Name: Cerci Zerrin
Nickname:- Cece (pronounced See-See): Cerci’s father called her by this name while she was growing up and continued to call her this as she became older. She adores hearing it from her father, but refuses to allow anyone else to call her this; mainly because she feels it would lose its meaning if anyone else besides her father says it.
- Seagull: A term of endearment that she was often called by her uncle, Piero. He referred to her as such due to her constant following and “squawking” whenever he was home, almost like a seagull who had found a victim with a bag of chips. The older she became the less he called her this, but she never forgot and has even caught herself using it in her common diction.
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Species: Human; although Cerci is living on the spaceport she was born on the planet Montressor and has all the characteristics and features of an average human.
Position: - Neutral Good: Cerci’s position on the current state of the worlds has yet to be decided. She sees the issues at hand as a definite evil and in need of righteous justice, but knows not how to handle it head on. Although she wishes to assist those who are in danger, she feels that she should be owed in return. Whether it be in form or favor, Cerci believes that for every action there is a reaction which means if she’s acting then someone better be reacting with a bit of cash for her assistance.
- Lawful Good: Although Cerci primarily believes in helping herself while she’s helping others, she knows in her heart that that is not the way it was meant to be. Her father and uncle both raised her to assist where she is needed no matter the circumstances; if help is warranted than she must act for the greater good and for the safety of those around her. Because of this upbringing, she will at times defer to her better judgment and act for the sake of acting even if it means putting herself in a ‘no pay’ situation.
Powers/Abilities/Techniques/Skills: Because Cerci was born with a heart condition (see history/limitations), she is unable to properly wield any magical castings (cure, blizzard, fire, etc.) or weapons of massive power/weight. She was, however, taught how to wield a charge pistol and a sword by her Uncle Piero as a means to ‘defend herself and her family’.
Sword Skills: Although she isn’t the best sword wielder in the galaxy she feels that if placed within a difficult situation she would be able to handle herself without obtaining too serious an injury. Cerci's sword fighting style is based off of a single-handed technique, meaning she aims primarily for the chest and the face. The reason for this is due to the size and make of her sword, which requires her to take on a forward offensive and direct attack approach when it comes to battling enemies; this also makes her a short-range fighter. A few drawbacks to this fighting style include being ineffective for long-range thrusts and also making it difficult to perform defensive moves; if she strikes and misses its leaving her open for a full frontal attack.
- Fast Blade: to make up for her inability to perform proper defensive maneuvers with her sword, she is able to use the special ability fast blade (once every three posts – six posts if she is feeling fatigued). Using this ability helps to deliver a twofold attack on her enemies which doubles her strength while the ability is in use. After using this ability, the exertion from the attack can at times take its toll on her body, making her movements slower and causing her breath to shorten; this prevents her from using the move consecutively. **This ability is only available if Midas is equip.**
Pistol Skills: Along with her ability to wield a sword, Cerci is able to effectively handle a charge pistol. This being said, the extent to her ability is that she can point and shoot; her aim leaves a lot to be determined, so to speak, she has missed more often than she has hit her mark. Her pistol’s ammunition consists of blast charges that paralyze upon contact; the gauge can fire off two shots before it needs to charge again and reload (recharge takes two posts). The paralysis from the charge isn't permanent in anyway and only lasts for a short period of time (one post) ; this makes the charge pistol more of a last resort than an actual weapon.
Dual wielding: Cerci can have the ability to wield her pistol and blade at the same time, but has yet to attempt it in battle.
Other skills that she has include:
Trained mechanic: Cerci learned about all the inner workings of most of the ships that docked at the Montressor Spaceport by watching and helping her father. Their family owned a small repair shop along the port that specialized in lesser items, like household appliances, and more often smaller sailing/transport vessels. Although their shop wasn’t the most recognized of the many different repair shops along the docking port, Cerci found that she learned a lot by watching her father work. She started asking to help when she was around thirteen, but wasn’t allowed to physically touch any of the bigger tools until she was seventeen. Once she was able to get more hands on her father began to train her and after a few years, she was able to handle the customers without much assistance.
