Welldark B1 Ch. 07

A replacement platform rose up from underground, leaving the corner exactly as it had been found. Likely, the destination of the platform was going to lower down to let this one settle down.

That interesting series of events also pulled my attention away from Esther for long enough to observe the surrounding people. The frustrated residents hadn't been lying, most everyone had that freshmen appearance to them. Something about the way they looked around everywhere and moved like there could be something surprising just gave it away.

I took it as confirmation of what Allister had said. With the first week of classes done and familiarity with the surroundings growing, everyone was looking to get drunk. I personally found it fascinating that almost every sapient species could get intoxicated by alcohol. Something about the Dimensional Truth only awakening in species that were physiologically and supernaturally similar enough to interbreed.

While the city wasn't crowded yet, it was still the afternoon, there were the first signs of freshmen scouting where they would spend the rest of the evening. Although it wasn't while downing booze, I would be hanging around with Esther the entirety of mine. I would say I was the luckiest guy in the city at the moment. Still, I wondered if a night out with her and a bottle of wine may be in the cards after our shift was over.

"Do you drink?" I asked, earning myself the first disapproving glance in a while. "Alcohol," I added, to achieve the desired specificity.

"I have not partaken in the consumption of intoxicating substances, in neither a social nor private setting," her expansive answer covered my question and every immediate follow up I could have had. As bloviating as it seemed sometimes, her manner of speaking was rather efficient.

Same could not be said about my own little extrapolations. "Okay, so, pardon my openness, my lady, but what doth thou do in times of stress? As you do not partake in the sweet indulging of your feminine shape nor influence your senses through intake of substances of elevating effects, I am left to wonder what it is you find relief in." The whole segment boiled down to: what do you do for fun?

"I used to only train when I didn't want to study, and study when I had finished training," Esther responded and gave me a tiny smile. "Albeit, in recent times, I have found a viable third path to spend my time."

"Hm, what would that be?" I coyly asked, winking at her.

"Swimming," she responded without missing a beat. I let out a short burst of laughter.

Finally, we arrived in front of Café Served. Esther pulled me along to an alleyway, the feather on her hat bouncing at every step. There was a side-entrance that I didn't yet know about, which Esther opened with the certainty of someone that had worked there for years. 'A quickly adjusting one, truly,' I thought, as we both got inside.

It was a direct entrance into the worker's area in the back. We had a little look around for familiar faces and found none. As far as I was concerned, and confirmed to be custom around here by Esther's behaviour, it was only good behaviour to announce oneself to whoever was in charge before starting to work. There were sounds from Allister's office, so we would have gone there next, but someone in the break room stopped us before we went there.

"Oy! You the new meat?" It was a rough voice with a sharp undertone. That probably came from all the pointy teeth in his mouth, two rows of the flesh-rending design filling up his gums and making his grin something dangerous to behold. As if that wasn't pointer enough, his smooth skin had a blueish hue to it and his eyes, while resting in the usual white sclera, were pitch black entirely. A shark-man.

He got up and revealed his sheer size. Well, width would have been more accurate. He was just a tad bigger than me, but bulky, with muscles that stretched his butler's suit to an impressive degree. Half of that impressiveness was the fact that the suit was able to take it though. A typical butler, he was not, but he did seem like the kind of servant some people yearned for. Running a large, webbed hand over his shaved head, he waited for our answer.

"We got hired this week, so I presume we are," I answered, trying to keep things light-hearted. "And, although this body is fairly young, I wouldn't describe myself as fresh," I gestured at Esther, "my lovely lady here, however, is certainly of the highest quality and untainted, something that I aim to preserve."

Shaking her head in minor disapproval, Esther only added, "Good Karitas often exercises the capacity of his vocal cords beyond necessary function."

The large shark-man looked back and forth between the two of us, then laughed. "If you two work half as hard as you are odd, you're going to make waves," he decided and slapped both of our shoulders. "My name is Hannibal. More on me later. Now, get changed, then I'll show you the workplace."

