[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

[rebells]

[Someone is rapidly turning purple.]

No. No! Absolutely not. I refuse.

[This seems like a wee bit of an overreaction, even considering the fact that they're stuck here. Either way, he's steadfastly refusing to talk to you.]

[rootbound]

[waits for the silence to break...

waits some more...

okay if they don't do something the Palai are probably just going to sit them at this table indefinitely. breaks up a breadstick, leans over a bit, and starts arranging the pieces into a small grid in front of Jay's table setting]

Here, let's just play naughts and crosses until they get tired of keeping us.

[rebells]

[From the look on his face, he would really much rather continue to pretend he isn't here and this isn't happening, or possibly he thinks he can will himself out of this situation.

But eventually he . . . unfolds a bit . . . and stops turning alarming colors . . . and all right, this isn't as bad as it could be. Removed from the expectations of it all, this is just being placed in a situation of forced conversation.

Silently, he breaks apart a breadstick and makes an X in the center of the grid. There. Participation.]

This is ridiculous.

[rootbound]

[puts an O in the top right, head pillowed sideways on the table to eye the grid]

You're telling me. You'd think this sort of thing would at least be, I don't know, voluntary participation -- do they not think any of us are taken because we tend to wander off separately?

[under the complaining, there's a thread of mental text to Jay, though: Their barrier looks like the one on the island. Could an Eltos hermit be living up there or what?]

[rebells]

I can't fathom what they might be thinking.

[Although remembering their aversion to leaving people alone does at least make this make slightly more sense. Sigh. An X in the middle top square.]

It's possible, although it raises more questions. How would an Elto get up there?

[rootbound]

At least we get a little something out of it. The shrimp are rather good.

[an O in the bottom right, playing just to be obviously doing something rather than actually invested in the game . . . i mean, really, it's tic tac toe

Dragged by an Uvi? Got away somehow? I don't know, it just seems worth noting. No Palai in the city has ever been known to have gotten to the island, right?]

[rootandbranch]

[Jay's chair gets moved in front of this table at some point in his breathing strike, probably. this table full of giant dragon.]

Oh! It's you.





...are you going to eat all that?

[rebells]

[oh my god?!

silently . . . pushes the breadsticks across the table. please, take them away. take me away.]

[rootandbranch]

[Geir contemplatively eats the breadsticks. all of the breadsticks, at once. he just grabs the basket, honestly.

when he's done he eyes Jay's shrimp, and also Jay's purpling face.]

Um, hi? You're being really quiet. Did you want them after all...

[rebells]

It's fine. I'm fine. Take them.

[He's being oddly brusque and crabby, though.]

I can't believe they roped you into this, too.

[rootandbranch]

[the shrimp also disappear behind Geir's fangs in remarkably short order.]

Why not? What's wrong with it? It's just the Palai hopping around like usual...

[splinten]

So what I'm getting from this is that high fives and fist bumps are romantic gestures where you're from.

[rebells]

[There's a faint wheezing sound. It's coming from him.]

And what is that supposed to mean?!

[splinten]

It explains the obstinacy.

[rebells]

Just because I don't want to get involved in your--ridiculousness doesn't mean I think it's romantic.

[He's still a really bright shade of red, though. Why are we talking about this. He takes a breadstick.]

[splinten]

[Because Jay's lot in life is to meet people who like to give him a hard time.]

Come on, dude. A blanket hate-on for ridiculousness isn't a good look on you or anyone.

[probablynoteren]

[.... Why is he turning purple?! Is he another victim of the Palai tendency to feed everything and sundry to anyone they come across??

Lenka stands up immediately, chair and all, so it's a loud clatter but he doesn't pay it much mind because now he's just going to cart himself and his seat all the way around the table to examine Jay in considerable concern.]

Are you okay? Are you choking? Hang on.

[Like, seriously, he does know how to fix that. Maybe speak up before he attempts with the best of intentions here--]

[rebells]

I'm--not--choking.

[He says this from between clenched teeth and with a very uncomfortable look on his face, though, so take that as you will.]

[probablynoteren]

You don't sound okay, though.

[All of the concern! At least Jay can talk, so maybe he just made the mistake of eating whatever the Palai put in front of them. Lenka waffles for a moment, before compromising and pounding him on the back a couple of times. Just in case!]

You shouldn't just eat anything out here...

[Lenka's power is completely useless for breaking them free of the bands or the barrier, but it is useful for one thing at least: drinks, which appear to be conspicuously absent from the menu. They end up with two refrigerators as he rummages around for something to wash down whatever Jay is turning purple over.

Tomato juice? Coffee??

No, wait, the coffee looks like someone's leftovers. Whoops.

(In the background, their Palai hosts appear pleased with physical contact, even if their food is being impugned. The additional magic makes things even worse. Or better, depending on how you look at it.)]

[rebells]

I'm fine. You don't have to look at me like that.

[He ducks out of the way of the back-pounding, actually; someone's a little touchy, it seems. Or not touchy. He's calming down a little, though, color returning to something more normal.]

And I don't need a drink. This is just--ridiculous.

[probablynoteren]

Your face was turning purple.

[He feels he should point this out, though Lenka doesn't persist with any more attempts to give his acquaintance spur-of-the-moment first aid. Jay gets a brief, curious look, but he remembers the time they met and he complained at length about being crowded -- it looks like that doesn't apply just to the Palai.

Lenka returns to his side of the table, but leaves the cans of tomato juice (and the refrigerators) out. He'll feel better when he has something to do with his hands and himself other than stare across the table.]

I don't know what we can do about it. We might be here for a while...

[It might not sound reassuring, but in his view, it's also not practical to spend the entire time tripping over themselves getting mad at the Palai.]

[cadventuretime]

[She's doing the thing she usually does when she switches in on another person's table -- stealing shrimp.]

[She just smiles a little and gives Jay a smiling grin, not saying anything. She can play the waiting game.... especially if there's food to be had.]

[rebells]

[He shoots her a glare, and, well, it's a while before he actually says something, but . . . . ]

Don't look at me like that.

[cadventuretime]

Okay.

[She aims to please -- herself, mostly. But she was more than happy to make this the game that they'll play. So, instead of looking at him like what she did, she'll instead look at him with wide eyes and her jaw extending out.]

[Like so.]

Is this better?

[rebells]

You know perfectly well that it isn't.

[He picks up a breadstick like he's seriously considering pelting her with it.]