Magic without a magic

[sturdycoldsteel]

Steel wakes up. This is not where she went to sleep. She has a peek at the stream -

- And lets out a surprised yelp at the nonsensical cacophony.

"What in the blue hells is this place?" No answer is immediately apparent, so she climbs to the top of the ravine, carefully avoiding the various inexplicable things in the area. The snake-goat hybrid was particularly grotesque.

The top of the ravine has a road. She tries to fly, but can't. Again, very strange. This is a pretty nice road, physically, but magically it's completely undeveloped. She walks towards the city, peeking at the stream once in a while only to see fog, and seeking an explanation.

Comments

[namesthesky]

"All right."

Breakfast is a fruity nutty quickbread.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Nom.

"Good luck. Come back and report on progress around noon if you can swing it."

And out she goes, looking for open storefronts.

[alicornucopia]

The main market area is pretty crowded, but there are a few empty in side streets (and one that says SOON: GLASSWORKS and is probably not really available). The question is, does she want to optimize for passerby foot traffic or probable rent or noncompetitive neighbors in unrelated industries like pie and flutes?

[sturdycoldsteel]

She has plenty of time to investigate all the options. High foot traffic seems the most important. She wants to avoid that one surgeon's place.

[alicornucopia]

There's a place with good visibility from the main avenue next to an herbseller and a moneylender, and a little hole in the wall that probably used to be half of a full storefront but does have frontage next to the busiest area, wedged in beside a chandler and a greengrocer's.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She tries to locate the owner of the little hole-in-the-wall.

[alicornucopia]

The hole in the wall is apparently owned by someone who lives just upstairs from it, if she's reading the address right! Isn't that convenient?

[sturdycoldsteel]

She walks up the stairs and knocks on the door, and politely informs whoever answers it that she'd like to inquire about renting the storefront.

[alicornucopia]

The lady who answers says that her husband isn't home but he wants a hundred seo a month for the place. And a tidy quiet occupant.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I intend to make and sell new medicines from a distant land, but I can do it quietly. Would that be tidy and quiet enough?"

[alicornucopia]

"Probably," says the landlord's wife. "As long as you aren't doing surgeries and none of the things you mix explode or catch fire."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"I'd need a bigger workspace to do surgeries. Some of the things I'd be making would burn if lit, but then again so would wood. I don't expect it to be a problem. If you'll excuse me, I have a few other storefronts to inquire about. I'll be back in a few hours to tell you my decision."

And she goes and similarly asks about the price of the other storefront on offer, expecting it to be higher.

[alicornucopia]

It's nearly twice the price, although not quite.

[sturdycoldsteel]

And it's also right next to an herbseller. Who probably would not appreciate the competition very much, if her medicine's effects overlapped. She goes back to the first storefront. Is there a rental contract involved, or is it closer to a good-faith agreement?

[alicornucopia]

First and last months' rent up front, she has to sign a thing saying she's liable for damages that remain when she leaves or that affects the neighbors, and if she abandons the place without telling anyone they can take her stuff and re-rent after one month.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She tries to convince them to add clauses that say they can't kick her out early without refunding her money, unless she was being disruptive or affecting the neighbors.

[alicornucopia]

She can't get a complete refund in case there's disagreement about what constitutes disruption, but they won't make her pay for months she didn't use except insofar as they're holding the last month's rent in case they need to make repairs and she scarpers.

[sturdycoldsteel]

She signs the papers, forks over 200 seo for the first two months, and says she'll probably want to extend it later if her business takes off at all.

And she goes back to Sunrise row to and ferries the medicine-things she already has over to the new storefront, leaving a note with the news and an address for Aya.

Then she has a look around hoping to find someplace she can buy wood and paint and iron, wood and paint to make signs and iron to reshape into tools.

(By now it's almost noon)

[alicornucopia]

A little after noon, Aya shows up at the store with some more items on the shopping list. There are places to buy paint and iron objects; unfinished wood is harder to come by but someone can direct her to a place a ways out.

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Say, Aya, do you know what the tax system looks like around here? Will I pay property tax, income tax, flat tax, who do I ask if you don't know?"

[namesthesky]

"I used to do the old lady's taxes but she didn't own a store. Outside of the store there'll be a property tax from the crown if you own land, and an income tax from the duke, how much of each depends on how rich you are - I'd recommend asking at the bank."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"Then I'll go ask at the bank. And haul in some lumber and paint while I'm at it. And here's a new shopping list, nothing so difficult as fresh blackberries this time. I want more than one medicine. I think I can make an allergy suppressant, a cough soother, some ketamine, multivitamins, disinfectant cream for wounds, that'll save a few lives if anyone actually uses it. Rash cream. I could make saccharine, which is a fake sugar that tastes ridiculously sweet, but that's not very useful compared to medicine. And I'm not forgetting about Aelare, I'm just waiting for a consenting test subject for version two."

[namesthesky]

Aya takes the new shopping list. "I can get all this today, most likely. And I saw a street sweeper who I think might be manumitted but I couldn't catch up to him to talk to him."

[sturdycoldsteel]

"As long as you find someone eventually. No need to cook lunch for me by the way, but feel free to take an hour and get lunch for yourself. I'm off to the bank."

And then she goes to the nearest bank and explains that she was magicked and lost all knowledge of the proper tax procedures for personal property and shopkeepers, and would like them explained if it's not too much trouble.

[alicornucopia]

The teller explains the procedures, which are not too onerous and were definitely invented over the course of more than two minutes' thought by someone with background in taxation schemes.