Cryptid Cafe rough draft // lmk what you think?

Standing at the counter, unfortunately for Avery, was a vampire. Now, Avery has nothing against vampires, let that be known. But a vampire at 9 a.m.? They usually didn’t show up until it started getting dark out. “Good morning,” Avery said tiredly, fixing his ponytail as he grabbed a cup, “what can I get started for you.” The vampire nodded stiffly, clearly trying to keep the sun streaming in from the windows from touching his pale skin under his coat, “I’ll have one blood-orange and cream macchiato with three shots of espresso, four shots of ristretto, and one shot of affogato, scolding hot, light milk and four pumps cow blood, shaved goose liver and cinnamon on top, extra cinnamon, easy on the goose liver.” Avery scowled a bit as he murmured under his breath, “damn vampires and their complicated coffee orders,” before taking the money from the pail-skinned creature of the night and getting to work on his drink. 

Avery had gotten this job about a month ago, much to his misfortune, and had no idea what he was in for. The Midpoint Cafe, aptly named after both the town it was located in and what it served as, was built on a spirit circle. Which not only brought spirits to the cafe, but acted as a crossover point from the monster realms to the human realm. Lucky for the residents of Midpoint, Nevada, these monsters cannot leave the cafe. And luckily for the human patrons of the cafe, the monsters eating amongst them are invisible to them thanks to the barrier contract. Unluckily for Avery, he not only could see these monsters, but he had to serve them coffee. For fourteen fifty an hour.

Avery handed the complicated and skin-searingly hot coffee to the vampire, bags under his eyes and gloves on his hands so he didn’t give his weak human skin third-degree burns. The vampire took it gratefully and a human walked up to the counter, smiling softly and sitting his hands in his pockets. The blonde boy, around Avery’s age, adjusted his black hoodie and avoided eye contact with the black haired barista. “Uh,” the boy finally choked out, “can I have a vanilla frappuccino with whipped cream and caramel?” Avery hummed in response and typed it into the cash register, looking at the blonde and socially awkward boy before him with a small sigh. “Anything else?” Avery huffed out, exhausted as always. The boy simply shook his head no and handed Avery the money, which he took and placed in the human register. Avery went to work, attempting to ignore the werewolves and demons taking their places in line behind the clueless human. 

Avery handed the human his coffee and let out yet another moody huff, unsure exactly how the hell he was gonna survive the 10 a.m. demon rush and werewolf pack that were probably here for steak shakes, and the shy customer smiled at Avery. Avery avoided eye contact and smiled back softly before going to take the orders of the demon husband and wife at the register. Hellfire hot black coffees, of course. He took about ten orders before whipping out the coffee’s faster than you could name a demon-based adult cartoon involving some weird will-they won't-they love story between a demon prince and an imp. The rush seemed to last forever, taking orders from demons and wolves, zombies and imps, a witch or two coming in for their mourning brew, it was exhausting. By the time the rush was over, it was Avery’s lunch break. Thank Mammon, he was finally able to down more espresso than even a demon could handle and sit down. Avery sat down at the counter and put up his “I’m on my break, no I can’t take your order, no you can’t eat me instead” sign, downing as much caffeine as his body would let him. 

The customers looked happy, thank Paimon, and his demon co-worker Vielfar would be coming in to handle the lunch rush in about fifteen minutes. Avery was so glad he didn’t have to handle it alone anymore, his bosses decided to hire some help when Avery passed out on his third week on the job from lack of sleep and caffeine overdose. Apparently there was supposed to be an interview today as well, another monster to help handle the more rowdy and angry customers who kept trying to eat Avery. Vielfar walked into the cafe, wearing his usual red uniform to offset Avery’s green one along with his backwards cap and shades, and took his place at the counter. Vielfar was probably the coolest guy at his demon collage, he was the Grelf Overlord at his school’s Grelf dance, which is kinda like demon prom, and he always seemed to handle angry customers with no problem no matter how many times they threatened to gut him and feed his heart to their swarm of harpies. 

