thenearshore | [open mingle] close your eyes, feel the present

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[open mingle] close your eyes, feel the present

Who: Everyone! This is an open mingle log, so feel free to toplevel and thread between yourselves as much as possible.
When: October 27th
Where: Calico Cat Cafe, somewhere vague in Tokyo. An address was posted on the BBS a day prior.
What: Cat adoption day - come bring some (or a lot of) new friends home, take advantage of the no entry fee to spend a day hanging out with cats, or volunteer to help out the somewhat overloaded staff.

An adoption event needs no small venue, and Cat Cafe Calico provides that much, visible as soon as anyone walks in the front door, pane glass with a little bell to ensure no cats walk out undetected. The area is spacious and welcoming, warmly lit with smooth and modern decor, and of course, plenty of posts for the cats. The cafe area itself is on the lower floor, along with various stools, cushions and lounges for people to sit on and spend some time with the plentiful felines. Most of the adoption services have set up along one wall down here, but it's plenty easy to avoid them and just play around with the cats unless you intend to adopt. They've got plenty of waitstaff available, and the cafe is testing out some new and unusual styles and flavours of tea, coffee and milkshakes, as well as seasonal fruit based cakes and tarts. For those without as much of a sweet tooth, there's savoury snacks as well - or maybe you'd prefer to just buy some snacks for the cats, which is an option too.

Upstairs, there's also a video game area with plenty more seating and plenty more cats...though good luck getting them out of the way of the screens, or occasionally off the consoles themselves. Quite a few of the cats are lounging around by the large window, either between cushions or on an impressively-sized play frame, and some are even up near the roof on mounted walkways. There are no guarantees they won't drop onto the occasional passerby. The upstairs also houses a few enclosed areas for people to socialise with specific cats or groups of them to see which ones they get on with best.

Volunteers will be thanked profusely, and some of the staff may even approach visitors to ask if they might help, offering compensation of food and drink prices or similar. There's a lot of adoption paperwork to be done, and with the waitstaff run off their feet, there's few people left to supervise interactions between visitors and cats to make sure all's friendly. Of course, this is an excellent excuse to just surround oneself with any available cats and let others approach as they please.

There's a steady stream of kittens being let out into the mingling cats throughout the day, most of them kept to enclosed areas under staff supervision. Whenever more come out, it might be possible to catch some whispers from the waitstaff, as if surprised at something - listen closely enough, and it sounds like they're talking about an employee, one who they barely see and rarely talks, yet finishes work promptly and slips away before anyone notices except the cats, who all seem very comfortable around him...

Whatever the reason for being here, there's plenty of cats to go around, plenty of activity, and ample opportunity to take home a new friend! Or two. Or ten, if you can convince the staff you can handle it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[A]

[So, about that really quiet employee the waitstaff keep talking about. Shun is doing his best not to be seen - with occasional abuse of teleportation, because desperate times call for desperate measures - but he's still occasionally visible coming in and out of the door to the back area where all the cats that aren't out on the floor are, dressed in plain black. If anyone tries to head out the back (it's not too difficult with the advantage of going largely unnoticed by humans, even if the cats will eye some people off suspiciously), it's largely very similar to the front. There's the same carpeted floor and cat posts, but there's also various cages, beds and food bowls out here.

On the topic of food, Shun is feeding a couple of the kittens who need more regular meals, which has had the unfortunate side effect of him having to deal with something akin to this, a line of kittens trying to climb his leg. For his part, he seems used to it, mostly just looking faintly exasperated.

There's a slightly older, somewhat grizzly-looking white cat watching the proceedings, apparently content to observe Shun's suffering until a certain point where it gets up, stretches, and strides over, meowing rather loudly. The kittens all drop off Shun's leg in dribs and drabs, and he goes over to fill their bowls and let them eat while he puts the food away, squinting at the white cat the entire time.]

Typical. [The white cat meows again and headbutts his leg. And then does it again. And again until he picks it up, though that's probably around the time he notices someone else here and tenses visibly.]

