Di's Cafe

Back in the alley…

"We should move," Muo suggests, her eyes scanning the area. "Those Pawtrol bots won't give up that easily, and I'd rather not spend the night by a bunch of garbage." She flashes a quick glare at Stripes.

Vein, Muo, and Stripes leave from their hiding spot once the Pawtrol sirens fade into the distance. They move swiftly through the streets, making sure to stay hidden in the shadows. Muo leads the way, her eyes constantly scanning for any signs of the returning Pawtrol.

"Come on, let's head over to di’s cafe," Muo whispers. "And you," she turns to Stripes, "better keep quiet if you want to stay in one piece."

Stripes nods, still rattled from their earlier encounter. Muo closes her eyes briefly, her motorcycle appears in front of her and she hops on. "Vein, Stripes will hop on your vehicle," Muo says with a slight giggle. Vein side eyes Stripes, but his vehicle appears as well in a similar shimmer of light. Stripes hops on quickly, as Vein revs up and begins to zoom off, following closely behind Muo's lead through the darkened streets to Di’s Cafe.

Di’s Cafe

On the busier side of the Ukimoe world has gained recognition for its unique entertainment. The cafe has board games that the guests can play while they wait for their food/drinks.They serve foods such as: beat burger, speaker soup, cd donuts, etc. Unlike the human world, foods aren’t consumed in the same manner, food in the Ukimoe world is hologram based, but has the same effects as regular human food. The menus are projected through specially designed crystals that hover above each table, the guests can interact using gesture controls.The building's whole theme is based on Dice, not normal dice like in the human world, but alive ones. Red, White, and light blue decor in every inch of the facility, polka dots and stripes garnished on some items. Hit songs frequently play in the cafe through floating speakers with tongues. The cafe's staff includes a diverse group of bots, who not only serve the holographic dishes but also contribute to the melodies with their natural ability to harmonize with the floating speakers. They wear an outfit that changes color in response to the current music playing throughout the space. During special events and holidays, the cafe broadcasts the events and typically prepares food that align with them.

They arrive at Di’s Cafe

Muo points down at the cafe. “Alright guys, we made it. Looks like there isn’t much of a crowd today, thank god. Too much shit has happened today.” They all drive down from the sky to the cafe in a swift manner, their vehicles vanishing as they plant their feet on the ground. Stripes rubs the back of his head. “What’s so special about this place anyway?”

“It’s a joint Vein and I used to frequent a couple years ago. We just haven’t visited in a minute, plus an old buddy of ours owns this place,” Muo says.

“They have good food too,” Vein says with a smile on his face.

“Yeah, sure,” says Stripes.

They walk into the cafe where booming music and food scents fill the air. A flying speaker appears in front of them, greeting them as they stand in the lobby area. The speaker speaks in melodies similar to music notes with its sharp, daggering tongue flying out of its mouth. 𝄞 ₊˚ ‧ ♪ ࿐ ₊ ˚ ⊹.

Muo walks over to the waitress seating people down as they arrive. “Hey, can you tell Di we’re here?”

“Mhh, yeah sure thing, hun,” she winks before disappearing into the crowd behind her towards Di. Stripes and Muo quickly side-eye each other, questioning what just happened in front of them. Another waiter comes out and guides them to a booth close to a window.

“What an odd booth out of all the ones they could’ve given us,” Stripes says.

“This is actually the booth Vein and I used to frequent, thank you very much,” Muo says with a huff under her breath. She stares at her name etched on the side of the table alongside Vein's name. Di walks towards their booth holding a tissue to her nose and walking funny. She blinks slowly before realizing who she was looking at.

“Aye man, haven’t seen y'all in a while, welcome back to the best cafe in all of Ukimoe,” Di says sniffing.“It's been like 30 years man…whatcha dropping in for?” Before Muo has a chance to answer, Di gets pulled away by a waitress and blurts out, “BE BACK INA GIFFY!!!”