- Cerci is intermediate at best when it comes to her mechanical prowess. She knows what she’s doing if she can get in and start working on it, but the terms and individual names for a lot of the items she’s working with can get jumbled with the rest of her words, making it difficult for her to verbally explain how to do it (“That long-the elongated thing…with the plugs?” “Spark…plug?” “Yes, that. Give me that.”).
- She has no professional training, so she isn’t technically a licensed mechanic like her father.
Pilot: Cerci is (however) a licensed shipment driver for her father’s repair shop so she is able to pilot most vessels up to a specific size. She’s been driving since she was about sixteen and “handling” heavy shipments since she was eighteen. Her driving and towing skills are barely bordering on intermediate in the sense that a few more years at the wheel are neccesary for her to perfect this skill. She can out maneuver most obstacles but isn’t the safest of drivers, she’s often taking her eyes off the road (space?) to check her maps only to rear-end a piece of space junk or two while she isn’t paying attention. Because of this, her father has requested that she have a navigation system installed in her ship so that she can pay more attention to her driving; she still hasn't installed it.
**Both the mechanic skill and the pilot skill only count towards ships she has encountered before, Gummi ships and ships she has never seen or handled are a mystery to her and will cause her some difficulties.**
Limitations :
Heart Condition: Cerci was born with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and because of this disorder she has a difficult time performing to the best of her abilities for someone her age. This also means that she becomes fatigued easily, can experience chest pain/pressure after overexerting herself, and may even lose consciousness. The cause for this heart condition was inherited heretically and was actually something that her mother suffered and eventually died from. In order to prevent her from experiencing too many symptoms, Cerci’s father had them moved (see history) and requested that she be put on medication. To further prevent stress from affecting his daughter he restricted her from performing any tasks that required large amounts of physical labor. It wasn’t until she was older that he allowed her to begin working on vessels in the shop and drive the tow/delivery vessel, but even then he either supervised her or forbid her from lifting any of the shipments (the only exception being if she were in a low or no gravity situation).
- Running, lifting heavy objects and overexertion of any kind may result in intense chest pain, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and, at her worst, loss of consciousness; if she has not taken her medicine. If she has, then she will only suffer mild chest pain, some shortness of breath and serious fatigue.
- There is a slight chance that if she is put into a high stress environment that causes her heart rate to remain elevated for too long at any given time she may experience sudden death or at best prolonged unconsciousness.
Weapon/Items:- Midas: a two-edged Pompeii gladius blade primarily used for cutting and, with the help of a tapered point, thrusting short distances. This short blade is about 11-inches in length, not including the hilt, and is forged from a steel based component that is sturdier than it is flexible; this can result in breakage if improperly used. The hilt of the blade extends from the base at 5-inches and has a ridged handle for a tighter grip; this hilt is carved from the bone of an unknown animal as well as other sturdy materials. When not in use, the weapon can be placed within a sheath that is navy in color with golden metallic trim and the inscription, “Chi si volta, e chi si gira, sempre a casa va finire,” which means “No matter where you go or turn, you will always end up at home.” She was given Midas the night her Uncle passed away and has carried it with her ever since.
- Charge Pistol: a blunderbuss styled pistol that is brass and black in color with a flared muzzle. The grip of the pistol is a little larger than normal to contain the charge mechanism which gives it more of a futuristic look. This also makes it bulkier and a little on the heavy side making quick draws a difficult task. Cerci purchased her charge pistol as a safety precaution when she started picking up/delivering materials for her father. **The charge pistol isn’t as powerful as the laser pistol and can only work on things made from organic materials**
- The Necklace: Cerci wears a copper coin around her neck on a black choker that can tie twice around her throat without being too tight. The coin itself is barely worth much seeing as how it’s just a simple piece of metal, but the sentimental value is enough for Cerci that she refuses to let it out of her sight. She was given the coin when she was very young by her mother who was constantly in an out of the hospital. After she passed away, Cerci carried the coin around in her pocket as a remembrance until her father, afraid that she’d lose it, drilled a simple hole near the top of it and put it on a chain. The ways that she’s worn it has changed over the years, but she was rarely seen without it. When she was younger she used to believe the story that her mother told her about it, now she simply wears it as a good luck charm.
