2013.07.16 - Supply and Demand

It was getting to be a bit of a running joke by now - Doug shows up at a market, looking for a part, and either the merchant told him that he didn't have it, that a teenage girl with piercings and funky colored hair had beaten him to it, or -that- item was on hold for said teenage girl. 
By now, Doug Ramsey was well acquainted enough with 'Harper Row' to know that she was apparently a) an early bird, b) had enough access to people behind the scenes to get a head start in shopping, and c) sneaky enough to work out trades for the high-scale items.
He'd taken to sniping auctions online, or raiding craiglists... and finally located one critical item just a short hop over the train to Gotham. 
Making the arrangements to pick it up, as it was cheaper to do the pickup than to have it shipped, Doug couldn't help but trade comments, and discovered the person had other items he -definitely- needed. Now sitting in a seedy little dive of a restaurant, Doug was painfully aware he was dressed so -wrong- for the neighborhood. And judging by the body language of everyone else, -they- knew it too. Maybe he should've picked something less... peppy, and more... ragged? 
Unaware, of just who her buyer is, Harper Row unknowingly gets ready to meet said buyer. The item (along with a few others) that Doug bought is carefully packaged in a nice little box for travel, and then the girl is off.
The restaurant that was chosen is one Harper is quite familiar with, and so, she dresses in her typical day wear. A pair of jeans (tattered around the cuffs) and a slouchy shirt, that's perhaps a size or two, too large. Her backpack is slung over one shoulder, a tight grip upon the strap, as she makes her way into said restaurant.
Sauntering into the seedy little dive, Harper automatically scans the occupants. One to look for her buyer, but also to do a threat assessment. Sure, she doesn't expect any type of fight, or anything, to go down, but she's lived in Gotham long enough to know to keep her eyes open. It's only as her gaze travels past Doug, that recognition hits. Her eyes immediately zero back in on Doug and a smirk begins to form on her lips. Making her way towards the young man, she says, "Oh please, don't tell me you're ZeroGlyph."
Glancing back up at -that- teenage girl, Doug's expression shifts from surprise to annoyance to resignation, before he buries his face behind his hands in a double-facepalm. "And -you're- TinkerTrader?" the young blonde moans. "It -figures-. I should've seen it... of -course- you would have everything I needed, because you -got there first-!" 
Picking up the cup of bean juice (Doug refused to call what this dive served -coffee-), Doug sips, makes a face, and then sighs. "Okay, so, you got the goods. I'll just pay and... uh... you know, I -know- how much you paid for these. The markup, I gotta comment... that's a bit much, isn't it?" Pulling out his smartphone, Doug loads up his banking info, and gets the paypal information set up, so that the financial transaction could be done. 
Harper Row's backpack is gently slung off her shoulder and slid onto the vaguely sticky tabletop of Doug's table. Gingerly, Harper also takes a seat, carefully eyeballing the chair for a few minutes to make sure it's clean enough to sit.
The zipper of her battered and dilapidated backpack is opened, as she flashes a grin towards Doug, "That's me. TinkerTrader. I thought it was a very cute and awesome screen name." The box that holds Doug's purchased item is pulled out and with a little flick of her wrist she scoots it towards Doug. "Here check it out before you buy. When I meet face to face with people, I like them to check everything out before paying."
Once the box is given to Doug, Harper will dig back in her backpack and pull out a few more gadgets and gizmos that Doug /might/ be interested in. Coyly she'll look at the blond boy, as she quirks her head to the side. "Markup? I don't recall any markup. It's all about supply and demand, and if it sells, then there's a demand. I can't help inflation." Which is a total lie, but she's obviously not going to change the price. A beat up laptop is the last thing Harper will pull out of her backpack, and with a loud 'ding' the laptop begins to boot up. The shell of said laptop looks pretty junky, but it's clear with the speed that the laptop boots up, that the guts have been rebuilt and retooled to be better than what it looks like.
"Oh it's cute. Cute like a vorpal bunny," Doug retorts, a mild tone of annoyance in his voice, although he does smile a bit. 
The smile fades, as he pushes the coffee cup aside, out the way of the electronics. 
