The Honest Merchant

[totallyhonest]

1. [The peddler who got trapped in the fight against Sapphire Eyes and her goons shows up. And she turns out to be an excited small-statured girl. One who's wearing a long coat, for some reason.]

Hello! My name is Grace Wallach, a totally legit and honest independent businessman. Or entrepreneur, if you prefer. Your commanders agreed to... protect me, so I'll work for Unity Group now. I never thought something like this would happen; I think that's my most prestigious business deal, yet! This will totally make good credentials for me. If you're interested to make some money, check my websites!

There are two things I'm asking. First, can I really use your weapons and equipments? Can I really touch those Grungust and Huckebeins?. Second, some friends of mine are looking for me. Please don't let them know I'm here...

...And also, do I have to pay for lodging here? So it's technically three things...

2. [The websites in question varies. Some are blogs offering dodgy bootleg merchandises. Some seems to be websites designed to fool search engines and/or manipulate internet advertisings. And a lot of the guestboxes are full of warnings from previous people Grace worked with, and they mostly have rude things to say. A lot of good five stars comments though! Strange that most of those five stars comments are one liners. And it's clearly mentioned in all of those sites that she never do any morally questionable business, only honest dealings and quality merchandises.

Feel free to comment on the website to other people or to Grace.]

3. [The beat-up Daughtress kneels down in the hangar. As the tarp cloak is set aside, various bits and bobs sticks out from the mech. It's obvious that it's been heavily customized. You don't think ordinary Daughtress has those pipes sticking out of its back! And some things sticks out even more like sore thumbs. Parts from the steam train that crashed into the mech earlier today. Somehow the daughtress absorbed them, and the parts are now unseparable from the mech. The honest entrepreneur is here too, pushing and pulling a lot of pulleys and carts. The pulley and carts are full of ammunitions, fuels, and strange things like cables, used machine oils, and many unlabelled crates. It's obvious that Grace is restocking and refueling her mech, but she looks strangely nervous and dodgy. After a while she presses a button, and the pulley starts to buzz as it loads ammunitions toward the Daughtress. But and after a few seconds, it starts to wobbles and spill out many mecha-sized bullet on the hangar's floor.

Only then Grace notices he has company.]

Yes?

[She says as she jumped from surprise.]

Comments

3

[star_of_sad]

[Setsuko stares at the show, wide-eyed.]

It's not going to explode, is it?

Re: 3

[totallyhonest]

Ha ha, of course not. What makes you think that?

[star_of_sad]

[What doesn't?]

Are those pipes supposed to be there? They look a bit, umm...

[totallyhonest]

Personalized?

[star_of_sad]

Like an accident waiting to happen.

[totallyhonest]

Hey, not everyone have the money to buy top-of-the-line machines. Or safety procedures.

[star_of_sad]

Ah, sorry! I didn't mean to insult or look down on you, just...

Will you be alright if you pilot your suit? The way it is now? You can ask the Unity Group engineer teams to look at it.

[Perform some maintenance it so badly needs.]

[totallyhonest]

What? Having the Unity Group engineer team check it? N... no thanks. My machine is totally fine. Really.

[star_of_sad]

Are you sure?

Umm...

You are not hiding anything, are you?

[totallyhonest]

Why are you saying that?

[star_of_sad]

Well. When there is something unusual going on with your machine, you want that looked at.

Unless it's really supposed to be like this.

[totallyhonest]

Ah, it's not that. Yes, it's supposed to look like this.

[star_of_sad]

If... you say so.

...

It really won't explode?

[totallyhonest]

Ah, is that what you're worried about? No, it won't explode. It's just... filled to the brim with stuffs.

[star_of_sad]

Secret stuffs?

[totallyhonest]

Better if you don't know the details anyway.

[star_of_sad]

That doesn't make it sound any more trustworthy, does it?

1

[majestic_keiki]

I doubt a lot of people would let a self-proclaimed honest merchant touch their classified superweapons.

Re: 1

[totallyhonest]

But I'm honest! Would you prefer a dishonest merchant?

Re: 1

[majestic_keiki]

No honest merchant makes a bit deal of their honesty.

Re: 1

[totallyhonest]

Hey, number one rule of business. You have to make people know what you're selling!

Re: 1

[majestic_keiki]

And you're selling honesty? Rather than actual goods...

