*Ge ge ge ge* Was the sound of a chubby receptionist ughing away at his phone before he looked up for a second, to see Darleena heading in his direction. He pauses his show and readjusts his posture from slouching over to standing up straight. Dusts his fancy white shirt off and professionally says. "How can I help you," out of breath like he had just finished a marathon.

  "I might be wrong, but I was told you guys have a bar."

  "Yes, we do. Do you want me to guide you there?" The receptionist asks respectfully.

  "Yes please." Once Darleena says that the receptionist came from around his desk and helped guide her to the bar as he was doing so she could smell the sweat he was producing. His sweat smelt earthy in a way which made her feel like she was being guided by a pig in clothes but she knew she couldn't cause a scene. After about five minutes or so they had made it to the bar. As soon as they entered the bar area their noses were hit with a rich sweet aroma which was like a reward to Darleena for the smell she had to endure. The bar also had dim red lighting. Nice booths that had nice long, bck sofas and some pop music was pying in the background at a decent level while people had their separate conversations or danced. "Wow, this bar smells really nice," she says to herself as the receptionist leads her to one of the few bartenders standing behind the bar.

  "This is Chance. He will be your server for this evening." The receptionist says. Chance had curly ginger hair, freckles all over his baby face, and was six inches taller than Darleena. Plus the uniform he was wearing suited his thin body quite well.

  "Nice to meet you," Darleena says loudly so that she can be heard as she holds her hand out to greet him. Chance dries his hands quickly and gently shakes her hand. To Darleena his hand felt pretty rough from the cuts on it but also very rigid to the point that she knew that if she put too much strength into her grip she would snap his fingers.

  "Same," Chance says back with a smile that normally charms anyone who looks his way.

  "She's blind so I'm leaving her in your care. Any sign of trouble you know what to do." The receptionist whispers into Chance's ear with a serious look on his face. Chance gives him a small nod of understanding before the receptionist says. "Enjoy your time," with another smile before he takes his leave and huffs his way back to the reception area.

  Once the receptionist was gone, Chance asked. "So what would you like to have for your first drink?"

  "UUUUm I'm not really sure. I normally have rum and coke but I feel like trying something different." In all honesty, Darleena didn't know what to say as drinking alcohol was not a thing a test subject like her would ever get a chance to do. She didn't even understand the purpose of drinking alcohol. All she knew was that humans would mostly drink it in social environments. A liquid that could turn a quiet human into a loud one, or make someone say a bunch of utter nonsense for a couple of hours, for them to forget the next day with some sleep. The reason why she asked for a rum and coke was because she remembered a time when she saw a scientist down a gss of brown liquid with ice to ease his nerves before he went and ran experiments on her and other b rats. A part of her knew that if she didn't want to stick out here, she would have to pretend that she drank, and another part of her just wanted to taste it to see if it was good or not.

  "If you're into rum. How about I make you a sunrise sage? It's one of our few house specials and if you don't like it I'll make you something else."

  "Sure I'll go with that," Darleena says in an excited tone. Without a second dey, Chance starts making her drink. As he was making her drink Darleena was examining him while still pretending to be blind still. Even though he seemed friendly she could sense that he was quite experienced and not just in mixology. While he was in the middle of making her drink, Darleena thought. Hmm, I can see why that guy handed me over to you. You may seem pretty thin, fragile, and someone I can SNAP in a second but I can tell you are not scared to get your hands dirty. She sees the handle of something sticking out of his bzer pocket. I see you have a weapon on you. I wonder how many other staff members have weapons on them? Could I get him to tell me? With force without doubt but without using force that could be a little difficult.

  "So are you new to this town, because I haven't seen you around before?" Chance asks, trying to start a conversation with her.

  "I guess you could say, I'm pretty new. My family and I have been here for about two weeks now. It was rough in the beginning but we're starting to work things out now. How about you, have you been in this town for a long time?" Darleena asks back.

  "Not for too long, I think. Maybe for about a year or so. I don't know to be honest time has gone pretty fast since I have been here, but it's all been fun." Chance says with a smile as he finishes making Darleena drink. "There you go" -he pushes the drink in front of her- "that will be one thousand, seven hundred and sixty pimic." Once he says that, Darleena pulls her pastel blue wallet out of her jeans, pulls out a single five thousand pimic note, and hands it to Chance with ease. He then pulls out three thousand pimic notes, a two hundred pimic coin, and two twenty pimic coins from out of the register and says. "And here's your change," as he hands her change back to her. She takes the money from him, slides it into her wallet, and puts it away before she takes a sip from her drink. She was shocked, as the drink tasted different but not in a bad way. It was slightly sweet and she couldn't taste the so-called burning taste of the alcohol that could apparently make someone twitch from disgust.

  Seems like my gamble paid off. Darleena thinks to herself as continues to sip her drink.

  "How is it?" Chance asks.

  "It's nice, I like it. I can barely taste the alcohol," Darleena says with a smile as she takes another big sip from her drink.

  "I'm gd you like it." He realizes that she's drinking her drink too fast. "Don't finish it too fast though. It's not coke. Even though you can't taste it, there still is rum in there." Chance says but like a child, she doesn't listen to him and continues to sip her drink carefree. After a couple more sips, she pulls her lips away from the gss and pces it on the bar top. She must be a heavy drinker. Chance thinks to himself as he looks at her gss to see that it is half finished.

  "Can I ask you something?" Darleena asks in a curious tone.

  "Sure, go right ahead."

  "How come I can't taste the alcohol?"

  "Oh. That's because I put a secret ingredient in your drink," as soon as Chance finished his sentence with a cheeky wink Darleena froze.

  Don't tell me -she shoots up from her chair- his from Zen Craft. But that's not possible -she looks around her- if that is the case is everyone here to capture me? Darleena thought to herself ready to kill everyone in the room. Because she shot up so quickly a couple of people around her looked over to see what was happening. "D-D-Did you put poison in my drink?" Darleena asks in an aggressive tone. In shock from her question, he blinks twice in a quick session before Chance says.

  "No, no. I would never do that." He says in a flustered tone. "What I meant by that is that I put secret fruit in there but I can't tell you what I put in there as our competitors might be near and hear me and steal the recipe of the drink." Realizing she had jumped to conclusions, she went back to sit at the counter and those people who had turned around went back to drinking and having their own conversations.

  "I'm sorry. I overreacted," Darleena says.

  "No, it's okay. No need to apologize. I should have expined myself better." Chance says but deep down he was quite surprised that she didn't know what that phrase meant. Not only was he surprised, he was scared slightly as he felt like if he said yes to her question then he would have been killed in an instant. As a bead of sweat runs down his face, he hears someone call out his name.

  "Chance. Chance." He turns his head to face the person who was calling him. "The delivery driver is causing problems again," says another bartender. Chance mutters the word great under his breath before he says.

  "I'll be right back," with a comforting smile and a short wave as he walks away from the bar. While he was walking over to the delivery zone he was kinda concerned about just leaving Darleena all by herself. But his worry for her got pushed to the back of his mind, as he reached the delivery zone and confronted the delivery driver.