"Oh sure. Corner the market, then sell to the other person you were competing against," Doug jibes, as he looks through the rest of the gadgets/gizmos. The ding and the noise, however, causes Doug to look up, tilting his head. "Huh. That sounds a lot -faster- than it looks," Doug comments, as he listens to the whirring of the disk and the fans. "Sounds like you overclocked that thing a -lot-... mind if I take a look?" If it was as quick as it sounded, Kitty was going to have kittens over that hardware...
"Oh come on Vorpal bunnies are cute. If I remember correctly, their tail is three times larger than their bodies." Harper comments, having played Final Fantasy. "Fluffy is cute."
His comments about cornering the market garner a quick shrug and a grin, as she says, "Hey, I can't help it if ZeroGlyph is /too/ slow. Be happy I'm selling this stuff, instead of hoarding it for myself. There's quite a few pieces I wouldn't mind using." Unspoken, however, is selling it is more profitable for herself and her brother. Money equates to food on the table and bills being paid.
At his question about looking at her laptop, Harper turns a tinge suspicious. Or perhaps thats, overprotective. The guts are her design after all, and she'd hate for someone to steal the design, but - "I suppose you can take a peak." And with those words said, Harper slides the laptop towards Doug, "But no stealing anything."
Moving the laptop just a bit so that Harper can see what Doug is doing, the young blonde does a quick call-up of control panel / system info so that he can see what hardware is hooked up, as well as what the processor is saying it is. 
There's a brief pause as Doug considers the readouts, with a distracted running commentary. 
"... how did you manage to fit -that- in -this-?" 
"... just how many -fans- did you manage to cram into this laptop to keep that processor from overheating?" 
"... you made a -triple- processor array fit into -this-?" 
"... okay, that's just impossible..." 
Turning the laptop back towards Harper, Doug eyes the young teen girl. "You're an electrical engineer?" He motions towards the parts laid out. "I'd have liked to see what you'd cobble together with these. Kitty's going to gush, I bet." 
Turning the laptop back towards Harper, Doug eyes the young teen girl. "You're an electrical engineer?" He motions towards the parts laid out. "I'd have liked to see what you'd cobble together with these. Kitty's going to gush, I bet." 
His commentary brings another quirky grin to Harper's lips, "It's amazing what you can do when you really wanted a souped up laptop, besides - " She continues, as she glances covertly around, "The case makes it seem like a dud, which makes it less prone to being coveted, if you get my drift." She means stolen. If it looks like a trashy laptop, hopefully no one will want to steal the thing.
Surprise briefly flickers across the girl's face, as Doug correctly guesses her occupation. "Yes, in fact, I am. What're you? A professor or scientist of some sort?" It's his clothes, they simply scream preppy to her. "You tinker on the side as a hobby, or is it your profession?"
At the mention of 'Kitty', Harper makes a face, "Oh please tell me that's not her real name. Kitty is such a street walker name. If it is, her parents must have totally hated her."
The quirky grin is met with a half-crooked smile of his own, as Doug leans. "Lucky guess," he notes. "It's insane jury-rigging. A computer engineer or an electrical engineer." Looking up at Harper, Doug shrugs. "And you don't -look- like a computer engineer. Not preppy enough." Tugging at his shirt, Doug grins. "Teacher, tinker, and uh... just a bit of hacking.
Eyebrows arches as Harper says such unconscionable things about his best friend. "Hey, it's not. Just a nickname. Her name's Katherine, if you must, but everyone calls her Kitty. And what about you? Isn't -Harper- some sort of nickname? Like, do you play music in your spare time or something?" 
A faint snort can be heard from the woman at the remark about insane jury-rigging. "Hey, as long as it doesn't blow up, or spark a fire, it's the perfect laptop."
"Teacher? So Prof, what do you teach? Wait, don't tell me." She leans backwards and squints at Doug, formulating her opinion. "Geometry. You have the look of a math teacher. A stodgy math teacher." She grins, before she shrugs, "And I'm okay with not being being preppy enough, your fashion sense is too boring for me. I'd rather go with grunge, if anything."
"Play music? Haha. More like I listen to music, I don't play, and there's nothing wrong with the name Harper. It's a good hardy name, Professor /Doug/. Come on you should have some interesting nicknames. Dougie, Doggie, Dougstar."
