spellbinders | [WORLD ONE] SPEED DATING EXTRAVAGANZA

[WORLD ONE] SPEED DATING EXTRAVAGANZA

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. ]

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[... He's never actually seen Mikleo outside of his low-frequency and dragon forms, so currently Lenka finds himself sitting at an empty table and watching a breadstick eat itself. That's. It's probably a really good thing he was side-eyeing the food because his side-eye just broke through the suburbs of Aimintas and went for a stroll around the planet...?!

And then the breadstick talks and it's?!

Wait, he knows that voice.

Is he already hallucinating because he somehow ate the food without remembering it. None of this makes any sense.]

... Mikleo? You can turn into a breadstick??

[This is the only logical explanation.]

[--he splutters into surprised laughter, covering his mouth until he can get it back under control; it takes a few seconds]

Well, that's probably a first for question's I've been asked in my lifetime -- no, don't worry, I'm still humanoid, just invisible. It's part of my powers from home. Sorry, I never actually know who can see me in the coven and who can't until they say something.

Ah, that's... that's good.

[Lenka ducks his head at the laughter, a little abashed -- though it's well-warranted, in retrospect he blurted out a really dumb question. But he's been totally out of his depth since he woke up in the middle of a forest on an impossible island, and things have just been getting more impossible since; so somehow in the midst of this impossible situation involving amphibians being way too interested in his love life (or lack thereof) that ended up being the first thing he thought of.

Annnnd he's still interacting with a breadstick. Why are the Palai still smiling and nodding at them.]

If you're just invisible, then...

[And here he reaches out a hand, curious but careful, to see if Mikleo is still solid?!]

[he can feel something there for sure; it feels a little weirdly amorphous, actually, not quite corresponding to the humanoid shape mikleo makes. it's like lenka's hand itself is kind of confused about what it's supposed to feel here, in a weird way.

also, muffled, clearly holding in a second bout of laughter even as he holds still]

That'f my fafe.

[he sounds a bit flustered too, but -- really, one has to have some sense of humor about this whole thing.]

Oh-- uh-- sorry.

[It takes Lenka a minute to actually decipher the muffled words, but he does yank his hand back at the first sign of movement under it, blinking at the strange sensation of touching nothing. And also nothing quite human (or dragon). It probably makes sense that Mikleo doesn't feel quite right, being an invisible being of some sort.

Then it hits him that he probably stuck a hand in his face and Lenka flails back in his seat a little, agitation understated but still plenty off-kilter. It's a good thing they're at least stuck to the seats so he can't fall out of his at this point.]

Sorry! But, what are you now? You're...

[Not scaley, but...?!]

Edited 2017-08-27 22:32 (UTC)

I'm...me. Me-shaped? Not dragon-shaped? Uh, did it feel like something else?

[when he has been poked in the face it has always been by someone who could already see him, so, this is a mutual mystery. he reaches out and kind of...pats Lenka's shoulder awkwardly after a second, not sure what else to do]

It's all right. This is kind of weird for both of us, I think...!

It didn't feel you-shaped, uh. Human-shaped. Or dragon-shaped.

[Lenka scratches his head awkwardly, then shakes it and gives Mikleo a rueful look -- they're only a little ways into this and their lives are only set to become more incomprehensible in the near future, he feels like this tends to happen a lot where Mikleo is concerned, too. Maybe it's the double dosing of magic.

And also, he has no idea how to describe the invisible something-or-other that was apparently Mikleo talking into his hand.]

But you still look the same.

[The confused tilt of his head makes that a question. At least he knows where to look to try and meet his companion's gaze at this point.]

[he shakes his head in incomprehension]

There hasn't been any shapeshifting today. I haven't made a study of what a human feels when they touch a seraph without being able to see them, though. That's kind of weird, but...I guess we both learned something new today.

[Mikleo sounds a little odd there, not really upset, but...solemn, in a musing sort of way.]

There are a lot of differences, huh? Sorry, I don't mean to be so confusing.

[One eyebrow twitches upward a little at Mikleo's strange tone. Did he say something he shouldn't have? Or is this really that weird -- well, it's certainly weird, he really can't imagine what could have created that kind of sensation. It was a little like his hand was somewhere else entirely for a moment. Huh.]

You don't have to apologize. It's just strange. [which doesn't necessarily mean bad; in the meantime, something else has piqued Lenka's curiosity] But you said seraph. Like the angels?

[If his companion is actually some kind of higher-dimensional being that could explain a few things. And bring up about 1,500 other questions, but let's keep it to what he can't see for now.]

Not like the angels, but we're seen as protectors and benevolent spirits, and strong seraphs can lay protection on a place and the people living there, so it's not too far off.

[he's obviously heard the angels question before...he has a lot more personal reason to dwell on that alternate meaning of 'seraph' now than he did back on the island, but -- this isn't the time or the conversation to tell Lenka that, unfortunately. he has to think about that one more. for now, he settles on:]

We more or less live on the same level as humans, though. Angels sound a lot more...godly? From what people have explained of them...

[Right, note to self: in addition to refrigerators, apparently they don't have actual angels in Mikleo's homeworld, either. There's something odd about it, that there are seraphs but no angels; but at this point a little strangeness in semantics or mythology barely even registers.

Lenka turns that over a bit; it sounds like Mikleo does have some idea of angels, even if it's rudimentary. Lenka himself isn't an expert, either -- he can recognize a handful, maybe, but more as an item of curiosity than anything else.]

Angels are supposed to be the messengers of God, back home. They're stories. [once, there would have been a little more bitterness in there, but now it's a simple statement of fact; there's no place in his world for angels, demons or traditional gods] So your seraphs are like... guardian spirits.

