[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

[alphonse]

You sound a lot like a friend of mine.

[He can't not think of the Rockbells with a description like that, and the warmth in his voice is obvious.]

Her parents were our village doctors. She's an automail engineer now, but she definitely grew up to be a lot like them. You're some kind of doctor too, right?

[Or something close enough to play healer during the Uvi battle.]

[talim]

That's impressive. I'd love to meet her one day.

[ that might be unlikely, but who knows what could happen in a place like this? ]

Mm. I'm a licensed doctor. I moved away to go off to med school in a big city, but just before graduation, I ended up...

[ getting expelled for breaking and entering a laboratory plagued by criminal activity? he'll leave that part out. ]

... well, it's a long story, but it has to do with taking a long break. In the end, though, a friend pulled some strings and I got my degree.

Back home, I've ended up more involved in the science field — environmental science — but technically, I'm still a doctor on the side. I'm just grateful I'm able to put my experience to use here.

[ jude realizes he's doing the rambling thing again. he flushes, embarrassed. ]

S-Sorry... you asked a simple question, not for my life story.

[alphonse]

Don't apologize. I like hearing about it.

[It beats awkward "dating" questions any day, but even if that wasn't the case, Jude's story would still be interesting. There's something inherently impressive about people who devote themselves to saving lives. Besides, Jude said one of the magic words and Al visibly perks up at the possibility of discussing research.]

I'm a scientist too, so I want to learn as much as I can about what's possible in other worlds. What kind of work do you do?

[talim]

You are?

[ jude's lips part in surprise. he doesn't know why he didn't expect that, but perhaps it's because he doesn't know what to expect from al at all. it's hard to guess what a person underneath a giant suit of armor must be like. ]

Like I said, I'm into environmental science. Specifically, the study of spirits, how they affect the environment, and what we can do to help dead plants flourish again. When mana is sucked dry, the surrounding nature is sucked dry with it. I'm searching for a solution to that.

What about you? What do you study?

[ he rests his chin in his hands. ]

[alphonse]

I'm an alchemist.

[It's accompanied by a slight, questioning tilt of his head. He's waiting to see if Jude's familiar with the term before he launches into an explanation. Besides, spirits? Mana? As aspects of environmental science? The questions Al could ask are practically endless.]

Nothing you're describing sounds familiar to me at all.

[At least by this point he's responding to these types of conversations with cautious curiosity rather than strict disbelief.]

When you say spirits, what exactly do you mean?