nerdeology | IC Communication

[And here's Sorey's voice thirty minutes later, a hushed whisper:]

Mikleo, he said he has a sales quota and he'll get fired...

[A shark indeed. He smelled that bleeding heart before it even hit the water.]

[oh that BASTARD]

I'll bet he did. Pass him the comm.

[What follows is a muffled and mildly aggressive conversation between Mikleo and the vendor - which is admittedly mostly Mikleo talking and the Co'kal growing increasingly wide-eyed and impossibly pale-faced beneath all the feathers. Every time he tries to get a word in he's greeted with half a dozen in return. It's less bartering and more of a hostile takeover.

After a few minutes the salesman sheepishly offers the comm back to Sorey, mumbling something about a price several credits lower than what Mikleo had originally given Sorey, and starts bagging up the merchandise.

Ain't no sharks gonna rip off his boyfriend today. ~~bitch pls~~]

[Sorey's own sheepish voice thanking the vendor -he even bows to the guy- as he takes the merchandise is the only thing Mikleo will hear for a moment until Sorey leaves the stall far enough behind to gasp,] Mikleo, what did you say? He looked like he was going to pass out!

Nothing much. I just reminded him of our last interaction, and that he's hardly the only one who sells those.

[Which is... an extremely short version of the conversation, admittedly, but that's the gist of it. Mostly.]

Using competition as leverage, [Sorey murmurs, like he's taking notes. Spoiler: he is.] You know, the man I got all that duct tape from, Erik? I think he might be some kind of merchant or someone who studies economics. He sounded just like Rose when she goes into full-on Sparrowfeathers mode.

...Yeah, it's no wonder you came back with twelve rolls of useless. Against someone on par with Rose, you'd be doomed.

[Sorey should not be allowed alone in the marketplace, ever.]

It's not useless! Duct tape is amazing! Also, he didn't ask for anything in return, he was just going to give them to me until I insisted on paying him back somehow! So I'm making him jerky.

Are you sure there isn't a catch somewhere? Why would anyone give that much tape away for free?

Apparently he had to buy it in bulk or they wouldn't sell it to him.

Huh.

[Well, if it's just jerky...]

It's fine, then, as long as you don't let him sucker you into buying something else later.

He's not actually a merchant, I just said he reminds me of Rose... [Should Sorey be worried that Mikleo hears 'reminds me of Rose' and immediately thinks 'will take terrible advantage of Sorey at every opportunity'??? like should he hav ea concern]

[look he likes Rose, he does, he's just seen her at work when negotiating and she is terrifying]

All I'm saying is that you make yourself an easy target.

[Oh so it's HIS fault] You know, there's nothing wrong with paying full price for something...

[It's a little bit his fault.]

Full price isn't the same as an unfair price, Sorey. Remember when Rose said a thousand gald was too low an amount to trade for Gramps' pipe? And how she insisted on paying you more for it later? She's ruthless, but she's fair. Plenty of people would take the pipe and run with it. That's the difference.

I just don't understand why someone would try to take more than what something is worth. [And there's the whole problem.]

Everything you buy costs more than it's worth. That's how shops make a profit. If they didn't profit, they wouldn't be able to pay themselves or live off their earnings, and the shops would eventually close down.

Mikleo, I know that. [He doesn't need economics 101, Rose has hammered that much into his head at least.] I mean, I don't understand why someone would risk alienating somebody to make a little more than usual. It doesn't make sense to me.

That's because we've never needed to make a profit to survive before. When times are hard, merchants squeeze the customers a bit more tightly to make ends meet.

[Remember how people keep calling them sheltered? Yeeeep.]

If they're raising prices to make ends meet, doesn't that mean we should pay the price hike? I mean, it makes sense, and it's the kind thing to do...

You have to be careful about that. Sometimes they'll only say they can't go lower to profit more. But if a seller in another location nearby has it available for half the price, why would we buy it from one and not the other?

Fair market value is important. If they don't know that much, they're not good at their job.

Well what if one seller is only pricing it higher because they won't make ends meet otherwise? I'd buy it from the seller who needs the money before I'd buy it from the seller who's going to be okay.

[That's because you're a bleeding heart, Mikleo wisely does not say. It's hardly a desire of his to stamp out that part of Sorey; he doubts he even could if he wanted to.]

If he couldn't make ends meet selling at the price I'd asked for, he wouldn't have negotiated, and he wouldn't have agreed to the sale. It's unusual for a merchant to sell non-perishable goods at a loss.

You know I didn't threatened him to get a better deal, right?

Of course. [He knows Rose totally would have though.] ...I just wonder why he'd do that. Maybe it's just not something I can understand.

That's probably the case. You're only greedy when it comes to ice cream.

I'm not greedy about ice cream! I just like to have my just desserts. [Hopefully Lailah is squealing in pride, wherever she is.]

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