entrancelogs | ( semi-open ) love is a many splendored thing

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( semi-open ) love is a many splendored thing

Who: Everyone who signed up for SHIPPING
Where: All around Wonderland! See below for specific locations.
When: Tuesday, September 9, evening
Rating: PG13 just to be safe, but if anything gets steamy (she hopes it does), I can up the rating.
Summary: Becky sets Wonderlanders up on blind dates. Also, will be image heavy.
The Story:

You receive a letter under your door sometime on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 9. This letter will be addressed to you in fancy script (Becky's best attempt at calligraphy) from a "secret admirer." You might be wondering, but it isn't February! What's with all the romantic nonsense? Well, my good friend, romance can be celebrated on more than just one day out of the year. That day happens to be today. The letter will ask you to meet your secret admirer at 6PM at a designated location. You'd best not be late! A night of romance (and perhaps even intimacy) awaits you! At least, she hopes so...

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senpai noticed me

[ there's a boombox on the small table behind them that's playing the war of the worlds radio drama narrated by orson welles. ]

[Kaneki really has no idea what to think about the invitation he receives. Considering he only knows a handful of people and having little experience so far to draw upon, he figures it must be another event. He considers using the network to find out what's up with this and see if anyone can give him more information, but then decides to go ahead and investigate on his own first.

He's really not expecting the setup he encounters when he arrives in room 252, but he feels a little under dressed in his jeans and sweatshirt (not even a regular sweater like normal! Come on Ken, get it together). That feeling passes pretty quickly and is replaced by pure confusion as he steps inside and examines the table, the place settings.

He can't smell anything edible, so whoever (whatever?) set this up clearly doesn't know him personally. He's okay with that, though he feels a little nervous that there are two place settings. His few attempts to practice eating regular food have always ended terribly (and vomitously) and he can't imagine he'll be able to manage it with the added pressure of an observer.

Uncertain what to do now and still clueless about why he's here at all, he stands next to the table with one hand cradling his elbow and his free hand to his chin. For a minute or two, he only moves to adjust his eye patch over his left eye before he goes back to considering the situation.]

[The note is entirely unexpected and Sam really isn't sure what to make of it. Is it some sort of event? Simon would be more blatant, and apart from Simon he has no idea who would be sending him notes like this. He doesn't know all that many people, and none of them seem the type for this sort of thing.

Maybe it's the mansion playing tricks on them.

...what even happens if you ignore it? Probably nothing good. He's learnt enough to be a bit wary of the house and it's whims, which is why he does turn up at the appointed time. He eyes the door for a moment before reaching out to knock.]

Hello?

[Lost in thought, Kaneki jumps at the sound of the knock. He turns and stares at the door for a moment, certain that there is no real good way to interpret this scene if he opens it. He doesn't hesitate for long though before he moves toward the door and pulls it open.]

Um...hi.

[It doesn't take a lot of brain-racking to come to the conclusion that he has never met this person. From the fact that he knocked at all, it's unlikely that he was the one who sent the invitation.

To forestall the idea that he was the one who did, Kaneki pulls said invitation, slightly crumpled now, from the pouch of his sweatshirt.]

You got one of these, too?

[The door is opened by... well, someone that Sam has never met before. That's a little bit weird right? It's not a public room like the ballroom either where he'd expect a bunch of people.

He manages a small smile.]

Hi.

[He glances down at what the other guy holds out, a crumpled invitation that looks shockingly familiar.]

Oh. Yes! Yeah, I did. I'm guessing from the way you're acting that you didn't send it?

No. Someone slid it under my door. Everything was already set up with I got here. [He indicates at the room behind him with one hand.

The gesture feels helpless; Kaneki's never given much consideration one way or the other to the idea of a date with another guy. He knows he likes girls, but his last date with one ended up pretty much, and with absolutely no exaggeration, ruining his life. So he has no idea how to feel about this situation.

That's not really here or there, though. The issue that has him nervous is less the "blind" part of the date and more the apparent "dinner" part of the date.

Looking back at Sam, he offers an awkward smile.]

There's food, though, if you want some. I'm not sure what all of it is, but there's no reason to waste it, right?

[Sometimes he hates the polite side of himself. He should be trying to bow out of this and escape as quickly as possible, because there is no way he can fake enjoying food successfully. It's just hard to make himself do that when he considers all of the negative ways that could affect the other person.]

[Sam glances over his shoulder at the way the room is set up. There's dinner on the table, and candles lit, and it looks very much like a, well, a date.

Well, this was awkward.]

There's never a good reason to waste food.

[It's an automatic response, one brought out of months of privation and having to ration everything because even now, with the farms and the livestock, they didn't have enough to waste anything.]

