[closed-ish] Signs of love overshadowed by dreams

[pseudonyms]

Who: Everyone who signed up for speed-dating/speed-friending! (and maybe some people who just wander in?)
When: IC Date: 6/9
Where: A large booth at the CERES Academy cultural festival
What: Rise's holding a special event to help bring people together at the cultural festival! This may be chaotic
Rating/Warning: N/A thus far! Rise with a megaphone might be a warning though...


[The cultural festival at the school has been in full-on planning mode for a few weeks. Rise is no exception to the planning and included in the flyers that have gone up is a notice printed on bright pink paper and bold lettering for a very special event.

The booth itself has been set up with a small cluster of tables to accommodate for the amount of people who have been signed up and even for a few last-minute sign-ups. The tables themselves have been decorated with special candles and a tray containing two bowls, two spoons, and a a tray with all the ingredients needed for an ice cream sundae.

At the front of the booth is a collection of heart-shaped name tags with all of the names of each individual whose signed up, along with a number attached. Rise will smile at each person, handing both the name tag and a small envelope to them with instructions not to open it until she says so.

It’s only when everyone has arrived and is crowded inside the booth that she pulls out a megaphone (and really, who gave her that?) and she turns it on.]

Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cerealia School Speed-Matching event! Meeting people can be really hard here, but don’t worry, we’re making it easy! You’ll see that the tables all have numbers assigned to them. On my count, open your envelopes and see who you’re starting with. When the bell rings, switch partners! Seems pretty simple, huh?

[Nobody gets to get a say in this apparently, but they may see one Yu Narukami who’s sitting on the table behind Rise just watching everyone casual as can be. Why is he wearing glasses? Who knows.]

Okie dokie! Let’s get this show on the road! On your mark…get set…open!

[Hope you’re ready, colonists. Inside each envelope is a starter number for the first match, and also a list of starter questions for asking people about themselves. Some people have lists corresponding with the speed dating route, while others are for the “friends only” route. But wait…what’s that? Some of those lists are crosswired? Your character would try to mingle with everybody and flirt anyway? Well hey. At least people will be talking and mingling.

Oh, and don’t mind the people who may wander in and out of the event. Rise will try to moderator the event to her best ability but hey, she’s pretty social herself. Some people are bound to slip in and out under her watch. Have fun! And remember, beware of the bell! (Or Rise announcing "SWITCH" in a loud voice via megaphone, same thing.)]

[ooc: Hello everyone, welcome to the speed-friending/dating event! Thank you to everyone who signed up; above you’ll see a list of people and numbers for you to pick from! Pick your number and your friend/date by visiting the number generator to randomly pick a number to match your character with! Feel free to post top-levels inviting others to just tag in or tag around, too, without using the RNG. Any questions, please hit me via PM or on plurk at alternatively]

Comments

[moribound]

[Minato's absently picking out some flavors himself while listening to Chie. He's not sure what to make of it considering she's talking more about Yukiko than herself...it's nice, but ultimately they're here to make friends with each other.]

I see. So she's been trained to run it since she was young too...how did the two of you become friends? [It's something he's genuinely curious about at least, since he doesn't have any childhood friends to speak of.]

[rejuvenate]

[ Oh, well, don't feel too bad, Giorno was at fault too for misunderstanding himself. And though Giorno doesn't comment on how their experiences are pretty much shared, he does note of it. It wasn't as if he didn't believe what he heard but hearing more of it was important.

Especially when so much here seemed to pass via word of mouth. ]

You must be from an interesting world, if this reminds you of home. [ Because that definitely stands out regardless of what he's saying. ] Nothing about this place really quite reminds me of that.

[ Hmm.... ]

I was told that things happen here pretty routinely. Has that been your experience as well?

[rejuvenate]

I see. It sounds as if your master is quite the handful.

