Wish Coins
12 September 2008 13:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skonen_bladesI collect the coins of the wishes that other people paid for, roll them up, and take them to the Old Bank. The wish pennies are worth more than the regular pennies. It’s Friday morning. The Old Bank is busy.
The Old Bank was started by fairies that have long since turned to consultancy. Humans with The Gift and half-breeds keep the frantic hive running as only human greed can.
This is the place for all the intangible currency. The unseen other half of commerce. There are three stock markets here. Fear, Hope, and Love. The FHL Index.
The Fear market has actual nightmares roaming the floor. Teeth and screaming souls walk past the pale brokers in black suits shouting out their endless updates. Demons wag their tails and abstracts horrors waft through the air; the fright of a missing shoe, for instance, or the fear of a child’s wig. Dream logic making a mockery of the everyday. It’s a heady mix of Halloween and Hell as the stocks rise and fall in tides of terror.
The Love market is always a bare market. There is the slap of flesh echoing. There is a continual sigh that drifts through the air. Hundreds of Adams and hundreds of Eves stroll ghostly amidst the rain of stock quotes printed on falling valentines. It’s a ticker-tape parade of give and take. The brokers here dress in red. The red arrows on the charts predict the rise and fall of the love in the world. Cupids nest like black-eyed pigeons in the rafters.
The Hope market is enveloped in a haze of future-altering fog. It’s only half here in the now. The rest extends into probability. The attendants dress in white and stare into the future, muttering possible under their breath. This is the stock that is the hardest to predict but the most lucrative when it pays out. It’s silent except for echoes from the future bouncing softly back out of the mist.
This is where I’m putting my pennies: The Hope market. I’ve been scooping up the wish pennies for decades from fountains and wells around the world. The teller at the counter looks at each penny through her eyepiece.
“Oh, this one’s for a dying friend. Very valuable.” She clucks. Her eyepiece camera-flashes and turns blue as she picks up the next one. Her grin turns to a scowl. “Another wish for a raise. Common.” She throws that one into a separate sack and digs in for more.
It takes a day to have them all appraised but I’ll leave through the front door a few seconds from when I left, out there in what they laughingly call the real world.
Some people throw a backup wish in after the first one. It’s where we get the expression ‘that’s my two cents.’ Better safe than sorry. Better for me, better for the economy.
tags
The Old Bank was started by fairies that have long since turned to consultancy. Humans with The Gift and half-breeds keep the frantic hive running as only human greed can.
This is the place for all the intangible currency. The unseen other half of commerce. There are three stock markets here. Fear, Hope, and Love. The FHL Index.
The Fear market has actual nightmares roaming the floor. Teeth and screaming souls walk past the pale brokers in black suits shouting out their endless updates. Demons wag their tails and abstracts horrors waft through the air; the fright of a missing shoe, for instance, or the fear of a child’s wig. Dream logic making a mockery of the everyday. It’s a heady mix of Halloween and Hell as the stocks rise and fall in tides of terror.
The Love market is always a bare market. There is the slap of flesh echoing. There is a continual sigh that drifts through the air. Hundreds of Adams and hundreds of Eves stroll ghostly amidst the rain of stock quotes printed on falling valentines. It’s a ticker-tape parade of give and take. The brokers here dress in red. The red arrows on the charts predict the rise and fall of the love in the world. Cupids nest like black-eyed pigeons in the rafters.
The Hope market is enveloped in a haze of future-altering fog. It’s only half here in the now. The rest extends into probability. The attendants dress in white and stare into the future, muttering possible under their breath. This is the stock that is the hardest to predict but the most lucrative when it pays out. It’s silent except for echoes from the future bouncing softly back out of the mist.
This is where I’m putting my pennies: The Hope market. I’ve been scooping up the wish pennies for decades from fountains and wells around the world. The teller at the counter looks at each penny through her eyepiece.
“Oh, this one’s for a dying friend. Very valuable.” She clucks. Her eyepiece camera-flashes and turns blue as she picks up the next one. Her grin turns to a scowl. “Another wish for a raise. Common.” She throws that one into a separate sack and digs in for more.
It takes a day to have them all appraised but I’ll leave through the front door a few seconds from when I left, out there in what they laughingly call the real world.
Some people throw a backup wish in after the first one. It’s where we get the expression ‘that’s my two cents.’ Better safe than sorry. Better for me, better for the economy.
tags
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 12 Sep 2008 20:44 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 Sep 2008 20:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 Sep 2008 21:05 (UTC)Of course, the partners at Morningdew and Sons (the Old Firm) take a dim view of that sort of thing; they "settled" him out of court for the grand sum of two obols and a summer holiday down the Styx. Made a killing alright.
no subject
Date: 12 Sep 2008 21:45 (UTC)The Love Stock of her suitors skyrocketed but since she herself felt nothing, her stock remained dormant. One by one, her suitors amassed enough love in the bank to get someone better. She was left with nothing and then arrested for tampering with hedge funds and investment fraud.
She was sentenced to walk with her true appearance for six years among the men of earth and banished from the marketplace. She's not too pretty without her glamours, poor girl. She's not doing too well.
no subject
Date: 13 Sep 2008 03:48 (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Sep 2008 08:28 (UTC)It's why I switched to the Hope market, actually. The dividends are small but dependable. Slow and steady wins the race is MY motto these days.
Uh, unless you have some good tips.
no subject
Date: 13 Sep 2008 15:16 (UTC)I would love to see these in manuscript form.
And have a copy to keep on my bookshelf.
no subject
Date: 13 Sep 2008 18:19 (UTC)