Meldan, Veridia · 3725 Rainmoon 22

The hotel door has a green circle. Zip taps the watch on it, the way you tap a keg to see if it is empty.

Zip has no reputation in Veridia. Zip has no history here at all. In this country you do not show your name, you show a proof, and Zip has nothing to prove except that the mop was clean when he left.

A robot brings tea to a stranger on a bench and rolls away. Nobody tips it. Nobody talks to it. Zip watches this for a long time and understands two things. First: in Veridia, the only money that works for a nobody is the kind you burn. Second: nobody here has ever been poured a drink by a person.