Valentine's Event Round 3

The clearly nervous voice almost startled Yukiko from her position, but she managed to hold her own without making it too painfuly obvious.

A bright blush appeared on her white muzzle as the green female took her seat across from her. 
Okay...Okay yes, asking how she was was a good start. Yuki sat up straight and attempted to dust herself off in her seat. 
"H-hi, Dione. I uhm, I didn't even realise y-you were attending t-this event also. What a coincidence."
A small nervous laugh escaped from her as she tried her very best to not turn into a stuttering mess in front of the pretty canine. Who said cats and dogs couldn't get on?

"I am doing f-fine. Work has been hectic, a-and Melody has been a handful. She was the one who m-made me come along to this."

The violet cat girl lowered her ears and visibally sweat dropped. Well that definitely sounded pathetic. A chao of all things to tell someone to go somewhere for their own benefit. She glanced over to the doorway that she came in to see the very chao she spoke of floating there, smiling like she knew she was being spoken about.

"Anyway," Yukiko tried to move away from the awkward situation. Also to calm down the rapidly rising heat on her cheeks. "What about y-you? What brought you here to this event?"

Keandra couldn't help but offer up a small grin as Rag mumbled away, describing her previous date. It was pretty evident that the manticore was maaajorly crushing on their previous date. And that the 'cute' comment in particular had completely won her over.
Keandra could see what they'd meant to. Watching Rag blushing and hiding away in her mane as she spoke about this girl she fancies was kind of adorable.

"You don't need to worry Rag," the Mernayan attempted to address her partner's concerns, "I'm not going to-"

She couldn't finish that sentence before raised voices could be heard from one of the other tables. Following Ragnilde's gaze, Keandra set eyes on the cause of the commotion. A couple of girls at one table had seemingly got into an argument of sorts - one was even on their feet already.
Keandra glanced at the timer for the round. Well. That hadn't taken them long.
It was a shame really. It had been a relatively quiet night so far. Like, sometimes you'd get small commotions at events like this - the nature of the whole thing set people together into intimate acquaintance, and that could lead to disagreements. Still, up until now everyone had seemed to be rather... well, everyone had kept to themselves. It WOULD be the final round where things kicked off wouldn't it?
A fox just gave a low disapproving sigh. Next time couldn't they just ring the bell?

"I'm not going to tell anyone Rag," Keandra turned back, decidedly ignoring the occurence to continue with her line of thought, "I mean for a start, I'm not that kind of person. Secondly I'm not exactly sure who I would tell even if I was going to. And thirdly..." she paused for a second, before leaning back and letting out a laugh that rivetted it's way through her whole form, "...well, I think it might be a lot more embarassing for me than it would be for you. Only, it seems you've done a lot better out of this than I have so far!" She took a sip of her drink, a smirk enshrouding her vision; "'Hey guys! Guess who got a date whilst I didn't?' Not exactly the best gossip I could spread for myself now is it?"
She offered a small snigger, before speaking up again; "I should be more asking YOU to not tell anyone." She paused for a second before adding; "...Please don't tell anyone. I really didn't expect to get caught here."

She paused for a moment more, noticing that the manticore across the table from her seemed... well, a little distracted. It seemed that the commotion a few tables over still somewhat had her attention.
"...Everything alright there?"

Tofa grabbed the table tightly and gritted her teeth at the female's words. Respectfully waiting for her to finish instead of inturpting her. " You dare say such things to me? YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I'M CAPABLE OF!" Tofa swayed to the side as she raised her fist. It looked like Tofa was about to start some dance off. She did sort of an air punch at Kelina but instead of nothing, fire came out of her hand and headed straight to Kelina. If nobody was looking this way before due to the yelling, they would from the change in temperature of the room.

Kelina has kept her arms folded, seemingly uncaring and unphased, despite the fact she was being screamed at. She then looks up, seeing an attack heading her way.

"Ugh." She would say, kicking her chair out from under her, her body moving smoothly out of the firing range, and to the side of the table, she stood there.

"Honestly, are you truly that much of a child that you resort to using your... disgusting powers in a tiny place like this?" She would say, a clear look of contempt upon her face.

