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You know what? I don’t have to wait around for tomorrow. In fact, I should go find this place now, anyway. Make sure I know where I’m going before my first day.
I’d go check out Hallowed be thy Bean tonight. Right now. That way I could get a sense for just what, exactly, had freaked Novara-Lei out.
A quick step into the bathroom, which was no more than a toilet, sink and mirror, allowed me to freshen up quickly. I ran a comb through my hair, trying to smooth the weird, crunchy waves it had dried into after being soaked with the disinfectant earlier. I’ll need a shower to rinse that out later, I thought to myself, resolving to find the showers in this block on my return.
But that was for later. Right now? Now it was time to get out there and find my new place of work.
Feeling ready, I hurried out of the room, letting the door click shut behind me. I moved through the halls to the outer ring, then approached the centre of the ring, getting in the hover-vator car that appeared almost instantly before me. Once inside, out of habit, I moved to manually punch in my destination. But there was no rickety old keypad. Right. “Level 1200,” I said, looking around the empty orb.
The hover-vator reacted immediately, swinging upwards on a sharp trajectory, its movements smooth and fluid. It was pretty incredible how fast it moved with me barely even feeling it. This time, with no one else in here to judge me, I went ahead and plastered my little human nose right against the glass, grinning out at the flashing lights and colours zooming past me. Fingers of excitement uncurled in my stomach, low and pulsing as I whipped upwards.
Before long, the hover-vator stopped and then opened. I stepped out hurriedly, making room for a trio of tentacled beings whose many arms were overloaded with candy apple-coloured shopping bags. Taking a steadying breath, I stepped further into the ring, letting my head swivel on my shoulders, taking everything in.
This level was definitely busy, but it was nowhere near as crowded as the level I’d first entered. Which made sense, considering that that level was where all the arrivals to the station were emerging into. No, this level was bustling, but had a coziness to it that the chaos from before was missing. Here, people moved more slowly, in smaller groups, bags and various items of food and drinks in their hands.
But even though it was less crowded, this level was still humongous. It could take me a while to find the little coffee shop I was looking for. The owner, Shelly, had told me it was a little hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but that it would be easy to find because of the huge chocolaterie next to it. I thought back to her words - gold pillars. She’d said the chocolaterie had gold pillars as part of its storefront. Look for the gold pillars. I giggled, some old bit of Earth lore coming back to me. Something about going down a yellow stone road. Or maybe finding a yellow brick house?
I started walking, feeling a lot less overwhelmed than before. I mean, everything was still flooding my senses to the max, but I felt a lot more ready for it now. I didn’t even take anybody out the next time a holographic billboard popped up right in front of my face. Although, it did take me a few tries to just walk right through the projected ads the way the other customers were doing, instead of flinching and squawking.
As I walked, I took note of all the places I wanted to visit. Dessert shops and multi-species beauty salons and, holy Terra, an honest-to-goodness real-life bookstore. With books! And tons of them!
I longed to wander into the bookstore, but kept myself focused. You’ll have lots of time to go shopping. Or, window shopping, considering your budget. Right now you are on a mission.
I kept on walking until in the distance, just a little further around the curve of the huge ring, I saw the unmistakable glint of two massive, shiny gold pillars. I sped up, my boots clicking on the floor as the pillars came into better view.
They weren’t just gold, but had wide, burgundy velvet ribbons twined all the way up their twin heights, ending in identical bows at the top.
Wow, I thought, letting my head fall back as I took in the shiny red and gold pillars. But they were nothing compared to the inside of the shop.
Inside, everything shone in tones of deep, rich brown and crimson red. A round-faced human man with very rosy cheeks smiled and chatted with customers. Behind him, there was a window into the work area, and I saw a squat, red-skinned Etruvian carefully piping chocolate onto a tray. In the corner of the large shop, between shelves of candy and chocolate shaped into everything from animals to snowflakes, a massive Christmas tree glistened, richly green and glittering with lovingly-placed ornaments. It looked like a real tree, possibly from Terratribe 2. Wherever it was from, it was stunning. It made me want to press my face to its prickly branches and breathe in deep.
I wanted to go in there almost as badly as I had wanted to go in the bookstore. But now that I was here, I couldn’t stop now. If I’d found the chocolaterie, then I’d found the coffee shop, too.
Suddenly nervous, I swallowed hard, my pulse pounding harder in my throat than it was in my chest. I stepped away from the windows of the chocolate shop, then hurried back away from the storefronts. Finding another Christmas tree in the aisle to hide behind (this one disappointingly artificial), I ducked, crouching and peeking out from the branches.
You are acting like a total dunce, you know that? I told myself as I clutched at stiff branches, trying not to jostle the ornaments. This is your place of work! You should march right up there and introduce yourself to whoever is there!
But even if I’d wanted to do that, it wouldn’t have been possible. I deflated a little bit because, as soon as I located Hallowed be thy Bean, the lights in the little shop went out.
Even with the lights out, I could tell the place really was tiny. It didn’t have a wide, windowed storefront like the chocolate shop next to it, nor like the toy shop on the other side. In fact, all that there was, was a long glass door, sectioned into two parts. The top part was open, creating an open space to, presumably, pass drinks through. But a moment later, a large dark hand snapped out from the shadows inside and closed that part of the window, making it all into a closed door. I guess it’s closed for the night...
My suspicions were confirmed when a sign appeared in the part of the window that had just been closed, saying the word “Closed” in a bunch of different languages. But I still hadn’t gotten a look at just who had closed that window and placed the sign. I breathed shallowly, leaning further around the tree, squinting. I almost jumped out of my skin when a kindly-looking old man asked if I needed help.
Flushing furiously, my cheeks probably glowing brighter than the ads popping up in the aisle, I shook my head, standing up straighter behind the tree.
“No, no, I was just...” Being a total fucking creeper?
But the old man smiled and winked at me.
“I get it. I was young once too. We’ve all tried to catch a glimpse of our sweetiepies unseen.”
Sweetiepie?
“Oh, no, not at all,” I said, shaking my head even more violently. But the man just chuckled and turned away, calling a jolly, “Happy holidays!” over his shoulder as he continued on his way.
Holy Terra, between toppling Novara-Lei and getting spotted acting like a second-rate spy, I’m sure making a great impression here so far.
It still didn’t make me step out from behind the tree, though. I had stopped crouching, at least, and leaned around the tree, trying to look nonchalant.
