spellbinders | [WORLD ONE] SPEED DATING EXTRAVAGANZA

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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Love takes time, they must understand.

[She steepled her fingers and looked positively serious.]

You can't rush what's a lifetime commitment, and moreso if it's two people at once. I never considered two 'gentlemen callers', of sorts, but they must understand that it isn't nearly as simple.

For all they know, I just might be married... e-even if I'm not, in truth...

[She lowered her head and sighed.]

Truthfully as well, I've never had anything set me off-balance as these palai have. Remaining patient has been difficult of late. It isn't as if there lacks a desire, as it were... but aren't we serving a magic-hungry entity at the moment? I get the feeling that's a higher priority... and yet, why are we here...?

[Much as it's his least favorite topic of the moment, Lenka still listens diligently while Madhuri lays out her views on the matter of relationships -- Palai relationships, strange things that they are, aren't something he's really been able to wrap his head around. He doesn't quite meet her eyes, though, dropping them to his hands in his lap.

It's embarrassing, it's frustrating, pointless, incomprehensible what the Palai are doing. It's... fruitless, as well, because time is the one thing he doesn't exactly have. It's his other least favorite topic.

The silence drags on a little, and then he forces his thoughts back in order.]

They're very... carefree. [truthfully, there's envy there; that they can live lives like these even under circumstances like this -- but also a sort of warmth, he doesn't dislike that part of it] I think that's why it's hard to understand, for them and us. But I don't know... Maybe what Qri needs is their magic.

[At the very least, they do know that the Palai are central to why they're here. There's really no other conclusion for that.]

Then you and I presume alike. It does leave the question as to how we intend on collecting it. Kidnapping the little eltos is... er... not exactly what I'd have in mind.

[She frowned in thought.]

Can they not charge something, perhaps? An object, a crystal? Then we could simply offer Qri some crystals. It works splendidly where I'm from; crystals are an immense source of magic, and hold near-boundless amounts of it.

Yeah. And I don't think kidnapping them would help.

[They haven't exactly been told how Qri intends to collect the kind of magic she needs, but if it was just to get magical beings working for her, she already has the coven; even if a good number of them are unwilling. The remaining possibility is one he's thought about and debated before -- that she needs the source of the magic itself.

Whatever that is.

He doesn't pretend to understand what that would entail, except that it's kind of ominous coming from a faceless being kidnapping people across dimensions somehow.]

... I think the Eltos can charge things, but I don't know how much we need.

[Or how they'd get their hands on crystals, if that could be a thing. From what he understands, Elto power is relatively long-lasting, but not as spectacular as what he's seen some of the coven do. It's a mystery to him what they'd do for someone as powerful as Qri supposedly is.]

That all depends on her reserves and if she's okay with rationing, I think. If she were a primal she'd inhale as much as she could, but I think she wishes to maintain her form as long as possible rather than feast. It's the smarter thing to do.

I'll see if this world has some sort of crystal formation, whether above the surface here or somewhere in the sea. IF you've the comrades on hand that can perhaps do the same, that could hasten the search. I could practically handle the rest.

That's what it sounded like. That they need to keep Qri's... form? [he's not exactly sure how all these terms work and connect, because how do you shot magic, but let's go with it] And it's connected somehow to the universe. Universes. I don't know what she is, except a witch.

[All of this is still way above his pay grade. He's not even getting paid here, except in like, shrimp and embarrassment. He already had his hands full trying to save, like, one corner of one planet, please.]

But I can help look for crystals. Maybe the Palai know something.

[After all, they're the ones charging and running the city -- it's possible they've overlooked some other medium or resource through which Palai magic could be channeled. It's been one whirlwind week after another.]

I would appreciate it muchly. Here...

[A bell was jingling overhead. They had just a few seconds left before they all had to switch. She passed him a slip of paper.]

This is the name of the restaurant they're letting me stay in. Should you find any leads, please inform me. Also, come try some of my pie...

[Oh. He'd lost track of time -- Madhuri is a good conversationalist even in a situation like this, apparently, and knowledgeable in her own way. He's learned useful things and also things he'd rather not have known, but it probably balances out in the end... Lenka nods and tucks the piece of paper into a pocket after giving it a quick glance.

He doesn't recognize the name of the restaurant, but he'll just have to ask around or try telepathy next time.]

Okay. I'll do, uh, all of that.

[There's not a growing boy out there who'd say no to pie, after all. It's time for musical chairs again.]

Thank you, dear.

[She smiled and waved, so accustomed to the chairs moving on their own that she may as well just endure this silliness until the palai seemed it over. Away she went, hopefully with the beginnings of a plan involving the Eltos...]

[WORLD ONE] SPEED DATING EXTRAVAGANZA

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