Chapter Text
The rest of the time in the Pokémon world was quiet with a couple people coming in for drinks and snacks, but she didn’t get as much business as she’d been hoping. Thankfully, nobody else came in with Pokémon and left them outside upon seeing the sign. She felt bad for asking people to leave their beloved companions outside in the cold but she couldn’t have them in because of health and safety concerns. It would be one thing to have a service animal in because she was legally obligated to but if they were just pets… She couldn’t allow that unless they were outside. She had no idea what the couple of other Pokémon she saw were, but some were definitely cute.
Eventually, though, the scenery shifted and Blake had to stick her head out to look around. This place looked…literally medieval. The air smelt a lot fresher, much more like Menagerine than Vale or Atlas. It made her realise just how utterly polluted the two environments were due to cars. She saw horses and she squinted when she saw a shadow fly overhead. What was that? She had no real idea. It was probably just another oddity of being a multiversal café. She really had no idea what to make of it… She really hadn’t expected to come to worlds that were literally medieval. Hopefully the spells would hold here and people wouldn’t question too much.
She went back inside the café, shivering from the cold. She had spent her youngest years in Menagerie which was tropical rainforest on the coast that was inhabited, so the cold seeped into her bones pretty easily. She really hated the cold, but she didn’t want to go home… Her parents would hate her. The kindest thing she’d called them before leaving was cowards. She could never let go of the guilt she felt for that… She should probably try to make up with them but…she just… She couldn’t bring herself to call her mother or father’s number and try. Plus, signal to Menagerie was spotty at the absolute best of times anyway, especially being so far away.
She stood behind the counter and started taking care of some menial little tasks while she waited for the bell to clang. She had a feeling things would be pretty slow here too. It looked like she’d landed in a somewhat quieter place. However, she looked up when she heard the bell tinkle slightly and smiled. She put on her best customer service voice. “Hello and welcome to the Sugar Flower Café. How can I help you? We sell all sorts of specialty coffees and teas here. If you would like a cup to go, let me know; I pride myself on offering a tranquil experience where people can relax and enjoy their drink.” She was still working on her introduction. This felt wordy but people seemed to want her to have coffee immediately and weren’t interested in an experience. She understood the nature of consumptive societies like Vale’s but even so… She hated it.
She continued fiddling with what needed to be done until she heard the bell clang. She looked up and saw a young blonde woman with a brown-haired woman and a redheaded woman. The blonde woman had darker skin and brilliant, emerald-green eyes that caught Blake’s attention. They were tired but full of kindness and warmth. She could feel anxiety rolling off the brown-haired woman in waves while the redhead felt almost dead inside. She wore a placid smile but it didn’t reach her eyes, let alone her soul.
They all approached the counter and Blake smiled at them. “Welcome to the Sugar Flower Café where we specialise in experience over convenience. If you want a to-go cup, you’ll have to tell me specifically.” She smiled at the women who looked over the menu curiously.
“My, I don’t even know what half of these options are,” the redhead said. “I’ve never heard of ess-pre-sso.”
Blake smiled. “If you’re unfamiliar with out options and blends, I can help you with that.” Apparently espresso machines didn’t exist here or something like that… A bit surprising but considering the multiple worlds thing and the fact it seemed like this world was medieval, maybe it shouldn’t have surprised her so much…
“We’d appreciate that.” The blonde smiled and Blake started running them through the various options. Despite the blonde’s calm face, her mind whipped at a pace that almost left Blake breathless. She was running on completely different hardware than most people were. She didn’t look much older than twenty along with her two companions. This woman was definitely something else though. Blake could also catch her looking at her ears, but it was so quick she almost gaslit herself into believing she hadn’t seen it. But she could feel the curiosity on the woman’s soul about her ears… So she could see through the basic spells Anna had put up, huh? She was starting to get used to it. Well, they were just there for the average person, not people that went well above and beyond what as normal.
The three placed their orders and Blake learned their names: Robin, Cordelia, and Sumia. She started on the orders, though she did warn about caffeine. “Caff-ene?” Robin asked.