[ This....has been truly enlightening. ]

[notsolomon]

I actually do not have too much to do with them, but this seemed like something worthwhile to be involved in. And he promised it would be at least somewhat classy.

[Don't let him down Angelo.]

[dirtdevil]

[ uhhh... wow. this guy's even weirder than he thought. he gives Hiro a dubious look, clearly not buying it. ]

A demon ghost?

[ okay, so maybe he's a little curious. ]

[good_ideas]

[Shiho pauses because usually people would have gotten offended by this point (not that she makes it hard for them when she's about as fun to be around as a cactus sometimes).]

Well, yeah. I guess. [She's an only child but she's seen enough siblings to know that most of them normally wanted good things for each other. Except maybe Gilliam but that was a whole other kettle of fish.]

And they did. I don't know the guy but I figured I might as well come. It's not like I had anything better to do. [She'd never admit that she needs friends.]

[good_ideas]

Right. Like your opinion matters to me. How about you stop acting like some kind of host instead?

[spaghettibia]

[ It's gonna be the coolest special attack you've ever seen. Just you wait! He rubs his hands together excitedly, before pulling a bone out from some...where. ]

Very well! Prepare yourself to be razzled, dazzled, and bamboozled beyond your wildest dreams!

[ He stands, preparing to do the special attack! IT'S GONNA BE SO COOL HE REALLY DOESN'T GET TO SHOW THIS OFF ENOUGH -

Before literally anything happens, a small white dog zips through the room, jumps over the table, and swipes the bone right of out of Papyrus's hand and into his mouth before scurrying off to regions unknown. ]

[good_ideas]

[It's because Shiho would have wanted an apology when she was five years old and found out their babysitter was trying to slip them psychic-power-suppressants in their food. And when she was ten and their supervisor told them to be good and had them wear shock collars like animals. She's long since past the point of thinking anyone will actually give her an apology but that didn't mean she'd begrudge others theirs.]

Of course not!

[adornmental]

Nice, nice! Let me know when you guys open up and I'll see if I can send some business your way, 'kay? A lot of our clientele enjoys classier places to drink, but tons of the better ones are in the pleasure district.

[Which some people just don't want to go to at night...]

[freeinghorror]

True, but sometimes I wonder if some people would rather stick to what they know instead of play with what they don't know.

[It was silly to do so given the circumstances, but Jinga tries not to judge too harshly. After all, such disconnections within humanity was part of how he was able to push open the boundaries for Inga. He may not be able to do that here, but still, it was habit.]

[adornmental]

Mm... I guess it kinda makes sense, but still!

[He's-- Actually, he stayed away from the microwave after he blew it up the first time, so he can totally understand where some of that apprehension might have come from.]

Maybe we should set up some sort of class for the technophobes out there.

[freeinghorror]

There are a few electronics that could be deadly if used wrong, but yes, people do need to reach out for help a little more.

[The idea of teaching anyone anything had him chuckling. He wasn't that bad at it, but he wasn't also that invested in the other people of this place to take time to do so.]

For free? Or would you ask for donations?

[adornmental]

For free! [He teaches his classes at the dojo for free too, so the thought of asking for donations hadn't even occurred to him.]

I guess considering how high-tech this city is, it's kinda like a crash survival course, right? Something like that should definitely be available to anyone. But I guess people could donate some electronics if they want, since I don't wanna bash up our new microwave or buy a ton of stuff just for demos.

[niceguypose]

I apologize! [He kicks the chair out of the way.] As hot-blooded young men, we should fight using only our bare hands!!

[niceguypose]

[He smiles bashfully.]

Thank you, Usagi-san! With the blessing of someone who has found such an incredible love... I feel that I cannot fail!!

I- I am not sure which path to follow. But you are right. This speed dating is one opportunity! I promise to do my best!

[wolfpuppy]

Definitely.

[He nods. The only one from his world so far has been his greatest enemy to date, but he's been able to make friends quick enough to help mitigate that. The fact that Jinga can't really do much of anything outside needling him probably helps, too.

