[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

[yancat]

[Jumin can hear a record scratch.]

You... Don't see a lot of cats.

[Kind of. Having a crisis. Lenka, you are missing 80% of your life. How? Why???]

How come?

[probablynoteren]

[Sorry Jumin, he lived under a metaphorical rock a zillion years away from what was left of civilization. Also, they're just getting started, because this is going to be a mess and the record ain't gonna be usable by the end of this interview.]

The Aragami. [even if Jumin doesn't believe in them... he'd asked] They devour everything. There just aren't a lot of cats.

[Cats are going extinct.]

[yancat]

[Part of Jumin thinks Lenka's messing with him, yet he can't help but blurt out]

Monsters.

Then why hasn't the government eliminated them immediately?

[probablynoteren]

[Ah, he's just as intense as usual about unusual things.

Lenka tilts his head, though, since it sounds like Jumin is either accepting the existence of the Aragami or at least playing along...? Maybe his time with the Palai has made him more open-minded. He's pretty sure that, given the present situation, you wouldn't be able to survive in Aimintas without some flexibility.

Anyway.]

Well... it's not that easy. Aragami can only be destroyed by one type of weapon, while they destroy everything else.

[Also governments aren't so much the power centers anymore, but he doesn't really get enough of that political stuff to explain it, he thinks.]

[yancat]

That is... horrifying, to say the least.

[When cats are at stake, Jumin has no choice but to be serious. But there's also this:]

I met Visconti, by the way. Julius Visconti. What is he to you?

[probablynoteren]

[Lenka blinks, not having expected that name to come up here -- but of course they're all one coven, many of them stuck here in the same place; it's kind of funny to imagine someone like Julius in this sort of exercise, actually.

He gives that a moment's thought, then shrugs.]

Someone who works for the same organization...? We're both God Eaters. But he joined later, I think.

[Maybe bringing up time travel aspects isn't going to help here.]

[yancat]

You never said you were a soldier.

[Lenka is too young to be thinking about fighting man-eating monsters, but said monsters are probably the very reason he's fighting now.]

... Hah. It seems that all this time I've been terribly mistaken. I apologize.

[But Julius can't have joined later than Lenka. That's too fucked up to even think about. Jumin chooses not to bring it up, though. There's something he should know and he only has five minutes to ask.]

[probablynoteren]

... I guess I am a soldier. I didn't really think about it that way.

[He's gotten more familiar with military ranks, dress code, customs, greetings; but Lenka still thinks of himself as just a God Eater first and foremost, living to destroy Aragami and stop the destruction of their world. In some ways, he's too straightforward about things.

He reflexively raises a hand to scratch his head at the apology, even more unexpected than the mention of Julius and the sudden acceptance of everything. Maybe, unlike his usual manner, Julius can be really convincing when he wants to be...?]

And, um, it's fine. You just got here. Things are confusing.

[Julius joining later is half-speculation on his part, and half just the best way to explain their three-year gap. He hasn't thought too hard on it since they last tried to work it out; much too distracted with other aspects of the issue.]

[yancat]

[Nah, Julius only has age and demeanor on his side. Lenka looks like a snot-nosed baby in comparison. A somewhat stoic one, but snot-nosed nevertheless.]

Yes, they are. I understand Julius is part of the military, but what role does he play in your organization?

[Not even beating around the bush. ... This is not what dates are for...]

[probablynoteren]

[Rude?? He's a very mature snot-nosed brat, please. This is ageism.

Anyway. This time Lenka is a bit more cautious -- there's a few different landmines involved in delving too deeply into how he knows Julius, even as recent as their acquaintance is. It's not hard to characterize their connection on the surface. Then it gets complicated.]

I'm not sure. He's retired, so I don't know the details.

[Which is true. He doesn't know the ins and outs of whatever Julius did while he was still a God Eater, nor his current activities outside of it. Many retired God Eaters continue to work with Fenrir, training recruits and providing Operator support; but Julius' case is probably a little different.]

[yancat]

You must have joined when you were very young, then.

