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

[Clearly, there's no need to worry...! Yuna laughs a bit and grins as she hits that high-five.]

We make a pretty good team, huh?

[Of course, two people are so much more likely to get work done faster than just one, but still! She's always glad to bee working alongside someone else!]

Let's get some snacks, we can take a break and chat at the same time.

[ She laughs and smiles at getting a successful high-five! ]

Sure thing! I could go for a milkshake or smoothie or something.

[ Something cold, sweet, drinkable. Yeah, that would hit the spot. ]

I think I saw a place on the corner, come on!

[ And she takes the same hand that she high-fived and (gently!) drags Yuna the way she's talking about, walking at just a little faster than casual pace. ]

That sounds perfect.

[She's not very likely to turn down any suggestion, but something sweet to recharge would hit the spot! She lets Kairi take the lead, keeping pace with an excited skip to her step.]

Get whatever you feel like trying! It'll be my treat for helping out.

Aww... thank you! That's so sweet!

[ She looks up at the menu for a moment before finally clapping her hands together. ]

Oh that one sounds delicious! Orange sunrise...

[ She moves to stand in line, even though there's only one person ahead of them, because she hopes that 'a next person in line' will get the cashier's attention better than a girl randomly walking up with the Far Shore problem of being hard to notice. ]

[Ah, Far Shore problems.

Hopefully between the two of them standing in line, they won't be completely overlooked...!]

Oh, that sounds really yummy. [She'll fish out a coin purse from her pocket while they wait for the customer in front of them to finish up.] I think the Razzmataz Smoothie should be good. [An interesting new treat, if nothing else...!

Looks like you're up, Kairi!]

Razzmataz! Wow that sounds like it should come with sprinkles and whipped cream and a cherry on top and nuts too!

[ She flashes her hands out to the side, unknowingly recreating the Jazz Hands gesture.

Which apparently is enough to get the cashier's attention, although he looks at Kairi with a raised eyebrow. ]

'Can I help you ladies?'

Oh! Yes! One Orange Sunrise and one Razzmataz Smoothie please!

[ And she flashes him a big grin just in case. ]

[Yuna can't help but giggle at the gesture - ah, hopefully it'll be something that fancy!

As the order is given, she backs it up with her own,] Yes, please! [To make sure her own presence is known while she counts out the right payment for the drinks, proceeding to hand it over to the cashier once everything is totaled up.]

[ Kairi nods her head while Yuna counts, trying to keep the guy paying attention to them. At long last, they get to step down the line and wait for their drinks. ]

Phew! I'm glad that worked out. This is the longest I've spent down here in a long while, this whole day I mean.

[ She's still smiling, just relieved that they didn't have to do anything more ridiculous or outlandish to get their drinks. ]

[A successful mission! Good work, team!!]

Honestly, it's really nice to get out here and mingle as much as you can, I think. [She just likes being around people, really. Not that there's any shortage in the Far Shore, but a change of scene is always welcome on top of it all.] But it does get kind of exhausting to work around the whole 'hard to notice' aspect of it all.

For sure... but it's easier - or maybe just easier to bear - when you're with a friend.

[ She reaches over to give Yuna a hug, then pull back while waiting for their snacks. ]

The last time I spent a lot of time down here was shopping for clothes! Real nice ones... and some casual looks too. I haven't gone out hunting for new styles with Wendy in a long time. She might enjoy that.

[Hug accepted, and returned with a laugh.] Ahh, I'm really glad you think so! [Having a friend around definitely makes most things easier, honestly...! If she can make an outing more enjoyable than it is stressful, then that's a total win in her book!]

That sounds like a lot of fun! I wonder if my shinki would enjoy coming out for a shopping trip like that sometime... [Saber can be kind of difficult to read, but Yuna finds herself surprised at what she does enjoy, sometimes. Maybe it's something worth asking her about.

The drinks are whipped up in no time at all, and called off at the drop-off point,] Oh, that's us! [Excellent, Yuna grabs them both, offering Kairi's up for her to take.] Let's go find somewhere to sit.

Oh! Do I know your shinki? I don't think we've ever talked about--

[ But there's their drinks! She accepts the drink and follows Yuna until they come to a good place to sit down. ]

So, ah, your shinki's name is...?

[ Kairi has to wonder if it's somebody she already met on a previous shopping excursion. ]

Saber-san! We're the same height, but she's blonde with green eyes.

[She would also not put it past her shinki to meet someone without ever giving them her name, so a visual description is probably a good thing to have, too. Just for the reference.]

She hasn't mentioned meeting you before, but she doesn't always talk about the kinds of stuff she gets up to on her own, either.

[ Kairi makes a little puffed 'Huh' noise. ]

I don't think I've met her, no. That's only happened to me one other time now - I'm normally so good at meeting people when they first arrive! Although, there's been a few people I didn't meet when I first arrived, so that was a bit of catch-up too.

[ She sips her drink a bit. ]

I take it she's pretty quiet? Maybe I'll look out for her when we're all together again.

With so many people coming and going, I'd think a few people slipping by unnoticed isn't too far-fetched.

[She can't imagine how much work it'd be to stay on top of greeting most of the newcomers, let alone all if them. Thoughtfully, she takes a sip of her own drink.]

She's definitely not quiet, but I think she does like to keep some of her personal endeavors to herself. I don't want to push too much out of her if she isn't willing to share, you know?

[If it's something important, that's a different story, but daily minutia and things like 'who did you hang out with today' aren't really pressing matters that need to be open in god and shinki partnerships.]

Well, if she and I are ever at one of those big parties together, point me in her direction and I'll say hi, sound good?

[ That's the most important thing. She can't change the past, but she can try to make new friends going forward. ]

[open mingle] close your eyes, feel the present

Re: Woo!

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Wrap for me, or close to it <3