[ open: maid cafe fundraiser ]

[at_heart]

WHO: Yuri, Saya, Kantera, Venti, Lumine, and YOU!
WHAT: A fundraiser for office space for Yuri's up-and-coming guild, Brave Vesperia Ellipsa.
WHEN: Late April.
WHERE: Blossomcrown, a karaoke bar rented out for the occasion.
WARNINGS: Cheesecakey fun. Potentially alcohol consumption. All maids offering black menu services will be linking to an additional top-level off comm ♥

ask about bve/the fundraiser | ic menu | request a maid | byotoplevels!

[ When you head to the location of Yuri's GPS ping from yesterday's network post, you'll find a rented-out little karaoke bar with MAID FOR YOU written on a handmade banner that is temporarily covering the bar's normal name, decorated in pink and black on the inside, with a lot of cute little two-chair tables taking up most of the floor space. There are rooms in the back that would normally be for singing karaoke in private, and singing with a maid is indeed one of the things you can do with those rooms today!

The real draw, though, is all of the very cute folks dressed as maids and/or butlers today, who will — for a small fee — wait on you personally. ♥

Take a menu, select a maid, and place your orders... or just ask Yuri what all the commotion's about, he'll be happy to explain! ]


((ooc: Maid cafe fundraiser! Don't worry too much about the coins your character is spending here, nothing is too expensive (though the black menu items are at a premium), we're all just here for the CR.

PLEASE NOTE: Yuri does feel personally responsible for the safety and comfort of all the Official Maids who are trying to help him raise funds here, so he will be actively trying to curb anyone bullying their friends into signing up, and he really doesn't want anyone working for him to be wearing or doing anything that makes them uncomfortable. Adult characters who only want to wear pink ribbons? Characters who want a full coverage maid outfit, or who want to be butlers instead? Excellent exercising of your boundaries, Yuri loves that for you.

You can, however, definitely pay for the "dress up as maid or butler" menu item and use that to bully your friends to your hearts' content. 😉))

Comments

[sangreine]

[ Why would that be better, it's so much more trouble than just giving her bowl scrapings ]

[ She picks a seat and sits. ]

So the bakery's up and running? Or is this pre-opening advertisement?

[kingside]

[Because bowl scrapings are unhygienic?? And he'd rather you have the real thing?? Because standards???] [He shrugs.]

"Building hype," let's say.

[No, no this is not a phrase he uses naturally, and no, no he does not care. Also, yes, various things are going into a new mixing bowl now, watch this space.]

There's also the arts festival, of course. I'll be running a food stall there.

[sangreine]

[ She'd have washed the bowl afterwards, she's not a barbarian. ]

I'll stop by and try to refrain from buying out your entire stock. Even if performing does make my hungry. [ What doesn't, really. ]

[kingside]

[are you sure] [His eyebrows lift.]

I'll be making crepes, so you'll need to wait, unfortunately.

[sangreine]

[ yes she's sure that washing a bowl is within her abilities, what kind of interrogation is this anyway?!?! ]

If you'd rather I didn't, you can just say that.

[kingside]

[... Well.]

Then I'd rather you didn't, but even if you were intent upon it, you'd have to wait.

[sangreine]

[ well, indeed. ]

The thing about eating your entire stock was a joke. I eat a lot but only when it's not a burden. And I can wait a bit for crepes. If I truly can't be patient then I'll order before I play and be back afterwards.

[kingside]

[Fully aware that it was a joke, but also UHHHHHHHHH let's put this diplomatically:]

Something tells me it would be a mistake to underestimate you.

[And moving on.]

Of course, you're always welcome to stop by at the end of the day as well. The best bakeries pride themselves on providing fresh stock every day, and I'd hate for any excess to go to waste.

[sangreine]

[ Saya chuckles quietly ]

I assure you I'm fully housebroken. [ She's joking again, because comparisons between her and a beast are... apt. Sometimes she appreciates them and sometimes not, so diplomacy is a good call. ]

If the end of the day is the best time, I'll do that. I'm more than happy to buy any of the last ones off your hands, for the sake of proper bakery standards.

[kingside]

[That... sure is a leap, and he blinks.]

Reduced price if not outright free.

[Which isn't what he'd been reacting to initially, but how to address that? Even Suzaku isn't quite this—]

You seem in possession of all your faculties. Is that... that is to say, I wouldn't expect uncivilized behavior from you.

[Unless someone really pissed her off? Maybe.]

[sangreine]

I'm not taking your food for free. You still put work into it. [ Sure they're essentially going to be wasted, but he still has to do the cooking and preparation. ] I consider it supporting a business that I'd like to thrive.

[ As far as her faculties... ] I try my best to be civilized. Human standards sometimes don't fit so well, is all.

[kingside]

[Well, put like that.]

Still a reduced cost. I'll otherwise donate it to... well, assuming they have something like that here.

[Food pantries, charities? Or whatever Ayato has in the works, perhaps, but anyway.]

The glorious thing about human standards is that they're often anything but.

[sangreine]

Deal. [ As long as it's not feeling like she's taking advantage, she'll live with compromise. ]

Right. The only thing I've noticed in common about humans across cultures and centuries is that you're afraid of things that are different. As large groups, I mean. Individual humans have a very high capacity for compassion.

