A Fond Farewell

[AmbushCat]

Callista dashes off with exuberance! What she's looking for perhaps not even she knows full well, but given how poorly-organized this store is, one direction is likely as good as another. As she approaches the flickering light, there does seem to be a...theme, however. Instead of the hodge-podge of outdated tech and forgotten relics, the hallway starts to be populated with games of various sorts. Chess, Balut, even a roulette wheel that she has to hop over in order to continue.

And at the end of the hall, sits a tall woman, dressed in a black-and-white jester's outfit. She is idly toying with what looks to be a scale model of Muffinville that has been painstakingly assembled within a glass bottle. And as always, the woman--Dichotomy--is grinning.

*Callista grabs several games as she goes, then puts on the brakes when she spots the woman.*

...Huh. I've heard of you, but I don't think I've ever met you. Dichotomy, isn't it?

[Just some lady]

"Oh, this card looks like you~?", he says with a smile, looking back a forward between the girl and the card. "Hmm, Excordis Caprice?"
Card games were fun, he remembers how he loved collecting and playing those back as a kid, "Heheh, bet they had a bunch of complicated rules and such. I like the design though, do people still play it?"

Blushing a bit as his hair gets ruffled, embarrassed she kept him little. "Well... I'm not really looking for anything specific, to be honest... I might just look around a bit and see if there is anything that catches my interest. Unless you know something that I should really consider buying? Any recommendations?"

""Excordis" was the title Xia gave me when I got promoted, but well..."

Caprice laughs and trails off, playfully striking a pose like the art of the card for a moment. It's funny, she looks almost exactly the same, even though these are supposedly pretty old.

"^^ Oh, I don't know if people still play, actually. Folks get excited about the idea every now and then, but between you and me, I don't think they're aaaallll that well-balanced."

The woman shrugs, and suddenly her voice speaks from behind him...before the Caprice he'd been speaking to vanishes in that same flicker as before.

"And well...I know what I want to sell you, but I wouldn't be much of a shopkeeper if I just told you what to buy, would I?"

*Callista grabs several games as she goes, then puts on the brakes when she spots the woman.*

...Huh. I've heard of you, but I don't think I've ever met you. Dichotomy, isn't it?

The woman chuckles, and sets the bottle aside on a shelf. If Callista looks closely, it seems to be moving with the action of tiny figures, like an ant farm, but with more explosions.

"The one and only, darlin'. In a figure of speaking, that is. You're here for the sale, then?"

Grinning, she looks into Calli's eyes, her own pupil-less and piercing.

"Everything is priced to move."

[AmbushCat]

Callista: *rolls her eyes* Lady, I'd have tried to buy the stuff even if it were at full price. It's who I am.

[Just some lady]

Dichotomy giggles, impishly.

"I understand, Callista. Please, pardon my oversight. What I'm selling today is a wish. The last wish I'm going to grant, I think. And the only price is that it has to be worth my while. Understand?"

[AmbushCat]

Callista: *warily* Define "worth my while".

[xGoggles]

"Oh wait, you are a shopkeeper of this place? I thought you were just familiar with the shop... Umm what do you want to sell me?", Now he was unsure if he should ask her or just go look on his own, nothing really came to mind thought, maybe he should look for some magical items that would grant him awesome powers or didn't he see some dusty spell books in that other corner? Maybe he should go explore the store a little first, he ponders.

[Just some lady]

Callista: *warily* Define "worth my while".

She taps her fingers one by one on the counter, and then lifts her palm, leaving what seems to be a sizeable sack of gold, from nowhere. Then she snaps her fingers and it pulls into itself and disappears.

"I'm not going to grant any old wish for money, power, world peace, that kind of humdrum stuff. You get me, darlin'? I'm not some two-bit djinn, but any wish I grant has to be interesting."

"Oh wait, you are a shopkeeper of this place? I thought you were just familiar with the shop... Umm what do you want to sell me?", Now he was unsure if he should ask her or just go look on his own, nothing really came to mind thought, maybe he should look for some magical items that would grant him awesome powers or didn't he see some dusty spell books in that other corner? Maybe he should go explore the store a little first, he ponders.

The woman raises her hands. "Oh no, you caught me~. It was my shop all alooong!"

She giggles, and walks around the boy, smiling.

"All I want to sell you is this, kiddo~"

Leaning in, suddenly far too close she motions to her neck, one finger slipping lightly under the choker that she's wearing. There is a crystalline heart attached to it that seems to pulse in the daylight, but that for some reason he hadn't noticed before.

"But if you want, the store's your oyster, little fish."

[xGoggles]

"Oh, you want to sell that..? Umm it looks pretty I guess, what is it for?", certainly interesting, but an item so close to her felt like it was more something personal or sentimental of value to her, so was a bit odd he would be offered to buy this unknown crystalline heart.
The fish analogy reminded him of something bizarre that happened at the water park earlier that day, but he shrugged it off, "Well... I might take a look around.. a lot of stuff here, some seem a bit old or broken, is this like an antique store?"