“You know how coffee and some forms of tea give you a boost that lasts a couple of hours…though it can sometimes give you the shakes?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s caffeine. It’s a compound in that occurs naturally in the plants that gets extracted when you brew coffee and some forms of tea.” Herbal teas did not have caffeine because, by definition, they technically were not teas. They didn’t have leaves from the tea plant, so they weren’t technically tea. Same with rooibos tea. Not from the tea plant. But they were called tea in Valian because they were all similar enough.
“You sound like you’d make good friends with Miriel. She’d love to hear about compounds and stuff,” Robin said, though it was obviously a joke. Cordelia shook her head.
“Don’t subject anybody to Miriel without prior notification, Robin. That wouldn’t be very kind,” Cordelia said.
“No, it wouldn’t. But Miriel would be infinitely interested in what this ‘caffeine’ stuff is. You sound like you have a lot of knowledge on this stuff,” Robin said.
“Not really. It’s pretty common knowledge where I’m from.” She saw Robin’s eyebrow quirk but the woman didn’t say anything. Yeah, Robin was definitely onto her. She had no way of avoiding the fact that Robin was seeing past the spells Anna had set. It made sense that literal gods would see past basic spells, but an average person…? Well. Robin clearly wasn’t average. If she could see through things so effectively, then no, she wasn’t average by any stretch of the imagination.
“What’re those?” Robin walked over to the little musical corner that had the theremin, piano, and guitar.
“Oh, they’re instruments. A piano, a guitar, and a theremin.”
“I’ve never seen anything like them before. How do you play them?”
“I’m not sure about the theremin—my roommate wanted it. She was incredibly excited about it. As for the piano, open the cover on the keys, then you can play.” Robin did just that and sat down on the bench, starting to plunk out the keys. Thankfully, it was in tune, and didn’t cause Blake’s spine to tingle. However, Robin hit a few chords that clashed terribly, and Blake’s ears went down. She was no musician, but it wasn’t hard to tell when notes clashed. It was very easy to hear.
“Huh. Very strange for an instrument. Lucina would probably love it.” Robin smiled and looked at her companions.
“Yes, Princess Lucina would very likely love that,” Cordelia said. Princess…? So they still had kingdoms here? Well, Remnant did, but that was a, well, remnant of the pre-Great War era. They were nations and democracies now… Aside from Vacuo which was a constitutional monarchy. They retained a king though it was an elected position and always had been. Vacuo was weird and always had been. Blake might’ve fared better there rather than Vale since it was usually a lot warmer, but it was a dry heat, not the wet heat she was used to in Menagerie…
But wait, if Robin’s daughter was a princess then that meant…
“You’re a queen?” Blake asked. Her ears stood up at attention.
Robin nodded. “Yep, sure am.” She stretched, obviously nonplussed by the revelation. For a queen, Robin was astoundingly relaxed and informal. As far as Blake was aware, even Vacuo retained formality with its king to some degree. Who was this woman? Her clothes also did look quite different from her companions’. She wore a large coat with various designs on it and it practically swallowed Robin whole. It was strange to look at and seemed very foreign. She could also hear an accent in Robin’s voice that neither Sumia or Cordelia had. They had their own accents, of course, but Robin’s was markedly different. She wanted to understand Robin’s story… How did a woman become queen when she wasn’t native to this land?
“Interesting.” It was odd to be in a place that had legitimate royalty. Again, there was Vacuo, but Vacuo was strange. It had always been the black sheep of the kingdoms as far as how they treated outsiders went. Vale was pretty accepting, Atlas hated strangers, and it really depended on where one was in Mistral. Northern was more accepting, southern too, though central could be quite xenophobic. “Are these two your guards?”
“Nah, they’re just friends from the Shepherds. I guess you could call them guards, but they’re really not.” Robin smiled. “I don’t really have to worry in Ylisse about where I go. Pretty much everyone loves me… Well. If you’re not an advisor.” She chuckled and even Cordelia smiled a bit and it was genuine. Clearly there was some sort of inside joke that Blake was missing here, but she shrugged it off. If she saw Robin and them enough, she might learn it. It wasn’t her place to poke into people’s business yet… Just learning about people was going to take time and she knew relationships required quite a bit of it…
“Shepherds?” Why was a queen a shepherd…? She didn’t really understand.
