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[The video flicks on to show a tan-skinned teenager of indeterminate gender with shaggy grey-white hair. They look like until very recently they have been crying.]

Uh...hey, I'm Avery. Some of you might know me, I was here before for a couple weeks. Um, I just wanted to see if...if anyone else I know is here now too. Hayes? Reese? Mason? Landry? Finley? Come on, guys, please tell me you're here. I showed up with the cafe, so maybe you guys are here too.

[They wipe their eyes with their sleeve.] Also, there are some cats missing. Fourteen of them - there's a big fat white Persian named Mochi, and a sweet old lady cat named Countess Dracula, and a whole bunch of others... [They give the names (Jam Band? Hash Browns? Owl? Shunsuke? Kotik???) and descriptions of the other twelve cafe cats.]

Please let me know if you find them. I'm really worried.

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[Hey, Avery. Have a sympathic smile from a face that may or may not appear familiar, depending upon whether or not they ever stopped by the Welcome Center during their previous time here.]

Did you just arrive? Er...re-arrive?

[Avery nods.]

Yeah. I thought I was just dreaming but I woke up here again and...yeah.

Yeah.

[She echoed with a nod of understanding.]

Well, if you were already here once before, then at least that saves a few explanations. And your friends...have any of them come forward yet?

No, not yet. I really hope they're okay, though. We were...kind of in the middle of something.

[You mean, something like a huge inter-dimensional battle with a kid witch who had separated all the adults and kids magically, and whom you were fighting at that precise moment from inside a mystical, magical artifact in the shape of a Helmet that allowed the spirit of an ancient magic user to possess your body.]

Join the club.

On the plus side, rumour has it that time sort of...freezes for you back home. No matter how long you stay here, when you do eventually get back, it'll be at the same moment from when you left.

[Something like a smaller-scale witch battle with a witch with a grudge who'd taken out the most experienced witch of them all by turning him into a giant rusty statue, yeah.]

Oh!

I guess that makes things easier, then, but...I'm still gonna worry.

[Close enough.]

Well, yeah.

We all still worry. Anybody who said otherwise is lying or doesn't actually have anything worth worrying about to go home to.

[Avery nods, looking uneasy.]

I guess a few months ago I might not have cared too much. But with all the witchcraft and everything...I dunno, maybe it'll mess with this time stopping spell thing.

[She hardly batted an eyelash, and even waved a dismissive hand in the air.]

Not even an issue.

There've been plenty of us with magic and other weird powers coming and going. Far as we've always been able to tell, it hadn't done anything to the timelines.

...oh.

You know a lot about magic?

You could say that.

[She'd only been studying the art for as long as she could remember. Possibly before, if some of her father's childhood stories were true.]

Cool. I might need to ask you for advice...I'm kind of new at this. And my specialty is...kind of weird.

What's your specialty?

[She braced herself, but...didn't think it would be all that weird. Compared to some of the things she'd already seen in her life.]

Um...trash.

[...she guessed wrong.]

Ummm...you want to run that by me again?

[See, they knew it was weird.]

I mostly work with trash. Any kind of junk, really.

[They were right.]

Umm...how?

Is this, like, an elemental thing? Like...used up metals or organic compost or something like that?

[Avery shrugs.] I don't really know. I've done stuff with soda cans, plastic jugs...all kinds of stuff. I haven't tried to use rotting stuff, though. I'm kind of scared to find out if I can. It's kind of gross.

My boyfriend uses words, though, like poetry.

Yeah, that...would be more along the lines of what I do.

[Verbal magic.]

I can honestly say I've never heard of a...specialty like yours before. So I'm not sure how much help I might be. Sorry. You can always talk to the Magic Guild, maybe, on the off chance they know something.

It's okay. I think I kind of want to take a break from witch stuff for a little while. It's mostly just stressing me out.

Thanks for the idea, though. You should come by the cafe sometime. I could make some coffee or something. And someone needs to eat all these pastries Mason made before they go bad.

Just promise me it isn't one of your specialty coffees, and you have yourself a deal.

[See what she did there?]

[Avery laughs a little.] Well, Hayes thinks it's trash, but he's kind of a snob about coffee and won't let me touch his fancy espresso machine. But yeah, I promise - one hundred percent normal coffee. And maybe you can use your magic knowledge to help me figure out a way to preserve the stuff Mason made. It'd be a shame to let it go to waste.

I might be able to experiment a little. No promises, of course. Duplicating objects is pretty easy, but duplicating foods and flavors...gets a little trickier.

We'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Well, I'll happily be a taste tester!

Then I guess it's a deal then.

Coffee for magic.

[And she had absolutely no issues with performing said magic in a coffee shop. Right out in the open. For the most frivolous of reasons.]

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