[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

[pussywhips]

[ If she thought sitting across from a stranger doing this whole date thing was embarrassing as heck, she now stands corrected—because this is worse. She's literally never felt awkward around Akira (okay, maybe crying at him in the cafe when they first met was a little awkward...) before this moment, and somehow that scenario is worse than feeling awkward around 10,000 strangers.

It's not even like they haven't gone to eat together a million times! But throw the date word in there and now she suddenly wants to die of embarrassment. (Probably because she's never date...d... being a social pariah and all.) No, it's fine... she'll just... play it cool. Totally cool! ]

Um. [ She tugs anxiously on one of her pigtails. ] This is pretty weird, right?

[actus]

[ poor ann. he knows this is probably hard(er) on her than a lot of people, all things considered. no one is enthused that they're stuck strapped to a chair and have to "mingle" with potential "mates", but he can only imagine the degrees of awkward this must be for her. ]

Just a bit, yeah. [ he'll be honest. and then quickly ignore the bowl of questions and instead gesture with the breadstick. ]

They're good, by the way. Nowhere near as sweet as you like, but ... Maybe you could charm them into bringing over cake?

[pussywhips]

[ Oh, thank God—he's acting totally normal. Somehow that makes her feel a lot better about the situation, and she visibly relaxes, her shoulders sagging in relief. It's probably just the... expectation... you know, certain expectations attached to dating and stuff that weighs on her—people have had all sorts of expectations about her like that, and it's always made her uncomfortable.

In retrospect, she should've known better. It's Akira, and she's an idiot. ]

It's okay. I mean, I wouldn't want them to make a whole cake for me just because I used charm on them... [ That's just cheating! She reaches out and grabs a breadstick, stuffing it into her mouth. ] Mm! Thish is pretty goodf!

[actus]

[ he really wants to know how ann is able to maintain her figure with how much she loves food. he's certain it's dedication and lucky genetics, but damn, she loves food just as much as he does. and that's certainly saying something. ]

I'd split the cake. It's fine. [ a grin tugs at the corner of his lips and he just... watches. in amusement. ]

... Kind of wish we had dipping sauce, but. [ he shrugs. ] I've never been a big fan of shrimp. [ oh no here it comes. ] Does that make me shellfish?

[ and there go the fingers up in flames. ]

[pussywhips]

[ It's more the charming innocent Palai into doing stuff for her part that makes her hesitant. As much as she'd love a cake right about now (but when does she not want a cake?), it makes her feel a little guilty to go around coercing people into it.

Well, more importantly—Akira's fingers are on fire again. ]

Hey, be careful! [ No matter how many times she's seen it happen, his power still manages to catch her off guard almost every time. Probably because it's so... something. Which is probably why she's laughing a little as she fans his hands with a napkin. ]

What if you were holding a breadstick? [ That would be a sad breadstick demise indeed. ]

[actus]

[ you know what, that's fair. akira doesn't really see it that way, then again, he doesn't completely understand how ann's power works. after all, he's only seen it used on unsuspecting crabs, and it really worked to everyone's advantage in this situation. ]

Ah... it would have been toast, then.

[ that's a horrible joke be ashamed? he's glad for the fanning, though, because eventually all his fingers go out and he is smiling sheepishly across the table at his friend. ]

... Should we even bother reading what's inside the bowl? [ it's probably a bad idea.... but curiosity killed the cat??? ]