- Item Fanny-pack: She carries a small light brown fanny pack strapped around her waist that can hold up to twelve items at a time. These items usually include: 4x hi-potions, 2x sets of bandages, 1x heart medication and 1x ship key. The extra slots are usually for other items that she finds lying around.
- Causeway: Causeway is a medium sized cargo transport ship that Cerci inherited from her father. The ship was meant to act as a means of transporting needed/repaired materials to and from her father and his customers. The ship itself is decently sized, about the size of a large sail boat, bulky in form and earth toned in color. Windows line the uppermost cabin of the ship, providing its passengers with a splendid view of the stars outside. Causeway can fit about three crew members not including Cerci, so at least four people can be on board at once, a fifth or sixth person is possible if they don’t mind staying in the cargo hold.
In the main cabin there is a bunk that extends out from the wall and rises up towards the ceiling where a ladder gives access to the top. A small door near the entrance to the cargo hold, which is a paneled door in the floor near the rear of the main cabin, leads to the shower room. Because of the lack of moving space in the main cabin there is a small kitchen down in the cargo hold, it doesn’t consist of much and constantly goes unused unless long voyages require Cerci to stay in her ship for days at a time. There are also more bunks down below for sleeping if space up in the main cabin becomes a problem. The propulsion system of the ship consists of two large propellers that extend off the sides of the main cabin and a set of large steering fins that protrude from the rear; upon the roof of the vessel are a series of solar panels that provide the ship with access to power.
Causeway also comes equip with towing capabilities and has enough energy to tow a vessel up to two times its size, any bigger than that and more energy would be required. Cerci’s family has had Causeway for little over twelve years, so she isn’t in the best of shape; if her cargo hold becomes to laden with heavy objects or if the item she’s towing is too much for her she will slow down and she may stall. The defenses on the ship are few, she comes with a decently powered shield that protects her from most attacks and has only one firing cannon that can only fire short blasts of energy. Suffice it to say Causeway isn’t a battleship.
Picture: Appearance: Cerci has dark chestnut colored hair that she constantly wears up and out of her face in a messy side bun. The only times that she will ever wear her hair down is before she goes to sleep and when she first wakes up in the morning; when it is down it falls a little past her shoulders. She has an oval shaped face with a bit of a point to her chin, her eyes are light brown in color, decently sized and almond in shape with a bit of an upturn near the end. She has thin lips and an average sized nose. Her skin tone is more medium in color and varies from a lighter brown to tan depending on how long she has been spending out in the sun.
Cerci stands at about 5’7’’ without her boots and weighs in at 162 pounds. Because she was constantly prevented from exerting herself through heavy lifting, she has developed a leaner look to her physic as well as a more toned muscle system in her legs, something that she built up from trying to be on her feet as much as possible (light jogging, walking, etc.). Since she is constantly traveling through space to pick up stranded vessels for her father she doesn’t have much time to wear properly stylized outfits. This being said she usually settles for a black jump suit that fits her only slightly, leaving a lot of room in the leg area and making it seem as if she’s wearing a size or two too big. This body suit has an oval neckline that when worn alone shows off most of her shoulders as well as her collarbones. The sleeves of this suit cut off a good few inches from her wrist, leaving her forearms exposed.
Along with this jump suit, she wears a large navy colored jacket that she constantly has buttoned up around her chest and stomach with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows. The jacket covers most of her upper body, but cuts off near the beginning of her hips. Her boots are well worn causing their dark brown coloring and copper colored buckles to appear faded in a lot of places; they come up to a little past mid-calf and buckle around towards the back. Around her neck she wears a black choker necklace, making it the only accessory that she has on her person. When she’s working her outfit doesn’t change much, the only difference being that she wears long leather gloves that cover most of her forearm, they have the same well-worn look to them as her boots and have copper buttons to match, and she will also, at times wear a head wrap that keeps her bangs from falling in her eyes.