Getting into my new work uniform wasn't a quick affair. I didn't know whether the Café Served was the kind of employer that provided a personal uniform, but even if they were, I had only signed the contract this week. If they had been able and willing to order something for me in that time, I would have been surprised. In reality, I had to scan the vast array of clothes hanging from the rack for the best fit.

As was usual for a workplace of this size, the order in which things should have been sorted was more of a formality. People had hung their uniforms where they could easiest find them on the start of their next shift. Replacement articles were carelessly plucked out of the cloth stands- shirts hung among the vests, ties and bowties shared a box, and there were gloves on the hat stack. Why there was a hat stack was a whole different question, I hadn't seen anybody wear one yet.

Basically, like any workplace that wasn't strictly regulated and led by someone that either didn't care or didn't want to be overbearing, the order of the clothes in the changing room had adjusted over time to fit the employees. While this made it a bit chaotic and less approachable for a newcomer like me, it did provide a bit of charm. I would rather have this bit of messiness than work at the clinical rigidness of a company chain. Of course, there was a limit to the acceptable messiness as well. Middle paths, in all things.

Regardless of that hindrance, I managed to work myself through a number of pants, shirts, vests, shoes and finally gloves. It took me about twenty minutes of finagling about in the changing room in varying states of undress, which must have been quite an interesting sight, before I arrived at a satisfying conclusion. Looking at myself in the mirror, I was the incarnation of a gentleman. In the black and white outfit, my blue eyes and healthy complexion were the only thing that provided colour. After all, my hair was just as white as my long-sleeved shirt was.

I tugged on everything one last time to make sure things were in order. The pants with the leather belt orderly held the shirt. The vest was buttoned correctly and stretched over my torso in a decorative fashion. My sleeves sat tight and comfortable.

'I just hope these gloves are fluid resistant,' I thought, wiggling my fingers inside the white things. 'Could be that they are just for the normal line of work and I am making a fool out of myself...' In a spontaneous gesture, I decided to grab a hat from the hat stack. A standard black thing made from felted wool. If I was being wrong on one front, I might as well be on two. Something about wearing a hat today just spoke to me. It gave my hair the same black and white flair as the rest of the outfit.

When I stepped out of the changing room and into the connected break room, the shark-man and Esther were waiting for me. To no surprise. "I was about to come looking for you," the former grunted, putting a pocket watch into his breast pocket.

"Finding my way around the clothing wasn't easy," I defended myself with a dissuading smile. "Does it take the average newcomer less time?"

"Yeah," he stated and inspected me more carefully. I stood still when he got up and circled me two times. "Although fresh meat normally comes out with all kinds of things that needs correcting, so this isn't too bad," he turned to a pink-haired woman who was staring at her Ashod and eating potato chips out of a bag. She was pretty good at not getting any of the resulting crumbs on her maid uniform. "What do you say, Mathilda?"

Addressed, the employee looked up at me, swallowed what was in her mouth and answered, "Can I exchange you for him? He is rocking the look."

"Why thank you," I took a quick bow at the compliment, while Hannibal just scoffed in a playfully offended manner.

"First time in a long time that I have seen someone wear one of those hats," she added. "Was part of the male uniform, until Allister decided he had enough of it." I noted that she was referring to her boss on a first name basis. Only strengthened my impression that this place had a tight-knit core community. "He looks good with it though."

"I also skipped the jacket; I hope that's fine?" I asked, since we were already on the topic of reviewing how I looked. "Also need to know if the gloves are water resistant. Don't want to run around with clam hands all evening."

"It is and they are," the shark man answered this time around. "Gives you a more barista look. Fits for the bar and Allister doesn't get to make decisions there," he said in the tone of a long-time employee that, officially, still had to take whatever the boss told him but had carved out his own little kingdom in the workplace. "You better ask the chief if he's fine with it before you run around like that in the main rooms."

"I'll keep it in mind for Monday," I promised and extended my hand. "Anyway, to introduce myself formally, I'm Karitas."

