[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

[deem]

[9S, being an android who only knows bits and pieces about the Old World, some of which may be quite far off the mark, is assuredly curious. Then again, when isn't he curious? Pretty much never, that's when]

Are you saying it's some sort of trade-based system?

[Impressionable android minds want to know...]

[splinten]

[This may be a mistake.]

In some senses. How familiar are you with romantic relationships?

[deem]

Er-

[He slumps in his chair, clears his throat, and wonders briefly if he's truly obliged to answer this question]

YoRHa aren't really supposed to engage in things like that, so I guess I know about it in a theoretical sense, but...

[splinten]

You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I'm trying to understand the data you have on this kind of relationship before I articulate the reasoning behind the idea of it as an exchange or bartering situation.

[Dirk has been noticing that the YoRHa units seem to need a certain amount of careful handling. They seem willing to push themselves past the point of comfort for the sake of others.

He doesn't know this is specifically for humans.]

[deem]

[How very kind of Dirk to confirm, 9S thinks. He tries again]

My knowledge is... probably a bit limited. The android couples I have seen were [dysfunctional at best, twisted at worst—] not really in-line with my theoretical understanding of how those relationships are. Humans form monogamous partnerships for life that are mutually beneficial, right?

[Maybe it's because they're simply not like humans, so they're not capable of the same things? 9S has no way of knowing]

[splinten]

It stands to reason that different kinds of intelligences would organize their relationships in different ways. It doesn't seem necessarily true that the same feelings would be expressed identically or that common human structures would be the perfect fit for androids.

[He knows, at least, that the AR's understanding of romance shifted. Of course, it was a copy of his own brain turned into an AI, but even in that position it seemed to have a different relationship to relationships. At the same time, he is pretty sure it wasn't as distant from human desires as it tried to say it was. After all, he knows he'd pull the 'I am an AI who doesn't experience desire that way' schtick in the same situation. And the AR is him in that situation, so—

—God, he hates thinking about that damn thing. Focusing on 9S;]

The standard portrayal of a human partnership in Western society, from maybe the late 1000s onwards, is of a monogamous life partnership. That isn't universally true across all human societies throughout all of human history. Some humans form polyamorous relationships, and some will change partners multiple times as their needs and desires change over the years. Basically, different people had different relationship needs.

My social context is rooted in 20th and 21st century American culture. There, the idealized standard is a monogamous life partnership that's more important than any other relationship in either partner's life. The reality often falls short, but that's the form that's generally encouraged through socialization and media.

[deem]

[Bits of this information are familiar, but 9S' knowledge of the Old World is fragmented at best. As such he's listening quietly and recording for future reference and his own analysis. What is suitable to most androids is something quite different from what was deemed acceptable to YoRHa by Command, so he can't speak to that.

But the idea that humans part ways and change the parameters of their relationships is assuredly new. And even a little puzzling]

...I'm not sure where the exchange part comes in though. Are you treating time or energy as a commodity when you say that?

[If people will dissolve relationships in this manner, that is, there was something expended they couldn't regain. Android relationships ended too, of course, but he knows so little about it. Scanners work alone, much of the time. Though he and 2B are partners in the field, it's hardly the same thing.

And honestly, he thinks of romantic relationships as distant things, for all that he's seen]

[splinten]

Some people do. They can be considered investments. You can also consider it in terms of exchange-for-use value. Partners are able to provide for one another what the other can't give themselves. Companionship, affection, the meeting of sexual or romantic needs.

There's a more mercenary way to look at it too. In a more traditional heteronormative marriage, a female partner would provide household labour and the labour required for the production and rearing of children in exchange for the male partner providing housing, food, and other necessary material resources, as well as protection.

Like I said, a lot of it depends on your exact social circumstances.

[deem]

So in what way do you see human couplings?

[He's talked about a few differing theories, but...]

Or maybe...how do you think they should be?

[Because that might be more illuminating as to what Dirk's original assertion meant. If he has a different ideal than what he's stated as the reality in which he's lived, that could account for his prior statements]

[splinten]

[Ah. Suddenly, Dirk is not as good at answering. What Dirk has been discussing before was an intellectual discussion, a dissection of what Dirk's research has taught him about human society.

But now there is this. 9S has, presumably not intentionally, suddenly stumped the human.]

Uh... I mean, I'd hold that romantic relationships depend on the partners and what works for them. Not just as a couple, although that, but also as an individual. The parts shouldn't be sacrificed to the whole, but neither should it be flipways. Love works differently for different people, so it wouldn't be great to insist it should be one way or another. But it should be good.

[God. He wants to choke himself with the baguette. Dirk's monotone doesn't know what to do with itself.]

Sorry. Maybe I'm not the best person to consult on that.

[deem]

[With an impression quite to the contrary, 9S shrugs]

It makes enough sense to me. Even good allies should work the way you're describing, or they'll be ineffective and maybe even incapable of forming a united front against threats.

[Perhaps it's not a surprising comparison at all, considering 9S' background. It's not that he isn't sentimental, but it was frowned upon for YoRHa to form relationships. That didn't stop everyone, of course, but their programming ensured its difficulty.

Not being as they were intended is a difficult matter to grapple with. Still, what Dirk details is something he can understand]

[splinten]

[Well. At least 9S likes it? He isn't totally sure he gave the right impression, but Dirk does agree about allies at least.]

Right. At least, that's the idea.

[deem]

Maybe it's just me, but... This doesn't seem like a very good way of fostering that sort of bond, if that's the goal.

[He gestures at their surroundings, chairs flying from table to table and all]

[splinten]

I'm pretty sure the goal for this is sex.

[deem]

[9S sputters before he's sinking into his seat as best he can while magically pinned to it. At least his goggles cover enough of his face to hide the embarrassed color that warms his cheeks]

...Then they're really barking up the wrong tree, roping me and 2B into this.

[He grumbles in some attempt to mask his own awkward reaction]

[splinten]

[Poor, poor 9S. Someone please help him.

Dirk is probably not the right person.]

Reproductive compatibility doesn't seem to be an issue they're taking much into account period. I guess it wouldn't traditionally be a thing for them.

[deem]

Well, we don't- [he visibly founders here] you know...

[The activity itself isn't even possible without modifications they're naturally predisposed to considering something tantamount to sacrilege. Being too much like their creators wouldn't be right.

Only the magical amount will do]

I can't believe I'm going to have to give them a talk.

[splinten]

[Now he feels kind of bad?]

Uh, it's okay, dude. It's weird across the board. And honestly, I don't know if they're likely to be convinced by any of our efforts to persuade them against it.

[Okay, he could maybe be more comforting, but Dirk isn't prone to kind lies. He tends strongly towards blunt honesty.]

[deem]

I get that they mean well, but...

[9S heaves a sigh. Honestly, this is so much time wasted.

Not to mention being wildly inappropriate from an android perspective]

[splinten]

But it's weird as fuck, or what?

[A question to which Dirk will be tragically denied the answer, since this is his comment #10?]

[deem]

Something like—

[Not the language he'd use, but 9S is interrupted by his chair jerking into motion, startling a yelp out of him.

So much combat, and it's a chair that gets to him, go figure]

Good luck with whatever this is...

[At least he flies off with some well-wishes drifting along]