"For you, maybe. It sure looks like a piece of junk, but..." Doug grimaces at the compliment he was about to pay. "It's... well, it's a good piece of work." 
Running a hand through his hair, Doug clasps his forehead. "No, heck... no. I just do field work, mostly, training. Sort of like an outreach counselor. Though I do tutoring in math, linguistics, and computer science." 
Eyeing Harper's piercing, Doug nods. "I don't know what I was thinking, you certainly look more like a heavy metal type. And hey, no, no nicknames like that. Though Kitty and I did go around as Team Supreme for a while. She's a -terror- on MMOs..." 
"Hey, hey, I said my fashion sense was more grunge, my music taste runs the whole gambit. I like all sorts, including heavy metal." replies Harper promptly, and with a little snark, though not much.
"An outreach counselor? Huh. I suppose you have that look about you. All spit and polished and you have that friendly face that I'm sure makes people want to open up to you." Though not this girl, as she taps a few keys upon her keyboard. She's pulling up her own paypal account.
"And what's wrong with Dougie? That's not too terrible. It's better than /Doggie/, don't you agree?" As for Team Supreme, she snorts again, "Really Team Supreme? That sounds like a 70's disco band, with roller skates too. Shiny, glittery roller-skates."
"Hey, it was... okay, so it's just an old kid thing... we outgrew it, really. And don't mention disco and roller skates around Kitty - she outgrew -that- stage too. It's not like she's a fashion disaster anymore. Much," Doug comments. "Anyway, adding these items... and you've got to tell me how you managed to get into the show earlier than I did... here, you've got money." Clicking the send button with a flourish, Doug tilts his head. "Hey... do you think you might be interested in working on the project with me and Kitty?" He motions towards the laptop. "Though that kinda jury-rigging might get -us- all in trouble." 
On the other hand, Kitty probably would love -that- sort of innovation... 
"Fashion disaster? I'm so telling her you said that." Jokes Harper, knowing she will probably never meet this 'Kitty'. "So telling her. I love having blackmail on people." She playfully rubs her hands together in a dastardly way.
However, at the mention of a project with this vaunted Kitty, Harper can't help but lean backwards slightly as she considers the young man. "What sort of project? Is this a paying sort of project by chance?"
When paypal confirms the payment has been received she simply shuts her laptop down as she waits to hear about this 'project'.
"Well, not -paying-, but maybe we could develop something that might get us, well... patents and stuff?" Doug comments. It wasn't as though he'd thought that far ahead... he just wanted to make things -work-. "But... uh..." Actually, he probably -should- have thought ahead, but darn it, it just seemed a bit easier to have Harper get the parts than to chase -after- her for the parts... 
"Uh, see, I'm trying to figure out a way to simulate the Internet as a virtual reality... you've seen Tron, right?" Doug runs a hand through his hair. "Nevermind. Kitty and I will get this set up." He didn't think he could get Harper access -into- the Danger Room, where most of the hardware was hooked up. They'd have to move it and re-wire things in a safer, more public location first... 
"What computer geek hasn't seen Tron? And if they haven't, then they're not a real computer geek." Harper states with a tinge of sarcasm, "And patents so interesting. Or even bartering… " She adds, before Doug seems to retract his offer, "Hey whatever floats your boat, if you need help message me sometimes, if not - " She shrugs, not her problem.
"But seriously, nice doing business with you. LEt me know if you need /anything/ else I have. I usually update my inventories every friday. Remember supply and demand, supply and demand."
Her hand quickly sweeps the laptop into her backpack, and it's quickly zipped closed. "Next time I'll pick a nicer diner for us to do business in."
Standing up, Doug starts packing the parts away, pausing in mid-movement to offer a handshake. "No problem, Q. I'll work out something." One eyebrow arches. "Good to know. I'll have to keep trying. You can't be at -every- show, can you?" Of course, neither could he, but... well. Posturing was always a good way to try and get the bargaining price even lower. 
Doug earns a laugh from Harper, at the Q remark. "Q, I like that." She states brightly, before she slings the backpack over her shoulder, "And of course I can be at every show. Silly boy." With a jaunty little wave, after shaking Doug's hand, the short haired woman spins on heel and trots out of the seedy little dive diner. "Later, Doggie!" 
Category:Log