Brass Futures

Price tags hung suspended in the empty stall, glowing faintly as though lit from within by what was *not* there. Patrons moved among them, hands sketching shapes in the air—not toward acquisition, but tracing the outlines of worth itself. Their movements echoed the focused energy of those tracking distant markets, responding to fluctuations unseen and intangible. Each tag became a small echo chamber, value building not from inherent qualities but through repeated assessment and shared attention; a shifting luminescence hinted at whether these prices described reality or simply created it.