spellbinders | [WORLD ONE] SPEED DATING EXTRAVAGANZA

[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. ]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ what he expected: maybe food and easvedropping on the event. probably some laughs and information gathering. what he didn't expect? to be stuck in a chair and unable to leave. well okay then. despite his debonair charm, this could get dicey. there's very little chance of akira taking this seriously.

if you ask him absurd questions, he'll definitely appreciate it. if you try to take this seriously? he is going to deadpan. it's up to you. either way, he is not enthused by any of this. ]

Ah... I see. [ what does he see? who knows. but he's just going to munch on a breadstick. ]

I'm not in the market.

[It's sort of rushed out, if still in a monotone. This is a terrible experience and he is flustered, awkward, and unsure how not to critical fail all of his Social Interaction rolls.]

It's pretty fucked up that the exchange of goods and services is a primary metaphor used to describe a relationship that is purportedly pure and beyond all other social bonds.

[He's disserting out of extreme flusteredness, yes.]

[jeanne is actually clutching to her chair, especially after it's just moved (sometimes magic resistance is a problem, and she may be participating in this more for the palai), but that's not the reason she looks so horrified.]

P-Potential mate?!

[someone is having trouble with the big "m" word]

[the day started out with flynn walking around and minding his own business. suddenly, he finds his butt in chair and getting told he's the lucky participant of some speed dating fun.

the more the palai explain, the more red his face becomes. his eyes widen at the last bit.]

P... potential mate?!

[that comes out as more a squeak than an actual question. what does that even entail?? and how is dragging strangers in this even remotely appropriate!! but... not going along with it could be seen as rude. flynn flushes more so than before and his discomfort practically radiates off him in waves.]

I... I understand the concept but-- [what does he even say. umm... questions. what's a good question...] What sort of a training regiment do you enjoy? In addition, do you prefer carrying it out in the morning, afternoon or evening?

[nailed it.]

Edited 2017-08-26 01:38 (UTC)

[actually Mikleo is having trouble not looking at the EERILY FAMILIAR BARRIER out of the corner of his eye rather than any potential partners, a bit twitchy, though he is doing his best to keep a good game face on and eat a breadstick casually

(also ftr if you're human and not spiritually sensitive you may find yourself just apparently conversing with the breadstick, though the band of energy indicates that there's certainly something stuck in his chair even if you can't see him)]

I'm not sure I've ever--thought about being matchmade?--but this is certainly an interesting cultural experience?

[Madoka is 100 percent on board with getting to know fellow coven members better, but it isn't until she's stuck in her chair and she's asked a Palai a few more questions that she realizes what's happening, and she just. sits there, bright red, staring at her hands in her lap.]

[dating when you're a magical girl isn't really a thing, okay.]

Um ... Is it okay if we just ... talk like friends, and not about dating?

O-Oh.

[Stuck in a chair, unable to escape until her task is completed... this is rousing some demons she had very resolutely been repressing. How rude. Still, it's all in good fun, probably, and the Palai have been pretty gracious hosts so far... Hakuno inhales slowly and tries to answer the first of the little papers posed as ice-breakers.]

Uh, let's see... being called "Mommy" is... something I never really had the chance to consider, before coming here. But, maybe someday. I'd love to have a family of my own. Not right now, since I'm still... really young. But someday, when I meet the right person, I think it would be really nice.

Well, historically, the higher classes all over the world—mine, at least—made it an exchange of 'goods' for 'services'. Brides and grooms, for ties or dowry, bride prices and accords. And, while that's not the case uniformly for any culture, the rulers and politics are what stand out most enduringly in history books. So it leaks into everyday phrases.

[He's disserting to a major History Nerd, so...

Go Dirk?]

So, I take it you just came to see what all the fuss was about, then?

[Geir dwarfs the chair, which stays located between his two massive foreclaws. he also dwarfs... the table. he can barely keep his head inside the barrier, in fact. after a hurried conversation between several Eltos, it's decided that his dates' chairs will come to him, rather than attempting to move him around -- it's probably better for everyone that way.

despite this, Geir seems very amused by the situation, grinning all over his face and lounging at ease after one swift, sharp-eyed glance at that too-familiar barrier. the grin might have a few too many teeth in it to be entirely comfortable for a prospective partner, but you always meet a few unusual guys on blind dates, right...?]

Oooh, ooh, I can do this! Let's see, "Are you going to eat all that?" That's my favorite question.

[maybe he's not taking this all that seriously.]