“Yo,” Vielfar happily chirped to Avery in his rather thick demon accent, which sounded like a mix of midwestern and new yorker if that tells you anything about hell. “Hey V, you got any snacks for me?” Avery joked, always finding his hard exterior a bit softer around his long horned co-worker. “You know it,” Vielfar exclaimed as he dropped a bag on the counter, “Check it. Beelzebub brand candy horns, snake skin jerky, and hellapeno chips. Dig in, flesh bro, I got the lunch rush handled.” Avery sighed happily and slid his chair to a corner of the counter where the customers couldn’t see him, digging into the jerky with a happy groan. Sometimes Avery wondered if he should have been born a demon instead of a human, everyone down there seems to not give a fuck and the food from the gluttony ring was to die for, literally. As Avery finished up his jerky and started destroying the candy horns, Vielfar looked at him with panicked eyes. Code green, human customer while a monster was on shift. And, judging by his frantic attempt at signing ‘help,’ they were not happy.

Avery stood up and walked to the counter, sighing softly as he spoke, “welcome to the Midpoint Cafe, what can I get started for you?” The woman at the counter huffed and stomped on the wooden floor, causing Vielfar to jump in his scales, “a manager. NOW.” “Ma’am,” Avery started before being cut off by the woman, “I said NOW.” Avery sighed and walked back behind the curtain on the wall, pressing on a green button and speaking into the speaker, “we’ve got a green code K, asking for a manager, can I get boss up here in a human disguise please. Preference for a demon or Vampire, as she needs a reality check as soon as possible thank you.” The speaker buzzed in response and Avery waited by the nearby elevator door. 

There was only one human manager working at the cafe, and today was his day off, meaning a monster had to deal with the angry woman. This usually would be a major problem, as because of the barrier contract human patrons of the cafe cannot see monsters at all. But, lucky for Avery, the managers have a special clause in the contract.

Quote: “a human may only witness the existence of a monster within the Midpoint cafe if said monster has not only the Manager role and qualifications, but a human disguise with magical masking properties to make said Manager appear human enough for direct contact.”

The elevator next to Avery gave a loud ding, and out walked Avery’s manager in the demon branch Mammor. Mammor was the son of the demon of greed, Mammon, and was given the demon branch of the Midpoint Cafe by his uncle. He handled the demon customers' managerial requests most of the time, but could also deal with humans pretty well. An angry human and a regular demon aren't that different actually. Mammor slipped on his human disguise and a hat to cover his horns, which seems ridiculous in concept but demons have their ways, and walked out to the counter. The woman was fuming, barking out “well it took you long enough! God, why the hell does anyone even come here with your stupid and lazy staff?!” Mammor took a deep breath before he spoke, his voice deep and threatening, “Ma’am. What seems to be the problem here?” Mammor could barely breathe after his sentence before the woman raised her voice once more to a whiney shrill, “I was standing at this counter for five whole minutes waiting for a barista to take my order, only to find out he was sitting behind the counter eating some stupid foreign food!” “Ma’am,” Mammor said assertively, “he was on his break.” “Like hell if I care that your idiot foreign workers are on break, you sack of crap. He can take his break when everyone’s been served like an American.” This made Avery giggle, he wasn’t even a foreigner, he was born in Nevada. In fact, being a native, he’s actually more of an American than this woman, but he kept quiet. Mammor gave a huff and put his hand on the counter, looking the woman in the eyes as he spoke, “as someone you would consider a foreigner myself, I don’t appreciate your tone ma’am. Get out of my cafe.” The woman audibly gasped as she looked at Mammor and then around at the other human patrons, “I- do you all hear this crap?! I’m being discriminated against because I’m a natural-born american! This is racism! I’m a paying customer and-” “Out. Of my Cafe.” Mammor cut her off, his hand gripping the counter at this point as he tried to hide his demonic accent through his rage. The woman looked around, prepared to play the victim again, but noticed that the cafe patrons weren’t on her side in the slightest. With a huff and a loud threat of legal action, she left the cafe, and Mammor turned to Avery.

“Sorry about that, kid. You made the right choice requesting me though. I’m going back downstairs, I have a ‘staff meeting’ to get back to.” By staff meeting, he meant the weekly manager pool tournament in the greed ring casino, but Avery didn’t dare let that secret slip and decided his break was over and he’d take drink duty. Avery washed his hands and stepped to his station, ready to just make drinks for the next few hours before the new guy came in and he got to go home.