[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

[goodlistener]

[are you suggesting she should immaculately conceive too, jumin

jeanne just... stares at him. well, this is off to a great start already.]

I... I have no need for marriage.

[and she means that, judging by the sternness of her tone. she stumbles over her words, but it isn't because she's too embarrassed; more so, it seems like... she's... scolding him?]

What exactly is it that you do?

[let's start up a conversation you'd have on a date, anyway,]

[yancat]

[Jumin hums in thought, expression unchanging.]

You say you have no need for marriage, yet you engage me in a conversation that implies otherwise.

[He'd say he didn't want to get married and just pretend to be in his phone again, but he's in front of a holy woman. Sinning is probably bad. She's also being a little funny right now. So, okay. He'll humor her.]

Well, I'm an executive director of a multinational conglomerate. I'm also.. ah, no. I shouldn't say.

[goodlistener]

Excuse me?

[what is he trying to say? "engaging him in a conversation that implies otherwise"? huh? jeanne makes no attempt to hide her confusion as she squints at him.

it doesn't really matter, though. she is used to conversing with people who debate with her.]

Oh, so you're the leader of a large company. ["directors" and "conglomerates" aren't terms that were ever a part of her vocabulary in life, of course, but the grail has granted her some basic understanding. even if it's a little hard to think of him as anything other than a modern-day prince, king, or warlord...]

You can tell me. You know about my history.

[yancat]

[Jumin quirks a brow at Jeanne's immediate understanding. Puzzled at his behavior, but unfazed by his jargon. If she's confused, that makes two of them.

In any case, he'd prefer it if she wasn't attracted to him. It's likely she only wants to get acquainted with fellow members of the coven. His expectations are low. Yet Jeanne gives him the chance to look at the many faces he's never seen on a woman of beauty and renown.

His tone is level. His interest is piqued.]

Everyone knows about your history. It's hardly personal: in a time of war and turmoil, a girl from Orleans receives visions from God. He tells her to protect France, so she does. She leads the French army to victory but is found guilty for unfounded charges heresy. She's burnt at the stake and immortalized a hero and saint. This is the Jeanne in history books.

[He shrugs.]

I hardly know anything about the woman.

[A longer pause. Then, he says something for the first time.]

Tell me about her.

[goodlistener]

[that's funny; she'd prefer it if he wasn't attracted to her, as well—if only because that's practically a dead end for every man. the palai's magic chairs prevent her from doing anything other than spending time with him, too. however—

well, it's not entirely pleasant or comfortable, but jumin has a way of drawing information from her that most people don't seem interested in pursuing. her eyes shift nervously, her lips tipping downward into a faint frown, while she chooses her words carefully.]

Tell you about... me?

[she realizes he means something deeper. still, it's hard to talk about yourself in such a manner when you aren't acclimated with it.]

... Surely you know I'm not wealthy, myself. I grew up as the daughter of common people in the village of Domrémy. My early years were filled with things like helping out with the farm work and running in the fields with the other children...

[this sounds like another history lesson, probably, but the almost uncertain gentleness in her voice reveals she's discussing treasured memories.]

[yancat]

[Speaking about his childhood must be difficult for her as it is for him, but that's precisely why he wants to know. He's never wanted to know about anyone else before. This must be the curiosity that comes with knowing a celebrity, he thinks, but he's met many celebrities and was interested in none.

Strange. He's unsure of how to approach her. That doesn't happen often.]

Did you like it there? Did you have any friends?

[Now he sounds like a concerned parent...]

Did you have a cat?

[look, they have five minutes]

[goodlistener]

[she's not a celebrity. she's a legend, a saint, a figure from history who's now a living, breathing heroic spirit. maybe that's the difference.]

Of course I liked it there... Do many children hate the comfort of their family's home? [jeanne is flustered—but it's a good flustered, making her cheeks rosy and her body language relaxed, as if she's imagining warming up before a rustic fireplace—as she mentally travels back in time. her lips form into a small, happy smile completely unbidden.]

I'm not certain if they considered me their friend at the end, after everything that happened, but yes, I did think of the other boys and girls as my friends, even if we never labeled each other so. A cat... Oh, we must have had several.

[can u handle even the idea of it, jumin]

[yancat]

[he's losing his mind]

Friendship is a rare treasure so I wouldn’t worry about it. And cats are magnificent. Anyone who loves animals is a good person, but I suppose goodness is a prerequisite for canonization.

[Family is a complicated matter so he doesn't touch on it. He'd rather draw attention to the glow on her face — if he could afford it. For now, he's unusually rich in shame and tact. Jeanne is simpler than he imagined. To someone whose first instinct is to doubt and decipher others, simplicity isn't a bad quality at all.]

It’s impossible for me, but I’ve always wanted to live in the countryside. France is nice in the summer, and it makes the finest wine.

[goodlistener]

[be strong]

Cats are... magnificent?

[like, what.

she recovers, though. right now, like this, she's just a girl of her age, 19, talking. he's not wrong to think she's simple, because nothing about her hints at deception, yet she isn't ashamed by her simplicity, either.]

Yes, all of God's creatures are magnificent. I don't completely understand, but it sounds like you had your own challenges, Jumin.

[yancat]

[He thought he left some nice hooks there. She could have talked more about cats. That would have been a pleasant five-minute conversation. She could have spoken more about France. Domremy isn't a village he'd gone out of his way to visit. She could have said many things, all which he'd predicted from both theory and experience.

Instead, she zooms in on what he thought he'd hidden.

He lets out a semblance of a laugh, unsure if it's a sound he should be making. No one's ever told him his life was difficult.]

Yes. I guess I have, haven't I?

[And he certainly didn't expect those words to come from Jeanne. His troubles are nothing compared to hers.]

... Sorry, I usually know what to say next.

[read: he's emotionally unequipped to deal with kindness and he'd like to abort]

Would you like to change the topic?