[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

[soulcomet]

[this is the first time Madoka has ever been called ma'am in her entire life, and she is now even more distinctively pink. and perhaps flailing internally.]

I — Well, if it were just about meeting new friends, then maybe ... But I don't — I'm not —

[pull yourself together, Madoka.]

I've never even been on a real date before ... I don't think this was such a good idea for me.

[deem]

[It sure seems to 9S that a lot of people here are pinker than he's accustomed to. Maybe something's going around...

So he thinks, until she mentions dates.

And then he's sitting up straighter, watching her in confused silence for a few moments as he processes this]

I uh... [Date? With a human? He clears his throat] I don't think it counts, when it's somebody like me.

[soulcomet]

[ah, but she has no idea he's an android.]

... What do you mean? This isn't really anything like what I'd call a date, but ... I think anybody should be able to find someone that makes them happy, if they want to.

[deem]

[9S forever assuming the difference is terribly obvious.

But once more he's confronted with the reality that people don't seem to recognize what he is at a glance]

...As an android, I'm inappropriate for a member of the race that created me. Where romance is concerned, that is.

[soulcomet]

You're a...

[the wonders of the coven. androids, flying video game people, dogs with mechas ... magical girls. they're all the only reason she isn't perhaps as surprised by what 9s is as she otherwise would have been.]

Oh. Um ... You can still be friends with humans, though, right? [she would absolutely throw all the friendship she has at him, but she doesn't know if there are other rules or. something.]

[deem]

Well, Jude seems to think so...

[Although 9S isn't entirely sure himself. That insistence on equality goes against some very elementary parts of his build, but he can acknowledge at least that they're equal in their stubbornness. At least this much he can grant]

I don't really know how I measure up from a human perspective, but.

[Well, it's certainly an honor to be considered, talk of equal status aside]

[soulcomet]

Well ... I think you seem nice! [to Madoka, that's the most important part of being a friend. congrats, 9S, you've passed the test.]

So, we can be friends, if you'd like. My name's Madoka Kaname.

[deem]

[She sets a very high bar, how did he wiggle past it...]

I-if you're sure... [It may forever baffle 9S just how easily humans offer these connections to someone like him, and yet he finds that puzzlement is matched by his gratitude] I'm YoRHa unit 9S. If we're friends though, you can just call me Nines... If you want to, that is.

[soulcomet]

[her bar for friendship certainly won't win anybody any gold medals for the high jump, anyway.]

If that's what you'd like for me to call you ... then I definitely will.

Um ... do you think you could tell me a bit about your magic?

[deem]

My magic...?

[9S' smile, shy thing that it was, drops from his face as he looks down at himself. He touches the signet embedded in his chassis]

Other than transmitting my thoughts like everyone else, I don't know that I have any other added ability.

[soulcomet]

[oh, whoops. Madoka's smile dissipates right along with his.]

Maybe ... you just haven't found it yet? Or — it's fine if you didn't get anything at all, too.

I'm sorry, I'm probably not much help.

[deem]

It's alright. I wasn't built with magic in mind.

[And it's something he doesn't finds himself particularly troubled by]

I'd be a lot more useful if the technology here wasn't so primitive, though.

[soulcomet]

I obviously don't know as much about technology as you do, but I think I agree with you there. It took me forever to find a tea kettle I didn't need to heat using fire.

[deem]

Geez, that's so bad...

[Excuse 9S as he grimaces with some measure of exaggeration.

Nothing wrong with a little humor when they're stuck with ancient tech, right?]