He took it immediately and my hand vanished almost entirely in his paw. "Hannibal, in case you managed to forget already," he declared with a grin of his sharp mouth. Returning the favour, he turned towards Esther. "Nice to meet you two."

"Esther. Likewise," she responded and answered the gesture appropriately. It seemed things could finally get to the actual work part of things, when she spoke up on a related matter. "Are hats allowed for all employees?"

"I mean... fundamentally, yes?" Hannibal seemed a tad confused by the question.

Esther, however, just needed to hear the word yes to move. In a decisive gesture, she pulled off the frilly headband and walked over to the changing room. A few moments later, she returned with her tricorne. Since it was black with a white feather, it wasn't entirely unfitting for her outfit. She walked back up to us, to the snickering of Mathilda and the somewhat baffled look of Hannibal. I wasn't surprised whatsoever.

"Well, I guess it gives you two some sort of partner look," the shark man decided and let the topic rest. "We have work to do, so let's get to it."

"Have fun, honey," Mathilda waved us goodbye, going back to her potato chips.

We left the break area and went to the kitchen. To be more accurate, we skirted by the kitchen. I could see people working there, but we simply went by the area where maids and butlers fetched orders and approached the stairs in the back. They went up and down. As I knew we would, we went down. Emerging in a small kitchen room, we then went into the bar proper. At the flip of a switch, the lights turned on and revealed to us our workplace.

It had a surprisingly common bar foundation. The walls and the long bar were fashioned from a dark wood. The latter was a medium sized thing, with seven stools comfortably fitting along its length and its design extending along two thirds of the wall opposite of the entrance. The rest of that third was dedicated to the two doors that led to the restrooms.

The tables, benches and chairs were made from dark wood too. Covered with dark grey cushions, the latter two indirectly shared a colour scheme with the simple carpet floor. Currently, the chairs were stacked upside down on the tables, likely to allow for easier vacuuming of the premise.

What was layered on top of that rather mundane foundation made all the difference though. Art of, presumably famous, servants decorated the walls. Everything had a meticulous level of cleanliness and polish. The round tables were orderly placed about and white design elements everywhere invoked the image of embroidery in the same, flower-depicting style as the skirt of Esther's uniform did. If I had to make a rough estimation, I would guess that about fifty people could comfortably fit in the room.

With my surroundings properly observed, my eyes were immediately glued to Esther. 'Maid outfits are just fantastic,' I thought as I scanned up from her black high heels, over the stockings, to the medium-length skirt and the swing of her hip. It was partly covered by the white apron that was bound around her waist and held by the perfectly symmetrical ribbon she had bound behind her back. It was the kind of apron that only covered the legs. The upper part of her stomach, chest and shoulders were all covered in black cloth, beset with white frills.

My gaze would have gotten stuck at the magnificent cleavage, had I not noticed the fact that she was looking at me in much the same way. "Does my sight please you, my lady?" I took the opportunity and stepped close to her. "I would be happy to introduce you to more of it, if you gave me the opportunity."

"I had the pleasure before," she stated, albeit a lustful blush betrayed that it wasn't a dismissal. A fun fact, a wonderful fact really, was that the humanoid body blushed differently depending on the emotion. A person that was ashamed would generally turn red only around the face. A person that was happy blushed basically with their whole body, but particularly with the face and the upper chest.

Which meant that Esther's cleavage was just as affected as her face was in gaining a reddish tint to its healthy complexion. Delicious to look at, it had to be said. The high heels also brought them just a bit closer to my face than before. "I'm certain we would both find a refreshing of our memories to be agreeable," I stated and seductively pulled at my tie, without loosening it.

"Keep it for the customers," Hannibal interrupted with a berating tone, taking a look at the clock. "We have forty more minutes for preparations, so we better get going." Esther and I created some professional distance. As much as I disliked any amount of distance between us, I had agreed to work so I would do my job with the aim of satisfying my employer. "Since this is your first night, we'll keep things relatively easy. You have three jobs. You take orders whenever somebody asks, you bring the orders when they are ready and you make sure things stay clean. Aside from that, be pretty, be competent and be present. If you do your job well enough, I might allow you to help behind the bar. Otherwise you'll leave the preparation of drinks to me and Mathilda. Understood?"

