Welp, I'm a Tour Guide[Cerci, Rebecca. PM to join]

[Erik Stoneking]

Erik poked his emerged through the hole that lead from the forest to Market Street. The familiar sight of Twilight Town greeted him as it had many times before when he had returned from the forest. A tram passed by just as he began to stand up, so he could feel the slight rush of air that accompanied its travel.

Remembering his temporary travel companions Erik began introducing where they were. “Anyway, since we just left the forest, we are now in Tram Commons, which is most easily identified by the trams which travel through here.”

Beginning to take his job as a tour guide seriously he pretended to develop a stiff demeanor, “Now, if you would both follow me for a bit,” he said beginning to walk forward to the main area of Tram Commons, “We’re walking…we’re walking… and stop.” He put out both of his hands in the universal sign to stand still.

Erik began gesturing all around himself, “This is where you will find a lot of different shops. And,” Erik paused, pointing to the tunnel, “That there leads to the underground. A great place to relax if I do say so myself.” Erik then released and obviously fake chuckle to keep up the tour guide illusion.

A moment later he abandoned the façade and changed his stance slightly to something more relaxing. “Anyway, that is far from what is all here, but a very general idea of what is in this area. Any questions and I’ll be glad to answer them.”

[Deleted]

Rebecca followed after him, as she looked at everything in surprise. It seemed so foreign to her. There was roads, there was buildings, if she remembered towns from back when she was four, it'd more than likely still surprise her.

"Are 'trans' those long things that move?" The girl asked curiously as she pointed to one of them. As she followed the boy he said something kind of silly as he put out both of his arms. The girl didn't really feel like stopping, and didn't think of the possibility his arms would push her back.

Because he was a good foot taller than her, she was able to pass under his arm easily. She then walked forward some more, as she ignored when Erik said to stop. She then saw odd marks on the ground, she then bent down to look at them.

"What're these?" She asked as she took a closer look.When she looked around, the lines appeared to be a path, two parallel lines made up this path.

[Deleted]

When Cerci finally emerged from the crack in the wall she was thoroughly prepared to enter a town that was just as abandoned looking and run down as the old mansion was that she had first seen; it wouldn't even have surprised her if it looked about as grungy as the lower docks on the Montressor Spaceport. So when she finally got her first look at Twilight Town she was surprised to discover that she was wrong. The town was simple yet pleasant, just looking at all the little buildings and street lamps gave Cerci a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach that made her feel safe and somewhat nostalgic for her Uncle. Smiling to herself as she walked along, she paid close attention to where Rebecca and Erik were at all times. Seeing as how she was a guest in this world, and a downright clueless guest at that, she didn't want to go and get herself lost.

As the tram passed, Cerci stopped and watched it go. The small shuttle was simple in shape and form and reminded Cerci momentarily of the shuttles she used to take to and from school. Focusing her attention back on Erik, she noticed that he had stopped, but Rebecca had not; she seemed to be transfixed with the lines on the ground and was wandering a little bit away from the trio.

"Don't go too far, Rebecca, we wouldn't want you getting misplaced," Cerci called over to the small girl as she stepped up besides Erik. Tucking her thumbs into her belt, she gazed around at all the shops and stalls that were either built into the surrounding buildings or otherwise located in the plaza. They were small and, like the tram she had seen earlier, simple; the signs that she noticed above their counters and doors pictured the items that they sold there, giving it a more approachable feel. She assumed that since the shops and the tram were simple, everything else in Twilight Town must be simple as well; she momentarily glanced to Erik beside her and wondered if the people were more complex than that or if they were just as simple. Shaking her head slightly she scolded herself for making such assumptions and withdrew her gaze.

"I had no idea you had so many jobs here, Erik," she didn't look up at him and instead busied herself with studying the sign above what she assumed was the local accessory shop, "Officer and tour guide, you're quiet the busy lad. I'm impressed."

[Erik Stoneking]

Erik waited for any questions that would be given to him. The first came from Rebecca as he sort of expected it to. “Yes, those are the trams. They carry people in them around the area. It’s an alternative to walking,” Erik replied. It was a simple question, but with all of the simple questions that Rebecca asked, Erik started wondering how much she knew.

He missed Rebecca next question and didn’t notice where she had gone off to until Cerci made a comment about how Rebecca shouldn’t wander off to far. Looking over to her Erik noticed that she was dangerously close to the tram tracks and so he quickly made his way over to try and pull her away. “Hey, do not stand here, these are what the trams travel on, and you will find that they will have little trouble getting past you if you stand in the way.”

