Birdy Bee Coffee

[Luka Hollister]

"Perfect! Well if you have gloves or something, I could make sandwiches." As long as it wasn't raw, Luka could overlook the cold cuts made from poor helpless animals led to the slaughterhouse so that their meat could be processed, pumped full of chemicals and flavorings, and sliced into deli cuts. But who was he to judge?

"Sooo... is that it? Do you need like references or something? Or do I just show up tomorrow and get to work?"

Obviously he couldn't start today—he had plans to march around ranches all afternoon! And in the evening he was spending some quality me-time with a large glass of red wine and a book. And Wren probably would have to train him up a bit on how to use the machines, since every cafe had slightly different equipment.

"And most importantly... what's the pay?"

[Wren Chu]

"Of course I have gloves."

That was a given. Also, a crime not to have them. He would fail an inspection without them.

"I don't care about references but you do have to write up a formal application for my files and you'll need to take a food safety course. It's usually covered in the training week. And the pay is $12 an hour, part time. If you impress your customers, you'll get tips on top of that, too."

[Luka Hollister]

"Done!" Twelve dollars an hour was twelve dollars more per hour than he was making at the moment during the daytime! Luka divided his time between the gay bar downtown and his protesting activities. Since the bar opened later, he had plenty of time during the day for another part-time job. This seemed like the perfect place! Plus he could get avocado toast anytime he wanted—maybe even for free, if there was enough left over.

"I will see you bright and early tomorrow for training. Oh and I can take the paperwork home right?" He glanced over his shoulder; the fog didn't seem to be thinning but it was just fog. Nothing new to Luka, living by a lake—every morning was foggy around his home town. Now that he had some coffee and food in his system, it was time to get back out there!

"By the way. You wouldn't want to join the cause, would you?" He lifted the sign with a bright grin. "Meat IS murder, Wren. I mean—boss."

[Wren Chu]

Wren produced the paperwork and slid it over to Luka. It didn't matter where it was done. Wren could review it when it came back and make it all official. Other than that... Well, he only hoped that this worker actually worked, unlike the last few hires.

"Just bring it back when you come in tomorrow."

And he looked at the sign as it was lifted up. Meat wasn't murder in Wren's eyes. He didn't eat a lot of it, to be sure, but he wasn't a vegan or even a vegetarian. There were so many things going on that he didn't have the time to look into the meat industry.

"Don't you think it's a waste of time to protest against actual small town farmers?" Wren asked. "It's not them you should have a problem with. It's those big time meat farms."

[Luka Hollister]

Luka tucked the paperwork carefully into an inner pocket in his coat, so that he wouldn't lose it. He sighed and shook his head slowly at Wren. True, not everybody knew how big farms worked—that was why he was here. To educate! (In, some might say, was possibly an obnoxious, loud, incessant way.)

"Big farms subsidize the work to smaller farms! All these ranches, they're hand-in-hand with the big companies. That's why they don't care about the animals' welfare! All they care about is their bottom line, Wren. That's the really tragic part."

Most of them didn't even make that much money, since all the costs of equipment, facilities and maintenance was up to the individual ranchers. Meanwhile, big companies were making bank off of them. Luka had done his research—and watched his fair share of documentaries to boot. He patted his sign. "Anyway I'm starting off small. You'd be amazed how uncivilized some of these local ranchers could be, too. One of them turned a hose on me last week! Can you believe that?!"

[Wren Chu]

Wren didn't honestly know much about meat markets beyond buying from them. He had always been taught to buy local back in his hometown and it wasn't much different out here in this small town. Although local didn't necessarily mean Hazleton, it did mean the areas nearby. He decided not to get into that though. He still got the feeling this guy liked to argue when it came to... his passions.

"I can believe it." Wren busied himself cleaning up the area, just to have something to do with his downtime. If somebody came to his place of business and started protesting, Wren just might turn a hose on them, too.

"Have you even tried talking to any of these ranchers? Or are you just assuming they're like all the rest?" And by the rest, he merely meant the ones that Luka was really protesting. Who knew? Maybe he was right but he had to at least entertain the option he might be wrong.

[Luka Hollister]

Luka's artfully plucked eyebrows lifted. "Talk?" He snorted. "To the ranchers?"

