"That'd be nice, thanks."

Little plastic cup of water, with a few hollow ice cubes from the soda machine.

"And your - companion? - can come in for water too, if they'd like. Unless they disperse common allergens." he adds, looking through the glass door at Click.

"I only met him recently and don't have any common allergies so I don't exactly have confirmation, but I have no reason to expect him to…"

"That... should be fine, then. He can wait here with you."

Tyler waves Click in.

"So – to put it bluntly… what's up with this place?"

Click opens the door with a few ribbons and hops in to stand behind Tyler, and the teenager nods a greeting.

"I moved here from the midwest earlier this year, so my perspective is mostly in comparison to my previous home. Things happen here that don't make any sense, either for no reason or for reasons you wouldn't expect to have the effects they do. Some of the weird things that happen are harmless, and some aren't, and it can be hard to guess which. The town has a policy of secrecy, traditionalism, and obedience to authority, partially to help protect people from this. If you're not sure whether something is safe, you can usually figure it out by watching people nearby to see how they react. Also everyone drives on the right side of the street."

"… Isn't the right normal for America? Where did you live, before?"

"Michigan. It's a little state in the Midwestern US near a large body of water, shaped like a small dog trying to eat a large bowl of ice cream. Don't worry if you can't pronounce it or haven't heard of it, it's pretty obscure. It varies by city and state which side of the road people drive on, in Michigan it's usually on the left or in the middle, unless you get another license to drive on the right side if traffic's mostly clear."

"… Right," he says. "Uh. That's definitely different from where I'm from." Pause. "Wouldn't it make more sense for people to just drive on one side…?"

He shrugs. "I'm not sure. I think it might help reduce inefficiency during rush hour when traffic is all in one direction? They value consistency more here, though, so everyone drives on the right side, so they reward particularly good driving and other desired traits with stop-sign immunity, which they say helps with keeping a consistent flow of traffic at intersections. But I'm a communications major, I don't really understand a lot of that kind of math and engineering, I may be mistaken."

Blink. "And that doesn't seem… weird… to you…? The traffic rules."

"It seems weirder than fuck to me, but that's part of the point of traveling, I think, experiencing what things are universal and what things are different, that you just took for granted. And as long as I can follow the rules correctly, and everyone else can too, it doesn't really matter how strange they seem."

Another blink. "They do successfully follow the rules, then? I would expect this – and the fluctuating driving sides – to cause trouble, make it harder to drive."

"Back home, everyone did fairly successfully, unless they were particularly bad drivers. Here there are some minor blood parasites that naturally prey on people who don't follow driving laws consistently, so I think most people are much better at it."

This prompts him to frown. "Do you know the cause of the blood parasites?"

Shrug. "They just happen. I'm not sure whether their behavior is shaped by the traffic laws or vice versa. They're worse depending on how badly you drive, but they're pretty much never bad enough to hospitalize you?"

"I'm starting to think I need a notepad to keep track of things."

"I'd recommend the pawn shop if you just want one or two for cheap, or a larger store if you want a fancy one or want more. You already have a few sheets of alphabet stickers, right?"

"I think those were in the welcome pack," he responds, reaching for it. "Seems like a weird thing to put in?"

"They're for writing with, when it wouldn't be convenient to type. Some people aren't really prepared to move here, and it's nice for them to have something to at least fill out forms with."

"– With alphabet stickers, as opposed to, say, pencils?"

He inspects the stickers.

They're little circles, black capital and lowercase letters in alphabetical order, with more of the more common letters than the less common letters. The last few sheets have a pattern of shiny waves.

"... Pencil-shaped stickers would not be very useful for most situations, I would expect - Oh! Pencils themselves are writing utensils, which are a misdemeanor to own or use."

"… Right. I think I read that, somewhere." He briefly raises an eyebrow, a step away from rolling his eyes.

He nods seriously, without seeming to notice the face.