Vick and the Alterscope

This branch is inspired by PaganLion's Like To Like story. Check it out, it's excellent.

I hopped off the bus in plenty of time to walk the short half block to my job at the coffee shop. I needed this job, and had not been yelled at by my boss Bethany for being late yet, I've seen her ire turned on my lazy coworker plenty and did not want it turned on me too.

Victoria, never Vicky, didn't seem to care about the job at all and spent most of the time on her phone. More tips for me, I suppose, but the whole reason our shifts overlap is to deal with the lunch rush. Not that Brewtastic! sells more than over the counter snacks to go with it's coffee, but plenty of the office workers around still make it the busiest time of the day.

Halfway to the store I was stopped by the sight of a new shop. It looked like it had been there for years but hadn't been here yesterday I could swear. "Celestial Delights? When did this go up?" I looked at my watch, I had plenty of time, why not check it out.

Pushing past the door as a bell rang I looked around seeing what honestly looked like a lot of junk scattered seemingly at random across the store's many shelves. Jackpot! No wait, while this place had the look of a pawn shop or thrift store everything looked brand new, even the stuff that was obviously very old. For a moment there I had hoped this could be another place to find treasures.

"I can help you." Caught in my moment of introspection I was startled by the sudden voice and looked over to see a beautiful blonde woman wearing a white dress standing behind the shop's counter. She was standing over something on a scrap of leather and was holding what looked like jewelers tools.

"Did you mean can I help you?" If she was fixing something maybe they had some junk after all.

She waved me over energetically with a broad smile. "Nope! I can help you Vick. Just as I said."

"Um, okay." I said, rubbing the back of my neck as I walked over. "Hey wait a minuet! How did you know my name?!"

She winked at me. "Magic." As she giggled the large gold cross she wore bounced on her chest. Was she dressed up like some kind of nun?

I looked down at the item on the counter, unable to meet her gaze after a crazy statement like that. More like she'd heard of me from the other junk dealers in town and was messing with me. It looked like a short brass spyglass with some colored glass inserts along it's length. Pretty fancy, and not at all broken. "I was just looking for some junk I could fix up to resale for cash kind of thing. It doesn't look like you have anything like that."

That got a big laugh out of her and I looked back up at her with a raised brow. "If only you could fix my partner, she's totally broken."

"I heard that!" Another voice, that sounded oddly similar to the blonde's, yelled from a back room.

"Ignore her. So you need money?"

She gave me a earnest look, like she really did want to help me, and I found myself spilling more to some stranger, no matter how good she looked, than I normally would. "Okay so I'm broke, I've been broke for what feels like my whole life. And the stupid thing is there's money. My dad left my mom plenty of cash and a really nice house when he didn't come back from his last job but she hoards it unless she wants something while she expects me and my older sister to pay rent just to stay there. Of course my other sister, who can do no wrong, not only doesn't have to pay rent but anything her scholarship doesn't cover mom has no problem shelling out for. But that's besides the point, I found I have a real knack for fixing up old things and I've gotten good money in the past finding treasures in stores like I thought this one was after I worked on them."

I'd gone on for a bit there, way more information than I should have been comfortable sharing with a stranger, but she was just nodding along and still smiling. "I can totally help you. Good with your hands, but not a lot of spare cash. Well this here is the thing for you." She was gesturing down at the brass tool in front of her.

"What is it?" It certainly looked well made, somehow brand new and old at the same time. Like a steampunk costume prop.

She shrugged. "I just made it, it doesn't really have a name yet. Hmmmm, how about The Alterscope!?"

I heard cackling from the back room. "You have got to be kidding me with that shit."

"What does it do?" I asked, figuring it for a spyglass or kaleidoscope. Not that I could see how either of those would help me.

She gritted her teeth and ignored the voice from the other room. "Right, a demonstration." She picked up the brass tube and showed me the side with what I had thought were colored glass slides set partially in the brass. Up close they looked more like gems. "So the first thing you do is press the emerald lens here into place." It slid in with a click. "Oh and you need a target!" She dropped down and rummaged through the shelf under the counter briefly before popping back up with a slightly larger than golf ball sized object in her other hand and set it on the counter.

"Is that a pearl?" That was worth a fortune if real.

The blonde woman nodded grinning. "Yep, the Pearl of Peril! But you don't want this, it's just for demonstration."

"Didi don't fuck with that pearl!" The voice from the back yelled "I have a target, I mean a client, lined up for it already."

The woman in white, Didi apparently, Turned back to the open doorway and yelled back. "It's fine, you'll have two of them in a second if you'll stop jogging my elbow!" She turned back to me with a giggle. "Now where was I? Oh yes so you look through the Alterscope with the emerald lens in place and press this button here." She lifted the brass tube to show me a square button on the underside of the device, then pointed it back at the big pearl. "And then release the button to set the pattern in place." I heard a click and then she pulled a penny out of her pocket and put it on the counter. "Next you press in the ruby lens along with the emerald." She did so. "And aim the Alterscope at what you want to change." She sighted the tube down at the penny and with another click there was now a second pearl on the counter where the penny was a moment before. "Pretty neat eh? You can make all kinds of money with that."

I stood there stunned looking back and forth between the two pearls. When I looked back up at the store worker there was a redhead wearing a lacy black dress that looked really quite a lot like the blonde standing next to her. "You actually got it working? Okay I'm impressed."

"Shut it Vivi, I'm with a customer." Glancing up at my stunned look she seemed concerned. "Are you okay?"

"How? How did that. What? You just turned a penny into a giant pearl! That thing is worth a fortune! I can't afford that!"

"Hmmm." She casually tapped the brass tube on her mouth unconcerned at it's apparent power. "That is a point. Tell you what, you're good with your hands. I'll let you have this for a week and if you can figure out what else it does it's yours."

Vivi scoffed. "That's it? You're not even going to tell him how to turn things back?"

Didi turned to glare at Vivi again. "I was getting to that." Back to smiling at me. "To turn something back just press in the amethyst lens." She clicked out the red and green gems before pressing in the purple I noted, and with a click the penny was back. "Oh and this one's for free as well if you're feeling really naughty, press in the sapphire as well as the emerald and ruby to leave a changed persons awareness on."

"Wait! This thing works on people?!"

Both women nodded at me. One with a kind grin, the other with a grin that made me really want to leave the store right now. I was also scared at the power this stranger was just willing to hand me like it meant nothing to her. And she made this thing. But this was money, this was a way to never have to deal with my mother or sisters again. To pay my own way through college. I couldn't pass this up. "Okay, cool. I'll uh just use it on objects if that's okay? One week? That sounds like a deal, do I need to sign anything?"

"Nope. I'll see you in a week Vick." She placed the Alterscope in a fine leather satchel that looked like it had been made just for it, zipped it up tight, and placed it in my hands. "Have fun."

"But not too much fun..." The redhead leered at me and I beat a hasty retreat for the door.

Outside in the bright sunlight I tried to shake off the atmosphere of the strange shop, then glanced at my watch. "Shit! Is that the time?" I started running for work, the leather case in my hand almost forgotten.

Almost.