"Innnteresting..."
Jack watched the woman in the incredibly high-quality lizard/alien/ninja costume as she in turn watched the demo videos playing on the monitors around his stall. He wondered how she got the end of the costume's tail to twitch so realistically, and what the scales were actually made of. Presumably some form of plastic, although nothing he'd seen before. Attaching them all to what must be a stretchy undergarment must have taken days, if not weeks.
The dedication some people had to their hobbies was amazing.
Looking down at the tables full of movie and game props he'd painstakingly built, some of them representing over a month of solid work, he grinned. Different hobby, but the skills were at least as high, he knew.
Scratching her muzzle, in a way that made it really look like it was her real face and not a costume, something he guessed she'd spent a lot of time practicing, the reptilian-themed costumed con visitor seemed fascinated by the run-through of the game that was currently playing. In front of her were a number of full-scale props from the game, made of fiberglass resin, machined metal parts, and injection-molded sections that he'd spent days painting. She picked one of them up, studying it closely, then compared it to the game.
"Really nice work," she smiled. He watched the costume's mouth move with amusement, the prosthetic muzzle was also really nice work.
"Thanks."
"How long does it take to make one of these?" she asked.
"That one… around three weeks, but not all in one long session. I make a batch of the moldings, then paint them up, a friend of mine CNC machines the metal parts and anodizes them, then I assemble about six at once. The time consuming part is painting them, which is a bitch."
She picked up another of the same prop, comparing them. "I see, they've each got different wear patterns, that sort of thing."
"Exactly. Not mass produced low quality stuff like you can get over in aisle four, this is all hand-made. More expensive, obviously, but a lot of people really appreciate the detail. I know a guy who actually made some of the Hollywood models for a number of big feature films, he taught me a lot of these techniques, and some of his replicas go for upwards of a hundred grand."
"Serious collectors," she noted with a nod.
"Very. Lot of money in it if you do the right models and props. Getting commercial permission can be hard, though. He managed it because he thought ahead and retained the rights to the models he designed. That's why all this stuff is from lower budget productions and games, they'll usually license it to me for a sensible rate." He smiled at her. "I can't afford to license things from Lucas Arts, for example."
"Yeah, I can understand that," the woman replied, her carefully distorted voice sounding amused. Once more he was impressed by the detail she'd put into the costume. Putting one of the props down, she hefted the other one experimentally. "I have to say your work is excellent. This almost looks like it would actually work."
"I wish," he chuckled. "It's got some simple electronics in it, another friend is a genius at that sort of thing, he does special effects work for a couple of the studios, but he also helps me out sometimes. So it makes the right sounds and everything, and you get little blinky lights. People like little blinky lights."
She laughed. "That part I know all too well. Some friends of mine are really into their esoteric tech and it always seems to end up with little blinky lights. Often blue."
Looking over her shoulder, she nodded to another pair of costumed visitors who walked up, all of them obviously knowing each other. Jack inspected them, grinning at the common theme. Lizards seemed to be in this year.
He'd noticed the large black reptilian space commando or whatever she was meant to be, walking around with another one whose costume had violet scales under the matte black armor.
Which did, indeed, have little blinky lights on it. In blue.
This costume was probably even more impressive than the first one. There must have been some very complex stilts in the legs to make them articulate like that, and where the wearer's head actually was he wasn't certain. His best guess was that the costumes were probably the result of some sfx department who wanted to show off their stuff in a low-key manner, someone who specialized in advanced prosthetics and the like. There were probably cameras in the head behind the eyes and the operator was using something like a VR headset with motion tracking to drive the entire suit.
Listening carefully in a quiet moment, he couldn't hear any servomotors working, but they might well just be silenced.
Overall the effect was incredible, and for a moment he found himself a little envious.
"What have you found?" the other new arrival asked the lizard-ninja, who turned to her. This one had a different sort of costume, although the lizard's tail that came out the back of it showed adherence to their theme. The rest was some type of expensive leather, cut to fit the woman in it and give the impression of light body armor, complete with boots and fingerless gloves. On her bare right forearm, a complicated mechanism held a thin, highly polished tapering wooden rod.
