No Umbrellas Allowed Appraise, haggle, uncover the truth

A customer walks in with something to sell and tells you only part of the story. Your job is to find the rest. Tools give you hard data: the material and condition, the year it was made, signs that its value has risen or fallen. When the data says a fact but not what it means, the know-how book fills the gap, with the city's history, celebrity signatures and which brands are in or out of fashion. One moment: a seller swears a watch is ordinary, but under your tools the signature on the dial belongs to someone famous. That gap between what they say and what it is worth is where your profit lives.

Once you know what an item is worth, the negotiation starts. The customer has their own expectations, knowledge and mood, and they push back: they say no, they ask for more, some arrive with an exact figure in mind. Push too hard in either direction and they can storm out of the shop entirely. It is a genuine back-and-forth, and winning it by a comfortable margin feels earned every time.

Ajik City, 2080, is odd in ways the shop only partly explains. People seem unable, or unwilling, to show what they feel, everyone is obsessed with something called Fixerain, and the figures in dark uniforms who call themselves civil activists are known to everyone else as police-mimickers. You arrived at a beach a few days ago with no memories and no belongings. Darcy, who runs the city's only secondhand shop, saved you, named you after his son Bob and put you behind the counter. Listen to what neighbours say as you get around the city, and you may find clues to your past and to what is really happening here.

The rhythm is calm and repetitive in a satisfying way, one customer at a time, one item at a time, and the Papers, Please comparison that comes up often fits: careful, detail-driven work where reading people and documents closely is the whole skill. There is no rush to master it. You can lean on the tools and the know-how book while you learn, and each correct appraisal sharpens your eye for the next one.

Beyond the counter, Darcy's is a business to grow. Reputation matters: fights with customers land on the Reputation Board, and a bad name means fewer customers and thinner profits. Cash short when a charming item walks in? Darcy, banks and foreign lenders offer loans. Outside the store there are opportunities too: buy flowers at the neighbouring flower shop to draw customers in, or send items to the repair shop to fix the damage that undervalues them.