[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

[doublesharp]

Yeah, I do! Who doesn't?

[This guy doesn't look like a cat person, somehow, so the fact that he opened up the conversation with cats is somehow really cute.]

I wish I could have pets! I bet I could keep fish in the dorm if I asked.... but fish aren't very cute. Oh, but you must have a cat, then! Or more than one?!

[yancat]

[Riku is a good person. Just don't call Jumin cute. It'll confuse him.]

Just one: my Persian, Elizabeth III. She is my dearest companion.

[And he brings out his phone to do what he's been doing for the past three or four lightning-fast dates: show Riku his cat. It's not a blurry picture at all, so he can see Jumin's cat in all her fluffy glory.]

She's beautiful, isn't she?

[doublesharp]

Elizabath III is such a fancy name! Were there two other Elizabeths before her? Or does she have sisters also named Elizabeth? Though that would get confusing, huh....

[He's just rambling as Jumin takes out his phone, but as soon as he's shown the picture, his eyes light up. She's so!!!! Cute!!!! He wants to rub his face in her fur (even though he couldn't even if she was here)!]

Uwaaah, she's all fluffy and pure white! I wish I could pet her!

[yancat]

[This kind of reaction — exuberant and full of adoration — is unprecedented. Jumin can't remember the last time anyone had reacted to Elizabeth like that.]

My friend named her, so I wouldn't know. But I assume she was named after British royalty. The current reigning monarch is Elizabeth II, and I can't think of a name any more fitting than that fit for a queen. I wish I could pet her too.

I hope you can experience the joy of having a pet as much as I have. It's been... enlightening.

[doublesharp]

[Listen, blame it on him being an excitable protag. He really loves animals and doesn't get the opportunity to see them very often!]

I bet you spoil her a lot! You probably have to brush her fur every day, right? So she probably feels like a queen too!

[Oh, he didn't.... mean to make Jumin miss her though. Riku leans forward a bit, placing his elbows on the table and propping his head in one of his hands.]

I don't think we can keep pets in the dorms back home, but our manager has a pet rabbit that comes over to play sometimes, and I don't have to wear a mask around her! So that's almost like a pet, don't you think?

[yancat]

[Jumin almost tells Riku that he often hires someone to do it, but he holds his tongue. There are so many questions to ask and so much energy to keep up with.

He pauses.]

Perhaps, but she isn't yours in the end.

[His eyes flicker the same way they do when he speaks of Elizabeth, although this time he does his best to hide what he shouldn't be feeling. He succeeds, he thinks.

... Right, he should keep it light.]

But being in the company of animals is beneficial to your health. My doctor once told me that animal companionship decreases the risk of heart complications and loneliness. I don't know about the latter [HE DOES] but as I am a busy man, it's done wonders. I imagine it's the same for you.