After correcting what could have potentially been a horrible disaster, he heard Cerci’s comments about Erik’s jobs. “Oh that’s nothing. I’m also a Civil Engineer, a student, a struggle player, and my personal favorite. On Thursdays I stand around and get to be a tree,” with the last statement of his jobs Erik made his most enthusiastic face before letting it slide back into his normal smile.

Waiting for a few moments Erik decided to let the tour group be a little more active in the tour, “So, would there like to be anything specific that you two would like to see? I know you don’t know the area, but if you can think of anything you’d like to see I would be able to tell you whether Twilight Town has something like that and then I might be able to show it to you.”

[Deleted]

Rebecca didn't quite understand when Erik said the tram would get past her. She understood what a tram was now, but how could it get past her? She didn't really move away, Erik dragged her, and if he didn't she probably wouldn't have moved.

Rebecca looked around, she didn't know of anything she'd want to see, so when she saw a sign showing a blue Popsicle stick, she exclaimed. "What's that?" Her finger pointed towards the sign. She didn't know what it was, but for some odd reason, she wanted it.

She then looked up at Erik and Cerci, those two seemed nice. Rebecca thought it was odd, how their personalities could be so different. Since age four, Rebecca had only been around scientists, they were cold, serious, and thoughtless, until today that is.

In Rebecca's opinion, the other two people seemed like they were wise, and old. So that was when she thought up a question. "How old are you guys?" She said smiling, and not understanding that what she was saying might be considered rude. "You seem old, and wise!" She didn't consider 'old' a rude word to be honest. To her old meant more life experience, or seniority. "I'm fourteen." She smiled as she said this.

[Deleted]

Cerci smiled to herself when she saw Erik pull Rebecca off of the tram tracks, it reminded her a little of something similar that happened to her when she was younger. When Erik spoke in response to her earlier comment, however, she pushed the memory from her mind and focused back on the here and now. Finally looking over at him, she watched his face as he spoke; everything he was saying made her smile a little in interest, but when he brought up the fact that he was a 'civil engineer' Cerci had to bite back the urge to light up and shout 'hey, me too!', that would have been embarrassing. Her smile vanished when he joked about being a tree at the end, giving her the impression that everything else he had said had all been another joke. She was about to question if he had been serious or not, but the moment passed and afterwards he mentioned something about asking him if Twilight Town had something so he can tell them yes or no.

After Erik had finished, she immediately knew what she was interested in seeing; the best part about it was that she knew they had to have one.

"Hey, how about you show us to the-" her words were cut off by Rebecca's sudden inquiry about their age. Cerci's head turned slowly and she stared over at the small girl who had, only moments ago, been pointing at the signs and wondering what everything was. She had thought the small girl was preoccupied enough with her own doings, so when the question was presented to her, and Erik as well, Cerci didn't know how to answer. "O-old?"

Did she look old? How old? Granny old? Cerci felt a bead of sweat slide down her chin and she frowned over at Rebecca.

"Now, Becca, don't go asking such personal questions to people like-" the small girl was fourteen, the answer to the question she had been pondering for most of their encounter had been revealed and Cerci didn't know how to handle it, "Fourteen?"

She almost couldn't believe it, the way that Rebecca acted was completely non congruent with the age that she claimed to be; if anything she acted more like a toddler than a teenager. Cerci stared over at Erik with wide eyes that wondered if he was as surprised as she was to find out Rebecca's actual age. She turned back to Rebecca and shook her head slightly, trying to wipe the look of confusion from her face. After a few seconds Cerci put on an obviously forced smile and ground out, "U-um, I'm eighteen."

That wasn't old.

[Erik Stoneking]

Erik had been looking at Cerci for a bit while joking about his many professions as the joke had mainly been for her benefit. Unfortunately it seemed that once she realized that Erik was joking Cerci hadn’t been satisfied with the joke. Erik wanted to apologize once he realized that the joke wasn’t well liked, but he soon got some questions from Rebecca.

The first question he got was one asking about a blue Popsicle stick. Looking to Rebecca, Erik answered, “That’s a store for sea-salt ice cream. If you two want some I can buy us some, I have some munny.” It wasn’t long after that when he heard another question from Rebecca which seemed to cut off a question Cerci was asking.

The new question was one that could possibly be construed as rude by some about the age of Cerci and Erik. Before anyone got a chance to reply to the question Rebecca revealed her own age which was a shocking fourteen. Cerci seemed to be just as shocked about the answer as Erik. From the way Rebecca was acting Erik would have actually guessed that she was around five.