Blake felt a flash of observation go through Robin but not the other two. “Yeah, Ylisse’s military force, the Shepherds. We keep the people safe as the shepherd tends and keeps their own flock safe.” Well, that definitely made sense now. It was kind of a cute name for a military force and it did convey a certain message. The people could definitely rely on the Shepherds if they had a name like that… Or she at least hoped they could. She didn’t know anything about Ylisse, so all she could do was hope and pray that the queen and king of this land were altruistic and kind. It did seem like it, though… If Robin was able to just walk around without any form of protection, well, it did speak to the fact that she was a well-loved ruler and people in general didn’t hate her.
“I see. That’s definitely a nice name. It gives off a certain image.”
“After Chrom’s father dismantled the military, former Exalt Emmeryn felt the need to raise a force again because of the Plegians. They were becoming more and more aggressive until things hit a fever pitch a few years ago and we went to war.” Robin frowned as did Cordelia, Sumia’s gaze dropping. Well, that was definitely something Blake couldn’t push her nose into anytime soon. If she could spend time out in Ylisse, she could probably piece things together, but if she left her café, people would probably ask questions about her ears and, well, she didn’t want that to happen.
“I see.” Well, she didn’t, but she couldn’t exactly admit to that. She didn’t want to raise any suspicions from Cordelia and Sumia. Robin was definitely the most outspoken one of the group, though. Very forward and friendly, but somehow still mild mannered and relaxed. But there was still an obvious intelligence behind her eyes and observations. This woman had a very odd personality. She wanted to get to know her more.
She finished up with the orders, then handed them all their mugs. “Here you go.” Blake smiled at them.
“T-Thank you…” Sumia mumbled and sat down in a corner.
“I’m still curious about those instruments,” Cordelia said.
“Same. My daughter would love them,” Robin said.
“The only one I know how to play is the guitar,” Blake said. “I understand the theory behind piano, but I don’t think I’m good enough for it. I can’t even sight read music.” She got out from behind the counter and sat at the piano and lifted the key cover. She plinked a few notes but didn’t attempt to play anything. “Basically you have both hands playing at the same time across different octaves, then you hit the pedals with your feet…for some reason.” She had never been formally trained in music. She got the most rudimentary idea behind the piano, but she didn’t really understand any of the hows or whys.
“I see. What about the other two?” Robin asked.
“Like I said, I don’t understand the theremin at all; you’d have to ask my roommate. But she’s currently resting.” She didn’t want to disturb Weiss again. She had clearly hit her limit for what she could handle right now, so she didn’t want to bother her again until dinner. It felt bad to disturb somebody that had been through as much as Weiss had. But in the case of the service Pokémon…it felt like it would only make sense for her to have one.
“The guitar on the other hand…” Blake went over and picked it up, then sat back on the piano bench. She started strumming freehand. “I was never formally trained in music but I picked up things from it by ear. Most of the songs are in my native language, though. I’m not really used to these types of strings, though.” The steel strings felt strange beneath her fingers. She was used to traditional strings which were made of literal animal intestines. To her, they produced a much more pleasant tone, but she knew steel strings were the standard outside of Menagerie.
“Could you play for us?” Cordelia asked.
Blake nodded. “I can definitely do that. But it’ll be in my native language because translating is difficult with how it’s constructed.” She strummed a little bit idly, then settled on the song Wanderer’s Lullaby. She could hear the translation in her head so clearly. Wandering child of the earth, do you know just how much you’re worth? You’ve walked this path since your birth; you were destined for more… It was both a beautiful song but a somber one. It was about the fragility of life and the way people often felt lost even when they were on the right path for them. She loved this lullaby and her mother had sang it to her so many times in her childhood. It was an older form of the language, less evolved than the current form of Menagerine that she had grown up speaking. But she still knew the translation.
She played a couple more songs and Robin clapped her hands. “Those were beautiful! My daughter would probably love to learn the first song if you could translate it for us. It’s a gorgeous melody.”
Blake nodded. “It was one of my favorites growing up. It’s a lullaby.” It was sung in an earlier form of Menagerine and was no doubt more related to Atlassian than current-day Menagerine. That one came from the post-Great War era while others, like You’ll Be in My Heart, were from the post-Revolution era. They were meant for the refugee children that had come from the kingdoms that didn’t know how to handle being in Menagerie. So many children had been adopted into different families because the Revolution had torn apart so many families… She wished she could’ve learned more stories about the Revolution and collected them…but her heart lay with opening this café. Maybe, just maybe she could atone for her crimes in the White Fang by bringing joy to people through drinks and dainties.
