Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!
It’s November!!! Can you believe it?? Thanksgiving is coming up, and my trip with Liz’s family too!!! I’m kind of looking forward to it. I don’t spend enough time with Liz.
I asked Sabby if Yuki could come to Thanksgiving, even if I’m not there. She said sure, so Yuki has a place to go. I mean, I’m sure her host family wouldn’t mind, but Sabby cooks really well. Maybe her host family can come too. I’ll ask Sabby what she thinks.
I asked Yuki what her host family thinks of all the time she spends with us. She said that they’re a bit on the older side and they get along alright, but they’re happy she’s getting out and getting to know more American people. She’s pretty happy she gets to scratch her idol-ish itch without being mobbed. I guess everyone’s happy.
Oh, speaking of idol, she had her first actual visitor from Japan. I guess someone came down to see her. They did the right thing and asked first, so she was able to come down and say hi. We made some Yuki merch and told the Japanese person that they would have to buy a piece of merch to see her, and he did it gladly. That’s what idols do in Japan pretty much, anyway. We give Yuki a sizable chunk of the profits when that happens. It’s not a lot because she’s not selling a whole lot, but it’s the thought that counts, and it buys her one of her favorite drinks every now and then, anyway.
I know it might seem like we’re taking advantage, but Yuki’s completely fine with it, and is even a bit grateful. Making people pay to see her means that people that actually want to take advantage, have a bit harder time. And it’s not too expensive, anyway.
In fact, their experience is better, because they get her all to themselves for a few minutes. At Japanese handshake events, you get about thirty seconds and a fake smile. Here, Yuki actually gets to spend about fifteen minutes, and gets to know them a little bit. She likes that, it doesn’t feel quite as parasocial. She really does like her fans, it’s just that being an idol means she has to keep them at arm’s length. She doesn’t have to do that quite so much now.
And if she wants to, she can just walk out. That’s part of the rules.
She actually traded contact info with her fan, and they’re talking on X now. That’s pretty cool. It’s not like she’s going to marry him or anything, he went back to Japan, but it makes her happy to be able to actually connect with a fan instead of just fake smiling and having someone herd them through a line.
And besides, the “maids” can take up the slack. Cat-girl has taken to feeding customers while making a cutesy voice. It’s… a bit disgusting, if I’m being honest, but they eat it up. In more ways than one. I told cat-girl that’s fine if she wants to do that, but we’re not advertising it, we’re not requiring it, costumes stay completely on at all times, and if someone gets out of line we’re yeeting them. She actually seemed grateful. We even put up a sign, that says something to the effect of, “We sell pastries and have beautiful women to serve them to you. If they like you, you might get a little kawaii special treatment, but that’s at their discretion, and if you demand it you get yeeted” or something like that, along with another disclaimer that we are a maid cafe/pastry shop, NOT a house of ill repute, and to behave accordingly.
Shame we have to say that.
Sabby isn’t all that comfortable with it, but as with everything cat-girl does, it makes for very loyal customers and brings in a metric boat-load of money. But we still have to, erm… keep her on a tight leash.
Dang it, she probably wouldn’t mind if that were a literal statement.
Oh, I didn’t tell you what they did for Halloween. I’m glad I wasn’t there, I probably would have been hella embarrassed. Awww. Let’s just say Sabby relaxed all restrictions for one night and told them that as long as they didn’t expose anything that would get us in legal trouble, they could wear what they wanted. And apparently cat-girl raided an… umm…. adult novelty shop… and took Sabby’s restriction of “don’t expose anything that would get us in legal trouble”… umm… literally.
We… ummm… did a lot of business… mostly by word of mouth. People on their phones outside saying “You’re not going to believe what I just saw…”
I think Sabby’s going to be a little more specific next year. Cat-girl is so much like grabbing a dog by the ears… you don’t dare let go…
The others were a bit more… cutesy. Cat-girl is in a league of her own…
Anyway…
Guess I should walk the dog, do some hair brushing, and to go bed. Yuki has such nice thick black hair.