Valentine's Event Round 3

"Yes very dangerous. But the reward is worth it. You'd be surprised how many people pay to see someone almost bend fire while dancing." Tofa was looking at her.

Okay, Rag was not okay. That much was evidently clear.
The poor girl had not stopped shifting since this round had started, her face a constant self-contained war between horrendous self-conciousness and near-outright panic. Whilst Keandra was certainly awkward about having been 'rumbled' in this instance, the manticore looked as if her whole world was crashing down around her. Her hands were literally shaking.

Ragnilde's level of discomfort was most evidently displayed when an initial sip of coke devolved into a coughing mess. She was obviously trying to play it off afterwards but... the drips of soda down her fur weren't going away any time soon.
Keandra considered for a moment offering to assist. Maybe seeing if they had some paper towels in the bathroom, something to clean up with? Just a simple small motion to try and tide things over a little more smoothly.
From Rag's current behaviour however, Keandra considered it perhaps best instead to pretend as if she'd not noticed. She evidently had. And the manticore would most certainly be aware that she'd seen, but-
Well, better not to make a big deal of it. She really wanted to save her coworkers psyche from further embarassment there.

Aaand then came the talking. The stuttering mumbling. The desperate conversational cries of an individual who wanted to be anywhere but right here, right now.
Keandra would be lying tosay she'd not had dates like that before. Small meetings with some strangers that had taken a turn for the embarassing and resulted in either her or her date climbing out the bathroom window.
The difference here, was that wasn't a stranger. And by accounts from both of them... it probably really couldn't be considered a date either.

This was just... happening.
This was just A happening.
And boy golly didn't it pick just the two worst people for it to happen to?

Still, through the stuttered uncomfortable response Keandra could at least hear that Rag had had a good night so far. And excellent! Good for her! As it should be! Keandra was happy for her, she must've had a couple of good dates so far. So that was... nice?
Only now, instead of a third good date, she'd been given this. Rag had been given Keandra.
The Mernayan couldn't help but feel a little guilt.

"Oh, er, me?" she snapped back to reality for a second as her colleague turned the question back on her, "I mean it's been... well, it's been alright. Not bad..." She scratched behind her ears for a second, looking kinda sheepish as she skirted around her answer.
It was true though. She'd not had a bad night. Up until now, she'd met a couple of very pleasant gentlemen, and whilst she'd enjoyed speaking to both, she hadn't really... She hadn't really succeeded. She didn't feel she'd turn either of them down if they were to come to her, but she couldn't really see herself going after them.
Now, Round 3, last chance, and she had... Rag. Not that she had a problem with Rag but- This. This wasn't really...
It wasn't exactly what she envisioned when it came to 'meeting new people'.

"...So you've met someone you've liked then?" the fox offered a small smile, deciding to probe a little further into the manticore's night. Whilst normally asking about someone's other dates would seem rather untoward at an event like this, she felt that in their circumstance it wouldn't be anything too taboo. It's not as if either of them were hoping to win each other out of this thing.
Plus, she hoped just talking a little more 'normally' might help calm Rag down a little bit.

She'd have to advice the organisers to put a 'place of work' field in next time.

"So..." Aaron said as he look at her, "I guess it'd be rude to not let you speak first so... why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?" Aaron was obviously feeling a little awkward as the last two rounds didn't go well for him with one of them being a complete self centered nut job and the other round ending almost immediately, he wanted this last round to be different.

"I like meeting new people, seeing what the city has to offer," shw'd smile. "Sometimes, I sing. What about you?" 

She had a couple of flaws that came to mind, like being annoying and clingy at times, but those weren't that important to say during a date.

First impression seemed to be everything.

Sweetie's eyes widened as she heard Ember's response. "Whaaaat~?" She looked as though she was surprised, shocked even. She stood up and slammed the palms of her hands against the top of the table. "Surely you jest!"
As she said this, she leaned in. "I can just tell by looking at you that you're absolutely divine!" 

She stopped, and her ears perked up, looking as though she just realized or remembered something. "Oh, you should come by my shop!" She let out a soft giggle. "I own a sweets shop just down the street. Stop by~ I'll give you some free treats." 