Erik didn’t care about the question at all and answered quickly, “Well, I’m fifteen right now, but I’m about to turn sixteen in a few weeks.” Cerci seemed kind of stressed about the question but she did reveal her age to be eighteen. She might have taken the question the wrong way; it seemed that almost any age would be old for Rebecca after all.

After that Erik looked at Cerci again and asked, “So, what was it that you were going to ask to see? It seems you got a bit cut off there.” Erik hoped that what she wanted to see was interesting, and was even here in the first place.

[Deleted]

"What's 'see-sald?'" The girl asked curiously. "What's ice cream?" She then decided to go on more pressing matters. It sounded like she might've offended Cerci. "Age is personal? Isn't it good to be older? I mean doesn't an age reflect your experigencies?" The girl said awkwardly.

It was odd, Erik wasn't as much older than her as she expected. But still something more odd was the fact that they seemed surprised to find out her age. "Well the people at the 'laboretery' put me in a 'tube-y' thing, when I was six, and took me out annually, eight times." The little girl said trying to explain.

A voice then hissed out, obviously directed towards the girl. "You're an idiot. Try keeping a secret." The voice finished as a scowl that appeared on the girl's face disappeared. The girl had then started to frown. "Why should I hide stuff about myself?" She said to Grace, not receiving an answer. "I don't like keeping 'secerets.'"

[Deleted]

Cerci continued to watched Rebecca as Erik spoke to her, the small girl was becoming more and more confusing as time passed. They were getting to know her very quickly and by the sounds of things, she wasn't as normal as Cerci had first been led to believe. The first thing that bothered her about Rebecca was that she knew nothing about the natural world; a individual at the age of fourteen should at least know enough to understand the world and the way it works. She felt it was almost impossible to live that long without knowing something, anything, but Rebecca seemed to have no knowledge of anything. It was strange, but even stranger still was the fact that what Rebecca had gone through was being kept from them; yes, they were getting it all in small snip-its and doses, but the voice, Grace, was preventing them from hearing the entire thing. Things were becoming complicated.

"Age can reflect experiences, but- it's more complex than that," she sighed slightly in frustration as she tried to think of a way to explain her discomfort with the question, "I'm just not a fan of questions-"

She was briefly interrupted when she heard the hissing voice and saw the look on Rebecca's face twist into something darker; Grace again. After the moment had passed and Rebecca was more or less back to normal, Cerci walked over to her and crouched down so that she was looking up at the girl rather than looming over her.

"Listen, Becca, I don't know what's going on and I don't know what's happened to you, but uh- Grace has a point. You don't really know me; I'm a stranger, ok? You may know my name, and now my age, but that's all you know about me and do you know why that is?" she paused for a moment before continuing, "Because I'm careful. I know that some people can be dangerous. I don't plan on hurting you and I'm sure Erik doesn't either, if anything we want to make sure you're safe, but there are people that can use what you tell them against you and that will want to hurt you. That's why secrets are important. You might not like them, but you need to watch what you say and who you say it to. It's for your own good."

She felt like she was talking to a toddler and for all purposes could have been, but she didn't know of any other way to go about explaining it. Glancing back up at Erik, she caught the ending of his question and shrugged.

"I was going to suggest we take a look at the tram station, but it seems as if Becca here is need of a little education on what a sea-salt ice cream is," standing, she pat Rebecca on the head in a 'don't worry about it' sort of way, then walked towards the shop that had the aforementioned sign above it, "I might be interested as well. You were buying, weren't you?"

[Erik Stoneking]

Erik watched the small interaction between Cerci and Rebecca; it seemed that an important life lesson was being taught to Rebecca about keeping secrets. Grace had been right about how Rebecca shouldn’t have gone and revealed everything about herself as soon as she met Cerci and Erik. Luckily Erik had no intent to do anything despicable with the information, and he assumed Cerci was the same, but not everyone was so kind.

Erik was extremely curious about Rebecca, but it was good that she might now know that she shouldn’t share all of her information so readily. It was odd that she had spent her life in a laboratory but hadn’t been given any form of education by what Erik assumed would be her experimenters. She had even spent eight years inside of a tube. Erik was starting to wonder what type of experiment Rebecca might have been.

Snapping out his thoughts Erik heard Cerci say that she was just going to ask to see the tram station. It was a bit of a disappointment that that was all she wanted to see, but now it seemed it didn’t matter anyway, Erik was going to buy some ice cream. “Yeah, I said that I was going to buy. Although you’re each only getting one.”

