Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 023 - Part 1

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It’s Probably a Secret Organization

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The Enclave

“Well, this is a quaint little place, isn’t it?” Bahena was asking 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 simply grinned and wondered if the bat barista knew what was he had started. When Stella suggested they meet up for a short meeting, 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 bat man come out from the staff door with a tray of pastries in 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 rather 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 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 pig-like 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 the 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 the bat man say before slamming the door and walking back inside.

Apparently unaffected by the whole thing, he 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, then…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 wave 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 were 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 were 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 bat 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, “Well since our meeting was put off yesterday… How were classes today?”

“Oh yes!” Bahena said. “Dassah, how do the young Enclavians take to the works of Tolkien?”

“They were classes,” Dassah told her with a shrug. “I’ve gotten fairly used to them by now. As for how they take to it… They take to it about as well as they take to most other literature, I’d imagine. There are a few good eggs. I’ll admit, I’m a bit shocked that a lot of them are reading it in English, rather than in a translation. It’s a really good way to learn, but the language isn’t exactly the easiest!”

Bahena nodded, then said with a laugh. “The Enclave holds the cream of the crop when it comes to it’s students. It doesn’t help that we all get kicked out if we don’t make the grade!”

“...How was your first day returning to teaching?” Dassah asked her, trying to make pleasant conversation.

“Can’t say that it’s good, can’t say that it’s bad,” Bahena shrugged. “After five years, most things… normalize? I’m mostly just tired of being an assistant to dull professors.”

Grimacing, Stella said, “I don’t think you need to be here for five years to feel that…”

“True,” snorted the dinosaur woman.

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 a mix of 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 took a look 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.”

“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. “Go away, 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, “You started playing TheirWorld, didn’t you?”