"What do you think they sell? Just coffee or maybe pastries too?" Monica asked, as she floated in front of the large storefront window beside Chelsea and Juno.

"How are they gonna sell pastries? They can't make pastries. They don't have an oven, they're a cart," Juno replied, sounding annoyed, "they're more than likely just a coffee cart. I'd be surprised if they sold anything else. Maybe cold muffins."

"God I love cold muffins," Chelsea said.

"Who would ever eat a cold muffin?" Juno asked, sounding disgusted, giving her a look.

"It's bread, you eat most bread cold, what goddamn difference what shape or form it comes in?" Monica chimed in, with Chelsea snapping her fingers and pointing at her.

"I could go for some coffee," Chelsea said, "and not just cause the girl serving it has the head of a goat. I mean, that's cool, but I really could go for some coffee. It gets tiring working here. All the stocking and stuff. Exhausting. Kinda need to rejuvinate my energy."

Chelsea stood up and walked around the counter, then stopped and looked at Juno.

"Do you want a cup? I'm buying."

"I don't drink coffee," Juno said, shrugging, "I have enough energy as it is."

"Fair enough," Chelsea said, exiting the shop. Juno and Monica watched from the window as Chelsea nervously approached the cart. Juno was chewing on gum while Monica just floated absentmindedly in the air. After a minute, Juno looked up at Monica, who glanced down at her.

"What?" Monica asked.

"You ever miss things from when you were alive?" Juno asked.

"Depends," Monica said, "stuff like chocolate cake? Absolutely. Things like diarrhea? Absolutely not."

"Gross," Juno said, the both of them giggling. Meanwhile, Chelsea got into line, which only consisted of 4 people ahead of her, and anxiously waited to approach the cart window. As she stood there, checking the money in her hand, she tried to think of an excuse other than wanting coffee to want to come outside and meet this girl. She did have the head of a goat, and that was interesting, but she wondered if there was more...and she knew there was. She just didn't want to admit it. After a minute, she felt a long finger tap on her shoulder and she glanced up to see Polaris standing there.

"Oh, hi," she said, smiling.

"Good afternoon," Polaris replied, "I see you're as intrigued as everyone else by this new establishment."

"Can a singular cart really be called an 'establishment'? Don't you need a building to claim that title?" Chelsea asked, and Polaris snickered, patting her on the back.

"I have to say I'm surprised by the turnout, but I suppose when one lives somewhere for an eternity, anything new opening must be absolutely enthralling. When things are so stagnant for so long in your surroundings, the simplest little change or addition can feel downright exhilirating."

Chelsea nodded in agreement, then turned her focus back to the cart as they moved up one, the person in the front of the line having moved on ahead. Chelsea wanted to think about coffee, but all she could think about was Xorlack.

                                                                             ***

"So what about you? You've never really lived as a person like I or Chelsea have, what would you like to experience most?" Monica asked as she floated down the chip aisle - or what most closely resembled the chip aisle - while Juno swept. Juno stopped and chewed on her lip, thinking about it.

"How do you know I never got to live as a person?" Juno asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because you don't strike me as someone who existed outside of this place," Monica said, "but please, prove me wrong. I love nothing more than to be put in my place."

"If I could name something," Juno said, stopping sweeping and leaning against one of the freezer doors at the end of the aisle, "I would have to say connections with others. Or...at the very least, the chance to make them."

"You don't think the connections you make here are as real?" Monica asked, "you don't consider Chelsea or I your friend?"

"I wouldn't say that, but I do think you and Chelsea would agree there's an inherent difference between connections as a living person and connections as an ethereal being. Humans are messy, raw, but they're real. A lot of them, more often than not, hide their feelings, sure, but so many others wear their hearts on their sleeves and that's good too. They can connect over the smallest things, a band they both like or something like that. Here...everything is so surface level. We are friends because there's no better alternative in proximity. That isn't to say I don't like you guys, but let's not make it out to be more than it is."

Monica floated as she watched Juno go back to sweeping and felt her heart, if she still had one, drop a bit. What had happened to Juno to make her feel this way? Hell, even Polaris - the coldest, most distant mother fucker around - would agree with them that the connections they shared here in the shop were as real as anything else. Chelsea, however, might currently agree with Juno.

