Post by Morgan on Jul 29, 2016 22:59:32 GMT -5
Nadia was bored. It was her day off from guard duty. Her fellow rookies were mostly out getting hammered, or laid, or both. Nadia had planned to be out with them, except that Jasmine had played the guilt trip card. She hadn't worked so hard all these years for the sister she'd raised to be so self-centered. It had been a long night last night when Nadia had come over to her sister's house, for what she thought was just dinner.
Long story short, she was spending her day off at the junk shop, so Jasmine could run some errands. Nadia had suggested that, maybe they could just close the junk shop for half a day. That had, of course, meant that 1) she had no respect for her parents' legacy 2) that she wanted the business to fail and 3) that she wanted Jasmine to be thrown out to live destitute in the undercity.
Jasmine had the guilt trip thing down.
So, here Nadia was. Her body felt smaller, lighter, and more fragile without her usual armor. Still, she had insisted that she be allowed her sword, which remained hidden behind the shop's counter.
All around lay various objects that had one important thing in common: they'd come from Earth, a place Nadia had never been. When she was little, her parents had told her about the place, and of course the various newcomers to Avalon were always going on about it, but to Nadia, it seemed like an impossible place. Somewhere that was made up for telling stories to children.
Still, the things in the shop proved that it was really there. Shelves upon shelves of books, many of them ratty, dog-eared paperbacks, but also a few musty hardcover tomes. One or two that looked almost brand new, full of algebra problems, or short stories, or the history of places that Nadia would never see. Another section was filled with racks of clothing from every imaginable period.
A lot of the newcomers to Avalon had little more than the clothing on their backs, and so, that was all they had to trade. The rest of the store was a sort of organized chaos. The shop dealt only in Earth-made goods, and so was constrained to whatever had crossed over to Avalon with the people who came here. Or what had been recovered from the surface world.
There were rumors of cars caught in the jungle below. Nadia's parents had always wanted to bring one up, but it didn't seem possible. Apparently they were really heavy, and too big to fit on an airship.
What they did have were bicycles, skateboards, knapsacks, trunks, and even a chariot, sans horses. A whole section of the store was devoted to personal electronics, including batteries. All of these were locked into their display case, of course. Those sorts of things always got a high price because they were rare, and kind of impractical. Nadia had never seen the appeal herself.
What she did see the appeal of was her sword. She picked it up and started practicing, dueling her own shadow. If she couldn't have fun, she might as well work on something she cared about.
"Yaah!" she cried, swinging her blade--and accidentally chopping the head off of a mannequin.
Oops.
Long story short, she was spending her day off at the junk shop, so Jasmine could run some errands. Nadia had suggested that, maybe they could just close the junk shop for half a day. That had, of course, meant that 1) she had no respect for her parents' legacy 2) that she wanted the business to fail and 3) that she wanted Jasmine to be thrown out to live destitute in the undercity.
Jasmine had the guilt trip thing down.
So, here Nadia was. Her body felt smaller, lighter, and more fragile without her usual armor. Still, she had insisted that she be allowed her sword, which remained hidden behind the shop's counter.
All around lay various objects that had one important thing in common: they'd come from Earth, a place Nadia had never been. When she was little, her parents had told her about the place, and of course the various newcomers to Avalon were always going on about it, but to Nadia, it seemed like an impossible place. Somewhere that was made up for telling stories to children.
Still, the things in the shop proved that it was really there. Shelves upon shelves of books, many of them ratty, dog-eared paperbacks, but also a few musty hardcover tomes. One or two that looked almost brand new, full of algebra problems, or short stories, or the history of places that Nadia would never see. Another section was filled with racks of clothing from every imaginable period.
A lot of the newcomers to Avalon had little more than the clothing on their backs, and so, that was all they had to trade. The rest of the store was a sort of organized chaos. The shop dealt only in Earth-made goods, and so was constrained to whatever had crossed over to Avalon with the people who came here. Or what had been recovered from the surface world.
There were rumors of cars caught in the jungle below. Nadia's parents had always wanted to bring one up, but it didn't seem possible. Apparently they were really heavy, and too big to fit on an airship.
What they did have were bicycles, skateboards, knapsacks, trunks, and even a chariot, sans horses. A whole section of the store was devoted to personal electronics, including batteries. All of these were locked into their display case, of course. Those sorts of things always got a high price because they were rare, and kind of impractical. Nadia had never seen the appeal herself.
What she did see the appeal of was her sword. She picked it up and started practicing, dueling her own shadow. If she couldn't have fun, she might as well work on something she cared about.
"Yaah!" she cried, swinging her blade--and accidentally chopping the head off of a mannequin.
Oops.