[NEW] Eeveelution Café

[B2] Chapter 7: Suspicious Sale Patterns!?

"Y'know, it's so nice to be able to work properly in the open other than a few Mons recognizing and being a bit scared of me," Bonfire admitted during lunch break while talking with everybody and munching on some extra savory baked goods that Volt baked for him and Moonshade. "Doesn't feel as bad as before."
"Well...uh...we're sponsored and the media cleared everything up," Moonshade responded monotonously. "Besides, I feel like most of the customers here moved on. That always happens after a trend burns out with a resolution. Now it's about someone who went viral because of chocolate-covered Berries."
"Oh, yeah, that bowl of chocolate-covered Berries with the shakes!" Dewdrop nodded. "Well, it seems really yummy."
Lavender thought about the subject before an idea popped into her mind. "What if we added a new item that's something similar?"
"What, like Rawst Berries that's drizzled with chocolate? Doesn't that seem a bit too...obvious?" Snowbelle objected. "Y'know, copyright?"
"No, obviously not," Dewdrop tossed her wrapper to a nearby garbage can and it surprisingly landed right in. "Maybe add some other stuff to it?"
"Like an add-on option?" the Glaceon was skeptical with the idea. "Oh yeah, let's also get a small bowl of these suspiciously-similar-to-a-viral-trend Berries that aren't copyrighted at all!"
"Sis, they're internet trends. 'Copyright' doesn't really exist when you're doing something similar." Willow explained. 
"Still need to give credits to the original unless it got removed, but you can't get sued for just following a trend without violating any other stuff." Dewdrop added.
Snowbelle was a bit hesitant. "Oh...'kay."
"Well...are we going to do that?" Volt asked.
"No." Lavender changed her mind, her face wearing a thoughtful expression. "Let's not. Snowbelle has half a point that I agree with."
"Half?"
The Espeon nodded. "Following a trend like this, especially given our customers' averaged identities and backgrounds, can be either a great boost or a horrific downfall that destroys our entire business once and for all. Something that even the mayor himself can't save."
"How is it that severe?" Dewdrop questioned. 
Lavender glanced to the side. "Annoying karens. Haven't you noticed more of the newer customers that come here to be more...stingy? Bonfire? Cinna?"
The Flareon and the Eevee both shrugged. 
"I dunno." Cinnamon said. 
"I'm ignoring the meaner customers' actions to cope." Bonfire admitted. "Not get mad and break a promise, y'know?"
Dewdrop nodded slowly. "Oh, so the reason that Bon has to cope is because they're more stingy nowadays!"
"Yup," Lavender nodded. "I feel like they'll use anything against us after we got sponsored and the public knows that Bonfire made a promise that he won't ever break. They want him to break the promise."
Moonshade frowned. "Dude, why do they hate Bonfire so much?"
"Bro, you're perfectly aware about random Mons holding random grudges against other random Mons that they think are 'lower' than them." the Espeon responded. 
Moonshade went quiet, and the entire café was silent for a few awkward moments.
"Anyways, we need to make sure that we don't slip up." After the last few bites of her pastry that was gifted by Snowbelle as a small lunch-snack-thing, Lavender got up and trotted back to the office. "There's like, ten more minutes."
"Did my sis mature?" Moonshade stared at the shut door of the office, not knowing what to do next. 
"Did your sis mature?" Volt shifted over to the Umbreon. 
"SHE'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND, DON'T TALK ABOUT HER LIKE THAT!"

