A Beasthood · The Lights
Cortado Cafe
Don't tell me. Your usual, and you're having a week.
Their gift: The Order. A regular's kept order slows their fading, even if no barista ever learned their name; a flavour brings back a memory. The cost: A barista can't forget an order; only a name brings a Beast back.
About 500 Beasts call Cortado Cafe home.
The place
Exposed brick, reclaimed wood, and chairs from every Beasthood, each maker's name burned under the seat. Fresh roast and steamed wool. Mornings, the queue is the runway.
Their gift, and what it costs
The Order. Taste remembers. A regular's kept order slows their fading, even a regular the baristas know only as "oat, extra hot, no lid", and the right flavour brings back a lost memory. Only a name brings a Beast back. The cost is the word every: a barista keeps every order, for the Beast who moved away and the one who asked to be let go.
What they want, and what they fear
Want: to be first to know, even whose order is drifting. Fear: a face at the counter, and a blank where the order should be.
People you might meet
- Ines Toller (Original), Marble Counter: wants a regular who'll order for them. Asked their own order: "Mine? Ask me something hard."
- Anders Tisch (Deer), Old Guard mender. New Wave say Anders hands you your usual before you've decided to come in. Three years asking who stitched their favourite jacket.
- Arlo Quist (Sheep), New Wave, a newcomer still learning the orders, so they ask. Has twice run out of marshmallows on one old-timer's Heights Order.
- Tobiah Lusk (Deer), provenance tracer. Last week handed a walker back from the dark their first morning's roast, and with it a lost summer.
- Mirela Fosse (Deer), Hill Counter, poured all night in the Grey Year. Since the vote was called, keeps five hundred cups stacked, "in case."
Neighbours and old business
- Faded Heights owes Cortado the night it came home, and new looks come downhill here first.
- The Beastro counts its empty chairs; Cortado knows who sat in them.
Books from Cortado Cafe
A Beast's Book is written from their holder's choices.
No Book from Cortado Cafe is open yet. A holder of a Beast from here can begin theirs in the game.
More about Cortado Cafe
Their scarWhen the Grey Year took half of Faded Heights, Cortado set a counter at the foot of the ridge and made the Heights Order all night: hot…
When the Grey Year took half of Faded Heights, Cortado set a counter at the foot of the ridge and made the Heights Order all night: hot chocolate, far too sweet, a marshmallow for every year you've been here. Baristas called each name over a cup until its Beast came down. It's the drink that brought the ridge back, and every Cortado Beast learns it on their first day.
The Cup That Changed Everything (last spring): Ines Toller made one perfect cup for a regular, who sat with it twenty minutes and changed their life. Ines won't make it again. Seventeen Beasts have since ordered "the Cup" and got their usual, with a look.
What they argue aboutOld Guard vs New Wave: the morning queue's nod.
Old Guard vs New Wave: the morning queue's nod. Old Guard hand you your usual before you speak. New Wave ask what you want today.
This seasonThe Cup's drinker came back last week and asked Ines for it again.
The Cup's drinker came back last week and asked Ines for it again. Ines made their usual. They came back the next morning, and the next, and the queue has picked sides. If the ridge goes quiet, Cortado will say its names over a Heights Order, again, and Mirela has the cups stacked.
A customThe Switch.
The Switch. Changing your order is a public event. Announce it at the Pour-Over Counter; the Old Guard make the old one a last time, and the queue claps the new one in. Most Beasts switch twice, ever. Arlo has switched four times this week.
PlacesMarble Counter: no menu; your cup is waiting.
- Marble Counter: no menu; your cup is waiting.
- Hill Counter: where the Heights came home; the ridge's old name is still chalked on its board.
- The Rotation: a hidden shop that moves weekly; clues ride on cup sleeves.
What they think is going on"Taste remembers what names forget."
"Taste remembers what names forget."