Blind Dates: B TABLES.

[goldhearted]

What: BLIND DATES! Round 2.
Who: Anyone who was sent a note with the letter-number combination B#.
Where: Off-campus restaurant. AND BEYOND!
When: November 30th, eveningtimes.
Warnings: ???
ALSO, HEY, TAG YOUR CHARACTERS WHEN YOU REPLY TO THIS LOG. ♥

[The second group has been told to find some place somewhat out of the way. It's at the other end of the city, and maybe a little harder to find than the others. The dining room is bigger than it looks from the outside, though, and it's actually rather nice. There's quiet music playing overhead. There seems to be a little of everything on the menu, but it all does seem a little fancy. It's expensive, but it's not like you're paying, right?

It might have been smart to dress nice- but not too nice- for your date. At least that's what Gold suggested!

There's a candle at every table. Beside each candle, there is a card. On each card, there is a different letter-number combination.

Find your table!

And feel free to leave at any time, with or without your date.]

Comments

TABLE B2: character whose name starts with C posts first.

[goldhearted]

[makesitcool]

Cress diverged from his brothers to walk to his table, sparkle, and sit down. The restaurant was elegant and decidedly low-key with a contemporary flair. Rather dark, though, but he supposed that was in keeping with setting the mood for an evening date.

He wasn't nervous about meeting his date. Why, he'd been on quite a few before. The only amount of anticipation that rose within him was the prospect of awaiting his company for the night, imagining all sorts of possibilities. It was fun to think about, keeping in mind of course that Smash Academy was host to the strangest variety of people he'd ever known... Whoever showed up to the vacant seat before him, he looked forward to an enjoyable evening with them.

[tidalwaves]

Maybe to make up for how not nervous Cress was, someone else with a decidedly very nervous energy walked into the restaurant. Marie wasn't entirely sure if having his teammates in the same restaurant was a good or a bad th-- wait, was Sasha sitting down with Jolt? Okay, yeah, definitely a bad thing.

After some hesitance, Marie timidly found his table. It wasn't a pretty lady, but he ended up being a little relieved about that, actually. Much less pressure...

He tried to pull his seat out as unobtrusively as possible, sat down, and shrugged at Cress as if that was some sort of decent greeting for Cress.

[makesitcool]

The brusque arrival and lack of any real greeting whatsoever left Cress taken aback, and maybe a little offended. What kind of an attitude was that? He surveyed Marie up and down before making the first move to speak. "Good evening. I assume you're my date?"

[tidalwaves]

"Uh..." Marie glanced down at the paper he'd written his table number down on. Yep. B2. "Yeah, I guess so. Sorry, like, if you were expecting something else, or whatever... It's not my fault."

Already on the defensive. He was clearly a little tense.

"I'm Marie, by the way, I guess?" he added. There. Maybe that was a better introduction.

[makesitcool]

Cress could find it in him to silently forgive the sour impression he had made and move on to better horizons. It wouldn't do to be off on such a rough start when they had the whole evening to share. Marie did seem shy, and how did he say he would treat his date if he were shy?

"Marie... Pleased to make your acquaintance." He smiled and made a sweeping hand gesture to himself. "And you may call me Cress."

[tidalwaves]

Good luck, Cress, you'll need it.

That was exactly it; Marie was incredibly shy. Well, it didn't help his mood much that his sister was on a date with some jerk he really couldn't stand just a few tables down...

The gesture to himself was a bit much, wasn't it...?

"Nice to meet you," he mumbled back, nodding slightly.

[makesitcool]

Now that names were established and Marie's sex internally questioned maybe three times before he decided he was probably a boy, Cress allowed a pause to settle between them. He wondered briefly if perhaps the revelation that he, Cress, turned out to be his date and not a charming young lady or someone else similarly appealing to the tastes of a young man contributed to his attitude, but tossed that troublesome thought right out because it pricked at his feelings to believe it, no matter how understandable the sentiment was. Instead, he focused on something else.

"Those are quite the intriguing..." He pointed to his own head twice, each point representing one of Marie's ears. They made him wonder if they were decorative adornments or a sign that his date wasn't usually human.

[tidalwaves]

"Huh?"

Marie glanced up, as if he would have been able to see the fluffy wings Cress was referring to. "Oh, these?" he mumbled. With an idle hand, he touched one of the wings. It had been a few months since he evolved- and subsequently gained the fluffy things- but they still felt quite new to Marie.

