Deepening The Plot Through Character Discussion

The doorbell rang as Ender opened the door to the Black Cat Bar.

"Welcome," an old man standing behind the bar said while wiping some mugs. He looked at the agent and smiled warmly. "You must be Ender, Emilia told me about you," he said.

Ender walked up towards him, with Marshall following her from behind. "You must be Emilia's grandfather aren't you?" she sat down on the bar table and took a closer look at him.

So far, Emilia didn't see any semblance between the old man and Elliot. The old man has light gray hair and a short beard. He's also impossibly fit for his age. He stood tall and looked at both his customers with his warm yet sharp gaze.

"I am," then he turned towards Marshall, who just stared at him nervously. "And who might you be, young man?"

"Eh? I'm uhh… My name is Marshall, I'm Ender's… friend," Marshall replied nervously.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ender, Marshall," the barista said. "You can call me Mr. Charles, is there anything I can get you?"

Ender shook her head and took out her purse. "No, I just want to pay the bills for earlier today and the room for tonight," she said. "How much?"

Charles crouched down and took out a logbook. He opened it and browsed through it, frowning a little as he did so. "Ender Light, the food and drink will be 27 Vrells, the room will be 80 vrells a night," he said.

'Cheap room,' Ender thought to herself.

"Also, is it alright if Marshall also stay in my room?" Ender asked.

"I suppose there will be no funny business?"

Ender calmly shook her head. "Nothing like that sir," she patted Marshall's head a little, and the demon blushed in embarrassment. "Marshall here is nocturnal, he sleeps at eight in the morning. He'll be spending his time down here while I sleep upstairs."

"I see," Charles said. "If that's the case I'll allow it."

"Thanks," Ender took out her wallet and fished some bills out of it. "Here you go sir, give the change to Marshall, I'm going upstairs."

Ender was about to stand up when the entrance slammed open. A young man stepped into the bar, closed the door behind him, and took a deep short breath. "Old man… I'm back…" he said before holding out a plastic bag.

"Welcome back Christopher," Charles replied. "Thank you for your help, please take it to the kitchen," he said.

"So that's Christopher," Ender commented. "Where was he from?"

"Outside the town," Charles replied. "Some of the supplies I use aren't available in this town."

Ender took a closer look at Christopher. Physically he's around Marshall's age. The boy has unruly black hair and onyx eyes. He wore a brown jacket under a black shirt. He looked at Ender in interest for a bit before heading straight into the kitchen.

"So Christopher works at the Black Cat Bar?"

Charles nodded a little. "Sometimes I ask him to help me prepare the bar for the night. Sometimes he helps Rena in the kitchen. But usually he's outside doing some errands," he explained.

Ender turned to Marshall. The demon shook his head.

"Well, I really should be going now, it's getting late," she stood up from the chair and turned around. "Get yourself used to the city Marshall, maybe you'll find something interesting in this city," she added.

Ender walked upstairs and found herself staring at a brightly lit hallway. She stopped right in front of her room and heard voices coming from the flat behind her. She checked the time. It's still around seven-thirty, so it's not that late yet.

Should she go eavesdropping? Should she knock and try to join them? Should she just let this be for now and return back into her room?

With a click, Ender unlocked her door and entered the room. She headed straight to her study table and took out her mind map.

'Charles and Christopher,' she wrote their name beside Emilia and Rena. 'Cats are afraid of Marshall and Emilia has a cat,' she wrote Emilia's cat on the paper with some question mark. Then she looked at the room 3.5. 'I should ask Marshall to get something in my room at that hour.'

A tune appeared from Ender's pocket, and she took out her phone.

"Okay Ender, it's done, I've blacklisted yours and Marshall's name from available partner. Now you just need to get him all the way up to A Rank."

"Good, I'll get right into it, thank you Alan,"

"No problem Ender,"

Ender disconnected the call and started writing some questions on her sketchbook. The question also serves as a to-do list for the agent tomorrow. If she can answer all those questions, this case is as good as closed.

It was almost two hours and five pages that Ender managed to compile enough questions. She pocketed them and yawned a little. "I hate detective mission," Ender muttered before walking towards her bed. She plopped herself on the nearest pillow and closed her eyes.

