The Emporium

[rubycitymods]

The Emporium is currently OPEN.
It is currently located in the park, next to the forest.

The Emporium stocks objects and curios that moves around the city, presumably when no one is watching. It appears in various different but specific location on the city map (marked by gold stars).

It's difficult to see anything through the windows, but on entering even the least-attuned person would be able to feel the energy buzzing in the air. Everything stocked on the shelves and in the glass display cabinets is strange and foreign... but wait, doesn't that one item look familiar?

Perhaps it's a personal trinket, or that last piece needed to complete a project, but picking it up and carrying it out of the store won't work and if you try, it will dissolve into dust. Maybe it will appear again next time, if you're lucky. There's a price on everything here, written in cursive script on a paper label attached with string in a simple loop. Bring what's requested and place it in the box by the cash register marked 'donations' and the label will disintegrate into embers, leaving you free to take your... purchase.

* * *

The Emporium seems simple in function - you walk in, you find something that you recognise or something that belonged to you once upon a time, and you make a trade. In fact, the shop works on an internal system that almost qualifies as self awareness. When you find something in the store, its importance to you and how exactly you know about it has already been evaluated and is reflected in the price ticket found attached to every item.

Though not a definitive guide - as every request is judged on an individual basis - the outlines below should help you to see just how difficult it might be to get what you want.

Easy Requests

• Minor, non magical requests such as food items (canon or non-canon), and objects with little to no particular canon or non-canon significance.
• Items that belonged to the character at any point in their known canon.
• Items that belonged to close friends/family that they could have easily laid hands on at any part in their known canon.

Medium Requests

• Items that the character has seen in their own canon but has never touched or owned themselves.
• Items which will belong to the character at some point in their future.
• Items that the character knows about in their own canon but has never seen for themselves.
• Pets and companion animals.

Difficult Requests

• Items that do exist in the character’s canon, which the character knows about but cannot prove the existence of.
• Items that do exist in the character’s canon which the character is unaware of.
• Anything in the above categories which may have a potential larger impact on the game setting or characters therein.

Prohibited Requests
*note: characters may try to find these kinds of items, but they will simply not appear in the store

• Fourth wall breakers that would give the characters a vast amount of knowledge about their futures/canon universe that they would not ordinarily have.
• Items which would have drastic impact upon an entire cast. These may be considered if full cast approval has been gained.

* * *

Character Name:
Desired Object: Name and general description/picture if one is available.
Importance: How important is this object to your character? On a scale of 'I just want this thing' to 'my father gave it to me on his deathbed and every day without it is painful'. If it's a specific part of a project, tell us about it!
Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities? Opt-in. If you answer 'yes', there is a possibility that the price may require a trade with another resident of the city (for example, the label may read 'three alicorn feathers', with the only alicorn available being Twilight Sparkle). This is an opportunity for CR, but we understand that not everyone would want to go down this route. Responding 'no' will exclude this option, but responding 'yes' will not guarantee the involvement of another resident, rather it will leave the possibility open.

(Note: If you are interested in this option but are worried about being pointed in the direction of a character/player that you don't want to thread with, let us know via PM in conjunction with your request.)

Price examples will range according to the importance of the object and the ability of the character and will include things that they can hunt or find in and around the city, as well as items that they can make or otherwise produce. They may be asked for something that they already own. It may be a certain kind of flower found in the forest, one of their own teeth, an honest written confession, a phial of water from the catacombs lake, or something as simple as a lovingly cooked meal.

<b>Character Name</b>: <b>Desired Object</b>: <b>Importance</b>: <b>Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities?</b>

✧ N A V I G A T I O N ✧

Comments

[rubycitymods]

Accepted!

[doreimi]

Character Name: Reimi Sugimoto

Desired Object: DJ equipment for the nightclub she runs! I'm not hoping for anything particularly elaborate, but basically just something that would give them the ability to have slightly more sophisticated music than stereo speakers and a tape deck.

Importance: No particular significance, outside of the fact that she'd like to keep upgrading Egress and evolving it into something vaguely resembling a cool nightlife hotspot for people to frequent.

Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities? Sure!

[rubycitymods]

The item tag (on a pretty sweet soundboard system, as well as twenty-five starter mp3s of varying quality) states 'three original compositions'.

[doreimi]

The thread is still ongoing, but Reimi is getting some help from Fugo and his musical talents to come up with precisely that!