[There are stories of gods like that back home, too. Old, faded with time and the destruction of the land, but they're in the archives if you look. It seems like Mikleo would rather avoid things like that, though, so Lenka simply files it away for now.]

...we're stories too, for most people.

[he smiles down at the table, a little absently]

Seraphs and humans lived together more closely once, though. That's not even a legend; there are historical relics and structures at home that could only have been formed by the two groups cooperating. If I'm really lucky, maybe I'll live long enough to see an age like that come around again.

Do you have any other sorts of people back home...? People who aren't human?

There's no evidence of angels in our world. [it sounds a little bald and maybe too abrupt, put out there like that, so Lenka adds after a moment:] We've lost a lot of records, and structures.

[There's a great deal of world history and culture preserved in the Norn database, of course. But from what he understands, far more was lost than saved, and of course pictures and ruins are never going to tell the whole story. He's never really been outside of Japan anyway, so places like Russia and America seem almost as distant as their hub, and this city.

He goes briefly quiet after that; Mikleo's question is... instinctively, he doesn't want to answer it, but that's a bit irrational. It's been a very irrational couple of weeks.]

We... don't. There's not much except Aragami, and we can't live with those. [there's a strange wry little smile; it's quite possibly the understatement of the century] How long do seraphs live?

[Changing the subject? Maybe a little.]

I'm sorry to hear that.

[he doesn't know much about Lenka's world, of course. he doesn't know the extent of the damage...but that scale of loss sounds pretty bad. Are the Aragami some sort of catastrophe, then...?

he shakes himself a little, though his answer is kind of solemn too; it hasn't been that long since he last saw a seraph he knew die.]

...theoretically, we can live forever, if we stay uncorrupted and nothing actually goes after us. I don't know any exact ages, but Gramps has been around...a long, long time. I think all the other seraphs I was traveling with have been, too.

[they treat him like a kiiiiid]

[It's funny, the things humans can get used to.

For those born after the first apocalypse, Aragami and the ruins of the old world are simply a fact of life -- it's the relics of pre-apocalyptic life that seem strange, and the lack of Aragami even stranger out here with the coven. Growing up in a world still rebuilding its culture, its flora, its fauna -- everything -- means that being thrown out here is overwhelming in a way being thrown into Fenrir wasn't.

He's getting a little used to it, though; at the same time, he doesn't know if he wants to.

For now, he's still getting used to talking to someone invisible. It's harder to know how his questions are received when he has only sound to go by, but more importantly:]

Wait... How old are you?

[He'd looked about his age, but...]

[he'd twiddle his thumbs if that wouldn't look silly to everyone who could see him; this is a mildly sensitive subject]

Well--eighteen, or thereabouts.

[he's not sure if his birthdate is his actual birthdate, so it's a little bit of an approximation.]

Why...?

Oh.

[So, not actually that much older than him -- he's not sure if he's surprised about that or not! He's still wrapping his head around all these different types of beings that he suddenly finds himself working with; for someone who's used to vanilla humans versus definitely not vanilla monsters as far as the eye can see... it's something.]

I just wondered... if seraph have a different aging system? Or something.

[Like, kids actually being a thousand years old or something. He's not as much of a TV junkie as his BFF, but he's absorbed some things.]

We, uh...

[scratches his head, looking a little sheepish, and then broadcasts a succession of images to him through telepathy: these are his friends...]

Well, for context, all those people I just showed you are at least a few centuries older than I am. Lailah mentioned -- we age and change only as much as we want to, so you really can't tell physically; you have to ask. And, well, not all seraphs are humanoid, so that complicates that further.

[..... He has extremely unique friends!! And actually, Lenka recognizes that first girl, though he only met her briefly over the mirrors so it's debatable whether that counts as much of a meeting. That probably explains why she could do such funny things with the mirror magic... The mirror telepathy? Whatever that is.

Wait, she's a few centuries old?! He's heard of well-preserved but-- that's a little. Well, if they're all seraphs. Still. This is messing with his brain a little!]

... They all look about your age. Or a little older. The first one, I thought she was only a little older than me. [he's shaking his head, it's a reflex after sorting through telepathic messages more than anything but it's also disbelief] What do you mean you age when you want to?

[Would people (er, seraphs) choose to age? Are there any actual old-man-or-woman seraphs??]

Edited 2017-09-16 22:43 (UTC)

Our -- physical reality is tied to our desires in some ways, is how it was explained to me. Like, I think I could stay like this, this shape, this form, for as long as I absolutely wanted to. I've wanted to grow at a human's pace, so I have grown, but if I truly wanted to stop and look like this for the next several years, I could stop. I've never thought about stopping much, growing older's been more appealing to me for a number of reasons -- but I'm sure I'll think more about the choice in future.

[the chair rocks under him in preparation to move, and he clutches at it almost in protest, looking a bit distraught]

Hmmm.

[That's the strangest thing, something he's never really thought about -- that any being, seraph or not, could control what they were simply by wishing it. It really is a whole other world out there; and he's not sure what he thinks of it, besides that he'd like to understand it more... but it looks like they're out of time for that right now.

Lenka, too, gives his chair a vaguely offended look, because he was more or less enjoying the conversation. Of course, he can't see Mikleo's expressions, but he can see the chair juddering on the other side of the table.]

I hope it's almost over. [it's a quiet mutter to himself before he turns back to Mikleo] Tell me more about seraphs next time. Okay?

[smiles at him, a little wryly; he can hear it, perhaps, even if he can't see it]

I will. Hopefully it'll be somewhere a little less rushed.

[and off they go.]

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[WORLD ONE] SPEED DATING EXTRAVAGANZA

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