[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

[probablynoteren]

[Breaking the ice by breaking the bread: a timeless technique. Lenka snags a breadstick of his own -- he'll alternate it with bites of shrimp since that's all they have right now. It's not a bad spread if they really wanted to spend the whole time just eating, but the girl seems to want to talk now. That's fine too.

He does fumble his breadstick a little when she tries to start talking about dates, but she recovers pretty well. He'll go with it.]

Yeah, the coven. A month ago, too. I guess... we just never met in the crowd. [she's flashy, with nice hair; he'd remember her] Utsugi Lenka.

[A nod completes the greeting. If nothing else, making this a routine meeting should help.]

[pussywhips]

Ann Takamaki. Nice to meet you.

[ She flashes him a friendly smile—as friendly as it can be while her mouth is still mostly full, anyway. Yeah, she supposes they could've passed each other by in the coven without really realizing it—though, how could she ever forget those eyebrows? Ah well.

She stuffs another chunk of breadstick in her mouth. ]

Um, what are we preparing ourselves for, exactly? You don't think they'll make us... play along or anything, do you?

[ You know, doing... date things? Having been a social pariah for most of her adolescence, she's never actually been on a real date. ]

[probablynoteren]

[In response, his expression softens helpfully -- even with the eyebrows adding ominousness to everything -- it might have been a smile in return, but it's hard to tell because they're both eating now. If nothing else, at least they've been well-fed since the coven snatched them up; actually, Lenka doesn't think he's ever been quite this well-fed.

He gently nudges the shrimp towards her side of the table as well, since they're getting into this. In for a penny, in for a prawn.]

Not so far. But I didn't think they'd have magic for things like this.

[He's bracing himself for further escalation here. He lived under a rock and a hard place for most of his life, it'd be the blind leading the blind.]

[pussywhips]

[ She glances over at the shrimp but doesn't partake—that Palai are really on a kick, aren't they? Not that she has anything against shrimp... or breadsticks, for that matter. It's just that she'd rather be stuffing her face with desserts above all else.

The breadsticks will have to do, though. At least they're all buttery and garlicy.

In any case, she sighs maybe not-so-subtly in relief at his reply. Sitting here and eating isn't so bad, right? As long as they don't have to do more than this... ]

Yeah, tell me about it. I really wasn't expecting them to stick us to these chairs. [ Literally. She blinks at the bowl of papers, as if noticed them for the first time. (What? She was paying more attention to the food.) ] Hm? What's this?

[probablynoteren]

[... Given the Palai's ideas about dessert, particularly in a season of occasional seafood precipitation, Ann might just end up regretting her penchant for that particular course. At least they haven't been served anything involving sugar and fish eyeballs yet; small mercies.

Since she seems to favor the breadsticks, he'll graze on the shrimp -- he's not particularly picky about food, it's not a thing where he comes from.]

The papers? They're, uh. [he manages to trip over his words and accidentally swallow a shrimp whole, so he's going to need a minute here] ... They're. Part of the game.

[He's really only bothered with them maybe once and that was more than enough!! She can see for herself, though.]

[pussywhips]

[ "The game"... sure, let's think about it that way.

Since she's actually kind of curious (and besides, they still have a few more minutes to waste here, and she definitely isn't doing it in awkward silence), she picks a piece of paper out of the bowl and reads it aloud. ]

"What fact about you would surprise me the most?" Oh... are these supposed to be first date questions?

[ The Palai really are... something. ]

[probablynoteren]

[That's what others and the Palai have all been calling it, and he'd basically picked up on the terminology since this is uncharted territory in his neck of the woods. Anyway, the question is more innocuous than his previous experience would have led Lenka to believe, but also just as hard to answer off the top of his head.

He doesn't know anything about this girl, after all, so surprising her is... is there anything particularly surprising about himself that he can tell a stranger? And that's not getting into--]

For breaking the ice, or something? [he's also still going with what he's heard] Mm... My name. It means 'lotus'.

[It sounds trivial (it's not, particularly), but maybe it's surprising.]

[pussywhips]

Really? Lenka does?

[ It might be a little surprising, but it's probably more of a fun fact. She appreciates it anyway, because she likes learning fun little facts about people. ]

I'm not sure what my name means, actually. All I know is that my mom picked it out because she liked the sound of it.

[ She shrugs... it would probably be cooler if there was more involved reason than that, but. ]

[probablynoteren]

Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen a lotus, though.

[Pictures are helpful, but that's as far he's gotten on that particular bucket list item; plants are a bit of a vanishing commodity in the land formerly known as Japan, 2071.

He listens thoughtfully in turn to her explanation of her own name, turns it over in his head. Ann: simple and clean, a little elegant.]

--It fits you. [he doesn't elaborate, digging obligingly in the bowl for more paper, since they're doing this the old-fashioned way:] Biggest pet peeve.

[Yes, that counts as asking a question, apparently.]

[pussywhips]

[ Never seen a lotus?? Isn't that... kind of... well, they're moving on now. ]

Hm...

[ She taps a finger against her chin, looking thoughtful. Well, if she's being honest... her expression twists into a frown. ]

I guess it's when people ask where I'm from, or assume I'm a foreigner and can't speak Japanese or something.

[probablynoteren]

[And this is where we do acrobatic headcanon twists because everybody in his canon apparently can communicate no matter where they're from, so who knows what language they're really speaking, the ten-part exposition confusion series.

Anyway, he had wondered if maybe her parents at least had come from abroad -- the appearance kind of demands it, especially from the point of view of someone who's never been off the island -- but he knows better than to say so. It's not that big a deal; he's worked with and is willing to work with anyone, here or back home. Speaking of here, though...]

I see. I guess that wouldn't be a problem here.

[They kind of have mythological creatures, people turning into all kinds of things and people stranger-looking than an Uvi around here. It's not a bad thing, just. It sure is a thing.]