"I can already assure you, you have everyones full attention now, only thing is, they all see you acting like a big, flame wielding baby." She would say, firmly, dusting her shoulders off.

"Now, as far as I'm concerned you got two choices. You can turn your little super duper flames off and go cool off.... or you can try that again, and find out how many bones of yours I can break." She would say in a low, aggravated tone.

Ah-ha! So she really hadn’t been here for the evening, that explained a bit. To be precise, it explained why the hell he hadn’t heard her name called out previously, and how the hell someone as… well, frankly striking as she was, hadn’t been noticeable all evening. He gave a small nod to himself at this revelation, reaching a hand up to idly click away at the beads on his neck.
In the distance, he caught wind of muffled shouting slowly drifting from one of the other pairs. Had somebody’s evening turned this bad already? He knew it was to be expected, but this early into a conversation? He decided it might be worth keeping an eye on, lest it evolve further…
But back to the conversation at hand! At her question, Bast gave another small nod, pausing in his bead clacking for a moment,
“That’s pretty much the gist of it, yeah! Its, uh, not quite as personal as I suspect some people wanted it to be, but its honestly just a really nice chance to meet new people! Which, I guess ultimately, is why everyone’s here!” he paused briefly, before amending with a smirk, “Nearly everyone, at least. I imagine there’s one or two who just came for the food.”
He hesitated briefly, as he pondered on a question to ask. Thinking back to his earlier date with Keandra, he realised he should… probably ask about her age, but he couldn’t think of any way of just subtly sliding such a personal question in there. Instead, he opted for a slightly more tactical route!
“So, what do you do for fun? If you don’t mind me asking, that is!”
 
He paused to say more, but the sudden escalation of the date across the room caused him to freeze up, his eye narrowing slightly as one of the pair stood up abruptly, fire tumbling from her hand before her partner swiftly rose to match her.
Every inch of him screamed to go break up the start of this fight, but he kept himself in his seat. If things got worse he’d see if he should intervene, but for now…
Well. He hoped the calmer looking of the pair had it under control for now.

"I know I know I. I just-" Rag began, but once again trailed off with a single sigh. Keandra had a point, and it's a point she already knew. The vixen seemed to be a genuinely nice person - of course she wouldn't be the type to sneer and start rumours. She was patient, she kept the conversation going, and offered smiles and even a drink to help calm Rag down. She appreciated it, she really did. And in turn, she replied with an obvious "I- I'd never! It'll just. It'll be, aheh... our.... thin... g...." She was going to make an encouraging little joke and flash a grin, but the drama happening at Table 6 made her attempt die in her throat. At this point, she wasn't even looking at her partner this round. Her attention was directly on that table. It was getting more and more heated, temperatures were rising...

Until quite literally, where Tofa punched the air and unleashed a jet of flame that illuminated the room with a roar.

Immediately, Ragnilde was on her feet, her chair clattering backwards behind her at her swift motion. The manticore's pupils had been reduced to mere cat-like slits, and her paralysing scorpion tail was raised aggressively. Wings flared outwards, she skated forward in a suddenly burst of speed, twisting around the tables that were in her path.

Ragnilde was a timid thing socially, but protecting people was her job. It was her job to react quickly, to stop fights like this breaking out, and to defend the public. Although she stammered and mumbled when dating, her gaze at the moment was hardened and cold. This was a closed, public space with vulnerable people, and here was someone shooting fire carelessly, trying to assault someone?

Ragnilde was livid.

"HEY!" she called out, coming to a sudden screeching stop in front of them, "WHOA, HEY." She raised her arms and outstretched her palms, like she was a park ranger trying to keep two feral animals from leaping at each other. "What. Do you think. You're DOING?!" Her gaze was on Tofa. How bloody idiotic could you be? People could get hurt! Kelina could have gotten hurt! The intention was to hurt her! Goddammit she was having a nice night and now she was breaking apart a cat fight! Her scorpion tail swayed side to side as she bared her teeth.

