[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

[priforprince]

I doubt it'll listen.

[ He's free to make the attempt, but she prefers to be one telling other people what to do. Volunteering she never knows quite what to make of.

The cat, pleased at this perch, begins to knead. ] Hrk!

[swordofzero]

[He reaches out to try and grab the cat to distract it from the tea, to allow this girl to drink in peace.

The cat however seems to have other plans, batting out at him to get him away, hissing, clinging to his Hibiki perch.]

[priforprince]

What did you--

[ Some of the tea sloshes out of Hibiki's cup. Alarmed, she leans back, which makes the cat atop her head decide to skedaddle, but the one around her shoulders digs in for the long haul.

Hibiki is mostly focused on the lap cat, though. ] It's making a new noise now!!

[swordofzero]

Sorry! [He tries again, trying to pull the hissing cat away from her lap. The cat around her shoulders reaches out to start batting at his hair and the cat in his arms bites down on his thumb harder.

It seems cat wrangling is not one of his skills.]

[priforprince]

You're worsening it! Withdraw!!

[ Hibiki is useless to assist, as she's panicking and losing her temper simultaneously. She is also getting tea everywhere, as this assault on Suzaku surprised her enough she dropped her teacup. She doesn't even realize it.

THE REVOLUTION HAS FAILED ]

[swordofzero]

[The order made him step back instinctively, he let go of the cat and withdrew, his posture stiff and formal.

He takes in the scene. The cats, the spilled tea, the smashed teacup on the floor.

He had definitely made things worse.] I apologise.

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki pulls a lilac handkerchief out from her pocket and begins cleaning herself up. The cats, having successfully defended their perch, decide to paw at this, as well. ]

Your future in animal handling seems bleak.

[ She deliberately ignores the fact that dropping the teacup is all on her. ]

[swordofzero]

It seems it is not a skill I have. [Clearly he was awful with animals, he bends down to pick up the shards of tea cup.] I hope that you are not burned.

[priforprince]

I'm used to it.

[ No, she will not explain that statement. But she does seem fine.

Until one of the cats successfully yanks her handkerchief away, at which point she, and not her beverage, seems close to the boiling point. ]

[swordofzero]

[He continues picking up shards of teacup off the floor but looks up as the cat successfully steals the handkerchief.]

Shall I go and see if they have any cloths?

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki nods with a wave of her hand, trying unsuccessfully to look unruffled as the cat bites and tugs at the handkerchief it's now holding between its paws. ] I'll leave such concerns to you.

[ What happens to the tea after she drops it has never been her problem. She sees no reason for that to change now. ]

[swordofzero]

[It takes him a short while. Actually getting peoples attention is not easy and drawing attention to himself takes a while. But eventually he is noticed and is able to procure two damp cloths.

He returns to Hibiki's side and hands her one] Here you go. [The other he uses to start cleaning up the mess the tea has made on the floor]

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki nods, beginning to clean herself up (and trying to fix her cat-hair problem, while she's at it). The cat, bored with the handkerchief, drops it on the floor - but that motion makes it SUDDENLY MORE INTERESTING and it bounds down after it, knocking Hibiki off-balance in the process.

Hibiki steadies herself, but sighs. Animals are.....inconvenient. ]

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku concentrates on cleaning up the mess that the tea made on the floor, it is not helped when one of the other cats approaches, licking at the tea.]

Cats like getting into everything it seems.

[priforprince]

What unnecessarily inquisitive creatures.

[ They don't even seem to be gathering information! They're making nuisances of themselves simply because they can! Who does that?!

....This cat hair does not want to remove itself from her person. Hibiki swats at it with increasingly imperious fervor, to no avail. ]

Why....?

[swordofzero]

I think it is just the way they are. [He doesn't even try and get the cat fur off himself, he figures it is futile.

He does try and chase away the cat licking at the tea on the floor, but instead it just turns and bites his finger. He winces, no future in animal handling indeed.]

[priforprince]

And people invite these into their homes...?

[ At least the goats in PriParis are well-behaved.

She turns slightly away from Suzaku to keep working at the fur when he gets his finger bitten. His ill luck is bordering on stupidity, and if she witnesses it, she might get a headache. ]

[swordofzero]

I think so. That is what this day is about, for people to adopt them.

[He continues cleaning the floor, trying to ignore the cat who is now chewing on his hand]

I guess you are not going to adopt one?

[priforprince]

From this selection?

[ Hibiki snorts. Scoffs, even. Her clothes are as good as they're going to get, so she tosses her towel aside. ]

If they were pedigreed the matter might be different.

[ They'd probably behave better then, too. Nobility, and all that. ]

timeskip then?

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku is quiet at that. Because he sees nothing wrong with this selection. Even if they were a little... energetic.

He gathered the cloths and gave a final nod to the woman on the sofa before going to take the cloths back from where he had got them from.]

timeskip is good!!

[priforprince]

[ Hibiki permits him to leave her presence, having no need of him. Hopefully he'll remove himself from this situation and save himself further bites. She herself is unlikely to stay much longer, she thinks....nothing here deserves her personal attention.

Until. She meets. THE CAT.

The cat she has a colleague test for pedigree, but the cat whose history, her instincts tell her, must be illustrious, its breeding sublime. This is surely a cat that can trace its lineage back to the feline companions of Priopatra, the first Divine Idol! This is a cat worthy of elevation above all other cats!

This is a cat, its long fur the same exact shiny silver as Hibiki's hair, asleep with its leg sticking straight up that Hibiki is trying to figure out how to get home. Does she hold it under the "arm"pits like this? By the scruff of the neck? What if she cradles it---

But it's liquid! She gathers the cat back up in her arms, frowning. How best to carry such precious cargo...? ]

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku has also decided to adopt a cat, the first cat that approached him, who hadn't left him alone all afternoon. It's a painful friendship sure but he is adorable and Suzaku can't leave him behind.

He has the paperwork and got to address before it dawned on him that he shouldn't really take a cat back to Lady Grell's temple without checking with her first. So he text his god and was waiting for an answer when he saw the silver haired girl again.] More cat trouble? [He wondered why she was still here after her issues with the cats earlier]

[priforprince]

How does one hold it?

[ The cat's head lolls back in Hibiki's hold. Its tongue sticks out, deep in kitty sleep. Blep.

Hibiki has to adjust her position again so the cat doesn't just slide right on out. ]

[swordofzero]

[She's willingly holding a cat? That is progress. Suzaku moves over, leaving his own kitten batting at the paperwork.] Hold it in both arms, make sure one of your arms are supporting its stomach.

[He figures that's right? He hasn't really had that problem, his kitten has been mostly attached to him]

[priforprince]

It keeps collapsing.

[ But she tries. Like....this?

She gets the cat balanced, but it whacks her in the face with its sticking-up paw.

Hibiki does her best not to flinch. You saw nothing. ]