Muo touches the old laser engravings still left on the table, reminiscing on all the old times they had. Vein begins to look at the menu, the new special displayed in big bold letters: “DICE MILKSHAKE WITH SPRINKLES AND PLASMA DRIZZLE.” In a tiny font below the bold letters, it reads: (not real plasma included in this item; customer's discretion). Vein stares at the milkshake while also eyeing the CD donut special on the menu. Stripes watches the TV while enjoying the music being played in the establishment. Vein shoves the menu in Muo's face, pointing at the new special and the CD donuts.

“No, VEIN, that is not what we came here for,” Muo says.

Vein throws up his hands in a growling fit. He begins to tap on the things he wants and orders them anyway. Muo notices and begins to shake her head in disappointment. The tv Stripes was watching switches to a live broadcast called, “Idol plasma talks.” The famous host known as Poké interviews all the upcoming idols and keeps everyone informed on the new music hits in the market. The duo idols known as, “Diva Lips” are being interviewed for their record breaking album that was released recently. D1 and D2 are bunny based ukimoe bots, D1 is blue while D2 is pink. Aside from having different skin colors they match other parts to each other.

“So what can you recommend others to do in order to become a well established idols like yourself considering your big rise in the world,” Poké says cunningly as he crosses his legs leaning back in his chair. Across from him sat Diva Lips on a red couch in the shape of lips.

“Well Poké you see, it's quite simple,” they both say in sync while giggling.

“Just smile and look pretty doing what you do best,” says D1. D2 starts doing cute poses for the camera and blowing kisses at the views. She pulls out some lipstick and reapplies her makeup.

Muo scoffs at the screen ignoring the rest of the interview turning towards Vein.

“Ugh all those two faced lipstick smudging whores do is talk about nothing I swear,” says Muo watching as the food Vein order arrives. When I become an idol I won't be saying dumb crap like that.” Vein drools at the mouth staring at his milkshake and donuts. The dice placed onto the milkshake moves around making silly sounds. Vein stares in disbelief, quickly snatching it off the milkshake and onto the table.

“Stay there lil guy,” says Vein while slurping down his milkshake and dunking his donuts every now and then.

“Ya know Muo you’ve been talking about becoming an idol for a while but I don’t see you progressing at all, plus you’d be nothing without plasma,” says Stripes. Muo’ head snaps quickly to look at Stripes, she stares blankly not giving much of an expression of how she’s going to react at the moment. She gets flashes of memories of all her failed concert attempts and events she’s attended.

Meanwhile, over by Di.~

"What do you mean the Uki-Pawtrol bots are here? We barely allow any wanted busters in this place," Di says to one of the waitresses.

"Well, apparently they're here because someone caused a scene in the alley and dashed their way over to us."

Di walks over to the entrance of the cafe, greeting them. "Welcome to my cafe. How may I be of service to you?"

"We suspect someone who has fled a scene is hiding here amongst you all," one of the Uki-Pawtrol bots says.

"Would you be able to give a brief description of what they might look like?" asks Di.

"Short, big head, green, blue, something like that," the Uki-Pawtrol bot says with confidence.

"Hmmm, I'm not sure I've seen individuals like those. Feel free to look around."

The Uki-Pawtrol bots nod and disperse as a group around the cafe.

Di walks back over to the table where Muo and her friends are sitting. "Alright guys, what did I miss?" Muo snaps back to reality. "Aye, don't you have one of those training things on the 3rd floor?"

"Yes, it's the latest software for training to become a professional dancer. The one and only DJ-er made it himself pretty neat stuff," Di says.

"Well, I need to become a better idol than those two busted lips on the TV," says Muo.

Di tries to hold back her laugh.

"Well, you've come to the right place, Muo. I'd be more than happy to train you to out-dance the best idols on the leaderboard," Di says.

The Uki-Pawtrol bots hover over a booth, pulling their gear from behind them. The sharp blades of such high-tech machinery close shut around the wires. A sharp static sound erupts, and Di looks over in shock.