"It's, um-- I'm a Pokemon, or whatever. A Wartortle," he finally explained.

[makesitcool]

A transformation happened just then. It was his entire demeanor. For the first time during their meeting, the Pokemon trainer truly lit up.

"A... Wartortle, you say?"

[tidalwaves]

Unfortunately, Marie didn't seem quite as moved by his own declaration.

"Yeah. ... Are you a trainer? Or, like, something like that?" he asked. Cress seemed awfully interested in him all of a sudden. Frankly, it made him feel a little shier, although he tried not to show it.

[makesitcool]

"You've guessed!" It wouldn't be a far stretch to assume Marie might already be familiar with who he was, but nonetheless, it would be appropriate to talk about himself a little. Just in case. "And I, Cress, happen to be a water-type specialist myself."

[tidalwaves]

"Oh. That's cool," Marie replied, sounding rather uninterested. It wasn't his intention though. Marie didn't run into a whole bunch of water-type specialists. Really, he couldn't think of any other than Misty. He wasn't so good about keeping up with each region's gym leaders... "What kind of water-types do you train?"

[makesitcool]

If only he were actually... more impressive. Cress's eagerness toned down a key as he wished sorely that he could brag on and on about the beautiful and terrifying aquatic Pokemon he didn't even train yet. A Feraligatr as magnificent and fierce as Lyra's... Or maybe, a Slowking who not only possessed an admirably sharp intellect but the refined ability to keep cool despite all pressures bearing down upon it. And in fantasies cast faaaaar out into a realm of impossibility, the thought of Kyogre kind of took his breath away. He could go on and on about individual merits of each water-type Pokemon he'd read up on through the years, but he didn't even train a single one of them. He wasn't at that level yet. The reminder was harsh.

But even with all the scintillating ideals he'd cooked up about his future Pokemon training career in that imagination of his, he could never take for granted what he already had, and so he was more than willing to speak fondly of his modest roster. "Panpour and Basculin. Those are the only two water-type Pokemon I have personally trained thus far." Some specialist! Cress anticipated scrutiny, if the Wartortle in front of him found reason to dish some out. He gracefully awaited it with nothing more than a pleasant smile on his face. After all, Marie came across to him as bored off his chair or fed up with this conversation and it was starting to eat away at his confidence.

[tidalwaves]

At that, Marie... didn't really know what to say. He'd pegged himself a specialist, but he had only trained two water-type Pokemon. That really wasn't much of a specialist at all! He was young, sure. But by his age, Red had been training a whole team of Pokemon.

But, fortunately for Cress's ego, Marie was too timid to criticize him. He just raised his eyebrows and replied, "That's interesting."

Which he knew wasn't much to respond to. After a very brief berating of himself for not making decent conversation, he added, "I don't know that much about those, really. ... Unova, right?"

[makesitcool]

"Yes. You must come from a far away region. There aren't any Wartortles in Unova unless they are with trainers," he deduced. Then, with a bit of extra alacrity pushing behind him, added, "Cress could introduce them to you if you'd like."

[tidalwaves]

Did this dude seriously just refer to himself in the third person...? Oh well, Marie let it slide. Sorta. He lowered his eyebrows briefly and frowned rather blatantly.

"Kanto, yeah. I guess it's kinda far from Unova." Pause. Marie didn't really want to be introduced to the trainer's Pokemon, but it wouldn't really be totally polite to decline, hm? He just shrugged and replied, "That'd be alright. Sure."

[makesitcool]

It didn’t really occur to Cress how reluctant Marie should be to meet his Pokémon, for he was sunk so far into his own adoration for them that any social cues that expressed otherwise were lost.

"Well then! Allow me to show you my most treasured partners, Panpour," - and in the midst of his speech he quickly produced two Poké balls nestled together in one hand, extended his arm out perpendicular and straight, and with a dainty flourish of his wrist pressed the button to let the aquatic monkey Pokémon out - "and Basculin," he finished, the red-striped fish Pokémon materializing beside Panpour. Panpour looked expectantly at the humanized Pokémon he was meant to be meeting with its eyes closed how, and Basculin- well, Basculin wasn't quite as docile and well-mannered as Panpour and rather than patiently staying around to get acquainted with strangers opted to fly the fuck off the handle and charge straight for Table B9. No one was ready for it.

[tidalwaves]

Marie had been content to nod along with the situation, greeting Cress' Panpour with an almost-nearly-smiling expression. And then there was Basculin.

And that. Certainly. Was... a thing that was happening.