Post by Fewms on Oct 2, 2009 1:52:34 GMT
Written in ink:
~Bizarre History of the Bizarre, Part II: Trial of the Century of the Fruit bat~
By Nawab Keb Casaubon
The Bizarre was opened in a mass of confusion. My experience was limited to helping a tiny bit at the Holywood shop when it was being run by the Casaubon family. My more knowledgeable family members were eager to help me, and in gratitude for their help I made quite a few into shop managers so they could show me what to do. Not all of them agreed on what should be done, however-and the only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to paint the walls black and try to put stars on them. That, and sell tea.
But as the confusion mounted, my voice as owner became stronger. I was able to sharpen my goals for the Bizarre as well as my own skills by putting my foot down and choosing to ally myself with Elauna to open a branch of the Birds of Paradise bank in my shop. One of my uncles had been given an offer to put Stabbas in-but since Githan's shop across the way had just installed such a counter, I wanted to ensure diversity for Djelibeybi and make sure my shop offered the best possible service.
I pared down the number of managers to only those needed to keep the bank serviceable, and installed my own furniture to make the place a home as well as a business. But owning a shop is not a simple matter, despite how easy people like Sined make it look. To start with, I got to know the liaison team and the cres very well-because things broke so often. Installing a counter in my shop apparently triggered a bugge that even closed down Fruitcakes for a day, as all the shop counters went missing. A bugge in the bank counter made it possible for it to be drained by tens of thousands of tooni beyond its capacity on a regular basis, and only a liaison could fix it. The bugge was finally worked out by Nayeli-about two weeks after she stepped down from the Liaison team, according to the story she told me at Cabbagegate.
There was also the question of what to sell. Teas, obviously, and portal scrolls. Few things sell so briskly as those staples in the Disc Economy. But I also sold weapons-which I generally trusted the seller's pricing on, as my own knowledge of weaponry is slender, at best. I experimented with selling predeluded and enchanted items. None of my ideas were as grand as some that have come along since, but business was fairly brisk, and the shop eventually became a routine duty for me. I was at home there, and most people found me idling in the Bizarre in those days.
It was many months after the auction that the shop came under attack, in a way that wasn't entirely surprising. Because my family had collectively run a shop before, and because they had been so involved in my bidding and setting up, and many were still involved in the day-to-day running of the shop (including my daughter, Kiki, who was adopted shortly after the bidding and is now a Magistrate in Klatch), the conclusion that some had jumped to was that I had been a proxy bidder for the Casaubon Family. Moreover, Grandpa Amparo was a staunch Morporkian-and with only two shops in Klatch, the fear was that Ankh-Morpork had invaded Djelibeybi financially.
Case 617 was brought against me on July 3rd, 2004, by then-Magistrate Juan. This was almost exactly four months after I won the auction, so although the case was unsurprising, the timing did shock me. It claimed that I had violated Law 317, forbidding citizens to act as proxies for foreigners wishing to bid in Klatch, by bidding on the Bizarre.
Even though I had employed non-family members and Klatchian citizens, and had made the Bizarre my own, my defense had to be carefully worded. The family had been heavily involved in the shop, and in our exuberance over my success, things were said that gave the wrong impression. I had been concerned from the beginning that by accepting money from family members, I might be violating the law; I had been reassured by the Magistrates that this was not the case. My family members were contacted sometimes instead of me about shop matters, even those who were not helpers in the shop itself. Public perception had convinced Juan that the shop was "run by, and for the gain of the
Casaubons as a whole."
Continued on Page 10...
~Bizarre History of the Bizarre, Part II: Trial of the Century of the Fruit bat~
By Nawab Keb Casaubon
The Bizarre was opened in a mass of confusion. My experience was limited to helping a tiny bit at the Holywood shop when it was being run by the Casaubon family. My more knowledgeable family members were eager to help me, and in gratitude for their help I made quite a few into shop managers so they could show me what to do. Not all of them agreed on what should be done, however-and the only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to paint the walls black and try to put stars on them. That, and sell tea.
But as the confusion mounted, my voice as owner became stronger. I was able to sharpen my goals for the Bizarre as well as my own skills by putting my foot down and choosing to ally myself with Elauna to open a branch of the Birds of Paradise bank in my shop. One of my uncles had been given an offer to put Stabbas in-but since Githan's shop across the way had just installed such a counter, I wanted to ensure diversity for Djelibeybi and make sure my shop offered the best possible service.
I pared down the number of managers to only those needed to keep the bank serviceable, and installed my own furniture to make the place a home as well as a business. But owning a shop is not a simple matter, despite how easy people like Sined make it look. To start with, I got to know the liaison team and the cres very well-because things broke so often. Installing a counter in my shop apparently triggered a bugge that even closed down Fruitcakes for a day, as all the shop counters went missing. A bugge in the bank counter made it possible for it to be drained by tens of thousands of tooni beyond its capacity on a regular basis, and only a liaison could fix it. The bugge was finally worked out by Nayeli-about two weeks after she stepped down from the Liaison team, according to the story she told me at Cabbagegate.
There was also the question of what to sell. Teas, obviously, and portal scrolls. Few things sell so briskly as those staples in the Disc Economy. But I also sold weapons-which I generally trusted the seller's pricing on, as my own knowledge of weaponry is slender, at best. I experimented with selling predeluded and enchanted items. None of my ideas were as grand as some that have come along since, but business was fairly brisk, and the shop eventually became a routine duty for me. I was at home there, and most people found me idling in the Bizarre in those days.
It was many months after the auction that the shop came under attack, in a way that wasn't entirely surprising. Because my family had collectively run a shop before, and because they had been so involved in my bidding and setting up, and many were still involved in the day-to-day running of the shop (including my daughter, Kiki, who was adopted shortly after the bidding and is now a Magistrate in Klatch), the conclusion that some had jumped to was that I had been a proxy bidder for the Casaubon Family. Moreover, Grandpa Amparo was a staunch Morporkian-and with only two shops in Klatch, the fear was that Ankh-Morpork had invaded Djelibeybi financially.
Case 617 was brought against me on July 3rd, 2004, by then-Magistrate Juan. This was almost exactly four months after I won the auction, so although the case was unsurprising, the timing did shock me. It claimed that I had violated Law 317, forbidding citizens to act as proxies for foreigners wishing to bid in Klatch, by bidding on the Bizarre.
Even though I had employed non-family members and Klatchian citizens, and had made the Bizarre my own, my defense had to be carefully worded. The family had been heavily involved in the shop, and in our exuberance over my success, things were said that gave the wrong impression. I had been concerned from the beginning that by accepting money from family members, I might be violating the law; I had been reassured by the Magistrates that this was not the case. My family members were contacted sometimes instead of me about shop matters, even those who were not helpers in the shop itself. Public perception had convinced Juan that the shop was "run by, and for the gain of the
Casaubons as a whole."
Continued on Page 10...