Late Afternoons at (the Cosplay Café) [w. Suna and Aioai]

Job:

Late Friday nights were the best, and Leah had experienced this firsthand yesterday evening-- more accurately, this morning. After lingering in the streets and casually pick pocketing wealthy fair goers at the local festival, the emerald eyed mage had been all tuckered out by the time she slid between the sheets. Little did she know just how dreary and grey (drastically so when compared to the bright lights of the night which might possibly have been induced by something) the entire world would seem when she pried open her eyes the next morning. Leah forced herself to crawl out of bed to study her haggard reflection in the mirror.

Nice, she acknowledged, studying the serious eye bag action she had going on with her face, An' in't my rent due on to-day? I ought t' probably go n' get meself a job. Just not lookin' a like this, the girl grudgingly attempted to be practical. Before any business, however, her room seemed to need a bit of tidying... oh, and was that an apple and toffee milkshake sitting in her fridge? It begged for consumption.


"Ungh..." As she rubbed her eyes lazily and stood in front of a fountain in the middle of a public square, the mage wondered what exactly she was doing in the capitol anyways. After all, there wouldn't be any need for rent payments or electricity bills, or invoices from the water and plumbing companies, if she simply stayed at the guild hall. Since when was Leah this foolhardy-

"Excuse me, miss!" the redhead turned halfheartedly to glance to her left, from which direction a portly middle aged man with a receding hairline came bustling towards her. His eyes showed panic, and inwardly the girl groaned at the thought of complicated situations of helping people. Immediately upon arriving at her location, the man burst into a long explanation of what he wanted. Really, all the mage heard was jewels and being well paid, and provided everything, and also that the businessman needed to pay his bills. Well, that was a situation that she could feel sympathy for every person caught in, so Leah reluctantly cocked her head at him and started to respond.

"Well, ye see sir, I's like t' take yer job, but it's like, I jus'-"

But he interrupted her swiftly and went on about how he had already recruited two other females to work, and how grateful he was, really, that she had been willing to assist him. It was just from 6 to 10--

"In the morning, ye?" Two hour shifts sounded heavenly to her, but then- oh no, it was indeed a sixteen hour shift, with a few breaks for lunch and rest in between. Altogether, she would have barely an hour of break the entire time. "Sounds like as slave labor," the mullberry haired female grumbled under her breath, but she followed the man back to his cafe with as least of a dejected expression as she could manage. The girl was a sucker for free food (which was promised) and also jewels. Not to mention in all honesty, she kind of wanted to help out a guy who also happened to have troubles with the bank sometimes.

"Right, so then I'll just leave you to get settled and meet the other girls, do pick out a lovely costume as there are several in the back. Your day starts in thirty-five minutes!" And then he was storming out of the back room, leaving Leah alone with a bank of lockers covered with a coat of peeling tan paint. Where even were the costumes, and who were her coworkers again?

610/750 Words. I know, I know. Let's just make ordinary posts and we can not worry about going over the word count too much... intro posts are long anyways. The man's code color is #6699cc for your reference.

Last night was the worst. Suna gave a sigh as she patted down the pockets of her casual purple wear. She was tired, aggravated and was on a bad losing streak. She had decided to visit this place to visit some gambling spots but had struck out on luck even while cheating. She hated losing money and normally her streak of loses wouldn’t have been so bad. What was truly awful was the fact that the wallet that had money set aside was missing.  Suna didn’t live in the town so she had planned to get a place to stay at a cheap motel. Now that it was gone that put a wrench in that plan. She managed to sneak into an unchecked room but was constantly being woken up by staff who had little respect for an empty room’s privacy.

“Well I guess the only thing to do now was to roam around.” The raven haired girl said out loud as she roamed the streets. Suna should have just moved on to the town but she wanted to see more of what the town had to offer. “It’s a bit of a downer though I’m out of mon-“  She was cut off  by an “Excuse me, miss!” The raven haired girl gave a look at the very old looking pudgy man. He spole too rapidly for Suna to really follow every word he had said but she heard the word ”Jewels.”