"Go step outside, Tofa," she snapped, raising her wings to shield Tofa's view of Kelina, "I think you need to cool off before you hurt someone. If you think. You're going to start. A fire fight right in the middle of a speed date event, you're sorely mistaken." Obviously Kelina could handle herself, but from the looks of things, the badger wasn't exactly helping. She remained solid in her stance to keep these two women apart. Of course, she didn't have to. She didn't need to. But goddammit she wasn't going to stand by and let this happen!

She was going to buy Keandra several drinks after this.

Kelina's responses were certainly pushing Tofa of the edge. Before Tofa could even respond, Rag came into the mix and tofa's face of anger turned into one of suprise and guilt. She backed away slowly before stopping. "I had no intention to hurt anyone in this room but I'm not going to let some asshole be completely disrespectful and let them get away with it. Perhaps respect means nothing to you but to me..." Then she stopped talking and turned around. Tofa walked out. She stopped and sat down outside the building. "..." She banged her head a little on the wall. She wasn't saying much but alot was going on in her head.

"Oh, I'm not offended," Stella would wave her hand. "I'm just a tad disappointed and bored."

Impatience. A significant flaw that seemes to show up in the worst of times.

Imprivising. Doing the best should could with the situation at hand.

Let's lighten up the mood...

"It's my first time, too. I just thought it would go a bit differently," she'd mumble. "So far, the people I was interested in weren't interested in me."

It was only a matter of time.

She will have a piece of that fox girl, one way or another.

"Really? That's better than me. I just punch or be punched for a living," Aaron chuckled a bit, "Other than that I don't have any interesting things about me," Aaron eye'd her a bit. She did seem a bit uneasy around others, did she have something to hide? Maybe she wasn't use to this sorta thing. 

"Would you be ok with singing a little here?" Aaron scratch his head in embarrassment as he asked her, "If you don't want to its totally fine and ok, don't wanna make you feel uncomfortable or anything. In fact we could meet later if you like," Aaron leaned in half whispering, "Honestly there are some crazy people here tonight."

' I was on the same boat as well. In fact, I don't know how to talk to many. I can fly aircraft without any problems ,but I can't talk well those for love' the dog will finally sit down. ' Hopefully you find someone,.... so.. ummm tell me about yourself.'

Nang is happy Dyson wasn't here. The dog will know what would happen, he pictures the sea lion would smash his hand on the table and give him an earful how he should date.

Nang will try to look at Stella, but he feels she must be disgusted by him. He only hopes she can respond to his question and not feel he's trying to push her in any way.

Upon hearing Aaron's request, Ana would blush. "I'm, uh, really not used to singing in public," she'd laugh worringly. "But apart from that, there is one more thing about me. And I don't want to show that in public either."

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Stella would lean in. She had no issue with him staring, be it her eyes or otherwise.

"Fine arts interest me and I draw and paint for a living," she'd hand him her sketchbook. "People tend to have trouble keeping up with me."

Aaron was intrigued immediately, something special and hidden? He was almost afraid to ask about it... but eh... what could it be that it was so secret. It couldn't be that big right?

"I'll tell ya what, I'll tell you something secret of mine if you tell me yours," Aaron help out his hand, "Deal?"

Sweetie laughed as Ember backed away, startled. After stating that she was still searching for a job, Sweetie leaned in with a grin. "Is that soo~?" For the third time today, she began to consider the thought of hiring others at her shop. With just her and her delivery girl there, not much was getting done. At least, not much compared to what she could do if she had more employees. "Well..." She paused for a few moments. "Keep on the lookout then! I might be searching for some help at my shop sometime soon." She said with a grin.

She soon proceeded to ask Ember yet another question. "If you don't work, then what do you do then? You go on exciting adventures? Fight bad-guys?" She giggled. It was hard to tell if she was being sarcastic or serious. "Ever fought a vampire?" With this, the air around her continued to grow heavy as the sinister feeling she gave off worsened. Something certainly wasn't right with her.

