hell of a party

[middlingalong]

Ivan must be drunker than he thought he was. He could have sworn he knew his way around Vivienne's parents' house, since she wanted to introduce him last week and showed him the place, but maybe they have a... secret... upstairs... bar? where Vivienne's room is supposed to be? And most certainly was last time he checked? He's never going to find the sweater she sent him up looking for here, anyway. Why is there a secret upstairs bar in Vivienne's parents' house?

Comments

[isthisart]

"Not a bit. There is no way I'm walking out of here with unsynthesizable elements or other portable items of large value."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Maybe I should try," Miles says cheerfully.

[isthisart]

"Be my guest."

[thisvorlunatic]

He goes over to Bar.

"What are my chances of convincing you to let my wife buy nice things she can take home and make money off of?"

[isthisart]

I am, says Bar, wise to your tricks.

[thisvorlunatic]

"You'd be surprised how often that doesn't help."

[isthisart]

Yet behold how I am not giving you any unsynthesizable elements.

Linya laughs softly.

[thisvorlunatic]

"Why not, though?"

[isthisart]

I would like to very much, I assure you. I am not the only magic thing in this environment, I am just the nicest, and I need better reason than someone who is already very comfortably wealthy wheedling me to get me to bend rules that outside forces might choose to enforce.

"Surely the giant squid isn't going to take exception."

No, not the giant squid. More along the lines of whoever controls the door.

[thisvorlunatic]

"See," says Miles, "that's reasonable. I respect that."

[isthisart]

Thank you, napkins the bar, dryly.

[thisvorlunatic]

Miles shrugs. "Sorry, Linya. Looks like you're out of luck."

[isthisart]

"Oh well. Have you bent the arbitrage rule in the past, Bar? I am not wheedling anymore, just curious."

Now and then someone comes in with only a small amount of money and few to no resources at home, and thinks of it, and then, especially if they manage to sneak a few iterations past me anyway, I will help them out if they keep it to a reasonable quantity, no more than quintupling their value and making final purchases in favorable currencies.

"Aww."

[middlingalong]

"Should I know," says Ivan, "what arbitrage is?"

[isthisart]

"Imagine, as is in fact the case, that maple sugar is three times as expensive on Tau Ceti as it is on Barrayar. This is stable because it takes a lot of hassle to get maple sugar from Barrayar to Tau Ceti, and the people involved in that hassle mark it up. Now imagine that," she pats the bar, "the economies of Tau Ceti and Barrayar are right next to each other, and you have an intermediary who doesn't cheat you at the currency exchange, and further that there are several trillion other economies also right next to each other, and quintupling your money starts to sound trivial."

[thisvorlunatic]

"Unfortunately, there seem to be rules about that sort of thing. So unless we can get Mark in on a scheme to smuggle valuable objects between Barrayar and wherever he's currently holed up hiding from ImpSec... and manage to sneak said objects in and out of your girlfriend's parents' house... nothing doing."

[middlingalong]

"Ah-huh. How do you even think of that sort of thing?"

[isthisart]

"Economics lessons from Tsipis, although I might have come up with it on my own, I imagine."

[thisvorlunatic]

"It's not that obscure an idea, is it?"

[middlingalong]

"I wouldn't've thought of it or I might have dabbled in imports when I got assigned to Earth."

[isthisart]

"Oh, when I travel for business I bring a case of maple butter with me to give to various people as gifts. It's a nice blend of personal, usable, and expensive. But I don't sell it. Arbitrage is the sort of thing you need to do at scale or with special advantages of some kind to get much of anywhere."

[thisvorlunatic]

"And I am pretty sure we are unlikely to get Mark in on such a scheme."

[middlingalong]

"Unless you make it sound as much like a barrel of laughs as the beans thing."

[isthisart]

"It might be worth asking, I suppose. He can take his cut in beans if he likes."

[thisvorlunatic]

"It would involve letting us know where he was, even if only indirectly. I'm not sure even dried beans could tempt him."