Upon her hips she has two straps that hold both of her weapons close to her body, the sheath of Midas is on her right hip and the holster of her charge pistol is on her left. She also has a fanny pack strapped around her waist that she can use to store small hand held items, such as potions and other medical type supplies; it’s in here that she keeps the keys to Causeway and her heart medication.
Personality: Cerci is a very loyal person; she will follow someone to the ends of the universe if they asked her to without so much as a second thought. The fault in her incessant loyalty lies therein her ability, or lack of, to determine whether or not she should so blindly follow after someone no matter the dangers that it might put herself, or those she associates with, in. Another fault in her loyalty involves the process that said person must go through to gain it; being a rather stubborn individual by nature, Cerci has a difficult time getting used to people. It’s not so much that she feels uneasy and shy around new people, but more so that she doesn’t think they deserve to be of her acquaintance. She feels that everything in life must be earned this especially includes her friendship. Any sort of selfless gesture displayed or performed by the person in question will undoubtedly gain Cerci’s respect, but in order to gain her loyalty they must do something for her after which they will be rewarded with her friendship.
Since Cerci can be a difficult person to warm up to, she also has the tendency to be a difficult person when it comes to letting go. In this sense Cerci can, at times, be selfish and obsessive; especially when it comes to a person or an idea. Because Cerci had lost her mother and, more recently, her uncle, she has developed this need to latch onto those that she does become close to; this often results in her becoming jealous whenever they talk to people she isn’t familiar with. An important thing to remember when becoming familiar with her is to just be honest, she values honesty above anything else so if she finds out that someone has lied to her she won’t take it lightly. She also has a huge reluctance to spend money on anything that she feels isn’t a necessity for survival, which often results in her hoarding money like there’s no tomorrow. Because of this refusal to spend her money she has become a rather self-reliant and independent person. She prefers to do things on her own and will often prevent others from helping her to avoid having to owe them in the future.
Under her hard exterior Cerci can be a passionate and endearing individual. Although she may appear strong willed and mysterious, she is not fearless. Her need to be in control is everything for her; if she were ever to be put into a situation that she lacked control she would feel powerless. For this reason she is always seen as a leader rather than a follower. Another fear that she has developed over the years is a deep set fear of being abandoned; she’s afraid of becoming too open and familiar with people because she knows that one day she will lose them, either to death or them leaving.This is often the reason why it takes so long for her to warm up to strangers. For Cerci, her main driving force is her need to understand. There have been many times in her life where she didn’t understand or wasn’t informed of something and it always left her feeling empty and alone, because of this she vowed that she would never allow herself to be left in the dark. There have also been times when she has been driven by anger or revenge; at the time she feels her actions are warranted but in the end it is often something that she regrets. Although Cerci can be a proper speaker of her own language there are times when either she is upset, afraid, or tired, where her diction alters into a more buccaneer type lingo. Something that she had picked up from the men at her father's shop, as well as, from her Uncle whenever he would tell her stories of the pirates he had done battle with or befriended; it's not something she can consciously control.
Original World: Planet Montressor/Montressor Spaceport; while she was born on Planet Montressor itself she lived most of her young life on the Montressor Spaceport with her father (see history).
Current World: Montressor Spaceport ?????
History: Cerci was born on November fourteenth in a local hospital on Planet Montressor. Because her mother, Elicia, suffered from an advanced state of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the birthing process was a long and complicated experience that almost resulted in the death of both individuals. Luckily, they both survived and, after a few weeks of follow up examinations, were able to leave the hospital indefinitely. For a while after they returned home, Cerci and her mother were inseparable; whenever she was with her mother she was a quiet and gentle baby that everyone loved to fawn over. She was an adorable baby after all, with her large brown eyes and huge mess of light brown hair anyone on either side of the family would have loved to hold and coddle her. Any sort of separation from her mother, however, would cause her to become restless which often resulted in loud, pained crying fits that would last until she was returned to her mother's embrace.