[rubycitymods]

Accepted!

[callbacks]

Character Name: Dave Strider
Desired Object: A cardboard cutout of Kotomine Kirei
Importance: If he doesn't have a cardboard cutout of walking Dangan Roleplay meme Kotomine Kirei to decorate for Christmas he will literally die. This is a true and peer reviewed fact and not me making talking sounds out of my butt.
Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities? Sure!

[rubycitymods]

The item tag states 'a rendition of 101 Dalmations in iambic pentameter'.

"One hundred and one" isn't in iambs and that's terrible

[callbacks]

In London town, where English stories start
Lived Roger Radcliffe, there to ply his trade:
A songwriter, he tended to himself
Which irked his clever dog in no small way.
The doggo’s name was Pongo, and he was
The songster’s sole companion in their flat.
But humans aren’t built to live alone,
So Pongo thought, “That’s quite enough of that!”
He watched the window, looking for a babe
Whose looks and carriage’d suit his master’s needs.
But soft! What light on yonder spot-coat breaks?
Oh snap, that pooch is fine as hell, my man.
Anita and Perdita passed on by
And Pongo yanked his master out the door.
The park belongs to dealers, love, and dogs
And Pongo gunned for two out of those three:
He roped both humans round with Roger’s leash;
And flirted with Perdita blatantly.
Anita and his master hit it off
And soon they lived together in the flat.
Perdita got knocked up before too long,
Gave birth to fifteen puppies, holy shit.
Anita’s boss Cruella saw their fur
And thought, I want to wear that on my skin
(Because she was a little shithive nuts
Fo’shizzle, got no clue what’s wrong with her).
The Radcliffes said no thanks, you crazy bipch,
So some weeks later, ‘cause, again, she’s cracked,
Cruella hired a pair of shady dudes
To snatch the puppies in the dead of night.
When Scotland Yard proved useless, as it does
When any story’s hero’s not a cop,
The pooches barked the Twilight Bark instead
To see if any fleabag saw their pups.
In came reports: “De Vil Place,” howled one mutt,
Cruella’s run-down land out in the sticks.
So Pongo and Perdita took their chance
And snuck out for to save their babies’ skins.
When they arrived, though, sure, fifteen were theirs
But eighty-four more pups had been accrued;
Perdita couldn’t bear to leave the rest,
So she and Pongo took them all to go.
They rolled themselves in soot to hide their spots
And trekked to London in the bitter cold.
Cruella tried to catch them on their way
But crashed her sports car in the melting snow.
Perdita and her hubby made it back
With ninety-nine Dalmatian pups in tow;
They shook the soot off as the Radcliffes gaped
And every spot was safe, at last at home!
Together, they sang one of Roger’s songs,
The one he wrote lampooning Ms. De Vil—
One hundred one Dalmatians spittin’ rhymes,
And simply having baller Christmas times.

Merry Christmas, mods.

[rubycitymods]

Accepted!

And: when Dave gets his cardboard Kirei home and set up, there will suddenly unfold from its back a second, more sensual, but just as sturdy cardboard Kirei. Merry Christmas, Dave.

[callbacks]

W H Y

[radioactivedonuts]

Character Name: Fun Ghoul
Desired Object: A very familiar jacket.
Importance: Incredibly important! The jacket belongs to Party Poison, the (un)official leader of the Fabulous Killjoys aka the group that Ghoul was a part of and more importantly his family.
Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities? Heck yeah!

[rubycitymods]

The tag reads, One garment that fits this jacket's color scheme.

[meitori]

Character Name: Yuuta Matsukawa
Desired Object: His grandmother’s tea ceremony set (white porcelain with a pine needle motif painted in dark green), which includes the following items:

    Tea box (1)
    Tea tray (1)
    Tea scoop (1)
    Tea whisk (1)
    Cast iron tea kettle (1)
    Tea pot (1)
    Tea bowls (5)
    Tea caddy (1)
    Various tea utensils
    Various tea cloths

Importance: It belonged to his grandmother, who taught him how to perform Japanese tea ceremony when he was younger.
Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities? Sure! As this is a pretty large item to ask for, make it difficult to get :)

[rubycitymods]

The tag reads, fifteen items of culturally diverse food.

