"Uh...sorry, she's foreign," Aster explained to the woman, who nodded. There was a lot of tourism in this area. Aster quickly led her out of the shop. "Yes. Each bit of paper stands for a small amount of gold, and some other precious metals, that we have stored away, for safekeeping. We also have..." He pulled out some change to show her, "...these. Which represent even smaller amounts of gold. Each is different."

"They just look like normal pieces of paper to me." Aislinn mused as they went outside, still thinking that pieces of paper shouldn't be used for buying. "Trading goods would be a lot better." She said, remembering that underwater, they used pearls to buy stuff.

"True...we keep our precious metals safe this way..." Aster reasoned, shrugging slightly. He had never been one to question the way 'money' was seen in his world.

Aislinn nodded as she made her point. She then walked alongside Aster and asked, "Where do you want to go next?" The shoes that she picked out were naturally comfortable for her feet. Although she still kept stumbling every once in a while.

"Hm..." Aster frowned. "Would you like to go to an arcade? It's a place where humans play electronic games."

"Electronic games?" Aislinn repeated. "We had games back at my home, but what are electronic games?" She was interested that they had a place for all of these kind of games.

"Here." Aster paused at one of the boardwalk arcades, filled with skee-ball machines and other kinds of games. "These are some examples. This is an arcade."

The flashing lights and piercing sounds filled Aislinn's senses. She was amazed. All the sounds came from the games. Some of the games were flashing and others weren't. "This looks wonderful." She said, clasping her hands.

"Would you like to try some?" Aster's voice was kind, content. "You can watch me first, to see how I operate them. Then you can follow my lead."

Aislinn nodded. She then followed his lead and her eyes widened as she looked at the screen.

Aster wasn't fond of games, but he played them every once in a while. He was good, when he did play. He proceeded to insert a coin and play this particular game. When it was often, he pushed another coin in and handed her the 'controller,' which was a plastic gun.

Aislinn looked at the plastic contraption that was handed to her. Her eyes widened as she saw Aster pointing at the people in the screen and then she saw then fall. She then pointed and frowned. Nothing happened. Ice then looked at him again and saw that he was pulling something in the plastic thing. She tried to copy him and soon was able to shoot one down.

Aster didn't particularly enjoy games, but he seemed to be having fun. Once the game finished, he sighed, glancing over at her. "Did you like it?"

"Yes!" Aislinn exclaimed once they were done. She placed the plastic gun back where it belonged and smiled. "I felt chills as I shot one of those... you call them zombies, right?" Looking around, she saw more games like this but then her eyes caught a claw machine.

Aster saw the light in her eyes and then curiously followed her gaze. "Ah...see, the goal with this..." he walked over to the claw machine, "...is to use the lever here to control the movements of the claw...then move the claw just so and press the red button on the lever. You have to get the claw to close around one of those stuffed toys, and then it will lift it up and drop it in the hole in there. You can reach in the big rectangle at your feet and get the toy."

"Seems easy enough for me." Aislinn smiled. She moved the lever, but found that the claw was not moving at all. "Am I supposed to do something else to make it move?" Ice asked, ready to take on a challenge like this.

"Hang on...I have to put money in it, first." Aster slipped two coins into the coin slot. "Start moving the lever when it beeps, all right? Then the claw will move."

Hearing the beep, Aislinn started to control the claw. She had set her sights on a blue dolphin smack in the middle. Pressing the button on the joystick, the silver claw then went down. Her eyes grew wider as it clamped on the dolphin, but as it went back it, the stuffed animal dropped back down to where it was. "What? This must be a trick!" Lightning surged from her hands and short-circuited the claw machine.

Aster sighed, then looked around. There weren't a lot of people around. He knelt down by the prize drop and shoved his hand up into the machine. After a bit of digging around and adjusting, he pulled his arm back out, the dolphin clutched in his hand. He held it out to her. "Don't tell anyone I did that, please."

"Whoops." Aislinn said after she realized that she broke it. Seeing Aster get the fluffy dolphin for him, she smiled. "My lips are sealed." She said, mimicking locking her lips and throwing away the key. "Thank you!" She said, giving him an embrace. The dolphin was between them, but she didn't mind.

Aster patted her back, a little awkwardly. He was not used to affection--he did live alone, after all. "You're welcome..."

Aislinn then let go and smiled, revealing dimples. "So, where do we go next?" She asked, keeping the stuffed dolphin close.

"Hm...have you heard of human amusement parks?" Aster asked, curiously. He himself was not fond of them because of how many people were there, but it didn't seem like today would be a heavy traffic day.

"No, I haven't" Aislinn said with a confused look. "Wait, are they big buildings with millions of books? Or wait, maybe it's where you lift some sort of heavy stick with two circles in the side?" She had learned of some places on her rare visits to the surface.

"They're...basically for fun," Aster explained, scratching his head. "Mechanics are used to create fun rides...it'd be better for you to experience it for yourself--I'm terrible at explaining things."