Project: TheirWorld - Chapter 023 - Part 2

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It’s Probably a Secret Organization

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The Enclave

“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?” Dassah nodded, but didn’t elaborate - though her silence obviously increased the tension at the table..

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.

“You should join us!” Stella intervened with a happy tone.

Perking up, Bahena said, “I was thinking about picking it up this weekend. Yesterday I found out that at least one of my brothers plays it. It would be nice to use it to spend more time with them, too.”

“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. “What happened? You were praising at least one of them just yesterday!”

“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 that 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 it’s face. Wearing a cloak that looked like it was made of dirty brown rags, it looked quite out of place in the clean, atmospherically controlled Enclave.

“Where the hell have you been!” the bat man shouted, slamming the counter 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 the one called 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 thier 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 bat man 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 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 the smaller earar just went on it’s way. 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 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; 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 bat man 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 evesdropping 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 also looked 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 like him more than she likes you.”

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

“I’m sorry, are you my brother’s students?” Bahena asked them, a surprising bit of irritation to be heard in her voice as her tailed flicked. Dassah closed her posture a little.

The tivarys woman shook her head, “No, no. I’m Antirrhinum Geed - most people just call me Ri.” She pointed to the bored looking earar and introduced him too. “This is… well. To be perfectly honest, I don’t actually know his real name - I’m not really sure anyone does - we just call him ‘Grim’ ‘cause it’s his game handle - plus, look at him. I mean. He always looks so… so… well, grim!” she laughed as he looked at her unhappily. “We play TheirWorld with Sav 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,” Ri 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. “Dassah just started and we are trying to get Bahena to join in, too. She 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. For some reason, Dassah was under the impression that meeting these two made the dinosaur woman uncomfortable. “Speaking of him, I should probably make sure he’s settled in alright…”

As Bahena stood and picked up her things, Dassah looked over to see Ri looking confused. “D-Did I say something wrong?” the tivarys woman asked, looking at Grim whose face held a slight frown.

Bahena shook her head. “Of course not,” she said, though her pleasant tone rang false from Dassah’s perspective. “I just lost track of time, is all.”

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

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

Though she felt extremely uncomfortable, Dassah picked up her things at Stella’s urging, and bowed to Grim and Ri 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. Ri 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 actually 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 to laugh along with them, bantering as they walked back to the monorail station to go their separate ways.