                                                                            ***

"I hate change," Chelsea said as the next person in the front of the line departed.

"Well, I could lend you bills if that's what you're asking," Polaris remarked, making her chuckle.

"You know what I mean," she said as they moved forward, "I don't like it when things are different. I think losing my sister, especially the way I did, made me scared of anything ever being different. That's partially why I never dated too. I didn't like the change it would bring to my single life, and then didn't like the change it would bring if we broke up, so I just flatout avoided the entire situation until I came here and met Xorlack."

"How is that going, by the way?" Polaris asked, pulling a cigar out from his tin and lighting it.

"And the thing is," Chelsea continued, ignoring his inquiry, "...I didn't hate the way it changed my life, actually dating someone, and that surprised me. I guess, because, if you meet the right people, it doesn't change much at all. All you have now is a better support system. But living in one dimension, working and dating in another, it's hard. I don't...I don't know how long I can go on like this for and now THAT change scares me."

"The universe is constantly in flux," Polaris said, taking a long drag from his cigar, "in fact, there's a famous saying that every ten years, all your atoms are replaced, making you an entirely new person, quite literally, but this is, in fact, not accurate. It's every year, not every ten. This is because your body is constantly undergoing cellular turnover, meaning old cells are broken down and new ones are built using nutrients from food, effectively replacing the atoms that make them up. So literally every year, regardless of the decisions one makes in their personal life, they wind up a wholly new individual come the following year simply because of change."

"That's...terrifying," Chelsea said, chuckling nervously.

"The universe often is," Polaris said, tapping the ash from his cigar to the ground, before adding, "and I think that's why I like The Elsewhere, because here, you know what everything is. It might be a monstrous abomination of unknown origin, but you can tell it's exactly that. Nothing is trying to hide itself. Everyone is so transparent, and in the case of folks like Monica, quite literally. But that world...the 'real' world....it was never like that."

Chelsea gave Polaris a confused look, furrowing her brow.

"How do you know?" she asked.

"I've been there more than you could realize," Polaris responded as they moved up in line, becoming the penultimate folks waiting now; Polaris adjusted his tie, puffing smoke into the air as he said, "all I'm saying, Chelsea, is that change is scary, understandably so, but it's also not inherently bad. After all, if you hadn't applied for this job, we wouldn't be having this conversation now, would we? That's a change worth being happy for, isn't it? Being here?"

Chelsea smiled and nodded. It was.

It really, really was.

                                                                             ***

"Hey, come check this out!" Juno shouted, as Monica floated her way over to where Juno was currently stationed. By a wall, behind a single shelf unit, was a darkened doorway that led into a further darkened room. Juno and Monica gripped the shelf and started moving it aside, allowing Juno to slip inside as Monica simply floated right through. Once through, Juno stopped and looked at Monica, shaking her head.

"I always forget you can just go through things," she said.

"It is rather convenient," Monica replied.

Together, the two girls entered further, as Juno's left hand ran along the wall, searching for any kind of light switch. After a few minutes of scanning, she found it, and flipped it on, lighting up the room as they both gasped. The room was a full on arcade, filled to the brim with working cabinets, pinball machines, prize machines, ticket machines and everything. The two girls started to laugh in surprise.

"Why didn't I know this was here?" Juno asked.

"Considering it was covered up, I don't think anyone knew it was here," Monica remarked.

Juno and Monica continued further in as Juno ran her hands along the cold steel and bright plastic of the machines. She stopped at one, a pinball table designed to look exactly like the shop, and stared at it. Monica stopped beside her, floating, a gnawing feeling gathering in the pit of what was once her stomach.

"Are...are we just characters in an arcade machine?" Monica asked, and Juno laughed.

"Okay, The Elsewhere is weird, but no. I think Luna maybe had this built because she was proud of it at one point. Now she doesn't seem so proud of the store, and I wonder why. She's rarely here, she doesn't like Polaris being around, and she barely interacts with her employees. I wonder what changed."

