Damien's Delight didn't look like much: A small, short shopfront in a row of buildings just across the street from the edge of the market. In front of it hung an extremely plain sign with, Rakkel was interested to see, that same mysterious symbol again that xe'd noticed on the bookstore sign.

On the other side of the windows, some unexciting plastic chairs and tables were crammed into an uncomfortably small space. Most were unoccupied.

Xe stepped inside and looked around. There was no sign of Welton yet.

Immediately behind xir, the door opened and shut again. A person in an overcoat and a severely simple hat walked in behind xir and took a seat at a table. Xe followed their example, pulling out a chair from under one of the smaller tables in the corners of the restaurant.

Xe wasn't sure what to do now. How did one order food here? Presumably, Welton knew. Maybe xe should just wait for him.

But after a long day of watching people buy pigs, xe felt extremely hungry.

Xe looked around at the person who'd followed xir into the restaurant, hoping xe could copy what they were doing, but they weren't doing anything in particular.

At the far side of the restaurant, in the wall opposite the door, xe spotted a little window at waist height. Xe stood up from xir chair and walked over to it.

As xe approached, a pair of hands emerged from it and set down a plastic platter containing two steaming bowls of rice and vegetables. "Chartles," called a voice. The hands disappeared again.

Behind xir, someone got up from their chair and walked over. They pushed past Rakkel, said "excuse me," took the platter, and walked back to their seat with it.

"Hello?" called Rakkel through the opening. "I'd like to order some food."

The hand emerged again, pointed at something on the wall nearby, then withdrew.

Xe looked over at the thing on the wall. It was a little circular hole covered in black glass, or possibly translucent plastic. Below it was a plaque with that same symbol again: The wireframe cube with the glyph in the center. Xe stared at it, puzzled.

The door opened, and Welton walked in. He looked disheveled and exhausted.

Rakkel ran over. "Are you okay?" xe asked.

"Fine. I ran into an old, er, enemy," he said. "But he didn't manage to land a punch."

"What!"

"Ha, I'm joking," said Welton. "It got a little heated, but then I left. Sorry I'm late."

"I didn't realize you were late," xe said. "It's about the right time still, isn't it?"

"Sure," said Welton. "Do you have a table?"

Rakkel led him to xir table and they both sat down.

"I haven't been here yet," he said, "but I hear they're good. Let's see the menu." He stared at the wall and fiddled with his glasses. Then he looked down at the thin air between his hands.

"Hmm," he said. "This is going to be a tough choice. These all look good."

Rakkel gave him a confused look. But after a moment's thought, xe realized it was pretty obvious: There was a holo-menu, not a physical one. Xe pulled xir augmented reality visor out of xir messenger bag and turned around to look at the wall.

The glyph under the little circle of black glass lit up through the visor's lens. Xe stared at it. A circle appeared, grew bigger, then vanished. A moment later, xir vision filled with light and color.

Previously, the room had been plain. Now, holo-shapes danced and spun across the walls. Glowing ferns unfolded themselves from neon vases in the corners. Candles hovered above all the tables, their flames softly shifting across a spectrum of pastel shades as they flickered. Lanterns hung on strings draped across the ceiling.

"Woah," xe said.

"Ah, good," said Welton. "You've figured it out. I was about to explain it to you."

Xe looked down at the menu that now floated in front of xir above the table's surface. It listed an array of dishes, little three-dimensional images of them floating in boxes next to their names and prices.

"You can scroll around with gestures," said Welton. "The visor should be tracking the positions of your hands. If not, you might need to calibrate it. Once you've made your selection, tap it with a finger, then look over at the wall again to confirm and send payment."

"Neat," said Rakkel. "So is that what that symbol means?"

"What symbol?"

"The one on the wall that looks like the edges of a little box."

"Oh, yeah. That's to let you know there's AR content. If you see a symbol like that, look at it through your AR device to activate it."

"I saw it on your duffel bag," said Rakkel.

"Sure. Dang, I wish I had it with me. I have a cool effect on it," he said. "Remind me to show you some time."

