“Well, this is a quaint little place, isn’t it?” Bahena asked as she looked around the coffee shop.

“It is nice, isn’t it?” Stella voiced her approval, adding, “Just wait until you meet the guy who makes the coffee!”

Behind them—farther behind them than she probably should have been—Dassah grinned and wondered if the bat barista knew what he had started. When Stella suggested they meet and grab coffee, Dassah had tried to stop them from going there—to little avail. At the very least, she thought to herself, I can get some good coffee.

“It seems more crowded today...” Dassah noticed as Bahena and Stella claimed one of the only empty tables with their things.

“It is Saturday. Think they hired someone with manners?” Stella asked, but Dassah just shrugged. “May he isn’t even here today—now that would be a shame. How to torture an absent victim?”

“What in Spirits’ Will are you two on about?” Bahena asked.

“Oh, trust me,” Stella told her. “Assuming that he’s here, you will know.”

Snickering as Bahena “Hmm-ed,” Dassah looked to the front where two young valkyrian girls were serving the customers. Guess he’s not here today... she started to think, then scolded herself for caring.

But as she turned to grab her wallet from her pocket, she saw the earar man come out from the staff door with a tray of pastries in his hands.

“Ah!” Stella exclaimed, pointing at him with an excited smile and hitting Dassah’s arm at the same time. “Look, see! Look at him; he looks so serious!”

Serious? Dassah instead thought that he looked angry.

Just then, a jikak in nice clothes sauntered up to the cash register.

“Oh?” Bahena said as Dassah saw her body lower and her tail start to sway.

“What is it?” Stella asked as Dassah slid into her chair at the table. The jikak looked to be talking to one of the young female baristas—but both of them were looking more and more uncomfortable as time passed.

“Trouble?” Bahena said. Dassah looked at the jikak man and cringed.

“S-Should we do something?” Stella asked, but Bahena shook her head.

“No,” the garule woman said. “Engaging without knowing the situation is stu-oh?”

Dassah was stunned as she watched the angry-looking earar came out from behind the counter and calmly grab the jikak by one of his three fingers, swiftly wrench the arm back over the man’s own head, and drag him out the cafe door—adding a kick for good measure.

“Fuck. Off.” Dassah heard him say before slamming the door and walking back inside.

Apparently unaffected by the whole thing, the bat-like man made his way back behind the counter to a course of claps and cheers, picking up some empty cups and trash along the way—until he turned around and glared at them all.

Dassah stifled a laugh as the cafe went silent.

“Order coffee, drink in silence, and leave,” he growled.

Bahena tilted her head. “Well...He’s an odd one, isn’t he?”

“Hey, maybe he’s really the bouncer!” Stella wondered out loud.

“What kind of coffee shop needs a bouncer?” Dassah asked.

Stella shrugged. Then exclaimed, “Ah! Maybe it’s not a cafe at all!” Shifting behind Dassah, she continued in a low, exaggerated hiss: “Maybe it’s a secret hideout for a super secret organization! Or! Maybe they are all criminals!”

“Ah, but then the question is: do we care if they make good coffee?” Bahena asked with a wink.

“It’s so nice to have some guns around,” Stella admired Bahena’s muscular arms with a pat.

Grinning, Dassah waved to the register and said, “Shall we?”

The three women walked up to the counter, all trying not to laugh. Dassah noticed that about half the cafe was like them, holding wry smiles and looking like they had forgotten about the bat barista’s command in a very short amount of time, while the other half seemed scared shitless and was starting to pack their bags.

The young valkyrian woman behind the counter seemed happy to take their orders under the earar man’s watchful eye. Dassah had tried to put up a more confident front, but as he eyed Dassah and the other two, she took to chewing at her fingers as a distraction.

“You know,” Bahena faced him. “I have never heard an earar bark quite like that. You have my respect, sir.”

Dassah looked up quickly to see the man yawn, “Don’t need it.”

Baneha’s tail flickered back and forth, but she said nothing.

“P-Please have a seat,” the worried young woman behind the counter said with a slight bow. “We will bring your coffee when it is ready...”

“Oh yes, of course,” Bahena said pleasantly and went to their table. Stella and Dassah ordered their coffee and then joined her quietly.

After a moment of awkward silence between them, Stella said, “Isn’t he just the most charming one out there?”

“I can’t say I don’t find it unattractive,” Bahena said, eyeing the barista. “Though... something about him seems familiar.”

“Oh?” Stella went.

“Maybe I’m just imagining things.