"Peoples attitudes towards things they once loved can switch on a dime," Monica said, shrugging, "maybe the shop once meant something to her but now it means something else. Where once was something special now stands something...I don't know...painful. I'm just guessing here. But still, maybe that's why it's hidden. I think we should uncover it completely, open it up to the customers, I think they would appreciate it."

"Would Luna be okay with that?" Juno asked, and Monica shook her head.

"I don't know, I don't work for her, only you guys can decide that," Monica said, "I'm gonna go into the change machine and get some money though, and we can see if these things still run!"

With that, Monica turned tail and quickly zipped away, leaving Juno to stare at the pinball machine and wonder. Wonder why and how it came to be, and why it was buried now, like some intentionally forgotten relic of shame. She wondered if Luna was growing tired of the place proper, or maybe, as Monica had claimed, it didn't mean what it once meant to her, and this reminder was simply too painful to witness regularly. After all, she did barely come into the shop proper, so perhaps Monica's theory held water. Either way, when Monica returned with a bagful of quarters, they popped them inside and got to playing, and after a bit, the reason didn't matter anymore.

What mattered is they had it now.

                                                                              ***

Chelsea stepped forward, but Polaris politely stepped in front of her, tipping his hat to the goat headed girl behind the cart counter and thinking as he glanced at his options on the little sign within. Chelsea crossed her arms and impatiently tapped her foot, indicating her annoyance.

"Hello, I think today I would like to try your #3 Special, that sounds delightful," Polaris said. The girl got him his coffee, handed it to him and he paid, then paid for Chelsea's as well, to her surprise, before thanking her and turning to face Chelsea once more, lifting the cup to his face and taking what she could only assume was a long sip before exhaling and saying, "Don't be afraid of change, Chelsea. That's what made Luna into who she is today. You're better than that."

With that, he turned and walked off, down the street, and into the void. Chelsea shook her head before smiling and finally going to the front.

"What can I get for you?" the girl asked.

"Well," Chelsea said, leaning in and reading her nametag, "Anais, pretty name by the way, I think I'd also like the #3 Special since my friend seemed pleased with it."

"You got it, one Hot Cup O' Joe comin' up," Anais said. As she prepared, Chelsea leaned on the little counter and watched her.

"Is this your permanent spot or do you intend on moving around? Figure with a cart you can go anywhere, not tied down to a specific location, you know?" Chelsea asked.

"Not that simple," Anais replied, "especially not in The Elsewhere, where every district has its own specific rules for what you can and cannot sell, so. For the time being, this is where I'll stay posted. Wanted to open a proper store, was supposed to get in some recent land developers plan, but he disappeared so now I'm just stuck in this cart. But I kinda like it, ya know? It's cozy."

Anais handed Chelsea her drink and she thanked her, taking a long drink before stopping and looking at the cup. She pulled the lid off and glanced inside, only to witness dozens of tiny, screaming faces peering up at her as they melted into the liquid. Chelsea looked back up at Anais, who just shrugged.

"That's Joe, he's bred specifically for this," she said nonchalantly and Chelsea sighed.

"Of course he is," she said, "why would coffee be normal here. So your plans changed and now you're just in this cart, huh? I work right over there, in the Last Shop on the Left."

"That's cool, I'll come by now and then for snacks," Anais said, "and yeah, I mean, it's unfortunate that my deal fell through but, ya know, sometimes change is for the better. I like it out here. Easier access to customers, fresh air, my own dedicated space. I think, in the end, it worked out for the best."

Chelsea smiled, nodding. Everything in flux, and seemingly for the best, it seemed. After she and Anais spent a bit of time talking, she finally returned to the shop with Anais in tow, where she found Juno and Monica playing in the now fully reopened and functional arcade room, and decided to shirk her duties for the remainder of the day, opting instead to join them. Besides, it had been a slow day anyway, there'd only been one customer early in the morning, so she wasn't worried. Standing in the room, drinking her literal cup of Joe, Chelsea couldn't help but feel like maybe Polaris was right, in some warped way. Everyone here was exactly who they said they were, and unashamed of it, and maybe that was for the better. Odd, Chelsea thought, that she felt more at home amongst what most would consider 'monsters' than the people she was supposed to be a part of the species with.

But maybe her atoms had just rearranged that way.