Then, Ender snapped her eyes awake. She took out her flip phone and started writing a short text:

"Marshall, see if Charles is Elliot's in law or actual father. If he's an in law, see if you can find something about Emilia's mother. Listen closely to all customers there, nothing sings louder than a grieving drunken idiot. Also, go up the hallway at 3:30 and see if there's a mysterious door beside my room, if there is, pretend you don't see it and go back down immediately. If you don't have any question, don't bother answering."

Ender sent the message and let herself float into the realm of dreams.

[[[UPF]]]

05:12 - Black Cat Cafe

It was five in the morning. Ender stretched her arms and yawned a little. She smiled a little in satisfaction after noticing the time. Eight hours of sleep is a luxury for someone like her, and it's all thanks to her nocturnal partner that it's possible.

Ender walked out of the room and straight to the bathroom near the stairs. It's slightly open, and she walked right into it. It's a simple bathroom. There is no bathtub, only a shower, and a toilet. There's also a towel nearby and a place to hang her clothes.

After taking ten minutes shower, she put her clothes back on. It's still clean, it cannot get dirty actually, that's what she loves about Foundation Standard clothes. She doesn't need to bring a change in any of her mission.

With that, the girl walked out of the bathroom. It's still early in the morning, so the cafe isn't open yet. She walked down the stairs, an empty restaurant. The chairs are upturned on the table, except for the table in the corner where a certain demon boy sat.

The demon was reading a large brown book. The leather cover reads 'Cracking the Circle Incarnate.' He looks very observed in his reading and almost didn't notice Ender walking towards him.

"Ah, ma'am, I mean, Ender," Marshall put down his book. "Good morning,"

Ender sat down next to him. "Good morning Marshall," she took out her pen and her notes. "Let's get down to it, what did you find?"

"I didn't get to talk much with Charles, but I did talk with Christopher. Charles is apparently Elliot's in laws. Her daughter's name was Alicia Charles," he explained. "Then there's the thing about the door… I didn't find any door but I did saw Emilia walking out of her room. She told me she was just going to the bathroom. She wasn't lying."

"Any rumour about the city?"

Marshall nodded a little. "Almost all customers who went here are simply letting out their stress from working and everyday life. The only one who isn't there to relax is a guy complaining about some restaurant nearby,"

"Restaurant?"

"Yes, he said that he used to eat some sort of a secret menu from the restaurant. But it seems that it doesn't sell it anymore,"

If the situation was any different, Ender wouldn't give it a second thought. But this town is one heck of weird utopia, and any sort of weirdness piqued her interest. "What's the restaurant called?"

"Secret Garden, are you going there Ender?"

"For lunch today, yes,"

The two of them spend the rest of the morning talking about their next move. Ender would ask him some questions while making up some narrative hypotheses. Marshall then makes up some ridiculous scenarios.

"The cats were once humans," Marshall said. "I mean, that does sound likely isn't it?"

Ender looked at the notes in front of her. It is Ender and Marshall's experience when entering the town written like a novel summary. Now they're just predicting the most likely scenario that would happen to make the 'story' more interesting.

This is one of the methods the department of pataphysics came up with to investigate anomalous scenarios. Almost all agents use this method to make investigations faster and to prepare for all sorts of situations.

"So you're saying that these cats were the bad humans?" Ender asked.

"Yes and there's probably an Anti meme that made people forgot that those who were turned into cats once existed in the first place,"

"Well… That kinda explains the restaurant thing. Maybe there's a cook there who knows how to make this 'secret menu' but her recipe is erased along with her existence."

Marshall grinned a little. "Right? That sounds likely isn't it?"

Ender rolled her eyes. "I have my own hypothesis. What if the cats in this city are anomalously calming and soothing? Like, these cats acts as sponge and or repellent to all negative energy?" she asked.

"That doesn't explain the secret menu thing."

"Well, what if the secret menu is just a red herring? And this scenario explains why the cats are scared of you, you're dripping with negative energy."

Marshall nodded a little. "I see… But what about the room 3.5?"

Ender clicked her tongue. "I have no idea, but Emilia is somehow connected to it," she looked at the story summary. "What sort of twist would make this much more interesting?"

"The obvious one is that Emilia is the one behind everything?"

"But Elliot doesn't have that sort of power,"

"Then it's Emilia's mother's power,"

Ender looked down in deep thought. She thought about Elliot's power, complete molecular fabrication. He was basically a living, breathing, 3D printer. However, he cannot make a living being. Even if he were to make a perfect copy of a human being, all he gets is a hyper-realistic corpse.

Now, what would her mother's power be to be able to create a living creature like cats?