“Do you think you could get a translation?”
“It’d take me a little while because the café’s open six days a week, twelve hours a day. I don’t have a lot of extra time on my hands. And I’d want to stay as true to the melody as possible. I don’t want to betray the song my ancestors made.” Granted, Menagerie was only around eighty years old… The oldest generations were dying off day by day…but there were still those that remembered one war if not both. As far as she was aware, her great-grandparents were still alive and remembered the days of slavery. Eighty years was not a long time… And many Faunus continued to be treated as slaves. The institution was basically still alive and well in Atlas. Not so much Mistral, but Faunus still weren’t treated very well there. They mostly lived in historical slums and weren’t really allowed much social mobility unless they were were in the northern part of Mistral… It irked her so much. There was a reason why she’d become radicalised… The reasons were legitimate, but the way they were handled were not.
“That’s perfectly fine. No need to rush things.” Robin smiled. “Lucina would love to have more music in her repertoire. Hey, do you think I could send her here sometime and you could teach her about the instruments? We have violins, but nothing like the guitar, theremin, or piano.”
“I could only teach guitar. Like I said, I don’t understand the theremin or piano. I can’t even read music.”
“Lucina could probably teach you. Music was her first love in life. I won’t suggest any sort of exchange because I know you need to make money. Or maybe music for music. You translate music you know, then she teaches you how to read. Or something along those lines.” Robin frowned. “You wouldn’t be able to transcribe anything though… It’d just be lyrics, right?”
Blake nodded. “Never learned to read music and I haven’t had any time. I know I’m young, but I’m still busy.” She owned her own café and worked way too many hours a week. But it wasn’t like she had a ton of choice. Hiring people had been low on her priority list because she wanted to make sure she could run things smoothly at first, then she could hire people on. Right now, Weiss couldn’t work too much and Hubert and Edelgard were literally just for the back to make food. She still had to run the front of the house by herself. Hubert and Edelgard had already worked out their hours. And it wasn’t like she had any further room in order to take in another random multiversal person… She had a three-bedroom apartment, so she technically still had one more room, but… Training someone for front-of-house service would take time with how she was when it came to brewing coffee and tea. Maybe she could talk to Anna again… But still. It was a lot to take in and deal with.
“She could probably come here and, as long as you aren’t super busy, she could transcribe the notation part of your songs. Then you could work on the translations as long as you have your roommate to help you figuring out how to apply the lyrics to the notation.”
Blake nodded a bit. “Some times are busier than others.” She had a feeling this time slot would be very slow with only a few people straggling in. Marie’s world had been incredibly busy but it felt like this medieval slot would be very slow. Maybe this Ylisse place just didn’t have a big coffee and tea culture… She didn’t know. She didn’t know anything about any of the places she was being ported around to.
“Well, if you aren’t busy at some point, maybe Lucina could visit then?” Blake pursed her lips. She didn’t want to tell Robin about the nature of her café, let alone Sumia and Cordelia. Those two hadn’t seemed to notice something was up with it. But Robin… Robin definitely noticed something was up with it. There was an intelligence well beyond what was normal in those eyes and her soul constantly churned about, no doubt mirroring her incredibly active mind. She wasn’t supposed to really tell people, but it was also up to her… It was just weird to explain the café to anybody without sounding like a complete mad woman.
“Well, we should probably get back to patrolling,” Cordelia said. Blake’s ears twitched a bit. “At least Sumia and I should.”
“All right then; I’ll see you two later,” Robin said. The brunette and redhead exited the café and Robin turned to face Blake. Her soul suddenly steeled and Blake’s ears went down a bit. “So what is going on here? I’ve never noticed this café here before and you… Are you a Taguel or something?”
“A what now?”
Robin pointed, no doubt at her ears. “Normal people don’t have animal ears. They’re clearly real with how they move and react to what I’m assuming are your thoughts or mood.”
