"Oh, wouldja look at that." Richie pops a grin on at the wee flag dashed across the man's vest. He ought to have paid more attention. "At ease, soldier. Welcome to Operation Horny Unicorn. Get used to a lot of fairy tale bullshit and a lot of horizontal 'worship' in those temples. This ain't no town for a Baptist or an atheist, if you catch my drift."

He could deal pretty fine with the latter, even if it was getting a touch tacky. He's a man, of course there's a bit of a pig in him, but the devotees took sex to excessive extremes. And all the magic crap? Fuh-get it.

Richie leads the way, fishing out a pack of smokes and his zippo from his jacket pocket. "What part of the States are you from? I'm Maine originally, but as far as I'm concerned California was my real home."