Separation from her mother was inevitable due to her mother's heart condition and over the years, Elicia would occasionally have to return to the hospital, either for a check-up or to receive emergency medical attention; as Cerci aged into a toddler, her mother's heart complications became worse and, eventually, when Cerci was around four, her mother was admitted permanently into the hospital. It was around this time that Piero, Elicia's brother and Cerci's uncle, came to live with the Zerrin family. After taking up housing in one of their guest rooms, Piero began to assist Vico, Cerci’s father, with many of the household tasks which also included helping with the care taking of young Cerci.
She was a stubborn toddler when it came to new people so, obviously, Cerci was slow to get used to Piero; she constantly cried whenever he held her and always refused to obey him no matter how many times her father asked her to mind him, that he was going to be helping take care of her while her mother was away. The reminder that her mother was gone only seemed to make it worse, but after a short visit to the hospital and a few soft words from her mother, Cerci began to warm up to him; after that she eventually became as attached to him as she was to her mother and father. She was constantly seen following him around the house and the outside garden whenever he went out for his morning walks, neighbors and other relatives began to call her “Little Piera” whenever they saw them together, although to him she was his “Seagull". It wasn't long before they too became inseparable and Cerci began to cling to someone else besides her father since her mother had been hospitalized. It was around this time that Elicia took a turn for the worse. Cerci had just turned five, when her mother's attacks began to grow more frequent; their constant visits to the hospital were often cut short because she had begun to lose consciousness more frequently.
Eventually they stopped bringing Cerci to see her mother all together. Their last visit was a bittersweet one, Cerci wasn't too sure what was happening to her mother but she knew that whatever it was it was making everyone around her upset. Although the visit was short, Elicia managed to tell Cerci what she needed to; she told her that she loved her and that although she was going to be gone she would always be with her. Sometime during this visit, she handed Cerci a coin saying that she had been holding onto it since she had first been admitted into the hospital. She told her that the entire time she was stuck in bed she would hold the coin and make a wish and then she would flip it, if it landed heads up the wish would come true and if it landed heads down, it wouldn't. More often than not, she said, she would wish for her family to visit her and whenever she got heads, they would. She told Cerci that the coin was for wish granting and that as long as she kept it with her any wish that she made would have a good chance of coming true, she just had to believe in it. A short while after that, Elicia seemed to doze off and much to Cerci’s confusion, she was taken away from her sleeping mother; Elicia passed away that night.
After the funeral, Piero left their home. He told Cerci that he had some business to take care of and that what he needed to do was important to him, so she shouldn’t be too upset; the next day he was gone. Cerci didn’t speak much to anyone after that. She would constantly sit alone in her play room with the coin that her mother had given her clutched in the palms of her hands. It wasn’t until her father approached her about it one afternoon that she spoke.
She hadn’t come down for lunch that day so he went up to find her sitting in the same spot she always sat, her back to him as she faced the only window in the room. After he had settled down next to her he noticed that she had the coin sitting in the palm of her hands and that she was staring at it. It was the first time he had seen her with the trinket so he asked her where she had found it; her replies to him were short, she told him that ‘her mother gave it to her’ and upon asking what she was doing with it she said ‘wishing’. Vico was confused at first, but after a moment or so Cerci told him what her mother had said about the coin. Although Vico thought it was an unusual story he didn’t question her anymore on it and they continued to sit in silence.
It wasn’t until Vico asked her what she was wishing for that the silence was broken. Cerci didn’t respond at first, but eventually she whispered that she was wishing for her mother to come back; she then began to cry. A day or two after that episode, while Vico was finishing their laundry, he found the coin at the bottom of the basket. He assumed that she had left it in her pocket and it had fallen out so he took the liberty of drilling a small hole into the top of the coin and attaching it to a chain. Cerci wasn’t very responsive about it at first and even seemed a little upset that he had drilled a hole in it, but after a while he began seeing her wearing it around her neck so he assumed she was ok with it.