[Kaneki nods as he steps back into the room to let Sam in. He'll just...leave the door open. Somehow that will make things less weird, right?

Actually, it might make it more weird.

He doesn't know anything anymore.]

It's fancier than I'm used to. [He crosses the distance to the table and peers at it again.] I mostly just ate food from the convenience store when I was at home.

[Before, you know, the flesh-eating started.

He sits down cross-legged at the low table and looks over everything curiously.]

[It's okay, Sam isn't really the type to worry about secret date-not-date etiquette. Considering the prime date activity at Abel is a walk around the farm to look at the sheep.]

Oh man, I miss being able to go to the shops for stuff. It does look pretty nice.

[Kaneki smiles as he realizes that there is coffee among the things on the table. Coffee he can do. He'll just have to figure out how to pretend he's eating while not actually getting food anywhere near his face.]

It's not like that where you're from? Do you live in the country?

[Sam seems to be from a relatively contemporary world, at least, so that seems like a safe assumption.]

Well, yeah, I do but that's not why.

[He smiles a little weakly and heads over to the table.]

Zombie apocalypse. Really makes it hard for the shops to restock.

[Kaneki nearly spills the coffee as he's pouring it. He recovers though and sets the pot down.]

Really? [He's seen movies and even read books, but he never really imagined that being a reality.] That's terrible.

[He drops some sugar into his cup, his expression thoughtful.]

But if people are able to survive even so, that's something...

[Sam gives him a curious look when he spills his coffee. Was it really that shocking?]

Yeah, it's not brilliant. Estimates say it took out nintey percent of the population. Of the world.

But people still survive. That's important.

[To Kaneki's credit, he doesn't spill much, mainly because he's developed good coffee-pouring reflexes after working in a coffee shop. To cover, though, he gives a sheepish little laugh and finds a napkin to clean up after himself with.]

That's...

Ten percent isn't a whole lot.

[Then again, from an ecological standpoint, it might be the best thing that's happened to the planet in awhile. But he's not going to say that, because that's like spitting on someone after they just had the crap beaten out of them.]

Do you think-- Will things get better?

No, it really isn't. I mean just in the UK that's about sixty million zombies. Maybe five million humans.

[When he thinks about the numbers, and he tries not to think about the numbers, it makes him wonder what the point is.]

They're not gonna go back to how they were.

Will they die? Or um. [They're already dead, right? What's the equivalent of dead for a zombie?

As he struggles to figure out what to say, it occurs to him that this might not be the best topic of conversation.]

Y-you know, we can talk about something else if you want.

Not on their own. It's an awful lot of zoms to kill.

[And sometimes it felt like there were more every day.]

Sure. Sorry, it's not the most fun topic in the world. Um, what about you? Not from an apocalypse I hope?

[Changing the topic to his own world isn't exactly what Kaneki had been hoping for, but he's talked to other people about it. He doesn't have to give anything about himself away as long as he's careful.]

Not quite. We've got our own problems though--a species called ghouls that eat humans.

[Sam winces at that.]

Well, that sounds familiar. Are they... mindless or... [He isn't sure what would be worse.]</small.

[Kaneki shakes his head, holding his coffee cup in both hands. He takes a drink and considers his answer.]

A lot of humans think that, but a ghoul's mind works like a human's. I mean, they have different instincts about some things, but they think and feel like people do.

[Sam can't help but grimace.]

But they still eat people. That's... I know some people turned to cannibalism after the apocalypse. Went a bit crazy.

It's...it's a complicated thing to deal with. They can't help what they are, but...

[Kaneki shrugs and takes a drink of his coffee then sets the cup down. He closes his hands into fists on the tabletop. He's a little nervous.]

I can understand it.

[Sam blinks at him, looking suddenly wary. He's had things try to eat him before.]

The zoms are mindless and we don't have enough people left in the world to start eating them. If anyone attacked one of my people, I'd kill them.

[Kaneki's learned to pick up on even slight changes in peoples' expressions. It comes with having to be hyper-aware not only of the possibility of outing himself accidentally but the equally likely possibility of another ghoul trying to kill him.

He nods quickly, raising one hand, palm outward, like he's trying to hold off any misunderstanding. He needs to salvage this conversation quickly before he makes it worse.]

O-of course! I didn't mean you should try to get along with them or anything. It probably isn't possible. It wouldd be like trying to get along with a nest of wasps.

[Except wasps are mean, and they're mean on purpose, he's sure of it.

It's natural for humans to try to get rid of whatever threatens them. He completely understands that.]

Sorry. I wasn't trying to say the situations were the same.

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( semi-open ) love is a many splendored thing

SAM/KANEKI » MANSION ROOM 252

/most awkward dinner date ever

Re: /most awkward dinner date ever

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