Joe
"Thank you!" 

June gave another smile when Mel agreed to let them sit. They placed their drink on the opposite side of the table, and pulled out a chair. Their awkwardly long legs bumped the top of the table as they attempted to situate themselves. It didn't take long for them to figure out how to go about fitting in the chair. 

Taking a small bite of the mystery pastry, June's eyes lit up with pleasant surprise. The texture was fluffy and sweet, and the taste danced through warm sugary flavours. They would definitely order this again. They placed their hand over their mouth as they finished chewing, and let their soft smile remain on their lips. 

"Mel... That's such a nice name!" 

June tilted their head to the side as they spoke and their tone softened ever so slightly. It was less loud and direct, and more natural. Suited better for casual conversation. 

"Ah yeah, June is my chosen name actually! I'm non binary, and my birth name didn't fit me. So i'm June now!" June took the first sip of their drink after concluding their sentence. The bitter coffee coated their mouth and warmed their stomach. They far preferred energy drinks, but coffee was nice on early mornings such as these. 

June felt oddly comfortable here in the small shop. Maybe it was the soft classical music swaying softly over the speakers, or the sweet food they had ordered, but they found themselves free of stress. Even if they hadn't talked much, June could tell Mel made good company. Conversation seemed natural, and June didn't have to reach for a response. A pleasant change of pace. 

"So, how has Newtons Cradle been treating you?" June knew the topic would come up eventually, might as well keep the small talk going. They rested their head on their solid hand, making sure to look present in the conversation.
James
As June sat down, their body language and voice softened, going from an intense, exaggerated, in-your-face kind of cheeriness to a more natural, measured tone, something with which Mel could more comfortably keep a conversation going. Mel, with her focus on the conversation, managed to keep herself from audibly breathing a sigh of relief, but she *Was* Relieved. The tension was lifting off her shoulders, and someone perceptive to that sort of thing might notice.

"Thanks!" Mel responded brightly to the compliment. She wasn't sure if she agreed, but that didn't matter. She wasn't the type to reject a compliment. 

She also didn't know what nonbinary meant, but people seemed to not like it when she asked, so she'd learned not to ask in the first place and just ignore it. "June's a really nice name too. It fits you!" Obviously. They chose it. But it was a really good choice! June was a lovely name. "Nonbinary means you wanna be called 'they', right? Finny tells me to say 'them' and they're nonbinary too."

She decided not to wait for a response. She'd just assume it was a yes. Not that it mattered. "It's, um... Netwon's Cradle is pretty nice so far. Most people are pretty cool. I, um..." She considered talking about the conspiracy stuff to June - or what she understood of it. She wasn't *At* Newton's Cradle, though. "Finny says it's probably gonna get bad at some point. Like, there's a reason they want us there. But right now it's pretty cool, I guess."

It was difficult to be enthusiastic about it after having talked to Finley as much as she had. Still, she wasn't complaining too much. Newton's Cradle really was very nice, and everyone she'd met bar maybe one or two people had been very nice to her.
Joe
June let their head rest on their hand, occasionally lifting their drink to their lips to take a sip. They jingled slightly with the movement of their hands, a soft sound but noticeable nonetheless. Their eyes remained excited, but now sitting down their body language was a lot more toned down. Despite this, June's overall demeanour of being eccentric and buzzing with limitless energy remained. 

"Of course." June said in response. 

Giving a small smile at Mel accepting their compliment, June's eyebrows raised slightly in pleasant surprise at the words being returned. "Thank you!" They smiled to the point of their eyes closing slightly, a hint of dimples teasing their cheeks. 

"Im glad it's going well! Its going pretty good for me too." June tapped their foot lightly on the ground, lifting the heavy platform slightly was no issue. They found couldn't sit still for very long, but conversation was going well. No need to leave anytime soon. They weren't given time to respond to the nonbinary comment, but they assumed Mel knew the answer was yes.

Their eyes lit up with the mention of Finley. They knew the same people? "Oh Finny! Ive met them once before! They were laying on the floor of the study room. Clearly they don't sleep very often." They gave a playful giggle, meaning no harm with their words. They took another bite of their pastry, hoping the flaky sweet wouldn't smudge the faint lipgloss they had applied earlier.

"Maybe it'll get bad. But its pretty great so far I think!" June wasn't necessarily lying, but they could feel the itch of the many cons of being here pestering their brain.
James
Mel laughed. "Yeah, that sounds like Finny. They're really smart but also kinda... Like that, yeah." Mel didn't have any better words for it. Finley was Finley. Loveable, smart, stupid Finley. Brain running all the time and being absolutely sure there's something awful going on, but never finding out what. Typical Finny. They're just like that.

Mel took another bite of her sandwich. Took another sip of her coffee. She wasn't tired anymore. Slowly, she was getting used to June, their inaudible rhythms and patterns and melodies beginning to fit together in Mel's head and create something cohesive she could hum along with. It wasn't always a fast process, but with June, it helped that they were so attention-grabbing. It made it easier for Mel to not distract herself with other things.

Sometimes, Mel thought of people like music. Her parents had drilled music into her from a very young age, to the point where it almost became another language, and she still had an intuitive understanding of it. June flowed like ragtime: cheery, upbeat, and slightly off-beat, but nonetheless very intuitive. It made sense. It worked. None of this, of course, Mel know intellectually; it was a feeling in her gut, like the automatic recognition of a spoken word without having to think about it.

"Mhm." Mel nodded in agreement. "I like Finny, but I hope they're wrong. I like it here! I don't want it to get bad." She got an education, new friends, a safe space to work with her powers... Everything she'd struggled with at home had been handed to her on a silver platter. Of course she was happy. She was sitting in a coffee shop *In Sweden* Chatting with a delightful stranger *In English.* Her parents were probably seething.

She finished her sandwich, finally, in the space between words, and tried to find a way to keep the conversation going. When she did get a good idea, she audibly exclaimed her surprise: "Oh!" In a happy, upbeat voice, like it was something obvious she'd just remembered to mention. 

"I haven't been around town a lot, I just wandered in here to get a coffee. Do you know any, like, cool spots?"