Thursday DE: if I had a million dollars I'd buy you a house

[needsmoreresearch]

The third play in the set that my guy William comes from is pretty much James III saying "Everyone in Europe is having a Renaissance and I want one too," and his wife saying "That's lovely dear but we can't afford a Renaissance."

So today's DE is: What would your characters splash out a fortune on, if only they had a fortune to splash around? For the fabulously wealthy characters, what's a big expenditure that they feel genuinely satisfied with?

Comments

[onceholyknight]

This actually happens to Michael at the end of Skin Game - due to a set of complicated and spoilerish circumstances, he and his wife come into a not-so-small fortune in precious stones. Michael wants to turn it down, but Charity firmly points out they have seven or eight children to support through to college graduation and they are not turning it down.

So even when they're ridiculously rich, they're practical about it.

[just_cant_lose]

Jim is pretty happy with his new house in Los Santos! Because Sherlock likes it, mainly. Jim likes having nice things, but he doesn't care about them exactly. He sort of expects them as his due, given that he has a lot of money - if he's paid a lot for it, it doesn't mean much more to him than anything cheap would. There's a few exceptions to that, but not many.

But yeah. He likes the house because Sherlock's happy in it, and there's no one around to bother them. That's pretty satisfying to him.

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford still thinks Jim cares way too much about clothes. Nothing will ever change his mind.

[just_cant_lose]

Wilford is probably right. I would have mentioned clothes, only it's not really a big expenditure for him. He is definitely satisfied with the way he looks, though!

[cottoncandypink]

Jim's a goddamn peacock, and I think we can all agree on that.

[just_cant_lose]

No arguments here. Or from him, really. :D

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford doesn't like spending money. He just mostly doesn't see the point in expensive things. He had his $80,000 car, before he reset back to a time when he drove a car powered by bees, and he'll be getting the expensive car again. He always has the latest enormous smartphone (at least, once they become a thing). But he doesn't really see either of these things as being, like, a worthwhile purchase. He feels more like he deserves a nice car, after driving the bee-mobile around for so long, and in his line of work, you need an enormous smartphone that can do everything and has an amazing camera. But his fashion choices barely extend beyond a Walmart rack, or occasionally, a shoe store at the mall. All his music is on Spotify, save a small vinyl collection that he has just because. Even his glasses are cheap as hell, because he knows they're just going to get broken by somebody's fist in four months.

Before he left him in Jim's care, Wilford actually spent more money on keeping his dog happy than he did on himself. And he still does, given the dog currently has a considerable mount of money banked with the bar.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee would buy his own nightclub. Nothing big and fancy, but a place with room enough for a stage and a dance floor and a bar. The rest of that fortune would go toward hiring singers and dancers and an equally entertaining staff. The atmosphere would be welcoming and all-inclusive, because Emcee just wants to make people happy, dammit.

[inlovewithwords]

Eriond may not have a fortune, but he knows lots of people who do. Also, to be honest, it's sort of against the rules for him to go creating a fortune for himself like that--even Nedra, his brother who is into all things business, didn't do that--and humans have to pick how to distribute it because Free Will and Choice matters. ... but mostly going towards helping people, large scale and small.

Lois is thirteen years old, okay. She'd buy herself an awesome laptop and the best smartphone (and maybe a great data plan), her sister the same tech and put her on the plan, buy something really nice (including probably a phone) for her mom (maybe also a laptop? idk), and also something nice for her dad although that takes more thought. And then she might be like HEY maybe I should keep this money so I don't have to ask my parents to buy me a car later. Depending how much of a 'fortune' we're talking about, it's all probably still, like, at most $100/$200k so far and that's assuming she's gone for SUPER HIGH END stuff. If she has a ton left over, she stares. And is like. Uh. ...who do I give this to to help people? (once she's in the books timeline, probably ditches the car thing for LET'S SET UP A SCHOLARSHIP FUND FOR GIRLS IN JOURNALISM YO. Because Lois.)

Evelyn might be rare books or ingredients right now, but honestly, what she wants at this point in her life, money just cannot buy. Later she'll start by buying the party whatever equipment they need, because Not Dying Is Nice. She also checks with Ysa to see if she needs anything (and buys a present for Liranan) and if Hawke has not thoroughly pissed her off that week she'll ask him too (okay she'll probably ask him anyway but seriously, Hawke). Then she gives the rest to Cullen, Josie, and Lels in equal measure and it is No Longer Her Problem, Just Save The Stupid World Already. (They'll set up a fund for mage refugees anyway, she doesn't need to do that herself.)

R2-D2 probably got the fortune by hacking the Banking Clan or something, so who knows how much of the Republic and/or Separatist stuff and/or Empire is now collapsing completely (and also the fortune is massive). In general, first thing is repair, maintenance, and upgrade on himself and C-3P0. After that? If Padme's alive, give it to her after buying parts for Anakin to work on the ship (because Anakin is still the best mechanic and R2 would like both of them to Not Die while they're doing his insane flying), Ahsoka's ship, and probably Obi-wan's. If he's feeling super generous he might even let Anakin dip into it for shinies THAT ARE TOTALLY PADME'S SHIPS NOT AT ALL HIS JEDI DO NOT OWN PROPERTY >_< If Padme is not around anymore, put a bunch into two separate things for Luke and Leia and dump the rest on Bail for the Rebellion. (And maybe present for Ahsoka if she's around at the time.) Post-Alderaan, of course, also ship parts for Luke because see previous comment, hide more for the kids, and then dump the rest on Leia for the Rebellion.

