I found myself with a sudden vision of a Roger who might have been…
The thing I bought from Ryman was a particular sort of fountain
pen, a Writech retractable. The nib end of the pen has a folding lid,
and pressing the button pushes the mechanism down and the lid out of
the way. I'm finding it quite pleasant and practical. (Recommended by
Stephanie
Burgis.)
(There are other pens that do this too—the Jinhao 20 for example.)
The downside, as she points out, is that it only takes cartridges, and
only its own special sort at that. (And the ones supplied are in
blue!) But that's OK: I already have my preferred inks (particularly
Diamine's Onyx Black and Oxblood), and a while back I picked up a pack
of syringes and blunted hypodermic needles because when a bottle is
running low I find it easier to fill the syringe, transfer ink to a
converter, and then plug it into the pen, than to suck up the ink
directly through the nib.
Indeed, the makers supply one empty cartridge already fitted in the
pen (presumably to show you where the real ones should go), so that's
the one I filled. And as I hunched over my little tray of bottles and
syringes and needles, under the magnifying lamp, I had a vision… had
things gone differently, I could have been a really obsessive sort
of junkie. (Though perhaps not staying that way for long.)