The crowd dissipated and returned to their own tables and games, filling the room with the low din typical of the weekend. The girl got up in a huff, pushing down the ruffles of her dress.

Holding out her hand, she looked away, “Good game, you stinky shortstack.”

Sarah grabbed Mica’s hand and squeezed tightly, “You almost scared the shit out of me. I might need you help when I build my next deck.”

“Thanks, you’re not as shabby as you look.” Mica grinned as she gestured to the ‘slightly used’ overalls. Compared to her pristine Victorian-era, the two looked like they got lost on their way to a Renaissance Fair.

“Well now I can see how you won that tournament a few days ago!” The older man ruffled her hair, making her curled pigtails bob and weave, “You know, I heard Manufacturing Mirages announced some big changes coming to the card game soon. Hopefully they won’t kill off the game…”

The two kids and Sarah looked at the owner worriedly.

“But- but they probably won’t!” He added, putting his hands up defensively, “The game is doing gangbusters, so I bet they’re doing their best to balance it and make official events and such!”

Sarah sat back down in her chair, still slightly winded from the game, “Yeah, that’d be pretty fucking retarded…”

The shop was alive. A bit cringy at times and breathing out of its mouth, but alive. People excitedly shouted at their tables, placing down cards and fish rocks. Groans of frustration met with cries of success as some people ran from table to table when not in a game of their own to join in on the excitement. While walking with him, there were times where Sarah looked up to a small glimmer on Mr. Montgomery’s cheek.

“So, this here’s the game room, as I’m sure you’re aware.” He gestured out to the room filled to the brim with tables, chairs, shelves of board games, and video games lining the edges of the nearly rectangular spot. Sparse decorations of popular games dotted the walls, alongside a few community awards and photos. “As long as the shop is open, you kids are free to come and hang out here. Better than being on the street!”

Despite some of the people knowing her through her notoriety, aside from the coffee shop gang, she really knew nobody else at the store.

“Bruh, you’re looking a bit lost there.” Mike leaned over, nearly doubling over to reach Sarah’s height, “Oh, that’s right, you don’t know anybody here.”

Two fists found themselves in the boy, before he decided to resume his full height where it was safe. With a small nod between the girls, they stood before Mr. Montgomery on the doorway between the two rooms.

“I’m gonna go ahead and leave you kids to do your thing. If any of ya’ll want any cards, look for me at the front desk!”

“What a cool guy…” Sarah muttered to herself.

“Yeah, Mr. M.’s living the life. It’d be hella rad to own a place like this.”

Bounding to an unoccupied table, Mica took out her cards and set them before her, “Anyways, how about a round 2?”

Looking around the room, Sarah targeted the most curious thing in the space, “Sounds good, just give me a second to ask about something…”

Thankfully, her prey had their backs turned to her, something you should never do in the wilderness, according to Becky, at least. In a flash of denim and teased blonde curls, Sarah worked her way through the room and grasped Marty’s shoulders, causing her to jump with a yelp. “Boo!”

The woman jumped nearly two feet out of her seat, causing her ‘plus one’ to snap in her direction, “Sarah! What the hell are you doing?!”

“Hey boss, weird to see you outside of the shop! Decided to finally cash in on some of your comp time?”

Marty straightened her already frazzled black hair, “N-no. I have a weekend as well...:”

“Oh yeah? Also, hey Kyle, how was track yesterday?” Sarah grinned the widest she ever had since her exile, her ‘ape brain’ finally satiated on some delectable drama.

“Hey Sarah, it was good! I was just showing Marty the card shop since it’s just a five minute walk from the coffee shop. By the way, don’t you both think it’s funny how they both are just ‘whatever they sell’ plus shop? Like, many places of business have more vague terms, like ‘bakery’. Nobody calls it the ‘bread store’! It’s also crazy to think about how many cultures around the world has had bread or some form of it in its history and it forms a fundamental aspect of their cultures. By the way, my great grandfather’s middle name is ‘Brot’ which is German for bread, and it-”

As the people sitting across from them began to groan, Marty put up a hand, “Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Bread boy.”

Sarah crossed her arms, barely able to keep herself together. Holy shit, she has him trained.

“Look Sarah, I know what this looks like; a manager in a place away from work with her employee,” she straightened up, the dark circles under her eyes appearing more prominent under the fluorescent lighting, “But just know this is purely platonic. I mean, it’s Kyle for crying out loud.”

