[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]

[he's trying his best to work through the incredible awkwardness. Madoka will do her best, too, though she's still pretty pink. pinker than usual.]

It has been pretty crazy lately, hasn't it? But, I've been fine ... What about you? Has your magic been giving you any trouble?

[alphonse]

[...Oh. His magic. Awkward dating questions might almost be preferable to talk about.]

I wouldn't say that. It's... improving, I think.

[Through trial and error and guesswork rather than real understanding, which might be driving him crazy.]

But we've all got a long way to go to catch up to you.

[soulcomet]

[if compliments were fatal, she would be dead a thousand times over; thanks, friend! but Madoka flushes bright red again, and tries to play it off.]

Oh — it's — it's not that big of a deal! My magic's pretty simple, at best ... there are so many other people here who have a much better handle on it than I do.

But, I'm glad to hear it's working a little better for you. I'm always here if you want to practice some more.

[alphonse]

[Sorry Madoka, but he has to laugh. Magical Girl guardian of a city sounds like a pretty big deal from his perspective.]

You don't have to be modest about something you've worked so hard at.

[Case in point: he's much happier to talk about things that fall into his actual skillset.]

And I appreciate the offer, but I think it's just going to take me a while to get the hang of it. I'm an alchemist, so trying to understand magic is like... trying to think about things an entirely different way from what I'm used to. It's tough.

[soulcomet]

[okay, NOW she's dead from compliments.]

[but thankfully, curiosity will bring her right back.]

I've never heard of alchemy before ... Do you think you could explain what it's like to me?

[alphonse]

Really?

[Other worlds are so weird. But at least it's made him give some thought to how to explain alchemy more simply.]

The basic idea is that if you can understand something, then you can break it down and reshape it. A lot of people here think it looks like magic, but it's really just science. I'll show you some time when we aren't stuck in chairs.

[soulcomet]

Really? I'm not very good at science, but ... I'd love that.

[alphonse]

Sure. Alchemy's kind of hard to explain to someone who's never heard of it before--it'll make a lot more sense when you can actually see it.

[But now she's made him curious about something else.]

If you're not interested in science, what do you like to do when you're not busy being a Magical Girl?

[What's it even like not being a nerd...]

[soulcomet]

Me? Well ... Being a magical girl does eat up a lot of my time, but I really like drawing — and doing crafts! I also like gardening, but I haven't really been doing that much lately.

What sort of things do you like to do? Besides alchemy, I mean.

[alphonse]

[Al shifts in his seat, almost like he's embarrassed. It's a deceptively hard question to answer when his hobbies include reading (about alchemy), training (to be better at alchemy), and fighting (to save a country from alchemy). Finally, he manages:]

...I travel a lot.

[(because he screwed up his life with alchemy.)]

But to be honest, even that's for research. There just isn't time for much else.

[Madoka's situation isn't exactly typical, so he figures that maybe in her own way she'll understand. When he continues it's a little hesitant, and in a somewhat joking tone lest he sound too serious.]

Do you ever wish your life was more normal?

[soulcomet]

Eh? Well...

[normal is what people tend to strive for, isn't it? but Madoka's idea of normal — for herself, anyway — is a rather critical one.]

To be honest ... For the longest time, I always felt like I was a bit useless. Like I wasn't going to be of help to anyone, because I'd always have to rely on others for help.

[she looks down at her hands.]

At least like this, I can help protect people.