The bat barista came over with two cups and a bowl of coffee and set them down in front of the girls, eyeing them with disgust and curiosity—presumably because of Bahena’s presence at their table. After all, who would hang out with humans here? Dassah tried to ignore the negative vibes that began to emanate around them again.

After taking a lap from her bowl, Bahena gave a strange face and said, “I didn’t know earar made good coffee.” She looked at the bat man’s face with a raised eyebrow. “And I generally thought they were... well. More polite.”

The man looked at her with bored eyes. “And I didn’t know garuli associated with such bottom feeders,” he said, his monotonous voice grating on Dassah’s nerves. “And I thought females like you were far more rude.”

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“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Bahena smiled.

“Well, aren’t we both failures, then,” he answered dully.

“Okay,” Stella slammed her cup on the table. “Fuck off, asshole, and let the customers drink in peace.”

“Customer, if you break that cup, you will be charged an additional one hundred creds,” he informed her as he walked away. Stella raised a fist at his back.

In a calm, stern tone, Dassah warned, “Stella. Don’t feed the trolls.”

“He really is a troll,” Stella spat in an unusual display of bitterness. “Look at that face...”

“Now, now,” Bahena thrust her muzzle down toward Stella’s cup. “Drink your coffee; you’ll feel better. Oi, look at that face from a girl who wanted to come here...” Though she was grumbling, Stella did as she was told. Turning her attention back to Dassah, Bahena asked, “How has TheirWorld been treating you?”

“Oh... Um. Okay, I guess,” Dassah said. “I’m still in the tutorial.”

As Bahena looked into her her coffee bowl quietly, Dassah almost felt bad but couldn’t come up with anything to say and began tracing the lip of her cup with her finger.

“Still in the tutorial?” Stella intervened, giving Dassah a nudge. “I thought you would have been out of there by now! Even I managed to navigate my way through it!”

“It’s not that I can’t,” Dassah told her. “There are just a few quests I want to finish before I move on.”

Making a face, Stella asked, “Quests? Do quests in the tutorial even matter?” If only you knew, Dassah thought, frowning down at her coffee. “What about you, Bahena? You started a little later than us, but I’ll bet you’re a powerhouse.”

Perking up, Bahena said, “I’ve been mostly playing with my brothers. It seems that we have a different tutorial zone than you guys. I should be out of the tutorial soon, though; maybe we can meet up soon?”

“Brothers?” Stella asked. “More than one?”

“Three of them,” Bahena said in a miserable voice. “And all three of them are little shits.”

Stella laughed. “Siblings, huh?”

“Yes, well,” Bahena started, a sour look on her face. “Let me tell you—”

“HEY!”

Dassah jumped at the sound of the bat man’s voice shouting loudly. The coffee she had just been taking a sip of spilled onto her shirt. She glared at him as she started to mop up the coffee that was now soaking into her clothes, but her gaze quickly turned into curiosity. Thus far, the man’s face had been varying shades of stoic; now, it looked full of anger and pain as it faced the doors of the cafe.

“What’s this?” Stella asked, looking around as the cafe went quiet again. “More excitement? Is that weird jikak guy back?”

Looking over at the door, however, Dassah saw that it wasn’t the jikak man at all. Instead, there was another, much smaller earar standing in the entrance with a rather expressionless look on its face. A sense of familiarity dawned on her as she recognized the girl from their floor. What was her name?

“Shen?” Dassah murmured.

“Where the hell have you been!” the bat barista shouted, slamming the gate as he came out from behind the counter again. The shorter one’s ears twitched, but it said nothing. “Shen!” the man shouted, but Shen seemed to ignore him as it stood there.

Stella leaned into the table and quietly whispered: “Secret organization!” Bahena and Dassah both snorted, trying to hold back their laughter in what looked to be an otherwise serious event.

Dassah watched as one of the other customers, who must have been a regular, waved her hand at the him as he glowered and said, “Now, now, Grim....”

“Shut up,” he growled at her. Dassah wasn’t sure what to make out about the situation, but everyone in the cafe seemed to be in the same boat. Shen started walking to a door next to the counter that said ‘PRIVATE’ in big, bold letters. “Shen!”

But the warning that was in his voice went unheeded as Shen just did as she pleased. Suddenly looking exhausted, Grim put his hands on his hips and let out a big sigh.

The customer that had spoken to him before walked over and knocked on the counter. “You really need to relax,” she said in a soothing voice. “She needs time.”