Everything progressed normally after that, Cerci began attending grade school and almost managed to make friends until she started fighting. Cerci’s school years were very violent when she first started out; it wasn’t even that she was being teased there was just something about putting Cerci in the same room as other children her age that just made her angry. Vico had to pick her up from the principal’s office more times than he could remember those three years that she attended her first public school. When she turned eight, things became more complicated. Vico was constantly working a double shift as a local mechanic whenever Cerci was away at school, so to be constantly pulled away from his work to hear about how she had punched someone in the face again was beginning to take a toll on him. The day that he received the call that changed their lives was a day like most days; he had dropped off Cerci at school that morning and arrived at work a few minutes later.
He was working in the boiler room of a rather large sun sailer when he heard his coworkers calling for him. Just like every day, he assumed that Cerci had gotten into mischief again and begrudgingly made his way up to the main cabin. It was when his coworker met him halfway that he felt something was wrong. The school had phoned the shop to inform Vico that his daughter had been transported to the hospital. She had allegedly been fighting again, but had picked the wrong person to fight with. This other eight year old had decided to fight back and only after a teacher arrived to stop the tussle did they notice that something was wrong with his daughter. They said that she seemed to be extremely short of breath and after a few moments of trying to get her to calm down she had lost consciousness.
By the time his coworker had reached the part of the story where they had to call in an ambulance Vico was already gone. Moments later, he arrived at the hospital and found out what had actually caused her to be rushed into the emergency room. She had exhibited an irregular heart rhythm that the school clinic diagnosed as a heart murmur; it was only minor but the sudden overexertion sent her body into a state of shock. After the situation had died down and Cerci’s heart beat had been stabilized for the time being, the doctor began to run tests to determine what had caused this sudden change in her heart rate. It was during these tests that they discovered what Vico was hoping they would never find: Cerci had inherited the heart disease that had killed his wife.
The fact that his daughter had had this disease the whole time was almost too much for him to stomach alone, he blamed himself for not double checking after his wife had passed away to make sure that the tests they had run when she was an infant didn’t miss something. Unfortunately they had and Cerci, at age eight, was officially diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Cerci spent the next few months in the hospital so that they could run more tests and so she could recover. At the end of their stay, she was put on medication that was meant to treat her symptoms. Afraid that Cerci would suffer the same fate as his wife at such a young age, Vico became depressed; it was difficult for him to work away from home knowing what his daughter was living with so he eventually quit his job and had them moved out of their home and to a smaller place on the Montressor Spaceport. It was here that Cerci began to take classes from an online tutor in order to catch up with the rest of her classmates.
After the tutoring sessions had ended Cerci had the opportunity to attend a different public school, but chose instead to remain at home and continue with her home schooling. They lived normally after that, Vico started his own business with the help of his extended family and Cerci was home schooled. Having Cerci at home most of the times made Vico feel a little better, but because he couldn’t always be there for her it wasn’t enough to completely put him at ease. When Cerci was around eleven her uncle returned much to everyone’s surprise. And after a long, late night conversation with Vico, he decided that he was going to live with them again.
With Piero back, things began to look up; both Cerci and Vico seemed more at ease. There still times when the three of them would sit together and reminisce about when Elicia was still alive, but those times were few and far between. Cerci continued to be homeschooled and also began to receive lessons from Piero on sword handling as well as pistol control, much to her father’s displeasure. Piero felt that the training would benefit her health in the end and assured that they wouldn’t do anything too dangerous, Vico allowed it, but only hesitantly. Cerci regularly visited her father’s shop every day after finishing her school work or practicing with her uncle, but it wasn’t until she was thirteen that she began to seriously ask her father if she could help him out in the shop.
