[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

[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...]

[notsolomon]

Gladly. We should all help each other out here after all...

Though I suppose this whole event isn't supposed to be a business meeting.

[Whoops.]

[adornmental]

Then consider it a friend meeting that just happens to involve a little business chat! All the best businesses start out as friendships, anyway.

[Clearly only the truest of truths here.]

[notsolomon]

That is true. It is good to meet someone fairly like minded here.

[Really it is.]

Some people are not so savvy here.

[adornmental]

Eh, I can give 'em a little leeway here since so many come from such different worlds and all.

[A gentle, sloping shrug follows, and he reaches forward for one of the gummy candies.]

[notsolomon]

That is a good point. Is your world terribly different?

[Oh that's right, there's ice cream. Time to start building a sundae.]

[adornmental]

Nope! It's 2205 where I come from, so it's pretty similar.

[He doesn't seem keen on building a very big sundae himself, and pretty much just loads up his bowl with fruit.]

But I was first around in the 1700s, so I can get what a huge whiplash it is. There's still a lot of stuff I'm learning how to use.

[LIKE MICROWAVES... Though he hasn't touched one since he blew the last up.]

[notsolomon]

[He's keeping it simple with ice cream, chocolate and nuts right now.]

...so you are a demon then? Or something similar to that at least?

[Not that he's judging though, since he's used to members of the more long lived set.]

But I can relate. It was the 1890's when I left home. I barely understood what the powerpoint even was when it happened.

[adornmental]

Nah, I'm a tsukumogami. We're object spirits!

[NO DEMONS HERE just good old-fashioned sword boys...

But he'll nod in response, since he was pretty much the same when he went to the modern Tokyo for the first time.]

It's a lot to take in, right? Those lights kinda hurt at first, too. That's one thing I miss... Back when people just used lanterns on the streets and stuff.

[notsolomon]

A tsukumogami...

[Well that is a bit different and yet another thing that Mathers had never covered when teaching him. But well, it's not important in this world.]>

Ah we had gas lights back home. Those were far more pleasant, though it's nice to not worry about fumes. But I think most of it is easy enough to adapt to once you find your bearings.

[adornmental]

Mmhm! The tsukumogami of this sword. [He gestures down at his hip, where the hilt of his blade is sticking out over the table. Yeah, he brought it to the carnival...]

And yeah, totally. It's just the whole finding your bearings part that trips people up at first, but it's not impossible to work around, at least. Things are easy to adapt to here, too.

[Pretty much anything comes with an instruction manual! Mostly...!]

[notsolomon]

Oh? So are you something that possessed it or something that grew with in it?

[It's hard not to be curious. He'd only just in the last half year back home gone from the denying the supernatural to becoming curious about it. So all knowledge was useful.]

Most of it is. When they are good about accessibility anyways. It feels like the less CERES has to do with it, the more useful it is.

[Now if only the instruction manuals were easier to read. It was no problem for a genius like William, but poor Kevin. The blender incident still haunted him.]

[adornmental]

I grew with it! This sword is me and I'm the sword - it's like that.

[Objects growing souls is such a common Thing where he comes from that they have their own spiritual classification, lord...]

That's pretty much how it goes, yeah. If it comes from CERES, you can trust it not to be useful, most times. ...Aside from really basic tech like dish washers or lights or whatever, but even those things glitch sometimes.

[notsolomon]

Is it because of whoever used you then?

[Isaac would have loved this guy. Once he realized he wasn't a ghost.]

I trust those better though. They usually do not talk to me like the robots do. And they are not as obtuse. It's tiring to deal with the robots at the library after a while.

[They were so damnably rigid sometimes.]

[adornmental]

Kinda. It's more liiike, mmm... Well! If an object is really well-loved or has a lot of care put into it, it can kinda grow a soul of its own. It takes a hundred years though, so it's pretty rare.

[Except then you have Haru and his 50+ sword spirits...]

Ugh, the robots are really mean sometimes, too! Have you noticed?

[notsolomon]

So affection and handling put energy into it then and that generates a soul. Or something to that effect.

[Maybe that explained hauntings back home. All that electromagnetic energy just built up and caused something like this guy.]

I find that they tend to be more obtuse than anything. Though I am not sure that isn't a form of malice.

[adornmental]

Basically! Pretty neat, right?

[Or weird, considering inanimate objects just suddenly sprouting a soul is probably bizarre to most people... STILL.

But he's nodding along in response to that.]

Mm, that's totally what I think. Intentional obtuseness? Or something.

[notsolomon]

It's fascinating. Though I imagine it is pretty rare, otherwise any object could become like that.

[Like a magic pen that had become empowered through it's owner's habit of writing inflammatory letters.

But that was a little absurd.]

It feels like they are looking at you and thinking "dumb mortals" or something to that effect.

[adornmental]

Mmhm! It's definitely not something just any object is capable of, but that's probably not surprising.

[He laughs a little at the blunt comparison, though...]

Kinda, huh? Which is weird since we already know they're human enough to die.

[notsolomon]

Perhaps it is because they do not weight death the same as we do? Or something like that. They might have no fear of death built in. And they can be potentially be rebuilt, which is a lot of like reincarnation, only less messy.

[Reincarnation which offered no advantages whatsoever. Why were you so unhelpful Solomon?]

[adornmental]

Oooh... Maybe? I never thought of it like that, but I guess it's kinda possible. Except that old CEO hasn't come back yet, I don't think, sooo.

[Maybe it only works selectively?! He sure has no clue.]

[notsolomon]

I do not think they are coming back. Whatever happened, it sounded rather unpleasant.

[As in he suspected that they had been killed. Which seemed like a rather weak way to go about your company politics.]

[adornmental]

Yeah, they were super-murdered and it was broadcast on the network. "Accidentally".

[Accidentally. He'd been willing to give the benefit of the doubt when he first heard that, but definitely not anymore...]

[notsolomon]

More like, "this is what might happen to you if you annoy us." A very nice accident then.

[Effective even, that much he could concede.]

[adornmental]

That's what I'm thinking. Fear tactics at their finest, yeah? [A sigh!] Eh, well. I guess that kind of stuff is normal for a situation like this.

[He rearranges a couple of gummies in his bowl, making a little garden scene.]

Buuut, that's pretty depressing talk for a friend date! Why don't you tell me a little bit more about yourself, instead?