He inspected it with professional interest, deciding that it seemed to be designed to deploy the stick into her hand when triggered, although he couldn't work out how that triggering would take place. After a moment, he looked at the prop blaster rifle that the larger reptilian costumed person had slung over their shoulder, a number of tally lights on it lit and at least one LCD panel on the top glowing with a logo he couldn't quite make out, spinning and rotating. The thing probably had some little processor board in it, and someone had spent a lot of time writing the software to make it look good.
He could definitely appreciate the effort, and the effect, although he had no idea what movie or game the weapon was from.
"Have a look," the ninja said, holding the prop out. Her friend took it from her, studying it carefully from all angles. "From that game," the woman added, waving at the monitor with a clawed glove. Jack smiled to himself, the detail even extended to her fingers. He could barely see the seams.
The brunette woman looked at the monitor, as did the person inside the large combat dinosaur costume, both of them watching as the recording looped. After a few seconds, the leather-clad woman was smiling a little, while deep chuckles, processed down in pitch, came from the other person. He decided it was probably a woman in there.
This was confirmed when she spoke. "I can see the way your mind is going. I like it."
"Alec will love it." The first one smiled at her friends. "So will Kevin. And the best part is the latest model will actually fit."
He frowned, wondering what they meant. Both the other women laughed. "Oh, you really do have a weird sense of humor," the one in the middle snickered.
"Yep." She looked around. "Any idea where the others are?"
"Not at the moment, Ianthe was wandering around a few aisles over last time I saw her, posing for photos, and Cloak had gone back for more pretzels."
"That girl is going to make herself sick again," the lizard-ninja half-sighed, half-laughed. "And you know what happens then."
"It's… not ideal," her more human-appearing friend muttered with a grimace. The space marine chuckled again.
"How much?"
Turning to Jack, the ninja woman somehow made her costume's face look inquisitive.
"I normally ask six thousand dollars," he said, internally wincing since this was usually the point that a lot of people paled and left. In this case, she merely looked thoughtful, glancing at the prop her friend was still holding.
"Hmm. I can appreciate the amount of work that went into it, definitely..." She tapped her chin. "Five thousand."
He gasped. "Five thousand! You wound me, miss. Fifty-eight hundred."
She narrowed her eyes a little, making him grin inside. That costume was incredible. "I could wound you, yes. Fifty two."
Waving his arms theatrically, he laughed. "Completely out of the question. I couldn't possibly sell this work of art for less than fifty-seven hundred."
By now several other people had stopped to watch, and cameras were pointed their way. Con-goers liked a good show. And showman.
Or possibly show-lizard in her case.
Baring some very impressive plastic, or possibly ceramic considering how real they looked, teeth in a carnivorous smile, the woman leaned forward and put her fingertips on the table. "Work of art? This piece of plastic and metal scrap? I could find a better prop in a box of cornflakes. Fifty-three hundred. And that's me being overly generous because I'm just that nice."
Clapping a hand over his heart, he staggered. She was definitely smirking under there, and he heard another chuckle come from the space marine, who was watching with great interest. The brunette seemed resigned to the entire show, like it wasn't entirely unfamiliar.
"Nice? Nice! You're a vicious reptilian creature who probably assassinates good honest craftsmen like myself in their beds."
She nodded, managing to emote a pleased look, which almost made him crack up, but he managed to keep it together. The crowd had swelled, and a few of them were laughing.
"Fifty-six fifty, and I'm cutting my own throat at that price."
The woman grinned. "You sound just like someone I met once. His food was pretty good." Tapping her fingers on the table, she glanced at the prop, which her friend promptly held up with one hand and ran the other down it in the manner of a TV telesales ad. "Fifty four fifty, and I throw in a magic ring."
He stared at her. "Magic ring?" he asked.
"I could have done magic beans, but I got peckish and finished the bag," she smiled. "So all I can offer is a ring."
Jack himself was now snickering. "Magic ring. I like that, no one has ever tried that on me before. OK, where were we? Right, hold on..." He took a breath, while she waited politely.
"Magic ring?" he shouted. "You think to tempt me with your foul sorcery, woman? This is honest SCIENCE! Not... magic. Pah!"
A couple of people clapped, while the brunette was holding in giggles.
His bargaining opponent grinned again. "It's a very nice ring. Gold, fits anyone." She shrugged a little. "I made a few of them a while back and have some left over."
"And what… magic… does it have, pray tell? I suppose it's some sort of classic invisibiity spell or something like that." He looked skeptically at her.