Within this time frame she had gotten herself onto the table, laying stomach down with her chin resting in the palms of her hands, and her feet kicking back in forth in the air. Items such as the flowers and small treats were pushed to the sides of the table to make room for herself. Again, this was done fairly quick. Did anyone even see her move? She laughed and starred at Ember.

"So, what do you do?" She asked, referring to Ember's occupation.

Ember was still blushing, and Sweetie’s bombardment of compliments seemingly exacerbated the issue. How has one girl suddenly made her feel all embarrassed? “Oh, you don’t mean that...” she said, waving her hand a little and smiling, trying her best to draw attention away from her bright red cheeks.

Sweetie had already changed subjects, as though she was just reminded of it. She, apparently, ran a sweets shop close by. I guess that would mean her outfit and moniker were probably associated with that, rather than the unlikely event that it was the other way around. “I... am partial to a few sweets, I guess...” she said, giggling a little.

Before she could even stop to think, again, the girl was suddenly lying on the table, her feet kicked up into the air. This caused Ember to back up a little in fright, her chair screeching along the floor a little. It was strange, though, she didn’t even seem to move, it was just like... one second she was sitting, the other she was inches from Ember’s face! 

“U-um I don’t really do anything, yet! Still on the lookout for a job!” She said, laughing nervously, suddenly finding that she was sweating.

For a few moments Bast allowed himself to enjoy the peace and quiet of the empty table, his lone eye closed as he waited for the arrival of his new partner. Which, fortunately for him, did not seem to be a long wait at all - the nearby sound of talons clacking against the floor caught his attention, pulling his gaze up and towards her!

And right off the bat, she was an interesting one! So her parents really had named her for the whole Is-Orange thing, huh? He surprised an amused smile, instead taking in notes about other keyparts of her appearance - more precisely, the neon hair and semi-confident walk.
She certainly seemed bolder than his previous date, although perhaps not as much as his first. If the hair was anything to go by as well, there was perhaps a wild streak to her.

But, again, it was best not to judge a book by its cover, hm?

He paused for a moment, snapped by to reality by the dragons brief greeting. It seemed he'd gotten so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't seen her sit down, and a brief look of embarrasement flitted across his face, although he soon had it back under control!
"ah, well, hello there! You must be Tangerine. Pleasure to meet you!" He said, grinning at her from across the table. For a moment he cocked his head to one side, before adding,

"So, speed dating, huh? This your first time as well?"
It was a simple question, but it didn't seem to go too badly last time! So uh, here's hoping for a repeat performance~

Okay, Keandra was trying. She was really trying. Unlike Rag who was sat here being an awkward, uncomfortable, unwantable mess. She was to terrified of Keandra's opinions, but seeing her trying to make the best of a bad situation was a little comforting. Especially comforting to know that the white vixen didn't have much luck tonight. That was terribly mean of her, but she needed that foundation to stand on to support herself in this conversation. This encounter couldn't be used as weaponised gossip at the water cooler when it could be fired back at you, after all.

She exhaled, rubbing her fur a little more, then taking a glance at her arm. It hadn't gone everywhere, thankfully, but it felt... damp. She was too awkward to get up and grab a napkin, so enduring this moist fur it was. A soured expression appeared on her face fleetingly, before brushing that thought aside to focus on her 'partner'. Her partner now trying to patch things together.

This was a friendly meeting. A friendly meeting. Not a date. She had to keep that in mind. Just pretend they were at a bar. It was simple. So what Keandra's doing, and make the most of it! She could do this.

Reaching for the coke again, she actually succeeded in bringing it to her lips for a proper gulp. Without getting it everywhere like an infant. "Haah..." she sighed, placing it back down and covering the dampness with her arm again, "U-uh. Sorta. She sounded like she was.. interested. I. Think," okay Rag was seriously underselling the last round, but she didn't want to rub that in Keandra's face - especially after she'd admitted to not having fantastic luck, "I guess... I'll find out. After. This is all over." Good, her speech had finally calmed down to its natural state. This was good. This was progress.

Something passed by her vision as she talked. She didn't quite catch what it was exactly, but she swore she just saw something small fly through the room. She blinked, taking a second for her gaze to linger away from Keandra with a small 'uhm...' before resuming back to her co-worker. It was probably nothing.