Well, this was nice. They were going back and forth, having a nice little chat. See? Things weren't so bad. This was gonna be just a niiice little relaxing-

And then things at the other table escalated. What had once been raised voices and tensions, had now developed into full blown shouting. And with a turn of that head towards the commotion, it appeared to be verging it's towards full blown assault!
What the hell had happened over there to cause this? She'd heard of these kinds of things going wrong in the past, but she'd never quite witnessed something like this before.

Dammit. She'd just about calmed Rag down too. Something as full-blown as this, and she was sure the timid young woman would be sent retreating back into her shell once more.
"Rag, I don't think this-!"
But Rag wasn't there anymore.
The manticore had already shot up to their feet - and was heading TOWARDS the chaos!

Now, Keandra had to admit, she - and she was sure many others - had in the past questioned what a girl like Ragnilde was doing working security. She, for the most part, wasn't a particularly large woman. Or a particularly intimidating one at that.
Yes, the body armour she wore around work helped. The big sting in her tail too, was certainly worth keeping an eye on.
But at the end of the day she was still... well, Rag. There was always kind of the thought there that should a security issue arise that the poor young woman would just... dissolve into a panicked pile of fluff.

This was evidently not the case.

Much to the vixen's surprise, the self-concious stuttering shy girl who just a moment before had been struggling to cope with getting a sentence out was now... well, she was taking charge of the situation. She'd seen an issue, she'd headed directly for it, and in a few short words had neutralised the whole matter before it escalated further - all with a powerful authoritive tone to back her up.

...Keandra kinda hoped for her sake noone noticed the coke dribbled down her front. It would rather take away from her dramatic moment.

Kelina was simply stood there, her arms folded firmly across her chest, standing rather nonchalantly behind Rag, an almost surprised yet, intrigued expression upon her face.

“Well Well, I didn’t think ya actually had it in ya, I’m impressed~” Kelina was day in that slow, smooth tone once again, it was as if the entire ordeal didn’t even take place for her!

Kelina then took a step or two forward until she was beside Rag, her golden eyes shifting around to view her

“But really dear, I’m perfectly capable of handling myself, you could’ve continued your last round.... or, did you just want to dash over to my aid?~ how brave and noble~” Kelina would tease, that grin plastered upon her face as she watched Tofa storm out of the door, she gave a shrug, giving a small ‘tsk’ as she done so.

“Might wanna head back over to your table though, I think we’ve caused enough ruckus here hm~?” She would suggest, leaning against her own table, truthfully, she just wanted the entire round to end so she could move on from the timed conversation format and do whatever she wanted.

As Tofa ranted, Ragnilde's glare became stern. It didn't matter if the intention wasn't to hurt anyone, but that's a definitive possibility when you're throwing fire around trying to start a fight! If those two started brawling, a few loose kicks or punches could have lead to disaster, especially in such short space! To react to words with violence is cowardly, and it's people like this which made Rag's work harder.

Respect. Respect was earned, and she certainly didn't have Rag's or Kelina's. The moment she acted out with assault was the moment she immediately lost the argument, whatever happened between them. She said nothing to her, and only watched her leave, ensuring that she had indeed removed herself from the building.

Well, with Tofa out the room and things starting to slow down to its standard romantic pace, so did the adrenaline in her body - that came to an immediate halt. Her mind went from an active state to stopping assault in a closed space to 'oh god is everyone looking at me now' and she immediately reverted back into her social anxiety. "Guh..." she exhaled a small breath, recoiling her wings to snap against her back and turning to the badger. Her tail receded between her legs and she immediately looked panicked.

It's not that she thought Kelina couldn't handle herself, but she doubted the person Tofa was arguing with would help the situation. She'd learnt from experience that when two people are heated with each other, it's usually an outside force which breaks it apart. Even if that outside force is her. It was a good guess that Kelina here would have added fuel to the fire, and she didn't want that to set the place ablaze.

"I just- I didn't-..." she mumbled, rubbing her arm with her ears low. She didn't want to offend her! "Used... to this. Just- doin'. What I'm good at. H-hahah..." Looking up at Kelina, the manticore gave a sheepish smile and burrowed her head into her fur, giving a small 'thanks' and a nod. Anything else would have made her stammer and blush more than she already was, "I'll-I think. I'll... I'll see you after this round...!" she timidly (and excitedly) squeaked, jogging back to her table.