Suna had to thank whatever being was up in the sky for an excellent two bird one stone situation had just fallen into her lap.

“I don’t know what you exactly need but sure.” The girl agreed not really caring too much about what the job was about. Jewels were jewels and at the moment she needed them badly.

Apparently, what she had said gave the man a new hope as he said some more things in a rushed manner and ran off. Suna assuming the man had forgotten all about her just followed behind. The two made it inside the restaurant and she was quickly pushed into a locker room.

”Now I’ll be right back! I must find others to help out! Oh, now we don’t have too many costumes your…” The aging man gave a fake cough. “Your size so please find one as I go find others!” Suna gained a glare as the man had said that and if he hadn’t ran off before she could say something… ”Well I don’t know what I would have done. It would have been something!” The job was undeniably needed and so she really only gave a sigh.

”Well I guess I should find a… Costume. She didn’t really know what she was going to look for and so decided to just roam the locker room. As Suna walked she had opened some of the lockers that were missing any sort of lock . To her continuing streak of misfortune the lockers were either empty or had trash in them.

The unlucky mage had found the area that had the mentioned costumes. Some of the costumes were on the floor while others had been hanged up on a clothes rack that had wheels on the bottom. ”I should’ve listened a bit more.” Said the regretful Suna.

The raven-haired girl had barely began looking through the costumes when she heard the man come back. He gave a similar set of sentences before storming out of the area. “Hello?” Suna called out to determine if anyone would respond.

589/750

Her lips threatened to curl downwards with distaste as the girl pried open one of the beige lockers to witness an impressive clump of mold growing in the bottom right corner. As she flung the door shut with a resounding clang, Leah hoped the door wasn't dented or anything. It would be even more of a pain to have to pay this old fella who dragged her all the way here. With a decidedly neutral expression, although her eyes told a different story ("I won't bite you if you approach me") the redhead sauntered out of the room. Truth be told, it was unknown to her why the proprietor of the cafe had left her in an apparently empty room, but perhaps he had made a mistake. Or worst case scenario, it was a malicious attempt to get her confused, which made absolutely no sense. After all, she could theoretically just walk out the door and quit right now...

After stepping a few doors down the hallway of the back area, her ears caught a single female voice murmuring a hesitant greeting. Starting in that direction, Leah continued to listen closely, since a male different than the establishment owner seemed to be speaking. He drifted on about someone's figure, and then he spoke to a person named Aioai (who having been addressed in a slightly different fashion in the very least seemed to be another person). So that was a count of at least three people in addition to herself; why, the man had lied! He had claimed there were only three other workers, but no matter. Arranging her expression to be light and amicable, the emerald eyed mage gently pushed the door open. Much to her chagrin, it swung open heavily to hit the door stopper with a muffled 'thud.'

"Niesce is my name, Niesce Lily." She neglected to introduce her guild, but it was by design since who knew if these people were from guilds less favorable to a legal mage's presence? It seemed like an odd group: a slim girl with ebony hair and pale skin; a female with hair the color of snow and a complexion of cream without peaches; and a... well, not exactly scantily dressed but in an outfit that left not so much to the imagination, a young man. The latter brushed by the redhead as she slid into the room. Her simple introduction would have to be well enough for now, since she needed to set about finding a costume as soon as possible. Although the old man had claimed her shift was to be starting in over a half an hour, who knew how much time she had to spare now? Anyways, he had lied once-- and the girl detested being lied to.

Rifling through a stack of frilly costumes that had been tossed into a heap on the ground in a corner of the room, the girl paused to run her left hand through her hair. Flipping it back over to remove the part and get the hanging locks out of her face, the mage glared at the pile of fabrics, stitched together rather haphazardly. Clearly this was not exactly a high quality fashion show going on here. Finally settling on a very cute silver A-line dress with what seemed to be a theme of neon blue accents, the girl quickly stripped and slipped on the borrowed clothing. Due to her excessive height compared to many other females, it was a bit short; but the long black stockings and high boots fixed that problem to the obvious degree. Turning away from the corner and her half-privacy, the red haired girl crossed the room to what seemed to be a basket of wigs. Just as she had suspected, there was a perfectly hued head piece for her costume. As she adjusted the blue wig, which had been styled into two long twin tails, she glanced at the two other occupants of the small room.

