thenearshore | [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

[Being swarmed by kittens is a perfectly good way to spend the day; Ginia knows having been the center of an earlier kitten pile. But those claws can still be sharp and they can sure get demanding.

Ginia scoops some of some of the more sleepy looking kittens into her lap to lessen Celty's load. After a brief moment of hesitation, she takes out her phone and types out a message, waving to get Celty's attention as she holds out her phone.]

Sorry to bother, but are you Celty?

[The description of a woman with a cat-eared helmet can only describe so many people.]

[It seemed like a good idea at the time. What's better than one kitten? More kittens! And it just felt so nice with all their warm purry fluffiness around and the soft ticklish paw pressure. But after a while Celty found herself trapped more than anything else. She'd underestimated how well they'd pin her down along with her own worries of accidentally hurting one of them.

Thanks to Ginia's help she's able to sit up, but she's surprised in a rather ironic way to find a phone being held out to her. She glances from Giana to the phone and back a few times, trying to place her. Hers is not a familiar face. Did someone tell this newcomer about her?

She pulls out her own phone, scooping another kitten out of the way, and types up her own reply.]

I am. But I can hear just fine. You don't need to type to me.

[Ginia huffs softly as she reads the reply, face scrunching into a quick smile. She's said similar to others before and to get it herself, it's both funny and a flash of understanding.]

I can hear too, but I can't talk.

I'm Ginia. I like your helmet.

[Because it is a very cute motorcycle helmet.]

[Oh.

But wait, that means

oh

OH

Celty's shoulders clench and shrink a bit in embarrassment. Even if she doesn't know the specifics she now feels like she might have accidentally crossed a line.

But the compliment to her helmet does help reassure her a little.]

I
thanks
thank you very much

I'm Celty
you already know that
But yes, it's nice to meet you

[A little, but she's still flustered.]

[It occurs to Ginia at this moment she didn't think things through. The only common point they have is they're mute and even then the only assurance there is Celty won't mind talking through cellphones.

There's an awkward pause as Ginia's fingers tap on her phone. How does small talk work? She doesn't know!]

Do you like cats?

[Yes. Ask the person covered in cats wearing a cat-eared helmet if they like cats.]

Sorry, that was probably a dumb question.
I haven't met anyone else that's mute.
That I can remember.
Sorry.

[Celty looks down and around herself at all the cats climbing and flopping about. She reaches the same conclusion that Ginia does at about the same time, but to both of their credit her shoulders begin to shake in a silent bout of laughter.

She nudges another adventurous cat aside and types up another response.]

It's fine. And it's not your fault you can't remember. I guess you're a shinki too then?
I'm not the only other mute person here but I am a bit unique. I guess I've been making an impression on people. Did anyone tell you anything more specific about me?

[Normally she'd be self conscious about this but right now she gets the intent behind the referral and she appreciates it. And also, best to know just what was being said about her.]

I'm a shinki. I'm pretty new, arrived on the 15th. Someone told me there was another mute woman around with pink hair, have you met her?
And yes, I was warned you didn't have a head. Which is fine!

[No judgement at all! Granted, it's slightly disconcerting to think about it, but it's none of her business. Though it does raise the question of how the helmet stays on.]

[She thinks a moment.]

Pink hair. Pink makes me think of Kairi but that's more of how she dresses than her hair. I'm sure I'd know them if I saw them though.

But yes
I'm a dullahan. A monster, in the mythological sense.

[Dullahan. Ginia briefly rakes her memory over whether it's something she's read in a book recently but nothing comes up.]

Is it okay to ask what a dullahan is? I've never heard that word before.

[The monster part doesn't phase her though. A lot of things are called monsters and it's not always true.]

[Celty wasn't surprised about that. It was the sort of word that people knew or they didn't, but most were more familiar with the general term.]

It comes from Ancient Irish Mythology. Basically I'm a headless horseman.

Well, woman.

Oh, I see.

[Phased? Not at all.]

By any chance have you met Caster?

[Ginia's not the first to be simply whelmed by the revelation but somehow this one manages to catch Celty a little by surprise. Maybe because of the way they're communicating.]

We have met, yes. Why?

[He's certainly a dashing man but his True Name has never come up.]

(ooc: unless I'm remembering wrongly, but let's run with this.

[When your current life situation is being a spirit that can take the form of a sniper rifle in service of a god, and you've met a giant, floating book, a winged alicorn with a rainbow mane, and a green-blue canine anthro, all further revelations tend to be neutral.

It also helps Ginia was previously warned about the headless part.]

Just wondering. He's very knowledgeable about Irish mythology.

Oh!
I wonder if he recognized me then. Or at least maybe that's why he was so at ease.

I'll have to ask him next time I see him.

[Her helmet is doing a good job of hiding the way the shadows that float from her neck are thickening as she blushes, recalling their meeting and dancing at that party.]

Maybe! Though Caster always seems laid back.

[The kittens, annoyed by the lack of dedicated attention, begin to descend on GInia's boots. They tug and chew on the thick laces, claws snagging in, panic ensuring as they become monetarily stuck. Ginia untangles a few kittens - earning some scratches for her efforts - and sighs, smiling.]

A handful, but a cute handful. I keep thinking about adopting one.

[Laid back wasn't quite the impression she got when she met him, but that was at a fancy party where he was being an incredibly smooth operator around a headless woman.]

I am too.

[While the kittens have resumed their antics there's one who has remained in Celty's lap, comfy and sleepy, just quietly enjoying her company. The Dullahan's shoulders do a little wiggle of happiness before giving it a few head scritches. The kitten wakes, but only long enough to stretch and yawn before curling back up again.]

[open mingle] close your eyes, feel the present

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