--

[B]

[Shun is, in fact, the person making regular kitten deliveries outside after he's checked them over to make completely sure they're ready to go out. He's been pretty careful about how he's doing it, but that doesn't mean he's not occasionally catchable heading upstairs with an armful of wriggling kittens.

Especially when one of them wriggles free enough to start trying to crawl into the arm of his shirt. He can't exactly get it out with his hands full, so he settles for walking faster, though the flailing back legs of a kitten coming out of his sleeve are a little bit noticeable...]

--

[C]

[After a while, when things get busier and cats are needing to go out faster, Shun has to reluctantly relegate himself to checking over kittens in an isolated enclosure on the top floor...which means he's actually fully visible and in one place to be caught out. He's pretty determinedly not paying attention to anyone unless they approach him, though, at which point he'll raise his head just long enough to give them the withering glare of the century, bar the maybe three people who already knew about his job here who'll just get a normal glare.]

These ones aren't ready yet. [He bluntly points back towards the other enclosures before turning his attention to the kitten lying on its back in his lap.]

[ Shun can probably feel Ain coming from a long way away, a small chill in the air intensifying to something moderate as he finally reaches the entrance of the cafe. Add and Roxas have convinced him to put on clothes and reorganize his body into something that wouldn't scare away Near Shore residents on sight, so he merely looks a bit like a hobo with hair long enough to almost touch the ground.

His aura scatters people around him, the living humans moving out of his way without actually looking at him. Some of the younger kittens also reposition themselves in other corners, though the adult cats don't seem to be fazed by him.

He'll just hang around in a corner, watching the cats intently. ]

[Shun can certainly feel that chill long before anything that should be causing it; he's out the back of the cafe initially, but he comes through to the front as the feeling gets more intense. His suspicion of what it might be is confirmed when Ain reaches the doorway, and despite himself, he lets out a faint breath. Offputting but not malicious is something he can deal with, while the similarity to an ayakashi's presence had him worried for a moment about how they'd deal with it without collateral damage.

Glancing over the reaction of the kittens and cats - at least the older ones don't seem bothered by the aura - Shun approaches Ain with subtle wariness, though it's more born of not being entirely sure whether he's here for the same reason everyone else is.

He's certainly watching those cats closely, though, so Shun makes an educated guess.] You look more interested in them than I would've expected.

["Interested" is a strong word, but Shun is no stranger to watching things intently out of interest, because he does it himself.]

[ He looks up when spoken to, the movement of his head echoed by his hair, the person behind him quickly moving away to avoid it. The mess that is the left half of his face is neatly covered by his bangs and a carefully fashioned eyepatch. ]

You are... adopting out cats....?

[ The sentence is said with more expression than usual. Roxas saw the advertisment and passed it to the other two; seeing that Add's cat had taken a strong liking to him, Ain formed the perception that he should probably get his own in order to stop his god from becoming jealous.

Disaster (yes, that's its name) is a rather finicky creature. ]

[Well, at least the guy's apparently cognizant of the fact that his appearance would probably get a lot more negative attention over here. Either that or his god got to him. But Shun pays more attention to the question, nodding slightly. It's a little odd to hear this guy showing expression after their last conversation, but if it's for something like this, he might as well hear it out.

Shun crouches down so they're not talking seated to standing, since he finds it a little annoying.] Is there a reason you want one?

[He's not going to deny on the grounds of that, but he is curious to hear the answer. As much as he warned Ain about other people asking "why", he feels it needs to be asked here, because if he doesn't have a reason, he might not be so good at taking care of one, and he'll need to ask a bit more to determine that.]

[ It's been some time since their last encounter, and the other people in his household have at least taught him a few things. One of which was that having one cat isn't too conducive now that it keeps following him around, and... perhaps, he might appreciate one, too.

Though, articulating that is a bit hard. He frowns a little, just slightly. ]

They need a home?

[ He can give one, maybe? ]

[It's not a complicated reason, but it's a reason, and it's not a bad one either. Shun seems satisfied enough with it, at least, and he nods slightly before glancing over the area.]