"I'll be heading out to the front now," she said, announcing the words in as fluid of a voice she could possibly make it. Deliberately keeping out her accent was hard without jittering her speech or stuttering.

1310/750 Words.

Suna regarded the very oddly dressed leather man with a bit of curiosity. The man had given a greeting to her and it led her to guess that he was an employee.  The man seemed nice enough and her being very sociable she wanted to say a more proper hello. Though the odd examining look gave her some shivers. She wasn't a fan of being inspected in the way that the leather man was doing. The comments on her frame and how they were said did nothing to help with the uneasy feeling. She had begun to say something that would have been in some sort of insult but had been cut off by an attack with a clothing element.

Her vision was blocked and all she could hear was something about an Aioai. She removed the vision impairing clothes to see that the very unfriendly sounding man had left something. What he left behind was a very pretty looking snow-white haired girl and a also pretty red haired girl. Suna didn't know if the white haired girl was in some sort of costume or if it was her usual wear. Neither really mattered to Suna however, what did matter was she enjoyed the color scheme. Suna was a fan of purple and that was all she needed to know. Someone who wears purple couldn't be as bad as leather man right? The girl, Aioai had even given a wave of hello.

Now the other girl she was wearing much less purple, well no purple at all but Suna had a just as easy of a time determining that the red haired girl wouldn't kill her. Miss red had an expression while very neutral was betrayed by that easy to approach look in her eyes. She had also given her name so that was enough for Suna to like her.

There was really only one negative about the two so far and that was the height difference.
Suna wasn't very tall and the awful leather man's earlier comments held their ground well when she compared herself. Niesce walked by the two and Suna not wanting to miss a chance of introducing herself did so "Suna Maralu is what they call me! But most just call me by first name Suna." She said cheerfully flashing the two a smile. Though the smile didn't seem like it would work too much on Aioai as she had her eyes closed. Which was an oddity but maybe she was blind. Suna shrugged as she had been reminded by the sight of Niesce who was already changed into what seemed like just a size smaller costume. Suna chuckled inwardly to herself as the woman spoke about heading to the front. She supposed Suna was nervous or maybe embarrassed about the situation."I'll see you up there!" She said cheerfully trying to keep any source of a giggle out of the words.

"I'm going to go change okay?" Suna said to the maybe blind Aioai and hesitantly made her way towards the back.

She had her costume and didn't really need to inspect through any of the laid out costumes. She also liked her short black hair and would had been upset if she had to obscure it's view. So really all she had to do was strip down and change into what looked like a maid outfit (pic reference). When she had done so she inspected her out fit."Damn" She said as she inspected herself and saw that the awful leather man had good tastes in clothing. The outfit in itself fit very well and it seemed very nice to her. It was a black and white off the shoulder top put together with a very large skirt. The skirt ended with white frills that she had honestly thought she liked. The outfit had also add some cover in the form of long sleeves that ended in similar frills for her guild tattoo that she might have just remembered. The outfit also had two white ribbons, the bigger one was near her lower back and had the important job of holding her dress tightly together while the second was more of a decorative small white ribbon. The black leggings were a bit odd but she liked how they fit snugly. She decided to style her hair slightly with the head band she had been given and was pleased with what she had done with it. The only annoying part of the whole outfit was the tight choker she had struggled to get on.

She placed her own clothes into a locker that had looked relatively clean and closed it. She walked back towards the front area where she saw Aioai and Niesce still there. Suna got excited and quickly closed the distance between them. "Oh you're still here, well you look like some sort of samurai so I guess you're in a costume then." She said in a similarly excited and quick sentence. "It's nice to see you still here too." She said to Niesce and paused for a moment as she had just realized something. "What uh... What are we supposed to be doing again?"

