Bodega Cat (System Apocalypse, Deck Builder, Litrpg)

"And you're not worried about what she's doing?" Ashley asked; the question that had been on her mind for far longer than she had any right to have it there. Far longer than the queue that they were in.

"If our parents sign off and then I can't really say no. Who would have known that she wanted to open a drones and scones place. It's a nice name."

They were on the street. Raul was not having enough of a reaction. He should have been freaking out. Ashley wanted to educate him. But he was not signing up for her courses.

"I mean good on her and she's a great girl boss. But like you can't just open a business in the middle of... Well, I guess you can but that doesn't mean that. How is she even getting money for this?" Ashley put her hands on her hips. The line moved forward.

"She's getting money for this because she's asking people to chip in their credits for it. And basically, everyone that she's spoken to has decided that this is a great idea for an investment and there she is at the back of the line hitting up more people for credits. I mean it's adorable! Once you get past the fact that she's asking them to help her buy weapons of war, it's adorable."

"She's just trying to get the schematic so that she can make me make them."

It was the last thing on Ashley's mind to mention the amount of material that she was going to need to turn into something usable. Based on her calculations, it would take an entire motor vehicle to turn into one of the drones that she was looking at making and that was before any possible incendiary grenades or missiles could be made.

There was potential the something that she could do to create a laser guided system but that felt like a stretch.

In the end, it would really come down to the fact that Ashley was not morally opposed to it, but she was a little bit surprised.

"I guess what I really think is that till your mom and dad really understand what she's asking for when they hear this from her?"

"They named her after a character from game of thrones. Do you think that they are going to not know what a drone is?"

The line moved again, and they were almost to the security guard.

"Can you hear what he's saying?" Ashley asked. She tried leaning out past the line to see what was going on. There was only one group ahead of him and he was giving them little talk.

"There's only one loaf of bread allowed. That's what it sounds like."

"Good thing we didn't come here for bread. God, I wish I had got into sourdough when covid was around..."

They stepped forward, moving to the large black security guard who looked both down. He waved a mechanical wand.

"No weapons allowed. No card summons either. Many of these items are limited in supply so that everyone gets a chance. Don't be the person that makes us add a rule. One loaf of bread per couple per day."

His face never left the permanent resting one common among working class new Yorkers.

It wasn't like she had expected that. People here were just used to it and kind of over it. He must have been put it on his face just for them because he waves a bit and winked at her. She had full concern before but now she felt confused.

They'd seem the same guard multiple times as they walked around the block and now entering the Amish market and seeing the little pizza den set up there, she realized that her mouth was watering.

"I'll catch up."

Raul passed. She was still staying put, looking at options. Next to the pizza place was a salad bar and they would make custom salads for you and a way that you could see it. She had ordered several salads from there and all had tasted delicious. They might have been heavy handed with the vinaigrette, but she liked that.

Then due to the architectural choices of the people in the building, there was a big wall around half of the store so you could go buy things in the lower level or right by the little pizza Depot. She floated around grabbing several things. The car had held them, waiting for another couple to leave so that there could maintain fire code and it was about as packed as she had ever seen it. It. Joe's not considering that. Perhaps she should have gone later in the day, but the line as it was now consistently there.

They'd almost had to think of a line for the bodega. Bagels cards refreshed everything.

People who are very quickly in and out unless they were waiting on food.

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Raul came to her with a basket full of things. And she pulled out one of her tote bags for him as they passed by the espresso counters.

"Well, I kind of want to get a coffee here." He gave her a look and she let it go.

"That's okay. Let me pay for all this. Can you get me an espresso too? I know shit I forget what Khaleesi's order is."

"She likes her coffee like the way she likes her men," Ashley said.

"Tall and black?" He asked.

"I was going to say sweet, but I like that better. Yeah, is that a thing that she likes? Because I did not get to buy from her at all. That would be something..."

That you could tell by his face that he was joking, and he kept moving around the corner. Ashley stepped up and ordered three coffees from the woman behind the espresso counter. From the way she was walking the woman looked scared but defy it. Like she'd been through a lot. They'd all been through a lot and Ashley. Things had changed so suddenly.

Any sense of normalcy had been broken beyond repair.

