[ 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

[at_heart]

[ His eyebrows lift just a little. ]

I think whether it's worth it for you is a pretty important factor. This is your body. Your... reminders.

[sangreine]

I don't want to lose my memories. Even the terrible ones. I don't want to hurt everyone who loves me by forgetting them.

...I don't want to lose the most important person in the world to me. Again. [ She lost one love, and she doesn't want to lose another. ]

It's worth it.

[at_heart]

[ The tiniest smile. ]

Worth almost anything. Right?

[sangreine]

Well... I wouldn't hurt someone else for it. That's a line I can't cross. That, or using people. Even if they're not around anymore. [ Yeah that's a cryptic answer but it's honest. ]

But I know I'm going to have to put myself at risk. These treatments could do anything to me, and there's really nothing for it but to try and see.

[at_heart]

[ ... ]

So, there's something you think would help, but it'd hurt other people?

[sangreine]

...It's just a vague theory.

My cycle seems to be quicker here, and where we were, compared to my home world. At least according to my patchy memories, assuming the timeline isn't all muddled. It could just be quirks of the ecosystems, or it could be that when I was there, I had my Chevalier to feed from.

I'm not sure I can bear to do what it would take to get some of their blood. I got a piece of one of them to help Red Son with his DNA work, and it almost destroyed me. I only barely was able to hand him over, and only because he promised to do some funeral rites on him. [ "Him", not "it". She's not sure whether Yuri will really get it, but then she was surprised Red Son understood so well. ]

1/2

[at_heart]

[ Low whistle.

His first thought, of course, is for the spreadstick he already got. It would be so very, very easy to get another one.

(And the ugly little voice in the back of his head is already pointing out that he might be able to get it from Riki without Saya's knowledge or permission, that he could just give it to her tomorrow and say what's done is done, use it or throw it away if you can bear it, and wow, he sure does love being himself sometimes.) ]

[at_heart]

So, Red knows? That the humans-only diet might be messing with your cycle?

[ ...That might. Hurt a little, if he's honest, but it's more important that the people working on her DNA know than that he knows. Who's he, in the grand scheme of things. ]

[sangreine]

--What? No, he doesn't know that.

The gem was because my blood degrades so quickly. I haven't told him about that theory. It's not that I don't trust him, just... [ she wasn't really going to tell anyone, but she's upset, it just slipped out to Lelouch, and now she's more upset, so. ]

[at_heart]

[ —...kind of a — weird thing to be relieved about? Priorities, brain. ]

Gem, huh?

[ Smallest pause. Gently: ]

Just what?

[sangreine]

Just that... I wasn't thinking I'd tell anyone. Because I wasn't sure what people would suggest, and how it would look if I shut it down. Like maybe some people who aren't even alive are more important to me than my memories of everyone I love now.

It's not that, I promise. Sure, they mean a lot to me, more than I probably have words for. The problem is just it feels like that would be -- using them. Exploiting them. Taking away their choices in the same way I did when they were alive.

Sort of like the equivalent of digging up a loved one's corpse and doing experiments on it when you're the reason they're dead in the first place, I guess is the closest comparison I can make.

[at_heart]

Hey. [ Even more gently. ] That's a whole lotta conclusions I wasn't jumping to.

[ Dead bodies... Yuri doesn't have a lot of emotional attachment to them. He can't, not with the way things worked in the Lower Quarter. Proper burials were for rich people. Everyone else — had to be okay with their bodies just being disposed of in whatever way their loved ones could manage.

But that doesn't mean he can't recognize her attachment. It doesn't mean he can't respect it. ]

No one's asking you to choose between the people here and the people in your memories. [ Soft. ] If you were okay with it, I might suggest making another spreadstick — but you not being okay with that? Is kind of important to me.

[ Beat. Admits, ]

I think we've all had enough of being coerced into doing things for the sake of not hurting people we care about, don't you?

[sangreine]

Yeah, I know I'm making excuses for no reason. I have selfishness on the brain ever since Lelouch brought this up. [ Yep that's who got her on this, do with that what you will. ]

Thanks for understanding. Just, the thought of buying part of them from a store... [ she shudders. ] Maybe as a last resort if nothing works, I don't know. I'm not ready yet, I know that much.

I definitely think we've all had enough coercion and horror shows for fifty lifetimes.

[at_heart]

[ His eyebrows lift a little again before resettling. Not important right now. ]

Understanding what? [ A bit self-deprecating. ] That you don't wanna, like, desecrate the bodies of people you care about?

[ His lips quirk. ]

Yes, truly weird of you, but somehow I've managed to bridge this gap.

[sangreine]

[ She huffs, what would normally have been a laugh ]

Everyone has different definitions of that, is all. It might strike some people as not being willing to try everything I could.

Especially Doctor. We've had enough misery over this already. [ She's still incredibly hurt by the whole "I might leave you" thing even if she understands why. ]

[at_heart]

[ mmmmmmm ] [ for some reason, that has him imagining how he'd feel if all of this were happening to someone else, and... ]

It's your cycle. They're your people. It should be that simple.

—But I won't pretend it's not harder to accept that, when it's the most important person in your life.

[sangreine]

[ She sighs ]

This is why I didn't want to say anything. Because if I decide to somehow ask for or use the blood of my Chevaliers, I'm choosing Doctor and everyone I love now over them. And the reverse if I choose not to use it.

It has to be one or the other and I -- I can't.

...I guess that was still the situation if no one new, but at least then the only person suffering through the choice was me.

[at_heart]

[ Yuri blows out a breath, slow. ]

I'd always rather know.

Sometimes it helps not to be facing something like that alone.

[sangreine]

[ She feels very much alone and discussing it doesn't really help, no matter how kind he's being about it, because no one can make these choices for her. She's the one who has to live with it, whatever the result (although she won't remember if it goes badly, so how much is she living with it really in that case?). ]

This is what I mean when I said that I always hurt people. No matter what I do it's hurting someone. [ It doesn't matter one speck to her that some of the people in that equation are dead. ]

The only thing I want to do is make it better for everyone and I can't. That's why what he said upset me so much, to think that I'm making things worse in any way is the worst possible thing. It doesn't really matter whether I meant to because it's not like I mean for any of this.

Everyone I love, you'd all be in less pain if you never got close to me at all. And that's a horrible thing to know.

[at_heart]

[ ...Pushing off from the wall. If she'll allow it, he's going to hug her. ]

Sorry. Just can't agree there.

[sangreine]

[ She'll allow it, but she doesn't return it. Not at first. ]

It's not a matter of opinion.

[ She sighs again, and hesitantly returns the embrace. ]

This completely sucks. And it ruins everything, even this. I was looking forward to getting to play a maid and now... [ Every time she thinks of it, it's going to be misery. ]

[at_heart]

[ Hair-petting. ]

I don't get a vote on whether knowing you has made my life worse?

[sangreine]

...I'm not going to tell you what to think.

But I don't especially want to feel better right now. [ She deserves to feel like crap and she just wants to wallow in it for a while. ]

[at_heart]

You don't, huh?

So, ice cream's out?

[sangreine]

[ Another huff where there should be a laugh, or a chuckle, or a scoff, or something ]