[Note to self: make RFA's agenda the eradication of child labor, holy shit.]

But you must have seen his abilities regardless.

[probablynoteren]

Not me. But I don't think there is an age limit.

[Actually, his family was the overprotective sort, so he got away with joining relatively recently. Soma, though, was probably one of the youngest (he was, what, 11 or 12?); unfortunately, they don't have the luxury of making allowances for age. Compatibility factors, lack of viable candidates; everyone knows that.

It was the duty of those who could fight to do so, no matter who they were.

That being said, it looks like he'll have to clarify a little more before Jumin misunderstands further.]

Julius comes from three years after I do. I think it's magic.

[Which is the real reason why they've never worked together, and he likely can't answer any of Jumin's more probing questions. (There are other reasons, of course, but they're too meta for this discussion.)]

[yancat]

... I see.

[He doesn't, but from the way this is starting to look, he doesn't want to pry when he only has so much time. Lenka doesn't seem to know what Jumin does. Mana more than enough to fuel a Servant... Why does Julius Visconti possess such energy?

He'll set that aside for now.]

It appears we're required to ask questions about each other, so I'll follow the rules now. Which of your skills make you an exceptional... What did you call it? God Eater?

[From interrogation to job interview...]

[probablynoteren]

[He didn't even get a job interview when he got this job, unless you count the compatibility test?! So Lenka's fairly stumped for a moment. And in fact he almost reflexively ends up answering compatibility, because according to the doctor and Alisa, that's where most of his more unusual God Eating skills are coming from -- but.]

Yes, God Eater. And I guess... my ability to survive?

[In some ways, that's still his guiding principle: don't die, by any means necessary. It's worked out so far.

Anyway, if they're actually playing the game (albeit with improvised questions?), he should probably think of something to ask back.]

So, why did you want to know about cat allergies...?

[yancat]

[Survivability. It reminds him of a fierce, magnificent creature that rises each and every time without fail. Guess what it is.

Also no one said he had to read the paper? These questions are stupid.]

I find people with cat allergies difficult to work with, especially if their name starts with the letter Z. If I am to work with the coven, I must know about every person in its employ.

[probablynoteren]

[A breadstick, obviously.

Lenka hasn't even bothered looking at the strips of paper provided thus far, too busy puzzling out their situation and doing his best to work with whoever he ends up paired up with. The latter's been taking up most of the time, anyway; everyone's understandably up in arms and it shows no signs of abating.

... Also Jumin, please. Lenka just. He's going to tilt his head at least 170 degrees and one eyebrow 75 degrees at this point because Jumin's description is just as overly specific as his angling.]

--Do people with a name that starts with Z tend to be allergic? [he's so confused........ and then something else hits him] Wait, every person?

[He's going to ask every single person in the coven about cats?!]

[yancat]

No, that's absurd. This isn't a matter that requires a coven-wide survey.

[If it was necessary, he will conduct a survey and he will get his answers.

But let's set that aside for now.]

I am only asking for fun.

[probablynoteren]

I... I see.

[He sort of sees, and sort of doesn't, because as far as he knows fun doesn't entail asking about how well you'd work with someone (as strange as the question is). And they're almost out of time, and Jumin is only getting more eccentric and mysterious, so all Lenka offers after that is:]

I guess you do seem to be having fun...?

[It's debatable how he can even tell this. But Jumin is one of the only ones who seems remarkably calm in this situation, maybe he's just old enough to be used to it...? Not the magic parts, obviously.]

[yancat]

[Being eccentric and mysterious is part of the fun. But dating?]

Dating isn't fun. I'm only trying to make it so, for once.

[The chairs begin to wobble — a warning signal.]

Not that it is what they call it. Goodbye, Lenka.

[probablynoteren]

[Ah, so Jumin is used to this sort of thing. And that's about all he's learned, but Lenka's pretty okay with that -- at the very least, he's dodged anything too probing concerning both Julius and his own occupation.

His chair is already on the move by the time he thinks to respond, so the words probably get lost in the wind of him flying off:]

Good luck...

[Does he have luck to spare right now. Who knows.]