Okay. Okay this was a little bit better. Rag was evidently still nervous, but... well, they at least seemed to've calmed a little. Less stuttering, more conversation.
Good! Good. This was going... smoothly. Smoother. They weren't exactly being all buddy-buddy open with each other. But at the same time they were... well, there was less stuttering.
Plus, Rag feeling less nervous and awkward made Keandra feel less nervous and awkward. It was a win-win of sorts.

The fox was about to respond, her mouth already open to talk, when something caught her eye. A small movement off to one side that momentarily drew her attention. It wasn't much, but it was enough to glance to one side. Rag had clearly noticed it too.
...Oh, it was just a piece of tissue. Someone had probably dropped it on the floor. With all the people about, it probably wouldn't take more than just the brief waft of a hand or a shifting foot to summon the breeze to send that careening across the floor.
Nothing much to be mindful of!

"Well..." Keandra looked back to Rag, attempting to drag focus back to the conversation on-hand, "Only way to find out will be to hit 'em up afterwards! I'm sure you'll've hit it off though, if they seemed interested." It seemed important to encourage the manticore. It was evident she had a few self-confidence issues and well... yeah, it felt only right to give them at least a li'l bit of a pick-me-up in a situation like this. Keandra knew for herself how hard it could be attending events like this. You either came here with an upbeat optimism, or an aggressive hopelessness. Keandra could tell automatically which of those Rag fell into...

"What were they like?" the fox decided to probe a little further, "I mean, you say you think they were interested in you. You gotta tell me what you like about them!" Keandra sat back with a small smirk on her face, arms crossing. Whilst with her two dates before she'd done her best to remain as still as possible, it seemed here she was a bit more open to just... well, talking and acting normally, body be damned.
"...Were they cute?" Keandra added a little grin at the end there, trying to encourage Rag to talk up. There was no reason they couldn't just... chat. They'd both been caught in the act by each other, and had plenty of time to go. It was pointless being all secretive, and now she'd heard li'l Ragnilde might've got herself a proper date out of the ordeal? Well, she needed to know the gossip!

Nang will get up to... shake Stella's hand as he does have a heavy blush on his face.

'Umm.. Good evening.. I am Nang..... How are you this evening?'

The dog would be trying and failing to cover his face blushing from his hat. He is still not capable of doing this speed dating right.

Wow. Handshake. Given to her, a lady. She had to blink and do a double take if what she was seeing was real and not just her imagination.

Seemed like this 'Nang' fellow didn't have any proper manners.

Great.


"Stella," she'd answer coldly. "Good. I've had worse evenings."

As she approached, his visible eye had been closed. The almost meditative appearance of the frog only further sold her on this monk thing. Not that she knew enough to confirm it, of course. Ah, and there was the somewhat distracted look. Judging by the shift in his expression, he seemed to realize he'd done it too.

Tangerine's fingers tapped against the table a little bit as Bastion was quick to recover and reciprocated the greeting. She nodded and offered a smile of her own, but the hesitation over this whole social scenario was plenty evident in her face, even as she got out her, "Yeah, same." His greeting was confident, as though he had plenty of experience chatting up strangers. She was ready to guess that he was a pro at these speed dating things, but that assumption was promptly shot down by his following words.

The dragon gave another little nod in response. "Eh, yeah." She wasn't going to admit that she'd been practically shoved in here by her employer--er... roommates?

...House cats.

She'd been duped into this by a pair of house cats who no doubt got a real kick out of smushing their currently car-less companion into the holiday they shared their surname with.

But again. No need to make it clear that she wasn't here because she really wanted to be. "Tell you the truth, I, uh, came in late. So I'm not exactly sure how this works." She reached up rather awkwardly to rub her thumb along one of the short horns poking out of her hair. "We just... chitchat 'til the timer runs out?"

Kelina smirked, remaining relaxed as she looked to Tofa, her body still leaned back on the chair.

“Well look at you, sounds successful... ever get burned?” She asked with a grin, that grin would be plastered there until she got a reply.

However, as she waited, her gaze drifted to the table next to them, it seemed her little toss of the napkin piece didn’t get a reaction just yet. So, she began to rip of a smaller piece, crushing it into a tiny ball before flicking it directly towards her previous date partner. She would do so as subtly as she could, until she got any kind of response that is...