""Yes,"" both of us replied at once.

Hannibal seemed pleased with that. "Alright, then get the chairs off the tables. Check for any stains that the previous shift may have overlooked when they closed the shop. Water and buckets are in the kitchen. Don't forget to dry wipe afterwards. Oh and one more thing..." the shark man looked back and forth between the two of us. "If somebody unpleasant refuses to leave, the protocol goes as follows. Step 1, point at me," the giant of a musclebound butler pointed at his broad chest with the thumb of his webbed right hand. "If that doesn't deter them, I want you to think about whether you can take care of it quickly yourself or not. If you can, Step 2 is drag them out. Otherwise, you call me. I'll be busy, so I'd appreciate it if you could take care of your fellow first years yourself."

I was just going to guess that freshmen drinking to excess and doing rather unsavoury things was somewhat usual, especially in the first few weeks. "Understood," I answered and Esther nodded along. Hannibal grunted in a pleased fashion, then waved us away, while he went to inspect the rows of bottles behind the bar.

The preparations were finished quickly, since everything already had a pristine look to it. A short waiting time allowed us to ask some semi-important questions. Where the dustpan was, how we should deal with spilled drink, how we should handle persistent, unwanted flirting, that sort of thing. Hannibal was an understanding fellow, reacting to the questions with patience and well-meant jokes. His exterior was, well, he was a shark man, he wasn't exactly attractive and I would be lying if I thought he looked approachable in general. Underneath that (somewhat leathery) exterior lay a gentle, if somewhat rough soul though.

Meek would be the word I would have used to describe him. Not the version of meek that became increasingly popular, which basically meant the same as docile. The traditional meaning, someone that didn't punch unless he saw no other way, but always kept the option of punching open. That character trait was surrounded by a tough guy, however.

A tough guy that already poured himself the first beer before the first customer arrived. 'I am just going to assume he can hold his liquor,' I thought and let him indulge without questioning further.

Shortly after the doors opened, another side entrance that led directly into this cellar room, the first customers arrived. Regulars, as was easily observable by the fact that they shouted at Hannibal the moment they were in and sat down directly at the bar. Nothing for me and Esther to do. We hung around the entrance and chatted a little, waiting for any more people to arrive.

Which, of course, eventually, they did.

It was incredible. At first, there were only a few people that entered the quiet bar. Little work was to be done at the time, so I even chatted with more than a few of the lovely ladies. Suddenly, however, as if some sort of dam had broken, the room was filled to the brim. I wasn't quite sure when it had happened, when the moments between taking orders and bringing them to the tables had been reduced from minutes to seconds, and then finally gone completely. Fact was that it had happened.

It was during that storm that Hannibal allowed me to do some minor assisting behind the bar. Minor being the operative word. He and Mathilda kept making cocktails and other shakes, while Esther and I were tasked with working the tap. After inspecting what I was doing for the first few glasses, Hannibal just let me do that part on my own.

Once all the tables were taken and everyone was through their first beverage, things slowed down tremendously. I noticed a number of things about different kinds of drinking behaviours that evening. I also found it interesting just how many of the customers were men. Not to create any misunderstandings, the majority of the customers were still female, following the demographic reality of Welldark. It was just that, compared to the 1:10 ratio, there were way more guys than I would have thought. It was closer to 1:3.

'I guess guys just like going out to drink more,' I thought, something that was only confirmed by the tabs I was keeping. The girls were in the bar mostly to socialize with each other (even if quite a few were getting absolutely hammered). The guys were there to get hammered with their friends or to flirt (sometimes both, but not that often).

While I was observing all of this, I didn't notice a subconscious trend between Esther and I before it had already established itself. At the start of the evening, it had naturally pulled me towards the tables that had majority women on them, for obvious reasons. Although I didn't get any contact information from this, that was purely because I didn't ask. I was quite confident that, if I had pushed things further than a bit of flirting here and there, I could have had a very successful evening.