vatheon | EVENT - VALENTINE'S DAY

◣ VALENTINE'S PARTY ◢

✗ The host club's doors are closed for most of the morning, locals scurrying in and out with an odd flair to help set up for the big event. That sure is a lot of pink and red being carted inside. They must be going all out for this Zelos fellow. Who knows why.

Residents that wander around the plaza for any reason will find a local approaching them, hyping up some aspect of the party that might appeal to them. The lights, the music, the dancing! The chance for gossip! Here, if your date goes poorly, we'll treat you to a drink. If your date goes well, we'll treat you to a drink. If you just want a drink for the sake of it... hey, you get the picture! It's something for both the single and taken alike, and the people of the city seem to be more than happy reminding you of this fact whenever they can.

✗ When it hits noon, all characters who have signed up for blind dates will receive an anonymous text. They will be wished a Happy Valentine's Day, congratulated on their upcoming date, and be asked to arrive at the host club between 5:30 and 6:00 pm. They will be given more instructions upon their arrival. And wear something flattering~! <3

✗ On their arrival to the club, blind date participants will be given a mask to wear. Once they put it on (and ONLY when they put it on), they will be given a number and escorted inside. The tables are covered in tableclothes of varying shades of white, red, and pink, elaborate flower arrangements in the center. While you are waiting for your date, feel free to enjoy the berries and chocolates set at each table, all appropriately cut into hearts and fish.

The meal itself will be three courses - an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. The menus offered will be quite broad, noting quite well for allergies. Everything just seems to be very... pink. Even well-cooked meat and dark chocolate delicacies has been given a splash of decorative color in favor of the holiday. Is that candy on the top? Oh well. It doesn't look like a "CALL ME XOXO" heart will really kill you.

Masks will be difficult to take off until at least one course of food has been consumed. It seems like someone wants you to enjoy the spirit of your "blind date"!

A NOTE: The masks will block both identity AND, in some cases, a person's gender, until they are removed. Gender identification will be up to the players!

✗ At 6:30, the club is opened for everyone else. Feel free to adventure up to the bar or glance around at the couples. They might be a little unrecognizable, what, with those strange masks on. They look so familiar, but you just can't place who is who. Oh well. Mingle a bit and solve the mystery with those around you! Have a drink. Talk about your love life or lack thereof. A bartender is always there to lend you an ear.

✗ At 7:00, the tables are cleared, the lighting is dimmed down, music is turned up, and the center of the club becomes a dance floor! Plush red couches line the edges for those that have had a rough night, and small tables of chocolates, sweets, heart-shaped h'orderves and various colors of roses dot the area. Locals are working alongside the host club and maid cafe to make sure things are kept in stock. No getting close to the bar if you're under-aged or we may just have to end your evening right here and now!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yup!" Selphie smiled as she agreed, fidgeting slightly with her mask. Then she realised what she was doing and put her hands down on the table.

"I'm sorry. I'm just gonna say this now but, I'm not used to dates." In fact..she was pretty sure that she'd never really been on one.

Naoto noticed the fidgeting. It was obvious that the young woman was nervous. To be honest, she didn't blame her. The thought was only confirmed by what was said.

"I am not used to them either," she admitted, "I had a chance to be on a few before I was brought here but..." She didn't go into it, letting her voice trail off softly.

"Ooh, really? So you've got a special someone back home, hmm?" Now that they were actually some kind of conversation, Selphie seemed to relax slightly. More to the point, soon there would be someone at their table bringing wine and food.

"Or...were you very popular - date with more than one girl?" Selphie lifted her tall glass of sparkling wine and held it across the table. "Cheers - to a happy Valentine's dinner."

Someone special... Naoto felt her heart sink. "I... had a couple.... That I was concidering, but one left before I was brought here and I don't know if anything was going to happen with the other."

If she had taken a sip of her drink, she would have nearly choked. "I was popular, yes. However none of the ones who asked for me interested me at the time. I was more involved with something other than looking for a relationship."

She quietly held up her glass of sparkling blueberry juice. "To Valentine's Day."