Dassah gave the woman a quick once over... She’s a tivarys, Dassah thought in wonder. Her skin was a jade color, with skin so translucent that one could see her veins running through her body. Her ears were pointed in two places, and her large, almond-shaped eyes were almost the same teal color as the valkyrian grass.

Tivarys themselves were a species that specialized in agricultural studies. Dassah couldn't help but think of them as elves or faeries; beautiful, delicate, unearthly creatures; they were wise, with an unparalleled connection to nature. Or so it was said. Dassah wasn’t sure trying to tell the earar man—Grim, it seemed his name was—what to do was a very wise decision.

Predictably, Grim didn’t seem to like what she was saying. “It’s been almost a year,” he growled. “How much time am I supposed to give her?”

“As much as she needs,” the tivarys woman told him.

“Great.”

The woman then looked around the room, but her eyes fell on Dassah’s group. Dassah forced her eyes down. She didn’t want to be caught staring and eavesdropping on the situation—though it should have hardly been surprising. To her surprise, however, the woman’s voice asked, “Hey, aren’t you Sav’s sister?”

Stella and Dassah looked and her, then at each other, and then over to Bahena, who looked more anxious than surprised.

“You know Sav?” Bahena asked, tilting her head. Grim groaned loudly as the woman laughed.

“Well, it is a small world, isn’t it!” she said. Dassah wondered if she understood what she was really saying as she went on with a sly voice. “Guess that means he’s back from the homeworld then? You’re in luck, Grim—Shen’s always liked him more than she likes you.”

“Good,” Grim said, returning to his monotone self. “He can have her.”

“I’m sorry, are you Leegrim Grimnar?” Bahena asked him, a surprising bit of irritation to be heard in her voice as her tailed flicked. Dassah closed her posture a little.

“And if I am?”

“Then you and I really are going to have a problem,” Bahena warned. “Stay away from my brother.”

Grim glared at her. “I don’t fucking need this right now,” he growled and went back to work tidying up behind the bar.

Bahena’s gaze shifted to the tivarys woman, who shrugged.

“Sorry, I’m Syringa Oleaceae—most people just call me Syr,” She pointed to the bored-looking earar and introduced him too. “This is... well. I’m just regular who plays TheirWorld with him occasionally. Do you guys play?”

“They don’t,” Grim told her. “Go back to the counter and leave the real customers alone, would you?”

“I will when you learn to take your own advice,” Syr gave him a coy look that made Dassah smirk.

“And to correct the lying liar over there, we do play TheirWorld,” Stella said and introduced them each in turn. “We are just getting started. Bahena was just talking about the fact her brothers play...” Stella trailed off and looked at Grim with sharp eyes. Dassah knew exactly what she was thinking and was thinking along the same lines: This asshole has friends?

“Well,” Bahena stood up. She was clearly upset. “Speaking of him, I should probably make sure he’s settled in all right....”

As Bahena stood and picked up her things, Dassah looked over to see Syr looking confused. “What the hell did you do, Grim?” the tivarys woman asked, looking at Grim whose face held a slight frown.

Bahena shook her head. “He knows what he did,” she said, though her pleasant tone rang false from Dassah’s perspective.

“O-Okay,” the tivarys woman said uncertainty.

“We should probably go too,” Stella said. “We have to get Dassah up to speed in the game!”

Extremely uncomfortable, Dassah picked up her things at Stella’s urging and bowed to Grim and Syr slightly as she went to follow the other two, who had already made their way to the door.

“Ms. Sul,” Grim called as Bahena put her hand on the door. “If you see your brother before I do, tell him to keep his nose where it belongs and his tail out of trouble—I don’t care who he is. Maybe if he hears it from you, he’ll listen better.”

Dassah watched as Bahena hesitated before giving a slight smile. “You don’t know Sav very well if you think that’s true,” she said. But the earar just snorted, yawned, and turned away. Syr waved at them as they went out the door, but her gesture was stiff. Dassah bowed to them once more before turning her back to the little cafe.

“Hey, Bahena,” Stella went her hand on her chin. “Is your brother a member of their secret organization?”

“No,” Bahena answered shortly.

“Is he a criminal then?”

“Stella...”

“Is that a ‘yes’ then?”

“Of course not!”

“How sad...”

“Silly girl.”

“I’ll bet he is a member of a secret organization, and you just don’t know about it!”

“... Is there any way to stop you?”

“Nope.”

Dassah couldn’t help but laugh along with them, bantering as they walked back to the monorail station to go their separate ways.