Chapter 4: Mercury, Part IV
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As the taxi entered Zone 266, bright light filled the vehicle. I looked out the window to see a brightly lit city, marble white towers replaced the isles of shelf-like streets that stretched through Zone 265. The traffic around the area was much less busy, mostly comprising of public transport going from one tower to another.

“We have arrived at Zone 266, Mall Tower.” The Taxi opened its doors, letting me out.

The tower that the taxi dropped me off at was a lot wider than the other towers, but apart from that, it looked almost identical to the other towers. The pedestrians of Zone 266 were all wearing fancy suits and dresses.

I walked through the tower doors, being met with a mall full of stores. The floors were all made to circle around the inside of the tower, a hole right down the centre allowed you to see the floors above and below you. Four elevators, situated adjacent to each other, reached all the way down and all the way to the top of the tower, like ivory columns. There were grocery stores and general department stores that took up entire halves of a floor, jewellery stores that sold gold plated and diamond embedded accessories, small real estate offices that promoted entire towers for sale, lawyer firms that had their own dedicated floor, android stores promoting the new top-of-the-line bodyguards, car dealerships that connected straight into the magnetic streets.

I looked for a directory on the floor I entered on, even going down one floor to see if there was one there.

“Excuse me.” I called out to a passing Capution. “Would you happen to know-”

“Don’t talk to me slum dweller.”

“I’m not-” I tried to clear up the misunderstanding, but the Capution walked away.

As I looked around, I noticed that everyone was looking at me with distain, if they even looked at me at all. I once again felt trapped, not physically, but as if I was in a bubble that made it impossible to connect with anyone on the outside. I leaned on the railing, beating myself up about not wearing something more appropriate.

As I looked down, I saw a furniture store about three floors below me. Overjoyed, I rushed to one of the elevators, waiting for it to reach my floor. As I waited, I heard people murmuring to each other, people walking around me, avoiding me. I wouldn’t let it sour my mood.

The elevator reached my floor. As I got in, I pressed the button that led three floors down. The ride down was relaxing, generic music playing inside the elevator. The elevator stopped one floor above my destination, a happy family waiting on the other side of the doors. As they saw me, the parents stopped smiling.

“Let’s go darling.” The mother gently guided her child away, the father giving me a glance filled with scorn.

The elevator doors closed once again, descending one more floor. I exited the elevator, the furniture store to the right, with only a light walks distance.

I entered the store browsing the furniture on display. The store was full of customers, employees clamouring to help them. One of the employees bumped into me as they rushed past me. A really nice queen sized, four-post bed caught my attention.

“Oi, get out of here.” One of the employees took notice of me. “If you’re not buying anything then you should leave. You’re disturbing the customers.”

I looked around, no one else taking any notice of me, except for a disgruntled older woman.

I gave the employee a smile in such a way that it would never be considered sincere. “Could you help me? I want to buy this bed here.” I said, directing towards the four-post bed. “I would also like to add a mattress, mattress cover, doona, doona cover, two pillows, and pillow covers.”

“Excuse me plebian, but he’s helping me, not you.” The woman finally spoke to me.

“Was he? I couldn’t tell. He approached me you see.”

“He is helping me.” She turned her attention back to the employee. “Come with me, boy.”

He looked a little conflicted, so I pushed a bit. “That’s too bad. I also needed a dinning table, chairs, couches, and a coffee table or two. Although, it would be a bit difficult to carry it all myself.”

His attention was now fully on me. “Of course, it would, but we can deliver it to your desired location, for a fee.”

“What about me?” The woman interjected. “You were helping me, not this plebian. You can’t just leave me for some other lesser zone street rat.”

“I reserve the right to refuse serving a customer for any reason.”

After I picked out all the furniture I wanted, I paid the employee for the furniture plus the manual labour fees.

As I started returning to my ship, I passed a tailor store that caught my attention. The cloths on display were all well stitched, made of various expensive fabric that was difficult to handle. My mother would probably leave that space station just to have a look at this store if I told her about it.

I entered the store to see a couple bullying the store owner.

“This isn’t what I ordered.” The man scoffed. “I gave you my fiancé’s articulate instructions and what you gave us isn’t what we asked for. Our wedding is ruined thanks to you.”

As I entered further into the room, I noticed that the owner was an Aerial, a species I thought I would only see in books. The Aerial’s wings and hands were quivering, the feathers on the back of his neck and his head were standing on end. The man was human, his rage was easy to see, but the woman was Farlowlian, her cat like demeaner was chilling to see. While the man described his fiancé as devastated, she seemed completely calm. Her tail was curved upwards, and her face was completely relaxed. I couldn’t make out what she was thinking, but the look of malice in her eyes were unmistakable. The man feigned a punch, the owner covering his face with his wing.

I took a look at the dress the woman was holding, seeing a few discrepancies in the stitching.

“Umm, excuse me, but the dress seems to have been modified after it was received. The stitching on the floral décor seems to have been done by a different person.”

“Are you accusing me of modifying the dress?!” The woman’s ears flattened, her face scrunched in fury, her teeth bared. She almost hissed as she spoke.

“I wasn’t, I was just pointing out that whatever problem you’re having, it’s probably not his fault.”

“Who are you anyway? You look like one of those riff raffs in the lesser zones.”

“I’m a scout looking for potential investments.” Although mostly a lie, it would be great to stake an investment in such wonderfully created clothing.

The woman scoffed. “Lesser zone rats obviously don’t understand investment. This shop is on the verge of bankruptcy. The only thing you can get out of this pathetic store is debt.”

“I don’t care about how this store is doing at all. Don’t care much for what this place is worth on paper.”

“Then you have no business being here.”

“On the contrary. Now, if you’re done slandering this gentleman, I suggest you leave.”

“Make me.” The woman got in close to my face, her slit-shaped pupils constricted, focusing intensely into my eyes, the end of her tail flicking slightly from side to side. Her teeth were bared in what almost looked like a smile.

“The real culprit to your problem isn’t here, so why are you? Some might suspect that you are the culprit to your own predicament. Even if he was the culprit, you seemed to intentionally buy from a dying store. If I wanted to have my dress done perfectly, I would have gone to a more reputable store. The way I see it, your problem was just a biproduct of a bad investment.”

The woman backed off a bit. Her ears flattened to her head, tail swishing viciously. “Hope we don’t cross paths again.” She threatened while she and her fiancé headed out of the store.

I sighed, turning to the owner.

The owner looked at me with eyes wide open, his neck craned slightly over me, his body now completely still. “Why did you help me? You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Ah, you misunderstand. I didn’t do this out of the goodness of my heart, I just see a profitable investment in front of me.”

“She wasn’t lying about my shop though, I’m soon to go bankrupt.”

I set the price displayed on the chip to 40 million Gold, placing it on the counter. “An anonymous donation.”

The owner’s eye’s widened, his pupils rapidly and noticeably dilating and constricting. “I- I can’t take this. I don’t know what to do with it.”

“It should be enough to get your shop out of dept, should it not?”

“Only just.” The owner warbled a sigh.

“My name is Bobby Calmi.” I held out my hand to the owner. “I hope our relationship will blossom in time.”

“You can call me Rullatuul.” He took my hand and shook it.

“I’ll be back with paperwork, so don’t drive ya store into the ground while I’m gone.”

Should I go in depth of the creation of Bobby's Bazaar or skip it in favour of Bobby's adventures.
  • Go in depth with the creation of the business. Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Skip to the adventure. Votes: 0 0.0%
Total voters: 0 · This poll was closed on Jun 6, 2022 03:15 AM.
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