Algol's Incredibly Legitimate Import Emporium

Motto: “Legitimate goods at illegitimate prices! I even accept your mother, although last night does not count [haha]!” - Algol Marida

Algol's is a relatively new import store opened up by Algol Marida, a relatively unknown immigrant of an unknown race who successfully completed his citizenship months before the store opened. Very little is known about the roguishly handsome and somewhat dishonest character who owns the store and loft complex stacked over it, other than that he paid entirely in precious gems and hard cash and subsequently opened his bank accounts on-world.

The store turned out to make a decent profit over the course of the next few months, selling high-class luxury items to marines coming off the post-mission high such as Elysian firearms, Lorath consumables and Freeespacer VR experiences. In order to avoid being pursued by the authorities for his moonlighting and justify the reason why about an eighth of the apartments were permanently vacant, Algol's quickly became licensed as a pawn shop and brothel, subsequently tripling its profit margin and doubling its infamy²⁾.

In the span of a year, the store and the building itself became something of a discrete hotel of high-class scum, mercenaries and wealthy people who preferred the assured anonymity of their landlord's business style. People visited his locale, bound by strict rules of conduct and the impending risk of being severely beaten by a man with a clawed gauntlet for a left hand, coming to depend on him as the local 'fixer' who could get anything that didn't break the local laws, all through entirely legal connections to the Lorath Matriarchy, Free State and Nepleslian scavenging community.

The building is a relatively new one, consisting of a converted factory building that was refurbished into a series of upscale apartments when the industrial centers of the colony were pushed outward as the site started taking shape and a large store with an extensive basement and storage space. Approximately four floors of high-ceiling, modern loft apartments were subsequently laid on top of the old warehouse in a strange meshing of the smooth high-tech style and industrial grit of the old building, making the apartment block one of the taller ones on the street.

Entering through the main doorway, there is a small foyer with some coffee tables and leather chairs (all surreptitiously bolted down into the floor to prevent theft) with a full view of the street protected by thick bulletproof Transparent Durandium windows and automatic sliding doors. Most of the furniture is fake, with expensive-looking high-grade texture plastics and leathers, but of a decent quality and built to withstand the rigors of regular abuse by Nepleslian colonists and soldiers.

At the back of the foyer are Algol's store and the entrance to the apartment complex side by side, which consists of a pair of heavy elevators and a winding narrow staircase that wraps around them, leading up to the various floors. There are also emergency and utility staircases inside of even narrower shafts, connected to the lobby and the store which require maintenance keycards to access.

The apartments themselves all consist of 900 sq/ft blocks with two large bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and an open-plan living space that combines the kitchen, living room and dining rooms. Every apartment has twelve foot ceilings, balcony access and nine foot window panes that run full length in the living space, although the general layout is a little varied depending on the floor. The walls are all made of a mixture of fake wood, synthetic stone and metal broken up by locally-produced industrial plastics to give it a welcoming and rugged (if fake) atmosphere.

In general, the apartments feature plenty of display space all over the walls (including the bathrooms) and the windows themselves feature integrated displays that allow them to double as screens or change color to hide the inside of the apartment or lower the light intake. Interestingly, one of the flaws of the design was that all of the utility rooms are about ten times the size they should be, which allowed the staff to refurbish them as secondary rooms for various purposes.

All utilities are included, including electrical, water, interNep, air conditioning/heating and regular maintenance. Marines and other military personnel get lowered rent because of government subsidies, making these a catch for any locals lucky enough to get a room.

Apartments on the 1st floor are packed in as 3 bedroom apartment and subsequently reduce the size of the overall living space. These are slightly more expensive by the square footage than 2nd and 3rd floor apartments, but are proportionally cheaper if people are willing to partner up. The utility room is a laundry room for people too lazy to do their own clothes or walk to the nearby laundromats, and offers a cleaner service, which is extremely with the marines living in the apartments.

Fees for laundry are included in rent, although some people do pay bribes to move their clothes to the front of the queue, occasionally resulting in bidding wars and fistfights between the tenants.

Cost: 1000 DA/month, 150 for SMODIoN

• Apartment 1-01: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-02: VACANT
• Apartment 1-03: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-04: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-05: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-06: VACANT
• Apartment 1-07: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-08: OCCUPIED
• Utility Room: LAUNDRY

The lofts on the 2nd floor are technically split between several brothel rooms each split two ways with the standard setup in the building, and feature soundproofed walls, ceilings, floors and doorways. The second floor's utility room was converted to a sauna and shower room, with 8 different individual saunas that could comfortably fit four ID-SOLs, 16 lockable stalls for the patrons to clean up and get changed. Rent is cheapest on this floor compared to the other three, although space is generally limited.

Cost: 800 DA/month, 50³⁾ SMODIoN

• Apartment 2-01: VACANT
• Apartment 2-02: VACANT
• Apartment 2-03: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 2-04: VACANT
• Apartment 2-05: BROTHELS
• Apartment 2-06: BROTHELS
• Apartment 2-07: BROTHELS
• Apartment 2-08: BROTHELS
• Utility Room: SAUNA

The 3rd Floor is entirely conventional by the standards of the apartment, featuring only soundproofed windows, ceilings and floors. The utility room on this floor doubles as a recreation room and features a modest pool hall with three tables and a dozen interNep-connected gaming/browsing terminals. Requests for a gun range and bar have been turned down in order to prevent a conflict with Deidre's Huge Rack of Guns and Jensen's Bar.