See... the thing was... most (if not all) of those rancher types were big manly men types. Luka, the way he presented himself and the way he spoke, was about the furthest thing anybody could imagine from being a manly man. He was super gay—and proud of it!

Therefore, when the two worlds collided, it wasn't a pretty picture. He might have tried talking to one of the ranch hands, who flung a derogatory term at him. After that it seemed a bit pointless; he got on with the protesting and they got on doing nasty things to him like hosing him down.

"I'd get further smacking them in the face with the sign than going up to one and talking to them." Luka flung a dirty look out the window in the general direction of the ranches. Then he paused and let out a low whistle. "Hey, it got really foggy all of a sudden huh? I heard some weird stuff happened last year around Halloween Were you here for it?."

Good thing it wasn't Halloween right now!

[Wren Chu]

"So you haven't tried."

If Luka tried talking, he might get somewhere. But standing around shouting with a sign seemed counter productive. Wren wondered how many people actually stopped to take Luka seriously like that or if he was just shooting his own foot. Then again, what did Wren know? He wasn't one of those protesting types.

Wren abandoned the topic when he looked out the window, too. Then he moved over to the window and peered out, getting a closer look down the street. The fog had rolled in pretty quickly and it was thick. It almost seemed to be getting thicker the longer Wren watched. He frowned.

"No, I moved here earlier this year..." He stared at the fog in distraction, then turned back to Luka. "Why? What happened last year?"

[Luka Hollister]

"I heard that some super shady things happened." Luka dropped his voice dramatically even though there was literally nobody else in the cafe except Wren and himself. It wasn't that dramatic telling a spooky story at normal conversational voice though!

"I wasn't there for it but apparently these weirdos who thought they were vampires tried to take hostages in the suburbs. And people said monsters came out of the fog and killed people. The police tried to cover things up."

He stood and walked to the window and tapped on the glass. "They said the fog was so thick you couldn't see in front of your own face. Anybody wandering around outside was... taken."

[Wren Chu]

"Monsters?" Wren said more skeptical than he meant to but... Of course, he knew magic was a thing. Witches were a thing. But monsters...? He let out a soft little scoffing sound at the idea of monsters coming through the fog for people. If that was the case, the bay where he'd grown up would have been full of those--the fog came out in full force some days!

And vampires? All of it sounded so far-fetched, even to a witch like Wren. He could hardly believe what he was hearing. Maybe it was witches, though. Witches messing with their perception. There were supposedly some covens here. His scoffing gave way to a thoughtful expression. His mother did say that some witches were summoners, summoning creatures from other realms. Maybe...

He looked back out into the fog but it was impossible to make out anything. He felt for any magic in the air. To his surprise... there actually was some kind of magic crackling in the air.

"Maybe we should stay inside until it passes."

[Luka Hollister]

"Yeah, monsters. Reapers, I think they called them." Luka shook his head and turned back to return to his seat. "I don't know if I believe it though. I mean how could anyone possibly cover it up if it was true?" He laughed—how the hell would the government even regulate something like... monsters? Keep it from the news? From the internet? Impossible!

Luka began to put his coat and scarf back on. "Oh no, no I have to get back out there to the ranches! I mean it's just a little bit of fog, no big deal. I'm totally used to it. Back home, every morning was like this. Anyway, how much do I owe you?"

He grabbed his wallet and went over to the counter to pay with his card. "Don't tell me you believe that story about monsters!" Luka grinned at Wren. "The only monsters around here are ranchers, believe me."

[Wren Chu]

Wren wanted to say back home, fog like this was nothing as well but... If there were stories of people vanishing amongst the fog because of monsters, it was possible somebody was summoning them. Luka didn't seem all that worried, though and Wren didn't really know him so he sighed and shrugged before he told Luka how much he owed him.

"Be careful out there," he said. "Ranchers or not, if you make enemies, you might vanish next."

[Luka Hollister]

"If one of those caveman ranchers gets rid of me, I'm coming back as a ghost and haunting them forEVER!" Luka declared as he tapped his card on the machine, then pocketed his wallet. "And I know at least one who'd totally deserve it!" He glanced over his shoulder again at the thick, thick fog and sighed. He was more worried about what the humidity and moisture would do to his hair, to be honest...

"All righty, I'm off! See you tomorrow bright and early boss man!"