[WORLD ONE] SPEED DATING EXTRAVAGANZA

[spellbindmods]

Who: Participating coven members
Where: The Palai marketplace
When: Day 49
Open/Closed: OTA

[ Any and all who are in the marketplace will find that there is suddenly a mysterious barrier around the marketplace (that may be eerily familiar to some) -- specifically one large portion of the marketplace with a large number of tables and chairs, perhaps purposefully set out for nefarious reasons.

A few Palai are ushering coven members to chairs, and everything seems about normal. As normal as the Palai can be when they're putting on a show anyway. It's not until a sizable portion of the coven members are seated (and also supplied with breadsticks and small shrimp), that things get a bit more bizarre.

Thanks to the power of the Eltos, a small band of energy keeps coven members stuck to the chair (magic can interfere, of course), but that's not the end of it. On each table, next to those delicious smelling breadsticks and shrimp, is a bowl of scraps of papers. Every five minutes, a strip of paper will pop out from the bowl.

If you ask the Palai, they'll be inclined to explain speed dating to you. Asking questions, getting to know a person, then being shimmied off to the next potential mate -- this is made possible by Elto magic yet again, through flying chairs that transport their holder to a new table at standard intervals.

The Palai are extremely invested in this exercise? Will you let them down? ]

[ OOC: In the spirit of speed dating, each character will have a top level. All who want to respond to this top level can with questions from this post, but the threads have to end at 10 comments from each character. After this last tag, the characters can be assumed to have been whisked to a different potential match. You're free to have characters make up their own questions, interact with Palai serving food, etc. ]

Comments

[splinten]

Hi, Geir.

[At least Geir is having fun.]

I ate the pastries infused with Eltos magic. It made my Qri-granted powers get out of control.

Back on the island base for the coven, the same thing happens if you eat the crab.

[rootandbranch]

Oh, is that what they did? That explains the girl whose fortune-telling got out of control who I talked to. I guess they didn't do it to me, unless I didn't notice...

[he goes wide-eyed and thoughtful, considering the possibilities, till one of the Eltos near the table nudges him and chatters at him to about the next question-- it seems like he asked one to stay close to read to him, since he can't.]

Right! It's your turn, Dirk.

[splinten]

Oh. Right.

[He grabs a paper. He looks at it. He asks if he can have another one. He cannot yet.

He decides to make something up.]

What colour would you pick for a chat client font?

[Wait. Geir probably doesn't know about chat clients. Shit. He panicked.]

[rootandbranch]

I just told Hakuno that I liked green best, so maybe that. I'm not totally sure, though. First, what's a chat client?

[he was right, but he got an answer anyway. and Geir got another impersonal question! it all works out.]

[splinten]

[Hey. HEY! Chat client text choice isn't impersonal! It's the most important choice of your life, second only to what symbol you will wear on every shirt you own!]

It's a means of communicating to anyone with an electronic device that can run it. You put in your words in your device, and the client will instantaneously deliver it to the other person. It lets you have a conversation at a distance through text, voice, or video—image and sound combined.

The signets we got work similarly, but they use telepathy.

[rootandbranch]

[what a chat client IS is fairly impersonal! in contrast, it's clear that which text typing quirks you use are windows to your deepest soul.

the answer seems to make something click for Geir, though.]

Is that how it works? ...and why words keep coming up in front of my eyes? I can't read, so it's been really annoying.

[splinten]

[Oh.]

Yeah, that's why. The not-being-able-to-read thing really must be a pain in the ass. [which raises the question] What language do you speak?

[rootandbranch]

[that question confuses him a little.]

I speak what everyone else in Midgard does when I'm in Midgard... um, some people call it Futhark. Isn't that what we're doing now?

[he pauses, but maybe Dirk meant writing, not speaking?]

I think Asgardians use more letters when they write, I'm not sure. I just never learned the writing part. Warriors don't need that stuff.

[next question.]

Do you like Aimintas?

[splinten]

I'm speaking in English right now.

[He is not speaking Futhark. What is Futhark. He was going to continue this but then dragon proposed another question so he pauses.]

Uh... It's nice? The number of mysteries going on isn't too much to push past 'interesting' into 'obnoxiously vague,' though admittedly I have a pretty high tolerance for bullshit. The Palai are a pretty cool species. [It feels weird saying that when one is right here. Yet that doesn't stop him from adding,] The speed-dating is a bit much.

[rootandbranch]

You're not very good at asking questions back!

I don't really mind whatever this is... I like asking people questions anyway. And it's not like they can make us... date?

[not 100% familiar with the word or concept, honestly, though he got the "potential mate" part enough to be amused and ignore it]

[splinten]

[Rude, Geir!]

So either I don't answer enough about myself for you or I don't ask enough questions about you. Clearly this partnership is not going to work out.

[rootandbranch]

Don't be like thaaaat!

Hey, I had another question! Are we friends now?

[splinten]

[................]

[Dirk's mouth opens. He appears not to know how to process what Geir just asked him.]

[rootandbranch]

[Geir... steals another breadstick while he waits with great interest for the answer...]

[splinten]

[....... continues for a while, until..........]

I... don't know? Uh. Why. Did you ask for a reason or. Uh. Like, how exactly do you define friendship, also. And. Uh.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir loses a little of his cheerful interest in confusion at the string of desperate equivocation.]

Someone said it sounded like we were. I've never had one before, so I wanted to check...

[oops, that was Geir's tenth comment. WILL THIS GRIPPING NARRATIVE BE ENDED WITH A CLIFFHANGER????]

[splinten]

I don't exactly know what normal friendship is even supposed to be.

[This is why he is so awkward, and unable to answer.]

I know I feel reasonably comfortable around you, like talking to you, and want to spend more time with you. I'd say generally I have a positive attachment and sense of caring towards you. You're a good dude, Geir.

So, uh.

Do you want to be my friend?

[And that's when Dirk's chair is ZOOMED AWAY.]

[rootandbranch]

[oh that's fine it's an easy question he can answer it later

no big]

[splinten]

[NO IT ISN'T. DIRK IS SCREAMING. DIRK IS DEAD. GEIR IS GOING TO FRIENDSHIP-REJECT HIM NEXT TIME THEY TALK, WHY IS HE A FOOL, WHY IS HE AN AWKWARD AND TERRIBLE PERSON!!!]

[rootandbranch]

[oops.]