Cost: 900 DA/month, 250 for SMODIoN

• Apartment 1-01: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-02: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-03: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-04: VACANT
• Apartment 1-05: VACANT
• Apartment 1-06: VACANT
• Apartment 1-07: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-08: OCCUPIED
• Utility Room: REC ROOM

The 4th Floor is the most expensive of the four and has the best view. In addition to having access to the owner's private greenhouse space, it's also the floor where Algol keeps his doublesized suite, which features a massive bedroom/study and four guestrooms, two of which are taken by his adoptive daughters. Most of the residents of the 4th floor are either businessmen or SMODIoN officers who rarely mingle with the people who live on the other floors.

Cost: 1400 DA/month, 450 for SMODIoN

• Apartment 1-01: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-02: VACANT
• Apartment 1-03: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-04: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-05: OCCUPIED
• Apartment 1-06: VACANT
• Suite: OCCUPIED, Algol Marida
• Utility Room/Rooftop Access: ALGOL's GARDEN

Algol's Incredibly Legitimate Import Emporium reflects the slightly tastes of its owner, with rich (fake) mahogany floors and elegant (fake) crowning and detailing around the walls and ceiling arches. The space is strewn with pillows, rugs and curtains which give it an unusual atmosphere, with water pipes set around the corners and various incenses and scented oils burning.

There are display cases and racks around showcasing various imported good such as wines, spices, kitchenwares and exotic foodstuffs. While weapons sold in the store, they are not displayed publicly and are kept in the warehouse section of the store. At any given moment, there will usually be an attendant at the desk, either Algol himself, his Helashio daughter or one of several Yorna and SILVER he keeps around to keep his running costs low.

The back of the store section opens up to a large warehouse with several robot arms lifting and stacking various containers on semi-magnetized holding racks, which still carries the gritty aesthetic of the previous owner. Most of this area is filled with these storage racks, and has not been extensively refurbished, with only the far left of the area altered and modified up to contain his pawnbroker office and auction stage. The office consists of a reinforced room (once the welding room for the factory), with holding racks and safes effectively lining the walls, with Algol's other daughter and chief appraiser behind the desk. Although some marines do sell their belonging at the front store for quick cash, most would rather go through the back where they can get a fair deal for their belongings. The auction stage consists of a few raised (fake) wooden platforms and splotlights, and enough room for a few dozen fold-out chairs.

The warehouse also contains his private workshop, which includes a tanner's stand, a few sewing machines and his prized possession, a rare 3D printer⁴⁾ made from alien technologies. The androids who work the shop and building all have their rooms in the workshop, where it's a relatively easy matter for them to get materials for repairs. There aren't really enough beds for all of them, so they tend to hot bunk, sleep in shifts and share beds, depending on the day.

Food

• (28): 4-Pack Manly Meat Roll, 28 DA HOT! WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!
• 4-Pack Spiced Mystery Sausage, 14 DA WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Drinks

• (90): Lorath Aphrodisiac Wine 183 DA BEST SELLER!
• Lorath Sedative Wine 39 DA
• Lorath Hallucinogenic Wine 313 DA SWEET BALLS!
• Lorath Mood Elevating Wine 273 DA
• (20): Lorath Custom Blend Wine⁵⁾ 432 DA BEST SELLER
• Black Wolf Pinot Noir, 198 DA
• Black Wolf Freya White, 198 DA
• Black Wolf Fenrir White, 198 DA
• (25): Black Wolf Wolf White Frost Ice Wine, 198 DA
• (15): Black Wolf Wolf Blood Frost Ice Wine, 191 DA

Tobacco

• Coals for Hookah⁶⁾, 2 DA
• 2 kg Unsorted Prime tobacco leaf, Delsauria, 30 DA
• 2 kg Unsorted Prime tobacco leaf, System P1-9 "Fortuna", 30 DA
• Packet of 30 “SLAP YO GRANNY” cigarette papers, 30

• (80): Authentic Yamataian-styleWoks⁷⁾, 93 DA
• (100): Authentic Yamataian-style Nabemono⁸⁾, 75 DA
• Gas-mini burners for Nabemono, 11 DA
• Assorted kitchen knives, 9-34 DA

• (40): Fur Ushanka, handmade⁹⁾, 70 DA

• (3): Gold-alloy Styrling Auto Twelve, 1400 DA DO THESE EVEN EXIST?!

• (1): EM-K3 Armored Mobile Pharmacy¹⁰⁾, 2100 DA

Items that have been pawned off will remain in Algol's storage until someone else buys them.

Any standing commissions for or import orders for foreign or exotic wares, such as handmade fur coats, Lorath plasma rifles or Yamataian undergarments.

Upcoming auctions for special items that were either pawned off or bought from salvagers.