nerdeology | IC Communication

[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.]

[d e a d p a n]

I'm hanging up.

[Just get over here, ugh. And don't bring your puns.]

Mikle- awww.

[Sorey swaggers up twenty minutes later with that bag of beads Mikleo requested, setting them on the book Mikleo's perusing and sitting on the edge of the desk, awfully pleased with himself for a guy who had to put his boyfriend on the phone because he doesn't know how to tell a shopkeeper 'no.'] Still trying to figure out what that passage means, huh?

[Mikleo leans back in his seat, tucking a slip of paper into the book and lifting the beads to examine them. Hmm... yeah, they look satisfactory. The shopkeep didn't give them shoddy merchandise in exchange for the argument, apparently.]

It keeps bothering me. I still don't think it's metaphorical, but it can't possibly be entirely literal, either. It's too absurd.

Any hints in the translation notes?

They're mostly vague. I suspect that this book is a companion piece to some sort of educational course of study- it offers questions, various conjectures, and then encourages the reader to draw their own conclusions and discuss.

It's hard when we don't have any of the cultural context, [Sorey agrees, leaning over to peek at the book.] The writing system is a lot like the ancient tongue though. I'm confident you'll get it.

...so. Us.

Edited 2017-03-06 20:25 (UTC)

...Mm. Us.

[Mikleo closes the book, setting aside his work to turn in his chair and face Sorey properly. He hasn't really given it much thought since it became, well, a thing with Allen and Clay that day, but he used to think about the subject in the past plenty of times without voicing them to Sorey. Maybe it's time.]

What are you thinking?

Mm, I dunno. Allen and Clay just seemed so excited when we said we were dating, but it's not like anything changed between us because of it.

Besides the kissing. That I don't dislike.

That you want to "hammer out".

[What are they supposed to do, practice until it feels right?]

Dating is a... courtship ritual, isn't it? A step towards finding and committing to a life partner.

If we go by what's in the books, I guess. It seems like it's supposed to be a big deal, but we're already committed life partners, aren't we? Clay and Allen made it sound like a thing you schedule, go out and do.

It's not as if we never do anything on a schedule. But it's easier to act spontaneously when we've always shared a living space. Elysia, traveling together, and even here- you didn't take very long to transfer to the Huntress after we arrived. It might be different for them because they're on separate ships.

That's true. Plus, they had to have met here, right? I think they're from different worlds, right? [There's probably a lot to catch up on when you haven't literally grown up beside the person you're dating.]

Yeah, there's that as well. So in one sense we're ahead of the game, but... they seem a lot more comfortable with the physical stuff than we are.

[The way they kissed and held hands with ease and no embarrassment had been pretty telling, especially when compared to Sorey's flustered reaction. Which reminds him, actually... time to check something. He lifts himself up out of his chair just enough to give Sorey's cheek an experimental kiss- soft and quick, but completely without warning.]

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