There's more than enough of them, anyway, so you'll find something. [He doesn't doubt that much - as much as he likes to pretend he's not fond of cats after having worked with them for months, he does at least know they're varied a lot in personality.

It probably helps that a few of the cats are wandering a bit closer to Ain, curiosity seemingly outweighing anything else. There's a big silver tabby, a fluffy cinnamon coloured cat, a small and skinny calico, and a medium-hair with some kind of point colouring. The last one has a somewhat awkward gait - one of its legs sticks out stiffly to the back, like it was broken badly and left to heal rather than being fixed in time to save it.

Shun's keeping a particular eye on that one.]

[ Ain is quiet at first, single eye flicking from one cat to the next. After a few moments, he shuffles closer to the last one, tentatively holding out a gloved hand to see if it would shy away from him.

He doesn't know why, but there's a familiar echo in the way it walks. It's still alive, it can still be saved. The cats that are still whole can be left for someone else. ]

[The seal point cat pads forward a bit, sniffing at the offered hand. Closer up, it's easier to see that a lot of its fur is missing around the injured leg, and that the skin beneath is a little torn and scarred.

Shun eyes the interaction before turning his attention more towards Ain.]

That one must've had something happen with a car long before it got in here. It's one of the most sociable ones they have, but you know what people can be like.

[Unfortunately, he can't boot out every person he's seen today passing over a cat for a stupid reason, even if he's gotten petty revenge on some of them. Shun doesn't take insults to those under his care fondly.]

[ He closes his eye for a moment, trying to put words to what stirs inside him, ripples through a deep, dark ocean. They weren't exactly feelings, no - the void ensured that he would never hold such things again; but if puppets could emulate a facsimile of emotion, then perhaps this would be it. ]

I'll... take this one.

[ Those who are broken will always be cast out. Someone must be there to save them, someone who exists at the end of all things....

.... I will be the one to save you.

He scratches the cat's ears, his touch surprisingly gentle. ]

[The gentle touch is at least a sign that something about this seems to matter to this guy - though Shun still looks like he's observing and thinking on it, chances are there are going to be plenty of people who come through today who don't care that much about what they're taking. Ones that will be back next week, or let the cat stray without a word so it can end up back here anyway. They can never catch them all out. And if he remembers right, Add is one of the people he's seen obsessing over cats on the network before.

It's a better home than a lot of people here could give it, he thinks, and there's a fallback even if this guy doesn't end up taking to it as much as it seems here.]

Fine. [Shun straightens up to go dig up some of the paperwork. It's largely pretty basic information, though he offers it over with an air that says he's not really fond of all the procedure himself.] Just put the address of your god's shrine if you know it, for the address part. They don't have time to check in detail what's there.

[ He has most of his attention on the cat, trying to scratch it like how Add had petted Disaster. It doesn't leave him, which is... a lot better than most people have treated him. He can't tell if it's in pain right now, but no doubt people have left it just like they have looked away from him. ]

....?

[ Ain looks up only when spoken to, taking the papers with a slightly vacant expression. Though he doesn't need help to fill it in, writing with a focus and carefulness that might not be expected from his demeanour.

In contrast to his general appearance, his handwriting is very neat. It's not quite cursive, but bears a refined manner that suggests he has had training in penmanship before. Once he's done, he would hold it out so Shun can take it without touching his hands ]

[Shun, at least, doesn't appear to think the cat is in pain either - it's been in the cafe long enough that he knows it's generally vocal about pain, and it's quiet right now.

He also notes the neat handwriting - it's a lot neater than Shun's own is these days, though the only sign he gives of that is when he takes the offered paper and scrawls his own name in the corner so the owners know the adoption was cleared by staff or a volunteer. It's only three kanji, but it's messy, in the way of someone whose handwriting was once neat but deteriorated from disuse.]

Take care of it. [He says that somewhat quietly, almost as if he doesn't want anyone else but Ain to overhear him saying it. He honestly trusts more that Far Shore people are going to adopt and care for the cats than a lot of the people coming through from the Near Shore today, but Ain is a bit of an unusual situation.]

OTA

wildcard maybe?

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A!

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