Vodou Culture 101: Results
Another side effect of mass manufacturing is that people expect to pay the same money and get the same result every time.
If I go to Walmart (a large retailer) and buy a cup, I can expect to buy one of millions of identical units. Depending on the brand, I can expect it or something very like it to be there every time I visit. Most cups work the same, so I can expect the result of paying for a cup to be getting something which I can use to hold liquid in the same way as any other cup I own, with the only real difference being what color the cup is, the materials used to make it, and how large it is.
That’s not how magical work gets results. Effective magic work will get a result, but the result cannot be expected to be the same every time.
This is partially because conditions change over time. Maybe the target for a love work got a promotion that requires them to move, or perhaps their parents are ill. Maybe they are suffering a medical problem that impairs their libido. Whatever the condition, time will introduce conditions into situations which change the way the target would react to the client. All of those are things that the worker will have to investigate, provide some compensation for, and might prevent a work from succeeding or require the client to change their lifestyle.
Any condition which is not compensated for will almost always change a result, which is why investigation, even with someone who has been a client or a situation with which the magical worker is very familiar, is required before any sort of work is done.
It is also partially because, unlike a machine on an assembly line, the work involves a relationship with an entity which has volition and opinions. The spirits with which a magical worker does magical work are distinct intelligences: people, if you like, though they are definitely more than that. The relationship between a magical worker and that particular spirit is going to change over time, which will change how the spirit acts on the request.
Finally, it is partially because the worker themselves changes over time. It is also likely that the client changes over time. Whatever the client asks the worker to do, their understanding of each other is not likely to stay the same as it was the first time they worked together. That understanding influences how the worker works on behalf of the client: we ask for different stuff based on our understanding.
It’s very important to recognize that magical work cannot be understood by mass manufacturing. If you’re expecting the same result and the same experience every time, you will likely be disappointed.