Blake sighed. “It’s probably going to sound insane, but this café is from a completely different dimension entirely. I’m not a Taguel or whatever it is you called me; I’m a Faunus. Faunus have exactly one animal trait though it’s not always readily apparent. Some of us have wings, ears, or tails, while some have spinnerets for shooting webs like spiders or even retractable claws.”
“Huh. Well, that does explain the strange equipment and instruments. I’ve never seen anything like a piano or theremin before. How…is this even an instrument?” Robin walked over to it.
Blake shrugged. “Let me pull something up…” She slipped behind the counter and loaded up a video. Despite not being in Vale, she still had CCTS access, no doubt thanks to Anna. She waved Robin over and showed her a couple videos of the theremin being played. Robin looked on in awe and wonder, her soul churning an intense amount.
“How…How did you capture that? And view it? What is this thing?” She looked at the computer.
“Something well beyond your comprehension. I don’t think you’re stupid; I promise. Your technology level is just obviously much, much lower than where I come from. Or, at least, the biggest cities. I’m guessing you still use horses and candles?”
Robin nodded. “Yeah. Candles are our main source of light at night especially on moonless or cloud-covered nights. What…exactly is powering all of this?”
“Again, stuff beyond your comprehension. But…if you want an explanation, I guess picture us as being able to harness the power of lightning to power our towns and cities. This place doesn’t look too bad, but our cities can have millions of people packed into them.”
“Woah. I can’t imagine that. Between everyone on the Ylissean continent, I can’t imagine how many cities that’d make up for you. How many people in one city?”
“Sometimes between thirty and forty million.” Robin looked ready to pass out from the sheer astronomical number. She leaned against the wall and shook her head.
“Insanity. But…the weird power and things here prove your story true, at least in my eyes. The light in here feels really harsh compared to outside.”
“And I really only have the lights on low as well… Like most cafés, I have mostly natural light coming in.”
Robin walked over to the windows and knocked on them. “How much for this amount of glass? These are some crazy panes. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Blake shrugged. “I didn’t need to take the wall down when I bought this place, so I’m not sure. Glass still isn’t exactly cheap by any means, but with the industrial processes we have in Vale and other kingdoms, it’s not as expensive as it would be here.”
“Industrial?”
“Basically, we can automate a lot of jobs and have minimal human or Faunus impact on them. There are still artisanal crafts like glass blowing, but those are usually hobbies for people or maybe a steady job if they’re really lucky. But it’s not stuff we need a lot of human or Faunus touch on. They oversee the processes, but it’s largely all automated or mostly automated.”
“That’s…intense to think about.” Robin shook her head. “I know you said you don’t have much knowledge on the piano, but can you at least let me hear it?”
“It’d be better for me to pull up a video.” Blake searched up people playing piano and let Robin watch a couple of them. She didn’t want to plunk on the piano because she would not do the beautiful instrument justice. Even an amateur would be way better than her. She had never received any formal music training in her life. All she could really do was play guitar pieces by ear. Weiss was resting, so it wasn’t like she could ask Weiss to sit and play there either. She wasn’t going to really force Weiss to sit behind the counter or anything like that… The poor technomancer would definitely need rest…
A video of a beautiful piano piece played and Robin watched, her eyebrows arched. “Okay, what in the world is this? I’ve never seen anything like it before… But I get what it sounds like now at least.”
Blake let the video finish up. “It’s called a video. You know how paintings and sketches are supposed to capture a moment in time?” Robin nodded. “Well, we can basically make instant paintings.” She snapped a picture of Robin, who started when she heard the shutter sound. She flipped her scroll around to show Robin the photo. “This is called a photo. It captures a singular moment in real time. Videos are basically many photos stitched together to recreate entire lengths of time in perfect detail. Though you can edit them.”
“Why would you want to edit a moment?”
“Well, a lot of people don’t, but there are types of entertainment called movies and shows where you can cast the illusion of another reality that doesn’t actually exist. I don’t watch much of that stuff, though; I didn’t grow up on it, so it’s not a part of my culture.” She shrugged. Yeah, she really didn’t feel the need for movies or TV shows. She knew there were entire video sites for people to find alternative entertainment made by smaller content creators, but she didn’t really get into that either. She was simple and just preferred books.
