Local customs TwinbrookThey were all sitting in the command deck looking down at Twinbrook when one of the control panels started flashing and an alarm blared.
Warning! Warning!“Oh, great!” Three said sarcastically “We have barely managed to finds some kind of civilization, and the ship starts acting up.“ One looked at Two, and he rolled his eyes. Ok, so maybe Two wasn’t completely useless after all. At least he knew how to handle Three. Four went over to the control panel and started to look over the levers and pushed a few buttons. “Do you know what you are doing?” One asked. “I sure hope he does” Three was quick to say “I would hate for his incompetence to crash the ship.” “Really Three” Two countered “I thought you’d love crashing.” One shot Two a quelling glare, really he could be so annoying! He and Three started a heated argument so One quickly left the table and went over to Four.
“I know what I’m doing you know” Four said quietly. “My old family unit used to repair short distance flyers, but there really isn’t a large difference once you know the basic mechanics behind these things.” “Good.” One quickly interjected, she didn’t know a thing about repairing ships and she was trying to stay on top of this leader thing, so she didn’t feel like admitting her ignorance. “You’re in charge of finding out what is wrong and figuring out a way to fix it” she added, thinking that delegating some of the responsibilities sounded like a good idea. Besides, Four had been the most useful this far. “Well,” Three barked a few minutes later “what is going on.” Four shock his head in frustration “I don’t understand how they could send us off in a ship that’s barely glued together. We’ll need both fuel and new parts to make her space worthy again.”
They all stood there looking a little lost after Four finished his assessment. “That decides it then” One said finally, because she felt prodded into speaking “we have to gown to Twinbrook and see if we can find out more. And if we are lucky we might find somewhere to look for spare parts”. They went to the teleportation chamber and beamed down.
It was another outdoors recreation area, but this was a lot bigger, there were houses all around and there were a lot more people around. “Finally some civilization” Three said with satisfaction. The others nodded their heads in agreement. This was a lot more like home. “Let’s go investigate” One decided. “Ask questions, observe and try not to stick out too much” she added but the others had already hurried off. She saw Two and Four heading straight for the chess tables once again. I said socialize she though shaking her head.
One strolled through the park (that’s what it was called). It was filled with strangely dressed people and animals. She got a few strange looks, but people seemed to assume she was something called a tourist. Tourists were apparently quite common, so she immediately started introducing herself as one. Maybe it was her new strategy, or people here were a lot friendlier than in Coconut Cove, because people gladly answered her questions. She noticed Three trying to talk to a man, a man who apparently tried communicating with a bird.
One and Three joined the man in his efforts, but they didn’t get any legible answer. The man offered them advice on transportation though. “I don’t know the way to Sunset Valley. I don’t get out much you see, I spend most of my time talking to the birds I find around town and they aren’t really keen on talking back. But I know you can get a bus or taxi to Bridgeport from behind the City Hall, and from Bridgeport you can go anywhere.” “Thank you” Three replied “you really should talk to people more, you are really good at it”. Was Three fluttering her lashes at the man? One couldn’t be sure. She was a little surprised that Three had developed interpersonal skills all of a sudden. But as soon as the man and his bird moved away she went back to her old self. “This Bridgeport sounds like my kind of place. I would surely die if I was forced to live in a dump town like this” Three muttered. One kept her silence, Three was Three and she had to try to get along with her.
Four and Two came up then, relieving One of the need to make conversation with Three. “There is a thing called library not far from here“ Two said “it’s where the people here go to gather information so it sounds like our kind of place.”
The library was just what they needed. Luckily the people of Twinbrook seemed to use the same alphabet as Aronia so they had no problem reading the books. Three went looking for information about Bridgeport, apparently she hadn’t given up on the idea of going there. Four went searching for information about spare parts and fuel. One went through old news for information about the challenge hoping that could lead them closer to Sunset Valley. Two agreed to chat with the people around the library to see if he could get some information about how they could blend in better. One gave him the tip about saying he was a tourist and that seemed to work well for him.
When they met up again they all had news. “We are going to need something called money” Two declared. “What is money?” Three asked to make sure she was involved in the conversation. “It is what you use to barter for things and services” Two replied. “Oh,” Three said reverently “I have heard of this thing, I just adore the idea of it and I want a lot, I want it now!” ” Well, you don’t get it just because you want it” Two replied “you have to work for someone or sell something to get it.” They all considered what they could sell, the only thing they had was a broken down space ship, and they needed that to go home again. “We don’t have anything to sell” One said after a while “maybe we should look for work?” “You have to be registered in the city to work “Two said “and since we are here as tourists that mean we can’t work.” ”Maybe we can find something to sell” Four suggested “we need to go to the junkyard and look for materials for the ship anyway, and what we don’t need, we can sell.”