"Well..." Aaron thought for a moment, "I like traveling and competing in battle tournaments..." Aaron ticked stuff off on his fingers, he wasn't sure if he should mention that trip to little planet or his otherworldly encounters. 

~Best i not mention those...may be a bit much for her,~ Aaron thought as he Continued to think of other stuff for conversation, ~Besides she seems pretty normal. Wouldn't wanna freak her out or anything.~

"So... topics... got any interesting life experiences you wanna trade?"

Well, there was that one she met that alien friend of hers, but that wasn't something she wanted to share, given how the alien sorta merged with her.

Still, Ana wanted the conversation to keep going.

"Back when I was little, I used to free mice from  mousetraps," she'd tell him. "I didn't understand what they were for. I'd always steal the cheese."

"Heh... that means you have a very kind heart," Aaron smiled, "I like that. It also means you had a little," Aaron winked at her, "As for me... well... I became a boxer, not really a choice I wanted to make..." Aaron looked off as he cradled his right arm, the crack-like scares were visible trailing up it to his elbow.

"Anyway..." Aaron said as he shook himself outta his thoughts, "You'll have to excuse me zoning out there. Do you have any hobbies?"

Nang will is very not good at this as he walks over to get Stella's seat for her ' Please.. umm. Take a seat.'

The dog is trying his best to be a gentleman. He still thinks why he gave her a handshake... If Dyson was here he would scold him for it.

Stella was not amuses. The same thing Bastion did, with the chair.

Again, just a reflex parents hammer into their children until they know it like clockwork, not a  sign of gentlemanly manners.

So, just out of spite, she went for the chair to his right. "No, thanks," she'd grumble. "I'll take a seat here."

---------------------------------

"I sing," Ana would admit. "Couple of friends think it's okay, but I don't think it's anything special."


Oh, come on! Put some backbone into it.


You rock!

But even as an extension of her conscience, the alien really didn't help her underlying anxiety that much.

She was hoping at least one person would want to meet with her sometime later, when she has enough time to rehearse and actually prepare some topics for the discussion.

Tofa already looked irritated and through reflex, caught the little paper. "Yes...on several occasions but it wasn't anything major. " Tofo looked at the little paper and sighed. "Am I boring you?"

Kelina's gaze dropped, tilting her head as she raised her head in a rather annoyed fashion.

"Annnd you're on the bad side.." She said, huffing after her sentence and rolling her eyes. 

"Look, nothin' personal, I'm tryna be... 'nice' here, But I got a lot going on in my head now, and it'd be best you don't end up in my firing range hm? Got it? Good." She said, awfully condescendingly. Her yellow eyes fixated now.

Nang sighs as the lady just went to her seat. The dog just bow his head in shame due to he may have offended her.

'I am sorry that I offended you in any way. ... I am just nervous and.... I am not good with these speed dating, and I was only here cause my squad leader suckered me in.'

He was very apologetic, but he feels he's making a fool of himself. He wishes the time was already past the hour, so he can just go home.

"Excuse me?" Now Tofa was nerved. "I'm the one trying to be nice and it just seems that you won't even consider giving your full attention and respect! I'm thinking of alot of things too but I have the decency to give my attention to you!" Tofa stood up. She raised her voice on that last sentence. She was giving a death glare.

Kelina leaned back in her chair, folding her arms as she raised her eyebrow once more.

"Look pal, I'm far beyond pretending to be 'nice' now. And if its any consolation, you managed to hold my interest for the least amount of time of all three rounds. So congratulations for that." She would huff, not moving as Tofa stood up, even chuckling softly at her.

"Oh dear, its terribly cute that ya wanna stand up and attempt to act 'intimidating' but it won't work on me. In fact, your hot-headedness will just leave you looking like a fool. So do everyone here a favour and cool your jets yeah?" She said, still smirking, not budging an inch from her chair.