"No wonder all these shop signs look so dull," xe realized. "They aren't dull, they're just, uh, holo. Or however you say it."

"Augmented," said Welton. "Yeah. That's what I do as a holo-scribe. More or less."

"Cool! This is actually really neat. I don't know why we don't do more of this back home. I should bring some extra AR devices with me when I return there," Rakkel said.

Xe looked back at the menu. The dishes all looked delicious. Xe waved a paw experimentally and found that not only did the menu expand and contract to reveal more options, but also that if xe touched the images of the dishes, they'd grow to life size so xe could see them properly.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"This is a big menu," said Welton. "I guess I'm going to have to come back here more than once. If it's as good as it's supposed to be." He touched his own menu and looked over at the wall.

"What'd you get?" xe asked him.

"The banana rice. I've been craving bananas for some reason," he said.

"Banana rice?"

"They're savory bananas, not sweet ones. I assume."

Seeing a footnote assuring customers that the restaurant only used vat meats, xe selected a bowl of brown rice and meatballs in a honey mustard sauce. Xe looked over at the wall, and when xe looked back, the menu had vanished.

"What'd you get?" he asked xir back.

Xe told him. "I was going to select a drink, though," xe said. "But I forgot. Now the menu's gone."

"Look back at the wall and it'll give you some options. You can usually interact with option menus by staring at the option you want for a couple of seconds."

"What if I want to read it, though?"

"Stare near it, not at it."

Xe turned back to the wall. Sure enough, the wall produced a little box with some options in it, including one to bring the menu back. Xe selected the option and watched the menu re-manifest in front of xir.

"So, spill it," said Welton. "I've been curious all afternoon. Who was that guy?"

"Oh boy, I'm not even sure where to start. Let's see... I guess, at the beginning, right?"

"Good place to start," agreed Welton.

"Okay, so on my very first day here, after you and I parted ways, I went to go try my hand at market selling..." Xe recounted meeting Madame Flore, selling her the rings, following her to the office building, and leaving again.

"But what does this have to do with that Guy guy?" asked Welton, interrupting.

"I'm about to get to that. I went to Salmidon's to get my AR device, since I had money for it now. But then I decided to turn around and go back up the tunnel-"

"Ah! That's how you got past me!"

"Huh?"

"I was looking for you. I thought if I stood in front of that curtain with the shark on it, you'd be bound to come back there. But then I finally went back in and Salmidon told me you'd already been and gone." He laughed. "I thought you were deliberately avoiding me! I thought you'd somehow snuck past when my back was turned!"

"Wait, you were looking for me? Why?"

"I wanted to apologize, actually."

"For what?" asked Rakkel. "I was the one who was being a pain in the butt over nothing."

"Maybe we both were," said Welton. "To be honest, I'd gotten kind of wrapped up in some sort of vision of you. I thought you were, I dunno, 'of my kind' in some fundamental way that most people aren't."

"Yeah, I got that impression." Rakkel shrugged. "I'm just me, though. Not any more or less than that."

"Sure. I think I'm over it now," he said. "Honestly, I've led kind of a lonely life. Maybe I'm a little desperate for something. Some kind of companionship or something. Some kind of intimacy. I've never had, you know..." he blushed.

"Oh? Me neither. It's not that big a deal, really."

"What? Really? You've never had friends before either?"

There was an awkward pause.

"That," said Rakkel, "is not what I thought you were talking about."

"Um, right," said Welton, still blushing. "I meant friends. Not, you know, that other thing."

"Sex," Rakkel helpfully supplied.

"Yeah, that one."

"I've definitely had friends before," xe said.

"Of course."

"That's good, though," said Rakkel. "I really can't help you with the sex. Friends, though, is easy: You're my friend. There, I've said it. Now you have one."

"Right," said Welton. "Great. Okay. I'm happy, or at least I will be once this conversation stops being so unbearably awkward."

"You've seriously never had any friends before at all?" asked Rakkel.

"I had... siblings. And I wish I hadn't."

"Who did you play with growing up?"

"Myself," he said, and winced.