"Damn...we're out..." Bonfire cursed before closing the display case and going to the back kitchen again. "Hey, Volt! Would you mind refilling here? Basically all out."
"It's only been two hours since lunch break?" the Jolteon appeared, confusion written all over his face. "There isn't even much commotion!"
Bonfire explained. "It's like...everyone's buying a bunch of stuff! Y'know, bunch of in-person mass orders for some reason."
"Are they paying the right amount?" Volt was skeptical. "Most of them are doing this?"
"Yeah, they're paying full and exact, and basically everyone that has been here for the past few hours are doing that." Bonfire nodded, certain of what he was implying.
Volt sighed and nodded. "Sure, give me a moment. Make sure that we don't get scammed out in any way."
Bonfire rolled his eyes. "Obviously, I'm not that clueless."
"Uh-huh." the Jolteon went back into the kitchen and Bonfire noticed the bored Melody in her corner station, seemingly mouthing words to her plushies. The Flareon then turned to his other side and saw Dewdrop making conversation with a singular but engaged-looking Dewott. 
"Here, I'll help. Go take some orders." Volt came back out with a stack of boxes before flicking his head towards the new group of guests that seemingly materialized by the door and was interacting with Cinnamon.
Bonfire shook his head slightly. "Cinna's got that group, I just gotta make sure that nothing bad happens to her."
Volt had a curious look while he loaded the empty trays with the corresponding pastries. "Has anything bad ever...y'know...?"
"Obviously not, they just find her more wholesome than someone that attacked a customer before." the Flareon was suddenly bitter. 
"Hey...dude, it's fine, I wouldn't have even apologized at the end if I was you when that happened." Volt stopped and put a paw on Bonfire's shoulder with a reassuring smile.
"No, you...I...uh..." Bonfire bowed his head before taking Volt's paw off. "It's fine. As long as our reputation's fine, I'm fine."
Volt narrowed his eyes. "Not just about that, no?"
"Bon!" Cinnamon suddenly appeared by the display cases, her eyes bright. "Could you please give me some of these?"
She gave the Flareon her clipboard of the customers' orders before Volt took it and put everything on a few different plates. 
"So many?" the Jolteon commented. 
"Yep! There's a lot of these for some reason. Bon can you please do the next few? I need to talk to Mel about something!" Cinnamon shrugged and took the plates that Volt held out to her. 
"Mhm! Have fun!" Bonfire nodded and the Eevee left with the orders. 
Volt sighed and continued refilling the trays. "Dang, does she do that a lot?"
"Does that matter?" Bonfire snapped back.
"Okay, geez. Don't gotta be so hostile, y'know?"
The Flareon glanced at the leaving Dewott that was at Dewdrop's station. "Nuh-uh."
"Seriously?" Volt groaned and closed the last display case. "Childish."
Bonfire turned around and looked the Jolteon dead in the eyes. "You can't be talking."
"Nah, I got a girlfriend before you, that explains everything." Volt grinned. 
"You do know that your girlfriend's watching you as we speak, right?"
The Jolteon turned around to see three different cameras near him. "Crap...uh..."
"See ya later," Bonfire suppressed a laugh before noticing some customers come right in from the door. "Gotta work again."
"Bleh." Volt rolled his eyes before trotting back into the kitchen, instantly being greeted by a sweet scent from the oven and his work partner holding a novel and reading it intently. 

"Dude, your boyfriend's delusional." Willow remarked, getting a clip from when Bonfire reminded Volt about being monitored. 
"Hey, don't say that!" Lavender cried, grabbing the mouse and deleting the clip after a few of Willow's sarcastic-implied replays. "He's...uh..."
"Yes, I know," the Leafeon let her delete the clip. "I was his first crush and the only one that rejected him after all."
"What does that have to do with anything!?"
Willow smiled. "Just wanted to point it out. I'm not sure if that's an honor of mine or something that should be avoided."
Lavender shrugged and laid back on her chair with a small sigh. "I think that some Mons out there are willing to have your ability to reject others. Or just the luxury of it."
"No, I think Volt was the only one that ever liked me. I'm pretty shadowed compared to Belle," Willow admitted. "Not as noticed."
The Espeon shook her head, disagreeing. "I think it's the opposite. Or maybe since you both are just quiet in general, you're both shadowed by other Mons that you hang out with. Like that?"
"Depends." 
"Argh, alright then." Lavender gave up. "I'm done trying to figure out what your vague statements mean."
"That's nice," Willow turned back to the camera system and zoomed in on Melody and Cinnamon. "What are they doing?"
"They always spend some time together. Like, they're pretty quiet every time, so I just assume that Cinnamon and Melody are catching up with work." Lavender shrugged.
Willow blinked. "I've never seen them do this before. Ever."
The Espeon beamed. "They do that a lot, you just never notice."
"Wow, okay." Willow glanced at Lavender without targeting her directly. "Why is Melody's station so...empty? Usually there's always someone there, if not just making some random short conversation with her..."
"Yeah, today's been real off. Never noticed, huh?" 
The Leafeon groaned in defeat. "Okay, I get it, I miss some stuff on camera. So what? Nothing bad has happened other than the 'Grilled-A-Customer' incident." 
"Well, it's a pretty black-listed topic now, no?" Lavender tilted her head. 
Willow nodded, choosing not to say anything for a bit. Lavender respected that and the office was quiet for a few minutes. 
Finally, Willow couldn't hold in a thought and broke the silence. "Lav, why do I feel like this is related to what you said during lunch break?"
"Huh?" the Espeon turned to her in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"About the stingy customers with a common grudge against Bonfire. Do you think there's something that they started to like...I dunno...destroy us somehow?" Willow stared at the desktop, trying to analyze something. 
"Yeah, I'm gonna power-nap right here and now for two minutes." Lavender lowered her chair and closed her eyes. 
Willow, however, started switching between zooming in cameras of different parts of the customer-allowed areas. 
Something's definitely up. I need to ask Dewdrop later.