Uh-huh, sure. “I never even had that thought!” She shrugged, “Oh by the way, Aubrey says ‘hi’.”

Marty brightened up a bit, “Oh man, I haven’t seen her in a bit!”

As the two continued, Sarah felt the pit in her chest disappear for the first time in what felt like forever.

“By the way, have you met our friends?” Kyle gestured to two guys sitting across from him and Marty.

The men looked virtually the same, aside from hair color and eye color. Both sported short spiky hair, a half-grown beard more patchy than a pirate, the same half-rimmed glasses, and pear-shaped body. However, the most unique thing that separated what seemed to be this second set of twins Sarah met today was the different designs of their general store brand wolf tee-shirts. With the wolves facing different directions and standing on either a rock or a hill, they still howled at the same crescent moon hanging just below the neckline.

“Nice to meet you,” One said, holding his hand out.

Tentatively, Sarah took and shook the grip that swallowed hers whole. The other offered the same silently.

“This is Tim,” Kyle gestured to the man with brown hair, “And this is Jim.” The black haired man nodded. “By the way, you’d think they’re related, but they’re actually gay.”

“Geez Kyle, you can’t just say it like that, it’s 2043.” Jim nodded in agreement.

“That’s cool.” Sarah rubbed the back of her neck.

As a chime went off, Jim sat up, pulling his phone from his shorts. Setting it on the table, a miniature spectral blue anime girl appeared and walked around the table.

Mike leaned in to get a better look at the clown/ballerina dressed girl, “Whoa! Is that the new Spurt-san Glimmer from Mahou Shoujo Yuri Magica Arashi?”

Jim crossed his arms and smiled proudly.

“Ohayo mina-san!” The holographic woman moved her arms in an exaggerated manner, “Watashi just heard some sugoi news, desu! The kind that would make you go, “‘Honto, desu ne?’”

Sarah rolled her eyes. Looking over at Mica, she was enraptured by the tiny dancing weeb woman as well.

“Gomenna-sorry if watashi bothered you, master, but this is BIG!” With as slight skip, various parts of her model moved exaggeratedly, “As you might’ve heard, the World Game Trading Card Game is a jūyō success around the world and has already sold tens of thousands of cards! As such, the owning company, Manufacturing Mirages has announced some BIG new changes!”

Looking away from the ephemeral person who clearly did not dress herself, Sarah saw the rest of the room were looking at their own Glimmers delivering the same news. Thankfully, not all were as exotic as Jims, taking the forms of anything from a man in a dapper coat to what appeared to be a commercial airplane with eyes and unusually long legs.

“Squeak!” Hopping out of her pocket, Carbuncle bounded onto the table to inspect the similarly sparkling figure.

“We got san new changes!” She cheered holding up three fingers, “Ichi, a new expansion pack has been announced with over 50 new cards!”

Some people in the shop cheered to themselves.

“In this new expansion called, “Ascendants of the Apocalyptic Adventure”, you will find a whole buncha new creatures, including an evolved new type called “EVO creatures”!

Mike looked over at Sarah. With a shrug, they continued to hear the news.

“Ni, in addition to these new EVO creatures, there’s gonna be a fundamental change to the game!” After pausing to let the groans in the room subside, she continued, “Everyone at Manufacturing Mirages heard how people could just stuff a bunch of good cards in their deck and will eventually have the same list. So, in anticipation for the new World Game Official Tournaments, another new type of cards are to be released, and are necessary for play!”

A small three dimensional rectangle appeared beside her, showing a card with a slightly different layout, “This right here is what is called a ‘Strike Leader’! They are cards that you can summon without being in your hand for the right amount of play points, BUT you can only play cards that share a civilization with it!”

Some cheers picked up in the room as one person left in a huff. Wow, what a loser.

“I know that’s a lot to take in, but don’t worry! Some detailed rules will be sent out soon!”

With yet another exaggerated move, she looked like she was wrapping up the announcement, “And san! A new CEO of Manufacturing Mirages has been announced! Mr. Rotewasser will continue to be the lead card designer, but he decided to step down to take care of family matters and bring in someone with international sales experience!”

Another rectangle appeared before Spurt-san. Showing the picture of a woman with long light hair, black glasses, and a serious expression, Sarah’s jaw dropped.

“Mina-san! Give three cheers to the new CEO of Manufactured Mirages, Dr. Priscilla Weatherford! Gambate!”

It was Marty’s turn to look at Sarah, “Hey Weatherford, you related to her?”