1,449/750 (I'm sorry I got carried away @.@)

The redhaired mage huffed out a light breath as she stared at the main room of the cafe.  Having entered through the staff door, the girl had not yet experienced the view.  It was, to say the least, a bit of a sensory overload.  Of course there were no staff on duty yet, but already the tantalizing scent of breakfast foods such as eggs, hashbrowns, toast, and burned waffles (or were those pancakes) drifted from the kitchen.  Customers were lined up at the door outside; she could see the word Open on top of the glass, so the mage assumed that passerby instead witnessed the reverse.  It was most plausibly Closed, which was set to change in...

Oh, well, right about now.  Striding forward with a purposeful air, Leah unhooked the sign from where it had been nailed in thin wooden bar separating two panes of glass on the large door.  After flipping it over to read Closed from her perspective, the girl hung it back on the bent iron nail with a satisfied smile.  Actually unlocking the doors, on the other hand was a completely other affair and would be much more difficult.  Leah supposed that the manager, that sweating old man who had somehow wrangled her into agreeing to do this job, would have to formally announce the establishment open for the day.  Nonetheless, she had decided it wouldn't hurt for them to realize it was indeed almost time to visit the... the Cosplay Cafe.  Oh, how those words made the redhead wince.

Turning back to stride down the aisle between the tables (the booths and chairs were set up a fair distance from each other, which was quite handy) the mage approached Suna and... what had that man said her name was?  Aioai, right?  Aioai).  The pale haired female was saying something about how their jobs would be to waitress tables: not a particularly interesting or difficult job, but the girl supposed if they messed up the customers would see it much more easily than if she were helping in the kitchens.  Of course, why would a cook's assistant have to force herself into this tight alien-spaceship type of outfit?  Admittedly, it was cute, but...

Huh?  Now the female, who seemed to be dressed in some kind of eastern dynasty related outfit, was gesturing to the table sets that littered the main area.  The said furniture now held people, as sometime during Leah's musing apparently the boss had unlocked the door.  They would actually have to work now, which she wasn't all that opposed to if it mean there would be less standing about and getting oogled.  How likely that idea was, she was unsure of.  Beginning to nod towards Aioai before the mage caught herself and said lightly in her best city accent, "Yes, no problem," the girl started back down the aisle.  This time, she took a right almost immediately, so that when she continued walking, the redhead would end up at the tables in the general vicinity of where she believed the other worker had pointed.  Er, well, Leah supposed she was a bluenette now, if that was a word.

"Hello, and welcome to the... cafe.  My name is Lily, and I will be your server for today.  How may I help you?"  She didn't really like the way these customers at- Leah checked the number of the group -table four were looking at her.  Perhaps it was only influenced by the enormous cameras they both wore around their necks, along with the tripod that stood next to the table.  Either way, she had an uneasy feeling about the entire situation.

1917/750

Suna's eyes opened as she heard the first word that Aioai had uttered since their acquaintance."Etiam?" Suna repeated the odd sounding word that the white haired samurai had spoken. Suna had very little knowledge of any other language besides the one that most of Fiore spoke. The tone of voice Aioai had used didn't help with the decoding of the word but no hostility was found within the voice which was at least something. The following "Thou art servants" was a bit exciting to the raven haired mage dressed as a maid. Thou and art weren't exactly words that she heard often and really only found it exciting for the reason she had liked a lot of the more fancier things. Thou and art to her were rather fancy to Suna. Aioai broke the sentence down what she meant into something simpler, which Suna wasn't too sure why. It was a lot less 'fancy' than her earlier sentence too and this did disappoint Suna slightly. Her disappointment though was washed away as Aioai had stated that there were people who were already waiting. Suna had a look of surprise as she hadn't realized that the restaurant was already opened. "Oooh... I thought you were..." Suna said a bit nervously before coughing and turning her attention to the now leaving bluenette Niesce who clearly understood what she was doing.