"That was the original idea, yes," she chuckled. "Had some problems with it, though. We recalled them and changed the magic, so now it just stops you from getting burned while you have it on. Nothing major, but useful if you're a fireman or something."
"Do I look like a fireman?" he asked wryly.
"Not really," she admitted, smirking. "But it's still a nice ring." Reaching into a pouch on her belt, she pulled out the ring in question and flipped it to him. He caught it, feeling the weight with some surprise. It was much heavier than he'd have expected for a prop, so it probably was either gold or gold-plated tungsten. Looking at it closely, he admired the workmanship, at the same time he recognized the movie it had come from.
"Nice work," he said.
"Thanks."
"Authorized copy?"
"Well, essentially, you could put it like that," she smiled. "After a fashion."
Raising an eyebrow, he examined her, spotting the smile again. Rolling the ring in his fingers, he thought. It was a very well made prop, legit or not. "I still find myself hesitant to accept a mere magic ring in part exchange for such an item of superscience," he stated, in character.
"Don't you mean superSCIENCE!" the space marine lizard asked with humor in her voice.
He pointed at her. "Exactly. Your companion can see the truth of the matter. But then she is obviously from a high tech civilization, where you are merely from some feudal fantasy world." His finger moved to the one in the middle, who raised an eyebrow, her brown eyes showing inner hilarity but her face doing a pretty good job of taking all this as routine. "You, I have no idea."
"Combat witch," she replied, smiling a little.
"Combat witch?" he echoed.
"From another universe, of course. You don't have combat witches here."
"True. Is there much call for witches in combat?"
"If the combat is the right type, sure," she replied.
"And the tail?"
She indicated her companions. "Company policy."
"Fair enough." He grinned at her. "OK. Magic ring… I suppose I can probably knock a hundred bucks off for a magic ring."
"Genuine magic ring," the lizard ninja said. "Must be worth an easy hundred and fifty."
He sighed, holding the ring up to his eyes again. "I would have preferred a good blaster, myself," he commented. "Magic is no match for a good blaster. But it's shiny, if nothing else. Even if it is the result of some reptilian sorcery."
She appeared offended. "Highly skilled demonic magic, I think you meant to say. Not sorcery."
"And you think 'demonic' makes it better?" He looked askance at her as the brunette finally laughed.
"Demons make most things better," she giggled.
"You have a different definition of demon than I do," Jack grinned. "Fine. Fifty five, and one magic ring. But I expect the spells to work or I'll want a refund."
"Of course. I stand by my work the same as you do, my friend," she said. Pulling out a roll of cash large enough to choke a horse she started quickly peeling bills from it, counting under her breath. "Here you go. And thank you very much, oh purveyor of well-made props."
Bowing, he smiled. "I thank the wise and beautiful lizard-ninja," he said as he straightened up, accepting the stack of fifties.
"Ah. Someone finally realized the truth," she chuckled, looking at her friend, who rolled her eyes. "See? I said someone would one day."
"You are impossible."
"Merely moderately improbable."
Handing the prop back, they watched as he put it into the custom made box, slipped one of his cards in as well, then returned it to them. "Thank you for the purchase, and the show."
"Any time," she replied. "It was fun. Come on, guys, I want to get something to eat, then go and see that costume show."
"Are you entering it?" he asked curiously. "You'd stand a hell of a good chance of winning. Best costumes I've ever seen."
"Thanks, but probably not," she told him. "I'm too shy and retiring, I don't think I could stand up in front of a large crowd and let them stare at me."
The brunette almost choked with laughter, shaking her head at her friend, while the black lizard was shaking with quiet amusement. "You? Shy? Retiring? Have you gone utterly insane again?"
Jack watched with a grin as they headed off, arguing with each other about how none of them wanted to stand out in a crowd, while pushing through a huge crowd, in which they did stand out quite a lot. The last he saw of them was the head of the big lizard costume sticking a good foot over everyone else.
It was only after they left that he suddenly thought that he should have asked to have a look at the blaster rifle. Oh, well, perhaps they'd come back.
Pulling another portal gun from under the counter, he replaced the one he'd sold, then started serving more customers, many of whom had been attracted by the little skit. Business was so good as a result he half-thought that he should find that woman again and give her her money back, as a commission.
Shrugging, he dropped the ring he'd acquired into his pocket and got on with his day. So far, it was one hell of a good show.