Bilfred Baker's Marvelous Bookshop

>You're on your way to see the local administrative vendor. The goods remain plentiful, though the quality has dropped from satisfactory to a mere adequate. Not that the price would indicate that, heavens no. The goods remain as moderately overpriced as the day the first vendor opened shop. Enough to annoy, not enough to be worth bickering over.
(Haggling anyways is technically permissible, given the relevant laws were only enforced as a pretense for other offenses. So long as the vendors met their quotas, there wasn't that much concern about the missing funds).

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Idle Rambling
>For what reason the price of administrative goods seem to shift from day to day is beyond you. You would blame the administration attempting some covert study of the populace, if you had any faith in their competency. No, far more likely is the whims of those remaining in power shifting from interest to interest.
'Baron what's-his-name requires turnips for the banquet? Sounds like an opportunity to earn some favor; sell them to the Baron on the cheap while raising the price in the provinces accordingly'.
Well, something to that effect. On the other hand, disfavor has led to cheaper goods in the provinces... So long as they haven't fallen too far from favor. When that happens, the offending goods 'happen' to disappear, presumably kept in storage until the offending event has passed from memory.

>Hm? Oh right, right.
>You were heading to the administrative vendor to see if any canned fruit was in stock.
>Fruits are a pleasantry when available, but the real reason you wanted them was the juice.
Treated right, the juice was just as good as ink to write with and less likely to raise suspicions on your rogue writer habit...

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More Rambling
>...Though, the smell of fruit remains a problem. Or it would if the secret police ever dropped by, which was unlikely at best.
>Speaking of, where did the secret police go off to? The secret police were unlikely to be disbanded, even accounting for the odd discrepancy they were too useful for the administration to depose. What if something happened, cutting them off from administration? They were a secret, even if a widely known one. If the administration did decide to cut ties, would they have even received so much as a memo? But no, if that were the case then surely they would still be about? Self-interested thugs leveraging their tools and their stamps and their air of authority into bullying the locals for their own benefit for once.
>Or if they are gone, perhaps their place of residence left clues? Something interesting to spark your imagination... No, no. Too risky. You wouldn't even know where to start looking, much less if anything of intrigue remains. Not to mention the chance of finding a stubborn holdout. No, best look elsewhere for writing material.

>Sigh. Even now, the administration's deeds loom overhead.

Plenty of words. But the street is long, grey, and terribly dull. Perhaps the street is longer still, leaving time for the thoughts of another?
>______