[open mingle] close your eyes, feel the present

[revolutionfalcon]

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.

Comments

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun waves a hand as if to say not to worry about it. It does seem like Ginia's relaxing, as well, so it seems unnecessary to tell her to move.]

I've been keeping to the walls anyway. I don't need more idiots finding excuses to think they know me or can get close to me.

[He's fine with that happening when the person takes some time and care in getting to know him, but people who try to claim he's kind and good or whatever else while effectively shoving their way in with a crowbar are the kinds of people he's trying to avoid here.]

[unlucky7]

[Ginia huffs lightly at his comment. She's certainly run into her share of exceedingly friendly people (and pony) here and while she still doesn't get why everyone is being so nice, it's strangely nice.

A kitten uses her cheek as a springboard, a tiny set of claw marks left on her face. It stings, but she ignores it. She already has her share of scratches, what's a few more?]

Is that a common problem in your life?

[revolutionfalcon]

Too common. [Shun says that immediately, his tone a sliver annoyed. Some people at least had the decency to be a combination of the two, and he can tolerate that if not particularly like it, but he's still met far too many who fall into the "idiots finding excuses" camp.]

People think if you do something anyone would do if they had the skill or opportunity, that you're "kind" or "nice" or whatever other garbage, and that it means they suddenly know who you are and what you're like. When they have no idea about the person they're looking at other than what they choose to see.

[unlucky7]

[That's... an oddly specific level of annoyance. Ginia slowly sits up, the kittens crawling shifting down to her lap or latching on. She carefully extracts kitten claws from her skin and clothes as she looks at Shun.]

Is everything okay? I know, not my business, but you seem really annoyed.

[Not that Shun was ever anything beyond a baseline of stoicism, but even this suddenly seemed a bit more than she's used to.]

You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun knows he probably overstated a bit there, and he shakes his head slightly. She is right that the reason is none of her business, but he at least phrases his stonewall in a somewhat explanatory way.]

It's not something I talk about with people I barely know. But there are too many people like that here, and I've been here long enough that they just keep coming up. It's annoying, and hardly any of them have the sense to learn better.

[Trying to pry Shun open is a fantastic way to make him close up more, and only very few of the overly-friendly and naive sorts have figured that out.]

[unlucky7]

[His annoyance is understandable in that regard. Ginia drops the subject, knowing she falls firmly in the category of people he barely knows. There's a better conversation topic anyway.]

I'm happy the adoption event is going well. I processed the paperwork for eight cats earlier.

[revolutionfalcon]

[Shun hums slightly in agreement, though it doesn't sound like he's surprised.] The people on the Far Shore are obsessed with cats. I figured as soon as any of them got over here, there'd be ten times more cats gone.

[It's not quite an admission that he posted the network message, but he figures a few people have made the connection by now.]

[unlucky7]

Moving the cat population from one shore to another. Clever.

[As long as the cats go to good homes, it probably doesn't matter if the adoptees are living or dead, right? Though between the current nekomata population and the possible rise of normal cats, the Far Shore is certainly become a haven for cat lovers.]

Are you going to adopt a cat?

[revolutionfalcon]

If I wanted to adopt a cat, I would've done it by now. [Shun states that fairly bluntly. He handles plenty of cats to be getting on with while he's here, and even if he wanted a more home-like situation with them, his boyfriend owns five cats. He doesn't need to own cats to have had plenty of experience essentially doing so.]

And there are plenty of people here today who are probably going to try taking home a handful.

[unlucky7]

Fair enough. Are these events often? I'd like to adopt a cat, but now's not a good time.

[Though the fuzzy potatoes sure are making it hard to resist. Ginia pets the ones curled up in her lap, smiling as one latches a paw (and claws) around her finger.]

[revolutionfalcon]

No, but you don't need an event to adopt one from here. Some stay here, but most are here so they can socialise with people and find a home.

[It's not really practical to keep all the same cats here for their whole lifespan, and people like change. Having most of the cats come and go seems like the most logical way to do it, to him.]