[Just some lady]

The woman smiles, and shakes her head.

"^^ What it is is a secret...but no, it's not an antique store, silly. Don't be ruuuude~"

She motions for him to go and enter, if he pleases.

"^^ It's a Caprice store. This is just all my stuff that I had layin' around, you know how it issss."

[xGoggles]

"Ahh, sorry, didn't mean to sound rude about it. I'll.. go check the store out then", he'll get back to her about that crystal later, still weird how she won't even tell him what it is or what it is for, an unorthodox business strategy but now he kind of wants it more the more he thinks of it, just to satisfy his curiosity.
He enters further into the shop, where to start... where to start? The way she described it, this was some more advanced garage sale. With the whole crystalline heart thing in the back of his mind, maybe looking for some other magical jewellery would be nice, so he proceeds to look for such.

[AmbushCat]

She taps her fingers one by one on the counter, and then lifts her palm, leaving what seems to be a sizeable sack of gold, from nowhere. Then she snaps her fingers and it pulls into itself and disappears.

"I'm not going to grant any old wish for money, power, world peace, that kind of humdrum stuff. You get me, darlin'? I'm not some two-bit djinn, but any wish I grant has to be interesting."

Callista: ...Okay, two things. One, don't call me 'darlin'; I'm supposed to be cute, not beautiful. Two, this is going to take some serious thinking on my end, since the wish I'd previously had in mind prooobably falls under the "power" category.

[Whatevr89532]

The cloaked being doesn't seem to react with much surprise to Calamity's sudden appearance. "Gree-tings." Its tone is friendly enough, but its speech is slightly stilted, with pauses in places they don't quite belong. "I have been sent to pro-cure a dragon slay-ing armament, speci-fically one capable of destroying a True Dra-gon."

[Just some lady]

"Ahh, sorry, didn't mean to sound rude about it. I'll.. go check the store out then", he'll get back to her about that crystal later, still weird how she won't even tell him what it is or what it is for, an unorthodox business strategy but now he kind of wants it more the more he thinks of it, just to satisfy his curiosity.
He enters further into the shop, where to start... where to start? The way she described it, this was some more advanced garage sale. With the whole crystalline heart thing in the back of his mind, maybe looking for some other magical jewellery would be nice, so he proceeds to look for such.

The boy wanders in the...well, it's kind of like a shop, but it's equally just a huge mess. Still, stepping over a downed bookcase and pushing past a cadre of cardboard cutouts, he finds what seems to be the jewelry section. one could say there is a surprising amount, but this place seems to have a lot of everything. It's just the quality that seems to be the issue. Indeed, he's pretty certain that at least a third of it is plastic, and beyond that it's still kind of a grab bag. There are a few things that may catch his eye, however:

• A slightly jagged looking ring, with a small hexagonal orange gem inset into it
• A bracelet that looks like something a schoolgirl might wear.
• A large, flickering crystal that just has the word "DEATH" written next to it, by way of explanation

Callista: ...Okay, two things. One, don't call me 'darlin'; I'm supposed to be cute, not beautiful. Two, this is going to take some serious thinking on my end, since the wish I'd previously had in mind prooobably falls under the "power" category.

"Of course, hun~"

She grins again.

"And I'm not saying power can't be arranged. Just that it can'r be boring. If you want to tell me what you're thinking, we can work something out..."

The cloaked being doesn't seem to react with much surprise to Calamity's sudden appearance. "Gree-tings." Its tone is friendly enough, but its speech is slightly stilted, with pauses in places they don't quite belong. "I have been sent to pro-cure a dragon slay-ing armament, speci-fically one capable of destroying a True Dra-gon."

Calamity raises an eyebrow, and laughs.

"Some kind of legendary weapon, you might say? Hah, shit, okay, alright. We can do business."

Glancing back at the pile, she chews her cheek.

"It's gonna take something special, though. Who are you with, anyways? You're not Brotherhood, I can tell that...definitely not CTC,I don't think you're quite Nifleheim, and you're not irritating enough for the Opposition. Maybe Black Isle tech?"

She sighs.

"Damn. I'm out of touch, aren't I? Who's in the violent robot business nowadays?"

[Whatevr89532]

"I am with The Busi-ness." Something about the way the being says it makes it sound like a proper noun. "I am not actu-ally violent my-self; I am a procure-ment unit. A world we re-cently came into contact with is be-ing threatened by its universe's dra-gons, and destroying the True Dra-gons there seems to be necessary to end the threat and make the world more profit-able. We in-tend to provide the equipment to the exi-sting organization there."

[Just some lady]

""The Business", huh?"

She tilts her head, but then shrugs.

"Well, I suppose that that's how names are around here. Can't throw stones."

Stretching, she wanders back to the swords, motioning for the biz to follow.

"I think I can make you something strong enough to kill a dragon, but it's going to be...large. I suppose your combat units are beefier bots? What'll you do with the sword after you're done with it?"