021

--The Enclave--

Dassah stared at the offered hand. The corner of her eye twitched a little, but not wanting word of any rude behavior getting to Stella, she took it and said, “Nice to meet you.”

“You come here often?” Jake asked, looking around the place. “Looks like a nice place, the that earar is… a bit much, isn’t he. I wonder where the manager is…”

He is the manager, she snorted as she buried her nose in her cup.

“One Latte,” Grim put a cup on the table and slid it over to the brown haired man. Jake cowered back a bit as he looked up at the bat man. “Also, if you are looking for a manager, you can just send all you complains to me. She’s in class, for once, thank the sky, and probably care less than I do, anyway. Least I have the cops on speed dial, if need be.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” the blue eyed valkyrian said with a half-hearted laugh, going a bit red around the ears. Grim snorted but didn’t give an answer. He smirked in Dassah’s directions and left again.

Seeing a twinge of worry in Jake’s expression, Guin chuckled and said, “It’s okay. That’s just who he is.”

“Is that so?” he asked, then took a towed from a nearby dispenser and Dassah held in her amusement as she watched him wipe down the sides of the cup in front of him. “If you say so, I guess I’ll trust it.”

Dassah pushed a stray hair out of her face and took another sip of her coffee. Trying to subtly look around the room to gain hints from observing other people in the cafe, she tried to think about how to go forward with the concept of ‘small talk’.

Next to her, Jake cleared his throat. “So. Hadassah. That’s an unusual name, isn’t it?”

“I guess,” Dassah answered, looking up. “My mother really liked biblical names.”

“Biblical?”

“From the bible,” she told him. “Earthian religion… stuff.” She fumbled with her fingers in her lap.

“I see,” he nodded. “Can’t say that I know too much about religion, let alone Earthian religion.”

“You’re a valkyrian, right?”

“Full blooded,” he nodded with a smirk.

“‘Jake’ is a very Earth-sounding name,” she returned.

He laughed. “It’s a nickname. My full name is Jaekaar. What about you? ‘Hadassah’ is a bit of a mouthful. People call you Hattie?”

Dassah snorted. “Please, don’t call me that,” she told him. “No. It’s 'Dassah'.”

“Dassah!” he smiled with a nod. “I like that. ‘Dassah’.” Blushing, Dassah looked into her coffee cup. “So.. are you a teacher then? Like Stella?” he asked.

“Mmm,” she confirmed.

“I see…” he went, then stared into his cup.

Taking a deep breath, Dassah sighed and licked her lips as she choked down her guy reaction to drive in the conversation further into the murky pit of awkward it was headed in the direction of. “What about you?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“What do you do?”

“O-Oh!” he went, brightening up. “I’m a medical student, and intern,” he told her, pushing up his glasses again. “Next year I’ll be moved up to a practitioner, but right now, I usually just study and clean. A lot.”

“I see,” Dassah nodded. The boy made be think of a puppy, but he had to have a good head on his shoulders to be a medical student. This was the Enclave after all. Settling down her nerves a little, she asked, “How long have you been on the Enclave?”

“Four years,’ he said, then chuckled. “Bet it doesn’t seem like that, huh?”

“Why say that?”

“He smiled as he nursed his latter. “I’m a little… Shy. Awkward, I guess. I admit I am not… great with people.

Dassah laughed out loud. “Seems to be a common affliction, around here, people not being great with people. Stella seems to be an exception,” she said. “Though, I imagine in your professions it’s not a great trait to have.”

Shrugging, Jake said, “It's not too bad. I struggle sometimes, but I think the biggest thing I run into is that I get far too attached to my patients. Many of my coworkers kind of make fun of me for that.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” she told him. Her gaze clouded over a bit as she stared into nothing. “It’s just… it’s a hard thing. Letting go is hard. For things we love and for things we hate.”

Her thoughts drifted to Tik-Tak and the White Fox Forest again. She had only known them for such a brief time. She knew many of the students she had had in the past far better and for far longer than she had known those NPCs in the game — yet that sense of attachment and loss was still quite real to her — realer, perhaps, than the emotions that she felt for those students of hers.

TheirWorld had always seemed more real to her than the Enclave did, though. Forget that White Fox Forest resembled her home on Earth; for all the monsters and magic and mayhem that made up her in life game, it was far more grounded in reality than this place was.

Dassah looked around, watching a jikak furiously typing away at his holographic keyboard with his three fingers, his piggy nose wiggling whenever he paused to think. A blue and yellow scaled garuli was lounging, peacefully sipping his tea or coffee or whatnot as he sat people watching out the large front window of the cafe. A handful of green skinned, elf-like tivarys women sat chatting away, showing each other pictures and giggling like school girls as they fawned over various musicians. It felt less like they were aliens, and more like fantasy races in a sci-fi world. Maybe that was why TheirWorld always felt less jarring to her.