When she was younger they used to joke about her helping out around the shop, so to hear that she actually wanted to help both intrigued her father and made him worry about her health. After a few days of coercing from both Cerci and Piero, Vico finally allowed Cerci to “assist” him whenever she was finished with her school work. His version of assisting consisted of watching and occasionally handing him what he needed, but even this was enough for Cerci to begin to learn the tools of the trade. Life from then on became pretty average: Cerci continued her home education throughout grade school, Vico worked at his shop, managing to keep a relatively steady income, and Piero continued to train Cerci and help out whenever he was needed. There were a few times during training or during her part-time work with her father that Cerci over worked herself and had to lie down, but her attacks weren’t as often or violent as her father had led himself to believe.
Things didn’t begin to get any more difficult until Cerci announced that she wanted to try her hand at public schooling again. Vico was a little worried at first, especially since the last time she attended a public school she had gotten into a fight, but Cerci assured him that her fighting days were over. When they asked her why she was fighting so much in the first place she informed them that the other children were bragging about their moms in front of her and it just made her mad, she later informed them that she was over it and that she wanted to try again; that she was older now so she deserved a second chance. Hesitant at first, Vico eventually agreed to have her enrolled in a public school after she finished out the next year. Things went according to plan and, when Cerci was fifteen, she was enrolled in a school back on her home planet.
The first year was fine, Cerci attended school for most of the day then she would take a shuttle back to the space port, where Piero would come and pick her up and drop her off at the shop. She had a few problems fitting in at first because of all the new rules that she hadn’t experienced since she was a kid, but eventually she got used to it. She didn’t make any lasting friendships with anyone her age but seemed to fit in well enough with most of the students that her father didn’t worry about her as much; so that year progressed pretty smoothly. The year Cerci turned sixteen was the year that everything fell apart.
She was into the second week of her current school year and was waiting for her uncle to come pick her up when she noticed that he was late. After waiting for a while longer her father arrived; she climbed into the vehicle her father apologized to her for being late and they drove off, continuing their day as if nothing had happened. Days passed and there was still no sign of Piero. It was almost as if he had left again, like he had done when Cerci was eight, but this time was different; there was no warning, there were no notes, he was just gone. Her uncle’s sudden disappearance was a painful episode for Cerci that only seemed to get worse when her father received a letter in the mail. He never told her who it was from or what it had said, but one evening he sat her down and had to explain to her that her uncle had passed away.
Vico explained that Piero had been involved with the wrong crowd and that it had caught up with him. He died doing what he felt was important and there was nothing they could have done to stop him or bring him back. The only thing that was left of him was a sword that he had given specific instructions to have passed down to Cerci when she was old enough; her father gave it to her when she was seventeen. There was no funeral to speak of because one wasn’t held; they simply carried on with their lives like nothing had happened. The only thing that changed was that Cerci had stopped going to school. Her father would wake her up every morning before he went to work, but she would make up some excuse about not feeling well and he would allow her to stay home. After a while she stopped making excuses and he stopped trying to get her up.
A couple months after Piero’s disappearance and news of his sudden death had passed; Cerci started working with her father again. She eventually dropped out of school and began to work full-time at the shop as a delivery and towing driver. She worked at the shop for almost three years before she discovered the letter that her father had received all that time ago. Remembering that it had carried the news of her uncle’s demise and curious as to what it said she read it, only to find that it wasn’t what she had been lead to believe. The letter contained a few short sentences:
“I’m dead; nothing more, nothing less. Take care of my little Piera, Vico. Keep her safe and don’t come looking for me. - Piero”
Feeling lied to and hurt, Cerci confronted her father about it. They argued endlessly about whether or not it was right for him to keep this from her and whether or not he knew anything else, but in the end her father wore out and told her what he knew. It wasn’t much, he explained that he basically knew as much as she did, that the letter was all he had to hint at Piero’s whereabouts and that there was nothing more, but he also explained to her that whatever reasons her uncle had for wanting to remain gone were his own and that it didn’t concern them. After everything was said and the argument had died down, Cerci still wasn’t satisfied; she still felt betrayed by her father for lying to her and hurt by her uncle for abandoning her. She left the house that night, taking Causeway, the ship that her father had given her to use at the shop, and leaving the Montressor Spaceport. Cerci wanted answers and if her father didn’t have them, she knew the one person that did and she was going to find him.
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