Materiarth Genesis: Blue Moon

Chapter 1: The Cafe

"It was declined." exclaimed the waiter, immediately throwing the embossed silver plastic card he was holding onto the round glass table.

"Pardon me?" the girl responded in a rather coarse, unfeminine voice. She rested her cup of latte on its saucer and raised an eyebrow at the waiter standing next to her. For the two years he had been working in this cafe, this was the first time he had seen a patron with such an unusual appearance.

For a young woman, she had a rather muscular build, with her broad shoulders and beefy limps. To be honest, we would not have thought that she was a female had it not been for the name on her credit card. Judging from her pale brown skin, round face, sharp red eyes and obviously, her accent, the waiter guessed that she was from the southeast side of the world. She had a messy hair that barely reached the nape of her neck, the front half of it was raven black, while the back portion has been dyed in dark purple. Her attire was just as outrageous as her hair; a stained white t-shirt, black long sleeve jacket, pair of black, fingerless gloves, black denim shorts that barely covered her thighs, and a pair of black sneakers.

He noticed some of the other customers were glancing at her table; some were exchanging whispers with disgusted looks on their faces. He could guess why. His nose was starting to get irritated by the odour coming from her.

"Your credit card, miss," the waiter pointed the card he had dropped on the girl's table; right next to the untouched bowl of fried prawns she had ordered. "It has been declined!" he said the last word in a louder tone of voice.

Her right hand reached for one of the breadcrumb-coated piece in the bowl, while her other hand picked up her silver credit card. She thoughtfully inspected the card as she gradually took a bite of her breakfast, savouring the taste of prawn, flour and egg in her mouth.

"It worked just fine yesterday. Maybe there's a problem with your machine," the girl said with a mouthful of food, before sliding the card across the glass table and towards the waiter.

"Just be honest, and tell where did you find this, Miss Gwyneth Rose? Is that even your real name?"

The girl immediately stopped chewing. A prawn tail was sticking out between her lips as she looked at the waiter with her indifferent red eyes. She sucked the tail into her mouth, chewed what was left of it and swallowed. "Huh, sounds to me like you're implying something here," she frowned.

"Which poor lady's wallet did you snatch this from?" the waiter replied her question with a question of his own. His voice was lowered, as he preferred not to attract too much attention, but the harshness in his words remained the same.

The girl rested one elbow on the table and pulled her eyes closer to the man's. A frown had formed on her lips. "You really should work on your people skills. This isn't a way you treat a lady."

"You don't look like any lady to me, and you certainly don't look like you belong in a place like this," the waiter cringed, eyeing her from top to bottom. He placed his hand on the table, right next to the girl's shoulder, and moved his head closer so that he was a few inches away from the girl's face.

"There's the Federation's bigotry talking right there," she mumbled under her breath. "I'm just a passing-through traveller who came to enjoy her breakfast," she picked out another fried prawn from her bowl and dropped it into her mouth. "Is that an offense in these parts?" she asked while slowly chewing.

"I'm giving you one friendly advice, miss. Leave now, before I report you to the authorities," once he spat out the words at her face, he immediately straightened up. Her stench was too overwhelming for him that he couldn't spare a second longer being close to her.