The fact that she was able to ask a woman for a coffee and the woman asked her how much sugar she wanted felt so alien after 2 weeks of the system being here that she almost had a double take.

It wasn't like this was her first time. She had gone to this counter many times before but this time everything felt so different. It was the amount of people in the store the way that it was so loud and at the same time quiet because no one was just really talking. Why were they talking? They happen to talk to you outside. But she didn't know what it changed and...

"Miss? Miss?"

The woman behind the counter was staring at her. Ashley had drifted off.

She got the first of the coffees and put them in a holder. Ashley had gotten two extra just in case. Someone always asked for one and had forgotten to put in an order and she was not going to walk back. That was how the guild was. They might get a coffee pot soon, but both the four five deli and the Amish market sold coffee so it felt like additional work for no benefit.

"Thank you so much!"

"It's no problem. A lot of people get like that out here. Heck, I wouldn't be here if I didn't live in a safe zone."

Ashley was hesitant to ask. "How has it been?"

"Well as you can see, the shelves are constantly being restocked..."

Behind Ashley deeper into the store, two men were unloading crates of food as fast as they could. And as fast as they were unloading them, people would take the food and remove them the shelves. It was almost like they should have just skipped the placing them on the shelves all together. But there was no way that either the worker or the customer was going to give up on the idealized image of a fully stocked store.

"They've been like that for an hour," the lady behind the counter said. "The boys bring in a box and try to unload it, but they should just hand it to whoever comes. Heck, I started baking my own bread because they won't save you a slice on the basis of you working here."

Ashley turned back, peering over the counter full of desserts. It was a most welcome sight. She has a sudden visceral need.

But they only had one type of cheesecake left.

It which was almost distressing.

She had tried cheesecake before, and it was not for her. It was for other people but would have been nice to have something familiar there. Cheesecake and black and white cookies were the only things left so she got a couple black and white cookies to go with her stuff even though the bodega had them.

These would be different. They had been made by a human, not a card power. There was just something about that small difference.

"They look good, right? We made most of them in house."

Ashley had to move on but maybe... "Can you put one of those on my tray?"

"I'll make it work."

The balancing act had her all the way down to the three registers on the slightly lower level. She walked on the ramp calmly. Praying to everything in the universe to not let her spill any of the delicious caffeine that she was about to fully absorb. It hadn't meant much before but the fact that it was available and that she had been going on for a while without it. She took a sip while they were online, and it felt electric.

Thankfully this line was blessedly short and as soon as I paid for their goods and got them still situated better, Raul was helping her by taking her little dessert off her hands and putting it into a reusable bag. Even in the Apocalypse New York is about going to go back to plastic bags. They might do paper, but they were not going all the way back. It had been too long and too much. It happened to return to their old ways. Also, nobody was making them anymore.

They work conspicuously out of reusable bags at the counter as if they'd sold out many times and just refused to continue stocking them. As soon as they left, the security guard at the exit door signaled the other one. It looked like they had a system down where each one or two people that came out would be replaced by one two people coming in and they kept firing code even if they could have just sold stuff right out front and still made a line. She couldn't help herself account and there were about 40 people in line waiting for them.

Some of them could have gone to the bodega but they didn't have everything; it just had small conveniences.

"You know I thought that I'd seen a long line before, but the last line I thought it was this long for the Pokémon center launch for something? And I wasn't even?" Ashley began.

They're out of the corner next to the shop where the temporary police mobile unit was still set up and probably would never move anymore.

Raul nodded. "There's always something like that when there's a good venue or an event but this like leaving line of like that all day. And I know it's not the same people cuz it's rotating through and thankfully they're moving at us steady clip but..."

Ashley waited for Raul to open the door. "I bet you if something spawned there that they would just have one of the deck berries in line. Take care of it and then save a spot. And that's why this is the greatest city in the world."

"Hell, yeah it is," a woman said as she walked out, her arms full of cereal boxes and milk.

Ashley walked in and turned left placing her haul on the countertop. She rearranged it to move over to the guild, but first she was going to get an update from Janet.

"I got extra coffee just in case. I would like to ask you some questions if you have the time."

"In a sense, no one really has time. We just spend it, but I understand you," Janet said. "What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to ask a couple things about drones and... Lasers."