Sarah solemnly nodded, “Yeah. That’s my mom.”

The shop came back to life after the broadcast ended. The hard light posters in the room changed to the new Ascendants of the Apocalyptic Adventure adverts sent to store owners during the announcement. Speculation and theories flew around as Sarah sat looking blankly at the floor. Why would Mom get involved with a card company? She makes medical supplies… Sitting back, she could not but laugh at the irony.

“You alright?” Mica hiked up her dress to take a seat at the table with Sarah setting down a soda before her, “Do all white girls laugh to themselves when no one’s looking?”

Taking the soda, Sarah popped the top before leaning back, “Only the crazy ones…” Forcing a smile, she set the can back down, “So yeah, all of us do.”

Mica tried to stop herself from laughing, “That was good!” Straightening up, she continued, “So, you mom’s the one in charge of making the card game now? D’ya think you could get me some extra cards? I gave all my good ones to Mikey…”

Carbuncle appeared once more, standing on the table looking around the room. “Squeak! Squeak!” Chirping towards a corner, Sarah tried to keep up with Mica.

It’s probably a cat or something…

“I would if I could, but I haven’t talked to my mom in over a week now.” The knot in her stomach returned.

“Ooh right. She’s a doctor, so you probably go a long time without seeing her. Stupid rich kids.”

“Nah, I saw her a lot growing up, but I…”

Mica put out her hand, “Sorry, you don’t have to explain more if you don’t want to. Mikey and I…” She looked over at her brother shotgunning a diet soda, “We say what’s on our mind a little too much.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

A silence hung over the two as the world went on around them. She had completely forgotten about Carbuncle, still chirping towards the corner of the room.

Sarah cleared her throat, “Well, if I know anything about her main business, she can run a pretty tight ship. I think the card game will be fine. Plus, they said they were looking for someone with knowledge in international sales. My mom’s the fucking best at that…”

“Good! I’ve seen so many card games make one small change and just completely shoot itself in the foot!” She messed with her straightened hair a bit, “I heard the competitive scene was as bad as Spurt-san described, pros just sticking to one deck with little variance. This should shake things up for good.”

“Oof!” Sarah looked down from her seat, to find a young boy on his back, laughing from running into her chair.

“Perdon!” Moving much faster than one would initially expect from the man, he cleared the room and swooped down, picking up the child. His silver hair failed to match the solid black handlebar moustache that adorned his older face as his bodybuilder physique pushed the comparison further away, “I am so sorry! Ricardo! What do we say to the nice lady?”

“Sowwy!” The boy had a head of hair that matched the old man’s sweet ‘stache. Thankfully, only the old man was ripped enough to be a fan of oil.

“I apologize, bellissima. Little Ricardo here doesn’t like to look where he’s going.”

“It’s cool, nobody got hurt.”

While trying his best to keep eye contact with Sarah, his gaze kept shifting to the table before her.

“Squeak!” The ethereal creature took a wide stance and stared the two of them down. Looking in their direction, Sarah saw nothing worth such aggression.

Maybe he hates moustaches?

“Grampie! What kind of animal is that?” The boy pointed towards Carbuncle while hanging in the strong man’s arms.

Mica raised an eyebrow as she looked at the pair.

“Oh, never mind little Ricardo! He’s got a wild imagination!” The grandpa was sweating now. His eyes grew wide and continued to dart towards the table.

“Yeah, kids can be crazy at times…” Sarah held out her hand, “What is your name, sir?”

Hitting his forehead with his free hand and muttering various swears under his breath, he met her greeting, “My name is Bruno. Bruno Verstelli the Third, but Bruno is just fine.”

“Piacere di conoscerti, Bruno. My friends call me Sarah.”

His face lit up hearing his mother tongue in one of the most unexpected places.

Aside from yet another handshake that could easily break her fingers, Sarah could not seem to find what led Carbuncle to continuously bark at them, aside from their apparent ability to see him as well.

After some pleasantries and letting the two return to their table, Sarah sat back down with Mica who had her deck out, “Ooh Sarah, I had no clue you were into silver foxes?” She pantomimed a heart shape with her index finger, blushing all the while.

Placing her cards on the table, Sarah shook her head violently, “Shut the fuck up and give me that round two you were begging for earlier.”