"Yikes." Xe graciously ignored the double-entendre. "And you don't have any friends even as an adult? How old are you, anyway?"

"Thirty-three."

"Wait, seriously? No way you're that old. That's, like, a decade older than me! I thought you were mid twenties, tops."

Welton winced. "Look," he said, "this is all a wonderfully uncomfortable way for us to get to know each other better, but maybe we can get back to your story now."

"That's probably for the best," xe agreed. "Where were we? Oh, yeah. So I went back up the tunnel, and-" Xe felt silent.

"And?"

Xir voice went into a whisper. "Don't look now," xe said, "but did you notice that person in the big coat sitting at that table over there? Don't look!"

"Huh? No, I didn't notice anyone."

"They followed me in. But they still haven't ordered anything."

"Maybe they're indecisive."

"They keep staring at me when they think I'm not looking." Something occurred to xir. "I put my name in when I paid for my food," xe said. "The server's going to call it out."

"So?"

"I think this person's following me because of Guy."

"Why would Guy have someone follow you?"

"To find out if it's really me, I guess. Or to find out who I am. Anyway, I don't want him to learn my name."

"They're staring at you because you're a lemur," said Welton. "They're probably staring at me, too. Lots of people do that. I try to ignore them."

"This is different. How do I cancel my order?"

"Cancel it? I don't think you can. They've already started making the food, I expect." He squinted at the wall menu. "I don't see an option for cancelling orders," he added. "Just for adding to them."

Rakkel stood up. "Only one thing to do then," xe said. Xe walked over to the serving window.

"Hi," xe said through it. "I have an order under the name 'Rakkel.'"

"It's coming up in about seven minutes," replied an irritated voice. "Just wait."

"That's fine, but can you change the name?"

"Huh? Why? I don't think I can edit it once it's in the system."

"Just call out a different name," xe said.

"But why?"

"Can you just do it?"

"I guess so. What name?"

"I don't know. Anything."

"You have to know, or how will you know it's your food? Listen, we're all very busy back here. We don't have time to play games for people."

"Call me 'Franzis,'" xe said, making up a name at random. "And my friend is, I dunno, 'Zarry.'"

"What's your friend's actual name?"

"Welton. But now he's 'Zarry.'"

"Okay," said the voice, sighing. "I'll try to remember that. Franzis and Zarry. Anything else?"

"Thanks," xe said. "I appreciate it."

Xe went back to xir seat.

"Let's eat quickly," xe said, "and talk once we're outside. If that person follows us, we'll have to figure out how to lose them first."

"This is ridiculous," said Welton. "It's just some random restaurant customer."

"Maybe," xe said. "I don't care. I'm not risking it."

"What did you even do?"

"Until we're out of that person's earshot, I did nothing ever in my life."

"Should we get the food to go?"

"What's that?"

"What do you mean, 'what's that'?" he asked. "Like, ordering to go. You know."

"Never heard of it," xe said. "I don't go to a lot of restaurants."

"Huh. Okay. Well, most restaurants have boxes they can put your food in so you can take it away," he said. "Without stealing their plates."

"Oh yeah? Perfect!" Xe stood up to go back to the window.

"No, wait, you can do it from the menu," he said.

"Oh. Right. That's better." Xe looked over at the menu.

"It's under 'carryout,'" Welton added.

Xe selected 'carryout.'

A few minutes later, the voice called out "Zilly and Zanzibar" in a slightly exasperated tone of voice. Rakkel ran up, grabbed the two mycelium containers, and ran back to Welton.

"Let's go," xe said.

"Zilly and Zanzibar?"

"Those aren't the names I gave," xe said, "I gave much better ones." Xe pulled at his arm.

Sighing, he got up and followed xir out of the restaurant.

Shortly afterward, the person in the overcoat stood up and followed.

In the kitchen, a burly woman wearing dreadlocks turned away from the serving window where she'd just left a pair of food containers. A second burly woman wearing dreadlocks walked over to her. They both wore aprons. The latter held a long-handled spoon, still coated in bits of the fried vegetables she'd been stirring.

"Rakkel and Welton," the first one said to the second. "Those are their names."