feminine forms flickered until she found one that suited me, 'well i don't have much time.'
'ha it won't take long from what i recall.'
so now i come back from the enchanted forest with the spells and feeling somewhat jaded, it was simple in the old days. ephemeral takes me into the desert where i prepare for the trap i will use to contain the cactus spirit. i find a suitable san pedro and draw the circle, hoping that a wind won't arise.
my physical body starts to get stuck into 'bubble gun.'
the story starts with a scientist travelling on a space ship in an unknown part of the universe. he is inventing a weapon although it is not really a weapon but a simulacra of the universe. he calls the weapon the bubble gun based on the idea that the universe is made of foam and each bubble within each bit of foam is a whole universe, the scientist is a genius but he is also a firm atheist and he wants to prove that he can be a god to the universe he creates with his bubble gun. however he is old and life has jaded him, he is cynical and suffers from melancholia, he has lost everyone he loves trough the trials and tribulations of life, he has no faith in man or god.he is prone to bouts of envy, jealously and violent acts of destruction.
actually he is a bit like god.
the scientist prepares to fire his gun when his ship picks up a stowaway, a beautiful girl called roxanne, a space pirate who is wounded and needs some medical aid. he does the noble thing and takes her on board where they start a relationship and the scientist begins to fall in love, the bubble gun no longer the object of his attention. he knows he has found his peace and truth in roxy. they spend many years together, enjoying their company and exploring the gift of love when one evening there is a terrible accident in the lab, the zap gun activates and actually shoots it's intent through roxy whose body dissolves into a billion million trillion elemental atoms that are then embedded in the small bubble created by the gun. the bubble splits in half,
then again and again as the first foam of the alternative man made universe begins to form.
each bubble each part of each bubble is a universe containing a conscious part of roxy.
the scientist discovers this and despite his attempts to rescue her he cannot. so he is god to his creation, the only thing he can do is love it, and the only thing the creation can do is find the spark of roxy and love it so that maybe this love, this strange force can reconcile.
the plane touches down in santa fe, max catches a cab into the desert where his other self has prepared the magick circle. he makes a slight detour to grab the senator from the mental health facility. by all accounts and purposes they are pleased to get rid of him, he has begun to become sexually provocative to the female staff and he has refused his meds choosing to drink tequila and listen to mexican pop music rather than the nice general piped muzak they play all day. in fact he is quite a belligerent spirit and max has to administer some tranquillisers against his better judgement just to get him into the car. they drive out into the desert and wait for midnight.
under the full moon keeping his eye on the second hand max cast the banishing rituals and got reading for the binding. he could not begin until after midnight and as the second hand passed the twelve he began. banishing rituals come in all shapes and sizes but the two keys to a successful banishing are intent and vibration. max's voice rung through the night. the cactus god seemed to leave the body of joseph achilles, a cheerful trickster, tinged green and sparkling mischief, strange energy radiates from his skin, an electric field spilling out into the night.
max is woking now, chanting the incantation to over power the spirit and keep it locked inside the circle. it is all about will power, focus and concentration. fortunately max is adept at this. the cactus spirit starts to sing a song of surrender and max moves in for the kill, the containment spell quickly followed by the matrix field. but max is on mushrooms while under the influence of ephemeral, this has dangerous and unpredictable consequences.