Realisation kicked in as she was heading back with her gaze low. Keandra had been watching the whole time. How many people had been watching. She didn't want to cause a scene but now she looked like some stupid dumb wannabe jerk-hero, when all she was doing was doing what she was trained for! Picking up her chair that she'd knocked over in her rush, she refused to look the vixen in the eye. She sat down. She took a large swig of coke.

And then she held her head, lightly rested her head upon the table face-first, and muttered a tiny "aaaaaaaaaaaa" followed by a "whydidIdothattttttttttttt" and a little bit of "thatwassodumbbbbbb"

Nang takes a look and see the wonderful artwork in it. He was amazed of her work.

' I am sadly no professional critic, but.... I do like your art... it is very well done and I .. Know I would not be able to produce something of this quality...' He will politely return the book to her when he is done looking at it.

'I just mainly fly test aircraft for my father's company. Anything from civilian to military models. Even experimental ones for testing purposes.' he wants to say more, but he doesn't want to bore the lady. So he decides to ask.

'Ummm.. Do you have any questions for me?'

Well obviously those flames were gonna grab attention from some people, like the cyan coloured pianist for example. And the teal fox. Brother and sister ran towards the problem. The boy already having some sort of gauntlets formed around his blouse that had its sleeves up.

It seemed like Ragnilde had already taken action. The sweet thing. "Okay. You''ll patch some things up here, I'll go outside." "You sure? I mean maybe she's gonna shoot fire again." "Yeah and when she does you'll end up super fried. Let me do this." "Right...okay!" And so the teal fox went outside while the cyan fox walked over towards Kelina and Ragnilde.

"Hi. I'm Bou. I like, play piano and stuff...uuuuh...Sorry I didn't think I'd be talking to you people!" He scratched the back of his head with his giant gauntlet. He then looked at Ragnilde. "You did a good job there! Now I don't have to pull them out of each other. This could've been a mess if you didn't step in as soon." He smiled, that smile quickly kinda, faded away when he looked at Kelina.

"Look miss, I know that SHE was the one who threatened you, but I also know that you're quite the sassy gal. So do understand that this is also your fault." He looked away, being quiet for a moment, as if he was thinking very hard about something. Should he say it? "Look, I kinda like your style, but ya gotta get that not everyone can take your kind of behaviour. It was really mean what you said there. I heard you y'know...Tofa did at as well, but you Kelina, you also switched moods quite suddenly. That can make people do very weird stuff."

He held his left shoulder with his right gauntlet and looked troubled. He didn't want to be this mean to her, especially because he wasn't sure if she was going to burst at him, but he had to, because this was the event Luka really wanted to succeed. "Look, why don't you just go back to your table and wait until this round ends. And IF Tofa comes back, just try to be a bit nicer. I bet you could do that. If you can't do it for me, or for Tofa...Do it for Ragnilde. I'm sure she would like you to behave..." And then he probably like, walked off back to the piano.

Meanwhile outside of the restaurant, Luka ran out of the door, quickly looking around her. Oh! Tofa was like, almost right next to the door. She sat on the floor. "Oh gosh..." Luka looked at her. She seemed so sad. She could feel her almost. She sat down next to her. "Hope you don't mind if I take this spot for a moment..." She grabbed two small rocks from the ground and fiddled with them in her hands. After a few moments...she spoke. "I'm sorry the event didn't give you what you wanted. I hoped that the partners I gave you would be quite amused with you. You seem so interesting! And you're such a beauty!" She smiled and gave her a pat on the back.


"But ehm....You shouldn't like....shoot fire at people. That's pretty much not okay. Not even when someone like, upsets you a lot...Cuz it upsets other people. AND like, the one very trained fighter there." She suddenly remembered she was wearing a tuxedo suit. Being on this dirty ground probably wasn't good for it, but she didn't care. A gal needed some help right now. "I hope you at least had SOME fun today. Maybe there are other people I didn't pair you up with that might be interested in you. You should definitely take a look!" The fox then waited for a response.