One and Four jumped right in to looking for parts at the junkyard. “I don’t want to put my hands in that trash” Three exclaimed when she saw what a junkyard was. “Oh, grow up!” Two replied “The whole world doesn’t revolve around you and what you want.” “I simply meant that my skills can be better used elsewhere. I can work on where to hide our ship while we are saving money for the repairs” She snapped. “I thought we could just have it circling round in orbit or maybe hide it behind the moon” Two suggested. “Stop bickering and start digging” One called out “if we don’t find any spare parts or something to sell the ship might actually crash down and how are we ever going to get out of here then?”
After several hours Four was the only one still digging. They had managed to amass quite a load of stuff to sell, but couldn’t find anything for the ship at all. The possibility that they would see their ship crashing seemed more and more likely. “Eureka!” Four called out. “What?!” the others echoed. “With this piece of pipe I can get the engine to at least keep the ship in orbit until we can find or buy more parts.” He explained. One breathed a sigh of relief. “Ok, let’s sell of what we don’t need and go get us some food, it’s almost night time anyway” she decided.
After Two sold what they didn’t need they went down to the Bistro. Three was in a great mood because One decided she would be allowed to hold on to their money. She kept muttering something that sounded like “my precious” but One couldn’t be sure. They had a wonderful meal, each trying something different and finding all dishes to their liking.
Four choose to sit at his own table though; he seemed preoccupied and kept muttering about integral calculations, water heating conversions and tiberium. The others decided he was better left alone, they simply didn’t know what he was blabbering on about. After dinner they took a walk in what was called a communal garden. There were no people there but it offered a peaceful place to go over their strategy.
“We really have to find out more about how this place works” Two said to Four. “After I fix the immediate problems on the ship we can’t keep beaming up and down like we have this far,” Four muttered lost in his own thoughts “there is a serious risk of power failure if we push her past maximum capacity.” Two sighed and looked at One and Three discussing where to go next. I just wish one of them were more like me he though. Four is some kind of genius, Three is the worst kind of snob and you never knew what One would get excited or stressed about. It would be nice if one of them was more easygoing. Best buckle up and go along for a ride I guess; it’s bound to be a real adventure. “Are you sure we have enough money to get tickets on that bus?” One was asking Three. “Of course, we do. I’m a great money manager. Just give me all money and I will take good care of it” Three stated.
The next morning they had an early breakfast on the beach.
“We need a plan” One stated. “A plan for what?” Three asked. “A plan of how we will live in Bridgeport” Two answered. One looked at him approvingly. Maybe she had judged him a bit harshly in the past? He was right on point now. ”We need to look like regular people” Four said after some thought. “We can’t be tourists if we are going to get jobs, and I do believe we need jobs if we are going to seem normal.” “Besides,” Three added “we need jobs so we can get my hands on lots and lots of money for me to have.” “Don’t you mean get our hands on money to fix the ship?” One asked. “Of course, that’s what I said” Three said innocently. Two and Four just raised their eyebrows.
“I have an idea” Four said “but I’m not sure you are going to like it.”
Since they had spent all their money on tickets and some old instruments they were all interested in how Four planned for them to get disguises. He led them to a building with a sign that said “Laundromat – cleaning up Twinbrook since the last Llama stampede”. “Listen up” he whispered “One and Three, you go in there and distract the proprietor. Two, you are on look out, if someone comes in you jump in front of them and start asking questions to keep them occupied.” “What are you going to do?” One asked. “I’m going to steal us some clothes” Four answered. “Because, let’s face it, if we are going to look like we belong we need to look the part. Besides none of us know what is considered normal.” “Steal clothes!” One said “Is it really in our best interest, what if they report it missing?” “Not to mention it’s kind of rude, what of the poor people who’ll lose their clothes” Two added. “Me, in someone’s old clothes! How disgusting!” Three hissed. “I know it’s unorthodox but firstly, I have evaluated the probability that someone would report it before we leave. Secondly, I won’t take all of someone’s clothes, I’ll just take one outfit here and one outfit there. And Three, the clothes are clean, besides you said you wanted to save the few coins we have left.” Four looked them in the eyes one by one until they all nodded their agreement. They went inside.
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Here you can see them now now, in their ill-gotten gains. That tomato red jacket really doesn’t do much for One. Four looks a little creepy in his cardigan. Who could have guessed that he would turn to the dark side (my bet would have been on Three). Three was more lucky than One in her wardrobe change. Two looks as innocent as ever. I used the makeover stations random function for this. They really look as if they stole the clothes from a Laundromat.
