Post by Zuni on Jul 13, 2015 22:50:33 GMT
The Pink Monkey Auction was a semi-annual occurrence, and even with all the recent strangeness spreading out through Vegeta’s society, the nobility demanded their entertainments and distractions. What better way was there to take one’s mind off the difficulties in life than to head out of an evening and spend an extraordinary amount of money on a rarity from some far-flung, pillaged world?
The auction was taking place in a great hall, the cavernous space filled with representatives of almost all of Vegeta’s major noble houses. One could hardly be a noble house if one were to allow an opportunity like this to pass them by. Indeed, those who didn’t have representatives would be whispered out for weeks to come!
Naturally, there were other sorts there too – soldiers, curious to see what trinkets had been brought back from other planets, or hoping to make a killing on some of their plunder. There were merchants, too – grubby, opportunistic sorts, mostly aliens, who had come along with similar objectives to the soldiers – but who were treated with far more disdain by their hosts.
Sat right up near the front of the stage, though, was a woman with pretty blonde hair and a prettier red cheongsam dress. The flicking tail behind her was also impressively fuzzy, and the whole look, overall, was decidedly not the fashion of Vegeta’s elites – the majority of the crowd had instead tried to portray themselves as vicious and impressive; flowing cloaks, large shoulder pauldrons, and an overall impression of muscle and malice were common elements, regardless of gender.
It was important not to show weakness, and despite her odd dress, the young woman up the front clearly wasn’t weak; her attitude was far too confident for that, despite the fact that she was showing little actual energy (it was important to keep one’s power hidden, it could be a very useful tool to keep the world on the back foot). The question then became who she actually was; a question which has been running around the hall on the lips of the more gossip-prone members of the saiyan ruling classes for the past twenty minutes. Nobody, yet, has wanted to appear so out of the loop as to actually go up and ask her; that would be irredeemably gauche. There was something about the fact that she felt comfortable enough to rock on the back two legs of her chair which made actually approaching the blonde figure… intimidating, somehow.
And then, the lights in the room dimmed. People slowly filtered towards their seats, and the auctioneer – a dumpy alien with four eyes on a purple torso, wearing a tuxedo (because some things never go out of style) rapped three times on the microphone in order to call the crowd to silence. The soldiers eyed the alien with obvious disdain, the nobles with barely-concealed contempt. Could they truly not have found a saiyan to run this auction?
“Ladeez and Gentlemeeeen.” The alien pronounced, “It eez my great pleazure to welcome you to zis, ze auction for ze recently returned Starburst Squadron and invited special guests. I guarantee zat tonight, you vill see wonders and relics beyond your wildest dreams. If you vould like to make a bid, please, state your name and your bid loudly but clearly, and do not grow offended if you are outbid. Let us have a nice evening together, yes?”
He smiled hopefully to the gathered crowd, mostly receiving stony faces in return.
“Haha, yez, very good. We vill be opening with an interesting item to, how you say, wet you appetites a little bit. Zis is an item I am told is a favourite of ze famous Arcosian Empress Wyntre Cold, the second rarest wine in ze galaxy! Ve have a cask of Citrated Golden Blood Wine, it eez made from zome kind of, ah, how you say, the strange alien space vhales? Ve vill have the bidding open at five hundred zeni.”
The auction was taking place in a great hall, the cavernous space filled with representatives of almost all of Vegeta’s major noble houses. One could hardly be a noble house if one were to allow an opportunity like this to pass them by. Indeed, those who didn’t have representatives would be whispered out for weeks to come!
Naturally, there were other sorts there too – soldiers, curious to see what trinkets had been brought back from other planets, or hoping to make a killing on some of their plunder. There were merchants, too – grubby, opportunistic sorts, mostly aliens, who had come along with similar objectives to the soldiers – but who were treated with far more disdain by their hosts.
Sat right up near the front of the stage, though, was a woman with pretty blonde hair and a prettier red cheongsam dress. The flicking tail behind her was also impressively fuzzy, and the whole look, overall, was decidedly not the fashion of Vegeta’s elites – the majority of the crowd had instead tried to portray themselves as vicious and impressive; flowing cloaks, large shoulder pauldrons, and an overall impression of muscle and malice were common elements, regardless of gender.
It was important not to show weakness, and despite her odd dress, the young woman up the front clearly wasn’t weak; her attitude was far too confident for that, despite the fact that she was showing little actual energy (it was important to keep one’s power hidden, it could be a very useful tool to keep the world on the back foot). The question then became who she actually was; a question which has been running around the hall on the lips of the more gossip-prone members of the saiyan ruling classes for the past twenty minutes. Nobody, yet, has wanted to appear so out of the loop as to actually go up and ask her; that would be irredeemably gauche. There was something about the fact that she felt comfortable enough to rock on the back two legs of her chair which made actually approaching the blonde figure… intimidating, somehow.
And then, the lights in the room dimmed. People slowly filtered towards their seats, and the auctioneer – a dumpy alien with four eyes on a purple torso, wearing a tuxedo (because some things never go out of style) rapped three times on the microphone in order to call the crowd to silence. The soldiers eyed the alien with obvious disdain, the nobles with barely-concealed contempt. Could they truly not have found a saiyan to run this auction?
“Ladeez and Gentlemeeeen.” The alien pronounced, “It eez my great pleazure to welcome you to zis, ze auction for ze recently returned Starburst Squadron and invited special guests. I guarantee zat tonight, you vill see wonders and relics beyond your wildest dreams. If you vould like to make a bid, please, state your name and your bid loudly but clearly, and do not grow offended if you are outbid. Let us have a nice evening together, yes?”
He smiled hopefully to the gathered crowd, mostly receiving stony faces in return.
“Haha, yez, very good. We vill be opening with an interesting item to, how you say, wet you appetites a little bit. Zis is an item I am told is a favourite of ze famous Arcosian Empress Wyntre Cold, the second rarest wine in ze galaxy! Ve have a cask of Citrated Golden Blood Wine, it eez made from zome kind of, ah, how you say, the strange alien space vhales? Ve vill have the bidding open at five hundred zeni.”