Counterfiting
1: counterfeiting
Luz was busy looking over the households budget, seeing is there was anything she could do to help ease the strain of adding 5 more people to a single income household. Officially, only her mom had to worry about it and she was supposed to focus on being a kid. Unofficially (according to Luz), this was her fault and she had to do something to fix it. Which is how she ended up taking the binder her mom used out of her room while she was at work to look though it and figure out what she could do to help.
While their friend was trying to figure out how to slip her allowance back into her mom’s account without her noticing, Amity and Gus were looking at $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills that Luz had stashed in her room from before she went to the Isles.
“So, this is what humans use for Snails?” Gus asked.
“In the US they do, but other countries use their own form of currency. There are also coins, but they are lower denominations then the bills. Don’t ask me why they decided that, I don’t know.”
Amity was just shaking her head at the money. “I just can’t believe they would use something that would be so easy to damage. You don’t see snails catching on fire, getting torn, or being water damaged.”
Gus looked thoughtful at that. “Yeah, and these are way too easy to counterfeit. You just need some ink and paper.”
At that Luz put down her pencil and turned to look at them. “That is not even remotely right. I saw some videos online about the safe guards put in place. The bills are printed on fabric-based paper that is only produced by one company in the world that is kept a very close watch over so that no one else can get their hands on. Also, the images on the bill are made with a very specific ink put on in very specific patters that you need special equipment to make. The is also a small strip in each one that glows under UV lights that has different patterns and locations depending on the denomination of bill it is. And there are probably even more that weren’t mentioned in that video.”
Gus and Amity just looked at each other before back at Luz. “any objections if we take these 4 bills with us back to the cabin for a bit? We want to try something out.”
Luz thought for a moment. “If you help me figure out how to cut expenses, I will consider it a fair trade if you end up destroying $36 dollars.”
Amity just smiled and walked over to sit down next to Luz and look at the math. “Doing accounting with my girlfriend is #7 on my top date ideas list.”
Luz just shot her a look. “Really? Why do people think I’m the nerd in this relationship if you think doing a balance sheet is a good time.”
Amity then interlocked her fingers with Luz’s. “don’t worry, it’s the ‘with you’ that gets it that high.”
The next day at the Shack
A large man wearing a tux and a fez was holding a cane with an 8-ball handle was giving a group of tourist a hall filled with exibits about all the mysteries of the world.
Not that shack
Luz had just entered to see how her friends were doing. Her mom wouldn’t be home from work for a bit so she had some time to check in. As she entered, she saw Gus and Amity sitting on beanbag chairs with a small table in front of them with 3 $20s and 1 $1.
“Did you ask mami for some more money to examine?”
Gus just smiled at Luz. “No, that’s what we wanted to show you.”
He then twirling his finger and making a ghostly form of the $20 on the far-left side float over and overlay the $1. Amity then had the small amount of abomination goo she brought from the Isles in a flask cover the $1. She then lifter her other hand and began to focused as both had glowing rings around each one. Her entire face was scrunched up in concentration, changing a little bit every now and them.
Luz felt like she could just watch her girlfriend do that all day.
After a few minutes she withdrew her goo and left behind a $20 bill where before there was a $1.
Luz just staired at them. “How did you do that?”
Amity just smiled at her. “Using abomination goo to lift and move ink after it has been printed onto a piece of paper is a common training technique for abomination students. It is even a entire field in the Isles to essentially be a living printing press and editors since a good one can replicate an entire book in a few minutes with the help of a illusionist who makes a pattern for us to follow.”
She then gestured to the bills. “All we did here was move the ink already on the bill around until it looked just like the real $20 you gave us. We kept the serial numbers the same as though, since those are unique to each bill. The strip was harder to change, but just moving it a little so it’s in the right place was much easier.”
Luz just staired at the $80 on the table where before there was just $36 for a few minutes before a smile broke out on her face. She then looked up to her friends.
“Who want to go grocery shopping for the week.”
Both of them stood up with smiles on their face.
“Spending time in a human market?”
“Spending time with my girlfriend in public without worrying about my mom doing anything?”
The two then looked right at each other and said at the same time “paying Camilla back for taking care of us?”
They then rushed over to Luz and hugger her. “When can we go?”
Later
Camilla pulled into the driveway next to her house before parking and walking inside. He day was really rough, having to deal with a number of people that thought that owning a pet meant that you were automatically an expert on how to take care of them and that having a vet degree was just having a fancy piece of paper with no real meaning.
When she went inside she saw that Luz had gone to the store and was busy putting the grocery’s away with the help of her friends. When she heard the door open, she turned around and greeted her with a smile.
“Welcome home Mami.”
“Hi Luz, and thanks for getting the groceries. Where did you get the money for those?”
She just smiled. “We used cash you put aside specifically for my grocery runs. I put the receipt in there so you can better do the accounting later.”
Camilla smiled at her daughter. “Thank you, after a tired day like today, I forgot to get any myself.”
She then went over to the stash and checked the receipt. It might have been her imagination, but it looked like there was more money in there than earlier.
Camilla then decided to worry about that later and then start on dinner.