The history is definitely behind it. Its prevalence in contemporary language, on the other hand, indicates that it still continues to function as a metaphor that makes sense. Marriage as an economic arrangement is pervasive in at least contemporary Western society. Consider it in terms of bank accounts, retirement funding, et cetera. There's also the role marriage plays in the continuation of capital, which is to say the exchange of different kinds of labour that enables the reproduction of the working class. It's a particularly revelatory turn of phrase.

[Disserting is safe and everything else Isn't.]

Yeah, and then that barrier popped up. It looks like what they have on the floating island up there.

I'm pretty sure that might be the first thing you ever said to me.

[It's okay, Hakuno isn't either, if the small, amused smile she's offering up to him is any indication.

...because he's one of her first friends out here. Not because dragons are automatically out of her strike zone.]

And the answer is no, since I'm going to be moved around a lot. Let's see... What's your favorite color, Geir?

[Geir might not be mad at this but Vern is, actually growling a little in his throat; he is normal-sized and trapped in a chair and able to feel everyone at the table's emotional reactions and embarrassment on top of his own and honestly, kind of pissy in the way an overstimulated cat would be]

Do you know how to escape magical chairs. That is the most pertinent question here!

[ Speed dating is mostly window shopping anyways, and Minato's here for the bread sticks. Amazingly, he can and will eat quite a bit when he has no need to fuel himself for battle.

In between mouthfuls of bread: ]

Is that how dating works?

[ Minato's experiences with relationships are all pretty one-sided, what is exchange... ]

If I ask for a date, what would you want in exchange?

It's always interesting, to untangle where weird little turns of phrase like that came from.

[don't worry Dirk, this is a Safe Zone. An inescapable safe zone, but. Shh.]

Yeah, it's... It certainly raises some questions, for sure.

[Oh sweet merciful god no. Jake can't help panicking and trying to think of what could be the best route out of this.]

I, um— I'm not— taken but, um— W—Well I'm not looking, so, um... maybe... friends...? We can talk about anything you want! Just... please don't get interested in me romantically, I'm begging you.

[He is, hilariously, not being conceited to think this could happen. Back home he literally hadn't met anyone who didn't find him hot and it is traumatizing.]

Haha, this is getting off to a great start!

[Geir takes her reply as a permission to eat one of her breadsticks. his own breadsticks are already gone. RIP.]

And oh geez... colors. I don't know. I've never thought about it before.

[does he have a favorite color? literally no one has ever asked him this question in his life. is there going to be a test later?

red is good, but...]

I guess green! Like growing things, or a tree.

Edited 2017-08-26 02:14 (UTC)

Uh...

[ jude wrings his wrist with his hand in a nervous gesture and averts his gaze, cheeks flushed a warm pink. this... well, he doesn't know what he expected, but whatever it was, this is the exact opposite of it.

he's never been on a date. a purple talking doll stole his first kiss. why is he here? ]

So... Come here often?

[ an attempt to lighten the mood, but the laugh that follows is terribly, terribly awkward. he sort of wants to bury his head in his hands, but he resists the urge. ]

Sure. What do friends talk about?

[ Honestly. Minato's used to the eventual "here is my emotional baggage, good luck" talks, but before that... trivial chatter he isn't sure constitutes friendship. ]

Just think of it like a free meal. And somethin' other than kelp, too.

[Though after a chomp of those breadsticks, he's starting to think they're somehow made of the stuff, too. ...Well, hopefully there wouldn't be any in the shrimp.]

Have ya had a hard time in this place?

For you to never again ask me on a date.

[SOCIAL LINK BLOCKED!

Except that he's vaguely approving of the breadsticks. And actually pushes more shrimp Minato's way...]

Yes, it is a pretty soothing color. I'm...

[She thinks of a blooming tree, of nostalgia, of a never-ending dream.]

I'm fond of the color pink, I think.

[Like cherry-blossoms.]

[ "he literally hadn't met anyone who didn't find him hot" <-- understandable tho

Today, Minato's goal is to fill up on bread sticks, not find himself in a relationship, so he's alright with this. The request, though, still make him pause. ]

Romantic feelings aren't really something you can control, though, right...?

Nah. I'm mostly over having magical food poisoning.

[You dumb dopey dragon. Who Dirk is fond of, so he helpfully pushes more of the snacks over Geir's way.]

[ :(

Minato hollows out one of the breadsticks and stuffs it with shrimp. ]

Would you accept the first one, though?

[Mikleo looks up...and up...and up...and raises his eyebrows...and pushes his shrimp basket over slowly]

Help yourself--?

[he needs a moment to get over seeing a personable, friendly dragon that's as big or bigger than the ones back home. goodness.]

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[WORLD ONE] SPEED DATING EXTRAVAGANZA

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