Walking over to the shop Erik took out his munny pouch and took out enough to pay for three of the popsicles. Erik handed over the munny to the shop vendor and said, “Three please.” With the payment he picked up all three and handed one to Cerci and one to Rebecca.

[Deleted]

As the small girl listened to Cerci tell her about why she should keep secrets, her mind wandered. She didn't see any way that it could be used against her. Unless of course, she came across a scientist and told them, and then they took her back.

Rebecca followed the older people to the ice cream store. He handed one to me, and it slipped out of my hands, and I barely caught it. The girl looked over it, confused as to how she might eat it. She then put her mouth on it, and sucked it.

She then let go off the stick and had it hanging from her mouth. A cheerful expression covered face, as she continued to eat it like an idiot.

[Deleted]

Cerci smiled at Erik in thanks and took the light blue ice cream from his hand when he handed it to her. Looking it over, she raised it to her lips and gave it a cautious lick; immediately after she tasted the salty-sweet surprise she withdrew it from her mouth and sucked her tongue back in, wishing to rid herself of the taste as quickly as possible. She stared down at the frozen treat in her hand and shook her head, licking her lips before deciding to give it one more try.

"....." she lifted the popsicle back to her mouth and gave it another lick, instantly after she had her hand over her mouth and was holding the ice cream at arms length, "Nope, no- don't like that."

Shaking her head, she stared over at Erik and gave him a look of confusion, "Why would anyone want to eat that? It's salty, it's sweet- it's like it can't seem to make up it's mind."

Sea-salt ice cream, no, she didn't like that. She felt bad for wasting what Erik had so graciously purchased for them, but the treat was disgusting. She didn't want to eat it anymore; not knowing what to do with it, she just held it out to Erik, hoping that maybe he or Rebecca would want her share.

[Erik Stoneking]

Erik began eating his ice cream almost instantly. It was one of his favorite treats to have. The flavor hit his taste bud as he bit into the corner and held a small chunk inside of his mouth. The cold hurt his teeth a little bit, but it was over pretty quickly and he got to enjoy the taste.

Observing how Rebecca had decided to eat her ice cream Erik released a chuckle. Finishing off the chunk in his mouth Erik began to speak, “You might want to try and eat small chunks instead of that way, but if you’re fine with it, who am I to stop you.” He was glad to see that someone was enjoying the ice cream and was a bit disheartened when he realized that Cerci didn’t like it as much.

He accepted the ice cream back as Cerci held it out. Thinking about whether he should eat it himself or not he quickly made the decision to give it to Rebecca. He held out the second ice cream to her and said, “Here, Grace can have one to if she likes, if not you can have two. I shouldn’t have forgotten about her in the first place.”

Erik felt a bit odd offering it to something he assumed was just her split personality, but it was no reason to be rude about it. Looking back to Cerci he said, “Well, I’m sorry you didn’t like the ice cream. I’d hate for you to be empty handed while we enjoy our treats, is there anything else that I can get you?” He didn’t want her to be left without anything, and although he wouldn’t really like spending more of his hard earned munny, he was the one guiding the two.

[Deleted]

Rebecca watched, as Cerci gave her ice cream to Erik, who in turn, gave it to Rebecca. Thinking that Grace could eat it. Rebecca grabbed the one he handed her, and took the one in her mouth out to speak. "I don't think Grace eats... or if she does, she probably eats stuff out of my tummy..." She said in a way that sounded kind of odd, as she grabbed it.

"I'd love another one though!" Rebecca said, smiling. She then decided to continue eating the first one in the same way. After she ate it, she bit at the other one, attempting a new eating technique. "Who knew food could taste so good..." She said quietly to herself.

As she continued to eat it, the delicious flavor was odd to her. She hadn't really eaten anything since she was six. They had tubes going into her to maintain her body, so to her, these odd ice cream things were the best thing she ate in years. After finishing Cerci's ice cream, she smiled. "Thank you." She said politely.

[Deleted]

"Yeah, uh, thanks anyways," she wiped her hand casually on her coat as he took the ice cream and took a look around where they were again. After listening to Rebecca happily accept her share for Grace, or whatever Erik had said, Cerci wandered around the sea-salt ice cream stall and wondered if he would still take them to the tram station after they had finished their treat. She soon became distracted by the entrance to the underground that was located on the opposite side.

"Where did this lead again," she walked over to it and gazed into the dimly light corridor, "Or does it not go anywhere?"

Looking over her shoulder she stared over at Erik and Rebecca and motioned for them to join her. She had changed her mind and wanted to explore the underground; it looked interesting enough and if she was going to see the sights before she left she figured she could make time for a little adventuring. What harm would that do?