2

[mc_of_mcs]

[Even Neptune doesn't know how to respond to this at first.]

...

...And I thought Noire's blog looked sad.

This is on a different level, huh?

Re: 2

[totallyhonest]

What are you talking about? My blogs are completely fine!

[mc_of_mcs]

You could at least make the setups look less obvious.

Like, what's with these one-liner five-star reviews?

[totallyhonest]

They are honest feedback from my customers. Why would you say otherwise?

[mc_of_mcs]

Well for starters, they're all paraphrasing the same sentence, and there are way too many of 'em. There's gotta be more in-between too, like three or four stars...

And then there's the bootleg goods. They're not video games, so that's not under my jurisdiction, but still...

[totallyhonest]

Oh really? You think that would work better? Well, I'll tell my customers to do that then. Yeah. My customers.

But jurisdiction you say? You're what? Video game cop?

[mc_of_mcs]

That'd be great, I guess.

[Whether Neptune buys that deal about customers is difficult to tell, but she nods at the second set of questions anyway.]

You could say that. I mean, I -do- come from a world called Gamindustri.

Busting bootleg games is kinda my thing. Pirating games doesn't cause as much trouble here though...

1

[lostamigo]

You're energetic for someone who just got smashed by a train.

Re: 1

[totallyhonest]

I can sleep when I'm rich or dead.

[lostamigo]

You're not planning to steal hardware from these people, are you?

[totallyhonest]

I'm an entrepreneur, not a thief.

Besides, this is a high tech military base. Security's obviously too tight.

[lostamigo]

Obviously.

How do you feel? Anything changed?

[totallyhonest]

My body is hurt all over, but I don't think I lost anything permanently.

[lostamigo]

You don't feel... different?

[totallyhonest]

Hmm... Do you think I should?

[lostamigo]

The train did something to your mech.

I'm wondering did it to something to you too.

[totallyhonest]

I did feel something strange happened. But I'm not sure. What actually happened back then I wonder.

Hey, do Unity Group have insurance? If I say I have permanent bodily damage, will I get some reimbursement?

Or hmm.. Do it count as pre-existing condition?

[lostamigo]

Beats me. I just joined.

...I should ask. What I have counts as permanent bodily damage. Technically.

3

[actuallyselfish]

Dido whistles loudly at the cobbled together Daughtress. "Whew!" She mutters. "Is that your machine, ma'am?" She asks Grace.

Re: 3

[totallyhonest]

Yes. It's legally mine, if that's what you're asking.

It's a pun on your PB icons!

[actuallyselfish]

"...wow." Dido says flatly. "No offense, ma'am, but that machine of yours is...sketchy."

She picks up a toolbox. "You want I should tune it up?"

Re: It's a pun on your PB icons!

[totallyhonest]

No! I mean, I can deal with it myself. You don't need to bother yourself with it, really!

*More mecha-sized shells fall down from a compartment in the Daughtress*

Re: It's a pun on your PB icons!

[actuallyselfish]

Dido pinches here nose. "So you're one of those pilots."

She pulls a wrench out of her toolbox and taps it against her side. "Here's the thing, ma'am. I do my share of piloting, but I'm also a Chief Mechanic. It's my job to fix your mech."

She fixes Grace with a glare. "Wanna restock your Daughtress on your own? Fine. But you're gonna have to walk me through your mech's mods, so I can tell what's broken and what's fine."

She points at the pipes in the Daughtresses back. "Like these. What are these?"

Re: It's a pun on your PB icons!

[totallyhonest]

Those are may payload delivery system. Some of them spew oil, some spew smog, and some spread alumunium foil and stuffs. I think this one is the oil pipe? I think...

Don't be insulted ma'am. I'm sure you're a more capable mechanic than me. I have some... personal reason to not let people open up my mech.

*Grace then lean in to Dido and whispers.*

So... you're the chief mechanic around here? Can I ask you something? Do people... track their mecha consumable well here?

[actuallyselfish]

"Payload delivery," Dido repeats. "Okay..." She points at a weird metal doo-dad from the Steam train. "What's this, then? It looks like a steam whistle, but is it really? Does your Daughtress run on steam?"

She blinks at Grace's question. "...if I say no, are you going to try and nick mecha ammo and He-3 to sell on the black market?" She asks.

[totallyhonest]

...does the phrase "plausible deniability" got any power here?