Not that my species is overall better, I'll grant you.

NIX THE BIT ABOUT AYATO IN PREVIOUS TAG because time paradox, otherwise sure yeah charities

[kingside]

[She's not wrong, and he sighs.]

I invite you to tell me more about that, but of course it's your choice.

[The pancake batter has been put together, at any rate, which means he'll now be whipping together egg whites etc. for the meringue. Pancakes will happen, they just take time because this is Art and he is An Artist.]

[sangreine]

[ Not her favorite topic, but Lelouch offered to help her with her research, so she supposes she owes him that much. And it might help with her project. ]

What would you like to know? I'll answer whatever I can. I don't have all my memories, but I'll do my best.

[kingside]

[When she'd been the one to bring it up to begin with? But okay, sure.]

"Not that my species is overall better," you said. Hysterical in large groups, level-headed as individuals, or...?

[sangreine]

[ She said that more because she didn't want to make it sound like she looks down on humans, but that's a fair assessment. ]

Less afraid, more that certain factions of us looked down on humans, thought they should all be turned. And they tried to do exactly that. Not something I could let stand, so we fought a war over the matter.

[kingside]

[... Uh huh. Mulling that one over for a moment.]

I assume you mean turned into vampires as well. Wouldn't that have been counterproductive? That is, I assume you feed primarily off of human blood, but it seems I'm missing something here.

canon infodump incoming sorry

[sangreine]

Chiropteran is the name of my species. I use the word vampire as a shortcut for getting the point across without getting too into the weeds, but we're pretty different. I only bring it up now because it matters as far as assumptions. Ones that would be reasonable for a true vampire aren't true for me.

Humans are not my ideal food source, they're what I use because I don't have much choice, it only works so well. I'm designed to drink from humans that have been turned with my blood. We call them Chevaliers.

-- I have only made two. One I made by accident, because the human that owned me at the time hadn't told me of my past, and having amnesia I had no way to know. All I had been told is that my blood healed people, so when someone I loved was in a fatal accident I fed it to him. The only other one I ever made was also to save my foster brother's life, and I had to be begged to do it even so. They both died, and I vowed never to make another one. It involves a degree of mind control and makes them devoted to me, which I couldn't be more disgusted by. Who would want to be loved because of some blood bond?

[kingside]

[True vampire, right, as if there are any two media that agree one hundred percent on what that even means. It's possible that she's implying the existence of yet another species of "true vampire" in her world against which all the others are measured, but he finds it unlikely. All that being said...

Lelouch frowns to himself while he absorbs... the rest of it, keeping busy as he does with folding the meringue into the batter and so on. Named for bats... or, well, for all he knows, bats were named after her species in her universe? Likely not worth investigating fully, if interesting. Chevaliers, meanwhile...]

Does that have any repercussions as far as your health is concerned? I don't disagree with your choice, that is, but I find it unlikely that that hasn't had consequences.

[And... yeah, he's going to ignore, for the moment, what hearing things like "the human that owned me at the time" implies. In fact, if Saya could just stop reminding him overall of C.C. on multiple levels, he would appreciate it.]

[sangreine]

[ She isn't making herself clear about "true vampires" on purpose, because it involves talking about people she met before, who may well show up here. Even not getting into them by name it's a can of worms she doesn't want to open. So that much she'll leave to conjecture. ]

A bit of a consequence, yes. I have to feed more often and it's probably speeding up my hibernation cycle a bit since I'm not getting what I need -- which I haven't shared with anyone else, by the way, since it's just a vague theory and I don't want anyone to get desperate ideas that I'll have to shut down. But even if that were accurate, it is what it is.

[kingside]

[Right, and excuse him, but he's pinching the bridge of his nose now.]

If gaining a Chevalier wouldn't stop your hibernation cycle to begin with, those "desperate ideas" wouldn't accomplish anything. That said, keeping key information like that from the people trying to help you is more likely to hinder them than anything else.

[Please say he doesn't need to explain why that's stupid.]

[sangreine]

[ If the timeline she saw in her memories is accurate, access to a Chevalier's blood could substantially increase her waking time. Like, double it or even more. ]

You're probably right.

[ But she's not changing her mind on this. Her happiness is only worth so much. She'd do a lot to keep her memories, but not that. She already obtained one piece of her Chevalier for study and it tore her apart, she can't do it again. ]

[kingside]

[By virtue of not being a telepath, Lelouch has no idea what she's thinking, but he hardly needs to when her resistance to the idea is so plain. That noncommittal response...

He sighs to himself and begins piping the pancake batter onto the griddle.]

I won't tell, obviously. Your bad decisions are your own problem.

[As long as they stay that way. It's probably too much to hope.]

[sangreine]

[ She can't imagine how her hibernation would possibly effect Lelouch or anyone else more than it effects her, so. Yes people love her and are invested in her staying awake, but she's the one who would have to live with exploiting the people she owes so much to, yet again, or with someone making another Chevalier without her consent which is tantamount to torturing them, or whatever else. ]

Judge me if you like, it's not like I disagree with you. I'm doing my best, here, and my best sucks because this entire situation sucks. [ She doesn't sound angry or even irritated, she sounds resigned. ]