"Welllll good luck to thou then." Suna said still a bit embarrassed at her earlier assumption. giving a wave of farewell to Aioai who at this point Suna was almost sure that she wasn't blind. It would have been even more awkward if she was though and so Suna made sure to hurry away to wherever table ten was. Suna made her way towards her destination of table ten which she assumed was a bit somewhere further from the employee area. Suna was doing a hurried walk towards wherever the tenth table was. Her set pace slowed down when she saw that Niesce had already made it to her table that had customers with cameras at it. Niesce looked a bit nervous to Suna wanting to be friendly decided to get Niesce a pat on the back which to the comparably very short maid was a bit task in of its self. With this she gave a "Good luck." Suna didn't stop though and continued her way towards the fabled table ten.

She read the table numbers until she got up to 9 before looking up to see the customers at table 10. Suna finished walking to the table and not really sure what exactly she should say. Saying 'screw it' and went with something that she thought a maid might say."Welcome to the Cafe! What can I get you sirs!" Suna said in her normal gentle yet cheerful voice. As Suna waited for the response she inspected the three and wasn't entirely impressed with who they were as they were just a group of some young teenagers. The same couldn't be said for the teenagers as their eyes lit up at the sight and greeting by their waitress.

1966/750

‘Observing’ the two make haste, she kept an eagle’s eye on them—Control over shadows, the magic was quite convenient, the ability to sense, feed and even hide. It was a wonder, even at the end of this conversation, she happened to find herself curious for what Suna had to say, as Niesce appeared more clear of her goals, nonetheless. Motioning her way to one of the full tables, a couple wanted to check out, among these people, they left a mess with empty cups and plates, the elegant hands gripped a plate and stacked, plate, plate, cup and cup atop. Finally, she took the tab with their pay and offered them a bow, before allowing them to depart and with that, she turned and went to take the dishes to the back, after putting menus down.


2286/750

The girl escaped back to the kitchens to lean against the wall where nobody besides the busy staff was able to see her.  The two women had wanted pictures: lots of pictures.  In fact, Leah had been so preoccupied with trying to assume the outlandish and thoroughly embarrassing poses that she had barely noticed when the head chef had called her to bring an order to another table.  If only she had heard right away, a lot of the shame she felt at being forced to assume various positions by the customers (yada yada, because they were always right even when they were absolutely in the wrong, or acting in it) would never have been felt.  Mostly, the redhead wanted to curl up into a corner, but she had never really been a quitter either way.  To be fair, jewels were a great motivation.  The motivation.  And she intended to see this day through, no matter if her cheeks were permanently stained red (underneath the foundation that she had wisely chose to wear to cover up the ruddy tinge) forever after this day.  

Marching back out into the main cafe area, the mage noted that the sun was beginning to set, if one could consider just past high noon to be setting.  Leah did, and with satisfaction too, as she strode confidently over to another table.  Here, there were five children of about the age six were swinging their legs and playing Kick Under the Table in a very loud and she might daresay, disruptive manner.  An odd sight for a cosplay cafe like this, if she did say so herself.  Where were their parents?

2195/750

Suna, even though she was a very patient was having a hard time keeping her cool around the three teens. The constant cheesy lines such as "Do you live in a corn field, cause I'm stalking you" and "Your body is 65% water and I'm thirsty." The first was very creepy and she wasn't even sure if there even was any corn fields near the town. The second failed not on their own fault (Though it was as equally bad as the first) as she wasn't even human. The thought of jewels was a nice motivator for her and so she went along with it, trying her best not to find a nearby stick and hitting each of them over the head. While walking back and forward to deliver whatever the three brats wanted, she got some laughs out of the poses Niesce was doing, which was also a energizer. Suna saw Aioai around as well, though she seemed to be having a much easier time and Suna could swear that the white haired girl hadn't opened her eyes once... She had actually almost asked her why she does that but the three troublesome teenagers were still here. Suna gave a sigh and decided she'd figure it out later as she went back to the table.


2182/750 wc