**
"These rugs are top-of-the-line, not even supposed to be selling them... But hey, they come from my people, right? And the money goes back to the weaver, so it's not illegal..." Cajoling, bantering, the rare patterns and rich wool of the rugs fetching nice sums...
"Don't want rugs... Y'sellin' somethin' else?"
"Like what?" One dark brow raises under that hat, yellow as a banana peel...
"Like... Dunno..." A shrug, this guy jittery, obviously jonesing for some forbidden pleasure... or something.
"Like...." Leading, that voice, stepping aside and waving the man past the stacks of rugs and into the alley that made up Blackwater's 'office'.
"Like blackdust. Y'got any?" Pleading, the crash hitting him hard.
"Nope, sorry. I can direct you to someone who does, though, for a small sum..."
The other man's eyes widen and he bounces on the balls of his feet, looking around wildly. "Who? Where? How much, I don't care, c'mon, man!"
A sharp nod of that bright hat. "Seelith, peir twelve, fifty. And if they ask, it's the guy with the yellow hat, got it?"
"Yeah, yeah, yellow hat how could I forget? Here, here, I gotta goooo..." Moaning the last word, scattering money as he darts back down the alley and weaving drunkenly through the throng of shoppers...
"Dropped eighty, not bad..." Jones scoops up the stray bills, counting them and tucking them away... Then he returns to hawking his rugs.
**
Gods, he was tired. Tired of trying to sell rugs no one in this stupid city seemed to want, tired of the city, tired of the dumb tourists that stared at his hat like he was some display at a zoo... But he smiled, nodded, maybe hit on one or two.... That was another thing. He was sick of people, all the same after a while, and That Face had started coming back, recently... That meant it was about time to get a move on, before the nightmares came back, before he started to strangle. He stayed up all night, staring at his maps with burning eyes and playing the same soundcard over and over again, until the noise from the next room became a demand for his silence or at least a new 'card... That was the last straw. He was packing up first thing and heading for... Closing his eyes, letting one finger stab at the cartographical charts in his lap, opening one to discover he'd chosen a spot in the middle of the ocean. "Great." He tries again, ending up with Morthok. "Fine, I'll go to the mountains. Maybe there'll be something interesting there..." And with that, the barely-a-man-man restarts the soundcard, pulls the drapes against the new-risen sun and falls into a dead sleep.
**
**
"So? It's -my- route. People -know- me. You get outta here, you get yourself a new circuit. Or else." The woman with too much jewlery snorts at him, then lifts her brows.
"Maybe y'don' unnerstan'. These roo's, they -ours-. They -family's- roo's, y'see? So... -You- piss off. Or else."
Blackwater sighs. "Family... Fine, there're laws about that. How about we just ... I don't know... Incorporate or something!?" Exasperated, he throws his hands into the air and stares at her, thinking back to the last couple of times people had infringed on his routes.
"Incorporate? Whassat meant' me an' mine, eh?" She tosses her head, dark proud beauty, gesturing to the knot of people behind her.
"It'd mean...." Jones blinks, suddenly realizing something. It wouldn't assuage his faint guilt any, but it'd help prevent any new guilt from accumulating! "It'd mean that you and I put our profits in the bank and split them, fifty-fifty, at the end of each month. I mean, -all- of our money, not just the fifty bucks you make here or the two-fifty there.... We can secure it so that no one but us has access to the cash, give ourselves a stipend to live off of, the rest accrues interest... At the end of the month, you can do whatever with your half... Hum, maybe there oughta be a starter sum that -stays- in the bank... Say, do you like tea...?" He waves towards a small café. "Let us talk in a more comfortable setting..."
**
A flat, accented voice, mumbling out instructions in nearly indecipherable words... "Glen's? I haven't been there in -months-..." He sighs, thinking he's about to be strangled here anyways, he may as well see what this one wants...
**