Tofs looked up when she say another had came and sat next to her. "I know but... I don't take well to jerks... Though I'm pretty sure I've lost today. Dumb jerk gets what she wants and I'm just here. Person I thought we could at least be friends with probably hates me and now everyone thinks I'm the fool. "
Tofa looked like she was about to cry. "Why do I even try?" She wasn't even talking to the teal fox anymore. She was just rambling on.

Stella would lean even closer. "What was the most dangerous thing you ever rode?" she'd ask. "And if you could compare it to something, what would it be?"

The cat sets its trap and patiently awaits the response. A few cues would then tell if the interest was mutual or not.

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Ana had didn't see any issue with it, even if a part of conscience and her alien friend protested. Plenty of people probably had powers similiar to her.

She'd show him her hand, an orb of light forming in its palm. A single streak of her hair glowed brightly.

"Acquiring these powers was a lifechanger," she'd say. "But their origin is why I'm afraid to show them to just anyone."

Dione fiddled quietly with her thumbs as she listened to the purple feline's explanation and smiled at the comment of Melody making Yukiko attend the speed dating event. If only her own reasons were that adorable as well. Unfortunately it was just Felicia who kept annoying Dione about entering the event. Did she think she was a pathetic girl by not having a boy- or girlfriend?

Yukiko in her turn asked the canine how she had been doing lately and what brought her here. "I uhh... I've been okay. Just busy with school and the guild and all that.." She paused for a minute, trying to find a way to tell her the reason of coming her, without sounding pathetic. "My uh.. M- my friend told me to come here. She said it would be about time I found someone for myself as well. She's uhm.. got a boyfriend and they're like.. always very cute and stuff and she said I should do that too."

Then she realised what she had said. "NOT WITH MALAKAI OF COURSE!!" Whoops, that was loud. The green girl hid her face with her hands. This was embarrassing. "I mean.. with someone else.. Someone uhm... 'for myself'?"

Aaron let out a low whistle, "Well considering all the stuff this world goes through I don't think anything could surprise me," Aaron leaned fowards in his chsir making sure he didn't speak to loudly, "I found an ancient Robot who was apart of an entire species of living machines that existed way before any of us. They had time travel down before we had even explored all of the world. you wouldn't believe how friendly and kind he is," Aaron smiled a bit as his mind trailed back to the time he first met Gear. It had been an amazing experience teaching the robot all about the world, how to defend himself, even helping him regain his memories.

"Maybe you could meet him sometime, he's usually exploring all over the place and its impossible to keep track on account of how curious he is," Aaron leaned back in his chair again, "but that's my little out of this world experience, you can feel free to tell yours if you wish still. But i totally understand if you feel uncomfortable about it."

Ana would take a deep breath and start talking. It wasn't exactly at a whisper volume, but it was still considerably quieter than he usual speaking voice.

"A small meteorite crashed in my our backyard. Mom and dad were't home and I went closer to investigate," she'd tell him. "Some kind of goo was leaking out of it. When I got near it, it sort of... disappeared into my arm."

The rabbit would pause, let Aaron take that in.

"It's an alien," she'd proclaim. "And it's what gives me my powers."

Ember giggled a little, mostly out of a mix of confusion and nervousness. Was this girl advertising jobs or flirting with her? It wasn't exactly clear, "haha, I'll keep a look out..." She said, before Sweetie quickly moved the subjects onto adventuring.

Ember looked away, considering just what she'd "o-oh, well, I used to do... Something like tha-" she stopped when Sweetie interrupted her, asking if she'd ever fought a vampire. The air suddenly went chill, making Ember visit shiver a little. "U-um well, no... Those don't exist... R-right?"

'That would be the SX-28 StratoFighter prototype. It was made for combat in the stratosphere. Not only you will feel a thrust of heading up there, but also you feel the pressure on the plane and on yourself. I had to equip a special flight suit, so I don't black out. The view is very nice to see.... I hope I can try a space capable fighter though...'

Nang will feel he was very long-winded as he looks to Stella hoping she was interested.