Reposting as requested

[manga_goddess_skuld]

Character Name: Skuld
Desired Object: Parts and tools en masse
Importance: Individually little, but what she can make with them would be massive.
Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities? Sure, why not?

And separate.

[believe_it_or_not]

Character Name: Ivy & Grey (a joint wish)
Desired Object: The Muse of History's tomes from their worlds. Not just these, but the whole series Basically, the Xanth novels exist in canon, and are referenced often. Grey has handled some of them, and Ivy and Grey saw a number of them when they visited the muse of history, so while the ability to get them is canon, so is it being very difficult to do so.
Importance: HIGH. These are books that tell them their canonical future, as well as that of their friends and family. Someone has officially mentioned it in game now, so they are actively looking to see if they can be found in the City.
Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities? Sure. They need a good quest before the wedding!

[rubycitymods]

The tag on the toolbox reads "schematics for a forward-thinking project".

[manga_goddess_skuld]

Going to do the RP post here, since it is a solo post and needs no reply.


Oh! Schematics were fun! And easy for a genius like her. Forward thinking project. Simple! Mister Foresight Mark I! A helmet to let someone see exactly ten seconds into the future. She unrolled her paper and flopped down on the floor to start working. And she started designing it, tapping into the unique code of the city - as best she can read it...

But... somewhere along the process, the schematic changed. It came when she realized that just seeing the future wasn't enough. Rather than just being a helmet that let someone see, what about a robot that could see forward in time, but one that could process - thinking - what it saw, and act on it! Oh! That was good.

She wished she had a terminal to access the code for the time axis, since that wasn't something she could see as easily, and was different in every world. Without that, she had two choices. A short time, like seconds which was too close for anything but a battle reaction, or a robot that could see and process a time years in the future. She considered, then took the second route, working on the schematics.

What she had at the end was divine - as she was a Goddess, that was literal. The schematics were beautifully rendered, and detailed. Anyone with even a basic understanding of mechanical engineering could follow them and create this robot. It was like the blueprinting and building she and Belldandy did for that engine. If she had gone so far as to make the parts, whoever used them would have found them to be utterly perfect for fit and use. But she only made the schematic.

Which... was just as well. Because she didn't react well when someone pointed out a design flaw, and her design had a pretty major one. The robot could see years into the future, and think and plan to make changes. Except... that the future is fluid and always changing, and the sheer number of calculations the robot has to make for every change - including the ones it itself would make -to that future meant that sitting and thinking about what it saw was all that it ever could do. If built the robot would be a complete success - it could think about the future mathematically, and abstractly. It could decide on actions, see how those actions would change the future... but because there are so many variables, and because time does not pause while it calculates, the future it is seeing is also always moving forward, which means new variables are always being added. The robot would also be a complete failure - because it would sit and compute flawlessly until the end of time...and never stir from where it was built or placed. It would think about the future until time itself ceased, and never once act.

But of course... she didn't see that one flaw, and proud of her design, put it in the donation box, eager to get her hands on the tools and parts needed... to finally build Banpei.

[unholey]

FIVE MILLION YEARS LATER, I AM BACK TO THIS. Thanks to this post, Fugo has collected the following items:

1. A piece of paper with 友好 written on it.
2. A yellow rose.
3. A spring of sakura blossoms from the tree in the grove.
4. A beautiful comic about dudes being bros.
5. A pair of emerald earrings, in the shape of strawberries.
6. A horsehead mask. Stunning and terrifying.

He'll try turning each item in order, starting with the three more impersonal ones and gradually working up to the three personal items.

[rubycitymods]

The first three items are accepted, but only after the Emporium has had a chance to process the comic. (Even magical shops love SB&HJ.)

[rubycitymods]

Accepted!

[rubycitymods]

This item does not appear in the Emporium. After some discussion, we have determined that because of the fourth-walling/canon puncture issue, it is not an appropriate item to retrieve through the Emporium.

[believe_it_or_not]

Fair enough. Thank you for the consideration.

[callbacks]

THAT'S RIGHT, THIS SHOP KNOWS FINE ART WHEN IT SEES IT!

[originallutece]

Character Name: Rosalind Lutece
Desired Object: A collection of notebooks containing seven years correspondence with her brother.
Importance: Nobody is more important to Rosalind than her brother, and while she doesn't have him, it'd be immensely comforting for her to have their letters.
Would you like to include other characters in trade possibilities? Sure!