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A news article about the portals gets into the Wall Street Journal. Isabella gives a small press release to the others. She raises the price. She buys a parking garage each in Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia, and over the next week Adarin puts portals in them. She raises the price again, because there's only so much room in the hub. She is attacked by various blogs accusing her of elitism and an entitlement complex.
She takes her accumulated ticket money and her loan money and hires contractors to build a proper portal port (it amuses her to say this phrase) on her land into which the portal walls may be moved. (She made them out of relatively portable - ha - material; they should be movable into their new homes when ready without cracking, and if one breaks, Adarin can replace it.) The estimated date of the portal port's completion is in very late October, and that's because it's a rush job she's paying exorbitantly for. She expects to want to replace it with a more congenially located and prettily architected building in two or three years, not to mention better solutions than repurposed parking garages on the far ends, but an adequate port now will be better than an ideal one in a year. It has asphalt for cars to drive on and plenty of dangling signs and paint on the ground to direct them on the first floor, and ramps up for pedestrians to go from portal to portal (around a circular promenade with spaces for restaurants and suchlike to nest in, if they care to fork over the outrageous rent.) There are slots for two hundred and fifty portals in this structure and room to build another ring around it for an equal number more if she doesn't have the big pretty permanent version up soon.
She buys a garage in Phoenix, hires people to paint over its misleading signage, and Adarin puts a portal in it. She raises her prices but also starts selling week passes for just three times the price of a round trip ticket. She tells the manager-level staffperson to hire more underlings and promote one or two. She could repay her loan, now; she doesn't, in case she needs the slush fund for something.
Between portal-makings, Adarin makes mirrors; Isabella's parents get half-pairs, and there are extras around for people's daemons. Ranata is not clear on what the advantage over telephones is supposed to be. Adarin receives a telephone. Isabella's house becomes home to a nice computer.
She hires security guards and a human resources person and a payroll clerk. She buys a garage in San Antonio and Adarin puts a portal in it.
She turns twenty.
dark_light
prodigal_miser
"Slightly more likely than usual since it's portable, but I put some protections on it. It's a bag rather than another slab so it doesn't break entirely if dropped. Flexibility, and all that, at the cost of potential for tearing."
dark_light
Isabella nods. "I'm gonna put my alethiometer and thingamajigs and current notebooks and trail mix and stuff in there."
prodigal_miser
"Probably a spare mirror or two, as well. Just in case. It'll work between planes, too, if you were wondering."
prodigal_miser
"I hadn't thought about it! Probably still the books, but without the personalized designs and the 'Only Isabella may open this' magic. I have no idea what would replace the portal-bag."
dark_light
"Well, I'm terribly charmed by the portal bag, so I'm glad we don't live in that universe."
prodigal_miser
"Me too! I would have been stuck on another plane and I'd have never met you. Also, no portal capitalism would be terrible."
dark_light
"Yes. Soonish the port will be completed and I can handle more traffic and cut the price and blogs will stop shouting at me."
prodigal_miser
"... Blogs are shouting at you? Where's this?"
(His side of the internet is less focused on 'news' and 'blogs' and more focused on 'how do I [x].')
(His side of the internet is less focused on 'news' and 'blogs' and more focused on 'how do I [x].')
dark_light
"People who feel very strongly that everything ought to be affordable to all sectors of the population. At all stages of its development. Regardless of traffic capacity. Either that or they want me to allocate tickets by lottery."
prodigal_miser
"Uh huh. Do they realize that would shock the entire economy to instantly change methods of transportation like that? It's also a slow settling, along with traffic capacity management."
prodigal_miser
He snorts with laughter. "I'll have to write some sermons. Lots of sermons. With good logical arguments and a time for openly discussed questions at the end. That'll convince them."
prodigal_miser
"But they're not part of the religion of sense, Isabella. They will probably be upset about the crowds."
dark_light
"Yes! Anyway eventually it'll be cheap and they'll find something else to complain about."
dark_light
"How dare I put my refugees on another planet instead of fighting to get them citizenship in an existing country? Alternatively, how dare I invite immigration into a plane that rightly belongs to Earthlings, every inch."