Freelance Traveller - In a Store Near You

GalactiCurls

by Gaizka Márquez

This article originally appeared in Vuelo Raso N. 7, and was translated by Google Translate and Jeff Zeitlin for the September/October 2023 issue. Lea este artículo en español.

GalactiCurls are a long, light, and crunchy snack with high satiating power and low nutritional value. They are ideal for combating boredom during long space trips or uncomfortable waiting times. Although this type of snack is widespread in almost every corner of the Imperium, GalactiCurls, a Ling-Standard Products brand, has its main market is in Five Sisters, Urnian, District 268, and Glisten subsectors. GalactiCurls was founded in 996 as the LSP snack foods subsidiary, and operates as a semi-independent subsidiary of LSP.

Zla

Zla is a small, remarkably fast-reproducing, floating marine plant. Its round leaves remain afloat while the roots extend like tendrils below the surface. The whole plant has a yellowish-red color and a salty taste when eaten raw or cooked. When consumed in this way, it is reputed to produce a lot of flatulence and it is not considered polite or appropriate to serve it at dinners or lunches with a formal character (in some areas of the system it is even considered a kind of insult).

Due to its rapid growth, up to 3 harvests are made in a year and neglecting a plantation can endanger nearby ecosystems if they do not have enough fauna to absorb the excess plants. It is believed that they are not native plants, but rather were exported at some point in the past when the system was colonized.

Due to the innate hardiness of the plant, the changes in ecosystems and its danger to them, it has recently begun to be cultivated in water from industrial areas and with the intention of being used as a “natural water filter”, although it has not been shown that this can later transfer toxicity to the final product in case these last plants are not intended for consumption, an error in this process can be a good idea for adventure and investigation, especially if it is an instigated boycott for the competition.

Production

The snack’s main production plant is on Gohature (0632 Spinward Marches), although there are smaller subsidiary production plants on Iderati (0732 Spinward Marches), which is also GalactiCurls’ commercial logistics center.

Gohature is a center of zla agriculture, and zla is the main ingredient of GalactiCurls. Its flour (once the whole plants are dried and ground) absorbs a large amount of air when mixed with water and that makes it ideal for making GalactiCurls. During this part of the process, they receive the first load of dyes, giving a green, red, or white result depending on availability at the time of manufacture, since this does not alter the flavor.

The dough, already with an approximate color to that of the final product, is introduced through conveyor belts into huge elongated ovens at very high temperatures, resulting in the air inside the dough inflating before it has finished drying, after which it quickly cooks, giving it a light, crunchy texture.

The next step in the production process is printing. The product comes out of the oven and goes through some guns loaded with a reactive dye that engrave drawings on each curl. Although they are usually geometric shapes, sometimes emoticons or dates are introduced to celebrate an important event in the Imperium. The dye used is reactive to ultraviolet and neon lights giving a fluorescent or “glow in the dark” effect, which seems to fascinate children and drunks alike.

The penultimate step is the seasoning or flavoring. As they come off the belts, they fall into buckets with an inclined vibrating sieve, over which flavored flour powder is sprinkled, giving the curls any of several flavors or flavor blends ranging from sweet to savory to extremely spicy. After this (and in less than 30 seconds from the time the mass leaves the tank to the end of the sifting process), the curls are ready to be packaged and sent to Iderati for distribution. The speed is amazing and, despite the low weight of each bag, the Gohature plant produces 5 tons of curls per hour.

Distribution

GalactiCurls has its own cargo ships to move almost all production from Gohature to Iderati. It has a total of 4 freighters of 400 T that transport the almost 800 tons of production per week, although 15% remains and is marketed in the system itself.

Once delivered to the Iderati distribution facility, it is packaged in huge 1 kilo bags/sacks, which are sold for just 40 Cr at store prices. The 85% that is not sold in the Iderati system is distributed mainly through the trade routes of Flammarion (0930 Spinward Marches) or LSP's own ships.

The product itself, despite enjoying great popularity, has a relatively small market due to how unprofitable it is for long-distance shipping. This is why a single bag can reach 100 Cr at the extreme fringe of its sales area and it is thus rare to see it outside of "high standing" places. Starport chandlers and retailers do a surprising amount of business with GalactiCurls, since ships’ crews are their main potential customer - a large amount of snacks at a relatively inexpensive price that gives them snacks between meals for several weeks.

In the subsectors furthest away from the distribution center, such as Glisten or some intermediate system such as Noctocol (1433 Spinward Marches), it is quite common for local distributors to repackage 1 kilo bags into small 200 g packages that they sell at 15 Cr the pack, or even 30 Cr in the Glisten system (2036 Spinward Marches). These operations are not authorized by GalactiCurls, but a blind eye is usually turned because repackaging, even without authorization, guarantees more sales and movement of merchandise for the corporation than without it.

GalactiCurls in Your Campaign

Well, very simple, mention them when travelers are in the area, as a snack that they serve to accompany drinks or a snack available in a waiting room for someone important. Another way to introduce it is through some peddler at the gigantic Flammarion starport, who sells the sacks to travelers by hauling a bunch of them on a big cart.

The standard container for sale for external distribution and for speculative lots is a standardized container with a 2-ton capacity (type 50, three meters wide, three meters long and three meters high, with two doors and no roof) in which Inside, a total of 72 1-kilo bags fit. The base cost of the merchandise, including the container, is 2,500 Cr. To apply the DM for buying and selling, consider it common consumables in Urnian, Five Sisters, District 268, or Glisten subsectors; outside those areas, it may be considered luxury consumables, at the discretion of the referee.