Gossip? That's what Ragnilde was afraid of. She didn't want gossip about her, she didn't want to be the new conversation! Having all eyes on her terrified her, and she got that enough! Rag tapped her fingers together, her gaze lingering towards the podium to avoid the hopeful eye of Keandra as she spoke. This entire conversation was about her, and it felt rude. It's not like Rag was interesting anyway. She didn't have any way to switch it to Keandra, since she seemed to adamant on talking about the last round. It was a casual conversation, sure, but Rag was a paranoid mess who didn't know the vixen very well.

"Maybe... if they don't. Find someone better," she mumbled. It was true. This last round could be the deciding factor. Hopefully Tofa had found someone just right for her, and Kelina could very easily have eyes for someone more attractive. More confident. More smart. More motivated. Just... better. Listen, it wasn't being harsh on herself, it was being realistic. 

But that's not what Keandra wanted to hear. It was blatant that Keandra was trying to help, and she felt a large pang of guilt that all Rag was doing was sagging her shoulders and sighing. She should be positive! Kelina could still be interested! She had fantastic luck and still had butterflies in her stomach! Clenching her fist in determination to properly steel herself, she looked back and offered a sheepish grin.

"Just... don't. Tell. Anyone about this... please," she sighed, her other hand quickly running through her mane, "Or me. Doing this. I don't-... you know..." her final words trailed off, figuring that Keandra had already got the point. She didn't need to go on and on about how she was inept. Regardless of if Keandra was also here, the vixen was a lot tougher than she was. It was something she greatly envied.

"She's-... strong. And... and tough," the hand that ran through the hairs of her mane then started to rub at her arm, a blushing red continuous on her face, "Flirted with me. A lot. Um. Said I was... cute..." She could go on and on, honestly. She could talk about how Kelina herself was incredibly attractive, how she had a gorgeous voice, how she inspired Rag to be a more confident person, how she had a strong passion for the things she enjoyed. It had only been a few minutes, but she still felt a buzz just thinking about that entire encounter. A small smile creeped up onto her face.

However, her attention was diverted with a loud and familiar voice.

Rag's head turned to the side with a puzzled look at Keandra. Was there an issue? Her own curiosity got the better of her, and she finally caught sight of the table causing a fuss. It was hard not to miss - Tofa had stood up before Kelina and-
...
Tofa. Had stood up. Before Kelina.
.........
Both of her previous dates were now in a round together. They were arguing.

Oh god. Rag's eyes widened and she bit her lip with a sudden surge of anxiety. Oh god. Had they discussed her? Were they talking about her? It was a selfish and egotistic thought to think of, that everything would be about her, but it was possible. It was entirely possible. What if they had laughed about her previously? Shared details about this sad little manticore baby? She would have been worried about them dating each other if not for the fact that Tofa was goddamned furious. Part of her was relieved, but most of her still gripped those negative thoughts.

"That's-..." she mumbled into silence, unable to finish that sentence. Rag's ears flicked back against her head and she turned back towards Keandra, evidently stressed. "U-u-uh...! Sorry I-... they just-... nevermind... where... where were we...?" She blatantly wasn't all there herself, distracted by... whatever was going on at Table 6.

The music slowly started to fade again, and the Vixen and owl had made their way back to the podium again. A new round was about to start. It came as quite a relief to Dione, seeing as her partner had been awfully quiet throughout the round. Hopefully she'd be able to forget about it soon enough. For now it was time to focus on the next round.

The wolf listened closely to see with who she'd be paired up with next and at what table. 'Yukiko..' it sounded so familiar. 'YUKIKO! SHIT SHIT SHIT!!!' Things slowly started to fall into place as she noticed the purple and white girl sitting only a few tables away from her. It was that cute girl who helped her on that space ship and in that chao garden. Fuuuuuck this was going to be awkward. 

Or was it? The canine really couldn't tell. She only knew she was scared to mess things up with this girl. She slowly stood up, saying goodbye to Cheyzy across from her, and made her way over to Yukiko's table. Before even sitting down, she noticed that she herself wasn't the only nervous one in this situation. Nerves started to take over and the poor wolf was shaking lightly as she sat down on the chair, placing her half empty glass in front of her. 

"H- Hi Yukiko. We uhmm.. we've met before a few times..." great start to a conversation, stating the obvious. "Uhm.." She wanted to say something but she just didn't know what. "S- s- so him..  how have you been?"