“That’s…absolutely insane to think about. I can barely wrap my mind around it.” Robin shook her head. “But getting back to the main point, do you think I could bring my daughter here? We don’t have guitars or pianos.”
“The piano will depend wholly on Weiss. She’s very, very weak all around. She’s technically my employee but she’s more of a roommate. I’m giving her room and board for the time being until she’s strong enough to be able to take herself out. But she can’t even handle the stairs going up to our apartments on her own yet.” Once Weiss started being able to hold herself up and walk longer distances, she’d start paying her. But for right now, yeah, room and board would be more than enough for Weiss. She just needed somewhere she could feel safe and recover. Though if Weiss needed something, she could always ask Blake…
Robin nodded. “All right then. Well, it’s still amazing to see such a crazy instrument and learn about such a crazy Outrealm existing in such a way…”
“Outrealm?” It was Blake’s turn to ask questions. She’d never heard that term before.
“Ah, it’s how we refer to outside worlds. There’s the Dragon’s Gate which leads to all sorts of worlds outside our own. All I know about Anna is that she hails from the Outrealms… After I came back, she let me, Chrom, and the kids go to the Hotrealm for a time so I could destress from everything.”
“Hotrealm?”
“Basically it’s a beach resort in a tropical setting. Way warmer than I’m used to. I wasn’t really the biggest fan of it, but it was nice to get away from the stresses of ruling for a while. Best part was that no time passed. I can’t imagine the shape Ylisse would be in if we were away for too long… It’s not like we have Emmeryn to rely on.” Robin sighed and her soul dropped. Whatever had happened to this Emmeryn person, it clearly wasn’t good. But it wasn’t really Blake’s place to ask right now. She had only just met Robin, but she clearly held a lot of pain inside of her. It had to be tough.
“What I wouldn’t give to move back to a tropical area… I grew up in a tropical rainforest where the humidity is a minimum of 80% and the minimum temperature is 80 degrees. It was only the first seven or so years of my life, but I cannot stand the cold.” She shivered. “I don’t like how cold it is right now.”
Robin shook her head. “See, I’m the opposite. I’m from the northern country called Regna Ferox. I grew up on the border with Ylisse, but I’m still used to it being colder than warmer most of the year. I don’t like the heat… And after the Plegia campaign…” She shook her head. “I never handled heat well in the first place, but Plegia is a hot desert. I really don’t do well with heat now. Thankfully the Hotrealm wasn’t too hot. Pus our cabin had something called ‘air conditioning.’”
“Oh, I don’t like A/C, as it’s called for short. It makes the area too dry and too cold for my liking. Though depending on Weiss in the summer, if she’s still with me then, I might have to invest in a window unit for her.” With the lack of body fat, Weiss wouldn’t be able to thermoregulate very easily. The cold would probably be a lot tougher than heat, but heat still wouldn’t be great. Blake couldn’t crank the heat up in the café as much as she wished she could. She would need to check in with Weiss to see if she needed it warmer… Or maybe she could get her a housecoat or heated blanket or something. She didn’t want Weiss to freeze while manning the counter.
“What is humidity, by the way?”
“It’s a measure of how much water is in the air. A/C drops the temperature, but it also dehumidifies. So it also makes the air drier. In the summer, drier air can be nice, but when you’re used to wet heat like I am, anything below like 60% humidity feels really dry.” She shook her head. Yeah, she really didn’t like how dry it got in the winters like now. She would unfortunately have to put the A/C on in the café once summer rolled around, though. People wouldn’t want to come into a café that was excessively hot, especially because the ovens and stoves would be running… The concessions she’d have to make for customers to be comfortable was a little frustrating.
“I see. By the way, do you know what time it is?”
Blake looked at the clock and her ears flicked back. “Ah, it’s getting close to three… If you want to stick around you can, but I’ll be hopping to another world soon.” She found the program that controlled where her café went on the computer.
“Eh, I should probably get back anyway. I have a meeting at four. Well, nice to meet you. When will you be here?”
Blake looked at the program Anna had set up. “Every third day from 1pm to 3pm. So not tomorrow or the next day, but the day after that. Make sense?”
Robin nodded. “Yep. Well, I’ll let you head on out and I’ll head back to the castle.” She headed out the door and the scenery changed outside. Well, time to gear up for new customers…