"Wow..." Selphie leaned forwards into the table, resting her chin in her hand as she looked at her friend with renewed curiosity. "What is that like? I mean, to be wanted by so many people?" Because, God help her, that's what Selphie has always wanted, but has never had.

Naoto leans back a little, mulling it over as she takes a sip of her drink. She wondered how this girl would feel when the truth was found out.

"I suppose you could say..." she started, choosing her words wisely, "it's not all that one would expect. Especially when you want to be seen for who you are, not necessarily what you've done."

Selphie continued to watch Naoto in this fashion for a good few moments. Who you are, not what you've done. She guessed there was something in that, but still, Selphie would love to be wanted for either of those.

Eventually, she sat back, drinking some more wine as the food arrived, "Well, I'm sorry that you've ended up without those people tonight."

Naoto was confused as she said this. Ended up with out one of those people? She was being seen for what she'd done and not who she was? Did she know who she was already?

"What do you mean?" she asked as gazed at the young woman.

Selphie blinked back at her dinner date, feeling confused that perhaps she had said something wrong. "I just mean... well, you'd rather be with them, right? And..they're home..aren't they? So.."

Naoto relaxed some, mentally and visibly. What she thought was not what was meant. She didn't have to panic.

"There have been times where I wished I was back in my world," she admitted, "but the routine I've established here has not been terrible."

Selphie picked up her cutlery and began slowly eating her salad with prawns. It tasted good, and she smiled, beginning to relax more as she continued to eat.

"Oh? So you like it here?"

Naoto also began to eat on her appetizer. The food was quite good and so she wondered how it was cooked so nicely.

She shrugged some. "Sometimes it fine, other times it's not."

Selphie nodded slowly at that, agreeing with it, but not really sure what she should say about it. "Yeah... Vatheon can really suck sometimes." Hmm, maybe that was too negative, so she tried a smile, "But it can be...nice."

"It can be," Naoto admitted, "it just depends on the situation and what's going on. The curses can be a wear, but at the same time there are some that aren't so bad."

She didn't mind being part cat. The memory dreams hadn't been great, but it could have been so much worse. She had seen the effects of the other curses. Some had been fun, others not so much. It all depended on how the coral felt that week as to what it did.

"Yeah. If only it wasn't for the curses. I mean, the really horrible ones."

Selphie hadn't minded being half fox, either. But things like playing with memories, or revealing secrets and feelings that were best kept hidden, those were just horrible to live through.

"Mm... I've heard and see that some of them were fairly bad," Naoto agreed.

She finished her appetizer before sipping more on her juice. It made her smile to have some traditional Japanese food for a meal for once. So often she had been eating some form of Western food all because she couldn't really cook well.

"This food is wonderful," finally leaves her lips for the first time in a while.

"Yeah... Some of them are pretty horrific. Whoever's coming up with them definitely has some imagination!"

Selphie smiled slightly at that, but left the talk of horrible curses at that as she finished off. "Wow, yeah, it really is good."

She had nearly finished her glass of wine when the waitress came over to collect their plates, and she asked for more.

"So...what would your ideal lover be like?"

Naoto froze at the quetion. "Ideal... lover?"

To be honest, the young detective had not thought about what she believed her ideal boyfriend would be. Of all the guys that she met, there were only two who caught her eye. Both had been amazing to her in their own way.

"My ideal lover... would accept me for me," she finally said after a few moments of silence, "They would see and know who I really am behind everything and let me be who I want to be. They would love me for me and only me. Like I said earlier, I would want someone to see me for who I am and not what I've done."

Selphie watched Naoto as she described her idea partner. She smiled gently to herself, nodding slightly at the various points she made. "Me too. I'd love to find someone who felt that way about me. But ya know, I sometimes feel like that way, I'm asking too much. I don't know if it'll ever happen, at least not for me..."

So much honesty from a girl who usually keeps herself so guarded behind her bubbly happiness - perhaps due to the combination of the mask and the wine.

EVENT - VALENTINE'S DAY

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