Hopefully that sticks.

At this point, Ryuuga's already starting to dig into his sundae, and he has to think about that second half, looking pensive while with a spoon hanging out of his mouth. After a moment, he takes it out and twirls the spoon between his fingers before replying:]

Good question. There's a lot of what they're doing that's going over my head, but I can't help but get a bad feeling from it. I don't know if it's from past experience or what, but there's a lot that feels ... wrong. And honestly I can only count a few instances where that kind of gut feeling's been wrong.

[feminine_carnivore]

I didn't kick you randomly!! And boys don't go around giving terrible nicknames to girls they just meet either!

[ She's not apologizing at all. Because really, when did she ever apologize to Yosuke? She's pretty sure this guy deserves it anyways. So she's just crossing her arms over her chest and turning away from him in her seat! ]

Some hero you are!! You can't just call yourself that you know! You actually have to do something heroic!

[feminine_carnivore]

[ Chie's just. Really really bad at this. The idea of a normal date with a boy, much less of the blind variety is really weird for her. She had nearly backed out like ten times before she actually made it here. And even then she was constantly pulling down on her dress, feeling like people were looking at her weird.

But talking about Yukiko makes everything so much easier. ]

Yeah, it's awesome! If you're ever in Inaba make sure you stay there! They call it "the treasure of Yasoinaba". [ Laughing, Chie picks up the chocolate syrup. And goes a little nuts with it. ]

She found this stray dog and ended up running away from home, because her parents wouldn't let her keep him. I just saw her on the side of the road one day crying... [ Chie squeezes the bottle a little, luckily nothing spills out, but she's clearly missing Yukiko... ] I just wanted to do everything I could to protect her. So we became friends, and I took Muku home with me! And we've been inseparable since.

[ Oh wow that got serious!! Oops. ] Ahaha, s-sorry. You probably didn't want to know the whole thing! You're like, an easy guy to talk to I guess!

[playboyknight]

And yours don't matter to me either nor does any of your supposed advice. So now that we've gotten this out of the way, are you done?

[saudadist]

[ She has no earthly idea what to expect from him, so when that dog jumps up from nowhere and bounds away, she's jumping a mile out of her skin and watching it with wide eyes. Was it a dog? Or a white blur of fuzz? Who knows! ]

That's...that's actually cool. [ Low as her voice may be, it's not missing any of the wonder one would expect from a screech of delight. ]

[saudadist]

[ Regardless of whatever reasons she has, Lucy's pleased. It's strange to hear someone apologize, but it's pleasant too. Something tells her not to get used to it, but then, another part of her chastises her for being so negative. ]

...cosplaying is for that "anime" stuff, right? Or video games...you ever seen any?

[theshiningone]

Jeez... You sure like yelling a lot, Bowlcut. You're gonna attract a lot of attention toward us!

[Not that Hiro minded attention... But people were going to get weird ideas about him (or THEM) at this rate. Feeling kind of defeated, he just plants his face into his hands with a irritated noise. This chick was absolutely crazy!]

I'm enduring this torture you're putting me through. That should earn me tons of hero points.

[theshiningone]

Ah, well... Back home, we've had demons who ran amok in the world and started killing people and destroying stuff. I was one of the few people who could stop 'em.

[He had a lot of feelings towards those events, but he's sounding like it wasn't his problem.]

Did your world have monsters or anything like that? [He's just throwing it out there since he assumed by now that everyone went through something in their world.]

I 300% THOUGHT I RESPONDED TO THIS, i'm so sorry this is so late?!

[jinko]

My passion?

[ Ah... he's never thought about things in these terms before, so he takes a moment to actually consider this, with chin to hand and head tipped to the side. ]

I... think I'm still looking for one, maybe. My job back home— I felt really strongly about that, but things are a little different here...

What do you think 'passionate' entails, Adelina-san?