Anakin does not know what to do with money. Seriously. In fact, to be honest, during the Clone Wars his answer is almost exactly what R2's is, except that he definitely buys ships (NO IT IS TOTALLY PADME'S MONEY SHE IS BUYING SHIPS not at all his he modded them as a favor to the senator really why are you asking did we mention jedi cannot own property shut up go away). He does seem to get paid, so he can buy them nice dinner from time to time. He might keep some of it for that and buying her presents but idek. Most of it goes to her.
Vader also really doesn't know what to do with money, tbh. Maintenance on himself and ships? Whatever. He apparently gets paid or just takes however much stuff/credits Palpatine doesn't care about him having. He does eventually find use for said funding! There is a mildly hilarious side trip into hiring a trigger-happy mad archaeologist and helping her acquire essentially evil-mirror-universe R2 and 3P0 and she does stuff for him, but mostly he just hires people (mostly bounty hunters) to go bring him his wayward Rebellious son.
Dead!Anakin could conceivably have something tucked away (see: Vader). At that point either in-Bar he tells R2 or either in-Bar or in-canon he might be able to tell Luke about it directly (yay, Force ghosts). Also, because she'll let Luke have whatever he needs, his instructions? "Just give it to your sister."

Tavi can answer part of this himself, because he begins with a question: "Which fortune? They have different applications. Do you know how much of a headache budgeting is? I don't have to deal with the details, thank the furies, but I keep a general idea of where our money is going. *rubs forehead* Fine. Shorthand answer is family presents and necessities out of personal budget--mostly people do that for me--books not just for us but for the Academy out of personal, Crown and Senate funding cover different aspects of the day-to-day upkeep of running the Realm, and then the rest of all three of those and any other money I can scrape together go to war effort, clean-up, refugee aid, and rebuilding. You don't want to know what the loans look like."

Honestly, I don't know what he's going to be prouder of: forcing Alera into actually functioning after an apocalypse; building an entire new capital city from the ground up; or a new Academy that admits non-Alerans, non-Citizens without requiring patronage from Citizens, has financial aid for students, and includes not-dumb archaeology, foreign languages and history and culture, better science, and engineering with and without furycrafting.

[mnt_mike]

Of mine, I think only Bumi would know what to do with a large sum of money.
And the party he would throw would be sick.
Like epic levels of sick.

[the_cupbearer]

Ganymede has money, and mostly he spends it on other people: at this point in his life it's become something more like a game, seeing if he can legitimately get rid of most money.

Noriko is finding out how different things are when you have it: she doesn't, her boyfriend does. She's doing her best to completely ignore the vast differences in the people they know. She'd love to have the ability to give people housing, though; safe, reasonable houses, like mall homes or tiny houses or something. That's about as far as her desires for it go, though.

Micah does not particularly have fortunes; he gets by in what he considers a reasonable fashion, but...not wealthy. Mostly he wouldn't know what to do with a large sum of money, but he imagines the vampires would have a few suggestions. Whether or not he takes them up on it is another question, though.

[iprotectyou]

All the people Baze would spend money on are dead. He would have bought housing and good food and water for the orphans back home, but the Death Star blasted all of them to oblivion. Baze could spend money on Chirrut, but the larger man wouldn't know what to buy, except for enough sapir to make the his smaller friend sick--and Chirrut has that from the bar now.

ETA: OH SHIT WHOOPS! Chirrut-mun just pointed out that the orphans got away! Yay! They're all alive somewhere in the galaxy! This pleases Baze.

[heatherandsteel]

Charles is currently investing his money in turning the mansion into a school and rebuilding Cerebro and investing in the future of mutants.

Cassian has never had money, he might pretend he does for jobs, that took learning to act like he belongs. If he came into a fortune, probably stolen from the Empire or a crime syndicate it goes right back into the Rebellion. Honestly he's probably stolen small to medium amounts for various cells he's been a part of. That covers everything from travel visas for refugees and informants, bacta, money for ship repairs, weapons and ammo.

Quentin has money and mainly uses it to make sure Toby and their household has food. She never buys enough. He'll also splurge on tech stuff because he's a teenage boy.

William did have an influx of money after his father's death, that was used to buy the land and get Mark to school.

Sameth has never worried about money and really can't buy what he wants which is more understanding of the Charter.

Moist is really good at taking people's fortunes and investing them in nice suits and some small luxuries for himself.

Ivan has a fortune that he doesn't really spend, he lives on his salary with extras for clothing, cars/lightflyers and presents for girlfriends.

Will S. wouldn't know what to do with a fortune, he'd give it to Robin for Nottingham and put some of it into Milliways' funds.

Demeter has a fortune and at the moment is using it to help refugees and small farmers in her area.

Tumnus is part of the royal household and he has his home, he wouldn't know what to do with a lot of extra.

[bjornwilde]

Late, but what the hell...

Money and Jedi don't mix well, so I will say Ahsoka (especially after season 04) but buy a lot of slaves and grant them their freedom. I don't know if she'd think of providing enough of a fund for each that they can start a life. Post-CW, she'd buy herself a fast freighter with offensive potential.

Anything left over for Post-CW Ahsoka's fortune would likely go towards food and medicine the needy might need. While it's tempting to say she'd give it to the Rebellion, I feel like she thinks it's not her place to fund or fight for the Rebellion as a leader. It's too close to how the Jedi fell in the Clone Wars.