Giggling to herself, Dassah finished her coffee.

“Uhm,” Jake coughed. “Dassah?”

“Hmm? Sorry…,” she mumbled. “You aren’t the only one who’s shy and awkward…”

He chuckled. “It’s fine. It’s good to know it’s not just me.”

“It’s not,” she said. “How do you know Stella?”

“I can’t really say that I know her, to be honesty,” he said, then laughed. “At least, not well. She’s my cousin’s friend; they tend to run in… a different circle than I do.”

Dassah snorted, “It is a very colorful circle, isn’t it?”

“It is!” Jake said, seeming relieved.

Dassah held back a grin as she looked up to see Grim standing over them. “Can I help you?” she asked.

“Mmm,” he went. “Take this sickeningly sweet conversation away from my bar. Shoo. There are tables aplenty. Want more coffee to prolong it? Pay for it and it’s yours.

Scrunching her nose, she looked at her almost empty cup and pushed it over with an order for a second one. Jake politely rejected the offer and led Dassah over to one of the tables on the other side of the cafe. She found it curious that Grim had taken such initiative; when it came to his hearing, it probably didn’t matter how far away they were as long as they were still in the cafe.

Is he… being considerate? She wondered, amused. People do come in all sorts, I guess.

“Stella said that you liked playing games?” Jake asked as they sat down together.

Dassah paused and slowly lowered herself down into the seat. “What else did Stella say?” she asked, looking him over. He flushed a pretty shade of pink. It was much easier to see him now that she was sitting across to him and not next to him. His hair was probably on the longer side, slicked back with a fair amount of pomade that gave him a very classic suave-professional look. His eyes were clear, with long lashes, and his skin was the kind of pale white a person can be only when they don’t go outside very often. The style of his clothes was very relaxed, but still quite smart with a dark green button down shirt complementing the bright mystriks on his face, khaki slacks, and comfy looking shoes.

But his aura that made her hesitate. The way he felt; the energy he gave off didn’t match the persona he presented. His body language, his voice, his words — they were all laid back, soft, easy. His eyes, however, a bright, sky blue, were sharp, alert, and clever — though he seemed to be making considerable effort to force them to be otherwise.

You’re just imagining things, Das, she told herself, trying to shake a feeling of unease. You just aren’t used to situations like this.

“Just basic things,” he said. “She didn’t mention anything about me?”

“Hm?” she started, being drawn out of her thoughts, then shook her head. “Only that you were a friend of a friend.”

Though he seemed a bit disappointed, he chuckled. “I guess that’s all she really knows anyway.”

“I’m almost certain that’s not it,” Dassah grimaced. “More likely she expects me to find things out for myself. I’m guessing what you heard about me didn’t come directly from her. She tends not to think about those lesser of us that haven’t been born with the gift of easy communication.”

Laughing he said, “That sounds right, going from what my cousin said.”

“The joy of not being Stella’s friend. You got to come here without being threatened.”

He paled. “Threatened? You were threatened to meet me?”

Chuckling Dassah shook her head and leaned back. “I don’t mean it in a bad way,” she waved it off. Well, I don’t really mean it in a good way, either but, she thought but said, “Her heart’s in the right place, and I’m not unhappy to have come.”

Jake smiled a bit at the last bit as his watch started buzzing. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “I’m on call — I have to take this. “

She motioned for him to go ahead and started browsing through her own phone as he walked away.

She had to admit, it wasn’t that bad, but she didn’t get the impression that he was all that happy with the meeting himself. Was he lying about being on call? She mused. Did his friend call him to get him out of this nonsense blind date? Does he even known that that’s what this is supposed to be?

Stella had left her several messages, but Dassah chose to ignore them in favor of Elric’s.

Elric: Noona! Will you be on today? I want to play with you! :3 Dassah: Yup yup~ Dassah: I am just running an errand now, but I will be on soon, I hope. Elric: What city are you in? I will head there now! Dassah: Miala De Ri. It’s in the mist kingdom. Elric: Oh! That’s far from me. Elirc: But I just got a caravan ticket! I will be there soon! Dassah: Okay! I will look forward to it!

“Sorry for this,” Jake said as he came back and started collecting his things. “There’s been a bit of an emergency back at the hospital. I’m going to have to cut this short… Can I have your number? I promise I’ll make it up to you!”

Nodding, she gave him her number and he went off hurriedly.

Grim came over and sat across from her with a cup of coffee of his own.

“If you have something to say,” she said, glaring at him. “Say it.”

He took a sip of his coffee and stared at her flatly. “Let’s just say that I hope you aren’t too invested.”