[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]

[thank you for sparing her, Hibiki, the embarrassing questions would probably kill her.]

Okay! [this will be fun, not ... having to worry about romantic questions.] Let's see...

What's your favorite thing in the entire world?

[secrowtary]

[ The struggle. Cats or sweets. Or birds. Or...

Well, cats and birds aren't things, which he realizes shortly after and which helps him narrow his options. ]

Dango. Definitely. It has to be dango. How about you, Madoka-san?

[soulcomet]

[food! yes! one of her favorite subjects.]

Ah, I love dango! I'm not sure if I could pick a favorite thing ... but if I could pick a favorite food, it'd definitely be cream stew.

[secrowtary]

You've got a great taste, Madoka-san. [ It's always nice to meet a fellow dango lover! ] I can prepare cream stew for you if you'd only like.

[ In the meantime, Hibiki's trying to come up with a question on his own, but it's easier said than done, apparently. ]

What is your favorite condiment?

[ He can't believe this. This is the worst question ever asked, probably. ]

[soulcomet]

[terrible question or not, Madoka takes it completely seriously, and ... is quiet for a moment, agonizing over her answer.]

I'm not sure if I could pick a favorite condiment, either ... They're all really good if you use them with the right foods, I think!

But, um. If ... if you wouldn't mind making cream stew one day ... I'd really like that.

[secrowtary]

It's fine, I... [ He can't even explain why he asked about this now. ] It's fine. I'm quite fond of soy sauce, truth to be told.

[ Yet, he comes up with an answer of his own anyway. ]

I wouldn't, I actually like to cook so it wouldn't be a problem. That said...what are your hobbies?

[ Finally, a question that he won't regret immediately.]

[soulcomet]

[she can't help but feel a little curious about that, and she's even slightly tempted to blurt out a random condiment to see where he was going with it. but, alas, Madoka is too polite. and she couldn't lie like that, either, she really couldn't pick a favorite...]

Thank you — that makes me really happy. [she pauses.]

Well ... I really like drawing and doing crafts! And gardening, too, but I haven't had a chance to do that much here.

What about you?

[secrowtary]

It's nothing, really. I'll certainly let you know when I get down to preparing it.

[ Ah, so straightforward, Madoka. He's not sure how to react at first, to be honest. ]

Cooking, cleaning, sewing, I sometimes indulge in making pottery, too. [ Her answer makes him ponder on something for quite a while. ] Do you happen to know Haru-san? Her knowledge of various plants is truly impressive.

[soulcomet]

[asking to-the-point questions is one of her unconscious talents; even when she was at her shyest, her most unsure, it didn't stop her from asking unintentionally needling questions. (say, what did you wish for, Homura?)]

I do! Back at the island, I was helping her with an herb garden ... I was in the gardening club at school, back home, but I mostly just worked on flowers.

Making pottery sounds really neat, though! I've never tried it before — is it difficult?

[secrowtary]

Back at the island...

[ It seems like that was ages ago, to be quite honest. Hibiki adjusts his collar, wondering if the herb garden is still, well, a thing. Perhaps he shouldn't bring that up. ]

It's been a while.

[ That's all he says on the matter, actually. ]

I wouldn't say it's difficult, just time-consuming. Especially if you want a vessel with a certain shape and you don't have a wheel. To be honest, I find it relaxing.