After a few rounds with everyone, the sky had turned dark. Waking to the door of the shop, she turned around and smiled. Mr. Montgomery sat on his stool behind the counter and waved, looking winded after such a busy day. Despite the crowds and the lines, it appeared he still had some packs sitting behind him. Maybe it won’t hurt if I buy a few more…

With five blisters in hand, Sarah turned for the door. There, in the middle of the room sat Ricardo trying to pet Carbuncle. While his hand passed through the ephemeral beast, he giggled to himself contentedly.

“What are you doing here, little guy?” With a bit of effort, she managed to lift the boy and his grabby hands. “Oof. Where is your grampie, uhh… Roberto?”

After an examining stare, the child pointed towards the exit, wordlessly sticking his other hand in his mouth. While the boy stood up to her hips, he was not terribly heavy.

“Okay, I’ll take you out to see him.” Turning around and grabbing her packs, Carbuncle weightlessly jumped onto her shoulder, “See you, Mr. Montblanc!”

“You’ll get it eventually, Sarah! I’ll tell Richard you were looking for him!”

The cold night air hit her as she opened the door. Her breath came out in light vapors as she readjusted the child in her arms. Bright beams from the street lights in the center of the parking lot broke up the uniform umbrage in the distance. Not a single star appeared in the sky, despite being on the edge of the city. “You said he was out here?”

Past his wordless nod, what sounded like a hushed conversation could be heard.

“Squeak!” With a chirp, Carbuncle jumped off her shoulder and ran behind the corner of the shop to their right and behind the shopping center.

“No, wait! Where are you- Ugh!” Sarah groaned as she took the corner, following her luminescent compatriot.

"I don't think they're a threat. It's just a young girl and a small fox thi-" The thick Italian accent spoke in a firm whisper.

"Squeak squeak squeak!" Carbuncle rounded to the back of the shop first and took a wide stance, growling. As Sarah rounded the corner, she clutched Ricardo tighter.

The already large man stood speaking to what could be described as a towering great horned tortoise. Standing almost as tall as the building at over 20 feet, the creature was draped in a tangled mess of vines and foliage, most of which were hung from a great tree on the creature's back, adding to the sheer mass of this monstrosity. While the head seemed to be covered in fur, the eyes that peeked out were the same as an old man's near the end of his long life, full of wisdom and mystery. While the face of the creature appeared to harbor a strange sense of humanity, the horns that adorned it were embedded with strange jewels, some having been forcibly dislodged, coating the ivory in nicks and cuts, showing a history of violence and savagery more in line with the sheer size of the being. It glowed in the same luminescent green as Carbuncle at whom this creature looked upon.

“One ascertains that our clandestine conversation appears to have been intruded upon by the opposition.” The voice rang low and ponderous, drawing out every word as if thinking of what the next would be.

Bruno stood behind the shop and in front of a vast open field wide eyed. “Bellissima.. “ He put his hands in front of himself defensively, “It’s not what you think…” His eyes began to tear up as he began to motion towards himself, dropping to his knees “Please… It’s not- Please don’t do anything to my Ricardo…”

Looking at the boy in her arms, Sarah glanced back to the scene unfolding before her, “I… Don’t think I know what’s going on?”

Carbuncle maintained his defensive stance as Ricardo broke free from Sarah’s grasp and ran into the arms of the crying old man. What did he think I was going to do?

“Regent, one is nebulous in one’s own ability to vanquish these adversaries that lay before us now that our conspiracy has been brought to light.” The creature’s mouth did not seem to move as it spoke.

Sarah rubbed her eyes as the full moon crawled from behind cloud cover. Looking around her, she only grew more lost, “Seriously. What the fuck is happening?”

A deep breath. Bruno strode forward, leaving Ricardo behind with the behemoth and past the glowing growling grunt. Looming over the short girl, he placed his hand on her shoulder, staring her deep in her eyes. After a moment, he whispered, “Are you sure you don’t?”

Shaking violently, the young girl looked up at the massive man holding her. Unsure if it was a genuine question, or worse, a threat, thousands of ideas ran through Sarah’s mind.

But she could not do anything.

“I- I don’t… Really.” It was all she could say in a high pitched voice.

After what felt like an eternity, he loosed his grasp on her shoulder and smiled, “I believe you.”

“Regent, one beseeches that our collective must ascertain advantage by means of her confusion to vanquish these adversaries lest they grow in potence.” The monstrous creature took a labored step forward.

“No.” Bruno’s hand shot to his side, “She could help us. She’s not like the rest.” Stepping back to a safe distance, he never removed his gaze from Sarah, “Tell me. What do you know about your little friend there?”