[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

[rootbound]

You know what, go ahead. At worst I'll get a bump and it'll give me a talking point for anyone else who swings by this table.

[splinten]

[Dirk focuses on it. There's some strange crackling, and odd resistance—the chair trembles under Vern, and then shudders. A crack runs through.

It disappears, but the magic does indeed remain.

Pause.]

Wow, Vern. How'd you end up stuck to the ground.

[rootbound]

[ow, his butt

looks indignantly down at the sandy ground, tries to get up, fails, tries again, fails again, and finally just sprawls ungainly on his back with a huff, sending up a small cloud of dust]

I wonder. At least now you know the chairs are not strangely inexplicable! And now they have to dig up some of the ground withe me every time they want to shuffle us.

[splinten]

Like they'll let a little dirt get in the way of love.

[Honestly they're unstoppable.]

[rootbound]

[puts his arms behind his head, looking kind of obstinate]

It's not going to work; I'm not interested in you. No offense or anything. How did you know my name, anyway?

well you see i forgot that dirk didn't know

[splinten]

Geir talks about you often enough and it's impossible not to spot the two of you together. it was an assumption, but one that panned out.

(*´ー`)ﾉ( ´д`)

[rootbound]

[a flicker of interest, though he kind of tilts his head so his hair obscures it a little]

You made frends with him?

[splinten]

[HILARIOUSLY. DIRK FREEZES UP WEIRDLY. AND AWKWARDLY???

It's embarrassment he's embarrassed.]

Uh. If he thinks so. Yeah. I guess.

[Dirk is flustered by friendship txt it]

[rootbound]

Good. He could always use more friends. I'm probably a bad influence when he's relying on just me.

[that reaction sort of softens Vern's tone and expression a bit, honestly; he is Not Wholly Unsympathetic to not knowing what to do with friendship or positive relationships]

...you could use more friends too, I'm guessing.

[just. calls him out on it. sure]

[splinten]

[What the fuck Geir. Why is Dirk being personally attacked.]

I guess I'm not the only one.

[rootbound]

Well, what did I just say.

[Geir needs friends. Geir having friends is fine. Vern doesn't need!!! friends!!!]

...be nice to him, okay? He's really--he needs to learn a lot more about things.

[splinten]

I've noticed. But he's inquisitive and is pretty damn persistent when it comes to critical thinking. There's naivety there, but it's naivety countered by an aptitude for finding the flaws in received wisdom. I think he'll be fine.

[Also]

And I meant you, dude.

[rootbound]

I was trying to dodge that point and not actually announce that I don't need friends in the middle of a public area so this just got kind of awkward.

[sounds more thoughtful than actually annoyed about it though]

[splinten]

You sure you don't want to declare that with a little more brooding?

[rootbound]

[sits up enough to hunch over like a troll (the mythical variety, not the Homestuck one), pull his outer tunic up around his head like a stupid hood, and lower his voice a couple of octaves in a 'woo spooky' cadence]

I doooooon't neeeeeeed aaaaaany friiiiiieeeeeends.

[splinten]

Nice. Excellent, I think we've got enough for that take. It's a wrap, guys.

[IT'S HILARIOUS OKAY]

[rootbound]

[snorts, an actual smile escaping him -- but then pouts and then lets his tunic drop back to normal, as a literal scoop of the ground under him starts to shift]

Well, good joke while it lasted. I'll catch you later.