Buying Power

Posted on Wed 24th Mar, 2021 @ 2:39pm by Yuliette Marayan Dr.

970 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Business Not At All As Usual
Location: Brown Sector Deck 2245
Timeline: Following "Reading the Signs"

She was back again, that cheap, scrawny, half-cardie lady. Zereba, the shopkeeper, traced the cardie through narrowed eyes, just to make sure she wasn’t trying to tuck any merch into her baggy hoodie— the same hoodie she’d bought off the clearance rack a couple of weeks back.

Zereba circled the racks, ostensibly relocating a mannequin and reshuffling the handbags while actually situating herself for better surveillance.

“You sold it?” the customer said, disappointed as she looked up at the mannequin that had worn the fleece lined leather jacket but now sported a shirt and vest combo.

“Someone stole it.” Zereba clarified, not without an underlying accusation. Yuliette had, afterall, pawed it, fawned over it, then regretted outloud not having the cash for it. That it had gone missing later the same evening left Zereba pissed and looking at all the passer bys to try to catch her thief.

“Are you serious? Did you report it?”

Zereba screwed her lips together. She couldn’t tell if that look of surprise was an act or not. There was quite a bit more emotiveness than she’d seen from other Cardassians. Not that Zereba had met very many Cardassians. As races went, they were less-than-common in Brown Sector. Innocent or not, why would she seem so surprised, as if theft around here wasn’t a daily thing. “ Yeah right. To who? The sheriff? I’d be in his office every other day—” The Orion mockingly whined: “‘somebody stole some sneakers, somebody took my display art. Somebody used fake credit certificates.’” She snorted. “Please. It’s really hard for anyone to stay in business with all of the sticky fingers down here. But I believe in karma. What comes around, will bite you in the ass again later.”

“Do you have anything like it? The Jacket? I had a paycheck come through and I was really looking forward to trying it on.”

Zereba perked at the word paycheck and stuffed her gum into a paper scrap in her pocket. “Really?”

Yuliette pulled the corner of some GPL certificates out of her wallet to show her. “For modelling if you can believe it.”

Right. ‘Modelling’. Zereba wasn’t one to judge. Not this skinny wisp of a Cardasian or whoever was into that. Zereba had taken her share of ‘modelling’ payouts, after all. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I believe it? There’s a lot of ‘modelling’ opportunities around here. I might have a few things your size in the sorting room. Lemme check. Second thought, come along with me, huh?” There was no one else in the shop and the service bell would chime if another customer arrived. It would be best to keep this unknown quantity, and the cash, in her sight.

Zereba walked her through a narrow hall that curled along the side into a backroom stuffed with second hand goods in various stages of sorting. There was a loud hum from an industrial sized washing machine in the far corner. A presser stood open, and there was a tailor quality sewing machine with various armatures and extension units that looked like it had seen a few things but was willing to keep on keeping on for now. Bins were piled high with mixed things. Zereba pushed a few sorted, cleaned, and repaired racks around on their wheels. “I haven’t marked these yet. But I think you’ll find things about your size on these three racks.” the saleswoman pushed a few things around and came up with three jackets for her hopeful client to try.

Yuliette slipped out of the hoodie to just her tank and tried each on in turn while Zereba moved a viewing mirror over for her.

A dark brown jacket of some very soft leather seemed to hug her just right. It had two tones that sort of played against each other and it featured a warm lining that was a must and a collar that settled right around the ridges in her neck without making it look strangely flared. She pet the leather.

“I reconstructed that one. The repaired panels are Lemiu bird skin.” At Yuliette’s question mark expression she explained further, “You know those birds that pull carts around here. They farm them upstairs for everything. Eggs, meat, skins. Sometimes people just call them emus because it sounds like Lemiu and humans turn everything into Sol creature comparisons. I think the skins work out more like ostrich though, if you’re comparing them to earth birds, what with all the pin feather texture.”

Yuliette unzipped the top halfway and the jacket folded partly open, the knitted interior texture fanning on either side of her neck. There were stitches in the lining. Someone had replaced it some time ago. It was perfect. And hand crafted. There wasn’t going to be another one like it the galaxy over.

“Will you take a hundred for it?”

“Not in seed money.”

“Latinum.” Yuliette clarified. “A hundred slips.”

Modelling *was* paying. “One-fifty.”

Yuliette started unzipping it with a sigh.

Zereba had to think. She didn’t often have a woman that particular size, and the jacket was a little frankensteined…. “I could do one thirty.”

Yuliette felt the spirit of that kid Zakiel from the marketplace awaken in her. Something told her that was probably the proprietor’s lowest offer, but what if there was a little more she could squeeze out of it yet? *Don’t stop there* she could almost hear Ren whisper. *there’s still some room to negotiate* “I’m not sure. Maybe… with two of these blouses and three items from the last chance aisle?”

Zereba smiled. The Cardassian woman wasn’t a thief— she was a wheeler-dealer type. The Orion waved her hand. “Yeah, sure. Pick out what you want.”

 

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