Morp: Haggling...

[GM Mathieu]

[Timestamp: Kuras, 19th of Ioannes, Summer of Era X]

The door had a plaque outside of it – with bold white letters indicating its room number: Classroom 5-A. It was at the end of the hallway of all the classes. When Morp entered the classroom, there was an older man sitting there, with spectacles on the bridge of his nose – gray hair, wrinkled flesh around the face, and he was studying a parchment, his lips pursed together, his fingers steepled as he studied intensely, clearly not paying attention to what was going on around him.

The rest of the classroom - again, was typical. Chairs, desks, textbooks, and all the little tidbits a room could have for teaching any variety of subjects.

[Morp]

Morp went directly to room 5-A, ready to begin. He still did not know what to expect - the dorin had been helpful-ish but had not answered some of his questions. It really did not matter now though, because once he entered the room and had been there for a minute or so, his questions would probably be answered. He briskly walked into the room and saw that the teacher was deeply focused on the parchment he had in his hand. Reaching out, Morp knocked on the door. Not too hard; just loud enough to get the man's attention. "Serale, I'm Morp. I was sent here to learn haggling from you."

[GM Mathieu]

The man jerked his head up at the knocking on the door - looking sharply at the young man that came into the room. "Oh... yes, do come in. Serale, my name is Becham. You have come here for haggling class?" He gave the young one a quizzical look and then nodded. "First off, how much did you pay for the class?"

[Morp]

"Um... 300 crowns," Morp said. Then, to himself, he thought, 'Perhaps the amount that I payed will explain the level of the class...' To get some other necessary, at least seemingly necessary, stuff out of the way, Morp said, "I really don't know what level of this class I should be taking. I work at the pawnshop, you see. So I have a bit of experiance. I have not, however, had any formal training, just a bit of observation."

[GM Mathieu]

The old man wore a silk shirt - with ruffles around the hands, and a fluffy tie that led up around his throat. He seemed comfortable within the clothing he wore, the pants plain black pants. He stood up, looking at Morp closely, squinting at the man hearing his words about what he was saying. He works at a pawnshop and he came here to learn about haggling. The old man gave a short nod, his lips pressing together in a small smile, his eyes wrinkling up as they twinkled with amusement.

"In haggling, you haggle for the lower price if you are buying - and if you are selling, you haggle for the higher price. There is your lesson in haggling for three hundred coins - nothing else I can teach you. Good day." The old man continued smiling as he sat back down in his seat, and went back to studying the parchment.

[Morp]

Morp noticed the man's amusement when he said that he worked at the pawnshop. He could see why Becham was amused by the thought, but in Morp's mind the fact that he had come for extra lessons made sense. He hoped to perhaps get a raise at the pawnshop, and the best way to do that was to have at least a bit of skill, and a class like this would definately give him a bit of skill. Plus, it did not matter if Becham was amused by the idea or not, it only mattered that he was a decent teacher.

"In haggling, you haggle for the lower price if you are buying - and if you are selling, you haggle for the higher price. There is your lesson in haggling for three hundred coins - nothing else I can teach you. Good day." Becham said before returning his attention to the parchment.

Morp's chin dropped in shock. For a moment he could do nothing but stare stupidly, then he slowly regained composure. Working his jaw, as if trying to say something, no words came out. His mind was racing, but nothing managed to break loose and leave his mouth. Suddenly, and idea occured to him that cleared away the mess of thoughts that had been plagueing his mind. Perhaps the one line 'lesson' was simply a test to see how much skill Morp had in haggling. This boistered his confidence and straightened his thoughts.

"Becham, that lesson is very good and all, but that I've known that lesson ever since I began working at the pawnshop. Perhaps you could impart a bit more knowledge - 300 crowns is quite a bit of money."

[GM Mathieu]

The old man looked up from his work, and gave Morp an exasperated look, and then he regained his good sense of humor. “You came here expecting to be taught how to haggle. You paid three hundred coins to learn the only thing you need to learn in haggling. The rest? It comes with experience. I cannot teach you experience.” His bony right hand lifted up, his right finger extending out. “You learn to read the customers,” a second finger lifted, “You learn to value the merchandise,” a third finger lifted. “You know a good price for any object you have.” A fourth finger lifted. “You haggle for a lower price if you are buying and haggle for a higher price when selling.” This time his thumb stuck out and he waggled it around. “Fifth: you use your mind.”

This time, he leaned on his elbows, and rested his hands on top of each other as he waited, raising a bushy grayish white eyebrow.

[Morp]

Maybe it was not a test. Maybe Becham was being serious. Then again, maybe not. "Now we're getting someplace," Morp said, trying not to look exasperated. "Perhaps you cannot teach experience, nor can a sword master teach experiance to his pupils, yet the name of thier game is also experiance. So they spar. And keep sparring. If you were to apply that to this class then you could teach experience. For example, you take an item and we haggle for it." Morp was beginning to become frustrated. He had spent a lot of money and he expected to get something for it. However, he knew that if he allowed Bechan to know that he was frustrated it would destroy any chance of getting anything close to his money's worth.