Mr.Sandman: Book 1

Chapter 1: Bean Boy, Enter the Cosmos

In the quaint town of Wellspring resided a café that served as the hotspot for the town's often bored youth, that café being named, Bean Blast. The café often filled the air in the alley it occupied with its sweet and alluring scent. The shop saw little to no variety in its patrons, most stopping by to see their friends or simply pass the time, though from time to time there'd be a new face.

At roughly 9AM Charlemagne entered the café, his messy hair held together by a dark brown hat with an embroidered bean on its center. His apron was brown in contrast to his tucked in-white dress shirt. A bookbag had been slung over his shoulder, he placed it into one of the booths at which he'd sit and sift through his items until he'd procure a rather thick book, its spine reading "Psychology: The Study of The Mind". He cracked open the reading material and almost religiously scanned its pages, he'd been studying for one of his classes as an upcoming test consumed his mind.

As quickly as he could no longer bear the reading, a yawn which he attempted to stifle, left his mouth. He closed the textbook and placed it bag in his back before standing and moving behind the counter after exiting the booth to being preparing himself a cup of coffee. He made it the same way he always had, brewing the beans and ruining its dark color with almost an unhealthy amount of sugar and cream, turning the black liquid into a white and sickeningly sweet beverage.

As he took his first sip, a chime was heard at the door, it drew his attention and he quickly began preparing himself to greet the first customer. Customer was an old and frail women, she was an outlier among the rest of the usuals, as her age far eclipsed the others. Despite sticking out like a sore thumb, she was rather nice to Charlemagne and everyone else seemed to like her well enough. The old woman, who's name was Ms.Ambrose, donned a large floppy hat and a purple sundress. It was rather fitting for her Charlemagne thought to himself.

She slowly shuffled towards the counter where Charlemagne greeted her, "Ms.Ambrose," he said excitedly, "Good morning."

"Good morning to you as well," she replied, "How are your studies?"

"They're excellent, may I take your order Ms.Ambrose?" He'd ask this, though he already knew he'd be preparing her usual drink, asking was a mere formality that she seemed to enjoy.

"Of course young man." She pointed to something on the menu, it was her usual drink just as Charlemagne had suspected. He finished her drink and brought it to the table she moved to occupy. She seemed delighted by the steaming beverage.

"Charlemagne," she remarked, "It must be hard, being the only worker. You work an awful lot, don't you?"

"Hard it may be, it's not all that bad. And besides, having every shift does net me a rather hefty check, I'd say it's worth it."

Once the geriatric patron had left Charlemagne returned to his workstation. It was a proper mess, this was due to his poor organizational skills. He began to tidy it up as the day had officially begun. The time quickly passed to noon as a young woman walked through the café's doors.

The young woman stuck out, despite being in line with the typical age of the café's most adamant consumers, that being around the age of nineteen and twenty-one. She attended the same college as Charlemagne, despite this however they never spoke to one another much if at all. Her fashion sense was the source of her differentiating presence.

Her shirt was average enough, being plain pink. Her pants however were black leather, overly large laces in place of a zipper. She wore rather tall boots which helped to boost her height a fair margin, they went nearly to her knees, zippers replaced what would've ordinarily been laces. Her jacket, much like the rest of what she wore, was black as well, her hands being permanent residents of their pockets. Her hair was dyed a deep red, though Charlemagne hadn't been sure how long this would last, one of the few things he did know about her was that her hair color seemed to change nearly every week.