Shop Visits! (Open post!)

[foundfate]

[Maybe you stumbled upon the front gate to a strange house while walking in your neighborhood. Maybe you found it nestled between skyscrapers in a downtown area. Or maybe you didn't stumble across it at all, and instead fell into the backyard or something. The way you got there matters little. What really counts is that you're there for one reason: a wish.

A want. A desire. Something you can't get on your own. Something you want so badly that you would do anything to get it.

Well, you've come to the right place.

There's plenty to see in the house. The foyer is nice, and the kitchen is well-stocked. There's several other rooms as well: a sitting room, a dining room, a couple bedrooms for the people who wander upstairs to look, and a rather luxurious bathroom too. Several rooms open to the outside as well, so it's easy to come inside by many different paths.

But ultimately, you will end up face-to-face with a screen that opens into a room with a table and two chairs which overlooks the backyard.

And in that room, you will find the shopkeeper.]



[What happens now? Well, that's up to you, isn't it?]

Comments

[foundfate]

Contract with me instead. Then you can sleep for as long as you like, knowing I won't disturb your sleep.

[At least if he holds the contract, then nobody else can contract Lovecraft? And Watanuki will be nice and let Lovecraft sleep as much as he wants. He has plenty of power on his own, he doesn't need Lovecraft's.]

[ohrlyeh]

Contract with...you?

[He hadn't been expecting that sort of suggestion - he blinks owlishly, tilting his head to the side - his neck cracks.]

To contract with me would require sacrifice. A price. [He tilts his head to the other side.] You, a shopkeeper, are wishing to buy a contract from me. You would become my customer...

[foundfate]

I am familiar with the prices of contracts.

[That's pretty much what all of the wishes he grants are anyway.]

It seems like a mutually-beneficial contract like that would have a small cost, though. Since we would be customers of each other, the cost of our respective wishes would balance out.

[ohrlyeh]

Hm. Perhaps...perhaps...I haven't thought of this...

[It's so strange, to think of being in a contract that would only benefit him in the end. Sliding his legs off the bed, he wrings his hands in his lap, excited and agitated and nervous all at once.]

That could work. I suppose it could work. If my price is your wish, and your price is my wish...

[A pause.]

But I would need to break the contract I have first. That would be an...extra wish. I suppose.

[foundfate]

Not necessarily. Your wish is to break the contract you currently have, and the price for that is to grant my wish of having a contract with you. A contract for a contract sounds like a fair exchange to me.

[He can handle the actual breaking of the current contract, all he has to do is offer something of similar value as a payment to the person currently holding Lovecraft's contract.

...which probably means a 'free' wish for Fitzgerald, but Watanuki can deal with that.]

[ohrlyeh]

Mmm.

[Though yes, he would need to appease Fitzgerald. It would be much like discovering that his goods had been lifted by another buyer under his nose - he would most certainly throw a fit.]

You'd have to talk with Fitzgerald. That man... [He sighs.] But I suppose I'd like such a deal. If you keep your word...

[foundfate]

I'm sure I can work something out with him. But I will speak with him first and see if I can get him to break the contract before we talk contracts of our own.

In the meantime, would you like to rest here for a bit? This shop exists between dimensions, so you should be relatively unbothered for the time being.

[ohrlyeh]

...Is this your ability? To make this dimension exist.

[He still is on the mindset that Watanuki is akin to an ability user - it's not unheard of to have a few with abilities this powerful.]

Or is your ability merely to "grant wishes"....?