Rise of The Ling Empire

Cafe AFROE's Grand Opening

Lee and Dahlia were standing by their restaurant, scared of the law number 45:

First guest= A-Ling- always.

A-Ling walks into the empty restaurant. "Hello? ANYONE HERE?" she bellowed. Dahlia came out. "Hello Maa'm," she says cheerfully.

"What do you mean, hello? DO you have no respect, you dumb child! Do you know who I am?" she said. Dahlia scanned the face. "I'm afraid not, ma'am, forgive me." she replied, hoping A-Ling wouldn't see through the disguise and fake accent.

"Ugh, such ignorant people. Where's the boss?" she asked. Lee, watching from the kitchen gulped. Dahlia was the boss too...

"Me, ma'am," she replied. Lee slapped herself. She wished she were telepathic. She could tell Dahlia to STOP MESSING ABOUT. A-Ling grasped her gun. "Oh, is that so?" she murmured.

"I am your empress, ruler, king, queen, and amazingly fashionable MASTER. Servant, go get me a cup of tea with milk," A-Ling ordered. Dahlia stood there, dazed. "I beg to differ, ma'am, I am not your servant, but I shall get your tea," she said.

Lee marched out, and grabbed Dahlia. "Forgive me, o great ruler, she's a bit dazed. How much sugar in your tea?" Lee asked, all smiles. "Ah," A-Ling said. "Someone sensible. Right, a kilo of sugar, please, with sweetener too," she replied.

Lee stood there, too, shocked. "WHAT'RE YOU WAITING FOR, MY GUN?" A-ling yelled. They both ran into the kitchen. "Oh my god.... that lady is pretending to be A-Ling with a poodle!!" Dahlia said. Pretending? "PRETENDING? THAT IS A-LING!!!" Lee whisper-shouted. "What?"

"Excuse me! I WANT ENTERTAINMENT NOW!" A-ling screeched. Lee frowned. She pushed Dahlia away from the kitchen. "Go- and don't mess up while I try give this person's tea 1 kilo of sugar!" Lee warned.

Dahlia went out to their stage, basically a raised platform. "What form of entertainment, ma'am?" she asked. "A play, please," A-Ling said, smiling. Dahlia nodded.

A PLAY!! "There's only me ma'am. Sorry, but..." Dahlia started. "Do you like incineration?" A-Ling asked sweetly. Dahlia froze. She shook her head. "GET ON WITH IT THEN!" A-ling yelled. Boy, A-ling loved shouting.

PLAY COMMENCES:

Dahlia: O my lovely self, why do you go?

Dahlia: (change position): I must, I must.

Dahlia: Can I skype you, then?

Dahlia: No, no- (change position) Whatsapp or Snapchat.

Dahlia: Oh dear! What shall become of me?

Dahlia: My soul- RIPPED

Dahlia: only you can save me now!

Dahlia: Huh? Snapchat, why! Kill my lovely self, leave me be!

"STTTTOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPP" A-Ling screamed. "That was TERRIBLE," Suddenly a bell rang. The tea was done!

Dahlia ran into the kitchen. Lee handed her a heaped bag of sugar. Dahlia gaped. "Don't just stand there!" Lee whispered and shoved the overflowing bag or sugar into Dahlia's palm. Dahlia rushed over to A-Ling's table and placed the tea and the overflowing bag of sugar onto A-Ling's table.

A-Ling poured in her giant cup of sweetener and her heaped bag of sugar into the cup of tea, it was so full of sugar and sweetener that you couldn't see a single drop of the tea. "Um... Ma'am, are you sure you're gonna "drink" that?" Dahlia blurted.

"Yes, what is your concern? The customer is always right, and since I am ALSO your ruler, I HAVE to be right," A-ling said. "Go away now!"

Dahlia literally sprinted into the kitchen. "Lee, we should start the research," she said, panting. Lee nodded. "About what?" she said. "About A-Ling," Dahlia said, as if it were obvious.

"Why?" Lee said, already starting to meditate. Dahlia poured a cup of water on her, and she squeaked. "EEEK!" Dahlia looked at her. "I think we need more money rolling in, before we start looking for her and researching A-ling,"

"And how, exactly, Dahlia, are we to do that? Not only is A-Ling going to probably give us a bad rating... but she might tell everyone we suck," Lee lamented. Dahlia shook her head. "We should start up some new services. I'll pretend to be psychic and sell potions, and you can start up a botany guide thing, and maybe a metalworks craft," As crazy as it may sound, they really didn't have much of a choice.

Meanwhile, A-ling had left- without paying. Dahlia was about to go get her, but Lee knew better. They cleaned up the cafe and closed early.

Not being able to use powers, the two of them went around to the junkyard to pick up some metal scraps, wood, and anything that would seem helpful, such as recyclables, which were sold to the centre, leading to Dahlia and Lee earning 10 Lings in cash.

Next, they dropped of the junk at their cafe, also their home since they couldn't afford the rent (the cafe's rent was 5 Macs (10 macs = 1 ling) because it was next to a junkyard and rubbish center - Lee insisted they use flowers to lessen the stench- ) and then they were off to Mahajiji's Cheap Stuff Store to get some cheap nails, hammers, glass bottles, and others.

Since they were low on money, they bought one of each item, and secretly, in the sewage pipe, Lee duplicated it using infinite resource. The intergalactic police of the Ling empire, or IPLE, were doing rounds in the junkyard, Lee had to search the junkyard quickly for a building manual. Using the wood and collected items, they crafted two, rather small, poor-quality, and dirty sheds outside of the cafe for their two new services. Lee's was slightly bigger, because she needed more workspace, so it was about like a garage, but a bit smaller. Dahlia had a shed-sized shed, more like an outdoor garden shed. It was cramped, but she managed to build a lab beneath it, sealed by a trapdoor and guarded by a cat plush toy, also found in the junkyard.

Lee made it her job to "beautify" their sheds by decorating it with fake flowers (from the Cheap Stuff Store) and Dahlia, was forced to paint it, however it did NOT go according to plan, because both sheds were supposed to be brown, a natural WOODEN colour, and Dahlia painted them ANYTHING but brown. Lee's was black and white with a touch of blue, and Dahlia's was blindingly bright.

Lee was very confused, because although she DID like her shed, she was wondering where the money to buy the paints came from. "Where'd the money come from?" she asked. Dahlia replied, "Nowhere. These were free! I won them online by completing a quiz,"

Lee rolled her eyes. Since they didn't have suppliers, they had to shop for the cafe by themselves. Lee always came back with much more than they had money to buy with, and Dahlia knew why, and they were lucky it didn't arouse suspicion.

Next to the kitchen, was a room. Since they bought the cafe for no money, because its owner (Ayota) didn't want it anymore, and they had no money to renovate, everything was the same. Luckily it had a room for them to sleep or stay in.

They dragged themselves to bed, but Dahlia stayed out awhile to work on pyschological science and an advertisement for them.

Soon enough, they were both asleep- Lee on a thin mattress, Dahlia slumped in her shed.